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As farm product rotted on farms because of a lack of buyers, India has come up with new ways of getting farm agricultural product to buyers in urban areas. The Indian government has approved online sales direct from farmers to buyers outside the country. Within the country enterprising farmers  and app developers for farm produce sales directly to consumers in cities are changing the way agricultural produce distribution works. This report in the Guardian shows how sales are being made from remote Meghalaya state to buyers in cities for product ranging from turmeric, pineapple, jackfruit, and cashew. Prices are about 70% higher helping boost farmers incomes.  Several states have relaxed rules allowing farmers to sell anywhere in the country.  In other parts of the country this is happening with a proliferation of such apps creating a virtual marketplace. Other examples are a grape orchard farm in Gudahalli with sales made in Bengaluru at 30 apartment complexes. One site founder in Chandigarh says he has in 2 months sold 20,000 tons of produce ranging from avocados of the Nilgiris to papaya from Chattisgarh. His app Harvesting Farmer Network also helps with packaging and delivery. In other developments Gaia Agritech is helping farmers on the Konkan coast in Maharashtra hit hard by a pause in exports, sell to housing societies in Pune and Mumbai. This is part of a broader debate in India after coronavirus pandemic. One idea is that people have a family farmer just like they have a family doctor, encouraging organic agriculture, fresh produce for healthier living. By helping farmers it makes for a better economy, as about a sixth of India's GDP comes from farmers and most of the jobs are in farming and agricultural economy. ...

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Senator Chuck Schumer in the US Congress after the passage of the US Debt Ceiling Agreement on June 1, 2023. It is a historic day when president Biden helped preserve most of what has been accomplished by the Inflation Reduction Act and other spending programs for US workers and families, for US infrastructure, and world leadership in science and technology.

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The coronavirus second wave is leading to deeper inequality, food insecurity and other problems in the world. The International Labor Organization estimates $3.5 trillion in lost wages for the world's workers. FR24 looks at the issues this has raised.

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Starting in 2023 the penalty on missed RMD drops to 25% from 50%, and down to 10% if corrected in 2 years. The statute of limitations for missed RMD's is three years.

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New rules from the Biden administration make it easier for people ages 60-63 years to make up for putting less into workplace savings in earlier years with the impact of the 2009 financial crisis, loss of jobs or working parttime for a period, and smaller savings during the pandemic. People in these ages can now put in a 14% higher amount. And a maximum of $34,750 into their workplace retirement plans. This is one of the many actions taken by Biden-Harris, including increasing the amounts for Social Security, that combined with a stronger economy and job growth, lower inflation, is correcting many of the problems of the past that left seniors without enough money to retire in dignity and safety. Small steps taken in the context of bigger steps on infrastructure and chips, science, rebuilding manufacturing by investing in old unused plants and reviving them with new products- all this is creating anew future for America and the ordinary Americans. Higher wages also pushed by Biden- Harris will enable many Americans put away more in savings that the were not able to do over the decades when government policy neglected the needs of ordinary Americans. ...

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Martin Feldstein on the U.S. economy in 2014 and the risks of the U.S. Federal Reserve tackling the economy on its own with monetary policy, without Congress taking on the task of policies to promote economic growth. Feldstein points out the 3.6% GDP growth estimate for the third quarter 2013 does not look that good considering that half of this is from buildup of inventory. GDP growth is about 2% as net result. With paralysis of Congress and the Executive branch the Fed's policy of huge buildup of long term bonds to reduce short term interest rates to zero and stimulate stock and home prices, he describes as the only game in town. The problem is that the size of the effect of increase in consumer spending from this increase in household wealth is small and not enough to contribute to significant GDP growth. The risks of this approach are that it contributes to destabilizing the economy as investors buy risky securities and bid up prices. He suggests a five year $1 trillion infrastructure development program, including defense, as a stimulus Congress should consider. Not the kind of stimulus that happened after the 2008 crisis. If not enough investment ready projects are available as in 2008 that will contribute to future growth, Congress should take another one year to prepare for this before moving forward. Debt reduction is key, and debt as a percentage of GDP should be reduced and set on a path to go where it was before 2008 to about 40%, deficits to below 2% of GDP. This should be done by slowing growth of Social Security and Medicare, and increasing revenues by limiting subsidies in the tax code that Feldstein as pushed for since 2010....

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This report in the NYT looks at median household checking account balances of households in the lower classes, middle classes and upper income groups as they changed during the pandemic. The deep plunges are seen in the graph for the lower classes making below $30,000 and a jump of as much as 100% after every effort by the government to send in pandemic aid money. The income groups making over $70,000 also benefited from the government aid money by as much as 40%. Six months after the aid the household checking balances show sharp declines.

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For US automakers each component of the savings above may cover all or more of the $2.5 billion in tariffs some of which may be returned in rebate form to the automakers over 4 years. For example GM CFO is cited as as saying the shift in EV's alone could reduce losses by $2 billion in 2025. That more than makes up for GM's  $1.1 billion losses from tariffs shown in this WSJ report. It is more accurate to say foreign automakers in the US pay $9 billion in tariffs if they don't raise prices, Toyota alone will take on $3 billion in tariffs. And American makers Ford, GM, Chrysler Stellantis pay $2.5 billion of which some of it will be returned to the automakers inthe form of favorable policies to increase market share of US automakers with the 15% on imported cars and savings from not having to make electric vehicles in volumes that don't sell without the charging infrastructure, and savings from not having to invest on rapid conversion away from gas powered vehicles.    ...

