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China imports from the US only $143 billion and much of this is soyabeans (US farmers), petroleum oil products (buyers in Europe and Asia), aircraft (Boeing). Farmers were compensated from the tariff revenues in the first term, oil products would be shipped to Asia and LNG to Europe to make up for loss of supplies from Russia. India will take up the Boeing production as it's economy expands to levels China, Japan had earlier. The action is a last resort as 490,000 lives were lost in 12 years from the fentanyl shipped raw materials from China and drug trafficking gangs in Mexico processing it in labs to ship across the long US border or Canadian border into the US. China and Mexico have not stopped the flow of fentanyl into the US. How much is 490,000 American lives worth? That is 5 times the lives lost in the Vietnam War and the Korean War combined of 100,000 lives lost in both wars. China exported $436 billion to the US in 2023 increasing by about 6% from prior year. Integrated Circuits alone were more than all US exports combined to China at $154 billion. Electric batteries another $80 billion. Computers and office machine parts were $54 billion. Where will China ship all these products. It is brave but it is easier to stop fentanyl flows out of China, and cut all the trade barriers, reverse state policy to dominate key industrial sectors in State Planning. The problem in the stock market response is that this is a trade war which it is NOT. It is about National Security if this is allowed to continue as Clinton, Bush, Obama have allowed to happen US is in real danger of becoming a second rate power in the world, at which point the world will become a dangerous place with India, China, Russia, Germany and other states having no constraints to create future wars without US to set some basic principles of world peace. UN itself would not exist without Cordell Hull and FDR. The world we know will be GONE. US Navy will not be able to build the ships it needs in USA if this deindustrialization is allowed to continue.    ...

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The situation for organic farmers in the U.S. and Canada where conversion is discouraged by the high costs incurred over 2-3 years for converting to regular farming. A period in which use of pesticides and other chemical products is reduced and new farming practices are introduced. During this period farmers still sell product at the regular price, even as high upfront costs are incurred. The result is tight organic supplies for corn, soyabeans and other food products, with organic prices as much as three times the regular price. In responding to the surging demand buyers are getting involved to support farmers by guaranteeing prices over several years, and in some cases buying farms. This trend should result in lower prices for organic foods as supplies catchup with demand.

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The comparison by Goldsmith and Moyn has picked the wrong Roosevelt. Only Washington in the war of independence, Lincoln in the Civil War over slavery, and FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Great Depression and economic collapse, fall in that category and there is no one and nothing to compare with both the struggles they fought and the challenge to the survival of the US. On the next scale comes TR Teddy Roosevelt, and this is the Roosevelt to compare DJT with. TR was unconventional, TR spoke a different language and could be frank and outspoken. TR actions matched his words, as his days on the Indian frontier and with the Rough Riders. TR also had one term plus completing McKinley's term after his assasination. And TR like DJT did not like his successor and did everything to make the comeback denouncing the policies of his successor William Howard Taft in the 1912 election, which TR lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. All this is true for DJT in 2026. TR denounced the shift away from his "progressive policies" and the shift to corporate interests of Republican Taft. In this sense also DJT is similar as he denounced the shift to corporate interests of the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama years. TR was no country club Republican and was willing to confront opponents in the politics to fight for the benefit of the working man, splitting the Republican party in the process. This is true of DJT. TR launched the rebuilding of the Navy, and announced he would reassert the Monroe Doctrine. DJT is doing the same and is reasserting the Monroe Doctrine. One could say that DJT feels the hidden TR in him and like Teddy Roosevelt is putting America in the place it once was. For TR the industrial revolution had distorted a country founded on the backs of settlers owning the land independent and rugged, as industry turned the country into corporate interests and workers in factories with few rights, and poor working conditions and wages. This TR even as a Republican fought to reverse. In DJT there is the Republican also of a different mould who fights to reverse the situation created by Bush/Clinton/Bush/ Obama over three decades since the 1990's when America has fallen to new lows when drug trafficking gangs in Mexico and Venezuela are able to run rampant over the western hemisphere, when elites in Canada and the US act impotent in the face of this, or living in their own world away from the streets and neighborhoods of America devastated by drug trafficking, towns and neighborhoods from Janesville to Flint economically deprived as elites shifted manufacturing overseas to China in complete indifference to the American worker and his family, and carried out wars in remote parts of the world such as hills of Afghanistan and deserts of Iraq no worker or farmer in America had even heard of or cared about since the American continent was settled in 1600. If there is a Woodrow Wilson around the corner who won in 1912, for the 2028 election, then it is someone who like Wilson will take policies to benefit the American worker and farmer and his family, and America as a Nation to a better place over the next decade. A passage from Teddy Roosevelt from his Autobiography about who TR was struggling against illustrates this point- "They favored Civil Service Reform; they favored copyright laws, and the removal of tariffs on works of art; they favored all the proper (and even more strongly the improper ) movements for international peace and arbitration; in short, they favored all good and many goody-goody, measures so long as they did not cut deep into social wrong or make demands on National and individual virility. They opposed, or were lukewarm, about efforts to build up the army and the navy, for they were not sensitive regarding National honor, and above all they opposed every non-milk-and-water effort, however sane to change our social and economic system in such a fashion as to substitute the ideal of justice towards all for the ideal of kindly charity from the favored few to the possibly grateful many." (Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, Chapter 5 title: Applied Idealism, 1913) ...

