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Ausra using Australian David Mills technology and research has come up with soar mirrors that focus the intense heat of the suns rays in desert climates onto water that is directly turned into steam that then runs the turbines that generate electricity. With PG&E for distribution and Vinod Khosla's venture capital investment solar energy for about 10 cents per kilowatthour (kwh) is within reach using Ausra's technology and compettitve with cola based energy. Carbon is also going to be about 20% more expensive with higher environmental costs of coal based energy factored into the price as governments restrict its use. The plan is to go from a initial $47 million investment to a $400 million investment for a 100 megawatt plant. This technology could bring a promising future for solar energy and cut dependence on oil and coal, and help bring down oil prices and spur growth with cheaper and clean energy.

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Costco's money saving strategies. Says Sinegal, son of a coal miner, "the biggest concern to me is that we lose our way and start thinkig it doesn't matter if you charge another dimeor another dollaar or another hundred dollars. Wihtout those disciplies, we don't have anything." Costco looks at every small saving, a penny here, a dime there. Savings in bananas, savings in pallets, savings in truckers time and trucks, on and on it goes. Costco gets three quarters of its operating profits from its membership fees of $50 to $100 from its 29 million members and it cannot afford to lose members who leave because bargains are not there or prices are not absolutely low for quality products. Sinegal is challenging Costco people to come up with new ways to save and pass on te savings to customers and where suppliers raise prices looking for alternative sources as with Bonita bananas fro Ecuador.

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African Americans from Chicago, Harvard Law School and other places in Obama's background, some of whom came into government with the Clinton administration are likely to assume leadership positions.John Rogers of Ariel Capital Management, Valerie Jarrett, are from Chicago. Some of them are at law firms like Jeh Johnson who is a fellow partner of Theodore Sorensen speechwriter for President Kennedy. These are a new group of younger African Americans different from the earlier generation of Andy Young and Vernon Johnson. Eric Holder was deputy attorney general under Clinton, now his name is mentioned for Attorney General. Ties in Chicago include ties to Martin Nesbitt, a close friend, who is chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority and a real estate developer. Harvard Law School admits 30 to 40 black students each year, and it has 1400 black law school alumni, more blacck law school graduates than any other school except Howard University. And its a source for fundraising and other contacts....

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The Hispanic vote counts for crucial vote margins not only in the southwest but in places like Pennsylvania and Virginia where they are 5% of the voting population. About 10 million Hispanics voted up from 7.8 million in 2004 accounting for 8% of the voting population. That is an increase of 2.2 million voters and abig part of grass roots efforts to get them to register both by Hillary Clinton, and Obama. This grass roots effort was crucial. And mobilized by immigration policies of the Republicans and by the economic downturn and by a new generation of younger latino voters they voted nationally 66% to 32% for Obama over McCain. In Florida the older generation of Cuban Americans were eclipsed by new younger Cuban American voters and South and Central American immigrants giving Obama 57% to 42% edge over McCain. In Colorado the Latino vote was 17% of the vote with 73% of Hispanics voting Obama. Newly registered voters were 35% in Colorado, 34% in Florida.

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The Bavarian government and the CDU party oppose the closing of the last 3 nuclear plants in Germany. This will increase use of fossil fuels till renewable energy supplies are secured. Bavarian prime minister Soder wants the federal government to give the state authority to continue operating the Isar 2 nuclear power station 80 kilometres northeast of Munich.

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Afghanistan plunges into a dire economic crisis and socio economic collapse with the collapse of basic services such as health care, banks, food supplies, financial systems. The EU promises humanitarian aid of $1.16 billion to be delivered directly by aid organizations. A virtual group of 20 summit leads to discussion of how to prevent famine and collapse In October 2021.

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The European Union's 750 billion euro recovery fund for the pandemic is stalled as it needs approval of all member states. Hungary and Poland have objected to some of the conditions that relate to the rule of law for access to the aid. They see this as unfairly treating their countries. Germany is looking for a compromise.

