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President Trump announces the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement of 2015 signed by president Obama. He calls it a bad deal and "a one sided agreement, that "didn't bring, calm, didn't bring peace, and never will." Since the signing of the agreement the conflicts in the Middle East have increased and relations between the U.S. and Iran have deteriorated under the Trump administration. During the election campaign candidate Trump and Republicans had criticized the deal and deal never gained Republican support. It was also not initially supported by France which called for stronger safeguards on nuclear weapons development. The appointment of John Bolton as National Security Adviser, and Mike Pompeo as the new Secretary of State, who were strong critics of the Iran nuclear deal also influenced president Trump. He was also influenced say aides by the success of his policy with North Korea of imposing strong bargaining pressure with tough sanctions on North Korea including Chinese sanctions, which led to the talks between North and South Korean presidents and the planned Trump meeting with Kim Jong-Un of North Korea. Iran's president Rouhani says Iran will stay with the agreement as the EU countries Germany, France plan to support the agreement. This could also leave an opening for future talks with Iran on a new peace agreement as  president Trump talked about Iranian people deserving a better deal at the end of his 11 minute announcement. As Stephens points out in a op-ed in the NYT Iran's economy needs the removal of sanctions so that focus could shift to economic development, as the lifting of sanctions have yet to result in increasing living standards and building infrastructure neglected during the sanctions years. ...

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An indepth look at Mexico, its assets, its huge potential and what is holding Mexico back. It ranks much higher than Brazil in many respects- higher investment as a fraction of its GDP, technical education, an easier place to do business, less regulation, better management talent, more industrialized. In 2010 Mexico had $400 billion of business with the U.S. With rising Chinese wages Mexico is an attractive place for foreign investment, with a hardworking and educated workforce. Mexico suffered badly during the 2008 recession in the U.S. It is trying to reduce its dependence on exports to the U.S in key areas such as the automotive industry. Exports to the U.S. by the automotive industry are now 65% of the total, and the auto industry association in Mexico is working to bring this figure to 50% by exporting to Latin America and Europe. Economic growth was 5.4% in 2010, and expected to be 4-5% in 2011. Drug violence may have reduced the growth by one percentage point according to some estimates. The think tank, Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, estimates that economic growth would be 2.5% percentage points higher if labor market and competition laws are changed, and the oil industry is opened up to foreign investment as happened in Brazil. A study by OECD and the Federal Competition Commission (CFC) of Mexico has shown that 31% of Mexican household spending goes to products operating in high price monopolistic or oligopolistic markets. The bottom ten percent spend even higher proportion of incomes, around 38%, for products supplied in such markets. This includes pharmaceuticals, airline travel, banking, and electricity. Taking on these cartels is a difficult task. The CFC is beginning to take the first steps in this direction, in what will be a long road to fair prices for Mexican consumers. Banking was opened to Wal-Mart. The collapse of Mexicana was an opportunity to auction landing slots to other airlines. An auction system has been developed by CFC for drugs. A new competition law sets penalties for collusion in pricing, with upto 10 years in jail. And Carlos Slim's telephone monopoly was fined $1 billion for its telecom monopoly practices. In 2009 the Calderon government shut down Luz y Fuerza, a state electricity company costing the governmment $3 billion in subsidies for an highly inefficient operation. ...

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In this address to Congress in April 2021 US president Biden offers his plan to invest in American families and people. He calls it "a blue collar blueprint to build America." It also comes from a blue collar family to which Biden belongs with generations of American workers in the Biden family in the last hundred years who built America in the past.

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Rollback of food tariffs on beef coffee and other agricultural goods by the US November 2025 to address cost of living concerns.

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Till 1997 there was a limit on how many and what drug ads could be placed on television. During the year Bill Clinton was president  the US Food and Drug Administration under Acting Commissioner Michael Friedman is reported by the WSJ as opening up American television for a flood of drug advertising that is damaging for the Nation's health leading to overuse of drugs in the US for three decades. 31% of ads on US evening television news programs are from drug brands in 2024. DJT said while appointing RFK Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services- Drugmakers and  big food companies, “have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation.” RFK Jr. says- "We are one of only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers on television. US and New Zealand. Everybody agrees it is a bad idea. Not surprisingly, Americans consume more pharmaceutical products than anyone else on the planet. As I said earlier on my first day in office I will issue an executive order banning pharmaceutical advertising on television." ...

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Email exchanges between OMB staffers and Obama administration officials, released exclusively to the Washington Post, show the Obama administration urging the OMB to speed up its decision on the half a billion dollar loan to Solyndra. This was part of stimulus funds to the solar industry. Solyndra was a favorite of the Obama administration according to the Washington Post, and aides to Rahm Emmanuel and other officials sent emails urging speeding up approval. OMB officials in their replies stated they were under pressure. One email by a senior OMB staffer sent to McSweeney, Biden's domestic policy advisor, Aug 31, 2009, said: "we have ended up with a situation of having to do rushed approvals on a couple of occasions (and we are worried about Solyndra at the end of the week)... we would prefer to have sufficient time to do our diligence reviews." Other emails referred to "the time pressure we are under to sign-off on Solyndra," and indicated "there isn't time to negotiate." Solyndra had large investments by the funds operated for the family foundation of George Kaiser, an Obama fundraiser....

