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The concerns over far right parties expelling immigrants in states such as Thuringia has caused a wave of protests across Germany including Berlin and other cities in January 2024. It is also impacting the East where anti immigrant sentiment is based. Germany has a shortage of workers in parts of Germany that formed the Federal Republic before reunification- immigrants fill these gaps. The East has not been the success story it was supposed to be because reunification of the Federal Republic and the GDR (Communist East Germany around Leipzig and East Berlin) led to a flight of young people to the western parts for jobs and opportunities. Leading to a mostly older and retired population in the east -leaving it struggling and feeling unwanted. This is the background of the anti immigrant sentiment in the east where there are far fewer immigrants than in the western and central regions. Resentment about being ignored as settled around the immigrant issue in the east even as Germany has benefitted through some of the middle class educated immigrants from Turkey and from Ukraine, and Syria. Similar resentment has taken place in parts of England in the north which led to fear of immigrants being used by Tories party leading to Brexit. In a similar way in France in the north, and in the US with neglect of rural areas and factory communities in the east and midwest. The communities that were left out that have made choices with far right as in Britain have ended up with leaders from immigrant families that have accomplished little or much in the reverse direction for the English people in the north. The leaders of Germany, Britain, the US, the Nordic countries such as Denmark, and gradually in France have learned that it is right to go back to their roots, that they had forgotten where they came from and are now fighting for the dignity of workers (Schulz), standing in picket lines for the autoworkers (Biden), and following the Biden example in the UK (Starmer). With it comes the realization that this started with the Thatcher and Reagan era that created the conditions and culture that were repeatedly embraced by Democrats in the US, Labor in Britain and Social Democrats in Germany alike leading to financial crises and levels of inequality and lack of educational opportunity not seen since the Great Depression. With it by 2024 comes the unwinding of the economics and culture of the Reagan era. Even in China and India the shift is away from that culture as the economies of these countries with half of humanity are shifted to serve a broad base and to include rural, agricultural and other parts of the population. It shows that the educated parts of the population in these countries have the ability to create the conditions that in Lincoln's words are for the people, by the people, of the people, for a brighter future, if only they will try hard enough for their children's and grand children's sake.  ...

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The Southport killings in the UK where a delinquent 17 year old youth attacked children leading to riots in the UK in 2024 has led to a public inquiry. 

Terrorism was previously dominated by terrorist groups, yet the new threat Starmer says was of “acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety. Sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups. But fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake.” 

Experts say there have been a number of such attacks before in Reading in 2022, and in the killing of a Tory MP. Neil Basu, former head of Counter Terrorism UK says when he retired in 2021, the “mixed, unclear or unstable” suspect category — someone who did not align with a particular ideology but was set on violent activity was about 40 per cent of casework.

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Rishi Sunak, Britain's finance minister, defends the increase in the corporate tax rate to 25%, saying the increased receipts from corporate tax in recent years were because of cyclical recovery of corporate profits which took a hit in the financial crisis. He says that the cuts in the rate by George Osborne, former Tory finance minister, have not led to increased business investment. Osborne cut taxes to 20% from 29%, lowest in G20 countries and Hammond who succeeded Osborne as finance minister cut the rate to 19%. At 25% the corporate tax will still be the lowest in the G7 countries. France, Japan and Germany have corporate tax rate of 30-31%. Higher taxes would help finance needs for government investment in infrastructure and health services, public services, and tackle the financial situation arising out of the pandemic support. The last time taxes were raised was in 1973. This also shows that the UK and the rest of the world is looking at the mixed results shown from cutting taxes. Business investment has not resulted from the business tax cuts in the way that would support creating job growth, some of the investment only supporting automation. The investment in infrastructure is lacking from the business sector leading to the need for government to use taxes for renewal in updating infrastructure. The rise of China with new infrastructure has only shown the problems with simply cutting taxes in the hope that job growth, economic growth, infrastructure growth would happen as hoped. This is why the Tories under Boris Johnson are trying a new approach to get the job done. ...

