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Chile, Mexico and the U.S. rank high in the diabetes rate for top soda consuming countries. In the U.S. the diabetes rate is at 7.7% of the population, in Chile 9.6% and Mexico 9%. Soda consumption per capita was at 165 litres in the U.S., 146 litres in Mexico and 134 litres in Chile, and 145 litres in Argentina where the diabetes rate is at 3.9%, for 2012. A new public service ad in Mexico City subway stations says it all, showing an ad with a soda bottle and the words- "Would you take 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar? Soda is sweet, diabetes isn't." The new Pacto de Mexico agreed to by all major political parties includes the soaring diabetes rate in Mexico as a problem to be tackled, including lunches at public schools and the consumption of coke and sodas by children. A particular acute problem in Mexico is the lack of clean drinking water in many areas and the dependence on coke and sodas for liquids. But bottled water could be used in its place if available at lower prices. One proposal is for a soda tax which could generate $2 billion and be used for setting up clean drinking water fountains in schools and other places. Elected officals in Mexico are firm about the need for action, as Mexico recently became the first country over 100 million inhabitants with the highest obesity rates at 7 adults out of 10 over the age of 20 obese or overweight, and the consequently high diabetes rate. Diabetes is the No. 2 killer in Mexico, and a serious health danger. Coca Cola gets its second highest revenues from Mexico after Europe, and the situation has evolved after years of heavy coke advertising to the point where Coca Cola is taken at every meal by some Mexican families, and is a sign of prestige. The company's response is to fight the public service ads with ads showing people burning off 149 calories by walking. The country now faces a long and uphill fight. Russia is one of the countries which is also conducting a similiar fight against soda drinks. The Bloomberg Philanthropy is financing efforts against soda drinks in Mexico, as part of its campaign against smoking and sodas as health hazards, and this maybe Bloomberg's bigger contribution to society than his service to New York City. Developing middle income countries such as Mexico, Chile, India, China, Brazil, are the hardest hit by soaring diabetes. And the costs to their health systems in 10-20 years from uncontrolled obesity and diabetes will be enormous. The U.S. is a developed country with similiar high rates of obesity and diabetes, with soaring medical costs, and serious problems that strangely have not received the public awareness and efforts that one should expect. ...

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Problems facing India as it searches for a way to modernize the country, build infrastructure, and create strong jobs growth. Glaring weaknesses are evident in a number of areas which have not been addressed: a weak public education system, food poverty for people at the lower end worsening with today's 10% food inflation, child malnutrition, weak infrastructure building capabilities, growth in services but not enough in manufacturing to create jobs, a growing black economy, and a general acceptance of illegal behaviour that has increased with the increase in opportunities for corruption and bribes in a growing economy. The political governance is weak. The dependence on smaller regional parties in ruling coalition governments weakens initiative at the federal government level. The general lack of new political leadership, and the failure to develop new leaders in the Congress party because of the six decades long presence of the Nehru family. Some striking facts- the role of the black or underground economy has actually increased over the years. Arun Kumar, chairman of the Center for Economc Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, says his estimates show it was 40% of GDP by 1996, and 50% by 2006. This means more business activity evades direct taxes, and less money is available for investments in education, infrastructure and healthcare. It also indicates a widespread tolerance of illegal activity and corruption. The other striking facts are that the calorie consumption by the bottom of the 50% of the population has been declining since 1987, according to a 2009-10 economic survey by India's Ministry of Finance. The modernization of the country appears not to be following the path taken in East Asia- by Japan, S. Korea and now China- where people moved in large migrations from farms and rural areas to cities and manufacturing jobs, resulting in gradual urbanization. Manufacturing in India is only 16% of GDP in 2009, the same as in 1991, according to the World Bank. Certain regions are doing better than others- Gujarat and the Punjab in the north, Tamilnadu, Karnataka in the south- with large population areas in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar lagging behind badly. ...

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Wuhan has announced  only 3 new confirmed cases since March 18. Restrictions on travel were lifted after a 77 day lockdown on the city, allowing inbound and outbound travel. Some restrictions on housing complexes have been tightened after reports of dozens of asymptomatic cases. The number of asymptomatic cases remains unknown. There is a fear of a second outbreak and authorites are staying vigilant, as it is feared that the first outbreak was worse than previously thought. Epidemiologists, intelligence agencies, and health experts believe the number of cases reported in Wuhan and China are undercounted. This could be they say a result of local officials wanting to present a better picture, of not enough testing in the early stages, not counting people who died at home, and including people who died of pneumonia under pneumonia instead of coronavirus. Dr Birx, head of the U.S. response effort,  says the U.S. lists people who died of pneumonia in New York as coronavirus deaths because of how widespread it is there, hitting seven people in a thousand. In addition there is a problem for all countries in counting people without symptoms. No one even knows how big that is, and Dr Birx in the U.S. says it is important to find out. ...

