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Mr. Trump has decisively changed the Republican party. Most Republicans support Mr. Trump personally, less the Republican party. Mr. Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, says of the Republican party before Trump that it had become a bit staid, that we looked like the banker next door who may foreclose on your house. Mr. Romney epitomized that in his view. Gone are the views on deficits, on wars, and on imports and transfer of technology to China as being acceptable.  Five years from 2015 when Mr. Trump came into prominence with his new style taking on the establishments of both parties with a fierce disdain for convention, both the Bushes and the Obamas and Clintons, the Republican party is completely transformed. Registered Republicans are now 60% non college educated in 2020 compared to 50% non college educated in 2016. The Trump policies on trade putting American workers first and America first have a resounding popularity with this audience- this should be no surprise after decades of job losses and factories shipped overseas under the previous administrations for 2 decades. Most of these workers are not college educated and are white and had enjoyed a good standard of living with a high school education in American factories till the shift of American manufacturing to China destroyed good paying jobs and impoverished the American working class.  Only 30% of college educated people are registered Republicans in 2020 compared to 40% in 2016. Overwhelmingly about 90% of registered Republicans are white.  They are majority male and older but there is a significant about 40% female and 40% young population under 40 years of age. This might resemble the party put together by Missouri Congressman Harry Truman as he led the Democratic Party in 1948 with a majority of non college educated Democrats, fighting for American workers and America first in the cold war with Russia. Truman also had a rough Missouri farm language and accent comparable to Mr. Trump's rough style and language disdainful of the old establishment and new tech establishment. Both were heavily disliked by the media and both did not let this bother them in any way. Both liked facing large crowds as Truman showed in campaigning by train across the country and Trump has shown in campaign rallies run in his own way. ...

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Americans Save Early and set aside for savings 10% of your pre-tax income, is the advice to ensure a safe and healthy savings retirement. This is absolutely critical. What the government can do is to ensure that incomes keep uo with inflation with fair wages in industry. It also can and should protect Americans from unexpected medical costs by ensuring that all Americans are covered by health care and for catastrophic situations. Then it is the task of Americans to build a culture of careful saving that their ancestors had and considered a essential part of virtue. For this to help build savings for retirement the government and the Federal Reserve together- as Biden and Powell have shown one with capital investments to build a strong economy and the other by protecting savings and cost of living action- must ensure that no financial crises take interest rates to zero or 1-2%. At interest rates of 5-6% for returns this helps build savings for retirement. For this to happen banks have to go back to their traditional work in the economy and no speculation risk, and Silicon Valley go back to inventing and not a culture of capturing capital allocation in capital markets and paying little in taxes. A new culture would put government in its right place to ensure that it plays a significant role in building manufacturing and science and technology in the US as president Biden has done through government investing in infrastructure and renewable energy, chips and science, and in education, healthcare.  ...

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With Putin now president and putting his support behind Rosneft CEO, Igor Sechin, and the idea of building Rosneft into a large state owned company that champion's Russian interests, the deal to buy BP's stake in the TNK-BP joint venture is more likely to succeed. Earlier efforts in mid 2011 for Rosneft to buy BP's stake stumbled, with president Medvedev pushing in the other direction for a smaller state control of industrial assets in Russia, and calling for political leaders like Mr. Sechin to give up corporate positions. It appears that Putin is now convinced that this is the right direction for Russia. Under the proposed agreement Rosneft would value BP's stake at $25 billion, half of this in cash and half in the form of Rosneft shares, making BP a part owner of Rosneft with 10-15% of Rosneft shares, and potentially a partner for future projects providing access to western technology. The 2011 deal valued this stake at $32 billion. For BP it provides a more reliable partner after its troubled relationship with the AAR group, the 50% owner of the BP-TNK venture, with no majority control for either partner and AAR's political influence leading to many conflicts....