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David Smith, Economics Editor of The Times, says history is repeating itself now that the Labour Party thinks it should not have abolished Clause 4 of its constitution under Tony Blair ( the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange). Now that Labour's policies for renationalisation of water, transport and other basic services are popular, it appears that we are seeing a response from people fed up with market failure and greed in the way the private companies in these services are run.  Profits should go to taxpayers for basic public services and that salaries of management should be moderate, services efficient, and borrowing of capital done at lower rates, is the idea behind this. The Times You.Gov poll on renationalisation for rail shows 56% supporting, only 22% opposing, renationalisation of energy companies supported by 45%, 29% opposed, water companies 50% supporting and 25% opposed. In addition to this other Labour policies of 45% tax rate for incomes above 80,000 pounds, and 50% at 123,000 pounds, as well as wealth tax are also popular. Workers on company boards with ownership of a portion of company equity are also popular. This adds to the mystery about Labour's lack of strong support going into the election. Support for renationalisation comes from the thirst for change, says The Times. Market failures, greed, inequality and poor delivery of essential public services, severe cuts in the last decade, all play a role in the thirst for change. There is also the idea that when it comes to essential services there is no room for profit or owners and managers with huge pay running into millions. When trains are overcrowded or unreliable run by private companies economic arguments remain for the textbooks, its daily experience that counts. Going back to a time in the past when it worked, where economic structures were based on fairness, and people cared, is seen as an alternative to a dysfunctional period.     ...

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Lizette Alvarez and Manny Fernandez provide this rivetting account of two Hispanic Senators in the U.S., both with Cuban backgrounds, one growing up in the Miami area around Cuban Americans, and the other in all white communities in Texas. Marco Rubio identifies with his Cuban background, but has distanced himself from immigration reforms he advocated that would provide undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. Cruz does not identify with his Cuban American story, as much as he identifies with an immigrant story- his father left the Cuba of dictator Fulgencio Batista when he fled to the U.S. in 1956- and would tighten immigration enforcement and controls. Hispanics in Texas say they do not identify with Ted Cruz, who even changed his Spanish sounding name to Ted follwoing the advice of his Irish American mother. Cruz also attended Ivy league schools- Princeton and Harvard Law School, while Rubio took on large student loans to finish his law degree. Hispanics across the U.S. are shown as distancing themselves from the 2 candidates, expecially the large Mexican American community which has traditionally voted for Democrats....

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Boris Johnson was never for austerity and says this in his new book, yet he failed to make the major investments in the British economy in the way Biden has done in the US, and in some ways has left Labor's Starmer with difficult decisions with the strained budget finances of Britain. Of the investments he protected from John Osborne and his austerity plans as chancellor under Cameron Boris Johnson says- “Those big investments – Crossrail, the Olympic site, the Westfield Centre at Shepherd’s Bush – were fortuitously timed for London: vast counter-cyclical programmes that kept the spades going into the ground and people in work.” This was as Mayor of London in 2016. Of Osborne and Cameron so little is left, and so little came out of the period of austerity other than the failed investments Britain failed to make, simply a lost decade for Britain. And the diversion of Brexit under Johnson not taking Britain to a good place for the standard of living of the British people. Of the intraparty conflicts in the Tories he says Sunak's resignation as chancellor should never have happened calling it "worse than a crime," and a mistake for Sunak, the party, and the country. Johnson says that many days as PM he would come back to No.10 flat, exhausted and working into the evening when he should have been talking to colleagues, MP's to keep them all together. After Sunak's resignation from Boris Johnson's cabinet the Tory Conservatives split further apart, this time in the Boris Johnson faction of the party. Sunak's elevation to prime minister was short lived ending up with the Tories going downhill from there.  On the singular goal that led to the splits- that of Brexit- Johnson has little more to say than that in his travels he had found people wanted more Britain. ...

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The new administration of Lopez Obrador takes the first step in its efforts to to end the rampant corruption in Mexico that has affected previous governments, in this story from the WSJ.  Lobrador campaigned on this issue and won an overwhelming mandate. Mexico's finance ministry is conducting an investigation into dealings of the steel maker Ahmsa in the sale of a fertilizer plant to Pemex during the period when Mr. Lozoya was CEO of Pemex.  Mr. Lozoya led Pemex from 2012 with the election of President Nieto of the PRI party to 2015 when he was replaced as CEO as Pemex finances suffered and Pemex failed to anticipate a fall in oil prices.  Pemex paid $475 million for the fertilizer plant. Mexico's government says the plant was worth about $50 million. The Brazilian company Odebrecht is also involved in the transactions, according to this report in the WSJ. Ahmsa is struggling to operate under court approved restructuring. Twenty years ago it defaulted on $1.8 billion of debt. Similar problems have plagued countries in other parts of the world. In Malaysia a new government campaigned on this issue with a 90 year old Mahathir Mohamed returning to head the new government  following the election.  ...

