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German chancellor Merz makes his frist trip to Asia starting with India. He sees India and Germany as natural partners and shifts the focus to India from China. Under Merkel Germany remained focused on China. This is changing now that Merz is chancellor. The winds of change are also blowing and the war in Ukraine, the distancing of the US under DJT, US and Chinese restrictions, require this change and Modi, Merkel step up to create anew strategic partnership. The EU and German trade is now set to increase significantly as India modernizes its economy. Merz and Modi see less dependence on Russia for oil and gas and defense needs. India seeks German technologies and capital to industrialize its economy. The scope is immense and both sides are at an historic opportunity. Merz is afar cry from the Merkel years when Germany never grasped India's potential and failed to invest in the German economy. Merz has put forward a $1 trillion plan to invest in modernization of Germany and India is the partner Germany has chosen as central to its plans. This brings the entire EU close to India and its aspirations to be a modern economy like the EU. This is a long term project that began today in Ahmedabad with the two leaders at ease at a Kite Festival in Ahmedabad after Merz visited Gandhiji's Sabarmati Ashram. And Merz showed he understood India-"We are in complete agreement in our assessment of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," Merz said. At the same time, he understood how India's dependence on Russian oil and gas had happened only recently. "Obviously, it is not that simple in India, and I am the last person to visit other countries wagging my finger at them." The patience is there as there is a meeting of minds for what is the largest project of its kind to 2037 and 2047 for 2 billion people pooling technologies, capital and talented engineers. ...

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The US reached the moon 50 years earlier in 1972 in the Apollo lunar mission. The new launch was done by a vehicle developed by Houston based Intuitive Machines. It is carrying NASA research devices under a $114 million contract. Lunar landings are difficult because of the thin atmosphere and need to slow down rapidly to land. Intuitive Machines spacecraft was brought down to speed of 3 feet per second before landing. It has one week before lunar night makes it inoperable. A similar landing was accomplished recently by an Indian spacecraft by large drops in speed to achieve a stable landing, after an unsuccessful earlier attempt that did not achieve the drop in speed required for landing.

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A Chinese diplomatic envoy goes to France, Germany and Russia to discuss ways to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. The US also looks for ways to bring a settlement to the war. Avril Haines, US Intelligence head, tells Congress she does not see Russia making concessions as it sees an advantage in a war of attrition in Ukraine. Ukraine gets continued support to use a counteroffensive to make some gains in the Kherson and other regions that could give it and Russia a chance to come to the negotiating table.

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The 30 by 30 target agreed to by countries at COP15 in Montreal, the Montreal Kunming conference, commits to protecting and restoring 30% of the Earth's surface by 2030. China was an active participant and made the decision to put this target into the final document. Biodiversity is an essential and important part of the plan for climate change action. COP15 Montreal complements the work done at COP26 in Egypt. Countries will report on their progress to 30 by 30 targets every year. Also part of biodiversity targets is the reform of $500 billion in environmentally damaging subsidies.

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David Obey, head of the House Appropriations Committee who wants to see a war surtax so that the burden of the war does not just rest on military families. Says Obey, who came to the House in 1969, the first year Nixon engaged in the Vietnam war- "I am damn tired of a situation in which only military families are asked to pay any price whatsoever for this war." He asked Obama to listen to the archival audiotapes of President Johnson in Bill Moyers PBS documentary on the Vietnam War in which Johnson tells Dick Russell Senator from Goergia-" Well we know this is damn near a fool's errand but we don't have any choice." Obey has no faith in the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan so he does not see any chance for a strategy to succeed in Afghnistan and he says "I didn't come here to be Richard Nixon's congressman, Reagan's congressman, Obama's congressman, I'm here representing the Seventh District of Wisconsin." To know Obey is to know him through the decades standing in Congress, fighting for spending on health, education and social programs, part of the agenda rooted in his Catholic faith, which he says demands that he try "to make this an equal society for everybody." In his spare time Obey plays the harmonica, with his rendition of "Amazing Grace" at a friend's funeral putting "everybody in tears," according to Governor James Doyle of Wisconsin. ...

