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The Journal's editorial calls on the military in Egypt to help an orderly transition to representative government.

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Call from around the world for international agreements for proper supervision of financial markets and their products and vendors bercause much of the pain of the USA mortgage securities sold abroad has to be borne by countries from Australia, to Germany and Japan. A German call for nationalizing the ratings agencies which improperly certified these securities for profit.

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Nissan only sold 171,000 vehicles in Japan in the 3rd quarter 2007, a 5.5% decline, and other car makers are seeing similar declines for Honda also. US market sales for Nissan increased 4% but the real increases are in Asia outside Japan, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America where sales increased by 18%.

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British prime minister Boris Johnson says he is cutting down on carbohydrates, chocolate and late night cheese, and urges Britain to take up healthy diets. In a video posted on Twitter he says he is "doing everything I can to lose weight, and to feel fitter and healthier. I've been eating less carbs, avoiding chocolate, no more late night cheese."

As a result of the new lifestyle and eating habits which includes taking early morning runs, he says he feels a lot more energetic and healthier, "I feel full of beans" as he calls it using the British expression, and he "thoroughly, thoroughly recommends it."

Allegra Stratton, the prime minister's press secretary says she has lost more than a stone by filling half of her plate with vegetables.

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Princes MBZ of the UAE and MBS of Saudi Arabia were seen as close with MBZ the mentor of Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia (MBS). Saudis and UAE differ on how high oil prices should go. Both MBZ MBS wider mindsets are close based on modernization of the Arab world. Oil price increases mean hardship for most of the world's population, a shift of wealth from more populous countries such as Turkey and India to countries with very small numbers of people as the UAE (9 million) and Saudi Arabia 35 million). It poses hardship in cost of living for people in Asia, Africa and in EU, the US. This calls for a vigorous effort to make the switch to solar energy to reduce inequality and wide disparities of wealth in Asia and the Middle East.

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President Biden visits Nevada and calls for a 5% cap on rent increases by corporate landlords with over 50 rental units. The WSJ report July 15 shows 25% of people renting apartments in the US pay over 50% of their income just to pay rent leaving little for food and transport, education and healthcare. This is a severe problem in Nevada and in the US across all 51 states. The president is closely following mortgage rates that went up from 3% to 8%, creating affordability issues for prospective homeowners. Another proposal of the president that he can act on as it does not require Congressional action is to use federally underused land and repurpose it for building 15,000 affordable housing units in Nevada. Such proposals across the 51 states are needed today to address acute rental housing shortage and price increases of about 20% by landlords.

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Boston women's soccer team will be called BOS Nation. Its ads around Boston are controversial - "There are too many balls in town," says one ad. It tries to tie into Boston energy, in a new phase for women's soccer teams.

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Rappaport of the NYT asks how it is possible that the U.S. Treasury is critical of the EU Commission's ruling that Apple pay back $13 billion in taxes because of its low tax rate of .005% in Europe, when Treasury is strongly critical of tax avoidance. The negligible tax by Ireland, base of Apple operations, is seen as a state subsidy not available to competitors. It also, as the EU Commission says, does not correspond to economic reality because the revenues are mostly made outside Ireland. An arrangement that is basically a strategy of tax avoidance. Today the leading candidates for president, Trump and Clinton, the major parties, and Congress, all are critical of tax avoidance strategies which deprive Treasury of much needed revenues. Restoring upward mobility is a priority today and programs to provide tution free access to public colleges, healthcare access, and infrastructure development, require public funding. Then why is the U.S.Treasury critical of the EU ruling? It is because Treasury sees this as money that should be coming to Treasury not the EU. However Treasury has failed to make this clear. The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition's Clark Gascoigne, calls it very ironic. And other experts say the money would not be coming to the U.S. anyway unless a low tax rate induces Apple to repatriate profits to the U.S. One expert calls it hypocritical. Senator Schumer says he agrees with Paul Ryan that tax legislation for a low tax rate for repatriation of profits back to the U.S. should be the next step, so that an infrastructure fund can be setup. Senator Levin and transparency advocates sees the EU action as normal and to be expected, as the anti-establishment sentiment today comes from such dealings that create the impression that the system is rigged in favor of some corporations. ...

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Sandra Boynton is unique in children's books because of her avoidance of what she calls the "cutesy tedium and arrogant condescension" of children's books and children's music. She is simple but can adapt difficult words or ideas to sound simple. She has also avoided television because she says TV outlets merely want the rights and a children's product that makes it to a hit that will then turn up on hit toys, you know the commercial kind, and backpacks, then lunchboxes!

