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Softbank the epitome or synonym of waste on a huge scale of capital allocation for the last 2 decades in massively distorted capital markets when healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technologies and infrastructure is suffering from lack of funding, is hit with a loss of $23 billion for the second quarter which was one and half times the loss of the first quarter. As the WSJ reports Softbank and Masayoshi Sen was delirious in his own words during the tech booms of the last 20 years and its founder talked about bigger and bigger capital allocation even as productivity of capital declined rapidly. This happened astonishingly with little restraint in capital markets shown by participants even as healthcare in the ten years before the pandemic was not adequately funded, and education, infrastructure, manufacturing technologies were neglected which would have provided better returns on capital and served the interests of the American people and the world in a way that would have been said was well done had this been done. This went on astonishingly right into the pandemic period. Investments of about $50 billion were made in tech startup companies in 2021.  ...

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This WSJ report looks at the work of Alexei Miller as head of Gazprom which supplies Russian natural gas through the Nordstream pipeline to Europe. Mr. Miller is shown to have put too much reliance on the European market which is now shrinking with the European decision to cut dependence on Russian gas. compared to alternative markets in China Russia has invested too little in pipelines to other regions in Asia. He has also not invested in LNG which could be shipped to China and other countries leaving Russia too dependent on pipelines that run mostly to Europe such as Nordstream 1 and 2.  Russia was sending 160 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Europe and only 11 billion cubic metres to China in 2021. A major shift requires much new infrastructure. Miller also did not grasp how shale oil and gas would boom in the US. Mr. Miller started as a 39 year old economics PhD in 2001 when Putin made him head of Gazprom. Both had worked together in St Petersburg local government, and Miller was Deputy Energy Minister for 1 year, briefly head of a pipeline system to the Gulf of Finland. ...

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The 22 states that formed the state of Rajasthan 22 months after independence in 1947 were part of the Rajputana Agency under the British Empire in India. It spanned 330,000 square kilometres with an agent under the Governor General in charge at Mount Abu. All had Hindu rulers except Tonk and most of them were Rajput except for Jat rulers in Bharatpur and Dholpur. These states were not affected by the 1857 revolt against British rule because they remained loyal to the British. Sardar Patel, deputy prime minister, headed the States Ministry with VP Menon as Secretary. The integration to form the new state happened in stages. The first union was the Matsya Union of Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, at the eastern edge of the Rajputana Agency by March 18, 1948. Nine other states near Udaipur in the south east merged to form the Rajasthan Union by March 25, 1948. On March 30, 1949, Patel pulled in 4 states bordering Pakistan, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jaipur, and Bikaner into Greater Rajasthan. The Matsya Union was merged into this state. In 1956 under States Reorganization Act Ajmer was added from federal rule and Abu Taluk was integrated into Rajasthan. ...

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Prime minister Modi addressed the 44th foundation day of the BJP party by video conference, with the speech screened at 100,000 points across India for party leaders and social workers. "BJP is working with the mantra of Sabka Saath-Sabka VIkas-Sabka Viswas- Sabka Prayas ( which means 'with everyone, for the development of all, with the confidence of all, with the efforts of all). we have always given topmost priority to social justice and empowerment in our hearts and working style. Social justice is not a part of political sloganeering for us but an article of faith for us." "The BJP lives social justice, follows it in letter and spirit. Getting 800 million people free ration (food) is a reflection of social justice. The facility of free treatment up to Rs 500,000 offered to 500 million people without discrimination is a strong expression of social justice." On Lord Hanuman, whose anniversary is today, Modi said India was realising its potential and strength like Lord Hanuman did after eliminating self doubt. "If we see the whole life of Lord Hanuman, he had a 'can-do' attitude that helped him achieve big successes." ...

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This report in WSJ says Mr. Musk's agreement with Twitter for the $44 billion merger had terrible timing. It comes with the future for social media companies becoming dimmer and the plunging shares in Tesla with the high inflation and the war in Ukraine hitting stocks.  It is striking that Musk around January 2022 before the invasion of Ukraine referred to Twitter as "the future of civilization," as reported by WSJ. This was typical of the hyperbole and talk typical of the last two decades that hyped up internet stocks. Musk said- "Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important for the future of civilization. I don't care about the economics at all." Twitter stock meanwhile has dropped to 20% below the price it came into public markets in 2013, now at about $35 a share. Mr. Musk agreed to buy Twitter at $54.20 a share about 50% more than it stands now. Twitter ad revenue outlook is dimming further as has happened at other social media companies and the company is now cutting jobs says the WSJ. ...

