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Controversy about a DJT letter in an Epstein birthday book after the WSJ published this recently. Congress gets involved with release of other related information.

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India's pharmaceutical industry gets a major boost with the development of a mRNA vaccine by Gennova Pharmaceuticals called HGC019. Gennova is funded partly by the government and is being developed in conjunction with Seattle based HDT Bio Corp.  The new vaccine can be stored between 35 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit making it easier to distribute in middle and low income countries with less storage and logistics facilities. It also uses a process of freeze drying called lyophilization to produce the vacine in powder form. It can then be more stable and easy to ship, easy to store at moderate temperatures. The powder can then be diluted with a diluent before vaccination. Another part of the new technology of this vaccine is its use of self-amplifying mRNA instead of non-replicating mRNA. This helps to administer smaller doses with less side effects. India's drug regulator has already approved Gennova vaccine in August for second and third phase trials after the shot was found to be safe in early stage study. Gennova Pharmaceuticals aims to get HGC019 approved for emergency use by Indian authorites this year and manufacture 60 million doses by December end. ...

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Perceptions of Turkey in Germany are shown here in DW.com. Turkey has 1.5 million people in Germany who vote in this election. About 70% of people in Germany see the opposition providing an alternative as good for the future of Turkey. The general perception is that Turkey is facing a severe crisis after the cost of living crisis and the earthquake, the Ukraine war cutting off food imports, that it needs foreign investment in the economy as a part of the US and European nations. The Republican party in the Opposition led now by a modest civil servant named Kilicdaroglu, was founded in 1921 by Kemal Ataturk when the colonial powers decided to breakup the Ottoman Empire and the Anatolian heartland. It was in Ankara that Ataturk formed the resistance to that plan and setup the modern state of Turkey by doing what Japan did- taking on western institutions, dress, education, and changing from Arabic to an alphabet that would increase literacy. A transformation that was a sort of miracle that was accomplished between 1921 and 1938 under Ataturk's leadership. Ataturk's vision at that time was that Turkey would be close partner to America and Europe. John F. Kennedy taped an audio broadcast on the 25th anniversary of Ataturk's death in 1963 at the White House pointing out Ataturk's achievement and vision. It is to this vision that the Republican party now moves after an effort over 2 decades to move the country back to its Ottoman period. That period happened around 1500. The Ottoman period lasted for only 150 years before it was pushed back in the 18th and 19th century by European powers. Before that Turkey and Constantinople was an integral part of European civilization. In fact modern Turkey under Ataturk and Greece maintained close relations and worked together in a shared responsibility to maintain peace in the Balkans, something almost forgotten today. Greece joined the western nations when US president Truman responded with American assistance during the 1950's, so did Turkey.  ...

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Seib points to the part of the president's inaugural speech that said action must be taken even if victories are partial, that the debates over the role of government could go on for all time, but action however imperfect needs to be taken in this time. There is a sure willingness to engage in more partisan fights with Republicans and a broader list of issues from climate change to immigration, gender equality and curbing guns. The diffusion of the pent up purposes- pentup by the first term economic and healthcare issues- and the short time during the second term of 2 years to accomplish this, adds to the urgency for the president Obama.

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Caste is little understood in the US. In India caste is not seen as a positive thing as it is seen as having made India weaker, creating divisions that led to colonization of India by the British and extraction of capital for the East India Company. Leaving Bharat (India), all Indians including the lowest castes, poor and backward. This is why Gandhi took up the fight against untouchability- the worst form of caste. Since 1947 every government has worked to integrate the lowest castes into the economic mainstream. PM Modi appointed a tribal Santhal caste schoolteacher to president of Bharat (India).

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LA Dodgers in Game 7 11th innings with Yoshinobu Yamamoto as Dodgers pitcher. Yamamoto retires 8 Toronto Blue Jays batters. The night before he put in 96 pitches for 6 innings in Game 6. In Game 7 Yamamoto with no rest day pitches the next day 34 pitches for two and half decisive innings with the Dodgers ahead on a homer by Rojas to end the World Series with Dodgers 5 Toronto 4 in Game 7.

With 18 innings in Game 3 and 11 in Game 7 this World Series rates as one of the all time great classics of world baseball. It also shows the intuition of Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts in keeping 34 year old Rojas in the Game 6 and 7, and in bringing in Yamamoto in the final 3 innings after exhausting the entire Dodgers pitching rotation. From Game 3's 18 innings it was clear that if the game went on to extra innings the depth of the Dodgers team and the experience of it's manager would come into play to overturn any predictions. 

