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The failure of three layers of quality checks Boeing are shown here in the WSJ video after failure events on airline flights. Two CEO's step down. What is the real problem? It is that the company is run by executives trained in finance and accounting and have too little of a background in the workplace where the manufacturing and assembly components is taking place or grasp of what it takes to turn out quality products by workers on the line. The basic approach is flawed because it is not quality checks that build in quality into a product but the workers on the assembly line who have to be trained and the investment made in quality processes to turn out a quality product. This has long been a focus in the earlier days of America's industrial revolution till the focus shifted to finance in the US and the focus on manufacturing shifted to Asia, to Japan, China and now India. It will take a complete shift in America's company leadership to hands on CEO's who are with and understand the workers on America's assembly lines, who can live some days and nights with workers on the production line to see and feel the problems first hand. This will take a decade, and for America as Jake Sullivan said at Brookings for president Biden and his team- this is a fight we must, and we will achieve. ...

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This interview of David Westin with Katherine Tai at the Aspen Institute shows how this US Foreign Trade Representative reflects today's priorities based on an entirely different environment than what was faced before- after the pandemic, after concern about supply chains, the effect on workers, the domestic economy, and on democracy of trade policies, the effects of AI. Westin says "You are US FTR, you travel abroad cover the globe literally, it covers geopolitics.." Katherine Tai makes it clear from the beginning- "It is all about domestic, I do as much domestic travel as foreign travel. We sit at the interconnection of very very complex forces.Trade absolutely is about economics. The decisions we make in trade policy impacts the domestic economy. We are part of foreign policy, we are equally a part of domestic economic policy team. These two are pulling you in opposite directions. This foreign aspect has to be connected to what we do at home." Four pillars the Biden administration has for trade all relate to the domestic economy- for infrastructure, climate change action, workers and manufacturing at home, democracy and resilience. It is worker centric for workers in the US economy and the economy of its partners, Tai points out that it is in the interest of the other countries that trade with US to give fair wages and benefits to their workers, not something that they do for the US.     ...

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The big difference between the US at about 1.2 million electric car sales and China at over 9 million in the last year is that companies such as BYD have found away to come up new battery technology that uses different more accessible materials. BYD's research into new batteries came up with a iron phosphate battery as shown on articles on BYD in 2024 to substitute for less available lithium and cobalt. On one of its models BYD is offering a price of $11000. This attracts a different kind of buyer than what American makers are reaching. Another plus for BYD is that while sales are stalling in the US because of battery range and lack of charging station access, BYD also sells a large number of hybrid electric cars that help urban dwellers go back to their homes in the countryside. BYD also manufactures two thirds of its parts internally producing needed savings. China is also pushing electric cars with government subsidies and government is working hand in hand with industry in a concerted effort for two decades. Compare that with US where the Biden administration was the first to start changing the way the US does business to put government industry cooperation and working together at the heart of the way of doing things. The US could learn from other nations and adapt its own industrial and modernization efforts in the world after the pandemic and as supply chains are being renewed and restructured. Every nation can learn from its peers. ...

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How a tightly interconnected community such as tech startups can quickly fall apart in a crisis is the subject of this WSJ report by Christopher Mims. He says on the way up this meant positive leveraging that exceeded 150% and this is also true in the other direction on the way down just as fast. Most startups depended on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic for financing. Venture capital moved from inside to unravel the SVB bank. The US government simply wants to stabilize the economy and is not intending to make the uninsured depositors whole except in the way that it is self contained and does not spread to other parts of the banking system. Tech startups will now find it difficult to get new financing, if not impossible, says this report. About 8% of total jobs in the US economy are dependent on tech. When it comes to work that is dependent on tech the number is higher closer to 20%. Some of the tech layoffs will be offset by new kinds of tech and with government private collaboration in the new frameworks coming up, such as for EV vehicles with manufacturing in the US, and the $53 billion for the  CHIPS and Science Act of president Biden. Solar and wind have new frameworks of a similar type as the focus shifts to fighting climate change. These networks are interconnected with the EU which is creating its own parallel networks of this type. ...

