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How the consolidation in the steel industry is affecting steel pricing.

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Chrysler will contribute about $10 billion into a VEBA type trust. By this Chrysler can pass on $16 billion in healthcare obligations to the trust to be run by the UAW. New hires will be paid less in a two tier wage system. Chrysler will not sell Mopar part division thus keepig 2600 union jobs.

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Fast food that is not fast food. Environments at McDonalds that invite customers to linger a while longer and enjoy coffee at Starbucks prices. A feng shui master designed McDonalds environment for a store in Hacienda Heights, California, which is 36% Asian and 38% Latino. Changing marketing strategies to compete better and raise revenues at McDonalds.

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An export rebound is not matching the growth in imports. Imports went up 31% since May 2009, while exports went up 27%. The result is that the trade deficit is growing, primarily because of imports from China and imports of costlier oil. The trade deficit is expected to reach $40 billion in December 2010, compared to $25 billion in May 2009.

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After a sudden surge in the beginning of May the coronavirus wave in India, its second wave, is decreasing. It is 186,000 new coronavirus cases on May 27, down from over 350,000 at the peak. In India's largest state Uttar Pradesh with a population of 210 million the coronavirus cases have dropped sharply to 4000 a day. New coronavirus cases in Delhi and Bombay are around 1000 a day. The Indian government has moved quickly to tackle this wave with decisive action to meet the sudden surge in May 2021. For the rest of 2021 and into 2022 the most important action by the Indian government has been to create a government sponsored effort of India's entire pharmaceutical company sector to reunite in production of over 2 billion vaccine doses by December 2021. After independence in 1947 one of the steps taken by India with great foresight was to create a strong pharmaceutical sector with fair and transparent pricing of basic drugs and vaccines. Something that does not exist in this manner and scale anywhere else in the world. Today this is giving India a tremendous asset in the fight against coronavirus. India is already the largest producer of vaccines in the world, the new effort will make give it a decisive advantage in meeting not only India's but the world's need for new vaccines. ...

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Extraordinary pictures taken by a photographer from Edinburgh who left Britain for Singapore and Far East in 1862 at the age of 25 years. He had worked as an apprentice with an optical manufacturer and learned photography. What is astounding is that this was the time when Japan was opening up to the ideas and technology from Europe with the Meiji restoration around 1871, China in transition under the Manchu dynasty which was to collapse in 1912 ending the monarchy. A major rebellion happened with the Taiping rebellion in southern China in 1854 that lasted till 1862. The Taiping rebellion was against the Manchu dynasty as a foreign dynasty imposed on Han people in China, and the result of famines, difficult conditions for peasants, opium addiction, poor economic prospects for a large population. Mao considered the Taiping rebellion as an unfinished revolution which the Communists continued this time against other foreign rulers the Japanese and European colonies in China,  and the Nationalist rule of Chinag-kai-Shek with corruption and wide disparities of incomes. John Thomson took pictures of China in the 1870's, now in the Wellcome collection and displayed in an exhibition at Heriot Watt University in Britain. Women and children in Guangdong, Canton and Beijing are shown in these pictures of China. Between 1872 and 1942 is a period of only 70 years with tumultuous events and huge changes in China. By 1944-1949 Communists controlled vast parts of China with Mao's forming of the People's Republic of China for the Chinese people, free of foreign influence, corruption, and opium trade of the British. And again 40 years later by 1989 China using a market economy to change China into a modern nation as advanced as Japan, Europe and America. For India the new People's Republic of China under Mao also brought the PLA army to the borders of India. In 1950 China invaded Tibet at Chamdo, and in 1951 annexed the country under a 15 Point Agreement making it a region of China. With that invasion India and China face each other for the first time in the Himalayas across a border stretching east to west for thousands of miles. A war in 1962 was followed by incursions across the border in 2020 in the Ladakh region. Both sides build infrastructure on either side of the Line of Control that stretches for 3500 kilometres. Most of the Indian people remain ignorant of the changes happening in China from the Manchus to the Communists. Most Chinese have little knowledge of the changes happening in India from British period to the post independence period under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi , and further to the changes for modernization happening under Mr. Modi. Large populations of over 1 billion people facing each other but knowing little about each other in one of the strange situations in the world, and armies building infrastructure on either side of the line of control. ...

