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This report in theWSJ says Krysten Sinema received donations from the securities industry of $2.2 million and is opposed to taking out the carried interest provision that is a key source of income for private equity managers. Senator Manchin says it is time to remove carried interest and this would raise $14 billion over a decade. Sinema is in favor of climate change action and favors a tax on carbon emissions.  On corporate minimum tax Sinema has worked with Senator Elizabeth Warren for the tax change that would require a minimum 15% corporate minimum tax to be paid by corporations. On precription drug prices Sinema has worked with Democrats on what the list of drugs should be for Medicare to negotiate drug prices.  As many of these key points have been worked out with Kristen Sinema it now remains to be seen how Democrats get the agreement of Sinema and any other members in Congress to prepare for the passage through Congress of the Climate Change action bill Schumer has negotiated in the Senate. ...

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Rosa Ines Rivera, a cook at the cafeteria for the Y.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, with 2 small children, describes the protests over the increase by Harvard administration of the premiums charged on health insurance that now take up over 10% of the income. She says she lives in public housing with her parents as she lost her apartment because she is behind on the rent, and now cannot afford to pay the increase in premiums. About 750 workers at Harvard are on strike on this issue. She says dining hall workers want the current pay of $31,193  a year increased to $35,000 to provide a living wage that helps them afford medical care, because of the high cost of living in Boston.  To get some idea of the plight of workers who provide the kind of nutritious meals that a lot of students depend on for healthy living- Rivera says she takes in about $450 a week after taxes, or about $1800, rent is $1150, which leaves $650 for herself and two children for all food, and expenses in Boston. The $4000 in premiums for health insurance would be about 330 per month, leaving her about $320 for food and living expenses with 2 children. Why the need to bring up children in poverty in America, for generation after generation, after putting in a full day of work? ...

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The plans for 20 liquefied natural gas projects are being launched or sped up in the EU which would give about 83% of the natural gas imported by the EU from Russia in 2021. LNG produces half of the carbon dioxide emissions of coal and Europe sees it as a transitional fuel. The EU plans a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2020, and a lot of this will come from a massive expansion of wind and solar energy, and using energy more efficiently.

Doubling down on LNG means the EU will find itself into many long term commitments to LNG that would hurt the effort to meet climate change action goals say experts.

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The importance of free school meals in the UK is shown in this report in The Guardian. It shows about 100,000 school children are suffering in the UK from lack of proper lunches because low income parents cannot afford it and are coming short. It says school teachers are shocked at the pitiful packed lunches children are bringing to school. The Liberal Democrats education spokesperson says the Tory government is snatching school lunches from children by stealth, as it has neglected to increase the limit on household earnings from 7400 pounds to 8575 pounds where it would be if increased for inflation. That would have made 110,000 more children eligible. This appalling and callous situation is the front page story in The Guardian today.

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With roads blocked and subways closed after the heaviest snowstorm in 50 years, Madrid healthcare workers walked long distances to work. Many healthcare workers, nurses, medical residents  walked 10 to 20 kilometres to get to work at hospitals.  In Spain the virus has claimed 51,000 lives and cases are at over 2 million. One nurse took 2 hours 28 minutes to walk to work, saying as he crossed fallen trees and 40 centimetres of snow that he decided if he got there it was ok and if he did not he would turn back.

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Putin's visit to India is intended to continue India Russia dialogue. One of the topics is trade. New trade deals are planned to take pre-pandemic trade from $11 billion to $30 billion by 2025. Trade would go beyond energy to include education, cybersecurity, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, railways, clean energy. By comparison US India trade for the same time period is $146 billion.

Afghanistan is a source of concern for both Russia and India and this will be part of the talks. Russia also participates in several forums with India including BRICS. 

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The US/Israel Iran ceasefire also allows the DJT administration and its supporters to focus on the goals of reaching new agreements on world trade to return manufacturing to the US, and tackle the issue of massive illegal migraton of estimated 10-15 million during the last administration. The limited goal of removing Iran's nuclear weapons by direct action being achieved, the US steps back to work with China and Russia on other issues of trade agreements to rebuild world trade and US manufacturing, and to take corrective action on illegal migration, and efforts to reduce cost of living, improve working people's lives and communities, health of the American people. It also gives China, India, Russia and the US to reflect on how they can improve the economic conditions of their own people and the people of the world.

