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Ingram says Obama's 2015 budget is more of a wish list for Democrats, because 2015 spending levels are already set and House Republicans will put together their own budget putting forward the Republican views. Obama's budget includes new taxes on busiess and the wealthy to reduce the deficit. Other ideas- raise tobacco taxes to pay for universal pre-K education, a "Fianncial Crisis Responsibility Fee" on big banks, overhaul immigraion laws to increase tax revenues, limit itemized deductions for the rich, force drug companies to give large rebates on Medicare prescriptions. Another proposal is a $56 billion "Opportunity, Growth and Security" Initiative, for spending on early childhood education, job training, and medical research. To pay for this he would cut the amount wealthy people can save tax free for retirement, cut crop insurance and raise airline security fees.

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Rachel Reeves plan to cut disability benefits was very unpopular with Labor voters. You.Gov poll showing Reform UK Nigel Farage party winning more seats than Labor was the last straw. As a public defender Keir Starmer was a lawyer for the Crown, and lacked the confidence to try to understand macroeconomics delegating it to Rachel Reeves. Starmer made the kind of decision that Scholz made that led to disaster for Scholz in Germany. He promised the voters to invest in the economy yet gave the finance minister post to Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats who was openly blocking every move to invest in Germany. Starmer was making the same mistake in UK having Rachel Reeves block every effort for commonsense and honest decisionmaking. DJT in the US is not the old conservative Republican he is commonsense and straightforward. Starmer could not simply cut disability and other benefits after 15 years of Consevatives austerity budget. DJT's cuts come after liberal some could say overspending by 4 years of Biden, so that Labor had to think carefully.  Nigel Farage of UK was simply going to use Reeves cuts to appeal to Labor voters, and to move to show he would support working class voters in different ways, which is why You-gov showed him beating Labor last week. Reeves would prove a disaster waiting to happen for Labor that it did not need particularly as Farage does not have the grasp of the economy that DJT with Bessent at Treasury and Powell at Fed has. ...

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This report in the WSJ points to president Biden's speech to a joint session of the US Congress that providing two years of free community college would "change the dynamic" for education in America taking the first step to correct a dangerous drop in college enrollment for young men in America and ensuring working class families have access to college education. The last thirty years of skewed wealth distribution, loss of manufacturing in America, have created alarming distortions in  the access to college education for working class families. Mrs. Biden is a fervent advocate for community college access in today's America, as a community college teacher for 30 years. Biden's $45.5 billion 5 year plan would waive tution for 2 years of public community college. States would have to opt-in to participate, and federal government would provide 100% funding in the first year, decreasing contribution by 5% each subsequent year, with states picking up rest of the cost. It is quite shocking that this is being dropped from the Biden $3.6 trillion Families and Workers Plan that is now being whittled down to $2 trillion. Not because it is not badly needed for American economic competitiveness, and helping workers and families. But because following narrow parochial interests the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities opposes it. And because the US Congress is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans 50-50 in the Senate. The Association of Independent Colleges sees a shift to community colleges and a sharp drop in its enrollment. Community colleges saw a dangerous drop in enrollment of 12% to 4.5 million students in 2020 from the spring of 2019, according to National Student Research Center. Never was a program more badly needed, as American men are alarmingly falling behind in enrollment. Here are some responses to the failure to take even the first steps to broaden college access so that America can return to economic competitiveness. "What kind of world do we want to live in?" Martha Kanter, College Promise. "That's kind of a devil's choice, isn't it? The whole system has to work from infant care all the way through." Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota. This is because child care and children's education will be funded yet a struggling generation of college students will be left out. US Chamber of Commerce opposes a $45 billion program that is critical to American competitiveness with China and other countries. US Congress drops a program that at $45 billion is only about 2% of the $2 trillion package and which is critical to economic competitiveness. Former Republican Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee supports community college access as a pillar of economic development and it passed the supermajority in 2014. Mike Krause, Republican former director of the state higher education commission says- "I have been surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for what is really a massive workforce development concept that also provides a path to the middle class. You'd think that would hold some appeal for Republicans and Democrats." The lack of clarity and concentration, lack of unity of purpose to get all vaccinated,  is visible in America's vaccination drive. That same lack of clarity and concentration, lack of unity of purpose, is visible in America's faltering efforts at correcting serious and alarming problems for access to college and American competitiveness in the world. Julie Bykowicz and Douglas Belkins wrote this article in the WSJ.   ...

