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The U.S. government has said that there is enough evidence to start an investigation on the matter of imports of tart cherries from Turkey. Tart cherries are popular in agriculture near Traverse City, Michigan on the Great Lakes. About 300 million pounds were priced at revenue of $106 million in 2014 and today are priced lower to bring in $56 million. Prices dropped in 2019 from 2018 by over 30% with subsidized Turkish agricultural exports. After years of difficulty getting government to listen U.S. producers can bring fair competition issues to Washington D.C. The larger sweet cherry agricultural region is in Washington state with about $600 million for 345,000 tons in cherries. Michigan processors that pit, freeze and dry the tart cherries  normally destroy or freeze a percentage of the crop to maintain a stable selling price. A flood of imports changes price mechanism from operating for farmers.

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Google's head of operations in India, Rajan Anandan, cites estimates of 200 million new internet users in India by 2014. An estimated 100 millon Indians were online in 2010. The surge in internet use is expected with the roll out of high speed internet technology and expected sales of low cost smartphones using Android software. Most of the Indian advertising dollars go to print and television advertising. As a result online advertising spending is only about 200 million dollars. One aspect of Indian user behaviour is the preference for the internet as the first source for research when it comes to buying cars or other products. Google has 63 million Indian users for its search service, according to ViziSense, an Indian web metrics firm. Anandan says Indian advertisers could benefit from an Internet first strategy to reach affluent urban consumers.

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How quickly things can change - Italy is now growing faster than Germany or France. The construction industry is booming with energy efficient home renovation. The superbonus 110 is a payment by the Italian government for energy efficient housing improvements. The government pays 65% of the cost to homeowners making better energy efficient renovations plus 10%. As introduced by the Five Star movement government it was 100% plus additional 10%. Giorgia Meloni's government lowered it to 65% from 75% in 2023. This has boosted the construction industry in Italy and revived Italy's growth where it is growing faster than France and Germany. Germany is seeing about 0.3% growth compared to 0.7% predicted by OECD for Italy in 2024. Giorgia Meloni the new Italian prime minister, after Mario Draghi a central banking official, has continued Draghi's policies and provided a measure of stability and leadership to the government.  Much of the capital comes from the $216 billion or $200 billion euros that will be given to Italy from the COVID Recovery Fund. Italy is the largest recipient. ...

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Hospitals in New York City are coping better in the current wave of coronavirus variant in December 2021 as the symptoms of patients are milder and patients are going home quicker. This report covers NYU Langone, Northwell and Mt Sinai, Presbyterian  health systems. Only about 2% of healthcare workers were lost through dismissals because of the vaccine mandate at Northwell, which is the largest health system in New York City with about two dozen hospitals. About 400 covid patients turned up on Friday Dec. 17, a fraction of the 1350 last January and of the 3500 in early spring 2021. The head of integrated operations,, Dr. John D'Angelo says Northwell has enough staff to meet projected needs. Most covid patients had underlying health problems and a quarter are vaccinated up from 10-15% a month ago. Vaccinations and two years of experience make for a different picture now, though there will be challenges and I think we're going to have to think through a bit carefully, says Dr. D'Angelo. ...

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Cable television's decline as seen from the experience of CNN. This report in the WSJ says not only is cable television declining in viewers, CNN is falling behind MSNBC and Fox which are also declining. The 24 hour cable news network format is seeing rapid shift to streaming services that generate little profit. Monthly prime time viewers for CNN cable television is down to 568,000 compared to one estimate of 166 million for its website and app streaming services. The result is a search by Warner Discovery, new owner of CNN, for a way to reverse the slide in people watching by showing both sides instead of skewing to one side, which is also not working. 68 million Americans subscribe to cable television packages including CNN down from 72 million in 2022 for which CNN gets $1.25 per subscriber. Advertising produces most of the revenue- $600 million in 2022 down from 900 million in 2020. Smaller audiences and poorer ratings with so many choices for viewers from CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox, etc mean less advertising revenues.   ...

