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The Biden administration plans to build 20 miles of new border security wall in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas completing a section of the wall that is seeing extraordinarily high migrant crossing. The Biden administration is looking for ways to restrict flow of migrants that is taxing the resources of cities in the US. About 2 million crossings in each of the last 2 years, says the WSJ.

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23% of the green lung around Athens has been destroyed by fires. The result is that it is very humid and temperatures above 40 degrees C are affecting the elderly. Many of the elderly are now going to airconditioned spaces set up by the city government of Athens. The mayor and vice mayor are setting a goal of planting trees to restore some of the green cover.

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PM  Modi of India leads discussions on the approach paper Vikshit Bharat @ 2047 vision document on July 27, 2024. He says:

“This decade is of changes, technological and geo-political, and also of opportunities. India should grab these opportunities and make our policies conducive for international investments. This is the stepping stone for progress to make India a developed nation."

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The NYT gives maps of UK showing the collapse of Conservatives party, Nigel Farage taking a fifth of conservative voters. The shift of the working class areas back to Labour party. Conservatives losing even more seats with Liberal Democrats picking up votes. And some areas such as Bristol show Greens benefitting from Keir Starmer's backing away from the $28 Green energy plan because of budgetary constraints.

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New German chancellor Merz's personal popularity is hitting new lows in April 2025 even before a new government takes charge in Germany. Merz speaks understandably 60%, trustworthy 21%, strong leader 40%, results of Stern magazine survey April 2025. In a fragmented scene for political parties Merz takes office as the Ukraine war continues, and new tariff challenges are raised by the US for German exports.

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Politico poll shows only 26% say they would definitely vote for Trump in 2020. Fifty two percent say they would definitely vote against.

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Focus on billionaires and remote parts of the world distract from the vital issues of infrastructure renewal, cost of living and incomes growth that affect everyday lives of Americans. In an economy the size of the US the $5 trillion of billionaires out of a $31 trillion US GDP, is about 15% of the nation's wealth. Many of the billionaires such as at Amazon lead product and service companies that generated new products and services. Five of the top 25 in the US are from Walmart a large retailer in the US, 2 from Amazon, three from Microsoft in personal computers, 3 from chemical industries.This accounts for 13 of 25 or half. Removing these billionaires would take out $2.5 trillion leaving the billionaires controlling 7-8% of the country's wealth. The focus by Bernie Sanders in the US and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK on remote spots in the world and on billionaires distracts from the real issues of cost of living, of incomes of ordinary families, of everyday issues of health and quality of life faced by all. It also does not help in the discussion because of the need to move away from the poor leadership of the Blair-Brown, Cameron- Johnson years and the Bush-Obama years in the UK and the US. Here no ideologies are needed just common sense solutions to common problems that affect lives of all the people, with the cooperation of all the people. ...

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It took 25 years for the US to recover from the 1929 stock market disaster and the Great Depression. It took Japan 25 years to recover from the 1989 stock market collapse and the lost decades since. It is finally emerging from that period with a healthier economy and business structures. China faces a situation today of a struggling economy after years of excessively rapid growth that hurt the environment and climate and health. And the uncertainty that faced Japan after 1989 also faces China in 2024- growth is never linear over very long periods and has pull backs that could stretch for decades much too familiar for Japan. For India there are lessons to be learned from Japan's and China's experience. In environment not to risk polluting the environment as China experienced with breakneck unchecked growth, to be mindful of bringing up all sectors and parts of the population, and to manage growth so that the basic instability that resulted from excessive shift to China of manufacturing and deindustrialization in US that led to worsening trade and people to people relations between US and China is not repeated. ...

