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Lehman and Mr Fuld, a year after the collapse. Fuld now runs Matrix Advisors LLC in New York.

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Baby boomers and older Americans are beginning a huge wealth transfer, the largest in modern history. Americans over 70 years in age had net worth of nearly $35 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve data. This is 27% of all US wealth, up 20% from 1990. This wealth is 157% of US gross domestic product, more than double what it was in 1990. Gift tax exemption today is $11.7 million for individuals and $23.4 million for couples. It is scheduled to go down to 2017 level of $5.49 million per person adjusted for inflation in 2026. Annual gifts were $75 billion in 2016. The Biden administration proposed reducing a $40 billion annual tax break in some of these wealth transfers. Some of this would go into infrastructure spending. Other ways the transfers could help the communities in the US revive after the twin crises of 2009 and 2020, one financial and one health, is how some of this money goes into funding many of the needs of communities in America today. $9 trillion is expected to go into helping communities from the $35 trillion. The Buffett children foundations have purchased farmland to create an agricultural hub in Kingston, New York, on the Hudson River north of New York city. They also set up a food cooperative in an old Honda dealership, and setup a ad free community radio station Radio Kingston. More of this kind of work is needed from individuals and couples in the American tradition of community awareness and solidarity, and in communities across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America during this pandemic following the same practice. ...

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This story in the NYT showing America's GE building a wind turbine three times as large as the Statue of Liberty in New York harbour, comes after a decade of bad news from GE, beginning with its role in the mortgage financial crisis when its stock dropped to new lows. Bad bets on conventional power generation in its power division are leading to the change at GE where it is now investing in renewable energy. Under CEO Immelt GE did not anticipate the surge in growth of renewable energy powered by government subsidies. Now GE is pursuing an aggressive strategy by building larger wind turbines than its competitors Vestas in Denmark and Senvion in Germany. A 12 megawatt turbine is planned by GE called Haliade-X, to be built at a cost of $400 million for demonstration in 2019, shipping units in 2021. Competitors are looking at building a 10 megawatt wind turbine. Vestas SA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have a 9.5 megawatt wind turbine in operation as prototype in Denmark. The bit of good news comes with the backdrop of big changes at GE as its power division falters badly. GE under Immelt badly misjudged the market for gas and coal turbines, building inventory and resorting to aggressive pricing, not anticipating the push evident in Germany and in China towards renewable energy. The shift to renewable energy reduced demand for conventional power in Germany and the U.S. In Germany. Electric companies in conventional power generation are struggling. At GE orders declined by 25% and profits by 50% in the 4th quarter over the prior year. 12,000 job cuts are planned in the power division, 18% of its workforce. Older board members at GE are expected to leave, and GE under new CEO/Chairman John Flannery plans to shed $20 billion in assets in a major restructuring and shift to renewables.   Larger wind turbines of 10 megawatts or larger are the next stage in wind energy as the Netherlands and Germany move to build wind farms free of subsidies. The economics of larger wind turbines are critical as less geographic acreage is needed with larger turbines. ...

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Overall payments are up from 54% to 77% in rent payments in retail in the U.S. according to Datex. Most affected still are retail shops and businesses in the apparel, theater and fitness categories. New York extended its moratorium till Sept 20. California has set a new moratorium.

