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After the 2008 election of president Obama rural whites left the Democratic Party, Following the election of president Trump educated suburbanites left the Republican Party. These two trends have accelerated as seen in the 2018 U.S. Congressional elections. Democrats won in and around major cities, and Republicans won in rural and small town America. Democrats won 27 GOP Republican COngressional seats to win the majority. Republicans added 2 seats to their Senate majority.  The electorate is sharply divided in terms of education in a way that is regressive and not good for America, and in a way that has never happened before. Republicans share of of House districts with lowest shares of college education bachelors degrees increased from 44% in 1998 to 60% in 2018. Democrats share of House districts with the highest share of Bachelors degrees went up from 50% in 1998 to 81% in 2018. Much of the Democrats support from educated suburbanites comes from lopsided support from educated women. The result is that the Republican Party is trading faster growing counties for slower growing smaller counties and now has a base of older voters. The Democrats have to find a leader who can rally support from this new combination of educated suburbanites, younger voters, and minorities. And big issues are at stake. About 77% of people in recent polls now support a national health care insurance like than in the UK and Canada. Poor reading skills and reading comprehension in school tests show a need for greater investment  in education. Infrastructure investment is a big priority for a decade that has yet to be tackled directly. Of the 50 new Democrats in the House of Representatives 24 campaigned on a promise for a national health insurance like that in Canada or UK. The focus on economic issues would move the Democratic Party back to where it was in all the post war years till the distractions from cultural issues  in the last decade shifted its focus from its historical base support of working class voters. ...

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Prime minister Renzi of Italy resigns after defeat in a referendum to change the constitution. Renzi had said he would resign if there was a "no" vote on constitutional changes to make it possible to pass further reforms. The results show the "yes" vote with about 41% of the vote, and 59% saying "no." About 65% of 47 million registered voters voted. The referendum called for cutting the size of the upper house Senate eliminating some constitutional bodies, and increasing powers at the federal level. Renzi may have made the mistake of making the vote for or against constitutional change a vote for his democratic left party, and not understanding the depth of public skepticism of established parties. Parties such as 5 Star M5S  have appealed to a public skeptical of how economic reforms would help bring more prosperity to the middle class, and a desire to try out new options. Virginia Raggi of M5S was elected mayor of Rome recently and Renzi's referendum move similar to the way prime minister Cameron moved for a referendum on an old issue of euroskeptisim, may have failed to grasp grassroots changes. The irony is that in 2014 elections to the European parliament Renzi's democratic left party won 40% of the vote and was seen at the time as a success, and the same size vote in the referendum is seen as a failure. In a referendum all other parties votes are added together from right to left parties and new parties. In the Brexit vote the Labor party "no" vote including Labor voters who never voted added to the votes of Brexit supporters and the newer UKIP party giving Brexit the slight edge needed. The singular feature of the trend is that working class voters are combining with right leaning voters to upset established parties, in the midwestern U.S., in the north of England, and in the north of France. In the medium to long run this means the left parties are likely to move to realign themselves with their base of support. ...

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This Economist briefing on Greece before the referendum of July 5, 2015, gives a detailed account of the Greece debt crisis since 2010 leading up to the election of Syriza left party in Jan. 2015 and the referendum.

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Using the customer's own tv set as a monitor the PC will start at $199. Rural incomes are about $560 and rising at about 10% a year.

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Pierre Beaudoin will step down as CEO as Bombardier announces a $1.59 billion loss for the 4th quarter of 2014. The loss for 2014 was $2.2 billion, compared to a profit of $1.4 billion in 2013. Revenues increased in 2014 from $18 billion to $20 billion. Beaudoin will remain as executive chairman. The new CEO is Alain Bellemare, former president and CEO of the United Technologies propulsion and aerospace systems group, which includes aircraft engine maker Pratt and Whitney.

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Japan's governing LDP party wins over two thirds of the seats in parliament in a snap election called one year before the end of the term in office. Prime minister Abe's popularity by summer 2017 dropped to about 30%, and yet with a divided opposition he managed to win the election with a large majority. The opposition led by the Democratic Party and Tokyo Governor Mrs Koike fragmented with the formation of new parties, Yuriko Koike's Party of Hope, and the Consitutional Democratic Party. Mrs. Koike failed to keep the opposition united with some missteps including asking for a loyalty pledge from candidates. This election win makes it possible for Abe to get a third term as leader of the LDP and eventually becoming the prime minister with the longest term in office. Abe had a poor start during his first effort as prime minister when he resigned in less than a year. This is a comeback for Shinzo Abe from that difficult period. Yet the constitutional changes to support Japan's Self Defense Forces with the growing threat from North Korea are not getting the same level of support. Opinion remains divided on that issue.  One aspect of this election is that very few women candidates are running for parliament. In contrast to the election in Britain with more women running for office and getting elected, in Japan's 2017 snap election less than 10% of candidates elected are women. ...

