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A building boom during the pandemic led to extra supply of new apartment complexes in Austin. This is now coming down as the supply is 72% down from the peak year in 2025. As a result there are fewer special offers of discounts on rentals in Austin. Austin, Nashville and Phoenix experienced a wave of new apartment building complexes added to supply during the pandemic years, with Austin getting the largest supply because of new job opportunities in technology fields. Homes were going at 15% discount compared to bidding wars in San Francisco and San Jose in northern California. 

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More than 240 hours or 40% of ICE training time cut to speed up training for more officers. ICE training  for hands on practice and scenarios cut from ICE training program, Washington Post 2026. 900 ICE officers completed the basic training by Jan. 1, 2026, which is 3 times the number in the previous year 12 months before August 2025. The concern is about ICE quality standards in the future, so that the rush to train officers does not shortchange their needed education in all aspects of training materials and assuring a complete grasp of the content .

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For Germany's students and young people the preferred destination in Europe is Austria or Switzerland, and includes Tokyo, seen as cleaner better run and good places to live. A large number of people, about 21% of young Germans 18 years to 29 years would like to go to another country to live. This is shown by a survey "Youth In Germany," or "Jugend in Germany" by Verlag. Slow growth, the polarization of society and rise of AfD, poor job prospects, neglect of infrastructure and public services are given as reasons.

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How to build a global port network with less cash- China's state owned Cosco and it's European ports network is an example of savy buying during financial crises, and when companies in Europe and the US were keen to make sales of ports. China simply integrated it into a vast exports network, using containerized terminal expansion modernization to build its manufacturing for export model. This was an extension of its domestic network where it added new port infrastructure to newly built rail and road connections.  India today is learning from this example. By 2000 the Chinese global export model was entrenched. It was also the year when the junior Bush president extended the wars of Reagan/Bush in Iraq of the 1980's to Afghanistan. China had a clear road ahead to build state of the art infrastructure of ports, logistics and exports over the next 10-15 years without any defense costs.  Piraeus in Greece south of Athens, a port concession acquired in 2004 Antwerp in Belgium (Austrian Netherlands), a minority stake in a container port acquired in 2008. In 2013 with sale of Terminal Link ports in a 49% stake deal by CMA of France holding 51%, China has stakes in Zeerbrugge and Antwerp, Busan South Korea, and Le Havre, Montoir and Fos in France, Xiamen in China, Miami and Houston in US. Rotterdam, Netherlands- Cosco acquired in 20126 a 35% stake in Euromax Terminal in Rotterdam from Hong Kong's Hutchison's Holdings for $125 million. Valencia and Bilbao majority  51% stake for $270 million, when JP Morgan paid as much as $950 million to ACS of Spain for these ports after the 2009 crisis led to Spanish divestments. Today in TEU's shipping containers China sends goods to Europe 10 times what it takes in through Spanish ports. Hamburg-In May 2023 Germany's Scholz overruled Habeck to let sale of 24.9% of Hamburg port to COSCO go through ...

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Blackberry RIM discards a plan to go private. CEO Thorstein is to leave the company and Fairfax Financial Holdings led investor shareholder group will invest $1 billion in the company. Fairfax owns 10% of Blackberry. After the news was announced the RIM Blackberry share price dropped 16% to $6.49. John Chen, former CEO of enterprise software company Sybase is the interim CEO. At its current cash burn rate, even with the $1 billion infusion Blackberry would run out of cash by the end of 2014.

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The Nikkei Stock Average makes strong gains in mid Dec. 2012 after the landslide win by Shinzo Abe of the LDP party. The Nikkei is up 16% since the announcement of new elections in mid-Nov. Abe is pressuring the Bank of Japan for effective monetary easing to lower the value of the yen and help Japanese expoters. The Nikkei closed at 10,086 on Dec. 19, 2012. The Nikkei is still down 74% from the 1989 peak and off 21% from the Sept 2008 high.

