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WSJ's Dawn Gilbertson on Amtrak's California Zephyr train from Chicago to Emeryville, California through the Rocky mountains in Colorado and Sierra Nevada mountain range. A three day two night 53 hour journey with an observation lounge and dining car, and a small private room called a sleepette at $1200, private bedrooms and shower bathrooms at $2500 per person. She says the draw is the scenic route and many of the 200 passengers one meets in the dining car for the three meals aday that come with the roomette. Train enthusiasts even young children fly in from all parts of the USA to catch this train braving what is a long train ride. 

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Problems the Modi administration in India will face in the mining, oil and power sectors.

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China imports most of Iran's oil exports about 1.8 million barrels a day which flow through the Straits of Hormuz. Iran is heavily dependent on these exports for oil revenues that support it's economy. All Asian economies are heavily dependent on the oil flowing from Saudis, UAE and Iran through the Straits.  For Iran it would mean the loss of oil revenues needed to support its economy if the Straits are shut down. Iran's central bank says it get $67 billion from oil exports 90% of it going to China alone.  82% of oil imports of Asian countries  from Saudi, UAE, Qatar and Iran sources go though the Straits.  The US is not dependent on the Straits- less than 10% of its oil. Also true of Germany. The US  would have to use air strikes to prevent any mining of the waters seaway, and China, US, Japan, India would join in combined effort to keep all sea navigation open for international shipping.  ...

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78 year old president Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan steps down after 30 years in power. Presidential elections will be held with a caretaker who is Senate president in charge till then. He juggled the competing interests of China and Russia to attract investment in the energy industry. China has invested $30 billion in the country as a link in the Belt and Road Initiative in infrastructure, mining and financial sectors.  Russia is the largest trading partner. Since 2002 GDP per capita has increased six times according to the World Bank.

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US retail sales rebounded in January 2023 increasing by 3% after sales declines in the last 2 months of 2023. Shoppers spent more on vehicles, furniture, clothing and dining out. Employers added half a million jobs in January, according to the Labor Department. This shows a resilient US economy in the middle of high inflation and higher interest rates by the Fed to fight inflation.

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Cheap abundant coal supplies support the Australian lifestyle and standard of living. Australia is a big exporter of coal. Here prime minister Morrison is shown with coal in his hand in parliament lauding its benefits to the Australian economy as a source of its wealth. Only now with floods, drought and fires is the real cost of coal becoming apparent to Australians. In elections in 2021 Mr. Albanese of Labour party replaced Mr. Morrison and promised changes. Mining interests and jobs influence key swing constituencies in elections leading to the impasse on climate change action. As one of the windiest and sunniest places in the planet Australia says the OECD is in a position to play a large role in renewable energy. This suggests that policy so far has been shortsighted. Worse it may have fueled the rise of temperature on the planet by providing cheap coal for China to grow at rates close to 12% for decades.

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Brazil president Lula at COP30 Belem, Brazil- mixing oil drilling plans with plans for climate change for Amazon forests. This is not a contradiction in today's world as many nations including China, India are depending on coal and moving forward with solar and wind energy, and the US is also drilling for oil and it's private sector continues moving forward on renewable energy. In 2025 cost of living action for working class families means getting cheaper sources of energy, and at the same time climate change requires new invention and scientific advances in developing solar, wind, nuclear and other renewable energy. US Biden administration accepted this combination approach and it is also practiced under the current US Republican administration with different degrees of emphasis to meet current and future challenges in the best way possible.

