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Scientists worry that microplastics are linked to growing rates of cancer, heart disease, and other diseases. One study says people inhale or ingest 74,000 to 124,000 microplastic particles per year through breathing, eating and drinking. The plastic particles are everywhere around us. Of 10,000 chemicals used in making plastic a fourth of these are toxic. Consider in 1950 2 million metric tons of plastic were made, now 400 million metric tons. Of 8 billion tons produced only 10% recycled so the rest are in oceans, landfills, and around us. Ingested or inhaled they cause inflammation in our bodies that lead to cancer or other diseases.

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President Obama's proposal on Dec. 17, 2012, in the fiscal cliff negotiations sets the figure at which Bush era tax cuts are permandently extended at $400,000 instead of the $250,000 in earlier proposals. Speaker Boehner's Republican proposal was for a figure of $1 million. The $400,000 proposal would mean that the top tax bracket of 35% would increase to 39.6%. Currently the tax rate increases to 35% from 33% at the cutoff point of $388,500. The White House plan now cuts spending by $1.22 trillion over 10 years. $800 billion comes from cuts to programs, with half of these cuts in federal health care programs, $200 billion in programs like farm price supports, $100 billion in military spending, and $100 billion in other domestic programs over which Congress has control. The White House proposal also supports additional spending on infrastructure, extension of expiring unemployment benefits, protection of "vulnerable populations" such as the disabled and wounded veterans on Supplemental Social Security benefits in inflation calculations, and permanently stop expansion of the alternative minimum tax affecting the middle class. On business investment the president's proposal would make permanent the credit for corporate research and development....

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A Pew Center poll in Greece shows support for the Euro at 69% in 2013. The situation in Greece has improved in 2013 with the economy expected to decline by 4% in 2013 and return to growth in 2014. The current account deficit at 11% in 2008 is now close to zero. Unemployment is stabilizing and the competitiveness is being restored as labor costs per hour are down 30%, according to Alpha Bank. Ten year government bond yields are now below 8% in 2013, a dramatic improvement.

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Anger in Greece at the austerity measures was evident in the results of the April 2012 elections. The two major parties polled even less than the low poll numbers that they expected. The Socialist Pasok party of former premier Papandreou received only 13% of the vote and not the 15-18% expected, the New Democracy party of Antonio Samaras received only 18.8% and not the 25% expected. As a result the two main parties that have ruled Greece received less than one third of the vote combined. The second largest party after New Democracy is now the Coalition of the Radical Left or Syriza, which received 16.78% of the vote. It is led by young Alexis Tsipras, 38, who has said the bailout treaties witht the EU and the IMF were "not salvation, but a tragedy." Syriza opposes the austerity measures and prefers to exit the eurozone. A extremist far right anti-immigrant party New Dawn received 7% of the vote showing the desperate situation. New Democracy's Samaras tried hard but failed to form a government, and under the Greek constitution each party gets a few days to form a government. The outcome is likely to be new elections in June 2012 and a caretaker government appointed by the president....

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How reckless actions that ignored public sentiment on illegal migrants have led to a surge in Germany and the US of foreign born populations, It jumped in Germany from 7.5% in 1990 to 21% by 2025 and in the US from 10% in 1990 to to 16%  in 2025. This means as shown by NYT graphs the US went up by 60% and Germany went up by a shocking 300%. This is why young Germans voted for the AfD. Merz's CDU has rejected Merkel policies and has imposed a series of actions to put in border controls, stop migrants.  Putting such stress on working class communities is an affront to people when they face crime as has happened in recent years, and when cost of living issues, covid pandemic have already caused much stress. Here the NYT reverses its position on migration and speaks of the dangers of such migration, the stress on woking class communities where migrants settle, on the public services and resources stretched to their limit. It now says Merkel made a huge mistake and ignored public sentiment leading to the situation where extreme opinions endanger democracy and young people in Germany prefer the AfD to the CDU and SPD, or the Greens. ...

