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Musk DOGE 2025 and the 1941 Truman Committee- cutting waste in $4 trillion in spending.  With the Biden Infrastructure Act and other infrastructure, science and chips spending of $4 trillion the US needs to act to have oversight on waste and overspending in 2025. We just want to show that it is in the American tradition of democratic government, that an obscure Senator from Missouri, Democrat Harry Truman initiated such an effort called the Truman Committee when he addressed the Senate on Feb 10, 1941. The US Senate site describes this Special committee to Investigate the National Defense Program adjacent to this article. As the US prepared to enter World War II in Feb. 1941 an obscure Senator from Missouri rose up in the Senate to call for oversight over the $10.1 billion Roosevelt had got approval from the US Congress to spend on war efforts. The oversight was to fight overspending, waste and fraud in spending the huge amounts dedicated to the war effort. The result was the Truman Committee in the US Senate with as chairman of the committee Harry Truman 1941-1944, James Mead (NY) 1944-46, Harley Kilgore (Wisconsin) 1946-47, Ralph Brewster a Republican from Maine in 1947-48. These were the years when the US spent on the war effort- $330 billion in 1945 dollars, $4 trillion in 2024 dollars $212 in US government borrowings, $136 billion in war bonds With the Biden Infrastructure Act and other infrastructure, science and chips spending of $4 trillion the US needs to act to have oversight on waste and overspending in 2025. ...

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China has two ports in Panama and significant investments in port and maritime activity that give it an advantage over the US in its own backyard. The Panama Canal was one of the bold endeavors of the twentieth century. In Path Between the Seas, David McCoullough describes this feat of engineering, the lives lost to malaria, the efforts it generated to find a cure for malaria, and the indomitable spirit of McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt that every American can rightly be proud of.  It was handed over by president Carter to Panama, in the way Clinton handed over entry into the World Trade Organization without protections and written agreement for level playing field in trade in the 1970's and in the 1990's when US had no idea that American business would create from these beginnings in phases supply chain partner, competitor, and adversary for America.  In 2025 Americans can look back and see that American interests were not protected in a period of so called "American triumphalism" under Carter, Clinton, Bush, Obama that has since disappeared with the loss of American manufacturing and destroying the small factory towns across America- and also France and EU nations- that depended on manufacturing for jobs and standard of living.  DJT is simply charting the long road back for America to the Bold Endeavours and Spirit of American adventure that Americans see in themselves as a nation founded on the frontier since Washington's days in the Pennsylvania country in the 1750's. The Spirit the led to the founding of the new nation through a protracted war on the frontier with the British. ...

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GM and Ford US International Trade Commission report in 2024 sees only about a 5% increase in prices for a 25% tariff in car imports into the US from EU, Japan, Canada, Mexico and China. With US production GM at 60% Ford at 80%, both companies are better positioned to shift production to the US following 25% tariff on cars imported into the US. GM also has the financial strength to invest in new auto plants in the US. Given a period of transition US companies are in a position to tap the added demand as more cars are made in the US.  Stellantis Stellantis formed from the merger of Chrysler, Fiat and Peugeot makes many of its cars overseas in Mexico and in the EU, and has considerable exposure. Toyota Toyota sales in 2024 were 2.3 million cars, with about 60% of the production in the US. Hyundai and Kia, Nissan Hyundai makes about 80% of the 840,000 cars it sells in the US in US plants. Hyundai plans to invest $21 billion in the US to make cars in the US including $5.8 billion for a steel plant in Louisiana. Other companies may follow Hyundai to Make in the USA. VW VW had plans for an expansion to make 590,000 cars. It has current  sales of about 400,000 cars in the US. Expansion at the Chattanooga plant or putting in another plant could help it make most of its cars in the US. ...