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Latest data from the U.S. Treasury shows it has collected $63 billion in tariffs over the preceding 12 months. Even though there is no agreement on trade with China, president Trump says the U.S. is benefitting from higher tariffs by tens of billions of dollars. In May he estimated tariff revenues could reach $100 billion.This report in the WSJ says this could happen if the the new tariffs of 10% on additional $300 Chinese goods imported to U.S. goes into effect on September 1. This is likely considering that China sees this in different terms than the U.S. such as its sovereignty, whereas the U.S. sees it simply in terms of fair trade. With new elections China may be simply putting things off till the election is decided as Mr. Trump has pointed out. The tally of what the U.S. Treasury gets annually if $100 billion is generated in tariffs goes something like this. Of this $30 billion was generated previously for the U.S. government, so the incremental amount is $70 billion. Of this about $16 billion goes to offset the effect of loss of farm exports to farmers, mainly soyabeans exports to China, through a rescue fund. This leaves additional $54 billion for the U.S. Treasury. Money that could conceivably be put back into infrastructure that the U.S. badly needs in mobile and fixed to improve internet speeds and move up from its low rankings compared to China and other countries. A WSJ report this week shows Germany in worse shape than the U.S., both countries having dismal status in mobile infrastructure- the U.S. at No. 37, and Australia No. 4, Canada No. 3, and even Croatia No. 9. This throws some light on why this trade dispute has become intractable, for China the right of a sovereign nation to move past middle income status even as its telecom technology with Huawei 5G is top class, and for the U.S. the right not to fall behind in advanced technologies such as Telecom. It is also why one hears so much about Huawei and why it has become a flashpoint of the conflict in trade and trade practices. It is thought Mr. Trump is conducting this trade dispute. Yet less known is the fact that prominent Republicans in Congress such as Senator Warner have stated on television talk shows that they are concerned Mr. Trump may give up too much in negotiations that lead to the U.S. not being able to compete in telecom advanced technologies that matter for competitiveness and for national security. What was treated by Bush and Obama administrations routinely without much attention to the consequences is now a top concern for Republicans and others in Congress and business. ...

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As US through USAID pulls back India can and should step forward with aid to Norman Borlaug Institute that created India's Green Revolution. During the Kennedy-Johnson period in the 1960's US agricultural technologies assistance and Norman Borlaug helped engineer the Green Revolution through higher productivity in agriculture. Norman Borlaug developed many high yield, disease resistant varieties at his Institute which were adopted in India. In the period of the 1950's and 1960's there was still famine in India. The last famine in India was in 1966 in Bihar when drought led to 45% drop in agricultural production, and in China in 1960. The American contribution to Indian agriculture is huge and the scale of the impact has never been fully grasped, forgotten 60 years later. Shown in this report by Harish Damodaran, is MS Swaminathan of India and Norman Borlaug in the wheat fields of India. The Norman Borlaug Institute is based in Mexico and will need funding. India's contribution is only $0.8 million. Norman Borlaug Institute head Bram Govaerts says- "We are looking for support from countries such as India that have interests in CIMMYT continuing to empower farmers through science and innovation and breeding varieties today for tomorrow’s climate.”   ...

