LyrArc Article Gist
Denmark's Mette Frederiksen and policy of no asylum in EU for illegal migrants is becoming the norm in Europe- as Germany's Merz supports this policy- and the US. Britain under Starmer's Labour has struggled with it's justice system unable to deal with the situation of asylum because it was never designed for people of other countries entering the country in this way. Simply fixing the justice system as Yvette Cooper plans to do, which was never intended for this purpose ignores that there are 111,000 asylum cases as reported by the Times of London in June 2025 compared to 7000 in 2022.  Mette Frederiksen is a Socialist and has shown that this has nothing to do with politics, only common sense application of the laws of Britain, Denmark, Germany, US and other countries that only way to enter the country is legally. 

LyrArc Article Gist
See the BBC reports on the DJT meeting with European leaders at the White House August 18, 2025, for Ukraine peace settlement. An astonishing day showing the learning curve of DJT, Zelensky, and the European leaders down to the last detail, a communication that was planned to the details, with DJT and Zelensky both reading from carefully prepared remarks, so that everything would go right, no missed chances. DJT also talks to Putin during a pause inthe meeting to brief him on the talks he had with European leaders. Though the media reports this as not expected it was all part of the plan so that DJT could play the role of someone the Russian president could trust, as well as DJT playing the role of someone the Europeans could trust at the same time- not an easy task but done with a sense of seriousness by DJT knowing that the peace depended on winning trust on both sides.

LyrArc Article Gist
Us continues to take strong action against drug trafficking. US Foreign Minister Rubio says this will continue as the US reasserts the Monroe Doctrine in this hemisphere after suffering staggering losses in the fentanyl trafficking to its territory of three times the 100,000 lives lost in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, more than World War I and 75% of the deaths in World War II on the front against the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese Army that invaded China. Today that fentanyl trafficking involves China and Mexico, two trade partners that depend on US trade for job and the economy. Yet politicians have failed the American people by not taking the action on the Monroe doctrine of no colonial powers in this hemisphere, and US ensuring good government in this hemisphere based on it's centuries traditions of the rule of law dating back to 1600 with the founding of these colonies under the British laws and institutions.

LyrArc Article Gist
The White House gives details of a new Trade Agreement with Indonesia. There will be zero tariffs on exports to Indonesia of US goods. Indonesia will have lower tariffs of 19% on most products, and higher duties of 40% on goods that are sent through Indonesia to evade tariffs such as from China. Indonesia will place no restrictions on export of rare earth minerals. Indonesia will remove non tariff barriers by action to accept U.S. safety regulations for automobiles, medical devices and pharmaceuticals, and remove preshipment inspections for US agricultural products.

Its significance is that Indonesia is a producer of rare earth minerals giving US full access. Indonesia has a large population of 250 million and this opens up markets for US farmers. It means US energy products and pharmaceuticals, and aircraft makers have access to this market. Because of far flung islands Indonesia will need more Boeing aircraft as it modernizes.

LyrArc Article Gist
NY city Mayor elect Mamdani and DJT meet at the White House on November 20 2025. DJT has kind words for Mamdani and a a collegial spirit for the young mayor elect.

Elle Bisgaard-Church, close adviesr to Zohran Mamdani was present at the meeting and says “we were very heartened” by having the chance to meet the president and discuss the affordability crisis in New York City. Bisgaard said Trump “understands that New York City is a special place” and “he’s willing to join us”  in bringing down the cost of living in New York. Both the president and the young mayor emphasized their shared goal for the good of New York's people and effort to bring down the cost of living that has surged unbelievably in the last 5 years leading to a life from paycheck to paycheck. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Bihar  state assembly elections win for NDA led by Modi has one astonishing fact- the average age in Bihar for 128 million people is 22 years with 58% of population under 25 years. The win of 203 seats of 243 is the path to stable government for the industrialization of India into one of the advanced economies of the world similar to Japan and China in Asia. It is also about the aspirations of youth in one of the world's ancient civilizations. Buddhist civilization of Asia (China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia) had its birthplace in Bihar region of northeastern India. It is now likely to find its place on the world map from ancient universities to the Buddha's ancient sites and youth finding their place in the modern world. Women participation was 72% and overall participation 68% of voters in this election in Bihar state.

LyrArc Article Gist
France and Britain are finally combining efforts to stop illegal migrants. France targets taxi boats taking about half of migrants crossing the English Channel. The. two governments of France and UK are cooperating so that French maritime police can now stop these taxi boats. This is essential to get the Home Secretary's plan to adopt Denmark's example in cutting flow of illegal migrants that is essential for tranquillity in small towns and cities across the UK. UK Reform party is in a position to push the Labour government out of power less than 2 years after it won by a landslide showing that in today's world there is less or no patience of the people with illegal migration. And absolutely no patience with benefits going to illegal migrants that take up parts of the budget when many needs of the local population are not met.

