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Singapore's tight politcal control which hinders the kind of free expression which is considered normal in advanced economies is raising questions about Singapore's future and the kind of society it sees itself as becoming. Different opinions are coming from within the ruling PAP party and from the public. Issues are immigration, property prices, growing inequality, similiar to those facing native Hong Kong people. Non residents and permanent residents made up 39% of Singapore's population of 5.5 million in 2014. A law professor at Singapore Management University reflects the trend of public opinion saying it is not a question of whether but when Singapore evolves into a two or multi-party system of government.

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How the efforts of parts suppliers to get back some of their pricing power is affecting car manufacturers efforts to reduce costs from purchasing parts. Collins and Aikman's decion to shut down a Ford plant on a pricing disagreement shows that parts makers at the urging of hedge fund investors are becoming assertive on pricing issues. Bankruptcy of many suppliers is also making it difficult to achieve cost reductions for Ford, GM Daimler. This will affect their efforts to reduce costs.

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This view in the Economist shows that president Trump actually represented the instincts of the Republican party base by 2018- anti-immigrant, anti-elitist, and to the right on social issues. As a result it says it is no surprise that he has taken over the Republican party. As the elections for Congress get closer most candidates are trying to get Trump's support and many of the older senators and Congressman from the earlier period of the party are retiring. It cites polls showing Trump has support of 85% of the Republican party base. In 2018 Mr. Trump appointed new members of his cabinet who more closely represented his views on China, Iran, NATO, and business issues. Remaining party leaders such as Mr. Romney running for Senate seat from Utah are now seeking and getting Trump's endorsement. The Republican National Committee is also run by Trump supporters. On issues of foreign affairs Trump has combined alternate shifts between demands and pragmatism in relations with China, Iran, and other countries on trade, politics, coming up with a new way international relations are tackled. Part of the reason for their appeal is the nature of the intractable problems such as the imbalances in trade, nuclear weapons, and the idea that an alternative approach might work when other approaches have failed.  On social issues such as issues facing workers in globalization and free trade the parties to the left in the U.S. and countries in western Europe have failed to deliver, leading to the appeal of Mr. Trump, Brexiters, National Front in France.  The immigration issue has also worked against the socialist parties.  In Britain dissatisfaction with Theresa May and hard core Brexiters is growing, leading to Labor Party getting 40% of the vote in the recent election. Suggesting that the changes induced by the Brexiters and the Trump administration may lead to other changes in the future that may shift the focus back to basic issues and delivery on infrastructure, health and education which are fundamental for the future.   ...

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Ivan Rogers, Britain's former ambassador to the European Union says ideas about liberation are fantasies, just fantasies. There would be endless negotiation on every issue. After 2 years of negotiations most of the tough questions about Britain's future trading relations with the European Union remain unanswered.

Some just want to get on with the job, including Mrs. May. But the tough questions are not going away as a cross party group in parliament seeks to take control of the process and call for an extension under Article 50 for the March 29 deadline. In addition to the intra party divisions and lack of cooperation from the Labor party, there are doubts in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland about future relations.

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The riots in Athens as the Greek parliament voted to support the passage of an EU plan of austerity cuts, including a 22% cut in the minimum wage, pension cuts and large cuts in the number of government employees. The Popular Orthodox Rally party in the governing Greek coalition withdrew its support, 22 members of the Socialist party and 21 members of the New Democracy party in parliament opposed the measures. Elections are planned for April, 2012. Antonio Samaras, head of the New Democracy party, told parliament that he supported the measure only so that Greece could continue using the euro and have "the possibility tomorrow to negotiate and change the policy that is being imposed on us today."

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Indecision and policy missteps by the government of prime minister Manmohan Singh of India. Divisions within the Congress political party and its allies in parliament stalls moves to attract foreign investment in the retail sector and leads to a general paralysis in the government in 2011-2012.