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An extraordinary moment in history took place at Rajghat Gandhiji Memorial in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. The leaders of 20 largest nations from all over the world observed a moment of silence after devotional hymns at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. Click on original article to pull up the larger picture and take our On the Spot Quiz on which countries were paired together on either side. On either side of Modi are Widodo (Indonesia) and Lula (Brazil), next to them either side Macron and Biden, Albanese and Sunak, EU's Michel and Leyen , Erdogan and Yeong, Fernandez and Meloni, Qiang and Kishida, Lavrov and Scholz, Sissi and Ramaphosa, Rutte and Trudeau. Can you tell which countries each pair of leaders are from? Answer below for our first On the Spot Quiz. Answer: France and US, Australia and UK, EU's pair, Turkey and South Korea, Argentina and Italy, China and Japan, Russia and Germany, Egypt and South Africa. It is an exceptionally well thought out arrangement. With Indonesia and Brazil on either side of India, you have the core of the aspiring population of 1.7 billion people more than anywhere else on the planet Earth, who think alike, act alike. And next to them are leaders of France and US, Australia and Britain, and the European Union, who are resolutely backing the shift in agenda- debt assistance, tripling renewable energy, and a new infrastructure building effort for ease of living.   ...

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Of NYT's decades old indifference, an almost Churchill like distance and indifference to the aspirations of the people of South Asia it can be said- indifference to the aspirations of 1.4 billion people to modernize the country with the same infrastructure that Europe and the US, Japan, and now China take for granted. Indifference to the problems in creating a nation  with 13 languages and 1.4 billion people that has a freely elected parliament never before done in history, one which also delivers on banking accounts, health care, infrastructure, for all its  people, of all races and religions. This indifference runs counter to everything that Indians admire about America. And a lack of awareness of what Indians admire today about the Biden administration's promise to make the words of Jefferson true in America as the Modi administration does in India- "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, (created equal) and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The NYT's indifference to this inequality both in the US and in India run counter to the founding principles of Jefferson and of India's saint from Wardha, Mohandas Gandhi, who both fought the British empire at the height of its prominence.  ...

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A warning from Britain about tax cuts and not investing in the US economy that could put the US in the same bad shape as Britain under the Tories with Trump/Vance tax cuts and high tariffs stifling the economy. Krugman, with his long experience in studying economic policy of governments,  says the unforced error for Britain was not even Brexit as much as it was the austerity policies put forward by Cameron and his finance minister Osborne in 2010. What it did was to push austerity policies when the right move would have been to invest in the economy and in public services. In 2010 he says the Greece crisis and eurozone debt crisis led to Britain adopting austerity when it was in a different situation. Britain's debt was in its own currency and at home. The British economy was just recovering from the 2009 banking crisis which meant that economic capacity was underutilized and more people needed to be employed. In this situation Britain instead of Cameron/Osborne austerity that starved public services and investment in infrastructure, jobs, needed to invest in public services. A decade and half later this has put Britain in a bad place with a weak economy and dilapidated public services. Britain lacks the courage and right policy of the Biden administration in investing in the economy with support from Congress, so that even Labour is not in a position to soon reverse the effects of this austerity policy. ...

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19 percent of China's exports went to the US in 2017, in 2024 this is 15%, but wait, the difference of 4 percent it is simply coming back to the US but through Southeast Asia. As a result some of the same issues that puzzled Trump negotiators exist today. China's exports surged 12.7% in October 2024 over the prior year. Biden was facing this situation and had yet to respond to the surge in exports to US. These exports were sent to Mexico and to Southeast Asia to circumvent the tariffs. It is the same situation revisited in 2024 with two other aspects of the Chinese economy-economic stimulus gets smaller and the housing and construction industry has imploded, the economy has slower growth. The overall price level in the US with a 60% tariff plus 10% for all countries would be 0.72 addition to the price level of 1.10 percent today- that is when including the depreciation of China's yuan by 10%. as it did last time. The result would be price level in the US at 1.82%, according to J.P. Morgan. Drag on China's GDP of the Trump tariffs in first term was 0.65% according to one investment bank GS, with 60% tariffs it would be 2%. Trump secured a return of $116 billion or 58% of the $200 billion China said it would buy of US exports. The other 42%- the deal was not completed in the end. ...