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To make custom loan modifications of the type that became necessary overnight on a large scale requires resources, investment in people and technology. On top of this a bank makes about $500 a year on a $200,000 mortgage loan, and if the loan is delinquent the bank may already have lost $2500, say experts, so there is little incentive to do much about custom loan modification. As a result, they used what a former J.P. Morgan executive called "Burger King kids." Or the banks outsourced the operation, some to law firms like David Stern, which in turn used outsourcing firms in Guam or the Philippines. The result is a largely chaotic process according to former mortgage officers of banks, and clerical staff that did not know what they were doing. Now atttorneys general in all 50 states have stated that they will investigate foreclosure practices of banks. It all started with the lone effort of Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Denmark, Maine, in succesfully challenging one of these improperly conducted foreclosures. See the NYT article on Pine Tree. In that case it was about a mother with two children who had her payment go up to $474 after loan modification, who is on food stamps after losing her job as an employment counselor....

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This podcast in the WSJ takes up a Chinese startup Luckin Coffee that had major investors in the U.S. and China, including big banks in the U.S. and Europe.  The idea is simple- sell coffee in China to aspirational coffee drinkers following western lifestyles using mobile app. It is the story of huge investments and losses, and collapse of a NASDAQ listed company with what the WSJ investigation calls fabricated sales. Why are infrastructure and health, education products starved of capital left high and dry, while billions are poured into such investments with huge losses. All you need is this article in the WSJ of Sept 16, 2015, shown in today's articles. Showing forecasts of rapid growth of coffee consumption for an aspirational western lifestyle consumer in China, and a small mobile app investment to attract investors in a startup -if you refashion the coffee retail outlets as a tech company by selling coffee for delivery/takeout by mobile app. Luckin Coffee in China shown in the podcast in today's articles did this and attracted billions of dollars in investment from investors, including large banks and financial companies in Europe, U.S. and China, only to collapse in 2 years with losses and investigations in China and the U.S. Luckin Coffee soared after its NASDAQ stock exchange listing in 2018 only 1 year after its founding. WSJ calls it "brazen" the effort to add tech hype to a coffee company and have it listed on NASDAQ in just over a year, only to see its sales and value collapse just as quickly. $400 million in convertible bonds losing 90% of their value, the stock losing most of its value and NASDAQ delisting the stock after $311 million in fabricated sales were found as reported in the South China Morning Post. For U.S. investors the problem is that Chinese companies can list on the NASDAQ or other stock exchanges in the U.S., but U.S. investors cannot look at financial records of companies in China. Yet there are basic questions- why is it a tech company? Why are investors like big banks and other large financial investors pushing so much money into such places when there is so much that needs to be done in health and infrastructure investment, and real tech investment? 5G or 6G? Health systems? Ocean Grounds has a coffee store in Shanghai, Pacific Store has coffee retail outlets in China, and Starbucks is still in the business with retail outlets - remember none of these companies are tech companies. In 2017 Luckin Coffee started by making it look techy with a mobile app and refashioned itself as a tech company.  What is so big about a mobile app as there are hundreds of millions of apps. The rest came from making it look like Starbucks, right down to baristas, fancy coffee machines, and opening stores near Starbucks, according to the Podcast in the WSJ.The difference between Starbucks and Luckin Coffee - the price Luckin Coffee would sell for about $2 compared to about $4 for a Starbucks latte. Yet do this by pricing at closer to Starbucks and issuing promotions discounts constantly on the mobile app, that would bring the price to about $2. That is all it takes to make a tech company nowadays. No scientific research, no science and technology, no technical experience, nothing of the kind that led to the invention of the computer chip or the vaccines that are now being developed, or research activity of any sort. Banks, financial companies are willing to channel huge amounts of money into these places and lose it, as they did in We Work, and are doing at companies such as ride sharing app companies, as well as other app companies without any core technological component or value added such as infrastructure or health products. Only it is not the bank's money but the people's money and savings that are deposited at banks and channeled into investments. At the same time as investments in much needed infrastructure and health, education, services that really matter to us as a society, are neglected and starved of capital.     ...

