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FR 24 looks at the life and work of Annie Ernaux who had the courage to write about life's most difficult experiences facing women coming from a working class background. Her writings reflect that social mileau of forgotten working class people and changes the boundaries about what is discussed and the language used from a different place is always there. She is honored in 2022 with the Nobel Prize for Literature in a year that saw the working class in France assert itself in the 2022 election.

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John Fritze gives this exceptional report in USA Today with a gallery of black and white pictures on the life and work of an American who truly embodied some of the best spirit of America. Born on a ranch in the Arizona-New Mexico region in America's southwest in the 1920's she built in herself a remarkable resilience to start work in the law when women were not hired for legal work, choosing to start work as an unpaid legal worker at the county attorney's office in San Mateo because he had hired a woman once. Her response -"I loved my work and it was great," shows a remarkable attitude and one that reflected some of the ethos of America in the nineteenth century, what makes America and wins the respect of the world in Asian, African and Latin American countries. Her response at 75 years when retiring was to engage in work she loved and brought value to the nation- creating iCivics website to teach civics knowledge to children. She also led the College of WIlliam and Mary and engaged with young people. ...

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How will countries like India generate jobs when technology enables manufacturing and other activity to do work with fewer and fewer people. Even Hon Hai in China is shifting work to robots. Technological progress is leaving more people unemployed and widening income gaps with the benefits going to a few people, says the Economist in this research based essay. It will require carefully managed governance to invest in infrastructure, raise skills of less skilled workers through education, and wage subsidies for those left behind to ensure our current system works in the future.

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The leading Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Elizabeth Warren, says she is eager to work with DJT, Tim Scott and Republicans in Congress to make life affordable for working families and to rebuild the middle class. She says Republicans and Democrats have thir reasons for th housing shortages and hgih costs of housing, and both are right. Republicans pointing to the supply shortage and Democrats pointing to the price fixing and corporate landlords.

On DJT proposing to cap credit card interest rates at 10% Warren says she will work with Republicans to make it happen.

Warren cites personal experience as reason she is at her job. Her dad lost his job and almost lost his home. This is why in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis caused by banks engaging in speculation she says she became Senator and why she is fighting to make life affordable for all Americans.

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When planning for retirement look at the combined probability of both spouses of living an extra 10, 20, or 30 years after 65 years of age. The combined probability could be 18% of living an extra 30 years says this expert when you look at the combined probability that one or the other spouse would outlive the other and need to depend on retirement savings. Take all these scenarios into account, and working an extra year or two even 6 months can make a difference for a sound retirement, says this expert.

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The first president to install solar panels at the White House. The first to enter a nuclear reactor space for 89 seconds on a US nuclear submarine. The first to adopt zero based budgeting which requires all agencies to start from zero to justify spending. The first to teach Sunday School with the Bible in hand while president. The first southern governor as evangelical to say that racial discrimination in education had no place in his state or the country. The first former president to fight tropical diseases in Africa including the Guinea worm for their eradication. The first president to live an active life style well into his eighties.

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Nuclear arms control SALT treaties expire Feb 2026 - need for new negotiations as the treaties were obsolete, did not include China, smaller nuclear weapons, and weapons from space. The SALT arms limitation treaty was first signed in 1972 by Brezhnev with Nixon. These treaties went through a second version and were renewed. The US no longer thinks this is relevant as China is not included, and smaller nuclear weapons, ones from space are not included and new negotiations are the best way to conduct true arms limitation. An accompanying video in NYT by David Sanger goes into these aspects of talks. Rafael Gross, head of IEA International Atomic Agency, says- You wouldn’t negotiate the same treaty again. There are new technologies that are not covered by the treaty — hypersonic missiles, undersea nuclear weapons, space weapons. And there are many other countries that, for one reason or another, feel now as if they may need a nuclear arsenal of their own.” This is the reason. It also happens that in 2026 US and Russia could coordinate their efforts, so that new US weapons may be needed as other risks could emerge from other places. There are smaller nuclear powers and new nations that might develop nuclear weapons as the US nuclear umbrella may be seen as not fully dependable. This new thinking would be that US and Russia may not see themselves as adversaries but work together to prevent nuclear risks from other sources. This is also why the US (and Russia) may want to wind down smaller regional conflicts, reduce their reliance on their own alliances, so that nuclear cooperation between nuclear powers US, Russia, China, and India may lead to control of nuclear weapons in a larger sense from space and from smaller countries that might develop nuclear weapons as has happened in Iran, which might create new risks that cannot be managed. A belligerent North Korea could lead to South Korea and Japan developing a nuclear weapon. This is also why the Ukraine conflict has run its course and it is in no one's interest to let the Nordics or Britain continue the conflict. The US, Russia, China, India, Brazil should not let middle or smaller powers continue regional or historical conflicts, and promote settlement through peace talks of such conflicts, as it inevitably leads to damaging the interests of billions of people around the world in peaceful cooperation and tackling challenges that affect the quality of life. ...