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The point at which pensions begin and retirement begins is thought of normally as 65 years. This is changing. Experts on ageing at Britain's ONS, Office of National Statistics say 70 years is replacing 65 years as the age at which people can work and contribute to society, working later in their careers and doing voluntary work. This would help ease pressure on pension system financing and cost of social service to elders. Because of rising longevity and improvements in healthcare, diet and lifestyles people age 70 had characteristics of people age 65 in 1997, say ONS experts. ONS looks at a new way to measure ageing. Do not use chronological years from birth, work backwards from remaining life expectancy and operate on the basis of 15 years as the marker for old age. Under this method start of old age is 70 for men and 72 for women. As people over 65 years is approaching a fourth of the population this fresh thinking gives more room for pension system sustainability, and helping engage people at work for longer more productive lives. Both for the economy and personally for the individual. ...

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Hospitals in Europe are filling up quickly in the second wave of coronavirus. Coronavirus patients had to be transferred by helicopter to Germany from the Netherlands because of overburdened Dutch intensive care units. National Guard troops were flown in from the U.S. to the Czech Republic to help. In France as cases approach cumulative 1 million about 2000 patients are admitted to hospital for coronavirus every day on October 29. At some point French hospitals could be overwhelmed this winter, and doctors having to choose which patients to save, says president Macron. In the Czech Republic a collapse of the health system is expected by mid-November says the prime minister. No one expected this to be this severe, he says.  About 40,000 patients are hospitalized for coronavirus in the U.S. During the last week the case are increasing by over 40% in the U.S. and increase in hospitalizations are expected. Recovery rate is improving from the first wave. At NYU Langone hospital system in New York with 5000 coronavirus patients hospitalized recovery rate is improving from 25% in March to 7% in October. Better handling of cases and knowledge gained by doctors is a big part of this. ...

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What is the oldest man alive like. Bob Weighton was presented with his certificate by the Guinness World Records this week. He lives in a assisted living home and is self isolating. Here is someone who has been through the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic that took millions of lives all over the world. What is he like? He was a professor of Marine Engineering at the City University of London till he retired at age 65 in 1973. Weighton says he is very pleased he was able to live so long and make so many friends. He has had serious medical operations but nothing he has experienced is like the coronavirus and self-isolation. He calls it "bizarre." But his advice is that there is nothing you can do about this so you might as well do what you can and  never mind about what you can't. He has 3 children, 10 grandchildren and 25 great grand children. He and wife Agnes traveled and worked around the world then settled back in the UK. She and his wife Agnes who passed away in 1993 volunteered in retirement as marraige counselors and helped youth groups in Alton.  ...

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Justin Lahart of the WSJ says the positive news from the May unemployment report comes as a complete surprise. No one expected the addition of 2.5 million jobs, and the reduction of the unemployment rate from 14.7% to 13.3% for May, as reported by the Labor Department. Lahart says that even though the response rate for the Labor Department survey measuring the jobless rate had only 67%- instead of the usual 82%- it is broadly reliable. About half of the jobs bounceback comes from the leisure and hospitality industry. Some of this from the creative ways restaurants responded by doing an active takeout business and bringing in some of the workers.  Other businesses also responded in creative ways to keep running. As long as the reopening of the economy can be done safely, more people can be back to work. The significant relief from the government for small business could also help these businesses weather the crisis. The Global Vaccine Summit recently opened provided more positive news. Plans are underway for India's Serum Institute to produce 400 million doses of the Oxford vaccine by December, providing more hope for recovery. ...

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The situation in California on December 12 is dire as its daily cases for coronavirus increase to over 25,000. For Los Angeles county the figure is over 10,000. California coped well with the first wave. As the summer arrived fatigue with lockdown restrictions had increased, social distancing and mask wearing were not followed. When bars and restaurants opened in Los Angeles county huge numbers of people gathered in close proximity. Beaches were crowded.  A further spike in cases is expected from the Thanksgiving period. LA officials are saying one person is dying every 20 minutes. ICU capacity is shrinking. In southern California it has dwindled to less than 10%.  In Santa Clara county in Bay area only 31 ICU beds remain for 2 million residents. San Francisco is expected to run out of ICU beds on December 27, 2020. A patchwork of restrictions varying by county means there is no uniform effort. Fatigue with restrictions means compliance is patchy with social distancing and mask wearing even at the height of this pandemic. Public officials have failed to convince the public to do their part including the governor of the state and the mayor of San Francisco, because of inconsistent messages. ...