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President Trump's focus in the State of the Union message in 2020 in the U.S. Congress was on what he had done for U.S. prestige and perception- "In three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America's destiny. We have totally rejected the downsizing." "We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never going back." The theme of the speech- "The Great American Comeback." No longer were other nations be allowed to take advantage of America, American interests would come first, and this also meant blue collar working families and middle class. Trade deals with Mexico and Canada, trade deal with China, reversing of the trade deficit, bringing back about 12,000 of the 60,000 thousand factories lost over two administrations Democratic and Republican of the last 16 years with many more factories in the pipeline, increasing jobs and incomes in an unprecedented way, were all the focus of the speech. The president basically sidestepped the impeachment for Ukraine policy and implementation, and focussed on the optimism from reversing American decline in trade, jobs, and manufacturing under past Republican and Democratic administrations.   ...

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As the push for biodiversity increases the idea of passive rewilding or letting nature and its chaotic way take its course is getting increased acceptance. It allows natural processes to restore themselves and do the work. A certain amount of chaos is accepted as forests reclaim territory, different species come back and fires, floods return. This is seen in the Peneda-Geres National Park in the northern mountains of Portugal. Here Mr. Pereira at the University of Leipzig Center for Biodiversity Research says it is about letting wildlife return, letting fires, floods return and most importantly letting plants and animals move around.

The issues of biodiversity and restoring landscapes to the ways of nature are the topic of discussion at the UN COP 15 summit this week in Kunming, China. Pereira's idea is that if you love something, just set it free, for a biodiversity setting to take shape.

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Mistakes under Merkel continue under the Greens and Social Democrats. Germany fails to invest in its solar industry even as the fight against climate change ramps up and the need for solar energy is growing rapidly. Manufacturers of solar cells in east Germany that remained under Merkel- surviving Chinese investment ramped up to overcome a German lead in solar- by pursuing niche markets, are still failing to get the federal government's attention and support. This NYT report shows the situation in Germany as Chinese imports of solar take up 97% of the market. China sends solar panels to Germany and the EU at below production costs this NYT report says, with the US having erected barriers to Chinese imports to build its own manufacturing capabilities with Biden's support. Product intended for America is now put in the European market pushing prices down even further. 

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Better management of the economy has sustained Russian economic growth in past crises such as in 2008 when oil prices collapsed. Russian central bank chief Nabiullina has helped steer the economy holding US dollar reserves to just 11% the rest of $600 billion reserves in renminbi, euros and gold. Yet the war in Ukraine has introduced limits. With labor shortages and the technological isolation the war in Ukraine is setting new limits on economic growth, says the WSJ. Going forward the limit is about 0.9% economic growth a year. Before 2008 the Russian economy growth was at 7% growth a year, it dropped to 3.5% after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. With China facing deflationary trends, little recovery in growth, this shows that geopolitical tensions are changing the prospects of important economies. With globalization dimming the prospects of Singapore and UK have suffered. The US is investing in growth, and Germany is following the US model.

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Ford is facing a sales disaster in the China market after lagging in coming up with new models and falling behind in adopting new technology in the hyper competitive Chinese market. Sales dropped from 1.27 million vehicles in 2016 to 752,000 vehicles in 2018. In 2018 sales dropped by 37%, when the Chinese market declined by 3%. In 2019 the car market in China shrank by another 12% in the first half.  The problems stem from poor management. Alan Mulally started the China project, his successor from a Michigan furniture company CEO Jim Hackett was unable to grasp the challenges in China with new technology a key feature of keeping abreast of the Chinese market. A succession of new executives in China from U.S. or EUropean operations compounded the problem each group lacking the touch needed with local Chinese conditions. Some experts say Ford is now becoming irrelevant in the Chinese market after being a late starter in coming to China and then investing billions in a catch up effort. GM and VW started much earlier. Ford reported loss of $1.5 billion in 2018. From 5% in 2015 its market share dropped to 2.1% in first quarter 2019. Ford was complacent and applied a global strategy in China when local Chinese car companies were moving with lightning speed. Ford was asked to locate in the far interior of the country as a late comer to China and its partner Chang'an Auto was more concerned about keeping car jobs than introducing the latest technology and models. China is obsessed with new technology and there is no way Ford could be allowed to get away with outdated models. ...

