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The US is supplying Europe with liquified natural gas so that Europe can cope with a threatened cutoff or slowdown from Russian gas supplies. Much of the LNG that normally would go to Japan, Taiwan and other Asian countries is being diverted to Europe with a threat of Russian invasion of Ukraine. The US, is with Qatar and Australia a major LNG producer. This WSJ report shows LNG tankers entering and unloading at the Gate Terminal in Netherlands, a key point for sending liquified natural gas to Germany. Italy has its own entry terminals for LNG tankers. This will help Europe deal with its winter needs, even though things will be very tight if a Russian cutoff happens. One aspect of this supply of LNG will cause economic hardship in Germany and this is the price of LNG gas which has soared to five times when delivered in the Netherlands compared to US prices. LNG in gas forms shrinks to one six hundredth its size in volume as a liquid, making it possible for one LNG tanker that is about the size of 4 football fields to hold enough gas to power 70,000 homes for one year. Most LNG tankers can be unloaded in one day and go straight into port because some LNG is lost as ships wait. Most of the bottlenecks are further upstream in the reconversion into gas of the LNG liquid and in connecting to the gas grid.  ...

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This report in the WSJ by Peterson and Hackman shows how the American Health Care Act proposed by Speaker Paul Ryan provides less financial support and allows premiums to go higher for seniors approaching retirement in the 50-64 year age group. Premiums are allowed to go up 5 times that of premiums of young people in the Ryan House  plan compared to 3 times in the Affordable Care Act. Subsidies in the form of tax incentives provide $2000 to younger people going up by age not income to $4000 in the Ryan House plan. By contrast someone 60 years old making $20,000 a year can get Affordable Care Act credit of $9874, and making $40,000 a credit of $6752, according to analysis by Kaiser Family Foundation. The Ryan plan makes health care costs lower for young people in an effort to bring more young people who use less services into the system to support its overall financial condition. Another feature of the Ryan Plan is that it allows only for CPI index +1% even if health care costs are rising faster. Deep cuts to Medicaid affect lower income seniors on Medicare. As a result the AARP organization representing seniors has come out in opposition to the Ryan bill. The GOP plan wants to reduce premium costs yet in the process it makes vulnerable seniors with lower incomes pay more, which is likely to hurt Republicans who won by winning a large part of the senior vote. ...

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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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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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Bide meets British prime minister Starmer in Wasnhington as Britain is ready to approve use of its long range missile systems inside Russia. This comes as Russia is about to gain control of the Donetsk region. Republicans other than Mr. Trump and his supporters are for stronger support to Ukraine following US policy of opposing invasion to achieve military goals since 1900 against the Japanese in China and the Vietnam War was fought on the same basis in the 1960's considering the South Vietnamese state as an independent republic, just  invaded by the north, by North Vietnam, just as the US had done in the Korean War between North and South Korea. In the Vietnam War nationalism played apart with the Vietnamese nationalism prevailing by 1970. Russians see Kiev as the origin of the Russian State in the 9th century, and eastern region of Donetsk as Russian if western Ukraine seeks to join NATO and EU. Britain has opposed Russia since 1750 as it saw Russia as the threat to an Empire it was building in South Asia, in India that financially supported its Empire worldwide for 200 years till about 1950. Britain engaged in the Crimean War against Russia so that along with the French it could control Turkey and its Ottoman states in the Arab Middle East under the guise of trade. This effort was pushed back by Kemal Ataturk in the 1920's when he founded the modern state of Turkey in Ankara. ...

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  We show her the view from Europe on Ukraine in Feb 2025. Francois Hollande leader of the Socialists in France and former president says that the United Kingdom, France and Germany must be at the forefront of genuine European security. In this long interview he answers questions from Le Monde. He says US may withdraw its 80,000 troops from Europe in NATO. This will require European forces and European nuclear deterrent. In 1966 De Gaulle's successor president Pompidou said- "France must be returned to itself. Thus we are serving Europe and preparing the re-emergence of Europe so that it can play its part. Do not imagine that we are changing sides. We are against hegemony and so do not intend to favour Soviet hegemony, nor does our attitude towards the war in Vietnam encourage Chinese hegemony in that part of the world." Hollande says if this US withdrawal of troops from NATO happens will Article 5 will then apply to Europe? Hollande's answer is "it is upto us to prepare. Even without him."   On Merz's election as Germany's leader- Hollande says we will have to broaden the geographic scope of our deterrent force. Merz has expressed interest in nuclear deterrent from partners UK and France, France having proposed to Germany a mutual nuclear deterrent under president Pompidou, a successor to president De Gaulle in the 70's. ...

