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The view from Germany on Trump's economic plan and the need for changes by his advisors. DW.com's Wenkel says Trump needs to understand that 80% of job losses in recent years have come from not from globalization, but automation and higher productivity, rationalization. He says higher tariffs on Mexico could backfire.

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As the coronavirus pandemic reaches the 20 month mark in October 2021 and the government reaches a target of 1 billion vaccinations given in India, prime minister Modi talks about his experience handling the vaccination drive in this interview. It covers a wide range of topics from his initial experiences in development in Gujarat, translating this experience to the national setting, the multiple yojanas or projects from Swachh Bharat (Clean India), toilets for all, bank accounts for the whole population, cooking gas for women, decisions taken for Aadhar, digitization, GST. His 35 years spent in poverty as a social worker that gave him a clear idea of the aspirations of the working poor. On the achievement of one billion vaccinations- It was the careful preparation that happened as early as March 2020 that carefully anticipated all possible problems and tackled each one of them that made it possible. "Vaccinating such a large number of people comes with its own share of complexities. Ensuring proper temperature control of complexities, cold chain infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country, timely delivery from the manufacturing plant to the remotest vaccination delivery point, supply of needles and syringes, training of vaccinators and preparing for adverse reactions, from quick registration to certificate generation to reminder for next appointment. We needed to look at the entire logistics, planning, and progress of the vaccination drive." To understand the person completely one has to go back to the origins of his experience, skills learned, and his inspiration for the effort. Modi entered the chief minister's office in the western Indian state of Gujarat facing the Arabian sea in 2001. He entered office at the time of the Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat and describes his taking the chief minister's office as accidental as he had been a social worker for 30 years. "Let alone reluctance to join electoral politics, I had nothing to do with the political domain itself. My surroundings, my inner world, my philosophy- these were very different. Right from my younger days,my bent was spiritual. The philosophy of "Jan Seva Hi Prabhu Seva" Serving the people is akin to serving the Divine, which was propounded by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda inspired me. It became the driving force in whatever I did." In 2014 it was with the inspiration from Swami Vivekananda and taking up Vivekananda's vision for the Indian people that Modi began his campaign to lead the BJP party. It may be looking back that Vivekananda guided Modi in all his projects for a Clean India, Jal Jeevan, Indian infrastructure that benefits the last man in the queue in the country, commitment to hard work. "Global experience says government should be there for those whom nobody is there. Government's whole focus should be on helping them." To do this, to meet the needs of that last person left out in India, he could see that old notions of opposites had to be set aside. "Outdated theories such as the private sector vs the public sector, government vs. people, rich vs. poor, urban vs. rural, are still on people's minds and they try to fit everything into this." Governments since independence in 1947 followed the same political and economic thought. After Gandhi negotiated with the British government for self rule or Swaraj an experimental form was set up with provincial governments ministries with limited powers formed in the 1930's through elections. Many of these ministries had the same problems that were found after independence in 1947, as one sees in the writings in the Gandhi library. They lasted for a few years before they were dissolved by the British government. These problems were more evident under Nehru and Indira Gandhi right into the 1970's and beyond. This was followed by a period of relative stagnation. Most ministries failed to seriously address India's economic problems, urbanization issues and agricultural issues remained unaddressed, and industry building was done with a limited vision and scaled down goals. In some ways the elections created a political class interested in perpetuating itself and did not build administrations based on learning, hard work and delivering on projects with scaled up targets to match the dire needs of the country. One sees similarities with France before 1960, before De Gaulle. A mosaic of peoples all separate from each other, with agriculture the main occupation, and most agriculture done the way it was in the nineteenth century by hand and using horses and cattle- this is the picture of France shown in Nous Paysouns, We Farmers, a documentary on Le Monde French television in October 2021. It was De Gaulle who supported a shift to presidential form of government for France that helped with the transformation through modernization and infrastructure development. Tractors were introduced in 1960 to mechanize agriculture. Road, bridges, rail transport, logistics were planned in the way Gati Shakti master plan for India is now being executed. There can be no transformation without this. Unstable coalition governments in France and lack of clarity and decision making before 1960 made such development impossible. India entered such a period in the 1970's. "The politics of our country is such that till now, we have seen only one model in which governments are run to build the next government (sarkar banane ke liye chalayi jaati haye). My fundamental thinking is different. I believe we have to run the government to build the nation (desh banane ke liye sarkar chalani haye)."  Chalta haye, Chalne do. What is will not change. Families, farmers and workers in India, for a long time accepted this without questioning.  "I take decisions based on Gandhiji's talisman that sees how my decisions will benefit or harm the poorest or weakest person." "While taking decisions, I stop even if the slightest of vested interests is visible to me. The decision should be pure and authentic, and if the decision passes through all these tests, then I firmly move forward to implement such a decision."           ...