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Corruption is not a necessary factor for a market economy, it is one of its ills that if left uncontrolled or unregulated risks the downfall of the entire market system with loss of confidence among the people in a market system. This BBC report shows the staggering sum of $44 billion taken out of Saigon Commercial Bank. The report says 93% of loans  given by the bank went to Truong My Lan who set up the bank by merging 3 smaller banks, and shows the brazenness and the scale of the corruption. My Lan started with a market stall during Vietnam's shift to a state driven market economy in 1986 like China, and gradually acquired hotels and other property. Nguyen Phu Trong is the General Secretary of the Communist Party since 2011 and president 2018-2021. The risks to the Communist Party of such corruption have become evident and Nguyen Phu Trong as leader of the Communist Party in Vietnam started his campaign against corruption in 2016 after pro business prime ministers of the past had led to Saigon's economy being left unregulated after 1986 in then Doi Moi reforms. It is Vietnam- and China's- lack of familiarity or experience with the market system that has led to tolerance of outright corruption in the past. In no way does a market system need any corruption of any sort to function that damages the credibility of the system with the people. As it is insidious and can affect the whole economy it requires vigilance, oversight and regulatory checks. ...

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Lyrarc.com's Movement for Global Literacy and its knowledge site open to all has major relevance for today. That 30% of Americans read zero books is a clear warning sign for Democracy in the idea of "We the People," and the Economy benefitting all, in the US. The use of libraries follows political, income and demographic patterns is shown in a You Gov poll research. There is a gap of 10% between the 30% library use at incomes over $100,000 vs 20% at incomes below $50,000. The gap widens with political inclination to 13% when party preference is considered with 30% Democratic and 17% Republican- not a good state of affairs for the Nation.  In general the top 50% of the population gets to libraries split evenly between frequent and less frequent users. The bottom 50% with rarely using or no use at all. This is the crux of the problem- literacy of all kinds should correlate with the use of libraries and books and digital use.  Digital use happens with iPads and laptops searching Wikipedia and knowledge sites such as Lyrarc.com outside of libraries, and this is part of the picture. What library use gives is not a full picture yet one with these wide variations an indication of how the political life of the Nation should be turned in constructive ways for broad based participation in a knowledge society. ...

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Key takeaways from XI's speech to the 20th Party Congress of the CCP, China's Communist Party, are shown in the Guardian. Xi presented a vision of continuity. Goals that were seen as significant were self-reliance in science and technologies and building China's capacity for innovation by building up its capabilities in science education. This was stated as the main driver of future growth. It does not favor decoupling with the US even though the US sees it in its own interest and that of its working class to bring home manufacturing and rebuild supply chains for American self reliance - the pandemic showed the weakness of free markets approaches that ignored this. A promise to step up regulation on income distribution and wealth accumulation, to cut down the growing inequality gap that developed in the last two decades of hypergrowth.  To focus on the quality of economic growth after lessons learned on climate change. To double down on the zero covid policy. He lauded the "all out war on the virus." To continue the battle against "corruption on a scale unprecedented in our history." "Corruption is the biggest cancer that harms the vitality and affects the combat effectiveness of the party, and anti-corruption is the most thorough self-revolution. As long as there is the soil and conditions for corruption, the fight against corruption will not stop for one moment." ...

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This editorial in the New York Times is strongly critical of former president Barack Obama for accepting $400,000 in speaking fees from Wall Street for a single speech. It says the news is causing people to question the ideas and words presented by Obama in his books about the dangers of losing sight of the interests of ordinary people. It gives the impression says the NYT, that Obama is cashing in like everybody else, and that his talk was empty. The editorial says the millions raised by Hillary Clinton led to her defeat in the election. Obama is reported to plan a foundation with the work of training a new generation of political leaders. This NYT editorial says it would be better to stay true to vision and purpose, to walk the talk for president Obama, especially now that a recent poll shows two thirds of voters, including about half of Democrats say that the Democratic Party is out of touch with the interests of the American People. By associating this closely with wealthy donors leading Democrats contributed to this. During a period when some of the remarkable achievements of the last fifty years such as the European Union are being called into question, when ordinary working people, young people and older people are struggling, this is all the more a tone deaf approach by politicians. The idea of helping train a new generation of political leaders through a foundation sounds bizarre in this context, and seems to suggest politicians believe there is always a solution through marketing their audacity and money.   ...

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The UNESCO report on Water scarcity and contaminated water. It creates awareness on World Water Day but comes across as a largely academic exercise, ask any rural woman in India and she knows the significance, question is what should have been done and the resources are there. For action it has to come from nations,, large nations such as India from it's Jal Jeevan Mission, China and Japan transferring the knowhow and technologies to Africa and Latin America and other parts of Asia. The period after a pandemic is also a time to focus efforts on  doing this. How it undermines girls and women and their participation in society is part of the understanding in India, and uppermost in the minds of Indian leaders and technologists, and in the mind of PM Modi. Unfortunately the UNESCO reports fails to even cover right up front in its summary how Jal Jeevan is being done for 1.4 billion people in India to have clean tap water so that people in Africa and Latin America can see that this is possible, if in the Himalayan regions possible in their region it is possible. Just see for yourself in India. ...

