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Under Governor Edmund Brown of California the state's public university system became a model for the whole nation in the 1960's- state spending on higher education doubled, statewide enrollment doubled, and seven new campuses were opened. California's community colleges, Californa State University and the University of California helped educate a new generation of Californians and powered its rise as a tech savy state. Increasing tution is putting higher education increasingly out of reach for struggling middle class families. Edmund Brown's son Jerry Brown, the current governor of California, tells Californians his mother studied basically "for free," and a whole generation that followed her paid modest tution fees. Jerry Brown is a trustee on the boards of Cal State and UC, attends meetings regularly, asks questions about the conditions at the university systems, and is determined to make the higher education system a part of his own legacy. He persuaded voters to approve a tax increase to support the higher education system. Half of the $250 million increase in funding for the university system is contingent on a tution freeze. Brown is also pushing for faculty to teach more undergraduate courses, increase the number of online courses, and reduce administrator pay. His proposals are meeting resistance from academia. Other issues facing the university system are the lack of resources to meet increasing enrollment, issues about reducing out of state enrollment to meet in state demand because out of state students pay higher tution fees, and the general resistance to teaching more undergraduate classes from faculty. To do this Brown is having to engage in a discussion about education and "quality" with academia. In a recent interview Brown pointed out that words like "quality" have different meanings, and are defined in academia to meet internal needs that often conflict with basic societal objectives....

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British prime minister Cameron says the government will support the call of the Labor party for News Corporation to withdraw its bid for full ownership of BSkyB, the British Sky Broadcasting group. An inquiry will be led by Lord Justice Leveson, into the phone hacking and other activities of News Corporation. The inquiry will have 2 parts, with recommendations to be made in 12 months. The first part will look at the culture of the media, its practices, ethics and its relationship with the police and politicians. The second part of the inquiry will investigate the illegal activities of News Corporation, including alleged payments to police.

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HP's Apotheker emphasized in an earnings call "the tablet effect is real and sales of the TouchPad are not meeting our expectations. The velocity of change in the personal device marketplace continues to increase as the competitive landscape is growing increasingly more complex especially around the personal computing area." By the tablet effect Apotheker means the Apple iPad. The tablet is becoming popular but not the other tablets from Samsung, HP and other makers. It is the iPad that is the product customers turn to and the tablets of competitors are not accepted as a substitute. As a result CEO Apotheker plans to exit the tablet and PC business.

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Zweig cautions against putting too much faith in experts, or quant models such as "value at risk" or VAR, used by JP Morgan to assess risk. He cites physicist Richard Feynmann: "You must not fool yourself- and you are the easiest person to fool." And the address Feynmann gave at the 1974 commencement of Caltech, in which he said avoid the "cargo cult" mentality of Pacific Islanders who believed that just by standing on runways they could make plane full of food and clothing land, similiar to the ways they did after World War II. Exaggerated returns of over 50% call for more vigilance to look at risks of failure.

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An economic solution to the Congolese war between Rwanda and the Congolese government in Kinshashafor the eastern provinces that are a1000 miles from Kinshasha. The proposal is from Herman Cohen who was assistant Secretary of state for Africa from 1989 to 1993. It call for a economic common market for the east African nations of Congo eastern provinces andRwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Africa that have trading relations through the Indian ocean ports and payment of royalties to the Congolese government for use of forests and lands in the east which are in the proximity of these eastern African countries. The US and the EU have to take the lead.

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The G-20 statement for the meeting in Washington D.C. in April 2013, says: "Japan's recent policy actions are intended to stop deflation and support domestic demand." Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's response was that this will help the BOJ implement its monetary expansion program in an orderly way. Kuroda said: "Now that we have obtained the support of the international community, we will be able to implement our program with confidence." These moves come with a call for Europe to proceed with banking union and giving more time for austerity programs to reduce the slowdown in Europe. This happens as fears emerged of a global slowdown in April 2013.

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DJT takes action sending in the Marines to Los Angeles to guard federal buildings, stop rioting June 10, 2025. At a White House briefing on fires including the fires in Los Angeles, US president DJT says the situation could have gone on for days as it did in Minneapolis when he acted after 7-8 days and the governor failed to call in the National Guard. DJT says he has seen this before and this is why he acted quickly before rioting destroyed the parts of Los Angeles that had survived the fires. 

Kristi Noem, the Homeland Secretary, a former governor, says action will be taken to enforce the nation's laws and that the comments by Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum that encouraged the protesters in contempt for US law enforcement were inappropriate and needed to be condemned.

