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A sharp drop of over 6 points. 57.9 in March 2025 from 64.7 in Feb. the University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment shows the effects of the uncertainty generated in tackling fentanyl flows by imposing tariffs on CMC countries Canada, Mexico and China. And the result of the uncertainty from reciprocal tariffs imposed to correct the loss of manufacturing in the US as a result of unfair trade by China, EU, Canada and Mexico. Some of this comes from the unfair coverage in the press and internet that these tariffs are economic tariffs to gain advantage when they are designed to correct huge trade imbalances that other countries had no incentive to correct when previous administrations, corporations and America's Ivy League economists- stuck to textbook economics divorced from reality- turned their back on the workers and communities in the Nation whose communities were destroyed with the loss of factories and plants shipped overseas. ...

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This report about 996, referring to nine am to nine pm 6 workdays a week, shows it is becoming highly unpopular among tech workers in China, as tech companies slash jobs and workers work longer hours. A campaign on GitHub a code sharing platform is called 996/ICU speaks of such gruelling hours as the way to end up in the ICU. It got 250,000 positive user comments.

This type of work at tech companies is leading to fatigue, chronic illness, stress and lack of any free time to think or even exercize, leading to health problems. Yet some company CEO's push 996 against the mounting evidence that this is not the best for employees and can lead to por producivity. Recent studies about the cities such as Mumbai, India, or Tokyo, Japan, show productivity is a fraction of the productivity in many European countries working normal hours. Mumbai vs. Dublin for example. Dublin has a lot higher productivity.

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The people in the U.S. are shifting to widespread use of masks. There was some cultural resistance in Europe and the U.S. to use of masks, compared to Japan, South Korea and China where the use of masks in epidemics was common in earlier health crises. Europe changed first and now the U.S. is adopting masks as a way to avoid th spread of coronavirus. Health authorites in the U.S. now recommend use of masks to prevent asymptomatic people with infection from spreading the infection. Health experts say the widespread use of masks in Asia is one reason in addition to quarantines, contact tracing and isolation of clusters, is how China, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have controlled coronavirus to the point where it is no longer a serious danger.

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As with so much in life too much of anything is bad. Obsession for dealing with inequality without grasping the potential of new technology and people with skills, has hurt both China and India, with both moving to correct this in the last 20 years. Allowing too much inequality disturbs the balance in society damaging democratic processes and creating new dangers for democratic processes.  Today Piketty, and other Western and Asian leaders are presenting the argument for fairer societies principally because this is the only way to generate the kind of cycle for growth seen after the second  world war in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's  following FDR and Truman, De Gaulle and Adenauer. At some point the curve for growth simply drops with extreme disparities in society- something that happened with disastrous consequences in the history of China and India in the 1500's and the long descent into colonial or semi-colonial rule. That pattern is documented in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. And it is a drop no nation or society would want to repeat because of the immense suffering, and the decline of Asian societies in a social and cultural sense, leading to a closed outlook to science in general and knowledge accumulation behaviours based on scientific observation of Nature over the course of the 17th to 19th century.  Some traces of this in the early stages are evident in the US and Europe which is why all well meaning people and people of goodwill for their countries seek a way out of this endless fracturing, the rural-urban divide, the society blind and morally neutral views of tech, and the starving of resources which benefit the broad segments of society for infrastructure, health and education through the misallocation of resources to other places. In the long run what is important is not the long theories which can fail, but to "Just Do," follow good common sense, do the right thing as Modi has done for women in essentials such as water, toilets, cooking gas, digital bank accounts, dignity, safety, access to education. And what Xi is attempting to do for Common Prosperity in China. And what Biden and Scholz are setting out to do in the US and Germany. ...

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The English Bible in the Texas K-12th grade schools curriculum for children in 2025. Critical for young children is an understanding of how the Christian faith was critical in the struggle against the evil of slavery, and how it was Abraham Lincoln's faith in Christianity that sustained him through the long and difficult struggle to end slavery in the Union, and to preserve the Union. How millions gave up their lives to end the evil of slavery in the Civil War. One passage from the new curriculum for Texas children says- "Even as the use of slave labor grew, opposition to slavery also grew, driven by colonists morally opposed to the practice, often based on their beliefs as Christians." Lyrarc.com has Lincoln's devotional- with parts of the New Testament from a British publisher in the 1840's that show how Lincoln's faith preserved the Union, and created the society in which all men are created equal envisioned by Washington and Jefferson in the 1770's and 1780's, right upto the French Revolution's rallying cry of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite that was heard in America in 1800. It is strange that it is forgotten that for most of the period from 1600 to the 1950's there was never any doubt for 350 years that the US derived it's unique identity and ideals from it's Christian faith, just as China and India have derived their unique identity and ideals from the Buddhist scriptures and the Bhagavad Gita. The novel idea that the Bhagavad Gita and the Buddha should have the same level of understanding for America's children as Christian faith of countless generations since the settlement of North America from 1600 is hard to grasp. ...

