LyrArc Article Gist
As the August 1 deadline approached first the Japanese and then the Europeans who held out till the end sometimes treating the US with disdain and ridicule, realized that the US was dead serious about tariffs. Even the US business community tended to treat DJT tariffs with disdain not realizing that the tariff battles were first fought against Japan by Deputy USTR Robert Lighthizer under Reagan in the 1980's always to get a fair deal for the US. The recalcitrance of the Europeans and the Japanese can be understood by the non tariff barriers Japan placed on US products and the 10% tariff on US autos the European Union had in place for decades when the US only had a 2.5% tariff on German car imports.  The media in the US and Europe has utterly failed to tell the US side of the story. Here at Lyrarc we remain committed to bring out all the facts so that readers can better understand both sides. Initially the EU adopted an adversarial approach as shown in this report in WSJ by Kim Mackrael and Brian Schwartz. How is it that the Europeans and the Japanese took such a position when since 1980 there was no level playing field for the US on world trade clear for all to see? Not till late May as negotiations dragged on did Japan and the EU take stock of their own positions, DJT having to say US would impose a 50% tariff to get the EU to understand, saying "our discussions with them are going nowhere." In the end in Scotland Leyen and Sefovic for the EU accepted 15% tariff on EU imports to US. Akazawa of Japan had accepted this the week before. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Shows how attitudes change given the space of 2 decades. Its not just about math and computers at an early age, its also about how perceptions about nations and cultures change during certain periods. Its interesting that the same perception is not about China, as Japan invests a lot in China and China is seen as a manufacturer of less advanced technologies and goods compared to Japan.

LyrArc Article Gist
EU Japan South Korea face serious negotiations ahead, regardless of ITT ruling on May 28, 2025 saying the president did not have emergency powers. The ruling does not apply to sector by sector action by DJT just not across the board tariff of 50%. And the ruling is being appealed.  Initial analysis is that this does nothing to affect the US president's other options to use other legal authorites and laws, conduct sector by sector investigations of harm done to the US in unfair trade, take action on sector by sector basis on steel, semiconductors, autos, pharmaceuticals.  Another factor is that all are allies, EU and India is dependent on US for security cooperation, and Japan, South Korea are entirely US dependent on security. Japan also has a past history of unfair trade practices and the prime minister senior officials both understand the US need to rebuild manufacturing, and support this. This is also true of the UK which has completed it's trade negotiations and deal with the US, and sees the ITT or other actions as an internal matter for the US people. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The US president has invoked emergency powers that relate to national security based on the fight against fentanyl -with 490,000 American lives lost over 12 years, 5 times that in the Vietnam and Korean Wars combined. And based on enormous trade imbalances that relate to national security with China having $1 trillion trade surplus 12 times the next highest trade surplus of $81 billion of Japan in 2007.

Note that appellate courts upheld the Nixon 10% trade tariffs based on invoking emergency powers also based on trade imbalances that time in the 1980's with Japan. The SCOTUS would be overreaching its judicial power to strike down the president on his main platform in the election, says one expert.

 

LyrArc Article Gist
By drawing a comparison of China's aggressive flights close to Taiwan to the invasion of Ukraine, president Biden brings clarity to the US position on Taiwan. He says in Tokyo during his Asian trip that China "was flirting with danger" through its aggressive posture on Taiwan. President Biden made his remarks during a press conference with prime minister Fumio Kishida of Japan in Tokyo. This is what the BBC says about his remarks-  The US president began the press conference by directly linking the China-Taiwan situation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that the Russian president was "attempting to eliminate the identity of Ukraine." If there was rapprochement eventually between Ukraine and Russia and sanctions were not sustained, "then what does this signal to China about the costs of attempting to take Taiwan by force?" "They are flirting with danger already by flying so close and all the manoeuvres they are undertaking," Biden said, referring to increasing reports of Chinese warplane incursions into Taiwanese airspace. This suggests that the Asian trip of president Biden is bringing with it America's new Asia policy of building strong economic and defense partnerships in Asia. The US president also looks beyond today's conflict in Ukraine to an eventual rapprochement and end of sanctions as a possible scenario in Europe, and sees Asia as the region for America to build new supply chains that strengthen America and its partners, with a new partnership being formed with India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and with other ASEAN nations. In a way Biden and Republicans see the challenge from emerging powers in Asia as similar to the one from Japan in the thirties and the eighties, to be met with the combined economic strength of the US and Europe.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
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....

LyrArc Article Gist
Mindfulness achieved through craftsmanship in lacquer and other paint work through a seven century old tradition in Hokuriku region near Kanagawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Visit this place using an extended Shinkansen Hokoriku. Spiritual traditions expressed through craftsmanship.

LyrArc Article Gist
Toyota says it plans to sell 8.61 million vehicles worldwide in 2011, up from an estimated 8.37 million vehicles sold in 2010. This includes sales by Daihatsu and Hino Motors. The increase in overseas sales by 8% will offset slowing sales in Japan, where sales will slump after the end of a government incentive program. The decline in Japan is for a drop by 12% to 1.93 million vehicles.

