LyrArc Article Gist
At the core 66% of people in the US, UK and in Germany, 77% in France, Italy and Spain  in Pew Research in 2024 see the need for big economic changes. Inequality increase are often automatically seen as correlated with deterioration in standard of living. However in practice cost of living concerns and opportunity to do something about it can move in the opposite direction to inequality increases. Cost of living can improve based on gas and electricity prices and access to housing with lower interest rates independent of whether government is or is not intervening in the economy. Some interventions may not work as in the supply side shocks in prices from Covid lockdowns or simply exhaust people's patience without sufficient timely correction. A disquiet index can also move in a different direction from inequality increases when cost of living raises disquiet levels for people, and cultural issues such as transgender in schools create  additional disquiet. Failure to get bipartisanship may leave inequality issues unresolved as happens with one group student loan borrowers stuck in repayment.  In this sense inequality is only one goal and can be elusive if the overall goal of reducing disquiet index are left unresolved. A better quality of life can be achieved in other ways- as with the effort for "a rising tide lifts all boats." This can include the ripple effect of international politics where issues spill over into the US creating cultural disquiet on campuses as happened in 2024 with Israel Gaza conflict. The interplay of local and international starts adding complexity that adds to disquiet index for people in all levels of society.   ...

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A labor shutdown that nearly shut down the US economy says the Washington Post is a result of policies set by the BSNF management for attendance on freight trains by engineers and other workers. It resulted in a tragedy. Hiles, 51, suffered a heart attack on June 16. He missed a doctor's appointment because he was called back to work. Not showing up could have invited penalties under strict attendance policies of BSNF, one of the largest rail carriers in the US. Aaron Hiles told his wife he felt different, then he made an appointment to see a doctor. On June 16 the locomotive engineer suffered a heart attack and died in an engine room on a BSNF freight train somewhere between Kansas City and Fort Madison, Iowa. President Biden has stepped in and arranged an agreement that includes time off when needed for medical reasons and a 24% increase in pay by 2024.

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The WSJ Editorial Board on the predawn vote on February 14th 2024 with a vote of 70-29 approving US aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. A lot of the investment is in the US in Patriot missiles built in Arizona and defense equipment in Alabama as the president pointed out in his message to House Republicans shown alongside saying history is watching. WSJ reminds readers that Arthur Vandenburg of Michigan helped president Harry Truman setup the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for the defense of Eastern Europe falling into Soviet hands- the danger seen in Greece and Turkey in the 1947 and the Berlin Blockade 1948-49. The Truman Doctrine was announced on March 12, 1947. People forget that Truman asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey. With it Greece, the mother of western democracies was able to stave off defeats from Soviet supported forces by 1950.

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Softer sales in the US for store brands maker Treehouse in 2025.

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Firefly landing of craft on moon March 2025, first by a private company in the US working with NASA. The company is based in Texas.

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Surges in capital value can be wildly misleading. Nvidia a rapid computing company propelled in stock value. From the growth of crypto currency that led to losses and was perceived as a danger to the financial system by central banks and governments. This is happening when capital investment is a dire need in education and schools, good teachers and good classrooms, when only a third of American students pass NAEP tests on reading comprehension. Today's capital allocation system was never designed to accomplish this even as it sends hundreds of billions of dollars in one single day to a single company. Nvidia is now seeing a surge from chatbots computing coming out of ChatGPT,  leading to $184 billion change in its market value on May 25, 2023.  Nvidia was mostly a graphics processing company setup to make graphics on PC's look better. In 2006 Jensen Huang made the decision to open it up to developers to tinker with it and develop more computing capabilities. This has led to Nvidia designing much more powerful computing chips that perform thousands of calculations at the same time.   Nvidia designs the chips and sends production out to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. Suddenly Nvidia sees its share price surge and it joins companies such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla that have seen one day surge in the value of the companies by over $100 billion shown in this WSJ graph by date. Huang says he thinks that this is the beginning of a ten year period in which companies will redo their data centers to build them up with AI computing capabilities. WSJ also says China's top nuclear weapons research institute has bought these advanced chips even though it is on a US export blacklist since 1997. In 2022 the Biden administration imposed new licensing requirements on export of the most advanced chips. Since then Nvidia is following specifications for chips that allow it to export to China, says the WSJ.     ...

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India gets 4,100 megawatts from nuclear power or only 2.7% of capacity of 152,000 megawatts. It currently has 17 nuclear power plants. THe US-India Nuclear Cooperation Treaty signed in October 2008 wil give abig push to nuclear energy in India. Six new plants will be built. Nuclear power will rise to an estimated 40,000 megawatts by 2020, and Prime Minister Singh said it could generate 470,000 megawatts by 2050. THis week India's Hindusthan Construction Company signed adeal with Amec PLC, a UK engineering and project management company for taking up nuclear energy plants in India. About 500 engineers are eventually expected to work for the company.