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The private sector ignores health insurance. And state coverage in China is inadequate. More than two thirds of China's 1.3 billion people have no health insurance at all. If you have insurance you still pay up front in cash, if you do not have the cash up front you cannot get a surgery, treatment of any kind or any drugs, even if the insurance will later reimburse you. The Chinese health care system is dysfunctional and in a crisis because of the way it is structured, and the faulty policy incentives. It caps prices for basic drugs and procedures at below market rates, yet it lets hospitals profit from everything else from advanced drugs to sophisticated diagnostic tests. So hospitals invest heavily in technology and expensive testing. and drug sales account for 45% of revenues. And enforcement is lax. Doctors in Shanghai make monthly incomes of about $400, about what a taxi driver makes, so they supplement their income with bonuses earned by prescribing more expensive tests and drugs. There is no utilization review so the state reimburses for whatever the hospitals charge regardless of whether the test was needed or not. So the system is dysfunctional and lurching towards a crisis. In fact heavily burdening the middle class. The private outlays and burden of total health care spending has increased from 20% to 60% of total health care spending from 1978 to 2003, as the the health care system got the same dose of unfetterred capitalism as the rest of the system. The Government's share of total health care spending has dropped sharply. In addition there are design flaws that push expensive care and build in incentives for expensive care at the expense of good medical care. The government recognizes this problem and sees it as athreat to social stability. It has committed to increase spending on healthcare. ...

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78 year old president Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan steps down after 30 years in power. Presidential elections will be held with a caretaker who is Senate president in charge till then. He juggled the competing interests of China and Russia to attract investment in the energy industry. China has invested $30 billion in the country as a link in the Belt and Road Initiative in infrastructure, mining and financial sectors.  Russia is the largest trading partner. Since 2002 GDP per capita has increased six times according to the World Bank.

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WSJ committed to orthodox economic theory thinks of tariffs as tariffs such as Smoot Hawley from the 30's. This is why it is not true- It is about fentanyl flows that have led to 490,000 deaths over 12 years in the US and few in the US like to talk about it. Smoot Hawley had nothing to do with fentanyl, drugs trafficking and migrant trafficking that every nation not only has a right but a No.1 responsibility to its citizens to keep its neighborhoods and its children in neighborhoods safe. Smoot and Hawley were US Senators and US Congress was isolationist in mood. Their grasp of the world trading system was meager and they stepped in at a time when the world had economically not recovered from World War I, and the French against US General Pershing's advice had set the most punitive arrangement in Germany that crushed Germany after an armistice Pershing opposed that left the Kaiser's political structures intact. Tariffs is not DJT's idea. It is the solid experience of Deputy US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer under Reagan who conducted negotiations with the Japanese who stalled and stalled Lighthizer says, let negotiations drag on into endless nights, and Lighthizer and his team stood firm. The relentless Japanese relented and Lighthizer secured the agreements that ended this phase of trade relations in the 1980's. Lighthizer was Trade Representative in the DJT first term 2016-2020 and launched the negotiations with China. This is now 8 years since 2016 and 2016 itself was 35 years after Lighthizer negotiated with the Japanese. Today's US Trade Representative is Jamieson who was Deputy Trade Representative under Lighthizer in 2016. Each detail is carefully thought through to bring it to a fair conclusion in the interests of the world and the US. Information traveled slowly GM could not tell at any time how many cars were in inventory on its lots in 1920's. US lacked basic infrastructure for government that FDR and Labor Secretary added firt in New York in the 1930's and which was transferred to 50 states by 1940's. Today information is quickly at fingertips and consultation processes are built in between industry and government at all levels. A lot of information is carefully evaluated. USTR as DJT showed, the major study of USTR Office in the Rose Garden on April 2, 2025, has all trade barriers carefully analyzed in minute details for every country. And is working on this for 40 years. There isn't even a slightest  comparison between this and the Smoot Hawley crowd in the 1920's.  The goal not to beat anybody. Just to set the goal of a level playing field for world trade. That is the foundation of trade that is fair and respected, and is a win-win for all. WTO's basic foundation No. 1 principle is a level playing field. It is just that this was a kind of Marshall Plan for Asia of the US to let poor countries such as Japan war wrecked in 1950, and China colonial power wrecked by first Britain then Japan struggling and poor in 1990's, giving them some time to rebuild by ignoring unfair barriers to trade for 10-15 years 2005 for China. Barriers that never got dismantled and technology that leaked from the US 2005-2016 under the Obama administration. Smoot Hawley was not about the US Navy building its own ships and US shipyards in the 1920's. In 2025 US shipbuilding industry is stolen, this is why the words used "pillaged" "looted" were used in the Rose Garden. Little by little American private enterprise capitalism was superseded by a new form of capitalism in Japan then in China that combined state capitalism with private enterprise capitalism. This then was the threat America faced, and needed to redouble its energies and seek fair play.   ...

