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In China since 1981 the poorest people making below $1.25 a day fell to 207 million in 2005 from 835 million in 1981. In India the number of people below $1.25 a day increased to 455 million in 2005 from 420 million people in 1981. The share of the people in poverty fell to 42 percent from 60 percent during the same period. Corresponding figures for East Asia including China show a drop from 80% of the people in poverty in 1981 dropping to 18% in 2005. The proportion of people living below the $1.25 a day poverty line worldwide fell over the nerarly 25 year period from 1981 to 2005 from 52% in 1981 to 26% in 2005. In subSaharan Africa, now the poorest region half or 50% of the people live under the poverty line of $1.25 a day in 2005 almost where it was in 1981. In absolute numbers the region had 380 million people living below the poverty line in 2005 compared to 200 million people in 1981. Note that the World Bank this year changed the poverty line from $1 to $1.25 a day, to make allowance for the inflation that is hitting the poorer countries. Is China a rich nation after the Olympics? Some parts of China, the coastal regions and the regions around big cities like Shanghai and Beijing are relatively affluent with pockets of poorer people but in the rest of the country there is poverty as defined perhaps in terms of deep poverty, poverty, poor middle class without health insurance or any kind of savings for emergencies. With 200 million people in 2005 below the poverty line a question could be asked how many people in China below say $2.00 a day which could be seen as being poor at a time when inflation in food and fuel costs has been significant in developing countries. If its somewhere in the range of 300 and 400 million people in China this explains why in relative terms China would identify with India and the rest of the developing countries and it also explains its stand in the WTO trade talks acting as a developing country protecting the rights of agriculture and farmers within China. And it also explains the reasons why China sees a long transition before it ceases to be a poor developing country and why there is real concern that these 300-400 million people as well as others adversely affected by the rapid industrialization and exercize of state authority, corruption and increasing gaps between rich and poor, adverse effects on environment, that these people adversely affected are listened to and accomodated in the interests of stable progress and fairness. Much of recent history has shown that countries open to foreign trade have done better given the right conditions and careful policy measures. China opened up around 1981, and India around 1991. Also progress and gains are more significant in infrastructure building and in poverty reduction in the latter phases of development as the synergies increase, capital pool increases, and the development accelerates, this shows why China's gains look significant compared to India's at this point in time. In ten years or fifteen years a better assessment could be made and then some points may favor China and some India, and the results will be a result of different history, experiences and problems faced and routes taken because of prior developments in each region and varying complexity. ...

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This WSJ article provides a detailed account of the positions of Clinton and Trump on Wall Street, the financial industry, banks, Dodd-Frank, regulatory reform, 6 weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

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George W. Bush, talks about his book on his father's presidency "41: A Portrait of My Father," at the Bush presidental library in College Station, Texas. This follows his book "Decision Points," on his own presidency. George W. says his father's accomplishments are overshadowed by the work of a transformative president (Reagan) who preceded him. The short period of four years in office also affects the assessment of the elder Bush. There is now greater appreciation of the work done in this period, especially the period when the Berlin Wall collapsed and the Soviet Union dissolved and the role played by the elder Bush in the transition. Bush describes the relationship with his father when he was president as one in which it was the comfort and help that counted for more than looking for any particular advice, especially as he admired his father. The elder Bush, 90, was in the audience. Remarkable for the longevity of the father-son pair compared to Adams and John Quincy, as Adams passed away 16 months after his son became U.S. president. And more so because his brother, Jeb Bush, is likely to run for president in 2016....

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Krugman points out that the federal tax rate for the top 1% is 34% in 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office, because president Obama let the high end Bush tax cuts to expire. It is the number to remember says Krugman- 34. In 2008 the figure was 28.2. Under Hillary Clinton the average tax rate for the top 1% would go up by 3.4 percentage points, according to the Tax Policy Center. Some of this would help pay for the tution plan to provide access to the middle class to public universities. Under populist Trump, Krugman points to the elimination of the inheritance tax and tax rates going down substantially, and no such programs to promote the upward mobility that everyone is talking about, and no way to pay for a big infrastructure building effort for growth and jobs- upward mobility that is the focus of every candidate's election campaign including Sanders, Trump in appealing to older white working class families, Clinton, Ryan, Bush, and others in both parties.   ...

