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Buried in the Pew Trust study in 2017 showing that only 9% of French, 24% of British, 36% of Germans and 37% of Americans feel their children would be better off financially, is the divide between college educated and those with a high school diploma. Only one third of Americans are college graduates, and 69% of them are satisfied with the economy's condition. Of the high school diploma holders or the rest of the population, only 55% think so. This is likely to take a long time to correct, particularly with the loss of good manufacturing jobs and drop in wages in manufacturing of the last two decades,  the need for more technology and skills in the jobs environment, failing schools and families in the social environment.

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An exceptional look at burnout and stress at work in the Guardian newspaper. In the UK 526,000 workers were affected by the burnout epidemic, suffering from stress, depression or anxiety, in 2016-2017, according to Health and Safety Executive. More women are affected than men, and more in professions in healthcare, social care and education. Longer work hours are part of it till pressures at work became intolerable for people shown in this report. Problems remain masked at the beginning and act in a kind of mission creep. Experts say it is important to see this as the result not of sick individuals unable to cope but of ailing organizations that have created workplaces where burnout can occur, where blame takes the place of collaboration, and support is limited or non existent.

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The National Assessment of Educational Progess (NAEP) test scores in the U.S. for K-12 show a lack of progress since 2013. Scores for math and reading dropped for 8th grade students, and scores for reading were stagnant while dropping in math for 4th grade students. The test scores reflect progress in rural, suburban, urban environments, for communities that are affluent, less affluent and poor, different ethnic backgrounds. The test started in 1990 is the only one measuring national progress. The new results of NAEP are on a scale of 0 to 500, and show that in 2015 64 percent of 4th graders and 66 percent of eighth graders were not reading proficient, 60 percent of 4th graders and 67 percent of 8th graders were not math proficient. Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, do much better in the tests than Mississippi and New Mexico. Experts say a state to state comparison should separate the non native English speaking students from native English speaking, especially in states like Texas. With about two thirds of students failing the math and reading proficiency levels, growing proportions of minority Hispanic students in many states, larger proportion of less affluent students, the tests show the challenges facing America's K-12 education even after the changes introduced by Education Secretary Duncan since 2008....

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Questions remain about how well Mehmet Oz, who had a popular television health show Dr Oz, can deliver on reducing obesity levels, handle the cuts in Medicaid, and tackle the overspending on Medicare Advantage, as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, With it's $1.5 trillion budget it is the largest agency in the US government other than Defense. It is also not delivering health results as American health for the dollars spent is failing to deliver, many nations in Asia and Europe have better health with a small fraction of the US cost.

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Both sides harden positions before the June 30th deadline for 1.5 billion euro repayment of debt to the IMF. Greece's prime minister Tsipras accuses the IMF of "criminal responsibility" for the pain of austerity programs in Greece. Eurozone leaders says Greece's default on its debt and exit from the eurozone is a possibility. The Economist points out that a Greek default and Greece's exit from the eurozone would be a mistake. It points out that this means repudiating debts of 317 billion euros, or about 180% of GDP. Yet the repayment is at low interest rates spread out over decades. Until the early 2020's interest rates are about 3% of GDP a year. In theory a devaluation would help exports, but Greece with its small trading position, may not see much benefit. The drop in nominal wages by 16% has not led to a surge in exports. The cost in terms of broken banks, sharp decline in savings, and collapse of confidence could be disastrous. The very people Syriza is trying to protect the poor and elderly, would be hit hardest, as the collapse in the currency would lead to a shift to a barter economy as in Argentina during its default crisis. For the European Union, the problem would not go away, as it would have to deal with a bigger problem of a failed state on the Aegean on the EU's southern flank. Syriza's gamble that this can be used to extract concessions by holding off till the last minute is failing, because it is leading Greece back to contraction after the small growth in 2014 under prime minister Samaras- with capital flight from the banks and investors leaving in a general fall in confidence. The management of the economy and negotiations by Syriza is now seen as incompetent and has jeopardized any difficult progress made....

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India's Supreme Court criticizes Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to respond for more than a year to a request to investigate allegations about improper awarding of telecom licenses. Telecom licenses were sold by the government in 2008 to politically connected companies, at rates far below the market rates. The Auditor General's report showed that licenses were awarded in a way that "lacked transparency and fairness."

