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It is no surprise what we see in the US today- the loss of the middle class, the unaffordability crisis for education, healthcare, childcare, and poor, broken infrastructure. Over 10 years the US trade deficit with China has led to loss of about 25 million jobs and $250 billion in taxes that support local infrastructure and public services. Where 20% of the people do 80% of the spending, 80% of the people only 20% of spending (Moody's Analytics). This is how the uneven trade led to the destruction of manufacturing centers and communities across the 51 states in America, devastating families and young people. This is no longer Washington's, Lincon's or FDR's land of opportunity. Each $1 billion in additional imports to the US costs 4252 jobs. (CPA) This can be read as how many jobs are being lost in the additional trade of goods when one side is exporting more than the other.  There are three levels of losses. There is also an indirect job loss in the number of jobs created by that one job in manufacturing to serve the needs of these factory families in communities. This can be estimated at 1 job that depends on 1 manufacturing job. Together this means 8500 jobs lost for every $1 billion of goods in a trade deficit. US trade deficit of $295 billion in 2024 with China translates into about 2.5 million jobs lost every year. Over 10 years this is about 20-25 million jobs, enough to decimate America's entire manufacturing capabilities and manufacturing infrastructure, whole communities and towns disappearing or suffering destruction across the country.  With the loss of these jobs comes a third cost, the taxes paid that maintain small town infrastructure and public services like libraries, schools and health centers where these factories are located. At $10,000 in taxes lost per job, for 8500 jobs lost per $1 billion in uneven trade there is a loss of $85 million.  For the $295 billion deficit the US has with China this loss adds up to $25 billion per year. Over 10 years this means taking out this much in local infrastructure and public services like libraries, schools and health centers worth $250 billion.  ...

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About 2.5 million women in the US have experienced burnout as a result of unequal demands of home and work life. Women have borne the brunt of childcare and work inside the home during the pandemic. Working women have two jobs, one at home and one at work, resulting in them being more prone to burnout as demands increase.

With the closure of schools childcare became a constant and many women quit work so that husbands could continue working. This affected the mental health of women with loss of work and professional life, and increased stress of work at home during the pandemic. Women also put on extra weight as a result. Experts say that the way societal structures and gender norms intersect plays a significant role in women experiencing burnout more than men.

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The second wave of the coronavirus is bigger than the first with the U.S. exceeding 100,000 cases a day for many days in November and hospitalizations doubling to 93,000 from the beginning to the end of November. There is also the fatigue with the virus for healthcare workers and the people, and loss of income for workers leading to income and food insecurity. In this situation a second stimulus to help people and businesses is a urgent priority for Congress. A group of bipartisan senators have put together  $908 billion stimulus plan to get through the Congress by December 11. This is a compromise between the two parties. Supporting the bill are Cassidy, Romney, and Collins for Republicans and Manchin, Warner, Cassidy for Democrats. It would provide- 1. $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits for 4 months. 2. $160 billion for state and local governments. 3. Temporary moratorium on coronavirus related lawsutis. 4. Additional funding for small business, schools, health care, transit, student loans. There is growing agitation among influential senators against the leadership in both parties of McConnell and Schumer, with the sense that the leadership has failed to recognize how critical the issue of emergency relief is for tens of millions of Americans. This is its only hope for passage with the bickering of the leadership on both sides. ...