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Russia experts Robert Nurick of the Atlantic Council, and Graham Allison of the Belfer Center of International Affairs at Harvard, see a sea change in attitudes to Russia following the interventionist policies of president Putin. The Obama administration will now focus on limiting Russian influence for the remaining two years of Obama's second term. There is a loss of faith in Putin on the part of Obama and close advisors. Russia is seen as a regional power, and the Ukraine crisis is seen as having a serious impact on the Russian economy through decline in trade, foreign investment and capital outflows. Russia is a regional power because it is not the same as the old Soviet Union, it is much smaller, with a declining population, and dependent on oil revenues, and in this sense not the Russia U,S, president Truman and Kennan faced during the Cold War. Obama advisors see Putin's actions as counterproductive for Russia, as the economy is now seen as contracting in 2014, making its actions in Syria, and in Ukraine, unwise foreign policy moves that hurts Russia's economy and future prosperity. Democratically elected leaders in Turkey and Russia with control over the media and shutting down the opposition using control of the judicial process, have shortchanged democratic ideals, and in the process concentrated powers in one leader. This creates risks of arbitrary exercize of power without the checks and balances that are built into a truly functioning democracy, with foreign policy errors eventually leading to a resolution of the conflicts created as these policies are increasingly called into question. Putin and Erdogan were reelected because of economic growth- a contractionary economy or steep declines in growth put everything at risk. A footnote on Kennan, American diplomat and linguist, is appropriate. A quick reading of Wikipedia's excellent account of Kennan will show that Kennan was in favor of a nuanced approach to Russia based on changing conditions. He observed that policies that were seen as anti-Russian actually helped Russian leaders throughout history solidify autocratic type rule, which actually hurts Russia's normal evolution and development. Normal development and evolution similiar to ways Germany and other nations left behind Prussian history and traditions for a open, free society, and in the ways even the U.S. left behind older practices such as slavery in the south and limited representation democracy. In fairness to Kennan it should be said that containment of the Cold War was more a Truman-Acheson doctrine- continued under Eisenhower by Dulles-Nitze, and under Kennedy by Rusk-McNamara- which has roots in Soviet intentions of destabilizing war ravaged western Europe starting with Greece, following similiar efforts in Eastern Europe. Truman was right in aiding Greece, but the U.S. needed to be aware of changing conditions and not take a rigid stance, and get locked into supporting client states just because they were "our guys," a lesson Kennan emphasized throughout his life. Putin and Erdogan use appeals to Russian and Turkish nationalism to improve electoral support and stifle free expression of ideas necessary for growth in any society. This also provides a way to have a discussion with our German friends on engagement and economic relationships, without the rigid outlook of a Wilsonian or Acheson-Dulles kind. ...

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Jeb Bush on the Republican party and lack of willingness to compromise to come up with viable solutions to economic problems facing the U.S.

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France's deficit is at 4.3% of GDP in 2014, exceeding the EU target of 3% and putting at risk France's committment to reach this by 2015. Unemployment is at 11% in early 2014. President Hollande appoints a new prime minister, Manuel Valls, to tackle the economy after losing local elections in France.

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The growing middle class in Brazil, new aspirations and the demand for better public services in transportation, education and healthcare. Alexandre Peppe, a 29 year old from the outlying parts of Sao Paulo, is a new member of the middle class, being the first to go to college in his family and finding a job in the state government. He was one of the protesters on the streets of Sao Paulo. The growing middle class has new hopes and aspirations that see serious shortcomings in the corruption of political leaders, neglect of public services such as transportation and overspending on the soccer stadiums for the FIFA and World Cup championships. Economic growth is slowing to about 1% in Brazil for 2013, creating new constraints for public spending just as demand for infrastructure and services is growing for the now large middle class.

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A good sign that the Obama adminstration sees the importance of cutting civilan deaths from American airpower, is the effort by the American Ambassador to personally meet with the civilans affected and their families to express his pain at the tragedy. Without civilan support the Afghan war against the Taliban may well be lost in the vast mountainous country, a country and a people, like most countries and people, with an aversion for foreign troops.

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Greg Mortenson runs 78 schools in remote poor areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan on a budget of $2.8 millioon he raises through small donations to his foundation, the Central Asia Institute. The Pentagon is listening to Mortenson and he has met privately with Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. THe military has specially sought him out. And General Petraeus has read his book Three Cups of Tea and passed it on to his staff for reading. He also has been asked to speak with senior officers of the Special Operations Command. Greg Mortenson believes getting amoderate education for these children is the best way to prevent the spread of Islamic extremism. In addition to the 78 schools he also runs 48 other schools in refugee camps in the region and 28,000 children in the 2 countries attend Mortenson's schools. In atalk to the Pentagon uniformed officers in 2002 he told them that the $840,000 spent on each of the Tomahawk cruise missiles fired into Afghanistan could have been used to build dozens of schools. He asked them which would you think will make us more secure? ...

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U.S. Senator Ben Sasse suggests an alternative approach of simply repealing the Affordable Care Act called Obamacare and replacing it at a later date. This is endorsed by president Trump. This is the new Republican strategy in July 2017. Forty nine senators voted in favor of this repeal in 2015, when president Obama vetoed this legislation. Two more senators are expected to support repeal according to Ben Sasse.