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The new plan to aid small business in the second stimulus of $908 billion being discussed in the U.S. Congress, is expected to be targeted to needy businesses. Lonas will go only to  businesses with less than 300 employees which can show they are hurting having a loss of 30% in revenue in any quarter of 2020.

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Restraint in production being shown by OPEC, Russia and American shale oil producers is boosting oil prices. Oil prices rose to $53.21 on Jan. 11, 2021. Prices are now at levels that allow producers to cover their production costs. Demand for travel is likely to increase as vaccination drives proceed. This means prices could reach $60 or $65 later in 2021.

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This report in The Economist magazine cites the success of Ethiopian Airlines with 10 million passengers a year going through Addis Ababa airport. Other newer airlines such as Uganda Airlines are being started with the idea of helping the economy and providing reliable connections to other countries at reasonable prices. Tanzania is following Uganda with its own airline.

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South Korea has won a $2.25 billion deal with a Russian state run nuclear energy company to build Egypt's first nuclear plant. South Korea's state run Hydro and Nuclear Power will provide turbine related equipment and construction work  for the nuclear plant to be built 80 miles from Cairo on the Mediterranean coast.

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A tropical cyclone hits large parts of Mozambique and other Southern African countries destroying electricity and communication grids. It shows that climate change and rapid urbanization can hit these countries at the same time. The Red Cross says 90% of the city of Beira with population of 600,000 has been destroyed. Wind speeds were upto 105 miles per hour.

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The Robert Koch Institute reports rise in daily infections from around 500 to over 800 a day on one day last week.  This is seen as a second wave after the economy reopened. The reproduction rate is up to 1.08 from 0.93, so that on average one infected person passes the virus on to one other person. 

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The price of Brent crude oil drops 20% to $36.07 and global stock markets decline sharply. A price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia leads to the sharp drop in oil prices. The swing in oil prices and the increase in coronavirus cases in Italy, France, South Korea, and other countries leads to sharp decline in stock prices.

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Debate in Germany over whether there should be exception to the minimum wage agreement of 8.50 euros per hour. The head of the federal employment agency, Heinrich Alt, says a universal minimum wage would reduce incentives for young people to join vocational training. The new labor minister, Social Democrat Andrea Nahles, says "there will be no exceptions, notwithstanding all the escape fantasies." The Social Democrats insisted on the minimum wage to win support from rank and file working class members after losing support in its own base with the increase in the low wage sector in Germany. Unemployment in Germany is less than 5%, but this comes with an increase in lower wage workers as part of the reforms under the Social Democrat Schroeder administration when unemployment was close to 10%. Economists say the increase in wages would increase weak consumer spending in Germany and increase imports from other eurozone countries. In 2011 the share of the German population making less than the new minimum wage of 8.50 euros an hour, according to the German Institute for Economic Research, is- for former East Germany 27%, for former West Germany 15%, for ages under 24 years 44%, for ages 25 to 60 years 15%. This does not affect the manufacturing sector in East Germany as wages in the sector are above 8.50 euros. The other problem is that wages appear to be declining in Germany, with wages decreasing by 0.3% in October 2013, according to the Federal Statistical Office. ...

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Hon Hai, a Chinese company which makes IPads and IPhones for Apple has grown by doing high quality work for lower prices than anyone else. In the process Hon Hai has generated a culture that is tough even by Chinese standards. About 250,000 workers are employed in its factories in Shenzen alone. A series of suicides at the plant has attracted attention to the tough conditions. One worker says conversation on the production line is banned, bathroom breaks are limited to 10 minutes for every 2 hours, and the discipline is strict. Hon Hai won Apple's order says one supply-chain search expert, by pricing low. Its CEO Gou was willing to sell some components at zero profit according to people familiar with his actions. Workers come from rural areas, are very young, the first time they are away from their families, and live in dormitories, eight to ten people to a room. Hon Hai's response is to increase wages 30%. But a report about a college graduate who was asked about conditions reflects the general feeling. This graduate makes twice as much in product development, at 2000 yuan a month, or $293 a month. But the monotonous life and the feeling of no future affects this worker and may be a sign of something changing in China's factories. The unwillingness to accept the conditions that existed in the past....

