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Brown makes a stirring appeal to the British public and to members of his own party promising to take Britons through the difficult economic circumstances they face at a Lobor party gathering in Manchester, England. 11 years of Labor governments is leaving the British people with fatigue with Labor administrations and gives Conservatives high poll ratings but Brown as persevered amid all the rumors about challenges to his leadership and skeptical public. He has handled economic affairs for Labor for a long time and brings considerable experience at a time of economic crisis for Britain, and he will need to show the kind of leadership Britain needs in the present crisis.

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Melina Mara and Joseph Real offer this portrait in The Washington Post of a couple on a family farm in rural northeast Iowa. This Deepread in the Washington Post shows Verna Orvis and her husband Jack navigate these difficult times, the extended family, rural small farm town happenings, and the politics in rural Iowa. Verna tries to stay anchored in her lifelong instincts that supported generations of women growing up in this heartland of America. This is Lawler population 400 in northeast Iowa.

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A further drop in the value of the ruble would increase the cost of servicing the $500 billion in foreign debt. Fitch downgraded Russia's credit rating to BBB, the main concern being the drop in foreign exchange reserves, down by $210 billion to $390 billion in 6 months. Forward rates on the ruble imply a further depreciation of 20% in 12 months. Russia last week abandoned its committment to stick to the 2009 budget. After the first $29 billion bailout for banks another $40 billion has been assigned for the banks. All this has shown clearly that for Russia the job of reforming the economy, of changing its dependence on oil and commodities, and shifting to manufacturing and high tech industries has hardly begun. As a writer at the Financial Times put it in a CSPAN talk show, Russia is like 120 million people gathered around a oil wellhead. Or as another writer puts it, it remains a dangerously leveraged bet on the oil price. This has ominous implications for Russia, and serious social implications in terms of unemployment, social unrest, and a crisis of expectations, as for the second time in the lives of this generation hopes are raised only to be disappointed....

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Most of the reporting on Ukraine follows the war. Questions are asked how will this conflict end? This report in Der Spiegel is one of the rare reports that looks at the Ukrainian economy with images and reporting from the ground that answer that question. If the Ukrainian economy is surviving in 2023 then Ukraine will continue long after a peace settlement is reached. It shows for instance that supermarket shelves are well stocked. It shows energy from half a million generators keeps the lights on and companies working in Ukraine. The steel industry is mostly destroyed yet the software industry continues to grow. Unemployment is 30% even after hundreds of thousands of younger Ukrainians are at the war front. Of about $62 billion promised by US and European countries about $31 billion has actually been transferred to Ukraine. The IMF has created an exception for aid to Ukraine with offices in Kviv and Brussels. All defense needs are covered from the Ukraine budget. Before the invasion in Feb 2021 defense took up 9% of the budget, now it takes up 42% of the budget. Another 16% for public security. For social benefits 16%, and another 26% for other expenditures. By having an economy that is functioning and life even in light from generators and solar energy, with supermarkets well stocked and providing office space for workers, with aid mechanisms working. Ukraine has already emerged as part of Europe, tried, tested and come through adversity of the worst sort. It is supposed to join the European Union, yet Der Spiegel says it is already tightly integrated into the EU. Its power grid was integrated with the EU power grid before the war, and nuclear power was sent to the EU from Ukraine before Russian attacks on the nuclear plant. Then transmission lines brought energy to Ukraine from the EU. The EU takes in 80% of Ukraine agricultural exports compared to 20% before the war. Even at the risk of lower prices and hurting farmers in Poland, the Polish government has allowed large imports of agricultural products into Poland. The close links with countries of the EU that share a border with Russia have increased. The problems now are that Ukraine after this war will have severe shortage of manpower. Already with the fall of the Soviet Union Ukraine lost about 8 million people and population was 44 million before the war. About 8 million people moved to Ukraine in the one year following Russian invasion. Of this 1.5 million stayed in Poland, the rest went on to other countries in the EU or returned. The countries such as Germany, Finland, Czech Republic have labor shortages of their own and encourage refugees to stay. Rebuilding is estimated to cost $131 billion. Yet as is evident in Poland after most of the damage from the second world war in Poland it was rebuilt using modern technology. Ukraine survives, its life goes on, is the message from Der Spiegel. In this way the war's outcome is already evident. Much of it comes from the European Union having sensed that attacks made with impunity would endanger all of the European countries when made by any dominant power. This is also what Cambridge historian Brendan Simms has shown about European history for the past 500 years in History of Europe- The struggle for Supremacy 1452 to the present. No one country says Simms was able to act with impunity and pose athreat to its neighbors as all other countries in Europe rallied to prevent this. This war is no exception.   ...

