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What happens to the 70,000 residents of Anacostia, near the Capitol in Washington DC where a third of the people live in poverty and there is a 40% dropout rate, and only 8% of all students there attend college. Vacant homes, drug use and crime sap the neighborhood here. Obama said he would bring 20 cities an antipoverty program successful in Harlem, New York that would include parenting and infant care classes, as well as early childhopod education and free medical care for children. An investment of $1 billion for 5 years for a transitional jobs program, to place the unemployed in temporary jobs. The Obama transition team did not return requests seeking comment on the 20 city plan or the $1 billion for transitional jobs, says the WSJ on January 20, 2008, the day of the inauguration. Its incredible that right in the nation's capital there exists another Washington DC of such neighborhood decline within sight of the Capitol.

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John Githongo is appointed in 2002 by Mwai Kibeki, an an anti corruption official, but his efforts only bring him grief. Kibeki is from the Kikuyu tribe, and like Jomo Kenyatta before him in the years after 1963 he is engaged in ramopnt corruption. In the intervening years between Kenyatta and Kibeki, Daniel Arap Moi from the Kalenjin speaking group of tribes aslo was engaged in enriching officials from his tribe. So Githongo, who once reported for the Economist in Kenya, concludes that the election of Odinga would have changed nothing, as he like Obama's father is a Luo, and the Luo's would have in Githongo's words have seen the election as making it "their time to eat". Its interesting to note that Obama's father was like Githongo standing up for something to his great grief that was never to be because of the lack of education among the elites and the leaders of the tribes of their true role in nationbuilding.

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James Galbraith's ideas on the bailout in the Washington Post. He would remove the cap of $100,000 on FDIC insurance and put $500 billion into the FDIC and more resources for the FBI and hire the auditors and investigators needed to clean up the mess. Next he would use $200 billion to buy the preferred shares in the banks that need the money. He would let the investmet banks and hedge funds to themselves. And he woul provide federal funds to stte and local governments in a Nixon administration type of revenue sharing scheme so that local governments do not cut essential services and investments in education and so on. And he would focus on energy and climate change issues for the next 10-20 years as national goals. His point that even with freeing up the illiquid assets two things dont change one the borrowing still will be weak as the economy slows, and the recession and slowing economic conditions will not change.

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India lags behind in the number of tourists visiting the country. Part of the reason was the lack of good infrastructure in the country. Indian Railways and new highways, modern river transport has opened up remote parts of the country from the jungles of Assam to deserts of Rajasthan, the mountainous regions of Kashmir, Sikkim, Bhutan and Ladakh, Arunachal, and the river regions of the Brahmaputra river and Ganges to tourism. Compared to France with 100 million tourists a year India has about a tenth of that.  Tourism is now seen as an engine for job growth as small handicraft industries can tap into the tourist market, hotels and restaurants can add to employment. The new budget for 2025-26 recognizes this by almost tripling the 95 million euros budget for 2024 to 283 million euros in 2025. Delhi with images of pollution is a distraction yet the tourist from Europe or America can find much to see in smaller towns and metros in the country from Buddhist and Vedic civilizations thousands of years old and recent history after invasions from Western Asia and Europe since 1600, and interesting cuisine, culture, language and regional influences. ...