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Crowley home to Gatwick airport- situation of migrants in UK in one English town, shown in The Guardian. Migrants has become a divisive issue in Britain with Labour shifting to new policy on migrants, many Conservative party leaders joining Reform UK party. The situation is similar across the continent in Italy, Germany and France, Netherlands and Nordic countries. It is also a divisive issue in the US in January 2026, and has been since the Operation Wetback under President Eisenhower in 1954 as the US Border at the time was not secure following large migrant flows similar to the last decade. The issues of citizenship are still what they were in 1904 when US president Teddy Roosevelt in his Annual Message to Congress said- "The citizenship of our country should not be debased. It is vital that we keep high the standard of living of our wage workers, and therefore we should not admit masses of men whose standards of living, customs and habits, are such that they tend to lower the level of the American wage worker, and above all we should not admit any man of an unworthy type, any man of whom we can say that he will himself be a bad citizen, or his children and grandchildren will detract from instead of adding to the sum of the good citizenship of the country."    ...

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In Biden's address at the UN General Assembly he talks about climate change and Covid-19, and a foreign policy that brings together US and its allies in Europe and Asia. He said "the next decade will quite literally determine our futures."  He encouraged "competition" but he stressed he was "not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks." Biden also said the US would spend $10 billion to end hunger and invest in food systems around the world.

Biden also increased US commitment for developing countries to reduce emissions to total $11 billion by 2024- in a recent interview Indian finance minister Sitharaman says India has done its work for COP21 emissions entirely without US or other funds.

In a few days Biden will hold a Covid summit where he will call for vaccinating 70% of the world's population. 

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How did it come to this the 125% US tariff on China? China thinks it is it's success. American companies have deindustrialized the US taking out it's manufacturing by shipping it overseas destroying the American middle class and working class.  An insult to the American worker whose pride and dignity and efforts rebuilt the world after the Second World War helping Europe and Japan, China, rebuild. Pouille and Thibault of Le Monde of France look at how China advanced in the years 2004 to 2024 and surged from 9% of industrial production in the world to 29% more than US, Japan, Germany and India combined.   This is also the period of three wars Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria and two presidents Bush and Obama 16 years in which the US took its eyes of the ball and let this situation take hold, which would inevitably lead to a response from the US which started with US president DJT in 2016 and is now in its 10th year. Having failed to limit the China 2025 Plan so that there is no overconcentration of manufacturing in the world disproportionately affecting the rest of the world. The consequences for the rest of the world are clear to see with the 1.7 billion people in India and Indonesia who were late in industrialization by 10-15 years compared to China, the deindustrialization of Europe and the US as this enters its final stages leading to the fissures in the societies of Europe and the US, the destruction of the middle class. ...

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Tim Walz uses a sports metaphor about being one behind, fighting for every inch in this football game to score, as he brings to life this final effort of 75 days to win the election for president Kamala Harris, for president Biden, and for workers and families across the 51 States. Read the full speech at the Convention as Tim Walz accepts the Democratic nomination for Vice President. "Their Project 2025 will make things much, much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives. They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I coached high school football long enough to know, and trust me on this: When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it. And we know, if these guys get back in the White House, they’ll start jacking up the costs on the middle class. They’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act. They’ll gut Social Security and Medicare. And they will ban abortion across this country, with or without Congress. Here’s the thing. It’s an agenda nobody asked for. It’s an agenda that serves nobody, except the richest and the most extreme amongst us. And it’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need. Is it weird? Absolutely. Absolutely. But it’s also wrong, and it’s dangerous. It’s not just me saying so, it’s Trump’s own people. They were with him for four years. They’re warning us that the next four years will be much, much worse." ...

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The IMF currently has $202 billion in basic resources and an additonal $41 billion it can tap in international financial crises, for a total $243 billion, according to IMF documents. Under a G-20 initiative a new lending pool will replace the $41 billion and add about $250 billion of new money. This money will be needed to address the new committments required in the current euro-zone crisis. Seven Europen countries are expected to ratify the lending program with parliamentary approval so that it can be put into place in 2011- Austria, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden. This will bring the IMF's lending capacity to over $450 billion. The US has approved the increase and is committing about $106 billion, larger than its 17% ownership stake in the IMF.

