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Liz Truss, new UK prime minister, says higher energy costs will not be passed on to bill payers and households.

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US economic growth shrinks for a second quarter in a row in 2022. Growth declined by 0.2% in the first quarter after a decline of 0.4% in the first quarter. The Fed increased by 0.75 of a percentage point on July 27. Fed chairman Powell said at a conference that the Fed is watching the situation closely. At this point he said the information he sees suggests a strong labor market and consumers still have as strong balance sheet with higher wages. It is early to tell he said, yet it appears that the economy will pick up in the second half of 2022.

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Professors Cole and Ohanian of the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA, provide a new interpretation of FDR's economic policies during the period 1932-1934 and the period 1937-1941, based on their research. This suggests conclusions different from that of Obama advisor, Christina Romer, and Fed chairman, Bernanke about that period. Changes in economic policies under the Roosevelt administration that helped bring wages in line with productivity, reduced strikes, and gradual elimination of the undistributed profits tax, improved incentives for business investment during 1938-1939. Cole and Ohanian, say that by 1941, before the U.S. entered the war, close to half of the increase in nonmilitary hours worked in the U.S. between 1939 and the peak of the war, had already been achieved. And this was primarily the result of the changes in FDR's policies in 1938. They say a similiar opportunity is presented by the proposals of the Bowles-Simpson commission on deficit reduction, by lowering the corporate income tax through simplification of the tax code and reducing or eliminating most tax expenditures. Improving the incentives for business to hire and invest through this and other steps is likely to do more for the economy than the steps tried so far since 2009....

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Older and young Latinos in Arizona think differently. The demographics and attitudes are changing. Younger Latinos in Arizona are considering both parties and see the issues of cost of living and gender similar to other voters. Older Latinos think more about cultural affinities. Part of this change is that two thirds of Latinos in Arizona were born in the US and 40% of Latino immigrants are naturalized citizens. Economic issues and opportunities are playing a bigger part in how they see the world.

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By July 2011, when Solar Frontier KK's new solar panel factory is in full scale production, it will become the world's largest plant for photovoltaic cells. The parent company is Showa Shell Sekiyu KK, a Japanese oil refiner. The $1.25 billion solar-panel factory in Miyazaki prefecture is expected to open in a few months. The annual output will be 900 megawatts of photovoltaic cells. For Showa Shell the move makes sense as oil demand is declining in Japan, given a shift to cleaner burning natural gas for power generation, and adoption of hybrid cars. Showa plans to cut its oil refining capacity by 20% in 2011. And the solar business will account for 50% of the company earnings by 2014. Mr Kameda, head of the Showa Shell solar business, says his company is focussing on the market segment that is growing fast- thin-film CIS cells, made from copper, indium and selenium. These cells cost less to make and to buy, than thicker silicon based crystalline cells. The thin-film have a potential for increasing efficiency and reducing cost because they are relatively new. Showa's technology converts about 13% of sunlight into energy. Showa is also working with partners. It plans to supply panels to GE's solar energy projects, and is working with IBM to develop next-generation solar-cell material that is based on readily available materials....

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Mike Clancy of The Prospect writes in The Times of London that he has found that two thirds of remote workers working from home would like to have the right to unplug from work and not be expected to connect with the office at some point in the day, and that this would have a hugely beneficial impact on mental health.   The biggest problem that workers working from home have found during this pandemic for one year now is that it blurs the line between work and life outside of work having a negative impact on one's mental health. Surveys have found that about half of remote workers like the idea of working from home, having time from commute and being able to be have more freedom from being tied down to the office space. Companies are looking at cutting about 25 to 50% of office space but have not looked at the problems workers have and not set new rules about when the line for work is set and workers can cut off from work and not be expected to be reachable by the office. Clancy even goes on to say that companies have looked at the problems of the last century not this one and largely stayed away from tackling the real problems of workplace- stress, burnout and surveillance. Lyrarc recommends readers look at the way Germans approach this idea of blurred distinctions between work and life outside of work in the idea of "Feierabend" that literally means breaking away from work at some point say 4.00 pm or 5.00 pm to take a bike ride or walk or do something else. ...

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Warnings about the decline in reading comprehension in the US shown by 30 years of NAEP testing, all the way down the graphs show.  About 70 percent of American children in 4th grade cannot reach Reading Proficient level of the National Association of Education Performance Tests for 2024. The problem is the lack of rich content based education as standard in all American schools says E.D. Hirsch. It is also about getting children excited about reading, and giving them opportunities to use their imagination. This promotes lifelong learning the key to better reading. This way children seek out new books from libraries, from friends, mentors, from the internet and from online stores. Once this happens it takes place on its own. Interaction with adults adds another dimension to the reading. Lyrarc's Movement for Global Literacy is about rebuilding reading comprehension in the US. This is behind every aspect of educational activity, reading is fundamental to all educational activity.  It is also fundamental to nation building, never more important than today with the fragmentation in cultures and ethnic fragmentation being allowed to happen as core fundamentals were ignored, and hard earned experience neglected by adopting newfangled theory since the 1950's that has failed us. ...

