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House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp says the implicit subsidy on "too big to fail" financial firms needs to be addressed. His proposal is for a quarterly tax of 0.035% on assets over $500 billion. The tax would raise tax revenues of $86.4 billion over 10 years. The tax does not go into some bailout fund, which is one reason it does not address the problem adequately, says the WSJ.

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This Journal editorial does not shy away from the task of evaluating the Greece bailout in March 2012, for what it really means; its longer term consequences for the EU experiment, the consequences for Greece, and what it does for democracy in Athens. Its clear it points out the last 2 years were spent insulating the rest of the EU from the fallout of the debt crisis in Greece. Even though it would have been better to have acted at the outset two years ago- to let Greece go into a planned default, reduce debt to manageable levels, and to have acted on reforms earlier. This would have setup a better outcome than the one today. It would have meant a bigger haircut for the banks and greater debt reduction which would have hurt European banks. The current outcome is bad for Greece's economy which leaves it with debt at over 120% of GDP in 2020, and no hope to return to growth. And its bad for democracy as the two main political parties in Greece were required to pledge support to the austerity measures against overwhelming public opposition....

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Credit card balances of Brazilians increased by 29% in 2009, of Chinese by 17%, according to the Lafferty Group.

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US president DJT meets with Rutte of the Netherlands Jan 21, 2026. He says he has come up with a framework for US acquisition of Greenland, rights title, and ownership of the island for US security and world security. He called for immediate negotiations with the goal of US acquisition of the island of Greenland.  The political situation is evolving in this way. Germany is key in the developments for the US to acquire Greenland. Britain is standing it out with the Nordic countries as Starmer has shifted to the side of Sweden and Denmark with little to gain for the Labor government which is facing local elections and popularity of Reform UK Party. In this situation Italy and Germany have taken a posture of not making any statements. Germany facing Russian intervention in Ukrain on the east needs the US for joint security at a critical juncture when Russia and the US have agreed to respect each others area of influence. Italy is run by a northern Italy party leaning to the anti-immigration stance taken by DJT in the US. It makes little difference to Netherlands, Germany/Austria/Switzerland and Italy who controls Greenland and in the context of Russian advances and nuclear weapons technology would prefer US move to acquire Greenland and rapidly build up defenses in Greenland with large investments. To not disturb the alliance's northern countries (Britain and Nordics) Germany has taken a back seat to the rhetoric yet will be in the deciding role because of its stable government, support from all parts of the political spectrum for US control of Greenland except for the coalition junior partner the SPD. The SPD Defense Minister Pistorius may form parts of the SPD that see US owning the island as positive in the bolstering of its defense capabilities with th $1 trillion outlay in the budgeted investments. Starmer may have misread DJT and US support as the US president can make a very good case for US owning Greenland and getting Denmark to accept the offer of Harry Truman of $100 million made in 1947, updated for what that sum is today which is $1.5 billion. As DJT pointed out Macron has no longevity for his government in France, and cannot speak for that country. As Treasury Secretary Bessent who along with Rubio is part of the team that will work with the president says, Denmark is irrelevant to the issues US faces for US and world security. It is a small country, Denmark, with a population of 6 million most of it in the area near Copenhagen. Houston or Dallas has a much larger population. For Denmark to decide on momentous issues of US security for the entire eastern seaboard or world security, with ownership essential for the US,  when climate has made the Arctic important, is something the US does not accept.   ...

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Differences between the Christian Democrats and the CSU over immigration and Merkel's open door policy are only one of the issues for a new Merkel government. There are differences between the CDU and the Free Democrats. Add to this the difference between the Greens and the Free Democrats on environment and business policies.  As a result 2 months after the German election no clear agreement has been reached for a new government made up of the CDU, CSU, Free Democrats and the Greens.  It looks like a difficult coalition to form requiring all the skills of chancellor Merkel and her allies, and in uncharted territory. The FDP leader Lindner sees a 50-50 chance for the talks. The Greens do not want a new election. Merkel's CDU party won about 33% of the vote. To not form a minority government she needs the FDP and the Greens to get over 50% of voters represented in the new government.

