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Keith Bradsher visits Guangzhou, China, just as prime minister Wen Jiabao tells the National People's Congress that China is changing its priorities from high growth to sustainable development. As recently as 2007 GDP growth reached 14%! The minimum wage is expected to rise 13% each year under the five year plan. Even with the increase in wages owning an apartment is unaffordable in Guangzhou- a 1000 square feet apartment costs upward of $300,000, showing the extent to which the bubble in real estate prices affects young people who cannot afford to own an apartment. A new graduate with marketable skills such as computer engineering makes about $6000 a year, putting owning an apartmet beyond reach. Another change he notices today is that during visits to construction sites he does not see flood lit sites at night. This used to be the case because builders were scrambling to build. With government policies discouraging the property bubble there is no longer a need for work at night. The focus now has shifted to build low income housing....

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The new head of India's Space Agency ISRO, Kailasavadivoo Sivan, talks to DW.com about the Space Agency's plans for the future. ISRO launched a mission to Mars which went into Mars orbit, at a very low cost.  The Mars Orbiter Mission vehicle is orbiting the planet Mars since 2014. In 2008 ISRO sent an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon. The future missions include a second mission to the moon, and a mission to the Sun. The solar mission Aditya-L1 will study the properties of the Sun. Mr. Sivan says his focus includes use of High Throughput Satellites(HTS) for providing high data-rate transmission. This is now available in cities, and the HTS will enable this for remote regions of India. Other focus is in agriculture with information on crops increased from 8 to 15 crops so that farmers have more information on fertility of soil, crop yields. Sivan says progress can be made with more international cooperation and sharing of technology, particularly with India leading the way with low cost high tech applications that benefit education, agriculture, and bringing space applications to people it never reached before. Sivan comes from one of India's villages, which are now experiencing change through India's rapid modernization efforts. ...

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Ms. Le Pen of the National Front called her going into the second round runoff against Macron's En Marche movement, "an act of French pride." Emmanuel Macron has his own way of looking at this. As this NYT editorial points out Macron says his is a movement "of patriots fighting the threat of nationalism." At his rallies and the rally following coming out the front runner in the first round of elections Macron is shown with people waving French flags all around him. The message- that in today's world of global cooperation for economic progress nationalist feeling has to be balanced with healthy cooperation and integration into the regional community, the European Union. That he is a patriot who also has in him a feeling for the communities in his wider region. That real economic progress can only be achieved working in cooperation with neighboring countries and regional community, and around new ideas for renewal.

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An effort by educated Chinese in business, government, and other professions to have informal discussions in small groups through getting together for dinner. This helps educated Chinese find ways to communicate their concerns about corruption, abuse of power by public officials, contamination of food, air and water pollution.

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Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has modeled his positions on that of the Trump image. He is the Republican candidate for Governor of North Carolina and Republican Senator Tillis of North Carolina sees him as taking extreme positions that are counterproductive. Josh Stein the Attorney General is the Democrat opposing him. North Carolina had a popular two term Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and this state is closely watched. Cooper concentrated on roads, bridges, infrastructure, public services. Other governors in Michigan and Kentucky have the same focus. Culture wars are a wasteful and unnecessary distraction from the real work in rebuilding manufacturing, and rebuilding infrastructure facing America that are in the Biden plan.

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The skills to navigate different personalities and work patiently on the issues surrounding changes to the U.S. tax system of Rep. Dave Camp (MI), chairman of the U.S House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, will be immensely useful in the effort to make changes to the U.S. tax system. Camp works well with fellow House Republican leaders Boehner, Ryan, Cantor, and his Democratic counterpart in the U.S. Senate Max Baucus. Camp is a good listener, refuses to engage in partisan criticism, and has the patience to work through difficult issues of achieving savings and keeping fairness in the the tax changes. Earlier efforts to achieve consensus in late 2011 failed, making it even more important to have leadership which can create productive debate and bridge the differences. The tax changes are part of the overall effort for U.S. economic recovery by reducing the deficit.

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Eli Lilly is trying new methods to reduce time for developing new drugs for cancer and diabetes. One method is to complete trials for testing dosage and efficacy simultaneously saving 14 months. Two of 5 research units are focussed on cancer and diabetes and all departments turning molecules into medicine are located together. On Oct 23, 2011, the patent for $5 billion revenue schizophrenia pill Zyprexa expires.