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Martin Feldstein points out why the recent agreement for a "fiscal compact" is no more than an empty statement about fixing the eurozone's finances. In this respect it is no different than the Stability and Growth Pact it replaces, with serious weaknesses. Feldstein cites the weaknesses in the language of the agreement. Each eurozone country is required to limit its"cyclically adjusted" budget deficit to 0.5% of GDP and bring its debt down to 60% of GDP. Compliance will be performed by the European Court of Justice and fines imposed. In practice the questions loom large- for a country like Spain with a 23% unemployment rate, isn't all of the 6% budget deficit cyclical? Again the agreement says deficits are calculated "net of one-off and temporary measures." Under this provision a lot of the stimulus programs would be considered in the category of "one-off." Other language lets eurozone countries frame budgets based on "exceptional circumstances" and "periods of severe economic downturn." Italy has declining economic growth, does it make sense to have a large budget surplus in that situation to lower debt to GDP, and how does that goal relate to "exceptional circumstances."...

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Theresa May, the new British prime minister, announces her choice for cabinet positions- Liam Fox is new minister for International Trade, David Hammond is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer replacing Osborne. Hammond was Foreign Secretary under Cameron and helped negotiate the Iran nuclear accords. David Davis, a former minister for Europe, is in charge of a new ministry created to arrange Britain's exit from the EU. Boris Johnson replaces Hammond as Foreign Secretary. Johnson was Mayor of London and was a key figure in the Leave campaign. Michael Gove is out. David Davis and Johnson were in the Leave campaign and are now given responsibility for working on Brexit, a move that puts to rest any doubts about steps to be taken for Brexit, and is an effort to reunite the Conservative Party. With Osborne out, a principal architect of the austerity budgets of the 6 years of Cameron's government is now replaced by Hammond, who will now reflect the desire of Theresa May to come up with policies that "benefit everyone" and fight "burning injustice" to use May's first words as she assumed office at 10 Downing Street.  ...

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Swiatek is 24 years old and has already won 3 titles consecutive years in the French Open. She goes into the Wimbledon finals against Anisimova of US on July 12, 2025. Her game incudes a sports psychologist which helps her with the toughness needed in the game, and she has supported athletes for Mental Health Day. She is a keen reader which helps her relax, listens to some music to get her going before games, and likes polish recipe pasta with strawberries. She lives in Raszyn, a suburb of Warsaw. Her entry into the sport of tennis was for following her older sister who retired after injuries at the age of 15.  Her father is a rower who competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and wanted his daughters to join an individual sport, and her mother an orthodontist.

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DW.com report by Mu Ciu shows a CATL(Contemporary Amperex Technology) plant in Arnstadt, Thuringia, in eastern Germany. It will not bridge Germany's technology gap. German and US consultants at the microeconomic level of the company and German and US economists at the macroeconomic level of the economy entirely fail to grasp the effectiveness of China's investment driven model. Of its joint partnering with European and American companies and China's single minded focus on technology access. This is why the DJT US administration has warned Europe that it is failing economically. China's macroeconomic and microeconomic model are run by the same authority by the state, and according to goals and plans (which in a socialist economy is weak at the microeconomic company level lacking the initiative and freedom of action). By combining its macreconomic framework run by the state with a micreconomic company level run by the state but on free market lines the Chinese investment driven model has dual advantages and operates at a speed that far surpasses the German and American model. It's society suffers as a consequence, but in few short decades 1990-2009/2020 this is all it could accomplish with a single focus on modernization for what was once a peasant agricultural economy. Where it lacks is in future technology access and as long as weak companies in the US and Germany partner with Chinese companies the technology access for Chinese companies give it the essential ingredient for its investment model to work, as American and European companies can waver in investment Chinese companies backed by the government will not waver in investment and have the clear advantage. DJT's approach is to give a big shock to the entire system of world trade now run by China, so that this is no longer going to work at the macroeconomic level and legislate huge investment incentives for one time depreciation and other moves to get American companies to invest. It wants Europe to do the same, including getting rid of the bureaucratic structures and regulations. German Chancellor Merz is getting the message and is acting quickly first with the trillion dollar investment plan, the meetings with Draghi and Meloni to get Italy and like minded nations on board, and internal efforts to get rid of regulations and bureaucratic structures, and building a new partnership with India to remove an error of Merkel/ Clinton+ Obama in excessive concentration and dependence on China. This requires a steady hand and steady governments, steady policy, and companies in America, Europe and India to work together for the long haul without wavering or delay, to rebuild the world economy along new lines and on a new path. ...

