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What is not thought possible, water poverty in America in 2020, in this Guardian report, as millions of ordinary Americans face increasing bills for running water in their homes. More than 4% of household income for water bills annually is considered unaffordable and more than 6% for energy. This is more important today as coronavirus makes running water essential for fighting the pandemic. The source of the problem is aging infrastructure, environmental cleanups, changing demographics, climate emergency. Cities include New Orleans, Santa Fe, Cleveland, Fresno, Tucson and Austin where low income residents face rising costs and water shutoff or even lead to homelessness from unpaid bills. It also is a problem in places such as San Diego and Seattle, with 13% of low income people in Seattle struggling to afford water. Federal funding peaked in 1977 and has fallen since leaving local utilities to raise the money for infrastructure and upgrades for chemical contaminants, and other climate issues. About 90% of these local utilities are really municipally owned at the city level and a few large companies. At least $35 billion is needed for water upgrades for infrastructure and quality each year for 20 years- $700 billion. WIth these kinds of needs America has no room for foreign wars in remote places, and no room for offshoring its vital industries that removes the tax base for cities and states and the federal government affecting not just jobs and livelihoods but the very basic infrastructure itself.  ...

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The Blinken Lavrov first meeting is off to a good start as both sides agree to have their differences and still work together. The US will now work with Germany in supporting the Nordstream 2 Russian gas pipeline. During the pandemic this means one less distraction with better relations and cooperation between the US and Russia helping all countries focus on economic issues and development.

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As the U.S. economy continues to gain in job growth with unemployment at 3.8% in May 2018, wage gains remain low. Wage growth over the past year is about 2.7%. Labor participation rate is at 62.7%. Reasons given for low wage growth are the lack of wage increases for people who stay at their current jobs, the digital disruption lowering wages, decline of union bargaining, and low productivity growth. This gives the Federal Reserve more room to increase interest rates gradually.

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Growth in airline travel is coming from higher income buyers, as people earning around $75,000, the lower and middle income buyers are holding back struggling to meet the rising cost of living.

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Seen in a larger context, the Biden tax pledge seen from the southern and midwestern and less well off states is not about taxes, it is about federal revenues that build the infrastructure and services in these states that increase the standard of living. This happened in the 1930's and 1940's under FDR and Truman, in the 1950's under Eisenhower, in the 1960's under Kennedy/LBJ. And is happening again under Biden today. Lets not forget that president John F. Kennedy says in his speeches that these regions in America in the 1860's under Lincoln were in development close to what prevailed in the 1960's in India, Ceylon, Chile, Turkey or China. The Biden pledge not to increase taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 is significant because it grasps the situation in America where extraordinary gains in wealth since 1980 have gone only some of it to the top 1-2% in midwestern states and southern states, and most of it to the top 3-5% in coastal states population in the east and west, New York and California, where the finance and tech industry are based. In Michigan and Wisconsin only 2% of households make more than $400,000, in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Florida 3%. WSJ shows a map of the US showing this for individual states. The core southern states have 2% of households with incomes over $400,000- including Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, with Mississippi less than 1%. It is only segregation in the late 1960's and culture issues such as abortion that have turned them from Democratic states to Republican states as they were the largest beneficiaries of taxes diverted into investment in these places since FDR/Truman and John Kennedy/LBJ. It was JFK who came up with the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats" when he opened federally funded projects in Arkansas. Seen objectively the large investments made under Lincoln, FDR/Truman, Kennedy/LBJ from tax revenues are what changed this region from conditions that prevailed in less developed countries that John Kennedy points out in his speeches, true for the midwest, parts of the west, and the southern states alike.  President Kennedy said on Feb. 25, 1963 to the American Bankers Association Symposium on Economic Growth: "Today, many Americans tend to think of developing underdeveloped countries in terms only of faraway nations. But in 1863, even measured by 1963 dollars, our own per capita income--and this should be a source of encouragement to many who are laboring with the problem of underdevelopment in far-off countries--our own per capita income was less than $1 a day, approximately the same as Chile's. Nearly 60 percent of our labor force was engaged in agriculture, the same percentage as is today engaged in the Philippines. An estimated 20 percent of our population was illiterate, the same percentage of the population of Ceylon. Only one-fifth of our 34 million people lived in towns or cities of over 5,000 in population, as is roughly true now of Turkey. In 1863, this Nation had fewer railroad tracks laid than India has today, and its children had a shorter life expectancy than a child born this year in Thailand or Zanzibar."   ...

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Charley Grant of WSJ warns that Tesla is in for a difficult time ahead as it ramps up its production of Model 3 cars. He says overhead costs should lead to negative margins during the early rollout stage, and only when the production ramps up could this turn positive. Tesla needs $2 billion in the second half of 2017, and is now turning to debt markets for its capital needs. 

