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Over the last ten years average growth in real per capita income has averaged 1.6%, with declines only in two years of the last twenty years, 2008 with the global financial crisis, and in 1991 a year before President George H.W. Bush lost the election to Clinton. A forecast by Mark Zandl of Moody's Economy.com shows real disposable income per capita is expected to increase by 0.4% by the end of the third quarter of 2010 from a year earlier. This will show up in consumer spending and will weaken the recovery. It is also likely to be reflected in elections in the latter part of 2010.

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The 25-30 fishing vessels and tugboats that have supplied Misurata by sea, act as an essential lifeline to the city besieged by Ghadafi. The boats operating under cover of darkness carry both humanitarian supplies and war needs for defence of the city. Libyan volunteers staff these boats, volunteers who believe that the people have finally found their voice against the Arab strongmen who have run countries in their region for decades. The defence of Misurata has another passion for these people, men like Saif Nasser who runs the tugboat Al Iradah 6- and this is to prove to the world that the Libyan people's struggle is not a sectarian struggle which should end with a partition of the country's east from the west. Misrata is a coastal city only 130 miles from Tripoli's coast. If the city is being defended against all odds, it tells the world that this is a popular struggle to build a new democratic Libya with civil rights and civil society, and a voice in their government, similiar to the struggles in Syria, Egypt and Tunisia....

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The iPhone 7 does not have any exceptional new features- just small improvements over iPhone 6 that were expected. This is what reviewers think. Over the years Apple set a high bar for its product innovations, now this is slowing and big changes are coming much slower. It is seen as a time when expectations for Apple may need to be reset. This is not unusual and does not mean this is a big problem for Apple, as the products still work very well, and all the products sync well,  says this reviewer.

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The Economist's view is that trade and currency tensions are too high to result in an accord along the lines of the 1985 Plaza Accord. There may be a general underestimation of how strongly the American public feels about trade and jobs issues, and the currency issues that are intertwined with trade issues. This includes the Economist. See the 2010 survey of American public opinion (Murray, Belkin, WSJ, Oct 2, 2010, Americans Sour on Trade), which shows that better educated and higher income professionals are also shifting to firm opinions on trade that impacts jobs in the U.S. Also see Roubini's recent analysis (interview with Peter Stein, WSJ, 10/2/2010, Yen Revaluation for China's Own Sake), on why it is imperative in China's own interest to move forward with a currency revaluation. Economist Robert Gordon of Northwestern University (Peter Coy, Business Week, 9/30/2010, Why One Economist Predicts Slow US Economic Growth), recently pointed out that his models show a significant slowing down of the U.S. economy over the next two decades, the slowest growth since the Presidency of George Washington. This means growth slowing down to 1.5% in the period 2007-2027, from 1.93% in the prior three decades, which he says leaves less money for everything from tackling carbon emissions to infrastructure needs. ...

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As seen in the campaigns of Gretchen Whitmer for Governor western Michigan and Kalamazoo are critical in 2024. Michelle Obama joins Kamala Harris at an event in Kalamazoo in the closing days of the campaign. 

Speaking about women's health and pregnancies Michelle Obama was passionate in her words in Kalamazoo speaking to men and women-

"Consider the harm that is done when a government keeps revoking the basic care from its women."

“I am asking y’all, from the core of my being, to take our lives seriously. If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.”

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Who is this sandwich generation in America? The term refers to young people facing the high cost of raising children and lack of affordability of childcare as well as caring for elderly parents some in their eighties. The problem is acute for these families in 2024 who have already experienced the covid pandemic, loss of jobs, loss of family members. Men and women are squeezed from both sides as they care for children and elderly parents without assistance from the government. Harris's plan in America for childcare assistance of $6000, payment assistance for down payment on buying a home, assistance for starting a small business, increasing supply of housing by building 3 million new homes, has young people with children uppermost in mind.

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Abortion rights amendments passed in 7 states, voters continued to back it. But this did not help Harris as pocketbook issues and cost of living, the economy was the major issue for both women and men. White women have never voted by a majority for any but 2 Southerners fromTexas LBJ 1964, and Bill Clinton from Arkansas in 1996. This shows that it was not realistic for the campaign to depend on abortion as the issue when the economic difficulties following the pandemic were real for Americans across gender and the Democratic party had started on the road to regaining but not yet regained the trust of working class voters. It was too much to accomplish in 4 years of Biden what had eroded over three decades.