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WSJ looks at the changes in the way medicine should be practiced in the light of what we have learned from the pandemic.  Medicine practiced before the pandemic and still today relies mainly on a visit to the doctor or specialist who is short of time. There is a shortage of doctors. Patients have many illnesses as a result of decades of neglect of proper nutrition, and exercize habits. Obesity is at about 40% in the U.S. about 30% in the UK and 17% in France, and high also in other parts of the world. These high rates were unknown throughout history and result in many illnesses and increase by four times the vulnerability to the coronavirus. One authority in medicine calls obesity pouring gasoline on a fire for effects of the virus.  A doctor's appointment with doctors short of time with no coordination around a whole range of factors related to obesity, illnesses, health checkups, mental health, is now seen as a heavily handicapped way to practice medicine or for patient healthcare and wellbeing. The alternative is discussed here as the way forward. A  team will be responsible for a patient's care not just an individual doctor. The team would care for general health after a patient's checkup, cover individual illnesses, weight issues, mental health, exercize nutritional needs and other good healthcare habits. Instead of relying on doctors at a time of shortages of doctors the team would be led by nurse practitioners.  A nurse practitioner is someone with a bachelors degree and a masters degree or doctoral degree in nursing with 1000 hours of clinical training. Studies have shown that they are effective and even more effective than individual doctors. Today particularly with the problem of doctors with limited time compounded by the built up problems of decades of bad habits in nutrition and exercize and poor "cultural" habits getting entrenched, there has never been a greater need for a better way to practice real healthcare for a person's wellbeing. Particularly in rural areas with an even larger shortage of doctors the health practitioner led team will play a big role. Patients will under this setting receive more care virtually and get more followup care by phone and video messaging. The numbers tell the story- there are shortages of doctors in USA, Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the U.S. shortage of doctors is 55,000 projected to 2033 by Association of American Medical Colleges. There are 290,000 nurse practitioners licensed in the U.S. and 131,0000 physician assistants. The goal will be to get an adequate number of nurse practitioners licensed in this decade to take care of these teams. The pandemic has made virtual visits to doctors and nurse practitioners popular. Medicine reimbursement should and would be practiced on the basis of how well a patient is doing not on a fee for each micro service that is delivered. For this to happen the teams led by the nurse practitioner have to commit to patient education of the benefits from good practices and good habits for nutrition, exercize, caring for oneself. A doctor short of time is hardly the person to carry on this patient education which is where the major opportunities for a new system arise. The virtual care also provides a new medium for patient education and awareness of the risks of getting illnesses, preventive actions to be taken in advance. One approach being tested in California and Texas is for a monthly fee for patients more payments by health plans to doctors or healthcare teams if the patient is healthier. Additional health professionals are added to the team including health coaches, dietitians and medical assistants to increase its effectiveness in counseling and education and monitoring.  The nurse practitioner team approach is already being practiced in parts of the U.S. including the example of New Hampshire shown here, and is predicted to be the approach for primary care in the next decade. ...

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The Liberal Democrats lost badly in the May 2011 local elections in Britain. Voters also overwhelmingly rejected the alternative voting system that the Liberal Democrats supported. The vote on an alternative voting system was one of the key conditions put up by the Liberals when they joined the Conservatives in a coalition government. About 69% voted to keep the current voting system supported by the Conservative party. In local races Labor and the Scottish National Party made gains at the expense of the Liberals. The Liberals lost 695 of their 1,751 seats in local councils, 12 of 17 seats in the Scottish parliament, and one of six seats in the Welsh assembly. Tory support remained steady, but voters turned away from the Liberals to show they do not support the austerity cuts of the Cameron led government. This will pose problems for Liberal leader Nick Clegg's continued participation in the coalition.

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To really understand American history from its founding with the Mayflower voyage read the two volumes of Francis Parkman of the period between 1600-1756 that is rarely read and understood about how the American Indians and the French, the British, lived and built new settlements on the American continent. It is told in a very readable and authentic way by the greatest history and story book teller of this period. Library of America published Francis Parkman's France and England in North America. The Washington Post said that a thousand years from now, if their are still Americans here, Parkman will be their Homer. Too much of the American story told by only one person and PBS documentaries. One can learn about it simply by reading about it through different books, asking one's own questions,  and coming up with one's own understanding of American history which would be more authentic. This would include excellent biographies written by authors such as David McCullough whose range and vision combined with other authors including Barbara Tuchman for the 19th century, and many British authors such as Roger Knight covering the Napoleonic period offer a better picture of European and American history intermingled, a better perspective than the monopoly business venture that history becomes with these PBS documentaries by one person.           ...

