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The Trump administration is preparing direct aid to Americans and American industries hurt by the coronavirus epidemic. Each check will be based on family size and income, according to a Treasury Department memo seen by WSJ. The direct payments in two rounds will be on April 6 and May 18. This is part of a $1 trillion stimulus program. $50 billion lending facility is being setup for the airlines. Another $150 billion goes to distressed sectors in the economy. $300 billion will go to a small business interruption loan program, which will go to temporarily cover payroll costs for employees. The idea is to put a safety net and support workers who will need help while they are not working. The measures include two weeks of paid emergency leave for a large number of people. Money also goes to additional Medicaid funding, more money for food stamps, and for unemployment insurance program. Congress has passed the bill and president Trump is expected to sign it into law. Other bills will follow in Congress. A third economic package will cover additional needs of agencies of government, with $11.5 billion for Department of Health and Human Services, and Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security. All this is being done in Congress and by the Trump administration at top speed. ...

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Spotify acquires podcasting firms to broaden its appeal and acquire nonmusic content including listening time on radio. Spotify thinks it can bring to nonmusic content podcasts what it has done for music by bringing better curation, customization and recommendation, while developing tools and collecting data for podcasters. Talk enhances the experience of listening to music, says Spotify CEO Daniel EK.  Spotify aims to take some of the two hours people listen to radio globally and make money off of it. Ek says video is a bout $1 trillion market, and music plus radio $100 billion, but he questions whether our eyes are worth 10 times as much as our ears." Adding more monetization opportunities is key. Spotify says it has seen that podcasts command an engaged audience- people who see podcasts spend twice as much time using the service, and tend to stream more live music. They are less likely to cancel subscriptions.  Spotify has 206 million users and 96 million subscribers. Average revenue per user is 4.89 euros as many of Spotify's users come in through family plans and in international markets with lower pricing power. ...

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These are key provisions in the biggest climate change bill in history- Tax credits that last for over a decade for zero carbon plants- these tax credits go to companies that build new sources of emissions free electricity, for wind turbines, solar panels, battery storage, geo thermal plants. Tax credits also for new technologies that capture and bury carbon dioxide from natural gas plants and industrial facilities before it escapes into the atmosphere and heats the planet. This technology is rarely used because of high costs. Incentives for electric vehicles- It extends a tax credit of $7500 for new electric vehicles. It adds a $4000 tax credit for used electric vehicles. Tax credit goes only to people earning $150,000 a year (300,000 for joint filers) for new EV's and $75,000 (150,000 for joint filers) for used EV's. Help for people to lower energy costs - $9 billion in rebates for Americans installing energy efficient electrical appliances. And a decade of tax credits for Americans installing rooftop solar, heat pumps, water heaters and electric HVAC, or electric heating, air conditioning and ventilation technologies. Investments in Domestic Manufacturing- $60 billion for investments in clean energy manufacturing in the US. This includes $30 billion for production tax credits for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and critical minerals processing. $10 billion in investment tax credits to build manufacturing facilities for electric cars and renewable energy technologies. This action is to halt the shifting of clean energy manufacturing overseas to China. $27 billion towards a green bank that would finance clean energy projects in disadvantaged communities. Cracking down on Methane- the bill places a fine on methane gas emissions from oil and gas wells and pipelines and other infrastructure. Fees of $900 per metric ton in 2024 and $1500 a metric ton in 2026 when it exceeds federally set limits.    ...

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David Smith, Economics Editor of The Times, says history is repeating itself now that the Labour Party thinks it should not have abolished Clause 4 of its constitution under Tony Blair ( the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange). Now that Labour's policies for renationalisation of water, transport and other basic services are popular, it appears that we are seeing a response from people fed up with market failure and greed in the way the private companies in these services are run.  Profits should go to taxpayers for basic public services and that salaries of management should be moderate, services efficient, and borrowing of capital done at lower rates, is the idea behind this. The Times You.Gov poll on renationalisation for rail shows 56% supporting, only 22% opposing, renationalisation of energy companies supported by 45%, 29% opposed, water companies 50% supporting and 25% opposed. In addition to this other Labour policies of 45% tax rate for incomes above 80,000 pounds, and 50% at 123,000 pounds, as well as wealth tax are also popular. Workers on company boards with ownership of a portion of company equity are also popular. This adds to the mystery about Labour's lack of strong support going into the election. Support for renationalisation comes from the thirst for change, says The Times. Market failures, greed, inequality and poor delivery of essential public services, severe cuts in the last decade, all play a role in the thirst for change. There is also the idea that when it comes to essential services there is no room for profit or owners and managers with huge pay running into millions. When trains are overcrowded or unreliable run by private companies economic arguments remain for the textbooks, its daily experience that counts. Going back to a time in the past when it worked, where economic structures were based on fairness, and people cared, is seen as an alternative to a dysfunctional period.     ...