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Dan Osborn is a union leader who led the strike at Kellogg Omaha plant in 2021. He is running for the US Senate seat in Nebraska which is conservative and Republican. He is shown here campaigning with Shawn Fain of the UAW autoworkers union at his side.

Osborn says he does not see Republican or Democrat or any color just a fair fight for fair wages for workers.

Osborn says-

“I didn’t see men or women or black or white or Republican or Democrat on the picket line. I just saw people that wanted to go to work for a fair wage and some good benefits.”  

This is what 2024 is also turning into in the US a fight for wages and for managing the cost of living in ways that bring a better life for workers and their families after years of neglect.

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Three new cable stay bridges are coming up in New York, the first between Queens and Brooklyn replaces the old Kosciuszko bridge and is already constructed, the second replaces the Tappan Zee across the Hudson river just 10 miles north of the Bronx, the third  replaces the Goethals between Staten Island and Elizabeth, New Jersey. The cable-stay design is becoming popular because of its aesthetic looks and because its easier and economical to construct. This gives a face lift to the city. Much of the work is done under the leadership of the State Department of Transportation, New York State Thruway Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Brooklyn Bridge built in 1883 has this kind of cable design but from an earlier era.

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Common sense works where activism raises questions about what is being said in ESG- a different grab bag for each person. Larry FInk of Black Rock uses the word exactly for what it is not more not less- that is Transition Investing. Transition Investing being exactly what the word says it is investing in projects that build the transition to a world that is not affected by climate change as it is today. When climate change is real and the dangers are there for all to see, so called environmental, social and corporate governance going under acronym ESG was just too complicated and redundant. Fink has done the right thing. States like Texas are now working with Fink on investments in their state.

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Writing your own narrative when it comes to failures at work is suggested by experts. In the second of a series of Podcasts on How we Work the WSJ looks at failures at work and how they are processed in people's minds. Failures can be seen as experiences that teach, lessons that can be learned from failures so that one can do better next time. In this podcast WSJ gives an interview with Minh Lee, author of Pachinko. The first line of the book is "History has failed us. It doesn't matter." Asked to explain she says the way history is written it simply has winners and losers, but for ordinary people this does not matter as they go on with their lives and try to make the best of things. She also talks about recognition and how important it is. Minh says leaning into ones competence is an easy way to become impervious to failures. It is only when one goes out of one's competence does one experience what is called failure but is really an effort, one effort in a series of efforts, an effort that teaches one lessons that one can apply in the next effort which puts one in a position to gain better results. It is a process of continuous improvement in which one is readily trying new things. Now compare this with one leaning into one's competence and not experiencing what is called failure, yet at the same time not having tried anything new and exciting or feeling the thrill of adventure. Just to take Minh Lee's line one step further. Civilizations fail. How? When a people or society is losing its sense of adventure and severely censors and restricts trying new things you have the absence of a Renaissance. The Renaissance in Europe put it way ahead of Asia, with observation and experimenting above theory and textbooks, and set it up for the Industrial Revolution which started in England. By this time civilizations that never adventured on the seas, never adventured out of their little line of known competence, the civilizations on the Ganges in India and the Yangste in China failed and collapsed. So there are larger lessons to be learned and this also tells us that a lot more is at stake than one's own individual so called failures and so called successes at Work, and in the adventure of life. One ignores so called failure in first efforts because this is what the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution has taught us to keep trying new things till they work, and to patiently work through these efforts which may take some time, as all good work is arduous and filled with endeavours. In the oceanic adventures of Spain and Britain that discovered  America and Australia there were were difficult voyages that set the path open to those that followed. Captain Cook discovered Australia in his ship "Endeavour" in this way, opening the way to the settlement of a continent. He led the scientific mission for the British Navy on a voyage that lasted 3 years 1770 to 1773 when he returned to Dover from Botany Bay on the Australian mainland.   ...