LyrArc Article Gist
In France 67% of young people 15-17 years in a Acadomia survey support ban on under 15 years children for social media. A bill is being introduced in French parliament to restrict children under 15 year from social media platforms supported by the governing party. A French parliamentary inquiry into “the psychological effects of TikTok on minors”, was set up in Spring 2025, and the results have set off an alarm about the negative effects on children. The new law would apply to children in high school lycee 15 years to 18 years, as it is already in place for children 11-15 years in college French middle school. The bill will be debated in parliament on Jan 19, 2026 and has support of EPR Ensemble Macron's party and of 121 members of parliament. It also restricts use from 10 pm to 8am to support better sleep patterns for young people and for studies.

LyrArc Article Gist
New York city Mayor Bloomberg, says President Obama and Republicans should stop promising a free lunch, or something for nothing. He points to Obama's reelection strategy of higher taxes for the rich- by taxing those earning over $1 million at minimum of 30% in federal income taxes- as generating $1.1 billion, according to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. This would make little difference on a federal government with $1.2 trillion gap in spending and revenue. And he says Republicans who say making the Bush tax cuts permanent while at the same time cutting the deficit are promising a free lunch, with no connection to reality. The answer says Bloomberg should be to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for all groups, for shared sacrifice, and for Congress to pass the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan with $4 trillion in savings on an up or down vote.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Times offers insights into what sort of man Scholz is and how he went on from mayor of Hamburg to lead Germany as chancellor and head of a coalition government with the Greens and the FDP. Scholz made a pitch in his campaign for "respect" as a way to unify German society, with respect for the less well off and people left behind. Scholz is an avid reader, most recently of Brendan Simms Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, on Germany's and Europe's role in the period since the 15th century and the Reconquista of Spain. He is a lover of jazz, Mahler, the poetry of Mario Vargas Llosa and Heinrich Heine, the novels of Thomas Mann and Gunter Grass. He also loves rowing, which he says can get him out of bed before 7 am in the morning. He once told the Frankfurter Allgemeine - "The greatest mistake in my private life was that it took me until I was 40 to find out I like sport." He is married to Britta Ernst, who is a SPD politician and minister of education in the state of Brandenburg that is next to Berlin. Asked what qualities he prized in a person Scholz has said - "Self-reflection and self-evaluation."   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Murphy and Sanders on the 12 million Missing Votes in 2024. Where did they go? Two US Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders answer questions about the 12 million Missing Votes - the difference between Biden's 81.2 million votes in 2020 and Harris's 71.5 million in 2024 plus about 2 million from the population growth over 4 years of that group. Does any one position on guns, climate,  culture or gender, immigration, make it right? What about common sense, the facts on the ground, people's unease about some things going too far in one direction. Murphy- “We don’t listen enough; we tell people what’s good for them. “When progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base.” Working class voters are conservative when it comes to cultural issues. Should any party belong to one position on cultural issues- as some people have unease about going too far on cultural issues such as transgender, that things are changing too fast.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
British establishment Labour's Mandelson and Conservative's Prince Andrew -the Epstein connections in the Epstein files and the political fallout for Labour and the Conservatives. This happens as they approach local elections with the Greens, Liberals, and Reform UK already taking 50% of Labour's 2024 general election voters with disillusionment over results in the first 2 years of Labour. Labour assumed it had the immigration issue under control with some headline grabbing  stories of it taking tough action when it won in 2024. That has not deterred illegal migrant trafficking. Labour soon lost sight of the ball, and did not realize that the cultural issues around excessive tolerance of such migration itself had not been resolved such as ECHR rights which were completely misinformed when written to approve of such illegal migrants rights and ignore the citizens and women of the neighborhoods in which people had lived for generations. After decade and half of Conservative Cameron austerity Labour needed time to wrestle with the issues of levelling facing Britain's north and the Midlands. Instead Labour found itself on the backfoot and Farage was brought out of retirement after issues in towns like Epping and all across England, where migrants were put in hotels as women and locals loudly disapproved. Labour thought under Conservatives  that over 50,000 were in asylum hotels in 2023 and this has come down to 35,000 in 2025 under Labour, as a kind of improvement not realizing that the public mood questioned the whole idea of the migrants in hotels itself, of little tolerance for any illegal migrants in neighborhoods itself. It shows the political processes have great importance and a series of mediocre leaders from Blair, Brown, Cameron, Johnson, Sunak, Starmer and Farage over a period of 4 decades can change the trajectory for nations and region. A similar period for India in 1720-1760 with warring factions and regions inviting British East India Company troops to opposing sides fractured the country and led to losing its grip on itself. Gandhiji describes this for introspection in Hind Swaraj (1905) not taking the easy road most now discredited anticolonial writers after 1950 took in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Where does this leave Britain in 2026? It can only come to grips with it knowing that the quality of education, quality of leadership, honesty and introspection of the kind suggested by Teddy Roosevelt in Applied Idealism in his Autobiography, chapter 5, and in Gandhiji's Hind Swaraj are essential.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The influence of young disaffected voters as a decisive force for change in Japanese politics. The effort to court these voters by running youthful candidates by the Democratic Party of Japan. How this will change postwar Japanese governance for the first time.