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The story of a Russian startup company MeshNetics, that had a research project called Golden Box with a team of software programmers. It succumbed to the global financial crisis as it hit Russia and with it dreams of a new wireless technology that would help utilities keep track of energy conservation and other uses. No new investors could be found and the Russian investors cut the funding. Even western investors could not make the investments. Programmers like Bagrak, 27, from Berkeley, California, who worked at Google on an internship and came back to Russia to build its high tech sector. Luzhetsky, 26, from Obninsk, a city built by the Soviets for nuclear and military scientists, which fell into decay and poverty in the post soviet period, this was his first programming job after being educated in the Soviet Union. Mr Grinkug, 57, from a generation of the Soviet period that considered science a religion, he headed the 12 programmer team working on the Golden Box project. The project three ers in the making was expected to release in early 2010. Suvorov who headed MesNetics, who saw his work as part of the move by President Medvedev who came into power in the spring of 2008 to take Russia away from dependence on oil, with investment of $5 billion in a state corporation for nanotechnology. Anatoly Karachinsky, President of the Russian internet technology company IBS Group, who spun off MeshNetics using the brightest talent from his software development team and financed it with his venture fund Oradell Capital. First the optimism in the face of difficulty in the fall of 2008, as the global crisis began to hit Russia, then in October the message to Suvorov that he had to look for a new investor. Then the cuts, first 10% of jobs gone, nine days late a dozen more fired, then the shutdown phase. One person fired after coffee with Suvurov, as things moved quickly. Alexei Rybakov, director of the division that makes the ZigBit, calls 50 investors aday, makiung every kind of pitch, practical, global, patriotic. Grinkug packs up his things, 40 years of codes fit into a few CD's , a few programmers are retained if things change, but for Grinkug the Golden Project he says, will probably die in his head. Its mind boggling how mistakes and unethical behaviour in the banking systems in the west can wash ashore in emerging countries like Russia, and wash away what little stability to build anew life has been achieved in a few years after the 1998 collapse of the ruble and the Russian economy. Its also a contrast between the dreams, hopes and aspirations and the innocence of ordinary young Russian tech engineers and the swings of reality that surround them, of poverty and collapse in early post soviet Russia, then optimism , and now a new kind of reality trying to salvage what has been achieved, and the difficulties in forging a new future that goes beyond 120 million people collecting around a oil wellhead....

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US president Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan is being compared to the New Deal infrastructure plans of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930's. FDR was preceded by Republican administrations under Hoover and other presidents who followed policies that can be compared to the Reagan administration policies when public sector spending was not seen to be as efficient as private sector spending. By the time of the economic collapse in the 1930's it had become clear that only the federal government could save the country in the depression. During the pandemic and collapse of the health systems it was clear that only the federal government could save the country. It is now also evident that infrastructure building led by the government can rebuild America. In the 1930's and during other periods in American history such as the building of the Erie Canal and other public sector infrastructure projects in the 19th century it was the federal government that led the way to building America. ...

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Speaking at a banking conference, advisors including the head of Russia's largest retail bank Sberbank, German Gref, minister of the economy, Aleksei Ulyukayev, and head of the central bank , Elvira Nabiullina, express deep concern about the economic prospects in 2015. Foreign investment is down from about $90 billion in the 1st quarter of 2013 to a negligible amount in the 3rd quarter of 2014. Capital outflows following the Ukraine crisis are estimated at about $110 billion by former finance minister Alexsei Kudrin. The ruble dropped to its lowest level against the dollar since the 1990's. And the sharp decline in oil prices with Brent crude at about $90 is another risk factor as 50% of the budget comes from oil and gas revenues and 60% of exports are still oil and gas, with no serious or effective effort to diversify under the Putin adminstration. Putin told the banking conference that a deficit free budget and reserves of $460 billion are "fundamental factors supporting stability." Advisors and leading bankers remain unconvinced. The problem is that even at the beginning of 2014 before the Ukraine crisis foreign investment had slowed to a trickle, similiar to what India experienced in 2013. The central bank head says her effort to open up the bond markets in Russia to foreign investors is now in vain because there are few foreign investors. Instead of reversing the situation as is happening in India with the new Modi administration, policy under Putin and the Ukraine conflict may have scared investors away with the increasing western sanctions and stagflation (estimated 8% inflation and about 0.5% growth in 2014). The head of Sberbank Mr. Gref told the banking conference- "The Soviet Union broke apart because of the mind boggling incompetence of the Soviet leadership. They did not respect the laws of economic development." The problem with sovereign reserves is that it can protect a sovereign currency such the Russian ruble or the Brazilian cruzeiro to some extent, but today's vibrant economies need foreign investment and foreign technology for growth. Even a country such as China with a trillion dollars in reserves needs the reserves in its special case because of its billion plus aging population, and is no exception to these laws of economic development about the need for foreign technology and foreign investment. ...