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Compare AI models for versions v2 v3 by DeepSeek that cost $5.6 million with Anthropic AI model that cost $100 million+, and one gets the order of magnitude in cost for the new DeepSeek China model vs its US counterparts.  The hundreds of billions of dollars that OpenAI and big spenders such as Google, Meta, and Microsoft would have to drain capital markets would be a disaster for workers and families in the US and the standard of living, the infrastructure improvements that don't get done, and the investments in transportation and other vital needs such as schools, education and healthcare that directly impact the cost of living and the standard of quality of life in America and other countries. This is where competing models from China, from India, and from European countries can get us back to where we want to be to continue improving the cost of living and standard of living, quality of life in America for workers and families. This is the choice workers and families made in 2020 and in 2025, rejecting the wasted resources in wars that serve no purpose, and rebuilding the Nation's infrastructure, its water, schools, transportation, healthcare, childcare.  ...

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The director of Vote Leave on Brexit referendum Dominic Cummings says Brexit could be a mistake for Britain. Asked if he thinks differently now, he says in a Twitter exchange cited in Britain's Guardian newspaper- "Lots. I said before REF was a dumb idea, other things shdve been tried 1st." Others are having second thoughts about the referendum, as shown here.

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Mark Landler of the NYT intervews Ben Bernanke at his office overlooking the Washington Mall, and Secretary Paulson in his Treasury office. Both men look back at events that led to Chinese savings financing excessive American consumption, and currency and other policies on both sides perpetuating the dependence of America on lowpriced Chinese products, and of China on the American export market. Now that this export market is collapsing it presents China with serious problems with unemployment in the export sector, and pesents America with the hangover from a consumption binge that now must be paid for with years of low or negative growth. Could this have been foreseen and if foreseen could things either have been mitigated or prevented. In March 2005, Prof. Bernanke at Princeton was not at the Fed (his Fed job started in 2006), and cautioned about the imbalances presented by Chinese savings finacing American consumption. But Bernanke saw this as a market phenomenon that would take years, even a decade to work itself out in a global economy. He said "for now, we have little choice except to be patient." The prevailing opinion among Greenspan, Bernanke and others was that the global economy worked in ways that were ultimately benign and regulation was not a good thing. After all the situation benefitted American consumers and kept inflation low while also providing China as an additional engine for global economic growth. The American economy it was believed was large and resilient, and it would not be adversely affected in the long run by such a large dependence on foreign savings. Only the positive effects were visible and the adverse effects were simply talked away as not serious for now. Zoellick, who was deputy secretary of state says that successful models are very hard to change, and Paulson says that without some kind of crisis its hard to get changes made once asituation gets entrenched. For China efforts to strengthen the currency that would slow exports and improve internal consumption were stymied by a reluctance to disturb the status quo, and Americans were lulled into complacency as years of low priced imports provided the best of both worlds, high growth and low inflation. ...

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A political operative for former president Bill Clinton, now an ABC anchor is described here speaking about the president in negative terms. Elements of bias lingering from the Clinton period. The extent of the WSJ, NYT, Washington Post coverage on president Biden with skepticism is only matched by the readers comments where the vast majority of readers strongly question the opinion writers and their wisdom and understanding, and their failure to understand the democratic process where the primaries and freely cast ballots not the self appointed media elect the president. The senior most senators Patrick Schumer and Patty Murray have delivered on president Biden's infrastructure, jobs, cost of living action, science and CHIPS agenda and know him well for doing the same again past 2024. The vast majority of Americans support the president and understand that they like the president are human and have a bad day or night some days and nights, it is the future that Biden is shaping for which the nation looks to to 2030 just as the Nation did in 1932 and 1936 for FDR, in 1952 for Harry Truman, and again in 1960 for JFK. People should not forget that both the south and the north voted in large numbers for FDR, Truman and JFK, including Texas. In fact Texas was Truman's strongest state in 1948 giving him 66% of the vote to Dewey's 24%, carrying 246 of 254 counties in Texas. The question then was the post war economic future of the US and the free world, today of the post pandemic economic future of the US and of climate change, not about cultural issues, and on this issue as it was then the choice is clear for the American people. ...

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Sweden's new government elected in 2006 after years of Social Democratic governments, is not in favor of state involvement in industry. The enterprise minister Oloffson says, the Swedish government is not prepared to own car factories. Southwest Sweden where Saab in located, in the town of Trollhattan, will be hard hit if Saab closes. It has 54,000 people, with 4000 employed at Saab. Saab turnedout its first car here in 1947. But its not the same Saab that became known for its engineering. Under General Motors Saab lost its edge as a car with advanced engineering. And last year Saab sold 93,295 cars, 21,383 in the USA, and this year demand will drop steeply. Already losses for 2008 are $343 million. No matter what the label meant in the past, the hard facts are that here is a neglected car company, which may sell only sixty or seventy thousand cars in the years ahead and keep going down in numbers, with no money for investment in new technology in these credit markets for declining numbers, and offering huge losses that may approach half a billion dollars in 2009. Even a Social Democratic government might think to pause. Given Sweden's generous employee retraining, would the money for rescue be better spent in some new field with better prospects....

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As saving for retirement is increasing in importance in the US and other countries, this WSJ report says 15-20% put aside in savings is a desirable goal. At a minimum 12.5% to savings from the paycheck to reach $1.25 million over 40 years. Compound interest helps double the savings with a 7% return and saving early is important.