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What is the Winter Fuel Payment in the UK? The Independent provides some answers. It was introduced in 1997 by a Labour government in Britain. It now provides 200 pounds to people over age 66, and 300 pounds to people over age 80. To get this payment pensioners and retired people have to be eligible for pension credits. This is possible if your income level is - Income at £11,343.8 a year if single, or a shared income of £17,313.4 for two or a couple is what qualifies one for this winter fuel allowance. The British energy authority says winter fuel costs will rise by about 300 pounds. This means a 500 pound hit to budgets of pensioners who are not eligible for winter fuel allowance under the Labour plan. The Labour plan is to do this because of the hole in public finances left by the Tories of 22 billion pounds. Starmer and Reeves say this is needed and the responsible decision. One million pensioners face a loss of Winter Fuel allowance and Age UK says: “Older people in this group often tell us they really struggle financially; the proposed change will make it even harder for them to afford to stay warm when it gets chilly. ...

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Scholz loses a no confidence vote in parliament that he called so that new elections are held in 60 days according to federal German law.  He says it is a fundamental choice that German people need to make between pensions and investments for the future with support for the armed forces vs the policy that doe not plan to invest in the future with a debt brake limiting investment. The Free Democrats opposed SPD and Greens efforts to invest for 4 years. Why did Scholz continue. in this way with FDP CDU's Merz asks directly, was Scholz on another planet.  This has happened three times before- in 1972 when Wily Brandt got support for his Ostpolitik policy of better relations with Soviet Union and GDR and new mandate after planning a no confidence vote for a new election. He won with 46% of the vote and 91% of eligible voters voted. In 2005 Kohl was reelected after a no confidence vote he planned on his government to get a new mandate. Kohl of CDU won. In 2005 Gerhard Schroeder's social and economic reforms affected working class Germans- he called a no confidence vote to get a new mandate. This one Schroeder of SPD lost and it started Angela Merkel of CDU's 16 years in office. ...

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This is not just offering something to every group, it is rebuilding the middle class when seen in the larger context of rebuilding America's industrial base and taking  it to new heights after losing it to China under Bush-Obama 2000-2016. Under MAGA Trump inequality is tackled just differently from the way Democrats tackled it under Biden. The tax break for auto loans, interest on auto loans is deductible for taxes, is part of the new Tax Bill to appeal to auto workers. It is only applicable to US made cars and this promotes US made cars over foreign factory made cars such as the Germans and Koreans and some Japanese auto makers did before 2025. Reagan scrapped this tax break, it is back under Trump as the Republican base now includes auto workers and the now back to growth mode middle class. The deduction in local and state taxes increases to 30,000 to benefit small business owners. There is also the tax on tips which is removed. Retired people get an added $4000 deduction and not elimination of taxes on social security benefits entirely because of the Bryd rule that prevents changes to retirement with a simple majority vote not the 60 votes in the Senate.  ...

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How reckless actions that ignored public sentiment on illegal migrants have led to a surge in Germany and the US of foreign born populations, It jumped in Germany from 7.5% in 1990 to 21% by 2025 and in the US from 10% in 1990 to to 16%  in 2025. This means as shown by NYT graphs the US went up by 60% and Germany went up by a shocking 300%. This is why young Germans voted for the AfD. Merz's CDU has rejected Merkel policies and has imposed a series of actions to put in border controls, stop migrants.  Putting such stress on working class communities is an affront to people when they face crime as has happened in recent years, and when cost of living issues, covid pandemic have already caused much stress. Here the NYT reverses its position on migration and speaks of the dangers of such migration, the stress on woking class communities where migrants settle, on the public services and resources stretched to their limit. It now says Merkel made a huge mistake and ignored public sentiment leading to the situation where extreme opinions endanger democracy and young people in Germany prefer the AfD to the CDU and SPD, or the Greens. ...