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President Trump reiterated his threat to place tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods in addition to earlier tariffs on $250 billion in goods.  The problem China faces is that it China imports less, far less than the U.S. does. China has only $10 billion in U.S. goods to place tariffs on. This is after placing tariffs on $110 billion in U.S. goods, mostly agricultural products such as soyabeans in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on the $250 billion of Chinese goods. China could place a ban on imports from Boeing or restrict the access for U.S. companies to the Chinese market. U.S. companies have invested billions of dollars in the China and employ about 2 million Chinese in well paying jobs. Concerns about unemployment would be uppermost to prevent these jobs being affected. Other concern for China is the loss of foreign investment as relations deteriorate. Already supply chains in some products such as clothing and consumer products is shifting other countries in Asia. In automobiles the regional hubs are expected to shift with India as a potential hub for Asia, and Mexico preserving its place as a North American hub following renegotiation of NAFTA. In media the dispute is leading to a shift from Chinese consumers buying Adidas instead of Nike and Huawei smartphones instead of Apple.  For an already slowing economy this hurts China more than the U.S. which is why the U.S. is pushing China to settle with an agreement that the U.S. can trust to bring down China's trade surplus. For the U.S. as most of the loss in exports is in agricultural products the solution has been to provide government aid to farmers, and for Mr. Trump to use the issue to point out that he is fighting for U.S. interests and for fairness. This is why the trade dispute poses more problems for China. Because the surplus is so wildly skewed in China's favor after the inaction of many U.S. presidents just as it was for Japan in the eighties, the situation appears to be headed towards a definite reversal of the lopsided trade surplus enjoyed by China. In the process the U.S. plans to build up the competitive edge it has lost to some degree.  ...

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Kernza is a new kind of grain from wheatgrass that is environmentally friendly being tried out by Kansas farmers in the US. A single seed of Kernza grain grows into a plant that provides grain year after year without the need for costly fertilizer, more water and energy. It forms deep roots that store carbon, and grows alongside other crops and provides wildlife habitat.  In this report from Washington Post an artisan baking company is shown baking Kernza and wheat grains bread.

Climate change makes Kansas summers much hotter and drier, and makes rainstorms more intensive, says this report. Land Institute ecologists say traditional farming is carbon intensive and alternatives are needed. Kansas had some of the richest soil in America say ecologists, but it is being degraded at a rapid rate. As America's breadbasket state a lot needs to be done to enrich and restore Kansas agricultural land.

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 Angela Rayner of Labour in the UK government made labour rights a core part of what she wants to see achieved. This was an idea conceived in 2021 when Labour was in the Opposition, the idea of setting down key labor rights that don't get watered down. This includes restrictions on zero-hours contracts, giving employees full rights from “day one” of their employment, and ending the way companies fired workers then rehired them on lower pay and benefits. Over the last 3 decades since Thatcher and Reagan worker rights have been watered down by employers and successive administrations of Conservatives as well as Labour in UK and Republicans as well as Democrats in US watched it happen doing nothing. As a result a culture of impunity with worker rights developed which have led to the shift of workers out of the Labour party in Britain and Democratic party in the US. This coincided with the neglect of rural areas and farmers by Labour and Democrats creating the unimaginable situation for a Wilson or a JFK in the 1960's where labor was no longer a core part of who Labour in UK or Democrats in US were about. ...

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Manish Sabharwal writes in the Indian Express that India missed it economic tryst with destiny and economic freedom for its citizens in 1947 and the decades after that. Today with AtmanNirbhar Bharat, he says,  the country is finally making its economic tryst with destiny. It is about self-reliance, yet it is also about opening up to new supply chains set up by allies U.S., France and Japan, South Korea, opening up to trade, investment and technology flows in new and exciting ways. The prime minister's message called for a quantum leap in technology. India was already moving up in GDP terms and set to surpass both Japan and Germany to become the largest after the U.S. and China in GDP. But there was something missing in it for the people. Here he sets out what the huge investment of 10% of GDP and the possible sequel investment to this would mean for people of India, from farmers to workers in different sectors of the economy, including the informal economy. India has fallen behind in per capita GDP and this is now the focus of the people and the government, federal government and the states, to build an economy that provides the best opportunities and growth for all its people. True Gandhian Swa-raj in the best sense of the term.   ...

