LyrArc Article Gist
Bay Area Transit (BART) a San Francisco institution is at risk of big cuts in service closing 15 stations, closing at 9 pm,  as work from home pandemic period changes cut ridership from 389000 in Jan 2020 to 170000 in Jan 2024. It now has a $400 million structural deficit. BART management proposes a half percentage point additional sales tax on counties in the San Francisco area- Alameda, Contra Costa, Mateo, Santa Clara, 1 percentage point addition in San Francisco. This may not address the problem fully as the ridership is declining not only because of the keyboard post pandemic economy, the fact that downtown San Francisco has a 30% vacancy rate in buildings and the lifestyles have changed from before, but also because it is less safe, reported use of crack, and a less clean friendly ride on BART. This shows how life in the San Francisco area has changed decades after Silicon Valley took over the city, and how the state of California has changed. Silicon Valley and Wall Street though it had changed America and the World when right in its own backyard institutions such as BART are falling apart, and downtowns are less safe. New York City home of Wall Street has a subway system also in bad shape, and infrastructure badly in need of repair right in the backyard of Wall Street, decades behind in quality of experience from anything found in China or Japan- and now even India. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Maduro government and its predecessors caused the largest refugee crisis in the history of Latin America. The opposition leader won the last election in 2024 and the results were not respected by the Maduro regime. About 8 million people, a third of the country were turned into refugees, and inflation reached over 300% making life difficult in a nation with abundant oil resources. Millions of Venezuelans crossed the Mexican border into the US during the Biden administration, aggravating the migration crisis, and leading to the defeat of the Democrats and a plan under the Republicans to tackle migration. This included the return of Venezuelans in the US and in other parts of Latin America including Peru, Chile, to their home country. Much of Venezuela's infrastructure and public services has "rotted" and the cost of living makes life extremely difficult for all Venezuelans. Venezuela is an example of what happens under utopian socialist schemes, and how military and inept governance can ruin a country blessed with natural resoures.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
How quickly things can change - Italy is now growing faster than Germany or France. The construction industry is booming with energy efficient home renovation. The superbonus 110 is a payment by the Italian government for energy efficient housing improvements. The government pays 65% of the cost to homeowners making better energy efficient renovations plus 10%. As introduced by the Five Star movement government it was 100% plus additional 10%. Giorgia Meloni's government lowered it to 65% from 75% in 2023. This has boosted the construction industry in Italy and revived Italy's growth where it is growing faster than France and Germany. Germany is seeing about 0.3% growth compared to 0.7% predicted by OECD for Italy in 2024. Giorgia Meloni the new Italian prime minister, after Mario Draghi a central banking official, has continued Draghi's policies and provided a measure of stability and leadership to the government.  Much of the capital comes from the $216 billion or $200 billion euros that will be given to Italy from the COVID Recovery Fund. Italy is the largest recipient. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ report shows ways in which companies are attracting and retaining employees by building homes. One company shown here is building the homes to keep costs down using subcontractors. Costs are kept down so that houses can be built at $200,000, to make them affordable at $1000 a month mortgages for workers earning $40,000 to $100,000.

LyrArc Article Gist
The testing shortages in the states and the lack of enough cartridges provided by the U.S. government for Abbott Labs testing machines is causing much frustration, as shown here in the WSJ. Illinois one hotspot is an example. Illinois governor Pritzker says he spoke to Abbott Labs a week ago and thought he had an agreement to conduct 3000 tests a day. He then learned that the U.S. government was taking over the purchasing and distribution of the tests.  He  received 15 Abbott machines and 120 cartridges for all of Illinois which would enable 120 tests from the U.S. government. Abbott currently is making 50,000 test cartridges a day for the rapid test. Detroit which had better experience with the Abbott machines says it has conducted 1000 Abbott rapid tests, shortly after Abbott got approval on March 27. With the 1000 tests Detroit was able to test first responders and bus drivers in quarantine. Detroit recently purchased another 4000 additional tests from Abbott which it wants to use in nursing homes and homeless shelters, vulnerable populations in the city. The Abbott test provides result in 15 minutes making it very effective in implementing fast quarantine action when the virus is spreading quickly in a specific population.  Other governors say they are banging their head against a wall trying to get more tests. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The recovery effort in Japan following the tsunami has increased to $300 billion with the cost of construction doubling over 10 years. Half a million people were displaced and the Fukushima nuclear reactor in meltdown. Many people have not returned. At the time of the disaster half of the people affected by tsunami in the northeastern Tohoku region were over 65. Population is now down by 6% as people move to large cities. The effort was meant to rebuild homes, damaged infrastructure, and to revive agriculture, fishing and tourism. It has cost $2400 for every person living in Japan.

