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Growing number of parttime workers and poverty levels in Japan. About 16% of the population in Japan lives on an income that is half the national median income, which is the way the government defines poverty. OECD studies in 2011 show Japan as sixth from the bottom of 34 members of the OECD. The poor quality of jobs is worsening the problem of the working poor, just as it is in the U.S. with lower wage manufacturing jobs and very low wage jobs in retail/ restaurant industries. Experts say the problem has worsened since 2012 when prime minister Abe was elected. Since 2012 the number of part time or irregular workers without permanent contracts has increased by 1.5 million, with parttime workers at 20 million, or 40% of the Japanese workforce. They point to the parental support with many young workers living at home, as is true also of Spain and Italy, that has mitigated their difficult situation. This piece in the Economist provides insights into the condition of parttime lower wage workers in Japan, a large number of whom are young people, a situation similiar to that in some European countries such as Spain and Italy. At the very low end as Japanese local and national governments- under pressure to cut spending with its high debt- reduce benefits, more people have been added to the welfare rolls with 2 million people now on welfare....

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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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The propaganda war taking place in Russia and China, and anti-western sentiment promoted on Chinese social media Weibo with the linking of Ukraine with the issues China faces in Taiwan. A kind of Monroe doctrine thinking that prevails about legitimate spheres of influence of Russia and China. Under the Monroe doctrine the US considered South America its sphere of influence during the administration of US president Monroe in the 19th century when such thinking about spheres of influence prevailed. A closer look shows that this was a policy against restoring Spanish or French colonization of newly independent nations in South America such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Mexico. It was put forth in an annual message to Congress in 1823 by president Monroe.  It had the support of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, founding fathers of America. Originally it was intended to be a joint British-American declaration by Canning and Monroe. In this sense even the superficial notion of America supporting such spheres of influence is based on protecting liberty of nations that suffered colonization such as Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and gained independence from Spain. Around 1823 when it was stated it was the British Navy that prevented any recolonization by Spain or France. Under president Theodore Roosevelt it was used to keep European powers from invading Venezuela in 1903 to enforce the payment of debts Venezuela had with European countries. ...

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Layoffs at Microsoft, Amazon and Google are offset by more hiring. So that the companies are smaller by a small margin in 2023 compared to 2022, yet way larger than 2018. WSJ looks at the growing size of these companies. At Microsoft the headcount is 101,000 outside the US, a 70% increase since 2019. Apple's 161,000 employees are much higher than the 137,000 in 2019. A small trimming of employees only took down 3000 employees.

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American Bar Association officials now think that mandatory standardized tests such as the Law School Admission Test can deter law schools from using innovative ways to evaluate candidates for admission. Only one out of 21 members of ABA's accrediting council voted against removing mandatory tests such as LSAT or GRE to enter law school in the US. To attract people of diverse backgrounds is now considered important and many ways can be adopted to evaluate candidates without standardizing the process. Could Abraham Lincoln have done well on a standardized law school test? Could leadership qualities needed for the US to meet a new set of challenges be missed by standardizing processes and tests that produce the same type of candidate, and eliminate anything that does not conform to the set uniformity?

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President Biden is moving forward a plan to setup a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza and a pier where commercial ships can drop off humnitarian aid and food. The trip would take 28 hours from Cyprus and would be able to get in 200 trucks of aid supplies each day. The Qataris and UAE will also help with this plan and Israelis will cooperate. On the diplomatic front both the European nations, Britain and the US are working together to get Israeli cooperation. British Foreign Secretary Cameron met Benny Gantz. Earlier Gantz met with Kamala Harris in Washington D.C. Gantz is part of the wartime cabinet in Israel. The US and EU, Britain all now have serious differences with Mr. Netanyahu on putting the humanitarian situation first and foremost considering the situation in Gaza.

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A professor at Georgetown University on why it takes time to build democratic institutions, with one important omission- the military in Muslim countries such as Egypt have no intention of building these institutions and have undermined the development of these institutions for decades. A bigger omission lies in inability of the military in the most populous Muslim countries with horrendous gaps in development in basic welfare indices such as education, infrastructure and services, that have put these countries decades behind developing Asia and even Latin America which also had a past of military rule. In countries such as Pakistan and Egypt the military simply lacked the skillset and abilities to deliver in economic terms. Therein lies the biggest failure. In China and Russia the governments have popular support because of their capability to deliver economic growth that has transformed both countries and improved the lives of the people in the region. These crucial omissions explain why Republicans such as Senator John McCain and Lindsey see the need for the U.S. to be on the right side for change. Latin America shook off its history of military rule or one party rule and Brazil, Chile, Mexico are part of two free trade regions in Latin America, supporting the free trade system and economic growth in this hemisphere. The issue ultimately rests with the people of Pakistan, Egypt, and other Muslim countries, and a process of learning, compromise, healing and reconciliation that ocurred in Latin America is likely to follow in the Muslim world. It has already begun in Pakistan which like India has a independent judiciary and lively press, and some of the institutions for a functioning demcoracy. The worst omission is unmentionable because it is so obvious - that of firing live ammunition into protesters for democracy. Years after this happened in S. Korea, Mexico and other countries the day is remembered in a certain way. The important point is that when it comes to this there is no exception to the pattern. ...

