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When even the NYT, or the host of CBS television Face the Nation does it poorly, how are independent voters, and voters leaning Democrat or Republican, or leaning not vote, to have a clear idea of policies?  This review of Trump statements about Harris statements on red meat, ICE, law enforcement, fails to get down to the policies she has stated at Wake Tech in North Carolina and in other places before this. It also does not address the Trump plan to end tax on Social Security which would lead to about $550 going to seniors but lead to a cut of 25% in Social Security in 2032, defunding Social Security and Medicare. Immigration- the first thing Harris would do as president is to sign the legislation written by Republicans Lankford, McConnell with the backing of the party and agreed to by president Biden that will in effect close the Border with Mexico and fix the asylum policy, not done in three decades. Cost of Living- Harris policy on price gouging is for taking the action that companies follow and play by the rule on pricing, so that they do not take unfair advantage of the public. It is not about passing a law or fixing prices. This has been done in Texas and in Kentucky, other states. Restrict rent to 5% increases and increase the supply of new houses by building 3 million new homes, $100 billion to be allocated for fixing housing supply shortages.   ...

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Pressed by tariffs from DJT China is trying to become technologically sufficient, yet this comes at a considerable cost, says this report in WSJ. Made in China 2025 was put out in 2014 when president Xi was beginning his plans for the Chinese economy. It is 2025 now and a look at the nation's investment plans show China putting $250 billion a year in advanced manufacturing sectors from automobiles to solar panels and AI, says Centre for Strategic and International Studies CSIS in Washington. This is giving China an edge but at the cost of using up valuable resources and some wasted spending at a time of stagnant government revenues. China's new production needs new markets with overcapacity such as in the electric automobile industry. This overcapacity comes at a cost when the US and other countries are restricting imports from China with new trade policies. During the DJT first term in 2016 China pulled back reference to make in China 2025 but this was temporary and China's 2021 Economic Plan puts top priority to be self sufficient in Science and Technology. Industrial support for EV's went from $15 billion in 2019 to $45 billion in 2023 (CSIS). 48% of 11 million new vehicles were EV's in 2024 with BYD and Geely the main ones of 100 brands. In shipbuilding $132 billion was invested in 2010-2018 taking China from 5% in 1999 to 48% of total manufacturing of shipbuilding in 2025 worldwide. The same is true for manufacturing aircraft and chemicals. ...

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Every year India Youth Day is observed on the 12th of January on the birthday of Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda 1863-1902 preceded Mohandas Gandhi in the first period of the Indian struggle for Independence from the British Empire. The book Hind Swaraj by Gandhiji which set the blueprint for India's independence struggle was inspired by and followed in 1909 only a few years after Vivekananda's death in 1902. Vivekananda also inspired Indonesia's Sukarno in the struggle for independence from the Dutch Empire during the 1930's and 1940's. The population of India and Indonesia which represent the height of the ancient Vedic civilization of South Asia is in 2025 1722 million. It also encompasses China Japan Korea and Vietnam with a population of 1750 million when we consider India as the centre of Buddhist civilization. About 3.5 billion people with a common heritage in ancient Vedic and Buddhist civilization. Matched only by Christian civilization with 1.0 billion people in the Americas and 750 million in Europe. Combined this is two thirds of the world population. Under the British, Dutch and French Empires India was kept separate from cultural and religious contact with Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan. There is a convergence of culture and religion in Asia in the 21st century first between India and Indonesia and Vietnam, and second between India and Japan, Korea. That convergence will grow between India and China in the rest of the 21st century as ancient but modern civilizations with a common history. ...

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The title says it all from BBC China Correspondent Laura Bicker. China is listening even as it is presenting itself as a nation that is putting up with an unfair tariffs war started by DJT. It has delayed tariffs till Feb 10 says this report and put tariffs on items which Europe needs from the US such as LNG and coal which China can get from Australia, saying that it wants to come to an agreement. My Fellow Americans, Canada, Mexico and China are putting themselves as aggrieved parties when there are two issues here one about fentanyl flows where none of the three nations have taken the needed action to stop all flows and control borders. The reader will find that much of the media titles blame the US for starting a tariffs war are misleading such as one in The Guardian-"In this era of Trump shakedowns everything has a price."  Or even in a Business friendly WSJ site- "The World has Changed since Trump's First Trade War. Other Countries are Ready to Fight Back." Or in Times of London sensational "World Watches as Trade War looms between China and the US," when US demand for effective action on borders and fentanyl flows from Canada, Mexico and China has little to do with trade. In fact it is incomprehensible that these three nations as neighbors and trade partners of the US have waited this long to act on fentanyl flows and controlling their border with the US.   ...

