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Americans look to programs to build a better future. Gerald Seib in the WSJ says Trump's focus on the 2020 election is unlikely to help Republicans when the country is looking to rebuild for the future. 

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The Indian prime minister launches India's health infrastructure plan for medical colleges, medical facilities down to the district level, research facilities, under the Ayushman Bharat Mission. The plan was launched in India's largest state Uttar Pradesh with a population of 250 million people. It is designed to strengthen India's health infrastructure to tackle this and future pandemics.

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The Biden plan for families includes paid maternity leave of 4 weeks. It was shortened from 12 weeks in the original $3.6 trillion Biden Families and Workers Plan. This paid leave also applies to caretakers of ill family members such as elderly parents. The lack of such paid leave for mothers or ill parents care meant the US lacked one of the basic necessities of a decent state. Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations paid much attention to how capital, land and labour could be combined to invest in improved quality of life, and how to build a decent society. Smith wrote this book around the time of the Industrial Revolution in England in the late eighteenth century. Capitalism taken outside this context of benefiting society in the country that started the Industrial Revolution, leads to problems that now exist in the US, China and parts of Europe.

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Pfizer and Moderna's plans to make mRNA vaccines in Africa, Asia or Latin America may take much longer than 2022. The solution to producing an mRNA vaccine in Asia that could be mass manufactured and distributed throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America is now at hand. Gennova based in India, is partnering with Seattle startup HDT Bio to attack the problem of temperature and scalability in manufacturing for a mRNA vaccine that acts as a global solution using India's manufacturing capabilities. Dr Singh who founded Gennova, says- "We wanted to solve the problem of the scalability issue, and the temperature issue. If we can solve these problems, we are building a solution not just for India, but also a global solution." Gennova received seed funding from the Indian government. Other companies in Brazil and South Africa lack the manufacturing capabilities or financing needed that exist in India. The Indian government has achieved an initial goal of one billion vaccinated in just 6 months. The next step for India in its health infrastructure buildup is a mRNA vaccine that is an improvement over Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that can be stored easily, adapted for variants, and manufactured in large quantity as a global solution. ...

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A Hank Aaron phone call in 1967 to Dusty Baker's mother gets Dusty Baker to join the Atlanta Braves when Baker prayed that he did not have to go to the Deep, deep South. Dusty Baker, 72 years, is now the manager of the Houston Astros in the finals of American World Series baseball between the Astros and the Atlanta Braves. Dusty Baker says it was the best thing that happened to him because he met Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth's record in 1974 with 715 homers. 

This started a long friendship with Hank Aaron. Of Hank Aaron Dusty Baker says- "He really taught me discipline. This guy was the most disciplined guy, most hard working guy, most concentration guy I ever met."

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This report in the WSJ points to president Biden's speech to a joint session of the US Congress that providing two years of free community college would "change the dynamic" for education in America taking the first step to correct a dangerous drop in college enrollment for young men in America and ensuring working class families have access to college education. The last thirty years of skewed wealth distribution, loss of manufacturing in America, have created alarming distortions in  the access to college education for working class families. Mrs. Biden is a fervent advocate for community college access in today's America, as a community college teacher for 30 years. Biden's $45.5 billion 5 year plan would waive tution for 2 years of public community college. States would have to opt-in to participate, and federal government would provide 100% funding in the first year, decreasing contribution by 5% each subsequent year, with states picking up rest of the cost. It is quite shocking that this is being dropped from the Biden $3.6 trillion Families and Workers Plan that is now being whittled down to $2 trillion. Not because it is not badly needed for American economic competitiveness, and helping workers and families. But because following narrow parochial interests the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities opposes it. And because the US Congress is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans 50-50 in the Senate. The Association of Independent Colleges sees a shift to community colleges and a sharp drop in its enrollment. Community colleges saw a dangerous drop in enrollment of 12% to 4.5 million students in 2020 from the spring of 2019, according to National Student Research Center. Never was a program more badly needed, as American men are alarmingly falling behind in enrollment. Here are some responses to the failure to take even the first steps to broaden college access so that America can return to economic competitiveness. "What kind of world do we want to live in?" Martha Kanter, College Promise. "That's kind of a devil's choice, isn't it? The whole system has to work from infant care all the way through." Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota. This is because child care and children's education will be funded yet a struggling generation of college students will be left out. US Chamber of Commerce opposes a $45 billion program that is critical to American competitiveness with China and other countries. US Congress drops a program that at $45 billion is only about 2% of the $2 trillion package and which is critical to economic competitiveness. Former Republican Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee supports community college access as a pillar of economic development and it passed the supermajority in 2014. Mike Krause, Republican former director of the state higher education commission says- "I have been surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for what is really a massive workforce development concept that also provides a path to the middle class. You'd think that would hold some appeal for Republicans and Democrats." The lack of clarity and concentration, lack of unity of purpose to get all vaccinated,  is visible in America's vaccination drive. That same lack of clarity and concentration, lack of unity of purpose, is visible in America's faltering efforts at correcting serious and alarming problems for access to college and American competitiveness in the world. Julie Bykowicz and Douglas Belkins wrote this article in the WSJ.   ...