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Daniela Hernandez shows in this WSJ video how smaller pieces of plastic, microscopic or micro size fragments of plastic broken up by wind and rubbing against other surfaces, and through degradation, are found in the world's oceans. These microscopic pieces smaller than a strand of hair are hard to pull out compared to plastic bottles. This kind of contamination from the 10 million metric tons estimated to end up in the oceans is harder to detect and harder to remove.  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a section of the ocean near Hawaii in the Pacific ocean that is 1.6 million square kilometers large, twice the size of Texas or three times size of France,  and has a concentrated level of plastic. There are patches like this all over the world's oceans. This is also where the microscopic plastic pieces are widely spread out invisible to the human eye but gradually disintegrating into smaller and smaller particles that are consumed by fish and marine life. Over time it has poses serious risks to our environment closer to our beaches and maritime coastline, ending up on rivers and contaminating groundwater. As this is not being monitored the risks of this kind of contamination from the widespread use of plastics is unknown but yet significant. One of the easiest ways to tackle this also helps clean up our ocean beaches and river banks and makes them more attractive- this is to pick up all the plastic we can ourselves through volunteering our time in clean up efforts. Hundreds of thousands of such volunteer efforts can really make a difference in cleaning up our beaches and rivers. Clean up efforts should be supplemented with efforts at monitoring these fragile areas in the ecosystem for illegal handling of plastic and littering of these areas.   ...

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WSJ looks at how the relationship between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris evolved. From the faltering start when Harris was contesting for the presidential nomination and made sharp debate comments on segregationist senators and Biden, to her entry into the White House as Vice President dissolving her political action committees and not bringing her election people to the White House. The first assignment was on immigration and the White House asking Harris to tell Central Americans not to come to the US border did not exactly work out. Guatemala was in the middle of a drought affecting its agriculture and sending more people from the affected regions to the US Border. That message did not work and Harris came under criticism. There was less contact with Biden during the years 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.   Gradually though the president came to listen to Harris and set up a weekly lunch meeting. When Supreme Court nominations were to be made Biden relied on Harris's advice. Ketanji Jackson nomination to the Supreme Court came out of these talks with Harris. Then came Roe and Wade and the president who was not outspoken on this issue realized that Harris was better at communicating a common vision of what America stood for and the importance of reproductive freedoms. When Hamas attacked Israel, the response of Netanyahu was leading to an humanitarian disaster. President Biden listened to Harris describe the need for a Palestinian state and it building peace with Israel as the only real solution to the crisis. Biden sent Harris three times to the Munich Security Conference, and each year she met Mr. Zelensky and discussed the Ukraine issues with European leaders. Then came the debate performance and Democrats questioning Biden's health. Harris remained steadfast in her support till the end and on July 23 after announcing his withdrawal the previous day Biden told Kamala as he addressed Wilmington headquarters staff- "I'm watching you kid. I love ya." And Harris said "I love you." ...

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Share of mortgages at least 30 days past due declined to 6.39% in the 4th quarter 2013, down from 7.09% a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Foreclosure inventory declined to 2.9% for 4th quarter 2013. Three fourths of the troubled loans are from the period before 2007. The improved economic situation and lower unemployment has helped. Also helping is the increase in prices, with home prices up 8.4% in Dec. 2013 over the prior year, according to Black Knight Financial Services. The price increase has reduced the number of homes "under water"- owing more than the homes are worth- from 19% in Jan 2013 to 11.4% in October, according to Black Knight. Banks have also tightened their lending practices. The progress is uneven with California and Arizona, some of the worst hit states doing better in 2013. Judicial states such as New York and Florida, where courts have to approve foreclosure by banks, are making gradual improvement. About 1.5% of California homes were in foreclosure by the end of 2013, compared to 8.5% in Florida, according to MBA. In 2014 price improvements are expected to slow, and the 10% of homes in various stages of delinquency or foreclosure still remain as a hangover from the housing crisis that slows U.S. economic recovery....

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A study by the National Employment Law Project shows most of the job creation in the economic recovery to 2014 in the U.S. is replacing the better paying jobs with lower paying jobs in fast food retail and similiar low paying industries.

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The women's vote in the 2012 U.S. presidential election and the concerns of women about the economy, children, and prospects for the future.