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Having an adequate supply of N95 masks is critical for each hospital tackling the coronavirus pandemic. The lack of enough masks leaves health care personnel without the basic protection and is a grave emergency. Hospitals are resorting to reuse of the masks in this crisis and this is not a good practice as it increases the chances of infection. President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act on April 2 against 3M. This gives the federal government more control over 3M's operations to ensure that it goes all out to make the healthcare N95 masks that the hospitals need in this grave emergency. This report in the WSJ covers the situation as of April 3 on the supply of M95 masks for health workers and others. N95 masks block 95% of very small particles. Supply in the U.S. is for 50 million N95 masks. Demand in the U.S. is for 300 million N95 masks as estimated by the Department of Health and Human Services. in March- this is how many are needed by health care workers to fight this pandemic in the U.S. The principal manufacturer is 3M. 3M company has doubled its production since January 2020. The trend before this pandemic was to send production over to China and other countries. This is changing now with the pandemic and the U.S. policy shifting to be self sufficient in medical supplies in the event of an emergency. A policy Peter Navarro, who heads the agency in charge of getting medical supplies, says President Trump is insisting be implemented. Hospital buyers supported the earlier trend to keep costs down, but this appears to be a costly mistake, putting health care workers in hospitals across the U.S. without the basic protection they need. Minnesota based 3M invented the first modern disposable masks in the 1960's. Interestingly 3M continued to make millions of masks in the U.S. even though competitors moved manufacturing overseas. The 50 million disposable masks 3M made globally went to workers in industries where it provided extra safety from metal shavings or other substances, and medical workers. Now 90% of masks go to medical workers. 3M ramped up production globally since January 11 when the pandemic first hit to 100 million masks a month globally, and 35 million a month in the U.S. at plants in South Dakota and Nebraska. 3M says that it will import 10 million masks from its factory in China, which earlier this year was restricted from shipping it outside China as China needed masks for the pandemic. About 10 million more masks are made by two other manufacturers Alpha Pro and Louis Gerson Co.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ordered 600 million N95 masks from 5 companies to distribute to hospitals and build up the national medical supply stockpile. 190 million each of this is from 3M and Honeywell and 130 million Owens & Minor Inc.  3M says it will make 50 million a month in the U.S. by June. Honeywell which had moved production overseas, plans to bring back production to the U.S. by making 10 million masks by May at its Rhode Island and Phoenix plants. There is a company in Singapore that makes one million masks a day in China and other Asian countries, Pasture Pharma Pte, but most of it is committed to government agencies in China.   ...

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UK Denton (Manchester region) by-election gives Greens 40% Reform 29% and Labour 24%- as Greens replace Labour in UK in 2026 with disapproval of Starmer's leadership. Starmer appeared to be not thinking for himself and letting his campaign manager Morgan McSweeney run the government's strategies in serving working class voters a key Labour constituency. McSweeney at every turn pushed Starmer in a direction of diluting policies that were intended to serve working class voters to chase the Reform vote. That strategy has failed and won Starmer 18% approval among the British public. It just appeared to work in the last 2024 election but it may have been an understanding of that vote that was completely wrong as Labour won by small margins in many constituencies. A key opportunity has been lost for Labour by both Corbyn's dogmatic behaviours and Starmer's lack of authenticity and personla leadership for Britain, following the failures of the Cameron-Johnson years under the Tories, and before that with Blair, three decades lost for Britain to build a brighter future. ...

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Reliance India Limited to build 168,000 b/d Clean shale oil refinery in Brownsville Texas, to cut US trade imbalance of $58 billion with India by $15 billion a year, about 25%. Much of the product could be exported to India from the port of Brownsville in Texas. This helps improve relations with India as the US president was looking for ways to cut the trade deficit with India. The US India trade agreement is based on increased energy exports by US to India. US has a trade imbalnce with India of $58 billion which was an issue in recent trade talks with India. US wants India to get energy product from the US under the US India Trade Agreement. The president of America First Refining Trey Giggs says- "The United States has a surplus of light shale oil but a shortage of refining capacity designed to process it." This CLEAN refinery will strengthen the domestic supply chain. For India and Reliance (RIL) this is also a way to get out of the quagmire of getting supplies from the Middle East.   ...

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Chris Klomp, 45 years, takes over at 65,000 person $2.6 trillion government agency, Department of Health and Human Services, as Counselor, as Robert Kennedy Jr. heads for the campaign trail in addition to HHS duties March 12 2026. He impressed DJT with his negotiating ability against the drug companies in the government's efforts on Affordability of medicines. DJT calls him "my favorite Mormon." Susie Wiles was looking for a stabilizing force at HHS after vaccine controversies and wants the message to focus on improving health and cutting costs. Robert Kennedy Jr says about Klomp- "He is moving quickly to impose operational discipline, sharpen our strategic direction, and fortify a renewed sense of mission and accountability.” Klomp is pulling together all the agencies under HHS including FDA and others. Klomp takes his role seriously to cut costs and improve Health- .“In health care in particular, I do believe that I’m my brother’s keeper, and our job is to do the very best that we can for the people that we serve — the American people.” ...