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U.S. president Trump set up a separate task force called the Great American Revival Industry Groups. He read each of the names out loud during his press conference on Monday, a list of about 200 industry leaders from all the main industry groups, many of whom he personally knows. The first meeting of this group met in a hour long call with about 35 participants.  Most of the leaders praised the strong action taken by the president. On the task of reopening the economy the participants told president Trump that current testing levels were inadequate for effectively reopening the economy.  This is the first of four calls the president plans to make and included leaders from banking, retail, hospitality,  and food industries. The tasks facing the task force are to provide advice on how to reopen the economy and how to respond to the economic damage.  The U.S. president decided to set up this task force after talking to his friends in the business world so that he could get the broadest possible range of advice and thinking. Dr. Fauci, the leading helth expert on the president's team along with Dr. Birx, said on April 14 that reopening would require testing and virus tracking that was efficient and reliable and that the U.S. was not there yet. U.S. has conducted about 3 million tests. Health experts say there should be millions of tests per day before people can return to work. ...

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Keir Starmeir, a human rights lawyer for 20 years, heads the Labour Party negotiating team in negotiations with Theresa May for a cross-party Brexit deal. He says about 150 Labour MP's would reject a Brexit deal that is lacking a confirmatory second referendum on Brexit. He also said Labour risks losing Remain voters tempted to vote for the Liberal Democrats or Change UK. Starmier said it is time to call time on the cross party talks in a few days.

Recalling his days as a human rights lawyers Starmier says he never thought he would be defending those values of society which were considered part of British society. Starmier says this battle for values is much bigger than one political party.

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The truth is very different from the rhetoric coming from the Obama administration about helping Main Street America and ordinary workers against "fat-cat bankers," says Goldfarb. Under the Obama administration banks have grown larger and gained more influence over administration decisions. No conditions were made part of the agreement that would require banks to lend a portion of the money handed out to the banks to ordinary borrowers. And not much of significance was done to help homeowners under water, which would enable a faster recovery. In this respect the policies slanted in favor of banks of the Obama administration worsened the prospects of an economic recovery. Experts from Reagan advisor Martin Feldstein- who as early as 2008 advocated serious help to homeowners under water to reduce principal and interest- to the FDIC's Sheila Bair and Princeton Prof. Krugman, across the ideological spectrum, perceived this being in the national interest. Feldstein's first op-ed on his plan appeared in the Wall Street Journal on 3/7/2008, followed by ones on 4/15/2008, 10/4/2008, 1/20/2010/ 10/12/2011 in WSJ, and a oped on 10/30/2008 in the Washington Post, repeating the call for siginificant debt reduction to homeowners. Banks had extraordinary influence on successive administrations in the U.S., both Republican and Democratic- the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations- so that policy actions could be distorted from what would otherwise take place. A study by two University of Michigan professors shows that banks did not increase lending after receiving government money. Instead taxpayer money was used to invest in risky securities for profits from short term price movements, resulting in gains of about 10% in investment returns. Ran Duchin, one of the two professors, says helping ordinary borrowers was not the most profitable use of capital for banks. Without the necessary conditions from the Obama administration, the banks depolyed capital in ways that did not help the economy. Similiarly when banks needed to be restructured no preparatory action was taken because of resistance within the administration- a request by President Obama to Treasury Secretary Geithner for preparing a plan for the restructuring of Citigroup was ignored, according to a report by Goldfarb and Wallsten on 9/17/2011 in the Washington Post....

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Michel Barnier is approved by 52% of French people in an Ifop poll, yet 74% think he will not last long. The NFP will call a no confidence motion when its candidate 37 year old Lucie Castets of the Finance Ministry was turned down by Macron. The RN of Marie Le Pen will support Barnier for now and Marie Le Pen says she expects new elections within 1 year. Barnier supports halting migration to France for 4 years, a position RN of Le Pen supports. Denmark with a socialist government has taken similar position. By taking strong action on migration as northern and southern Europe both shift to this policy including Socialist parties, the EU as is happening in the US can address fundamental issues of cost of living action, infrastructure investment and investment in education, healthcare, science and technology competitiveness, renewable energy. Removing the migration issue can put a clear focus on the action needed to address these problems.

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Living with Uncertainty and knowing one will not know what lies ahead, one will be ignorant much of the time, acceptance of death as inevitable, is part of living. 