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After elections this week in Germany the CDU may be faced with forming a government with the BSW socialist party an unlikely pair. Germany's political leader Sarah Wagenknecht considers the policy of letting migrants in to be "highly problematic", and making it difficult to focus on help for workers and families. Wagenknect says - "Not because people don't deserve a better life, but because our country is simply overburdened as a result."  She pursues a social policy that follows common sense on behalf of the working class and unions, and follows socialist policies for better incomes and benefits for workers. This is new to Germany says DW.com, yet it is not true for the EU. Neighboring Denmark for example has prime minister Mette Hendriksen who has said the same thing about migrants, opposing entry because it leaves the workers worse off than before and presents both a burden and a huge distraction from the many issues the working class face today. The Democrats in the US also are coming to the same conclusion as president Biden and Harris have moved to secure the Border with Mexico and cut unlawful migrant flows to a trickle in 2024.  These shifts will affect Scholz and the SPD party in 2025, as well as the FDP and Greens as they lose popularity in the former East Germany.  ...

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Figures from Kiel Institute for World Economy show that European Union aid to Ukraine is nearly double that of the US- $187 billion for EU to $98 billion for US aid. The American Enterprise Institute conservative think tank also confirms EU aid is significantly higher. Trump said US was $250 billion to European Union $100 billion- completely the reverse of the facts. This is one aspect of the debate with Harris that was not fact checked to reach the 67 million watching immediately similar to the FBI correction on crime rates by David Muir.   "Look, we’re in for $250 billion or more because they don’t ask Europe, which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are. They’re in for $150 billion less because Biden and you don’t have the courage to ask Europe like I did with NATO. They paid billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars when I said either you pay up or we’re not going to protect you anymore. So that may be one of the reasons they don’t like me as much as they like weak people. But you take a look at what’s happening. We’re in for $250 to $275 billion. They’re into $100 to $150. They should be forced to equalize.”   ...

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Overall America's Infrastructure gets only a C grade- but that is the best grade since 1998 so badly has the Nation's infrastructure been neglected under Clinton-Bush-Obama.  Bridges, broadband, drinking water systems, hazardous waste treatment, inland waterways, public parks and solid waste received grades of C+, C or C–, mediocre condition needs attention. Dams, levees, roads, schools and infrastructure for aviation, energy, storm water, transit and wastewater get grades of D+ or D, poor condition. Ports get a B, Rail gets a B- dropping a notch, and Energy get a D grade in this report on US infrastructure by the US Society of Civil Engineers. It comes out every four years. The shortfall in infrastructure spending- $3.7 trillion. This after the $1.2 trillion Biden Infrastructure bill made a real difference since 2021. Grades have improved on half of the 18 categories this report tracks. “Better infrastructure is an efficient investment of taxpayer dollars that results in a stronger economy and prioritizes American jobs.” Darren Olson, chair of the committee on infrastructure of the Society of Civil Engineers. "The investment levels that we saw under the last administration have really started to move the needle, and we’re looking forward to advancing that conversation as we move into this administration.”- Kristina Swallow, president of the Society of Civil Engineers ...