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If Zambia can put in almost a billion dollars to make primary and secondary schooling free should not an affluent nation like the US make K-12 schooling free and support a big part of college and university fees. Zambia coming out of a IMF bailout during the pandemic is supporting it knowing that it is the best way to take the nation forward, not leaving millions without education behind. Instead America has chosen to let capitalist flaws such as capital allocation to unworthy projects waste capital. This last week alone about $1 billion in capital was shown to be wasted- $100 million for a new golf ball and $700 million for a new beauty business incorporating herbals. Every month wasted capital is shown in Lyrarc.com showing that the capital allocation process in America is deeply flawed and leaves little for education and healthcare because of its distortions and poor allocation serving the interests of a few, and not even that as the money gets wasted entirely to no one's benefit and a complete loss to the Nation. ...

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Tampa Bay area is one of the ten most high risk areas in the world, according to the World Bank. Estimates of damage from a severe hurricane are as high as $175 billion in a 2015 study. The Washington Post's Anna Phillips looks at this region which has grown by about 200 percent in the last two decades. Pinellas County home to St Petersburg and Clearwater, Tampa Bay area, now has 3.2 million people. Developers are lulled into a sense of complacency, says this report with the lack of severe hurricanes in recent decades. The last time a severe hurricane hit was 1921.  This area has 700 miles of shoreline. The problem is that sea levels are rising from climate change, Tampa Bay area has 5 inches of sea level rising, plus the Bay area water is shallower. Water pushed into the narrow area of Tampa Bay would likely rise further. This causes the most damage from waves and floods. Sea levels are higher in 2023 compared to 2009 by 7 inches in Charleston SC, Wilmington NC, Galveston Texas, and in Tybee Island Georgia.   ...

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Johannes Klaebo does 50 kms crosscountry ski in 2 hours 6 minutes 45 seconds- Milan Cortina Olympics 2026. Only American speed skater Eric Heiden Lake Placid ,NY Olympics 1980, comes close to Klaebo's persistence and composure in event after event, race after race. He moves as a child from Oslo to the ski place of Trondheim where he developed his skills and a new style of skiing in addition to the standard parallel and V shape skiing techniques. 

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With the hype around AI and the propagandizing by people like Altman, Microsoft, and others AI got to the point where it made up 34% of the S&P 500 capitalization, and all time high for 7 of the large companies since 1980. Nvidia who makes the chips for AI  making up about 6.8% of the S&P 500, contributing to a quarter of the total return on the S&P 500 index in 2024.

Till someone in China figured out a way to do it at 5.6% of what it costs in the US for the high flying AI companies in the US. 

 

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Much of the cost for Canadian oil sands are fixed costs and once these costs are incurred production increases can take place over decades say Canadian oil sands company executives. CFO Corey Bieber of Candian Natural, says costs at it large Horizone mine are at $37.13 Canadian dollars per barrel in Jan 2015. He expects to cuts costs by at least $10 Canadian dollars per barrel by higher volume production cutting the operating expenses. Increasing production says Bieber does not mean adding people. As a result most of the Canadian oil sands producers can operate at oil well below US$47 a barrel, as low as $30, and are increasing production in 2015. This means Saudis will have to face competition from Canadian oil. It also means the Keystone pipeline will still be needed to transport Candian heavy oil to Gulf Coast refineries in the U.S. Suncor, the largest Canadian oil-sands producer, is increasing capital spending to C$7.2 and output by 11% in 2015. Canadian Natural is increasing production by 7%, and Syncrude Canada Ltd. is planning a 6% increase for 2015....

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The U.S. Government Accountability Office says only $179.5 millon of the first $1.5 billion- in a five year aid program to Pakistan worth $7.5 billion- has been spent. USAID's director for Pakistan, Andrew Sisson, says the $1 billion from prior ununsed funds was spent in Pakistan in 2010. This includes $500 million for aid during the disastrous floods last year. Projects include the Gomal Zam Dam in South Waziristan, at a cost of $20 million. That project helped build a spillway to apower plant bringing electricity to a remote region in Pakistan. That dam was built by Chinese engineers from the Sinohydro Corporation. The Obama administration wants to see large signature projects to which it can point to as signs of success. With a failing economy, corruption and a weak civilian bureaucracy- especially with a weak and ineffective civilian government- getting projects implemented has proven extremely difficult. The U.S. government has committed to spending 50% of the aid money through the Pakistan government and not through civilian contractors with large overhead expenses....

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U.S. S&P 500 index stocks now show a correlation of 80%, based on one-month trailing movements, according to Credit Suisse. This exceeds the correlation of 73% reached during the crisis in 2008, and shows the large influence of macroeconomic factors on stock movements.

