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George Washington is cited for his emphasis on preparedness and preparation for conflict as critical to preserve peace, or to defend America's role in the world as the first Republic based on a simple idea in the Declaration of Independence. Much of the war with Britain in the late1770's depended on the careful and many years of preparation done by Washington. Washington's diaries tell the story day by day of the preparations over years and the final months that won the war at Yorktown in 1781 that no one not the British were aware of- the logistics of moving the army from the south to the north, of equipment and training.  Roger Wicker, leading Republican on Senate Armed Services Committee has a plan- add $55 billion for defense in 2025, Add 357 ships for Navy and 340 fighters for Air Force by 2035. Do the $180 billion backlog for maintenance of the defense forces. Raise the military spending from 2.9% to 5% over 5-7 years as a parallel effort to investing in infrastructure and manufacturing at home. ...

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This view in WSJ about Trump the candidate being no different in 2024 than eight years back in 2016, by Gerard Baker, gets 3813 Comments from Readers. It says Trump today in 2024 is no different than in 2016, only then he faced a candidate Hillary Clinton who had spent so much time in endless foreign travel as Secretary of State, that she had lost touch with the American people. In that situation Trump prevailed and that by only 90,000 votes in 3 states. Baker comes to this conclusion by reading carefully and objectively assessing the meaning of the Mar Lago interview that Trump gave last week. He says this time Trump is up against someone who is clearly in touch and and a seasoned politician. One that is able to give voters a chance to project on a clean slate whatever they want to see. This even though Kamala Harris has well known views from her days as Attorney General and Senator. Baker sees Trump lacking a coherent message and failing to provide a vision for the future, simply restating what was said before. ...

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Ann J. Selzer who does the polling for the local Iowan Des Moines Register for three decades says- “It’s hard for anybody to say they saw this coming.” Yet the process does drive results. The only time Democrats did poorly in Iowa with reason was under Hillary Clinton, and it was clear that Obama did not have Tom Vilsack's back. Vilsack the three time popular governor of Iowa was Agriculture Secretary, yet Obama distracted by Silicon Valley did not give the support he needed. Joe Biden as president made Tom Vilsack one of, if not the most important part of his Domestic Agenda, underlining also to all that foreign policy would be driven by domestic agenda, and by domestic is meant in large part long neglected Rural America. Growing up as an adopted child in difficult childhood, Tom Vilack represented the best of Iowa and America in his public service in the state and the entire Great Prairie states that form the heartland of America's breadbasket, and for the world.   ...

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A new $490 billion aid package in Japan is designed to help families and small business. Families with small children will get $900 per child and small business will get $22,000 each if they can show they were affected by the pandemic. Wage increases for nurses and care workers. Economy minister Yamagiva in the new Fumio Kishida government says this aid will "bring security and hope to the people by rebuilding the economy." Japan is following the US by providing aid to the people and business to help rebuild after the lingering effects of the pandemic. In the US president Biden is expected to pass a $2 trillion package including help for child care, paid leave for caregivers and mothers, other aid, and a big investment to tackle climate change.

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After winning a giant Pentagon cloud computing contract of $10 billion over the next decade Microsoft is mounting a challenge to Amazon's dominance in cloud computing. Amazon has 48% of the business renting out cloud infrastructure in 2018, according to Gartner. Microsoft has 15.5% and is gaining each year. Amazon took the lead by starting early by 2010. Microsoft and Google Alphabet were slow to start. Microsoft has an edge in its long history of working with business. These companies expand the business by building data centers called server farms around the world. Capital One Financial lost about 100 million in stolen customer records in 2018 with storage in Amazon's cloud infrastructure, safety being another issue in this business.

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Fewer workers will support the elderly in the U.S. and the process is accelerating, posing new problems for Social Security programs. Census figures show in 2017 there were 25 Americans 65 years or older for every 100 people in working years, by 2030 this figure goes up to 35 retirees. By 2025 it will reach 33 retirees. By comparison in 2025 Canada would be 40 retirees, Germany 44, Japan 58, and on the lower side India at 13, Mexico 16, China 22. Trustees for Social Security are dipping into the Trust fund in 2018 to pay benefits for first time since 1982.