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The 28 Point Peace Plan offers a basis for further work to arrive at an agreement acceptable to Ukraine and to the European Union, is the view emerging at the G20 talks in Johannesburg, South Africa. The leaders of Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Italy and Spain met on Saturday, November 22 2025. Separately Leyen and the EU council president Costa meet with Meloni of Italy and Macron of France on Saturday after conversations with Zelensky on Friday.  British prime minister Starmer has this view of the 28 Point US plan negotiated with Russia-  “There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a cease-fire, and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians.” Ms. Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, says-  “Ukraine can count on us because this is not only an aggression against Ukraine, but it is an aggression against the principles of the U.N. charter." “It’s on European soil. Therefore, we will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.” Macron of France commended American efforts to reach a peace deal but said EU nations would work with Ukraine to map out a plan for way forward in 48 hours.  "What is at stake is Ukrainian sovereignty and European security.” It is this aspect of European security that may be the reason the EU and Germany may decide to modify the plan to offer a counter proposal on several points. One on limits to the size of Ukraine's defense forces to ensure its defense. Another on the stationing of forces by NATO in a peacekeeping role in Ukraine as proposed earlier. Third on the ceding of territory now in the hands of Ukraine so that these parts of Ukraine can remain independent after 4 years of ragged defense. Germany under CDU Merz and with Pistorius of SPD at Defense in a strong coalition government may be the deciding factor as Merz has already set the goal for the Bundeswehr to become the strongest army in Europe, with plans and action to prepare for this transition to defend European interests. It is true that Ukraine is at a difficult point yet if the Europeans see this as a "capitulation" and a US DJT deadline of one week to push this through Europeans may come up with a counter offer that includes these points that would make it clear that they are not an obstacle for peaceful resolution of this conflict. The history of Europe shows that in such situations with most of Europe on one side and Russia or some other major European power on the other side, eventual settlement ends up with all sides making some concessions, and in no way seen as "capitulation." Asian powers China and India have been pulled out of the conflict to a large degree in 2024-2025, with US shifting to a neutral position. Making this a purely European conflict with the Russian economy mobilized for wartime yet facing all the nations of Europe led by Germany, France and the UK in a transition towards military preparedness and unwilling to see any form of capitulation. In such a situation the larger economies and resources of the EU could effectively counter a Russian threat leading to a settlement that is better for all parties to the conflict.   ...

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AP Moller-Maersk, the Danish energy and shipping company, says profits will decline in 2012 from 2011 profit of 18.08 billion kroner ($3.1 billion). Maersk expects global demand for seaborne containers to go up by 4-6% in 2012, but sees lower traffic in the Europe-Asia trade lanes. Maersk has 16% of the container shipping market worldwide. The Maersk Line had losses of 3.4 billion kroner in the 1st quarter of 2012.

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Kenyan politics is conducted along tribal lines since the country's independence in 1963. The Mau Mau rebellion under Jomo Kenyatta involved the Kikuyu tribe. Kikuyus at over 6 million are the largest tribe followed by the Kalenjins at about 5 million and the Luo tibe at about 4 million population. The Kenya African National Union Party of Jomo Kenyatta has run thecountry since independence. Kenyatta till 1978, followed by his vice president Daniel Arap Moi till 2002. Multi party politics since 1992 led to elections conducted purely on tribal lines, with the KANU appealing to Kikuyus, and Kenya Arican Democratic Union under Odinga appealing to Kalenjins. In this election Uhuru Kenyatta the son of the former president is running against Odinga of the KADU, son of the former Opposition leader. The government is also run on patronage with positions handed out to loyalists and tribe supporters. Former U.S. president Obama's Kenyan father could not find a position in Jomo Kenyatta's government because of tribal differences. After the clashes in 2007 with disputed elections the situation has led to further ethnic tensions.   ...

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NYT's Mokoto Rich provides this excellent report from Daegu, the fourth largest city in South Korea, where the current president's father attended teacher's college, and where she draws her base of support. Her father is the dictator president Park who ruled South Korea from 1961 to 1979, known for efforts to modernize South Korea and protect it from the Communist North.Most of the city's residents no longer support president Park Geun-hye because they say even though she herself is a good person, she had poor judgement in having a friend who they say swindled her. That friend Ms. Choo Soon-Sil won favors and contracts using the powers of the presidential office with the full knowledge of the president. This makes her incompetent for the presidential office say even conservative supporters who disagree with the opposition's protests. 