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Auto sales for 2010 are expected to come in at 11.5 million, a significant drop from the 17.5 million in 2000. A better job market expected to push the unemployment rate down a bit to 9.7% from 9.8% in November will help, but not by enough. Credit Suisse analyst Christopher Ceraso says each percentage point that the rate is above normal ( about 5%) keeps sales back by about a million auto sales on an annual basis. To get sales back to a 16 million range this would require an unemployment rate of 6%. Economists expect a better US economy in 2011 but the prospects remain uncertain for 2012, bringing unemployment down to about 8-9% if hiring picks up. The other concerns are high consumer debt and a rise in gasoline prices. If gas prices rise and buyers shift back to smaller vehicles, as they did in 2008, this would squeeze margins and profits. This is especially a concern as automobile companies have increased profits with a larger truck and large size vehicle component of sales, in a reverse shift after the shift to smaller cars in 2008-2009. Ford Motor is one example of this. It helps Ford use the extra profits to reduce its debt load but automakers have to be prepared for a sales shift to smaller cars in the face of higher gas prices....

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The word "elderly" is going out of common use, the CDC in the U.S. has crossed it out and uses the words 'over 60." Parents bristle as the term elderly takes on a new meaning in the days of coronavirus in March 2020. One of the baby boomers at age 64, who has completed 40 triathlons in last 7 years asks if she can really be called elderly. Parents bristle with texts and calls from children in the thirties to change travel plans, with most deciding to stay put at home. Yet as other reports show most younger people in their thirties and forties are also working from home with their kids around them.

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 Nikki Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina in 1972, her father became US citizen 1978, her mother 2003, according to her autobiography. She was governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and served as the US ambassador at the United Nations under president Trump. Article 2 of the US Constitution sets out that only natural born citizens can be president of the US. Commentators have opined that the natural born citizen requirement was put in to mean that the citizen was not naturalized at some later date. During the 1730's under British Common Law and under the Naturalization Act of 1790 of the First US Congress children of Ameircan citizens born overseas were considered to be American citizens. This was true of Barry Goldwater born in Arizona before it became a US state, and Romney born in Mexico, Senator McCain born in the Panama Canal Zone. This is why when one parent is an American citizen as for Obama and Cruz this law prevails. When a child is born in the US he is considered to be a citizen at birth under the laws of the US and natural born under Article 2 of the US Constitution. Supporting US literacy about civics  knowledge for children is the best way to get the best outcomes for the civic life of the United States as promoted by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor through iCivics site, and by Lyrarc under the Movement for Global Literacy. ...

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Whe American entered bankruptcy in Nov. 2011 shares dropped so low they reached 20 cents a share, putting the company's value at an incredibly low $90 million, less than one of its planes! Most shares bought in 2013 have multipled in value 13 times, as the stock surged 46% since opening to $35.98. AMR shares dropped to $2.06 when the Justice Dept. blocked the merger with US Airways in August and were at $7 for 2 months before the airlines made a settlement in November 2013.

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Chuck Searcy, 79 years, was in the Vietnam War at Khe Sanh in 1968 as an intelligence officer. In 1992 he first sees unexploded ordnance- from US bombing in Vietnam. He has over many years cleared an unbelievable amount of these dangerous devices. 8 million tons of ordnance was dropped near Khe Sanh near the Ho Chi Minh trail from 1965 to 1975. About 100,000 people have died or sustained injuries. Hang Nam and Searcy founded Project Renew in 2001- since then almost a million tons of these explosive devices have been removed and children taught to stay away safely. Norwegian's People's Aid is also doing the project to cut injuries to zero. It operates 180 deminers.

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The twin banners of Science and Modernization of the May 4, 1919 movement kept high through the last 100 years are revived at the 20th Chinese CCP Party Congress in 2022. Xi Jinping used the phrase "self reliance in science and technology" five times as the US and EU gradually close the doors to shipping out advanced technologies to China, and limit flows of capital to concentrate on development at home.  A new section was added to his report for "Science and Education."

Xi told the Congress- "We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth."

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Apple's plans to make the new iPhone 14 in India. Its efforts to bring NPI or New Product Introduction processes to India so that new iPhones can be built in a short time. This would mean not replicating production processes existing in China but setting up new ones from scratch. About 95% of iPhones are made in China. Only about 7% in India by year end which Apple plans to increase to much higher levels by 2025, as some of the supply chain for Apple shifts to India from China. The Modi government is setting up new infrastructure and logistics centers in India to prepare for India becoming a key part of the supply chain for the US and the European Union.

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Presley says the Governor's election is not about right vs. left, not Democrat vs Republican, just those of us on the outside vs those in the inside. NYT covers Brandon Presley's effort to win the Governor's race in a Deep Southern state Mississippi. He plans expansion of Medicaid in a state with alarming health conditions. He hopes to revive rural hospitals. He approved raises for public school teachers of $5100 a year. He is conservative on social and cultural issues. In 2001 at age 24 he was elected mayor of a small town Nettleton with 1900 people in northeastern Mississippi. He was elected four times to represent northern Mississippi on the Public Services Commission.