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Make a virtual visit to the Kumbh Mela on BBC World. Watch the energy of 1.2 billion Indians around the sacred rives and forests of India, in the land of Shiva, Buddha and of the Bhagavad Gita, ancient civilization and life of the Spirit of man.

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Pictures of reopening in Britain on May 14 from the BBC as lockdown rules are eased, more people spend time outside, and some return to work.

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Wang Xiaofang is a former bureaucrat and writer who documents real life stories of corruption in China's bureaucracy by using fictional characters. A similiar approach by another Chinese writer Mo Yan in literary novels led to him being awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature. Censorship in China has not affected writings using fictional characters and literary novels of this kind. It may be seen by the government as a way to let the public ventilate some of its frustrations with corrupt bureaucrats and communist party officials in China. It also shows how widespread the problem has become and is a serious matter for the future of the Communist Party. Wang tells the Beijing Bookworm Literary Festival after he entered the official bureaucracy he felt the desire "not to be spiritually crippled." Wang is the author of the Civil Servant's Notebook, which is described as a guide for the 1.4 million people taking the civil service exams in China each year. This suggests that China's new leadership sees this as one of the ways to give right direction to young people joining the civil service, and comes with a new focus on corruption. Wang is also part philosopher in his musings when he says China has lost its traditional culture and cannot adopt western culture, and so it remains confused at a crossroad. This leads to his idea of operators in China's official circles as people who have lost their faith and spiritual home. ...

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Khamanei as leader of post revolution Iran set up Iranian supported military organizations in neighboring countries such as in Lebanon (Hezbollah), in Iraq, and in Syria, in Yemen (Houthis), over two decades, but failed to make the gains that Asian nations in that period made by investing entirely every dollar in the homeland economy of Iran. By comparing with Asian nations such as South Korea/Japan/Taiwan/China and now India/Vietnam the entire region from Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistan, Persian Gulf, Egypt can be seen as having lost some vital decades of the early twenty first century, and the scale of the difference is nothing short of staggering.  China after suffering invasion from Britain and then Japan, after civil wars and the Korean War, after going through this for two centuries sought peaceful development in 1990-2025, working with Japan and Britain countries that caused so much suffering yet China sough rapprochement, patiently with humility, with incredible results.  Gandhi also sought rapprochement with Britain through the British Commonwealth and cherished institutions of parliament and science learned and gathered from Britain. This was woefully missing in West Asia. When considering the access to capital in fossil fuel sales, the region of West Asia around Egypt may be seen as having recorded the largest wasted capital in wars in world history in the period 1920 -2047 (with only 20 years left to 2047),  by which time India, China, Europe and the US will have shifted from fossil to solar nuclear and renewables and fossil will be no longer generating revenue flows. Very little time is left as development will be that much harder by 2047 without the capital and result being one of being left behind in this new world that is facing us all.  ...

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US-China relations shift from adversarial to peaceful cooperation after the Busan meeting in South Korea in October 2025 between Chinese leaders Xi and Wang Yi. This is how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC presented the meeting- a turning point in relations. In April 2026, 6 months later it appears that this is certainly the case as shown in the WSJ Analysis in the adjoining article. Both leaders have decided that they will avoid any actions that disrupt peaceful cooperation and maintain friendly relations in anticipation of the May 14-15 visit to Beijing of DJT which will be followed by a trip by Xi and Wang Yi, He Lifeng to the US. The spirit of cooperation is reflected in this statement- "China will host APEC 2026, and the U.S. the G20 summit next year. The two sides can support each other in making both summits productive to promote world economic growth and improve global economic governance. President Trump said that it is a great honor to meet President Xi. China is a great country. President Xi is a well respected great leader, and has been my good friend for many years. We have always got along well. The United States and China have always had a fantastic relationship, and it will be even better. We will make both China and the U.S. even better. China is the biggest partner of the U.S. Together, our two countries can get many great things done for the world and have many years of success. China will host APEC 2026, and the U.S. will host the G20 summit next year. We expect both to be successful." ...