The tsunami crashed into 1000 miles of northern coastline, putting entire communities 6 miles inland under water.

LyrArc Article Gist
Rural towns with populations of about 1000 or 1000 to 5000 are in a acute crisis when it comes to labor supply to run school buses, clean offices, run the town offices, run sports programs for kids, mowing the cemetery lawn, taking seniors out for meals, driving Little Leaguers to Away games. Jon Kamp of the WSJ provides this report from Ashland, Maine, pop. 1200. Leland Tarr is 65 years old and doing all these things. Town manager Martin says Tarr can't retire as there is no one to do this, he can't find people or the money to to hire people. And Tarr says "fishing is calling." All across Texas in towns across the vast hinterland, and in the prairie states including Kansas this situation exists. People in the public workforce in these small towns in rural America tend to be older and replacing them is a persistent challenge. These towns have to offer competitive salaries as not many people want to move to Texas towns like Muleshoe population  5000  on the New Mexico border. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Bank of Scotland stands to lose close to 90% of the value for a 1500 acre luxury golf-course property and homes it financed in Hawaii called Hokuli'a. From its peak price of $600-800 million it is now going for $50-100 million after the developer based in Phoenix defaulted on the $1 billion loan from Bank of Scotland, which is now part of Lloyd's Banking Group.

LyrArc Article Gist
The decisive German response to the Ukraine invasion comes within 72 hours of the invasion. "It is our duty to support Ukraine to the best of our ability in defending against Putin's invading army," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. "That is why we are delivering 1000 antitank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles to our friends in Ukraine." Similar shipments are being made by Netherlands and Britain. The US has committed $350 million additional military aid to Ukraine including "lethal defensive assistance" against invading armored and airborne forces, in the first 48 hours of the invasion.

