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The WSJ Editorial Board speaking for the business community traditional Republican groups finally takes up the election on issues of policy difference between Trump run Republican party and Harris run Democratic Party which it should have from Day One. The former president says something that has never happened in the last hundred years- policy will be decided after the election depending on what he decides to do. Cost of Living action is No 1 on voter priorities. "Drill, Baby Drill," is the whole Republican party platform for cost of living action. What is the Harris Democrats policy plan for cost of living action? WSJ says it is spending blowouts that caused inflation, the Green New Deal, entitlement expansions and student loan forgiveness.The real reason for the increase in cost of living comes from the overconcentration of supply chain by American business in China, on which every president Bush, Obama, Trump, did little or nothing. The lack of an effective vaccination program and ineffective vaccines in China by 2021 and 2022 led to the loss of the supplies from China leading to shortages for automobiles parts and other supplies and surge in prices in 2021-2023. Powell and the US central bank correctly raised rates but cautiously and waited for this to correct, president Biden brought manufacturing home through huge investments called the "spending blowout" that brought down the inflation from 9% to 3%. Some of that "spending blowout" went to chips and science to correct the errors of American Business and Reagan-Friedman theory of the Republican party that created this problem with a culture of utter  indifference to the ultimate costs of who makes what and where. The Inflation Reduction Act also tackled higher health and other costs paid by American workers and families, and invested in public services and in repairing the dilapidated crumbling American infrastructure. Are Republicans saying let the roads, bridges, airports, built in the 1940-1960's heyday of American industrialization as China and India's is now, let them crumble? What do the educated minds of the WSJ Board say about coal in China and India and their effects on their massive use multiple times that of US and EU in history, is it not damaging to the environment and why the Chinese realized the health in North China with coal winter use was worse than in South China cut their coal use. Are they saying lets burn fossil fuels and ignore, and if investment has to be made in solar who is going to do it? Is it Ok for Republicans thet we just import from China all our solar panels indefinitely into the future. "Green New Deal" is just a perjorative term, policy has to be made thoughtfully and without prejudice or bias of any sort for the best that we can do for the American people, ignoring so called "right" or "left." Doing what is right, what makes sense, is a lot harder.     ...

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Greg Ip points out that the stronger dollar in 2018 is creating serious problems for Argentina, and will have an effect on Turkey, Indonesia and other developing countries. Dollarization hurts because it increases debt as debt servicing becomes costlier with dollar denominated debt and imports denominated in dollars become costlier. The dollar has increased in importance in the global economy. This is why the economic growth has suffered in developing countries in 2018. It is also why president Trump believes he can cut off Iran from the U.S. banking system to increase chance of new negotiations to fix flaws in the Iran nuclear deal, says Ip.   Argentina has seen internal problems compounded by the rising dollar causing the peso to drop by 17% so far in 2018. 88% of Argentina's imports are denominated in dollars. A rising dollar means it costs more in pesos for imports. Argentina's different levels of government have $98 billion in dollar denominated debt, and private sector has an additional $68 billion, the total being a third of its GDP. A decline in the peso means this is harder to pay off. About 40% of world trade, according to Harvard economist Gita Gopinath, is invoiced in U.S. dollars, four times U.S. share of world trade, and developing countries together owe $2 trillion in dollar denominated debt according to BIS. This makes it harder for developing countries such as Indonesia, Turkey, India, Argentina, Brazil, as they now face rising oil prices in combination with a rising dollar. In Argentina a poor crop for soyabeans and other agricultural exports in 2018 creates additional woes.   ...

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Thomas Friedman of the NYT sees a climate change as an area in which Trump has ignored the information of eminent scientists. He sees a weakness of the Trump administration in Trump's putting no importance to briefings by experts from climate change to national security briefings. Friedman sees Russia and hacking as a major issue facing the new Trump administration, including the new hearings in Congress from leading Republicans on the cyberattacks.

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As in the US with Harris investment in America vs Trump cuts there is a distinct difference between the Tory spending plans that allowed capital spending investment in the economic future of Britain to decline from 2.5% to 1.7% of GDP over 5 years to 2030. Rachel Reeves, Britain's finance minister, says the government will adopt a new rule that changes the way it measures debt- public sector net liabilities as a percentage of GDP is the new fiscal rule. What it does is free up 50 billion pounds Britain badly needs to invest in things like climate change action, education, and other needs of the economy that will brighten Britain's prospects in the future.  “If we continued on that path, we would be embracing a path of decline. The real debate now in British politics is whether you are on the side of investment or on the side of decline. I don’t want to see public sector net investment as a share of our economy decline in a way that is currently set out. Under our current fiscal rules, we would not be able to reverse that path.” The stability rule goes with this that says strictly this money will not be used for tax giveaways, and not for public sector pay deals or the day to day functioning of government. In addition th government will borrow 25 billion pounds to  keep 30 billion pounds of headroom so that debt will keep falling over the first term of this Labour government.   ...

