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The U.S. Labor Department reports employers added seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs in January 2014. Figures for November and December are adusted upwards by 147,000. About 1 million new jobs were created since November 1, 2014.

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78% of people in France and 60% in Italy say they have No Trust in Politics. Germany and the UK are at the same level at 55% and 56% saying they have No Trust in Politics. This finding is from the annual barometer by Sciences Po, CEVIPOF and Opinion Way conducted in Jan 2026. 76% of people say democracy has not worked well in France. Only 23% saying democracy works well in France is compared to 54% in Germany and 52% in UK saying democracy works well a umber that is down from high sixties in 2020. In Italy 40% say democracy works well making France and its experiment with Macron particularly egregious as even in its best days Macron only had 40% saying democracy works well in France. Macron's personal popularity is at lows of 15-20% in 2026 and dropped early in 2018 to 30% and never recovered. It appears that the talent pool for France Germany, UK, and Italy, is poor to get such abysmal ratings in the governance of the country.

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Indian access to Canadian oil and gas uranium supplies in deals Feb 2026.  India Canada trade agreement negotiations planned. This happens as Canadian PM Mark Carney visits New Delhi, Feb 28, 2026. The problems created by Mark Trudeau's failure to work with the Indian government on trade and business relations, is now a thing of the past as both Canada and India look for new buyers and markets for trade following US tariffs.

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The Obama idea is to use the need for investment and the need to create jobs constructively by turning it into an opportunity. The opportunity arises from the need for several things that the government is also best equipped to provide or is uniquely equiped to provide. Such things as first rate broadband access across the country, putting in asmart electric grid, putting in the new energy infrastructure of windmills, solar panels, energy efficient appliances and energy efficient heating and cooling systems. Such things as mass transit, work on schools, sewer systems, dams and public utilities, roads and bridges, in the state of the art infrastructure building that is needed. All these things create jobs and create a sustainable advantage for a 21st century economy in which US companies will compete with companies from other countries. It includes such things as education and making it possible for kids to go to college and investing in education. Two concerns are present from conservative economists about this investment on a large scale from $500 billion upwards. One is the large deficit and public spending which crowds out investment by the private sector. In this case with the danger presented by an economic crisis arises a unique opportunity for government to do the right thing if it grasps it correctly and do as President Eisenhower did in building the interstate highway system at a cost of $128 billion according to governemnt estimates in 1991. Would the private sector be crowded out? In these circumtances faced today many companies including the largest ones are faced with great uncertainties and a precarious existence, and with a climate of fear and disappearing credit are not likely to come forward with these investments, so the danger is not in crowding out but in the risk that no such investments will be made at all. The second concern is that a lot of this money is either wasted or each dollar is not spent efficiently. Obama in response to this concern says he will have new spending rules, and measuring the progress for investments made by the number of jobs created, energy saved and American competitive position in the world. As an indication of the jobs created for each dollar spent the nation's governors have $136 billion in road bridge, water and other projects in which the money can be put to immediate use. Their estimate is that each 1 billion dollars spent would create 40,000 jobs. The estimate is from the nation's governors who met with Obama in the 1st week of December 2008. Local and regional transit systems have $8 billion in additional projects that can begin immediately like buying hybrid buses ans expanding light rail systems. ...

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This report in WSJ shows that remote work is a lasting trend because companies can now hire talented individuals from anywhere in the country or the world, and pay less for the same talent. In the past talented individuals were attracted with high pay packages to cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Companies can now choose to avoid paying these high pay packages and have a broader talent pool to choose from. This is because these cities became costlier and less attractive with cramped apartments relative to the choices for remote work. In the example cited here a machine learning expert shifted from a small cramped apartment in San Francisco to work for Twitter from a small town named Katy in Texas where she has a 5 bedroom large apartment and a nicer community of 20,000 people to live in west of Houston. One in 8 jobs posted on Linked In as of August 2021 are for remote work, many times the percentage of remote work job postings in 2020, showing this trend is here to stay. There is a large shift of millions of workers in tech related fields exiting the cities of San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Boston for smaller cities in other parts of the country such as Utah, Texas and other states in the US. A similar trend is observed in Europe. America's professional classes are moving to hybrid or remote work in large numbers says this report in WSJ. At one point in 2020 about 35% of workers in the US or 50 million workers were doing remote work during the lockdowns. In August 2021 this figure is closer to about half of these workers even as workers return to work offices. It is believed that the BLS statistics understate the number of remote workers at 20 million and 14% of workers in August 2021. Large crowded and hugely expensive cities are no longer attractive for employers or for tech employees or professional workers. ...