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The WSJ's Joyu Wang looks at the life and political career of Taiwan's new president Lai Ching-Te. Lai has a completely different background from his mentor Tsai the DDP leader who led Taiwan for two terms. In contrast to Tsai who was from an affluent family and worked in the ministries, Lai is from a family with 6 children in northern Taiwan. His father was a coal miner who died in a work accident when he was a few months old. He studied medicine at Cheng Kung University medical school, before leaving medicine for politics at the urging of his teachers. Taiwan was in the middle of a pro democracy movement as the Koumintang party lost its grip on government in the 1980's. The DPP was in its early days and Lai was elected to the National Assembly in 1994. In 2010 he was elected mayor of Tainan. In 2014 by 72% of the vote he is reelected and 2017 the DPP's Tsai serving a first term as president brings Lai in as premier. People who know him say he shows great empathy with working people yet can be slow to change once he has made up his mind. This WSJ report says compared to Tsai Lai is less predictable as he believes in Taiwanese independence and does not hesitate to say this. He once having said he would like to walk into the White House to talk with the US president. This means he is less predictable than Tsai for both China and the US who seek to keep the relationship with Taiwan stable so that US-China business and other relations can be stable -without the distraction of a Chinese response to every move by Taiwan towards independent policies. Lai built a new science park in the city of Tainan, a new art museum and a new flood management system. ...

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Japan's Foreign Minister tells Martin Fackler of the NYT in an interview that the Abe government will follow previous governments in the postwar period that apologized for colonial policies that caused suffering in other parts of Asia. He repeatedly calls for Japanese to be humble about the past. Previous statements by persons seen to be close to the government, including the head of NHK broadcaster, were interpreted negatively in S. Korea, China and the U.S. as needlessly escalating tensions in the region. China and S. Korea responded with a public relations campaign of their own to present what happened in the prewar period. S. Korean president Park refused to meet Japan's premier Abe. Kishida used NYT and Fackler to send a message to a global audience about Japan taking a path of peace since 1945.

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German politicians are critical of Finance minister Schauble's remarks comparing Putin's takeover of Crimea to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland. Merkel distances herself from the remarks considering that a singular event. Former chancellor Kohl tells the Bild newspaper, "there's been a lack of sensitivity in dealing with our Russian neighbor, especially President Putin." Decades of hard work in building relations with the Soviet Union since Willy Brandt initiated engagement, followed by Schmidt, Kohl and Schroeder, are seen as being put at risk by the German public and government. Business interests are also at stake. Polls show 60% of German's oppose sending the German air force to NATO's eastern borders, and German foreign minister Steinmeier said there was no way for Ukraine to join NATO. A former German ambassador to the U.S., head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, says Germany not the U.S. would suffer the most from a deterioration in relations. Companies like Siemens and Deutsche Bahn put a high priority on de-escalation of the crisis....

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Inflation in China and rising wages are pushing up costs for American manufacturers. The pressure on China, most recently in Congress, is helping to push up the value of the yuan. This combined trend is making it attractive for some manufacturers to bring factories home to the U.S. A trend in the U.S. towards non-unionized labor and the new trend to a two-tier wage level- with lower wages for entry level workers- and the shedding of legacy health care costs, is creating a more cost competitive labor force in the U.S. This extends from older industries such as furniture and auto components to newer industries and technology. The new factories setup in the U.S. use technologies that require a smaller number of workers, in most cases less than half the number of workers that were employed earlier. This adds another element in cost efficiency, though it means fewer jobs are created with new plants.

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Toutiao and the growing mobile segment for news aggregated from thousands of sources for tech, politics, and other local news. Toutiao and Tencent QQ are taking advantage of the growing need for news in China. Toutiao's algorithm targets new internet users in rural areas and small towns who are looking for news and do not need the use of global news sites as is done by Google and Apple. The deep learning of computers is used to study user habits such as learning about the main soccer teams, watching funny videos,as habits of users. Beijing Bytedance Technology has come up with the new site. The highest growth rate is now for news on mobile, growth is 73% year over year far surpassing travel and mobile video, according to QuestMobile.

China restricts use of Google and Facebook News and other sites and favors local content and news sites to give international news, and news about China.

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The U.S. jobs added for Dec. 2011, are 325,000, according to ADP figures, but the reliability of these figures has been questioned because of the different methods used in calculating the number. For Nov. 2011, the ADP number for private sector jobs added was 206,000. The same number from the Labor Department was 140,000. For June 2011 there was wide divergence- the ADP showed private sector jobs added as 157,000, the same number from the Labor Department was 57,000 jobs. For December 2010, ADP reported private sector jobs increased by 297,000, and official numbers showed 113,000. For December there are seasonal issues as well that affect the figures. Other factors affecting the jobs picture is the loss of jobs inthe government sector, and the gains in jobs predominantly coming from poorly paid retail and restaurant industries and fewer job gains in the better paid construction and manufacturing industries.

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The average of vehicles on the road reached a record of 11.1 years in 2011, according to R.L. Polk research company. Using the average of 15,000 miles driven a year used by the EPA for cost calculation on fuel economy labels, shows that car are being driven for much longer nowadays, over 150,000 miles. In the 1960's and 1970's the average was closer to 100,000 miles. Because of the EPA mandated fuel emissions standards and technological advances the newer cars in 2012 have better life than the older cars in the 1970's. Toyota's, Honda's and Volvo's frequently get 150,000 or 200,000 miles and still have some usage left for example. In addition the tighter fuel efficiency standards of the Obama administration and technological advances now underway are likely to bring a new generation of cars that provide another level of improved performance.