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EIA says half of the benefit of higher fuel efficiency standards for Automobiles 2010-2020 in US was lost because of SUV's and the incentivizing of SUV's in the 2006 CAFE standards have made things worse. The first SUV's came in the 1980's. By 2004 SUV's made up half of car sales and by 2025 outsold cars 2 to 1. What if we took all SUV's and large cars off the roads, or even some of these SUV's by deincentivizing of SUV's in the US CAFE corporate fuel efficiency standards? What would be the savings in crude oil and in carbon footprint? Would it be about the same as releasing an additional 400 million barrels of oil into the markets in addition to the 400 million barrels that are now released through EIA and member countries? This New Yorker essay touches on this idea. During the Iran war the volatile Middle East as a source of oil supplies is a major problem for countries. Some are rationing supplies and in one country 40 million children are not going to school for 2 weeks starting this week because of the sources of oil are so precarious, government offices will only have half of the employees, the rest working from home (almost like Covid pandemic). Many other countries face that situation. The International Energy Agency recently reported that, if “SUVs were an individual country, they would rank sixth in the world for absolute emissions in 2021, emitting over 900 million tonnes of CO2.” The agency says governments must redesign their CAFE standards and their policies so that it would reduce S.U.V. sales, tax gas guzzling vehicles. EIA cites governments in the EU doing this- “Some governments have already started introducing relevant measures, such as France and Germany, which have put a tax on large and high-emissions cars.” Within SUV's also there is an opportunity to reduce the size and make more efficient space utilization designs. Small savings also add up. One has to realize that the current freedom to use energy freely in places like the US with self sufficiency in oil comes with a sense of responsibility for using it wisely so that it can be exported to cut the trade deficit, precisely what the president is doing with India, to cut a trade deficit of $58 billion before it gets to $100 billion. Section 301 is already in place for investigations by the US of 18 countries for a new basis to use tariffs after the Supreme Court decision. A similar approach is taken with EU for hundreds of billions of reductions in trade deficit that will only strengthen the US dollar and the US economy in the long run , and be good for stock markets and jobs as it reduces oil prices and increases the manufacturing capacity/cost for the Nation. Europe, India and China can do the same. Remember that in 2010 SUV's made up 17% of total world sales, and by 2025 SUV's made up 46% of world vehicle sales. This would create another 400 million barrels for the oil markets, which would triple what was released through EIA  this week to 1.2 billion barrels and this would create 120 days of supply replacement for the 10 million b/d lost from Straits of Hormuz, and effectively end the Iran War as it would be clear that prices can be kept low even in the $50's. Essentially buying time till the SU can get more production in Venezuela and other parts of the world to replace much of the Middle Eastern oil that is ending up in a quagmire. This is the best way for the US and Europe, India, China to ensure jobs growth, economic growth with low cost crude oil in the $50 range and ensure much of the poorer countries like Egypt and Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, have access to oil at prices they can afford and eliminate poverty. ...

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A comprehensive study on immigration's impact on the U.S. by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in 2016, looks at the broad fiscal and economic impacts of immigration. On the drawbacks the new immigrants can lead to lower wages for earlier waves of immigrants and high school dropouts. It can also burden government finances, education budgets at local and state levels. On the plus side it leads to more innovation, entrepreneurship and technological change in the economy. Other facts that are new in the report and run against the popular narrative are that 53% of immigrants had at least some college, including 16% with graduate education, as of 2012- which explains the technological impact of being open to immigrants. It is this that helps lift overall growth says the report- "the prospects for long run economic growth in the United States would be considerably dimmed without the contributions of high-skilled immigrants." About 42.3 million immigrants live in the U.S. in 2014, 13% of the population, increasing from 24.5 million or 9% in 1995. Unauthorized immigrants doubled in this period to 11 million.  A surprising result considering the popular idea of anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. is that a WSJ/NBC poll shows 54% of respondents saying immigration helps more than it hurts. In 2006 only 45% to 42%, considered immigration as beneficial to the country. Immigration is an issue today even though in recent years the large scale deportations under the Obama administration and difficulty finding jobs have reduced the flow of immigrants - since 2009 about 300,000-400,000 new unauthorized immigrants arriving and similar number leaving.   ...

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India's demographics show one startling fact. By 2020, the average age of Indians will be 29. This is happening just as the rest of the world is aging very fast. In the next 15 years India will have 130 million more people in the 20 to 49 age group. This compares with a shrinking in population of 100 million in that age group in developed countries and China, according to the U.N. Population Division. The problem facing India is malnutrition that runs as high as 43% for children with half the mothers anemic, weak educational system at the primary and secondary school levels especially in the government run schools, lack of good governance in the most populated states such as Uttar Pradesh in the Ganges plains which has 200 million people, the consequent overburdening of cities which have no plans to manage the migration of the rural poor to the cities. India has to find ways to fill the huge gaps in getting better nutrition, education, dignity and sense of opportunity, and work for the growing numbers....

