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The disadvantages of 99 week unemployment benefits. Research has shown that the job search is most effective in the early months when the job hunter's skills and networks are at their best. The long term unemployed are about half of the total unemployed. Federal Reserve of San Francisco researchers show that about 0.8% of the jobless rate is a result of 99 week benefits.

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In 1933 Roosevelt helped set up the minimum wage but failed to index it to inflation. At $7.25 an hour in 2009 it still leaves people below the poverty line. "A self supporting and self respecting democracy sees no economic reason for chiselig workers' wages" FDR said at the time. It was set at 30 cents in 1933.

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"If you outsource your learning (your human knowledge then why exist?" asks Nadella, head of Microsoft. After all he says a company is a learning system. We at Lyrarc with our skepticism of the value of  robots and AI by themselves without the driving human component, thoroughly agree with Nadella of Microsoft. Nadella says the best thing is to have as many AI models as companies- hundreds of thousands of companies as learning systems keeping their individual human knowledge bases intact alongside AI supplements. The industry jargon for this is "open weight models" which is to take a basic core of AI and add your own individual learning component for an individualized learning system. To enable this Microsoft is offering multi models including cost effective Deep Seek and Cohere in its Azure AI Foundry, Amazon doing the same with Bedrock and Google following the same path. In an interview with Yash Patil cited in Business Insider, Nadella Explains, saying-  "My simple thing is there should be as many models in the world as firms in the world. Because after all, what is a firm? A firm is a learning system." "I don't want to be locked into any one model. I want to be able to use my own context, my own data — in fact, my own traces to maybe even take a much more open-weight, cost-efficient model or a fine-tuned model." "It can't be, 'Hey, look, I have two frontier models or three frontier models' or whatever, some finite set that have learned everything that is differentiated today in the economy because then it collapses.'" "You can always buy a tool, you can even outsource a task or even a job, but you can't outsource your learning. If you outsource your learning, then why exist?" ...

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Front line experience gained by management by working alongside workers is critical for getting a good understanding of the business. It helps build employee morale and customer service by giving management an insight into what happens in the field.

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Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council,  running to succeed Andy Burnham as mayor of Manchester region of two million people.  She also held the post of Economy, Business and Inclusive Growth leader for Greater Manchester Authority, and was the person who assisted Burnham in his work. Election is next Thursday July 30, 2026. Craig says the Reform UK and Greens vote has peaked. She says she has been compared to Burnham which is not a fair comparison given that this will be her first day in office and his last when she is elected, advice she got from Richard Leese, her predecessor in Manchester at the job for 25 years.  Bev Craig supports a 2% levy on assets over 10 million pounds and modified capital gains tax. Along with other mayors Bev supports investing in a revised version of HS2 train line connecting Manchester with Birmingham. This would boost growth in the region in Britain's largest northern cities outside London in the southeast. The Conservative government made a mistake in cancelling the project. This is similar to the delays on the bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad which accelerated after Modi's efforts in recent years and is now almost complete. Once this first leg is built India can look forward to bullet trains connecting all major cities, such is the potential of such investments, propelling India into a different level similar to work done in high speed rail in China. It is the lack of Tories to dream big for Britain and do this on a model of established practice Modi's in Gujarat, Burnham's in Manchester, that is the great big hope for Britain. This calls for relentless effort, hard work night and day, overcoming every obstacle on the way, and continuously keeping the goal upfront of reindustrialization of Britain. India can learn a lot from the Industrial Revolution and science and technology advances Britain created, and Britain can learn from the efforts underway in India in 2026 for Vikshit Bharat by 2047. ...

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Lt. Heather Penney at Andrews Air Force Base on the day of 9/11. She was on a runway at the airbase ready to fly an F-16 fighter plane with orders to bring down United airlines Flight 93.

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Ip's point about the actions of previous president's in promoting a recovery long after they are in office has to be qualified by the uncertain economic outlook for 2013, with a slowdown in the eurozone, China and India, and the efforts to control the deficit in the U.S. also affecting the economic outlook. The process of deleveraging has still to work itself out and the economy is still being supported by the Fed's continual easing of monetary policy.

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According to a report from China's Environment Ministry for the first half of 2013, only 4 cities met the acceptable air quality standards. The national grade 2 standard in China is for 35 micrograms per cubic meter for levels of airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrograms in diameter. WHO standard is for 25 micrograms per cubic meter in a 24 hour period. The 4 cities with acceptable air qualty out of 74 cities monitored by the Environment Ministry are Lhasa in Tibet, island city Haikou, coastal town Zhoushan, and Pearl River Delta city of Huizhou.

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US naval base at Bahrain and the damage from missiles in the war  June 2026 as shown by the WSJ. Bahrain is located only 150 miles from the Iranian coastline and was targeted along with other sites including Kuwait and UAE. A new route along the Omani coastline protected by US naval power in the region that then goes along the UAE coastline is now the route opened up by the US for shipping oil through Hormuz. This route is key to reducing oil prices and the recent visit by Marco Rubio of the US to the Gulf Cooperation Council being held in Bahrain June 25,  and the meetings held there, affirmed the open navigation of the seas on international waterways as being under international law. This has led to the fall of oil prices to prewar levels of around $70 per barrel. The US will redo the naval forces and bases in the region with less in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, smaller footprint in Bahrain, and move some naval forces to the west closer to or inside Israel. The administration has asked Congress for $40 billion for the naval and military effort to restore open navigation of the seas for the world's energy of which $5 billion will go to repair of damaged naval facilities. One of the effects of the war that is constructive is ther is now an awareness to manage oil consumption in India, China and Japan major users of oil coming through Hormuz. China has figured out ways to do without the 3 million barrels a day from Hormuz, India has setup alternative oil supplies from Venezuela, and Japan is both cutting oil use and looking at alternative sources. Oil companies are also working on alternative supplies in other regions of the world. Both China, India, and European Union are accelerating their renewable energy sources to meet energy requirements. This means after 2026 the world may not be dependent on Hormuz for energy supplies, Hormuz becoming one of multiple sources and alternative supplies than in the past. This will also keep oil prices in the $50-$70 range that is consistent with cost of living and economic growth. ...

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Natural gas production starts 90 miles off the northern coast of Norway near Hammerfest, on the Artic Ocean area. A most difficult area to operate in, Statoil Hydro, the Norwegian oil company has addressed this challenge with natural gas production to feed the eastern coast of the USA using liquefied natural gas ships for transportation. Costs for such production are much higher and higher oil and natural gas prices and increasing global demand are expected to support such difficult discovery and exploration in the years to come.

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India's leading energy official, Anil Swarup, the Coal Secretary, says India has to depend on what is available, with slow progress on nuclear power there is not much else. As India increases its growth rate to 7-8% India will increasingly be dependent on coal. The Modi government plans to double coal production. About 300 million people in India have no access to electricity. The country faces energy shortages in other areas. Even with a push for renewable solar and wind energy, coal is expected to provide 60% of energy needs in India in 2030. One government model shows solar and wind increasing from 6% to 18% by 2030. India points to per capita emissions which are 1.7 for India, 6.2 for China, and 17.6 for the U.S., according to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center.