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The first signs of a change in Germany's position to promoting growth in Greece came when German chancellor Angela Merkel told CNBC on May 15, 2012: "I have the will, the determination to keep Greece in the euro zone." She added that if Greece's leaders are looking for "stimulus to be pursued for growth in the euro zone, which we could pursue in the interest of Greece, we're open for this. Germany is open for this." The Social Democrats, SPD opposition leaders have long said that Merkel is able to change positions as the situation changes. Looking back she even disassociated herself from her mentor German chancellor Kohl when he was not willing to disclose the names of donors for illegal donations. This has given her the flexibility that another Christian Democratic party leader Schauble lacked in leading Germany. She has also seen poll numbers favoring the CDU dissipate quickly before the 2005 elections and is aware how quickly situations can change, as is happening now with the public in France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and eastern european EU countries growing weary of strict austerity policies pushed by the CDU. A faction of the CDU pushed for strict austerity policies at the recent CDU convention in Leipzig, Germany. Merkel told the CDU about charges that she had shifted on a number of core issues such as nuclear energy, social issues, minimum wage, and euro zone bailouts- "Our political compass has not changed. The context is changing. This is a time of epic change."...

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During a public dialogue during the federal government's open day German Chancellor Scholz takes time to go over the origins of the war in Europe as he understands it. Of Russia acting "clearly with the intention of conquering its neighboring country," in an imperialist manner. Here is what he said- On Nato During talks before the war started in February when he met Putin in Moscow Scholz assured Putin that Ukraine would not join NATO "in the next 30 years." NATO was never a threat to Russia even though Putin says NATO's increasing eastward expansion was to the detriment of Russia's interests. On the origins of the war in Europe- Scholz says Putin launched the war for "completely absurd reasons." During his talks with Putin for example he says Putin told him that Belarus and Ukraine should not be independent states. "This is a war that Putin, Russia, started, clearly with the intention of conquering its neighboring country. I think that was the original goal." "Putin actually had the idea of swiping a felt-tip pen across the European landscape and then saying, 'This is mine and this is yours.' " Something Germany could not accept. Scholz condemns Putin's imperialism. He compares Russia's actions to the early days of imperialism. Scholz was reported to be reading Cambridge historian Brendan Simms book Europe- The Struggle for Supremacy in Europe from 1453 to the Present, before the war started. Simms shows a Europe that fought intermittent wars for supremacy between European powers Spain, Britain, Dutch, French, Germany, Austria- Hungary, Russia, Sweden over most of the period 1450 to 1950. The last part of the period was marked from 1850 to 1900 by an openly imperialist land grab for territory in Africa and Asia between Britain, France, Japan and Germany.  The period 1950 to 2000 marked by the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union and China.    On planning for the war in advance- DW.com reports that Olaf Scholz is convinced that Putin planned this war long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. On the future of the war- Scholz says he will not end the dialogue with Putin. Scholz and Germany, Biden and the US want to show that the imperialist type of expansion into neighboring states is no longer accepted, not for Russia or China. Scholz says Russia is currently engaged in gaining territory in eastern Ukraine, but it is not certain that it will stay that way, so giving in is not a sensible strategy.  Ukraine needs the Black Sea ports and the area around Kherson on the Dnieper river to maintain its economy through exports of foodgrains. There is international consensus that these exports are essential to most of Africa and other parts of the world. The war in the remaining part of 2022 into the winter is being fought in this area. Another area of international consensus is that of the refugees mostly women and children in other parts of eastern Europe, and the displaced people within Ukraine moving from the east and south to the west. For the first time the US and Germany are providing Ukraine with the air defense systems that it needs to protect refugees, something that was missing for the many early months of the war leading to millions of refugees inside and outside Ukraine.       ...