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World Expo in Osaka-Kansei in Japan opened April 13, 2025 exceeds 10 million visitors in July 2025. An Air Show by Blue Impulse of the Self Defense Forces of Japan on July 13 is shown in the Asahi Shimbun. The goal for this world's fair ignored by most of the official media is 28.2 million visitors with 158 countries and regions participating.

The theme of this world's fair is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” The song is “Kono Hoshi no Tsuzuki wo”, by Kobukuro, it means Let's go see the future.The future society is one that would be inclusive, innovative and sustainable after covid.

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Hou You-Yi of the KMT and Tai Ching-Te of the DPP are candidates for the Taiwan elections in 2024. The Guardian looks at their differing positions in relation to China and the US.

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Karen Handel, Republican, and Jon Ossoff, Democrat, compete in Georgia's 6th Congressional District in the most costly House race in history. It has become a referendum on Trump. Democrats need 24 more seats to get a majority in the House of Representatives, and Georgia is the place where they have started their effort. Yet experts say voters are deciding based on the candidates and their merits not just the party or Trump.

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Thomas Huetlin, writes in an editorial in Der Spiegel, that the British parliamentary elections and losses of the Conservatives, may have killed off Brexit. He cites a unnamed cabinet minister in Theresa May's cabinet who says that frankly Brexit is dead, and is quoted in the Financial Times. The Financial Times also described the situation after the election as making Britain look "ridiculous." Der Spiegel points out that the more time passes the more the anger over Brexit idea being used by British Tory politicians in their political calculations is likely to increase. And more so as its negative effects on the British economy become increasingly apparent. Warnings that the Bank of England has repeatedly made

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President Biden meets newly elected South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol on his visit to South Korea. During the visit Biden also promoted South Korean investments in Texas and Georgia. He visited a Samsung semiconductor plant with the president of Samsung. Samsung is investing billions of dollars $10 billion for a new electric vehicle plant in Savannah, Georgia. By getting American semiconductor and electric car manufacturers to invest heavily in the US president Biden is changing how America invests for regaining technological leadership by 2030. In an effort to get plants to support unions president Biden called for the plants to hire union workers. Biden called by name two Senate contestants in upcoming Georgia elections for their efforts in getting the Hyundai plant that will hire 8000 workers. In contrast to Mr. Trump who lacked a plan or vision for the future Mr. Biden is keenly focused on getting South Korea, Japan and Germany to invest heavily in the US and help restructure the whole supply chain. Where Mr. Trump called for South Korea and other partners to share the defense burden, Mr. Biden is focused on getting American allies to have their large companies invest in American plants and jobs and a new supply chain. ...

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About $50 billion of the $170 billion in government money that went to AIG has gone to counterparties that bought credit default swaps from AIG, couterparties like Goldman Sachs, Merrill, Societe Generale, and Calyon another French bank. The Fed has resisted disclosure of these names. If the Fed had not done this insurance experts say some of these banks would have taken hits on their capital cushions, which they keep as reserve against such losses. And they say these banks would have been stretched if that happened. These counterparties were made whole against these losses. Critics ask why these counterparties should not have been compensated with a discount, so that they bore some risk and took a small haircut. But it appears that with the banks in a fragile condition the Fed decided to take this step.

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America will not long remember what happened in 2018 or 2024, but it can never forget the loss of literacy and cultural literacy from loss of reading comprehension, among American children, the basic building blocks for democracy or economic progress. This WSJ report by Randazzo and Barnum uses a lower bar for reading proficiency called the Basic. There is a second bar that is the Proficient Level for Reading Proficiency in NAEP test scores which is shown here. The US should strive for NAEP Proficient standard in Reading Comprehension not some Basic standard, to strive for leadership in a world that strives for NAEP Advanced. Only 8% of NAEP Test scores for 4th graders were at Advanced level in the US schools in 2024, only 31% making it to Proficient level standards. NAEP defines Basic as- "This level denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for performance at the NAEP Proficient level." This is an inadequate standard and only leads to student in 4th grade struggling as readers in 9th grade leading to being not proficient for entry to college or skills programs for work. Dismal reading scores from before pandemic only get worse in 2025. Two thirds of American 4th graders across the 51 states, across urban, rural and suburbs fail to pass PROFICIENT reading levels on NAEP test scores in 2024. Lyrarc.com's Movement for Global Literacy was launched in 2016 in response to raise the reading comprehension and cultural literacy across America. This is across party lines, across gender, race, incomes and region- a goal for ALL AMERICANS and a basic entry point to meet the aspirations of all Americans for a better life through knowledge and education. 2024 NAEP Test results students performing 4 percentage points below the level in 2019 for 4th graders in reading comprehension. Thirty-one percent of fourth-grade students performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level on the 2024 NAEP reading assessment, which was 2 percentage points lower compared to 2022 and 4 percentage points lower than 2019. This WSJ report by Randazzo and Barnum uses a lower bar for reading proficiency called the Basic. There is a second bar that is the Proficient Level for Reading Proficiency in NAEP test scores which is what we are showing here. The US should drive for NAEP Proficient standard in Reading Comprehension not some Basic standard, to strive for leadership in a world that strives for NAEP Advanced. Only 8% of NAEP Test scores for 4th graders were at Advanced level in the US schools in 2024. NAEP defines Basic as- "This level denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for performance at the NAEP Proficient level." This is an inadequate standard and only leads to student in 4th grade struggling as readers in 9th grade leading to being not proficient for entry to college or skills programs for work.   ...