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The Independence Hall Philadelphia, speech by Joe Biden was in retrospect a turning point in America from the chaotic politics of the last 5 years, following a decades long fracturing of the social fabric of America. That fracturing had many causes, all of which have been identified by president Biden and leaders in Congress such as Mr. Schumer and Senators Coon, Hickenlooper, and others, who are working nonstop on legislation and funding of America's new priorities. These are priorities of protecting working class families, building their savings, supporting education and healthcare for working class families, building back better America's crumbling infrastructure, tackling climate change, financing renewable energy, rebuilding America as a manufacturing leader for the world. It is because of this effort that candidates who support this effort prevailed in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona for Democrats to retain the Senate and be competitive in the House of Representatives. Only complacency led to unexpected losses in New York state for the House of Representatives leading to loss of the House by a small margin. This NYT report looks at what happened in 2022 and what this means for securing the country's key priorities to build hope for the future of America and of the free world.  ...

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Antonis Samaras continues his efforts to get the EU to agree to a two year extension for deficit targets agreed to in the March 202 bailout. He meets Merkel in Berlin, Aug. 24 and Hollande in Paris, Aug. 25. Merkel's coalition partners the Free Democrats oppose an extension. The opposition Social Democrats leader Steinmeier tells the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper "its not very smart to abandon all conditions for aid over an extension of 12 months." Samaras tells the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper: "our economy shrank 27%. Greece is bleeding, It is really bleeding." And German finance minister Schauble tells Germany's SWR2 radio that its too early for Greece to come back and say the agreed aid is insufficient considering that its ony 6 months since the March 2012 agreement. Merkel and other leaders in the Christian Democrats say they will wait till a report from the troika (the EU, ECB and the IMF) in October 2012 before responding.

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As Macron struggles to present EU's case in Washington DC the problems in Germany loom large.The debt brake Merkel to stop debt based infrastructure investment is what ails Germany and the EU. It has had two pernicious effects. It created the AfD's surge by lowering economic growth and investment in public needs - housing, transport, public services. It worsened the SPD and CDU performance by not investing in security, with no policies to return crime committing refugees to their home countries. A combination of aid and other assistance, diplomacy, would have secured the cooperation of countries to take them back. A strong display of action on removing refugees committing any offenses would have lessened the number of terrorism incidents and reduced a surge in the AfD performance with loss of confidence in chancellor Scholz.  CDU's Merz says he wants to remove the constitutional brake from the German constitution. The SPD under a new leader would want the same as it seeks to invest in the economy. Scholz lacked the foresight not to enter into a coalition with the Free Democrats in 2021 who flatly opposed public spending to meet pressing infrastructure needs lowering growth.  Both CDU of Merkel and SPD of Scholz lacked the foresight and the courage to invest and not settle for less for Germany. ...

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Compared to chancellor Scholz Merz sets his goals and is clear about his goals. His active style is different from previous chancellors. His first meeting with Trump showed this personal style which is proving to be more effective than Merkel or Scholz. Merz had to wait for a long time in the private sector till Merkel retired to come back to politics. During Merkel's early years Merz challenged Merkel for leadership of the Christian Democrats party. Merkel's policy on migrants has proved to be a failure, and Merz is now in a position to take the CSU in a new direction closing the border and working closely with the US and Britain, Italy, on border enforcement. Merz is also unique and very different from the disinvestment period under Merkel which let German infrastructure deteriorate and fall apart, another failure of Merkel's years as chancellor. Merz's first action was to get close to a trillion dollars of new funding to rebuild defense and infrastructure over the next decade. Merz is head of a coalition with the SPD with SPD's leader Lars Klingbeil as finance minister. Scholz headed a coalition that was dysfunctional as the Free Democrats Lindner was opposed to investment in German economy from the outset. Under Merkel the Christian Democrats took no action to rebuild Germany, and were preoccupied with eurozone finances. ...

