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How the Philippines is tackling some of its problems especially the tax increases and sales taxes to increase the government',s tax collection rate which was a major problem there. 70% of the budget was going to pay interest in 2005, with little left to build roads, power supply and infrastructure. Endemic corruption among tax officials and loopholes in the tax code made things much worse in Philippines, than India and Indonesia. Ms Arroyo pushed through measures to increase taxes and to bring foreign investment into the country. Remittances of $14 billion a year from the 10 million Filipinos in the US, and Europe and the Middle East have also helped, and these remittances have increased with business confidence rising in the country's future.

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Wall Street Journal analysis shows top earners at 38 U.S. banks and securities firms will get $145 billion in 2009, an 18% increase over 2008. This even after increasing public anger about exceedingly high levels of executive compensation with no relation to performance, and at a time of high unemployment.

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Taiwan's plan to increase its defense capabilities with increased purchases from the U.S. $15.4 billion dollars in 2021. The U.S. recently sent a spy plane over PLA drills on the mainland which were meant to warn the U.S. and  Taiwan. After the situation in Hong Kong watched closely in Taiwan sentiment in Taiwan is shifting to where about three fourths of people in Taiwan in polls want to keep Taiwan as a free and separate country, and defend its independent status.

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The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Republican House health Care bill shows 24 million Americans would lose health insurance over 10 years. In terms of budget savings the bill saves $337 billion over 10 years. The increase in uninsured comes from the roll back of expansion of Medicaid under the House plan, the reduction of tax credits, plus the removing of income based credits replacing it with tax credits based on age. President Trump is promoting the bill saying it will reduce the premiums that have gone up since Affordable Care Act was passed and increase competition. House Speaker Ryan in promoting his plan says he is not in "some coverage beauty contest." The House Plan says Ryan, does not mandate that all be covered, but simply says coverage is in a free market giving people the option to buy insurance that they want, so that the numbers of insured would not be as many as under a mandate.

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A bipartisan proposal of Tim Johnson and Mike Crapo of the Senate Banking Committee to replace Fannie and Freddie with a new system that removes the implicit government guarantee, has the support of the Obama administration. A proposal by Republicans in the House removes the government backstop entirely. Fannie and Freddie stock lost about a third of their value in March 2014 falling to $4.03 and $4.04, erasing sharp gains made in 2013. Under the proposal supported by most members of the Banking Committee, including Bob Corker, it is likely that private shareholders will not be treated favorably.

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Nutrition plays a big part in sleep. More fruits and vegetables, legumes, grains, fish in the diet helps sleep by supplying melatonin. Increases supply of the essential amino acid tryptophan. This includes dairy foods. Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin which converts into melatonin. This needs to be eaten with high fibre diet as a legume or  grain so it is digested properly. Lower inflammation levels improve sleep quality and plant based foods lower inflammation. High fibre helps as a healthy gut is beneficial for sleep. 

Consistent eating times, separation between day and night so that the biggest calories are taken earlier in the day with a good breakfast in the bright daylight hours, and the night meal taken early a few hours before sleep. This sends signals that the body is winding down to sleep and get the body ready to sleep.

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Nokia's new hardware design strategy capitalizes on Nokia's strengths in design and manufacturing. Marko Ahtisarri, Nokia's head designer sees opportunity in coming up with phones that have more natural forms, and move away from the black, grey metallic rounded-corner rectangles. He wants to design a phone that would let users keep their heads up, so they can have contact with their environment even as they use their phones.

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Italy's prime minister Berlusconi is changing the terms of the 45.15 billion euro austerity package after political protests. He has to weigh what is doable in the political context with demands from the European Central Bank, which is buying Italian bonds to prevent a surge in borrowing rates for Italy. The new measures as the old package unraveled are: an increase in the value added tax to 21% from 20%, increasing the retirement age for women in the private sector to 65 from 60 in 2014, two years earlier than expected, and a 3% tax on Italians earning above 300,000 euros annually. The street protesters in Bolgna, Milan Rome and other cities, protested that the earlier package unfairly put the burden on the working class. The cuts in local government spending in the earlier package would have impacted spending on items such as nurseries for children, drawing protests from teachers. The debate on an equitable sharing of the burden of reducing deficits is ocurring both in the U.S. and Europe, especially with high unemployment and lack of economic growth....

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Samuel Palmisano on the internationalization of IBM getting into 50 developing economies in the world that have great potential in the years and decades ahead and positioning IBM early on to take advantage of the growth by helping build infrastructure, education, and becoming a real partner for these countries and building a talent pool in these countries and building human resources, r&d capabilities. Countries like Egypt where IBM is growing fast and which has significant potential in addition to India and China. And building local centres for Brazil, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Countries like Bulgaria and Vietnam.

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Congressional Budget Office analysis that shows 14 million more people uninsured in 2018 under the Republican House health care plan, this increases to 24 million by 2026.

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India's new vaccine policy and how it will vaccinate fully with 2 doses India's entire population by December 2021 is  outlined in the federal government's affidavit to the Supreme Court. The vaccine supplies of about 1880 million doses will be supplied by 5 Indian pharmaceutical vaccine manufacturers. 1350 million doses will be supplied by the manufacturers between August and December with 500 million doses made available by July 31 to the government. This is a monumental task for the vaccine manufacturers and the federal government which is being courageously tackled at every level. The new variants have shown how critical this task is and the challenge is being taken up vigorously.

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Liz Truss decides to appoint only loyalists to her cabinet after a leadership contest for the Tory party. Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, Susana Braverman as Home Secretary, and James Cleverly as Foreign Secretary. All conservatives lining up for positions in the new government were told in no uncertain terms not to criticize a plan first suggested by the Labour party to freeze energy bills at the current level. This could cost 100 billion pounds. Kwasi Kwarteng, Truss's nominee for finance minister says there will be need for some fiscal loosening. Under the 100 billion pound plan to help households with bills the energy bills would be frozen at current level of 1975 pounds per year. Under the plan, commercial banks would deposit money in a state backed fund, which suppliers could then draw on to freeze customer's bills. The government would pay this back over 10-15 years through taxation or a surcharge on bills. By making such quick moves to help households Truss would be putting Britons in a position similar to that in France where energy prices have been capped and Germany where cash payments help households cope with higher energy bills.  ...