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An attack on a regional train by a 17 year old Afghan youth with an ax on 4 passengers, 2 critically injured, leads to soul searching in Weimar, Germany, about immigration. Questions are raised about the overly welcome attitude that has led to a series of attacks in 2015-2016.

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Brad Guzan, 40 years, reflects on age and playing soccer, as his crucial saves helps Atlanta beat Lionel Messi's team Miami in the first round of the MLS playoffs in 2024. Next he will face Orlando on Nov 24. He says "40 is the new 21." Guzan says age brings experience- “It’s not about feeling younger. It’s about using my experience. It’s about using moments that I’ve been in before in terms of games and situations I’ve faced, and within a millisecond trying to analyze the situation that I’m currently in, and how to use my experience to help me make a save in that moment.” Guzan's two seasons in 2021 and 2022 were not promising. He could not stop Messi in the 2016 Copa America which US lost to Argentina 4-0. He worked hard throughout till the results in stopping Inter Miami's Messi in three games this season. His son idolizes not Messi but Aston Villa (Birmingham club) goalie Argentina's Emiliano Martinez. Guzan gained his early experience playing in the Premier League for Aston Villa. ...

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Clean Energy and Manufacturing investments under Biden Inflation Reduction Act in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, and other Republican states are leading to the Senate Republicans taking a position favoring keeping such investments in the DJT 3B Tax Cuts Bill. Republican states getting bulk of clean energy investments from Biden's IRA Act are working to keep the jobs and factories being built in their states. About $130 billion of $271 billion to 2032 has already been given out, the Senate 3B Tax Cuts Bill wants to keep these tax credits for renewables till 2027. North Carolina is an example which has $21 billion in such clean energy and manufacturing investments since 2022 when the Inflation Reduction Act of president Biden was passed. The IRA Act gave states $271 billion for such investments over a decade. Senator Thom Tillis is leading the Republican Senators group that wants to keep these projects that bring jobs to North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia as the biggest recipients.This means the Senate bill sent back to the House will try to come up with a moderate position on Clean Energy and Manufacturing investments that bring jobs to Republican states. ...

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Cohn and Monkovic of the NYT show how the shift of blacks, hispanics, and white collar professionals is doing to the demographics in the eastern, coastal and southern states, and how this will impact 2016 and future presidential elections in the U.S. This includes North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Florida. It means the electoral map may have changed by 2016 and 2020, as the less educated voters in rural areas are balanced by a growing minority and white collar vote in the suburbs and major cities of the South.

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Researchers David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gordon Hanson of the University of California, San Diego, and David Dorn of the Center for Monetary and Fiscal Studies in Madrid, in independent research, studied the impact of trade on 722 clusters of interrelated counties in the U.S. They focussed on the surge in Chinese imports and found a pattern. Counties with higher exposure to Chinese import growth showed higher unemployment and higher expenditures by the government for unemployment benefits, food stamps and disability benefits. Their calculations show the increased government payments amount to one to two thirds of the gains from trade with China. This does not include the losses suffered by people losing jobs who deplete savings as they look for new jobs. Hanson studied the effects of trade and Chinese imports in the 1990's and found the effects were relatively small. This time the effects are large and show counties that lacked local investments in industrial machinery and technologies in which China was still playing catchup such as Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois, and Boeing in Everett, Washington, were most susceptible to higher jobless rates and in need of government support payments. Autor and Hanson found that from 2000-2007, communities in the 75th percentile- ones with greater exposure to Chinese import growth than 75% of all communities- saw a manufacturing jobless rate of about one-third more than communities in the 25th percentile. The government payments mean higher taxes or larger deficits are needed to support these communities, and long periods of unemployment reduce the incentive to work. Michael Spence, a Nobel prize winning economist from New York University, says the world has never seen such a rapid pace of growth as China experienced between 2000-2011, with rates approaching 12% in some years, making past experience and prevailing theories on trade an insufficient guide to what is happening....

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One of the 3 terrorists in the Charlie Hebdo attack in France received training at Al Qaeda camps in Yemen, according to U.S. intelligence.