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Awesome, awesome advice from Diana Nyad- who did the 110 mile swim from Cuba to Florida when she was 60 years- on getting older and staying younger all the time. A better cognitive function and physical fitness is within reach after 40 years, after 65 years says Diana Nyad than when we were younger. All that is needed is a positive attitude, about not being self-absorbed and selfish like when we were in our twenties. Magggie Penman of the Washington Post interviews Diana Nyad, who says she is fitter, stronger at 76 than before. Part of this, says Nyad, comes from being nicer, more forgiving of people. One thing as you get older your connection with people around you means everything. You want to "embrace the chaos", says Nyad. It means getting to know the person next to you wherever you are, what is their life story. For Nyad even if you are an atheist like she is, be an atheist in awe at the sheer wonder of nature and the world. That gives you energy and gratitude that fills up your life. ...

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US DJT Tariffs impact 1 year later- global trade has held up well with US unemployment at 4.4% and economic growth at 2.1%. China imports down from 20% in 2016 to 10% ten years later in 2026. For DJT that was a promise kept leading to a sharp decoupling of the US economy from the Chinese economy that was leading to huge trade deficits of 1 trillion dollars. Too much of the world's supply chain was tied up with manufacturing in China. It got so bad under Reagan, the two Bushes, Clinton/Obama that the US and EU were facing deindustrialization with huge risks to the future of the US and Europe as industrial powers. 150 years of industrialization and scientific advancement, the great achievements of Europe and the United States since 1860's was going up in smoke over reckless policies of Republican and Democratic elites who gave little thought and barely understood the long run effects of their policies and textbook theories of the economy. Most economists from ivy league universities got it completely wrong. ...

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“The world needs more energy. The world needs more resources, and U.A.E. wanted to be unconstrained by any groups” says UAE energy minister, Suhail Al Mazrouei. On May 1, 2026 UAE with 12% of OPEC cartel production (3.6 million barrels a day) will leave OPEC. It is a change in strategy of where and how to sell oil production in the future. UAE including Abu Dhabhi oil company says it is time for it to pursue its own national interests. As its economy is diversified including tourism and other sourcesd of revenue, UAE puts volume before price support. Saudis are not diversified and seek to maintain price support and keep fossil fuels way into the future. Qatar and Ecuador have already left the cartel. Since the old days of OPEC US has emerged as the largest producer, Venezuela is coming back as a major producer, changing the situaiton now that UAE is  also not betting on and supporting efforts for keeping prices high. This is good news for India and China, Japan, major buyers of oil and with large populations increasing demand. It also helps the US because of its diversified economy. ...

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Xi's "Great Rejuvenationof the Chinese Nation" compared favorably to DJT's "Make America Great Again" by Xi Jinping during DJT visit to Zhonghanhai Compound of China's leaders in Beijing. Xi Jinping says during DJT visit to Beijing May 14 2026- “Through strengthened cooperation, both China and the United States can promote their respective development and revitalization." This is important to grasp if one wants to understand China. Much of the media focuses on this or that smaller aspect of the DJT visit to China, including the NYT when it shows DJT invited to a walk on the garden grounds of the Zhonghanhai Compound. It does not accept that president Xi Jinping finds little that is relevant to China today and its aspirations in places like Iran and the Middle East. That Xi admires the US efforts for reindustrialization and renewal in the same way he sees the rejuvenation and renewal of the great Chinese Nation and sees this as shared goals for betterment of their people's lives.  ...

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Donald Trump remains far behind Hillary Clinton in preparation for a general election in fall 2016, and behind where Mitt Romney was at this stage of the campaign in 2012. Part of the problem is his unconventional campaign based on personality and minimal grassroots structure, which is only now being organized with field offices, large staff, and campaign experts, getting a late start, and the campaign supporters not accepting the change. Trump has about $36 million from his personal finances, and $11 million raised from donations. Hillary Clinton has spent $26 million on 1100 organization staffers and firms providing digital, strategy, and voter data services, compared to $7 million spent by Trump for 200 staffers through March 2016, and Romney's $17 million spent at this point in the campaign. Romney advisor Stevens is skeptical about the Trump capabilities for the campaign that is expected. A NYT report says a Hillary super PAC is already preparing its advertising strategy and booking television time for $125 million in April 2016....