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As climate changes the World Bank reports that 75% of India's urban populations, about 380 million people, work in jobs exposed to extreme heat, life threatening heat.This is the informal workforce that generates 50% of GDP, that works as street vendors, construction or factory workers, house help, auto rickshaw drivers, street cleaners, delivery people and guards. More people will be added- over 400 million by 2050 as India urbanizes further. The Guardian looks at the situation in Bengaluru that in year 2000 was still cool and leafy except for summer that was for for a few months March to May with temperatures peaking at 34 degrees centigrade. Now the summer heat happens earlier 34 degrees C. by February and 38 degrees C. by May. Then there is the heat island effect as the city  built from asphalt cement and metal heats up during the day and heats the atmosphere at night.

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This Swiss scientist was one of the first of many scientists who asked questions about the origins of the coronavirus. Ms. Lentzos says not because we are conspiracy theorists, but because this is our profession. She says the scientific community that has disregarded different possibilities have strong vested interests, people who feared for their careers or their grants. Lentzos points out that in the scientific community like other communities it is not all about an idealized version of science, there are conflicts of interests, agendas, it is a social activity with good players and bad players. 

The WSJ did a lot of work on this, the Washington Post also, the New York Times totally silent, she says.

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Suggestions are not to take Fridays off but instead take Mondays off and sometimes break the week with Wednesday off. Fridays off are seen as a drawback because one is seen cramming five days work into four that week. Here a Unilever manager manages her 15 days off and another week that she gets after 18 years service to somehow add the weekends to get 9 days off for a break using 5 vacation days. Taking vacations for less than a week are seen as not productive for reducing stress at work and for getting better sleep. Procrastinating vacations to when work gets slower is not recommended as the answer for many is work never gets slower and you could end up overworking. Planning ahead lets this Unilever manager plan trips that act as rejuvenating experiences up and down the Eastern seaboard after getting her vacation life in order following some misssteps. She shows how with 20 days she could create 50 days vacation during the year adding in public holidays.

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David Brooks who has covered Joe Biden for decades from his time in the U.S. Senate to Vice President under president Obama, says he comes not from an elite tradition of Democrats such as Adlai Stevenson, but that of Harry Truman, for and of the common man- the "average Joe" in American slang.  Strengths Brooks finds in Joe Biden are his emotional transparency, knowing at any time in interactions what Biden is thinking and feeling. The candour in his conversations. Biden is also like Truman in how spirited he is in defending the common man and his interests in the true Democratic tradition of being for the working class and ordinary people, something lost in recent years. Having lost his wife and daughter in a traffic accident when he was first elected to the Senate, also gives Joe Biden a sense of how it feels to go through this experience. He later lost a son to cancer.  Biden is now the front runner for president. Like Truman Biden has faced criticism for speaking his mind, sometimes awkwardly. Yet as David Brooks points out Biden brings some of the qualities of a Harry Truman, at a time when the mood of the nation has changed and the Democratic Party is returning to its roots fighting for the common man. Harry Truman is thought of highly as American president because of the qualities of simplicity, courage, tenacity, and hard work that he brought to the presidency during the war and during the recovery after 1945. Few people are aware of the fact that Harry Truman returned to the small town of Independence, Missouri, after retiring, at a time when there was no presidential pension, and lived a simple life accepting no favors, without any of the trappings of a former president. ...