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This story in the WSJ on the Biden White House says it always operated with a tight inner circle. During the Covid pandemic it limited contacts for the president, yet after the pandemic eased this protective layer was not taken down says WSJ. As the president's age advanced the tight inner circe remained sheltering the president form the outside. The debate with DJT was one point that this became evident. Biden in his last year in office is 82 years- the oldest president. He had accomplished much in passing the series of bills that funded infrastructure, chips, science and protecting workers using his skills with Congress acquired over span of 50 years. Limiting Biden's one on one's and to certain parts of the day had an unexpected result. The head of Armed Services Democrat Rep. Adam Smith says this happened during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. He could not reach Biden so he could caution him about an overly optimistic view of the withdrawal. As the withdrawal led to loss of 13 armed forces men the disarray was a topic for Republicans. Only after the withdrawal issues Biden called Smith. In 4 years Smith says he had this one call with the president when he had spoken to Obama several times. Simtih's view is that Biden White House was "more insulated than most." Senator Manchin says he had less contact with Biden than his closest advisers.  This WSJ report also says the contacts of cabinet members with Biden were limited and tightly controlled. This report says Yellen at Treasury had few one one's with the president and dealt with adviers. Austin at Defense in the last 2 years during the Ukraine and Gaza crisis had only rare direct contact with Biden. During the campaign this story says close adviser Donilon kept access limited for polling experts to the president to the point where Senator Schumer and others felt Biden was falling behind but the president was not aware of this. ...

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House Speaker Pelosi and Majority leader Reid prempt the Bond-Levin proposal to use the $25 billion of funds from the energy efficiency retooling for operating expenses. They said there were just not enough votes to pass the change. And the general feeling was that the automakers had hurt their case more than they had helped it after 2 days of hearings in the Senate and the House on November 18-19, 2008. Pelosi put it this way, "until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money." The automakers were asked to come up with a plan that shows accountability and viability. Pelosi is from California, a state that has seen its mandate for controlling auto emissions held up by the automakers lobbying and the Bush administration EPA, and which favors higher fuel efficiency, higher than the numbers passed in recent legislation, also held up by the automakers lobbying efforts. So there is a three way battle going on with the states in the midwest and the Bush administration pitted against Pelosi-Reid-Waxman and the younger Obama supporters in Congress for the $25 billion in energy efficiency retooling to be used for salaries and so on. And the other battle pitting the midwestern states against all those who call for strict conditions including firing management, and serious restructuring within or outside prepackaged bankruptcy. Reid and Pelosi called for Congress to reconvene on December 2. Reid said that what happened this week has not been good for the auto industry,, which is ominous, because the hearings showed an unrepentant automaker management which did not accept any of the errors made by management long before the credit crisis in October, which riled Congressmen. Another thing was the reference to corporate jets which came up in the hearings, and Reid emphasized as did others that these guys flying in in their corporate jets did not send a good message to people in Searchlight or Reno, Nevada. The reason this is important is that executive compensation and golden parachutes are moving right to the top as they do in such times, as evidenced by the story in the Wall Street Journal frontpage on November 20 about 120 executives making $21 billion in compensation in the last 5 years including failed companies, see the link. . ...

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NYT's Landon Thomas gives this exceptional report on how Deutsche Bank changed from a lender to the German auto industry and safe banking practices to enter the derivatives business and other opaque financial products that led to taking on huge risks. Deutsche Bank has agreed on Dec. 22, 2016 to settle with the U.S. Justice Department paying a fine of $7.2 billion for practices relating to faulty mortgage securities. This report says the problems started in 1995 with Deutsche Bank's leadership hiring Edson Mitchell of Merrill Lynch to promote the investment banking business at Deutsche Bank. Mitchell hired two derivatives traders Broeksmit and Anshu Jain. Mr. Mitchell died in plane crash in 2000 when he was 47 years age, Mr. Broeksmit committed suicide in 2014, 58 years in age, Mr. Anshu Jain, 53 years old, is the only surviving person of the three. Under Mr. Jain Deutsche Bank assumed more and more risk, and was involved in complex and opaque financial products leading to the toxic mortgage crisis, and manipulation of the lending rate for London banks.  It also lent $300 million to Donald Trump's businesses. Most of the profits generated from this venture have evaporated, with analysts estimating $15 billion in fines and penalties owed of the $20 billion that these ventures generated. Not counting the serious damage to the bank's reputation in Germany and the U.S. This report points out the role played by the CEO from 2002 to 2012 of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, in encouraging these ventures converting the bank from its original loan as a contintental lender to business to a bank selling opaque financial products for most of its profits. Landon Thomas also describes the events and days leading up to the suicide by Broeksmit, including a visit to a psychiatrist and Broeksmit's facing enormous stress about the investigations underway in Germany and the U.S. looking into the opaque financial products and practices of Deutsche Bank. This is also a cautionary tale about what happened in banking from the late 1990's leading to the collapse in 2008, leading to the problems of today- the need to rescue the economy in 2008-2009 and the low rate world that ensued damaging the savings of ordinary people, the infrastructure that was never built, the parallel crisis of the hollowing out in manufacturing as a false prosperity boomed in banking and finance. In a sense it is also a story of everyday lives that were damaged in the high flying boardrooms of finance in New York, London and Frankfurt. The revolving door between regulators and the banks made it harder to monitor and control banking risk letting this story unfold over decades, damaging the credibility of governments and the established political parties without clear alternatives from outside; as the dominance of Wall Street executives in the new outsider Trump administration shows.  ...