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Class of 1977 was first after the Cultural revolution. In 1977 China held its first competitive national university entrance examination since 1965. A period of 12 years of the cultural revolution till 1977 were a lost decade in terms of education and getting the best minds and training them for careers in various fields for development and modernization. The year 1977 with the reinstatement of university entrance exams was remarkable in the outpouring of energy as young people prepared for entrance exams in a period of a few weeks. Textbooks were hard to find, for over ten years most had no schooling and worked in rural areas doing farming work. Students scrambled to find teachers to guide them. 273,000 were admitted to universities that year- only 4.7% of the the students taking the test. In comparison 58% of nine million students in 2007 were admitted to universities three decades later in 2007. Li Keqiang is one of these students who worked really hard to get into Peking University. He is the new prime minister, part of the new generation of leaders in China. Others include Zhou Qiang, governor of Hunan province, Wang Yi, party secretary of Foreign Affairs Ministry, and Jin Liqun, vice president of the Asian Development Bank, filmmakers Yimou and Kaige. and the writer Chen Cun. ...

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Jeb Bush on the Republican party and lack of willingness to compromise to come up with viable solutions to economic problems facing the U.S.

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A severe drought is affecting parts of Mexico in January 2012. About two million people are left without access to water. The Agriculture Ministry estimates total loss for 7% of Mexico's agricultural land. The worst affected areas are in the Sierra Madre in the north. The Mexican government has approved $2.63 billion in aid to the worst affected regions. These are rural parts of 19 of 31 Mexican states. The drought is likely to increase inflation in the latter part of 2012, as it is leading to higher prices for corn and beans.

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Democratic Party National Committee email leaks show the DNC chair Debbie Schultz in a negative light. She resigned after the emails were leaked. The emails show the influence of wealthy donors and the scramble to collect party donations. It also shows the DNC showing bias against Bernie Sanders.

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Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, says when you consider that London gets 7 times the infrastructure spending per person than West Midlands, "its not bloody surprising" that his region is not growing fast. West Midlands covers a large part of central England, including Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry. Even life expectancy is lower by 8 years in Blackpool, and disposable income can be quarter in Camden compared to North London. Labor's Corbyn and Conservative's Thatcher in the British general election are both campaigning for reviving the regions outside London, that have seen investment in people and technology lag substantially behind London. Regional revival is the big issue in this election. Consider that London which accounted for about 15% of economic output in the 1980's now accounts for nearly 25% of economic output of Britain. Berlin is about 4% of Germany's economy, and Paris 10% of France's economy. A word of caution on Brexit is sounded by experts at the University of Birmingham, who say the whole process of Brexit is so complicated that it may detract from the task of reviving this region. Even though the political upheaval had origins in this discontent, was it more about shifting government attention to the gap between London and the rest of the country, and less about a complex process of withdrawal from the European Union. ...

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This opinion in The Guardian points out the difficulty that Lula da Silva faces in governing after a narrow margin of victory of about 1.8 percentage points in the presidential election in Brazil. It is a very different country than the one in which he was first elected in 2003. The right wing parties gained 249 seats compared to 141 seats for the Lula PT party in the lower house of parliament. This means Lula will have a harder time governing, needing centrist party support, and tackling the large fiscal deficit of 8% of GDP.

In the elections for the governors of states Bolsonaro won in 14 of 27 states including the large state of Sao Paulo. Lula owed his victory to large margins in the 10 relatively poor northeastern states where incomes are below $400 a month including Bahia. Where incomes are over $400 as in Sao Paulo the vote was in Bolsonaro's favor.

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The Labour party takes the Rutherglen parliament seat from SNP with Labour's Michael Shanks winning twice the votes of the SNP candidate. Scotland can now lead the way to a Labour government. In his speech Keir Starmer, Labour's leader said he would put Scotland at the "heart of a Britain to last." Labour stands for working people across all these islands, "there is nothing more important." That Labour stands for an argument for Britain, an old partnership perhaps, but a flame now reignited to  face a modern flame of insecurity." On the Scottish nationalists and their party the SNP Starmer said- "Once again they will wave away the lessons of history, try to present nationalism as a bridge to the world. We have to remind them that it can barely provide a ferry to the Hebrides."

