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China says its students are subject to harsh questioning when coming to the US, and these students face racial discrimination in the US. 105,000 student visas for Chinese students were issued by the US embassy in Beijing and consulates in China in 2023 as the pandemic recedes and normal exchange relations resume. About 50,000 exchange program participants in the US are expected to visit China over 5 years. Nicholas Burns, 68 years, is the new US ambassador to China in April 2022. As the mood changes in the US with both presidential candidates ramping up their stand on trade with China and tariffs, US China relations face headwinds after the normalization of US-China relations following the pandemic, when Xi and Biden met in San Francisco in 2023. Chinese student facing racial discrimination in the US and the difficulties with learning English pose serious problems for Chinese students which Nicholas Burns in a diplomat sheltered world may have no idea of. This applies to students from mainland China and Taiwan alike. Burns may have too hastily dismissed this side of the perspective from Xi Jinping. ...

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Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats, joins Mette Frederiksen in Denmark as the first female prime minister in Sweden. Both are from the Social Democrats. She won by a single vote after an agreement with the Left Party to increase payments to pensioners, and alliance with the Greens. Under Sweden's strange and different system a minority vote can lead to formation of government- Andersson was elected with more votes against than in favor, 117 members of parliament in favor, 174 against, and 57 abstentions.  It is more about members not voting against so that in Sweden's system one has an absolute majority as a party if fewer than 175 parliamentarians oppose. This also means the budget that will pass will be the opposition's budget and Social Democrat Andersson will remain as prime minister, as opposition parties prefer Social democrats to right leaning anti immigrant parties. Today Germany's Social Democrat Olaf Scholz and Greens Habeck as "senior Minister," Elena Baerbock as foreign minister, are leading a new government in Germany. Social Democrats and Greens have undertaken the task of renewing investment in infrastructure and modernizing their countries in Northern Europe. ...

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Sidney Poitier accomplished a great deal for the cultural changes that happened since the fifties in race and attitudes in America and Europe, by portraying black people in brave and interesting roles. Here Germany's DW.com looks at Bahamian-American actor, film director, and civil rights activist Poitier in a European perspective. Poitier was born to parents from the Bahamas where he grew up, and lived with his brother in Miami at age 15. There he could barely read and learned reading from a Jewish waiter while doing dishes at a restaurant. DW.com says "In the Heat of the Night" remains one of the best films to deal with the issue of racism. Other Poitier films also took up the issue of racism from different angles to defuse prejudice. Critics said the black characters in his movies are always good hearted, strong, proud, but not showing human flaws. DW.com points out that Poitier would have preferred to also play different roles, but he wanted to contribute to the black community through his acting. Poitier had depth of talent and character. A quote on Arizona State University website for the film school named after Poitier shows his thirst for knowledge: "No one knows all there is to know. The task is to learn as much as you can about as much as you can."  Both Poitier and Belafonte who had backgrounds growing up in the West Indies in families struggling to make a living, never stopped learning. ...

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Emperor Akihito's efforts to remind Japanese about Japanese war history after the Manchurian Incident in 1931. In his New Year's address Akihito tried to address the importance of learning from history as memories of the war fade with the young generation- "It is important for us to take this opportunity to study and learn from the history of this war, starting with the Manchurian Incident of 1931, as we consider the future direction of our country." The Abe administration's effort to revise Article 9 of the constitution to allow "collective self-defense" is unpopular in Japan, and the Emperor nudges the Japanese people in the right direction.

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Kevin Rudd maintained a strong relationship with China when he was prime minister of Australia, He writes this piece in WSJ on the internal debate on policy taking place inside China at the China Central Economic Work Conference. Discussions are carried out in a vaguely referenced manner leaning to one side or the other in these dialogues inside Communist party circles since the 1930's. Here the discussion is on how quickly the idea of reducing social and economic inequality, or Xi Jinping's idea of a common prosperity should be implemented.

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Nationally in the U.S. employment in the oil industry is down 21% in 2018 compared to 2014 even though production has reached new peaks. Artificial intelligence, automation and new technologies have led to digital oil fields cutting demand for roughnecks earning as high as $150,000 a year. 

