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Instead of $20 billion proposed before Argentine elections when the country was facing economic pressures, banks will lend $5 billion in a short term facility, according to this report in WSJ November  20 2025 

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Faltering peace talks in Moscow December 2, 2025, after EU modifications of US/Russian draft developed by Witkoff with Putin adviser Dimitriev. Putin says European nations have modifed the plan and this is unacceptable to Russia. Putin says-

“All these changes are meant to do one thing. To block this entire peace process.” He said European nations were trying to hand Russia a strategic defeat. 

Because the proposals were drafted without Ukrainian involvement and involved conceding parts of eastern Ukraine there were serious doubts about the earlier plan from the EU and France, Germany, Britain.

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Deutsche Bank plans a share sale for 8 billion euros in 2017 after being hurt by legal settlements and a decision to reverse the sale of retail unit Postbank. Its deal advisory business and corporate finance unit is being merged with its trading unit. Shares have recovered somewhat from a low of 10 euros in September 2016. Share price is 19.14 euros on March 5, 2017.

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This report in the WSJ from Singapore says Chinese authorites are asking local governments to prepare for the potential downfall of housing developer Evergrande which was built on ever growing debt. This was described as getting ready for a possible storm in the event there is a disorderly collapse. Beijing is unwilling to bail out the developer. For years the Chinese government has discouraged speculative investment in housing saying "housing is for living not for speculation." This had little effect on housing developers and housing prices in China making housing smaller and smaller in size and beyond the reach of average households.

To get some idea of the magnitude of Evergrande's expansion it has 800 projects in progress spread over 200 cities in China. It is unable to complete many of these projects, now that it is unable to pay contractors and suppliers.

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Stephanie Shirley pioneered working from home for women and for women in computers in Britain in the 1960's.

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Jaiswal's double century at Rajkot in the third Test cricket match against England was achieved with cricket skills developed though hard work on the pitch.Sriram Veera reporting from the Rajkot cricket grounds says Jaishwal is a player who has worked hard on his batting, methodically improving it to build a sound base. This discipline was seen in practice sessions and on the pitch when Sharma pointed out for him to keep his bat straighter.

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What the president is doing about the surge in imported goods from China that are subsidized and affect US jobs and industry. For steel president Biden plans to place an additional tariff that takes the existing 7.5% to 25%. Even though imports of Chinese steel have dropped to about 600,000 tons the imports from Mexico are high at 4.2 million tons and there is the risk that Chinese subsidized steel is coming through Mexico.

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Remarks by president Biden in Accokeep, Maryland, at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77, April 19, 2023 outlining his vision for American workers and for its economy. "I am pro-union because union workers are the best workers in the world. Not a joke. That's the God's truth. That is the God's truth. You are the best in the world. It's better  for them to hire you, because you get the job done, you get it done on time, and ultimately it costs them less when they hire you." "So I've said many times Wall Street didn't build America. The middle class built America. And unions built the middle class. That's a fact. Unions. One of the reasons I ran for president was to rebuild the backbone, the backbone of this country, the middle class, to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not from the top down. Because when the middle class does well the poor have a ladder up and the wealthy do very well still. And we middle class can get a shot. We do well as well." "And that's in clear contrast to my friends on the other side of the aisle these days. DIdn't used to be. Did'nt used to be, but it is now. For decades they've said the best way to grow the economy is from the top down- trickle-down economics. Well, growing up, I didn't see a whole hell of a lot trickle down on our three-bedroom house with four kids at our dad's kitchen table. You know what, Trickle-Down did'nt work for us, and it did'nt work for a long time." "And by the way it's not just what's been with MAGA Republicans. For the last three, four decades we have been losing ground. And you know- it's hollowed out the middle class, you know rewarding wealth, not work; rewarding companies moving overseas because they get cheaper labor. Look at all- a lot of you know- and maybe you come from neighborhoods and small towns, like Scranton, Pennsylvania, where I come from, or Claymont, Delaware- where there used to be a lot of pride, because we had businesses, we had factories that were working, operating. In Scranton, and Claymont, there were 4500 steelworkers. There are none today. And not only do you lose jobs, you lose a sense of pride, lose a sense of who are you. You begin to wonder. Does anybody see me? I mean it sincerely." ...

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It may come as a surprise that changing retirement age in France faced huge opposition yet was enacted into law for moving it from 62 years to 64  years in 2023,  but was never acted upon in China where it is 60 years. China raises its retirement age for men to 63 years from 60, to be done incrementally a few months at a time till 2040. For women it goes from 50 to 58 years, 55 years for blue collar workers. Why the hesitation. It appears that there is much age related discrimination in China so that many workers feared they would be laid off in their fifties and not get pensions till 60-64 years. This could have created much unrest as it did even in France where there is more discrimination for age than other parts of the EU.  When countries have aging populations do they have an alternative? How could they support pensions at 60 or 62 years as in France and in China? In China the social safety net is weak which leads to more resistance and caution by the government fearing unrest. Yet it is not the best time to tackle this problem as the economy slows, resources are constrained, and there is higher unemployment. ...