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Sara Ehrman describes the time when Hillary Clinton worked in Washington D.C. as a 26 year old lawyer working on the Watergate committee, and Bill Clinton was teaching law in Arkansas. In August 1974 Hillary was living for about 1 year with Mrs. Ehrman, a friend who was a congressional aide at the time. She is 97 today, and recalls that time when she tried to discourage Hillary from going to Arkansas to join her boyfriend. Ehrman felt not much would come out of Bill Clinton, though she thought him to be handsome, and later worked in his presidential campaign and Hillary's presidential campaign. Ehrman was 55 then, and describes Hillary Clinton as a bit sloppy in her habits, such as not making her bed and having a lot of stuff strewn about her room, but really intelligent and very hardworking. At the time both lived together. Ehrman describes a daily routine of seeing Hillary go to work with coffee in the morning and come back exhausted late at night, having yogurt and going to bed, day after day.  The two met for the first time in 1972 when Ehrman was co-director of issues and research in the McGovern campaign in Texas, and Hillary was helping with voter registration. This report describes in detail the road trip to Arkansas that the two made together, when Mrs. Ehrman drove Hillary to Arkansas in her old Buick. They stopped at small towns  in the 1200 mile journey, and this journey ends with Mrs Ehrman crying that she could not get Hillary to change her mind about Bill Clinton and Arkansas. About what she thought was a bright woman throwing her life away in the deep South of the seventies. Hillary she remembers insisted she loved Bill Clinton, and having passed the Arkansas Bar exam had firmly decided on settling in Arkansas. ...

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This and other WSJ, NYT, and other articles say Minnesotan Tim Walz started out as a moderate in a rural Republican leaning district, and shifted to being "liberal" and "progressive" using labels that have by 2024 lost meaning and lost common sense. Tim Walz is accused by the existing culture of being this or that label when he is simply following his instincts about what it means to live in the Age of the Enlightenment that marks all European societies and gave them a head start over Chinese and Indian feudal society during the 19th century Industrial Revolution. When one looks back at the period after Kennedy-Johnson in the sixties, American political economic social and culture has gone through a shift to turn its back on workers and families, turn its back on the "Enlightenment" itself under a culture shift. It happened under administrations both Republican and Democratic over 50 years since 1970. Under a Republican Congressman, and following this a Governor of California, a Texas Congressman and Texas Governor, and under Governors of southern states Georgia and Arkansas, a Congressman from Illinois, and a NBC television show personality. That culture shift has become so instilled at this point that labels such as progressive and liberal are attached in ways that make no sense, lack common sense. Do school meals have anything to do with politics, do you prefer poor family kids going hungry, is that your cultural thing? Is supporting college education for the depressed income groups have anything to so with politics? Only when one rejects the "Enlightenment" that accompanies the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the 19th century, the idea of modernity ushered in by the rejection of feudalism by the French Revolution,  would one reject the idea of giving access to education and through it to a better life for workers and families to all parts of society. ...

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Portugal's parliament gave preliminary approval to a new budget bill with 4.3 billion euros in tax increases on income, captal gains, property and car ownership, and 1 billion euros in spending cuts compared to the 2012 budget. Banco Espirito Santo was able to sell 750 million euros in 3 year bonds with an interest rate of 5.875%. Over 200 investors from France, UK, Germany made buying offers of more than 2.7 billion euros. The rate is lower than expected and reflects ECB policy support for bond markets of countries requesting aid.

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A severe drought is affecting parts of Mexico in January 2012. About two million people are left without access to water. The Agriculture Ministry estimates total loss for 7% of Mexico's agricultural land. The worst affected areas are in the Sierra Madre in the north. The Mexican government has approved $2.63 billion in aid to the worst affected regions. These are rural parts of 19 of 31 Mexican states. The drought is likely to increase inflation in the latter part of 2012, as it is leading to higher prices for corn and beans.

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With 80% of its exports going to the U.S. the growth rate and jobs in Mexico are seeing the impact Finance Minister Carstens expects no growth in 2009. As Mexico's finances are in better shape than in past recessions there is room for some stimulus projects by Petroleos Mexicanos, the government oil company, by auctioning 2 highway projects, for expanding unemployment benefits, and giving $150 million in aid to industries hit by the credit crisis. About 250,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the last few months of 2008.