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Xi Jinping's effort to shift the economy of China more towards serving the interests of Chinese who were left behind in the boom years includes a shift away from coal, away from real estate for speculation, and away from reliance on trade with the US and Europe as a driver for growth. This is proving to be difficult as the pandemic has increased demand for Chinese exports making trade a bigger driver for growth than before the pandemic. Introduction of a property tax to cut into real estate speculation has been scaled down to trials in 10 cities.  China did not put stimulus checks in the accounts of its people the way the US did which has led to Chinese domestic consumption not rebounding the way it has done in the US. Figures for consumer spending in China for September show an increase of 4.4% from the year earlier far below the pace of 8% set for 2019. The lack of social security and other safety nets in China makes people to save even more today. Chinese savings rate was 40% in 2019, today it is 45.2% for May 2021, according to one survey. Personal consumption makes up 38% of China's GDP in 2020, it was 39% in 2019. In the US it went up in 2021 June to 69% compared to 67% by the end of 2020. Infrastructure and construction deepened debt problems in China, and expanding exports created trade tensions. Both these problems have deepened with the pandemic. As this report says Chinese exports have gone gangbusters. Problems in production in Vietnam and Malaysia have added to export surge from China. China's trade surplus with the world is now at $535 billion in 2020, and surplus with US increased by 7% to $317 billion in 2020 from 2019.  Chinese government policy is now for "common prosperity" to reduce inequality and spread wealth and income more evenly for all the Chinese people. This is taking time and Chinese government policy is now set for the long run with these short run problems. ...

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Age discrimination is a problem in France more than in Germany or other countries in Europe. A person over 55 is half as likely as younger people to be hired by companies. This makes raising the pension age from 62 to 64 much harder for the government. In the US people are working for much longer.

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Germany's kurzabeit or short work system avoids layoffs in a crisis. The Bundestag parliament in Germany quickly reintroduced it following the coronavirus. It provides subsidy to employers so that wages of upto 2500 euros can be paid to employees. The German parliament changed the requirement that makes it law fro a 30% of workers of a company being impacted by a crisis to 10%. About 2.3 million workers will benefit at a cost of 10 billion euros says this report in The Financial Times. The Federal labor office has a fund of $26 billion to which workers and employers contributed just for this purpose of safety net.  Workers get about 60% of their wages under this scheme while the crisis lasts. The last time it was used during the financial crisis of 2008-2009 1.3 million workers benefited from this scheme to prevent layoffs.  Germany with its strong vocational training system invests in worker training. The logical next step was to preserve this knowledge component of workers and avoid its loss through layoffs due to some crisis that is temporary and beyond the control of the company. Britain is adopting this idea this time with the British Treasury supporting  80% of lost wages upto 2500 pounds a month in the new economic aid package announced by the British government. Spain has a scheme under ERTE for 70% of wages to be paid as safety net. France has set aside 8.5 billion euros aid for assistance to workers in a similar scheme as safety net. ...

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Brazil $5.5 billion plan to protect it's economy from US tariffs August 2025. DJT tariffs relate to the trial of former president Bolsonaro with DJT saying he is being treated unfairly. Brazil had close elections between Lula and Bolsonaro only recently.

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It never made sense to make soap 13,000 miles away in China and ship it to the US, and reflected everything that had gone wrong in a once thriving America and how business had lost common sense. Bath and Body Works is correcting that, as shown here in the WSJ. Yet this is 2023, and so many opportunities for doing this were missed already. It took the pandemic to bring some common sense.

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The US Air Force plans to order 100 planes of the B21 Stealth Bomber at $700 million each. This aircraft is made at Plant 21 in Palmdale, California. The development of this plane was kept hidden for seven years even to families with someone working at the plant. It is made by Northrop Grumman. The previous version of the plane was the B2 Spirit of which only 21 were made leading to a high cost of $2 billon per plane. These planes last for many years. The B52 bombers of the Vietnam era are still in use. Their cost is prohibitive for most countries. During the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union investment in these bombers declined. With new risks emerging for NATO in Europe and in Asia this aircraft is seen as an American deterrent.

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According to the Center of Automotive Research about 600,000 jobs in the midwestern states and about 3.6 million jobs counting industries that depend on the automotive industry are at stake in the failure of the Big Three auto companies. Even if one of the companies goes into bankruptcy Chapter 11 taxpayers will be on the hook for millions in retiree benefits from that company. Even with a merger of Chrysler and GM the auto companies in Detroit do not look like they can handle a deep recession and protracted dowturn. Which is why it looks increasingly likely that the federal government will have to keep the midwestern economies from sinking with the failure of any of the Detroit automakers.

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Italy's budget deficit was brought down to 3% of GDP in 2012 under Mario Monti's government. The cost of austerity measures is a expected economic contraction of 1.8% in 2013, according to OECD and Moody's forecasts. There is intense opposition in Italy to the 4 billion euro property tax. The right wing parties under Berlusconi have called for this tax to be cancelled and reimbursing of 2012 payments. Italy's 2013 budget also assumes a one percentage point increase in the value added tax rate, a 4 billion euro additional tax. The new prime minister of a technocratic government, Enrico Letta, faces a delicate balancing act to keep the coalition of the right and left parties together, and still keep the confidence of the EU that Italy will control its deficit. The OECD expects the deficit to grow by half a percentage point in 2013-2014 as steps are taken to promote economc growth.

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Dominic Raab Britain's Foreign Secretary reflects on the period when Boris Johnson was in hospital for close to 1 month when he took over running the government in Johnson's place. Raab took over when Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital with coronavirus on April 5, 2020. With Mr. Trump admitted to Walter Reed Hospital the situation in Washington D.C brings back memories of the difficult days in April in London.