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Spain's prime minister Rajoy, is having difficulty in controlling regional spending. Regional government accounted for two thirds of the amount by which Spain exceeded its deficit target for 2011. Because of its unique decentralized structure after the end of the Franco dictatorship the regional governments account for 57% of Spain's public spending, according to a Professor Gascon at Complutense University in Madrid. The risk is that the regional governments will use the recent decision by premier Rajoy to increase the 2012 deficit target to 5.8% from 4.4%, as a reason to lower their own efforts to reduce fiscal spending. One factor in favor of the Rajoy administration and of budget minister, Cristobal Montero, is that 11 of 17 regional governments in Spain are now run by his Partido Popular, with Asturias and Andalusia expected to join the list in upcoming elections. This is also crucial to maintaining Spain's credibility in the EU after its decision to increase the deficit target for 2012, but keep the deficit target of 3% for 2013, calling it "a sovereign decision of Spain."...

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McDonald's is seeing declining sales in the U.S. The percentage of people in the U.S. going to McDonald's declined by 12.9% in the 19-21 age group and was flat for the 22-37 years age group, according to Technomic. Younger Americans especially are seeking out healthier alternatives with emphasis on fresh food. Another competing trend is fast casual restuarants such as Panera Bread. Fast casual restaurants increased from 9000 to 21000 in the last 10 years, while McDonalds has remained at 14,000. Chipotle started in 1993 and now has 1600 locations. Five Guys has 1000 locations. Consumer Reports surveyed 32,000 subscribers and rated McDonalds as the last in taste of 20 burger chains. Consumer Reports gave as a reason millenials and younger consumers who will try hard to get the right food. Problems in Russia about sanitary conditions and declining sales in China after the government accusations about a key supplier using expired meat also add to problems. Increasing concern about healthcare and obesity also add to the search for alternatives and careful selection of meals, especially among younger educated buyers....

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Trust bank is rescued with a $530 million injection by Russia's central bank in Dec. 2014. The bank was taken over by the Deposit Insurance Agency which guaranteed the deposits of customers. As Russia raises interests by 17%, the ruble stabilizes with a 5% gain on Dec. 22, 2014. Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister and the architect of Russia's improved finances during Putin's previous terms in office, told a news conference that Russia now faces a full fledged economic crisis that will be painful in 2015. He expects a drop of 40% in imports, inflation at 12 to 15%, and decline in living standards. He also said Russia's credit rating could fall to junk status making it difficult to obtain financing. Kudrin was critical of the way the Russian government handled the crisis, saying action was slow and the government did not act as one team. He called for improved relations with western partners- "For a way out of the crisis, it is of high importance to regulate relations with our foreign partners- first of all with Europe, the U.S. and other partners."...

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Lower oil prices in 2015 make it possible for president Joko Widodo of Indonesia to remove costly fuel subsidies in Jan. 2015. With the steep decline in oil prices this made it possible to lower fuel prices at the pump at the same time. The costly fuel subsidies cost Indonesia more than money spent on education and healthcare. This frees up money for other programs. In November the Widodo government fulfilled one of its election promises by sending out national "smart cards" to over 15 million poor Indonesian families, which gives them free health insurance and education related expenses for children for upto 12 years of school. Programs planned for infrastructure in 2015 include 13 new dams and long overdue upgrade to the north-south Trans Sumatra Highway. Critics point to the appointments, including for police chief and attorney general, that reflect the influence of Megawati Sukarnoputri, a former president and chairwoman of Mr. Joko's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, and of parties that supported Widodo. ...

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Diversification has helped BHP weather the decline in commodities prices better than Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and Vale. BHP is expected to report profits of $12.5 billion for the last fiscal year. BHP is also in the oil and gas business, in addition to iron, ore, copper, coal and aluminium. This has made it possible to take writedowns of $5.5 billion and still make stable profits. Andrew Mackenzie, the new CEO of BHP, is a Scotsman who is focussing on the productivity of capital and cost-cutting. BHP announced $1.9 billion in cost savings since July 2012. Mackenzie's goal is to reduce capital expenditures from $18 billion today to $15 billion or less in 2-3 years. Capital is tied up in incomplete projects taken up in the boom period of higher prices, and the process of reducing capital expenditures is gradual. Capital expenditures in the mining business increased dramatically from $20 billion to $120 billion from 2003 to 2012. For most of this period China's economy registered growth rates of over 10%....

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Lydia Polgreen and Marcus Mabry talk to black and white South Africans in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Afrikaaner Orange Free State. The National Party which started Apartheid as state policy in 1948 and the African National Congress were both founded in Bloemfontein. The accounts provide insights into race relations in South Africa and the growing gap between the economic condition of black and white people. After free elections and about 20 years of ANC governments under Mandela, Mbeki, and Zuma, progress has been made in primary and secondary schooling but most blacks are falling behind in the skills needed in a modern economy as shown by the widening income gap from $17,000 in 2001 to $30,000 in 2011. Less than 40% of South Africans socialize with other races, according to SA Reconciliation Barometer. 22% of whites and 20% of blacks live in racially integrated neighborhoods. 11% of white children and 15% of black children attend integrated schools. The result is a South Africa where a lot remains to be done after Mandela....