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Elin Hildebrand, is author of summer novels based in Nantucket, a coastal community of Massachusetts. Over 25 years she has written summer novels that have sold tens of millions of copies and now plans making a change to literary fiction set in Academy, a elite boarding school. As writer Elin is unique with her disciplined workout and her small town ways. Keeping a discipline in exercise that is tougher than her writing- seven days a week she rides her bike, does a Barre class and does a slow jog for four or five miles. It took many years to get to where she is, and she is happy for this as success too early leads to disappointment later. Hildebrand works out for three hours promptly after waking up. Nothing is as hard as this workout. She studied at John Hopkins and attended two years in a graduate English literature program at the University of Iowa before getting into writing a range of fiction. From early childhood experiences in Philadephia, a summer at Nantucket, she has put roots in this coastal community of Massachusetts for about 25 years. ...

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DJT announces actions on Liberation Day, April 2, 2025 freeing America on attacks on its manufacturing base and its workers for 50 years since the 1970's. He announces reciprocal tariffs on all nations with large trading imbalances with the US, a 34% tariff on China and a 20% tariff on all imports from the European Union. These nations he says have taken advantage of the US and looted and pillaged the US workers and communities for decades mainly because of the presidents who sat in the White House executive room and allowed this to happen. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advised all trading nations-  "My advice to every country right now is, do not retaliate." His advice- "sit back, take it in.... Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation". The US is in no mood to be lectured or retaliated when these countries including China, Japan, South Korea and the EU, Taiwan, India a list of about 20 nations have taken unfair advantage of the US in trade for 3 decades. ...

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Australian tennis player is herself as she retires at the age of 25. She is champion at Wimbledon and at the Australian Open. "The time is right for me to step away and chase other dreams and to put the racquets down," says Barty.

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As the Israeli election happens on March 24, 2021, prime minister Netanyahu's popularity has increased because of his handling of the vaccination drive and the pandemic. Defense minister Gantz who was the rival for prime minister has seen his popularity drop to new lows.

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Other European nations and the U.S. will be watching Germany's opening of small shops and small retail business under 800 square metres of space on April 20, followed by other business on May 4, in a gradual partial reopening of the economic activity

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About a third of French children are obese. DW.  France 24 looks at this problem related to eating habits and exercize. These figures are up by 75% showing that current lifestyles with overuse of mobile phones and lack of exercize, poor nutrition, play a role.

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Significant shortfall in rain during the June to September monsoon rain season in the northeast of India. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are affected regions. This is described as the worst monsoon season in decades. Reservoirs in Uttar Pradesh are 28% filled compared to 53% in 2021.

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Talks about the 3 Scion models now in their third year, with 150,000 Scions sold. The xA delivers gas mileage of 32 city and 37 highway and has sales growing at 20% over the previous year 1st quarter( 2006 over 2005). Prices are in $17,000 range for tC sporty 160 hp Scion and $15,000 range for the xA. Two new marketing approaches to create the Scion experience. First, Pure Price, meaning price posted on the website is what you get no hidden stuff. Second, after market accesssories to customize the scion can be purchased inhouse from Toyota. Note the marketing is for a carefully planned rollout the west coast with details to create the buzz and excitement for a young crowd. See the link to Honda's Hit marketing plans which have been meticulously laid out, (Marty Bernstein, April 27, 2006).

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Toyota showed a net profit of 290 billion yen or $3.71 billion for its fiscal first quarter. With its sharp rebound Toyota keeps it forecast of net profit of 760 billion yen, operating profit of 1 trillion yen, and sales of 22 trillion yen for the fiscal year through March 2013. Toyota set its annual production for the calendar year at 9.76 million vehicles, an increase of 23% over the prior year. By comparison General Motors showed second quarter profit of $1.85 billion, a decline of 38% from the prior year quarter, and Ford at 1.04 billion, a decline of 57%, with both companies showing losses in Europe. Toyota has smaller European sales as part of total sales. In the U.S. market Toyota expects market share to reach 14%, an increase of 1.1% from 2011, according to Takahiko Ijichi, senior managing officer.

