LyrArc Article Gist
RFK Jr Independent candidacy could take votes away from both Democrats and Republicans. His anti-vaccine stand is closer to a section of Republicans and his family name relates to Robert F Kennedy and the Kennedy family of Democrats. 

LyrArc Article Gist
The purchase of F/A-18 aircraft by Germany capable of delivering nuclear weapons stationed in Germany is critical to keeping the nuclear deterrance and the "nuclear sharing" agreement with the U.S. Older aircraft, the Tornadoes are now 40 years old. Chancellor Merkel has supported the purchase but this is now being called into question by its junior partner in the coalition government the SPD.  Leaders of the SPD party say they would block the purchase of 45 Boeing Company made F/A-18 jets proposed by Merkel's defense minister. Under NATO's nuclear sharing agreement going back to the 1950's it is believed there are about 180 B61 tactical nuclear bombs in rope, some 20 in Germany and spread out over Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. President Trump has said the U.S. will withdraw from a treaty with Russia that limits the presence of nuclear missiles in Europe because Russia is not living up to the agreement. This could lead to an arms race. The issue is leading to the beginning of a fundamental debate about nuclear armanent and military spending of a type that has not happened in Europe since 1982 when a rebellion in the SPD over the stationing of nuclear weapons in Europe led to the ouster of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.  The Christian Democrats view the purchase of the F/A-18 at a time when Russia is updating its nuclear deterrance as fundamental to NATO and nuclear sharing. The SPD's leaders say nuclear sharing does not mean the need to host nuclear weapons, and give the example of Canada, a NATO ally that does not have U.S. weapons on its soil. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The old record set by Gary Sobers in 1966 of 1000+ runs and taking 30 wickets in Test cricket in England is matched by Ravindra Jadeja in the Fifth Test at the Oval in London in August 2025.

LyrArc Article Gist
Why no new infrastructure building plan is in place in the US for decades as China, now India build new infrastructure every day with a Master Plan. The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March 2024 in the Baltimore, Maryland area. There was much hand wringing at the time and president Biden also stepped in with help. The Washington Post says 2 years later no plan is in place to build a new bridge. The cost keeps going up from $1 billion to $1.9 billion and up again to $5.2 billion, with the dates shifting 2028 to 2030. Maryland received $2.6 billion insurance payments for the damage to the bridge by a ship, yet the project is stalled in disagreements with different parties involved. Even in the streets of New York, the pedestrian pavements in Brooklyn and other places are so dilapidated but no one seems to care. Suggesting that New Yorkers are also numb to infrastructure being bad as it is, just as Mumbai residents were in the old days before infrastructure became a daily priority in India in recent years, following China's example. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
After 3 by-elections in Toronto and Montreal Carney likely to have slim majority in Canadian parliament with 173 seats. The Liberals party has a 10-15% lead over the next party the Conservatives. Under Justin Trudeau Liberals had fallen behind the Conservative party in polling, only to be revived by Mark Carney of the Central Bank of England who sidelined some of the more controversial parts of Trudeau policies and gaining a big win in the recent elections. Carney has tried to find a way to keep Canada independent of US policy and able to chart its own path in the face of US tariffs and trade policy.

LyrArc Article Gist
Even in a remote part of Canadian wilderness at Lac LaBelle Serge Schmemann of the NYT finds no respite, no escape from the fires that have consumed large parts of the Canadian forests and sent acrid smoke into neighboring regions. Here he describes the problems stemming from climate change and the dangers if temperatures rise by 2.5 degrees.

LyrArc Article Gist
In this highly informative piece WSJ's Scism shows why buying long term care insurance policies in the U.S. in 2015 should be weighed carefully, because of large premium increases, and fewer insurers willing to sell such policies. The period of stays in nursing homes is shorter than previously estimated, with more men and women spending some time in nursing homes as they get beyond age 65. A Boston College study in 2014 shows men and women have 44% and 58% lifetime risk of needing nursing home care, higher than previous research, but the stays are much shorter 10 months and 16 months for men and women respectively. And 50% of nursing home stays for men, 36% for women do not exceed 3 months, giving them coverage under Medicare 100 day maximum for stays following hospitalizations. This changes the earlier calculations. About 8 million people have long term care insurance, according to Limra, a research firm, and 131,000 such policies were sold in 2014, down 24% from 2013, and way down from the 750,000 a year in the 2000s. A typical basic policy provides $164,000 in potential proceeds by paying a premium ranging from $1,685 to $2,813 for a 60 year old couple, according to the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance....