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The run out given on English batsman Bairstow as he stepped out of the crease while batting creates tension at Lord's cricket crowd Ashes Test on July 2, 2023. A huge effort by English captain Stokes with 154 runs still leaves England short of the 43 runs to match the Aussie batting effort. England's Ben Duckett 98 and 83 runs and Aussies Steve Smith 110 and 34 runs were batsmen who scored for their side. 

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Biden picks as his running mate a former prosecutor, Attorney General and Senator from California, Kamala Harris. Her parents one a Jamaican father and the mother from Madras, now called Chennai in India, met as graduate students at Berkeley campus. In the period before his illness, as Attorney General Mr. Biden's oldest son Beau Biden and Kamala Harris had worked closely together and formed a bond that continued during the period Beau Biden suffered from brain cancer.

 

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A new Gallup poll shows only 7% of Americans find Media to be "trustworthy" and 38% say they have no trust at all in the Media, such as newspapers or television shows. We cite this as a Early Warning before readers look to the media to understand the Nation's president. Lyrarc.com found the president to have a score of 9 out of 10 for yesterday's NATO news conference for grasp of complex details, his way of getting this across in plain English to viewers, the complex problems he is tackling which no cognitive test cleared could enable one to tackle. Remember Corinthians 3-18, 3-19, when it comes to the Media that take the place of the People and the Nation-" Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." To have a Janet Yellen at Treasury, Jake Sullivan at National Security, Garland at Justice Department and others of that caliber around him Biden has to interact with and guide some of the sharper minds that America can put out. To have their confidence and their wholehearted support in what he is doing for the people, requires a sharp and alert mind from Biden. ...

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Decades of investment in car manufacturing and EV's is paying off for China. It now exports 5.7 million cars of which 1.7 million are EV's. EV exports are twice that of Germany. Car production capacity in China surged as the Chinese market expanded to be larger than Europe and the US combined. The production capacity is twice the size of the domestic market- 40 million gasoline cars from 100 factories.  As domestic sales have slowed down there is a push for exporting this excess capacity. The US and the EU are imposing tariffs on Chinese cars to protect their domestic manufacturing. The push to become a leader dates back to premier Wen Jiabao 20003-2013. Wen chose Audi engineer Wan Gang as minister of science and technology, and gave him the task of making China the leader in electric vehicles. Manufacturers were given subsidies, tax breaks, cheap land and electricity. By one estimate the EV manufacturers and battery makers in China received $230 billion in subsidies since 2009.  This is one reason the EU and the US are imposing tariffs to protect their domestic manufacturers. As the shift to EV's continues in China- half of the cars in 2024 EV's- the gasoline models are shipped overseas. China has now replaced the western brands in Russia with it's gasoline models.  China makes great savings in batteries as it controls the supply chain in batteries. It makes EV's at 30% lower cost with these efficiencies. ...

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Refugees now favor Sweden over Denmark.

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Research done by the WSJ shows people who sped time on fitness and are older are happier. More females than males by a wide margin. Community involvement rates are higher and faith in God is seen in people who are happier. Aaron Zitner shows the lives of 3 people including an 80 year old who ran a health clinic for 25 years who find happiness through community involvement and many projects including one that cut ten pregnancy in her county and is now writing grants to restore an old YWCA building in Cortland, N.Y.

A 77 year old civil engineer on a 7 acre farm in Chesapeake, Virgina, has good relationships, community involvement, and the same house for a generation, whose belief in God helps him be happy and find serenity in life.

