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Increase in hardship withdrawals from Vanguard 401(k)s in the US from 2.1% in 2021 to 2.8% in 2022 shows stress in household finances by Feb 2023.

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Pidcock, mountain biking gold, says the biggest thing is to inspire people that's what he loves to do. It is bigger than cycling. Cut off from the rest of the cyclists after a 40 second puncture and being slow to change wheels, Tom Pidcock of England, faced huge odds. At first he wasn't getting any closer, he wasn't making any inroads. He had made too many mistakes he realized. He was suffering and fighting to make a comeback. Only with 3 laps left did things change when he cut 15 seconds off the gap in one lap. At that point Pidcock knew he could come up front. He chose to go for it and found a gap which he took. He was competing with Frenchman Koretsky and the French cheered him on. Pidcock prevailed. He had done this on one of the rides (Stages) in the Tour de France descending down the Alps. Inspiring young people goes beyond cycling. ...

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The median net worth of Hispanic and Black families has been severely affected by the recession. Because minorities hold a much larger part of their assets in household equity the foreclosure crisis and the recession have had a devastaing impact on both minority groups. The median net worth of Hispanic families dropped by two thirds and black families by half after the 2008 recession from the 2005 figures, and was around $6000 for 2009 for both groups, according to data from the Pew Research Center. The Pew report shows median net worth of a white family is 20 times that of a black family, and 18 times that of a Hispanic family, with the gap between these minorities and whites twice as large in 2009 compared to the period before the recession in 2005. This was even true for Asian American families, whose median net worth dropped by half from 2005 to 2009, to $78,000. The figure for whites dropped much less from $135,000 to $113,000 during the same period. Another significant finding is that within each group the share of the wealthiest 10% of the people increased between 2005 and 2009, for all households this went up from 49% to 56%, for Hispanics from 56% to 72%, for Blacks from 59% to 67%....

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A report released by the Manhattan Institute says Mayor De Blasio of New York who promised huge changes to end "the tale of two cities" in New York has failed to reduced glaring inequality in the city. The Ginni coefficient which measures the level of inequality went up slightly instead of going down under De Blasio. It went from 0.54 in 2013 to 0.55 in 2017.

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Iraq is Iran's most promising market for gas exports. Iraq needs the gas for its power stations now that Islamic State has been decisively cleared from Iraq. Yet Iraq is having difficulty making payments to Iran for gas supplies because banks are not ready to handle the payments with the reimposed tighter U.S. sanctions and restrictions. The deputy head of media at the Electricity ministry in Iraq, Sadoun Shehan, told WSJ that transfer of money by Iraqi banks is prevented because of U.S. sanctions. U.S. sanctions were reimposed by the Trump administration after they were lifted in January 2016. The new sanctions prohibit gas exports from Iran. Iran had hoped to make the sales and also export to the European Union when sanctions were lifted. Iranian exports of gas that started in 2017 were itself delayed for 4 years by the war from Islamic State.  Iran has the second largest reserves of natural gas in the world. The Trump administration's sanctions have led to a drop of Iranian crude shipments by 29% in 3 months and added to upward pressure on oil prices to take prices to $80 a barrel. This issue has implications for India and China, particularly India as it faces both higher prices for oil and the tight restrictions in purchase of Iranian oil. ...

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Mr. Newsom's win by a large margin in California's Governor recall election suggests a new approach might work for Democrats in pushing back on Republican challenges. This is to focus on the Covid 19 efforts of government and make Mr. Trump the issue to generate enthusiasm among Democrats. US president Biden says the Newsom victory is a result of voters supporting the approach taken by Democrats for response to the pandemic: "strong vaccine requirements, strong steps to reopen schools safely, and strong plans to distribute real medicines." The California governor recall election results are that 64% voted for Mr. Newsom, more than the 62% who first elected him governor, and close to the 63% who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 US presidential election. Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one in California yet the results showed this new approach might work for Democrats- working at the grassroots level to build support and energize its voter base, and to follow its own action based approach to Covid 19. ...

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The U.S. Federal Reserve, America's central bank, is staying away from riskier investments, junk bonds, leveraged loans, non government backed mortgage bonds, as it intervenes to support U.S. capital markets. On March 23 the Fed said it would launch facilities to buy not just Treasurys but also corporate bonds carrying investment grade ratings. Companies from Nike to Pfizer were able to issue $177 billion of invesrment grade bonds, according to Dealogic. As a result the corporate bond market is stabilizing. The Fed is not supposed to take credit risk, and just as the government intervention with aid to business has focused on keeping down unemployment, the Fed focus is on helping the parts of the market that are not leveraged, to help companies that were doing fine before the pandemic hit. As the president says repeatedly this pandemic was not their fault.

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David Reilly points to the growth rates used by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office as too optimistic in the light of recent figures from the Commerce Department that show growth was only 0.8% for the first half. The CBO deficit reduction projections are based on a 3.1% U.S. growth rate for 2011 and 2.8% in 2012. This means the $1 trillion in initial spending cuts under the August 2 Debt Ceiling and Deficit Deal are likely to have a negligible impact on U.S. deficit reduction. Bank of America's revised forecast is for 1.7% U.S. growth for 2011 and 2.3% for 2012. The Office of Managemet and Budget estimates that a one percentage point drop in growth in the forecast for 2011 can lead to a $750 billion increase in cumulative deficits over 10 years. Former Treasury Secretary Summers also points this out in his op-ed piece in the Washington Post, August 2, 2011.

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International Energy Agency estimates show the U.S. surpassing Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer by 2020 because of the boom in shale oil production. The estimates are for 11.1 million barrels a day from the U.S. in 2020.