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The slowing growth in China is reducing growth and depreciating the currencies of iron ore producing countries Brazil and Australia. China makes 50% of the world's steel and imports 1.2 billion tons of iron ore traded annually. Australia exports 80% of its iron ore to China valued at $67 billion in 2013. Brazil sends 50% of production to China. For the first time in 15 years China's steel use declined 0.3% to 500 million tons in the Jan-Aug. 2014 period. The mining companies have invested heavily in ports and railroads for expanded production. BHP CEO Mackenzie says the strategy is to maximize production because reducing production increases costs on a unit basis. The result is a decline in price from $135 a ton at the beginning of 2014 to $69.80 on Nov. 28, 2014. Prices could decline to the $50 range in 2015, according to Citigroup analysts, because of an estimated iron ore surplus of 300 million tons by 2018. As China expands recycling of older cars and washing machines to produce steel this will reduce future iron ore demand in China. JP Morgan forecast for Australia reduces GDP growth to 2.8% from 3.3% for 2015, and Brazil reduced its forecast for 2015 to 0.9% from 1.8%....

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One third more dads at home is a silver lining from the pandemic says The Guardian. Dads are spending more quality time with their children. In this way the lockdowns were a catalyst for a much needed change.  There has also been a change in the perception of what a good father looks like- parenting is part of the new dad's active role. Dads having tried this during the extra time they now spend doing remote work from home, say this has shown them what things look from the women's side. And it has been a positive change.

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Commodities prices hit a low in June before the second Greece election on June 16, with lower unemployment numbers in the U.S. and growth of 6-7% in India and China. Still average prices of oil in 2012 of $115 a barrel are higher than the level in 2011. And corn prices dropping to $5.25 a bushel are still high compared with prices earler. Corn farmers in the U.S. are adding to acreage. The relatively lower prices also give more room for smaller stimulus by central banks to stimulate growth. Freeport-Mining CEO, Richard Atkinson said in a presentation that the growth is coming on top of a bigger baseline for China, India and Brazil. China's copper consumption went up by about 6 million tons a year, averaging 13% growth a year in the period 1995-2010. Now even with slower growth at 6% a year, by 2025 he estimates China's copper consumption at 9 million tons per year. This is a structural change that is supporting commodity prices, says Amrita Sen, analyst at Barclays Capital.

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Areva will take a writedown of 1.46 billion euros on the value of its uranium mining business. It will take an additional writedown of 800 million euros for the nuclear business following the nuclear accident in Japan. Areva expects a 2011 full year operating loss of 1.4-1.6 billion euros. Areva's new CEO, Luc Oursel, says he plans to reduce the company's debt load. About 1.2 billion euros of assets will be put on sale. The French sovereign fund, SFI, says it will buy Areva's 26% stake in mining group Eramet. Areva faces losses on its acquisition for $2 billion of uranium mining company UraMin, which has declined in value by 80% as uranium prices dropped and uranium reserves in African mines turned out to be less than estimated. Areva's new plans show organic growth of 3-6% from 2012 to 2013, increasing to 5-8% in 2015. Areva's shares at 19.20 euros on Dec. 12, 2011, were down 45% since the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Britain and the Czech Republic in Europe, China and India in Asia, plan to invest in nuclear energy....

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Eighteen year old Bianca Andreescu of Canada wins the U.S. Open 6-3, 7-5 defeating 37 year old veteran Serena Williams as she attempted a comeback. The intelligent game with a whole range of shots and use of creative game mixing up the shots was a feature of Andrescu's style that made it fun to watch the game. Martina Navritolova says Andrescu's style is so creative that its great to have a new player like her in the game.

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Lawrence Downes makes a road trip with singer Linda Ronstadt to her Sonoran roots in Southern Arizona and northern Mexico. They go to Tucson where Linda grew up and visit Naco, Canelo, and Banamichi. Her great grand father was a German immigrant in the 1950's who settled in Banamichi, as a mining engineer and a colonel in the Mexican army. The group including Ronstadt's friends spends several nights in the midst of cactus, agave and open blue desert skies. Beginning with a visit to the mission San Javier del Bac, Linda's spiritual center, Downes attends mass with Linda at the Church of our Lady Loreto. A colorful description of the journey, Ronstadt and friends, which shows Linda's early inspirational roots, and where her 1987 album Canciones de mi Padre comes from. The anguish bordering on tears in her Sonoran voice held back and then the release, has a deep Mexican quality abut it.