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Ever wonder what the word goatscaping means? It is a way to get rid of weeds. And it works clearing up landscapes. You need goats. Renting 5 goats costs $500 for a week in California. Intriguing in today's world of chemicals doing the job, it was once common. The White House lawns had a flock of sheep to keep weeds in check during World War I.

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Report on Climate Science put out by the US Energy Department in 2025 questioning the severity and impending nature of climate change effects. It is challenged by scientists who believe in the severity and impending nature of climate change, quite the opposite. Koonin, a Fellow at the Hoover Instituion at Stanford describes the work and its conclusions. He says the research is peer reviewed and looks at 200 years of climate research. Some of the conclusions- That climate change models claiming catastrophic situations are ultra sensitive and lead to extreme scenarios.  It talks about climate variability, and model deficiencies, data limitations. And says data for climate over continental US show no long term trends for extreme weather events. Global sea level rise of 8 inches since 1800 is not disputed but it says US tide gauge data shows no long term acceleration in warming globe.  On one point there has been agreement even in the Biden administration- what the US does to cut emissions will little effect the global changes in warming- because of coal use by China and India defended as needed for electricity for two billion people, an essential need. Thus the desire for a calculated tradeoff which lets the US take advantage of its abundance of oil and gas to reduce the cost of living for ordinary Americans, also an essential need. Because of the declining cost of natural gas vs coal, coal is in gradual phase out, and declining cost of solar means Germany, China, India are making the shift to solar, and nuclear energy provides another option. The difference is that the DJT administration is taking government out of the effort and letting the private sector work out building of renewable sources. Government is not always the answer as electric cars are likely to make more gains in 2026 than under the Biden administration because of VW, Mercedes, BYD, Ford and GM coming up with cars that can do close to 500 miles on one charge and the cost of an EV down to about $30,000 to $40,000. ...

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House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp says the implicit subsidy on "too big to fail" financial firms needs to be addressed. His proposal is for a quarterly tax of 0.035% on assets over $500 billion. The tax would raise tax revenues of $86.4 billion over 10 years. The tax does not go into some bailout fund, which is one reason it does not address the problem adequately, says the WSJ.

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Downtown San Diego Towers owned by Irvine Company go for 50% of purchase price when office vacancy is at 35%. After buying 93000 acres of coastal Orange County in 1977 and building office towers in San Diego, David Bren now 93 years, is offloading most of his investments in San Diego at half the price paid for it. This and the quality of life and homelessness in the downtown area of San Diego is depressing prospects for the city which is now dependent on the biotech sector.

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MacKenzie Scott who cofounded the early startup on books of Amazon with Jeff Bezos, and her foundation gift giving to the underprivileged, native Americans, Black Americans, and other causes by 2026. Scott's stake is $18 billion in Amazon in 2025. Data driven approach she adopted gets through 6490 organizations and narrows that down to 822, and comes up with 384 grant recipients, says the WSJ. No applications just a call and $20 million or $50 million is the approach she has taken and the money is given on trust no monitoring.

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The European Recovery Fund package finally gets settled after long negotiations over the weekend. It is settled by lowering the nonrepayable direct aid to countries hardest hit by the pandemic of 500 billion euros the initial target to 390 billion euros. The change was made to meet Dutch demands that are based on right wing parties in Netherlands critical of the deal and upcoming elections in the country. Mr. Rutte of the Netherlands held on to the end. He has been in power for about ten years by following the Dutch mood carefully. This time both Merkel and Macron, both France and Germany supported the 500 billion euro plan for nonrepayable aid to countries particularly in southern Europe that took the brunt of the pandemic- Spain, Italy and Greece. The EU's executive branch will now for first time issue debt on a large scale to fund this nonrepayable aid and additional loans of 360 billion euros. There is also a multiyear EU budget of 1 trillion euros for 2021 to 2027 designed to meet the goals of European recovery. The way the EU is setup a lone holdout or a small country like the Netherlands with the help of two other small countries Denmark and Sweden could hold up the agreement against the interests of the larger nations Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal. Poland and Hungary also strongly supported the 500 billion euro target for nonrepayable aid. The combined population of these countries is about 314 million compared to just 17 million for Netherlands, 10 million for Sweden, and 6 million for Denmark. In addition Merkel has recovered her footing in Germany after the pandemic and most right wing parties in Europe have lost ground during the pandemic. That Mr. Rutte could push this far in the face of the need to show solidarity at a time like this shows weakness in the fabric and structure of the EU, and its rules and organizing charter. Normally a blocking minority would need 4 countries and 35% of the population to block EU proposals supported by the majority. This could be used if the blocking is seen as not in the common interest. In recent years most decision are made with unanimity, but this is one in which solidarity needed to be shown without the long negotiations taking some of the spirit and vigour behind the earlier plan. ...