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The increase in economic sanctions in response to missile testing is seen by North Korea as "a violent violation of our sovereignty." The sanctions would cut the export revenues of North Korea by one third, further damaging a fragile economy. The North Korean communist government sees a nuclear capability as the only way to maintain its survival. The rhetoric between the U.S. and South Korea with the North Korean government takes place during military exercizes by the U.S. and South Korea. The tweets by president Trump and the missile tests of the North Korean government have escalated the situation to where everything about this is in uncharted territory in 2017. China backs the sanctions as it has increasingly lost control of the North Korean government's actions, even though it sees the North as a buffer zone in relation to the U.S. alliance with South Korea. South Korea's major city Seoul is only 50 miles from the border, making South Koreans play down any confrontation with the North.  ...

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"Win with Flynn" shows JFK's The Soft American first published in 1962 in The Sports Illustrated magazine. It is about building a nation that takes pride in vigorous exercise that improves the quality of life in so many ways. It was a call to the Marines by Teddy Roosevelt in 1902, it was a call to the nation for the Presidential Fitness badge of JFK. Today the call is once again sounded by JFK Jr. His father Robert F. Kennedy made the 50 mile walk through snow and slush on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Trail on the way from Great Falls VA toward Camp David, Maryland. Knowing today's flabby generation and JFK not afraid of calling that out, it is once again time to revive this kind of challenge and the Presidential Fitness Badge for all Americans - the right way to Make America Great Again but more so to improve our overall health and wellbeing as Americans and as a Nation.

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The US Fed under Jerome Powell stress tests of 31 banks for 2024 shows the banks can withstand a rise in unemployment to 10% and 36% drop in house prices. This is relevant now that the new administration of DJT makes another effort to correct the huge trade imbalance with China, Mexico and Canada, which itself is destabilizing in the long run and needs to be addressed. The first term of DJT failed to correct the imbalance with new tariffs kept in place by the Biden administration. This is not just one's imagination, reports suggest China has poured $230 billion of subsidies into its EV industry since 2003 mandate given by premier Jen Biao to dominate that industry. And now has capacity of 20 million car production a year, twice the domestic demand in gasoline cars, wanting to send the surplus production to the US and Europe. This isn't the 1930's type of tariffs, it is simply to get a fair even playing field for trade, where no one side is massively subsidizing and dumping which is one of the principles of WTO free trade that is being broken by China and Mexico. Specifically the anti dumping clause in Article 6 of the 1994 GATT agreement on free world trading mechanism to ensure free and fair trade. ...

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A rapid increase in the number of Russians with favorable views of the US going up past 30% as one sign of the effort to improve US Russia relations by Trump and Putin is seen in March 2025. A call by Trump to Putin will take place March 18, 2025 to start discussions on how to settle the Ukraine conflict including land, power plants and exchanges and getting to the root cause of the war- NATO expansion. Some solutions include NATO being disbanded in its current form as archaic as there is no Soviet Union, its original goal being stopping Soviets from setting pro- Soviet governments, setup in Czechoslovakia and attempts to do this in Greece and Turkey. Truman formed NATO for this purpose in 1949 after the Berlin Blockade by Soviets. WIth nuclear arsenals being replenished in Russia and China, India, Japan, small nuclear states such as North Korea, Pakistan, the situation is different today with responsible policies needed today on this issue which are impeded by the idea of NATO on the borders of Russia and the Eastern European and British view of Russia as the pre-eminent threat not shared by India, Brazil, China and the new administration of DJT in the US. A long period of peaceful coexistence and arms control developed in the late 1960's, 1970's and 1980's between the US, German Federal Republic and Soviet Union/ GDR Germany. ...

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WSJ reports DJT action on tariffs and Fed's new forecast of slight uptick in 2025 inflation to 2.7% from 2.5%, on growth slowing to 1.7% in 2025. Fed's head Powell says- “That’s really due to the tariffs coming in,” Slowing inflation  “is probably delayed for the time being.” The tariff action is based on reciprocal tariffs, "we charge them what they charge us," and is based on the principle of fairness in world trade that was carelessly sacrificed by previous US administrations under Clinton, Bush and Obama. DJT and Trade Representative Lighthizer highlighted the issue of unfair trade and created a consensus around this issue for creating a level playing field with American action on tariffs that was accepted by the Biden led Democratic adminstration to rebuild American Manufacturing. What happened under previous presidents was ignominous for America and these administrations as they allowed the loss of whole industries first in lower technologies and then in advanced technologies as foreign countries used hidden subsidies. America's textbook economists at Ivy League universities and previous administrations used economic theory that had little connection with reality to allow shipping manufacturing overseas, destroying communities and towns with loss of jobs and public services across the US. ...

