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Education Department to delay forced collection on student loans starting Jan 2026. Tax refunds would not be used towards repayment of student loans. The thinking is that the student loan payment system is so much in need of overhaul that student borrowers should not have to suffer from high cost of living on smaller wages. 

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Saks on Amazon fails to get luxury goods on Amazon- the Saks Neiman Marcus merger and $400 million Amazon investment that soured. Some parameters looked good but only $100 million sales in first year. The effort fails. Amazon is trying to break into luxury goods market by sponsoring the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2024 and 2026 Gala.

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Private real estate handed over to a new generation in 2026 in the US is worth trillions of dollars.

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Maria Machado met US president DJT at the White House for lunch as the two leaders discussed the situation in Venezuela. The US is moving step by step towards long term goals for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. It is acting quickly where necessary and at the same time with confidence in the final goal of making life better for all Venezuelans, aware of how decades of mismanagement and ideologic rhetoric, the failure of the party systems that existed before the entry of Chavez in 1992 and 1998 three decades back, created the wrecked national economy of today with exorbitant inflation and a fourth of the population to leave the country. Looking back (on Britannica.com) one sees in its history a century of conflicts and chaos between conservatives, liberals, and the military, from 1850 to the 1950's. Only a 50 year period of relative quiet and democracy ending with mismanagement and corruption separates that period from today, showing how difficult a situation the US and DJT face in turning Venezuela around after centuries of Spanish colonial rule till the French revolution. For this reason alone the US takes one step at a time towards the long term benefit of the Venezuelan people knowing the nature of the task and the Monroe Doctrine's overall goal for the western hemisphere. ...

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Senators Hawley (Missourio) and Young (Indiana) stick with DJT and this kills War Powers Resolution in US Senate.

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China's loans and projects in Latin America and the unwinding of projects in 2026. China had shifted policy to collecting back $10 billion of loans to Venezuela in meetings of its envoy with Maduro the day the US acted to remove Maduro, says this report in WSJ. China is shifting to reduce losses in the region from loans. Over last 2 decades China has loaned Venezuela $100 billion in exchange for oil shipments. As its oil industry production declined without US assistance Venezuela went deeper in debt. This is another aspect of the problems that this type of model of development brings to finance building of rail and transport, seen across the world from Venezuela down to small countries like Sri Lanka and Zambia. For China this could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in loans that lack transparency and are opaque to Africa and Latin America, when its construction industry debt and local government debt has led to problems. Other solutions and alternatives are needed.   ...

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Iran's financial collapse cause- Shutting down of Ayandeh Bank with $5 billion in bad loans and printing of money to cover bad loans by Iran's central bank. A lending mechanism was started by the central bank to give loans to well connected private banks that serve a small sliver of the population without collateral. This money was wasted and loans turned into bad loans which the central bank covered by printing more money. The result inflation of over 40%. 

The protests reflect financial distress, and deep discontent among ordinary people.as the money has gone to a well connected elite. 

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The Stimson Center looks at the closing of an era of Conservative politics in Japan which ended in 2025 after the death of Shinzo Abe and the 2 year premiership of Kishida. Interview is conducted by the Stimson Center of a senior Japanese political figure with 30 years of experience in the Foreign Service, and the author of the only English language book on Shinzo Abe, reflecting the paucity of research on Japan. Shinzo Abe was premier for a short time in 2005-2006 and for a full term in 2012. He made changes to Japan's SDF, its partnership with India, Australia in the Quad, and his economic policy which increased women's participation in the economy. For the first time in post war Japan there was a new sensde of confidence under Abe and he is missed sorely in Japan today. Yet as this senior Japanese politician says, Japan has changed the way the US and Europe have changed, and nationalist politics are replacing old Conservative politics of the LDP. In a way also how the deindustrialization of US, Europe and Japan has also taken place discrediting that era. Takaichi Sanae is itself a representative of the new era, as she did not hesitate to say Japan would get involved if China attacked Taiwan. Her popularity is at 62% and she has called a snap election, as she came in to replace Shigeru Ishiba in October 2025 and was not directly elected PM. Yet in the long view this is also a misconception because neither the Stimson Center or the interview participants had a keen sense of who Abe really was and Abe's grasp of the history of the Kamakura period of Buddhist Japan and China, India, of the 12th century before the foreign invasions from the north. One of Shinzo Abe's biggest legacies is the relationship that was close to his heart, the relationship with India and prime minister Modi. This week chancellor Merz of the Federal Republic of Germany was at the kite festival with PM Modi in Ahmedabad and at the Sabarmati Ashram of Gandhiji. The same degree of warmth shown by the German leader and Modi reflecting Vivekananda's time in Germany, was seen long time back between Modi and Abe. The bullet train project Mumbai to Ahmedabad and the ones that follow across India are a testimony to the warmth shown by Abe for India, and his knowledge of history from the Buddhist period in India when by the 12th century in Japan in Dogen's time Tenjiku (India) was the sacred homeland of Buddhism. Today India has revived the Buddhist traditions and centers of Buddhism, the universities and research centers for Buddhism from that period in Indian history. Buddhism started in India near Nepal in what is now Bihar state at Sarnath and Kushinagar, and spread through China to Japan and Korea. The whole continent of Asia would reflect Buddhist ideals and ideas without the intervening period of Vedic culture in India and China's Mongolian and Manchurian northern invasions, and the periods of European colonialism. Today Buddhism and The Bhagavad Gita are itself strung like pearls on a string as the Gita itself says, part of the long spiritual traditions of three nations- India, China and Japan, and of the many others Vietnam and Korea. ("All these worlds have their rest in me as many pearls on a string." -Mascaro tr. of Bhagavad Gita, Penguin). As Asian nations and peoples come to their own inner selves, find their inmost self, this is the culture that really pervades all of Asia. ...

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Tsutsui Yoshinobu, head of Keidanren, Japan's business federation, says China limiting exports of vital raw materials is "an obvious act of economic coercion." For the first time in 2025 Keidanren cancelled its annual dialogue meeting with China's representatives.  This was a followup to comments by Japanese PM Sanae that it would consider an attack on Taiwan as a danger to Japan's security. Sanae now enjoys 62% popularity rating. After 2 years of the LDp government with aminority in parliament she has announced a snap election to gain an abasolute majority in parliament. In the last elections small nationalist parties gained a large share of votes. Changes are happening in Japanese politics as a younger generation becomes more nationalistic. Sanae was made PM only recently at the end of 2025 after the PM in the LDP party faced criticism and resigned. Before he resigned he quickly signed a trade agreement with the US DJT administration to maintain Japanese exports to US at a 15% tariff. ...

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Takaichi Sanae calls snap election with 62% favorability rating Jan 2026. For decades few prime ministers of Japan had such a high rating. Sanae now has the chance to get an absolute majority in parliament.