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Philip Rucker of the WP provides this exceptional account of people on the Staten Island Ferry in New York. Construction workers who like Tump's toughness to tackle terrorism, jobs, and other issues. Others who sees Trump's name on properties all over Manhattan, and think he will bring prosperity. And the female worker at a food pantry who says she sees too many immigrants and looks to Trump to fix this. Staten Island is one of New York's boroughs with a population of 500,000 mostly white people that is not connected to city by subway, is heavily Republican, with new immigrants creating community tensions.

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The Dow Jones Average jumps 296 points on Dec. 7, 2016, with a broad rally including banks and industrial companies, but excluding health care shares which suffered from comments by Trump to Time magazine that he would "cut drug prices."

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See Tim Walz's full speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 21, 2024 in his video from CBS News. Lyrarc has selected excerpts from Tim Walz's speech above showing what the Trump Republican party plans to do that will gut Social Security and Medicare, and kill the Affordable Care Act, gut efforts to lower exaggerated cost of medical drugs and healthcare. This excerpt shows what Harris will do to build a better life for workers and families and people across all 51 States, in education, childcare, healthcare, cost of living, and housing costs- "We’ve got something better to offer the American people. It starts with our candidate, Kamala Harris. From her first day — as a prosecutor, as a district attorney, as an attorney general, as a United States senator, and then our vice president — she’s fought on the side of the American people. She’s taken on the predators and fraudsters. She’s taken down the transnational gangs. And she’s stood up to powerful corporate interests. She has never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives. And she’s always done it with energy, with passion and with joy. Folks, we’ve got a chance to make Kamala Harris the next president of the United States. But I think we owe it to the American people to tell them exactly what she’d do as president before we ask them for their votes. So this is the part — clip and save it, and send it to your undecided relatives so they know: If you’re a middle-class family, or trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes. If you’re getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma. If you’re hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable. And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead, because that’s what we want for ourselves, and it’s what we want for our neighbors."       ...

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The Byrd rule says Congress cannot pass changes to retirement rules in a reconciliation bill which do not require 60 votes to pass in the Senate. Using this method to get Trump's mega bill for tax cuts passed means that of DJT's promises to eliminate taxes on tips and social security only the tips one will be made into law. Congress will still give retirees a break by adding $4000 to the standard deduction for those 65 years and over. 

Social Security benefits were never taxed before 1984. In that year Reagan began taxing Social Security benefits.

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WSJ looks at how the relationship between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris evolved. From the faltering start when Harris was contesting for the presidential nomination and made sharp debate comments on segregationist senators and Biden, to her entry into the White House as Vice President dissolving her political action committees and not bringing her election people to the White House. The first assignment was on immigration and the White House asking Harris to tell Central Americans not to come to the US border did not exactly work out. Guatemala was in the middle of a drought affecting its agriculture and sending more people from the affected regions to the US Border. That message did not work and Harris came under criticism. There was less contact with Biden during the years 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.   Gradually though the president came to listen to Harris and set up a weekly lunch meeting. When Supreme Court nominations were to be made Biden relied on Harris's advice. Ketanji Jackson nomination to the Supreme Court came out of these talks with Harris. Then came Roe and Wade and the president who was not outspoken on this issue realized that Harris was better at communicating a common vision of what America stood for and the importance of reproductive freedoms. When Hamas attacked Israel, the response of Netanyahu was leading to an humanitarian disaster. President Biden listened to Harris describe the need for a Palestinian state and it building peace with Israel as the only real solution to the crisis. Biden sent Harris three times to the Munich Security Conference, and each year she met Mr. Zelensky and discussed the Ukraine issues with European leaders. Then came the debate performance and Democrats questioning Biden's health. Harris remained steadfast in her support till the end and on July 23 after announcing his withdrawal the previous day Biden told Kamala as he addressed Wilmington headquarters staff- "I'm watching you kid. I love ya." And Harris said "I love you." ...

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Harris supports some of the most far reaching efforts to help workers and families with cost of living action. Teachers would benefit with pay raises, workers earning less than $100,000 a year would benefit with special support of $500 a month to meet cost of living increases, $100 billion would be invested to support housing affordability using a estate tax on the wealthiest households. Harris proposed Rent Relief Act would provided refundable tax credits giving renters who earn less than $100,000 the ability to recoup housing costs in excess of 30 percent of their incomes. One of the more egregious situations today is shown in the WSJ where 25% of people renting apartments in the US- middle and lower income people- pay over 50% of their income on rent leaving less and less for food, transport, childcare. This would make a huge difference for these households. Affordable Housing is a big issue in many states including Nevad and Biden had proposed a 5% cap on rent increases after 20% increase in the last two years of the pandemic. Harris's proposal goes beyond this to help the hardest hit households. Harris supports emergency relief funding for homeless. And she supports spending $100 billion in communities hurt by discrimination in getting housing. ...