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This editorial in the Hindu- after encouraging news from Moody's and the World Bank on India's economic future- says that the Modi government should not be distracted by the upcoming elections as it focusses on the task ahead. After a gap of 14 years Moody's raises India's credit rating one notch. Moody's cites steps taken by the Modi government as creating a better environment for future growth- the implementation of GST goods and service tax, efforts to clear some of the bad loans in the banking system so that capital can be freed up for infrastructure investment, and reducing bureaucratic hurdles for clearance of projects. Moody's cites the high public debt burden as a constraint for growth. General government debt is at 68% of GDP in 2016, higher than the 44% median for economies in this range. On the plus side the better targeting of welfare measures to help the poor including steps in the banking field, bringing more businesses into the formal sector to improve tax revenues, and the large pool of private savings, are cited by Moody's. Critical is timely implementation in the future. As the discussion in the media on bullet trains and other new infrastructure shows, there is not enough momentum for stretch goals as China has done over the last 2 decades.   ...

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The US economy is growing at a much faster pace than Europe or China in the last quarter of 2021- at 7% annualized growth in the fourth quarter up from 2% in the third quarter, according to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This compares to 2% in eurozone and 4% in China. Major US ports such as Los Angeles are processing 20% more container volume in 2021 than in 2019, while Rotterdam and Hamburg are almost flat compared to 2019 level. Consumption of durable goods has jumped 45% above 2018 levels in the US, only 2% in eurozone, according to ECB data. The factory gate prices in China are far outpacing the consumer prices in China, suggesting weak domestic demand and strong foreign demand. Lars Jensen, head of network at container ship company A.P. Moller-Maersk says the global supply bottlenecks were started by this surge in US demand with more ships headed for the US taking ships away from other places. The US economy will grow at 6% in 2021 and 4% in 2022, with wages growing 4% a year above the pre-pandemic trend rate, compared with 1% in eurozone, according to Bank for International Settlements. This is pushing inflation up in other countries by pushing up the value of the dollar. In Mexico hitting 7.4% and the central bank raising interest rates 0.5% point to 5.5%. In Russia inflation up to 8.4% and central bank raising interest rates by 1percentage point to 8.5%. The equipment investment in the US is up by 13% this year according to JP Morgan Chase, only 3.6% in eurozone, 0.1% in Japan. All this is creating a large gap between the US and Europe, US and China in economic growth and demand growth, and in income growth. ...

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The Economist points out serious problems at India's state owned banks. Following a $21 billion or 1.3 trillion rupee bailout from the government, and a new bankruptcy law to help banks deal with bad loans, the Indian banking sector was seen as recovering. Last week (Feb. 2018) showed new problems at three of the largest state owned banks. PNB, Punjab National Bank, is faced with fradulent transactions for 114 billion rupees, about a third of its market capitalisation. A jeweller, Mr Nirav Modi, had PNB employees issue letters of credit which were then used to borrow overseas, but the credit was not shown in PNB's books. The State Bank of India, SBI, is faced with losses after tackling bad loans. The Reserve Bank of India, India's central bank and bank regulator, has taken action to have banks recognize more bad loans to clean up the banking system.  The Bank of Baroda, the third largest state owned bank, is exiting South Africa after entering that market and lending to the controversial Gupta family that is seen as having undue influence on the government of ex- president Jacob Zuma of South Africa.  These events have battered the reputation of state owned banks in India. One private lender HDFC bank alone now has market capitalization worth more than the entire state owned banks in India. State banks are worth less than net assets in the market, showing a huge credibility gap. The bad loan situation that goes back to previous governments is affecting the growth rate in India's economy and creating new pressures on the government of prime minister Modi as it faces general elections in 2019. ...

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A recent poll shows Mr. Trump increasing his support from a bloc of voters that disapprove of his job performance but still give credit to Mr. Trump for an improving economy. A new WSJ/NBC poll shows 51% of Americans disapprove of his overall job performance, with 46% approving. The same percentage that say they disapprove of job performance are also saying they give him credit for a stronger economy up from the 44% in April 2017 who said they approved his way of handling the economy. Wages have increased 3.2%  in each of the last 2 months and unemployment is at an historic low over 50 years. One group that has a 10 point gap when it comes to the economic performance is among Independents, where 38% approve of Mr. Trump but 48% approve his economic performance. A big jump is among Hispanics who have benefited greatly with new jobs in construction and other areas of the economy. Trump's 46% approval rating in May 2019 is among the highest he has achieved, rising 3 points since the last identical poll in March 2019. About 29% still think the Mueller Report clears Mr. Trump of wrongdoing as they did in March. Still things can change as 42% believe the Mueller Report does not clear Mr. Trump of wrongdoing, and another 29% haven't made up their mind. On impeachment hearings about 48% think Congress should let Mr. Trump finish out his term, 49% think there is either enough evidence or Congress should continue investigating with an eye to future impeachment hearings. The survey margin of error is about 4 percentage points, covers 900 adults.  ...