Physicist Feynmann says-

“I’m smart enough to know I’m dumb”, Feynmann, saying: “I can live with doubt, uncertainty and not knowing.” He accepted a lack of understanding a certain level of ignorance about what the future will bring. In 1910 no one thought there would be a world war and pandemic in 2 years, we did not know that the pandemic was a year away in 2018.

The Bible and Bhagavad Gita have admonitions about this. Wisdom is knowing that we lack the understanding and knowledge of the universe, that there is something else we call Spirit that guides the world and what is called the Imperishable Brahman that is within us and pervades all.

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New details emerge on how India informed Pakistan that only terrorist bases were targets not the Pakistan military. India's Foereign Minister Jaishankar says this was to make clear that only terrorist bases would be struck in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on tourists. This was to be careful so that deescalatory steps could be taken. When Pakistan chose to attack military targets in India India did the same on military targets and air defense systems in Pakistan were taken out. At that point India insisted that for a stop to the war Pakistan's general would call India's general to end the war, which is what happened. Jaishankar made it clear that US Marco Rubio of JD Vance complied with India's request to the US that only after the Pakistan general called the Indian general would the conflict be stopped as India had not targeted Pakistan military.

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Blue Dog or corporate shills, who are they, asks Thomas Frank. He reminds readers that Illinois Senator Paul Douglas advised people in 1932 not to expect much from the Democratic party. Douglas said the Democratic party was more like alifeboat for business interests, when the going got tough with the Republicans, business interests simmply used this lifeboat to get away. So he says call these Blue Dogs caucus the Lifeboat caucus, and you get closer to the mark. He points out that the Blue Dogs are some of the leading fundraisers in Congress. See the link to Max Baucus in the Senate, who the NYT describes as a leading fundraiser from Montana.

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Peter Coy call for debt forgiveness- writedowns of debt for debt burdened European countries that have no chance of ever repaying the debt, and writedowns of mortgage loans to homeowners in the U.S. who are under water. The alternative is to trap the productive capabilities of the countries as they struggle over many years to pay down the debt, even as the economy is contracting. This would drag on for many years, and is bad for the U.S. and bad for Europe. By taking the writedowns now, and making the arrangements to make this possible for banks and other lenders, the economies of the different countries can resume growth much sooner and leave these problems behind.

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G.E. reported profits of $5.1 billion from operations in the U.S. in 2010. Its American tax bill? G.E. paid no taxes, claiming a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. G.E. does this by lobbying for tax breaks, aggressive strategies for reducing taxes including concentrating its profits offshore, and innovative accounting. G.E. has a large tax department, which some call the nation's largest tax law firm. Other firms are following the same practices The corporate share of the U.S. tax receipts has fallen steeply over the years- down to 6.6% in 2009 from 30% in the 1950's. This raises all sorts of questions in the current budget deficit situation facing federal and local governments.

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President Obama says he told House Speaker Boehner to pass a stand-alone bill for defunding Planned Parenthood, and not attach it to the budget bill. He said: "Put it in a separate bill, we'll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don't try to sneak this thing through." These comments were made while talking to campaign donors in Chicago on April 14, 2011. On the budget Obama said he told Republicans in the budget negotiations: "You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?"

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U.S. president Obama's chief of staff and former deputy national security advisor, Denis McDonough, meets with Peter Altmaier, Chancellor Merkel's chief of staff, and Gunter Heiss, head of Directorate-General 6 of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service in July 2014. The meeting was part of an effort to improve U.S.-German relations following the problems created by NSA spying in Germany. This meeting took place following the shooting of a Malaysian airline flight over Ukraine and the call for stronger western sanctions on Russia. U.S. president Obama sought to convey to Merkel the importance he placed on German-U.S. relations after Obama failed to make a serious effort to soothe tensions with Germany over spying revelations.

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Monica Langley provides a detailed account of the events leading to Microsoft CEO Ballmer's decision to step down in 2013. After listening to tough questions from Board member Thompson and other members through loudspeakers on a call with directors on a January morning in Seattle, Ballmer realized that he would have to step down for a transformation to take place at Microsoft. Around this time Ballmer met with Alan Mulally of Ford on Mercer Island to understand how Mulally had made the transformation at Ford Motor during a crisis. Ballmer realized by this time the difference between his style of internal competition and the teamwork and speed that Mulally had cultivated at Ford.