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The MIT Economics Department helped shape the thinking of influential central bank governors, Mervyn King of the Bank of England, Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank. Bernanke (1979) and Draghi (1977) received their Ph.D.s in economics from MIT in the late 1970's, with Prof. Stanley Fischer (1973-94) as their advisor. Charles Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England followed them a few years later. Mervyn King was a visiting professor at MIT (1983-84). King and Bernanke shared an office as professors at MIT. The MIT school came up with a pragmatic and activist approach which argued there was a role for government when markets and the economy stumbled. This followed a period when economists from the universities at Chicago, Minnesota and Rochester were influential, making the case for efficient markets and businesses holding rational future expectations which were ahead of government planners; saying government should play a minimal role. The MIT trained central bankers have made shaping public and market expectations an important part of policy actions. Draghi's July 23, 2012 remark- "Believe me this will be enough," was an effort to shape expectations after the European Central Bank's July 2012 bond buying actions in the eurozone. Germany has a competing version based in Bonn. Germany's former Bundesbank president, Axel Weber, was the tutor at Bonn University for current Bundesbank president, Jens Weidmann. Both Weber and Weidmann supported austerity measures, inflation fighting efforts of former ECB head Claude Trichet, and opposed Draghi's monetary easing and bond buying efforts to reduce excessive yields of Italy and Spain....

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After the German election the next election in France in 2022 will provide new direction for Europe. As in Germany with Olaf Scolz of the Social Democrats, in France an alternative is emerging with Xavier Bertrand of the Les Republicains. Like Scholz Bertrand was Labor Minister working to tackle difficult problems of increasing employment in the French economy going back a decade. In recent elections the party French president Emmanuel Macron created as a member of Francois Hollande's government has floundered. Macron hastily put together the En Marche in Amiens on April 16, 2017, when he was minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in the government of president Hollande. During the eight year period in which the centre right Christian Democrats CDU and center left Social Democrats SPD had ruled in a coalition government in Germany some version of centrist politics and government had also prevailed in France. After the Sarkozy years 2007-2012 under the centre right Les Republicains party  France turning to the centre left Socialists under Francois Hollande. As a young minister 39 years Macron lacked experience, and the initial enthusiasm that helped him win the 2017 presidential election is now missing. As in Germany voters are looking for change not just in slogans but in substance in a new Trans Atlantic partnership of US, Germany and France to tackle the may problems that were neglected in the last two decades of changing administrations in US and France and the Merkel administration in Germany- problems of social cohesion, of income inequality, division of country into rural and urban, eastern and western in Germany, southern and northern in the US, neglect of infrastructure, and failure to invest in the future.  France is now turning to the Les Republicains party in recent elections, and away from Le Pen's far right party and Macron's party.  Both Macron and Le Pen did very poorly in recent regional elections. This report in FR24 points out that the candidate for the Les Republicains party will be chosen at a convention, and not at a primary as happened in 2017 leading to the elimination of former Republicains president Nicholas Sarkozy. The president of the Haute France regional council Xavier Bertrand is the leading candidate from the regional election results. Bertrand was Sarkozy's minister of Labor and Solidarity from 2007 to 2009, and Minister of Labor, Employment and Health in 2009. Today Olaf Scholz, winner of the German elections in September 2021 was also Minister of Labor- in the Social Democrats/ Greens government under Gerhard Schroeder 1998 to 2005. Voters now realize that it is important to value experience, stability, combined with humility and a determination to get things done, compared to charismatic leaders with little to show in results, and tangible improvements in the quality of life, in national renewal.      ...

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Panasonic forecast a loss of $10 billion or 780 billon yen for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. This is the second largest loss for a Japanese manufacturing company. Hitachi lost 787 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2009 after the financial crisis of 2008. In the prior fiscal year Panasonic showed net profit of 74 billion yen. Panasonic posted restructuring costs of 191 billion yen for the television business and 49 billion yen for the chip business for the first three quarters of the current fiscal year. For the fourth quarter it will take a 250 billion yen writedown of goodwill for the Sanyo acquisition. Panasonic acquired Sanyo based on the potential for growth in its lithium ion battery and solar panel business. But the Sanyo unit is facing stiff competition from manufacturers in South Korea and China, with Samsung Electronics as a major competitor. The strength of the Japanese yen is affecting all Japanese manufacturers. The price competition is severe in the television business and this is also affecting Sony. Since the acquisition Sanyo's earning prospects have significantly worsened says Panasonic CFO, Makoto Uenoyama. Panasonic CEO Ohtsubo defends the acquisition saying that without the rechargeable battery business and its potential in hybrid/electric cars Panasonic's growth potential would not be the same as it is now. Panasonic plans to stop production at two plants making plasma and LCD panels this fiscal year. The job cuts planned will bring the number of employees down from 367,000 in the prior fiscal year to below 350,000....