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Peggy Noonan says that Trump's group has broken from the Republican Party. She also describes the Republican party as broken, that it cannot look to the past or 1980. She says two unwon wars, with one a catastrophe, and a great recession are enough to break any party. Worse the top of the party believes in things such as immigration, trade, entitlements, that the bottom doesn't, says Noonan. You have a situation where the base has left the party leadership. She describes Hillary Clinton as having a web of relationships and arrangements from the past, and with the idea that is popular among Republicans that she is only interested in acquiring power. Sanders is respected by Conservatives for his sincerity. Noonan sees God's role as chastising in this election, reminding people about what can go wrong and what needs to be done as the damage is surveyed for democracy and the country. The only reason for hope Noonan sees is in the way the 2016 U.S. presidential election is turning the decision over to the young people of America, who can decide who shapes the future. ...

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The Times of London provides this view of Brexit and the no-confidence vote against Theresa May from her own party, the Conservatives which she survived. Views are from Paris, Berlin and Rome. French commentators agreed that the paralysis on Brexit and the situation of Theresa May are a result of a mendacious referendum campaign, and a understanding that Britain is only going to lose by leaving the European Union.  Le Figaro, conservative newspaper says the British were sold an impossible vision by pro-Brexit politicians egged on b ancestral arrogance, that they would somehow have upper hand in negotiations. Le Monde the centre left newspaper pointed out that the Britain's economic losers were hoodwinked by a branch of the conservative elite. It said enormous lies were used in the campaign - Boris Johnson saying that we are leaving the EU but we will keep all the advantages.It added an insight that "Brexit is not straightforward because the EU today is a British creation: single market, free trade, enlargement, serving British interests."   ...

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The U.S. Federal Reserve's role as backup lender increased with the pandemic. The U.S. central bank lent half a trillion dollars to counterparts overseas representing most of the emergency lending at the time in 2020. It eased a dollar shortage globally, helped stop a market selloff, and continues to support global markets in 2020. The Fed is now the global source of dollar funding, which builds the role of the U.S. currency a the dominant currency. Countries that benefit from the Fed are Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Britain, Japan and European Union countries. On March 31 the Fed launched a program that let 170 central banks around the world borrow dollars against their holdings of U.S. Treasurys adding confidence.  To understand the dollar's dominant role about 88% of 6.6 trillion dollars in currency trades taking place daily involve dollars according to BIS. By end of 2019 U.S. dollar denominated debt securities and cross border loans reached about $27 trillion up from about $17 trillion in 2010. All the talk of having another reserve currency by other central banks has not happened. ...

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Vinay Menon put Wellness and Yoga on a new pathbreaking pattern- making it part of team soccer. He is shown here with coach Tuchel at Chelsea when it won the Champion's League final in 2021 over Manchester City. He was with the Belgium team as it played in the World Cup in Germany. He says the big problem in India for 1.4 billion people is filtration. Having talent filter through the club level is important. 100 clubs are needed in India, says Menon. He is confident that India will one day be in the World Cup. The Modi government has put sports at the top of its priorities for the nation of over  billion people with new facilities and financial support for athletes and players. Modi personally met with athletes before and after the Olympic games in Paris and followed the athletes as they competed in the games. Indians watch European soccer on television and only cricket competes with soccer in fan support. When India competes at the international level in soccer it will be with huge audiences tuned in. ...

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Tution fees in the UK are 9450 pounds. The cost of housing about 7500 pounds in 2024, up 15% over the last 2 years. In addition to the over charges on student loans for Plan 2 Loans in Britain that take it from 4.3% with a surcharge of 3%, there is the 15% inflation in housing costs in Britain that households and student have to contend with. This situation is true today for Britain, the US and Germany, and other countries in the EU leaving less for food and transportation costs. This is why there is an added level of worry and anxiety for young people in Britain the EU and in the US, and for their parents.