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The US Department of Agriclture reported that the number of Americans who lacked consistent access to adequate food jumped to 49 million in 2008. This was an increase of 13 million. Researchers track "food insecurity." This figure is at 2008 rate of unemplooyment. With 2009's unemployment exceeding 10%, things are much worse going into 2010 when jobless rates will be even higher. The way this breaks down is that one third of these Americans in struggling households have "very low food security," which means that they may skip meals, cut portions at some point during the year. The other two thirds eat cheaper foods, relying on food stamps, and visit food pantries and soup kitchens. The scary part is that 506,000 children faced "very low food security" in 2008 compared to 233,000 in 2007. See the story link to young unemployed immigrants here from Mexico who are getting money from parents in Mexico to put fod on the table.

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Riza Sarraf is a 30 year old Iranian who assumed Turkish citizenship and married a pop star in the country. His company received a 1.7% commission for physical transfer of gold to Iran as payment for Iran's exports of oil to Turkey till this loophole to sanctions was closed in June 2013.

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Eighth grades civics and history national test scores in the US hit new lows of 13% for history and 20% for civics meeting proficiency standards. The Test used was the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Reading scores are also low. About three decades of progress appear to be wiped out during the pandemic. A message for president Biden- the fight for the soul of America starts right here and this site Lyrarc.com has a knowledge role for this to happen.

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Labor party in UK gets 35% of the vote with Conservatives at 26% and Liberals at 20%, in Britain's local council elections. Other parties including the Greens gained 19% of the vote. There isn't much the Conservatives have done to help the British people meet the cost of living crisis. The economy is in worse shape and the country is not prepared to take on the climate change crisis. Britain gets closer to a general election.

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How is the oil price cap by the US, EU and G-7 countries working and what is its impact on Russian oil revenues, is the subject of this report in NYT. The gap between the price of Brent Crude  the global oil benchmark and Urals Crude for Russian oil is now about $40 in January 2023. Russia's finance ministry says the average price in January for Urals crude was $49.50, half of what it was a year earlier. 

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Wellsville is 80 miles south of Rochester, New York. The town of 7000 made parts for coal fired power plants for 100 years till the impact of climate change led to decline. Today it is recovering from the loss of jobs as it is building parts for wind turbines. It is a very Republican area and one resident says Republicans were quick to say that anything renewable, wind or solar was bad. Gradually there is a sense that the town can thrive once more.

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With about $13 billion of debt taken up by Twitter in the deal with Musk there is increasing concern about servicing this debt, and the interest costs of about $1 billion a year far exceeding the $150 million previously borne. Musk says Twitter cannot rely on advertisers and he expects verified users to pay a $8 monthly fee for use of Twitter. "Its the only way to defeat the bots and trolls," says Musk of the subscription fees needed to pay the bills.

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Energy tax cuts that would save Germans 900 euros a year are a good idea says this WSJ editorial opinion, and something the US should consider. One of the taxes energy levy EEG added 3.72 cents per kilowatt hour to household electricity bills is a tax started 20 years ago. The EEG is being phased out. Other tax changes in Germany to help households tackle inflation are the increase in tax allowance making the first 10,347 euros of annual income tax free.

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This report in the NYT looks at the problem facing America and president Biden in renewable energy supply chains. 70% of the renewable energy supply chain for solar and other renewable energy comes from imports  and much of it from China. Biden says it is about jobs, jobs, jobs. For this to happen the Biden administration has to take up the challenge of building an American supply chain for renewable solar and wind energy so that jobs are generated for American workers.