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Erfurt is a very German city in the heart of Germany with its many churches and medieval past, the home town of Martin Luther. Katrin Bennhold provides this exceptional report of how Erfurt is coping with new refugees from talking to town officials and observing the process of resettlement. Erfurt has a population of 208,000 with only about 500 Muslims, and few people from Africa. The town's mayor sees it as the biggest challenge since World War II, larger than reunification with the east, as 300 migrants arrive every week and 4000 have to be resettled by Christmas 2015. Under Germany's quota system the state of Thuringia gets 2.5% of refugees, and Erfurt gets 10% of this. When the Soviet bloc expelled 14 million Germans from the eastern territories in the bloc, 670,000 passed through camps in Erfurt. The difference now is the language barrier, and the anxiety among some Germans of how this could change their lives, which is visible from the questions asked at a town hall meeting in Erfurt. Because of the suddenness with which Germany was confronted with the refugee problem it will take time to get organized- in September 2015 there is a shortage of housing space, cots, temporary shelters, translators, social workers, and some of the infrastructure has to be put in on an improvised basis. Rarely has a people come under the spotlight of world attention in modern communications media, in the way small cities and towns throughout Germany are now facing, and providing a glimpse into the hearts and souls of so many....

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Republican Jeb Bush's address to the 2013 CPAC conference focusses on the decline of social and educational mobility in the U.S. to its lowest point since 1945. In this address he points out that " the central mission of conservatives is to reignite social mobility in this country- restoring the right to rise." His focus on restoring the right to rise is on doing everything to increase opportunities for "quality education," an issue on which he focussed as governor of Florida. He sees technolgy and relative youthful population compared to China and other countries in Europe, as giving America a unique advantage. On this and individual efforts he pins the broad hopes of the middle class revival he sees. He puts the problems of America's middle class and working class as wages declined and the economy suffered from misallocation of resources in stark terms- "Today, the sad reality is that if you're born poor, if your parents did'nt go to college, if you don't know your father, if English isn't spoken at home- then the odds are stacked against you. You are more likely to stay poor today than at any other time since World War II." And he sees Conservatives having a response to this situation, and restoring the idea of America as a land of opportunity for all....

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The situation in California on December 12 is dire as its daily cases for coronavirus increase to over 25,000. For Los Angeles county the figure is over 10,000. California coped well with the first wave. As the summer arrived fatigue with lockdown restrictions had increased, social distancing and mask wearing were not followed. When bars and restaurants opened in Los Angeles county huge numbers of people gathered in close proximity. Beaches were crowded.  A further spike in cases is expected from the Thanksgiving period. LA officials are saying one person is dying every 20 minutes. ICU capacity is shrinking. In southern California it has dwindled to less than 10%.  In Santa Clara county in Bay area only 31 ICU beds remain for 2 million residents. San Francisco is expected to run out of ICU beds on December 27, 2020. A patchwork of restrictions varying by county means there is no uniform effort. Fatigue with restrictions means compliance is patchy with social distancing and mask wearing even at the height of this pandemic. Public officials have failed to convince the public to do their part including the governor of the state and the mayor of San Francisco, because of inconsistent messages. ...

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Using the equivalent of 5 nuclear reactors in energy as Altman pushes AI to do means neglecting the needs for climate change action and for education and healthcare priorities. The huge diversion of funds equivalent to the GDP of European nations is absurd. It would put Democracy at risk even more as literacy shrinks as less and less investment in made in childcare, education and increasing access to education to all, and less and less investment is made in healthcare and increasing access to healthcare, as capital markets are pushed into highly and dangerously distorted allocation of our resources. As shown in the Washington Post article below Andrew Van Dam- about 30% of Americans already read no books at all, or lack the access to books and knowledge to participate effectively with civic preparedness. And could throw the Nation into political and economic chaos without the necessary knowledge for effective participation. Catherine Rampell of the Post shows above that every $1 invested in free preschool day care would return $6 in economic benefits, according to Yale Brown universities study, not counting the educated workforce for the Nation's future. ...

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Friedman describes the leaks on income and expenses by wives of Chinese government officials after the officials took on mistresses. This has provided an unusually detailed acccount of the corruption of government officials in China.