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in the WSJ shows in an extraordinary detailed way going back 20 years how under each administration Bush, Obama, Trump in the US and Angela Merkel in Germany, Hollande and Macron in France, the serious differences in the world view and thinking between president Putin of Russia and western leaders were simply ignored or overlooked. Mr. Putin truly believed in Ukraine and Russia as one people, researched history on his own and wrote an essay that made him more convinced than ever about his views that separation of Ukraine from Russia was an artificial construct, more so in the last two years.  By integrating the German and European Union economies with Russia and China without coming to terms with the large separation in views of the world and ignoring Russian views because of its economic size as an economy the size of France, both Merkel and Obama's policies failed to grasp what was happening. This report shows in much detail each event since 2005 that led to increasing distrust by Putin of western leaders.  The integration of the economies of the west and the integration of supply chains with China and Russia continued even after serious concerns had developed during the Trump administration. US and European business was operating on a completely different path not taking this into account in any way. It was only in the Biden administration and after the election of Scholz in Germany in 2021 that the situation was becoming clear. On the other side Ukraine itself and its people had changed in ways that were not anticipated by people in Germany or Russia, much less the leaders in Germany or Russia. There was a genuine sense that Ukraine was a national identity leading to the Ukraine resistance and a prolonged conflict. Brendan Simms, Cambridge historian shows how Europe went through conflicts and wars in its history as each of the major European nations sought advantage from 1453 to the present in his book, "Europe- The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present." Small gains were made in these wars that dragged on bringing great suffering to ordinary people.These wars involved England, France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
UAE facing relentless missile attacks from Iran and the brunt of the Iranian attacks decides on an independent approach. It moves out of OPEC and favors lower oil prices. It is also gradually responding to the attacks on its economy and tourism. This has also affected the remittances in Pakistan and India by their workers in the UAE economy that number upwards of 8 million. This affects the entire regional Indian economy.

LyrArc Article Gist
Old Right vs. Left arguments become redundant or outdated in the present state of aspiring young people looking for education opportunities in the private sector, and in the context of the 2018 budget with fair price for farmers, health insurance for rural poor, and better environment for industry. Efforts with GST implementation were called "biting the bullet" by finance minister Jaitley, which he said previous administrations had failed to do in taking up challenges of implementation. The picture for a growing and rapidly developing country is much more complex than the old labels, as actual results count the most.

LyrArc Article Gist
California gets 75% of its oil from imports and one third of imports from refineries dependent on Hormuz Straits. 20% of jet fuel comes from South Korean refineries, and 25% of gasoline from South Korean, Indian and Taiwanese refineries. This means things can get very tight if the war continues in the Middle East. This could happen as South Korean, Indian and Taiwanese refineries become low in their own stocks and export much less. California has not benefitted from the shale revolution in the Permian basin as pipelines do not exist for transporting that oil. Shipping oil on tanker ships from Texas to California costs more than shipping oil to California from Asian refineries. Over 20 years California lost 50% of its oil refining capacity by creating conditions averse to the oil industry, instead of adopting a two pronged approach of shifting to renewable energy with some flexibility for fossil fuels hat was adopted by the federal Biden administration, also run by Democrats. As a result Chevron which was California based for 144 years shifted its headquarters to Houston,Texas. There are no signs Governor Newsom, a Democrat is reversing his position to show more flexibility on fossil fuels during a transition phase to renewable energy.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
How is Ceylon or Sri Lanka faring for the economy and the standard of living after the collapse in 2022-2023? Krishna Srinivasan the IMF Director Asia Pacific and Peter Breuer in Feb 22, 2024 report say there is light at the end of the tunnel. It shows a graph of where tax revenues had fallen to 9% of GDP making it impossible for the government to function and for essential imports to be financed. "Corruption, tax exemptions, and non-competitive procurement and allocation practices imply higher taxes and costs for everyone, hitting the most vulnerable hardest." This is where PM Modi has made a huge, huge difference in India. It also calls for prevention- "Prevention also requires providing a safe space for public engagement in governance." The British American concept of governance through elections has to be modified with emphasis on as Srinivasan and Beuer state correctly -creating a safe space for public engagement in governance. Only when the public and the young people of the country understand the basics of the economy and an educated informed mindset in created -as is the goal of Lyrarc.com- can the conditions be created for this good governance. This is true for India and is true for its neighbors Ceylon or Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, with whom India has a long history of the closest relations. The rest of the report goes on to call for an end to corruption and inefficiency.         ...