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There is a major contraction in the supply of leased cars to the used car market. This used to be the major source of used cars on dealer's lots. The contraction is so large it will take years to fix, some say 2027. The contraction of leased cars is expected to be 23% from 2024 to 2025 for expiring 3 year leases. Another factor leased cars are a good deal to buy at the end of the lease seeing how sticky used car prices are these days. A 3 year old leased car now costs $28,000 up 45% since 2020, and for new cars it is $48,000 up 25% since 2020 This is significant because a key part of inflation is not only cost of groceries (eggs for example), it is also the cost of cars and housing. For cars used cars are a major part of it as it is basic transportation needed to get to work for a majority of Americans. There are Americans where a car breakdown leads to a loss of a job because it costs too much to repair and young people just don't have the money. Stories in WSJ now point to how DJT won in 2024 largely because of immigration, fentanyl and transgender, and the frustration with high inflation. The challenge is now for action where Mexico, Canada and China cut off fentanyl flows to be able to access the US market. It is also for finding a way to cut housing and car costs. ...

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Adjusted for inflation wages for automakers have fallen 19% since 2008 because of tiers new workers making about $17 an hour significantly less than the $32 an hour. UAW seeks an end to tiered hiring.  For GM it is about committing to a long term contract in an industry that is unpredictable and uncertain. GM wants to make substantial investments in the EV industry with president Biden's help even when not making profits from EV's. For the UAW Ms. Janis of Jobs to Move America says labor is a very small part of what it costs to make EV's, batteries are the most. None of the earlier difficulties are likely because much fewer workers are needed making labor cost a much smaller component. Toyota has been slow in its EV start, BYD in China is leading but US carmakers are supported by the US government for EV's. Auto workers want a fair contract . And GM working with partners can still build joint venture factories for batteries in the South just like Tesla where work is not unionized. In the competition in EV's R&D and quality of management will play a bigger role. Fairness for workers will motivate American carmakers, with worker training and quality+value of EV's important for success.   ...

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Sofiya Qureshi and Vyomika Singh along with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri provide the first public briefing on the Operation Sindoor. They are women officers of the Indian Army and Air Force. The briefing was the first of its kind where details were provided by the Army, Air Force and the Foreign Ministry of India. It was a precisely done briefing showing the terrorist camps in Pakistan, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the ones targeted, and the link of each camp with a terrorist attack going back to 25 years. In this way it send the message that it is targeted at preventing this kind of terrorism at the source and as a preventive action to eliminate the chances of future terrorism, especially where it is targeting peaceful economic development and advancement of the whole of India.  Twenty three million tourists have visited Kashmir in 2024 and this has created a surge in the economy of Kashmir and increased the jobs and opportunities, the investment in Kashmir. The attacks at Phalgam are presented then as a direct attempt to turn back the tide of modernization of India. It is what the Japanese Kwantung Army did to suppress democratic forces in Japan and begin a war of imperialism in China. It was rooted before the Kwantung Army in the efforts to suppress the efforts of modernizers such as Sun Yat Sen by the Japanese. Gen. Joe Stilwell of the US led the struggle against the Imperial Japanese Army in China which is too easily forgotten in China as the first step towards the subsequent American effort in the 1990's to engage with China and help it modernize its economy. ...

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Harold Thibault of Le Monde France says, the rise of China in the past 50 years means the US is wondering whether engaging China turned out be something different than what Clinton anticipated when letting China join WTO without strict rules for a level playing field, and the Bush- Obama years when nothing was done to protect American manufacturing in small towns across America from the ravages of so called "free trade" that was not free, and the effort of American business to integrate its operations with China as single supplier without any guidance from government, behaviour that started with "American triumphalism" of the 1970's and 1990's, that left America with a destroyed industrial base. The Reagan wars that went on with Bush in the Middle East and South Asia and were continued through the Obama years allowed not just the waste of American resources and energy, it also provided a distraction from vital issues of the industrial base in manufacturing and technologies. Only DJT and Biden had the courage to end these wars and focus on the real issues facing the Nation and provide a continuity across three administrations from 2016-2029 to restore America to its past. ...

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The Dow Jones Average stock index drops by 800 points on August 14, 2019 with the ratcheting up of tensions in Hong Kong over autonomy protests, and the ongoing trade U.S. China trade dispute with more tariffs in September. Weak economic data from Europe exacerbated the situation. 