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Yes millions of jobs created under Biden in 4 years- 19 million jobs. Yet the growth in jobs is uneven across counties and states in the US. A full 43 percent of counties have not fared as well with jobs not reaching 2019 prepandemic levels by the beginning of 2024. This includes Michigan with Wayne County having 2% less from 2019 levels. It includes Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh area. It includes Wisconsin. Western and southern states did better with Arizona and Nevada going in opposite directions one gaining from investments in electric cars and green energy, and the other Nevada suffering from the hit taken by workers in hotels and hospitality.  NYT shows in graphical detail the situation today.

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This Editorial Board Opinion in the WSJ reminds readers that it is the Government Accountability Office of the US itself that made these estimates of annual losses from fraud and waste.

A Government Accountability Office report of 2024 estimated the “federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.” The GAO report said “a government-wide approach is required to address it,” and advised that Treasury take up and “leverage data-analytics capabilities” for the job of stopping questionable payments and payments that look dubious. This was suggested as a necessary step to cut waste and fraud in a bureaucracy that is this large.

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South Korea prepares for new elections with about a third or quarter of the people strongly supporting Yoon whose impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court April 4, 2025. Adjoining BBC Special Report shows how Yoon went astray. The gist also shows how South Korean democracy is only since 1988 compared to India's 1948, and how India's democratic traditions were formed under the Birtish with representation in parliament, first British then Indian, and in state assemblies in the 1930's, under Nehru in 1950's.

Today with the US imposing 25% tariffs on South Korea there is no government to make a response or strategy to deal with this.

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Justice Khanwilkar of the Indian Supreme Court (2016-2022) is appointed the second Lokpal of India. He wrote some of the key decisions of the court in recent years. As Lokpal he is head of the Anti-Corruption Authority of India, that was established in 2013 after the protests against widespread corruption and leakage of funds led by Anna Hazare of Maharashtra that led to loss of confidence in the government of that year. Justice Khanwilkar supported the strict provisions of the Prevention of Money Laudering Act (PMLA) that provide the essentials for a developing country to ensure good governance and prevent the leakage of funds that are destructive for improving the ease of living, and for the confidence of the people in the government. He also decriminalised homosexuality, and upheld the Gujarat government for handling of events in 2002. He was alsopart of the 5 Judge SC bench that upheld Aadhar documentation of every citizen of India that made it possible under Digital India to deposit money directly to bank accounts preventing leakage of funds going to hundreds of millions of needy Indians. This was key to supporting families across India during the pandemic. In 2020 he passed a ruling on regulating the NGO's in India and use of foreign funding, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Act (FCRA), which ensures the government of a developing country of over 1 billion people can be run by the will of the people for the people, free from interference by foreign ideologies and interests. He tackled a key environmental case in 1996 when surrounding tanneries were polluting the river Ganges. The range of Khanwilkar's decisions is as prolific as it is critical for shaping a modern nation of 1.4 billion people. He served as the Standing Counsel of the Election Commission of India aiding in the operation of EC that is crucial for Indian election process.. He wrote 226 judgements and sat on 817 benches, a hardworking and disciplined judge that is a reflection of the best of India from the period of Indian renewal under Vivekananda and Gandhi to this day. Khanwilkar started his career in 1982, representing the state of Maharashtra as Standing Counsel at the Supreme Court, and was later Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh, Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh. ...

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AARP shows 29 million Americans working and taking care of older parents. Many work 40 hours a week and work an additional 20 hours helping elderly parents. About six out of ten people of this 29 million work full time. In 2024 a lot more people are living longer and older people prefer staying in their own homes and need help from family members. A simple fall or a cancer diagnosis can lead to long hospital stay, months of treatment, and worrying for family members. Company benefits in 2024 do not include senior or eldercare support or even accomodating employees caring for their parents. In America today federal and state laws do not protect people caring for elderly parents from discrimination in the workplace. Consider how this is affecting companies, as about one third who are caregivers say they are going to leave, and half of the employees leaving are senior manager and executives with much experience. This comes to about 5 million senior managers and executives that American industry can ill afford to lose as it competes with China, India and Europe. About half of all companies are making this a priority in 2024, according to Care.com. Citigroup added 2 weeks of paid leave to care for immediate family member. Companies allow employees to add older parents on their health insurance. These benefits are being added to maternity and paternity leave. The fact that Congress and state legislatures have failed to enact laws protecting caregivers is one more reason for the discontent and unrest in the US after the pandemic. ...