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With inflation up, cost of living increase, the $15 per hour wage in high cost of living states such as California and New York does not go very far in tackling cost of living in 2026. Astoundingly 20 states many in the SOuth still follow the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage that has not changed since 2009. Axios shows the minimum wage by state. In Michigan workers in youth age earn 85% of the minimum wage of $12.80 and hour. As workers lost leverage with the decline of trade unions since the 1990's administrations of Clinton, Bush, Obama, the situation is a difficult one for lower wage workers in many states. The lower wages in retail and hospitality industries also creates downward pressure on all wages which have not kept up till recently in auto and other manufacturing industries. Outshoring increased pressures over the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations and as Democrats failed to do much about outshoring, it took a Republican DJT and Democrat Biden who followed to reverse the trend and create a push for higher wages. This also has failed as inflation surged during 2022-2023 and outshoring created new problems in sourcing parts from overseas in autos and other industries. The middle class is also not much better off and engineers making $90,000 a year are also living from paycheck to paycheck, with less access to housing that has gone up in price and become less affordable. This cost of living surge and the open borders migration pressure on public services led to DJT's reelection in 2025. ...

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Let sleeping tariffs lie is the approach of S. Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China, India, European Union, Germany, UK-  expect all trade agreements with the US to remain in place after Supreme Court decision as no country wants to go through the intensely difficult process of renegotiating on tariffs. It is also the case that DJT can replace these same tariffs using other tools and different legislation passed by Congress to stop unfair trading practices by other nations. The president is also appealing to the public, some of the tariffs are about fentanyl flows into the US, the unfair trade practices and subsidies were a problem for the Biden administration and rebuilding manufacturing was the goal of both DJT and Biden, and will be for future administrations.  When the media NYT, Washington Post respond they are following the editorial line taken that opposes the DJT administration on all issues, when WSJ respond it takes the textbook approach of economists and finance people that free markets are best without considering the real life issues. This is why the president said at his press conference after the Supreme Court decision that 22 Nobel Prize economists had said the economy could not be turned around for growth and low inflation in 1 year, and were proved wrong after the experience of 2025 with low inflation at 2.8%, low unemployment 4.3%, and growth of 2.2% in real GDP (with strong growth in quarters 2&3 of 3.8% and 4.4%). Expect all tariffs to be in place under other legislation to be in place in coming months. ...

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Nepal is a remote mountainous country with some of the highest Himalayan mountain ranges and Mt. Everest. For decades it has stagnated economically with Chinese help making little difference, Indian help more recent, and the country with per capita income of about $1500 for a population of  29 million. Neighboring India with 1.4 billion people is seeing huge increase in young people's aspirations in neighboring Indian states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh under the Modi government. Average age in Nepal is 25 years, in Bihar a neighboring state in India it is 22 years. This is affecting Nepal with the similar lack of tolerance for corrupt governments that cannot deliver on infrastructure and health/education. Urbanization is only 17% in Bihar state in India that is neighbor of Nepal and most people live in rural areas, the same is true for Nepal with 20% urbanization. Per capita income in Bihar state is $900 one third of India's $2700 per capita income, in Nepal it is $1500. Who is Balen Shah- a 35 year old structural engineer into hiphop music who is Mayor of Kathmandu, the capital. He supported the student protests against the corruption of government led by PM Oli which had to resign. His party RSD leads in two thirds of 275 parliamentary seats. Each voter gets 2 votes, one is for 165 seats on first past the post basis, and the other vote is to allocate 110 seats based on the party vote. Average age in Nepal is 25 years with 800,000 first time voters in voting population of 19 million.  ...

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The WSJ editorial board opinion is offered in the spirit of free markets and free people from Jefferson's Declaration and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Yet it is a complete misreading of Adam Smith as Smith had a social side which called for corporate interests of that time such as the East India Company of Britain to behave in a responsible manner with public interests and social sentiment in mind. Smith also sought to preserve the national interest of Britain and its role as dominant power. Whereas for for three decades WSJ is taking enormous risks with the national interest of the US in remaining a dominant industrial power. No one at the WSJ can explain how this can be done by shipping out the manufacturing industrial capacity and technological knowhow of any Nation, especially the United States over 3 decades. Worse it risks the entire period and the ideas of the awakening in Europe in ideas and science that powered the Industrial Revolution, that did not happen in Asia,  and led to so many of the advances in science and industry that we enjoy today, and share with large Asian nations China and India. That amazing period of awakening and the Industrial Revolution and its achievements is not part of the collective memory of the nations of Asia, of China India and Japan, and this kind of attitude of neglect of this essential part of our mindset and makeup in the US and Europe, acts to our detriment, and to the detriment of China, India and Japan. ...