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The efforts in Alsace on the border between Germay and France to make the European experiment work with two systems, cultural experiences and lifestyles. This happens at a time of high unemployment in French Alsace and many job openings in German Alsace for German speaking people of Alsace. The debate in France is underway on what things need to change for the French system to work taking into account cultures and different national experience. A keen awareness on both sides of the border- in German Emmendingen and French Selestat- that the European experiment works best when people on both sides of the border do well. It is also a microcosm of the debate underway in the larger European society with different cultures in Northern and Southern European countries, with a focus on improving competitiveness while respecting and not denigrating cultural differences. After reunification Germany faced high unemployment and the costs of unification, and made changes in the economy, with close cooperation between business, universities and the government. It is often forgotten that Germany's low unemployment took years to achieve. A similiar process is in its early stages in France....

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House prices have risen 40% in Israel in the last 3 years. Rents are increasing rapidly at the same time. Protests in Tel Aviv and other cities about the cost of living.

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In some countries such as Tanzania and Chad the vaccination drives have not even begun says this report in the DW.com. A new surge now underway in Africa as cases increase by 30% in June comes at abad time with African vaccination drives stalled. Only 31 million doses adminstered in Africa for a population of 1 billion people. Less than 1% of world vaccine supplies are going to poor countries in Africa and Latin America.

Vaccine companies chose to sell their vaccines to the highest bidders, putting Covax  behind. Aims of Covax are also coming down and watered down to vaccinating 20% or 30% of the population in poor countries, says this report in DW.com.

This means new variants could develop and move back to Asia and Europe, the US in 2022. It means the coronavirus could affect African economies in 2022 and beyond.

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Fintech set lofty expectations for revolutionizing finance says WSJ but these have not been realized. Part of the reason is that the fintech itself relies on other banking firms. Evolve at one time handled $10 billion in Silicon Valley. It is now facing problems due to the fintech software firm it depended on for its operations has failed.

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GDP expanded at 3.5% in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the Turkey Statistics Office. This follows a contraction by 1.8% in the third quarter of 2016. For the full year the GDP growth is 2.9 percent, a decline from the 6.1% in 2015. In 2015 Turkey gained from lower oil prices. This was offset in 2016 by the politics in the region- the increased instability in the country following a crackdown on the opposition and media, internal conflict in the Kurdish region which appeared for a time to be leading to peaceful settlement. As a result tourism revenues declined by 30% and this was offset by increased government spending. The uncertainty before the referendum also leads to decline in foreign investment and investment by domestic firms.

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The Fed's own files, data from 21,000 Fed transactions over 2007-2010, are revealed in a kind of Wikileaks release. The data is available because of a transparency provision in the Dodd-Frank bill introduced by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. This editorial in the Wall Street Journal shows that banks on Wall Street received much more help than advertised. Goldman Sachs is shown to have used the Primary Dealer Credit Facility 212 times for an amount of nearly $600 billion. Morgan Stanley is shown to have used the overnight Fed lending program 212 times from March 2008 to March 2009. The Wall Street Journal editorial concludes that this makes it impossible for someone to argue that either bank would have survived the financial storm without the Fed's help. The same is true for General Electric. GE tapped the Fed's Commercial Paper Funding Facility 12 times for more than $15 billion And with the help of the FDIC's debt guarantee program GE sold $60 billion of government guaranteed debt. GE and Citicorp are shown to be the heaviest users of that program from November 2008 to Juy 2009. The overwhelming lesson, says this editorial, is to ensure that there is no repeat of this kind of situation. And the new Congress needs to tighten the too-big-to-fail criteria....