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(Article on TSM from NYT, February 22, 2023.) When Morris Chang setup his factories for chip production in Taiwan in the 1980's America was the leader in chip production. He tapped into American technology at MIT and other American research universities. Over decades of support from government subsidies and easy transfers of American technology Morris Chang built up what is TSMC today. Chang now sees the building of a plant in Arizona as a challenging task. Originally from Ninbo, Zhejiang province, China, and having survived the Sino Japanese war and civil war in China he went to Hong Kong in 1949. Without the bachelors and masters degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1953-54 and the first jobs at Sylvania Semiconductor in 1955, Texas Instruments in 1958-83, both pioneers in semiconductor production, Chang would not have been able to found TSMC. Mistaken laissez faire economic theory destroyed America's own semiconductor industry. Texas Instruments invested in Chang for him to get his PhD. degree from Stanford in electrical engineering in 1964 and enabled him to run its worldwide semiconductor business. Without this start enabled by companies at the cutting edge of US technological innovation and institutions such as MIT and Stanford, TSMC would not exist today.  Chang's approach was to price ahead of the cost curve which essentially means taking smaller profits in the short term to gain advantage over the long term. In this way he built TSMC with the help of support from Taiwan's government. About the Arizona plant Chang says it was similar to putting up a plant in Washington State, which he postponed after people, cost and cultural problems. A dream fulfilled became a nightmare fulfilled, he says and postponed that plant. This lack of enthusiasm shows a lack of memory an awareness of the difficulties that Chang himself must have experienced in 25 years of work at Texas Instruments- with cultural, cost and people problems, and the efforts at American pioneer manufacturing companies to assist Chang. Chang is reported to have said on a Brrokings Institution podcast that building a wafer plant in America will be "a very expensive exercize in futility," forgetting that he got his own start in America, with American engineers, American science and technology, and American manufacturing, and American workers. ...

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Prof. Jeffrey Wasserstrom of UC Irvine reviews Henry Paulson's "Dealing With China." Paulson was head of Goldman Sachs investment bank and Secretary of the Treasury 2006-2009, the period of the global financial crisis. He made 70 visits to China since his days at Goldman Sachs and calls Chinese leaders Jiang Zemin and Jinping "old friends." He established the Strategic Economic Dialogue in the Bush administration for dialogue on economic issues with China, and setup the Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago to focus on China-U.S. relations. One of Paulson's points is that China's financial system faces a day of reckoning, with large losses and many restructurings. Wasserstrom's review looks at Paulson's view of dealing with China and points to a sense that it needs updating because by the time the book is published a lot has changed with the new Jinping administration. The new administration in China is more assertive in foreign affairs, and less tolerant of both the corruption that became part of the Chinese capitalist development inside a state run one party system, and of the voices for more openness. It also has placed tight controls on the Internet. Jinping sees a constructive role for the Communist party in the future as China makes economic reforms away from state run enterprises, and is working to strengthen the party through discipline and anti-corruption initiative. The reckoning Paulson mentions, Krugman and other experts have described in other language- not as a reckoning but that China was no exception and would face the same problems that the U.S. and the eurozone faced since 2008 from financial excesses. In this sense Paulson's views and interactions with the Chinese leadership may represent another era, a period of exuberance when some of these financial excesses were being built up. Today's economic team of Jinping and Li Keqiang is more focussed on making sure the transition through a economic crisis is managed carefully, keeping in mind the risks for China considering its history, and the situation where China is still a "middle income country" with aspirations for further development to improve incomes and living standards. Their view is that tight control is needed as China makes this transition to a less state enterprise dependent, and more consumer economy, so that there is no loss of the gains made so far. A different set of skills and deft management of the economy is needed, making Paulson's views from another era less relevant. External influences such as managing the complex China-Japan relationship as both countries become more assertive are creating another dynamic in Asia, which Chinese leaders may see as requiring careful management, making Paulson's experience less relevant for a new period with new challenges. For the U.S. the economic cooperation with China now occurs with an added political dimension. Of concern for the tight control, seen as not forward looking and not bringing more constructive voices into the system, and the new complexities of carefully managing the changing U.S.-China-Japan relationship in Asia. ...