LyrArc Article Gist
Chinese president Xi's determination to make good on the slogan "Housing is for living, not for speculation," by imposing a property tax on homes in 30 cities, is facing resistance within the Communist party and from local governments. Mr Xi hopes to squeeze out the excesses of the adoption of capitalist market systems in China since 2000. China's government opted to get feedback on this idea and the feedback is largely negative forcing the government to scale it back and look at other alternatives such as affordable housing to make home purchases accessible.  Some reasons for the pushback are that it is becoming a social stability issue and risks alienating officials within the ruling party and homeowners. The fact is that 90% of urban Chinese families own their homes and housing related industry makes up about a third of China's output. Also significant is that 80% of China's wealth is tied up in real estate. What could happen is that if housing prices drop in China urban consumers might cut back on spending because they feel poorer. Party officlals advised against introducing property tax in 30 cities. Now it is scaled back to ten cities, and a new law could take till 2025 to introduce property taxes in the whole of China. Cities that are likely to be used for the property tax now are Shanghai, Chongqing, where an annual charge is levied on second homes since 2011. Cities added to the list would be Shenzen, Hangzhou, China has financed much of its industrialization through land sales by the Communist local governments in a country where land ownership was with the national Communist government after the revolution in 1949.  Mr. Xi wrote in Qiushi party journal that "we should actively and steadily promote the legislation and reform of real estate tax, and do a good job in the pilot work." Local communist governments get about one third of their revenues from selling land to property developers, and they are anxious that a tax on real estate would make demand and price for the land they sell to drop drastically. To get some idea of this- the local governments had $1 trillion in revenues last year. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Common sense comes to the German Border with Merz and the national emergency rule at the border, just as has happened under DJT at the US Border. May 8-25 turned back at Germany's borders with 9 European countries about 100 persons- success of national emergency rule at the German Border. This relieves not only pressure on public services in German towns and cities, it also removes a source of anxiety in the people who experienced political divisions and random attacks in public spaces from migrants. It also removes the threats of extreme factions in politics that have used the migrant crisis for exacerbating political divisions. Merkel's policy was not workable from the beginning and based on assumptions that were not correct as Germany and the EU could do more to improve the modernization and improving health and education, industry and agriculture inside Asia, North Africa to help the people in these regions than by taking in migrants. Who has ever suggested migration to Europe or the US  as a solution to the problems of China and India in the 1930's and 1940's, from wars and even famines. The right solutions of decolonization turning back invasions into the 1940's, and providing technology and capital for modernization after 1950 and accelerating this after 2000 have created two modernized nations of 2 billion people. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The European Union plans to rebuild its solar panel industry by manufacturing in the home country. This means shifting away from supply channels where China controls 80% of production. Chancellor Merkel failed to see the risks of letting German companies be decimated by China's subsidy program supporting solar panel makers in China. A system of customs duties failed when China threatened to retaliate with duties on German car exports. In the end Germany like the US under president Obama and Trump after 2010 failed to support domestic solar panel makers.  Now subsidies are accepted way of competing with China for both the US and the EU. The US under the Biden administration is fully committed to compete with China by developing its own solar panel manufacturing industry with the kind of help China is giving to its own solar panel makers. The EU is following the same path. From 200 gigawatts in 2023 the EU's target is 600 gigawatts from solar by 2030. The 400 gigawatts will come from through a policy of make at home in the EU, including raw materials, polysilicon, wafers, and assembly. Subsidies are now the way the US and the EU plan to get back what they lost to China, their critical manufacturing advantage through errors in policy. The European Commission is also changing the rules to accomodate the move. A story of one more critical advantage surrendered through the orthodoxy of free markets without policymakers understanding what they were doing. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Amazing! Just fresh from the foreclosure crisis and as the worst of the foreclosures are taking place between now and 2009 for subprime and other loans homebuilders and home sellers are financing the 3% downpayment required by FHA for loans from the is government agency. What do they hope to accomplish sell homes and have the government foot the bill when these homes also go into foreclosure in a downturn? Already above average default rates for seller assisted down payment programs will make this government agency the Federal Housing Administration ask for a government subsidy for the firtst time in its 74 year history. The FHA will need $1.4 billion next year. FHA estimates that down payments provided by nonprofit groups account for 34% of all 200,000 loans backed by the FHA so far this year, up from 18% in all of 2003, and less than 2% in 2000. And FHA says that borrowers are 2 to 3 times as likely to default on their payments when they receive a down payment from a nonprofit. The reckless manner in which homebuilders are selling these homes is unbelievable, more so in today's difficult economy. See the ads for these homes in this WSJ article and its is shocking. D.R. Horton is advertising 100% financing for 2 and 3 bedroom homes near the beach in Maui, costint $498,000, and a Seattle area builder Quadrant corporation is advertising townhomes for $500 downpayment. Use your coffee budget says a online promotion in the St Louis area! And though the risks are known to housing officials in the government they face a battle from well funded and coaltition of homebuilders, lowincome housing and minority groups. though its hard to understand how a home that ends in foreclosure for a low income group or minortiy group can benefit a minority group. Yet the Black and Hispanic caucus, people in Congress like Maxine Waters and Barney Frank still think it does as they continue to support the lobbying that keeps these kinds of loans going. Two examples given here of a Dick Whitmore and a Gloria Harris one saying it was impossible for him to come up with the $5000 downpayment and the other saying she was living from week to week suggest that they are likely to end up having difficulty making payments. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Boeing's improvements in quality and production processes for the Dreamliner, as the first Dreamliner which will not need major additional work before delivery comes off the production line. Costs of production have reached the point to where Boeing is losing $100 million on each plane sold. Ony 300 small assembly tasks remained, closer to the 200 that is the company's goal, and improvement over the 6000 additional small assembly tasks remaining in the early versions. The Everett, Washington plant now can make a 787 Dreamliner plane every 6-7 days. It costs Boeing $242 million to make each plane, and it sells them for $113 million according to UBS analysts. Boeing will have invested about $20 billion in the Dreamliner by 2014, when analysts say it should turn a profit.