LyrArc Article Gist
Aghhanistan peace talks with the Taliban in Kyoto, Japan in June 2012.

LyrArc Article Gist
A Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile attack on Kviv is repelled with all missiles shot down on May 16, 2023. For the first time in the war the missile attacks are causing far less damage than in the early days of the war. A DW.com German reporter in Kviv on German television says the whole attack lasted only 15 minutes before things were back to quiet over Kviv with missiles exploding in the sky not on the ground.

This week Mr. Zelensky visited Berlin, then Aachen for the Charlemagne Prize as a symbolic acceptance of the Ukrainian people into the European community of nations with Zelensky speaking in Aachen in Ukrainian. He then went to Paris and London. Next week the G7 meet in Hiroshima, Japan. The war that followed a pandemic enters its 64th week in 2023.

LyrArc Article Gist
The view presented that Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism was because of frustration that he had agreed to give up his demand for separate electorates for the lowest castes with the Poona Pact that he made with Gandhi in 1932. Gandhi saw separate electorates as one more effort at continuing divide and rule by the British to keep India divided and weak. This report in Indian Express says Ambedkar addressed a huge gathering of Mahars in Bombay in 1936 and advocated conversion to Buddhism. How much this was done to practice Buddhism is not clear. The Four Noble Truths are described as being dismissed from being part of Buddhism. Yet Buddhism as practiced in Sri Lanka, Japan and other countries consider it to be central to grasping the idea of Buddhism.

LyrArc Article Gist
It is well known that rail has a smaller carbon footprint than automobile travel. The why is Amtrak suffering neglect for so long in the US when it is well funded in Europe, Japan, China and India? It is because of deliberate neglect by many administrations and by the US Congress through lack of funding for new trains, new technological investment, and investing in its infrastructure. President Biden is changing all this with investment of about $66 billion. He used the Acela fast train service for decades from Washington DC to Wilmington. WSJ shows how a new Amtrak is emerging with many new routes, new stations,  and none of the delays that freight railroads imposed on Amtrak for decades. Amtrak is now fighting the freight railroads in court and has the support of the Biden administration.

LyrArc Article Gist
The official trailer for Oppenheimer the movie shows the giant ball of fire it shows a grim looking scientist but does not show the the effects of the war on civilians as was shown just 8 months back in May 2023 by premier Kishida of Japan and the organizers of the G7 summit in Hiroshima at the exhibition in Hiroshima. The new exhibition at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial was visited by G7 leaders. It shows the human beings that died on that day, the survivors including children, the lives they lived, what they were doing at that moment on August 6, 1945. NHK documentary taking us through each exhibit in a walk through the exhibition was a profoundly moving experience. Yet few in the US may have seen it, and fewer even know it even exists.

LyrArc Article Gist
The great university of ancient Buddhist India is located at Rajgir, Bihar. Nalanda University was built in 5th century AD and was the largest center of Buddhist learning for all of Asia from India, China, Vietnam to Korea and Japan. It's new campus was opened by PM Modi on June 19, 2024. Near it is the Mahavihara Budhhist temple renovated from ruins at a UNESCO heritage site. Excavations were done in the British period by the 1860's bringing to light the ruins of Nalanda, the wonder that was Buddhist India. Buddha attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in Bihar and his last years were spent at Kusinagar in Bihar, all in the vicinity of Nalanda University, a center of ancient learning that is older than all European Universities, and is only now becoming known throughout the world.

LyrArc Article Gist
Tariffs letters to go out as negotiating method with Japan, South Korea, European Union, July 4, 2025. These are nations with tough negotiating positions that often don't budge until something is done by the other side.