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Workers ended a 3 month strike at Caterpillar's Joliet, Illinois plant, essentially giving in to reduced healthcare and pension benefits and wage freezes for older workers. Under the deal workers hired before May 2005 receive no hourly pay increase, workers hired after that date get a one time 3% pay increase with future pay increases decided by Caterpillar management. Hourly pay at the plant ranges from $13 to $28. About 25% of the older workers are eligible to retire. A $7.8 million fund to supplement incomes of laid off workers will now be used for retirement bonuses. Caterpillar persuaded workers to ratify the contract by increasing the bonus for ratifying to $3100 per worker from $1000. During the strike Caterpillar continued operations by using managers and temporary workers and using 100 workers who crossed picket lines.

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The U.S. Library of Congress's exhibition, "The Books That Shaped America," in Washington D.C. from June 25 to September 29, 2012. The books include the McGuffey Readers, schoolbooksthat educated people like Henry Ford at the turn of the century, to Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Dr. Seuss. Even Dale Carnegie. It includes social issue books by Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, W.E.B. Du Bois, Cesar Chavez. Literary works include Emily Dickinson, Thornton Wilder and Tennessee WIlliams. Carl Sagan's book on astronomy doesn't appear on this list. It is a pretty impressive list and a valiant effort to cover the American experience through books that most Americans are familiar with from school or other reading, and books that have conveyed a sense of America in all its struggles and humanity to people in other countries and especially the English speaking world.

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Women in a 2011 group studied by Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Monika Hamori and Rocio Bonet of the IE Business School in Madrid, show increasing numbers of women and foreign educated managers in top positions at large corporations. Mary Barra of GM and Satya Nadella of Microsoft are two of the prominent names appointed recently. Women now have 18% of the top positions at large U.S. corporations and foreign educated have 11% in this 2011 group. The numbers would be expected to be higher in 2014 with an acceleration in this trend. On average it takes women 28 years to reach these positions compared to 29 for men. A big dropoff is noticed in the study for women in the corporate promotion track who are middle managers for a few years.

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Chrysler's sales are dropping the fastest of all the car companies . April 2009 sales dropped 24% from March 2009. Ford sales are doing better than Toyota, as they declined in April over same month prior year by 32%, compared to 42% for Toyota. It appears that the Buy American factor may be helping Ford Motor more than the other American car companies, and that Chrysler also suffers from the lack of new models with new technology and investment in new features. At GM the situation is better at Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC, where sales in April 2009 declined by 29%, over same month prior year, which compares with a 55% decline in sales, of Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, and Saturn brands which are likely to be dropped. See the related link on same day on steep fall in Chrysler sales.

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All the major investment banking houses are highly leveraged in their ratio of assets to shareholders equity. Bear Stearns was 32 to1, but so is Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers is 30 to 1, and Merril Lynch 27 to 1. And so what is Goldman Sachs ratio? It is 26 to 1. These are the ratios according to WSJ at the end of 2007 and likely haven't changed that much today. All of these banking houses searched for higher returns through high leveraging. This is becoming a problem in this crisis as a lot of capital has to be raised by these firms to reduce the extent to which they are leveraged. And the speed in which the unwinding is occurring in this nervous hangover for the markets requires that firms stay way ahead of the curve and some paranoia is in order.

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In over a decade after Mandela the A.N.C. under Jacob Zuma sees its vote drop from 62.5% to below 50%. The opposition Democratic Alliance wins 27% of the vote and the A.N.C. loses in the important cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth. South Africa's urbanization is proceeding rapidly with the country 65% urban today. In this situation the country is seeing a political situation of racially diverse cities voting against the A.N.C. under Zuma's administration, which is seen as corrupt and mismanaging the economy. Zuma is seeing his support now left mostly in the rural areas. He is also losing the support of women. Mmsi Maimane is a young black lay preacher, who leads the Democratic Alliance, a party with its origins in liberal politics during the Apartheid era, with participaton of whites, coloreds, Asians and blacks in urban areas.