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Anat Admati, is a professor of finance and economics at Stanford University School of Business. He says banks should depend on generating 30% of their assets from equity, something the banking industry of today in the U.S. and Europe considers heretical. More of the bank's assets should come from equity and much less from borrowed funds. Outside of banking healthy corporations in the U.S. carry debt at about 70% of assets and there is no reason banks should not do the same. In 2013 says Admati, the situation is not much different from that after the 2008 global financial crisis- large banks carry liabilities and debt at over 90% of their assets. The $2.2 trillion in debt at JP Morgan Chase bank is about 91% of assets of $2.4 trillion. Basel III regulations allow banks to borrow upto 95% of assets, and proposed banking regulations in the U.S. put this at 95%, with the way this is measured still being debated. At such high levels of debt the margin of error is small, and systemic risk which is high in a globally interconnected banking system means the whole banking system can freeze from one large bank going into failure such as Lehman Brothers. This happened in 2008 and the margin of error is still small, which is why global banking is such a high wire act with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the ECB and other central banks issuing regular warnings and regulators faced with the task of keeping the banking system in check through vigilance and investigations of banks violating laws. How much difference has Dodd-Frank legislation in the U.S. made after 2008? Jason from Atlanta says in response to Admati's article, that the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was 37 pages and the banking system did not freeze up in the way it did in 2008 for the rest of the twentieth century until its repeal. The 879 page Dodd-Frank legislation of 2011 is overly voluminous and still leaves 243 rules to be written by regulators in consultation with the financial industry. Banks are larger now than they were in 2008 and have an outsized influence in shaping the rules, leaving the U.S. Federal Reserve's supervisory committee and Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo with the job of somehow keeping banks out of trouble. JP Morgan Chase, Admati reminds readers, has $2.4 trillion in assets as of June 30, 2013, and debts of $2.2 trillion, with $1.2 trillon in deposits and $ 1 trillion in other debt owed to money market funds, other banks, bondholders and the like. ...

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A 16% cutback in the budget of the British Broadcasting Corporation (B.B.C.). The license fee paid by television owners in Britain will be frozen at $230 for 6 years.

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Goldman Analyst in London office who has made the right call on oil prices. He says it will be $85 at year end 2008 and $95 in 12 months.

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Nissan Motor Company CEO Hiroto Saikawa confirms that Nissan executives passed on information from a probe to Japanese authorites so that plans for a Renault takeover of the company could not take place. Mr Ghosn was seen as pushing a plan for a full combination of Renault with Nissan. Their motivation this report says was to protect Nissan and protect Japan's industry. In April 2018 the French government with a 15% stake in Renault laid out plans for a merger.

Nissan sells more cars than Renault but has a smaller stake in Renault. Renault owns 43.4% of Nissan after a 1999 bailout deal when Nissan sought help. Nissan holds only 1 15% nonvoting stake in Renault. Hence the imbalance. The alliance has benefited Renault because of the dividends from Nissan shares and sharing of auto parts and designs. Japan is seen as a very prideful nation according to Nissan executives who wanted to protect Nissan from takeover.

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Shamil Shams interview with Shakuntala Banaji, expert on media and communication at the London School of Economics, on the general election in Britain. Banaji says there has been persistent negative coverage given to Jeremy Corbyn of the Labor Party for the last two years. A lot of hard work has been done by Labor MP's, Labor activists, volunteers, to get the Labor message across. Corbyn is seen as giving a calm composed performance in the face of hostile media and audience, including the televised interview in which he talked of real issues facing ordinary British people. One of the ways Corbyn has softened the media distorted image of him is by acting calmly under pressure and not taking on an autocratic style. This was best seen on the day he first handed out the Labor party manifesto with the focus on the message- for the many, not the few. Some of the coverage of Corbyn is described here as being improper and unacceptable.

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Plastic use has increased with the tripling in parcels delivered in the last 4 years, up to 64 billion parcels. As much as 93% of the growth in trash in major cities in China in 2018 comes from this one source- an astonishing 850,000 tons of plastic waste in 2018 from the e-commerce and delivery sector. Food deliveries and Alibaba online deliveries add to plastic waste. The government is cracking down with new rules from the Environment Ministry. By the end of 2020 non biodegradable plastic bags will largely be banned from cities, and single use straws banned in restaurants across China.  This ban will extend to all cities and towns by 2022 and to markets selling fresh produce by 2025. Restaurants will have to cut use of plastic by 30% by 2025. In 2018 China stopped taking imports of plastic waste. China is beginning to realize the costs of letting single use plastic grow. The last regulation was in 2008 banning the giving of free plastic bags at retail markets and banning production of super thin bags. It has taken the sudden jump in use in package delivery and in food delivery for the government to finally act. Experts say China uses too much plastic. India has taken strong action against single use plastic in 2019 under the leadership of prime minister Modi. ...