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The U.S. trade agreement with Mexico is for 16 years, to provide business with a stable rules environment to operate in. It includes a clause for review after 6 years. The content made in the U.S. is increased to 70% from 62.5%. This has to be made by workers earning at least $16  an hour. Aluminium and steel going into the cars has to come from the U.S. helping push U.S. steel plant capacity utilization to 80%. Labor collective bargaining is strengthened in Mexico through new provisions, a provision supported by new Mexican socialist president Obrador. Free trade in agricultural products is maintained. $4.7 billion was added in help to U.S. farmers as aid for the effects of China's tariff retaliation. New rules are set for textiles, chemicals, and steel intensive products that set requirements to qualify for tariff free import into the U.S. This is intended to help bring more jobs and investment in these industries in the U.S.     ...

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The written WSJ interview with Xi Jinping ends with a quote used by Jinping from Chinese philosopher Mencius- "It is only natural for things to be different." Jinping couples it along with another old Chinese saying for a broader meaning- respect your own cultural values and differences, yet be open to outside exchanges if you don't want to end up being ignorant. That quote is: " Learning alone without exchanges with others will lead to ignorance." This focus on outside exchanges seen as technological cooperation so that China has access to western technology to continue its progress in modernization and growth, is something most developing countries accept as critical. Is it seen as broader by learning from the general experience in many fields of other countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia?

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Kashmiri shawl weavers were mostly women. Mechanization has pushed many from earning their livelihoods from the shawl industry. New ways are being found to revive the older shawl weaving methods and give Kashmiri women an opportunity to work and be financially independent. A lot can be learned from the French who have a thriving industry using hand weaving with new technology and marketing techniques for hand woven fabrics using new designs. Some of these French companies could actually collaborate with Kashmiri makers to relaunch this industry in a new way and employ many women in making shawls and other specialty fabric designs. This manufacture would also command higher prices in a niche market segment in India and in world markets.

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Counting only people who voted in 2020 Biden is ahead 2 percentage points. 2024 Biden campaign is complicated by irregular and disengaged voters. Will disengaged mostly younger voters stay home or will they vote? What will happen with the churn- how many of the irregular voters from the last election will turn out and how many stay home. Many are Democrat leaning and as the election campaign progresses they may become more aware and vote but this is by no means certain. Many are younger voters or minority voters who are disengaged and do not follow what is happening. The economy not abortion or the border is important to these voters. President Biden has secured the vote of only 75% of these voters and has to find ways to reach them all. 

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France's Socialist party presidential candidate, Francois Hollande, says taxpayers earning more than 1 million euros will be placed in a 75% tax bracket if he is elected. He said the corporate executive pay in France now exceeds 2 millon euros. A 2009 French Senate study shows the richest 0.01% of French taxpayers earn an average of 1.22 million euros. There are 3,523 such households, and the extra tax revenue from the 75% tax will be small. The French Senate study showed these taxpayers paying an effective tax rate of 17.5%. President Sarkozy had imposed a 3% temporary increase in taxes for those earning more than 500,000 euros a year. Hollande also plans to tax those earning more than 150,000 euros a year at a marginal tax rate of 45% instead of the current 41%, and a the same time cut taxes for small and midsized companies.

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Roger McNamee, an early investor in Google and Facebook, writes this opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper saying that there are very serious problems in the way the "addiction" created by Facebook and Google products is affecting children. Lyrarc.com also points out that the reading and literacy scores in the U.S. and other countries are affected by how the new technology is used by digital gatekeepers. See our FAQ. Tim Berners Lee calls this a massive distraction for learning and youngsters. Melinda Gates has cited this as a problem she has faced in her own effort to raise her children.  Here is the main problem as stated by McNamee- of the millions of content pieces that can be shown the digital gatekeepers show only the content that is fit for their business model, and the best content from an educational point of view whether literacy, reading skills, civic literacy, all types of literacy and knowledge, is not only not the priority but is for the most part absent. He points out that that if not for the advertising business model this would be different- the focus could shift to experiences that educate, enrich and inspire users to better lives and better lifestyles. The smartphone has become pervasive in everyday lives to an astonishing degree- about 150 times a day with 2000 swipes and touches- to the point that it is changing the way people live and think without their realizing it. With it come new risks to the way we live and what we believe, like never before in history. ...