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The problem of elites in the US controlling most of the wealth and funding of candidates is discussed in The Times by Matthew Syed. The distortions in the American system of democracy and lack of funding of infrastructure, basics of education, healthcare, and public services, the misallocation of capital by capital markets in the current state, a reversal of everything Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR- Truman set out to do, that is a result of the current situation prevailing in America.

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The overheating economy in Turkey. Inflation could reach 7.5% by the end of 2011 according to Goldman Sachs. HSBC economist, Murat Ulgen, estimates the current account deficit could reach 8% of GDP in the the 12 months ending in March. Goldman Sachs economist, Ahmet Akarli, says the government has kept the fiscal and monetary stimulus for too long. The AKP party is expected to win elections in June 2011 elections and the growing economy is helping it win voter support. His estimate is that nominal wage growth is 18% a year, domestic demand is rising by 25% and credit growth is 30-40%. It is proving hard for the central bank to control capital inflows which is making monetary conditions far too loose. In 2010 the central bank cut interest rates and raised reserve requirements for foreign and local banks to slow capital inflows but this was ineffective. Now the central bank is raising interest rates. Consumer lending is at an all time high and raising reserve requirements is not working. Turkey's new central bank governor, Erdem Basci, says the seas are choppy and a storm may erupt at any time even though things are steady at this time. ...

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Krauthammer says he favors the Boehner Plan because the two stage debt ceiling hike will give time for negotiations and public scrutiny of plans for entitlement and tax reforms. He is critical of the Reid Plan because more than half of the $2 trillion deficit reduction under the plan comes from not continuing surge spending in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 10 years, which he calls outrageous and fictional savings. The lack of Obama's own plan even after setting up and receiving the report of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission is a sore point for him and other observers, demonstrating a stark failure to lead. Tea party advocates will need a new mandate in 2012 where they control more than just the House of Representatives to push for their plan of aggressive deficit reduction and a balanced budget. Krauthammer sees the Obama stimulus, auto bailouts, health-care reform, financial regulation, and the current battle over deficit spending as a large Keynesian gamble which has failed to revive the economy. A choice on limiting government or a different set of policies should now be left to voters to decide....

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Seib cites a career foreign service officer, William Burns, who says that China is offering its model of government as a competing model to that of the U.S. and Western Europe for Asian countries. He says he cannot recall a time in the last 40 years when China was doing what it is now in showing China as role model. Here Seib also mentions the Electoral College and the shift in demographics as creating strains for American democracy. The electoral college does not give enough weight to the largest states in deciding who wins the presidential election as happened in 2017- which gets worse in future years as people move to the west and southern states.

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Sam Bowman, economist and editor of magazine Works in Progress, says one reason Britain is lagging behind other EU countries, is that it's insular political and media class are rarely serious about anything else except managing public opinion. They have lost sight of economic growth led by investment and productivity. Poland, Slovenia and South Korea may soon surpass Britain in GDP per capita. The productivity rate in Poland is expected to surpass British productivity, this report in The Times shows.

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Republican Jeb Bush's address to the 2013 CPAC conference focusses on the decline of social and educational mobility in the U.S. to its lowest point since 1945. In this address he points out that " the central mission of conservatives is to reignite social mobility in this country- restoring the right to rise." His focus on restoring the right to rise is on doing everything to increase opportunities for "quality education," an issue on which he focussed as governor of Florida. He sees technolgy and relative youthful population compared to China and other countries in Europe, as giving America a unique advantage. On this and individual efforts he pins the broad hopes of the middle class revival he sees. He puts the problems of America's middle class and working class as wages declined and the economy suffered from misallocation of resources in stark terms- "Today, the sad reality is that if you're born poor, if your parents did'nt go to college, if you don't know your father, if English isn't spoken at home- then the odds are stacked against you. You are more likely to stay poor today than at any other time since World War II." And he sees Conservatives having a response to this situation, and restoring the idea of America as a land of opportunity for all....

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With the glitches and delays in Model 3 introduction there is increasing skepticism about Tesla's future. After a credit downgrade analysts say Tesla is living on borrowed time and borrowed money. Its future is uncertain and some analysts question whether it will run out of money by the end of 2018. In March 2017 Tesla's share price went down by about one third.