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The Obama administration delays a decision on the Keystone pipeline till after the 2012 election. State Department officials say they will extend their review of the 1700 mile Keystone pipeline so that Nebraka's objections about the pipeline route affecting drinking water from the Ogallala Aquifier - which provides drinking water to Nebraskans- can be addressed. Kerri Ann Jones, of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, says choosing a new route inside Nebraska will mean a new environmental assessment is required, taking an additional 15 months. In addition to environmental concerns, the Obama administration is concerned about how approval would affect enthusiasm for Obama's re-election in 2012 among environmentally conscious voters. TransCanada officials point out that of the 14 routes considered in the review by the State Department, one route entirely bypasses the Sandhills region and the Ogallala Aquifier, and six routes reduce the pipeline mileage crossing Nebraska....

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As cases mount during the second wave Sweden abandons its response of voluntary actions by the public,  experimenting some say with herd immunity in mind. Ban on large gatherings, school closures, as the toll reaches a level of per capita deaths taht are among the highest in the world. There is now fear of the health system being overwhelmed just as in the rest of Europe. There has been heated debate on the voluntary response and critics charged the government with abandoning the less vulnerable in the population.

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China's president Xi Jinping visiting a trade fair in Shanghai, says China will shift to larger imports as it responds to calls from the U.S. and Europe to further open its markets, and buy more rather than focus on selling to the world. He said "it is China's sincere commitment to open the Chinese market." More than 80% of China's trading partners have trade deficits with China with severe complaints and tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the U.S. president Trump.

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Fred Hiatt of The Washington Post asks the question what would have happened if U.S. president Harry Truman had sounded the retreat for war weary Americans following the Second World War- as Greece floundered, during the Berlin Blockade 1948-1949 when Truman ordered airlifts to Berlin which totaled 200,000 in one year from the U.S. and allies, as South Korea was invaded by the Communist North in 1949 when Truman responded with the landing at Inchon. He cites an intervew with president Obama in the Atlantic magazine of Jeffrey Goldberg, where Obama's views after hours of conversations are summarized as being- that the Middle East cannot be fixed during the Obama years in office, and not for a generation, so that it would be better to simply do nationbuilding in the U.S. He points to Trump's interview with the Washington Post about pursuing a similiar policy because the U.S. is much poorer today than it was in the past. Hiatt says the U.S. GDP per capita was $27,000 in 1945, $62,000 today. And who would have thought in 1953 as the Korean War wound down and Federal Republic of Germany under Adenauer was emerging, Japan recovering from the devastation of the war, that South Korea, Japan and Germany, would one day be America's strongest trading partners and prosperous democracies. It was not about nationbuilding but lending a hand when needed, and the countries having to lift themselves up by the bootstraps- yet during a severe crisis as in Greece, Berlin, Seoul, in the 1950's when the post war Europe and East Asian countries were being established and needed help, the U.S. offered the early security and economic support needed to allow nationbuilding to happen by people in these places pulling themselves up by the bootstraps over a subsequent longer period. Truman did not shrink from the challenge and set the groundwork for today's European Union, and for today's Japan and South Korea. ...

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A copy of the letter Mr. Trump sent to Mr. Erdogan of Turkey telling him " don't be a tough guy... don't be a fool," to invade the Kurdish zone in Syria. He says history will judge him, that he should "not let the world down." 

Turkey sent forces into the Kurdish zone even after the letter from Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump said that it was a bad idea getting involved in the Middle East that trillions of dollars had been wasted. He made exceptions for keeping the Straits of Hormuz open and flow of oil from a commercial standpoint in providing assistance to Saudi Arabia and Aramco, something the U.S. has done since FDR administration.

It also says Mr. Trump has worked hard to help Turkey. And admonishes Erdogan saying "I don't want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy- and I will."

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Delta Airlines is switching its frequent flyer program entirely to spending on its American Express Card. No miles for flights. Delta gets an astounding $7 billion from American Express from sales of miles, ancillary fees and brand fees. Its goal is $10 billion which would be what it made from tickets for flights in 2022. Delta's CEO says it may have gone too far with these changes which are unpopular with its flyer base except for the high end flyers who disliked crowded lounges. Were there other ways to tackle that problem? Delta appears to have shifted attention to a small fraction of its customers.