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Dvid Attenborough, the naturalist and broadcaster, says he has campaign for years against plastic pollution and no one paid attention. Now he says people are fed up with politics of Brexit and are showing great interest in fighting single use plastic. He says the people in the U.S. are acting even though the president Mr. Trump has taken action for withdrawing from the Paris climate change agreement. He sees things can change quickly if there is a new president and policy changes. 

He is heartened by the way people have received the movie Blue Planet 2 and the action politicians and ordinary people are taking. He thanks primary school teachers for all the work they are doing and the enthusiasm shown.

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One of the lessons of the pandemic is to take society back to basic priorities such as wellness, wellbeing, lifestyles that promote wellness, eating right and exercizing. During the last three decades obesity has emerged as a problem in the U.S. and Europe and in all parts of the world. It is simply harder to fight the virus carrying on so much extra weight. Much needs to be done in school with education on food in children's books and in classrooms.

Eating more fruits and vegetables, ancient and healthy grains is a must do for all. To do this the supply chain of locally produced healthy foods has to function well , and more acreage has to be devoted to get the supplies we need.

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Born 1904, he joined the Indian Independence Movement in 1926. Union Home minister, and then prime minister to succeed Jawaharlal Nehru in 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first Indian prime minister to take up the cause of Indian agriculture. It was under his leadership and with the kind help of U.S. president Lyndon Johnson that the Green Revolution was launched in India after periodic famines in northern India for many centuries of its history. 

As Transport Minister he introduced new rules for woman drivers and conductors in public buses and trains.

This story in The Hindu says he had to swim across the Ganges river with the books tied to his head to attend school. Shastri was known for his exceptional humility in public life. 

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The undergraduate dropout rate in the US for its universities and colleges is a shocking 36%. EdSights texts students about their wellbeing with dropout rates so high. Alarming signal for more efforts by the US and state governments in education and keeping young people on track in schools and colleges.

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Full Yield is a startup in Boston that is trying to help address the nation's obesity problem by introducing healthier foods and meals in cafeterias. It plans to introduce a line of Full Yield branded food made from fresh items and natural ingredients for sale in corporate cafeterias and prepared food sections of local supermarkets. It is based on a simple idea that if you eat healthier food you will be healthier. A study in the Jan-Feb issue of journal Health Affairs says 75% of the $2.5 trillion in health care spending deals with obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And how much of this traceable to obesity and bad eating habits, smoking and lack of exercize? This study says most of the cases are preventable by changing these behaviours. Dr. Kenneth Horpe, chairman of the department of health policy and management at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, shows that if trends continue U.S. annual health care costs related to obesity would reach $344 billion by 2018, which is 20% of total health care spending. In 2009 it accounts for 9%. Thorpe says if even the 1987 levels of obesity were reached it would free up enough money to cover the uninsured population today. For American companies the problem has grown to alarming proportions and yet no nationwide coordinated plan bringing together companies, government, universities, public interest organizations, and other groups exists in the U.S. The CEO of U.S. grocery chain Safeway, Steven Burd, says Safeway was spending $1 billion to cover health care insurance for workers by 2005, with costs rising 10% a year- this meant putting out twice in health care insurance than Safeway's earnings and hitting another $500 million by 2010. Between 2004-2009 the costs of insurance surged 31%, making this the fastest growing single corporate expense, according to Towers Perrin. This reduces incomes of workers as companies pass on part of the extra cost, and reduces the profits that can be put back in new investment for economic growth....

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A supply chain crisis, shortages of coal and oil are affecting major world economies. The Guardian looks at the economies of Britain, the US, Germany, Russia and Australia. Inflation is above 4% in Germany for the last month. Shortages of workers is affecting most economies. Ports are filled with container ships that have not downloaded their shipments because of a lack of workers. There were a record 10 million job openings in the US mostly in the restaurant and entertainment industries. Low wages have led many to reconsider their careers during the pandemic, a phenomenon called the Great Resignation. Other people have dropped out of the workforce because schools have not reopened and there is a lack of good affordable childcare. The chairman of the US central bank Jerome Powell, says "It is frustrating to acknowledge that people getting vaccinated and getting Delta variant under control remains the most important economic policy we have. It is also frustrating to se the bottlenecks and supply chain problems not getting better- in fact at the margin getting a bit worse." ...