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Ryan Tracy and Anthony DeBarros try to address the question of patchy internet service for America's heartland, rural areas from the prairies of Iowa to the west, and in the south and southeast. Public funds were allocated through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund for broadband service with the latest optic fiber technologies in 750,000 census blocks in all states except Alaska in the US. This was supposed to bring digital internet with fast speeds enjoyed by urban users to every American home. Instead after this and another program the Connect America program why is internet service serving some customers and not others in rural areas, with patches of areas in each rural part of a state without internet service at the speeds one should expect for streaming and other uses? This WSJ research looks at data and conducted interviews on this important issue and found that internet service providers were given public funds by the FCC yet allowed to pick customers leaving some customers out. FCC rules till 2021 did not require service for all customers equally as long as they provided service to a minimum number of locations statewide say former senior FCC officials. One senior former FFC official says it is not surprising that companies made the decision to do the bare minimum required.  In Heavener, Oklahoma this meant that during the pandemic and lockdown when schools were closed the lack of good internet service affected learning from home. Many students could not get online from home. In 2021 another effort was made. This time funds will not go through the FCC but through the states. The Biden $1 trillion infrastructure spending for workers and families includes $42.5 billion for a rural broadband program in America. This WSJ report does useful service to America by putting the spotlight on one of the issues that divides America today the gap between the quality of life in rural vs. more affluent areas of urban America. It also shows that it is the federal bureaucracy that is at fault in this case for poor internet service in rural areas. Careful attention to this is needed so that rural America gets the attention it deserves from the prairies of Iowa to the mountains, the breadbasket of the country, and the heartland.   ...

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How much room is there to raise interest rates. Patrick Minford of the University of Cardiff says a lot more. At the rate of 9-10% inflation in Britain more interest rate increases are likely. Minford is advising Liz Truss who is candidate for prime minister. Minford's main ideas are- Get interest rates back up to what was considered normal in previous decades- 5-7% for mortgage rates is what it used to be. At that rate it protects people's savings something that did not happen in the last 2 decades of ultra low rates worsening the wealth gap for Britons in different classes. Cutting taxes is about providing the economy a boost as rates go up. It is not about huge cuts, just modest cuts like the 30 billion pound cuts proposed by Truss. Minford is not talking about low taxes. He is simply talking about having taxes at levels that will promote growth- "the key to growth is not having high taxes. We're not talking about cutting them, just talking about not having them at catastrophic levels." Here is what Liz Truss is proposing- Reverse the recent rise in national insurance. Scrap the increase in corporation tax. About this plan Minford says- "If we raise corporation tax we will kill off growth." Minford dismisses concerns about borrowing. " It's crazy to begin to try to drop the debt to GDP ratio 5 minutes after Covid." With higher rates Minford also think there will be fewer "zombie" companies eating up the nation's capital, while protecting the savings of hard working ordinary people in Britain which hasn't happened in the last two decades of ridiculously low rates, worsening wealth gaps in British society. Minford calls Sunak's policies "puerile" and too much beholden to Treasury thinking. Liz Truss says Sunak's policies are for Brexit in name only, not taking advantage of Brexit to rid Britain of cautious policy that does not capitalize fully on cutting the bureaucratic and regulatory burden to get growth, and trade that favors Britain. ...