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Big changes are expected in energy markets after 2026 following the end of the war with Iran, the naval blockade and the Hormuz straits closure. Even when the Shipping returns to Hormuz there will be continued uncertainty and prospect of conflict. As a result China, India, Japan and the US and EU will look for new sources of supply in Latin America for oil and gas including in Guyana, Brazil, Argentina, and in Venezuela. This NYT Analysis  confirms the shift to renewables will accelerate after 2026 with 2-3 years return on investment for renewables, and in 2026 wind+solar+nuclear now generating more electricity worldwide than gas. OPEC stranglehold on oil prices is weakening with UAE's exit from OPEC, and the US+ Venezuela+UAE expanding production. This will benefit poorer countries in the world in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Middle Income countries like China and India, as well as US and EU through lower prices for the new overall energy mix, with a higher component of renewables from every year 2027-2030. Lower priced component for oil possibly at $50 a barrel holding steady to 2030. From this perspective Hormuz's importance will decline over this period to the point that the world's wealth sucked up for far too long in the Middle East through the twin mechanisms of  high oil prices and decades of wars will be shifted back to infrastructure in the EU, US, India and China, Brazil and Indonesia. For the poor countries like Pakistan, India, Indonesia, China and others this is a big deal because instead of the wealth going to princes in the Persian Gulf  it will benefit people in Egypt, Arab countries such as Morocco and Tunisia,Turkey, Pakistan and India, China. Long delayed infrastructure rebuilding in US and European Union can now take place.The shift and trend to renewable energy as a major component of the energy mix of over 50%-60% in India could be expected by 2030 and have a major impact on climate change. (India has already crossed 50% of its energy from renewable sources). China will have installed half of the new renewable energy capacity added by 2030 and this too will add to the fight against climate change. Overall this combination of events and changes underway are overwhelmingly constructive and are not anticipated in this way by most of the world's media including the NY, which see slower growth when the opposite is now the case with accelerating and steady growth expected 2027-2030, and 2030-2035. For the US and EU it could not come at a more opportune time with the determination to invest at home and reindustrialize, build new infrastructure, for India to build a modern country by 2040, and for China or Japan not to get stuck in middle income status with continued modernization to 2040. For the poorest countries to work with these major nations to improve standards of living. For the US it also means the end of the border migrations flows that happened in 2025 taken to the next stage in 2026 and 2027 ending all drug flows across its borders with Mexico- as more lives are lost to fentanyl and other illegal drugs substances (1.25 million since 1999) than were lost in the Korean War (36,000 deaths), Vietnam  War (58,000 deaths) and World War 1 (116,000 deaths) World War II (418,000) all 4 wars combined. Issues of unfair trade deindustrialized the US. This coupled with drugs destroyed small towns and communities (that were based on manufacturing and lost factories) across the US for over 3 decades. The tackling of these issues will also add to the general sense of well being of the people in the US- and also in the European Union. The modernization underway in China and India+Indonesia+Brazil is also part of these changes, promise a rising tide that will lift all boats if we continue together to carefully select the right path ahead and chart the course clear eyed and clear on purpose. ...

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Alvin Bragg was elected in 2021 as New York County District Attorney covering Manhattan. Before this he was an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York and appointed as chief deputy Attorney General for New York State. His early education was at Trinity School and at Harvard where he finished degrees in government and law. He is only the 4th person in 80 years serving in this position succeeding Cyrus Vance. Bragg inherited this case of claims of hush money payments by Mr. Trump to a porn actress. Bragg as Chief deputy Attorney General has experience in prosecutions against people connected with the Trump organization and administration. Bragg decided not to pursue the case a year ago because he was not convinced there was enough supporting information and the direction was not clear. He decided to bring in more resources additional prosecutors, and studied the case in different areas before deciding on the one area to focus on, a process that took one year according to a recent NYT report. It is only after this process that an indictment of Mr Trump was made. ...

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Kalle Lasn and Micah White, editors of Adbusters, describe the next phase in the Occupy Wall Street movement after the eviction from Zuccotti Park by New York Mayor Bloomberg.

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Global Foundries based in New York and STMicroelectronics based in Switzerland are teaming up to invest $5.7 billion for a semiconductor factory in Crolles, in southeastern France. The French government will provide additional funding and support for a new home based technology supply chain. The plant will create 1000 jobs.

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WSJ talks to Adam Grant, Prof. of Organizational Psychology at Wharton School of Business, on the importance of experimenting with different ideas. For every decision A and implementing it one forgets that there were other decisions that could have been made B, C, D or E, and each one offered new ways to experiment and try out new ideas. Grant is author of the book-" Think Again - The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know." Here he talks about how some CEO's used the pandemic (a problem) as an opportunity to experiment with new ideas on work to create productive happier workplaces. Others were too afraid to experiment. Grant says research data shows people are more likely to stay in a hybrid structure, because it gives them flexibility. From the productive workplace perspective this means people have to develop new skills and new muscle in a kind of experiment. This is what he says many CEO's are fearful to try out, now that they are reverting to the old workplace in the office-to what they know.  His biggest fear is that the experimentation that covid brought to us will stop. He sees four days of focused work a week or six hours of concentration in work a day, as way better than 8 hours of distracted work or five unmotivated days. Not just personal bonds are necessary says Grant, clear roles and goals are needed. And people need to be excited about what they are doing, which is possible he has found when they know the work has meaning for people who they are serving. ...

