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The 25% auto imports tariff goes into effect April 2nd 2025. How much will it increase prices in the US for automobiles? The average is about 10%, say some experts cited in WSJ. This includes price increases on higher priced brands such as German brands BMW's and Audis, Mercedes Benz, and VW cars made in Mexico to ship into the US. It also includes European car makers including Stellantis that make cars in Europe and Mexico to ship into the US which could lose market share to American car makers who make most of their cars in the US. Ford makes 80%, GM 60%.  Overall US international Trade Commission in 2024 looked at the 25% US tariff in a study and showed 5% increase in auto prices in the US. President Trump's call to GM and Ford asking for restraint in pricing may be coupled with the government returning some of the money in tariffs revenue pool to American or foreign manufacturers investing more to make more cars in the US including to Hyundai which announced a $21 billion investment. More such investment decisions are expected from Japanese automakers. For example Subaru has capacity for 450,000 cars in Lafayette Indiana plant and sells 650,000 cars in the US. One would expect it to increase the capacity of the plant or add a new plant in the US. The Japanese government and Japanese business will have additional incentives to invest in the US because of the US support for Japan in the Asia-Pacific, US openness to give trade benefits to Japan in the post war period, incentive to make the Republican DJT plan for tariffs to work as a united Japan-US effort. This would include restraint on pricing.  Toyota is in much better financial shape than VW and has a large market share in the US which it will work protect with pricing restraint and more US investment. Only VW and German luxury car makers BMW, Mercedes may not cooperate. Yet VW sells only 300,000 cars in the US compared to 2.3 million for Toyota. BMW and Mercedes sell luxury cars where buyers could absorb the additional luxury brand cost without impacting inflation overall. Some of VW's car sales would be absorbed by American and other automakers considering VW was losing market share and nearly exiting the US market. before this. ...

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Harry Kane and coaches Tuchel and Scaloni Explaining England's defeat against Argentina with only 5 minutes left and England leading 1-0 World Cup Soccer July 15, 2026. All agree England just stepped back and defended after fighting hard the first 60 minutes of the game following the English goal by Gordon to make it 1-0. That led to wave after wave of unrelenting attacks from Argentina till the ball went through. Between the time Gordfon scored the goal in the 75th minute and the end of the game England possession was only 12%. It had never been more than 40% for most of the game. This caused a serious imbalance in the play. In the last 15 minutes of the game Tuchel pulled out Declan Rice and James, two of England's outstanding players, within minutes Argentina scored its 2 goals. This substitution appears to be an error that Tuchel himself says he accepts having made. Harvey Kane says- “Just gutted, gutted for the boys, gutted for everyone: the team, the staff, the fans.” “We played well for the vast majority of it. Once we went 1-0 up we just seemed to try to hold on which, at this level, is not enough. After the goal, whether it was them putting more men forward or us being able to match them man for man, it just was wave after wave and we were just trying to hold on, put the blocks in, but in the end it wasn’t enough.” England coach Thomas Tuchel says- “We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open.”  “Argentina played with more risk, played with more rhythm and played with the feeling maybe that they had nothing to lose any more, which freed them up and pulled us back. Because we obviously played suddenly with a feeling that we had a lot to lose. Of course the responsibility is on the coach and if it doesn’t go well it’s easy to say it was wrong.” Substitutions can make a difference when the players are tired or to try something new in the last 4-5 minutes of a game. Players can make a difference going in in a minute or two. But coming in in a game with Argentina relentlessly attacking and the game having shifted Declan Rice and James who were already defending for this long had a better sense of this Argentine team's style of play for defending than two substitutes who had no time to get started. Lionel Scaloni, Argentine coach says-  “This team plays best when they are facing adversity.” “We had a challenging situation, there was blood in the water and we went for it. We had six or seven chances and the ball wouldn’t go in but the team fought until the end. After they scored, we really proved ourselves – it shows what football means to us and it goes beyond tactics.” ...

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PM Modi says Indian Rail is an important part of the vision for Vikshit Bharat or Developed India 2047 as he opens the new Jammu division of Indian Railways. PM Modi described the infrastructure laid for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link USBRL, the Anji Khad cable-stayed bridge, and the Chenab Rail Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir.

PM Modi says-

“I was watching a video of the new sleeper version of the Vande Bharat train running at the speed of 180 km per hour in trial. It makes me feel good. The introduction of high-speed Vande Bharat trains and the expansion of metro networks demonstrate India’s commitment to world class transport systems,” the PM said.

“This is just the beginning as the time is not far when the first bullet train will run in the country.” 

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Automobile parts imports into the U.S. have increased from $89 billion in 2008 to $138 billion in 2014, up from only $31.7 billion in 1990. In a huge shift in wages with increasing global competition wages at an American Axle plant in Michigan at $10 an hour are about what Target stores and Wal-mart pay for retail workers. An new generation of workers in manufacturing are seeing a shift from being in the middle class during their parents generation to lower class, with this downward pressure on wages as parts are manufactured in places such as Mexico and China.

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It is shocking to see the virtual lack of cultural or other people to people contacts between the two largest regions in Asia, and most populous regions in the world, India and China. There appears to be a near total lack of understanding on both sides at the university and government level of the importance of setting up these contacts, so that misperceptions do not exist on either side and better relations can be built using such contacts. Rana Mitter, a expert on Modern China at Oxford University, says in an interview in the Times of India, that India and the 1962 conflict occupy less attention in the Chinese mind because other issues such as the relations with the U.S., ASEAN and Japan, take up more space. Mitter says India should emphasize its pluralism, democracy, and peaceful engagement in its external relations.  Mitter puts less emphasis on the 50 day standoff between India and China on the border at Doklam, Bhutan region, when he responds to a question about the risks of a conflict. He points to a bigger problem that affects relations between the two countries- the lack of exchanges that bring Chinese students, faculty, and government personnel to India, the difficulty of obtaining visas. This lack of cultural exchanges between the two countries is a major issue, considering also that trade and business exchanges are taking place and growing during this lack of cultural exchanges.  As a result it appears that business and economic relations guide the China-India relationship today, with people in China's key ministries and government, in universities and local government, lacking an understanding of India. Mitter makes this clear that cultural exchanges need to be established. Even a search for China- India dialogue brings up little information with a location in Beijing but none in India. It is mind boggling that the relations between the two most populous regions in the world are based on a huge lack of contacts and exchanges that would improve perceptions and understanding.  Britain's effort offers a model to follow as Tsinghua University in Beijing, as part of China's C9, has set up cultural exchanges with British universities in the ongoing cultural exchanges between Britain and China. ...