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Tom Wright shows the results of an examination by the WSJ of the operations of 1Malaysia Development Fund BhD, setup in 2009 for economic development. This report shows lack of transparency and use of the state owned and operated fund to indirectly help the ruling UMNO party and prime minister Najib Razak in the tight 2013 Malaysian general elections. The 1MDB fund is becoming a huge controversy in Malaysia as the former head of the UNMO party and prime minister for 22 years Mr. Mahathir Mohammed, and the opposition parties in Malaysia, are questioning the lack of transparency at 1MDB fund and misuse of funds. Prime minister Najib Razak is chairman of the board of advisors of the fund. The problem is serious because of the $11 billion in debt of the fund- and the need to reschedule debt repayments. The financial report of the fund of March 31, 2014 shows interest costs taking up half of revenues. A $260 million emergency credit was provided by the government in 2015, and a Abu Dhabi state fund provided $1 billion, in an effort to meet loan repayments. Moody's Investors Service and private investment funds see the government eventually coming up with a bailout of 1MDB. Malaysia's currency the ringgit has lost 6% of its value in the first 6 months of 2015, and foreign investors are taking funds out of the country. On the questions of transparency the WSJ examination shows a questionable deal with the Genting Group which owns a casino in New York, and $ 4 billion casino in Las Vegas, plantations, real estate, and power plants in Malaysia. In one deal between Genting and 1MDB, a 75% interest in a power plant near Kuala Lumpur was bought at highly inflated prices, according to the WSJ examination. Genting is shown to have helped the UMNO in the Najib 2013 election campaign. 1MDB has also raised money just before the 2013 election with a $3 billion bond offering arranged by Goldman Sachs in March 2013. The United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party which openly favors Malays has ruled Malaysia for all the years since independence from Britain in 1957. In the 2013 election a key battleground was in Penang state which went to the opposition Democratic Action Party, and the UMNO failed to get a majority of the vote. It held onto government through electoral rules that gave a higher number of parliamentary seats for the rural areas where UMNO draws large support. The situation in Malaysia is unusual because power has shifted to opposition parties in most of the countries in the region- Indonesia, Philippines following dictatorships, Pakistan and Bangladesh following military rule, India and Japan following a long spell under the Congress party and the LDP. Only in Malaysia and Singapore have the UMNO and the PAP party of Lee Kuan Yew held on for almost 6 decades, by keeping opposition parties weak and not allowing a two party system to develop. Indonesia, another Muslim country, has moved ahead with free and fair elections with the recent election of Widodo as president, leading to significant efforts to improve infrastructure development and other parts of the economy. Experts say healthy two party systems and free elections provide economic benefits by giving voters a choice between competing economic plans for the future, as is seen in the higher future growth prospects under new leadership for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, and including Japan with the shift back to the LDP with Abe. Corruption, lack of transparency, and poor management of the economy, are major issues with entrenched parties. ...

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Upward mobility in China was weak and income growth for average workers sluggish during the years before the coronavirus outbreak. In this sense China is similar to the U.S. and Europe where upward mobility gains after the second world war were lost in the last 30 years partly from the loss of manufacturing to China. It is much worse now as the effects of the coronavirus lead to drops of as much as a third in income for ordinary workers. Lower income workers, the vast majority of Chinese numbering hundreds of millions now suffer from lost work or diminished wages. Small businesses cannot afford to pay the salaries paid before and as workers dip into savings or increase borrowing the retail spending is taking a hit. As a result economists see a vicious cycle of lower spending and lower incomes for the hundreds of millions of ordinary workers in construction and smaller businesses. Some small businesses could just close down because of weak demand affecting the economy over the long term. Before the coronavirus China went over three decades from being a Communist country with relatively equal distribution of wealth but lack of growth and technological development to a capitalist country with the structure of state control of the economy from the Communist period. The result is that 1% of the people control 33% of the wealth and the bottom 25% having 1% of the wealth, according to a 2015 Peking University study. China's president Xi Jinping, head of the Communist party, tried to reverse some of these trends by attacking corruption and making changes that began the task of reversing decades of unequal distribution of wealth under state sponsored capitalist growth. Investments were made in rural medical care, infrastructure and basic services. This did not have much impact because much of the pattern of growth over three decades continues including the housing bubble.  With coronavirus the trend is set for even more unequal distribution of wealth as many workers at the bottom half of the population in incomes either lose work, or see drop in incomes as businesses that hire them struggle from shoe factories to other retail business. Reports of informal economy and street markets in Chengdu in western China and bringing this part of the economy back by the state are effort to get people work in other ways. Researchers estimate that China's bottom 60% of household in incomes lost about $200 billion in income in the first half of 2020. In May premier Li Keqiang said 600 million people in China earn only about $140 a month. Many who lost income or jobs do not have support from the government as China lacks a program of comprehensive unemployment insurance as in Europe and the U.S. to help people get over bad times. 300 million migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to loss of income and dipping into savings.   ...