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The trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange has seen a jump in the last week from an average of 4.26 billion shares traded daily in 2011, to an average daily volume of 7.31 billion shares in the first ten days of August 2011. Analysts say this reflects market anxiety, trading on conviction now compared to the light trading and a rising market in the earlier part of the year. The jump in volume also looks ominous as individual investors pull back say analysts.

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Grove's take on what is going on in Silicon Valley, and interviews at startups and Labs like the Almaden Research Center by Steve Hamm. Grove is especially infuriated by the concept of an"exit strategy". Intel never had an exit strategy he says. It takes time to build important companies over along period and a different kind of attitude, and resilience. Steve Hamm visits all parts of the Silicon Valley to understand what is going on. Big companies won't come up with the next big development and startups aren't measuring up to the task. Yes things are happening in the area of electric vehicles, solar energy and green energy. HP sees more productive effort coming from software development than hardware advances. Overall short term thinking and risk aversion dominates, and Grove and Hamm do not see the kind of paranoid attitude and worrying nature and resilience, that got Intel to go back and develop new products and look for new opportunities after taking a beating from the Japanese, who at one time took over Intel's existing markets. ...

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Most of the Address followed a familiar pathabout the economy, about the reasons for the Iran war being the nuclear threat most of all, and the way the president has sought to tackle the threat of ballistic missiles that could soon reach US and Europe. It was an update one month into the war with Iran. One part of it showed a focus on keeping the war short compared to other conflicts and limiting US losses by being very careful on that point. DJT cited the wars of the past 1 year 7 months for WW1, 3 years and 8 months for WWII, Korean War 3 years and 1 month, that soon stretched on for decades in the conflicts that followed. Vietnam 18 years, Iraq 8 years- wars that dragged on and led to US losing its economic position as the strongest nation economically. This one with limited goals nuclear threat removal and ballistic missile removal as the key goals on for 32 days, and right from the start clearly setting what US would not do and do- not take on role of opening Straits of Hormuz and asking China, Britain, countries that get the oil from Hormuz to take this on as China and Japan get 90% of their oil imports from Hormuz Straits. US is self sufficient and does not need that oil from Hormuz. It was the message to the MAGA base that does not want this war to become like the ones carried on for 8 years by Bush and Obama in Iraq which they clearly reject- the bigger goal is the US economy and reindustrialization not the deindustrialization that happened under  Bush and Obama destroying the US industrial base while fighting wars in remote places.  It was also meant to counter the idea of a president not conscious of responsibilities for limiting the duration of the conflict by removing goals such as opening Hormuz Straits which would involve the US in something it does not need and is the job of other nations who need that oil like China, Japan, Britain and India. ...

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Ann Marlowe has completed her sixth embed with American troops. She is a visiting fellow of the Hudson Institute. Her views from the ground are that without good governance the American effort there seriously risks failing. She is very concerned that the current administration is not taking good governance seriously. There should be alternatives to the Taliban and to the Karzai government which has failed to win public support.

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In over a decade after Mandela the A.N.C. under Jacob Zuma sees its vote drop from 62.5% to below 50%. The opposition Democratic Alliance wins 27% of the vote and the A.N.C. loses in the important cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth. South Africa's urbanization is proceeding rapidly with the country 65% urban today. In this situation the country is seeing a political situation of racially diverse cities voting against the A.N.C. under Zuma's administration, which is seen as corrupt and mismanaging the economy. Zuma is seeing his support now left mostly in the rural areas. He is also losing the support of women. Mmsi Maimane is a young black lay preacher, who leads the Democratic Alliance, a party with its origins in liberal politics during the Apartheid era, with participaton of whites, coloreds, Asians and blacks in urban areas.