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Prime minister Modi's 5 commitments to get closer to net zero by 2030 will require making ambitious efforts starting from 2021. Modi cited Indian Railways as an example to be followed by the rest of industry and transportation, and homes, for the conversion to clean energy. Indian Railways, he told the COP26 conference, had set ambitious goals to achieve net zero emissions by 2030, cutting carbon emissions by 60 million tons from the 1 billion tons reduction of carbon emission Modi promised by 2030. The ambitious 2030 target of 500 gigawatts of renewable energy, mostly solar using new technologies, is another promise.  This Bloomberg report looks at India's energy mix today which is 44% coal, 25% oil, 6% natural gas, for a total of 75% fossil fuels, and the promise of 50% fossil, 50% renewable and other non fossil fuels hydroelectric, nuclear, that Modi made at COP26 Glasgow. Just as US and Europe, Japan, China have huge challenges ahead to make a massive transformation in record time, India faces the equal need to think clearly and embrace new technologies with speed and scale, and make the investments early for transformation. This is good for India to take on the challenge and venture out to seize the opportunities in new technologies that transform whole industries and a way of living that must be left behind. ...

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A ban on foreigners buying homes in Canada by the Trudeau government is intended to put a lid on house price increases. Immigration is increasing to Canada as Canada needs more people. About 3.5 million new homes have to be built in Canada to achieve house affordability for all. The government has proposed 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023 and 500,000 in 2025. Immigration from India and China and other Asian countries is the main source of permanent residents. The new infusion is needed as Canada's economy grows.

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The price of gas powered cars and EV's is closing, to about $5000 according to Cox Automotive. Tesla is cutting prices because of new competition from Japanese, Korean and German models in the US market. China's BYD is also in the global market with new battery technology that cuts cost. Batteries make up 40% of EV car cost. The cost of making EV's will drop to becoming the same as gas powered models by 2027 as companies get more experience in the new technologies, says Gartner.

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Foreign institutional investors responding to negative sentiment for emerging markets in general took out $2.6 billion from India in August 2015. Yet average allocations to India for emerging market funds have increased to about 10.7% in July 2015, because India looks much better than other emerging markets. By comparison China is at 20.25%.

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In the first quarter of 2011 consumer demand for gold in China increased by 47% over the prior year quarter to 233 tons, according to the World Gold Council's data. Most of this is for jewelry accounting for 64% in 2010, with gold bar demand increasing as an hedge against inflation. Orlik points out that if inflation decreases from the existing level of 5.3%, and with the increase in wealth management products from Chinese banks, the demand for gold may not be sustained as it offers no return. He says urban resident demand may have reached its peak and there is not much demand from the rural population. Central bank purchases to shift a small part of foreign exchange reserves to gold is the only other factor for a push up in gold prices.