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Peter Navarro who has advised the DJT administration on world trade says even when there is no war the perceived risk from the narrow straits at Hormuz and the threats posed by militant groups financed by Iran had led to a premium being baked into oil prices. Navarro says on the Iran Premium (perceived threat risk premium) thatis is about $15 in oil prices. That it reduces growth in global output by 0.4% or $10 trillion over 25 years or $4 trillion over 10 years. As this perceived risk comes down oil prices will come down even further - even into the $50-$60 per barrel range, says Navarro. He cites different economic studies that show even in normal times the ballistic missiles and militant threats posed add up to $15 premium in oil prices to reflect this risk. What this means is higher oil prices and lower growth across the world- in poorer countries and in the US and Europe as a result of this. The current war he says gives the opportunity to reduce or remove this premium paid for perceived risk. The loss in global output he cites is about $450 billion a year adding upto $4 trillion in a decade and over 25 years about $10 trillion. Confronting the threat is not just a matter of national security, it also means this drag on growth on poor and better off countries from Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan to UK, Spain, Germany, and Italy, countries that can be so much better off with much of that $10 trillion tax or burden on world economies removed. ...

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Peru is one more example of how the corruption scandals surrounding Brazil's construction firm Odebrecht is affecting other countries in Latin America. A former president Alan Garcia was found dead having shot himself to prevent arrest by police in Lima, Peru. Alan Garcia was one of 4 Peruvian presidents involved in a vast Odebrecht scandal involving construction contracts, alongside Pablo Kuczynski, Ollanta Humala, Alejandro Toledo.

A judge in Lima ordered Kuczynski be on preventive custody in a money laundering investigation. PPK or Kuczynski led Peru until 2016 until resigning in March 2018 after moves to impeach him over links to Oderecht. Garcia served as president for 2 terms 1985-1990, and 2006- 2011. In Brazil the Odebrecht scandal and the scandal in oil company Petrobras led to a change in government after elections that led to a win by Mr Bolsonaro over the ruling Workers party that governed Brazil for over a decade.

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Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party wins election for president in South Korea 2025- 49% to 41% for Kim Moon-soo for the conservative candidate. South Korea's election was the result of the ouster of conservative president Yoon, who was a former prosecutor who split South Korean politics with a hardline stance and was ousted recently. Lee is a factory woker who seeks to keep South Korea firmly with the US in Asia, yet also seeks to balance this with good realtions with key trading partner China.

Biden invited Yoon to the White House as he sought to bring South Korea and Japan as firm partners in the Asia Pacific only to see Yoon ousted over losing support within his own conservative party for conspiracy theories and declaring martial law, lack of flexibility. The election of Lee offers an opportunity to bring South Korea back to moderation and unity in its internal affairs.

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A Druze community on the Golan Heights split over the conflict with Lebanon and Hezbollah. Elders identify with Syria, young people identify with Israel after studying at Israeli universities. Attacks on a soccer field here led to retaliation by Israel.

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US president Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan is being compared to the New Deal infrastructure plans of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930's. FDR was preceded by Republican administrations under Hoover and other presidents who followed policies that can be compared to the Reagan administration policies when public sector spending was not seen to be as efficient as private sector spending. By the time of the economic collapse in the 1930's it had become clear that only the federal government could save the country in the depression. During the pandemic and collapse of the health systems it was clear that only the federal government could save the country. It is now also evident that infrastructure building led by the government can rebuild America. In the 1930's and during other periods in American history such as the building of the Erie Canal and other public sector infrastructure projects in the 19th century it was the federal government that led the way to building America. ...

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TSMC will build a third plant in Arizona with the $6.6 billion in grants it gets from Biden's CHIPS Act. It will increase its investment in the US from $40 billion to $65 billion, essential to make the US a manufacturing hub for semiconductors. Intel, Samsung and other companies are making similar investments in the US in semiconductor plants. After years of post Reagan/Friedman period orthodox economics that led to the US chip industry and other advanced manufacturing following textiles to Asia, the US is making its policies follow actual practice and experience. This experience shows that in semiconductors with long lead times of a decade to build plants the country which supports its semiconductor industry gets ahead while others following orthodox Reagan/Friedman period economics fall behind. This has revealed the danger of a theoretical economic textbook approach that doesn't work and endangers American manufacturing and technological leadership. A culture wrapped around the textbook approach has led to the US and the EU, India, losing their competitive advantages and losing manufacturing in industry after industry, with loss of millions of jobs and deindustrializing. It has also led to decline and increasing lack of economic opportunity in towns and communities dependent on this manufacturing across the US and the European Union. ...