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GM is willing to sell amajority stake in Opel to the German government. Opel employees want to see that happen, as they say GM never understood Opel's potential. The unions favor this with IG Metall saying about 400,000 jobs will be affected in the car and related businesses with an Opel collapse. And directly at Opel in Russelsheim near Frankfurt the plants employ 29,000 German workers. This is now a big issue in Germany. The bailout of German banks is as unpopular in Germany as it is with Americans, with their own bailout of banks and financial institutions. And Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats are seeing polls showing voters shifting allegiance to the Free Democrats, which reflects opinion of people in smaller independent businesses unhappy with the bank bailouts.

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President Biden's style and years of effort leading to the presidency are similar to another Democrat - US president Harry Truman who took the US and the world through the last years of World War II, the Berlin Crisis and rebuilding war torn Europe through the Marshall Plan, and the Korean War. By doing so Truman built the security and economic structure that was the foundation of the Free World. Prsident Biden faces a similar opportunity says Mr. Zoellick in the WSJ. Mr. Biden is already engaged in a similar task as large as that facing Harry Truman as he sets a new direction for America. To build a new supply chain for the US and Europe, to advance the technological and scientific leadership of the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and India, and to build a new security alliance in Asia and Europe, and strengthen Latin America. Mr. Truman was not deterred by the 1946 midterm elections with Republican majorities and used his experience as a Missouri Congressman to work with Republicans of like minded thinking to strengthen American leadership in the world. Mr. Biden is not deterred by Mr. Trump's challenge and shifts in voter sentiment as he set his focus on what matters most for America in the decades ahead from climate change to economic leadership. ...

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Sanders, the most senior leader  for Democrats in the Senate says Biden is the most effective president in modern American history, through the pandemic with a bold vision for the country. Bernie Sanders, the senior senator from Vermont, says he will do all to get president Biden reelected.  To critics he says Enough! Sanders says Americans should support Biden because of the American Rescue Plan that he orchestrated and helped the economy recover faster than was thought possible. It put Americans back to work, provided cash benefits to people worried about the future, and protected hospitals, small businesses and schools. Through his Infrastructure Plan Biden has created millions of well paying jobs and is repairing America's broken and neglected for decades infrastructure- roads, bridges, airports, and mass transit. Then there is the largest investment for climate change action in history, there is student debt relief for 5 million people, delivered free vaccines, cheaper insulin, and capped price pharmaceuticals. Biden says the health system is broken and hugely expensive and America still needs a health coverage for all single payer system. A lot remains to be done and this is just the beginning to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the American people. No amount of dissimulation, distortion of facts can change that. Roosevelt said in 1932- "GIve me your help not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people." ...

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Stefan Kornelius, foreign editor of the German newspaper Deutsche Zeitung, on the calm deliberative style of Angela Merkel, taking an issue, analyzing it down to all the details, and taking action cautiously, meticulously, carefully. This approach worked for the eurozone crisis but a more enterprising risk taking approach may be necessary on other issues. A sense of foreboding about the election results, with her partners, the Free Democrats, coming out with few or no seats in parliament, and the poorer than expected results for Merkel in earlier elections.