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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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Jenny Medina looks at America's Biden 10 months into his presidency. Biden compared his presidency to that of FDR in his first years in office in 1933 with America in the depths of the Great Depression.  This report says FDR was better able to communicate how the New Deal would help families and workers in the face of distrust. Biden needs this today. During the ten months of the presidency Biden has already taken the tough decisions that are needed. For the vaccination drive, for the vaccine mandate on the coronavirus pandemic. On Afghanistan Biden took a similar tough decision to step away after learning the lessons of that conflict. He has quietly moved forward to build the alliance with Europe. On the infrastructure plan he has made the tough decision to make certain the essential components of spending on healthcare, education, childcare, support for mothers and older Americans are put in place, so that one bill for infrastructure is not passed without the bill for healthcare, childcare, mothers, elderly and education. Only this can provide the needed credibility for Republicans in states such as Tennessee who support community college open to all to come behind the overall Biden families and workers plan, and for working families throughout the whole country to support further spending for renewal of America.  ...

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Glenn Hubbard is Columbia University's Business School dean. He is also a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. Hubbard came under criticism in "Inside Job," a 2010 documentary about the financial crisis for reported connections with financial services firms. Here he talks to the Wall Street Journal's Melissa Korn on the ways in which Columbia is changing its business school programs to ensure interdisciplinary learning. Hubbard thinks a broader education is needed, not just expertise in a particular area, for today's students turning into the business leaders of tomorrow. One of the big changes today is that a student today may have significant responsibilities and leadership position in a shorter period 5-10 years. Earlier generations of business leaders had a much longer period before they assumed such responsibilities. This makes it even more important for a business student to have a broader education and have broader perspective. In the next ten years Hubbard sees two major changes- continued globalization, and the reshaping of major industries such as financial services. This will require students to have a broader grasp of the changes that will be taking place, which cannot come from merely having expertise in a particular field. He says this kind of education will be needed for business decisionmakers to be capable of preventing a broader economic meltdown. Hubbard believes ethics courses simply marginalize the subject, when in reality ethics and doing the right thing is woven into everything that happens, decisions that take place in so many ways and places, and often over many years. For this reason Columbia seeks to cover this ground in case discussions in different subject areas across the breath of the curriculum. Some of the developments and decisions occur over 25 years as in a GM auto industry case taught at Columbia. ...

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The renewal of America requires new leadership at the helm of America's institutions for higher learning when men's enrollment in college education is endangered as reported in WSJ. This WSJ report shows presidents choosing to retire at Dartmouth, NYU, Columbia, U Penn, MIT. Lee Bollinger is 75, he started at Columbia as president in 2002. He helped raise $13 billion and expanded the 13 acre Manhattanville campus. Yet what does it say for so many college presidents when during the period when they raised vast sums of money and during the last 2 decades college education is harder and harder to afford for ordinary Americans? During the pandemic WSJ reports in 2021 even show that American men are having a hard time paying for college education and rates of enrollment are dropping for men to alarming levels. Never before in America's history has it been said that American men are becoming endangered for higher education. One rarely hears college presidents talk about these social issues that are top and center for ordinary Americans. It is not just Columbia or what are called Ivy League institutions, most of the leading colleges in America have forgotten why they are here in the first place and what made America what it was and again can be, a land of opportunity for all. It is time for anew generation of leaders in American higher education to dedicate themselves to this task - so that we hold these rights to be self-evident, to renew America in the face of many challenges and set a model for the free world. ...

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Young people are the major source of transmission of coronavirus in the US with school sports as a major cause. Michigan, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, makeup 42% of cases on April 11. Adults ages 20 to 39 are affected the most in Michigan. With cases for children under 19 quadrupling from a month ago. 301 reported school outbreaks in Michigan alone. A big problem is that the spread of the variant B.1.1.7  from the UK started in clusters earlier in February. It now has spread to the general population. India has seen a surge in the past 5 days and public health officials are learning from this experience in Europe and the US. The focus  should be on micro containment zones, prime minister Modi told state chief ministers in a virtual meeting on April 10, with screening, testing, tracking, and that health officials should not let higher numbers affect their persistent effort to screen, test and track as with the unceasing effort the results will come. ...