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Pearson appears to have managed the downturn well by reducing ads percentage of revenue at FT from 50% to 30%. One way was to increase the importance of subscription and content revenues by increasing subscription price to pound 1.80 from pound 1.50. Its education business which sells textbooks and educational instructional tools like online learning and assessment are holding up, and its Penguin book division is also doing well. Pearson's competitors McGraw Hill faces aturnaround problem at Standard and Poors, and Houghton Mifflin is struggling with high debt.

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Robert Shiller of Yale University, calls for revenue sharing by the federal government with local governments. This should go beyond the $26 billion approved this month for aid to local governments, designed to assist with Medicaid and hiring teachers. It is difficult to create jobs quickly and disperse and use money wisely, without the help of local governments, military or nonprofit organizations- as these organizations have the necessary infrastructure that can be used to get things done quickly. He cites the Civilian Conservation Corps created by FDR, using the Army as the organizational framework.

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Over 4 million Italians are preparing to get back to work after 8 weeks in lockdown. Yet they face a major dilemma. How do you get back to work when schools and daycare centers are closed till the fall? They have to first figure out who will look after the children. Starting May 4, manufacturing and building businesses will reopen if following social distancing guidelines. Followed by shops, and public venues on May 18, and restaurants hairdressers on June 1. Other countries will be looking at how the reopening is tackled in Italy, and the problem of who takes care of children will also come up in the U.S. and other countries also. Grandparents were widely accepted as a solution for childcare in Italy. Yet this raises many questions about the safety of the grandparents and increases anxiety for the parents. The Italian government is providing financial aid to families for babysitting and more parental leave but this does not cover the costs. As they tackle this problem parents face additional stress and anxiety. ...

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As Russia expands its intervention in Ukraine in Feb. 2015, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration, Roger Altman, points out the importance of the response of global financial markets. Financial markets have downgraded Russian debt, and the ruble continues to lose value. With $200 billion in foreign currency reserves available to tackle the financial crisis caused by $150 billion in capital flight and 50% loss in ruble value, and a business sector with large dollar debt, Russia, he says will have to take into account its weak financial situation. Arms aid to Ukraine to which Russia can respond is not a good option compared to stronger economic sanctions, says Altman. Altman points out- what president Obama has also pointed out- Russia has a GDP the size of Italy, a population of 140 million, with its budget and economy overly dependent on oil exports, and an economy connected to the global economy and dependent on global technologies. It lacks the economic strength to continue with its more aggressive policies, and cannot ignore world opinion indefinitely or isolate itself from the global economy. This is true of any country in the global economy, and especially for any emerging market dependent on foreign capital, foreign investment and foreign technologies, making it important for Russia to play by the rules of fairness in the international community in the postwar global order of peaceful cooperation. As Schemann points out in a NYT editorial observer Russia is losing credibility in the global community....

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Rep. Paul Ryan got his start in politics in 1983 when he was hired to work for a think tank Empower America. This think tank was formed by Weber, Kirkpatrick, Bennett and Kemp, to preserve Reagan era ideas of focussing on economic growth generated by private investment. This was followed by working as an aide to Senator Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Jack Kemp till his election to Congress in 1996. Kemp was the big idea guy and it was Paul Ryan who delved into the budget details at the time to support Kemp's ideas. Kemp was Republican vice presidential candidate, the same position that Ryan is in today. Ryan represented the area around Janesville, Wisconsin, in the U.S. Congress. He graduated from the University of Miami, Ohio.

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Daisy Maxey of the WSJ talks to 3 financial advisers during Dec. 2014 about how investors should approach stock market volatility, the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to raise interest rates, and tax issues in 2015. The advisers say investors should not let the volatility affect a steady long term investing strategy. Joel Isaacson says he prefers high-dividend paying stocks over the 10 year U.S.Treasury bonds because of the lack of much upside in bonds. He adds that taking extra risks on high yield bonds is not warranted. The advisers refer to opportunities in areas which are not doing well in 2014 such as in Europe. On tax issues having some money in Roth IRA's is suggested, to have money in tax deferred as well as tax free accounts. Annuities depend on individual situations.

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Jacob Lew, U.S. Budget Director under president Clinton and under president Obama, is Obama's chief of staff. He guides the negotiating team for the Democrats in the "fiscal cliff" negotiations with Republicans. Colleagues describe him as thorough and meticulous. He negotiated with Republicans in 2011, running into problems with Republicans and Speaker Boehner, who saw him as inflexible in the negotiations. Lew is a son of Polish immigrants living in Queens, New York, and participated actively in Democratic causes from his student days. This time the lead negotiator is Treasury Secretary Geithner. Lew was an aide to Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill. In 1983 he helped O'Neill in negotiations for Social Security legislation when Reagan was president. In 1997 he helped negotiate an agreement with Republicans to balance the budget under president Clinton.