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Vigorous and eloquent testimony before Congress by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, answering questions from Republicans and Democrats. Bessent had just landed from London at 3 am in the morning and after 3 hours of sleep took the time to answer over 5 hours of questioning by members of the House of Representatives. In question after question he explained how the certainty offered by the tax cuts bill would help small business and job creation in the US. The permanence of the 100% expensing of buildings and equipment would help farmers and small business , regulations would be cut, and manufacturing would take off. Manufacturing employs 9% of the workers in the US and their wages will rise faster than for service workers. The combined effects of the improvements for small business, farmers and for manufacturing workers will help the American middle class, America's working class, and increase the growth of the economy. Bessent points out that in the original bill of which the new tax bill is an extension the top 10% paid 7% more in taxes in 2017. He also points out that workers were hurt the most by the slower rise in wages and the rise in cost of living of 21% in 2021-2022, which he says was in essential goods with the actual impact of about 30%. With higher jobs creation by small business and more investment in the economy more able bodied men can join the workforce and gain healthcare benefits under new rules. He pointed to low inflation at 2.1% and to higher job creation, and to higher growth in the economy of 2.6%, that with other savings could lower the deficit. ...

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White House counselor Steve Ricchetti says with the pace and activity and hours at the White House, Biden is outworking people around him. The special counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's retention of classified documents has part of it on the president not remembering the date his son Beau Biden had died in 2015. The president was furious that special counsel Hur had raised that question, saying it was none of his damn business. The special counsel's report also says Biden had kept a memo in 2013 that he had handwritten and sent to then president Obama outlining his opposition to the surge of troops in Afghanistan. It was something Biden had kept with him as he understood the flaws of the Bush-Obama policies in Afghanistan. Where Republicans and some Democrats have seen a hasty withdrawal  from Afghanistan under Biden the nation sees the need to rededicate its resources to building a strong economy that meets the needs and aspirations of the American people. Even the British Empire in India for 200 years had wisely stayed away from Afghanistan for 200 years. It is the wisdom and experience, the ability to work with colleagues in Congress in the way Lyndon Johnson was able to do to pass his Great Society and Medicare initiatives, that benefits the nation, something that comes with age. It is this wisdom, composure and determination that has created the strongest American economy not seen in decades and a path to an even stronger economy in the future. ...

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Failure has to be an option for Lehman, this is a widely heard opinion. Unlike Bear Stearns swhich had $13 trillion in notional derivatives exposure the systemic risk is thought to be muted in the case of Lehman. In this case neither shareholders or debtholders should be protected with taxpayer money by the Treasury to avoid reckless lending or reckless leveraging in the future.

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Steel prices drop by 40% in 2015 for steel supplied to the automobile industry. Chinese producers reduce prices on world markets as China increases exports. ArcelorMittal suffers a loss of $7.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 on its steel business and mining. The mining unit had a$3.5 billion operating loss and the company took a writeoff of $3.4 billion on mines as a result of the collapse in the mining industry prices. For the full year the company expects $4.5 billion in earnings for 2015 before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, compared to $5.2 billion in 2014. Its capitalization has declined to about $6.8 billion.

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Citigroup is continuing its reduction of risky assets following the financial crisis of 2008. Citi sold a $1.7 billion portfolio of private equity assets to AXA Private Equity. This is part of the close to $600 billion in assets that include troubled loan and securities portfolios, which Citi has planned to sell after the financial crisis.These assets are held in Citi Holdings unit of Citigroup. At the end of the first quarter 2011, Citi Holdings had $337 billion in assets, including retail banking and card portfolios in Western Europe, and CitiFinancial consumer lending unit. This is down from $582 billion held at the end of the second quarter of 2009.

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Barley points out that the Euro-zone austerity plans in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, the U.K. and other countries are coming in the context of a potential global slowdown. This will make it even harder for these countries to reduce debt and deficits. Greece had to make cuts and tax increases equivalent to 8% of GDP just to reduce the 2010 deficit by 5% after GDP declined more than expected according to the IMF. To reduce debt ratios nominal growth has to be higher than the average interest rate on debt. Its hard to see this happening and debt not increasing in some Eurozone countries.

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The month of August 2011 ranks as the 10th worst month for U.S. stocks in 75 years. Or to put it another way of the last 900 months, the month of August 2011 ranks the 10th worst month in terms of volatiltiy. The average up and down movement each day in August was 1.%. In August the Dow Jones Industrial Averages were down 529 points, or a drop of 4.4%. This is not what worries investors as much- as their are months like May 2010 which had a 7.9% drop. The impact on investors is in the increased uncertainty that this creates about how an investment will perform in the future.