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This NYT editorial points to the achievements under Mayor Bloomberg in improving the city of New York- to renew life in the city as the major city for the free world. A crime rate that is down, cleaner environment, efficient transportation, and a $2.4 billon surplus. The new construction helped rebuild the city, and more livable space with 800 acres of outdoor space most along city shorelines, expansion of bike lanes to 600 miles, and promoting environmental improvements, a high tech campus on Roosevelt Island. All this without political skills and media hype, bringing candour and public spirited dedication for the city's improvement, and giving new respect to urban experts who used their talents in the city administration.

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Some Knight employees noticed the erratic orders going out in the first couple of minutes of trading on the New York Stock Exchange and sent messages to Knight managers. Yet it took over half an hour, something like eternity say traders, for Knight to respond. It should have pressed the "Off" switch to stop the erratic orders, so traders are now asking why there was no mechanism for Knight to stop the trading immediately.

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By the time NYSE began the switch to becoming a technology company it was too late, says one expert. Other stock exchanges such as the Frankfurt Stock Exchange switched entirely to electronic trading even as the NYSE clung to old ways. All the time the trading floor of the NYSE was losing trading volume, handling only 20% of all trading volume in NYSE-listed stocks in 2012, down more than 40% from 2007, according to analysts. NYSE's Liffe, European derivatives business that came from the merger with Euronext in 2007 alone could be worth about $6 billion, close to the market capitalization of NYSE Euronext. Liffe was one of the main reasons NYSE was attractive to ICE. NYSE CEO Niederauer and the Board sensed the danger if NYSE remained by itself, according to people informed about discussions. The feeling was NYSE would fall further behind in a few years and lose control over its future. This created a new urgency to the talks with ICE, a doable merger from a regulatory perspective because there was not much overlap in the businesses. Niederauer's personal relationship with Sprecher of ICE provided the catalyst to move ahead and work out details such as headquarters locations in Atlanta and New York City, and sharing of management roles with Niederauer reporting to Sprecher. In his letter to employees Niederauer made it clear that ICE was acquiring NYSE. ICE started with electricity trading in Atlanta, embraced technology and electronic trading as its foundation, and took advantage of the opportunities in using technology to meet the requirements set by the Dodd Frank legislation for derivatives and futures trading....

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Governor Cuomo's 2011 budget for New York includes year-to-year cuts of $2 billion in spending on healthcare and education. Overall the cuts would reduce year-to-year spending by 2%. For Medicaid and education Cuomo made a deal for a two year appropriation locking in fixed rates of growth, so that budget battles with teachers unions and other interests do not have to be repeated next year.

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New restrictions in parts of New York, Queens and Brooklyn soon after schools reopened. Certain zip codes will have schools closed as a second wave is expected.

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The difficult situation facing a six term Congressman from New York who is the new Minority Leader in the US House of Representatives. Mr Hakim Jeffries faces a difficult debt ceiling vote in the US Congress during his first year as Leader for the Democratic party in the House. All 213 Democrats have signed a special petition that would force a vote in the House if the debt ceiling negotiations fail. This is 5 votes short. The vote would then require 5 moderate House Republican members to support it for it to pass. The idea is that only if push comes to shove and no agreement is reached leading to financially disastrous results for Americans in which they would be blamed by their constituents for not acting, moderates from states like New York might join the Democrats.

