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This editorial view in The Guardian says the Tories win in 2019 was a result of homeowners and mortgage holders feeling richer with the soaring house prices in England. It could hurt the Conservatives as interest rates rise and house prices drop. Conservatives could lose support gradually, then suddenly as home prices drop fast. It cites the forthcoming book Shattered Nation by Prof. Danny Dorling of Oxford University on the extractive model of housing in Britain being out of step with its European neighbors. Dorling says that had house prices gone up with inflation in the last 70 years, the average home in Britain would have cost 63,000 pounds, that is twice the median UK salary of 31,000 pounds. Instead government's ONS shows price of average house in Britain is 296,000 pounds in 2022 August, up 36,000 pounds- the price increase of 14% is one year's salary. Dorling says money is siphoned off from the less well off to the already wealthy when paying excessive rents, buying an overpriced house, or keeping up with larger mortgage payments. Lawmakers don't see the problem Dorling says because so many of them are landlords including Mr. Sunak. ...

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Parts of China's economy recover yet the risks from covid contagion increase with covid everywhere and few restrictions, says the WSJ.

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Much of inflation's rise in the US has been transitory after all, says Greg Ip in the WSJ, yet credit Jay Powell at the Fed for his resolute fight against inflation. Gasoline that was over $5.00 a gallon in June when inflation was at 9.1% following Russia's Ukraine war is now $3.27 according to AAA, and this is an important reason why inflation is at 6.5% in December 2023. Demand for autos after pandemic and lockdowns coupled with supply chain problems caused auto prices and used car prices to rise sharply. This is now reversing with price declines. Ultra low interest rates caused a jump in home prices- this is reversing with Jay Powell and the Fed increasing interest rates sharply.

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Marking the sixth straight month of declines the US consumer price index rose by 6.5% over a year earlier in Dec. 2023. This is down from 7.1% in November and 9.1% in June. The US central bank chairman Jay Powell is resolutely pursuing anti inflation policy. Retail sales, manufacturing output and home sales declined in November. Exports and imports also declined. Prices fell for products such as autos and computers. Job and wage growth slowed. Tackling service inflation is the next challenge for the US Fed and Jay Powell says the WSJ.

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Emergency teams face subfreezing temperatures as they work to keep the power on in Ukraine. Russia has attacked Ukrainian electricity power grid causing blackouts in many areas. This attack on civilian infrastructure is one aspect of the war in addition to the millions of refugees woman and children, that has caused particular outrage in Europe and America that Russia is following a pattern that is unacceptable in the course of human affairs.

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Joana Stern says that she turned off her 5G and used 4G LTE on her phone- and barely noticed the difference. She says 5G is not such a big deal after all.

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A decline in new and used car prices after steep rise during the pandemic.

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A warmer than expected winter and lower inflation is helping European stocks in Jan 2023, says this report in the WSJ. European indexes are also not weighed down by the decline in tech stocks as in the US. Germany's DAX and France's CAC have risen by 16% compared to 6.9% in the US for last 3 months.

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Companies in retail, construction  entertainment sectors made layoffs in the first 2 years of the pandemic. White collar workers worked remotely and were not affected that much. In 2023 the layoffs are now affecting professionals and white collar workers. White collar workers are also paid more which creates savings for companies when they layoff higher paid professionals who do not perform critical tasks. In manufacturing and blue collar worker industries there are not many layoffs because companies are hoarding these workers as there are worker shortages. Many workers retired in manufacturing and blue collar leading to shortages in these sectors. Because this is not typical in the layoffs and hiring cycles seen previous to the pandemic this is an unusual situation.

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President Biden's plan to reduce payments to 5% of income instead of 10% for income driven payments on student loans. Loan balances would not grow as long as payments are made. After 10 years of payments student loan balances would be forgiven where balances are less than $12000 in place of the current 20 years.   This is the first effort to create a student loan safety net. Borrowers making less than $30,600 as individuals or $64,200 for a family of four will not be required to make monthly payments on loans. Under the current system loan balances kept growing till borrowers were left with huge and often unpayable student undergraduate loans.

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The 14th edition of Aero India from Feb 13-17, 2023 with 80 countries participating. India has increased defense exports 8 times over 5 years. During G-20 meetings in India the country will showcase 3 D's - Democracy, Development and Diversity, says Rajnath Singh.

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42 year old Jason Smith of Missouri will head the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in the US Congress. He is an ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and one of the youngest  persons in this position. He will help form new trade, tax and health policies for Republicans.