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The Census Bureau reports that 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010. This is an increase of 2.6 million over 2009. This is the highest number of Americans living in poverty since 1958, when this statistic was first measured. Poverty is defined for 2010 as income at or below $22,314 for family of four. Also relevant is the median household income which went down to $49,445 in 2010, a decline of 2.3% from 2009. The typical household earned less in 2010 than in 1997, in inflation adjusted terms. The Census Bureau reports 16.3% of Americans had no health insurance coverage in 2010, the same as 2009.

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Knight Capital's aggressive introduction of software with ony a short period between approval and implementation resulted in a wave of erroneous orders resulting in losses for the brokerage firm of $440 million. These losses were incurred as Knight Capital had to sell all the stocks it accidentally bought as a result of malfunctioning software that sent out waves of wrong orders on August 1, 2012. Knight accounted for 11% of the stock traded in the U.S. in the first half of 2012, according to TABB Group. It took 45 minutes for the New York Exchange to detect the problem, identify Knight Trading as the source and shut down trading.

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Donadio and Povoledo give a biographical account of Berlusconi and Italy in the 1990's, as Berlusconi made his ascent to power. They describe the centrist vacuum that Berlusconi filled with a mix of charm, loyalty politics, and ownership of media interests, with his Forza Italia. It left Italy poorer than before after years of economic stagnation. Berlusconi had promised to revive Italy with policies different from the polarized parties of the Communists and the Left and the right wing Christian Democrats. It was to the very end based on the personality of Mr Berlusconi. And it failed to bring new economic energy to Italy.

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Nouriel Roubini on the housing losses expected in 2011. Roubini says he is particularly concerned because of a recent study by Laurie Goodman of Amherst Securities, which shows 11 million borrowers are in danger of losing their homes, which is one of every five borrowers. He says this number is scary because previous estimates had shown the number to be 3-4 million for the next four years. Roubini says he has talked to experts in the housing industry who tell him the 11 million number is realistic. His overall sense is that the housing problems in the U.S. are "underappreciated," with banks facing about $1 trillion in housing related losses.

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Abbott Laboratories agreement to pay $1.6 billion in civil and criminal fines for promoting unapproved off label uses of the neurologic drug Depakote, to sedate older patients in nursing homes. The acting associate attorney general, Tony West, said: "Not only did Abbott engage in off-label promotion, it targeted elderly dementia patients and down played the risks apparent from its own clinical studies." Abbott aggressively promoted its use in nursing homes. It also aggressively promoted the use of the drug for schizophrenia between 2001 and 2006. In 1999 Abbott had to discontinue a clinical trial testing Depakote's effectiveness against dementia after results showed increased incidence of anorexia, drowsiness and dehydration.

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David Reilly points out that using the regulatory figures JP Morgan had exposure to Italy of $87.5 billion, to Spain of $57.5 billion, and an exposure of $390 billion for France, Germany and the Netherlands. This is as of Dec. 2011. This is higher than the netted figures given out by the bank. In his chairman's letter Dimon showed bank exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain of about $15 billion with potential loss in a bad situation of $3 billion. This is if portfolio hedges work. If for some reason they did not work as anticipated, the losses could be much higher.

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Residential property investments are showing a consistent return in Japan. In 2013 residential property investments had a total return of income plus capital gains of 8.0% vs. 9.7% in the U.S., according to Investment Property Databank Ltd. In 2009 the worst year, returns were -3.8% in Japan vs. -16.3% in the U.S. Income gains support returns for residential investments. Investment is increasing with real estate investment up to 3.5 trillion yen in year to date Sept 2014, up 13% over the same period prior year. Blackstone is buying General Electric's residential real estate properties (about 10,000 non-luxury rental units in major cities), as trends show more people moving to cities.