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Media accounts have given so much attention to the Nixon Feb. 1972 visit to China that most people may be unaware that this was just an important yet small beginning. The significance of what happened after 1972 is not fully understood. In 1973 the US liasion Office was setup in Beijing and China's liasion office in Washington DC.  Beyond this not much happened. Why? In 1972 election year the Watergate scandal started in June of that year only 4 months after the Nixon China visit. Nixon was too engaged with fighting impeachment that there was not much followup to the visit to China. In 1974 Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford became president. Till Carter became president in 1976 and in 1977 negotiations began to upgrade relations with premier Deng Xiaoping visiting the US in 1979. In China too a lot was happening. Mao was hospitalized in 1972 during Nixon's visit to China, the reason for the urgency on the Chinese side. In 1976 within a few months first premier Chou en lai and then chairman Mao passed away. A power struggle led to the head of the Military Commission Deng taking control. It was not till 1977 under Jimmy Carter 5 years after 1972 that China began full normalization, gained diplomatic recognition as the People's Republic of China and trade, cultural contacts were started.   ...

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The size of the stimulus package announced at 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) involves only 1 trillion yuan in new spending according to analysts, the larger number was announced to bolster consumer and company sentiment. Export order are falling quickly from 27% increase in 2007 over 2006, to 21% increase in Sept 2008, to 19% increase in October 2008. over same month prior year. But imports are falling more quickly which is not good news for European exporters like Germany and for American exporters except for infrastructure exporters, and for commodities exporters like Brazil, Australia and Canada. In October imports slowed from 21% in September to 15% in October, which actually increased China's trade surplus from $29 billion in September to $35 billion in October. Exports of iron ore from Australia and Brazil are down and machinery from Germany. For China's urban middle class and rural poor the one relief is in inflation for fuel and food, the consumer price index rose 4% in October compared to 4.6% in September and down from a peak of 8.7% in February 2008. The spending will come in infrastructure including railways. Railways construction spending will be increased from 300 billion yuan in 2008 to 350 billion yuan and double to 600 billion yuan in 2009. This is expected to create 80,000 new jobs to replace jobs lost in the toys and furniture export sectors and other job losses. ...

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The head of the Liberal-National coalition wins the election in Australia coming from behind because of inflighting in his coalition. Australia had 5 prime ministers in 6 years because of differences within the Liberal party.  Mr. Morrison's coalition was leading or won in 74 seats with 75% of votes counted, and headed for a 76 vote majority. Morrison campaigned alone on economic issues while the opposition Labour party led by Mr. Shorten, a trade union leader campaigned on climate change and better relations with China. ScoMo kade this election about the economic choice for Australians and who they could trust for jobs and the future. Morrison had just replaced Malcolm Turnbull only 9 months ago. Mr. Morrison planned to continue with the close relations with the U.S. as it confronts China on trade and technology issues. Mr. Shorten would have diverged from the U.S. on these issues, even though Australia has already turned down Huawei 5G on its telecom networks. With so much infighting in both parties, no prime minister has served a full term in Australia since 2007. Every 3 years Australia has an election. Voting is mandatory with a A$20 fine for not voting resulting in 95% of 16.3 million voters voting this time, compared to 55% in the U.S. and 69% in UK for their last elections. ...

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Kenyan president Ruto says after the tax hikes that led to protests were cancelled- this would increase the borrowing needs. The funding gap in Kenya's finances was 600 billion shillings or $2.7 billion, now he will add another 346 billion shillings to this borrowing.

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Frackers nervous but it is good news for America's cost of living fight as prices of oil have come down into the $60 range per barrel. It is also good news for manufacturing in the US and for energy prices for households. 

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It doesn't have to be all Navy- and it is OK to mix colors for men.