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The Biden administration has announced a 100 day review of strategic vulnerabilities in America's supply chain. President Biden has said he supports funding of incentives for production in the US, to become independent of China and Taiwan. From 1990 onwards chip production in the US went from 37% to about 12% today. It will now go back up. Biden's National Security Adviser noted in an article in Foreign Policy that advancing industrial policy like Japan and France once considered out of tune is now essential, "something close to obvious."  At one point in the post war period America's most advanced jet engines were made in West Berlin, surrounded by the army of Russia and its ally the GDR. There is new realization that dependence on Taiwan which makes 22% of semiconductors worldwide and 50% of advanced designs cannot go on the way it is exposing a critical vulnerability for American industry. A 40% tax credit for the cost of new semiconductor fabrication plants and other incentives are now supported in the Biden administration. The whole idea is to turn this around quickly where US no longer depends on uncertain supplies from overseas. Four critical areas of strategic vulnerability will be reviewed- pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, batteries, and strategic materials. ...

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Meg Gentle, who helped build the first LNG terminal for Cherniere Inc. in the Gulf Coast of the US for export of natural gas extracted in the US, is now switching to work in green hydrogen production. The first facility goes up in Texas by 202 7after an experimental project in Chile. WSJ shows many former fossil fuel executives are taking this route to green hydrogen. Gentle says the nascent green hydrogen industry is similar to the beginnings of natural gas. She says there are all the same elements in both. And that the new companies can go from one plant to create a new transformation just like that done for LNG. A chief technology officer of Airbus, a head of GE Europe and China, and an Italian from Eni Enel are also working at green hydrogen companies. What has turned an historically uneconomic business into a possibly profitable business are subsidies from president Biden put in place for clean energy. These subsidies now cover 60% of the cost of green hydrogen, says the WSJ. Green hydrogen requires permiting, infrastructure, financing, customer agreements, similar to the fossil fuel industry. Many are joining for the challenge as green hydrogen when converted into a liquid for transport can't carry as much energy as fossil fuels. About 120 startups raised $2.6 billion in 2022, a 50% jump from 2021. The GE executive says no one has done this on scale making the opportunity enormous. ...

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Cracks are appearing in Japan's manufacturing model in recent years. Kobe Steel, Mitsubishi Materials and Subaru Corp have admitted to manipulating quality inspections. Takata Corp, maker of airbags is a case study in what can go wrong, as the company declared bankruptcy after failing to tackle safety problems and supplying defective airbags. The case is all the more astounding as airbags are designed for ensuring the safety of automobile passengers, a key feature of every automobile.  The situation is one of failure of management to take the right actions. This also happened with Toyota as management missteps worsened the issues related to faulty acceleration of vehicles, leading to media focus on Toyota in the U.S. Japan is not unique in this area of management failures as VW's actions in the diesel emissions case have clearly shown. Pressures to cut costs are part of the problem as this report shows. In Japanese companies quality checking staff employees are the targets of cost cutting layoffs resulting in the faulty step of outsourcing quality checks, which is contrary to what the country's pioneers sought to do when they adopted American Total Quality methods in the 1960's. This creates opportunities for China today, and for India in the future if it is able to capitalize on the opportunities in manufacturing desperately needed for job creation.    ...

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In this WSJ op-ed essay William Galston says U.S. prestige and influence in the world has suffered under the presidency of Mr. Trump. The special relationship with Britain and Europe is at risk. Neighborly relations with Mexico are a thing of the past. Embracing questionable regimes is seen as failing America's respect for democracy. Squandering the moral authority and prestige of the U.S. will have long term consequences as China and Russia have increased their influence, says Galston. He points to Trump's attitude of indifference, he probably does not care, says Galston.

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A hard fought election in Brazil between Mr. Bolsanaro and an ex-president Lula da Silva. Voting is compulsory in Brazil for all those who are literate and between age of 18 and 70 years. There are 156 million registered voters. President and members of Chamber of Deputies are elected for a four year term. Elections also take place for 27 governors for 26 states and one federal district. If no candidate in elections for president or governors gets 50% of the vote the vote heads to a runoff on October 30 between the top two candidates. Bolsanaro is supported by evangelical Christians in a Catholic country, rural landowners, and business people. He was a deputy or member of parliament for the state of Rio de Janeiro for 27 years, who won on a law and order and anti-corruption platform in 2018. Lula da Silva is a former trade union leader who was president from 2003 to 2010. He was popular during a commodity boom in Brazil's soyabean and iron ore export boom to China that financed social support programs. A corruption scandal affected his successor from the Worker's Party leading to the change in government after the collapse of the commodities boom. After he was given a jail sentence under the Bolsanaro government he was released by the Supreme court decision in 2019 that declared there was a lack of due process in his conviction. Mr. Bolsanaro also as a program to benefit poor families that is called Auxilio Brazil to replacve Lula's Bolsa Familia. Payments to 18 million recipients were increased in August and a monthly stipend was added for taxi and truck drivers by Bolsanaro. The competing interests and the pandemic with the high toll of around 685,000 deaths have created a highly contested election. ...