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Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion in January 2014. Google paid $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in 2011. The Moto X model has not sold well in competition with Apple and Samsung smartphones. Google will retain 15,000 of 17,000 patents acquired as part of the Motorola acquisition, patents worth billions of dollars and helping it defend its Android mobile operating system. Google sold Motorola Home which made setup boxes to Arris in 2012 for $2.35 billion. Motorola Mobility had $2.9 billion in cash at the time of the acquisition. In addition Google is retaining a research group led by Regina Dugan working on new technologies.

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Faces of ordinary Argentines in Buenos Aires, as Argentina faces high inflation following a devaluation of the peso by 17% in early 2014. Argentina has faced recurring crises of devaluation of the currency and high inflation, in 2001 and a decade earlier under president Alfonsin, and in periods stretching back to the period after independence from Spain. Brazil had recurring bouts of inflation and devaluation of the currency which was followed by a buildup of foreign currency reserves during the recent boom in commodity markets. This has helped Brazil keep inflation under control, better than the situation facing Argentina with much smaller currency reserves.

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The defeat of Eric Cantor in a Republican primary in 2014, by David Brat, a professor of economics at Randolph-Macon College of Ashland, Virgina. Brat did this with just $200,000 and the support of local talk show person Laura Ingraham, compared to $5.4 million raised by Cantor. Brat did this without national Tea party support, depending more on local activism in a conservative district, and the sentiment locally for Anybody but Cantor (ABC). This shows how quickly sentiment on the ground can change, as Cantor had previously won primaries with much as 79% of the vote in an area stretching from Richmond to the Washington suburbs.

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The Indonesian currency, the Rupiah, has declined by 13% in 2013- by Sept. 3. It reached a level of 11,050 rupiah for one dollar on Sept 3. Economic growth has declined to 6% for the second quarter of 2013. The depreciation of the rupiah is likely to increase inflation significantly and affect the consumer spending boom in Indonesia. Indonesia had a $2.3 billion trade deficit in July 2013 after a continuing surge in imports. This will affect car prices and prices of international brands popular in the country. Toyota set the rate at 9500 rupiah to the dollar and plans to increase prices now that the rate has passed 11,000 rupiah.

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Britain's Tax Service reports the number of taxpayers reporting incomes of 1 million pounds a year declined by over 60% in fiscal 2010-2011 from the prior year. In 2010 the Labor government of Gordon Brown introduced a 50% income tax rate for this income group, up from 40%. The number of million dollar incomes filed declined to 6000 from 16000 in 2009-2010, and revenues declined from 13.4 billion pounds or 9% of total taxes from taxpayers to 6.5 billion pounds or 4.4% or about half. The Labor government had hoped for additional 2.5 billion pounds in revenue, showig unintended consequences and surprises in economic policies.

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The 2010 Taurus with its muscular styling appears aimed at individual drivers than to families. The price will still keep it from becoming aFord product aimed at the mass market that the original Taurus once targeted. Prices start at $25,995 and can go up to $40,000 when you had an array of high tech features like an anti collision system. Its more than the segment leader Chevy Impala. Says the editor in chief at Edmunds.com, Ford may be chasing the original Taurus fans, who are now much older. Ford sold 52,667 Taurus cars in 2008, and marketing chief Farley expects an increase from that but has modest expectations.

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Legislation advanced by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois would allow bankruptcy judges to lower principal and interest rates on mortgages and extend the loan period. Of 10 million homeowners who are having trouble making payments new bankruptcy law changes would help 800,000 troubled borrowers keep their homes, according to Mark Zandi, chief economst at Moody's Economy.com. With the government's loans of $45 billion to Citigroup it has more leverage on key banks in the banking industry. As a result Citigroup which had earlier opposed the change in bankruptcy laws to make this possible has now changed its stance. Vikram Pandit Citi's CEO stated yesterday that "we support its swift passage."

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Ford Motor Company will be a much smaller company and this looks like a structural change not a cyclical one as more automobiles are made in the developing world and fewer automobiles and smaller automobiles are made in the mature US market and like Germany and Japan the market here may have peaked. This would be seen in the employee numbers also. Ford had 34500, salaried workers in 2005, now its down to 23,700, with another cut in salaried workforce cuts by 15% by August 1, 2008, recently announced and even more cuts in 2009 if the market numbers fall further, the salaried workforce may be below 20,000.