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As the Nation faces discord over the right Path Forward it is important to remember- the pandemic's costs for a once in a century event are still being added up. Not just 1 million dead. 1 million with struggles over Long Covid. The toll on the elderly affecting tens of millions of caregivers. 10 million affected by decision not to vaccinate- with adverse symptoms and at work, 20-50 million affected by the financial losses stemming from the pandemic hit to jobs and work in 2019-2020. As the Nation discusses its future there is a sense that many have been left behind even with the best intentions of government. With huge wins in infrastructure now and ahead of us,  the wins are not enough in cutting pharmaceutical and other day to day living costs. Harris has a plan and Trump has no plan for Cost of Living Action. Yet a lot more could have been done for cost of living action given a president with a single focus determination to fix problems, make the large investments needed and full support of both houses of Congress. It is this lack of full Congressional support of a determined president for taking action that has led to insufficient effort to fix cost of living, wages and public services- something that needs to change to bring help to the middle class and lower income working people of America. ...

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After elections this week in Germany the CDU may be faced with forming a government with the BSW socialist party an unlikely pair. Germany's political leader Sarah Wagenknecht considers the policy of letting migrants in to be "highly problematic", and making it difficult to focus on help for workers and families. Wagenknect says - "Not because people don't deserve a better life, but because our country is simply overburdened as a result."  She pursues a social policy that follows common sense on behalf of the working class and unions, and follows socialist policies for better incomes and benefits for workers. This is new to Germany says DW.com, yet it is not true for the EU. Neighboring Denmark for example has prime minister Mette Hendriksen who has said the same thing about migrants, opposing entry because it leaves the workers worse off than before and presents both a burden and a huge distraction from the many issues the working class face today. The Democrats in the US also are coming to the same conclusion as president Biden and Harris have moved to secure the Border with Mexico and cut unlawful migrant flows to a trickle in 2024.  These shifts will affect Scholz and the SPD party in 2025, as well as the FDP and Greens as they lose popularity in the former East Germany.  ...

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 Her mother was a real pioneer and large influence on Kamala Harris. Michael Kruse tells this story of Kamala Harris and the influence of her mother Shyamala Gopalan, a biomedical researcher at Berkeley, Cal and other national laboratories.  Shyamala had the same sense of adventure of America's pioneers on the frontier since George Washington in the  Pennsylvania country around Pittsburgh. And her striking attitude raising Kamala, one of two daughters, living in a minority neighborhood in the Berkeley area, and moving twice including to Montreal's McGill University and to Cal as a researcher. “Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”  “Focus on what’s right in front of you, and the next thing, whatever that’s meant to be, will come."  "And … “don’t do anything half-assed.” Shyamala landed in Honolulu in 1958 when only 200 Indians were admitted each year, 1953 in all for the decade of the 1950's. America was 90 percent white and Berkeley was 98 percent white. America that we see today did not exist. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson opening America to immigrants from Asia happened years later in 1965 with the Immigration Act. She started classes at Berkeley in Nutrition on a $1600 scholarship.   ...

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The Fiesta will roll into Chinese dealerships in the third quarter of 2008 and will be a global launch. The next global launch will be the Focus. These are the first global cars which would be marketed worldwide by Ford under Mulally. A series of such cars will be made. The Fiesta will target design conscious customers.

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Tsukayama points to the disorganized nature of Yahoo's main page, and CEO Mayer's failure to use acquisitions such as Tumblr and Summly and investments in Couric and other journalists to enhance the news aspects of the page. Mayer appears to have gone off in many directions without any focus on how this would enhance readers experience in looking at Yahoo's main page. How Yahoo continues to draw as many as 618 million unique visitors in October 2015, as reported by ComScore, remains a mystery considering these shortcomings.

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Experts at Stanford Law School say the fewer IPO's expected in coming years will be a good thing as it reduces the boom and bust cycles in tech and internet IPO's of previous years. New technologies enable firms to reach breakeven at a much earlier stage with smaller investment- using founders money and capital from angel investors and less reliance on venture capital- so that companies can focus on the long term. The result will be fewer jobs created in investment banking and more in other places.

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Lynn Good, the CEO of Duke Energy, talks about the importance of family and relationships, outside of focus on career goals, after her experience at Arthur Anderson. She worked at Arthur Anderson till its precipitious decline and going out of business. She points out the importance of leading a team and teamwork, about adapting and developing the team, to communicate with the team and help it reach an objective that seems far out. It is not about becoming the smartest person about a particular subject.

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Juan Williams on how the minorities and black people's problems now take on a different face, how to keep families together, how to educate children and emphasize the importance of a good education, and how to have access to opportunites, all at the individual and individual family level, and how to persevere even when there are no quick solutions in the face of adversity. The problems facing the black community and the need for self renewal and right focus at the individual and community level.