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Ailworth and Faucon describe the ways in which shale oil producers such as Continental Resources in Texas and S. Dakota are responding to the drop in oil prices. One strategy adopted is to put off 60% of the expense of production by not completing the final stages of production of hydraulic fracturing, but keeping the wells ready so that production can quickly be ramped up if prices go to the $60-65 range. EOG Resources, Andarko, Apache, Chesapeake Energy, are also following this strategy. There are about 3000 such wells, not pumping but drilled and ready for hydraulic fracturing, according to RBC Capital Markets estimates. This strategy would mean large shale oil supplies well into the future to keep oil prices low. Production from lower cost wells continues with U.S. oil production climbing to a new high of 9.4 million barrels a day for week ending March 6, 2015, according to federal data. This shows that this is a new situation and the resilience of shale oil supplies may have been underestimated. Another strategy adopted by other large companies such as Exxon is to continue to develop technology by learning to get the oil out of the rock in the most cost efficient way. The capital investment in U.S. shale oil has dropped by $50 billion in 2015 compared to 2014. The number of oil rigs drilling declined to 866 in the U.S. by March 2015, according to Baker Hughes....

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The need for a global response to a global problems not a lot of local solutions is the subject of this article by Dr. Larry Brilliant, who for 7 years 1973-80 worked with the World Health Organization to eradicate smallpox globally. 1. Action for a global response-The WHO can act as the vehicle for action globally-  restructure it and empower it to do the job. Put the right people in place who have the confidence globally. Set a new pandemic treaty and put it in place. 2.  Get a more advanced version of the mRNA vaccine which does not need a cold chain. India is reportedly working on one. Put funds and people in place for vaccine drives in poor countries.  Other action needed is learning from the situation in South Africa where the HIV patients are reported by Stephanie Nolan in NYT to have been more susceptible to mutations of the new variant. How can resources be put in place in poor countries so that patients in vulnerable populations get their medicines regularly, and are vaccinated. Overall how can these populations have the vaccine supplies needed- including ones without cold chain suggested by Larry Brilliant, potentially through vaccine work in India. Can international teams be developed with developed countries in Europe and US financing the effort and India offering its manpower and knowhow?   ...

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The speed with which GST revenues grow in India will determine the pace of industrial development, infrastructure building, and exports growth in India. It is the main source of government revenues and plays a role similar to what land sales played in China's rapid development over two decades.  States that generate the maximum GST reflect the industrial and commercial activity of the state in the overall context of India's growth. This is why Maharashtra with the commercial capital Mumbai plays an important role with Gujarat and its commercial capital Ahmedabad. Both states formed the industrial core of the country under the British Empire as one state called Bombay state. Maharashtra today makes up 15% of the country's GST revenue with Gujarat coming in close to Karnataka at third. Maharashtra at 2.7 lakh crores for 2022-2023, Gujarat at 1.1 lakh crores and Karnataka at 1.2 lakh crores. Karnataka has the IT capital of India in Bangalore now called Bengaluru. The compound annual growth rate of Maharashtra is 12.3% for the five years to 2022-2023 and for Gujarat 11.8%, Karnataka 11.7%. During the last year Maharashtra GST grew at 24%. National compound annual growth rate for GST tax collections is 11.3%. These states all have state and federal governments aligned for maximum effort in infrastructure and logistics development through allocation of capital, land, human resources, and other inputs. Tamilnadu comes next with 11% growth with the state capital of Madras or Chennai. These were the main commercial centres under the British. Bangalore emerged after independence in 1947 as the center for IT industries. To repeat the kind of development acceleration seen one after another in Japan, South Korea and China, and learning from their experience particularly the climate change and pollution negative aspects of the Chinese experience, India needs the accelerated growth at these rates for GST to finance growth in investments. It also needs to increase the quality of these investments by paying attention to negatives such as pollution and climate change through government regulation of activities that create these negative aspects.  ...