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China's investments in Africa have grown rapidly from $100 million in 2003 to $12 billion in 2011, as it looks for resources in mining and other industries. Pew Research Center surveys show African countries view China's foreign investment favorably.

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The peaceful transition in Zambia as Michael Sata wins the election. Sata's party won the election with 43% of the votes compared to Hastings Banda's party's 36%. The outgoing president Hastings Banda's party had been in power for two decades. This is a remarkable peaceful transition of power after disputed elections in the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Sata's support came from the urban young, jobless people and the labor unions. He was critical of mining investments by western companies and China for paying low wages, and campaigned for higher tax revenues from the mining industry. This is a remarkable transition and a good example for future elections in Africa. Recent elections in the Ivory Coast led to a transition that had to be enforced with French support.

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Cutter and Adams of the WSJ show the inner workings of a large consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. A University of Chicago professor started the firm in 1926. By the 1960's the firm would hire new graduates and train them in its consulting culture to do studies and make recommendations on issues facing client companies. Consultants are not hired for long  experience in each field, they are hired from top business schools and universities upon graduation and trained in the company culture. Work involves extensive travel from different offices, with long hours typical also of the financial firms, with little acknowledgement of worklife balance for productive effort even after the pandemic. Cutter and Adams do not cover an earlier period of McKinsey during the financial crisis of 2008 with a controversy around insider trading information about Goldman Sachs which hurt the reputation of McKinsey.  The WSJ investigation into 1MDB Malaysia fund scandal showed Goldman Sachs involvement leading to less confidence in large financial firms as well as consulting companies. This consulting business is growing after the pandemic with about half of it related to companies seeking to prepare and set up AI. This report looks at the new setup in McKinsey where hundreds of senior partners now elect the head of the firm for two 3 year terms. The head of AI at McKinsey is challenging the the current head of the firm in an upcoming election. It cannot be said that consulting firms are improving the management of companies, as more companies today use it sparingly and mostly for special needs or studies including AI. As a result these consulting companies are using the same branding mechanisms, and as Cutter and Adams point out, these professional service firms are run by partners through a system of extensive wining and dining, talking and communicating, so that people who can set an internal consensus do well. The process of development of management skills in the US dating back to Alfred Sloan at General Motors when Mr. Mckinsey started his firm at University of Chicago in 1926, and to Andy Grove founder of Silicon Valley in the 1970's, with their  emphasis on constructive confrontation and skills Grove later outlined in his book "High Output Management" has little to do with such consultancy firm services. Even less can it be said about these consultany services that they have anything to do with the management intuition, vision, wisdom and skills of Matsushita in his book "Not for Bread Alone, Akio Morita in "Made in Japan," or for Grove's unique perspective in "Only the Paranoid Survive."  ...

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Many African countries have high growth rates but this can be misleading. Much of the wealth is generated from drilling or mining for resources. There is no transparency about the wealth generated and its use, with much of the wealth siphoned off to go to the ruling elites. Even the thriving private sectors can give the false impression of progress, when they are cartels of firms run for the benefit of the ruling party and its cronies. Independent media is purchased by the ruling elites and the information is one sided, concealing the imbalanced development and widening gaps between the wealthy and the vast majority of poor. When investments are made they show a stark reality of years of neglect of education and healthcare. Angola has built 24 new hospitals with oil revenues, but has only 1500 doctors for a population of 18 million. Much of Nigeria's electricity supply comes from small generators as the government electricity system has seen underinvestment for years. State owned firms are "privatised" in Nigeria by giving them to cronies of the government in power. These countries lack a honest civil service, an ethic of responsibility in the educated and ruling classes, institutions of democracy with checks and balances, and independent media. The anti colonialist movements in African countries have failed to deliver on education, democratic institutions, and building a prosperous middle class in most of Africa with a few exceptions. Both military and civilian leaders have failed to relinquish power once in control, with the rare exceptions....

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Stories of people who have turned the lockdown stay at home into a positive experience. Learn something new during the stay at home, try new projects, learn new skills, try new hobbies, spend quality time.