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Assistant U.S. Attorney at the Fresno office, Richard Elias, spots a JP Morgan Chase bank memo in 2012 after looking at many documents. This starts the process leading to the large settlements of $37 billion with U.S. banks in 2014. The memo used words such as "fallout," "kick" and other words clearly showing the banks were aware of the serious risks associated with the securities and the fallout expected. By 2012 the Obama administration felt the pressure from Democrats in Congress to show results in prosecution of banks for schemes related to packaging of highly risky mortgages into securities that led to the 2008 financial crisis. The Justice Department senior staff, Mr. West and Mr. Cole decided to focus on this incriminating evidence for JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. Most of 2013 was used for preparation of the cases against the bank which were prosecuted using the Financial Institutions Recovery, Reform and Enforcement Act of 1989. Firrea has provisions not contained in other legislation, to get huge settlements as penalties, with extended time period for enforcement, when damage was done to financial institutions. The resulting effort led by Attorney General Holder led to the largest part of the total $128 billion paid in settlements by U.S. banks for cases related to the 2008 financial crisis....

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Republican Jeb Bush's address to the 2013 CPAC conference focusses on the decline of social and educational mobility in the U.S. to its lowest point since 1945. In this address he points out that " the central mission of conservatives is to reignite social mobility in this country- restoring the right to rise." His focus on restoring the right to rise is on doing everything to increase opportunities for "quality education," an issue on which he focussed as governor of Florida. He sees technolgy and relative youthful population compared to China and other countries in Europe, as giving America a unique advantage. On this and individual efforts he pins the broad hopes of the middle class revival he sees. He puts the problems of America's middle class and working class as wages declined and the economy suffered from misallocation of resources in stark terms- "Today, the sad reality is that if you're born poor, if your parents did'nt go to college, if you don't know your father, if English isn't spoken at home- then the odds are stacked against you. You are more likely to stay poor today than at any other time since World War II." And he sees Conservatives having a response to this situation, and restoring the idea of America as a land of opportunity for all....

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Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. and Britain, has edited a collection of essays in a new book titled- Pakistan: Beyond the "Crisis State." It tries to form a new construct to move the debate on Pakistan into a future in which Pakistan can exist as a "normal country" free of a paranoia about India that affects its outlook, and free from the military connections that have shifted the focus from development that a friendly neighborly coexistence with India would provide. Intriguing essays include one by Saadat Hasa Manto who goes back to 1951, when the Cold War was at its peak and the U.S. formed a relationship with Pakistan based on military assistance, with only small fraction of aid going into development programs. Syed Rifaat Hussain, professor of strategic studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad puts it directly: Pakistan needs to become a normal state and the only way to to do this is for the rivalry and obsession with India to be resolved and put behind it. As it now stands the U.S., India and Pakistan all stand to gain tremendously in such an outcome- the U.S. disengagement from Afghanistan and the Taliban because at its core the Taliban issue goes back to the Pakistan rivalry with India, Pakistan and India because it puts the focus on development, infrastructure building, and economic gains....

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German foreign policy is seen as too dependent on China and too China focused, in this conversation of DW.com with experts at German Council on Foreign Affairs (DGAP), European Council on Foreign Relations. Germany had little focus on India and no clear policy to expand ties under Merkel. German foreign policy should take the example of France and other Scandinavian nations in building strong ties with India, says this report. Relations with China of the US and EU countries are strained following trade and technological competition. Merkel continued old policies from 2000-2010 in 2010-2020 even as the EU was losing its technological edge with China. This report says a new German federal government after the upcoming election has to decide what relations it wants to build with India, following the example of France, and Scandinavian nations. And what role the EU will play in India's rapid development in industry,  technology, shipping, transportation, renewable energy, other fields, and opportunities for co-operaton in many fields in 2020-2030. This is also about "Whats at stake for Germany?" in new foreign policy under a new chancellor from SPD or Greens, or some other coalition. And what role Germany will play in the rapid modernization transformation that is now likely to take place in India in the next 10 years. ...

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After over two decades of focus on GDP growth targets, China under prime minister Li Keqiang is giving more emphasis to job growth and problems of air pollution, education, and quality of life indicators. Premier Keqiang tells a news conference in Beijing in March 2014 that China needs to create 10 million new jobs each year. More bond defaults can be expected as the financial system is being changed with new rules. Li says China will no longer be "preoccupied" with GDP growth targets. Li made the new priorities clear-"The GDP growth we want is one that brings real benefits to our people, helps raise the quality and efficiency of economic development and contributes to energy conservation and environmental protection."

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Romney promises to focus on everyday concerns of jobs, family, and budget deficits with his 5 step plan to revive the economy. He says he will not raise taxes on the middle class. The 5 step plan is to make America energy independent by making full use of domestic oil and gas resources, create jobs and provide skills for new jobs, make trade work for America, support small businesses with fewer regulations and smaller tax burden and smaller burden of healthcare, and reduce the deficit. His plan he says will create 12 million new jobs.

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The Indian pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow by 13% to $24 billion in 2010. R&D is a special focus, as new drugs can be developed at much lower cost in India. Mr. Piramal, for instance, kept the R&D operation of Piramal when he sold the rest of the company to Abbott Labs of the USA. The Piramal lab in Mumbai has 300 researchers and scientists, and Mr Piramal says he can develop new drugs at a tenth of the $1.5- $2 billon cost it takes for this in the USA and Europe.