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Stephen Bosworth was appointed by Hillary Clinton as U.S. Representative for North Korea Policy. He is one of America's best diplomats who served in several postings overseas before becoming Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. Prof. Drezner points to the work done by Bosworth in keeping dialogue with North Korea alive, till a solution can be found. He also cites Chinese analysts who say pressuring China comes from a worn playbook, that China would not agree to reunification on the Korean peninsula, to bring U.S. influence right up to its borders. South Koreans have been wary of reunification because of the decade long experience of integrating East Germany. As a result new solutions need to be found and the valuable work of diplomats like Bosworth is badly needed to keep dialogue alive for a solution to be found.

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So we need lobbyists and food producers and cola producers out of the schools. Here is an alarming fact- the current standards that govern whats served at all public and many private schools haven't been upsdated in 14 years. And the current standards don't even mention calories should be limited to 650-850 calories for lunch and 500-600 for breakfast. With the Institute of Medicine recommendations for more fruits and vegetables and healthy whole grain foods for school lunches comes cost its estimated that schools get $2.68 for the free lunches served to poor students, which cost $2.92 plus overhead and labor costs. The Obama administration is expected to add $1 billion but more is needed. Here s another place where money is needed at home that can be saved from expanding the war in South Asia-

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Of the $19 billion in aid to farmers for the coronavirus, $16 billion of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, goes in direct payments to farmers and rancher with checks going out end of May. Another $3 billion goes to mass purchases of dairy, meat and produce that will be distributed through food banks. Faced with loss of sales with restaurants and schools closed, and disruptions in deliveries to grocery stores, farmers in the U.S. have stopped or slowed production. As a result huge quantities of food that can't be sold are being destroyed. Plowing under thousands of acres of vegetables, dumping millions of gallons of milk, and destroying eggs. In addition to this aid Agriculture Secretary Perdue says the department is using funds set aside under the larger coronavirus relief aid package of $2 trillion for the U.S., and funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation. Mr. Perdue is himself a farmer from Georgia, who was governor for eight years. These funds are separate from the $28 billion to farmers being distributed by USDA to offset losses from loss of sales to China. USDA plans to make monthly purchases of $100 million each of fresh produce, dairy products and meat, and work with the nation's food distributors to assemble a pre-approved box of food to be given out at food banks and other outlets. ...

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Jeb Bush sees many who come to the U.S. looking for a better life as similiar to people who arrived here in earlier waves of immigrants all the way back to 1800. He described the actions of many who come to the U.S. illegally as an "act of love," and "act of committment to family," in a talk at College Station Texas, on the 25th anniversary celebration of the presidency of his father, George H.W. Bush. Its breaking the law, he says, but different, not a felony. Benjamin Franklin describes German immigrants to Pennsylvania in his writings at a time when immigrants were what made this country. They were different in some ways then but long since became part of the fabric of America, as have new immigrants in the different periods of the 19th and 20th century. Here is what Benjamin Franklin says about the German immigrants whom he praises for habitual "Industry and Frugality they bring with them," in a letter to Peter Collinson, May 19th 1753, addressing the fears as well as what they could bring to the new country, which throws light on todays immigration debates in a new light. "In short unless the stream of their importation could be turned from this to other colonies, as you very judiciously propose, they will soon so out number us, that all the advantages we have will not in My Opinion be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious." And then saying in the same letter-"Yet I am not for refusing entirely to admit them into our Colonies: all that seems to be necessary, is, to distribute them more equally, mix them with the English, establish English Schools where they are now too thick settled, and take some care to prevent the practice lately fallen into by some of the Ship Owners, of sweeping the German Goals to make up the number of their passengers. I say I am not against the Admission of Germans in general, for they have their Virtues, their industry and frugality is exemplary; They are excellent husbandmen and contribute greatly to the improvement of a Country." ...