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Already vaccination experts at the Baylor College of Medicine cited here say they foresee another wave of the coronavirus in the Southern US because of vaccine skepticism barriers to vaccination, and much of the population not being vaccinated. The percentage of the population in the Carolinas, Georgia, Georgia and Louisiana, that has both doses of vaccine is low. About 50% have had just one dose. In southern states Mississippi and Alabama the vaccination rates are much lower leaving large parts of the population unvaccinated. The widespread presence of the Delta variant in the UK and the R rate being between 1.00 and 1.2 in UK shows that the UK even with higher vaccination rates than the US is still facing a danger of another wave as it reopens.  The ominous aspect of this is that from just over 400,000 the vaccinations per day dropped to 316,000i n the US. This means there will be a period when vaccination drive is stalled while the reopening is fully underway with a new contagious variant twice as contagious as the original coronavirus. This leaves the US at risk of another wave, with the south and western US, younger people who are out more and unvaccinated, more at risk.  ...

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The sympathy Mohandas Gandhi had for the textile mill workers of Lancashire and their admiration for him is shown here in the Indian Express. Gandhi visited one Lancashire mill in 1931and was received with much enthusiasm with the crowd saying "Three cheers for Mr. Gandeye... hip hip.. Hurrah!" When British elections were called in 1945 the workers of Lancashire voted for Labour and Mr. Attlee and turned out Mr. Churchill. Mr. Attlee immediately started the negotiations for Gandhi's Hind Swaraj, the independence of India. This is a reminder of how Mohandas Gandhi would have viewed the globalization of the last 2 decades that ripped out manufacturing communities in the US and Europe in what is now seen as a failed supply chain that failed American workers and families. As the US and Europe build a new supply chain with the partners in the Free World including India, with the countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa, only the foundations of the new supply chain that build a better life for American, European and foreign workers and families is sound in principle and deserves the Free World's support. ...

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Stock markets have declined about 1% during the current banking crisis. This shows that the action taken by president Biden quickly taking over Silicon Valley Bank and closing Republic Bank is working. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the central banks of US, EU, Swiss, worked together to take immediate action. Swiss central bank and the government stepped in to arrange the backing for UBS to takeover Credit Suisse bank.  The crisis affected market sectors in differing ways. Information technology stocks were up 5.7%, energy stocks went down by 7%, bank stocks declined 6%, sensitive materials sector stocks went down by 3.5%. Risks remaining are that the loss of confidence in regional banks could affect lending. The Fed's policy of containing inflation by raising interest  rates could continue say experts leading to information tech stocks losing any gains. Any drop in the price of oil could help the economies of the US and EU, India, Japan and China. By March 15 prices of US crude had dropped for West Texas Intermediate benchmark to $67. Any drop of prices to the $60 level increases growth in the EU, US, China, India and Japan, reducing chances of a recession. ...

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The investigation into behaviour of the head of the Brexit department, and Justice Secretary, British deputy prime minister under Sunak, shows the tense relationship between the British Civil Service and the government. The official investigation by Adam Tolley KC found that Raab branded civil servant's work "utterly useless" and "woeful," says this report in The Guardian. Tolley rejected claims by Conservative MP's that civil servants were "snowflakes" and stressed that he did not find "any lack of resilience" among civil servants who "had many years of experience" working with ministers. What the report shows is that the entire Brexit process, the brusque nature with which one of the finest civil services in the world was handled by Conservatives pushing for Brexit and for other policies of the Conservatives, has led to a crisis in its operations. Much needs to be done to restore a level of confidence that civil servants deserve as part of the long tradition in which the British Civil Service has done much of the ablest work of the government of the British Isles over decades going back to the nineteenth century. ...

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How third party candidates in 2016 put Trump in the White House is shown in graphs in the WSJ. Since 2000 about 2% of the vote goes to third party candidates such as Greens, Libertarian, and others, in 2016 this reached 6%. It hurt Clinton the most as the Trump lead in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin was merely 5-10% of 200,000-300,000 votes for independent candidates in Wisconsin,  in Michigan and in Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton lacked clear focus in her campaign and her years as overseas traveling foreign minister left her out of touch with the alienation of the working class and fragmentation as Silicon valley tech and financial interests intruded into the Democratic party. This had the effect of muddying the focus on the Democrats FDR/Truman working class base and also with America's rural voters suffering from a toxic mix of problems. In 2024 the Kennedy candidacy takes as many or more votes from Mr. Trump says the WSJ. The Biden focus on workers and families gives the Democrats a clear direction along with wage gains by union labor and a resilient economy with low unemployment. This suggests that the independent candidates may not find more traction than the 2% of previous elections since 2000. ...