Others one with a business economics degree and a solicitor apprentice in a law firm face the same situation. He works in finance and just sees it as he says a tax on having gone to university.  Similar stories across the US. It doesn't have to be this way for advanced nations education is FIRST PRIORITY.

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Banks like the staus quo, streamlining regulation will be hard for the new DJT American administration, says Sheila Bair, former head of the US FDIC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Deposit insurance is important for peace of mind of bank customers and the proper functioning of the banking system, particularly in a crisis. The recent Silicon Valley banking crisis required deposit insurance for the stability of the banking system. Bair who acted to protect the banking system in the 2009 financial crisis in the US, says banks prefer having multiple agencies so that they can choose which one works best for them.  Bair said recently- “Banks may complain, but at the end of the day, they like to have their own regulator they have a relationship with,” Bair said. “They like the status quo.” The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the agencies that DJT administration and Republicans oppose. With only 2-3 vote margin for its majority in the House it will be difficult to get Congress to agree on changes to the staus quo. ...

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This report in the WSJ shows Cubans lacking water for washing, sanitation, and having electricity blackouts or electricity for only 4 hours a day. Cuba lacks money to buy oil. The economy has long been shown to be frozen in the past without the technological change seen in other countries in the developing world. It shows the only model that works is one of good governance, access to US and European capital and technology for modernization, close relations with the US, building domestic knowledge base and engineers for  modernization, as sine qua non essental conditions in the Modern World since 1950. China and India tried under Mao and Nehru under socialist regimes but failed. The Monroe Doctrine is not for the US, it is an essential pre condition for countries in the western hemisphere on which the other essential conditions are laid to create modern societies. China and India with the essential conditions achieving modernization under Modi and Deng and his successors. It is true that Cuban dictator Batista's regime was a bad one in the 1950's, yet the answer is not to put in its place or as a reaction to this an idealistic version which like human nature is prone to corruption and decline, but build on sound and firm ground foundations tsuch as these essential conditions and sine qua non that stand the test of time and are good for the American continent. ...

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DJT on Canada "lives because of the US," and Carney's referencing the relationship and saying "Canada does not live because of the US." Rupture in relations started earlier but was mended. This time Carney takes the first step after visiting Beijing to clearly distance Canada from the US in speeches at Davos, by being openly critical of US policies. This does not bode well for negotiations onthe USMCA agreement that is being rewritten. Disputes with Mexico continues over US preference to strike on land against drug cartels in Mexico that are trafficking drugs to the US with loss of hundreds of thousands of lives more than the Korean and Vietnam wars, and World War 1 combined over the last decade. The USMCA involves negotiations with Mexico and Canada. The Border has been secured but like Eisenhower in 1954 DJT faces the problem of how to send back the surge in migrants that entered the border illegally through Mexico with the Mexican government not intervening and the Biden/Harris/Mayorkas government failing to secure it -asking for legislation as late as 2024 when most of the illegal entry had already happened. In 1954 Eisenhower organized Operation Wetback to do this, which is now underway in the US in a different way by DJT in 2026 with the clear focus on getting criminal activity out. ...

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Note this comment by the head of the U.S. National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration in the Bush Administration. NHTSA Administrator Jackie Glassman says the average mileage for the fleet today is 30 miles per gallon and raising the current standard of 27.5 mpg for an automakers passenger fleet by 2.5 mpg won't put much pressure on automakers. The Bush administration- and the prior Clinton administration- has not committed to making major improvements to the national mileage standards, with the current standards of 27.5 mpg not having changed since 1990! Glassman says the NHTSA starts with the manufacturers product plans and then sees whether it can get additional fuel savings with these plans. This suggests an NHTSA that is more follower to the auto industry rather than a leader in setting the standards that the auto industry then tries to achieve to reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Also note that it takes 2 years for things to change, as it will take months for rule changes, and 18 months have to be given to automakers to implement the new rules. By 2008 the fuel efficiency based on market competition and Toyota focussing on hybrids and higher fuel efficiency across the whole car lines, might well exceed any new standards that are watered down, especially if crude prices hold up. Lawsuits by attorney generals of different states and the Lugar-Obama bipartisan bill pushing the adminsitration to mandate higher standards are intended to put pressure on the Bush administration to come up with new higher standards. The failure of Democrats and Republicans in the Clinton and Bush years to raise standards and require the auto companies to use new technology to meet these standards with government assistance is one of the significant failures. This will affect the prospects for the U.S. economy in the years ahead....