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MaC Group, a risk advisor to Spanish banks, says Spanish banks hold about 30 billion pounds of distressed real estate and unsellable land. Prices are down 28% from the peak in 2007, according to a report by the IESE Business School, and are expected to fall a further 15-20 percent in the next 2-3 years by some experts. Much of the bank owned land is far from city centers and there is no demand for this. One Madrid based consultant R.R. de Acuna Asociados, says 43% of bank owned land is poorly located and there may be no demand for unfinished residential units for decades. The new government of Mariano Rajoy plans to take action to cleanup the banking system. Louis de Guindos, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers and IE Business School Center of Finance is expected to become the new finance minister. Guindos says strict rules need to be implemented, with some banks able to handle this and others that won't. MaC Group's Cantos, a managing partner, says the gap is huge between prices offered by banks and what investors will pay- as much as 70%. Prime assets can be sold for 30% discount but the land, residential and commercial real estate will require discounts of 70%. Banks have made provisions for losses of 30%, and are now facing the prospect of another 40% in losses. As a result many of the medium and small sized banks which operate only inside Spain may have to be shut down or consolidated by the government of Mariano Rajoy. Only the larger banks like Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao, La Caxia, and Bankia are likely to surivive....

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Kristof of the NYT writes about DJT Action in Venezuela January 3, 2026.  Some of the least understood aspects of the US president's language on Venezuela- The president's reference to oil resources is not for the US to benefit from the oil reserves. It is about oil in the sense that the oil industry in Venezuela is in total disrepair and broken from years and decades of nationalization followed by lack of investment, lack of western technology.  Sanctions put a huge price on the Venezuelan economy with the brunt of it borne by ordinary people- the same people that a socialist like Hugo Chavez thought he could help with his erratic ideology. As China, and now India has learned the only way to get ahead in this world for nations is to invest, invest, invest with larger and larger pools of capital, technologies and labour. By alienating the US or EU there is a loss of technologies and of investment so that one is going to bat with only one strike and you are out, so that from Day 1, China under Mao, India under Nehru had lost the race, so did all the "socialist" regimes in the world. Conversely China under Deng and successors, and India under Modi are breaking development records. How does the US change this? First it removes the sanctions on the Venezuelan economy. Second it gives Chevron the green light for increased production. Oil facilities of the Venezuelan oil company will get foreign investment and US investment from American oil companies with returns for both and the state oil revenues invested under a government that is able to invest it free of corruption or it being funneled out of the country to support other regimes in Latin America. This will rebuild the country's health system, its broken infrastructure, restore its finances, and make it in a decade one of the advanced economies in Latin America. But only if- the gangs and other private militias, the other military elements from the two decades of utter mismanagement and drug trafficking are  removed. A new way will have to be devised that the US as to work out ad hoc meaning in the process of doing, invented that meets the conditions of getting this done and the process of reconstruction of Venezuela under the Monroe doctrine of keeping the entire western hemisphere free of such elements. The US achieved this with the help of Great Britain in 1823 when it was only 50 years since it's founding in 1776. The US has the resources in 2026 to make this happen in the interests of the people of the western hemisphere, in the quality of life of people in the western hemisphere. It does not seek any country's resources, it seeks the development of the countries in the western hemisphere in the great tradition of Jefferson, Monroe, Lincoln, FDR and JFK. ...

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Yun Hua writes about perceptions of ordinary Chinese about the Cultural Revolution period in Communist China under Mao.

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US 28 Point Peace Plan for the Russia- Ukraine war put out on November  20 2025 and the Ukrainian response. Ukraine and EU plans for counter proposals on some of the key points. Zelensky says Ukraine may have to choose between losing a partner and dignity in his message to the Ukrainian nation as the US takes a neutral stand in the war and pushes for a settlement which Ukraine and Europe see as "capitulation."