States are in worse shape $2.6 trillion in assets cover $4 trillion in liabilities in fiscal 2016, according to data from Pew Trust.

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This report in the WSJ shows even chancellor Merkel, Mr. Roller her economic advisor, ignored reports that went back ten years about wrongdoing at Wirecard. Chancellor Merkel supported Wirecard's acquisition of a Chinese company that itself was in trouble in talks with Chinese leaders in September 2019. AllScore the Chinese company had at the time been fined for misappropriation of funds by the central bank of China at the time, as reported by the WSJ. The German Finance ministry had provided documents showing that Wirecard was being investigated before the meetings to Mr. Roller. The Finance minister Olaf-Scholz's ministry oversees BaFin but little was done by BaFin even after the Financial Times in January 2019 reported financial irregularities at the company.

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This NYT editorial says the Democrats achieved much of what they wanted in the Ryan-Murray U.S. Budget deal by taking out 61.5% of the sequester cuts in domestic programs and adding back $31.5 billion for programs in transportation, health, education and other programs.

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The German Constitutional Court established the legality of the eurozone bailouts under German law. It also stipulated that future bailouts would require the approval of a parliamentary committee. The Court ruled out any proposal that would pool Germany's debt with that of other countries in the eurozone. This rules out the issuance of eurobonds that are supported by the pooled resources of all EU countries. With no mechanism for firm budgetary discipline in place under the current structure of the EU, this is seen as an absolute no in Germany, and is opposed by all German political parties including Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats. ECB president, Jean Claude Trichet, is a strong supporter of the European Union, who actively participated in its creation over three decades. He insisted on budgetary discipline for all EU member states in his recent speech at a conference in Lake Cuomo resort in northern Italy. By leaving open other solutions over time that would still move forward the idea of a united Europe, the Court's view on this point coincides with that of Merkel and the ECB's current and future presidents, Trichet and Draghi. Merkel told the German parliament on Sept. 7, 2011: "Europe must come out of this crisis stronger than it went in, just as Germay came out of the crisis stronger." Merkel compared the difficulties today with the difficulties Germany faced as it tried to rebuild after World War II. Others have compared the difficulties to that of reuniting East and West Germany with their disparate and different ecoomic structures, attitudes and demographics....

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A research paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows 43% of Americans in 2012 under the age of 25 with student debt, having average debt of $20,326. Compare this with about 25% of young Americans having student debt in 2003, with average debt of $10,649. This is crowding out other borrowing such as buying new homes or cars by younger Americans because of borrower unwillingness to take on more debt and banks unwilling to lend to borrowers who might default.

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China's EV market is very competitive and price cuts by Tesla have led to falling prices. BYD sold 900,000 electric vehicles in the first 5 months of 2023, Tesla 200,000, and Li Motors 100,000. NIO is struggling and some companies have closed operations. Ford failed in this market and VW is still to make a dent in the market. Most of the top ten companies are local. With the slowing economy, consumers resisting purchases, price drops are needed to keep up sales of EV's.

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An analysis done for the Wall Street Journal by real estate portal Zillow.com, shows the median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22% in 2010 on properties purchased with conventional mortgages. Banks favor higher down payments today because it reduces the chances of delinquencies. Median down payments were at about 20% in 1990, then the payments declined in the nine cities Zillow looked at: Chicago, Stockton, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa. The drop went as far as 4% in 4th quarter 2006, and in some places close to zero. Experts say these are the markets where more home buyers are under water. A 2009 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis shows that buyers with smaller down payments are more likely to default in unfavorable economic situations. A contributing cause of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis was the very low down payments. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairwoman Sheila Bair, says she supports minimum 20% down payments....