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Results at Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas, show that a low cost conversion to electronic medical records by using the VA system's open software and having computer software companies adapt it to Midland's needs. This cost Midland $7 million and has resulted in many benefits. Senator Rockefeller is introducing legislation to promote the use of this open software for conversion to electronic medical records. Medsphere chairman Kenneth Kizer, former undersecretary ohealth care at the VA oversaw the development of VIstA software. He says its enhanced version called Open Vist A, "can be installed in one third the timeand for about one thrid the cost of the big-name proprietary systems." There is alot to be said for open software as this would enable hospitals and clinics acoross the country talk to each other and pull up records and sen them electronically, wich is hard to do when different systems of differnt commerical vendors interact. If Midland Memorial is any guide there are huge savings in the conversion. By enabling access instantly of patient records, lab results and Xray images, there are a huge array of benefits. It helped Midland catch up with a$16.7 million coding and billing backlog for 4,500 patient records in 4 weeks instead of 5-6 months. In the 18 months since the system was made hospital wideinfection rates dropped 88%, because of guidelines in the record system that prompted nurses to follow infection control procedures, such as changing dressing or following procedures when inserting a new IV. That is huge. Bed sores were reduced from electronic prompting to nurses to turn patients.And Midland increased by 77%in staff compliancewith guidelinesfor care for patientson ventilators, which if not followed could lead to pheumonia....

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The two men, the couple one a Professor and the other a hard charging investment banker who kind of fit in together, their background, personalities, and preparation for this crisis. Throughout this crisis both had little sleep paulson some 4 hour and Bernanke leaving at midnight to catch some sleep and how the crisis kept going on and on, with one fire put out another remaining to be put out and finally after day after day on Diet coke or diet Dr. Pepper and little sleep Paulson agreed with Bernanke's opinion that "we've got to go to Congress." In fact based on his studies and research on the Great Depression and of the crisis in Japan in the nineties in the banking system there, Bernanke had given his conclusion early on about a year earlier that if there were significant decline in housing prices the government would have to step in with a large intervention. But in the end it happened all so suddenly with Paulson agreeing and both Paulson and Bernanke going upto the President and the President saying lets do it. So the meeting with Congressmen was arranged a few hours later after the inital meeting in Speaker Pelosi's office. Any reluctance to meet Congressmen who had considered any steps in this session unlikely having disappeared, and the stark nature of the crisis in the words of Senator Dodd, Chairman of the Banking Committee, became clear in the opening remarks of Paulson and Bernanke. Dodd told a news reporter that for a long time there was complete silence in the room and he does not recall a moment like this in 25 years in Congress and it being a scary story. By now it had become overwhelmingly obvious that something needed to be done in hours and days....

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The bottom line is that China is so advanced in the deindustrialization of the US with US companies cooperating that the only way to get American companies to change course is by creating precisely this kind of situation where China responds with its about 100% tariff to the US 100% tariff. That sends a clear message to American companies and changes the culture of America's deindustrialization American companies are wedded to. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said DJT raising the tariffs from 34% on April 2 , 2025, Liberation Day by 50% to reach 104%  as a well thought out US tariffs policy was Trump’s “strategy all along.”  Bessent  said: “This was his strategy all along, and that you might even say that he goaded China into a bad position, they responded.” China responded to the 34% DJT tariff by going with it's own 34%. When this retaliatory move suggested China was not willing to consider US arguments that it only wanted a level playing field from China with it's complex system of non-tariff barriers against US imports, DJT added another 50% tariff saying that if China did not withdraw its retaliatory tariff on April 8, US would go with another 50% tariff on April 9. This is what Scott Bessent means by US having put China in a position where it would have to put its own 50% tariff on US products to get to US tariffs at 104% vs. China's at 84%.  The bottom line is that China is so advanced in the deindustrialization of the US with US companies cooperating that the only way to get American companies to change course is by creating precisely this kind of situation where China responds with its about 100% tariff to the US 100% tariff. That sends a clear message to American companies and changes the culture of Aamerica's deindustrialization American companies are wedded to. ...