Previous articles in Lyrarc.com from the WSJ and NYT give more insights on the problems at Tesla. Through all the articles the personality of Elon Musk is evident and it shows an emphasis on being overextended, on presentation over substance. This is particularly evident as the company faces capital needs of about $2 billion, competitors who have surpassed it in technology even though Musk was a pioneer in this field, and lack of credibility in capital markets.

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Under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, natural islands or rocks are given territorial sovereignty going out 12 nautical miles, but no such sovereignty exists for reefs that are submerged in high tide. Two U.S. B-52's fly within 2 nautical miles of the Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands in late Dec. 2015, about 600 miles south of Hainan Island in the South China Sea. China claims control over the South China sea navigation routes through its reclamation work in the seven rocks and reefs in the Spratly Islands. The U.S., Japan, India, Vietnam, Philippines and other countries say these are international waters and form key navigation routes from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for global shipping. In late October 2015, a U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of another island built by China in the Spratly Islands.

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Amar Bhide says its time the government demanded that bankers take time to know their borrowers rather than punch in a few numbers into some models on the computer. Especially because the government is now virtually the guarantor of all the obligations of the banking system, including housing loans, and this much is owed to taxpayers. He says the 2300 page Dodd-Frank bill for financial reform sets forth a whole range of new rules, requiring a lot from regulators to write and implement the details, but does nothing to put back the old-fashioned borrower-by-borrower banking prudence that is essential for US economy.

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Jerome Fons rates the credit rating agencies F for failure, and says its time to leave out ratings language from financial contracts. Its time to rely on good judgement. He is former managing director of Moody's. The system is rife he says with conflicts of interest and the whole system has failed and is still in failing mode. The finacial system he says can function without letter ratings, regulators and investors should consider all the relevant information about an investment including market prices. And he says lets return to the tool we all used before we delegated responsibility to ratings agencis, and this tool is our better judgement of things.

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Grades 1 through 9 in China are not for profit and China's education system is highly important and sensitive for Beijing. Particularly at this time with different ideas in Hong Kong compared to adjoining Shenzen. Uptil now private compnies were allowed to effectively control some schools with contractual agreements and funnel out money through service fees. This practice is now halted by tighter restrictions. Draft legislation is prepared and expected to be finalized this year. 

Earlier 25 companies in the education sector brought $3.8 billion of private capital through IPO's in Hong Kong and the U.S., according to Dealogic. These education companies are seeing shares drop by a half in 2018-2019, as China moves to protect its basic education from what may be seen as wayward ideas and thinking. More so today after the events at Hong Kong schools and universities.

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Krugman in the NYT cites president Trump's reference in an interview with the Economist magazine to the expression "priming the pump." Trump in that interview in May 2017 said he had come with the expression and feels good about it. "Priming the pump" is an expression used by president Franklin Roosevelt during the Depression period. During the depression and in 2009 the economic crisis needed a stimulus response and priming the pump. The economy today with lower unemployment is not the time to increase deficits with tax cuts for the wealthy, says Krugman. Only infrastructure spending with a long term return justifies increasing the deficit. He is critical of Speaker Ryan for supporting deep cuts into Medicaid for poor people, and yet supporting the tax cuts weighted more towards helping higher income people.

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Yoga Day being celebrated with pictures of yoga being done in different parts of the country and in other Asian countries in the Times of India. This is the 7th International Yoga Day program. With huge significance today as a way to  wellness during the coronavirus. This year the theme is "Yoga for Wellness."

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The new Apple iPhone 4S failed to impress analysts looking for further advances in design and capabilities. This is the fifth generation of the iPhone that was first introduced in 2007. It has a speedier processor, an improved camera, and voice-command services. The iPhone generated $13.3 billion out of total Apple revenue of $28.6 billion, in second quarter 2011. Analysts estimate Apple sold 22 millon iPhones in the third quarter 2011, and is expected to sell 25 million iPhones in the fourth quarter. The 4S iPhone uses the same Apple A5 processor chip that is found in the iPad 2 tablet, with twice the earlier speed for downloading data, and seven times faster speed for graphics enabling better videogame display. A personal assistant software Siri enables voice commands for checking weather and responses to text mesages. Prices start at $199 for 16 gigabyte models with a two year contract. Sprint, AT&T and Verizon will offer the phone.