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Interview with Robert Shiller of Yale University, by Simon Constable of the Wall Street Journal. Shiller tells Constable that the second dip recession is imminent. Shiller senses that when the National Bureau of Economic Research looks at third quarter data for 2010, it will find that the second dip of the recession started here. In other comments Shiller said that the U.S. is standing at the edge of deflation. The view on housing markets of Shiller, who is one of the creators of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, is that housing prices could decline for the next 5 years. Shiller sees the US's chief concern as unemployment. He suggests that local governments and the federal government create jobs. One idea is to have a teacher's aide in each classroom.

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Work requirements is one area in which Biden and McCarthy have a point of agreement in the debt ceiling discussions. Biden says he has supported work requirements in the past. Biden also says he would do nothing that affects health benefits. Under Biden the jobs market is the best it has been for over two decades which makes it easier to have some sort of work requirement for people able to work before they can collect government aid benefits. This makes an agreement possible in which Biden and McCarthy continue discussions with Biden building some form of rapport with a Congressman he has known in the past from his days in the US Congress. An agreement he pulls together would then have the support of most Republicans and be passed with the help of all Democrats. This would meet with opposition from a small faction of the Republican party, opposition that McCarty has become accustomed to including the prolonged voting it took to get himself elected as Speaker. McCarthy and most Republicans are in favor of Ukraine and the EU support for Ukraine at a critical time. They including Mitch McConnell who is present in the negotiations would not want to do anything that spirals America into a financial crisis during a Ukraine counteroffensive with Biden and Scholz's support that could end the war in Ukraine. Biden probably shared the concerns of his G7 counterparts with the Republicans about this. McCarthy and Biden could then simply say they only worked to do the possible and move on to the bigger battle in 2024. ...

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Eurobarometer Survey conducted by the European Commission on what people say about staying inside the European Union show increasing support inside the UK and inside member countries of the EU. In a survey done in March 2019, Eurobarometer Survey involving 1000 people in each of the 28 countries of the EU shows 53% of respondents in the UK supporting Remaining in the European Union, 35% Leave , and 12% undecided. Asked whether Britain had made the right choice to leave the EU in the referendum 54% of respondents said Britain made the wrong choice, only 38% said yes. There is a definite shift in sentiment that reflects the way the changes in the EU since the referendum was held- with only a trickle of immigration to Europe and now return of some refugees to their home countries, economic aid to African countries to reduce migrants. The economies of Europe that struggled through austerity policies such as Spain have show strong growth of 3% over 3 years, and of Portugal and Greece recovering. News at the time of austerity policies, uncontrolled immigration to Europe, affected public sentiment at the time of Britain's first referendum on EU membership. In the EU countries there is a definite upturn in sentiment- 66% would vote to remain in the EU, only 17% would vote to leave. The chaoic Brexit process in the UK has also led to the upturn. 68% of respondents in the EU countries said their countries had benefited from membership in the European Union, the largest support seen in 25 years. ...

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American Enterprise Institute, conservative think tank, supports Kiel Institute of the World Economy figures that say European Union aid is about double that of the US to Ukraine. Quite the reverse was stated in casual seemingly reckless fashion to 67 million viewers by former president Trump. Moderator David Muir should have had the facts right before him to correct this as this was a much anticipated topic and perennial Trump gripe. The US is not getting creamed- no way, the Europeans are paying up and keen on doing so $187 billion to the US $98 billion. Even with the best of intentions on fact checking this is not good enough from ABC News, or for that matter the rest of the television media - the CBS's, Fox's, NBC's, CNN's, not to mention the internet media, a disservice to democratic process that is built on facts not delusion.  To someone working 2 or 3 part time jobs, or the less literate who can't do quick fact checks that can be time consuming, or educated viewers who hav little inclination to check so much that is being thrown at them- what does it mean to have grievance and grudge thrown at them leaving the impression that the US is incapable when it is in fact greatly strengthening NATO alliance including Sweden and Finland and ties with Western Europe that were damaged over time since the Reagan period in the 1980's.   ...