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This is an highly important interview by the BBC with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. We have followed the path breaking work of Mr. Lighthizer at Lyrarc.com over 10 years, and have great respect for his effort on behalf of the American people and American workers. Here are some of the remarks he made at the end of the term of the Trump administration. Lighthizer says the objective of trade is not just efficiency, it must be working men and women. This is the shift that Mr. Trump has made. It will be a lasting change as leaders in both parties see this as important, says Lighthizer. There are companies that immediately want to go back to the way things were but Lighthizer says members of both parties will prevent this. This will be a lasting change. Democrats in particular could soon face strident criticism that they have let down the working class from within their party, increasing the risks of the party to represent large parts of the American population. Lighthizer says its not accurate that we started a lot of trade wars, we have simply enforced our laws and insisted on fairness for American workers. There was really no trade war in the improved NAFTA deal in the interests of American workers, which also enhanced worker protections in Mexico, for a win-win on both sides of two neighbors. "We want strong communities in the U.S. and if that means T-shirts will cost another nickel, they will cost another nickel," sums up the way Lighthizer sees it, and the way all of America would see it if one regained the idea of government for the people, of the people and with the people. "We are proud of what we have done to reorient American trade towards working people in the U.S. and less towards outsourcing and corporations," says Lighthizer. And he says that was important to do. Lighthizer only highly underestimates what he has done for America and American workers.  A lot remains to be done. The about $800 billion in overall trade deficit the U.S. has with China, Germany and the rest of the world is not sustainable, he says. The job only gets harder now that the direction is clear.    ...

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Thomas Bach is a German fencing athlete who won the Olympic Gold medal. He is from Wurzburg, Germany and was elected in 2013, in office as International Olympic Committee president till 2025. In the new election in 2025 Bach supported Coventry of Zimbabwe, a winner of the gold medal in swimming for the job, over a candidate from Spain whose father Samaranch held the same job, and COE a candidate from Britain. Other candidates were from Japan and France. The process of voting and the people voting is not representative of the world's people. As countries such as Germany and Spain are dominant. Britain and France, China and India have never elected a representative from their country as IOC president in the 20th century or the 21st. IOC presidents are there for long periods, as long as 20 years. Avery Brundage of the US was IOC president from 1952-1972  for 20 years followed by Morris of Ireland for 7 years. Following this in 1980 another 20 year term for a Spanish businessman Antonio Samaranch, whose son tried to run in 2025. In 2001 12 years for a Belgian Jacques Rogge, followed by another 12 years for German Thomas Bach.  In 20th century no one from France or Greece, no one from India or China has been elected IOC president and the election process is an insider's affair, even thought the games are watched in China, India and other parts of the world by hundreds of millions of people. ...

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Coral Davenport of the NYT provides some of the basics of the Paris climate change agreement. This includes an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half to avoid a situation in which atmospheric temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degree Fahrenheit.  The earlier effort to negotiate an accord failed in 2009 in Copenhagen. This time all 186 countries were asked to signup with the USA and China, the No. 1 and No. 2 polluters and India leading the way. Germany is well on its way to self sufficiency through development of solar and wind energy with the German government leading the way, and France leads in the use of nuclear energy. How did this happen now? As Davenport points out there are scientific studies. But this is not the primary reason China is shifting.Davenport fails to emphasize the health concerns and pollution concerns that motivated China to shift away from coal. China's industrial revolution of the last 3 decades has come at a huge cost in pollution of air and water, and president Xi Jinping has decided to make the shift away from coal a top priority. It is estimated that mortality rates for areas of high coal use north of the Yangzte river have higher mortality rates than areas of lower use of coal south of the Yangzte river. The other big polluter India is shifting because it is learning from China's experience. Davenport mentions the resistance to the scientific evidence in the Republican party. As a result it is already clear that it lacks support in Congress and under a future Republican administration. In a fashion similar to healthcare, president Obama failed to create a consensus before proceeding in the hope that this would be better than waiting. However American industry is already moving away from coal as documented in Links- "The Trump executive order on coal and the continuing shift to natural gas." Utilities in the U.S. are making the shift away from coal because of the economics and planning ahead as governments can change every four years. ...