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A lot that is wrong at Apple and Tim Cook's responsibility for putting profits over national interest in not preserving but destroying American manufacturing. All the talk about design is a smokescreen for dismally letting down American communities that relied on American industrial ingenuity. Tim Cook started the process of sending America's industrial manufacturing base to China in 1998 with an elaborate plan that has been put into effect over 2 decades. Some of this I saw with my own eyes in the period just before Jobs returned in 1997, on a trip as Japanese manufacturing methods consultant at Apple's Colorado Springs Plant. Apple's failure since 2016 to correct this overconcentration of manufacturing in one place is one of the major failures for America in the first decades of the 21st century. Apple's success in profit margins was bought at a price that is too high for the communities and towns that depended on manufacturing across America during the 20th century- it has a spiralling effect as other companies followed Apple leading to the shipping out of America's entire industrial base. Creating risks of international conflict as this entire process was allowed to happen by administrations of Bush and Obama that have failed America in unimaginable ways with foreign wars, and neglect of American workers. DJT, Biden who retained DJT policy, and DJT second term are only now correcting these serious mistakes and American business shortsightedness. ...

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The jobless rate of 7.1% in Germany in April 2011, is down from 7.8% in the prior year. In the states of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, where BMW and Daimler are located, the unemployment rate is down to 4% in April. Jurg Kramer, chief economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, says this could lead to higher inflation. Inflation went up to an annual rate of 2.6% in April. The ECB raised the official interest rate to 1.25% in April, but Kramer says the rate appropriate for Germany is more like 3%. The euro is rising with expectations that the ECB will raise rates further. The euro was at $1.49 on April 28, 2011. Kramer also cites some factors that could slow inflation and wage increases in Germany- most union wage contracts continue till 2012, and the change that allows people from Eastern European countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic to be easily hired.

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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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A 850 megawatt solar project, the largest in the US outside of Las Vegas runs into opposition from environmentalists concerned about the effect on views and on tortoises other endangered species. The planned project on top of Mormon Mesa would put over 1 million solar panels 10 to 20 feet tall in the Nevada desert. Across the US 800 utility scale solar projects are under contract for generation of 70,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 11 million homes, for more than Texas. Over half of this solar capacity is going into the southwestern US, with its sunshine and open land. For the first time the ardent advocates of renewable energy such as the Sierra Club are now opposing such projects. Solar made up one tenth of one percent of US energy in 2010, in 2020 it made up 4.5%. It is growing very rapidly because costs are going way down. Even before government subsidies solar is now below the cost of natural gas. Projects near Martha's Vineyard on the Massachusetts coast took 12 years to get sate and federal approval for wind energy. These battles are similar to ones being fought in Europe. The US is better positioned for solar because of vast desert spaces in the American southwest. President Joe Biden plans to use this advantage of solar and wind to get to 100% renewable energy by 2035. ...

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The US and Japan are coordinating efforts to limit transfer of sensitive technology to China and increase trade and cooperation within the G-7 in high technology sectors. Efforts are being coordinated with South Korea. Janet Yellen says the IMF has overblown the effects on the world economy from the US decoupling from China. IMF reports have also in addition presented India incorrectly as a non aligned country, when it is a close partner of the US. In 2023 US is the largest trade partner of India.The US position is to limit flows of technology in sectors considered vital, and continue world trade in other areas with China. US is committed to friendshoring to India, Vietnam and other countries. Germany's three parties CDU, Greens and SPD are reversing close trade and technology links with China. This is also the policy of the Modi administration which seeks close trade and technology ties to US and EU. The shift is in response to what is really an overconcentration of the supply chain in China that happened as business in the US and EU and the Merkel and the Bush-Obama-Trump administrations failed to see the risks of overconcentration. And carried out misguided policies in trade and investment that are now being reversed by US president Biden, Kishida in Japan, and Modi in India. ...