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Shinzo Abe had a vision of a broader Asia. In Abe's own words- " A broader Asia that broke away from geographical boundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form. Our two countries have the ability - and the responsibility - to ensure that it broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas to become seas of clearest transparence." He added "By coming together in this way, this 'broader Asia' will evolve into an immense network that will span the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the United States of America and Australia. Open and transparent, this network will allow people and goods, capital and knowledge to flow freely." It is this vision that is taking shape today in 2022. And India's unique role in Asia was grasped by Abe. Abe reminded Japanese and Indians of the unique contribution of Vivekananda, calling him a great spiritual leader India gave to the world, and stretching back to many others way back in time to Bodhidharma, and then way back from that to one whose name all know.  During one of these visits to India Abe said- "Vivekananda came to be acquainted with Tenshin Okakura, a man ahead of his time in early modern Japan and a Renaissance man, Okakura was then guided by Vivekananda and also enjoyed a friendship with Sister Nivedita, Vivekananda's loyal disciple and a distinguished female social reformer. Many people are aware of all that." Praising India's spirit of tolerance Abe said- "From the reign of Ashoka the Great to Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement of non violent resistance the Japanese people are well aware of the unbroken spirit of tolerance in Indian spiritual history." Vedanta and Buddhism went from India through Bodhidharma to China and then from China to Japan with Dogen and other spiritual leaders from Japan bringing it from China then called the Pure Land in the 13th century. Vedanta and Buddhism now finds it way centuries later from India to Japan- from where it moves onwards to China and East Asia. ...

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Bret Stephens of NYT shows a lack of knowledge of European history and remains oblivious of the disastrous consequences of Reagan's policies that he lauds. He cites Reagan as saying to his own audience - "My idea of policy towards the Soviet Union is simple, some would say simplistic. It is "We win, you lose."  The US did not win through Reagan policies, it began three decades of US involvement in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, with Iran, that have wasted trillions of dollars and many lives, a period in which it created space for the emergence of China as a world power with newer infrastructure built in a period in which China could quietly rebuild and modernize while the US frittered away its vital resources to the point that funding was missing for vital infrastructure rebuilding and education was not financed by the government as it had done in the early postwar years. The classic European History book by Cambridge historian Brendan Simms, "Europe- The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present" shows that every time any country became too powerful, the others regardless of religion, old ties or other affiliation joined together to counterbalance and restore the balance- Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary were never allowed to become too dominant. The idea that the Soviet Union collapsed because of Reagan's policies is incorrect- it would have collapsed a decade later without Reagan as by the 1980's the people running the government and the ordinary people had realized the system was not meeting the aspirations of Russians. By buying into this myth Americans were embroiled in useless wars and in so doing probably destroyed more wealth in a short time than any period in world history- the trillions of dollars of oil wealth transferred not to countries such as China or India that had to pull themselves by the bootstraps but to Arab desert regions that were itself not benefitted because they went to fight wars and destruction. ...

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Mr. Trump says he will wear a mask on a visit to soldiers at Army's Walter Reed Hospital. Trump says its "a very appropriate thing. I have no problem with a mask." As cases hit 3 million in the U.S., close to 1 million in India and Russia, Mr. Trump joins the movement for masks worldwide. Early on Mr. Trump  took up the issue of transmission from Wuhan by banning flights from China, failed to get WHO and China to respond quickly to the pandemic requests from U.S. by providing information and allowing a team to visit Wuhan quickly in January. A stumbling block appeared within the health ministry in the U.S. with poor leadership which Trump had to overcome by relying on Vice President Pence to lead the stop coronavirus team at the White House.   Trump's reopening decision came under criticism and he says he had to balance the damage to jobs and economic well being that also affected health. Some of the states and young people responded in ways that led to public gatherings that have led to surges in the south and the western states such as Calfornia. The WSJ reported that in Los Angeles County on June 20 half a million people went to bars after they reopened, showing that culturally even counties in states like California lacked what is accepted good sense. For instance Tokyo bars were paid by the Japanese government not to reopen, according to one report. By wearing a mask Trump is simply acknowledging facts about transmission - a German study shows 40% reduction in cases with face coverings. ...

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China Merchant Port Holdings takes a 70% stake in the Hambantota Port project, in an agreement with Sri Lanka Ports Authority. It will handle the commercial operations of the port under a 99 year lease. This is part of the plan to convert the $6 billion Sri Lanka owes to China into equity. Hambantota port has losses of $300 million since 2011. China plans to invest $600 million to develop the port. The port project is a $1.12 billion lease to China. Sri Lanka's ports minister says the port will not be a military base for any country and will operate under Sri Lankan law. China is making the investment as part of its One Belt, One Road Initiative, which has aroused concern in Japan, India and Australia.