LyrArc Article Gist
China's government is putting 10 Airbus orders for A380 superjumbo jets by Hong Kong Airlines, and an additional 35 Airbus A330 widebody planes on hold, in response to eforts by the European Union to enforce carbon dioxide emission fees under its ETS system.

LyrArc Article Gist
Outrage and anger at the plan by voters and taxpayers across the country on September 24, 2008. A clear appreciation by voters that this plan's eventual cost could leave a future administration without the money to build infrastructure, education rebuild health care.

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT article by Tabuchi cites former Takata employees who revealed to the NYT that the Takata problems go back to 2004 when things were kept hush-hush and an investigation into a faulty airbag that exploded was closed down without informing safety regulators in Japan.  

LyrArc Article Gist
According to real estate data firm CoreLogic, 38% of U.S. home owners who took a second mortgage on their homes are under water on their loans. 18% of borrowers who did not take a second mortgage are under water and have negative equity in their homes. Second mortgages are loans taken out on a property that are subordinate to first mortgages, including home equity loans and lines of credit. Borrowers with second mortgages have an average of $83,000 in negative equity compared to $52,000 for borrowers without second mortgages according to CoreLogic. During the boom borrowers took out cash using home equity loans and lines of credit for everything from home renovations and automobiles to tution and other expenses. Federal Reserve Board data show homeowners took out a huge amount, $2.69 trillion, from their homes for 2004-2006. Overall the number of underwater homeowners, or homeowners with negative equity in their homes, remained steady, according to CoreLogic's report- 10.9 million Americans in the first quarter of 2011, compared to 11.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2010, 22.7% of all homeowners nationwide compared to 23.1%. The slight decline reflected completed foreclosures, suggesting that the market conditions have not changed. Roubini and other experts predicted large housing losses in 2011-2012. This also affects America's largest banks. While the large part of the first mortgages were bundled and sold as securities, the home equity loans remain on bank balance sheets. About three fourths of the $950 billion in home equity loans outstanding were held by commercial banks at the end of 2010. Over 40% of this is on the books of Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Citigroup. A writedown on these loans could use up a significant part of the bank's capital....

LyrArc Article Gist
The 2009 budget of the Obama government has some optimistic assumptions built into it for the deficits in future years. For 2009 the GDP declines by 1.2%, for 2010 the GDP growth is 3.2%. With these assumptions its possible to bring the $1.75 trillion deficit in 2009 to less than $600 billion by 2012, and getting to that point requires GDP to rise by 4% a year by then. This is assuming the growth quickly returns to the growth rates of the 1990's. In one area the administrations' forecasts are more optimistic than the Fed's and may turn out to be too optimistic. The administration's assumption is for unemployment to average 7.9% in 2010 when it may be close to 9% or higher. For example Goldman Sachs economists expect the unemployment rate to be at 9.5% by late 2010. And Goldm,an's growth rate for 2010 is just 1.3%, and that also may prove to be optimistic whereas the budget assumes 3.2%. What all this means that money has to be spent on the priorities outlined by the President, but the most buck for the money has to be obtained because further outlays will be needed in future years. This is a very important point, and a lot of checks and transparency and careful monitoring of projects has to be put in place throughout 2009....

LyrArc Article Gist
The port of Long Beach which takes in 20% of the container shipping of the USA,, and is next only to Los Angeles port in container shipping, is becoming a story of two economies, the American and the Chinese. Thousands of cars from Toyota, Nissan and Mercedes are piling on port property turning it into one huge parking lot, as dealers across the country say they have no need for them, and piles of paper and metal baled together to be shipped back on these ships to China to be recycled into cardboard for export boxes are also piling up as China no longer needs them. The drivers who drive the trucks are also being laid offf and looking for new jobs, which are signs that a deeper economic downturn is underway and the the Detroit automakers GM and Ford CEO's who told the Banking committee that they are making their estimates for 2009 on the basis of a 13- 14 million vehicle sales year may be in for another rude shock. The figure for the last quarter may be running at 10 million, and if this continues into 2009 as its expected to do, even the producton of cars after accelerated plant closures may have nowhere to go in 2009. Which is why there are so many questions about what is going on in the auto industry and so much need for candour and frank discussion that was missing in the evasiveness apparent in the Senate hearings on November 18, 2008, as CEO and union president skirted around the issues and senators failed to ask many other questions like these on what is happening on demand as well as many others....