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A major problem for parents and the schools may be knowing this and use this knowledge to keep increasing prices is that the true value of education is about your own effort and the quality of teachers, that the major state universities provide everything one needs for a good education, one just has to work hard at it. There is nothing about a Northwestern or a Brown that cannot be done by studying in the UC state system universities or state universities across the Nation, yet paradoxically the idea is kept up of the added value of a prestige name when much of a good education can be achieved at state universities costing $13,000 a year or $52,000 for 4 years at a UC Riverside or UC Santa Barbara. Michigan state instate at $16,000 and Arizona State at $13,000 a year are similar to other options.Upper middle class families struggling to pay for colleges that charge anywhere from $38,000 a year to $96,000 a year for so called elite. A shocking 40% increase in college tution is not justified by the colleges who seem to be impervious to the impact of these price increases when no such price increases were seen in the post war decades that followed 1950. Here a father who works as a director of a manufacturing company with incomes in the range of $200,000-$250,000 a year faces the difficult decisions of letting children make the decision and yet having to make sober choices about affordability. With about $200,000 set aside for tution expenses for 2 children parents face tution that can cost for 4 years $160,000 to $250,000 for 1 child. In this situation Brown cost $93,000 a year but reduced it to $65,000, Northwestern and Cornell wanted $96,000 and $81,000 a year, Notre Dame $38,000 a year and UC Berkeley $52,000 for instate tution. This means there is little left for the second child's college tution when the first child 4 year cost is in this case $65,000 a year for Brown University and $260,000 for 4 years.  ...

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As part of the effort to become more competitive with Asian automakers, VW is using new strategies with labor to reduce costs. VW made a one-off payment of about 6,300 to each of 80,000 employees at its western German manufacturing plants. In return VW secured union agreement to change work schedules at the plants to 33 hours a week from 28.8 hours, without having to make a pay increase. This is part of concessions being made by labor as Germany tries to improve its competitiveness. VW's second largest shareholder is the German state of Lower Saxony, and VW makes many automobile parts in its German plants in addition to automobile assembly, making employment a major issue for industry, labor and government.

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Keith Bradsher describes the life of one family of migrant workers in China struggling to get their ony daughter through college. Wu Yiebing is a worker in coal mining and his wife Cao works on farms nearby. He has managed to send his daughter Wu Caoying to college. She is a sophomore in college but fears for the future because of the lack of opportunities for new college graduates in China. She also feels the heavy burden as the parents spend half their income to get her through college and have no retirement savings. This is typical of many migrant families in China who see education as the only way for the next generation to have better lives than their parents.

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Douthat of the NYT describes the criticism of the U.S. and Canada for taking so few refugees from Syria, and responds by saying chancellor Merkel may have taken on greater challenges of assimilation of a new wave of Arab migrants than Germany can handle.

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The risks companies face in having members of Boards serve for long periods of time, sometimes decades. The situations and the world changes, board members "become stale," or worse fail to question and exercize intelligent oversight over company decisions preferrring compromise to constructive criticism.

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Retail sales are down across the board for stores from Gap to Macy's and Target. And even Walmart is having a tough time in this environment. December sales were down 14% at Gap ,4% at Macy's, 4.1% at Target and up only 1.9% at Walmart.

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To be frank says the Chinese premier Wen Biao we face severe challenges in China. Unemployment is rising in urban areas, export industries are affected as external demand slumps. He called the US model of development based on low savings and high consumption unsustainable.