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This letter in the New York Times questions the wisdom of the NYT report that Mr. Rosenstein suggested in 2017 Justice Department meetings the need for invoking the 25th Amendment for the removal of the U.S. president Trump. It says this would lead to departure of Mr. Rosenstein as Deputy Attorney General and leaves the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in U.S. elections without support from the Justice Department. Mr. Rosenstein says today he does not see a need for the invoking of the 25th Amendment

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Pret A Manger, British sandwich chain, is planning an expansion in the U.S. by opening stores in San Francisco. The chain has stores in New York, Chicago, Washington and Boston. It has expanded rapidly in Britain with 288 stores, and has 60 stores in the U.S. It was co-founded by friends Metcalf and Beecham in 1986 at a single location near Victoria station in London. By 2000 it had opened a store in New York. McDonald's took a 33% stake in 2001. After a failed expansion in Japan with 14 stores, which brought the company close to bankruptcy, it cut costs. McDonald's sold its stake to Bridgepoint Capital in 2008. The expansion planned in the U.S. is carefully planned, with one store planned initially in San Francisco to test performance. Pret was mostly a lunch chain, it is now considering a dinner menu, with one store in London testing this. Bridgepoint now owns 66% of Pret A Manger.

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US trade deficit of $46 billion with India and DJT call to buy oil and gas from the US, to shift away from purchases of $50 billion of oil from Russia, of 2 million barrels a day. India only imported $1 billion of oil from Russia in 2020 and this is a call from the US to India to stop financing Russia's increasing air attacks on Ukraine in August 2025. For India this oil came at $70 a barrel when prices were around $90-$100 a barrel in 2022-2024. In 2025 oil prices are at $60 a barrel, and even if prices increase to $70 a barrel India can make the shift. US and Germany, the EU, Britain which seek negotiated end to the war in Ukraine will continue to pressure India in 2025. Russia could shift some of the oil to other places but the huge demand from a country India's size will not then be seen as a factor in prolonging the war. India needs to think ahead for the next 20 years and its goal of modernization by 2047 like China has done in 2000-2020. And not get into a nationalistic mode that may not be in the best interests of the Indian people seeing that this may serve the interests of all nations including Russia to phase out this European war. ...

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German Chancellor Merz says welfare entitlements are becoming a strain on the economy. The welfare entitlements growing in size puts huge strain on the budgets of US, Germany, UK, and France. Small changes in the Medicaid program in work requirements became politicized in the US spending bill passed in Congress. The size of the Medicaid program in 2025 is an example. Started in the LBJ administration it was $1 billion in 1965 covering 4 million people increasing to $10 billion covering 20 million people in 1976. 50 years later it covers 3.5 times the number of people at 71 million at a cost that is staggering of $900 billion. US population in the 50 years increased from 218 million to 342 million by 57% when the Medicaid population grew at 355% of 6 times the actual population growth showing that the country in some ways was growing much poorer and unhealthier and that other factors were also at work. As a percentage of the size of the economy  Medicaid growth was $10 billion when GDP was $1700 billion in 1975 or .00059% vs $900 billion when Medicaid is $900 billion  when economy GDP in 2025 is 30,000 billion or .03000 which is 50 times the percentage in 2025 vs 1975. At work in this is the ballooning cost of the way medicine is practiced in the US, and other factors.   ...

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U.S. vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August 2012.

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Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) acquires U.S. mobile advertising firm Amobee for all cash deal of US$321 million. SingTel is majority owned by Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings. It has over 434 million subscribers in 25 countries. SingTel is being restructured into 3 divisions- Group Consumer, Group Digital L!fe, and Group ICT. SingTel's overseas stakes are in India's Bharti Airtel, Indonesia's Telkomsel, Thailand's Advanced Info Service PCL, Pakistan's Warid Telecom, Philippines' Globe Telecom, and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom. A stake in Optus in Australia was acquired in 2001 for A$14 billion (US$15 billion). A 30% stake was taken in Warid Telecom for US$758 million in 2007.

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Fighting escalates on the Syria- Turkey border in 2016 as U.S. Special Forces support Syrian rebels with the help of Turkish artillery to take border areas from Islamic State. Turkey was not willing to support Kurdish rebels in the fight against ISIS, leading to the shift to support Syrian rebels with the help of U.S. airstrikes. The result is a new flow of refugees to Turkey. The Turkish government created a zone on the Syrian side of the border for new refugees and called on the U.S. to create a safe zone.

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How the importance of health and wellness is changing the restaurant industry in the U.S. which has long neglected this.

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Daniel Barenboim on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It was performed 200 years ago. The Ode to Joy section of the Ninth is the anthem of the European Union. Originally Beethoven wanted to dedicate it to the ideals of the French Revolution. Beethoven struggled with hearing loss after 1812. Many of his works were written during the period in Bonn around 1780-1792 in Bonn near Cologne where he was born, followed by his period in Vienna composing works for the Viennese court. He was a contemporary duringthe Napoleonic period of Mozart, Haydn, and the writer Goethe who was from Frankfurt. Because of struggles with his hearing loss Beethoven's symphonies record both the highs and the lows, the triumphs and the periods of loss, the nature of the human condition in a period of great social and economic awakening in Europe that led to the Industrial Revolution and modern Europe.