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Petrobras and the discovery 200 miles offfshore of the Tupi field with estimated reserves of 5-8 billion barrels of light crude oil. As Brazil is self sufficient in energy with its own ethanol industry helping substitute ethanol for oil at the pump, it can become a major exporter with this find. However even with Petrobras technology and expertise in offshore drilling its a challenge as the oil is 4.5 miles below the oceans surface, and involves drilling through 7000 feet of water and 17000 feet of sand rock and massive salt layer. Cost could approach $20 billion according to analysts with current inflation in oil drilling rig costs. It involves challenges like building floating liquefied natural gas plants. Gabrielli, the Petrobras CEO thinks Petrobras has the expertise to develop it on its own. If oil majors are given the chance to join in the development the investment terms will be ones that favor Brazil. Gabrielli pointed this out saying that Brazil had already incurred most of the risk in exploration offshore so the oil majors have far less risk and Brazil should invite them only on its own terms if needed. The Tupi field puts Brazil ahead of Canada in oil reserves and in the leagues of China and Nigeria, with new Brazilian reserves at 17.2 billion from the 12.2 billion barrels currently. Brazil has invested in refineries with 2 new refineries coming up in 2010 and 2014 to increase refining capacity by 40%. It is also investing to convert heavy crude oil into diesel and $8.6 billion to reduce sulfur at 11 refineries. The Tupi field will take about 7 years to develop. Similiarly the Kashgan field in the Caspian in Kazakhstan is also in difficult in this case icy and gases filled environment that will take years for a Eni led consortium to develop. When oil does come will the demand situation have changed with new conservation taking hold in the developed world and the cars in developing countries more like the Tata Nano at 54 miles per gallon consuming less gasoline? Even with increase in energy needs of developing countries, improved efficiency and new technology for conservation brought into developing countries could if not significantly reduce, at least moderate demand. To the point where prices drop from $100 a barrel to something more affordable to developing countries....

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Contrast the slow US vaccine export response with that of India, Russia, EU and China. Only in May 2021 after India's daily Covid cases were close to 400,000 a day did the US make a serious offer of vaccines to other countries in need of assistance. U.S. president Biden says that 80 million vaccine doses would be exported by the end of June 2021. The WSJ says citing Airfinity, a London research firm, as of May 10 more than 333 million doses of vaccine were produced by the US and only 3 million vaccine doses were exported. Contrast that with the European Union which has shipped 111 million doses overseas one third of its total production, Russia which has exported 27 million doses.  India has exported 66 million doses according to the Ministry of External Affairs website as of May 17, 2021. This includes 4 million doses to Brazil, 4 million to Nigeria. Within its own region Bangladesh received 10 million and Sri Lanka 1.2 million doses, Afghanistan 1 million. Mexico received about 1 million doses. In Africa the Democratic Republic of the Congo which has suffered from many epidemics including Ebola virus received 1.7 million doses, Nigeria 4 million doses, Kenya 1 million, Uganda 1 million. Of the 66 million about half of it is a direct grant assistance and Brazil, Mexico, Morocco received all vaccine as grant assistance, 70% of Bangladesh's is grant assistance. The list on the Ministry of External Affairs site of the Government of India shows 95 countries including many of the most struggling nations of Latin America and Africa, bringing hope to countries which are struggling to hold onto hope for a better life beyond the pandemic. Sending help overseas through vaccine supplies is suspended for the moment but will resume in July after India has pulled in all of its pharmaceutical manufacturing industry under a government guided effort to go all out. Never has so much help bringing much needed hope gone to so many countries of the world in the twentieth or twenty first century from a nation that is struggling to meet its own needs. The US in pursuing a US first policy of vaccinating all its citizens has not taken into account the need to bring this evolving vaccine technology into the hands of as many qualified pharmaceutical manufacturers as possible. This in a rapid response to expand manufacturing capabilities to meet world wide demand. The risks of not doing so were not taken on early- the very same way the virus spread in January to March of 2020 can be repeated as people travel around the world particularly for tourism, business family reasons. This risk takes on anew dimension of contagious mutations of the virus which are 50% more- the Indian variant being 50% more contagious by some estimates than the UK variant, which itself was estimated to be 50% more contagious than the original one.  The result a pandemic that stretches out indefinitely unless billions of doses are made in a short timetable to beat the timetable of Nature through the coronavirus. India is doing this for the first time with plans to produce billions of doses by engaging the whole of the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in the effort in a rapid response so that July to December would see 1.2 billion people vaccinated. The US effort, the European effort is left to the individual effort of pharmaceutical makers in the US and Europe, not a government guided effort to engage the entire pharmaceutical industry of the US and Europe in a rapid response timetable of 2-6 months.  ...