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WSJ Editorial Board on 2025 DJT version of Eisenhower's 1954 Operation Wetback to curb foreign born employment. After the Biden years when foreign born employment surged the decrease by 773,000 shown by Trend Macro in foreign born employment for Jan- April 2025 in the WSJ, is an adjustment from the effects of Biden open border policies. This also prevents downward pressure on wages for American workers in construction, hospitality and retail- the story of the last 20 years. This is similar to what would have been seen in the Eisenhower years after Operation Wetback led by Gen. Swing and AG Brownell in 1954. Just as by 1956 the foreign born employment declined after years of uninhibited illegal migrant growth and open borders in the years of World War II. Note that Mexico's agribusiness owners were against open borders in that period and the Mexican government was also against open borders and the loss of labor from Mexico needed in agribusiness. Today the situation is somewhat different but in the sense of an adjustment it may be very similar. Just as in 1956 Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 had a mandate for making this adjustment DJT has won a mandate for a similar adjustment in 2024. ...

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As US through USAID pulls back India can and should step forward with aid to Norman Borlaug Institute that created India's Green Revolution. During the Kennedy-Johnson period in the 1960's US agricultural technologies assistance and Norman Borlaug helped engineer the Green Revolution through higher productivity in agriculture. Norman Borlaug developed many high yield, disease resistant varieties at his Institute which were adopted in India. In the period of the 1950's and 1960's there was still famine in India. The last famine in India was in 1966 in Bihar when drought led to 45% drop in agricultural production, and in China in 1960. The American contribution to Indian agriculture is huge and the scale of the impact has never been fully grasped, forgotten 60 years later. Shown in this report by Harish Damodaran, is MS Swaminathan of India and Norman Borlaug in the wheat fields of India. The Norman Borlaug Institute is based in Mexico and will need funding. India's contribution is only $0.8 million. Norman Borlaug Institute head Bram Govaerts says- "We are looking for support from countries such as India that have interests in CIMMYT continuing to empower farmers through science and innovation and breeding varieties today for tomorrow’s climate.”   ...

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This editorial in the WSJ points out that U.S. president Obama made economic inequality "the defining challenge of our time" in his State of the Union address in 2013, yet the U.S. has seen widening economic and social disparities in his two terms- creating the situation where Bernie Sanders is now in a virtual tie in Iowa with Hillary Clinton. It says Hillary Clinton wins handily over Sanders on three of four issues of the most concern for Democratic caucus voters in pre-entrance polls, healthcare, terrorism, and on the important issue of jobs and economy by 51% to 42%. Where she falls behind is on the issue of income inequality, and by a very wide margin reflecting voter disillusionment with policies that resulted in marginalization of some workers through globalization and long term unemloyment, and reduced access to education with high tution costs- there Sanders wins by 61% to 34%. Federal Reserve policies that kept rates low near zero hurt middle class savers, working class savers, and benefitted disproportionately upper class investors in the stock market, widening the social and economic disparities....

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The cash for clunkers program in turning in excellent results bothy in terms of promoting sales and in terms of the mileage improvement for the new cars put on the road. For Motor saw sales up 2.4% over same month 2008 and Hyundai 11% increase. In the light of this and the speed with wihich the initial $1 billion was used up and the $2 billion that was aded by Congress, and the success of the program in Europe, its hard to understand so little money has been allocated to this program as a part of stimulus spending. Senators Feinstein, Collins and Schumer are encouraged by the customer reaction to choose higher mileage vehicles. According to the Transportation Department, the average fuel efficiency of trade ins was 15.8 mpg, and the average fuel efficiency of vehicles traded in 25.4 mpg. Equally significant was that 83% of the trade-ins were trucks and 60% of new purchases were cars. The Ford Focus was the top selling vehicle. Dealers estimate they sold 250,000 cars with the rebate money....

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The U.S. House of Representatives passes the McConnell-Biden deal on raising the debt ceiling by 269 to 161. For its passage through the House 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted in favor, 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted against it. Republicans voted for it with a proportion of 3 in favor and 1 against, compared to Democrats where it was 1:1 and as many opposed it as supported it. It took much persuasion from Vice President Biden and Speaker Boehner to get the votes in favor of passage. Republicans who opposed it were concerned about the modest cuts in spending. Democrats who opposed it considered it a giveaway to Republicans with no tax increases or addressing of tax expenditures. The deal's trigger provision to require cuts in spending to be 50-50 for defence and entitlements was used by Biden to show Democrats that the next $1.2 trillion in cuts would take a more balanced approach. Democrats would have leverage to make their case for savings through tax increases or tax expenditures....