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After premium increases in 2023-2024 auto insurance premiums have more than caught up with cost increases during covid years. This WSJ report shows auto insurance companies now have premiums that more than offset what they are paying out for repairs and other expenses. In Florida excess premiums led to $950 million being returned to customers, other states have similar laws. Competition between insurers should lead to lower rates says the WSJ.

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Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and Arvind Panagriya of Columbia University, offer contrasting views on the performance of the Modi administration. There is a significant difference in the point of view. Dhume expresses the view of small business and some of the middle class hurt by demonetisation and the government move to check the growth in black money resulting in cooling off real estate prices. Panagriya cites the initiatives helping the poor and rural classes in an unprecedented way across the entire country.  Memories are short about the last 2 years of the Congress led government says Panagriya, when inflation was twice as high as it is now. Inflation then was 9.3% compared to 4.3% average for 4 years of the Modi government. GDP growth averaged 5.9% in the last 2 years of the Congress led government. The average GDP growth for the 4 years of the Modi government was 7.3%. Foreign investment dropped during the last 2 years of the Congress led government, and allegations of corruption in issuance of telecom licenses dominated the news. Indecision of the Congress led Manmohan Singh government led to a serious lack of sense of direction in government in 2013-2014. ...

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The lockdowns and remote work have led to men spending more time taking care of children at home. The stereotype of the hapless dad as a second grade caregiver is now out of date. Dads have learned a lot during the pandemic.

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China's manufacturing sector contracts in June with the PMI index dropping below 50 - to 49.0.  Exports were also coming in lower. Experts say the increase in interest rates by the US is reducing imports of Chinese goods into the US. This comes as local governments are strained in their finances by $900 billion, and a budding revolt is taking place from property buyers with developers in financial trouble, as reported in the WSJ. Psychological hurdles now loom in the loss of confidence in the public in the property sector, loss of confidence of foreign investors with many constraints in operating, mental health issues for the population in many cities with the covid lockdowns.   The growth has slowed to 0.4% and there is now a realization dawning that there was overdependence both on property sector and foreign investment that set up new factories offshored from the US and Europe that alienated the public in these countries. Unlike wih the situation of Japan in the sixties and seventies for modernizing its economy growth of the scale China was pushed into by misguided and self interested  business interests in the US including its investment banks and local government officials in China without restraint by the central government in Beijing, ultimately led to trade friction and permanent damage to US China friendly relations. Communities in the US and the EU simply could not cope with the hyper growth from hyper shift of factories from the home countries to China that pushed this hyper growth. The property sector played the same role in the domestic front with too big a burden carried by it resulting in hyper growth. This did not have to happen. It happened because of a lack of understanding that this would have consequences in the longer run which is now showing up. ...

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China's total public debt was 95% of GDP in 2022, Japan's was 62% in 1991. It's population aging faster than Japan's with population declining in 2022, Japan's declining in 2008 twenty years after its bubble burst. China's per capita income at $12,850 in 2022, compared to Japan's at $29,000 in 1991. China is facing more difficult headwinds than Japan in many ways. There is also higher tension in trade relations with US and EU limiting export growth. There is also the policy stance of the Communist Party that sees rural areas left behind with about 35% people in rural areas and Xi is slowing growth to reduce disparities and housing construction led speculative growth. In Japan urbanization was 77% in 1991, compared to 65% in China today. 

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The 8 hour Beatles documentary "Get Back" by director Peter Jackson is described as "mesmerizing" by Jason Gay in the WSJ. It shows the making of the "Let it Be" Album, ending in a rooftop London concert, the band's final creative period. It featured on Disney+ on November 25. It is a performance but an exhilarating one, with none of the documentary devices, no rambling talk heads, just the camera taking you there, says Jason Gay, to let you see the band's talents and shortcomings.

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Geopolitical problems and installation of US air defense systems in South Korea led to Chinese restrictions on South Korea. This led Samsung to reduce its labor force in China from 60,000 to 18,000 in 2023. It shifted operations to India and Vietnam. It is Vietnam's largest exporter and makes 20-30% of its global smartphones in India. Apple is only now beginning to shift to India. This is called decoupling or de-risking after an excessive concentration of manufacturing by companies like Apple in China.