LyrArc Article Gist
US naval blockade of Iran in Arabian Sea starts April 13 2026. US destroyed Iran's larger ships 158 of them, yet Iran also has a fleet of smaller attack boats which it plans to use in Hormuz. These are harder to detect and can be hidden in coves along the Iranian coast and used against ships. The US with its naval blockade is now prepared to do what it has done also in Venezuela, stop and interdict fast drug boats on the Venezuelan side in the Atlantic ocean. By blockading Venezuela in the ocean US is using its strengths, and stopping drug boats its ability to pinpoint traffic on the ocean. Similar capabilities are well suited to Arabian Sea and Red Sea on the open oceans and away from narrow Hormuz playing to US strengths and capabilities. Aircraft carriers and destroyers and the US Air Force is in a position to do what it does best control open seas like the British did in their heyday of the Royal Navy for most of 1750-1920. This avoids options of Hormuz itself with its narrow 15 mile gap of water between Oman and Iran too close to mountainous terrain on either side, and of the Kharg Island option which would require special forces to be backed up with more ground forces. This is the most viable option and the interlude of couple of weeks has given the president an opportunity to make a better choice for positioning the US forces where the US has its strongest points. What is lacking is the individual powers of Britain and France whose leaders Starmer and Macron have popularity below 20%. Yet the US is better off making good choices and not having these nations alongside. The posturing by European nations is limited to France and UK, as Germany and Italy are in sync with the US position. Much of the media operates as if the goal of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to the Middle East is not important for long term peace for nations such as China and India with about 3 billion people and the billions of people of Asia, Latin America and Africa. For the first time in 400 years since 1600 as Asian civilizations began a long decline China and India have emerged in 2000-2030 into the kind of modern economies and societies that exist in Europe and the US. The last thing they need is the risk of destroying the Modern World with nuclear proliferation when it took centuries to get to the right opportunity after 1950 to modernize China and India. Xi's and Modi's generation are the first to experience modernization in Asia after Japan's experience. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Ashwani Lohani, head of the Railway Board for Indian Railways says the bullet train is creating a paradigm shift in how people travel in India. That the distance from the city where Mahatma Gandhi had his Ashram to Mumbai is covered in less time than it takes to travel by air is a huge shift for India. Some media reports have incorrectly stated that the money used for the bullet train could have been used for improvements to the railway system. Lohani says it is important that people understand that the money for the bullet train is coming from Japan and would not be available if the bullet train was not built. It is also at interest rates of 0.1% and a moratorium period of 15 years making the loans almost free. The advantage of the project is also that it has a demonstrative effect showing that a lot can be done in bringing Indian Railways into the pattern of rapid rail travel prevalent in Europe and now in China. China has shown the way by developing its rail system and also developing the technology for bullet trains using Kawasaki technology from Japan and building on this. It is imperative that India do this and modernize its own system. This is an aspect of infrastructure also that has a massive impact on people's lives. When trains can travel at bullet speed between city centres in India it also creates a new energy for bringing the rest of the system to higher technology standards.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
 U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, views China's response in trade negotiations as one of conducting extended negotiations that lead to little change. This has continued says Lighthizer for over a decade putting the U.S. at a serious disadvantage in trade. At a White House meeting in August 2017 Lighthizer convinced president Trump that China was in his words "tap, tap, tapping us along."  This confirmed president Trump's own instincts about the U.S. trading relationship with China. Lighthizer is a veteran of trade negotiations, having experience in the Reagan administration as the Deputy Trade Representative in 1983 in negotiations with Japan, when Japan was in a similar situation that China is today. At the time trade negotiations with Japan were getting nowhere. Lighthizer is said to have turned one Japanese response in negotiations into a paper plane and sent it flying right back. Lighthizer does not seek the limelight but is serious about his role having published op-eds in the NYT and WSJ since 2000 about how U.S. trading relationships were putting the U.S. and U.S. workers at an unfair advantage. Many of these op-eds are in the Lyrarc archive and a Search with the term "Lighthizer" would bring up these articles. This report in NYT shows how the role of Lighthizer was not anticipated by China when it sent Liu He to Washington in November 2017 to negotiate with the U.S. President Trump made certain Liu He and other Chinese leaders would have to talk to Lighthizer first. In a session with president Jinping laid out U.S. views that the past negotiations had accomplished little and new negotiations had to be undertaken very differently from negotiations in the past. Earlier in July trade negotiations conducted by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were "shut down" by president Trump because China continued to repackage earleir offers which meant little to the U.S. As a lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher LLP Lighhizer represented steel industry clients hurt by subsidized Chinese steel industry imports. Mr. Trump and Lighhizer have bonded well because their instincts have been the same- that the U.S. had not been well represented in earlier negotiations by lawyers who saw themselves as speaking for American exporters.  Lighthizer is also a seasoned trade negotiator and has waited for the right time and situation to tackle the unbalanced trading relationship with China. For 30 years Lighhizer represented American manufacturers as he practiced trade law at the Skadden law firm. His strategy has been to get the administration to unite behind a clear trade strategy. He says "I try to be friendly in trade negotiations. I am not the theatrical type. The art of persuasion is about knowing where the leverage is." At this time the leverage lies in the huge trade surplus of about $300 billion China has with the U.S. The U.S. goal is to bring this down by $100 billion through this new negotiating strategy as earlier negotiations have failed. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, has balanced the rhetoric of president Trump on trade in the NAFTA debate by saying the U.S. is looking for win-win solutions in trade relations with Mexico. At the WSJ CFO network Ross says the trade regime from the post war years is now an anachronism and does not work well especially for the U.S. Many experts agree that the trade framework from that period is problematic. It does not take into account, for instance say experts, the situation where a command economy such as China could help manufacturing industries with state policies, including currency policies. The rapid growth in China was different from the rapid growth in an earlier period of Japan, in terms of its impact say experts. The U.S was the dominant economy during the sixties, and the growth in Japan was not at the accelerated pace and of the magnitude that happened in China. As a result the impact on  some communities in the U.S. was much more intense in the last two decades, as documented by prominent trade studies, leading to the sense that trade did not work for these communities. ...