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Pressed by tariffs from DJT China is trying to become technologically sufficient, yet this comes at a considerable cost, says this report in WSJ. Made in China 2025 was put out in 2014 when president Xi was beginning his plans for the Chinese economy. It is 2025 now and a look at the nation's investment plans show China putting $250 billion a year in advanced manufacturing sectors from automobiles to solar panels and AI, says Centre for Strategic and International Studies CSIS in Washington. This is giving China an edge but at the cost of using up valuable resources and some wasted spending at a time of stagnant government revenues. China's new production needs new markets with overcapacity such as in the electric automobile industry. This overcapacity comes at a cost when the US and other countries are restricting imports from China with new trade policies. During the DJT first term in 2016 China pulled back reference to make in China 2025 but this was temporary and China's 2021 Economic Plan puts top priority to be self sufficient in Science and Technology. Industrial support for EV's went from $15 billion in 2019 to $45 billion in 2023 (CSIS). 48% of 11 million new vehicles were EV's in 2024 with BYD and Geely the main ones of 100 brands. In shipbuilding $132 billion was invested in 2010-2018 taking China from 5% in 1999 to 48% of total manufacturing of shipbuilding in 2025 worldwide. The same is true for manufacturing aircraft and chemicals. ...

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Socialist Party in Spain increases its share of the vote to 29%, and emerges as the largest party to form a government with the socialist leaning Podemos party in 2019 elections. It does this by returning to its labour base and working class roots. It pitches a platform of worker's rights, higher taxes on wealthy, environmental roots, issues important to its social democratic roots. The WSJ cites a 57 year old employee of Spain's health service Antonio Benitez, living in Andalusia who says people have a hard time making ends meet, and its about time socialist parties speak of the main pillars of being socialist, without all the deviations to the centre. As free market thinking entered the mindset of leaders in the UK such as Tony Blair and Gerhard Scroder in Germany, Clinton in the U.S., the shift began towards economic efficiency in the tradeoff with equality and social justice. This was aggravated by the effects of international trade and technology in worsening income disparities and unsettling communities in traditional manufacturing. This trend is now being reversed as Socialist parties or Labour allied parties in the UK, Spain,and increasingly in the U.S., take a new position different from the past. A political scientist at the Free University of Amsterdam says its like these parties got hit on the head and now decided to go back to core values around equality, reducing disparities, social justice and the environment. Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party in Britain increased Labour's vote in the 2017 elections to 40% up from 30% in 2015. Italy's Socialists won 41% of the vote in 2014 European elections, moved to the centrist positions that made firing workers easier, pension overhauls raising retirement age, leading to losing half its support with 21% ahead of European elections in 2019. Pedro Sanchez of Spain raised the minimum wage by 22% before winning the 2019 elections compared to his predecessor Socialist premier Zapatero who is reported to have said "cutting taxes is left wing." Now workers rights and higher taxes on corporation are on the agenda.  ...