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WSJ Review and Outlook on Thanksgiving Day 2025 - "This Fair Land" and the people of America who undaunted by other troubles left Delftshaven for these shores a long time ago. Delftshaven is todays Delfshaven that is a part of the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands from where the Pilgrims left for America. Pilgrims left Delftshaven in July 1620 on ship Speedwell to Southampton, England, then in September on the ship Mayflower to America.

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

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Chinese president Xi's determination to make good on the slogan "Housing is for living, not for speculation," by imposing a property tax on homes in 30 cities, is facing resistance within the Communist party and from local governments. Mr Xi hopes to squeeze out the excesses of the adoption of capitalist market systems in China since 2000. China's government opted to get feedback on this idea and the feedback is largely negative forcing the government to scale it back and look at other alternatives such as affordable housing to make home purchases accessible.  Some reasons for the pushback are that it is becoming a social stability issue and risks alienating officials within the ruling party and homeowners. The fact is that 90% of urban Chinese families own their homes and housing related industry makes up about a third of China's output. Also significant is that 80% of China's wealth is tied up in real estate. What could happen is that if housing prices drop in China urban consumers might cut back on spending because they feel poorer. Party officlals advised against introducing property tax in 30 cities. Now it is scaled back to ten cities, and a new law could take till 2025 to introduce property taxes in the whole of China. Cities that are likely to be used for the property tax now are Shanghai, Chongqing, where an annual charge is levied on second homes since 2011. Cities added to the list would be Shenzen, Hangzhou, China has financed much of its industrialization through land sales by the Communist local governments in a country where land ownership was with the national Communist government after the revolution in 1949.  Mr. Xi wrote in Qiushi party journal that "we should actively and steadily promote the legislation and reform of real estate tax, and do a good job in the pilot work." Local communist governments get about one third of their revenues from selling land to property developers, and they are anxious that a tax on real estate would make demand and price for the land they sell to drop drastically. To get some idea of this- the local governments had $1 trillion in revenues last year. ...

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How the expression "owning the libs" found its way into the current vocabulary and its meaning today. Seen as it relates to the Republican party and choices of some sections of the party to overemphasize the importance of so called culture wars on the difference of opinion about abortion and women, immigration, diversity. This happens in the context of the larger issues of national importance of national character, America's leadership in the world, America's position in science and technology in the world, American education, fighting climate change and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. After the Ukraine war, differences with China, and the reorganization of America's supply chain in the world reducing concentration in China, creating new opportunities for America in science and technology leadership, a new attitude is taking hold. One that deemphasizes this type of "owning the libs" discourse that leads nowhere in rebuilding America to rebuilding America and also its European and Asian allies to prepare for a better, hope filled future. ...

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The crackdown on the opposition after a failed coup in 2016 has intensified, and Turkey is now seen as a one party state under president Erdogan and the AKP Party that has ruled Turkey for the last decade. The crackdown was made by the AKP Party because of the coup, yet DW points out that the crackdown itself was of an anti-democracy type by acting against the opposition parties in parliament. As a result of emergency powers assumed by president Erdogan, the appointment of judges by the ruling party, and the shutdown of media opposed to the president, the mass firing of teachers and officials not seen as allied to the ruling party,  DW.com say democracy has suffered in Turkey in 2016-2017. DW.com says the previous republic setup by Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey's founder,  was an imperfect democracy, the new one with the new constitution setup by Erdogan and the AKP is not free and not democratic.

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People have to take charge of their own lives by eating healthy food and lots of fruits and vegetables, to reduce obesity in this pandemic. Studies show that people with obesity were twice as likely to end up in hospital, and 74% more likely to end up in intensive care. Efforts to rid our diets of sugary drinks and junk or processed foods need to be escalated, and exercize, walking, cycling, other activity need to be made part of our daily activity. This needs to be taken up as a fight for life, a war against decades of neglect and reckless behaviour in eating habits.  Even vaccines will not work well when body mass index BMI is over 30. Obesity has reached unbelievable and scary levels - 66% in the UK, U.S., high in the Middle East, and increasing all over the world. Added risk is high smoking levels in China and India. Coca Cola takes the place of water in parts of Mexico where obesity is high and Mexico has suffered from high coronavirus cases. ...

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Sir Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics, and the expanded ties of the London School of Economics with the one party Ghadafi regime in Libya. Sir Howard was the first chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK's financial regulator, and deputy governor of the Bank of England from 1995 to 1997.