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Kerkorian will lose $640 million of his $980 million investment in Ford made in April of this year at $7 a share. He sold a portion of his shares at $2.43 a share and is expected to sell the remainder soon. MGM Mirage stock that he owns have fallen by 85% since hitting $100 a share last October. The value of his 54% stake in MGMMirage has sunk from $13 billion to just over $2 billion. Its not clear that sale of Ford shares were prompted bya margin call. After seeing the debacle of Kerkorian twice once before this with GM shares in recent years other investors are likely to be wary of auto stocks.

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Amazon Prime has a trailer on King Charles's vision of a revolution for climate change action. The idea is to get a broader audience through streaming. The film title is -Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision.   Kate Winslett tells the story of King Charles and his vision.  It includes new footage of Charles with David Beckham, Meryl Streep. The film has been narrated by Kate Winslet, which was for Winslet “both a pleasure and a privilege” as she is part of the King's Foundation. The King’s Foundation said: “This documentary aims to showcase the importance of harmony to a new audience, and highlight the urgent action needed to help protect our planet, as His Majesty reflects on his life’s work across nature, sustainability and the environment.” The film is based on the King’s 2010 book, Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World. “This is a call to revolution. Revolution is a strong word, and I use it deliberately. The many environmental and social problems that now loom large on our horizon cannot be solved by carrying on with the very approach that has caused them. This will involve taking all sorts of dramatic steps to change the way we consider the world and act in it.” “The book is not just trying to raise the points about getting an electric car and some organic carrots. “This is about thinking fundamentally about the relationship we have with the life-support systems that sustain us and everything else and, indeed, the relationships between all of us, and how we organise our society, including our economy, and making points about circularity in our economic system, and how we might be inspired by nature in terms of how we think about resource use and how we look at ideas like economic growth.” ...

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Adam Nossiter of the NYT describes the coalition of right and left parties in France that have united against the National Front, called in France "the Republican Front." In the 2002 Marine Le Pen's father made it to the second round of the presidential election, but lost to centre right party leader Jacques Chirac who won 78% of the vote. Analysts say the Republican Front is coming up this time once more for daughter Marine Le Pen, as she goes into the second round of the election in 2017 fifteen years later with support in the north and northeast of the country and in the coastal south east around Marseille and Nice. Le Pen appeals to working class people with nationalist slogans. The Republican Party of former president Sarkozy represents the centre right, and it is combining with the centre left Socialist Party of president Hollande to call for the election of Emmanuel Macron and for support to Macron's En Marche movement. One expert predicts the National Front may leave the centrist views of Le Pen adviser Philippot, and return to hard right roots. Former president Sarkozy was mentioned on French television Fr24 as hoping to make a comeback by boosting the chances of the Republican Party in the June parliamentary elections, and creating a situation in which a future president works with a prime minister from the Republican Party. As the Macron En Marche movement is only one year old, it is not well prepared to contest the parliamentary elections, opening the door to the formation of new coalitions for government in France. ...

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The perception of Chrysler's travails from Detroit. "Like a resourceful alley cat, disrespected, starving, kicked around, but tenacious," so begins Detroiter Tom Walsh's colum on June 11, 2009, in the Detroit Free Press. Disrespected by Ford and former Chrysler manager who left at the time Daimler took over Chrysler. Its a skinnier more haggard looking Chrysler, and Fiat may do a complete makeover starting with the product line, a Fiat small car line unlike the guzzzlers Chrysler was known for like the Dodge Ram pickup.

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Krugman draws attention to the statement of the E.U. leaders put out in mid-July, 2011. This statement calls for strong deficit reductions "in all countries except those under a programme" to take place "by 2012 at the latest." He says this is a call for all of Europe to cut spending. Krugman points out that there is nothing to show that the European private sector will be ready to pick up the slack in the next 2 years. He sees a similiar situation playing out with the deep cuts proposed in the U.S. deficit reduction plans being discussed and the unwillingness of the private sector in the U.S. to invest when demand is weak and household debt is high.

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Speaking on national television in the U.S., President Obama outlined his plans for action relating to the BP Gulf Oil Spill. He is appointing former Mississippi governor Ray Mabus, as head of a Gulf Resoration program to work in cooperation with communities, conservationists, fishermen, and local residents. Obama also said he will tell the chairman of BP's board, Carl Henric-Svanberg, that he will have to set aside resources for compensating workers and business owners who have suffered through this Oil Spill. The White House wants to see an escrow account for this purpose and is negotiating this- the amount varies from an estimate of $20 billion by Senate Democrats to other estimates. Other action was appointment of Michael Bromwich, as head of the Minerals Management Service.