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This editorial in the New York Times is strongly critical of former president Barack Obama for accepting $400,000 in speaking fees from Wall Street for a single speech. It says the news is causing people to question the ideas and words presented by Obama in his books about the dangers of losing sight of the interests of ordinary people. It gives the impression says the NYT, that Obama is cashing in like everybody else, and that his talk was empty. The editorial says the millions raised by Hillary Clinton led to her defeat in the election. Obama is reported to plan a foundation with the work of training a new generation of political leaders. This NYT editorial says it would be better to stay true to vision and purpose, to walk the talk for president Obama, especially now that a recent poll shows two thirds of voters, including about half of Democrats say that the Democratic Party is out of touch with the interests of the American People. By associating this closely with wealthy donors leading Democrats contributed to this. During a period when some of the remarkable achievements of the last fifty years such as the European Union are being called into question, when ordinary working people, young people and older people are struggling, this is all the more a tone deaf approach by politicians. The idea of helping train a new generation of political leaders through a foundation sounds bizarre in this context, and seems to suggest politicians believe there is always a solution through marketing their audacity and money.   ...

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How do schools reopen during the pandemic. This report shows how schools and students struggle with reopening. The first part of the report looks at how one family in Wisconsin is coping with 3 children  2, 4 and 11 years old, from kindergarten to middle school. Only the middle school child is going back to school. Both parents work from home, have struggled to cope with kids at home. Lack of enough computer equipment restricts kids learning long distance, and concentration is also an issue. 

The rest of the report covers how schools are reopening in cities- Bangkok, Jerusalem, Tunis, Stockholm, Dortmund, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro.

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It may come as a surprise that even a conservative Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, talked recently on CSPAN television about the US needing immigration in an organized manner to meet the growing shortage of workers in the coming years in the US. This report by Alicia Caldwell in the WSJ looks at the city of Topeka, Kansas, home to University of Kansas in nearby Lawrence, which is trying to attract immigrants who are allowed to work to meet 6600 worker positions that remain unfilled. Mayor Michael Padilla of Topeka is a cross between a liberal Republican and a conservative Democrat as are many immigrants from countries in South America. The Greater Topeka Partnership is looking to attract Spanish speaking people to fill these jobs, because of stagnant population and a lower unemployment rate than the US average. This effort in Spanish language has resulted in 10,000 resumes submitted. Another effort for Uniting with Ukraine has brought 160 Ukrainians to Topeka. These efforts are happening since 2019 and in some cases the city has offered $15000 a person for relocation costs. Citywide the effort is being welcomed including the business community. Topeka, a town of 126,000 is home to 17% Spanish speaking residents. Molly Howey who heads Go Topeka and the Greater Topeka Partnership is shown here, and says Topeka had already had success with its Spanish speaking population when it started welcoming new immigrants.  The rapid recovery of the US after the pandemic and its resilience for growth over the next decade is creating a recognition among Republicans as well as Democrats, among economic planners and business of the need to fill shortages of workers as the US invests trillions of dollars in its economy in coming years in infrastructure, manufacturing and and new technologies. It is an effort that is unprecedented since the post war effort to build a modern economy in the 1950's. ...

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Paul Ryan, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, wins the Republican primary in his house seat of Janesville, Wisconsin, defeating his challenger Nehlen, by 84% to 16%. The Republican nominee Donald Trump earlier had refused to endorse Ryan, and only reluctantly endorsed Ryan following the vice presidential nominee Mike Spence's endorsement of Ryan. Senator Susan Collins, senior Republican senator from Maine, joined other leading Republicans saying she would not support Trump. Paul Ryan has split with Trump on trade, immigration, Mexico, and other issues. He has insisted on decency and fairness in politics, and has won his seat in a working class town that had a closed GM plant in 2008 after Ryan voted to support rescue of the auto industry and worked hard to keep it open. Even though some of his policies have not directly helped working class families, he has won increasing support from his district as the economy recovered with unemployment down to 4.4% in Janesville, according to BLS for May 2016. Much of that support since 1998 has been based on Ryan's decency, faith and family. He made it a condition that he would go back on weekends to Wisconsin to stay in touch with people, when he accepted the position of Speaker of the House, and he listens to local concerns. Ryan said about the national discourse- "It's simple to prey on people's fears. That stuff sells, but it doesn't stick. It doesn't last. Most of all, it doesn't work." His job in today's deteriorated national discourse is as vital as ever, both for Wisconsin as representing the best in the national spirit, and for the country.   ...