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Rappaport of the NYT asks how it is possible that the U.S. Treasury is critical of the EU Commission's ruling that Apple pay back $13 billion in taxes because of its low tax rate of .005% in Europe, when Treasury is strongly critical of tax avoidance. The negligible tax by Ireland, base of Apple operations, is seen as a state subsidy not available to competitors. It also, as the EU Commission says, does not correspond to economic reality because the revenues are mostly made outside Ireland. An arrangement that is basically a strategy of tax avoidance. Today the leading candidates for president, Trump and Clinton, the major parties, and Congress, all are critical of tax avoidance strategies which deprive Treasury of much needed revenues. Restoring upward mobility is a priority today and programs to provide tution free access to public colleges, healthcare access, and infrastructure development, require public funding. Then why is the U.S.Treasury critical of the EU ruling? It is because Treasury sees this as money that should be coming to Treasury not the EU. However Treasury has failed to make this clear. The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition's Clark Gascoigne, calls it very ironic. And other experts say the money would not be coming to the U.S. anyway unless a low tax rate induces Apple to repatriate profits to the U.S. One expert calls it hypocritical. Senator Schumer says he agrees with Paul Ryan that tax legislation for a low tax rate for repatriation of profits back to the U.S. should be the next step, so that an infrastructure fund can be setup. Senator Levin and transparency advocates sees the EU action as normal and to be expected, as the anti-establishment sentiment today comes from such dealings that create the impression that the system is rigged in favor of some corporations. ...

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This is what Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said during the game in Valencia, Spain. 

"If a stadium insults a player racially the game has to stop, and I would say the same if we were winning 3-0. Stop the game there is no other way. The referee says the fans have to be informed first, and then if it continues we stop the game. But for me, he doesn't need to inform them. I am curious to see what happens now."

The incident in which Vinicius Jr, 22 years, was given racial insults in the Real Madrid Valencia La Liga game has led to repercussions all over the world. 

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Factories with U.S. focused certifications and capital intensive machinery are hard to find in Vietnam, making it harder for companies to shift operations out of China. The trade war and tariffs are leading to a gradual shift in supply chains worldwide, with Vietnam andIndia two destinations for the shift. American manufacturers in China say China has a 15 year head start. A new strategy called China plus 1 is the first stage in this shift of supply chains as companies setup shop in places like Vietnam. India's business climate is more restrictive making Vietnam the first choice for companies looking to diversify production base from China centred manufacturing, as the trade war makes a shift imperative.

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Women in rural Zambia celebrate when they get new bicycles. Things that one takes for granted in urban areas in Zambia is really a struggle in rural areas. About 80% of Zambia's people live in villages about 2 kilometers from a road. Bicycles help people to cover a distance of several kilometers easily. A woman in Zambia uses it to make the trip of 7 kilometres with a milk delivery in half the time. She makes more money making this delivery by bicycle. For her this is making a world of difference. With bicycles come mobile phones shrinking the distance and making communication possible in areas that have struggled with ease of living for hundreds of years.

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Fruits such as breadfruit, monk fruit, baobab fruit and jackfruit could turn up at your supermarket. Some new food companies think it helps to be creative as people all over the world shift to healthier diets to reduce the risk of disease. Kale and Quinoa were not well known until now, jackfruit could be the next new thing. It is popular in tropical countries in Asia. The trick is education about the nutritional value of the new vegetable or fruit and how it can be used. One founder says once you get an idea going in people's minds it can be scaled up quickly in the supply chain. This is the way yogurt became popular in America.

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How the election of 1861 happened with intense debate on the issues of the day. Issues ranged from corruption, Southern Democrats dominating the government, and slavery. A amazing picture of the Capitol building from March 4,1861 and Lincoln's inauguration shows what it looked like at the time. Lincoln won about 40% of the vote and had to build his legitimacy which we now take as given when we see the Lincoln Memorial and the words- "In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever." Throughout it all Lincoln retained his poise and calm demeanor and his faith in the Bible.

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President Biden gets his $1.9 trillion aid package through the U.S. Congress with 220 votes for and 211 against. All Democrats except one voted in favor and all Republicans voted against. Earlier the $15 minimum wage was dropped from the bill to get it through the Senate. Also kept were income criteria to prevent the $1400 check to individuals in households going to the most affluent income earners. The Senate vote was close - 50 to 49 in a party line vote. The Biden aid package comes on top of earlier aid under president Trump in 2020. This aid is likely to provide enough stimulus to the US economy to restore growth to levels that were there before the pandemic hit.