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The Tory plan to abolish the Financial Services Authority will not go through under the new Liberal-Conservative coalition. The plan now is to give the Bank of England responsibility for banks and financial institutions that are big enough to create systemic risk and to oversee financial regulation. The coalition partners support a levy on banks to act as a buffer in future crises, and favor restricting bank bonuses. The Conservatives would tax bank size, and the Liberals would tax bank profits, but both share the goal of raising 1 billion pounds in this way. Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat party's Treasury person will now be business secretary at Treasury, and he favors breaking up the biggest banks, shrinking banks and separating retail and investment banking activities. This could happen under the new coalition, but it is likely to be preceded with some commission asked to look into it. The Liberals like to see less focus on London for the markets and banks owned by their customers as far as possible....

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The Liberal Democrats lost badly in the May 2011 local elections in Britain. Voters also overwhelmingly rejected the alternative voting system that the Liberal Democrats supported. The vote on an alternative voting system was one of the key conditions put up by the Liberals when they joined the Conservatives in a coalition government. About 69% voted to keep the current voting system supported by the Conservative party. In local races Labor and the Scottish National Party made gains at the expense of the Liberals. The Liberals lost 695 of their 1,751 seats in local councils, 12 of 17 seats in the Scottish parliament, and one of six seats in the Welsh assembly. Tory support remained steady, but voters turned away from the Liberals to show they do not support the austerity cuts of the Cameron led government. This will pose problems for Liberal leader Nick Clegg's continued participation in the coalition.

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Morsi's authoritarian personal style, decrees and failure to give adequate weight to liberal opinion alienates liberals supporting El Baradei. The Salafi Nour Party is alienated by Morsi's improvement of relations with Iran. This weakens his administration with street protests in June 2013.

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Older voters in Arizona are shown in this WSJ report as switching from both Trump and Biden to vote for RFK Jr, a relative of Robert Kennedy. WSJ looks at Sedona a tourist town in Arizona with 10,000 residents. It looks at swing states including Arizona.

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Bernie Sanders with 46% of the delegates, 13.4 million votes, 22 states, and many of the young people in the U.S. behind him, told a news reporter at his home in the final sprint two weeks before the election- he plans to see the major planks of the Democratic platform implemented. He said Clinton is progressive on a number of issues, but the platform is more progressive with upward mobility a critical concern. Sanders played a critical role in shaping the platform. He says he opposes someone from Wall Street in positions of Treasury Secretary, Trade Representative, and will make known his views who would be best in these positions, including Attorney General. Sanders is supported in the Senate by Senators Sherrod Brown, Jeff Merkley, and Elizabeth Warren. Warren has campaigned with Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, and both support minimum wage, women's rights. WIth a win for Democrats in the Senate Sanders will become either the chairman of the Budget Committee, or with his preference chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. His main goal now is to see key economic Cabinet positions that affect upward mobility, intergenerational mobility, which is damaged today for the middle and working class, go to persons who would do the most to improve it.  ...

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Tunku Varadarajan's interview with comedian Bill Maher. Democrats are now the upper class country club sort they were not during the FDR period with all the Silicon Valley and elite schools wanting to be a part of it, leaving the uncouth less literate to the formerly country club Republicans.  Maher cites Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who says he has two little girls and is worried about transgender in sports, and yet was afraid to say it. That cost Democrats the election, said Moulton. On of these problems with the younger generation is that they have been indoctrinated into believing the worst, and this is true he says more about elite university graduates educated in factories that show America with emphasis on it's flaws. Maher says he gets critical messages just for talking to people who have different views. He dislikes this failure to reach out and talk to everybody- he calls this using a special term "people who hate me for who I won't hate." Maher says Democrats are giving him too much material these days. He calls himself an old fashioned liberals which is what some conservatives are today.     ...

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On Canada's Justin Trudeau- looking back at his 10 years 2015-2025 mostly inherited the work of his father. He tackled Covid, improved childcare, tackled the renegotiation of trade with Republicans in the US, but lacked the major achievement of the 1970's of Pierre Trudeau setting up Canada as an independent state. The Washington Post looks at the political career of Justin Trudeau. He is the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, a politician from Quebec, who was prime minister from 1968 to 1984 except for one year in 1979-1980. During that period Pierre Trudeau a lawyer practicing labour law in Montreal and educated at the University of Montreal had three significant accomplishments. Canada Act of 1982 passed into law by Queen Elizabeth and the British Parliament, set up Canada as a sovereign state. Prior to this only the British Parliament could amend the Canadian Constitution under the Dominion Act of 1867 under Queen Victoria. As a Quebeker Pierre Trudeau succeeded highly respected Lester Pearson as head of the Liberal Party, and held off the Party Quebecois's effort for separatism in the early 1980's. By 1981 the Canadian Supreme Court 9-0 rejected the Party Quebecois bills that conflicted with the Charter of Rights set up under the Canada Act which protected minorities in Quebec having education in English.   ...

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This is an interview with Columbia University economic historian Adam Tooze about the international trade and economic issues brought about by globalization. The rapid emergence of China in manufacturing and overcapacity in steel has led to action on steel tariffs by president Trump. Tooze is typical of opinion that sees action by Trump not as limited action to level the playing field  as proposed by Trade Representative for the U.S., Robert Lighthizer, but as reckless move on trade.  Lyrarc.com shows articles from the WSJ and NYT showing how opinion got to this point in the U.S., on Robert Lighthizer's views that the U.S. was not facing a level playing field, and  on how trade has hurt communities across the U.S. a long distance away from Silicon Valley. President Trump's views reflect a different perspective that says the U.S. has to balance the favorable situation obtained by China and the European Union through moves of its own to protect U.S. interests. Political commentary that the U.S. was starting a trade war is not supported by the facts showing China's response as muted and a willingness by China to negotiate a balanced trading relationship as its trade surplus with the U.S. continues to grow. The trade surplus is so large that the Trump moves do not tell the real story. They are likely to be overshadowed by the increasing value of the U.S. dollar leading to a continued favorable situation for Chinese exports and a larger trade surplus in 2018, regardless of Mr. Trump's action.  Trump's moves are more significant in other areas- limiting China's access to advanced technologies, with the European Union also taking the same action. This is now the new field of competition for the major world economies. ...