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Erfurt is a very German city in the heart of Germany with its many churches and medieval past, the home town of Martin Luther. Katrin Bennhold provides this exceptional report of how Erfurt is coping with new refugees from talking to town officials and observing the process of resettlement. Erfurt has a population of 208,000 with only about 500 Muslims, and few people from Africa. The town's mayor sees it as the biggest challenge since World War II, larger than reunification with the east, as 300 migrants arrive every week and 4000 have to be resettled by Christmas 2015. Under Germany's quota system the state of Thuringia gets 2.5% of refugees, and Erfurt gets 10% of this. When the Soviet bloc expelled 14 million Germans from the eastern territories in the bloc, 670,000 passed through camps in Erfurt. The difference now is the language barrier, and the anxiety among some Germans of how this could change their lives, which is visible from the questions asked at a town hall meeting in Erfurt. Because of the suddenness with which Germany was confronted with the refugee problem it will take time to get organized- in September 2015 there is a shortage of housing space, cots, temporary shelters, translators, social workers, and some of the infrastructure has to be put in on an improvised basis. Rarely has a people come under the spotlight of world attention in modern communications media, in the way small cities and towns throughout Germany are now facing, and providing a glimpse into the hearts and souls of so many....

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The 800 foot Chinese ocean carrier Zhen Hua 29 sails into Kingston, Jamaica, from Shanghai on the long route with 5 cranes in epic 3 months voyage through the Indian Ocean around Mozambique- the last of the globalization voyages. As globalization dims these are the last of these voyages. US policy is for its control of the Panama Canal, the Monroe Doctrine in the western hemisphere, pushing out a globalization that hurt American industry and jobs in the USA. China continues on with its surplus capacity make for export policy, the US wants out from these imports, and the EU is wary of imports dependence.  Gemany's Foreign ministry under Wadephul is forming a commission to investigate German dependence on China made products. This is the last of the globalization that started with Clinton, and went on with Bush and Obama, wrecking huge parts of the American industrial base. Cranes- no longer made in the USA, one by one, including ships- no longer made in the USA. The great shipyards of Britain and the US languishing in disrepair! ...

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Kharg Island near Hormuz and Jask Island on Gulf of Oman two of Iran's main oil export terminals. Oil is pumped by underwater sea pipelines to storage tanks that hold 30 million barrels on Kharg Island then loaded onto oil tankers that make their way through the Hormuz Straits. The oil is shipped to teapot refineries in China- smaller independent oil refineries in China that have not faced sanctions. This oil is shipped at a discount. How does China pay for this oil? China gets 2.1 million barrels a day from this source. It is paid for with a $400 billion Chinese investment in Iran under a 25 year Comprehensive Partnership Agreement signed in 2021 during the Biden Administration in the US. The investment covers energy, infrastructure and technology in Iran. At $60 a barrel before the Iran War China would have an import oil bill of $46 billion for 1 years supply of oil from Iran. This was paid for in yuan based transactions and barter systems which involved Iranian construction projects performed by China and exchange of other products, raw materials. ...

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A wise and astute Susie Wiles, DJT's chief of staff, acts quickly to keep the narrative in place for the first 100 days and beyond.

There are many forms of the Musk Risk Factor in the first 100 days of the DJT administration and Susie Wiles has a sense of what this means.  "Musk Paradoxes" as Le Monde calls it poses narrative challenges for the new administration- investing in America vs investing in China plant for Tesla, the Cultural Literacy that is part of America for the last 200 years and the Movement for Global Literacy at Lyrarc.com vs social media channels that are a risk to cultural literacy and literacy itself in America and the world, and the volatility poor signalling that distracts from the tasks of safe borders and communities that America expects from the DJT in its first 100 days and the next 1000 days. Not to mention the tasks of the economy and of building a safer world.