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Recognizing and being aware of the changes in our minds and thinking  with new waves of coronavirus actually helps us deal with it. This report says that fear or anxiety even if it is pushed to the periphery of consciousness produces a whole range of behavioural, emotional and physiological weirdness that most people have experienced themselves or noticed in others since March of 2020. Even if one gets used to the additional load one carries it still can weigh one down. We all have only this much mental energy, so that the effort required to ignore, repress, or shoulder this load of fear or anxiety reduces one's ability to be creative, connected or productive. By dealing with it constructively one can diminish the impact it has on us. This means being aware of it, acknowledging it and managing it in useful ways.  Experts cited here show that fear masquerades as other emotions including sadness, anger, irritation, or even excessive feel good behaviour. It can also be expressed in intolerant behaviours or hypersensitive. On the other side it could even be expressed in aloofness and being distant, or unfriendly. Fear can also show up in ways that reduce our ability to read social and emotional cues leading to improper or inept exchanges. Physiological changes can include muscle tension and fatigue, headaches, heart irregularities, dry mouth, hair loss, skin problems, and gastrointestinal symptoms. These symptoms are unrelated to pathology say health experts and are normal reactions to feeling threatened over a long period. Different people experience anxiety differently, and most people don't even know that this is what is making you feel this way. Instead of having unproductive exchanges with fear going back and forth one can have calmer, more useful exchanges. One should always ask say health experts- "So how are you and your family coping up in these weird times?" Mindfulness and spiritual ways of dealing with this are very useful. People slow down, calm their minds, and ask "what is going on in my head right now? Where in my body am I putting my tension?" Health experts say neurobiology supports this way of tackling it. Other useful ways are to set some predictable routine in your daily life- helps you think you are still in control of the parts of your life you can control. Thinking of others and helping others is a good way of keeping ourselves sane and healthy. Fear and anxiety may also serve some purpose- the negative emotion can be harnessed to do something positive and meaningful in our life, make changes in our lives for the better by helping others in society who are less fortunate or in difficulty. Just being larger than ourselves makes us feel a lot better day after day, till it becomes a part of us. ...

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Philip Alston, UN expert on extreme poverty and professor at New York University School of Law, says most of the progress on poverty that the UN agencies  and elites talk about is based on one country China. In the rest of the world, in Latin America, in Africa, and in other countries in Asia the situation is not any better than it was in 1990. About half of the world's population 3.4 billion people live on less than $5.50 a day, and this is not much changed since 1990. The improvements in China could also mean that the situation has worsened in other parts of the world. The pandemic has taken the lid off the situation in Latin America with Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and other places there showing extreme weakness.  Alston studied this as UN's representative for looking at extreme poverty 2014-2020. He is clear in describing what happened. The World Bank he says set $1.90 a day for poverty line, artificially low and what will not pay for housing or food even. He calls it "scandalously unambitious as a benchmark" what would pay for "a mere miserable subsistence." By using this he says a devastating effect is being allowed to happen as more of the investment is drawn into a pro-growth narrative which pushes allocation of capital in the direction where it profits short term speculative capital and profits rather than the long term investments in health, education and public services that are vital for any country. The improvements in China have also come at the expense of communities in Europe and the U.S. as industries were being shifted with their jobs overseas since 1990, first imperceptibly and then in waves after 2000, which leaves millions exposed to poverty and social decay for the first time in history in the advanced countries. It is an unhealthy and destabilizing situation. Alston's other points are that the so called progress narrative has been used to drown out the appalling effects of policies that misallocate capital away from the vast numbers of people. And in doing this he says it has entirely upended or turned upside down the social contract with the people. From Carl Sandburg's "The People Yes" in the 1950's after the tragedies of war we have come to "The People No." Nothing could be more reprehensible than capital being allocated for dog walking apps and other speculative investments by investment funds pooling hundreds of billions of dollars when basic sanitation services, health care investments are neglected in countries like Brazil, and smaller towns and communities are being systematically uprooted for jobs and social services over three decades in advanced countries in parts of Europe and the U.S.   ...