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As George Osborne of the Tories once pointed out China does not want to be thought of as a sweat shop on the Pearl River. And particularly not in a British attitude. How hard does China work is a question Tom Phillips tried to answer Oct 6, 2015 from Beijing for The Guardian. The migrant workers are the ones who work the hardest. And productivity is low. Among the higher classes there are longer hours with the work pressures, family obligations and long work hours leading to insomnia, fatigue, obesity, and ill health conditions. A comparison shows Britons working 1677 hours on average according to the OECD. The average Chinese worker is shown to work 2000 hours, by a researcher at Beijing Normal University. A labor economist in Beijing says as the economy improves and working conditions get better workers are working fewer hours every year. He says China lags behind in productivity. The longer working hours he says are not good for worker's health and for productivity. This was said in 2015 when China was still chasing GDP growth without the level of technology the US and Europe had. Now the focus has shifted to better quality growth in advanced technologies and old factories closed. ...

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Half of the 17 percentage points of lower investment in Britain between 2016 and 2023 came from administrative barriers with EU and of Brexit. Britain had deindustrialized and hoped to get growth from so called "clever industries" such as finance, media, and higher education. The Tories party led by Johnson and then Sunak painted a rosy picture for Britain leaving the European Union and doing better without it by working with China and the US and connecting to global supply chains. They ignored the actual facts of the globalization cycle reversing itself leaving Britain exposed in the storm.The slump in investment from Brexit hit Britain hard, the Ukraine war meant higher prices for energy imports from Norway and the US. The result is that only about half percentage point of 2 percent cumulative GDP growth in Britain between 4th qtr 2019 and 4th qtr 2023 came from jobs growth compared to about 3.75% in the EU economies. Eurozone growth at 4% was twice that in UK, and the US with higher productivity and job growth was growing at four times that in UK and twice that in EU at 8% over this period. ...

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Kamala Harris made remarkable progress in her handling of Central America (Guatemala, San Salvador and Nicaragua) during her assignment of tackling the problems in this region that were leading to high migration. A drought had hit agricultural regions in Guatemala adding to the surge at the time.  Here is how Harris tackled the problems of the economy, food, poverty, lack of jobs and migration from Guatemala. Harris increased investment in the region getting private and government sources in the US to invest $5 billion in the region. 250,000 jobs were created from this effort with loans from IDFC and US AID and State Department. Northern Central America was facing a hunger crisis and it was Harris who pulled together $300 million in emergency humanitarian assistance. Harris held corrupt leaders to account. Anti-corruption candidate Arevalo was elected president of Guatemala in 2023 through her efforts to ensure the rule of law and democracy are respected after the chaos of the Trump years. Joint taskforce Alpha was set up combining efforts of 3 US agencies to conduct countersmuggling operations.    ...

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Maroes Oldenburg of Netherlands stays calm in the final micro seconds taking a cue from the British rowers on the previous day as the Netherlands quad women rowing team win gold Paris Olympics 2024 by a fraction of a second- 0.18 seconds to be exact. Jonathan Liew of The Guardian shows the spirited Dutch effort in the final seconds. Maroes Oldenburg is recovering from a bicycling accident while traveling in Austria breaking her back, when she had to have a 6 hour surgery and was told she may not make it. It took 1 month for her to walk. “For anyone who needs some inspiration, break your neck and you can win Olympic gold,” says Maroes.  Glover who came in second has three children. Liew laments the lack of investment in childcare for woman athletes with small children, 124 years after women were admitted into the Olympics. Paris Olympics has a small investment in childcare, a nursery for the first time. Liew is right in saying throwing flowers from a distance at athletes is the easy part, giving working parents the tools to do well and childcare comes down to choices that we make. ...

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The author of the study Youth in Germany Kilian Hampel says, German youth after the pandemic have increasing stress about soaring housing costs, inflation, war in Ukraine, and fears about old age poverty. This is similar to what is happening in the US. This will be a factor in the European elections. Though a lot is written about far right parties. Much of the work that remains is about ensuring fairness, and equity, tackling inflation and building housing. This needs greater investment than Germany is today undertaking. Much of the Greens and Socialist party plans to invest in the last federal election were stalled when they did not get a majority and had to depend on the FDP which is too conservative for making the investments needed in the economy. In the US Biden forged abipartisan effort and invested heavily in Republican areas in the south and west. A similar task is needed in Germany including investing in the East and in education, healthcare and building new infrastructure. Rail, road, airport and bridge infrastructure in Germany is dilapidated and only by investing in it can the economy gain strength to meet the aspirations of young people. ...