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Any idea that herd immunity is the way out is dispelled by a simple look at these pictures from the NYT showing what the level of infections are today and what they would have to be for "herd immunity." No Asian nation has even mentioned the word. Most Asian nations have the most experience with virus of all sorts. The only government that supported the idea without saying so openly is Sweden as indicated in a report in FR24 on the amplification of coronavirus in Sweden compared to neighboring Denmark, Norway, Finland. Imagine with a threshhold of 60% of people having antibodies provided by experts for herd immunity, the current New York level of about 20% would have to triple, and Sweden's 7% would have to grow seven fold. It is hard to imagine New York going through something of these proportions. Looking at what works now that other countries handling it have set examples of what works provides a better way- low tech contract tracing the German way, and one used in Asian countries, and the cluster isolation through testing and contact tracing adopted in many Asian countries as well as Germany. Strengthening public health systems, and working one's way out of the crisis where there are no easy answers offers real and realistic hope. ...

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Because the battery pack in an EV vehicle goes on the floor of the vehicle instead of the engine up front, it frees up space in the front for the trunk. The term for this trunk up front is "frunk" or e-trunk. No one really knows what to call it.

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French nuclear weapons numbers and new strategy integrated with Germany- Macron explains this from a Navy base in Crozon, France, March 2, 2026. With wars in Ukraine and in Iran Macron says he will expand the French nuclear weapons from 290 warheads, and starts a consultative strategy approach to work with Germany to extend France's nuclear weapons to cover other states like Germany and coordinate with Germany on military exercises for European defense. This also includes Britain.

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A Story of the American West in 2026- at the BLM Bureau of Public Lands Quartzsite site in Arizona offering camping for $160 for 7 winter months. A story that reflects on an alternative lifestyle for people who were laid off during the pandemic in the restaurant or other business, or people recovering from illness looking for less than fulltime work, as well as others with RV's on recreational trips. No economic exchange most of it on barter basis.

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The Washington Post cites researchers at the University of Chicago about the kind of economy Biden achieved by Jan 2025-

“Under the Biden administration, real GDP rose 12.6 percent, rightly cheered ... as ‘a historically robust expansion’ that repeatedly defied forecasts. Since the pandemic, economic growth in the US has far outpaced that of our peer nations. Business investment is up; unemployment is low.”

As a new DJT administration takes over in the US it has the potential of carrying on the task of rebuilding infrastructure, and strengthening the economy,  tackling cost of living, income indisparities, with greater involvement of the private sector, in the same way that some of the priorities of the first DJT administration such as infrastructure and bringing jobs home in manufacturing were taken up by the Biden administration with participation of the US government in rebuilding the economy.

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Netherlands is well ahead of other countries in remote working. The percentage of employed persons working from home is about three times that of the U.S. or Britain. It is about 15% in Netherlands compared to 4-5% in the U.S. or Britain. A culture of near universal fast internet connections, a culture of trust with companies knowing the work will get done, and companies providing employees with funds to set up a good working environment from home. In some Dutch companies employees can take vacation freely as long as the work gets done. The idea of a whole work day spent at a desk in the office in some office building is not entrenched in Dutch culture. A U.S. poll shows 59% of remote workers would like to continue working remotely after the pandemic. Companies are shifting to a new culture of work done away from the traditional business office as the economy reopens. In the Netherlands the pandemic is only giving more confidence in the idea of working away from a business office. This can now catch on in the U.S. and other countries. ...

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Panoramas of Lost London-Wealth, Work, Poverty and Change by Philip Davies, shows the London of the British Empire stretching from Canada, India to Australia, and its diverse buildings around 1905. It shows the world of Dickens in the poorer neighborhoods and the buildings of the upper classes. This is the world that gave birth to the Renaissance, Reformation, and the Industrial Revolution that changed first Europe and the World, with the advent of steam power, ships, science and electricity.