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That is before Wengfeng branched out into AI and his venture DeepSeek to do at a tiny fraction of the cost what these chaps at OpenAI had been openly propagandizing to take not billions, even trillions out of capital markets to leave us all worse of without funds for essential needs in education, schools, healthcare, childcare, transportation. Liang Wengfeng, who founded a $8 billion hedge fund and  invested in AI research fo Deppseek that does in $5.6 million what it takes OpenAI $100 million to do. It started with quant models to predict share prices. He wrote the introduction to the Chinese edition of Zuckerman's book on hedge fund manager Jan Simmons who was into advanced work on quantified modelling for share prices. It says-   “Whenever I encounter difficulties at work, I recall Simons’s words: ‘There must be a way to model prices.' " Liang also says “The publication of this book unravels many previously unresolved mysteries and brings us a wealth of experiences to learn from.” That is before Wengfeng branched out into AI an his venture DeepSeek to do at a tiny fraction of the cost what this chaps at OpenAI had been openly propagandizing to take not billions, even trillions out of capital markets to leave us all worse of without funds for essential needs in education, schools, healthcare, childcare, transportation. ...

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 U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, views China's response in trade negotiations as one of conducting extended negotiations that lead to little change. This has continued says Lighthizer for over a decade putting the U.S. at a serious disadvantage in trade. At a White House meeting in August 2017 Lighthizer convinced president Trump that China was in his words "tap, tap, tapping us along."  This confirmed president Trump's own instincts about the U.S. trading relationship with China. Lighthizer is a veteran of trade negotiations, having experience in the Reagan administration as the Deputy Trade Representative in 1983 in negotiations with Japan, when Japan was in a similar situation that China is today. At the time trade negotiations with Japan were getting nowhere. Lighthizer is said to have turned one Japanese response in negotiations into a paper plane and sent it flying right back. Lighthizer does not seek the limelight but is serious about his role having published op-eds in the NYT and WSJ since 2000 about how U.S. trading relationships were putting the U.S. and U.S. workers at an unfair advantage. Many of these op-eds are in the Lyrarc archive and a Search with the term "Lighthizer" would bring up these articles. This report in NYT shows how the role of Lighthizer was not anticipated by China when it sent Liu He to Washington in November 2017 to negotiate with the U.S. President Trump made certain Liu He and other Chinese leaders would have to talk to Lighthizer first. In a session with president Jinping laid out U.S. views that the past negotiations had accomplished little and new negotiations had to be undertaken very differently from negotiations in the past. Earlier in July trade negotiations conducted by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were "shut down" by president Trump because China continued to repackage earleir offers which meant little to the U.S. As a lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher LLP Lighhizer represented steel industry clients hurt by subsidized Chinese steel industry imports. Mr. Trump and Lighhizer have bonded well because their instincts have been the same- that the U.S. had not been well represented in earlier negotiations by lawyers who saw themselves as speaking for American exporters.  Lighthizer is also a seasoned trade negotiator and has waited for the right time and situation to tackle the unbalanced trading relationship with China. For 30 years Lighhizer represented American manufacturers as he practiced trade law at the Skadden law firm. His strategy has been to get the administration to unite behind a clear trade strategy. He says "I try to be friendly in trade negotiations. I am not the theatrical type. The art of persuasion is about knowing where the leverage is." At this time the leverage lies in the huge trade surplus of about $300 billion China has with the U.S. The U.S. goal is to bring this down by $100 billion through this new negotiating strategy as earlier negotiations have failed. ...

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German chancellor Merkel is interviewed by DW.com's Max Hofmann as her 16 year period as Germany's leader comes to a close. She discusses immigration to Germany, climate change and other issues. Not discussed are the issues of neglect of infrastructure and failure in preserving upward mobility in Germany society during that period. She is described as a "compromise machine," which she refutes by saying "I'm not a machine, of course, but... a human being." Through compromise she was able to extend the Christian Democrats hold on power for this long. Yet for much of the time she kept the Social Democrats, who were lacking in conviction at the time for real upward mobility, out of power; by compromises that meant she would do just so much not enough on social values. In the end her party the CDU fell to a low of about 22% support of Germans in the 2021 election. The Greens with more conviction and the Social Democrats surpassed the CDU under Baerbock and vice chancellor Scholz. Her achievements came reluctantly in the end in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. This time she put all her convictions and support behind the German and European Union financial package for trillions of euros of support that would enable Europe to get back on its feet after the pandemic's devastation. This may be her singular achievement, long after everything else is forgotten. Yet not one word of this interview talks about this achievement made with the full conviction of both Scholz and Merkel. Scholz and Baerbock will lead a new Social Democrat+ Greens coalition that will finally rebuild Germany along new lines on pillars of social mobility, infrastructure building, and climate change action for the New Germany. Baerbock is just 40 years, and Germany now moves to be run by a new generation so unlike the last in conviction and vision, and more in line with the vision and aspirations after World War II. With both Willy Brandt's vision of the Social Democrats, and the vision of Konrad Adenauer of the Christian Democrats, now carried forward with the help of the Greens Baerbock and the young generation of Germans. ...