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This report in WSJ looks at the Biden education, healthcare and climate change plan. It is part of the Families and Workers Plan put forward by president Biden for $3.6 trillion. This figure has now been lowered to $2 trillion and may drop crucial provisions for education such as the cost free community college which poses serious risks for working class families unable to afford community college, and skews education access even further to higher income families. It also lowers college attendance of American men, which is falling to alarming levels. The reason the plans are being whittled down is the 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the failure of Republicans and two Democrat senators Manchin of West Virginia, Sinema of Arizona to support community college access. Parts of the current bill support child care, access to affordable housing and in home care for elderly Americans. New elections for Senate and House of Representatives in 2022 would have to settle the issues related to financing assistance for families and workers as the Senate today is divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. A separate Bipartisan Infrastructure package has the support of all in the US Congress to build bridges and roads, other infrastructure badly neglected by different administrations over the last 2 decades. ...

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ESPN television network sports reporter Allison Williams leaves ESPN after refusing to follow ESPN's vaccine mandate because of fertility concerns. She starts a sports series at the conservative Daily Wire which advertises her series as "sports without the woke." Woke started out as a term for black people who felt marginalized, but has changed meanings several times and is a classic example of how meanings change with internet use. Woke now also means people who feel they are being discriminated against for their views. Mrs Williams, 37 years old, says she wants a second child and is concerned that this could affect her fertility or her pregnancy, according to an earlier interview with WSJ.  How the vaccine mandate and companies implementing the vaccine mandate handle it to accomodate concerns of this kind will be a test of its effectiveness and perceptions about its sensitivity to human concerns beyond politics. For people with health concerns new solutions are needed. Abraham Lincoln faced a similar situation after the civil war that Biden faces today and there is much to be learned from his words- "with malice towards none, with charity for all," to bring together all Americans.    ...

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This report in NYT suggests that coronavirus in New York is becoming endemic. Endemic means chronic instead of the acute crisis situation in 2020. This is because hospitalizations are not filling up ICU's the way they did in 2020. The burden of the coronavirus pandemic is now on people who are unvaccinated and people under 45 years.  New York has a higher rate of vaccination than the rest of the country. About 76% of people ages 12 and over in New York are vaccinated. Yet the 24% of younger people who remain unvaccinated is a part of the population that has fears about getting vaccinated which are harder to overcome. As many of these younger people also spend more time outdoors, and are part of the community, more likely to be in contact with families, relatives and friends indoors in winter, and less likely to wear masks and follow social distancing the pandemic, one could see another surge in the winter of 2021.  Another problem could be that some portion of the population of vaccinated has not taken booster shots by the middle of winter which would create a population of a third of the people even in cities such as New York that remain unprotected. The emergence of another difficult variant could also be a complicating factor. In this way chronic or endemic may still be elusive where masking, social distancing and other preventive actions are not taken. For the community as a whole there will be the risk to upward mobility from the people who risk losing jobs because of fears of the vaccine.     ...

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French Indian business cooperation enters a new phase with Ambition India 2021 that starts on October 29 at the French Senate and in a digital format. French and Indian business and political leaders will participate in this event to build new manufacturing and research relationships.

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In a 50-50 Senate to pass president Biden's $3.6 trillion Families and Workers plan requires the vote of Kyrsten Simema, Democrat of Arizona. Simema is the lone holdout in the plan to raise $540 billion by increasing corporate tax rates to pay for part of the plan. Tax rate increases on capital gains would raise nearly $300 billion. A law passed by president Trump lowered corporate tax rates to 21% which would go up to 26.5% under the Biden plan. The top individual rate lowered to 37% would go up to 39.6% and capital gains rate from 23.8% to 28.8% under the Biden plan. Democrats say these new rates are fair considering how much wealth distribution is skewed and how much workers and families have failed to benefit in the policies pursued by different administrations since Reagan, through Bush, Clinton, Obama and Trump.