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The Editorial Board of the WSJ questions the lack of debate on the frequent lockdowns and the quashing by public health officials Fauci and Collins of an alternative point of view on lockdowns. That point of view by epidemiologists at three universities Oxford, Harvard and Stanford favored a policy of "focused protection" of high risk populations instead of snap response of blanket lockdowns. It cites statement by Dr. Fauci that people who criticize him are "really criticizing science, because I represent science. That's dangerous." And questions the idea that one man can by himself represent science, saying scientific debate over pandemic policy was and still is in the public interest. In some ways the Biden administration has adopted some of these ideas on a new pandemic policy that does respond with focused and selective lockdowns. Today shuttered businesses, lost livelihoods, untreated illnesses, mental illness, isolation effects are all taken into account in decisions throughout the US, and other countries in Europe, in Asia and the rest of the world. Some of the emails mentioned in this WSJ editorial were in October 2020 at the height of the first wave and second waves before the vaccination drive in 2021, when the fear of the coronavirus was the dominant response. Yet a spirited public scientific debate could have prevented some of the rancor and division that has led to high vaccine resistance in the US with fully vaccinated stalling at about 62% of the American population at the beginning of 2022. It did'nt have to be that way. America could have done a lot better with sincere scientific and public debate. ...

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With the decline of its hardware business making iPhones Apple is looking at other fields. It is launching cheap online TV subscriptions in streaming wars in competition with Netflix and others. Apple is launching a new TV streaming service Apple TV+ in 100 countries for 4.99 British pounds a month undercutting Netflix's price of 5.99 pounds. The new service will be started November 1, 2019. Disney plans a streaming service for 7 pounds a month starting November 12. This service is alongside iPhone 11 launch and anew iPad, a new iWatch. Buy any new Apple device and you get a 1 year streaming service free.  Sales of iPhones fell 14% in the April to June 2019 quarter to 39 million units. Samsung's business is growing by 4% to 75 million units and Huawei by 16% to 58 million units. Apple sees the need to increases its services business with a target of $50 billion in 2020. Apple sees itself more as a media and cloud services company as it makes this change. In markets such as India Apple's growth is limited by its failure to lower prices on new iPhones. In China it faces strong competition from Huawei. The trade tensions are increasing the strength of Chinese brands in the Chinese market. The market in U.S. and Europe is saturated after years of expansion. New iPhone models are costly and bring peripheral advantages such as more and better cameras and features such as screens that are not breakable- for the iPhone 11- not dimensions that are critical for making a costly purchase. After years of growth tech companies such as Apple, Google, Alibaba, Amazon are reaching a point where incremental growth is not what it used to be and most of the rapid growth behind them. Trade tensions are also limiting the outlook in the Chinese market, and pricing remains a major factor in the Indian market. Western markets are saturated. There are fewer and fewer substantial new ideas from these tech companies. ...

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This report in the Post reminds readers that Mr. Trump is right on the issue of dairy industry tariffs imposed by Canada. The tariffs are 270% on milk, 245% on cheese and 298% on butter, according to the CBC. These tariffs are designed to protect the dairy industry in Quebec. In Canada the tariffs are referred to as "supply management system."  Canadians in the western provinces are used to paying higher prices on dairy products than prices in the U.S. Canadian prime minister Trudeau has declared that he is "100 percent ready" to defend these tariffs. Mr. Trump has brought this up in his talks with Trudeau.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve released its new economic projections for GDP growth, inflation and unemployment in 2012-2014 and the decisions reached by the June 2012 Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. This follows uncertainty in financial markets with the $125 billion rescue of Spanish banks by the EFSF, the eurozone rescue fund, and 10 year Spanish bond yields reaching 7% even after the rescue announcement. The Fed lowered all its forecasts to reflect the gloomier outlook. The "central tendency" is for the U.S. GDP to be in the range of 1.9%-2.4%, dropping it by 0.5% from the April forecast and 2013 forecast with a similiar drop to 2.2%-2.8%. 2014 GDP forecast is at 3.0-3.5% Inflation is forecast at 1.2%- 1.7% range, instead of 1.9%-2.0% for 2012 and is at 1.5%-2.0% for 2014. Unemployment is is forecast at 8.0%-8.2%, increasing by 0.2% for 2012 from the April forecast, and with a similar increase is at 7.5%-8.0% in 2013. Unemployment gradually declines to 7.0-7.7% in 2014. The decision reached by the FOMC is for the Fed to continue its program called Operation Twist to extend the average maturity of its balance sheet beyond June 2012....