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This analysis in The Guardian says US president Biden is reversing 3 decades of policy since president Reagan that looked with skepticism at government intervention in the economy. The $1.9 trillion aid package Biden has pushed through Congress is a big game changer in the way government operates to help rebuild America after the pandemic. The 2009 response by the government under president Obama was done without conviction that the government response was the best way to help the economy. By 2016 voters turned to a Republican, Mr. Trump, to help working class voters with a USA first policy, after decades of presidents from both parties Republican and Democrat failed to protect American interests in manufacturing, jobs and incomes.  US president Biden is continuing Trump's policies to protect working class Americans. And bringing new conviction that government not only has a positive role, but has an essential and vital role to play in protecting workers and households struggling to make ends meet. President Reagan had introduced such a deep skepticism of government, that it took so long for people to remember FDR and the role of government before the second world war and afterwards under the Truman administration.  What changed? The health care crisis exposed the weak areas in the governance and policy mindset in America. China had advanced mainly through strong government role of the Communist Party  in steering the economy and business to gain competitive advantage. The health crisis from the pandemic further devastated America's lower middle and working class following the banking and financial sector mismanagement by 2009. The pharmaceutical and health care sector similar to other sectors had shipped manufacturing overseas. In 2021 there is a deep sense that theories don't work, one has to act based on the needs and the situation the country is facing. The way competitor nations such as China are building new infrastructure, gaining manufacturing advantage, dominating key sectors and industries, and creating jobs, requires America to respond. In this situation posing the threat America faces as well as the social dislocation of decades of misguided policies, the US government is the only one capable and having the resources and capacity to respond.  ...

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The global minimum corporate tax will enable US, France, Germany, India and other countries to invest more in healthcare, education, infrastructure, in the years to come. Countries that helped tax avoidance shown in this graph in Live Mint are Netherlands, Cayman Islands, Britain, Ireland, Hong Kong, China. The biggest contributor to tax losses for advanced countries US, Europe and India is the Netherlands with $27 billion in tax that is diverted away, as shown in Live Mint.

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Taiwan adds new spending of $8.7 billion over 5 years to its military spending to fund acquisition of home developed precision missiles, naval ships, and weapons systems for existing warships. The military budget will grow by 4% to $15.1 billion in 2022. China's PLA air force flew 19 warplanes into Taiwan's air defense zone on Sunday, September 14.

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A coordinated release of petroleum reserves from the International Energy Agency and 30 participating countries is planned in the event something like the attack on Saudi oil facilities happens. About 5% of the worlds oil supplies were put out in the attack. If 7% are lost then the IEA would step in to call for release of petroleum reserves of individual countries. As of July 2019 1.5 billion barrels of oil are in storage in emergency reserves. U.S. SPR reserves are estimated at 644 million barrels and the figures are 100 million barrels for each of Germany, Japan and France, and China at 344 million barrels. These man made caverns are as long as 2000 feet.

The last time this release happened was in 2011 after the Libyan war disruptions. 

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After a period when Democrats let the narrative be shaped by "the entitlements crisis" and questioning the legacy of president Roosevelt- who many including Mr. Trump believe setup the groundwork for the prosperity of the early postwar years in America- the vision of the New Deal and FDR is back, says Glickman in the Washington Post. He says the New Deal order lasted from 1932 to 1980 when president Reagan was elected. Conservatives were skeptical about the New Deal, and Democrats such as Al Gore joined the Conservatives with their faith in limited government and unregulated or less regulated markets. To this was added the faith Democrats such as Mr. Clinton put in a new policy of openness in trade with China that ultimately led to todays $ 1 billion a day deficit with China. There is a new sense says Glickman that the tide is reversing and that FDR is now seen as the new ideal for a fairer and better America, and better investment in the people of America. ...

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As the push for biodiversity increases the idea of passive rewilding or letting nature and its chaotic way take its course is getting increased acceptance. It allows natural processes to restore themselves and do the work. A certain amount of chaos is accepted as forests reclaim territory, different species come back and fires, floods return. This is seen in the Peneda-Geres National Park in the northern mountains of Portugal. Here Mr. Pereira at the University of Leipzig Center for Biodiversity Research says it is about letting wildlife return, letting fires, floods return and most importantly letting plants and animals move around.

The issues of biodiversity and restoring landscapes to the ways of nature are the topic of discussion at the UN COP 15 summit this week in Kunming, China. Pereira's idea is that if you love something, just set it free, for a biodiversity setting to take shape.