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Walmart opens its first store in Amritsar, India, as part of a long term expansion in India. It is a 50,000 square foot Best Price store, a rarity in India. Walmart and its Indian partner Bharti Enterprises plan to open 15 stores in India in the next 3 years. Mike Duke former head of Walmart's international operation is now the new CEO. He has recruited local managers who understand and grasp how to market in India. Walmart India CEO, Raj Jain, has worked for 20 years with Unilever and Whirlpool in India. Unilever India, has a strong local presence in India for decades. Big wholesalers can be a poltically sensitive issue in India, where the retail industry serving 1.1 billion people is mostly an estimated 10 million mom and pop stores, who fear being overrun by these large wholesalers. Walmart operates as a wholesale store selling to local merchants, a cash and carry business selling 10,000 products to licensed store owners, schools, hospitals, hotels and other institutions. Even now under Indian rules governing foreign retailers, this Walmart venture cannot sell directly to consumers....

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The shocks to the UK banking system resumed Monday with the announcement on January 19 that RBS faced losses of a huge magnitude, of 28 billion pounds for 2008 with fresh losses in 2009. RBS shares went down 66%, and at closing on on January 21, 2009, were at 12.5 pence. Lloyds Banking Group shares are at 45.1 pence, at 66 pence. Barclays which has avoided taking government money saw its shares drop 25% on January 16. The government is hoping that its plan to provide insurance that would limit bank's losses on bad loans and investments will work, but uncertainty on how the insurance will be priced is raising doubts about the plan's effectiveness to restore confidence. Especially when RBS is collapsing. The government owns 70% of RBS and 43% of Lloyds. The next step would be nationalization of the banks. According to WSJ nationalization would mean that taxpayers have new liabilities of about $3 trillion or $4 trillion, an amount far exceeding the UK's entire annual economic output.

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Something that Bernanke has studied for adecade and has spent time preparing for. He took the step yesterday to proceed with a $300 billion purchase of Treasurys by the Fed. The idea is to reduce long term borrrowing rates on consumer loans to corporate bonds that are benchmarked to Treasury bonds. By reducing the yields on Treasurys the Fed hopes to keep borrowing rates lower, now that it is clear from the jobless numbers of 500,000-600,000 a month that slack in manufacturing capacity will keep inflation down and risk deflation. The Fed will purchase Treasurys of 2 to 10 years maturity. THe Fed also increased its ceiling on purchases of mortgage backed securites guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie to $1.25 trillion from $500 billion previously laid out. So far Fed has purchased $69 billion of mortgage backed securities and committed to buying $148 billion more. It will increase the amount of Fannie and Freddie debt that it buys to $200 billion from $100 billion. So far to March 11, it has purchased $48 billion of their debt....

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Under VW ownership and management, after 16 years of cooperation and $14 billion in investment, Skoda based in the Czech Republic has become a solid competitor. In 2007 Skoda plans to sell 630,000 cars worldwide and its aiming at sales of 1 million cars by 2010. In 2006 sales increased by about 10% in the European market which has been stagnant and beat Toyota as one of the fastest growing brands. Its a leader in quality surveys in Europe, and was tied with Honda for second place in quality in Britain, according to JD Power ansd Associates. Skoda has huge potential in developing country markets as a quality car at lower prices- prices lower than VW cars. VW bought 30% of Skoda in 1991 and by 2000 gained ownership of the whole company. Skoda has also done well in the design of its cars, the Roomster, the Octavia wagon, and the midsize sedan Superb have all received acclaim for their design. VW is considering making a low cost Skoda car to match Renault's Logan which sells for $7000 as a base model....

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The clout of China's environmental agency the State Environment Protection Administration has grown significnatly in the past 12 months. SEPA rejected 110 projects in 2006 for environmental damage, and in 2007 it rejected 187 or about $91 billion worth of projects for environmental damage. China requires environemntal asses ment for sttell mills, power plants and other projects as part of the approval process. So even as criticism of the Chinese government has built up for environmental damage SEPA is getting new clout and the government is rethinking how all these projects can some day come back to haunt the administration for environmental impact if something isnt done very quickly to cancel all projects that dont meet environmental quality standards. This is something to keep watching first because it ensures longterm sustainable economic progress and second it reduces the cost of cleaning up which would reduce economic growth in the future, third because the quality of air and water lead to really sustainable economic development in the future. This is a Watch Link for sustainable economic development. ...