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Macron returns to the Sorbonne, France's oldest University, for his second address to Europe, following th first in 2017, 7 years back. Then as now Macron presents a vision for Europe, with a unique role for France. Defense of the ideas and ideals of Europe built through centuries, in contrast to USA and China, and India, other centers of world civilization. It is worth a try to read the whole speech if you are a European or a friend of Europe, to get a sense of the European ideas that come from France, Italy and the Netherlands and Britain, and Germany. It presents ideas not just about defense, including Ukraine. Most of the speech is about how can Europe and European ideas be made to grow and prosper with all the changes happening in the world in technology, content that is less and less European for the children of Europe- less than 3% Macron says. How it can invest to meet the oversubsidizing that the US and China are doing, the investments that the US with Inflation Reduction Act for $1 trillion in spending and investment including chips and science, and the similar investments in China- how can Europe make investments of $1 trillion, and ways to generate the funding. And investing $1 trillion on a Europe wide basis with a plan and a set of goals to maintain European leadership in a world dominated by the US and China, and soon India. Macron says in 12 months plans have to be developed and set into motion for this new European effort. ...

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The story of how prime minister Naoto Kan's distrust of TEPCO, the electric power company operating the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, and of the bureaucrats in the government, played out in the first days of the nuclear crisis in 2011. Kan bypassed the crisis management system set up for just such a situation because of a deep mistrust of the collusion between industry and bureaucrats. Instead he relied on a close group of advisors, who felt that the company was not sharing all the information but could do little about it. This led to lack of direction in the crisis from the highest levels of government, including a lack of response to U.S. offers of support and assistance with nuclear experts and technology.

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As the trade problems with the U.S. escalate in tit for tat tariffs, China looks back at its history for parallels. The period of the "unequal treaties" imposed by the Western powers on China in the period 1850-1900, the Korean War of the 1950's, and other analogies that come up to people. Yet China's planners and leaders are looking at another situation the Plaza Accord of 1985 in which the western nations pressured Japan into accepting a significantly higher exchange rate to reduce its trade surplus and the Japanese yen appreciated by 50%. Japan cut interest rates from 5% to 2.5%, and introduced huge fiscal stimulus, banks opened up to lend vigorously. The result was a boom by 1990's followed by a bust that led to another decade of lending to loss making firms called "zombie" businesses, that led to a stagnant economy. This has persisted for three decades. This China sees as an unacceptable situation when China has still not achieved developed economy status in terms of per capita incomes. It fears getting into a middle income trap as the economic growth slows and the aging population makes a recovery more difficult.  The difference with Japan in the 1985-1990 period is that Mr. Trump lacks the kind of five nation economic coordination that put pressure on Japan. Today there are differing views on China in Europe and the U.S. and different policies. Mr. Trump is known for his style of deal making and could settle early, as feared by some Republican leaders in Congress who see in China a challenge to America's technological dominance. There are no calls to appreciate China's currency. Only calls for China to change its state subsidies model and put in writing and through laws that change the way of doing business that does not require American companies to hand over advanced technology. This is also a concern for Japan and the European Union countries such as Germany, and is something all nations try to protect in global competition. Japan is still facing the consequences in creating a new competitor in high speed train technology after building the first high speed trains in China and transfer of the high speed train technology by Kawasaki. The Household Survey by the Federal Reserve showing the financial fragility of 40% of American families shown on this page today shows how this situation is likely to evolve as working class families in the U.S. support a trade stance that protects American jobs and technology. Job losses over three decades and a $891 billion trade deficit in 2018 are seen as unacceptable to the U.S. in 2019. A stronger U.S. dollar helped increase the U.S. trade deficit by 10% in 2018, nullifying some benefits of Mr. Trump's trade actions. Mr. Robert Lighthizer was a negotiator in the trade dispute with Japan in 1985, and runs the negotiations with China with support from president Trump. This alone has kept the Japanese situation in 1985 uppermost in the minds of China's leaders as they try to come up with a way to settle the trade dispute with Mr. Trump.     ...