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The head of the Liberal-National coalition wins the election in Australia coming from behind because of inflighting in his coalition. Australia had 5 prime ministers in 6 years because of differences within the Liberal party.  Mr. Morrison's coalition was leading or won in 74 seats with 75% of votes counted, and headed for a 76 vote majority. Morrison campaigned alone on economic issues while the opposition Labour party led by Mr. Shorten, a trade union leader campaigned on climate change and better relations with China. ScoMo kade this election about the economic choice for Australians and who they could trust for jobs and the future. Morrison had just replaced Malcolm Turnbull only 9 months ago. Mr. Morrison planned to continue with the close relations with the U.S. as it confronts China on trade and technology issues. Mr. Shorten would have diverged from the U.S. on these issues, even though Australia has already turned down Huawei 5G on its telecom networks. With so much infighting in both parties, no prime minister has served a full term in Australia since 2007. Every 3 years Australia has an election. Voting is mandatory with a A$20 fine for not voting resulting in 95% of 16.3 million voters voting this time, compared to 55% in the U.S. and 69% in UK for their last elections. ...

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The U.S. perception that the shadows from the period of non-alignment in the Nehru era still linger in Indian policy, a sort of ambivalence that has denied India's true potential as an alliance partner for the free world. A perception in the U.S. that has not seen the true potential of the largest population in the world of 1.5 billion people in India and Bangladesh has also colored perception of the relationship. This population is now at a point at which a broad based development is not only possible (sab ka vikas sab ke sath) but also moving at an accelerated pace. With a combination of cumulatively increasing inputs of technology, capital, land and educated labor force this is now at the potential of becoming a very doable world changing event by 2035- a $20 trillion economy by doubling every 5 years based on renewable energy and dedicated to health, education and development. What makes this a world changing event is the opportunity to meet the aspirations of about 2 billion people in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and surrounding nations, offering new hope for Africa and Latin America. For this the U.S. commitment cannot have any traces of ambivalence, and the Indian commitment cannot have any traces of ambivalence. India needs one more change in its perceptions - to realize that for the first time in its history that this is within its reach. ...

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By July 2011, when Solar Frontier KK's new solar panel factory is in full scale production, it will become the world's largest plant for photovoltaic cells. The parent company is Showa Shell Sekiyu KK, a Japanese oil refiner. The $1.25 billion solar-panel factory in Miyazaki prefecture is expected to open in a few months. The annual output will be 900 megawatts of photovoltaic cells. For Showa Shell the move makes sense as oil demand is declining in Japan, given a shift to cleaner burning natural gas for power generation, and adoption of hybrid cars. Showa plans to cut its oil refining capacity by 20% in 2011. And the solar business will account for 50% of the company earnings by 2014. Mr Kameda, head of the Showa Shell solar business, says his company is focussing on the market segment that is growing fast- thin-film CIS cells, made from copper, indium and selenium. These cells cost less to make and to buy, than thicker silicon based crystalline cells. The thin-film have a potential for increasing efficiency and reducing cost because they are relatively new. Showa's technology converts about 13% of sunlight into energy. Showa is also working with partners. It plans to supply panels to GE's solar energy projects, and is working with IBM to develop next-generation solar-cell material that is based on readily available materials....

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Biden is a US president in a hurry, says this analysis in The Times. And it says this is for a good reason. Biden as vice president in the Obama administration has watched as time slipped by and much of the hopes remained unfulfilled for infrastructure and other plans including climate change. Biden also has long experience in Congress and long experience working with Congressional rules. He also understands that the Democratic majority may not last beyond 2 years, better to go all out now and lose no time. This is the thinking behind his plan for $2 trillion in infrastructure spending in the first 100 days of his administration, and the idea that he does not need to win Republican support by watering down his plan.