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German chancellor, Angela Merkel, appeals to members of the Christian Democratic Party to support the European project at a party convention in Leipzig on November 14, 2011. "We live in times of epic change. Our political compass has not changed. But the context is constantly changing," said Merkel. The 2 day convention used the motto: "For Europe. For Germany." Her message was that it will take years of hard work to fix the crisis and yet this has created an opportunity to put the European project on a sounder footing. Finance Minister Schauble put it succintly as he supported Merkel's appeal: "We now need to build the political union in Europe we never managed to build in the 90's." This comes as changes are taking place in Europe with new unity governments being formed in Greece by Mario Monti, a former EU commissioner, and in Greece by Papdemos, another EU official. And it comes as a head of Italy's central bank, Mario Draghi, who had pushed for stricter controls on spending by the Italian government, is now the head of the European Central Bank. Merkel also hit on the theme of a stricter financial union, and the need for courage to change the treaty underlying the European monetary union to allow strong, automatic sanctions for violations of the treaty. She also emphasized that the government had ruled out issuance of eurobonds that makes the EU as a whole responsible for the debt of individual countries. On that point she said: "Everywhere we look we find behaviour that cannot go on for long. Everywhere people are living as if there is no tomorrow."...

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Spiegel Online describes the discontent with the Tsipras government after two years in which it failed to keep promises of reducing the impact of austerity cuts on pensioners. government employees, teachers and other groups. Now riot police buses are situated in the street facing the presidential residence in Athens. In early 2015 after Tsipras won the election the police were removed from the area. German Foreign minister Schauble is for no further concessions for Greece's debt programs till after federal elections in 2017, and austerity cuts continue to affect people in Greece. About 90% of Greeks are dissatisfied with the Tsipras government according to a recent poll. Tsipras had said he would stop privatization projects when elected, now he is moving forward with privatization for airports and other state assets.

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This report in the Economist says that the days of double digit increases in the car market are a thing of the past. Future increases will be in the mid to high single digits, according to McKinsey consulting firm. China's economy is slowing and official estimates of GDP growth of 7% are described by experts as overstated, with real estimate of growth for the 1st quarter of 2015 by Citi, Conference Board and Capital Economics all below 5%, as reported in the WSJ. A sign of the change in the market is the need for higher use of incentives. The growth in the used car market offers buyers other alternatives. The new plants being added will increase production by 5.3 million light vehicles a year and come online in 2015 and 2016, this is in addition to the 22.8 million in sales in 2014. Average Chinese auto plants operate at 70% of capacity and the added volume will lower capacity utilization further. China's local automobile companies, with the exception of companies in joint ventures with foreign companies, have failed to gain customer loyalty. Many of these companies may be absorbed by foreign car makers or shut down as the industry consolidates. Foreign companies will find doing business less attractive as sales decline. ...

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Democrats are on a rapid schedule, and would like to pass abudget resolution by April 3, 2009. Democrats were generally enthusiastic about the first budget, and say they plan to move it quickly through both Houses of Congress. Democrats may have an easier time passing the budget than other legislation, because under Senate rules the key steps in the budget process can't be filibustered, and Democrtats have significant majorities in both chambers of Congress. Another good sign is that Democrats like Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, aprominent Blue Dog in the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition, had high praise for the President's budget blueprint, saying it got rid of the gimmicks of previous years like not including the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under Bush the wars were paid for in socalled supplemental bills. "This is more honest than any budget in many, many years. That means its also ugly. I welcome the honesty. I think its time for Americans to grapple with fundamental problems, and not pretend that wars are free and things like that." He praised the courage to make an accurate diagnosis, and he likes the fact that the deficit is projected out for 10 years. What is not not as copnspicuous is the use of optimistic assumptions in the projections out over 10 years as the economy is assumed to recover quickly which no be the case....

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Senators opposed to renomination of Bernanke to Fed chairman position include Boxer, Feingold, Sanders, and a non-commital Reid. Growing crtiticism of the Fed and the cozy relationship between Bernanke, Geithner, Summers, and the bankers. The role of Bernanke in the Greenspan years of low interest rates and high liquidity both in Congress and in the country as the national mood changes.

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Speaking to Cadena Sur, a Spanish radio network, EU Commission Vice President, Joaquin Alumnia said the EC will have plans to monitor the restructuring of each bank that gets EU funds. He said: "Whoever gives money never gives it for free. There will be people coming to Spain to make sure the money will be properly used."

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This is what Matthew Goldstein of Business Week had to say about the $13 billion Goldman received when the government paid for AIG to honor credit default swaps Goldman purchased to insure some of its portfolio of collateralized debt obligations (CDO's). He suggested Goldman return some of that $13 billion along with the $10 billion in TARP money.

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President Xi Jinping's Made in China 2025 plan has spurred startups in electric car technologies, and raises concern about overcapacity. Electric cars is one of 10 sectors in the Made in China 2025 plan to promote global competitiveness for Chinese companies and domestic dominance. China Construction Bank and National Development and Reform Commission announced a $47 billion plan. Direct government subsidies of $15 billion over last 5 years have also increased the number of startups.

All automakers in China are required to produce electric cars. The electric cars sold in China at 777,000 make up half of the electric cars sold in the world. 

Local governments in places such as Anhui province have invested in electric car companies. One such company Singulato in Tongling, Anhui, is profiled here, with its first electric car expected by the end of the year priced at $43,000.

