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Berlin based China studies center MERICS experts say China's weak spot is domestic consumption, as it is too reliant on export demand. These experts say overseas demand from Europe and US has held up in recent months, but where would China pick up manufacturing production when this demand slows down? Stimulus is seen as risky by experts and contradictory to efforts by the Chinese government to reduce debt based financial risks, with the debt built up in hypergrowth of two decades since 2000. Much of this hypergrowth itself has resulted in trade tensions with US and today puts China in what MERICS calls this "tricky situation." This situation resulted from growth since 2000 that was was unleashed from local governments in China with failure to control it from the central government in Beijing to reduce its impact on deindustrialization of towns and communities in the US and Europe. A lesson that China's planners may be looking at as they look to the future for more balance and quality of life,  and dignity of life for rural, town and city communities across China. Politburo CCP's standing committee has put forward the idea of a "dual circulation economy" to reduce dependence on foreign demand, and balance it with growing domestic demand, yet experts at Berlin base MERICS say this has not happened. A report from the Atlantic Council says without domestic demand picking up the pace of China's growth, China would have difficulty growing beyond 3% annually by 2025.  ...

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Stocks poised to gain 24% in 2024, about 15% average for the last 6 years, and about 10% over the previous 6 years.

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The latest Covid 19 vaccine introduced in September 2023 has a very low uptake in the US, at about 18%. The JN.1 Covid variant is for which this vaccine is effective is now making up about 50% of the cases of Covid in the US. It was at 7% in November. It is very transmissable and masks are now advised.The Covid related hospitalizations are up 10% to 26,000 in the fourth week of December. Symptoms of this variant are cough, fever, body aches, and fatigue that last for 3-4 days, says this NYT report.

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Senator Schumer calls it a "momentous 24 hours here in the US Congress, a legislative one two punch that you rarely see." Schumer negotiated a major climate change action bill for $369 billion in the Senate, that also covers tax changes to cover costs, and helps cut drug and health care expenses of Americans. The second quarter shows healthy job gains of average 375,000 a month and unemployment at 3.6%. The economy declined by 1.1% but much of this was from a slowdown in home and business construction sectors sensitive to higher interest rates and from higher inventory. Consumer spending increased by 1% during the quarter. The Fed's series of 0.75 percentage points interest rate increases had softened inflation expectations before they get entrenched in the economy. This makes it possible for Democrats to present a message to ordinary Americans that president Biden is getting things done with 2 legislative achievements. A $280 billion bill for investment in the semiconductor industry in the US. And a huge win on climate change with the $269 billion Schumer is negotiating in the US Congress. It is the opposite of what Republicans are saying is Biden's failure to tackle inflation. Appropriately Biden and Schumer are calling this the bill the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. How did Schumer get this done? After the Ukraine war and EU decision to shut down Russian oil supplies, cut oil and gas use by 15%, and the climate change action inducing fires and floods, there is increasing awareness about climate change action as vital for our future all over the world. This gives more confidence to Democrats to negotiate a temporary continuation of oil and gas, with increased exports of US LNG to Europe. Senator Manchin from an energy producing state of West Virginia was brought over to Schumer's side with this idea. What Biden gets is a 40% reduction of US carbon emissions over 2005 levels, enough to get within reach of the 50% he promised at COP26 in Glasgow. It is a win-win for all sides and for the American people, and shows that patience and hard work, and persistence in the face of adversity can bring results. ...

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See the related piece in BW

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d.light design and Cosmos Ignite of India and Philips have all come up with small solar panels to charge compact batteries by day that can be used in poorer regions of Asia and Africa where children lack access to electricity and light to do their homework. Philips' Uday lantern being tested in Ghana would give light for 5 hours with brightness of 25 watt lamp.

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Trump's doctor's letter was written by Dr. Bornstein. His father was Trump's doctor for many years. The letter Dr Bornstein says was written with language that is normally used by Trump, and not the kind of letter he is used to writing. Dr. Bornstein says he was rushed. The Trump limousine was waiting outside and he had 5 minutes to write the letter certifying to Trump's good health to be president of the U.S. Experts say the most noticeable thing about the letter is the hyperbole. They, including Sanjay Gupta, raise questions about the letter's hyperbole, that does not show the serious minded attitude and language that this kind of letter requires such as the words "astonishingly excellent." 

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Amazon founder and CEO meets with journalists from the newsroom at the Washington Post in September 2013.

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Full face veils for women are now a topic in the immigration debate in Germany. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere now favors a ban on full face veils, agreeing with state level party members of the Christian Democratic Union. CDU interior ministers are now in agreement to come up with legislation to require that people show their faces where necessary "for living together in our society." Maziere says the Social Democrats SPD party agrees with much of this agreement, called the Berlin declaration. Chancellor Merkel told news group RND that she understands and accepts that "a fully covered woman has little chance of integrating in Germany." Some CDU officials such as state premier of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, say its all about liberating women, because he thinks it simply isn't true that this is what a woman wants. Other CDU leaders interior ministers in Berlin and Mecklenburg, Henkel and Caffier, say dual citizenship needs to be abolished. The Berlin Declaration put off this issue by requiring a report on this by 2019, on whether it helps integration. The Berlin Declaration calls for 15,000 additional police officers, though the association BDK of police officers says this is not enough. ...