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Side work earns book royalties of $2 million for Barrett on "Listening to the Law" and Ketanji Jackson $3 million Sotomayor and Gorsuch also have books and royalty advances. This provides the public with a closer view of the Justices on the highest Court in the Nation. It also means Justices live a sheltered life away from the concerns of ordinary Americans about cost of living, cost of health care and pharmaceuticals, cost of childcare, cost of education, cost of fentanyl and other drug trafficking to American families and mothers. During the Depression only three Justices the most prominent of whom were Harlan Stone of New Hampshire and Wendell Holmes of Massachusetts supported New Deal legislation to provide government help with other Justices rejecting New Deal legislation right in the middle of the Great Depression when people were literally without food and shelter, without jobs and in despair. Today there is a permanent exhibition of Harlan Stone in the US Supreme Court for the longest service on the Court. It took till 1940 for FDR to appoint new Justices to get the Court to support the New Deal. Today Justice Barrett is a lone voice among Conservatives willing to listen to all opinions on both sides along with but more than Justice Roberts. This is heartening to both sides. Barrett like Justice Sandra O'Connor before her puts great importance on the Constitution's intent and wording, its pages are in her book. O'Connor from a rural ranch in Arizona carried the Constitution with her at all times and had her own books- the Lazy B about growing up on a ranch on the Arizona- New Mexico border in the middle of big country, big sky, so wide an expanse that she writes about it in her preface to her next book The Majesty of the Law citing Wallace Stegner. ...

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Philip Rucker of the WP provides this exceptional account of people on the Staten Island Ferry in New York. Construction workers who like Tump's toughness to tackle terrorism, jobs, and other issues. Others who sees Trump's name on properties all over Manhattan, and think he will bring prosperity. And the female worker at a food pantry who says she sees too many immigrants and looks to Trump to fix this. Staten Island is one of New York's boroughs with a population of 500,000 mostly white people that is not connected to city by subway, is heavily Republican, with new immigrants creating community tensions.

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Like Harry Truman Tim Walz can understand what free school lunches are about- Walz worked as a high school teacher, so did his wife Gwen. See the story on school lunches on this page.  He knows what cost of living is about with prices of groceries and gas and auto repairs rising. We want to say to America not since Harry Truman have finances of two vice presidents looked so similar- and their dedication to workers and families is genuine and of the kind that is needed for these times when working families and working men, rural families,  have deserted a Democratic party distracted by Tech millionaires and billionaires in its ranks. Tim Walz is America's Everyman in this sense of the word  with net worth excluding pensions of under $300,000, and shares the pain of meeting cost of living and other concerns that are spared from other vice presidents or presidents from wealthy backgrounds. The Minnesota Governor has modest income and wealth compared to recent presidential tickets. The former  high school teacher and congressman’s assets are mostly limited to pensions, whole life insurance and college savings. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, have net worth between $112,003 to $330,000, as of his 2019 financial disclosure, according to WSJ. The value of  federal pension benefit about roughly $800,000 to add to their net worth, based on The Wall Street Journal’s analysis. The couple did not report any dividend or capital gains income on their 2022 tax return, the most recent return available. ...

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China's plan to lift all birth restrictions by 2025. The one child policy was replaced with a two child policy, and now with a three child policy in 2021, as China's birth rate declined below the level needed for a stable population. The plan now is to lift all restrictions as the decline in population is expected to be very steep. Not enough young people to support a growing elderly population is a major problem for the economy. A mindset has developed over 70 years for one or two children that is seen as hard to change. Women now work and pursue careers, their expectations in life have changed. Couples are also finding it hard to get access to schools and afford the costs of education and home space needed for larger families. Housing in most cities is costly, making it harder to raise families. Attitudes are hard to change. Experts see little impact of the new policies. The three northeastern provinces suffered most in the shift to a market economy. This is where the drop in birthrates is very steep. The government will remove all birth restrictions in the northeast before applying it to the whole of China. ...

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An opportunity for cities to grasp today for healthier living in cities with less traffic, fewer automobiles and more bicycle lanes. Cleaner cities with less air pollution and calmer cities to live and work in.

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Enzo Signorelli goes back to an olive farm that has been in the family for 100 years. The farm is on the slopes of Mt. Etna in Sicily. Enzo finds new life in the rhythm of the mountains and the olive farm where some trees are 500 years old. Shown in NYT are beautiful pictures of the farm and the work in the olive picking season.