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Global aid to agriculture in developing countries is about $5 billion a year. Mr Obama made the decision to double U.S> aid to developing countries farmers to more than $1 billion ayear in 2010. THe NYT reports that with the G8 meeting in Italy in July, America will spend $3.5 billion dollars over 3 years for helping farmers in developing countries. This according to Michael Fromans, an Obama adminsitration official is going to be new money. As far as the other G8 countries are concerned it could include old money for the total $15 billion committed. Since the worst hit areas for agriculture are in Africa, and Africa has lost a lot of ground in development in the last 20 years, suffering neglect in aid to farmers over 20 years both form the American administrations and their own governments, it is surprising that the amount and the details for where it would go in Africa are not revealed. Mr Obama has grasped the need not just for shipping food assistance from the USA, but need to help farmers. He agrees with ANdrew Natsios former head of Agency of International Development, who says that most of the poorest people in developing countries are farmers and herders living in the countryside, the crux of any effort to improve their lives has to start with agriculture. Obama advocates using the "tried and true agricultural methodfs and technologies that are cheap and are efficient but can have huge impact" in the lives of people. Malawi, is a good example, say Prof. Sachs of Columbia University, as subsidies for fertilizer sharply increased food production. Sachs says it is possible to double or triple food production by giving small-holder farmers access to high yielding seeds, fertilizer and agricultural extension services. But more needs to be done and devloping countries themselves that have made progress like India, China and Brazil can provide their know-how and experts and should have been brought into this, which is another reason why there is no reason for a G-8 summit of countries of European origin. An enlarged organization can bring in the resources and ideas of all the major countries in the world, to especially bear in on Africa, where alot needs to be done. Just to get an idea the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization says the global economic crisis will put another 100 million people into facing hunger this year....

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Disagreements on how much to fund an education recovery effort in the Toy government of Mr. Johnson. Sir Kevan Collins resigns after his program designed to help students recover from the loss of study time from coronavirus at a cost of 15 billion pounds is rejected. The government plans to put 1.4 billion pounds, which Sir Collins calls too narrow, and not doing enough, delivering too slowly. Sir Collins had hoped to give 6th Formers and extra 100 hours of schooling and help prepare students for GCSE exams. He would have extended school time by 30 minutes in 2022 and setup a 35 hour week for students.

Netherlands plans to spend 2500 pounds per student, the US 1600 pounds per student, the UK 50 pounds per student. 

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The hope that the pomengranate grown for export can become a major cash crop for Afghan farmers, replacing the poppy fields that finance the Taliban, and support high rates of addiction in both the US and Iran.

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Chinese leaders at annual policy meeting turn to issues facing nation's 730 millon farmers, as urban outcomes year after year far outpace growth of rural incomes. See graph. Urban incomes have shot up just as rural incomes remain sluggish as the country has focused on rapid industrialization, rapid urbanization and an export driven manufacturing economy for two decades with some success because of the focused effort. But this focused effort is dependent on the ability of Western Europe and the USA as well as other countries sucking in cheaper Chinese manufactured goods. This ability of the western countries to absorb Chinese manufactured goods at an astonishing rate is now called into question, and maybe permanently impaired after years of out of control consumption and spending and easy credit with the impact of the credit and housing crisis. As one of the aspects of this focused effort was to make enough rapid progress in industry and urbanization that it could stay ahead of the problems facing the rural areas and farmers, the new situation in western countries and China's lowered growth rate with lower exports, calls for new thinking on how to address the problems facing the rural areas and farmers. Part of the problem is that farmers do not own land in China. The government owns all the land and China's farmers only have 30 year leases on the land and technically that land cannot be sold though it can be transferred. A related aspect to this is that farms though having 50% more productivity than in 1980 are still small by western standards and it takes a lot of land to feed the growing needs of a more affluent urban population. The typical Chinese farm is 1.5 acres compared to 15 acres in Hungary and Poland and 432 acres in the USA. Obviously the US farms are huge and China does not have the vast acreages of land compared to the people, but larger farms would enable the kind of improvements posible on larger farms to raise productivity. Ways have to be found to increase farmers incomes and to enable farmers to move to urban areas which means creating more jobs. This will have to be done in the context of a domestic led growth and trade with other Asian countries as the export drive and export industries shipping products to western countries see their growth fall. ...