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Ajami makes the point that opinions and attitudes -after the Obama efforts to improve America's standing in the Muslim world - havent changed much since the Bush days. He cites the Pew Global Attitudes Survey for 2009- In Turkey after the Obama Anakra visit favorable rating is only 14%, 69% are unreconciled. In Egypt 27% have favorable view 70% do not, in Pakistan unfavorables actally went up from 63% to 68%. He also points to the situation in Iran where the protester for the fraud in the election of Ahmadinejad did not receive much supprt from Obama, as the Obama administration decided to engage with Ahmadinejad to achieve nuclear settlement. In effect the rhetoric from Obama has not been matched with courage of convicitions , and lacks the courage to turn a new chapter by breaking from the past not just with talk but in real policy changes. And says Ajami the Arabs havve stopped listening to the rhetoric as little has been accomplished by way of change. At the same time false expectations may have been aroused because the Cairo speech was made at the University with the aging Mubarak at Obama's side, and beyond addressing these students the feeling clearly must be that the US would simply continue its policies of supporting old regimes that tolerate no dissent of any kind such as Mubarak's. ...

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Parents and teachers in Germany are skeptical of school reopening because of the lax rules for mostly unvaccinated children. Teachers are not required to be vaccinated and show digital certificate of vaccination as is the case in Italy. Teachers and parents see the return to normalcy not lasting long  with the relaxed rules. Britain is also following school reopening with relaxed rules going so far as to not require social distancing or masks. Health experts question this policy.

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Two Syrian cities are among the oldest in the world going back to 3000 BC. They are Aleppo and Damascus. This is close to when Varanasi on the Ganges in India was settled. Aleppo is older than Damascus.  The only European city that comes close is Plovdiv, Bulgaria, says this report in The Guardian. Most of the Syrian region is populated by Syrian Sunnis about 75% and there are Christian, 10%, Shia Alawite 11%, and other minorities in Syria.  The Syrian Civil War 2011-2024 destroyed most of the old city of Aleppo. Syria has 110 miles of Mediterranean coastline, mountains along the coastline and and area inland of wheat cultivation along the Euphrates river and the Syrian desert near Iraq in the east, Turkey to the north with Kurds in that area, and Jordan in the south. The Ottoman Turks ruled from 1516 to 1918. In 1920 a French Mandate was setup in Syria till 1943. Following the Second World War Syria was an independent nation and briefly joined Egypt in the UAR United Arab Republic.  ...

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Krugman says the the higher population growth in Texas has led to higher job growth there relative to the rest of the country. Other factors mitigating the effects of the recession in Texas- the housing and mortgage lending laws in Texas prevented the building up of home equity debt and foreclosures that hit other states, and the oil industry in Texas helped with higher oil prices. Lower wages in Texas, lower living costs, and lower housing costs have attracted jobs to the state. In June 2011, the Texas unemployment rate was 8.2%, lower than California and close to that of New York.

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A former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Martin Feldstein, says a recession is likely in the U.S. as interest rates rise. He sees interest rates on 10 year Treasury  notes rising from about 3% to 5%, as the Fed pushes the short term rate from today's 2% to a projected 3.4% in 2020. As short term interest rates go up he sees equity prices reflecting historic P/E ratios for stocks. This would lead to a significant drop in share prices and drop in consumer spending, drop in business investment, and a drop in GDP of 2%. 

Because of huge deficits as publicly held federal debt rises from 75% to 100% by 2020, there is less room for fiscal intervention and help through public spending, and with short term rates at around 3% less room to cut rates. This means, says Feldstein, that a new recession would last longer.

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Investors are showing concern about Samsung's earning momentum. The mobile division generates 50% of profit and competition in intensifying in this field. Samsung shares declined by 4.6% on Jan 2, 2013. Overall operating profit is expected to increase in the 4th quarter 2013 by 9.2% from prior year, compared to 26% in the 3rd quarter 2013. The operating profit for the mobile division is expected to be up 14% over prior year for 4th quarter 2013, declining 8% from the third quarter. The less premium smartphones make up a greater proportion of the portfolio reducing margins. Prices are being lowered by competitors. Motorola Mobility is cutting the price of its Moto X smartphone to $399 from $550, much cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone costing $600 without a contract in the U.S. market. Declining TV prices with competition from Vizio and other Chinese competitors is likely to squeeze margins in this segment.