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Big changes are expected in energy markets after 2026 following the end of the war with Iran, the naval blockade and the Hormuz straits closure. Even when the Shipping returns to Hormuz there will be continued uncertainty and prospect of conflict. As a result China, India, Japan and the US and EU will look for new sources of supply in Latin America for oil and gas including in Guyana, Brazil, Argentina, and in Venezuela. This NYT Analysis  confirms the shift to renewables will accelerate after 2026 with 2-3 years return on investment for renewables, and in 2026 wind+solar+nuclear now generating more electricity worldwide than gas. OPEC stranglehold on oil prices is weakening with UAE's exit from OPEC, and the US+ Venezuela+UAE expanding production. This will benefit poorer countries in the world in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Middle Income countries like China and India, as well as US and EU through lower prices for the new overall energy mix, with a higher component of renewables from every year 2027-2030. Lower priced component for oil possibly at $50 a barrel holding steady to 2030. From this perspective Hormuz's importance will decline over this period to the point that the world's wealth sucked up for far too long in the Middle East through the twin mechanisms of  high oil prices and decades of wars will be shifted back to infrastructure in the EU, US, India and China, Brazil and Indonesia. For the poor countries like Pakistan, India, Indonesia, China and others this is a big deal because instead of the wealth going to princes in the Persian Gulf  it will benefit people in Egypt, Arab countries such as Morocco and Tunisia,Turkey, Pakistan and India, China. Long delayed infrastructure rebuilding in US and European Union can now take place.The shift and trend to renewable energy as a major component of the energy mix of over 50%-60% in India could be expected by 2030 and have a major impact on climate change. (India has already crossed 50% of its energy from renewable sources). China will have installed half of the new renewable energy capacity added by 2030 and this too will add to the fight against climate change. Overall this combination of events and changes underway are overwhelmingly constructive and are not anticipated in this way by most of the world's media including the NY, which see slower growth when the opposite is now the case with accelerating and steady growth expected 2027-2030, and 2030-2035. For the US and EU it could not come at a more opportune time with the determination to invest at home and reindustrialize, build new infrastructure, for India to build a modern country by 2040, and for China or Japan not to get stuck in middle income status with continued modernization to 2040. For the poorest countries to work with these major nations to improve standards of living. For the US it also means the end of the border migrations flows that happened in 2025 taken to the next stage in 2026 and 2027 ending all drug flows across its borders with Mexico- as more lives are lost to fentanyl and other illegal drugs substances (1.25 million since 1999) than were lost in the Korean War (36,000 deaths), Vietnam  War (58,000 deaths) and World War 1 (116,000 deaths) World War II (418,000) all 4 wars combined. Issues of unfair trade deindustrialized the US. This coupled with drugs destroyed small towns and communities (that were based on manufacturing and lost factories) across the US for over 3 decades. The tackling of these issues will also add to the general sense of well being of the people in the US- and also in the European Union. The modernization underway in China and India+Indonesia+Brazil is also part of these changes, promise a rising tide that will lift all boats if we continue together to carefully select the right path ahead and chart the course clear eyed and clear on purpose. ...

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Osipova and Castle provide details about the personal life of Theresa May, the new British prime minister. May was only 25 when her father died in a car crash and her mother died soon after from multiple sclerosis. This has made her come closer to her husband Philip whom she met at Oxford, where they bonded over a love of cricket and debates at the university. She was interested in Tory politics from a young age, but has her own style of hard work and dislikes the chumocracy in British Conservative Party politics that prevailed under David Cameron. Unlike Cameron who was brash and confident to the point of making bold moves such as the decision to call a referendum as election year politics and did not consider carefully the impact of the austerity programs on Britain's working class; May is thoughtful and has been critical of the long period of deficit cutting austerity under Cameron and Osborne. She loves cooking and has a library of over 100 cookbooks, loves clothes and is carefully dressed for each event. Her matter of fact way to get on with it also has to do with her response to diabetes, with 4 injections a day her thought is "to just deal with it." She and her husband worked in investment banking, before her election as MP from Maidenhead, a constituency near London, on the third attempt. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph she has described the woman she is often compared to, Angela Merkel of Germany, as someone who doesn't get enough appreciaton. For May Merkel has actually achieved something significant by "steering Germany through a difficult time," and with her negotiation abilities during the eurozone crisis proved her resourcefulness, "hats off to her," says May. ...

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Li Yuan looks at the poor job prospects in China for young people over the age of 35 years whose work can be done by new university graduates at lower pay. Jobs in government are given before a person reaches 35 years. Employees laid off during the pandemic have difficulty finding work. This affects marraige prospects and starting a family, or buying a home. There is also hidden discrimination for job seekers over age 35. For women there are questions from employers about if and when they will have children.