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The U.S. Justice Department files a lawsuit against VW seeking $18 billion in sanctions on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency. VW shares declined by 4 percent. Experts expect an out of court settlement of $12-$13 billion. The inconclusive discussions between the EPA and VW led to the filing of the lawsuit. The lawsuit is seen as sending a message to the auto industry that the kind of behaviour that led to the VW emissions cherating scandal will not be tolerated.

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The freedom of movement without danger, or public safety on the Nation's streets, in public spaces and on the transit systems buses and trains, is a basic right implicitly guaranteed by the US Constitution as much as explicit guarantees of free speech as a basic right. A free society could not exist in the absence of this right.

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US frustration with Russian intransigence on ending the war. By October 2025 DJT administration pushes for an end to the war with hopes for a Budapest summit. This is delayed and the US announces sanctions on Russian oil companies on October 22, 2025, when Russia shows no interest in ending the war except on its own terms.

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The flaws of Wikipedia model in it's effort to be a purveyor of knowledge, after another failed attempt by Google, related to the basic flaws of their model. A flawed claim to be the sole purveyor of knowledge in the world forming a monopoly of their own, the risks to the Nation and the World.

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A group of oil producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia stall progress on climate change goals at the conference in Belem, Brazil. Even deforestation goals are left out. A standoff between European nations and oil producing countries leads to lack of agreement on how to phase out fossil fuels. The US is not present.  

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Did Putin overreact as he did in Georgia. On the issue of Russian speaking people in neighboring eastern European countries Putin has strong emotional reaction, as evident in the 2008 Georgian conflict. In Ukraine the issue assumes significance because of the effect of western sanctions, adverse foreign investor sentiment and the tendency of rich Russians, similiar to Argentines, to shift assets abroad. Capital flight was $75 billion in the first 6 months of 2014. Add to this adverse effect on foreign investor sentiment on an already slowing Russian economy, and growth will be seriously affected. Car sales are expected to decline by 12% in 2014, according to a trade group. The rhetoric has been toned down on Russian television. And Russian analysts now say relations with the West must be maintained. Polls by state run polling company WCIOM show 66% of the Russian public oppose Russian forces entering Ukrainian territory.

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A year long study by the Washington Post of all shootings by the the police in incidents of law enforcement in the U.S. shows only about 4% of the incidents involve police killing unarmed black persons. Yet a disproprotionate number of unarmed men shot are black or Hispanic- 3 of 5 people. The large majority of incidents involved people who were mentally troubled most of whom carried a weapon, persons carrying a weapon, or persons running from the police when asked to stop. The WP has compiled every police shooting in its database for analysis, something even the FBI does not have and is only now starting to put together. For police the hard part is when to know a certain behaviour such as reaching into the pocket after a police chase was harmless or risking the officer's life, as shown in a video carried by officer Lisa Mearkle in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, for one of the shootings. Mearkle was acquitted by the jury.

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The internally displaced people and the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as Russia destroys its infrastructure and electricity grid in the winter of 2023 is shown in maps by The Guardian.

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US president Biden's plan for building back better, building an economy that works for America's working families is discussed here by Rev. Barber and Karen Dolan.

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Neglected landscapes with invasive grass species, weak building standards, and decommissioned dams, made Hawaii weakened Hawaii's defenses against fires driven by fast blowing winds burning flammable material.

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Tesla is turning to promotional discounts to support sales. This leads to drop in gross margins to 14.6% by July 2024. Tesla's other businesses have an uncertain future.

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Brazil's oil company Petrobras raised $7 billion in the largest emerging market corporate bond deal. Petrobras issued 3, 5, 10 and 30 year securities priced to yield 3.628%. The bonds are rated A3 by Moody's and BBB from S&P.

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Michael Woodford, is a Briton who rises through the ranks to become CEO of Japanese company Olympus, only to be fired after exposing shady dealings to hide losses by the Board. His new book describes the events at Olympus- "Exposure- Inside the Olymus Scandal: How I Went From CEO to Whistle-Blower." When he confronts Board chairman Kikukawa about the dealings and coverage in the press he is brushed off. He is fired at a Board meeting and escorted out of the company the same day. Woodford then approaches the Japanese and international press.