LyrArc Article Gist
US president Joe Biden says he will allocate $80 billion additional funding to the IRS in the US so that it can get $700 billion owed by the wealthiest in the US. This is part of his "American Families Plan,' increased funding of health, education, improving upward mobility, and opportunity for the American people.

LyrArc Article Gist
It has to be said that both McCarthy and Biden have shown patient leadership and an optimism about America in getting to an agreement on spending and the debt ceiling in May 2023. They are not taking chances as they sell the deal they made to their party in Congress. Biden feels confident that the agreement will make its way to his desk to be signed and he had spoken to McCarthy on Sunday afternoon "to make sure that all the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted." McCarthy says "more than 95% of those in the Conference were very excited. We are the first Congress to cut voter for cutting spending year after year." The deal basically freezes federal spending at 2023 levels till 2025 and allows some increase in defense spending and veterans benefits. Dusty Johnson Republican of South Dakota says Republicans will overwhelmingly support it. He says not much was expected from the Freedom Caucus whose support was not expected. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky do not support it, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina thinks there is not enough money for the Navy in the agreement. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Daniel Harding as LA Philharmonic conductor 2026 with parallel career as France Airbus pilot.  Having two rigorous careers is exceptional. Daniel Harding of Oxford, England, conducted the Swedish Philharmonic for many years. He now replaces Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel at LA Philharmonic. Gustavo Dudamel joins the NY Philharmonic as conductor. Of his career as pilot for Air France he says-

"[What] I love about going to work for Air France is that I put on my uniform … and I’m part of the team. And knowing another world, how other people work and having a completely different role is healthy. I’ve learned things about myself and conducting in a year that I didn’t learn in 29 years before as a conductor.”

LyrArc Article Gist
How Northwestern University Kellogg School's Inaba Yoshimi is trying to turnaround Toyota's performance in China. Toyota is a latecomer in the China market and cultural hurdles hamper Japanese managers in China. Because Toyota dealerships in Japan use a salesforce that gets income from salary and does not depend on commissions, selling only Toyota cars, the Japanese experience seemed irrelevant to China. The experience of Toyota in China is more like the experience in the U.S. market with a sales force earning income from commissions and dealers selling many brands. In other respects China's market is different from the U.S. The Chinese market is growing very fast, and millions of cusomers are joining the carowning population, all first time buyers in an internet information intensive environment with savy informed customers. Keeping the salesforce motivated and interested in selling Toyota cars is a challenge in China. Also how to allocate cars to dealers based on how many cars move off their lots, and how to buildup a large network of Toyota dealerships and widen the range of product available in China. Management challenges have been tackled by bringing experienced veteran managers from the U.S. to China, who are culture neutral and are seen positively by the Chinese managers and staff. General Motors has a big headstart in China and is marketing to the younger demographic in China. Median age of Chinese buyers is 35 years age. See the related article on Chinese buyers and what drives their buying habits in article by Bremner in Business Week, May 17, 2006....

LyrArc Article Gist
Competition from large farms and the lower costs spread over large operations put small farms at risk in Europe.

LyrArc Article Gist
Russia repeats call for retreat from Donbass in peace negotiations Jan 23 2026.

LyrArc Article Gist
The FDA approves Governor De Santis proposal for importing drugs from Canada. Colorado is one of the other states that have applied. The drugmakers continue their opposition even if this means lower prices for the American people of excessively higher priced American drugs compared to other countries. Both Republicans and Democrats agree prices have to come down and support importing of drugs into the US, then why is it taking so long for the FDA  to approve state proposals? The Biden administration has issued an executive order for the FDA to work with states on this.

LyrArc Article Gist
Dan Osborn is a union leader who led the strike at Kellogg Omaha plant in 2021. He is running for the US Senate seat in Nebraska which is conservative and Republican. He is shown here campaigning with Shawn Fain of the UAW autoworkers union at his side.

Osborn says he does not see Republican or Democrat or any color just a fair fight for fair wages for workers.

Osborn says-

“I didn’t see men or women or black or white or Republican or Democrat on the picket line. I just saw people that wanted to go to work for a fair wage and some good benefits.”  

This is what 2024 is also turning into in the US a fight for wages and for managing the cost of living in ways that bring a better life for workers and their families after years of neglect.