LyrArc Article Gist
When it comes to the wars in the Middle East Biden showed courage in "doing the right thing," even if it would cost him. Biden pulled America from wars in the Middle East that DJT had laid the ground work for by setting up that goal and taking action. Obama by contrast lacked the courage, and would not take any risks to his reelection effort. Biden in one term proved to be a transformative president in ways that Obama never even comes close, by building on the wave of support for rebuilding infrastructure that DJT had created in his first term. In ways that were unpredictable but real it could be said that DJT anticipated Biden and Biden anticipated DJT's efforts to get America out of wars that were never really in America's interest and started under the Reagan and Bush administrations continued through the Obama years. In the same way DJT anticipated Biden on rebuilding infrastructure and Biden anticipated DJT in action on the US Border and shutting down fentanyl flows from Mexico and China by getting Republican Senator Lankford to write up the legislation on the Border. This is also why president Biden can welcome DJT at the White House on the day of the Inauguration Jan 20 knowing both worked for the best interests of the Nation, and in the end listened to each other. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Axel Weber, former head of the Bundesbank, did economic and monetary research at the University of Siegen, Germany, where he received his doctorate. He joined the economics faculty at the University of Bonn in 1994. This is unlike others in central banking who rose through finance ministries or national central banks. He was made head of the Bundesbank in 2004. He resigned recently after expressing his dissent when the ECB made the decision to buy the government bonds of Greece and other financially troubled eurozone countries. In his view the ECB should stick to its mandate for setting monetary policy and not get involved in fiscal policy. He returned to academia and will teach central banking at the University of Chicago till May 2012. He brings an unconventional approach by his willingness to talk to the media and express his dissent over issues that affect Europe and the global financial system. The same informal style he adopted in teaching and engaging in discussion at the University of Bonn. See the interview in the Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2011....

LyrArc Article Gist
Daniel Yergin of consultancy firm IHS describes the geopolitical disputes in the Middle East between Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran that are leading to likely continued oversupply of oil in 2016, keeping prices in the $30-$40 range. Saudi Arabia is not likely to change its policy of going after market share, Venezuela is affected but lacks a voice in OPEC decisions, Russia continues its policies in Syria and Iraq under the Putin government affecting other Sunni states, and Iran following the lifting of sanctions is likely to ramp up supply to make up for its lost market share- all leading to an extended period of low prices. This situation benefits China, the European Union countries, India, Turkey and the U.S. in a period of slow economic growth in 2015-2016. Russia looks to use this period of low oil prices to shift to domestic industry after a period of rising imports when oil prices were high. The Saudis seeing their interests in the region threatened by Iran and Russia, and dissatisfied with the foreign policy of president Obama, see a policy of pushing for market share as appropriate in the current geopolitics of the region....

LyrArc Article Gist
White House visitors database shows lobbyists have frequent access to the White House. On one January day, Jan. 17, 2012, lobbyists came with the CEO's of their companies to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at 9 am for roundtable with President Obama. The CEO's are on the president's Jobs Concil. At 1 pm representatives from the meat industry arrive. And at 4 pm a lobbyist from Goldman Sachs comes for a meeting with Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. Its a fairly routine day.

LyrArc Article Gist
Jaffe and Eilperin provide this exceptional account describing the huge struggle of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to come to grips with the opioid crisis in rural America. Vilsack is from rural Iowa, where he was a small town Mayor. The opioid epidemic has personal overtones for Vilsack because of his parents addiction and growing up seeing the lack of helping hands. Vilsack. a two term governor of Iowa has witnesses these struggles in Iowa, as the state rural areas faced high poverty rates, more likelihood of being obese, less likely to go to college, and more likely to be pregnant in the teen years, than the rest of America. Vilsack is frustrated not just with the Obama administration but also with Congress, the media, the private sector with high pharmaceutical prices, for not giving enough attention to rural America. He sees rural America as providing the food grown and a disproportionate share of the military. The opioid epidemic comes at a bad time for rural America. This report provides a story that is typical where a dose of painkillers for a Navy employee leads to addiction and use of opioids. The whole experience has made Vilsack sound cranky to people in the White House. ...