Hidden discrimination takes place in the workplace in France where the protests against raising the pension age are fueled in addition to other reasons about its timing after the pandemic and inflation, by people over 40 years who cannot find jobs, with the burden falling harder on women. 

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New York, Washington and Illinois have lost manufacturing as Florida, Texas and Arizona have gained over the last 5 years. Manufacturing continues to make gains in Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina. Caterpillar is moving its manufacturing headquarters to Texas from its home state of Illinois. Ford is making $11.4 billion investment in electric cars in Tennessee and Kentucky.

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Paul Krugman in NYT outlines the options president Biden faces if Republicans decide not to increase the debt ceiling in the House of Representatives. All the alternatives are better than defaulting on the national debt. All options also create some short term volatility in financial markets before things stabilize. Biden and Democrats refuse to allow a repeat of negotiations of the kind Mr. Obama made with Republicans on the debt ceiling. The cuts a small faction in the Republican party is asking for come from spending that has already been approved by the House. It is also spending that meets the needs of the American people during a cost of living crisis, and for national priorities in fighting climate change, health and defense. Krugman also points out that cuts to welfare spending won't put more people to work as the unemployment rate is at a new low, and the theory behind it in this situation only deprives the neediest from getting help during a cost of living crisis. ...

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A whole series of efforts will come together to cut logistics cost for businesses from 14% to a small percentage. PM Modi says the policy aims to expedite last mile delivery to save time and money. Gati Shakti Plan will address some of the infrastructure gaps. "National Logistics Policy helps in making the support system modern," says Modi. The government is using technology to support logistics in new ways, Faceless assessment has started in customs and e-way bills and FASTag are bringing efficiency to the logistics sector. Drones are being used.  Sagarmala Project to connect ports and dedicated freight corridors is starting to improve logistics connectivity and systematic infrastructure development work. Modi said the world has accepted the production linked incentive scheme PLI announced by the government for boosting domestic manufacturing. Put together this puts India in a position to become one of the top three economies in the world from the situation today of being in the top five. ...

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Unintended effects of Title 42 law introduced by president Trump which quickly returns migrants crossing the US border with Mexico leading to repeated crossings by the same persons. This leads to a more complicated picture at the border.  About 2 million will have attempted to cross the southern border in 2022 fiscal year. About 22% of crossings involve repeat border crossers.Two thirds of the 182,000 migrants crossing in July 2022 were single individuals. The pandemic hit Mexico and Central America hard and the quicker economic rebound in the US is leading to a surge in migrants looking for work. In addition to Central America asylum seekers come from Cuba and Venezuela with repressive action by regimes. Mexico only takes some of these migrants back. There is also a flow of illegal drugs across the border from Mexico which continues to this day even after the Trump Wall at the border, as most of it comes through official entry points. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have taken action of different kinds yet the problem remains unresolved. ...

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China's economy expanded at 0.4% growth rate in the second quarter of 2020, according to the Bureau of National Statistics. It is not just the lockdowns that are dampening consumer sentiment.  US and EUropean demand for manufactured goods from Taiwan, South Korea and China is shrinking.

Youth unemployment is high with 20% of people 16 to 24 years without work. Some experts say the youth unemployment is increasing because companies are showing less interest in hiring and training new workers, or in investing in the future.

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A popular show on Japan's television network TBS and on Netflix Japan is "Extremely Inappropriate" that takes a widowed physical education teacher boarding a bus in 1986 Japan straight into 2024 and shows him with his rebellious teenage daughter. It contrasts the casual sexism, long work hours and culture of that time in the early postwar years with the concern for sexual harrassment in the workplace, and a culture that is moving away from long work hours. It sees something to value in both eras as the father changes as he adapts to the present and still keeps some of the better parts of the previous era. 

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Woman and better educated suburban people supported Nikki Haley. By contrast rural less educated went to the former president. What happens to these Haley supporters is important in 2024. Many are conservatives yet they are not finding a home in the new Republican party that has shifted from what it was before to look very different from before the 2009 financial crisis. The gradual disappearance of manufacturing in America as it was shipped overseas and the damage to communities built around it, the neglect of rural areas, the spiralling cost of healthcare, were already ripping apart the social fabric, only to be hit with the 2009 financial crisis from banking mismanagement and greed. The social and economic fabric which was next hit by the pandemic is only now recovering under president Biden. The Trump one term with all its good intentions failed to deliver on infrastructure and rebuilding manufacturing. The Biden work is a work in progress yet of a scale that America did in the 1950's to become the dominant nation after World War II through Truman, Ike and JFK. ...