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Under Project 2025, a blueprint for the first 100 days of a Trump second term-A middle class family with 100,000 in income a year and two children would pay extra $2600 additional federal income tax, whereas it gives a $325,000 tax cut for a married couple with 2 children making more than $5 million a year in income. On project 2025, the blueprint for the first 100 days in office of a Trump second term, the action items are ones that would jeopardize the safety of American institutions that were set up with so much care by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and nurtured by the first president George Washington with little attention to himself, and protected by president after president through civil war under Abraham Lincoln, through 2 World Wars and The Great Depression under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, through recovery under Harry Truman and Ike, only to falter under a series of mediocre presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama and be endangered by a NBC television show and construction business person with support from new social media networks that were unknown throughout America history till 2010 and television networks that had degenerated into recklessly divisive behaviours to win silo audiences.    ...

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The Nation as a whole falls behind other nations, and becomes weaker as a result of children being asked to absorb learning on empty stomachs or inadequate nutrition. This is one of the major advances of modern civilization and which differentiated Europe and the US from Asian countries. It is now reversed as Europe and the US are cutting back while India and other Asian countries are backing free School lunches. India has gone one step ahead to destroy centuries of malnutrition for children and families backed a plan that provides free and subsidized grain, vegetables to every household of 1.2 billion people. The starvation and malnutrition are seen in India as a stigma that Europeans and Americans had about India an how they looked down upon India for sanitation and malnutrition. These are twin enemies in India and China for a reason both because of health of children and seen as a ticket to oppression by foreigners who ruled parts of India and China for centuries. One of the most remarkable achievements in school lunches that changed the face of Madras State (Tamilnadu) is the free lunch program for children in teh 1950's and 1960's under Tamil chief minister Kamaraj. ...

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Jordan Bardella,  age 28 years, is the youngest proposed candidate ever for prime minister of a G-7 country. The US Constitution says the presidential candidate, the head of government, has to be 35 years old, setting an age limit. No such age limit is set in the French Constitution for the Fifth Republic setup by Charles De Gaulle in 1958- a French citizen over age 18 years is allowed to stand for president. The current prime minister of France Gabriel Attal is 35 years old, appointed by president Macron. Macron ran for president at age 38 years, had experience as a cabinet member in the Economics ministry of Francois Hollande. Attal was Minister of Public Accounts and Public Action in the Elisabeth Borne government in 2022, and Minister of Education and Youth in Borne's government reshuffle in 2023. Jordan Bardella lacks any experience in government and most of his time was spent in representing his district in the National Assembly and in party positions. As the RN is unlikely to get an absolute majority in the National Assembly Bardella by saying he would not take up PM position without an absolute majority is also aware of this lack of experience and an astonishingly young age. ...

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Pat McFadden is Minister for Inter-Governmental Relations. He says Keir Starmer wants to see migration numbers fall after it was shown that net migration to Britain was 906,000 in 2023. The number of migrants crossing the Channel is reported to reach 20,000 since Keir Starmer became prime minister on July 5, 2024, a period of 5 months. This shows Labour under Starmer is serious about migration and appalled at Conservative administrations not walking the talk. Caps placed under David Cameron to cap at tens of thousands were not followed. "Targets haven’t worked very well. We’ve got things we were saying about this in terms of getting net migration down. I don’t say targets don’t work in any circumstance but numerical targets on migration have not had a happy history in recent years." “But we do want legal migration to come down, we do want to train more of our own workers, we do want to get more people off welfare and into work.” The ebbs and flows of the economy and Britain's needs, culture and integration, always legal migration- this is policy for Britain under Keir Starmer and Labour. ...

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Allyson Chiu and Emily Wright show how inventors in India are working on more efficient residential air conditioning units that cool single rooms. About 1.2 billion units are there across the globe, billions more may be needed to replace the old ones and to meet surging demand in Asia, Latin America and Africa. International Energy Agency estimate is for these AC units to triple by 2050 what they are now, adding 2.4 billion AC units. Using the existing technology and emissions would mean putting 2 billion metric tons of emissions from these older AC units into the atmosphere in 2050 or what 476 million cars put out, says IEA.  The Indian government, RMI, a global coalition including Gree of China, and Daikin of Japan are doing the research on new AC units. In 2015 about 5% of India's 300 million households had such AC units. 8-10 million units were sold in 2023. This would rise to 1 billion units sold and installed by 2050 says IEA, that would emit 25 gigatons of cumulative emissions in 2050, or what a staggering  6 billion gas powered cars emit. ...