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As China's excess manufacturing capacity is put to use there is a flood of Chinese imports entering the EU and the US. Biden administration is conducting trade discussions with China warning about overproduction.

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A brief history of Xinjiang which translates as New Frontier in Chinese. Its the western frontier of China and a vast area that comprises the desert region of the Tarim basin. It has 13 sizeable ethnic minority groups and borders eight countries. Because of the lack of irrigation technologies these arid expanses were settled very late in history, says Victor Mair, a Professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Even the Uighurs were tribes from the Mongolian steppes who settled Xinjiang in the 10th century. For China it was mostly aplace for havin border military garrisons. Around the 10th century and the Tang dynasty in China, trade on the Silk Road- with places like Kashgar oasis towns on the fringes of the desert as hubs- was at its height. It was not until 1760 under the Quing dynasty of ethnic Manchus, that this area was annexed by CHina and serious effort made to settle it with demobilized troops. A civil and military administration encouraged immigration, say scholars Millward and Perdue in a 2004 book of essays by 16 scholars, "Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland." About 50,000 demobilized troops were offered benefits, seeds and land if they stayed. A similiar situation seems to have been repeated after Mao annexed Xinjiang in 1949. In the early 1950's the Chinese government established the Xinjiang Province Production and COnstruction Corps, which was setup to manage large farms and construction projects called bingtuan and provide jobs for demobilized troops. The bingtuan are profitable enterprises and an estimated one of every six people in Xinjiang are employed in bingtuan, or 1.3 million people. THe HAn who were 6% of the population in 1949, now comprise 40% of the 20 million population of Xinjiang. Another source of employment is in the oil and gas industry, with the Communist party secretary of Xinjiang for the last 15 years being aprotege of President Hu Jintao, from his days in the Communist Youth League, coming from the oil industry province of of Shandong. These jobs are mostly all reserved for Chinese which causes resentment among the local Uighurs. Wong quotes a Uighur university student as saying, who is the foreigner here and whose culture, language and way of life should be protected. This may be the crux of the grievances of the Uighurs, as their use of the language and religious practice is restricted, and they feel they are second class citizens in their own land. Other articles in the NYT and Economist go to point out that the links with international terrrism are not a source of the problem, and the unrest among the Uighurs is more about a feeling of loss of culture, language, religion and identity, and jobs. And the idea that the best way to work with minorities, or regions with different language, religion and culture, just as the British did in South Asia and India is doing now is through tolerance. See the links to NYT and Michael Wines on 7/11/2009 about the Communist party secretary for Xinjiang, Wang Lequang, whose policies in Xinjiang and now in Tibet through a protege, may be worsening this situation. ...

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Meeting between prime minister Modi of India and prime minister Sharif of Pakistan is unlike anything that has happened between leaders in the region since independence in 1947. Sharif told NDTV: "I intend taking up threads from where Vajpayee and I left off in 1999." Modi says Sharif touched on some emotional things in his conversation. Sharif told Modi about his visits to his mother once a week, and how Modi's visit to his mother seen by Sharif when visiting his mother touched both of them deeply. Rarely has a visit been captured in poetry in the manner Sharif did in answering a question, when he recited an Urdu couplet: "cling to the tree and hope, for spring is in sight."

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Different versions of renewal America for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania, one from head of investment firm Bridgewater Associates Dave McCormick, with assets over $100 million, and Bob Casey Jr. representing working class voters and rural voters left behind in three decades of Reagan trickle down economics and lack of government support to industry, workers and farmers under prior administrations of Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump. Both president Joe Biden and Bob Casey are from Scranton, Pennsylvania, a iron and steel town from the 19th century, and Casey lives in Scranton, close to working class families of northeastern Pennsylvania, many of them of Irish descent from earlier immigration waves in American history. Bob Casey Jr is unique as he sees America coming back in steel. Harris thinks so as she said in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon, steel is back, not just Chips and Science. Instead of outsourcing investment as the large hedge funds have done in China, and outsourcing jobs overseas, making right here in America and delivering as Biden is doing with one trillion dollars of investment.  ...

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The US has 1 trillion in trade deficits each year and it is completing the destruction of manufacturing in the US. Half of this is with China as China exports through Vietnam and Mexico, third countries, in addition to 295 billion dollars of trade imbalance the US has with China. China, Mexico, Canada and Vietnam are the largest offenders. No country can long endure with such a loss of its manufacturing base. The US Navy itself is in danger without the manufacturing to compete with China in shipbuilding. China has taken up over 50% of shipbuilding, and soon the US Navy will not be able to protect the free world if these types of economists and self serving German or other foreign interests drive a false narrative and the US acts on such false narratives.  Without the US Navy in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans no one is safe, not Germany, not the EU, not India, not Latin America or the rest of Asia and the world.