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About 85% of people in Portugal a country of 10 million people are fully vaccinated in October 2021, highest in Europe. Strict precautions for prevention such as social distancing and mask remained in place after the surge in January 2021 which led to deaths at a rate that was three times the peak rate in the US.

On October 1, 2021 the restrictions such as 30% limit on filling soccer stadiums were lifted. For the Benefica vs Bayern Munich soccer game restrictions were lifted leading to filled stadiums with vaccination pass mandatory. As people return to indoors in winter this could still result in increase in cases. Because Portugal depends on tourism and stadiums are filled to capacity there is the risk of a smaller surge. Cruise ships are back in Portuguese ports and tourists,are back in large numbers. Soccer fans, fill subways, leading to new concern about a limited spread of the coronavirus.

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Join the author in BBC's travel series Slocomotion as he takes a cycling trip through Adirondack National Park in upstate New York stretching up to the Canadian border. The Empire State Trail in the Adirondacks is the longest trail in the US, a 750 mile bicycle route from southern tip of Manhattan to the Canadian border. It passes through the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, and along Adirondack park's eastern edge.

During the pandemic this is a popular route. The cool thing says one local in Saranac Lake, who guides people on cycling trips, is that people who don't normally venture out in cycling are doing this to get away from the pandemic. The idea of being on a bike and pedaling out in the wilderness to get the beneficial health effects of the outdoors is capturing the imagination of people.

 

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Xi Jinping's effort to shift the economy of China more towards serving the interests of Chinese who were left behind in the boom years includes a shift away from coal, away from real estate for speculation, and away from reliance on trade with the US and Europe as a driver for growth. This is proving to be difficult as the pandemic has increased demand for Chinese exports making trade a bigger driver for growth than before the pandemic. Introduction of a property tax to cut into real estate speculation has been scaled down to trials in 10 cities.  China did not put stimulus checks in the accounts of its people the way the US did which has led to Chinese domestic consumption not rebounding the way it has done in the US. Figures for consumer spending in China for September show an increase of 4.4% from the year earlier far below the pace of 8% set for 2019. The lack of social security and other safety nets in China makes people to save even more today. Chinese savings rate was 40% in 2019, today it is 45.2% for May 2021, according to one survey. Personal consumption makes up 38% of China's GDP in 2020, it was 39% in 2019. In the US it went up in 2021 June to 69% compared to 67% by the end of 2020. Infrastructure and construction deepened debt problems in China, and expanding exports created trade tensions. Both these problems have deepened with the pandemic. As this report says Chinese exports have gone gangbusters. Problems in production in Vietnam and Malaysia have added to export surge from China. China's trade surplus with the world is now at $535 billion in 2020, and surplus with US increased by 7% to $317 billion in 2020 from 2019.  Chinese government policy is now for "common prosperity" to reduce inequality and spread wealth and income more evenly for all the Chinese people. This is taking time and Chinese government policy is now set for the long run with these short run problems. ...

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This article in the Financial Times says during a time when income distribution in the US no longer works it is important not to repeat the mistakes made under Clinton and Obama. Biden's appointment of Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency is an effort by Biden to set a new direction. Omarova has considered the direct placing of digitally transferred dollars into the accounts of people in the US who have fallen behind in her paper "The People's Ledger." This is seen as an effort by Biden to get back to an America that works for ordinary Americans.

Anything less would be disastrous for Democrats and even some Republicans politically. A big part of the problem is that financial institutions and markets left to themselves no longer allocate capital in productive or even understandable ways that help the American people.

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Deforestation is a major cause for carbon emissions yet it gets less attention in environmental concerns than measuring direct corporate emissions. This report in Financial Times looks at corporate activity that leads to deforestation.

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Germany's Koch Institute says the number of patients admitted to hospitals is 2.68 in last week (October third week ) compared to December 2020 when it was 15.5. The national rate of cases per 100,000 reached 95. 100 per 100,000 was the benchmark for lockdowns but this no longer is the case as hospitalizations are down with the high percentage of fully vaccinated. 

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Online protest video of 12 year old Zulma Gonzalez leads to Mexican government changing policy to get 1 million at risk children vaccinated.