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Chrysler hopes new models in 2007 will give it a gain of 1% in market share. Chrysler lost about 1% market share in the last year. But this is optimistic, as inventories are building up on dealer lots, and Chrysler chief La Sorda admitted that Chrysler screwed up by continuing a high build rate.

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Temperatures not seen or ever recorded by weather monitoring systems of 126 degrees Fahrenheit in New Delhi, India's capital May 30, 2024. This is 52.3 degrees Centigrade, with dangerous sweltering heat across all of northern India. Delhi's Lt. Governor called for paid leave for Delhi construction workers for 1-3 pm. Election rallies in India's general election drawing huge crowds even in such sweltering heat shows the impatience of the population of over 1 billion people with corruption and poor governance in some states and the efforts by prime minister Modi to ensure good governance and large investments for modernization of the Indian economy in infrastructure and transportation, logistics and manufacturing. It may be astounding to realize that voting still reached 68-71% of eligible voters in such weather conditions. India is the fastest growing economy in the world and now a beacon of progress in the middle of stalled efforts throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America following the pandemic, yet it too faces challenges from climate change just as severe as in the rest of the world with heat waves, floods and wildfires. ...

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In a major effort to halt increased missile attacks on Kviv and Ukraine by Russia DJT makes a decision to send Patriot anti missile systems to Ukraine financed by Germany. “It’ll be business for us, and we will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice, and then he bombs everybody in the evening. There’s a little bit of a problem there, and I don’t like it.” In Congress Senators Graham and Blumenthal have 85 Senators behind a bill to support Ukraine and place penalties of upto 500% tariffs on countries that support Russia in its war effort by buying oil -including China, India and Brazil. Graham says- "China, India and Brazil buy oil and petroleum products and other goods from Russia—that’s the money Putin uses to prosecute the war.” Graham adds- "the U.S. had reached a turning point regarding Russia.” ...

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After the Biden years when foreign born employment surged the decrease by 773,000 shown by Trend Macro in foreign born employment in the WSJ is an adjustment from the effects of open border policies. This also prevents downward pressure on wages for American workers in construction, hospitality and retail- the story of the last 20 years. This is similar to what would have been seen in the Eisenhower years after Operation Wetback led by Gen. Swing and AG Brownell in 1954. Just as by 1956 the foreign born employment declined after years of uninhibited growth and open borders in the years of World War II. Note that Mexico's agribusiness owners were against open borders in that period and the Mexican government was also against open borders and the loss of labor from Mexico needed in agribusiness. Today the situation is somewhat different but in the sense of an adjustment it may be very similar. Just as in 1956 Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 had a mandate for making this adjustment DJT has won a mandate for a similar adjustment in 2024. ...

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Pressed by tariffs from DJT China is trying to become technologically sufficient, yet this comes at a considerable cost, says this report in WSJ. Made in China 2025 was put out in 2014 when president Xi was beginning his plans for the Chinese economy. It is 2025 now and a look at the nation's investment plans show China putting $250 billion a year in advanced manufacturing sectors from automobiles to solar panels and AI, says Centre for Strategic and International Studies CSIS in Washington. This is giving China an edge but at the cost of using up valuable resources and some wasted spending at a time of stagnant government revenues. China's new production needs new markets with overcapacity such as in the electric automobile industry. This overcapacity comes at a cost when the US and other countries are restricting imports from China with new trade policies. During the DJT first term in 2016 China pulled back reference to make in China 2025 but this was temporary and China's 2021 Economic Plan puts top priority to be self sufficient in Science and Technology. Industrial support for EV's went from $15 billion in 2019 to $45 billion in 2023 (CSIS). 48% of 11 million new vehicles were EV's in 2024 with BYD and Geely the main ones of 100 brands. In shipbuilding $132 billion was invested in 2010-2018 taking China from 5% in 1999 to 48% of total manufacturing of shipbuilding in 2025 worldwide. The same is true for manufacturing aircraft and chemicals. ...