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Risks in AMR's financial situation include net debt of $12 billion and a market capitalization of $1.1 billion. The stock is down 60% so far in 2011 and is now at $3.13 on Sept 30, 2011. Analysts at J.P. Morgan Chase say AMR should have $3.5 billion in liquidity by the end of 2011, or 15% of annual revenue. About $1.8 billion of debt matures in 2012. The demand for airline debt is still healthy. The airline industry is also better able to handle another recession because of cuts in capacity, and the effect of the merger between United and Delta, keeping flights full and prices up. A recession would also cut fuel costs, with fuel taking up 35% of revenue dollars, according to analysts. The problem is low margins and high labor costs, as a result of not filing for bankruptcy and cutting legacy costs. Credit Sights estimates AMR's margin as 6% before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, and aircraft leasing costs, with the estimate for Delta at 12% and United at 18%.

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The WSJ's Peter Nicholas, Carol Lee and John McKinnon describe the events leading to the election of Obama to a second term as U.S. president. A significant move by the Obama campaign was to spend heavily in the early part of the campaign to show Romney as a predatory capitalist by focussing on his record a a private equity business executive who focussed on profits. More voters perceived Obama as caring about people like themselves. The voter turnout was also carefully executed especially for minority voters. For the first time since Mondale's loss to Reagan fewer white voters supported a presidential candidate- only 38% of the white vote went for president Obama compared to 60% for Romney. Obama's campaign focussed on protecting the middle class and working class from sharp spending cuts. Voters major issue was the economy, with unemployment at 7.9%. Yet voters largely did not hold Obama responsible for the economy and considered Wall Street and the previous George W. Bush administration responsible for the events leading to the 2008 financial crisis....

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Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, has 495 billion euros in claims on the European Central Bank through the interbank payment system known as Target2. Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the Ifo Institute in Munich, says the breakup of the Euro zone would mean that this claim would be put at risk. Data compiled by Tornel of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Westermann of the University of Osnabruck, Germany, show Target claims going from 7% of Bundesbank assets in the beginning of 2006 to 64% by October 2011. Collateral on these loans held by the ECB is mainly sovereign debt of the financially weakest ECB countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. Losses on these loans are to be distributed among 17 eurozone central banks according to the proportion of their share in ECB capital, with Germany's being 28%. However with dire finances in some countries Germany could end up with a much larger share of losses. This gives Germany one more reason for the statement that the breakup of the eurozone is unthinkable....

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Thomas Hoenig, chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, says the five largest financial institutions in the US are 20% larger today than they were before the 2008 crisis. These five institutions control $8.6 trillion in financial assets or the equivalent of 60% of gross domestic product in the USA. He points out that whether we like it or not, these firms are too big to fail. Though these institutions survived the 2008 crisis with a bailout from the Fed as shown in the Fed's recent revealed documents, Hoenig says, little has changed on Wall Street. Two years after the crisis of 2008, these firms again operate with bonus and compensation schemes that reflect not the recent failures but a sense of success. Hoenig says this is why the American people are angry. An absence of accountability and blatant inequities with which smaller businesses and institutions were treated compared to the large ones, is why they will remain angry. Without this accountability he feels Americans cannot build a national consensus for the sacrifices needed to rebuild the American economy....

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Justice Kennedy in a prevailing opinion that seeks to let a cross stand in the Mojave National Preserve says- " the cross evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies would be compounded if the fallen are forgotten." In 1934 private citizens put a cross on federally owned land in the desert preserve. This remains there till a park visitor sues in 2001, 67 years later. Just to keep the cross the government has to transfer the land to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, till the same park visitor challenges the transfer. Frank Buono is an Oregon resident and an assistant superintendent in the park who is the vistor who challenged the presence of the cross in 2001. Since a lower court ruled it unconstitutional a plywood box was placed atop of the cross which lies on Sunrise Rock in San Bernardino county. The Interior Department and its Secretary Salazar have argued that the cross should remain where it lies in the case Salazar vs. Buono....

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After 13 years of Labor government, the new Liberal-Conservative coalition is seen as good for both the parties and good for Britain A good deal of optimism about the prospects for this government. The optimism rests on the pragmatic sensible nature of Cameron and Clegg, on the fact that the 2 parties combined have 59% of the vote in the elections for making some tough decisions- on spending cuts, a sensible fiscal program to generate $9 billion in savings through spending cuts in 2010, and generally agreement between the two parties on the significant issues of state finances. The Tories holding to their position on immigration but giving in on the idea of proportional representation. The election changes would have Parliament members in office for 5 years and the manner of election changed to remove a growing distortion of the popular vote. Labor and Conservatives share of the vote has dropped from 81% in 1979 to 65% in 2010, and still Tory and Labor MP's have 565 of the 650 seats in Parliament or 87%....