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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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U.S. imports exceeded exports by a record $914 billion in 2018, increasing from $859 billion in 2017, according to the Commerce Department. The trade deficit is now 16% larger than when Mr. Trump took office. President Trump's tax policies with large fiscal deficits acted as a large stimulus to imports. Companies imported more. 

The dollar strengthened as the U.S. fiscal stimulus came at a time when the rest of the world economy was slowing. As a result the U.S. imported more. 

The tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods had one benefit - it brought the Chinese to the negotiating table to cut imports. Yet the trade deficit has not narrowed as the president planned. 

 

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Where changes are being made that make America stronger business leaders wholeheartedly support and value the president's work and the people on his team working on it. Brad Smith of Microsoft says of Biden on cybersecurity "he has done more in his presidency than any president ever." CEO's of auto companies (Stellantis, GM, Ford) and Intel CEO Geisinger value the investment the government is making for climate change transition and investments in rebuilding semiconductor manufacturing to level the playing field with China, something the US Chamber of Commerce never advocated. It is the policy officer of the US Chamber of Commerce who uses the word "complicated" because the positions taken by the US Chamber of Commerce are at odds with what the American people need, or are demanding of the president. If one is talking about large oil companies, so called Tech companies such as Google and Apple that are not paying their fair share of taxes, and Pharma companies that are charging exorbitant prices, the president is only doing what is best for the American people. One could see this in the recent Senate hearings with Big Pharma companies ,when out of sheer frustration the senior Republican senator Mike Braun of Indiana warned the Pharma companies, that they were following a path that he other Republicans could no longer support. Banks faced tighter regulation because of banking crises including the 2009 crisis caused by the banks that hurt workers and middle class. Business relations with the Biden administration are being shaped then by a new vision for America and the American people, to point to a brighter future, not to pull back to the past. ...

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Zhou Xiaochuan, is head of the People's Bank of China since 2002. For a long time Zhou has tried to convince party leaders in China to make financial sector changes. The new leadership of Jinping-Li Keqiang has now adopted most of the road map and priorities drawn up by Xiaochuan. The first is bank deposit insurance, which would especially protect small depositors and provide a basis for new private banks to compete with large state owned banks, creating competition in the financial sector. By supporting creation of privately owned banks impetus could be given to loans to the private sector to rebalance the economy away from state owned banks and state owned enterprises. This is a key goal in the road map drawn up by the think tank Development Research Center (DRC) which has the backing of premier Li Keqiang. Competition from new private banks would let banks compete to offer higher rates to depositors, another goal. In a September article for the Communist Party Seeking Truth magazine, Zhou pointed out the pressing need for " supporting private capital to set up private banks and guide them to position themselves in serving small and micro companies." These new companies especially in tech and information technology fields can be the new drivers for growth in the future as the burst of infrastructure building generated growth slows down. The one area Zhou faces resistance is his idea of opening up China to foreign capital inflows and outflows. Here critics,including younger economists, say this protected China in the Asian financial markets crisis of 1997, and would protect China in the event it faces outflows of the type that are happening in India in 2013 after the U.S. Fed's plan to withdraw from its quantitative easing. Xiaochuan sees the flow of foreign capital as another way for capital to flow to new private companies and balance away from the state owned enterprises, and for China's savers to be able to obtain more attractive returns. Zhou says his plan would include the option for China to reintroduce capial controls in a crisis. As China's debt to GDP ratio is set on a trajectory to approach the levels reached in Japan before its banking crisis there is greater awareness from party leaders about the need for prudence. Xiaochuan has worked with party leader Jinping's key economic advisor Liu He for years, and has the support of He and Jinping for introducing deposit insurance as a top priority. President Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang see the need for Xiaochuan's experience and foresight "as a talent who can be counted on," as the sense of importance of changing the economic structure has deepened in 2013. Mandatory retirement for Xiaochuan at 65 was set aside to give him a third five year term, and his road map long ignored by former premier Wen Biao, is now at the top of China's agenda. ...