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Bill Gates on the impotance of giving specific feedback to teachers for improvement and the designing of a teacher evaluation system that relies on a number of factors beyond just student test scores. He says teaching is more complex than that and requires other factors such as peer group and other educator assessments based on classroom observations, student feedback, and items that reflect a focus on improved teaching skills and effectiveness in the classroom setting. Public disclosure of ratings is a bad idea says Gates, because it is not intended to embarrass teachers.

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Bank of Korea's senior deputy governor, Lee Ju-yeol, says he feels "heavy resposibility" for the policies pursued by S. Korea's central bank in the years following the financial crisis of 2008, when inflation fighting efforts of the bank were set aside to focus on growth. Inflation has increased in S. Korea in recent years. He said our "hard won reputation was turned away under the current of globalization and reform... values and rules that have been built up over 60 years were denied in just a single day."

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ChemChina's acquisition of Pirelli's tire business focusses on the more valuable tire consumer unit, Pirelli's technology for premium tires, and increasing growth in Asian markets. The acquisition involves a complex transaction which includes Rosneft of Russia, which owns a major share in Chemfin that has 28% of Pirelli stock. Institutional holders control 47% of the stock, with other holdings by Mediobanca, the Benetton family and retail investors. For Pirelli this is the first step in a journey with a major Chinese investor and a focus on the Chinese consumer market.

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Nestle's plans to accelerate the sale of poor performing business as consumer preferences shift away from frozen foods and processed foods to fresh foods. It is planning to sell the Davigel frozen food business. Nestle is also going through a period of slowing sales in China. Sales growth of existing business is about 4% a year. The more competitive landscape in the processed food industry, and industry wide focus on efficiency to reduce costs, the rise in the Swiss Franc, make productivity increases critical, says CEO Brabeck-Lemathe.

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Zampano and Emsden describe the difficulties new premier Matteo Renzi will have with a divided parliament and opposition in parliament from the parties of Berlusconi and Grillo. A poll by IXE shows 53% of Italians support Mr. Renzi compared to 37% for former premier Letta. He is expected to focus on economic measures and institutional reforms are likely to slow down because of the political situation with no party having a clear mandate. European elections in May 2014 will be a first test for Renzi and the Democratic party.

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Bank of England Governor Mervyn King says the Monetary Policy Committee expects inflation to be above the 2% target till the end of 2015. King is aware of the slack in the British economy and low levels of wage inflation. He has indicated his approach to be flexible about inflation. The new Governor Mark Carney also favors flexibility in inflation targeting. The tradeoffs between inflation and growth are very much the focus of their attention. To support growth King supports a longer time period to bring inflation back to 2%.

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Karzai a new man, the Karzai government which Gates has called a "crime syndicate" changing its face in an astonishing aboutface. Pakistan ending its obsession with India, with no change on either side Pakistan or India for a joint focus on economic development in South Asia, and no deep transformation of America's role in South Asia. The things Friedman wishes for so that the Obama presidency does not in his words sink in Afghanistan are asking for things that just don't happen with some sort of troop surge.

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There will be continued pressure on the euro which is trading at $1.26 against the dollar. There is renewed pressure from Western European bank's involvement in the economies of Eastern European countries. Austria is most affected with about 50% exposure to Eastern European countries, Italy has about 27% of total bank claims with focus on Poland and Croatia, and the Scandinavian banks are heavily involved in the Baltic countries. The Hungarian forint, the Czech koruna and the Polish zloty are all currencis in steep decline. The IMF has rescue packages for Ukraine and Hungary.

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Rove cites Quinnipiac poll surveys showing Trump with the worst ratings of the 12 Democratic and Republican candidates- 35% favorable to 57% unfavorable. The breakdown shows 60% of independents disliking him, and 69% of voters 18-34 saying they dislike him. He says Trump stands little chance against a Democratic nominee for president. This is why a splintered vote in the Republican primaries is dangerous for Republicans says Rove, pointing to the need for Republicans to focus on a good alternative candidate, who has experience and ability to win votes across many demographic groups.

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India lags way behind China in electric vehicles. About 1.35 million electric automobiles on Chinese streets compared to about 6000 on Indian streets. Where India is ahead is in the electric rickshaws, 3 wheeled vehicles that form an important part of public transportation in India. About 132,000 electric rickshaws are added each year and annual sales of $1.5 billion are expected to increase by 9% by 2021. These electric three wheeler rickshaws are cheaper to operate, cleaner and more profitable to operate, making it attractive for operators of gasoline rickshaws to switch to e-rickshaws. Kinetic Engineering and Mahindra & Mahindra are the largest manufacturers in India.  About 695,000 three wheeler electric vehicles were sold in India for the fiscal year ending in March, with a 24% increase over the prior year. India's Ministry of Finance is planning to invest 40 billion rupees or $600 million over the next 5 years to promote charging infrastructure and e-buses. The government's focus is on promoting electric vehicles for taxis, buses and two or three wheeler vehicles. This is expected to reduce air pollution in Indian cities. ...