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This WSJ report shows how a record 4.4 million American workers resigned from their jobs in September 2021 alone. WSJ shows map of US with the states where this is happening marked with "I Quit." States with the largest quit rates have large share of employment  in food, restaurant, hotel and entertainment industries- Hawaii, Montana, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, New Hampshire, Louisiana. In the northeastern states the education sector which accounts for a larger share of employment the quit rate has risen at the fastest pace since January as shown in the Labor Department numbers. For years wages, benefits and working conditions in the food, restaurant, grocery store, hotel and entertainment industries, supply chain logistics, lagged behind, exacerbating inequality and widening the income gaps between working class Americans and the professional and other classes. Increases in minimum wages lagged behind the cost of raising families, rent and grocery bills. Professions such as nursing, children's education, critical to the nation's health were also left behind in wage increases as the tech boom rewarded different sectors in outrageous ways worsening the social divide and creating pools of income scarcity and income abundance in indiscriminate ways. The pandemic is changing all this. Workers in states with higher proportion of workers in these sectors of the economy are saying "I Quit," as they seek better opportunities elsewhere and better working conditions. The checks to working class Americans in 2020-2021 as aid for the pandemic, the child credits, investments in affordable housing, child care, early childhood education, and other aid in the Biden Families and Workers plan are giving workers for the first time in decades the right to choose better working conditions and incomes over worse working conditions and incomes that were set without regard to their role and contribution to the welfare of the whole country and people.  After the lockdowns in the northeastern states, States such as New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island,  with higher vaccination rates and rebound in the economy are seeing higher job openings. This is making it possible for workers in the northeastern US to quit jobs in educational services and other sectors  for better paying jobs, better working conditions, remote work options, and improved work-life balance. ...

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A major British and Indian collaboration and scientific achievement of both countries is not given the recognition it should get because of mismanaged communication of the results of clinical trials. Tom Whipple science editor of The Times says do not make the mistake of thinking oh Pfizer vaccine scores a 9 out of 10 and Oxford's a 7 or 8 out of 10. Pfizer vaccine says it 94% effective. But this is only part of the story. It is the first exam paper in a long number of exam papers and the final score will require scoring them all. "Oxford vaccine is complex, and we are happy with the complexity," says Adrian Hill, Oxford researcher and head of the Jenner Institute. It is not highly unusual in this complex field for a half first dose to work better than a full first dose in a two dose vaccine treatment. This happened with the Oxford vaccine. As a result the study results were harder to communicate. This happened by accident. Much of medical research and much of medicine's biggest breakthroughs in the last 200 years happened by accident, as one researcher looked for something and accidentally discovered something else profoundly useful. Whipple's points are turning out to be true now that Britain's medicine regulator has asked that Pfizer vaccine not be given to people with history of allergic reactions after 2 NHS workers had strong allergic reactions. A lot of questions remain for all vaccines. How long will the protection last? WIll it prevent transmission of coronavirus? Are there any other complications? Which vaccines can work without ultralow refrigeration storage? Ahead lie the prospect of billions of doses. Two are in final stages in India including Bharat Biotech request for emergency authorization. Johnson & Johnson has a competing one to Pfizer's in the U.S. As many as 30 are being developed in India and 100 around the world. Countries like South Korea say they will wait to find out which one works best and where cost overall combined with benefit is attractive. Some of the vaccines are coming out only weeks apart. The early ones could stumble, if something was missed. ...

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For the 100,000 employees of Vodafone the pandemic has lessons for creativity, flexibility and innovating in work habits. In 2 weeks 95% of the employees worked remotely. Now Vodafone experts say that individual projects and tasks make up 60% of work which can be done remotely. Only 40% of tasks require working in a team setting with other people. The 60% done individually can be done in a remote setting making it necessary to to adopt a flexible approach for best results. Here Nick Read, Vodafone CEO, says because of London's unique setting and exceptional access to the talent pool this will always be a good office location as a central office. Yet the new concept is for hubs all over the country so that Vodafone can tap into talent across the nation in diverse parts of the UK. Mr. Read looks at the views of employees and says this period has shown enhanced productivity with remote working. The additional challenge of balancing family and work can create some stress, and Vodafone has taken some steps to tackle this. It provides guidance to employees on how to handle work in a remote setting, limits meetings to 20 minutes with long separation between meetings. Vodafone is now designing offices in European locations based on what it has learned during the pandemic. In the Netherlands it is splitting the office and remote work 50-50 based on Vodafone's new understanding of the value of remote work. The expansion of the work day as employees handle other tasks, has to be handled well with some structure. The German idea of Feierabend, or end of working day, calling for a set time to disconnect the work day and do something else cycling, exercizing, something fun and relaxing to disconnect, is shown in Lyrarc. Other articles on working remotely in Lyrarc show that limiting intense concentration work to 4-5 hours is a good way to be at your best in productive work. This is because an 8 hour work day at the office has many distractions, meetings and interactions. The office work day has much shorter stretches of concentrated work than we think. ...