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There can be some comfort with the loss of the usual social contact during the period of lockdown and working from home. There are is the opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect in prayer or meditation. There is also time to spend in gardens or parks, a patio or balcony to be outside. As Adrian Higgins of the Washington Post- who has two books on gardening and covered it since the 1980's- points out here we are not apart from nature or above it, we are nature, and plants and birds outside are fellow beings of a sort. Most of us live in tight urban environments and this is a great opportunity to break away from all the noise and bustle and experience some time with nature and with ourselves. A time for renewal and listening to our inner voices, as the gods may be reminding us about living a better and slower life. Higgins reminds us that sometimes it is an experience that is alive in memory as there is a word for it in Japanese and in German, and in other languages. In Japan shinrin-yoku is about forest bathing, by finding a woodland or park and experiencing the stillness. Germans call it a forest walk or waldspaziergang. Plant gardens or parks will do, even landscaped areas in urban settings. The shades in a garden with sunlight falling in different ways on leaves and plants. We develop a capacity to notice things we stopped noticing as we grew up. Just walk or sit quietly and look. Plants and trees also take away some of the isolation and loneliness as they are fellow travelers of a sort. As anyone who has planted will know we can look forward to the new flowering, and the growth into next year, and the next. We have got too intertwined with the short term and the immediate fulfillment, and this draws us out of this in ways that enrich and nourish our lives.     ...

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WSJ shows breakdown on federal spending hikes and cuts in the big DJT US Tax Bill. 2025 US Tax Bill renews the tax cuts put in place by Trump in his first term that expire in 2017. About $2.75 trillion in spending increases are not offset says WSJ. Briefly it has spending hikes for $2.18 trillion      DJT Tax Cuts from first term  $1.31 trillion       Increase Standard Deduction $820 billion         Deduction for businesses $797 billion         Child tax credit $1.41 trillion        Limits on Alternative Minimum Tax The goal is to promote business growth and help small business owners, parents with children, help ordinary Americans take more in take home pay during cost of living pressures for the average American. Savings come from $1.87 trillion repealing personal dependent exemption and $916 billion from capping state and local tax deductions. Added savings from repealing clean energy tax incentives and EV credits. Increasing work requirements for Medicaid saves $625 billion, tution aid cuts $346 billion, $300 billion from SNAP changes.   ...

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Tokyo enters a lockdown as Governor Koike warns of the danger of public complacency after the cherry blossom season. She called for the public's cooperation. She asked residents to work from home. The Tokyo metropolitan region has about 30 million people in a densely crowded area. 

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Renwick Gallery’s “State Fairs: Growing American Craft” Exhibtion in September 2025 collects artifacts and more than 240 artworks by artists, the huge collection representing Agricultural State Fairs such as the Iowa State Fair and such Fairs from across the east, midwest and western states. It takes several years of work visiting state fairs across the Nation for Curator Mary Savig to do the research that goes behind such a exhibition. This is the Smithsonian effort to give America's farmers a place front and centre in the life of the Nation as it approaches the 250th anniversary. If you are in Washington DC it is well worth a visit next to the People's House, near the White House. Washington DC has a new look as it becomes part of the effort for law and order and clean city- beautiful city, with its gardens in full bloom and sidewalks, Metro and transportation having a vibrant feel of renewal for the city that is the capital of the Nation, and in some ways of the World and its People. ...

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It has been done before, Muslim nations shifting their entire mindset to modernization. Under Kemal Ataturk this happened in the 1920's after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Ataturk seeing the colonial powers effort to dismember their region turned his effort to modernize Turkey with only one single objective that ensured freedom from colonial powers. Leslie Chang says in this WSJ report that Egyptian women are not joining the workforce in large numbers as they do in large numbers in China, India, Taiwan, South Korea, and Muslim nations such as Malaysia and Bangladesh. For every one woman working there are four at home and it is culturally frowned upon for women to work. There are a small number of highly educated women but this is deceptive says Chang as the overwhelming number are at home and they cannot make a contribution to the economy. See the report in WSJ alongside about the weak condition of the Egyptian economy and how with high inflation of 30% and weak currency, Egypt with help not coming from wealthy Gulf neighbors Saudis and UAE, has taken a $8 billion IMF loan. Egypt and Pakistan show the need for culture and education to make the shift to modernization to work hand in hand, the entire goals of nationhood to shift to one single objective of modernization. For this to happen a national consensus around modernization has to be achieved so that the entire culture is focused on simply one overriding objective.  ...