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A leader of the Syrian moderate democratic opposition to the Assad regime calls for help from the Obama administration for the moderates and Free Syrian Army. The request for Manpads to counteract Assad's air attacks and the deteriorating situation around the city of Aleppo and in Northern Syrian areas controlled by the Free Syrian Army. The collaboration between the Hezbollah, Assad's forces, and the ISIS as each attempt to increase the areas under their control pushing out the Free Syrian Army and moderate forces fighting the Assad regime. Hillary Clinton comes out against the Obama administration's policies in August 2014, saying "don't do stupid stuff" basis of Obama policies is not the basis for a sound foreign policy. Obama comes out with a $500 million aid plan for the Free Syrian Army but the approach is vacillating and slow, leading to a rapidly deteriorating situation, and a complete breakdown of what was a period of hope called the Arab Spring.

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This exceptional account by Ginger Thompson and Sara Cohen shows the Obama administration's strategy of creating credibility for its immigration enforcement by setting a target of 400,000 deportations a year, and focussing on the border states such as California, Texas, Arizona. The deportations were kept away from the midwestern states and states in the interior of the country. Under the Bush administration raids were made on businesses hiring illegal immigrants and the policy implemented all over the country, not selectively targeting the border. Local police were given authority to check immigration status of suspected foreigners. Deportations reached a peak of 383,000 under Bush in 2008. In 2008 Congress supported the Bush administration by doubling the immigration agency budget to $5.5 billion and imposed a mandate requiring detaining a daily average of 34,000 immigrants. Under the Obama administration the pilot project for state and local police to check immigration status of people fingerprinted in an arrest was expanded. Under project Secure Communities police could hand over illegal immigrants to immigration authorites, and new implementation criteria in a June 2010 memo easily covered a third of the 11.5 million illegal immigrants, according to immigration officials cited by NYT. Removal process was expedited so that expedited removals doubled under the Obama administration. Under Bush about 75% of those deported were sent home with criminal charges if they had no criminal record. Under Obama this increased to 90%. The NYT analysis suggests the immigration enforcement and grasp of the immigrant story looking for a better life, was better for "good" immigrants under presidents from border states such as Reagan from California and the elder Bush from Texas, than under a midwesterner of minority background. It shakes up the image of Hispanic Americans as part of a political affiliation to a particular party. ...

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Research on agricultural production and improving and protecting rice, wheat and other food crops has suffered in the last decade as budgets for research have been cut. The USA is in the middle of cutting its $59.5 million annual support for a global research network by 75%. This includes the funding for the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines which has suffered from budget cuts for years. Its amazing that this Institute is the world's main repository of rice seeds as well as genetic and other information about rice, the staple food in Asian and many other countries. This includes the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico. Agricultural experts have warned about this neglect for many years but have been ignored as the pace of industrialization took off in many developing countries and agricultural production was taken for granted. With the current crisis in agricultural production one would expect this cutting of research aid to be reversed, as President Bush asked Congress on May 1, 2008, for an extra $770 million to pay for food aid and to help improve agricultural productivity in developing countries. Its ironic that growth of food supplies has suffered just when incomes are improving in the developing countries leading to greater demand for beter food and nutrition and resulting in soaring food prices which cuts into that very effort to improve the nutrition and diets in the developing countries. ...

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This report looks at the idea of jointly issuing debt for nonrepayable aid of 390 billion euros for the recovery fund for Europe. This goes to aid the countries hardest hit by the pandemic including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland.

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This may be the most important work of the DJT administration by 2027 into 2028 elections.  WSJ calls it the soda wars, when it is the slow destruction of America. As JFK and RFK well knew when they made fitness a goal for America in 1960- health is not built on sodas. Today with such high obesity, sodas and its likes, it is about the slow destruction of America.  MALA make America Live Again starts here. “When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children, who perhaps need something more nutritious?” Right now it is the biggest item for schools in most states for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan. Passed by Congress in 1964 the original bill for SNAP excluded sodas and luxury drinks, but had Sodas added back in by the Senate. By lobbyists even in 1964? SNAP schools program falls under the Agriculture Department. Democrats as well as Republicans appointed Agriculture Secretaries and not one took the action to get sodas excluded, to let states request sodas be excluded and approve it, not the Democrat a Carter, a Clinton, or an Obama, or a Republican a Reagan, a Bush, or a Trump (first term) took the necessary action. In 2025 Brooke Rollins is Agriculture Department Secretary. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee has seen the damage sodas can cause in her family. Rollins on her first day in office has finally acted- after 61 years when the original intentions of the SNAP bill's creators were confounded in the Senate.  On her first full day in office, urging them to propose pilot programs testing changes to food aid. Rollins sent governors a letter to ask for the removal of sodas from schools food aid program.   ...