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Think BIG America, Reagan-Friedman theory that says government is best kept out leaves the Nation with hobbled dilapidated infrastructure.  New York City languishes in crisis with decades of neglect of its subway system modernization, the failure of the congestion pricing scheme puts the city in dire straits. Even Mumbai, India, where no subway system existed is getting a new subway. We show the Erie Canal as part of the DNA of America, to think big and move at the forefront of the first Industrial Revolution. It was built in 7 years from 1818 to 1825 for $7 million and opened up the vast hinterland of New York State- Rochester, Buffalo on Lake Erie, Schenectady- and connected it by navigable waterway with locks to the Hudson river at Albany and on to New York City and the Atlantic. On May 13, 1954 Republican president Eisenhower signed the Seaway Act and authorized construction of the St Lawrence Seaway with Canada at cost of $C135 million with 22,000 workers.The US Army Corps of engineers began construction of the US section in 1957 and completed it by 1959 for oceangoing ships to navigate the St. Lawrence River from Duluth in Minnesota and Milwaukee to Quebec and on to Montreal and the Atlantic. These are the projects that built the Midwest and Northeastern states, and Quebec.  ...

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Iran has collected 60% enriched uranium for 2 years by 2023, enough for 2 nuclear weapons, says this report in the WSJ. Israeli premier Netanyahu says this would invite a strike if weapons grade uranium is converted into a weapon. In this situation after Iran provided drones to Russia, president Biden has renewed efforts to reduce the level of escalation in the relations with Iran, opening up talks in New York and through Oman. Iran wants money that is held in other countries for oil and gas deliveries after US economic sanctions on Iran, to be released in exchange for limits on nuclear work and prisoner release. The Biden administration has approved 2.5 billion euros in payments by Iraq. Another $7 billion could be released from South Korea if diplomatic talks lead to Iran taking steps the US seeks from Iran. 

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The US government shutdown ends with Republicans + 8 Democrats in Senate voting to end shutdown on November 10, 2025. This keeps the filibuster voting rule which requires 60 votes to pass. Support of some Democrats was essential to make this happen. After bipartisan negotiations 7 Democratic Senators and Angus King Independent from Maine split with their party leaders Schumer and Jeffries of New York who called for a 1 year extension of Obama ACA healthcare subsidies which the Republicans opposed.  Democrats ensured the funding for SNAP benefits continues to Sept 2026 and the 4000 federal layoffs would be reversed and prevent future layoffs in the federal workforce. Democratic Senators voting with Republicans were Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois joined the Senators from New Hampshire and Nevada. John Fetterman who has voted independently of the Democrat party to meet views of Pennsylvania constituents supported the move. This splits New Hampshire, Maine, Nevada, Illinois and Pennsylvania from the Schumer-Jeffries leadership from New York. Tim Kaine voted with Republicans by getting them to agree to reverse federal workforce layoffs, get back pay and stop layoffs. King, Hassan and Shaheen formed the core of Democrats who believed there was no chance Obama ACA subsidies would be extended for another year as long as shutdown continued whereas there was some chance after it ended. Both Senators from Nevada Rosen and Masto were following the needs of their constituents, and so was Fetterman of Pennsylvania. ...

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New York dairy farmers have smaller herds and smaller farms compared to Idaho dairy farmers and cannot keep up with the growing demand for milk at Chobani's Greek yogurt plant in New Berlin, N.Y.. Chobani's sales of Greek yogurt will reach $1 billion in 2012. Instead of expanding the New Berlin plant, CEO and founder Mr. Ulukaya plans to build a new plant in Idaho. Idaho's milk production reached 13.3 billion pounds in 2011, exceeding New York's production of 12.8 billion pounds.

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New York's Brooklyn Hospital and other non profit hospitals in the state lack the funding of hospitals such as Northwell and Langone in Manhattan, and the funding of public hospitals in the state. Serving low income communities these hospitals face a severe funding crisis after elective surgeries were suspended during the worst period of the coronavirus. This will further compound the inequities in New York city and the state for access to health services.