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Elizabeth Rosenthal looks at Obamacare's contribution to cost containment in 2013-2014. Rosenthal says its is a kind of delicate maneuvring at the edges, because serious work needs to be done. The fee-for-service and many of the drivers for increases in medical costs, the old system of pricing, are still in place. In 20 years at the current rate and after Obamacare health care will still take 25% of the U.S. budget if nothing is done. Healthcare costs are about half that of the U.S. in some of the advanced European countries. She calls Obamacare a trickle down theory of cost containment becaue it leaves most of the drivers for cost increase in place and works at the margins. Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt calls it an ugly patch on a somewhat ugly system. Rosenthal cites the armies of consultants anticipating every move to reduce prices, and working on "strategic billing'' to increase revenues for hospitals and doctors. For those who say the prices are now up more slowly than in the past, Michael Chernew of the Harvard Medical School, has this to say- its like a diet, reminding us that that we haven't even lost weight, just gaining weight slower than before. ...

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What harm will one ton of carbon dioxide pollution cause to the planet? Under Obama administration $50, under Trump administration $5, under Biden administration $200.  Mr. Revesz asks the obvious question others forgot to ask- how does this regulation or change affect future generations, what problems children and grand children won't face because of this action? The man who heads OIRA is given the task of doing the cost benefit analysis for billions of dollars of US government projects designed to fight climate change. Because of its looming importance Mr. Revesz of NY University School of Law was brought right into OIRA in the White House instead of the EPA. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is located right in the White House. It is the gatekeeper and final word on new federal regulations on climate change. Astounding as it may sound, during the Obama and Trump administrations no effort was made to track the cost of climate change for future generations. Mr. Revesz is changing that. As a result of his efforts at NYU School of Law and in assisting attorneys general in the Trump administration, and now at the Whit House he is changing the way the world looks at climate change action. He shows how the EPA new rules on tailpipe emissions will promote electric cars. The benefits exceed $1 trillion from the shift and this will show that it exceeds the cost of the fossil fuel companies and the US economy making the changes required. ...

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When Ruth Bader Ginsburg started law school in 1956 women represented 3% of the legal profession in the U.S. It is about one third today.

A piece of advice from her mother in law has served Ginsburg well all these years. She told Ginsburg "in every good marraige it helps sometimes to be a little deaf." Meaning that if an unkind word or thoughtless word is spoken to you best to tune it out and go on anyway. This helps in the workplace. Reacting to someone's unkind words will not advance one's ability to persuade. This is why people of all kinds of persuasion and opinions liked Ginsburg including at the court her complete opposite Justice Scalia. Something we can all learn from Ginsburg.

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Mr Wolfson and Ms. Gibbs are deputy mayors of New York City. Here they list all the efforts made by Mayor Bloomberg to fight poverty in New York City and help the homeless during his years in office. They cite a 28% reduction in street homelessness since 2005, a 22% drop in school suspensions, a drop in welfare rolls by 25% with 900,000 New Yorkers moved from welfare to work, and a poverty rate that is flat over the last 12 years while the poverty rate in the U.S. is up 28%. They point to the last Bloomberg budget allocation of $9.2 billion for services to the poor and homeless- 83% higher than Bloomberg's first year in office. Of this $981 million was for services to the homeless, double that in 2002. 175,000 units of affordable housing were built.

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All sectors of the U.S. economy see an increase in hiring, including retail, transportation, healthcare and manufacturing, as the economy adds 288,000 jobs in June, according to the Labor Department. Manufacturing added 16,000 jobs, transportation 17,000 and the public sector increased jobs by 26,000. Hiring also picked up for high school graduates compared to the poor record in 2013. In 2013 one Barclays economist says the jobs for high school graduates at this point were declining by 16,000 a month on yearly basis. He says employers are now adding 29,000 jobs for high school graduates a month in 2014. The unemployment for high school graduates declined to 5.8% in June 2014, for persons with some college education or an associate degree 5.0%, for college graduates 3.3%. Barclay's estimate is that the U.S. added an average of 231,000 jobs a month for the first half of 2014. The inflation rate remains at about 2%, giving the U.S. Fed more flexibility in setting rates to support jobs growth. The lower unemployment rate of 6.1% understates the underemployment, as a more accurate measure of employment which includes people working part time because they cannot find jobs is at 12.1%. The proportion of Americans in the labor force is also at a 36 year low of 62.8%. These two indicators for unemployment, unemployment including people working parttime, and the proportion of Americans in the labor force, combined with inflation, are the main indicators Fed chairmam Yellen is looking at....