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Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post says to halt the problems at the border when last week migrant encounters hit 12,000 a day Democrats need to work with Republicans to get the votes in the Senate and House for needed legislation. This means losing some votes from factions within the Republican and Democratic parties and still getting it passed. It would be good for the country and good for Biden, says Thiessen. He says to get some idea on what the 12,000 figure means even 1000 migrants was a high number that would overwhelm the system in 2019. He cites John Fetterman, Senator from Pennsylvania, who says that honestly this happening at the border is astonishing, essentially seeing Pittsburgh at the border.

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Here are some ways to make for a better day at work.  1. Have what is called a "monk-mode" morning when you just keep out all phone calls and focus on "deep work," without distractions. Every little distraction in the form of a call or some other interruption has its costs in terms of having to refocus and not being able to concentrate on the task at hand as it deserves. 2. Have "meeting-free" days. These are days that you can focus, concentrate on tasks without distraction of meetings. Have walking meetings and meetings where you can walk out in the open for fresh air and some exercize. And no phones at meetings. 3. Replace reading with presenting powerpoint presentations. Have people write out their ideas for others to read so that discussion can be engaged and effective. Amazon CEO Bezos never believed in powerpoint presentations and required staff to write so that they could in the process improve on the clarity of their thinking. 4.  Have weekends free of email. This reduces the stress of workers under a manager who spend time writing and answering emails over weekends when they could replenish their energies and come back charged up on Monday morning for a fresh start on a new week. 55. Grab a coffee with a colleague and do some one on ones talking as one walks around the offices. This was done by Intel's Andy Grove as an effective way to get things done eliminating some of the need for formal meetings. This also provides an opportunity for casual conversation Also laugh and socialize in different ways.       ...

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Institute of Fiscal Studies, IFS, shows where the money is going in Labour's first Budget. See graphs of the household income over the 75 years under Conservative and Labour governments, which shows slower growth in household income over the next 5 years. Healthcsare and Education are growing at 4%. The growth of 6-10% is for local government spending, housing, communities and local government, work and pensions, Justice, HM Revenue. The slow rise in household incomes to 2030 is the result of trickle down economics which is sold vigorously by some groups as economic orthodoxy including the largest corporations paying little in taxes. This is true also of the US. FDR called it Tory policies and policies that say trickle down economics works when it doesn't. FDR said at DNC in 1932- "And we thought the Tories left in 1776." Today this is why UK household incomes show slight growth to 2030, and even this Labour Government is hesitant to boldly question this economic orthodoxy.  For Britain the debacle of Brexit turning some legitimate questions of immigration into isolation from economies of mainland Europe adds to the problem.     ...

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Medicaid is now costing the US about 880 billion dollars in 2025. Of this 69% is covered by Federal dollars sent to the states. WSJ reports- 2025 DJT action on Medicaid calls for around $800 billion  savings over 10 years in Medicaid cuts that would come from $109 billion savings over 10 years for work requirement. And $600 billion savings over 10 years from paying only 90% (not 100%) for the people added to Medicaid by Obama that are in better health than the core Medicaid population who get only 90%.

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The work in the US Congress in the hands of Senator Schumer and Representative Pelosi to get the Biden plan for families and workers approved. This means pulling in all members of Congress from the Democratic Party to support president Biden's plan and winning some Republican support.

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Between 2016 and 2019 Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado had 40% increase in visitors. It has only 4 toilets in at Longs Peak 14,000 feet high, a frequently visited spot by hikers, each miles apart. The park is itself 265,000 acres and with Denali, Alaska, Mt. Rainier, Washington state, one of the top frequently visited park areas in America. Some of the worst work in the world is getting the waste in these older abandoned toilets which don't work anymore out of there as this can breed some of the bacteria that could harm people, animals and vegetation.  TecToilet at $4000 a piece has provided a temporary solution being used at some parks. This is to separate the urine from the waste which proves to be a breeding ground for bacteria, and sent the waste separately to a deposit container, which is taken out by helicopter. This solution is very costly. The parks not well funded and having faced cutbacks from a bad staffing situation to begin with end up being behind on needed facilities and maintenance. The 3 decade waste of capital led by Silicon Valley and Wall Street, and cheered by official media, has to take responsibility for this deplorable and absolutely crazy situation in America. More people are visiting national parks and national forests, and open backcountry in the mountains, especially after the pandemic, yet the jewels of America have to justify essential funding?  India is tackling the situation of toilets in a big way for sanitation in the country after centuries of neglect. Millions of toilets are being built at low cost. What is needed is for Indian engineers to come up with a design for India's own national parks, including the parks in the Himalayan regions, which have the same problems facing the national parks of America for toilet waste. Other countries in Europe need to be researched for solutions that may already exist and new designs made at lower cost in India that can tackle the decontamination and disposal of the waste on site without the cost of helicopters taking it out.      ...