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Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post looks at the story of Horst Kasner, Lutheran pastor in East Germany, Angela Merkel's father. In 1954 when Angela was born, her father moved the family to East Germany, then called the German Democratic Republic. The family settled in 1957 near the town of Templin in the Brandenburg countryside. He had an idealism based on the Lutheran faith and believed at the time that it was possible to build a East German Protestanism that reconciled with the professed socialist ideals of the GDR. Over three decades that faith was tested and by 1990 Kasner was known for his dissent to the state repression practiced by the GDR limiting free expression and religious beliefs. He worried about the domination of economic thinking even in the churches after the reunification.   Angela Merkel was close to her mother, Herlind Kasner, who joined the Social Democrats after reunification. Her brother joined the Greens. Merkel joined the movement called the Democratic Awakening in 1989, which merged with the Christian Democrats after reunification. Horst Kasner died in 2011 about 6 years after Merkel became chancellor. Speaking at a church in Templin in 2014, Merkel said what she believes- "God created every human being. We should strive for perfection. But we can make mistakes." To some Merkel remains inscrutable, hard to make out. This may be because she retains some of the thoughtful way her father meditated on what life was about and how best to live it.  ...

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For groceries cost limiting Trump proposes nothing. It was found in the EU that there was excessive price action by grocery stores in 2022 and 2023. Though experts say no for price setting by government, the deterrent effect of a policy of the government to not set prices but to send a clear message about excessive profit as anti-social behavior, has beneficial impact for price reduction or future price increases to be put on hold. Harris will do this. For child care costs. Trump proposes nothing and does not put children as the next generation of Americans at the top of priorities. Harris puts children as the top priority and early years development as critical. Harris proposes a child tax credit of $6000 per family that would cost $110 billion per year estimate from Office for Responsible Budget, offset by Medicare savings achieved by negotiating with Pharma of $36 billion a year, tax on billionaires at 25% instead of 8.2% saving $40 billion a year, for net cost of $44 billion a year the Harris $6000 Child Tax Credit.  Congress including Democrats failed to extend the $3600 tax credit per child below 6 years that was introduced after 2019 yet allowed to expire in 2022 reverting to $2000 per child under 6 years. The concept is accepted as helping children, Vance the Republican VP nominee has suggested $5000, only opposed by country club Republicans oblivious to the importance of children having free school lunches and parents having the money for child care added costs for the future of the children of this Nation.     ...

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In this thoughtful essay Bob Davis of the WSJ asks whether the decision of the Clinton administration to admit China into the World Trade Organization was a bad one for the U.S.  Mr. Clinton in 2000 tried to persuade Congress citing words of president Woodrow Wilson that of a dream "of a world full of free markets, free elections, and free peoples working together."  Every year China would have its most favored nation status renewed with help from supporters in Congress. After WTO entry this was not necessary. Chinese leaders saw the entry into WTO as a way to knock down trade barriers, to act a wrecking ball for the planned economy, to give the economy a big boost.  In 1994 China was a relatively backward economy with 60% of the population living on less than $1.90 a day. Hard to imagine today.  Not everyone was convinced that it was good for the U.S. This included a trade attorney who had tackled a huge trade deficit with Japan in the Reagan period- Robert Lighthizer. Lighthizer was Deputy Trade Representative negotiating with the Japanese. His prediction was that no job in America would be safe once China entered the WTO, that China would become a dominant trading nation.  Robert Cassidy, 73, trade negotiator for president Clinton looks back on that time and says that he regrets what has happened, that all his work night and a day only benefited business and hurt workers. David Autor, MIT economist and his colleagues,  in a later study documented loss of 2.4 million jobs to Chinese competition between 1999 and 2011, in many manufacturing towns dotting the landscape of America, particularly in the midwestern states. And the expectation that the higher economic growth would lead to less political control did not turn out to be true.  In the process multinationals rushed to China after WTO entry and China became the world's manufacturing floor. By 2013 China's per capita income reached $7000, after years of fast GDP growth approaching 10% a year.  About 400 million Chinese were lifted out of poverty from living on less than $1.90 per day from 1999 to 2011, according to the World Bank. A big problem was that the U.S. did not plan for the change from WTO entry. No resources were allocated for the plan to let American workers adjust through worker retraining and special trade handicapped income support, to allow for a slow planned shift. Instead the pace of growth was faster than that which the U.S. faced with the Japanese export offensive in the eighties. China experienced double digit growth after 2000. The irony is that the Republican administrations that followed Clinton followed a policy of free trade to the advantage of China's state run economy when working class Americans voted mostly for the Democratic Party. Little was done and little said in the media from Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the establishment during this time even after Mr. David Autor documented the effects of trade in the U.S.  Till Mr. Trump recognizing the alienation in communities hit by job losses from trade upended American politics, shifted this part of the electorate to the Republican base. Mr. Lighthizer's view is that complaints about China should be left out of WTO because it is naive to tackle it that way. With a $375 billion China trade deficit for 2017 the challenge has to be met in a different way, and the U.S. has to rely on regaining its economic strength within a fair trading framework. Having negotiated with the Japanese Mr. Lighthizer sees the approach adopted then as the one right for today. During the long negotiations Lighthizer is said to have received many negotiating positions of the Japanese signifying no change in long sessions. He once simply made a paper plane and sent it right back, in one of these sessions. He meant that the U.S. was serious about reversing the imbalance in trade. ...