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The French government negotiates an end to farmer protests and blockade of highways near Paris by easing some regulations on pesticides and by offering aid to farmers.

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A small fishing community in the Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong is transformed into an industrial and tech hub in three decades of industrialization and growth, since Deng Xiaoping's opening to capitalism and foreign investment in 1979.

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In a nationwide television address prime minister Modi of India calls for a Janata Curfew on Sunday March 22, for a test of people's self-discipline in fighting the coronavirus. He urged people to not go outside of their homes from 7am to 9 pm voluntarily in this curfew. The aim is to build public consciousness of the need for social distancing and staying away from crowds and people gathering, as an effective way to prevent spread of coronavirus. Only health care workers and people who provide essential services would be outside. He asked that at 5 pm on that day people ring bells to thank health workers and others who are doing what is necessary in the health crisis.

The prime minister said there should be no hoarding as the government will ensure that there are adequate supplies. He said an Economic Response Task Force has been setup under the leadership of the Finance Minister that will decide on an economic relief package.

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No man steps into the same river twice, says Jack Shafer in Politico. Mr. Trump is not the same person, and Twitter under Musk is not the same site. Much has changed since 2016. Many of the debates of 2016 are a thing of the past, as the nation has learned from that period and is moving ahead in a new direction under the Biden economic plan- for an economy that works for working people and families. This is critical for the task of building an America that reduces the huge disparities in America that have built up after decades of outshoring factories and jobs. The task that Mr. Biden has taken up with federal investment with business in key industries, cost of living actions, building a modern infrastructure for the US, and efforts to raise income and wages of workers and their families. 

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At 79 years, Wilbur Ross will be one of the oldest people serving in any administration, as he serves as Commerce Secretary in the Trump administration. Wilbur Ross is best known for the turnaround efforts in the steel industry. In 2002 he acquired LTV Corp, a third largest steel producer in the U.S. facing tough times and legacy costs, for $125 million in cash and $200 million in environmental liabilities. In 2005 he sold his International Steel Group to Arcelor Mittal for $4.5 billion, and is still an independent director on the Arcelor board. Ross's earlier experience was as a bankruptcy specialist at Rothschild Inc. in the 1970's working on restructurings at Texaco, TWA and Continental Airlines. Analyst Charles Bradford is cited in this report by WSJ's John Miller, who competed with Ross in restructuring proposals for failing assets, and describes Ross as working harder and being tougher to make the deals. Some of these restructurings involved cutting pensions and large layoffs. The entire U.S. steel industry faced problems from foreign competition and legacy costs at the time. This included representing bondholders for Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. At the time Ross told creditors considering seizing the asset for a possible missed payment that it would be better to keep Trump in charge for Trump properties as they would be worth more with Trump inside. This led to Ross later providing critical backing for the Trump campaign and raising money from the business community. Mitt Romney had similiar work at Bain Capital in turnaround of failing companies, later turning to politics as Governor of Massachusetts, and 2012 Republican nominee for president. Both Romney and Ross have come under criticism for their role in cost cuts at companies involving layoffs and cutting worker benefits. ...

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Eileen Lindner, author of a yearbook on American and Canadian churches, says 100,000 Protestant churches in the US will close by 2030. In the 1940's 76 percent of Americans were affiliated with some church, by 2020 that had declined to 47%. The result is a growing number of churches lacking young people. A large number of young people are not affiliated with any church and church attendance dropped during the covid pandemic. NYT looks at what happens when church space is repurposed for restaurants, hotels, theaters, office space, retail space, mixed use developments, affordable housing.