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The Oxford vaccine developed by British scientists could be ready by September. Astra Zeneca has joined with Oxford so that it can produce 100 million vaccine doses by the end of the year. This is because in a sense the vaccine is not new. It uses an existing tech platform where there is a lot of experience. The use of ring vaccination method shortens the process of testing on humans the vaccine to a few months. The core of the virus ChAdox1 already exists in chimpanzees and has a mild effect on humans. This is an adenovirus. It is combined with another virus to produce the covid vaccine for coronavirus. Researchers at Oxford have used ChAdox1 in the past to test vaccines for Ebola and MERS as well as other virus.  Already tests have been conducted on rhesus macaques. The rhesus macaques given the vaccine at a Montana lab did not get coronavirus.The surface protein of coronavirus is simply added to the ChAdox1 so that it is able to attach to host cells and infect them in the human body, and let antibodies develop from this. The purpose is to let the human body develop defense mechanism against this attaching to a human cell.   ...

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Charan Singh, who is given the Bharat Ratna to honor kisans and farmers of India comes from a generation of leaders in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, that includes Govind Vallabh Pant and Lal Bhadur Shastri from agrarian communties in the Ganges plains. This group of younger leaders joined the movement for independence under Gandhi and was elected in the Assembly elections of 1937, the first attempt at self rule in India under the British. He served in the first government of the state under Pant as chief minister. As finance minister in the government he conducted reforms to help farmers, for zamindari (large landholders in the British system) abolition and land ceiling. He became chief minister of the state and was popular with farmers, including Jats, Yadavs, Kurmis and Gujjars. With the socialist movement in the state led by Ram Manohar Lohia creating a new mood in the state in the 1960's posing a challenge to the Nehru government, the first government of parties including the socialists and the Jan Sangh the predecessor to the BJP of today, was formed in 1979 with Charan Singh as prime minister.  ...

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US District Judge O'Toole of Massachusetts allows DJT Musk DOGE buyout offer to go ahead on Feb 12, after freezing it to have enough time to study it. The buyout offer originally expired Feb 6. It was accepted by 60,000 federal employees. Of 2 million federal workforce about 8% are expected to take it. It is seen as a way for people doing remote work and now required to come to office 5 days a week full time to take early retirement, sort of an off ramp for these workers. DJT says some of these workers may be doing other second or even third jobs. This is part of a Republican effort to reduce the cost of the large federal bureaucracy, and make it more efficient. One of many actions including action on budget discipline at agencies of the government. PPBS or Zero Based Budgeting, since the 1970's is one of the managemt ideas which involves justifiying every item in the budget every year to cut costs and cut unneeded spending. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has spent years identifying pet projects of bureaucrats that are in budgets but lack common sense. ...

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The US launched its probe Maven to Mars last year. The European Space Agency just launched its mission Juice to Jupiter that will go on for 8 years. Juice will reach Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, in July 2031. The mission will search for possible life on Jupiter's moons.

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A new party is likely to form the government in Punjab- the Aam Aadmi party. In Uttar Pradesh the BJP looks to continue forming the government, according to exit polls. 

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On Gandhi Jayanti a look at American president FDR's contribution for Hind Swaraj. It could be said that Cordell Hull's speech (full text here) on July 23, 1942 on Roosevelt's clear direction was a form of declaration of independence for India by the US in 1943. This is also why there was nothing different Clement Attlee could do after winning the British election in 1945 except send Mountbatten to India to prepare for a Free India. 

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19 percent of China's exports went to the US in 2017, in 2024 this is 15%, but wait, the difference of 4 percent it is simply coming back to the US but through Southeast Asia. As a result some of the same issues that puzzled Trump negotiators exist today. China's exports surged 12.7% in October 2024 over the prior year. Biden was facing this situation and had yet to respond to the surge in exports to US. These exports were sent to Mexico and to Southeast Asia to circumvent the tariffs. It is the same situation revisited in 2024 with two other aspects of the Chinese economy-economic stimulus gets smaller and the housing and construction industry has imploded, the economy has slower growth. The overall price level in the US with a 60% tariff plus 10% for all countries would be 0.72 addition to the price level of 1.10 percent today- that is when including the depreciation of China's yuan by 10%. as it did last time. The result would be price level in the US at 1.82%, according to J.P. Morgan. Drag on China's GDP of the Trump tariffs in first term was 0.65% according to one investment bank GS, with 60% tariffs it would be 2%. Trump secured a return of $116 billion or 58% of the $200 billion China said it would buy of US exports. The other 42%- the deal was not completed in the end. ...

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The UK is open to American proposals for a global minimum tax rate given that it includes a fairer split of the taxes from US tech companies. Discussions are taking place under the umbrella of the OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is intended to prevent tax escape by large companies which choose the lowest tax jurisdictions that are set up just for that purpose. The result has been that Europe and the US have suffered from decades of underinvestment and neglect of essential infrastructure and weakened the health and education systems leaving essentials of quality of living underfunded in cities and towns across Europe and the US. The pandemic has brought the lesson home in many ways. The UK has already increased the corporate tax rate to 25% in March to help pay for pandemic related help packages. The US Biden administration has proposed a 28% tax rate, and Treasury Secretary Yellen has suggested 21% as the minimum corporate tax rate. ...

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The uncertainty that hangs over Iraq after the American withdrawal. Religious reconciliation and sectarian reconciliation is fragile. There is a push for autonomy in the provinces. There is a fear of Iranian backed militias in some areas. A prominent Iraqi singer says "all of Iraq is sad."