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A humorous story on how Lady Hale delivered the unanimous decision of the UK Supreme Court against the prorogation of parliament by prime minister Boris Johnson, with a pun on the word pro-rogue-ation. And some ideas on how this was received by all sides. The decision was not popular in Britain and was seen by the royals and people around Queen Elizabeth as bad advice given to the Queen by the prime minister. Much of the behaviour of Boris Johnson and adviser Dominic Cummings is based on polls showing them winning over Labour seats in northern England that voted for Brexit in a general election to give the Conservatives a majority. Labour leader McDonnell has said that they have miscalculated. Labour party continues to emphasize that the real issue before the country is failing infrastructure, inequalities, lack of opportunity, jobs and the economy, not leaving the European Union. Labour's strategy is to wait out the general election for a couple of months so that voters can judge from the actions the competence of the Boris Johnson government to run the country for 5 years. ...

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As the Indian economy experiences a slowdown in 2019-20 a revealing statistic that lack of loans in the banking system is playing a critical role comes from the central bank, the RBI. Compared to the 6 month period April to September 2018 when 800,000 crore rupees loans were made to borrowers in the first 6 months of 2019 the loan volume dropped to 90,000 crore rupees.

Bad loans in the banking system and mismanagement in the banking system have caused the drop in loans, leading to government efforts to inject money into banks and consolidate banks by merging failing banks into larger better run banks. Additional causes of a slowdown are the drop in consumption, sales decline in the auto and other industries. A cut in corporate tax and the 2020 budget with investments in infrastructure, relaxing fiscal limits to invest more.  are designed to stimulate growth.

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Ann Marlowe has completed her sixth embed with American troops. She is a visiting fellow of the Hudson Institute. Her views from the ground are that without good governance the American effort there seriously risks failing. She is very concerned that the current administration is not taking good governance seriously. There should be alternatives to the Taliban and to the Karzai government which has failed to win public support.

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After working on improving schools in large cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans, Paul Vallas is working on improving the school system in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Bridgeport is typical of parts of America's industrial areas, which now face shortage of funds and failing schools. Dropout rates in the school system are between 23-45%. And only 10% of tenth graders can read and do math to meet the state standards.

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Mr. Trump proposes a 10% tariff on all goods imported into the US at Columbia, South Carolina, says this report in WSJ. A universal tariff of this type is similar to Herbert Hoover's Smoot Hawley that brought on the Great Depression in the 1930's in outright beggar thy neighbor policies which don't work, says WSJ. This opinion describes the impact of such a tariff in failing to reverse the trade deficit which is $951 billion in 2022, but fails to point to the lack of effectiveness of tariffs alone in bringing back American manufacturing jobs. As president Biden has pointed out the Trump administration made much talk about returning American jobs but did not accomplish much for American manufacturing to lead the world in the way the Biden administration has done. To do this the Biden administration passed laws to fund a entire new electric car industry, renewable energy industry, and promoting other industries in advanced technologies, including aerospace, to bring back America's leadership in manufacturing of most of the twentieth century with a bold vision for the future. Mr. Trump lacks the experience on this issue and is simply playing the rhetoric to his base without any plan to deliver the goods to sections of the American public that have already suffered the most from decades of neglect of manufacturing by Republicans going back to Reagan and Bush, Democrats Clinton and Obama. ...

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Argentina's new president takes over a failing economy in 2019. Mr. Fernandez declared a public emergency until 2020. A legislative package recently passed includes tax increases on the wealthy, tax relief for the poorest, a 30% tax on foreign currency transactions abroad, and a currency cap of $200 per person per month imposed by the previous Macri administration.  About 70% of new revenues will go to social programs, including free food vouchers for two million of the poorest Argentines. About 40% of the people in Argentina are in poverty, according to the World Bank, a shocking figure for a country that should be doing better given its natural resources and agricultural resources. The economy is suffering from hyper inflation at over 50%, jumping external debt at 90% of GDP. Total debt is $332 billion including a $57 billion IMF loan. About half the total debt is in foreign currency and is hard to service now that foreign currency reserves have fallen from $66 billion to $43.5 billion. The debt restructuring strategy now is to delay as much of the $70 billion of repayments due before the end of 2020.  ...

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Senator Tom Cotton says in this op-ed article in the NYT that president Obama's inaction in the face of a chemical attack by the Syrian government in 2013 badly damaged American credibility in the world. Failing to act to prevent the extension of the conflict to civilian areas in 2013,  had many adverse consequences- it showed the U.S. lacking the determination to prevent the use of chemical weapons, worsened the refugee crisis in Europe, created the conditions in which the pro Brexit camp could use immigration as a major issue, left the Turkish government without the support it had counted on from NATO allies and facing the brunt of the refugee crisis by itself as it took a downward course. The U.S. has long held the position of being a force that stands up for the basic rights of human beings, alone of all countries it has felt that it had to act when acts of this nature are committed. In this sense more was lost than just the credibility with other countries, in some ways the light shining on the hill could no longer be seen in the world, bringing on a sense that some dark cloud had settled in. ...