She lives in the foothills of the Berkshires mountains with the farm to table food, outdoor activities and fall foliage, and is married to Jamie McEwan, Olympic medal winning canoeist.

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The word "elderly" is going out of common use, the CDC in the U.S. has crossed it out and uses the words 'over 60." Parents bristle as the term elderly takes on a new meaning in the days of coronavirus in March 2020. One of the baby boomers at age 64, who has completed 40 triathlons in last 7 years asks if she can really be called elderly. Parents bristle with texts and calls from children in the thirties to change travel plans, with most deciding to stay put at home. Yet as other reports show most younger people in their thirties and forties are also working from home with their kids around them.

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US Senate increases debt limit increase to $5.1 trillion from House 3B Tax Cuts Bill debt limit of $4.1 trillion in 2025. The Big Bold Beautiful Bill as the president calls it will also make the debt limit increase permanent to avoid the brinksmanship of earlier administrations. Republicans will pass this as they assume the mantle of working for the average middle class and working class household. Republicans have taken up the cause of small businesses in the US who are supported by this bill. The bill in the view of Treasury Secretary Bessent helps growth of the economy through its 100% expensing provisions, so that the capital expenditures spending of small and large businesses on equipment and buildings that is now held up will take place  rapidly in the coming year. The 3B Tax Cuts Bill does decrease the taxes of the higher income households, yet it also decreases the taxes of small business owners, and of people in the middle income range. Similar bills in the Reagan period led to a larger share of national income going to a majority of the population, and increasing growth and investment. This bill's expensing provisions goes a step further to release capex energies. During the Carter period before Reagan and the Biden period before Trump's second term the lower income classes were cheated out of their income's propensity for a better standard of living by inflation. Republican administration of DJT has focused on inflation to help working class people and focused on capital investment to generate the growth that will increase jobs. ...

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The Social Democrats leader Sigmar Gabriel is Economics Minister in the coalition government of Angela Merkel in Germany. He is sympathetic to French premier Manuel Valls effort to reduce austerity in the 2015 French budget now being reviewed by Brussels. Here he takes the initiative to call for discussion on the issue of growth and austerity facing the European Union, by joining French Economics minister Emmanuel Macron in asking two economists Pisani-Ferry and Enderlein at the Berlin Institute of Governance for advice on generating growth. The process started in late summer with the defeat of the centre right government in Sweden which supported Merkel's strict austerity policies for balanced budgets. The elections to the European parliament showed the dire situation facing Cameron in Britain and Hollande in France with the unpopularity of austerity policies, higher taxes and cutbacks. The Socialist Hollande government has the lowest public opinion ratings of any postwar government in France, at 18%, and it is unwilling to go further down the road with austerity. At the same time Valls has found a partner in Italy with the growing popularity of Matteo Renzi in Italy who won 40% of the vote in Italy for the EU parliamentary elections of 2014. ECB president Mario Draghi, has generated the debate by saying at a October 2014 Brookings Institution conference in Washington D.C. that countries that have fiscal space (referring to Germany) should use it. He added that governments that did not take action in the economic crisis facing the eurozone of no growth will be swept away by public opinion. IMF president Lagarde, a former French Finance Minister under Sarkozy, has also questioned policy of strict austerity. For the first time since the start of the eurozone crisis in 2010 there is an opportunity for open discussion on future policies for renewal in the eurozone....

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Extreme mismanagement of the economy led to the situation of currency notes of 100 trillion in Zimbabwe being issued by the central bank of this African country, unbelievable as it may sound. The situation has deteriorated over two decades. Before independence this country was called Southern Rhodesia run by a small community of white British settlers from the nineteenth century. After a independence war by a liberation front organization this country entered a new phase in which the mismanagement of the country's economy became a serious problem for all communities, in a nation of 15 million people which could attract tourists with diverse African habitats and Victoria Falls. It is an example of how the hopes of a generation  that experienced independence in 1980 in these parts of British East Africa have been waylaid by autocratic leaders and mismanagement. This region includes Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. 

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The American saving rate is up to 7.8% after dropping to 3.2% by 2009 and the financial crisis. This is a good thing as Americans save for retirement and avoid extravagant expenses to build a safety net. The collapse of traditional pensions means much of the burden for retirement falls on individual families. The student debt burden means families share in high education costs, and the lack of a cost efficient health system means more money is needed for health expenses than in other advanced European countries. The savings rate is still nowhere near what it used to be in the 1970's. 