LyrArc Article Gist
This Guardian report alongside the Carter Center report plus independent tallies by The Washington post and the Associated Press, shows the 2024 election in Venezuela was won by Opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez. Notably it happened in the light of 8 million people, about a third of Venezuela's population leaving the country as refugees. And inflation at  300 percent in the worst mismanagement of the economy in that region in a century. As the US asserts the Monroe Doctrine in the western hemisphere the US acts to see that the needs and rights of the people of Latin America are preserved free from interference by European colonial powers.  By colonial European powers as was intended by president Monroe in 1823, and by any foreign powers under its version in 2026. The rapprochement with Russia was also achieved so that the Venezuelan people can finally see the light of a free country that respects the aspirations of all the people. The US involvement comes from the drug trafficking by gangs and other groups in Venezuela and Mexico that has destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives in the US over two decades- more than the Korean and Vietnam wars combined. Making US action imperative, essential for preserving the way of life of the American people and the rights of people all over the Western hemisphere. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China's manufacturing sector contracts in June with the PMI index dropping below 50 - to 49.0.  Exports were also coming in lower. Experts say the increase in interest rates by the US is reducing imports of Chinese goods into the US. This comes as local governments are strained in their finances by $900 billion, and a budding revolt is taking place from property buyers with developers in financial trouble, as reported in the WSJ. Psychological hurdles now loom in the loss of confidence in the public in the property sector, loss of confidence of foreign investors with many constraints in operating, mental health issues for the population in many cities with the covid lockdowns.   The growth has slowed to 0.4% and there is now a realization dawning that there was overdependence both on property sector and foreign investment that set up new factories offshored from the US and Europe that alienated the public in these countries. Unlike wih the situation of Japan in the sixties and seventies for modernizing its economy growth of the scale China was pushed into by misguided and self interested  business interests in the US including its investment banks and local government officials in China without restraint by the central government in Beijing, ultimately led to trade friction and permanent damage to US China friendly relations. Communities in the US and the EU simply could not cope with the hyper growth from hyper shift of factories from the home countries to China that pushed this hyper growth. The property sector played the same role in the domestic front with too big a burden carried by it resulting in hyper growth. This did not have to happen. It happened because of a lack of understanding that this would have consequences in the longer run which is now showing up. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Maine's shift from heating oil to heat pumps. Maine is the state with the largest use of heating oil in winter, 50% of homes use heating oil. It was because utilities found it hard to set up transmission pipelines in a sparsely populated state that this happened. Now heat pumps which have no carbon emissions and take heat from outside and transfer it to the inside of homes are effective in the coldest weather and far, far better for Maine than heating oil. About 100,000 homes have heat pumps installed in recent years, and another 175,000 will have heat pumps installed by 2027.  State rebates cut the cost of $12000 for heat pumps to half that and there is another $2000 tax rebate. Users like the even distribution of heat and had problems with the cold parts of the house when using heating oil. Some rave about it. If all homes in America use heat pumps it would be like taking 32 million cars off the road, according to one estimate.

LyrArc Article Gist
Just one scheme by a Dallas doctor, Dr. Jacques Roy, cost Medicare $350 million over 5 years. HHS data analysis showed Dr. Roy approved 500 times the number of patients normally approved per physician for home health care services- he approved 5000 instead of 100. A case in 2011 resulted in charges against 115 doctors, nurses and company managers, in 9 cities leading to $240 million in false billings.