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The NYT, Wash Post, WSJ, and television shows such as CBS, fail to clearly give a summary of Harris and Trump policies, showing  dangers or opportunities. Key issues are Immigration and here Kamala Harris simply will sign into law in the first months of her presidency the Republican Lankford McConnell legislation that president Biden has negotiated and agreed to for closing the Border with Mexico and fixing asylum policy.  

Social Security Medicare- The Trump plan for ending tax on Social Security in effect defunds Social Security and Medicare. For what purpose? Ending the tax only gets people earning less than $60,000  90 dollars. That's correct $90, according to Tax Policy center. And on average $550. It will bring up the insolvency of Medicare up by 6 years to 2031, and lead to cut in Social Security Benefits of 25% in 2032, according to Center for a Responsible Budget.

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An argument for the market economy is that it enables social mobility, so that persons willing to work hard and use talents can do better than their parents and move up in income level.  Yet this is proving to be wrong as there is less social mobility in developed countries, and even less so in developing economies. In the U.S. it would take 5 generations or 100 years, says this OECD report, for someone in the bottom 10% of earners to secure an average income. Even in a country like Denmark it will now take 2 generations or 40 years. In Colombia it would take 11 generations, almost as long as the country has been separate from Spain. Globally, says OECD, the social mobility was better before 1975. OECD's Gabriela Ramos, the chief of staff, says families and communities have been trapped since the 1980's at the bottom rung of the social ladder. In the U.S. 42% of men with low earning fathers end up in the same income level, much higher than the OECD's 31%. At the other end 48% in high income groups see descendents in the same group, similar in the U.S. and Germany. This the OECD says is bad for economic growth in the long run. This "broken elevator" is causing a backlash against the market economy and democracy, disturbing the social cohesion in society. The answer says the OECD, is to provide federal funds to make up for gaps in education so that access to higher education is provided to people on a broad level to include all parts of society. ...

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The task of getting 20 million tons of foodgrains in Ukrainian silos out of Ukraine is being taken up by the European Union. Ms. Leyen of the EU has emphasized the importance of this mission for poor countries. About 50 countries depend on Ukraine and Russia for over 30% of imports of foodgrains says the WSJ. One way supported in this WSJ Editorial Board opinion is to use naval ships to escort ships carrying grain out of Black Sea ports. This requires Turkey's support and has to be done as a humanitarian move with ships from many countries. Rail would be an option yet Ukraine and the rest of Europe use different railway infrastructure. Steps need to be taken to do this quickly to overcome the rail issues and also use motor transport. The port of Odessa has been mined by Ukraine to prevent a Russian naval assault showing that there are obstacles along the way to be met by land or by sea. Starting now would be the best way to approach this. Both the Eu and the US should work together on this. The baby food crisis in the US was tackled by special flights from Germany. This shows that many options can be combined and problems tackled to get food grains out. What seems insurmountable can be tackled with action taken early, learning along the way. The Berlin Airlift did this in 1947 with another Soviet blockade. This would also lift spirits throughout the world. ...

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This view from the Editorial Board comes as Republicans in Congress geared up for a legislative victory decided to ignore the expert opinion of the Joint Committee on Taxation and polls showing a majority of Americans disapprove of the tax law. It says a "corrosive partisanship" that is affecting the nation has led to this decision. Not an informed consensus necessary to make real and lasting changes to the tax laws that increase growth without disrupting hard won gains in social cohesion after World War II.  Republicans pushed through a trillion and half dollars in tax cuts in the law that reduces the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%, and cut taxes in 2019 by 51 times ($51,400) for the top 1% of incomes compared to ($1000) for middle class families earning less than $100,000 (Tax Policy Center). The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates it will add $1 trillion to the U.S. deficit as only $500 billion is expected in increase in government revenues over a decade from additional economic growth. This is supported by evidence from countries such as Britain that implemented this type of corporate tax cut without generating much economic growth, says Greg Ip in the Wall Street Journal. The "victory" then comes at a high cost says the Washington Post- in years to come programs to help the growing lower middle class and working class will be subject to cuts and taxes will have to rise to balance budgets.   ...