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Delta Airlines has one of the oldest fleet of planes in the U.S. Delta is turning this into a strategic move by having to invest less in new planes and with the ability to get good flight performance from older planes with proper maintenance. Delta says it is saving about $1 billion by acquiring 49 MD-90 planes with age of about 13 years from China Southern and other global airlines, compared to the cost of buying new planes. The estimate is that it is about 10% cheaper per seat to run these planes than new 737's, when the cost of buying planes is figured in. It also took over the leases for 88 Boeing 717's with average age of 11 years from Southwest. The focus at Delta is on profitability and debt reduction by selecting routes carefully, avoiding unprofitable ones, using tight cost management. Delta is on its third year of making profits and is on plan for reducing its debt from $17 billion in 2009 to $10 billion by 2013. The older Delta fleet is also the most punctual of the large airlines in the U.S., with 86.3% of flights on time in the Jan-Sept. 2012 period. Fitch Ratings raised Delta's credit ratings to B-plus and says Delta is "the strongest player in the much improved airline industry in the U.S."...

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The doubts among the unvaccinated and America's pandemic of the unvaccinated in the south and west of the country, difficulty reaching a consensus on things as basic as spending $45 billion or 2% of the $2 trillion Biden plan for workers and families on 2 years of community college, or finding a way to stem what is an alarming decline in enrollment in college of young men in America, all go back to a standoff between Republicans and Democrats. Tennessee in the South is Republican yet passed a bill supporting state paid community college with a supermajority, yet at the national level it is lacks support of Republicans and centrist Democrats. To see how this happens this NYT report presents the picture from the Democrats side of how Montana residents blocked a National Heritage area in the state. Other stories relate to distortions from the other side from the Republican point of view. One man, one vote is not entirely the way Democracy was designed by Jefferson, Madison and other founders. The Senate of the US is based on one state one vote, giving Montana an equal vote as California or New York. At one time Mike Mansfield, Democrat of Montana was the Senate majority leader. The intent was to design a system that looks not just for democracy but checks on majorities of the moment.  This means unity is the way to renewal of America, for building its infrastructure, education and health care. If Tennessee feels that way about community college it should express it, so should other states in supporting president Biden's plan to Build Back Better. ...

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THe Labor Department says the unemployment rate reached 11.2% in March 2009 for California, and 10.8% for North Carolina. This compares with 14.7% in October 1940, which dropped only as the US prepared for war helping Great Britain and Russia, falling to 11.7% in January 1941.

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The WSJ's Latour, Browne, Tejada and Wei interview Lou Jiwei, chief executive of the China Investment Corporation (CIC), China's sovereign wealth fund. He says it is too early to talk about eurobonds as the financial arrangements necessary have still to be put in place. CIC is reducing its exposure to Europe. CIC is interested in infrastructure investments and sees infrastructure investment as the way out of the economic crisis for the U.S. and Europe. He has the most confidence in investing in China. Other locations are in emerging markets Brazil, S. Africa, Latin America. CIC's target is to have 50% of the assets in long term investments in infrastructure investments, commodities, real estate and direct investment and private equity, etc. and the other half in public securities. But this will pose challenges and CIC has not reached this level. It is learning from ATP, the Danish pension fund, Calpers, TRS, and CPP, the Canada pension fund. The portfolio is mark to market which creates pressures to reduce short term volatilities....

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The lack of affordability for housing is a big problem in the US today. WSJ looks at how this happened. What makes this worse is the homlessness of older population which is covered in a separate article by WSJ shown on these pages. 

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The heads of major oil companies, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP,  face questioning as they testify in the US Congress on the spread of climate disinformation. The Congressional inquiry is the first that will tackle industry efforts to hinder action on climate change.

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About 54 million seniors in the US will benefit from the expected 8.7% cost of living increase in Social Security in 2023. Medicare premiums will remain stable in 2023 at $170.10 so that cost of living increases are not eroded by rising Medicare premiums.

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The US  braces for an unprecedented election year in 2024 where the court proceedings take place in the time when the Republican primaries happen and America heads into the presidential vote for 2024. Of the four indictments, the one in Georgia remains different.