Higher savings also builds up the funds that are in banks as savings that can be a pool of funds for use in building national infrastructure and other value adding investments for the country. China has used a high savings rate and savings pool of funds for its extensive infrastructure investments that modernized the country.

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UK prime minister Sunak makes changes to policies of the UK post-Brexit that bring the UK closer to France and the European Union. This follows a deterioration of Britain's relations with the EU and France under Boris Johnson during the years Brexit happened. Sunak also comes up with a different policy for Northern Ireland closer to the EU's position. Mark Landler has covered Britain and the EU for NYT over three decades. He calls Boris Johnson's approach bombastic and one that made loud claims for "Global Britain" with little to show in results.

Sunak's challenges are in Britain with strikes across transportation, health sector and NHS, and the cost of living crisis. Labour party is seen as having better solutions and as more caring in its policies for both the environment, workers and families in 2023.

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French president Macron meets president Putin of Russia for a deescalation of tensions on NATO and Ukraine. Macron for the first time offers an approach that he calls the "Finlandization" of Ukraine. Finland maintained its independence as a neutral country in tensions between US and Russia.  President Biden says the US and Germany are united in their approach, and Nordstream 2 pipeline just completed to supply Germany with Russian gas will be shut down if Russia invades Ukraine. German chancellor Olaf Scholz says little during the crisis and is described as not "audible." Germany has fought two world wars with Russia and seeks a solution that recognizes Russian concerns about NATO yet one that is consistent with the alliance it has with America and concerns of its Polish and Baltic neighbors such as Finland, Sweden, and Lithuania. Meetings are planned for Olaf Scholz of Germany with president Putin of Russia in coming weeks, and with Ukraine in Kiev. ...

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Two leading funds Jana Partners and the Cal State Teachers Retirement System raise questions about the iPhone addiction among young people turning into a health crisis. The Wall Street Journal asks readers to comment on the issue how to respond, what teachers and parents need to do, what Apple needs to do. Many teachers say the drift is towards shorter and shorter attention spans for children, and children lacking the essential ability to delve deeper into learning topics. One teacher says the iPhone does not belong in high schools. One response is that it is the responsibility of parents, yet another response says parents are getting exhausted in the process. This parent calls it like playing a game of whack--a-mole from hell. Take away the iPhone and the same thing goes on in the computer, then on smart TV, finally the parent has to return the laptop because lessons are done online.

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Krugman says crypto currency has become a huge, really huge player in campaign finance. He says it accounts for almost half of corporate spending on political action committees PAC's in 2024 election year in the US. He calls it startling that this is happening even though crypto currency destroys value. Krugman says crypto is not like fossil which is doing the same thing getting people to deny climate change yet with benefits from using fossil as a transition fuel, crypto not being a real industry at all.

Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman is clear that it has dangers for the American economy-

He says crypto rests on nothing but a perception that some day there might be a genuine use for these products. That we do not know when the government gets serious about regulating crypto marketing practices and policing its criminal uses. And adds that much of the $2 trillion in crypto may simply evaporate.

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Google's share of the online ad market falls below 50% for the first time. Changes are made to management. The US federal government seeks a breakup of Google because of its business practices. Major law suits are pending for the US Justice Department investigating Google business practices.

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Without 50% turnout most Italian referendums fail. Italy's referendum on citizenship rules in June 2025 calls for loosening citizenship rules at a time when most of the EU and the US is going in the opposite direction. Italian government led by Meloni asks voters to not turnout.

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The German French plan for 500 billion euro of outright aid as non repayable subsidies is supported fully by Merkel as she calls for massive amounts of aid to help the EU recover from th pandemic. Asd the pandemic was exceptional so must the aid be exceptional says Merkel.  The Bavarian state premier Soder supports it, so does the FDP's Lindner.  This report looks at why Merkel has pushed forward with this plan after supporting a decade of austerity in Europe following the Greek loan bailouts. Merkel sees aid that is repayable worsening the debt ratios of countries like Italy to the point that this would be stones not bread. This would strangle Italy's and other economies such as Spain and Portugal. It is not in Germany's interest, it is best to make partners. Only Austria, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark oppose this. Yet this is shortsighted. Most of these northern tier countries have pursued their own self oriented interests not that of a European community of nations in crisis. ...