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A cut in interest rates by a quarter percentage point from the U.S. central bank is a decision that comes from the U.S. not wanting to see too wide a gap in interest rates with the European Union. Losing demand to Europe and resulting lower inflation is an outcome prevented by the U.S. acting to protect its own economy with  acut in its rate. The ECB rate at 0.4% is about 3 percentage points below the Federal Reserve's rate in the U.S. After the cuts in rates to near zero by the central banks of U.S. and Europe following the financial crisis caused by poor lending practices of banks, the U.S. central bank began a process of bringing rates to about 3%. Lower rates near zero badly hurt savings accounts of ordinary Americans. By December 2018 the rates had reached 2.25%.  President Trump has called for lower rates. because of the advantages it gives Europe in trade balances with a weaker currency that follows from lower interest rates. Capital flows to the country with higher rates and increases the value of the currency creating trade disadvantages and lower trade balances. WIth European interest rates much lower than the U.S. it pushes down the value of the euro vs the dollar and the British pound lower from Brexit fears. This increases European exports putting the U.S.  at a disadvantage. As the WSJ points out the U.S. central bank says though Mr. Trump is looking at trade balances and U.S. advantage, and Mr. Powell at the U.S. central bank is looking at U.S. inflation, the result for policy is the same- the U.S. acting to cut rates and stay close to what the European Union is doing. Bond yields in Europe have dropped from a negative 0.24% to negative 0.32% with the ECB's head Mr. Draghi moving to cut rates. The announcement of Ms. Christine Lagarde as the new head of the ECB to succeed Draghi and her views to push demand up, is pushing bond yields down. The U.S. as part of the globally linked economy has to act in line with policies in Europe. ...

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Financial markets and investors now see the uncertainties emanating from tariffs negotiations as temporary and unlikely to affect corporate profits and the US economy says this report in WSJ. When the EU requested an extension with EU president Leyen calling DJT on May 27th, Trump who had said the EU was dragging its feet on trade negotiations with the US, granted her request. Leyen promised to speed up the negotiations with the new deadline of Juy 9, 2025. Trump had called for an across the board 50% tariff on all EU products if the EU continued the lack of response. In this way DJT called the bluff the Europeans were playing seeking to portray the American tariffs negotiations in an unfavorable way.  How did markets respond? The S&P 500 increased by 2% on May 27th when it became clear that a trade settlement was likely to be reached in 6 weeks. Earlier DJT had met with Mark Carney of Canada another key trading partner and come up with an understanding on moving forward. DJT has shown flexibility with advice from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who has experience with and carefully followed financial markets. ...

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Apple to ship 25 million iphones made in India to the US for the June quarter 2025, meeting 50% of US demand. This will reduce iphone tariff from 20% for China to 10% for India. Apple will take $900 million in added costs for the tariffs for the June quarter and higher costs for future quarters. Apple made 24.8 billion on $95 billion in sales for the 1st quarter of 2025.  Apple will not get the $20 billion payment it gets from Google for making Google search the default search engine on Safari web browser. This is 25% of Apple profit. A federal judge declared this payment illegal on antitrust grounds. Another federal judge has referred Apple's App policies for criminal contempt investigation. Apple has been late to recognize the dangers of concentrating production in one country. Eight years after the 2016 election won by DJT Apple has not corrected this concentration in one country. Apple has focused on proift alone ignoring the potential for education for it's products such as the iPad. The public perception of Tech companies is that Tech is all about profit alone without regard for the Nation, education, investment in American communities and jobs, and other needs. ...