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Germany's social-affairs minister, Ursula von der Leyden, presents the "fourth poverty and wealth report," in March 2013. The issue of inequality is arousing public sentiment in Germany with this becoming an election issue along with the euro crisis and energy reform. The term Gerechtigkeit means "justice" in German and is associated with the idea of equality. The Social Democrats Party and the Greens talk about this in terms of "social scissors" opening wider. The Minder Initiative which passed in Switzerland enabling shareholders to restrict executive pay has led to public discussion in Germany for a similiar approach to be adopted by Germany. The ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) of Angela Merkel and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) party are different from other parties in Europe because of their Catholic and Lutheran roots which favor social solidarity. The FDP party in the ruling coalition supports free market principles but lacks popular support. The Economist cites the work of the German think tank DIW on inequality, which shows inequality showing sharp rise after German reunification around 1991, especially in East Germany. The situation moderates with improvements in inequality in East Germany and a slight improvement in West Germany after 2005. Both East and W. Germany have moved up overall in the Ginni coefficeint which measures inequality from about 0.4 in 1991 to about 0.5 in 2010, showing that the situation has stabilized at a higher level of inequality. Part of this could be because of the shift to temporary workers at lower wages about this time as German industry made efforts to keep wages down and improve competitiveness, even as overall conditions in the economy improved in the last decade. The Economist cites another study by the Initiative for a New Social Market Economy, a German think tank, which compares Germany with other members of the OECD. Germany ranks closer to Scandinavian countries in seventh place in this study, but does poorly in equal oportunities with 14th place. Germany lags behind other OECD and European countries in opportunities for women to work full time. Germany lacks enough daycare facilities for small children so that their mothers can work full time. There is a shortage of about 150,000 for preschool daycare openings in Germany, acccording to information cited by Deutsche Welle from government sources....

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A ZDF poll in Dec. 2016 shows 64% of the German people support chancellor Merkel's decision to run for fourth term. Of CDU supporters 89% support Merkel. If the election were held today CDU/CSU would win 36%, SPD 21%, Greens 11% and FDP 5%. Schulz is a lot more popular than Sigmar Gabriel in the SPD. About 51% of the German people support Martin Schulz, current head of the European parliament, Gabriel gets only 29%. With SPD supporters Schulz has 64%. Merkel could form a government with Greens and FDP support. See the related article on Greens and CDU positions coming closer.

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A government watchdog in Germany keeps track of what members of Germany's parliament the Bundestag earn in secondary income from speaking fees and other sources. The watchdog is called Abgeordnetenwatch or parliamentarian-watch. German parliamentarians are now required to list what bracket they are in with the highest at 250,000 euros with no ceiling set. One exception is for lawyers, consultants and farmers who can avoid transparency for upto 3.3 million euros. Unusually these professional backgrounds are left as exceptions. Still Germany is making an effort in this direction where such an effort is absent in the U.S. leading to a credibility gap for established parties and politicians, and leaving an opening for criticism from outsiders who can say they have no connection to lobbyists. German members of parliament earn an income of 9300 euros a month.