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China's shadow banking system of trust companies and insurance companies with trust company units and other informal lenders are the fastest growing part of its banking system. Between 2010 and 2012 trust companies and other shadow banks doubled outstanding loans to 36 trillon yuan ($5.8 trillion) or about 69% of China's GDP, according to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Hidden debt that is likely to default in this poorly regulated sector is seen as a large risk in the banking system by the central bank and China's government planners. Tightening of credit by the central bank, the People's Bank of China, sent interbank lending rates from 3% to as high as 25% in late June 2013, finally settling on June 24 at 6.64%. China's state owned banks lend to trust companies in this market. Trust companies get additional financing by selling wealth management products promising investors returns of 8-10%. Even with China's high savings rate and large government reserves, the hidden debt and large unknowns about the loans in default, are seen by the central bank as posing risks to the target rate of economic growth of 7.5% if the government has to bailout a significant number of troubled banks. Much of the money funnelled through the trust companies since 2008 has been poorly invested. The trust companies such as Citic and Ping An Trust channel lending to borrowers for projects ranging from steel mills to infrastructure projects, such as highways and property developments that cannot obtain the financing through the large state owned banks. Fitch Ratings estimate is that since the financial crisis of 2009 these loans generated only one third of the economic growth per yuan as they did before 2009. ...

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This important WSJ report shows how the CDC labs failed to come with the test after contamination of a component and failure of the third part of the three part test components. In the absence of a working test from CDC where delays cost three weeks of February the private labs all over the country and state labs could have developed their own test, yet HHS and FDA required approval for these labs to develop their own test and use it. From Feb. 8 when state and city public health labs detected problems with the CDC test to Feb 29 when solutions were developed including simply excluding the third part of the three component test, and letting labs around the country do their own test, were 3 crucial weeks that let the virus spread out of control. The CDC, HHHS, and the FDA and their managers and heads of departments bear responsibility for these errors. Week after week the delays continued, instead the two component test which detects if the genetic material in the sample is coronavirus material, could simply have been approved at the outset instead of the approval for this given weeks later. The third component of the test checks if the virus mutated, according to this report. There is no explanation why the labs all over the U.S. were not allowed to go ahead on February 9 itself or within a few days after that to develop their own tests once it was clear the CDC test did not work on that day. CDC officials failed to recognize that there was a possibility that they may not be able to fix the faulty third component of the test and the risks if they gave false reassurances. There is also no explanation of why a German designed test was not used once the CDC test failed on Feb. 9, which would be a proper way for action considering that this pandemic had already shutdown parts of China by this time. Alarming also is the mention in this report that on Feb. 22 a FDA official in charge of lab diagnostics  flies to Atlanta where the CDC Respiratory Diagnostic lab which developed the test is located. His boss FDA medical device center director is cited from later information as describing the lab as "filthy" meaning the lab had the potential to contaminate, and going so far as saying that if it had been any other lab it would have been shut down. Considering that investment in public health has deteriorated over the last two decades and that there has been a massive misallocation of capital in the country away from public infrastructure this is appalling. The thought of critical labs for emergency health needs as not being up to high quality standards in the U.S. as a result of two decades of misspending, that this shows, is very disturbing.  This WSJ report is based on interviews with people who know about the testing crisis, and undisclosed emails, correspondence on the issues involved. Community transmission began in January 2020 in the U.S. These delays were costly in February and could have been prevented either by going with the German design on Feb 10 or asking labs across the U.S. to develop their own test, and letting other labs immediately use the modified 2 component test of CDC that worked instead of doing this action weeks later. Mardi Gras on Feb 25 and other places where large crowds gathered in sports stadiums could have been stopped had testing gone forward and shown the true extent of the community transmission in these critical weeks.  First China delayed a U.S. team of experts coming into the country for weeks, and then the CDC, FDA, HHS, failed to get testing started, creating  a false sense of complacency. Two crucial errors outside and inside the country that caused so much damage to America and the world.   ...