Xiaomi took a large share of the local market in China from Samsung, another reason Samsung reduced presence in China. It still gets advanced components from China. In India Samsung has a dominant market presence. Because India is a price conscious market Apple has only a small market share in India.

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The email server controversy has had the effect of obscuring Hillary Clinton's message about her policies. Hillary Clinton's instincts in a lifetime in politics made it harder for her to apologize and let the matter fade away. Because the 2016 campaign is run by committee, has some members of Obama's campaign team, and led by Mr. Podesta who is close to Mr. Clinton, with senior advisors offering advice, it is not as coherent as the 2014 campaign team in offering advice to the candidate. As a result it took a while before advisors could relay the message that the email controversy was not just about Mrs. Clinton's and Bill Clinton's conviction that she had done nothing wrong, but about the larger message to voters on her campaign platform. By early September it was being obscured by the enthusiasm in the Sanders campaign, and non stop coverage of the email controversy in the media. Her falling popularity in the polls was the signal that led Hillary Clinton finally to say "sorry, I shouldn't have done this."...

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Sony plans to commercialize its new LED television display technology to return its television business to profitability.

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The U.S. Congress is now taking a more active position particularly in the Senate which has a Republican majority. Republicans led by Lamar Alexander,  a senior senator since 2003, voted against Mr. Trump's emergency declaration to obtain funding for a border wall.

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This report in the NYT contrasts the 2009 protests in Iran that centred on the capital Tehran and the university with the protests in 2017. The protests in 2009 known as the Green Movement were a political protest against what was seen as the fradulent election of Mr. Ahmadinejad. The protests were from the opposition candidates who thought they had won. This led to the suppression of the movement with harsh action by the government. In 2017 Tehran is quiet. The election of Rouhani as president in 2013 led to a gradual improvement and meeting some of the aspirations of the protesters in Tehran in 2009. This has led to indifference in Tehran to the protests across smaller provincial cities in the rest of the country.  People in Tehran are still concerned about corruption and political conditions. Yet they see the protests from economic conditions in the rest of the country as lacking a clear goal and there is a sense that this could lead to chaos in the country.  ...

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Roger McNamee, an early investor in Google and Facebook, writes this opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper saying that there are very serious problems in the way the "addiction" created by Facebook and Google products is affecting children. Lyrarc.com also points out that the reading and literacy scores in the U.S. and other countries are affected by how the new technology is used by digital gatekeepers. See our FAQ. Tim Berners Lee calls this a massive distraction for learning and youngsters. Melinda Gates has cited this as a problem she has faced in her own effort to raise her children.  Here is the main problem as stated by McNamee- of the millions of content pieces that can be shown the digital gatekeepers show only the content that is fit for their business model, and the best content from an educational point of view whether literacy, reading skills, civic literacy, all types of literacy and knowledge, is not only not the priority but is for the most part absent. He points out that that if not for the advertising business model this would be different- the focus could shift to experiences that educate, enrich and inspire users to better lives and better lifestyles. The smartphone has become pervasive in everyday lives to an astonishing degree- about 150 times a day with 2000 swipes and touches- to the point that it is changing the way people live and think without their realizing it. With it come new risks to the way we live and what we believe, like never before in history. ...

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U.S. president Obama says at a rally in Philadelphia that Donald Trump is a fradulent champion of the working class, saying that Trump is simply exploiting the populist mood, that for 70 years he has shown no concern for working class people. Obama told the crowd he understood the public's mood for change and that he himself had benefitted from it. Yet he said that it did not add up. Obama said: "This guy is suddenly going to be your champion? I mean, he spent most of his life trying to stay as far away from working people as he could, and now this guy is going to be the champion of the working people. Huh." "I mean he wasn't going to let you in his golf course. He wasn't going to let you buy in his condo. And now suddenly this guy is going to be your champion." 

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A BP led consortium won the right to develop the giant Rumaila oil field. Efforts for seven other oil and gas fields did not result in striking deals with oil companies. The Iraqi government set aggressive pricing for 20 year technical service contracts in which companies were paid fees for boosting output, and set this at $2 abarrel. The sole award for the Rumaila field can boost Iraqi oil output from the current 2.4 million barrels a day to more than 4 million barrels aday which is the Iraqi oil ministry's goal. The BP led group includes the China Petroleum Company. It bid $3.99 but finally accepted the $2.00 a barrel payment.