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Simon Denyer talks to experts in China in this remarkable piece about the risks to China's own forward development for the economy and society of adopting the so called Putin Way. Particularly when Mr. Putin himself may have second thoughts about as it offers so little and risks so much- actions in Ukraine reduce trade, much needed foreign investment and technology leading to slow growth. This is because technologically advanced societies and economies in a globally interdependent economy need to remain open and vibrant. Mr. Putin's failure to transform Russia's economy from overdependence on commodity exports, while risking development further for relatively insignificant gains on the fringes of its borders, reduces his own development scorecard from a B in the first term to a C in the second. Russia and China have large rural population with low incomes, and the risk is that these emerging markets will fall into the "middle income trap" reaching a certain level and then stagnating, with the additional burden of an an aging population. The irony is that Mr. Putin was elected with the help of this rural population outside the big cities specifically to preserve and expand economic gains made in the first term not erode these economic gains....

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Ben Bernanke former Fed chairman gets a Nobel Prize for an economic paper written in 1983 that showed the role central bankers need to adopt to prevent a banking crisis from transforming into an economic depression. Banks could feel the effects of a crisis but also could cause an economic crisis as happened in 2009 with catastrophic mortgage lending practices. Other economists with similar research including Douglas Diamond of the University of Chicago, and Philip Dybvig at Washington University also received the Nobel Prize.

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This report by David Sanger of the NYT shows how the Russia sanctions that president Putin hoped to remove are likely to remain in place and somewhat expanded. Russia's economy has seen slow growth of 1% as a result of a fall in foreign investment. This is likely to continue, says Sanger. American investment in privatization will be restricted to not more than $10 million, and the investments in Nord Stream pipeline are affected. Russia needs foreign investment in its economy, and this is affected. Sanger points out that even if president Trump and Secretary of State Tillerson preferred the option of having presidential authority to lift sanctions to improve relations with Russia, this now runs into Congressional opposition. At the Aspen Security Forum in mid July, Dan Coats and Mike Pompeo, senior intelligence officials in the administration, said that there was an effort to influence the U.S. election. The problems started with the opposition movement in Ukraine, leading to the collapse of the government in 2014. Before this Russia- U.S. relations followed the trajectory set early in the Putin first  and second term of improving the economy by forging better relations with the EU and the U.S. This resulted in a stronger economy and more foreign investment. Things deteriorated after the Ukraine issue came into prominence. For the U.S., the EU and Russia, an inability to come to a better understanding and resolve differences on Ukraine has created a downward trajectory, that has not benefited any of the countries involved.   ...

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Macron as president of France does not agree to cohabitation appointing 4 prime ministers over 4 years who are replaced or lose public confidence. The last Bayrou is an experinced politician who tried to get austerity cuts including eliminating 2 public holidays. The Socialist bloc led by Melenchon and Le Pen's Marie Pen bring down Bayrou in a no confidence vote. Following the election of the National Assembly Macron had an opportunity he missed of cohabitation with the Socialists Party bloc and letting its leader Melenchon or someone else in the Socialist Bloc, a more acceptable face to the Macronists form a new government. Instead he has weakened France and it's economy by taking a rigid approach. This is a reversal of his posture during his entry into politics which depended on the Socialists leader president Hollande accepting Macron into his government as Minister for the economy. Macron formed his own party with deft moves to retire the Gaullist and Socialist parties that have ruled France since 1945. Winning the presidency once and barely winning the second time after protests by Yellow Vests on the cost of living and an imperial presidency, the very same problem that Nicholas Sarkozy had of not being close to the people and their concerns about migrants, cost of living and the deindustrialized parts of France, neglect of farmers and rural areas also seen in the US. With this France is in a bit of drift with younger voters looking elsewhere for the future. ...

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Zelensky is going to Hiroshima to make his own case for support directly to all G7 leaders. The fact that G7 leaders are meeting in Japan also has significance as Japan unlike Europe with NATO faces Russian presence in its northern islands and China in the South China Sea and around Taiwan, North Korea, with only the American defense agreement in any conflict. Japan, Australia and India would want to see a clear end to the conflict in Eastern Europe that also sends a message that the status quo will be preserved on Taiwan and other issues in Asia.