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Regulators at the U.S. Federal Reserve and the FDIC are planning to reject the "living wills" plans of 4 of the 8 systemically important banks, including JP Morgan Chase bank, in April 2016. The banks will have to come up with revised plans and strategies to address bankruptcy and issues raised by regulators, or face sanctions including higher levels of capital required.

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Landler and Haberman provide a chronological summary of the events leading up to the speech by president Trump on August 21,2017 for continuing the war in Afghanistan with troop increases. Initially Trump followed his instincts and questioned his generals Mattis and McMaster, who have experience with the war in Afghanistan. McMaster prepared the plan. Tillerson, Secretary of State, called for a civilian component for the State Department in the military's plan. The options included using U.S. troops, covert CIA operation, and using mercenaries. The key factor- learning from the experience of the Iraq withdrawal of 2011 andnot  letting things get out of control as happened in Iraq and Syria after 2011 with rise of Islamic State and intervention by Iran and Russia, destabilization of the European Union through accelerated refugee flows. In the end the costs were too significant to let a vacuum develop and the U.S. president gave an honest reflection in his televised speech which was exceptional in its candour and willingness to lay the facts out. Trump's own instincts which he has historically followed would be set aside in this case because of the evidence the generals had given, supported by vice president Pence and key members of the Republican party. The president known for impulsive behaviour could be described as having gone through a period of reflection with the key military officers on what it was all about. In the end the decision to use U.S. troops to control the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan was taken to prevent a vacuum from developing. ...

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Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, compares the growing cronyism in the U.S. and the lack of social mobility to the situation in Italy where he grew up, and where the economy has stagnated over the last decade with fewer opportunities for the younger generation.

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Independent oil companies are eager to invest in Venezuela says Treasury Secretary Bessent at the Economic Club of Minnesota. He says phone are ringing non stop from these companies. Big Oil such as Exxon is taking longer. Chevron is already in Venezuela and Bessent says in a few months it can increase production by 40-50%. Oil revenue from Venezuela will be in a special fund that will be used for the people of Venezuela. Under Maduro since 2013 the oil revenue was used for regimes in Cuba and not managed well for the investment in infrastructure and modernization. US sanctions made it hard to modernize the oil industry which will now take place. Bessent calls Cuba's economy decrepit and now in bad shape. It also shows that realistically modernization and good standards of living are not possible in the western hemisphere by regimes of the Cuban or Bolivarist type which descend into corrupt regimes and lack foreign capital and technologies. Lula adopted an approach in Brazil that worked with the US and EU to modernize the economy creating a workable model for a Workers party. There is much to learn from these experiences in Latin America which come at considerable cost and suffering. ...

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DJT and Xi of China agree that Hormuz Straits should not be controlled by Iran, and no tolls for passage through Hormuz on ships to be paid to Iran. Thedse are points of agreement with China at the summit between Xi and DJT in Beijing  May 14 2026. It is certain that Xi of China is also for no proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. China has to manage relations in the Middle East by considering the Arab  states of North Africa with whom it has good relations and their point of view- these countries are- Egypt, Moroccco, Tunisia, Algeria, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia. China gets its oil from both Iran and these Arab states. In a larger sense both the US and China are looking for alternative sources of oil after this episode of conflict in the Middle East one of a long series of events since the 1970's for 5 decades.  China and the US, India, EU are looking at this episode as a point from where a new renewed effort is being launched to replace fossil with renewable energy, be able to generate more GNP with fewer oil and energy resources. ...

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Jim Whittaker, in 1963 first American on Everest, REI first employee, and promoter of life in the outdoors. He climbed A 14,000 peak with Robert Kennedy that is known by the name Kennedy, and ran RFK's campaign for president. A picture of him with John Glenn and Don Walsh in the BBC. He died at the age of 97 in Washington State with aview from his home of the Olympic mountains. He describes the climg on Everest and his life in his memoir Life on the Edge. He returned to Everest in 1983 with son Leif who trains athletes in climbing and outdoors. When he climbed Everest he says Gombu his Sherpa guide was the shortest and he was the tallest. He reflects on life and humility in the face of Nature and God's presence around us- "You learn, when you climb a difficult mountain, you leave your ego behind and learn that you're just a little micro-speck in this life. You learn your weaknesses and have a little broader perspective." A lot of us can learn from the lives of Americans like Jim Whittaker.   ...

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NT looks at the Florida Advanced Courses and Tests which provide an alternative to the approach taken by the Advanced Placement AP Courses. AP in American History of the College Board differs from FACTS AP history Course in many ways. College Boards AP History gives the history of America as a flawed nation, not the nation we know from the Declaration of Independence that has inspired people around the world with its bold statement "all men are created equal" by Thomas Jefferson that set forth the ideal to reach for. The problem the world feels with the flawed nation idea is that it does not make America the beacon of democracy, the rule of law, of scientific and industrial progress that offer a path to progress for the emerging nations of Africa, Latin America and Asia, that they can emulate. AP History of the College Board does not accept the idea that the Bible was the source of inspiration for the Pilgrims that came to the US on the Mayflower, and not reading the Bible is to not be able top see life as seen by the early settlers of the US, even when there were flaws. ...

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Germany's aging rail system, the Deutsche Bahn, will get a makeover with a 86 billion euro inverstment over 10 years. FOr years it has suffered from delays, broken bridges, older trains, and lack of modernization. As the economy slows down infrastructure investment which has suffered from the Tech years, is now back in popularity with the public mood shifting across Europe and the U.S. A current five year plan budgeted just 5.6 billion euros per year and is replaced with a ten year plan with 86 billion euros so that it sends a signal for the economy, but more importantly creates planning security for investments, and makes building sites cheaper to run. As a sign of the times trains running 6 minutes were considered as "on time" in recent years. Merkel's CDU was not pursuing infrastructure investment during the austerity decade 2008-2018. As finances are being cleaned up in Europe and the U.S. and the banking mess clears, the shrinking of banks such as Deutsche Bank as a vivid and educational example, and the mood of the public shifts away from the flashy Tech years, there is a sense of the value in the public mind of the investments in infrastructure that benefit all, that prevailed in the post war years. ...