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The current trade disputes and negotiations between the European Union and the U.S. are leading to European carmakers looking again at their supply chains to come up with ways of increasing manufacturing autos in the U.S. Daimler CEO Zetsche says Mercedes Benz will increase engine manufacturing in the U.S. BMW CEO Kruger says the USMCA agreement as the new NAFTA is called, will accelerate investments in manufacturing in the U.S.- more U.S. production for the U.S. market.

The USMCA require at least 75% of car's value built in the U.S. up from 62%. Also 40-45% of the car has to be made at wages of at least $16 per hour. The cap for cars made in Canada and Mexico and exported to the U.S. is 5.2 million with 4.1 million currently shipped into the U.S. Any cars over this or not qualifying with the rules pay a tariff of 2.5%.

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A CNN story on Senate investigators looking into a meeting between Anthony Scaramucci, a member of Trump's transition team, and an executive of a Russian investment fund, is retracted. Three CNN employees resigned, including Harris its investigations editor, as the story could not be reliably verified. The errors in reporting are a result of intense pressure to come up with new breaking news stories, as CNN competes with other news providers such as the Washington Post and the New York Times. Paul Farhi cites other errors at CNN. CNN.com shows the work of the CNN investigative team of about 30 thirty journalists. It has come up with other stories on Russia and the U.S. election of 2016 which have been verified. Farhi points out that the stories have led to record ratings and profits for CNN. On of the journalists who resigned was Eric Lichtblau, a veteran reporter who worked earlier for the New York Times.

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As the state of California changes governors from Jerry Brown to Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, there is a sense of continuity as both come from families that have deep connections going back to Jerry Brown's father Pat Brown, also a former governor of the state. This comes with a change of style between the conservative Brown who espouses social justice and careful spending after battling deficits, with the ambitious Newsom who is pushing for many social programs including universal health coverage that have wide support in the state, and can be funded with the $30 billion surplus Jerry Brown handed to his successor. Under Newsom California is also seen as a state that has a different vision of the future than president Trump. 

This comes at a time when California has become more expensive to live in, less and less affordable, with inequalities aggravated by the tech boom.

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Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan and a hot new Japanese drama TV show "Change", that centers on a 35 year old prime minister Keita Asakura. It starts with dawn rising over the Japanese prime minister's building and in one of the episodes shows people talking excitedly about Obama 46 years, and Cameron, 41 years, politicians in the USA and Britain with comparisons to older political leaders like prime Minister Fukuda of Japan. In fairness to Fukuda, 72 years old, he has improved relations with China and hosted the Chinese President in Tokyo, but he has failed to get legislation through parliament because of the opposition parties the DJP which is also unpopular. But with the TV show having 20% of viewers in the Tokyo area including the current defence minister Ishiba, 51 years old, and the youngest cabinet minister, it shows that status quo is quite unpopular in Japan and the current politicians are quite unpopular.

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U.S. president Trump's executive order reversing parts of the Clean Power Plan of president Obama may extend the life of older coal powered plants, but overall it is unlikely to change the shift away from coal for the U.S. utility industry. It will do little to reverse the market forces that are leading to a shift to natural gas for the utility industry with the increasing availability of natural gas. In this WSJ report Cassandra Sweet cites Duke Energy Corp. CEO Lynn Good, who says natural gas for Duke will be the leading fuel followed by coal by 2026, and natural gas now makes up 28% of its mix with coal at 34%. He says a $11 billion ten year investment in natural gas and renewable energy will go through regardless of what the Trump administration does because of the economics- the declining price of renewables, the competitive price of natural gas. Companies are loath to base their long term plans on changes in administration as they see the economics dictated by advances in technology, and the general sense that cleaner energy is here to stay for the long run. Already in the U.S. 34% of total power supplies are from natural gas and 30% from coal for 2016, according to the U.S. Energy Department. This may change slightly as coal is used where it is economical and makes sense without the carbon rules, yet the long term trend is clearly towards natural gas. ...

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Seib of the WSJ compares the Reagan election in 1980 with Trump's bid in 2016. He finds the idea of an outsider when the public mood was for change favoring Trump, but says the comparison with Reagan falls short because Reagan had behind him 8 years as governor of the largest state in the country, and a bid for the nomination 4 years earlier. He also had personal positive approval ratings of about 70 percent compared to 27 percent for Trump.  Reagan's first trp after the convention in 1980 was to Alabama to win the support of George Wallace people in the Deep South. His focus was on reuniting all parts of the Republican Party something absent in 2016. Seib's comment about Trump being stronger on the economy is not clear. With the economy recovering, and slowing down as the presidential election approaches amid increasing uncertainty, it is possible that voters would not want to risk abrupt and sudden changes with an untested candidate. Working class voters could still see some of their concerns for change addressed by the Bernie Sanders part of the Democratic platform with help in college tution, addressing wage concerns, and opposing export of jobs, when Trump's program gives few specifics. Another difference between Reagan and Trump is that Reagan had put together an economic team under Shultz which was able to win credibility with an actual plan to implement in the first 100 days. ...

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The disadvantages of 99 week unemployment benefits. Research has shown that the job search is most effective in the early months when the job hunter's skills and networks are at their best. The long term unemployed are about half of the total unemployed. Federal Reserve of San Francisco researchers show that about 0.8% of the jobless rate is a result of 99 week benefits.