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This editorial in the WSJ says Turkey under Erdogan is moving towards one man rule which threatens Turkey's democracy. It points to the CHP Republican People's Party, the main opposition party, as reflecting the views of the secular elite but failing to attract widespread national support. That this party or other parties have failed to build strong support to act as an effective opposition, and offer voters an alternative, is a loss for Turkey and democracy.

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The complete Transcript of the Harris Trump television debate on ABC Television that went on for 90 minutes. As expected Harris remained organized, thoughtful and precise in her answers to questions of cost of living, the economy, and never wavered in her focus on her plan for an Opportunity Economy that lifts all boats where she said Trump had none. Trump raised the immigration issue in questions about the economy and cost of living failing to tackle one issue at a time and do it well and convincingly. Harris brought up Trump's focus on himself and billionaires, and on Project 2025, when Trump talked about immigration. Trump's response on Project 2025 was long and rambling and failed to register losing critical minutes and spreading himself thin leaving behind the idea that he had no Plan for America, for if he had one would he not have offered it when the question was raised. This set the pattern for the rest of the debate. The next issue Trump hoped to focus on was migrant crime after immigration. This is where his exaggeration that migrant crime was rampant came under the first fact check of the evening by David Muir. Something that other moderators had amazing as it sounds neglected their duty to do - all of them failed to do this with rigor and on the spot- till David Muir. “As you know, the F.B.I. says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.” ...

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Carrie Wickham of Emory University describes the struggle between the reformists and the old guard in the Muslim Brotherhood. The old guard, including Morsi, pushed out the reformists. These younger mid-career professionals had a better grasp for the need to broaden the coalition that would run post Mubarak Egypt. Instead sadly for Egypt the old guard botched the transition with a hasty referendum on the constitution, and failing to bring other views and secular parties in a broad coalition to manage post-Mubarak Egypt.

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Texas is rapidly changing state with an influx of 150,000 people from other states and unemployment at 7.1% well below the national average. Dallas is headquarters of many companies including Southwest Airlines. But it ranks poorly in education with close to half of Latinos in Houston failing to graduate from high school. Immigration is also changing the state with making up the largest ethnic group by 2015. Today the Anglo and liberal area in the south is different from the mostly Hispanic El Paso area in the western part of the state.

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Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, accepts EU and IMF aid for recapitalizing Spain's banks. Rajoy tells a news conference in Spain on June 10th, 2012, "nobody pressured me," he did this because it would "help the credibility of the European project." The Partido Popular took decisive steps to improve Spain's competitiveness during the first 6 months of the new administration, but was caught by surprise by the problems in Bankia, a bank put together from failing cajas savings banks. The cajas savings banks were heavily involved in the housing bubble in Spain.

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Serious problems are ailing the television channels in the US. This is because the siloing of channels into political spaces as audiences converge to watch particular channels is resulting in these channels unable to take positions based on the merits of issues. Climate change is one example- today no television channel in the US asks the question what would happen to the climate if the US loses another 4 years 2024-2028 in dealing with the climate challenge- makes no investment in climate change action. This is a grave and serious matter that needs to be at the top of discussions alongside the forest fires and floods that show up at the top of news pages every day. This is now the central issue at one of the channels as James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn ask this question of their own family business in television channels in the US and Europe. This is also a larger issue facing the television business.  Another issue is that internet business such as Twitter X, Facebook, TikTok are also concerned with ratings, and think mistakenly that being neutral about climate change action is acceptable, that it is someone else's problem, not theirs. It would cost upwards of 1 trillion dollars in 2028 for the US to simply to address the climate change problems arising from no action for the next 4 years. The problem may become hard to control by then regardless of how much money is put into tackling it, making life difficult on this planet. ...

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With fewer banks and securities houses remaining, the remaining banks like Chase and securties houses like Goldaman and Morgan Stanley are using the spreads between the price of buying and selling bonds- and the easy access to government money and FDIC guanrantees for their bonds- to make large profits. In effect the Fed is pouring money into the system to help financial institutions recover and in the process is making it possible for firms like Morgan and Goldman that were on the verge of collapsing to be able to make large profits through cheap money from the Fed. The resulting large bonuses are likely to upset a public and taxpayers who shoulder the dual burdens of a bailout of large banks, which is not making credit easier for small and medium businesses that form the backbone for employment. The smaller banks that support these businesses are failing and being closed by the FDIC. THe result- increasing joblessness and shrinking consumer demand. This is outlined by Ms. Lee in her op-ed article- The Banking System is Broken, WSJ, October 16, 2009. See this link. Meantime banks like Citigroup and Bank of America continue to see losses, so that even these profits are happening in only some parts of Wall Street....