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The lack of reliable statistics and production information for China's steel industry. The World Steel Association says China's steel production went up by 7.5% in April 2011 over the prior year. In 2010 it says China produced 625 million metric tons. These figures are based on information from the China Iron and Steel Association, which represents 75% of steel producers in the country. Because much of the reporting is voluntary many smaller producers do not report their production figures. MEPS, a steel consulting firm in the U.K. , says there is extensive underreporting because of political pressure on inefficient mills to shut down. These mills continue to operate but fail to report production, as a result production may be understated by 45 million tons, according to MEPS. This becomes important because if the Chinese economy slows down much of the steel warehoused in China because of higher taxes on raw steel exports could end up being exported. Inventory levels are higher in China because of the taxes and the storing of steel by mills slated for closure but still operating. This would cause a drop in steel prices on world markets. Steel is different from other commodities in that it is not traded on the London Metals Exchange or other Exchanges. Sales are privately negotiated sales between steel mills and users such as auto plants....

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The Independence Hall Philadelphia, speech by Joe Biden was in retrospect a turning point in America from the chaotic politics of the last 5 years, following a decades long fracturing of the social fabric of America. That fracturing had many causes, all of which have been identified by president Biden and leaders in Congress such as Mr. Schumer and Senators Coon, Hickenlooper, and others, who are working nonstop on legislation and funding of America's new priorities. These are priorities of protecting working class families, building their savings, supporting education and healthcare for working class families, building back better America's crumbling infrastructure, tackling climate change, financing renewable energy, rebuilding America as a manufacturing leader for the world. It is because of this effort that candidates who support this effort prevailed in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona for Democrats to retain the Senate and be competitive in the House of Representatives. Only complacency led to unexpected losses in New York state for the House of Representatives leading to loss of the House by a small margin. This NYT report looks at what happened in 2022 and what this means for securing the country's key priorities to build hope for the future of America and of the free world.  ...

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It is important to remember that FDR and Harry Truman won in North Carolina by huge majorities, so did Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy, LBJ. In fact going back to Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916. Democrat Josh Stein, Attorney General elected in 2020 and Republican Mark Robinson, the Lt. Governor are very different candidates for governor in North Carolina. Rory Cooper, a Democrat, who won by 4 percentage points is not running after two terms as popular governor because of term limits.  Cooper's focus has been on education, ease of living, infrastructure and clean energy. North Carolina has one of the largest rural populations in the country with one in three being rural with new out of state residents settling in the suburbs. In recent years it has generally voted for a Democrat as governor and Republican for the legislature. Only in  elections since 1980 except in 2008 it has voted Republican for president. In 2024 it is expected to be a swing state. If elected Robinson would be the first black governor of North Carolina, Stein the first Jewish governor.   ...

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The results of the February 24, 2011, CBS/New York Times poll show strong support for public workers in schools, firefighters, police and other functions. On collective bargaining 60% opposes weakening the bargaining rights of public workers, only 33% support it. On reducing the benefits and pay of public workers to reduce deficits, 56% opposed cutting pay or benefits, only 37% support it. Are public workers overpaid or have overly generous health and pension benefits. On this issue 61% -including over half of Republicans- say the salaries of public workers were either "about right" or "too low" for the work they do. So how are states to reduce their deficits? The people polled say they prefer tax increases over benefit cuts for public employees- only 22% chose to reduce the benefits of public employees, 40% said they would increase taxes, 20% said they would cut financing for roads, only 3% said they would cut financing for education. How this breaks down in politcal groups. 71% of Democrats opposed weakening collective bargaining rights, the opposition was also strong from Independents with 62% of Independents opposing weakening of collective bargaining rights. Followup interviews showed independents saying the public workers work hard and still struggle to have a home, saving for retirement, and sending their kids to college, with both spouses generally having to work, which is why they oppose weakening collective bargaining rights. Which segment of the populations support cutting pay and benefits of public workers? The one income group that showed support for cutting pay and benefits- those earning over $100,000 a year! There 45% said they favored cutting pay and benefits, even here 49% opposed it. On the intentions of the governors and state legislators trying to cut pay or benefits of public workers- 45% said they did this to cut the deficits, and as many as 41% said the saw this as an effort to weaken unions. Which takes one to the last question, so how are unions perceived in the U.S. in 2011? A far smaller number of people, 37% saw unions as having "too much influence" on American life and politics vs. 48% who said that unions had the "right amount" or "too little" influence....

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Sempra Infrastructure is to build a new LNG terminal on the Gulf Coast in the US in early 2023. The first phase of the $10.5 billion Port Arthur LNG project in South Texas is underway. The project will add 13.5 million metric tons of LNG to world gas supplies and is the largest project for LNG approved in 2022. Germany's RWE, Polish and British companies have signed supply agreements with Sempra. 