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Signs that the consumer credit boom in Turkey is reaching alarming proportions are evident from the surge in credit card use. Credit card debt has increased by 20% in 2011, after an increase of 23% in 2010. There are an estimated 3.7 million delinquent cardholders and 2.5 million cardholders who only make the monthly payments. The Turkish regulators are now requiring cardholders to payoff at least half of the balances before they can use ATM's for cash. Banks charge interest rates of about 29% and cardholders who are using credit cards for the first time -as more of the Turkish people are joining the middle class during the country's decade of high growth- do not understand the risks. Turkish banks, Garanti, Yapi Kredi, and Isbank, are in the list of top ten card issuers in Europe, according to Nilson Report. Card purchases average $3,500 per year, in a country with per capita income of $12,300. Turkish banks have pushed card use, with Garanti Bank's website giving users cash for frequent use of cards, and asking users to show the card even if they are buying an apple at the grocery store. The volume of personal consumer loans has doubled since 2009, because Turks use the consumer loans to pay off the high interest rate balances on credit card debt. Analysts at ING Group in London who follow Turkish banks say the delinquency rates will be above 9% in 2012. The IMF's Global Financial Stability Report of Sept. 2011 has identified the credit growth to GDP ratio as one of the key factors leading to an economic crisis. This was true for the U.S. before 2008, for Portugal and Ireland before the eurozone crisis. China's credit growth was up 29% in 2009 and Hong Kong's up 30% according to the IMF Report. Turkey and Vietnam also have high credit growth to GDP ratios according to the IMF. Turkey's high capital inflows can quickly reverse in a crisis increasing the risks facing the country....

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Bondholders and the Greek government are stalled in talks and waiting for Germany and the IMF to come up with the 14.5 billion euros that is due on March 20, 2012. It may suit the bondholders holding out for a higher interest rate in the 4-5% range for the new bonds to be issued at 50% of face value with long term maturities, but is bad for Europe. This Journal editorial points out that this is bad for European taxpayers and points to other steps that can be taken which are being discussed in European circles. One step is for acollective action clause to be inserted for the existing Greek bonds under which all bondholders have to accept losses if two thirds of the bondholders agree to accept losses. To ensure the safety of the Greek banking system Greece would restructure the bonds held by Greek banks so that they continue to be acceptable as collateral with the ECB, and issue new bonds to the ECB with face values, interest rates and maturities matching existing holdings. The idea is to make it possible for Greece to reduce its total debt and its debt servicing costs- which is really the only way out of the crisis. The ECB and Greece would use the collective action clause to restructure the Greek debt to reduce interest and debt servicing costs on new bonds to be issued. The Journal editorial says it should also mean Greece and the ECB are not required to put up the 30 billion euros in up-front cash that was agreed to in a poorly devised agreement in 2011....

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Are there costs or are there savings from the Obama health care bill? Does it affect jobs and how? The Congressional Budget Office says the health care law will save $230 billion in ten years based on a whole set of calculations and assumptions. Commonsense and basic math leads others to question how spending $930 billion on insuring 32 million Americans could end up with significant savings. The different view argues that the Budget Office erred in making some calculations, by counting $70 billion in premiums from long term care because they would be used to pay benefits later, omitted $115 billion in spending to adminster the law, and omitted $208 billion needed to prevent scheduled reductions in Medicare payments to doctors. The money needed on the Stimulus, on two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the uncertain prospects of the US economy in the longer term till debt and other issues are resolved, injects the critical element of difficult choices and priorities. If state and local budgets are severely strained in 2011-2012 would that require federal help and will there be other needs that will have to be met by the federal government that are critical such as another unexpected downturn, or a resolution of unresolved bad debt at the large US banks There is also a sense that the health care law does not do enough to reduce the cost of health care that will be needed over the next decade so that other priorities are not neglected. Both parties are not up to the task in this respect for running the country's finances withot using the numbers to tell different stories....

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Wildfires burn on 1.4 million acres in California as it seeks help from Australia and other places. These fires are the second largest in its history.