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Europe's 750 billon euros plan to defend the euro currency, including 60 billion of EU backed bonds, a $440 billion euro fund guaranteed by euro-zone countries, and upto 250 billion euros of IMF money. The plan buys time for the troubled economies of Portugal, Spain and other EU countries, but does not address the fiscal and structural flaws that are endangering the European single currency experiment. The "no bail-out" clause and the stability and growth pact proved worthless in implementation. Sanctions for a country with growing problem of deficits did not work and had soon lost credibility, with the financial markets themselves recognizing the serious problems of some deficit countries only when things had spun out of control. Some other forms of sanctions will have to be figured out and mechanisms of dealing with financial panic such as sovereign debt restructuring need to be put in place. The German emphasis on too sharp budget cuts may have the danger of pushing deficit countries into deflation as well as creating strong popular unrest. ...

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A traffic jam on Highway 110, leading from the border with Inner Mongolia to Beijing for 60 miles, is now passing 10 days, with traffic inching along at 3 miles per hour. With roadwork on a highway from Beijing to Tibet starting August 13, sections of a major road which circles Beijing have been closed. Chinese bought 13.6 million vehicles in 2009, compared to 9.4 million in 2008. China is building roads, but cannot keep up with this surge in automobile use, especially in Beijing. A study by IBM puts China at the top for "commuter pain," the pain suffered by drivers as they stay stuck on roads. In fact China's media reported that average driving speeds for Beijing could go as low as 9 miles per hour, if car sales in Beijing keep growing at the rate of 2000 new cars per day. According to the Beijing Transportation Research Center, Beijing will have 7 million vehicles by 2015. Beijing was once known for bicycles in the Mao era, and this could be the pace that traffic moves says the Center....

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Buick sales are up 60% this year. It has more to do with product quality of the cars, than the brand with which these cars were labeled. The Buick Lacrosse is winning the hearts of a younger demographic because of the styling, and the tech features such as iPod connectors and a 40 gig hard drive on the dashboard. This makes it GM's fastest growing brand in the USA. In the process Buick is leaving behind its old stodgy image and appealing to younger people. The Lacrosse released in 2009 has a sharp sculpted body and is changing how Buicks are viewed. Buick has discontinued its golf related advertising and cut ties with the Buick Open golf tournament. Now Buick is advertised in travel and culinary magazines. The Buick Regal is being advertised at rock concerts and with local bands. Customers are making their assessment on the basis of the value and styling, and not letting the image of old affect them, the shift in advertising only helps. Buick already sell well in China, where it is GM's main product. ...

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In an effort to normalize trade relations Pakistan's government plans to move forward with a step by step approach that will end the restrictions on Indian imports by Jan 1, 2013. The first step is ending a system that allows a list of 2000 import items from India and replacing it with a list of 600 items from India that are banned, allowing the flow of all other goods. This negative list will be eliminated by the end of 2012 leaving in place restrictions on sensitive defense items and some staple goods. Ashfaque Khan, dean of Pakistan's National University of Sciences and Technology Business School advises the government on trade issues. The trade between India and Pakistan stands at $2.7 billion for the year ending March 2011. This is much smaller than the $60 billion in trade between India and China which is growing. The trade between India and Pakistan is likely to grow significantly in the next ten years as trade barriers are removed and normal trade is established.

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Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global, is run by Yngve Slyngstad. The fund has $570 billon, $100,000 for each of Norway's 4.9 million people. The fund took a 23% loss in 2008. Then the fund made a shift from 40% equity holding to 60% equity holding, which has paid off. The losses were reversed with a 26% gain in 2009 and a 10% gain in 2010. The fund gets all of Norway's oil revenues less about 4% of the fund's value that goes to the state budget. Slyngstad became CEO in 2008, and persuaded finance ministers to take on greater risk, leading to $175 billion in stock investments during the financial crisis. He has told Parliament that he will get returns of 4% after inflation- higher than returns of 3.1% that were made since 1998. With assets equal to 2% of the total market value of stocks trading in Europe, the Norwegian fund is a major investor. Rules set for the fund prohibit investments larger than 10% in any one stock.