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Canadian steel and lumber industries get government aid, as talks to end US tariffs are halted over an ad on Reagan misrepresenting him on tariffs by Ontario state.  Canada's steel and lumber industries will get the aid in the form of railway costs cut in half with rail subsidies, and tariffs on US steel imports into Canada to reduce domestic steel costs for other industries. Stellantis shifts car production for a new Jeep from suburban Toronto to Illinois, GM cut a shift at a pickup plant and closed a electric van plant in Ontario. Not all imports to the US from Canada face tariffs. Other products enter the US from Canada under a free trade agreement USMCA that went into effect July 1 2020. Canada is also shifting policy under Carney's Liberals on climate change, as it seeks to reorient its economy to export oil to China and India- a new pipeline is now approved for oil and gas to be shipped across the country from Alberta. Since it's independence with Dominion status in 1867 Canada's economy has struggled with the idea of building a economy separate from the US so that trade between the northeastern Canada and Northeastern US which is next to each other is foregone for trade with distant provinces in the western states such as Alberta and British Columbia. In Brazil Lula's Worker's Party is also slowing efforts on climate change for the economy as it approves oil and gas projects in the Amazon, at the same time as it holds COP30 at Belem port in the Amazon. Even Biden had shown flexibility on the economy to support cost of living measures that are in conflict with climate change action. In DJT's second term climate change action has taken a back seat to cost of living concerns when a large majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck. ...

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This WSJ editorial calls the ISI and Pakistan army's playing both sides of the game- acting as an ally of the U.S. and supporting the Taliban- unacceptable. The editorial points to the Taliban and its leader Mullah Omar running the operations out of Quetta, in Baluchistan. And the Taliban faction loyal to Jalaluddin Haqqani having sanctuaries in North Waziristan and the tribal regions of Pakistan. Al Quaeda's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, it says, could very well be in Pakistan in some compound in the manner of bin Laden.

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Higher exports and lower imports boosted GDP growth by 1.59%, higher investment in equipment and AI related intellectual property investments, and consumer spending on healthcare services, pushed US GDP up to 4.5% for third quarter 2025. The annual rate of growth was pushed up to 2.5% matching the 2.4% growth in GDP for 2024 under the Biden administration. As the benefits of the rebuilding of American manufacturing, the benefits of the rapid depreciation of equipment and plant investments under the BIg Beautiful Bill are still in the future the GDP number is expected to be higher for 2025 and 2026. The formula for GDP estimates is to take total domestic spending and minus imports which are part of domestic spending in the US on imports, and to add the exports number, as these are goods produced in the US. An administration such as DJT administration today that promotes US exports, takes strong action such as tariffs against unfair trade goods pushed into the US, promotes US jobs and growth, ensures fair trade prevails, and invests in the US, is far more likely to get better GDP growth and jobs growth results. ...

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President Biden faces three potential crises this month -one in Ukraine with a buildup of Russian forces for potential invasion, Chinese actions with Taiwan, and potential collapse of Iran nuclear talks. Biden also convenes this week world leaders of democracies in virtual talks on how to respond to actions of Russia, China, Iran and other countries. Biden's goal is to ensure the US and its allies remain strong without provoking crises.

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The slowing job market without layoffs and yet robust, is giving new flexibility ot the US central bank, the Fed. Jerry Powell at Fed does not plan to cut rates and will keep rates steady. This mean housing affordability is affected though the problems in housing have to do with a lack of supply and factors such as retired people hanging on to larger homes and not downsizing. Overall this is a period of robust job growth and moderating inflation, and is a result of the huge investments Biden and Congress in bipartisan way are making to provide industry support to compete with China and in infrastructure investments that yield benefits for overall economic growth and productivity. This is true for investments in science and CHIPS Act.

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Abortion rights amendments passed in 7 states, voters continued to back it. But this did not help Harris as pocketbook issues and cost of living, the economy was the major issue for both women and men. White women have never voted by a majority for any but 2 Southerners fromTexas LBJ 1964, and Bill Clinton from Arkansas in 1996. This shows that it was not realistic for the campaign to depend on abortion as the issue when the economic difficulties following the pandemic were real for Americans across gender and the Democratic party had started on the road to regaining but not yet regained the trust of working class voters. It was too much to accomplish in 4 years of Biden what had eroded over three decades.