LyrArc Article Gist
Low interest rates are boosting the U.S. housing market. Lenders made $1.1 trillion in home loans in the second quarter 2020. Mortgage rates fell below 3% in July. About $2.5 trillion in home loans were made in 2019. Refinancings are up 200%.

LyrArc Article Gist
Larger solar farms producing 30MW are part of the many solar power projects rejected in the UK in the last 5 years says this report in The Guardian. This would have cut an estimated 100 million pounds off of UK electricity bills says environmental group Green Alliance, enough renewable energy to power 147,000 homes.

LyrArc Article Gist
The second wave is here in Britain with Stage 4 "exponential" increase seen in Britain. Cases could rise four fold from over 4000 today, after rising four fold in the last month Aug 20- September 20, and that could make it reach 50,000 cases a day and 200 deaths a day. New restrictions include- Masks required in all retail stores and restaurants and public places. Businesses that breach rules could be closed or shut down. Pubs, bars and restaurants close by 10 pm and only table service. Weddings and receptions limited to 10 people. Individual fines for first time breaches doubled to 200 pounds. Adult indoor team sports not allowed. This is the first response. If infection rates are not down from the over 1 R rate and the transmission increases a national lockdown is considered as the next step. To not harm the economy and strike a delicate balance all who can work from home are encouraged to work from home.      ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China's breakneck growth was enabled by housing construction, and coal in a way that created problems of climate change. Now China's largest housing developers Evergrande and Country Garden together have a staggering $500 billion in debt and in serious financial trouble in or near default. How will China's government respond? It let Evergrande who had defaulted on debt payments build 300,000 apartments last year, just to protect home buyers. Now it's founder Mr. Xu is taken in for questioning and "illegal crimes." Making sure that the apartments on which people made deposits are built would cost another $72 billion, says Nomura. Yet suppliers, painters, builders and brokers are owed another $390 billion, in one estimate. And foreign creditors are getting together for complicated restructurings. Evergrande had entered wealth management promising 8 or 9% returns and has stopped making payments. All this is affecting public confidence in the future and China's growth story. For decades China depended on housing construction for high growth rates. Now the process is unwinding with both in financial difficulties. This NYT report says that after Evergrande's default, Country Garden failed to make a payment on $200 billion in debt last week and has 400,000 apartments that it sold but has not finished building. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
As to financing of $6000 child tax credit costing about $100 billion a year as estimated by Office for Responsible Budget some of it would come from the $360 billion in tax savings over 10 years by Medicare negotiation of prices with Pharma, other would come from taxing corporations and high incomes at rates that are similar to what firemen and teachers pay of 20-25%. In his speech at North Carolina Aug 15, 2024 at Wake Tech in Raleigh, president Biden said- "You know how many billionaires there are in America?  There’s now a thousand billionaires.  You know what their average tax they pay — federal tax?  8.2 percent.  Anybody want to trade with a billionaire — their tax rate?  (Laughter.)  Well, guess what?  If they just paid 25 percent — it’s not the highest bracket by a longshot — 25 percent — do you know what that would do?  That would raise $40- — $400 billion over the next 10 years.  Imagine what we could do with that.  We could fundamentally sh- — slash the federal deficit.  We could make sure there’s home care.  We could do so many things — consequential — including finally making sure that we take care of Ukraine from that butcher Putin.  (Applause.) ...

LyrArc Article Gist
In 2000 student debt in the U.S. was at $200 billion. In 2010 student debt at 1 trillion dollars will surpass credit card debt. Student debt is now become a serious macroeconomic factor. Budget cuts will also increase the level of student debt as fewer grants are available and tution goes up. It is expected to shape when young people can afford to buy a home, start a family, or save for their kids education. This would have serious economic implications for the future.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Vineyard Wind Project is a major new wind energy project approved by the Biden administration. 84 turbines will be installed 12 nautical miles from Martha's Vineyard to generate 800 megawatts of electricity. This would power 400,000 homes.