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The haggard condition and failing health of the Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic. Mladic is wanted for war crimes and ethnic cleansing as commander of the Bosnian Serb army in 1992-94. He eluded arrest and was in hiding for 15 years, till his arrest in mid 2011. The efforts to transfer him to the Hague to stand trial at the International Court of Justice. The Serbian government is keen to use the arrest as an opportunity to close this chapter of the nation's history and start a new one with membership in the European Union.

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The administration hopes to seize the initiative on the regulatory framework agenda before the G20 meeting on April 2, 2009. Broad outlines of the approach will be laid out. One of them is to give the Fed the authority to oversee the regulatory framework and oversee systemic risk. It includes stronger capital requirements for banks especially in good times, give regulators power to take over financial firms that are failing. Also included will be consumer protections, and strict enforecement of consumer protection laws opn credit cards and mortgages, and giving the government comprehensive authority over all financial products marketed to consumers.

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Sitharaman told parliament the situation created by 2013 had the effect of national security being compromised, Environment as a Ministry becoming a bottleneck, and the leadership failing the country. In the military there was a critical shortage of ammunition and equipment. She cites the Defense Minister at the time having the attitude that independent India has had a policy for many years not to develop the border areas, as an undeveloped border was better than a developed border. She also says Ministry stated that 92% of the Defense Budget was used up and major acquisitions have to wait for the military. Following this Sitharaman cited the scandals of that period and leakages of funds that weakend the country and failed its people. She compared defense capital expenditures today of 6.22 lakh crores in 2024 thre times the number in 2013 of 2.53 crores. HAL now makes Tejas jets and helicopters in Made in India production. At the Environment Ministry the delays that were 86 days reached a high of 316 days by 2013 for approval of development projects, with 355 projects pending, the nation brought to a standstill with the effects of the coal supplies to thermal power plants being wholly inadequate and Coal India in poor shape. The root of this was said Sitharaman- what everyone in Indian business knew, the term "genteel facts," as the cost of business going up. She cites the changes since then of aiming for Balance and Development- Transparency, Online Green Clearance, Standardized Environment Impact Studies, A new Department of Climate change, International Solar Alliance 2015, Mission Life 2022, Green Hydrogen, Namami Gange, Rooftop Solar. India set ambitious goals at the last Climate change Conference.    ...

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At its core what Peter Baker of the NYT calls a question that settles the future of American democracy-Mr. Trump's indictment for efforts to reverse 2020 election result- is a question of culture, of American culture and education having deteriorated in profound and unthinkable ways. Peter Baker who has covered 5 American presidents writes in the NYT that the fourth indictment gets to the heart of the matter, which will define the future of American democracy. This indictment asks whether a sitting president can spread lies to hold on to power when the election shows voters have rejected him. The indictment says that Mr. Trump "knew that his claims were false," yet he "made them anyway to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of the election."  Baker also points out that one third of the electorate still believes this to be true as a result of the claims Trump made. And 75% of the Republicans in NYT-Siena poll think Mr. Trump was simply acting in good faith to question election results in some states and it was nothing more than pursuing his legitimate legal options. This is about 40% of the American electorate. How is this possible unless the education and culture of the country has been allowed by successive failed administrations to deteriorate to an extent never before seen in this way since the country's independence in 1776. Even recent reports that two thirds of America's fourth graders fail basic reading comprehension tests have not jolted the nation out of its tech based glorification of a failing culture and education. ...

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Kessler in the WP corrects Obama's claim that he created 800,000 jobs. He says this is clever arithmetic as it takes a low point in Feb. 2010 following the financial crisis. Kessler points out that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. manufacturing jobs were 12.56 million in Jan. 2009 when Obama became president. In Nov. 2016, early estimates show there were 12.26 million manufacturing jobs, a loss of 300,000. This loss does not reflect the problems in the U.S. auto industry and older industries in the midwestern states as a result of trade and globalization that speeded up with the rapid industrialization of China. And led as Greg Ip pointed out in a recent WSJ report to a rapid acceleration of job losses in a decade that did not happen in the same scale during Japan's industrialization and urbanization in the sixties. This aggravated the situation in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and was met with a feeble response from Democrats. Even a economist like Krugman favoring the Obama administration's efforts came to the conclusion that TPP did not add much to gains from trade as most of the gains had already been realized. More of the gains went to tech and IT in California, at the expense of the auto industry based in the midwest. A report in WP show a president too close to IT in California and failing to grasp the situation in the midwest. Voters punish whoever is in power, regardless of being Conservative or Liberal, in Canada the hollowing out of manufacturing under Harper in Ontario and Quebec led to the win by Trudeau's Liberals.  ...