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Yuka Hayashi gives an exceptional account of the rise of nationalism in Japan. This is especially true of the younger generation. As examples of the changing mood, he gives the popularity of Will magazine with circulation of 100,000 among younger readers, including large numbers of women. Other examples are the movie "Eternal Zero" remaining on the top of box office charts for 2 months, neto uyo or right wingers on the internet are popular, and bookstores display titles responding to China and S. Korea's criticism of Japan. Fringe candidates such as Toshio Tamogami have won 24% of the vote in Tokyo's gubernatorial race, with large proportion of younger voters. The younger generation is not accepting quietly the criticism of Japan's prewar record in the same way as the older generation with memories of the war. It sees itself free to respond to what it sees as China and S. Korea's constant criticism of Japan, even when Japan has apologized repeatedly for its aggressor role in Asia. Weekly magazines such as Bunshun and Shincho carry Japanese criticism of China and S. Korea with sensational headlines about lies. Abe's recent visit to the Yasukuni war shrine- the main object of S. Korean and Chinese criticism and America's concern expressed to Japan- is shown in an Asahi Shimbun poll recently to get favorable support from 60% of people in their 30's. Many of the 119 freshmen members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Mr. Abe also provide support, and some even see Japan needing to defend itself with or without the U.S. Is this level of nationalist sentiment similiar to the twenties and thirties, or to periods of tension in the 1990's and other post war periods? Only recently in 2010 the Democratic Party of Japan under a young prime minister Hatoyama and premier Naoto Kan, a civil rights activist, presented another side of Japan seeking closer ties with China- even distancing itself somewhat from the U.S. on the issue of bases in Okinawa. Naoto Kan also enjoyed a 60% level of popularity as premier Abe has in 2014. Which is the real Japan, or is it a reflection of fatigue among younger Japanese with always having to say you are sorry, as has happened to the younger generation in Germany. Hatoyama resembled Obama as a younger politician bringing a new optimism in Japan after years of LDP rule. Unfortunately president Obama distanced himself from Hatoyama on the base issue and failed to support Hatoyama at a time of tensions with N. Korea, leading to his fall in ratings and resignation. This may turn out to be a lost opportunity for the U.S. for building peaceful neighborly relations in Asia. In 2007 Chinese premier Wen Biao a speech to the Japanese parliament, the Diet, saying: "With history as a mirror it does not lead to long-lasting hate, it points to a better future." Japan's premier at the time? Shinzo Abe. What has changed? China's economy has doubled in size, and so have global Japanese corporations such as Toyota with advanced technologies, economic insecurity is unfounded in a globally linked interdependent economic system. ...

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David Autor at MIT authored some of the first detailed studies about the severe disruption in U.S. communities from the trade with China following China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. The sheer size of the impact now appears to have been underestimated by economists and other experts. It was believed says Hilsenrath and Davis, that the U.S. having absorbed the impact of trade with Japan in the seventies and eighties, and with Mexico following NAFTA, could do the same with China. That turns out to be false. Much of 2016 election season has been spent seeing the rise of anti-trade movements led by Trump and Sanders, and reveals a deep discontent with job shifting overseas, and disruption of communities across America by trade patterns. What happened? In 2015 China's exports to the U.S. reached 2.7% of U.S. GDP. Hilsenrath and Davis say it was about 1% less with Japan and Mexico when their exports surged. The rapidity of the impact is another problem. It took 12 years following Japan's emergence as a major supplier, to reach the same level of impact that China had only 4 years after China's entry into the WTO in 2001. A similiar situation of 12 years happened with Mexico after NAFTA. Another problem is that Japan's exports impacted mostly steel and autos, China's exports impacted a whole range of industries. The speed with which China's planners sought to change and modernize their manufacturing  base is unprecedented in history, and has an impact not only on the U.S. as a recipient of low cost exports, but also on China as it struggles with bad debts and job losses today, that are a legacy of that too rapid move. This was part of the drive to urbanize China rapidly by shifting agricultural workers to factories in the cities, at a pace unprecedented in history. Another factor not mentioned is the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 that hurt U.S. manufacturing in the auto and other industries, and the wide impact this had in loss of jobs and decline in wages. By 2010 the tide of public opinion had shifted. The WSJ/NBC poll of September 2010, cited in detail in WSJ 10/2/2010 under "Americans Sour on Foreign Trade" shows over 80% consistently for all levels of income, over $75,000 and under $75,000, Republicans and Democrats, working class Americans or well educated Americans, saying that Americans were struggling and there was less hiring, because of how trade had impacted their communities. Lyrarc covered this in considerable detail since 2006. All political parties, business leaders, ignored the implications of this huge change, the media covered it but assumed it would take care of itself as trade with Japan had done previously, and it was left to Trump and Sanders as outsiders to call it like they saw it 5 years later.  Economic inequality has widened in China to the point of it becoming unrecognizable as a former socialist economy. Now both countries are faced with the job of picking up, chastened by the experience, and hoping to limit the political fallout to achieve economic recovery. The very open trading system that had generated prosperity since World War II was being put at risk by a lack of awareness that trade brings with it changes, winners and losers, and manufacturing jobs moving overseas on a scale and speed unprecedented in history, was something that no one could cope with. ...