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Rupert Murdoch makes a $80 billion offer to Time Warner for a merger with 21st Century Fox. A deal would add HBO, TNT and TBS to Fox's broadcast network and its cable portfolio including Fox News channel. Most sports content such as NBA and NCAA games are watched live, attracting more advertisers compared to other content where commercials are skipped using DVR's. A key problem for Time Warner investors and management is that the way the proposal is structured- with supervoting shares going to the Murdoch family that controls Fox- gives too much control to Mr. Murdoch and too little say to Time Warner investors on how the future company should be run. An added complication is that Time Warner CEO Bewkes is 62 and has put in place its strategic plan after divesting some units. By comparison Rupert Murdoch of 21st Century Fox is 83, and his sons are seen by Time Warner as not having the experience to handle a company of the size resulting from a merger.

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About 60% of the population in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, countries worst affected by the Ebola virus are facing food shortages. Markets are closed in these countries reducing access to food. The virus is affecting West Africa in other ways. Ample food supplies with lower prices of corn, wheat and rice on world markets, as a result of supplies from Brazil, India and Thailand, is not reaching Africa because of restricted access because of Ebola. Clogged ports, and conflicts adding to this reduced access. In East Africa the FAO estimates 20 millon people face food shortages up from 15 million estimate earlier. The rise in value of the dollar in relation to African currencies is increasing prices of food. Food price inflation is leading to a situation where an household with many children in a relatively better off country like Uganda being able to afford only one meal a day. The result will be increase in malnutrition in Africa if solutions are not found to get access to large food supplies outside Africa with lower prices. ...

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The drop in oil prices in 2014-2015 leads to a decline in the value of Nigeria's currency, the Naira, by over 10% in 2014. The Naira dropped to 186.9 to the dollar by Dec. 2, 2014. The foreign exchange reserves drop to $2 billion in Dec. 2014 from $20 billion in 2008. Investment in infrastructure and the electricity grid is badly needed. Imports of arms for the military add to budgetary strain as the government tackles the Boko Haram terrorist threat in the Kano region. The central bank puts out a revised budget based on an oil price of $73, as Brent crude dropped to $68. Like Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone dependent on iron ore exports, Angola and Mozambique on oil revenues, Zambia on copper, and South Africa on mining exports, much of Africa's economy is dependent on commodity exports. About 80% of Nigeria's government revenue is from oil exports, according to the IMF. And the entire budget for the nation with the largest population in Africa is only $30 billion.

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Greece's new Syriza government plans to put a bill through parliament on the minimum wage as one of its first steps. It will reverse plans to sell the government's 67% stake in the port of Piraeus, and a planned sale of the state controlled utility will be held back. Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democratic leader in the coalition government in Germany says Germany is ready to show solidarity with the Greek people, and says the new government has the opportunity to take better action against corruption and tax evasion in Greece than previous governments. Previous governments including governments of the Pasok and New Democracy parties which make up the ruling political elite in Greece failed to make the serious changes in tax collection needed in Greece whereby the upper class in Greece pay the fair amount of taxes due. The IMF's Lagarde also emphasized the tax collection, and separated it from austerity issues where most of European and American opinion believes growth oriented policies are the right path....

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The old NASDAQ in 2000 cannot be compared to the new NASDAQ in 2015 because the companies in the index have changed, and the proportion of tech and health care companies has also changed. Healthcare and consumer companies are now 37% on the index compared to 18% in the NASDAQ index in 2000. Tech is a much smaller component of the NASDAQ, declining from 64% to 43%. And three companies Apple, Google and Microsoft, makeup 20% of the index, with Amazon, Facebook and Intel added making that 30% of the entire 2015 NASDAQ index. Only 3 of the top ten companies in the 2000 NASDAQ are around in 2015 NASDAQ index- Intel Corp., Microsoft, and Cisco Systems. Yahoo, Oracle, Dell, Sun, JDS, WorldCom are no longer the top 10 companies in the index as they were in 2015. The speculative momentum stocks such as Netflix and Tesla make up 0.38% and 0.33% of the NASDAQ in 2015. In healthcare part of NASDAQ 2015 companies such as Gilead Sciences and Amgen are in the top ten.