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Ted Forstmann thinks we are in the second innings , and just at the beginning of the pain that will happen as the country tries to clear up the financial mess from easy money and errrors of the financial industry, pain that will lead to the overhaul of the country and the economy. The crisis taht started in October 2007 is just making its way in the early stages and expect a lot more to happen. He has a story that he was told by Warren Buffett about a country and an economy like ours that first there are the innovators, then there are the imitators, and last there are the idiots who enter the scene. This is what happened here. The ofcourse a lot of stupidity takes place. Curiously he does not find fault with anybody, not Greenspan who did not seee the consequences of a to easy monetary policy, not the financial industry that got us into this bind, or the consumer who borrowed heavily.

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Amy Chozick of the NYT describes the puzzling idea of a Methodist do-gooder, with serious concern for injustices in the South, making an effort to accumulate money. Especially considering that Hillary Clinton must have known that speechmaking fees would come up in a presidential election campaign. Chozick describes in some detail the two years Hillary tried to shore up the family's finances after Bill Clinton's defeat in the 1980 election for Governor. Following the defeat Bill Clinton went back all over the state to voters to hear their complaints, sometimes for hours at a time. It was upto Hillary to shore up the family's finances. Hillary had to stretch to buy a $112,000 home in a better residential neighborhood. Family friends say Bill was never that interested in money, and never worried about the family's finances. Things were so bleak according to this account that Hillary worried about how they would pay for daughter Chelsea's college tution, as her own mother's experience has always remained with her of being denied a college education because of lack of money. During the Democratic Convention this comes up in the video introduction, something that most people are unaware of, which must have been difficult for an intensely private person like Hillary. Her mother is described in that video as having to go to the corner grocery store as a child with coupons for food. The income of the Clintons as professors in the years around 1975 was $18,000 each. As governor Mr. Clinton earned $33,519 in 1978 with combined income at $51,173 adding Hillary's work at the Rose law firm. A one time deal in the commodities market made 100,000, and an investment in land in the Ozarks led to losses- all at a time when other highly educated people in Arkansas were doing extremely well, including the Walton family. It wasn't until 1992 when Bill Clinton was running for president did the couple make higher income of $297,177 reported in 1992 tax returns. At this time entering the White House, of recent presidents only Harry Truman had lower net worth. Hillary donated her book proceeds for "It Takes a Village," to charity, and turned down an advance. By the time they left office the couple were faced with legal debts, owing $5 million in legal fees- Hillary Clinton saying they were "Dead broke." The former president now sought help to buy a Dutch Colonial in Chappaqua, New York, for $1.7 million. President Jimmy Carter was also facing large losses in his peanut business in Georgia when he left office, only to turn to writing books to salvage his finances. Hoover, FDR, Kennedy, George Bush, George W. Bush, were from families with great wealth or built their fortunes, including candidate Trump, sometimes using influence or connections or in the case of Kennedy's family gaining from the end of Prohibition. Eisenhower, Reagan, Carter were of more modest wealth. Only Harry Truman remains the awesome exception of dignity with extremely modest wealth, a small house in Independence, Missouri, no presidential pension, only an army pension of $112.56 a month in 1953. Truman's story also offers another aspect of public service of an exceptional kind and its value to the country for people to reflect on. A presidential pension of $25,000 was set up one year after Truman left office.  Experts say Truman's Senate Committee over 8 years 1941-1948, helped save billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and in faulty airplane as well as munitions development during the war effort, including saving thousands of lives.  In his farewell address in January 1953, Truman said he had spent 17 hours a day for eight years with no payment for overtime. In the address he correctly predicts that the Cold War would be won and he set the course. It also happened as predicted in that address with changes in the Kremlin and failure in the satellite states. Hillary Clinton put in these 17 hours and gained unmatched experience as Secretary of State, and is in a positon to set the course ahead in a manner that Truman once did in a complex world where careful policy, good judgement and in some situations strong action is needed. Such invaluable public service has never really been rewarded in the way business leaders are, not by a small fraction - too long simply taken for granted.  Considering her life story Hillary Clinton appears to have struggled with this all her life, to create a safety net that too often cracked, sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly. Has this concern sometimes gone too far, could better judgement be exercized. Perhaps or probably. Should it be seen in the context that Truman's situation reminds us. Probably.         ...