The American people now support this kind of bold vision and bold plan after the pandemic showed the weak nature of presidential plans and aspirations till now for three decades.

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Following concerns about cybersecurity China is pursuing the development of its own chipmaking capacity. Tsinghua Ungroup has the support of Chinese officials. It emerged as China's largest chipmaker with the acqusition of two large mobile chip firms in China- Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics in 2013. Intel took a 20% stake in Tsinghua Unigroup for $1.5 billion as a way to enter the market serving the low end smartphone market with chips. Taiwan's Mediatek Inc. is its largest competitor. China's technology in mobile chips is still 2-3 years behind the latest technology, according to research firm Canalys, and serves mostly the low end smartphone market for emerging markets.Tsinghua Unigroup CEO, Zhao Weiguo, says that by investing in the long term like Huawei, his firm can catchup with larger companies in the field. China plans to use its chip fund to invest $1.6 billion in the company over the next 5 years. The company was started in 1988 at elite Tsinghua University, is still controlled by a university holding company, and has close ties with the government through its alumni network. Xi Jinping and other leaders graduated from the university. It is considering an acquisition of HP's H3C. H3C is a joint venture of 3Com and Huawei supplying corporate data networking gear in China, now part of HP. Tsinghua Unigroup is in its early stage of development as its estimated sales of $1.8 billion for 2015, make up a small part of the $340 billion global chip market, according to Gartner Research....

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China sees a principal peacemaker role for Ukraine peace settlement with its economic benefits in US/EU trade as foreign policy. NYT's David Sanger reports from the G-7 meetings in Italy in June 2024. He says the G7 sentiment is changing about China in the last few months of 2024 compared to 2023. In 2023 China was seen as a nation that had more in common with the US than Russia considering historical differences between the two nations. As the US veered round to the view China's indirect economic support and its technology was helping Russia in escalating attacks on Kharkiv and the border regions of Ukraine, Europeans were skeptical. No longer, the Europeans now see China's relationship with Russia in the same way. Another change observed is that China is not pursuing a peace settlement participation to end the war by not joining a Swiss effort. Instead says Sanger China is seen as wanting to wait so that at some future date it would be the principal actor in bringing all parties to a peace settlement for Ukraine. With Ukraine facing escalating attacks in the Kharkiv region the mood has changed and China is now seen differently from just a year back. This as shown in the adjoining article in NYT on student exchange for US and China and China's view that racism exists towards Chinese students in the US is affecting the effort for closer understanding between the people's of the two nations sought by the two nations since 1972, and in the interwar period with Gen. Joe Stilwell fighting the Imperial Japanese Army alongside the Chinese people. ...

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Bernie Sanders is reelected Senator from Vermont, as one of the oldest and most senior members of the US Congress in history. He will be 89 at the end of his fourth term in the US Senate. At 83 years he is the most resilient and active Senator in the US. Bernie Sanders support was key for president Biden's election in 2020. “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders said. “First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right. “Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago. “Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a bad situation even worse. “Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee healthcare to all as a human right and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.” ...

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Tesla with a tiny falling market share of 6% in China is being outmaneuverd in China even as it gains benefits for the company and for CEO Elon Musk. It fails to make Tesla competitive in world markets ceding leadership to China.  Tesla gets 68% of 2023 profits of $10 billion from China operations. China operations of Tesla produced 947,000 electric cars 53% of its total with China sales at 600,000. Tesla was able to complete the large factory near Shanghai, the largest of its 7 plants, in record time with assistance from China's government. Elon Musk knows premier Li Qiang of China a Shanghai Communist party official which facilitated the building the Chinese plant, lower 15% tax rate instead of 25% till 2023. This 2023 1 million car production is actually not giving Tesla a foothold in the Chinese market, as Tesla's market share is falling from 7.8% to 6% of the market. What it has given China's local companies such as BYD is a world level competitor for China's local companies to compete with, learn from as China develops its own world class electric manufacturing capabilities. BYD has its own unique battery technology and is making the batteries in house. Local companies dominate a very competitive landscape in which there is very little room for error, with companies consolidating. This suggests that Tesla may be an insignificant competitor in China in the future even as it has enhanced its profitability as a company in its domestic American market with its China operation.   ...