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A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll conducted in September 2010 shows a big change in public opinion in the US towards outsourcing of production and on free trade agreements. Poll respondents were asked "Do you think free-trade agreements have helped or hurt the US?" The response in 1999 was close to 30% for those who said hurt and those saying helped. By 2005 the curves diverged seriously with more people saying that it hurt and fewer saying it helped. In 2010 this swing is sharp with about 50% saying it hurts the US and only about 10% saying it helps. When asked "Do you agree or disagree that outsourcing of production and manufacturing work to foreign countries is a reason the U.S. economy is struggling and more people are not being hired?" the response is overwhelmingly agreeing that this is bad for the U.S. job situation. The answers are the same across party affiliation, in fact higher for Republicans than Democrats 90% to 84%, higher by income level with 93% for those making over $75,000 agreeing and 86% for those making less than 75,000 agreeing, 93% of professionals and managers agree compared to 89% white collar and 83% blue collar agreeing. This shows all segments of society agree that that the manner in which free trade and outsourcing of production is taking place is not helping the U.S., and this time the highly educated segments are leading the way. Bill McInturff, the Republican pollster who helped do the survey points to the big change in the way well educated and upper income people perceive free trade agreements. In 1999 only 24% of this group making over $75,000 said free trade hurt the U.S., now 50% of this group says it hurts the US. This is sure to lead to big changes in U.S. trade and currency issues with China and other countries. ...

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The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact led by Japan and the U.S. moves to the next stage with legislation introduced by Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden in the U.S. Congress for granting trade promotion authority to the U.S. president. This would facilitate the negotiation of an agreement leading to concessions by different countries. Talks between Japan and the U.S. intensified with the U.S. president Obama saying in his 2015 State of the Union message that China wanted to write the rules for trade in Asia, and asking why the U.S. should not work to write its own rules. Defense Secretary, Aston Carter, called it more important than another aircraft carrier. Support from Europe, India and other countries for the China sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as a rival to the U.S. dominated World Bank and IMF, also give urgency to the TPP. The TPP countries, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Peru and Chile, make up over $400 billion of about $4 trillion in U.S. trade, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The TPP is now seen not just a free trade pact, but also as away to counter China's influence in Asia. Experts see the Obama administration as having bungled its handling of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank which the U.S. did not join, and its allies in Europe, other Asian countries including India, decided to join as founding members. Democrats in Congress led by Senator Schumer, Warren, oppose the legislation granting fast track for free trade pacts citing the loss of jobs and lowering of wages for workers in manufacturing in the U.S., with only about a dozen Democrats favoring the legislation, leading to a split in the party. Projections by Peter Petri, Michael Plummer, Fan Zhai, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, show a net negative impact on depressed wage sectors such as U.S. manufacturing with additional $45 billion in U.S. imports and $35 billion in exports for heavy manufacturing from the TPP free trade pact, and additional $33 billion of U.S. imports and $10 billion exports in light manufacturing by 2025. Higher wage sectors such as U.S. Services including IT get a boost with additional $42 billion in exports and $ 8 billion imports. Agriculture shows insignificant gains with additional exports of $2 billion and imports of 0.5 billion. The auto and transport sector disproportionately favors Japan with $33 billion in additional U.S. imports and $8 billion in exports. ...