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Greg Ip tells India's story, piped water for hundreds of millions of Indians, massive increases in road and rail, rapid development of infrastructure, aviation, ports logistics. WSJ graph shows country growth of economies for Japan, China, India, Germany in 2000 and 2020. By 2000 Japan had grown its economy to become about half the size of the US economy with two decades of rapid growth since 1980. China repeated this process with two decades of hyper growth since 2000 to become about 75% of the US economy by 2020. The graphs also show Japanese growth tailing off so rapidly after 2000 in relation to the US economy that it is now only about 25% of the US economy. China is likely to follow the same path as growth slows and with an aging population to become about 35-40% of the US economy by 2040 from 75%. India following the process that happened in Japan and in China is likely to become close to 35-40% of the US economy by 2040 from about 18% today, with the fastest growth over the next two decades for the most populous country in the world. Greg Ip points out what has been achieved since 2014 with the Modi government. Good governance without leakages of public funds dedicated to infrastructure, ease of living, GST one India one tax so that growing pool of funds from taxes fund rapid development with no leakages to corrupt officials,  Swacch Bharat or Clean India, clean water from taps, electricity and cooking gas for the whole population of India with dates for completion. All this Ip calls removal of the shackles that existed for far too long even past 2000 and 2010 when China had vastly surpassed India from its low point in 1980 after Mao and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. India today is in as much a pace of development as China in the 1990's and Japan in the 1960's, except that it now has the benefit of grasping how development can be done in a way that does not affect climate and health in adverse ways as happened with China's hyper growth -which also led to the tragic loss of manufacturing for workers and communities in the US and Europe due to the economic theories of laissez faire of the Reagan era. Reagan theory for governments not working with industry that were applied indiscriminately during the Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump presidencies for three decades led to shipping manufacturing overseas with no regard for the risks and dangers. What Greg Ip fails to mention is the uniqueness of India that is united by Vedanta, Hinduism and Buddhism for thousands of years, and which keeps the fabric of society together when it is divided by 13 language groups. These 13 language groups are: Hindi 43% of the population, Bengali 8%, Marathi 7%, Telugu 7%, Tamil 6%, Gujarati 5%, Urdu 4%, Kannada 4%, Odia 3%, Malayalam 3%, Punjabi 3%, Assamese 1%, English 1%. It was the vision of the early leaders Vivekananda, Gokhale, Mohandas Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, that united a diverse country with many languages and cultural variation. And it is this vision of Vivekananda that is creating the Good Governance under Sab ka Vikas, Sab ka Viswas, Sab ke Saath, Sab ka Prayas of today- development for all, with the confidence of all, with the support of all, the efforts of all. Without a disciplined direction based on hard work India could not make it this far or fulfill the aspirations of its youthful population by 2040. ...