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GM's joint venture with Luizhou Wuling Motors has produced a win-win situation for both companies. Wuling was a small, regional manufacturer when the joint venture started. Now Wuling has more than 1 million in unit sales. And GM has benefitted from the rapidly growing sales. Year over year sales were 29% in 2010, and were slowing to 10% in 2011, with the end of government incentives. Wuling vans can now be sold under the GM brand in India, using lower cost manufacturing in China. Looking back this was good for GM. The future however has some twists and turns and could turn out to be different. Wuling joint venture will produce cars at a lower price point under the Baojun brand. These cars were shown at the Shanghai Auto Show, and will be marketed to customers who are looking for affordable cars in the second and third tier cities in China. The Baojun brand joint venture will have one difference. This brand involves intellectual property being held in common with Wuling Motors. This is part of China's new plan for American and European manufacturers in China- the price of access to the Chinese market is greater technology sharing with Chinese partners. In the long run this should enable Chinese manufacturers to be dominant inside China. This process is already underway. According to J.D. Powers, Chinese brands had 32% of the domestic passenger vehicles market in 2010, up from 18% in 2000. Something similiar happened with Japan, where Nissan was making Britain's Austin A40 series in the mid-1950's. By the 1960's the foreign tieups were replaced by Japanese manufacturers dominant in the home market and exporting their own models. ...

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With strong US growth Nvidia data center sales sales are up to $39 billion up 73% in mid 2025. After taking a $4.5 billion charge on chips designed for China after US government stopped sales to China of sensitive technologies Nvidia is doing very well. This is the result of the rapid growth in AI investments in the US being made by Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and other companies. During DJT's visit to Saudi Arabia he signed agreements that allow US exports of AI chips to Saudis in exchange for $1 trillion in investments in the US in AI infrastructure. A Biden Diffusion rule had blocked such sales to allies.

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Friedman says Putin acted emotionally by letting impulsive reaction to the anti-Russian feelings in western Ukraine determine Russian policy following the collapse of the Yakunovych government. The months long Russian response in Crimea and eastern Ukraine may have secured Russian pride at a large cost. This includes the damage to the relationship with Germany, seting the EU on a path to look for other sources of energy to reduce dependence on Russian gas, a natural gas deal with China in which the price was kept "a secret" and may have provided China with a bargaining edge considering the timing of the negotiations. The most severe impact is in the loss of confidence within Russia, reminding the Putin administration that though the economy has grown in the Putin years it is still fragile and connected to the global economy. The capital outflows of the magnitude of $160 billion at a time of high inflation and sharply slowing growth actually put at risk the gains Putin and Russia made in the last decade, and risk the future agenda to improve the standard of living of the Russian people eyond the major cities. Putin's own assessment would eventually be closer to that of Alexei Kudrin. Kudrin, finance minister in Putin's previous term, correctly saw the dangers of impulsive policy concentrated in one figure, and the suppression of other voices including the opposition needed for Russia to be governed in a manner similiar to western Europe, to attain a similiar level of economic progress and standards of living. In today's global economy even the U.S., France, UK and states inside Germany need foreign investment for jobs, new ideas and technology, and the opinion expressed on media television and internet shapes investor sentiment to a larger degree than fully understood....

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US antiship missiles Nmesis are placed in the Philippines islands to protect parts of the Pacific region in 2025. During the period of US engaged in wars in the Middle East under Bush and then Obama, the US Navy lost time and China built up its Navy. The lack of foresight of US business and focus on profits of firms like Apple shipping manufacturing to China meant loss of the manufacturing knowhow as other companies followed Apple for 2 decades. The result is that it takes long lead times for the US to build the ships the US Navy needs, a repeat of the situation the US faced with Japan by 1935 when the US was focused on tackling the Great Depression under FDR. At that time at a Naval Conference in London in 1934 the Japanese walked out rejecting the Washington Naval Agreement of 1924-25 that limited Japan to 60% of the US and British Navies ships tonnage. By 1941 the Japanese Navy was its main reason for its efforts to control Asia. FDR who had been Secretary of the Navy was not far behind so that America launched its own efforts in 1937- in an 18 month period 1942-1943 the US destroyed the Japanese Navy and protected China, India, from the worst Japanese Kwantung army elements that ran the government leading to 14 million lives lost in China. ...