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Gail Collins of the NYT describes the Hillary she came to know during the period she was Senator, a liberating time for Hillary Clinton, when she could be more of a private citizen, free of the publicity and attention as an active First Lady.  She chose to take up her assignment as New York Senator by visiting constituents and getting to know New York state, coming from Illinois and settling in Arkansas with her husband Bill Clinton in the early years. As Hillary herself said that was the first time she had lived in New York, and it was a time in which nobody cared in a nation having gotten tired of hearing about the Clintons, a welcome moment for Hillary who chose in her inimitable style to get to knowing her constituents. Collins tells about the enthusiasm of middle aged women in those days when women used their husband's name just to get a credit card, and it was harder for women to get a job than men. Bill Clinton talks about the Hillary he knew at law school and the years in Arkansas at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, and describes a real person that he came to know, not gregarious and easy with strangers as he was but with something deep inside caring for other people. One time he tells her that she could run for office, and she tells him in the courtship days that he was being silly that no one would vote for her. Americans must appear to Hillary as not caring much for First Lady or presidential spouses getting deeply involved in government, and American men not really passionate about women in key roles in government,  and as time passed and women in the thirties had grown accustomed to the newly won rights that Hillary and others had fought hard for to the point of looking for something new- throughout this Hillary was tested as never before. As the nominee of the Democratic Party for president she now had to prove that the old was also part of bringing in the new, that a passion for new encounters, experience and learning, combined with patience and perseverance, were also needed in the tasks of regenerating and renewal. If only she looked more carefully she would find that the first president having fought a long and difficult war for about ten years with men "half starved and often in rags", George Washington, also faced skepticism and doubts about him, which he alludes to frequently in his letters.      ...

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Quiet quitting has become a phrase that means workers are working hard and doing things the way they did before, except that they are not letting a work culture that may have gone astray because of bosses  who set the wrong rules guide their lives. Even as companies such as Stellantis are taking on a new culture because of a new respect for workers work-life balance and getting a lot more from them, other companies are following older set patterns that did not include work-life balance or rejected work-life balance outright without saying this openly. Stellantis, Europe's largest car company itself shows why this is dependent on who is the CEO and what he believes in. The previous CEO had poor health habits including frequent smoking and irregular long hours without a structure of any sort that led to this being carried over into the work culture. The CEO changes and new rules are set and soon it permeates who is hired at different levels that are consistent with his habits and sense of work life balance. A new culture develops over time and gradually you have new work ethic that respects the mental health and fitness of workers and of managers, and that of the CEO. This report in WSJ starts with the premise that workers should'nt feel bad because worker are "quiet quitting" anyway after the pandemic. But in reality the statement is a bad one, as it does not say there are better models out there few as they are, that need to take pre-eminent place after the pandemic rejecting the old ones that recklessly ignored health and mental health and were less motivating for workers, and leading to less productive culture in the workplace. At Stellantis a lot gets done in regular hours so that the time after 5 or 6 pm is devoted to workers getting into exercize taking a bike ride, doing things that revitalize and build a healthy body and mind so essential for productive and good thinking type concentration in work. Emails over weekends need not be replied till Monday, and bringing up work during the weekend is discouraged. And still a lot gets done, the company will take the leading role in EV vehicles in Europe and has aggressive plans for 2030 for new EV models. See the link to Stellantis to see how this new CEO runs a company of about 100,000 employees around the world. His name is Carlos Tavares and he took charge of Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler combined operations called Stellantis in January 2021. This is important as it is the new trend that will take hold of the work culture after the pandemic only if workers and managers ask that it be so and as the word spreads that better more productive companies that can get a lot more done is the result of such an educated workplace that respects health and mental health, and the dignity of workers and families. Look, how can it not be so when the word still has to be spread on climate change in the business world? How can one take place without the other? There is a new sense of dignity in respecting the dignity of the environment, of water, soil, and air, how not so for the mind, the body and its connection to nature around it? And no better place than Stellantis and its CEO Carlos Tavares where the old CEO ran himself down with poor work and health habits and passed away while at work in 2018, to show a new way.  In Germany this new way of work-life balance based work culture is called by a more respectful term "Feierabend" than "quiet quitting" showing that what is wrong is with the work culture and bosses who do not grasp the importance of health, mental health, and what it means to be revitalized for truly productive and thoughtful work. Quiet quitting has that sense of workers having to feel a bit of guilt about this and still thinking it is right  doing it anyway. In Germany"feierabend" is popular and accepted, it means breaking away from work at normal times such as 5 pm or 6 pm when a workday ends so that one can go out and relax with a bike ride  or something that is good for health and fitness and rejuvenates. No email, no nothing so the mind can rest and revitalize. ...