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Unions represent 10.1% of wage and salary workers in the US in 2022, down from 10.3% in 2021. Unions added 273,000 workers in 2022, increasing by 1.9% to 14.3 million. Only a small fraction of workers in the private sector are unionized, 6% of 120 million workers or 7.2 million workers. In the public sector 7.1 million or 33% of 21 million workers are represented by unions. Unions won the ability to represent workers in 1041 of 1363 elections held in 2022. In Jan 2023 workers at Microsoft voted to form a union.

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Tough talk about shutting the border with Mexico from Biden. President Biden fully supports the bipartisan deal being negotiated by the Senate to shut down the overwhelmed border. Biden says- "It is the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we've had in our country."

Biden added that-"It would give me, as President, new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law."

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The Trump real estate assets in New York and the real estate business are at risk in the civil case in New York about inflated asset values and loans, says this report in The Guardian. Judge Ergoron is handling this case and this is not a jury trial. This report in The Guardian asks, did Mr. Trump have the goods, citing a line in his 1987 book, "The Art of the Deal." It says after all the press, the hyperbole, the promotion and the excitement, if one cannot deliver the goods, people finally catch on to what is happening.

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Unproductive never ending Zoom meetings, exhausting Zoom meetings, which could be handled with an email or in other ways, need to be deleted from the calendar, says Kathryn Dill in the WSJ. Status updates should be done in one on one conversations, or over email. Knowing the objective of a meeting is essential. Ideas from work experts at Microsoft and Accenture are shown here suggesting that managers take charge of meetings by setting ground rules for good behaviour and moderating, and being active players in all meetings. Allowing casual interaction before a meeting to make a decision for flow of ideas also helps, and holding questions till the end of the meeting where appropriate.

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RFK Jr. is confirmed as Health Secretary by Senate vote 52 to 48. RFK Jr. now takes up the fight against obesity and poor health in America to Make America Healthy Again. He called for the banning of drug ads on television and said the health agencies were broken with FDA and other agencies too cosy with the drug industry and the food industry. He has also called for the banning of chemical additives including dyes in food.  There is nationwide support from Moms and parents who are concerned about the deterioration in health in America. Many see him as fighting entrenched interests in the food and drug industry on behalf of parents and children. During the Senate hearings it became apparent that only someone like RFK Jr. with decades of experience as environmental lawyer and fight with entrenched lobbies and industries could tackle the fight needed to get America Healthy Again. RFK reminded viewers about his father Robert Kennedy telling him as a boy of 13 years to keep a fierce skepticism. ...

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Keir Starmer leads the summit of European leaders in London on March 2, 2025. This effort comes after a controversial breakdown in communication between DJT, vice president Vance with Zelensky in the Oval Office at the White House.

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Jawaharlal Nehru's Aug 15, 1947 speech announcing India's freedom at "the stroke of the midnight hour." "A moment comes which comes rarely in history," said Nehru.

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Following the pandemic France is boosting aid to Africa increasing foreign aid and combining development agencies to target funding to create value for the people of Africa. The aid to all parts of the world increased from 10.9 billion euros to 12.8 billion euros in 2020, By 2022 the target for Macron and France is 0.55% of GDP for world aid.

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Fears of nervous investors is now touching the bond markets. AIG's insurance subsidiaries traded their bonds at prices ranging from 38 cents on the dollar to around 81 cents, from more than 50 cents on the dollar a month ago, according to MarketAxess. Investors are worried that future restructurings will cause cash generated by AIG's units to go to the government before its bondholders, as the government has already chalked up a huge bill of $177 billion for AIG. Long term bonds of triple rated General Electric Company, which with GE Capital is the largest US corporate debt issuer, dropped last week to 63 cents on the dollar. Again investors are worried that they may not get all their money back. And again GE's CFO Sherin had to reassure investors that GE's capital position was strong. The bonds of Citigroup are trading at 70 cents on the dollar. Sales of blocks of securities called "bid lists" are not a good sign, as big groups of sales are an indication investors are desperate to unload investments quickly. Bonds issued by Goldman Sachs and General Electric without the government's backing have dropped to 96 cents on the dollar and 73 cents on the dollar, respectively in the last few days. Their government backed debt trades at close to full value or 100 cents on the dollar. ...

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Shows how attitudes change given the space of 2 decades. Its not just about math and computers at an early age, its also about how perceptions about nations and cultures change during certain periods. Its interesting that the same perception is not about China, as Japan invests a lot in China and China is seen as a manufacturer of less advanced technologies and goods compared to Japan.