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The U.S. takes in 70,000 refugees a year, but only 1500 Syrian refugees have been taken in by the U.S. by Sept. 2015, as a huge migrant refugee crisis unfolds in Europe. Germany has to make the same background checks and is moving quickly, the U.S. takes 18-24 months. The withdrawal of the U.S. from the Middle East under the Obama administration led to the collapse of the fragile situation in Libya, Iraq and Syria, and the unraveling of these countries, a direct cause of the massive refugee crisis in the region with about half the Syrian population and large parts of Iraqi, Kurdish, and Libyan population dislocated. The result is a massive humanitarian crisis, turning the hopes of the Arab Spring into something no one could have imagined across North Africa. In a small Lutheran church in Frankfurt, Paulskirche, is the German story of a popular movement that spread throughout Europe in 1848, for a transition from autocratic governments to parliamentary democracy. Aspirations similiar to that expressed in the Middle East and North Africa in 2013-2014 in the Arab Spring were expressed in Germany and many parts of Europe in 1848. In the centre of Berlin on the Kurfstendamm lie the bombed but preserved ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, telling the story of the intervening years 1848-1949. It took many years before the same aspirations for liberty found shape in Germany's Public Law of 1949, finally finding a safe resting place after years of failing to unify a people around the ideas of liberty and justice for all, and not nationalism. Germans who had the hardest time waging that fight, by embracing the refugees in a spirit of openness carry on that fight into this century. Paul asks the question- who will lead? A Lutheran pastor's daughter takes up the fight without the slightest hesitation, and full measure of confidence with the words- "Europe will have failed on the question of refugees, if the close connection between it and universal civil rights is destroyed." ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Both the Tories in Britain and the Democrats in the US were caught by surprise by the sudden surge after the pandemic of illegal migrations flows in 2023-2024 which dropped to all time lows in 2019-2021 with the covid lockdowns. Tories with factional infighting and Democrats falsely believing they were virtuous humane could not take effective decisive immediate action costing them the defeats in 2024. The size of the illegal migration problem to the UK was underestimated in 2023. Tory rhetoric alone failed to convince the British public. In the US Biden not confronting it head on also failed to reassure the American people as the US Border also meant destructive Mexico/China fentanyl flows. Even today the action proposed falls short and new US bipartisan legislation is needed to make it the law of the land, closing three decades of stealth in immigration policies. ONS now estimates that it missed 166,000 people. The real figure for the year ending June 2023 for net migration was 906,000 not 748,000 as previously estimated. In the year ending June 2024 this figure for net migration was 728,000. Labour party under Keir Starmer made setting up the new structures for tackling alarming rise in migration the top priority in 2024. That lesson was not learned in the US and the issue not confronted head on to win public confidence- the Biden support for Republican Senator Lankford's legislation on illegal migrants and the border came late in 2023 and the issue was left to fester for 2 years eroding public confidence. In the US the issue of illegal fentanyl flows at the US Border and from China makes the Border and China relations issues that required effective and immediate action overriding everything else. In the end Tories confusion and internal factions, other controversies, led to lack of vigilance and lack of effective action as net migration deceptively hit lows of 254,000, 111,000, and 254,000 in the pandemic years 2019, 2020, and 2021, only to surge tremendously to 634,000 and 906,00 in the years 2022 and 2023.  Labour's Starmer took action to make it No. 1 priority in the platform going into the 2024 election winning public confidence. A similar surge in migration happened in the US after a deceptive slowdown in the pandemic, compunded by Venezuela and central American states collapsing. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The protests in Hong Kong could end up as a failure because of the lack of any leadership in the movement for Hong Kong rights. In the early stage the lack of leadership helped build up mass support. As the movement grew it also had weakness in the form of a lack of a coherent program for negotiations with the central government in Beijing. The risks inherent in internet mass media communication are apparent as it brings out people in large numbers nd amplifies all grievances, but fails to produce tangible or concrete results as time passes and lack of coherent leadership weakens the mass movement or makes it overreach.  The lack of communication between the Hong Kong government and protesters with Carrie Lam Hong Kong's CEO not meeting them also led to a lack of a negotiated way out.  This overreach is what Friedman talks about in the NYT saying that the limited universal suffrage offered by China in 2014, with Beijing crossing off candidates openly critical of it, should have been accepted by Hong Kong protesters in negotiated settlement with some protections. The 1200 electoral body would vote for which candidates should stand for election in the Beijing formula. This was not such a bad thing as it offered limited suffrage where there was none in China, says Friedman. By rejecting that formula the protesters gained little because the "perfect" is not always the best option or a practical option when all the realities are taken into account. This is happening again in 2019 with the protesters and Beijing moving further apart and creating a bigger gap with very little constructive communication between the two sides. The efforts to bring the U.S. into protecting Hong Kongers rights by protestors marching to the U.S. consulate also could be seen as going too far by the rest of the people of mainland China, as the U.S. has its own problems including growing inequalities and confrontation between different socio-economic groups. The gradual shift to more disruptive tactics and confrontation with police led to damage to public structures that affected the image of the protesters. The overall lack of a coherent leadership that could negotiate some form of agreement for the future is now seen as a problem for the protest movement. It could lead to a failure to secure the Hong Kong rights protestors seek, says Friedman in the NYT, creating a story of missed opportunities with missing communication, missing negotiation around a "do-able" agenda that builds on common ground between the opposite parties. ...

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This New Yorker has resilence in his roots in the Scottish Hebrides islands. No wonder he was able to take up the challenge of a US unable to extricate itself from  wars in the Middle East (Reagan, Bushes, Obama), and unfair trade with China, and an onslaught of unfavorable media attention. His name is DJT. According to the BBC in this story on Donald Trump's mother Mary Ann Mcleod, she was a regular churchgoer, well respected in the community, who visited her homeland in Scottish isle of Lewis, British Hebrides, frequently. Mary Ann McLeod is the youngest of 10 children of a Scottish family in the town of Tong in the Hebridean isle of Lewis in the North Sea, northwest of the Scotland mainland. Her father ran the local post office. The family was  relatively poor coming from Scottish people cleared of Highlanders during the Clearances and with fishing disasters in the family. Two hundred servicemen returning from the first world war to Tong lost their lives in a shipping disaster and the economy of the island was in poor shape. With no opportunities or future many immigrated to Canada. Mary Ann's sister Catherine immigrated to Canada and on a visit to Tong she took Mary back with her to New York in 1930. Mary worked as a nanny for a wealthy family in New York before meeting a socialite of German immigrants Fred Trump. Mary returned to Scotland in 1934 and by then she found a new life with Fred Trump whom she married. The couple lived in a wealthy area of Queens and Fred Trump ran a real estate business he had inherited with his mother. Donald Trump still has three cousins in Tong in the British Hebrides Scottish isles. His older sister Maryanne Trump Barry regularly visited Tong. Donald Trump visited Tong in 2008. Of this family a local who knows the cousins and the family John MacIver, a local councillor and friend of the cousins told BBC in 2017- "They are very nice, gentle people and I'm sure they don't want all the publicity that's around. I quite understand that they don't want to talk about it."   ...