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Healthcare, climate change, pensions and social benefits, are three issues uppermost in the minds of German voters. Three million new young voters most of them only about 2 years old when Merkel started 16 years in office, look for change. They are well informed and for these young voters climate change is the most important issue. DW.com shows three voters and how they plan to vote. One voter has cast a mail in ballot for The Greens party. The second voter will vote for the Greens. Both because of climate change concerns. The third voter Thurid says her mother is a geriatric nurse and is not vaccinated. She is vaccinated but had talks with her mother and understands her worries about vaccination. She will vote for the Free Democrats because they oppose compulsory vaccination. The three leading parties for young voters are the Greens party, the Free Democrats, followed by the Social Democrats all in the range of 16-18% of support. The Greens have sent out 2 million brochures to voters. Out of 60 million voters in a German population of 80  million, 3 million is only 5% of the vote. What makes a difference is that it is consistent with the general direction of voters young and old, all looking for change in Germany as the CDU party attracts only about 20% or one fifth of German voters. Social Democrats Scholz is way ahead of Christian Democrats Laschet in how voters view each candidate. Will German voters be well informed enough to make a decision based on their desire for change after 16 years of Merkel or will the CDU bringing back in the last days of the campaign the old fears that the communist Left party would somehow find its way into the government using the Greens as a way in- this is a question for German voters. In1994 during the Cold War with Soviets Kohl used this to keep the Social Democrats out and Greens out and formed a coalition with the FDP. Yet today Merkel has grown close to both Russia and China and away from the Western alliance in a way that was unimaginable under Adenauer who helped build the new Federal Republic of Germany after the war. Merkel refuses to even immediately accept a call from a new US president Biden, American president who is closest in style and temperament to Harry Truman who faced off the Soviets in Berlin in 1948.  The FDP opposes a wealth tax or any form of taxes in which the wealthier pay a fair share of what is needed to build crumbling infrastructure in Germany neglected in the Merkel years. In Germany social and economic disparities have grown during the pandemic with poverty increasing during the pandemic as has happened throughout Europe and the world. The US is already committing to increase taxes for the upper incomes. This is where voters have a choice- do nothing with infrastructure, health or climate change or do something by increasing taxes. The choice is now before the German people.  With this question comes a choice for western civilization, with the recent election in the US, and two elections in Germany and then France. Will it look with optimism to the future or will it huddle up in a deeply cautious and slightly pessimistic view of the world that is embedded in Angela Merkel's cautious vision that ended up only responding to crises- some self inflicted as in migration policy, and even self inflicted in tackling euro problems created in the euro currency's faulty design. In fiscal policy as in migration policy Merkel has reversed her position- by supporting European solidarity. Will Germans vote for optimism or never ending caution? Are lessons learned?     ...

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A 850 megawatt solar project, the largest in the US outside of Las Vegas runs into opposition from environmentalists concerned about the effect on views and on tortoises other endangered species. The planned project on top of Mormon Mesa would put over 1 million solar panels 10 to 20 feet tall in the Nevada desert. Across the US 800 utility scale solar projects are under contract for generation of 70,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 11 million homes, for more than Texas. Over half of this solar capacity is going into the southwestern US, with its sunshine and open land. For the first time the ardent advocates of renewable energy such as the Sierra Club are now opposing such projects. Solar made up one tenth of one percent of US energy in 2010, in 2020 it made up 4.5%. It is growing very rapidly because costs are going way down. Even before government subsidies solar is now below the cost of natural gas. Projects near Martha's Vineyard on the Massachusetts coast took 12 years to get sate and federal approval for wind energy. These battles are similar to ones being fought in Europe. The US is better positioned for solar because of vast desert spaces in the American southwest. President Joe Biden plans to use this advantage of solar and wind to get to 100% renewable energy by 2035. ...

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New York city officials are facing up to the reality that midtown Manhattan, a party of the city that is made up of office commuters, may never be the same. Offices in midtown are attracting about one third of their pre-pandemic workforces. Midtown is home to about 11% of all office inventory in the US, employing 1.6 million workers, a third of all New York city jobs and contributed two thirds of the city's gross product. Before the pandemic three years ago, an estimated 2.6 million worked in the borough of Manhattan, 70% of whom commuted from other parts of the city or suburbs.