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Jill Biden teaches at Northern Virginia Community College. She wants to continue her job teaching community college students helping them prepare for 4 year colleges, even after Mr. Joe Biden becomes the new president of the U.S.  This story of Jill Biden in The Times is exceptional in giving a vivid picture of the person closest to the new U.S. president. Both the Bidens, Joe and Jill, come from working class families in the northeastern U.S. Mr. Biden's life is marked by a single event that has affected his whole life the death in a car accident of his first wife Naomi in December 1972 when he was running for U.S. Senator in Delaware. He won that election becoming the youngest senator in U.S. history. The family retained high ambitions for Joe, hoping that he would become president. Jill met Joe Biden during this campaign and she married Joe in 1975. Jill had spent 13 years of her career teaching English in secondary schools, and the past 27 years teaching in community colleges, including the eight years when Biden was Vice President. Along the way she studied for 2 Masters degrees and a doctoral degree. Her dissertation for the doctoral degree was on the topic- Student Retention at Community Colleges: Meeting Student Needs. Student dropout rates are high about one in three in community colleges dropout.  It is a sign of the misplaced priorities of today that Dr. Biden takes pride in her degree and many do not think this is important enough a topic for a dissertation. Not only her education and hard work studying for advanced education makes her a unique asset, there are other parts of her character that make her exceptional and right for the times. Jill Biden entered a family that in some ways after Naomi's death was broken. The were two children surviving the fatal car accident in 1972, Beau and Hunter. This story shows how she handled this in a way that required extraordinary serenity and composure. There was the ambition of the family. There was the memory of the accident and Naomi. There was the cynicism about her passion for education in fashionable Democratic party circles out of touch with the roots of the national character in education and in libraries starting with Ben Franklin and Jefferson. With president Biden entering office at a time when the U.S. as a country is broken by the very neglect of education, healthcare and working class Americans, Jill Biden at 69 years has the experience, vigor of spirit and character needed today.   ...

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Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor from Arizona was a pioneer of women's rights in the workplace, and had her own struggles before being the first woman appointed to the US Supreme Court. Born on a vast 200,000 acre cattle ranch in El Paso she was much of a cowgirl. She is considered to have blazed a trail for other women through her life and work. She was appointed by Reagan in 1981 and served till 2006. In 1952 when she graduated from law school at Stanford women had a hard time working in the legal profession.

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Bill Gates on how to improve education in American schools by focussing on excellence in teaching. Excellence in teaching is the single most important variable in education, says Gates. The task, he says, is to identify the excellent teachers and transfer those skills to other teachers. He makes no mention of enriching the teacher pool, by attracting brighter education oriented people from society into teaching. He make some generalizations about class size and teachers studying for advanced degrees, saying they have no impact on educational achievement. This may be relative to the situation, depending on the actual class size and the numbers involved. And higher educational attainment by teachers is hardly a drawback in what the teacher can impart to students. It shows teachers actively engaged in the educational process themselves. Gates talks about improving education without additional spending, but does not address the issue of cuts in education spending in states that are reducing deficits. ...

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Dr. Nancy Krieger of the Harvard School of Public Health says data on health risk -including which counties have high rates of health conditions such as obesity and other diseases- should inform targeted interventions and public messaging. This is important for administrators and health authorites in each county and state as they deal with a surge in coronavirus in parts of the U.S. which have so far been only slightly affected such as rural southern and western states. More recently places such as North Dakoa which the virus missed in the early stages are now seeing a jump in cases. This report shows counties in states such as Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, particularly susceptible because of high rates of obesity and other health conditions. In all almost half of the U.S. population has one of these health conditions- obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, lung disease and heart disease.  The high prevalence of obesity which worsens all other health conditions is a result of the lack of healthy food and nutrition, exercize and healthy living habits, that were neglected in the closing decades of the twentieth and early twenty first century. The shift to processed foods is only one of many bad practices that happened in these years. The lack of attention to healthy eating and nutrition, and outdoor exercize has marked this period and created conditions in which the virus could damage health. ...