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The healthcare reform bill has lost the support of the SEIU (the Service Employees International Union) , and the AFL-CIO union. Its also lost the support od Howard Dean and of his Democracy for America. Voters aged 18-34 and Hispanics are much less enthusuastic for he party. And only 23% of blue collar workers in December 2009 express positive feelings about the Democratic party in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, a 30 point drop from February 2009. And the same poll showed that there just isn't the same level of interest in voters who back Democrats or Obama.

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Homelessness is a major issue in Portland and in the Oregon governors race in US. This and the legalization by referendum of small quantities of hard drugs has pulled Nike cofounder into the race to support a Republican Ms. Drazan. He first supported an independent Ms. Johnsons, and now has shifted support to Ms. Drazan. Republicans control only Alaska of the western states in the US. 

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Why China India Brazil see the old liberal order discussed at Davos Switzerland, based on the world in 1947 not reflecting growth of Asia in 2026, and not serving the working class or middle class. UK's Farage says it is about people at Swiss Ski resorts deciding what the world should look like. Today the Swiss cannot even take their trade arrangements with the US for granted after US tariffs on entrenched unfair dealings in trade with the US. There is a growing perception in the UK and US and many parts of Europe that this so called liberal order is not working for the people of these countries. China and India, Brazil, see that arrangements set in 1947 as part that order that is cherished by the folks at Davos, and not reflecting the growth of these countries in 2026. The attitudes at Davos may be the most at issue, with Swiss and French attitudes not reflecting the situation in France which is deeply divided between the rural parts of the country and the urban areas about the direction of the country and the need to make life better for the working class and the middle class. In many ways the people of the US and of Europe share this huge rural vs urban divide made worse by the deindustrialization and shipping of manufacturing overseas to Asia.  Looking back at US history provides better clues- many of the same improvements made by Lincoln as Republican, Theodore Roosevelt as Republican, Franklin Roosevelt as Democrat, JFK as Democrat have created the society Americans cherished for so long and was the beacon to the world, which is not about this so called liberal order but rational step by step corrections of course and improvement after improvement, and offer a pathway to the future better than the whole host of politics and politicians that failed America and Europe. ...

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Silbersweig of the Brigham and Women's Hospital makes a convincing case for the importance of liberal arts and philosophy studies for pursuing a career in medicine. His studies extend from philosophy at Dartmouth to interdisciplinary studies in psychiatry, neurosciences, at Cornell Medical College, to work in these fields and the physical sciences at Brigham. He says the study of philosophy helped him to ask questions, to work and think in unique ways. Interdisciplinary studies are important combined with interdisciplinary work between people from different but related fields, says Silbersweig. Students have to be willing to be explorers and have the broad and rigorous education to make this possible.

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The LDP's landslide victory in the Dec. 2012 elections is not seen as a mandate for Shinzo Abe, the new LDP prime minister. Abe acknowledged this when he said: "We recognize that this was not a restoration of confidence in the Liberal Democratic Party, but a rejection of three years of incompetent rule by the Democratic Party." The LDP won 294 seats compared to the 308 seats won in the landslide win by the Democratic Party of Japan three years ago. Abe campaigned on a stronger stance in Japan's disputes with China. Yet he is committed to maintaining relations with China, a key trading partner. On China Abe says: "Our goal is to stop China from making these challenges, but we do not intend to allow an overall worsening in relations." Osaka Mayor Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Party was expected to do well but his campaign lost momentum after joining with Shintaro Ishihara, a nationalist politician. The Tomorrow Party which campaigned on the nuclear issue and anti-nuclear sentiment petered out after voters sensed the impact of electrical shortages and prices. The LDP is pro-nuclear and plans to reverse some of the anti-nuclear steps taken by the DPJ. The Democratic Party of Japan gained only 57 seats, and the former DPJ prime minister during the earthquake and tsunami, Naoto Kan, lost his parliamentary seat. Just as the PRI, a party that held a long monopoly of power was returned to power in Mexico in 2012, the LDP is returning to power, but very dependent on voters aspirations for good governance and its performance in office....

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Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa are two judges Mr. Trump is considering for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Justice Ginsburg, as he proceeds to nominate a Justice "without delay." 

Barrett is a Judge who has served for 2 years on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a devout Roman Catholic and a legal scholar from Notre Dame University in Indiana. Lagoa is a judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the first Latina on the Florida Supreme Court. Trump's nominee is likely to be confirmed quickly by the Senate as Republicans have 53 members in the Senate from a total of 100 members. Democrats want the nomination to be done after a president is elected in January 2021.

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From 2007 to 2022 Alberta contributed $180 billion more to federal government than it received. Alberta holds the fourth largest oil reserves in the world and contributes as much to the Canadian economy as the financial and manufacturing industries of Ontario. Because of the Liberals running federal policy away from fossil fuels no pipelines are being built for Albertan oil and Alberta is not getting the support it needs. Public opinion in Alberta is for joining the US (20%) or forming its own separate state (30%) because of a decade of Trudeau's Liberal policies. New PM Mark Carney is trying to move away from Liberal policies and find ways to meet the concerns of Albertans.