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The $369 billion climate and tax package that is coming out of a deal arranged by Schumer in the US Senate could be a path breaking action. It would enable president Biden to get close to the climate goals he promised last year of cutting US carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 over 2005 levels to combat effects of climate change. The $369 billion package would get the US to reduce carbon emissions by 40% in 2030 over 2005 levels.  Severe effects of climate change with fires and floods in the US, Europe, and Asia have brought a new spotlight to the issues facing the world and the fact that something needs to be done quickly with the US leading the way. Senator Manchin a holdout because he comes from a coal mining state was a holdout. He was persuaded to join as the new legislation provides for support for transmission lines and other investment during a transition period so that it does not affect the economy in his state. The transition period is now accepted as Europe now looks at gas and coal as a temporary resource following the cutoff of Russian supplies and the US will be shipping more LNG to Europe during this period. The vote for this legislation is planned under reconciliation so that the vice president MS. Harris can cast the deciding vote for Democrats in a 50-50 split Senate. Republicans oppose the legislation. Manchin now says it will reduce inflation. Briefly it will give $7500 to every buyer of an electric vehicle EV, and $4000 for a used EV. It would give rebates for heat pumps that increase home energy efficiency. Billions of dollars would be spent for clean energy industries, and for solar, wind, geothermal, other renewable energy projects. Democrats want to get the legislation through the Senate quickly by next week, and so secret were Schumer's negotiations that most Democrats did not know about it. Coming on the heels of the $280 billion CHIPS and Science bill for $280 billion investment in US semiconductor industry, this will be a big win for president Biden and shows the persistence and patience of Mr. Biden is paying off.   ...

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Pharmaceutical companies in the US will be required to provide rebates to buyers if they increase prices above the inflation rate. This is one of the provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 also called the Climate and Tax bill. Medicare recipients total out of pocket costs for drugs will be capped at $2000 under the Biden bill.

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"This is a very, very, very, big deal," says Chuck Schumer about the Climate Change bill that is expected to pass in the Senate of the US this weekend August 6-7, 2022. This is the biggest climate bill in history, and may also be called the Schumer-Manchin bill after the compromise reached to give oil and gas some support with big moves for climate change action between now and 2030. It gets Biden and the US to within 40% reduction of carbon emissions over 2005 emissions by 2030, when the commitment by the US at COP26 Glasgow is for 50% reduction over 2005 emissions by 2030.

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Bill Gates of Microsoft calls the Biden climate change bill the single most important legislation in US history. He says only America can offer the vision for climate change action, and make it happen. Gates says he has talked to corporate leaders in America and most of them say they are ready to act once the climate change bill is passed. Many of the industries that need to be created are in the early stages and the climate change bill will create the right atmosphere for sustained innovation.

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The US has 124,000 charging stations for electric vehicles. The Biden administration wants to see that go up to 500,000 by 2030. For this to happen $7.5 billion is already going to states under the $1 trillion infrastructure bill of 2021. The Biden $369 Climate bill that passed the Senate last week will give companies that build each charging station 30% tax credit for maximum of $100,000, up from $30,000 earlier, to build one charging station. It costs about $100,000 to tear up pavement and build a conduit for a charging station.

Supply chain issues will linger for 2022 and 2023 with shortage of chips after which it will move much faster says this report in WSJ. For EV's to go mainstream charging stations are a priority.

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What is in the biggest climate bill in history, the Biden $369 billion Climate Bill, also called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022? The WSJ looks at the bill that passed the US Senate and now heads for passage in the House of Representatives this weekend. 

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President Biden signs the $379 billion Climate bill and tax legislation into law. Mr. Biden told a White House crowd to standing ovation "This is the biggest Climate Bill ever." At the signing event Mr. Biden tells Senator Manchin  "Joe, I never had a doubt." Senator Schumer quietly negotiated the final bill with Senator Manchin in one crucial week just recently to get it through a 50-50 split US Senate.

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As president Biden signs the biggest Climate Bill in history Jim Tankersley says there is still more to be done. In addition to the work remaining for children, women and families, he mentions the Civilian Climate Corps with financing for $10 billion that is patterned on the Civilian Conservation Corps set up during the Depression by FDR, which is still to be passed. This would form "the next generation of conservation and resilience workers," says Biden. Much like the 3 million people who helped build parks, cut trails and planted trees around the US in the 1930's and 1940's under FDR.