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People in Japan are living longer healthier lives. So much so that people are working well into their 70's. In Nagano, Japan, people say that those in their 40's and 50's are like a child with a runny nose, and people in their 60's and 70's are in the prime of their careers. In this WSJ report, 38 years old Norohiro Aizawa is a part time farmer, who says he plans to work into his 70's like many farmers in Japan. Today his father in his early 70's is active and in charge. Sachiko Kobayashi runs a crafts business, has a job making box lunches, and a garden full of pumpkins and radishes. She is 65 and gets up at 3 am. In Nagano she is called by the term pre-elderly, not elderly. For elderly she has a long way to go. Japan has 29% of the population in under over 65 years group, Europe 21% and US 17%. Yet something else is happening. People are just taking better care of themselves and their health, and living, working longer. A 70 year old today in Nagano is in health status like a 60 year old one or two generations ago. Perceptions of what is elderly have changed.    Japan's White Paper on the Elderly in 2021 shows studies suggesting that many in the 65-74 year group do not share traits associated with the term elderly.  Only 6% require care by others. Half of 65-69 year olds hold jobs, and a third of those in their early 70's also hold jobs. Life expectancy in Japan stretches into the late 80's for women, and early 80's for men. This is almost 5-8 years more than countries like the UK with a strong national health service. In April 2021 a revised Employment Law took effect, telling big employers to offer work to workers until age 70, up from previously government sanctioned retirement age of 65 years. Government says it is meant to protect the right of people to work longer. There is even a term called late-elderly.  Oshima 82 of Nagano, leads a volunteer group that shoots video of community festivals and works late into the night, and is cited in this WSJ story as saying that even if people called him late elderly, his response is oh yeah? I don't care. It is all about living a full life, terms don't matter at all when one stays healthy.   ...

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 China exports to the US $438 billion vs $143 billion the US sends to China - the US deficit with China 2024 equals $295 billion. This is the fact that the media continues to ignore. Behind this is the gutting of the industrial base of the US shipped offshore to China since 2000 by American companies. 5 million jobs lost and tens of thousands of factories destroying the backbone of the economy, America's middle class.  Much of the US exports are oil and gas which can be shipped to Europe, India and other places. The soyabeans and grain from America's farmers is the other part of exports of $13 billion. The US can find other markets for the farm products including India under a trade agreement, and farmers can be supported with agricultural subsidies. It only makes sense to rebuild America's industrial base and pull back from an unfair trade arrangement that can only be the result of serious neglect of their responsibilities of previous administrations before DJT in 2016. The piecemeal efforts 2016-2024 have not worked to rebuild America's middle class,  recover jobs and factories, as a result a new bolder approach is needed in 2025 to rewrite the rules for world trade for an even playing field where everyone is treated with fairness. ...

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A key figure in approval ratings is 46% with DJT getting 46% approval for the economy and on a range of issues including immigration. On tariffs the situation is steadily improving with new trade agreements with Japan, the EU, South Korea that were announced after or just when this WSJ poll was taken on July 20. Among Republicans 88% support the president and 66% strongly support him which says this report means more of them would turn out to vote. More significant is that the optimistic rating of the economy went up by 11 percentage points from April 2025 to 46% in July 2025. This is also the view of Fed chairman Powell. Each step of the way as DJT tariff actions result in tangible improvements in trade relations for the US and result in concrete real world trade agreements for a level playing field in world trade, the president's actions are seen in a different light. The first Trade Agreement with the UK, then with Japan and now quite possibly with the European Union. All this within 6 months of the president acting in February 2025. A major role played also by Bessent, Greer, Luttnick and others in the cabinet of ministers. This lifts perceptions of the president in the eyes of the American people in handling the economy, business and world trade, and protecting the interests of America's farmers, and rural communities. ...