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An example of the kind of information spread even in BBC and American media about US inability to make the most advanced chips because TSMC founders have decades of experience. In fact TSMC founder Morris Chang acquired his experience in chips in the US. The decades of TSMC experience are merely since the late1990's. The US was the only country making these chips when China was mostly an agricultural economy in the 1990's. It is only because of hidden subsidies and bad economic theory, that US let the chip technology be outshored. As soon as the people of America make the decision, bad economic theory will be discarded, and US will support its own chip manufacturing under bipartisan support in Congress and the White House, with the full support and funding of the American government.  The US can get things done once it makes up it's mind as the whole Nation. Advanced chips will happen very quickly in the US with the process already under way and supported by the whole Nation. People forget that bigger than chips, bigger than technologies of today, the Industrial Revolution of the 20th century began under Frances Perkins and Franklin Roosevelt in New York during FDR's term as Governor as New York State. It was at that time that New York state  was setup as the model of industry and labor, with new institutions and industrial landscape engineered by FDR and Perkins. This was transferred to 50 states during the 1930-1950 period- this is the industrial structure and economic structure that brought the Second Industrial Revolution in the 20th century to the world. Taiwan did not exist till 1950's emerging from Japanese rule, China from Japanese occupation till 1945, not emerging till 1990. ...

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The German government has taken notice of hate speech on social media and social bots. The Justice Ministry convened a task force on hate speech on internet. Justice Minister Heiko Maas promised legal action against social media like facebook and twitter if it violated laws of libel and inciting to violence. Chancellor Merkel is bringing in a data science expert Professor Simon Hegelich of the Technical University of Berlin for consultations in Dec. 2016. Only AfD of the main parties, with its anti-immigration stance, has not come out in favor of not using social bots or paid trolls in the 2017 elections. Hegelich in talk with DW.com says it is hard to legislate on this because the whole phenomenon has not been fully understood. Article 5 of the Constitution provides for free speech. Hegelich also says the state of technology moves faster than legislation, and being international sites like facebook, twitter and others pose additional issues. He does not say laws cannot be helpful but that its not clear how best to do this. Thomas Jarzombek is a CDU member of parliament and digital media expert. He says social bots are more likely controlled by foreign countries, and fake news sites are more of a domestic problem. Making this worse is the incentive for unemployed journalists to do blogging of the crude and aggressive type to make more money. Jarzombek sees the need for the press to do more in its role for the democratic process to function properly, by functioning in the role of "enlightenment" and "awareness."  Jenna Behrends, a law student and CDU local politician for Berlin-Mitte, says it is necessary for good bots to be used to fight bad bots, in an article in Der Spiegel. Major mainstream media would then have to launch social bots themselves to fulfill their role of providing the public with correct and fair information free of excessive bias and distortion of the bad bots. One example of this is shown explicitly here of German chancellor Merkel's picture with the words " Guilty of betraying the people," with links to "Drain the swamp," and "Brexit." A more complex question is one of how to let people vent out frustration about the mainstream media itself being biased in favor of the established views and not doing enough or giving enough space to reflect alternative views, so that these can be debated without inflammatory language and deliberate distortion. A whole range of tools and modifications of behaviour may be necessary ahead of next years elections in France and Germany, now that the phenomenon is better understood following a vote in the Anglo-Saxon countries.   ...

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Brian Dunn will be new CEO of Best Buy. He worked for 24 years in Best Buy most of them in Best Buy sales and in stores. He believes in Best Buy's blue shirted sales employees, who help custoners navigate difficult technology. He sees them as asingular advatage in the electronics struggle for market share with Walmart, and in keeping customers. His idea is to turn Best Buy shopping into a series of experiences, and using innovative practices of store employees. Best Buy stores sales fell 6.5% in December and 4th quarter estimates are for sales decline of 5-15%, with anlysts estimates of a 20% decline in earnings per share.