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This editorial in Der Spiegel magazine sees something positive emerging from the current state of politics in Germany with the fragmentation in political parties. It says this situation is something that is happening for some time now. In the Netherlands there are a number of parties working together in a coalition government. And in France the Macron movement swept away the old parties. Something similar is also happening in Italy with the Five Star Movement as elections approach in March 2018. This may be a positive development in that the days of 100 percent convention votes, and of career politicians who move up the ranks from one political committee to another, are over. Voters are acting in individualistic way, don't trust the elites and old big tent parties with career politicians who may not be responsive to people's needs.  Young people are eager for more participation, and this may be a good thing, says Der Spiegel. It points out that not just parties like AfD are gaining as a result. SPD support dropped to 16 percent in one poll same as AfD. The Christian Lindner's Free Democrats in Germany also are benefitting,Macron in France is benefitting, Sebastian Kurz in Austria is benefitting. Their parties they prefer to call as "movements" with some marketing and political platforms that appeal to young people. Macron's movement moved aside the old political system and brought in younger people, revitalizing the decaying political system. The conclusion for Der Spiegel is that this change is not entirely good or bad, its a challenge. Our focus should not be on propping up obsolete structures, breathing new life into old political structures could be a good thing with new younger voters looking for participation. So don't be afraid of voters. ...

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Bennhold and Erlanger of the NYT point out that prime minister Theresa May has remained vague about the nature of the negotiations for Brexit. The snap election increases the confusion with a hung parliament and no party getting a majority. The result can be seen as sending mixed signals. The British public by supporting parties such as Labor, SNP and Liberal Democrats with over 50% of the vote, is saying that it is not sure about Brexit being a priority for Britain, given the uncertainty for the British economy and other pressing problems. All this had been lost in the debate about hard and soft Brexit, in the political rhetoric taken up by Ms May when the basic questions about Brexit have not gone away. Here Erlanger and Bennhold take leaders back to these questions posed by former finance minister George Osborne. Osborne as Editor of The Evening Standard asked readers 10 questions- How is withdrawal going to increase trade when you leave the biggest free trading bloc in the world? How can withdrawal help London as the financial capital of the world? How is migraton going to be tackled when its not clear which business will have its labor supply restricted or curtailed. For these reasons- apart from many others about the whole process of withdrawal and the cost to Britain- the whole idea of Brexit appears to have not been thoroughly thought through. As a result the referendum vote may be seen in Europe as a temporary reflection of British opinion at that point of time, and subject to change over time.   ...

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Friedrich Drumpf left Germany at the age of 16, coming to the U.S. in 1885. He came back to Germany to find a wife after running restaurants in California during the time of the Gold Rush. When he tried to return to hsi home town because of his wife was homesick he was expelled a s a draft dodger for missing military service. Kallstadt is a wine producing region. Drumpf was tenacious and keen on getting ahead, a trait that marked his son Fred Trump who built state financed housing in the FDR period in New York, and his on Donald Trump who went into luxury housing. Biographer Gwenda Blair says all members of the family were good at finding loopholes, saving money, and shared the family culture of knowing who the audience is that they are targeting. This is why says Bair that Trump is at ease in being a onetime Democrat, now Republican, sometime liberal and sometimes conservative, and can appeal to people in different ways that would be impossible for most politicians, even people on opposite sides for different reasons. Gwenda Blair is author of two books on the Trump family. "Trumps- Three Generations That Built an Empire," and "Donald Trump: Master Apprentice."     ...

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The Free Democrats led by Christian Lindner are polling about 4% a week before the elections in Germany. Lindner's FDP was part of the Scholz SPD Greens coalition after winning 11% of the vote in 2021. Elections would be held in 2025 March. Yet with FDP breaking away from the coalition as its popularity dropped elections will be held next week. From the beginning this coalition was not a good one as FDP supported the debt brake and no spending, when Greens and SPD promised investment in infrastructure that were neglected by Merkel's CDU. Germany economy as shown in the article alongside by Tankersely and Eddy reporting from Wittenberg in the eastern region, has not grown in 5 years. Crumbling infrastructure is seen everywhere in cities across the country and the rail system lacks much needed investment.  Scholz wants to reverse this with Made in Germany and remove the debt brake. The CDU wants to cut taxes and regulation. No one knows if the FDP will pass 5% of the vote needed to have representation in parliament. It happened before for FDP- before the 2021 election. ...