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EV makers in US offer about $5000 in discounts to replace $7500 lost in government EV tax credits. The hurdle for electric vehicles is the lack of charging infrastructure and the cost of home chargers, in addition to the limited range in miles. The big jump in inflation centered not just on groceries in 2019-2024, there was a 34% increase in the cost of new cars and 50% increase for used cars, and a jump in maintenance costs. Reducing affordability for young people and making car ownership costlier. This turned into a cost of living crisis with groceries up 31%, that affected people's enthusiasm for climate change action when China was building one coal plant a week (adding 95 GW in 2024)- underlying the need to provide immediate relief to American working families and elderly through tax cuts, benefits and shifting tax dollars from climate change action to working families in the next 4 years. This is the approach taken under the DJT One Big Beautiful Act of 2025. Basically what the DJT side of the story is on emissions- US has only 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, cut this by half to 6% and assuming the EU which has 6% of gas emissions also cuts by half to 3%, the saving just 9%  while the 82% of emitters China, India, Russia and Brazil etc not making the cuts needed the impact on climate change is not significant. If China and India want relief US working families also need relief.  ...

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GPS and 3D would tell each plane the prcise location of other planes no need for all the radar towers and all that chattering back and forth. Look at the impact on gas mileage- just from this perspective it appears odd that the US government has not invested in modernization of the nations air traffic system's technology. The USA is today using outdated technology to mange its air traffic. Worst of all its costing a lot in wasted fuel and in extra emissions. GPS allows planes to fly straighter routes. Savings? On a NYCity to Boston flight this straighter route saves about 30% fuel, mileage and flight time. Thats huge savings benefiting airlines, passengers and the environment. These saving increase when you take out all the extra fuel consumed circlingin the skies as the descent is in steps. With NextGen the system the US is adopting will let a plane descend in a straight flight path with minimal engine thrust. A key part of this system is ADS-B for automatic dependent surveillance-brodcast, which gives every plane its own digital brain and voice. ...

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President Obama and President Maliki of Iraq meet at the White House in 2013- both in an awkward position. Maliki having to ask for American assistance in fighting Al Quaeda in western Iraq after insisting on America's complete withdrawal two years earlier. Obama having to face uncomfortable questions on the withdrawal and the current situation after American sacrifices in Iraq during the Bush period. The situation in 2011-2013 involved use of Iraqi airspace for the government of the previous Iranian president Ahmadinejad to supply the Assad regime. Maliki also opposed sanctions against the Assad regime. The visit by Maliki and requests for aid and increasing investment in the oil industry, comes as Iran under president Rouhani improves relations with Turkey in late 2013 to head off increasing Sunni-Shiite sectarianism and conflict in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.