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Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota may be out of step with the times. As other companies move forward in leaps in developing electric vehicles, Toyota moves slowly and deliberately. Now he is stepping back and Toyoda who is 66 years old is giving the CEO position to 53 year old engineer Koji Sato. When it comes to digitization, electrification and connectivity, Toyoda says that he belongs to an older generation and he wants the younger generation to decide what future mobility will look like.  Toyota under Akio Toyoda has concentrated on hybrids and plug in hybrids which make up about 30% of global sales. Toyota has fallen so far behind in Ev vehicles that it is not even in the top ten car companies making EV's in the US. Its belief was that from an emissions standpoint hybrids do just as well as EV vehicles. By 2035 only zero emission vehicles will be allowed in the EU. In California this includes plug in hybrids only by 2035. Toyota is now making a U turn after studying Tesla's approach and using a new platform dedicated to EV's and set a goal of 3.5 million EV vehicles by 2030.   ...

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African continent debt reached $1.1 trillion in 2024. About 900 million people live in African countries where interest payments on debt exceed money spent on healthcare and education. In Nigeria external debt is $40 billion, in Kenya $35 billion and Uganda $12 billion.  Take Nigeria with 220 million people. 40% of the revenue collected goes to meet interest payments on debt. For many African countries there is zero per capita income growth for a decade. During the 2010 crisis as interest rates reached new lows US and European Reagan era intellectuals including Democrats encouraged African countries to borrow at low rates and banks loosened restrictions putting more African countries into debt buildup borrowings. As interest rates went up the cost of paying the debt accumulated required more loans at higher interest rates. Nigeria paid a premium over that of 10% for a loan of $2 billion just for interest payments. The debt crisis means African currencies depreciate reducing purchasing power.  With war in Ukraine and Covid prices of food and energy rose. Only the strong and disciplined leadership and rapid industrialization provided breathing room as with Modi in India, Jinping in China, the African continent and Latin America lacked this and are feeling the pain. ...

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The mood in Germany, France and UK as Europe ponders a European response to the 28 Point Peace Plan negotiated by the US president with Russian negotiators over 3 days in Washington DC. This is reflected by views expressed in Le Monde of France in November 2025, showing concern for lack of military preparedness in Europe and the sense that Russia could be a military threat to Europe in the next 3-4 years.

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After the shooting death by an Afghan national of Sarah Beckstrom 20 years of the National Guard in Washington DC patrol, DJT administration is moving to take action to prevent such incidents and safeguard America's neighborhoods.  DJT said the US government would “denaturalize” migrants “who undermine domestic tranquillity” and recent migrants in the country who were “non-compatible with Western Civilization” will be removed.

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How Hyundai has hired a leading marketer with a record of helping the likes of VW and Apple build their brand image. Hyundai inventory is building up and its falling way short of selling 700,000 cars in North America by 2010, it sold 455,000 cars last year. Wilhite had earned a reputation by being Apple Computer s topmarketer and has also headed Nissan's global marketing. Before that he helped give VW a revival in the US market in the 1990's. He sees the need for "a big idea" to get Hyundai off the ground. A new ad agency compared Hyundai's predicament with Galileo's persecution for presenting his theory about the earth revolving around the sun.The problem- even though J. D. Powers shows Hyundai as having surpassed Toyota in Initial Quality Study, the brand had not registered with car buyers. And in 2007 unsold Sonata cars were piling up on football field sized lots behind the Birmingham, Alabama plant of Hyundai. Sales fell 30% in 1st quarter 2007 in the US. market and matched Chrysler's situation of building cars without the buyers....

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Plastic water bottle use surged with a shift to single bottle use of bottled water as a preferred option to using sugar drinks and sodas. In the U.S. this use has surged 284% since 1994, with 67% of the bottled water sold not in jugs but in single use convenience type plastic water bottles.  Manufacturers of plastic water bottles have failed to come up with a technology that makes the kind of plastic that can be easily recycled. Danone's bottled water company Evian brand makes about 30% of its plastic water bottles from recycled plastic and no aims at shifting entirely to recycled plastic by 2025.  Images of bottles filling landfills and hurting sealife have led to consumer opposition to their prolific use. Ocean Conservancy says plastic water bottles are behind cigarette butts and food wrappers the thrid most item washing up on shorelines.  Curbs- Cities in Massachusetts along the coastline are banning their use. New York City is banning the sale in parks, beaches, of these bottles. And the European parliament  is backing laws for member states to collect 90% of these bottles for recycling by 2025. Mumbai has banned this year eater being sold in small bottles. The importance of this is now sinking in. ...