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Prof. Adler remembers Scalia for his long fight to preserve statutory interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. He says after Scalia it is hard to imagine Justices of the Supreme Court not paying attention to the original meaning intended by the framers of the Constitution of the United States before rendering an opinion.

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The low number of confirmed cases and small number of deaths in India and Pakistan is being analyzed for what to expect in the coming months from June to August. Some experts see this as just the beginning that the peak will come later on. India has about 75,000 cases and Pakistan 35,000. Testing has lagged behind with only 1.5 tests per thousand people compared to 26 per thousand in the U.S.  one reason the confirmed case count is lower. Some confidence is being drawn from the deaths- 2415 in India and 737 in Pakistan. This is because only 2.2% of cases in India and 3.3% in Pakistan led to deaths, compared to 14.3% in UK and 5.5% in China, 6% in U.S., using John Hopkins database. One reason given is that only 6.4% of India's population and 4.3% of Pakistan's is over 65 years age. Compare mean age in Italy 46 years to 27 in India and 23 in Pakistan. And there is plenty of sunlight which appear to destroy the virus. Other factors that may influence the virus- taking of the tuberculosis vaccine and routine exposure to more pathogens in both countries. Prime minister Modi in India is taking no chances considering the size of India's population. He has put forward a $280 billion economic package and is moving in deliberate carefully prepared steps to lift lockdowns with the current phase No. 4 allowing more reopening. The shift now is to a more self reliant economy in industrial production making "local more vocal."  During the lockdown the large rail network and postal networks with their millions of employees, IT technology driven banking with Aadhar identification for direct deposit to hundreds of millions of the most needy citizens, and farmers, proved to be the most reliable and supportive. ...

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COFCO is the abbreviation for China National Cereals, Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation, which was the state company importing grain and other staple foods into China during the period before China opened up its economy. It is now a dominant company in China's grain and other staple products from edible oil, dairy products to bacon and beer. Under CEO Ning Gaoning, Cofco has transformed itself since 2004 from primarily being a grain importer to value added products, food processing, and technologies in the food business. Cofco is expanding rapidly overseas with deals and acqusitions, and has about $10 billion in state funds for acquisitions. Recent acquisitions include $2.7 billion for Dutch grain trader Nidera BV, and 51% ownership of Noble agricultural unit. Earlier acquisitions include vineyards in Chile and France in 2010, and Australia's Tully Sugar in 2011. Current plans are for acquisitions in the U.S. and Latin America. Revenues in 2014 were an estimated $63.3 billion. Interviews with cane farmers that are part of Tully Sugar in Australia show Cofco has managed the company well and won the support of farmers....

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The French refusal to make concessions on subsidies to farming for a new trade accord comes from cultural and emotional factors. Food is important in France, and farming and quality farm product is take quite seriously. One reason is the varied climate which is very conducive to different kinds of farming, dairy, cheese, grapes and wine, olives, wheat depending on the climate. Compared to US and Britain, France is serious farming country in an emotional and cultural sense, and different regions have their own best farming product. Historically also France has protected its farmers and farm products, both during the monarchy when farmers were seen as a conservative element and late nineteenth century with high tariff walls, and after the Second War when a common program to support farming was written into the founding treaty. Useful information: France has 26,000 local farmers markets vs 500 in the UK. The regional focus for farm products has a term: terroir. Farm unions are amazingly well organized and command widespread support, upto the point that a former trade minister says "the politicians are frightened." One could say farming is part of the French culture....