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Julia Preston of the NYT looks at Mr. Trump's speech on August 31, 2016 in Pheonix, Arizona, and compares what one can discern about the Trump policies on immigration with that of president Obama. She points out that it is similar to the deportation that was conducted under president Obama in some ways, but is more extensive in its dimensions. It includes sanctioning sanctuary cities, expanding the deportation law enforcement personnel, and deporting about 2 million people with criminal backgrounds. The estimate under the Obama administration is for about 176,000 people with such backgrounds. The Trump estimate appears to include people with minor offenses says Preston, because it is so much higher. As a result this could also include people who have no criminal background and disrupt families on a large scale, with hundreds of thousands of longtime residents and families deported. Under the sanctuary example of Trump, Denver, New York and counties in California would be places where Trump would cut off federal funding. On the wall itself, Mexico's president Nieto says he told Trump Mexico would not pay for the wall, and Trump says exactly the opposite that Mexico would pay for the wall in his speech to supporters.  A Gallup poll shows that 76% of Republicans, 91% of Democrats favor a path to citizenship for those here in the U.S. illegally. For the whole population only 15% oppose giving illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship and 84% support doing this. Which suggests that Trump is only appealing to his base of support, not adding to it, as Cillizza points out in the WP fact check.   ...

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A study by BuzzFeed shows that all but three of 20 fake stories by hoax sites or hyper partisan elements with likes on Facebook spread fake news with stories on Trump or denigrating Hillary Clinton. During the last 3 months of the campaign in 2016 the fake stories or bogus news stories appearing online and on social media had a greater reach than authoritative reporting by mainstream news outlets, according to a study of Facebook activity by BuzzFeed. President Obama and chancellor Merkel took aim at the fake stories on social media and hate opinions in talking to the public in Berlin at their final meeting in November 2016. Obama said "because in an age when there is so much active misinformation and it is packaged very well and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on television." He added it is a big problem that 43 percent of eligible voters do not vote and when "we are not serious about facts and what's true and what's not, particularly in age of social media when so many people are getting their information in sound bites and off their phones." Merkel compared the situation today with digitization to the social disruptions during the Industrial Revolution and gave her own warnings. ...

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See the president address the nation on his 50 years in office, and handing the torch to a new generation, to younger voices.

"Benjamin Franklin was asked whether America will be a monarchy or a Republic he said ; 'A Republic if you can keep it. If you can keep it.' "

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History is in your hands,” Mr. Biden tells the nation on July 24, 2024. “The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. We just have to keep faith, keep the faith, and remember who we are.”

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All the pent up energy after the uncertainty of the last couple of weeks and the Democratic party held up, then the energy burst into the open, one adviser said it was going bonkers, it was intense- 250 million was raised in 36 hours, most of it from new donors, and 58,000 new volunteers to join in the campaign for Kamala Harris. Nothing like this has been seen in modern times.

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The president telling Kamala "go for it kid. I love you.," and Kamala saying "I love you." The president saying that he is all in this campaign. The staff in Wilmington, Delaware grasped the emotion of the moment, and what it means for America. It may not be fully understood but it serves well the moment and this time in American history- there are now two candidates for president, Biden as the honorary unofficial presidential nominee, Kama as officially presidential nominee, and the to be selected nominee for vice president, not two but three in that team for the first time in American history- all inseparable to take head on the dangers to America's democratic institutions that George Washington by paying so little attention to himself, that Jefferson and Adams, TR, Wilson and FDR fought to protect through 2 World Wars, dangers from social media and television degenerated divisiveness. Katie Rogers tells the story of how on one summer afternoon in July, on July 22, 2024, the Biden campaign was converted into the Harris campaign all the way down to the memes popularity for Kamala. The president's call "to embrace her," the Biden staff with little time to express their emotions, all staffers in Wilmington become Harris staffers knowing also the deep loyalty that Kamala Harris had shown throughout the long weeks for Biden, and her strong feelings for being on the president's team. ...

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You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”  Harris mother told her when she was growing up. Vice President Kamala Harris said last year with a sense of humor and even a folksy philosophical sense. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” The way Kamala said or its deeper meaning has set this off for a thousand memes on the internet for Kamala fans. KHive refers to 2 groups of fans the earlier ones many of them women  when she was senator, and the later ones who learned about her passion for the issues relating to a better life for workers and families across these 51 states. Now there is a Kamala fervor on the internet. Harris campaign is also working itself into this fervor instinctively. Though no one may realize this not even Kamala herself there is a sense of Gandhi in this. Her grandfather and mentor was a civil servant who was raised in the Gandhian tradition of public service unmatched anywhere in the world for its dedication and determination for knowledge and for freedom. ...

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For Kamala Harris cooking is a form of meditation, the kitchen a place to relax. Kim Severson shows this side of Harris who may even carry the tradition of cooking Sunday dinner into the White House. Looking back no one comes close. Kamala loves to cook, hopes to write a cookbook, has her favorite cooking experts, such is her passion for cooking.