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Morgan McSweeney acquired power as an organizer removing Corbynite left politicians from the Labour party. He is from County Cork, Ireland, his father an IRA courier, who left Ireland to get a politics and marketing degree from Middlesex University. He helped Labour politicians in London during the Corbyn years and settled on Keir Starmer as the candidate for a shift to the center in politics. There was something strange about Labour's win in 2024 as it got only 34% of the vote and still a large majority. It now appears that this was a highly flawed win, as Starmer was never able to take positions on major issues without depending on McSweeney for advice and backtracking. Worse 50% of Labour's vote disappeared in 2026 polls by February hardly 2 years after the win in 2024, as the support McSweeney helped organize had no depth of conviction- most of it to Liberals and Greens under Polanski. The result is that even the Guardian is disappointed and says McSweeney installed Starmer as PM, and then made him "the most unpopular PM in history." Net favorability in Feb 2026 is -57 similar to Sunak of Conservatives in June 2024. A 75% unfavorable rating in Jan 2026. And 14 points below the Labour party in "like" ratings. Only 18% are favorable for Starmer. ...

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Questions China faces on AI- 17% high youth unemployment and 200 million young people in the gig economy in low wage demanding work. Chinese Communist party wants to see a stable China that can pursue industrial progress for decades like the European Union and the US. For this reason it is not going to let this level of dissatisfaction with high youth unemployment and low wage demanding work for young people to go to the next level. For this reason it will carefully make investments in AI -not the hyper investments in AI that are taking place in the US. The competition with China is going to take place on many fronts, and the industrial bloc created by the EU with India and Nordics has a 15 year plan during which it and the US are likely to far exceed anything China does at a slower rate of growth. As in the US choices will have to be made in China, investment in one area means disinvestment in other areas that have equal or more priority. Today's capital markets are in complete dysfunction in the US operated by a few banks and tech company leaders, similar to the situation prevailing in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Investment priorities and planning are needed. It is a major error to say US cannot plan that capitalism does not have planning, because it is absolutely true that planning goes on at every level in American companies with Xerox, IBM, Oil Companies and other large companies, all having a Long Range Plan as well as planning for individual projects and investments in plants. If a good infrastructure plan, project by project, state by state, and at the local level, is not put in place this will simply not take place. If no good reindustrialization plan, project by project, state by state, and at the local level, is not put in place, this will simply not take place. In that case the competition with China would surely be lost before it had begun. Yet that is surely not the case, as every good American company has a long term plan. And this plan looks at all the potential investments the Nation can and should make in priorities and in the interests of the Nation and the People. All have to compete for resources and AI surely would not get the lions share of resources in China, or in the US, in a fair and well run market system where planning rightly takes place, because it would displace the very basic structure of a fair and well balanced economy that serves the American people, or the people of European Union and India, or the people of China. ...

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 The average work has declined in Europe, and increased slightly in America. It is about one day a week less in Europe for the 5 largest European economies, according to the OECD. Shorter work hours set by employers and furloughs are affecting workers in Europe. This is because many European businesses used shorter working hours to avoid layoffs during the pandemic. 

Nearly 2 million Europeans are in furlough programs with governments making up the lost pay.

Working hours are less in Southern Europe because of a lack of full time work. About one third of workers in France and half in Spain and Italy would like to work more hours but cannnot find the extra hours. In Germany one fourth of workers choose to work less than 30 hours a week by choice.

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After the coronavirus pandemic the whole picture of life in retirement and aging is expected, says this report in WSJ.  Retirement homes are not viewed as a good place and about 30% of these homes in the U.S. are expected to close with financial difficulties. Most people will now work longer and continue to live at home. Telemedicine and other technology will help make this possible. Experts say most people will age and stay at home and financial incentives will be given for this to happen.  Aging will also be seen differently because of the resilience of older people during the coronavirus. People will be seen as productive and living a full life well into their seventies and eighties. Community services will expand. Government services including under Medicaid will consider that it is less costly to stay at home than in long term care facilities and provide financial coverage for caregiver or homecare aides help at home. Many new services and technology assisted services are being planned with a focus on older people and living productive lives, as America and Europe other countries shift their focus to this group. After coronavirus people are also looking to spend their years in a productive way, to do things that really matter and add meaning to their lives.. How to spend the next 10-20 years in the most meaningful way. ...