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President Trump on a three day visit to the UK promised a free trade deal with Britain if it made a decisive break with the European Union. Such a free trade deal could take years, offer small benefits compared to the loss of the much larger trading relationship with the European Union. It would face hurdles in passage through Congress because Democrats controlling the House of Representatives see a decisive break with the European Union including the customs union arrangement as affecting the open border in Ireland risking the hard won peace in Northern Ireland.  Prime Minister Theresa May proposed a withdrawal arrangement that would keep the customs union arrangement but has failed to secure the support of a faction within her Conservative party that favors a decisive break from the EU. Such a break that Mr. Trump and Boris Johnson the leader of this faction -and a favored candidate to succeed prime minister May after her resignation- would reduce Britain's GDP over the next 15 years at the higher end of the range of 0.1% to 9% a year. A decisive break called a no deal Brexit with no arrangements or agreement for withdrawal with the EU, would lead to a loss closer to the 9% estimate. British experts to the EU are about $275 billion or 44% of its total exports compared to about $44 billion to the U.S., according to HMS Customs source, showing how important it is for Britain to maintain a close trading relationship with the European Union. British farmers would also face competition through agricultural imports from the U.S. in a free trade deal. During his visit Mr. Trump also stated the National Health Service, everything would be on the table in a free trade deal with the U.S.  Theresa May responded by saying that the NHS would not be open for negotiation to American corporate involvement. Public sensitivity is high on any change to the National Health Service. The trip of president Trump to London in which he supported Boris Johnson as candidate to succeed Theresa May, with discussions between Trump and Johnson for 20 minutes, and a visit by Nigel Farage to the U.S. embassy, and no meeting with Labour party leader Corbyn, only shows the widening of differences on the issue of British withdrawal from the EU making any deal for withdrawal even less likely. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn now favors a second referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU.  ...

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President Xi Jinping to introduce regulation into what was once an essentially unregulated economy, including a housing sector with financial risks built on ever increasing leverage, are expected to slow the economy to 6-7% growth rate. This is seen as acceptable to address the other goals president Xi sees as essential for the long term future of China. China urban is what most people in the US and Europe see. This is only 60% of China. The other 40% is stuck with lower incomes at about a third of urban areas and with few opportunities. Within urban areas there are the people with moderate incomes who are spooked at housing prices and living in small flats, and now with the pandemic there are many more who are unemployed as China lacks an unemployment insurance system like the US. This and Xi's close connections to farmers in Hebei, and other provinces where he has spent time as party secretary, mean he will now give all of China's people an even chance for a better life. Just as in the US with president Biden, president Xi is tackling social and economic problems left after decades of tech driven expansion aggravated income inequality and poverty. ...

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Mass demonstrations by young people including school children on March 24, 2018, in many U.S. cities called for raising the minimum age for buying a gun from 18 to 21 years of age, and prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing comprehensive background checks. Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says this is not enough. He calls for a repeal of the Second Amendment. Stevens points out that the the framers of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had the concern that a national standing army could pose a threat to the security of the separate states and therefore made the Second Amendment so that " a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This is now a relic of that period. He says for 200 years this was not interpreted to mean that gun control legislation could not be enacted, till a 2008 decision by the Supreme Court.  Stevens says the decision was wrong and repeal of the Second Amendment is needed.  ...

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Diary of Daniel Cobb, a Virginia farmer, as Virgina joins the Confederate States.

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As a Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter brought evangelical Christians in the South into the political process. And it encouraged the emergence of other southerners such as Bill Clinton of Arkansas from small towns into Democratic politics. In doing so it distanced the Democratic party from it's roots as a party of the working man, of the working class and labor, of farmers and small business owners, that it had been from 1902 with TR taking up this stance and followed by FDR, Truman, Kennedy-Johnson. Leading to the situation today after Clinton brought China into the WTO and changed world trade, exchanging places with China as a leader in manufacturing, integrating Silicon Valley into the Democratic party under Obama and distancing from working class concerns. Gerald Seib in his tribute to Cater says in WSJ that he was a good man who was president at a bad time. The problems of inflation and cost of living at 10.4% and mortgage rates at 13%, oil prices with the Iran crisis under Carter were problems that were a result of actions taken by the US in the period going back to the 1950's for Iran and embargoes on oil from lack of conservation in oil use in the US. What Carter accomplished is to open the door to new faces out of nowhere- a small town in Georgia was not a place where a presidential hopeful cold be found in previous eras. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Adams, TR, Wilson, Harding, Hoover, FDR were all from well known families in the East Coast and Northeast. Only Abraham Lincoln emerged from a small town in Illinois. It opened the door for other southerners Clinton from Arkansas and new faces Reagan and Trump.   ...