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Allan Blinder gives a spirited account of what he sees in the Paul Ryan Republican deficit reduction plan. He says that with the voucher plan retirees would fall further and further behind the increasing cost of health insurance. With no explicit cost containment proposals it assumes that some kind of miracle will occur for costs to be kept in check- especially as Republicans want to repeal the cost containment proposals in the President's healthcare plan. He asks whether someone is saying, that we have to destroy Medicare so it can be saved. Ryan woulld also turn Medicaid into a block grant, then underfund it and let the states figure it out when they are in a budget squeeze. Blinder points to the estimates of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, that show about two-thirds of Ryan's budget cuts would come from programs that serve low and moderate income Americans. And to make matters worse the steep spending cuts go to finance tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy. He calls this Robin Hood operating in reverse, and coming on top of 30 plus years of rising inequality. David Stockman makes a similiar point on the editorial pages of the New York Times, April 24, 2011; also adding the point that the middle class will have to pay higher taxes for the deficit to be addressed, something President Obama's plan fails to do. Blinder says that the Bowles-Simpson and Rivlin -Domenici proposals attack the deficit reduction problem in a better way, that asks something from all classes and interests. ...

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U.S. senior Republican Senators Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona, are getting ready to launch a wide ranging probe of Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 presidential election through cyber attacks. The probe is not limited to DNC hacking and the concern is not just that any one candidate was targeted but for the integrity of the American election process. Even though it is not mentioned in this report in the Washington Post by Demirjian, Senators and Congressmen from the Republican Party in charge of key committees of oversight on foreign policy and defense now see it as their responsibility to prevent an enlargement of cyberattacks as Germany and France face elections. Mr. Trump has said in an interview with Time magazine that Russia was not responsible for cyber attacks, that it "could have been China, it could have been some guy in New Jersey." Senator McCain is readying a probe into cyber attacks into U.S. weapons systems, and U.S. military, as the issue widens in its scope and significance for the West and for the U.S. and its allies in Europe and Asia. Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (N.C.) will be working closely with McCain, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, on this particular issue and Senator Mitch McConnell has been apprised of the discussions, according to this report in WP. Senator Graham said- "They'll keep doing more here until they pay a price." Graham will hold a series of investigative hearings in 2017 about Russian meddling and "misadventures throughout the world."  This will include new legislation.  Graham told CNN on Dec. 7, 2016 in strong language- "I am going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. I think they are one of the most destabilizing influences on the world stage. I think they did interfere with our election, and I want Putin personally to pay the price." During the debates Governor Pence of Indiana, the Vice President elect took a strong position on Russia, and the Vice President's positions on foreign policy and defense are similar to that of the Republican leaders in Congress.  It is hard to remember a time in the post war period when there was such a distinct difference in foreign policy and defense as it relates to Russia between a Republican president and both a Republican Congress and almost all Republican governors. Senator Corker from Tennessee, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is on the short list to be Secretary of State. A related story in the WSJ shows the selection of military leaders for key intelligence, defense and homeland security, and Gen. Petraeus considered for foreign policy, as diverging from historical practice of keeping civilian oversight preeminent in the U.S.. Rep. Peter King, an early supporter of Trump, who is on committees for intelligence and counterterrorism told MSNBC, that he is confident that Trump will not be "taken in by Putin." The U.S. Republican dominated Congress has taken a strong position on Russian interference in Syria and Ukraine. In the House of Representatives Republican Rep. Devin Nunes from California and Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas are leading efforts on cyber and intelligence as heads of their committees. ...

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Apoorva Mandavilli of the NYT looks at the huge task of renovating the aging infrastructure of America's schools, like this one East High in Denver. The average school building in America is over 50 years old. Having clean air in the schools would have reduced the incidence of Covid by 50%, say studies. The General Accountability Office GAO says 41% of school districts in the US have at least half of their buildings, a total of 36,000 buildings, that need to completely replace their heating cooling and air ventilation systems. The money is there, secured by president Biden with $200 billion from programs like the American Rescue Plan, but much of it remains unspent because of a lack of clear administration guidance on clean air and an official to oversee this effort, and expert guidance, securing equipment in the supply chain.