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John Fetterman Democrat of Pennsylvania has maintained a friendship with Katie Britt, Republican freshman from Alabama, and even turned up in Congress to show Britt's son around the House and Senate buildings. It shows how some senators in the US Congress are taking stances independent of their parties different factions and staying true to their authentic selves about what they see as right. For example Fetterman and Britt are introducing legislation requiring children to be 13 years of age to use social media platforms. Texas Senator Cornyn and other Republicans are at ease talking to John Fetterman. It is the kind of bipartisanship that is emerging in 2024 in the US. Fetterman says he is behind president Biden and is campaigning in 7 states calling Biden "a decent, good guy," and a tough guy.

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An old rundown dilapidated U.S. military base that was set up at a time when ox carts rolled down Seoul streets in 1965 closes down in 2019 as the Trump administration reviews the costly commitments made during a different time. America is not withdrawing as troops will be relocated at a new base 50 miles south of Seoul. The effort is designed to consolidate American operations in South Korea, and have South Korea share the cost.

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Most CFO's in a Duke University survey don't see a recovery until 2009 and then also late 2009. About 75% did't think the interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve haven't helped thier companies and one third see the effect on their firms directly in the credit markets. Most are reducing expansion plans and see new capital investment at 3.3% barely keeping up with replacement needs this year. This suggests the Fed's rate cuts havent helped business that much and the credit crisis has hit businesses directly and the full impact is still to come.

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Three million additional Americans get access to Medicaid as a result of the Obama Healthcare Law (Affordable Care Act). Under the law states could expand Medicaid to people less than 65 years old with income of 133% of the federal poverty level of $15,521 for individual or $31,721 for family. About half of U.S. states expanded Medicaid and the rest kept the prior income guidelines. The figures are from a report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which show 58 million Americans on Medicaid in third quarter of 2013, and up to 61 million in March 2014.

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Max Fisher of the NYT points out the unique approach taken by Canada in the U.S.-Canada relationship - to cultivate a grassroots network of Americans in legislatures, business, and at different levels of government. This has enabled the Trudeau government to build a relationship with president Trump, and at the same time have relationships at different levels of government and with business in the U.S. to tackle issues where the Trump administration has acted in ways unfavorable for Canada. Provincial governments in Ontario and Quebec lobbied against a New York state government provision for Buying American on state contracts worth over $100,000. By emphasizing the $10 billion in exports from New York to Ontario this lobbying persuaded the New York legislature to cancel the provision. Premier Trudeau's popularity helps and the proximity to the U.S. means Canadians can visit quickly and understand the U.S. as a close neighbor. Still Premier Kathleen Wynne of Ontario says Canadian businesses are nervous about the uncertainty from the Trump administration.   ...

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Michael Boskin, the elder president Bush's chairman of the Council of Economc Advisors was instrumental in setting up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Here he points to the dire need to open up trade between India and Pakistan. Trade today between the two countries is $2.7 billion. Under trade models Boskin says the trade could be 20 times larger, about $50 billion. This would increase benefits and wages in both countries and is badly needed and long overdue.

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Some of these retreats cost up to $20,000. Yet a retreat for a fraction of that maybe $3000-$4000 can be put together by taking advantage of the organic and other food now widely available in Europe and the US and India, and making room for reflection, meditation, mindfulness, sleep and connection during self-made retreats. Some of the locations can be as an alternative in Colorado or the French and Austrian Alps or Kulu Valley, other parts of the Himalayas.

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On Facebook "Back the Badge" targeted at wives of police officers remembering killed police officers was seen 1.3 million times. Another ad "Woke Blacks" for Afro-American culture targeted at the civil rights movement was seen 750,000 times.These and other ads on Twitter were cited in Congressional investigations in the U.S., as ads paid for in rubles and conducted by Russian internet agencies. Facebook, Google, Instagram and Twitter managers answered questions in Congress about the ads during the U.S. presidential election of 2016.

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In the year ending July 31, 2021 nine cities in the US with a population over 1 million had a decrease in population of 1.7%. New York City seeing the largest decline of 3.5%. Only San Antonio and Phoenix increased in population.

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Jack Welch, former head of GE (General), says there is something that does not add up in the Labor Dept numbers for unemployment in Sept. 2012 showing that the unemployment rate declined from 8.1% to 7.8%, because experts estimate the economy has to generate more than 150,000 jobs each month just to keep up with population growth. The number of jobs generated for 2012 are lower than this number. Another measure of unemployment which shows the underutilization of labor in America, which the U.S. Federal Reserve's Bernanke looks at because it is ameasure of how effectively the U.S. is using the productive resources of the country, is U-6. U-6 covers people in parttime jobs who cannot find full time jobs and this has remained unchanged at 14.7% for Sept. 2012 according to the Labor Department.

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During the coronavirus the market is pushing some buyers out of the market while other buyers are willing to pay higher prices. Limited stock, cheap financing, and low fuel prices are pushing buyers into more expensive models with higher prices. The average new vehicle sold in August in the U.S. was at $35,420 according to J.D. Power. The auto market is following the housing market in this sense where limited supply is pushing up prices. Auto sales declined by 20% in August. Younger buyers are being priced out of the new vehicle market and auto makers are focusing on higher margin vehicles.