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Of ten countries from which India gets oil Russia is at No.9 just before Brazil at No.10, a is shown in this Reality Check on BBC News. India gets only less than 2% of its oil from Russia. Most of it comes from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Middle East countries. In January and February India did not import oil from Russia and in March oil was imported at about 30% discount. By comparison Europe still gets 15% of its oil from Russia and this is not likely to change in the next couple of months says S. Jaishankar, India's Foreign Minister.

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Invest in China and visits to China promoted by PM Li Qiang with easier to get China visas is not getting the response China would have liked to get. Zero covid efforts and anti-espionage campaign has created some distrust. South Korea with 300,000 people in China has seen registration numbers drop to 200,000. Britain by half from 40,000 to 20,000, Japan by 10% from 100,000 to 90,000, and France by about 20% from 40,000. China gave out 711,000 residence permits to foreigners in 2023, a 15% decline over 2019, yet for short distance permits that include business travelers the drop was by about two thirds. 

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French plans to cut energy use by 10% from 2019 levels in 2 year are announced by prime minister Elisabeth Borne. The target is 40% reduction in energy use by 2050. The key is to make energy use more efficient says president Macron. The efforts include turning down thermostats in buildings to 66 degrees Fahrenheit. Households are asked to start heating 2 weeks later than usual and end heating 2 weeks earlier than usual this winter. Civil servants will get about 3 euros a day for working from home. Remote work for some days a week is encouraged and carpooling is expected.

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This Guardian report provides a timeline for lunar exploration. The last Apollo Moon missions date back to 1972 with Apollo 17. It lasted 12 days with the first crewed space flight to the moon taking Schmitt and Cernan to moon's surface while Evans orbited above. Since then it has been quiet for lunar exploration till Chang'e 3 lander and rover from China in 2011 put China on the moon, followed by Chang'e 5 in 2020. Today August 23, 2023 India puts its own moon lander and rover on the South Pole of the moon which is expected to have water.

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An unimaginable gap exists between whites and Asian students in California in educational opportunity which poses risks for social cohesion in the US. Asian Americans in the UC California system are overrepresented in the colleges to an extent that would have been unimaginable in the 1950's. With just 15% of the population of California Asian Americans makeup over 40% of the UC college system. By comparison Whites have lost ground in a way that would have also been unimaginable in the 1950's with only 18% in UC colleges and 37% of the population.

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Of the $12 billion in planned improvements for NY subway infrastructure this year only $2.9 billion will be spent in 2024. Congestion pricing is expected to generate $15 billion which is allocated to fund NY subway infrastructure. Lawsuits from the Governor of New Jersey and others now affect how much money goes into the subway improvements. This is not for a modernization of the NY Subway which would cost much more. It shows how year after year essential infrastructure is being starved of funding even as money gets allocated to non essential investments by capital markets in the US, and waste is rampant in capital market investments.

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The 24 hour migration of moose over the Angerman river to summer pastures from a region 300 miles north of Stockholm is the subject of a 24 hour continuous show on Swedish television SVT. It is watched by 9 million viewers whose rhythms slow down as they watch the moose cross the river. There is a calming effect of slow TV and many people including the filming crew feel relaxed. 26 remote cameras, 9 night cameras, and a drone are used with 12 miles of cable. There are 300,000 moose roaming in the woods and forests of northern Sweden.

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Greece's pension system was unraveling even before the crisis. Generous provisions from earlier days of political influence led to early retirement by age 50 for some people. People taking early retirement after the crisis started has increased the number of retirees. The aging population has increased the size of the retirees relative to people working, especially with young people unemployed. About 16% of the GDP of Greece goes to pensions. Early in the crisis the retirement system took a hit of 10 billion euros on the declining value of Greek government bonds, wiping out 60% of reserves. Greece's banks were supported, but the retirement system was further weakened. In 2015 45% of the retirees of 2.6 million live at or below the poverty line, having seen cuts of 35-48% in the pensions since the crisis began. With the changes for retirees pensions of 900 euros a month are now about 700 euros for some of the retirees.