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How a major global readjustment may be taking place right before our eyes, not visible all at once but gradually taking place as growth in Europe and Asia outpaces that in the US and consumption overseas grows while the it falls off in the US from the levels seen for a decade. The weaker dollar will reduce imports increase exports and shrink the trade deficit with other countries. More expensive imports will add to the inflation in the US. The weaker dollar will lead to American companies gaining market share with higher exports and a more competitive position versus other countries. German and other European companies will complain about the higher euro. Vis a vis China and India this rebalancing will take place slowly because of the billion people in these countries rural areas that are just now becoming part of the larger global economy.

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If you love soccer or football you should see this interview by Frank Lampard of 2024 Ballon d'Or winner, Spanish player Rodri Fernandez. Rodri plays for Manchester City. The interesting thing about this Premier League You Tube video of Oct 29, 2024 is that British player Frank Lampard, and now coach, is he shows Rodri moments in each game on an iPad and asks him how he does it- the moves he makes as a midfielder on the field, including the picture in his head about the field in those moments.

Lampard does an excellent job showing Rodri at his best, the skills, the instinct, the preparation and the hard work, the discipline, and the extraordinary humility of Spanish footballers.

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Peggy Noonan looks at Woodrow Wilson in 1919 when Mrs. Edith Boling Wilson assumed a key role for the president following Wilson's illness. She compares this to the last year of Reagan in office and the poor debate performance of president Biden. This is in sharp contrast to president Biden's active participation in political life and decisions he has made to protect Democrats work in office.  Biden saying that if he had to do this again he would have continued his run for the presidency in 2024 following the poor debate performance as he could have won the election. Biden also continues to lead the Democratic party as a former president who is actively involved in shaping the future.

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Only 1.9 million hourly workers in manufacturing now earn more than $20 per hour, its down 60% since 1979, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of all hourly workers in every sector of the economy the percentage of people earning more than $20 per hour shrunk to 18% in 2008 from 23% in 1979, thus losing some of the gains the US made since World War II which helped build the American middle class. One can see this unwinding clearly in the auto industry as wages are being reduced to match nonunion Japanese plants, and the industry itself is going through a huge downsizing fast. The hourly work force totals 76 million or 52% of all workers ranging from managers and professionals to factory and construction workers to technicians, educators and sales people. The wages of salaried workers show a similiar trend but are not converted into hourly amounts. As the numbers for 2007 are at the point where the economy was still booming, the path ahead as things go through a steep downturn can only have serious implications such as a slow recovery for demand in 2010. If a number of trends converge, employers shift to part time employment, auto related workers downshift to lower wages and benefits, shift to nonunion plants in the south or the midwest, and work is offshored or outsourced, this could worsen effects on consumption for years ahead especially with the credit remaining tight and consumers paying off old debt. Frank Levy, a labor economist at MIT, says that all this is happening wihtout a political debate or discussion, as people are worried more about having a job, and only secondly about what it pays and whether they are losing ground. Even the Pennsylvania primary debate, says Levy, between Hillary Clinton and Obama was conducted without quantifying the decline, and no one mentioned the eroding of the $20 per hour wage. What happened to support the consumption and support imports, was to pay for consumption by going into debt or refinancing the home. This has implications that range from the future of export industries in China's booming coastal sector, to how long the recovery drags on, and to what the future would look like....

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Economic forecasts expect economic growth to slow to 7%. Inflation has reched a high of 11% in India. With rising interest rates and large government deficits India's economic growth is slowing.

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The global impact of the credit and housing crisis as it extends from USA to the rest of the world. Heavy machinery makers such as Japan and Germany are doing better than consumer goods exporters like China, and Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia. And countries that borrowed heavily like Hungary are being watched by lending institutions. Commodities producers like Australia and Russia and Brazil are continuing to do well. For Middle Eastern countries the bigger danger is overheating in their economies as inflation soars. But while the crisis spreads the forecasts have only been taken down a notch displaying the conservative wait and see instincts of forecasters so that China and India still continue to grown near double digits which is not likely to hold up as one goes into 2008 and 2009 and actually might slip considerably from the high growth rates of the past as a number of factors converge especially in the case of China but also for India.

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Troubles at UBS including $18 billion in writeoffs and $80 billion exposure in risky securities on its books.

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BMW's CEO Reithofer says in a conference call that the company will redirect cars from the USA to China and Russia and other countries because of the currency exchange rates and unfavorable market conditions in the US. These market conditions caused a236 million euros charge to compensate for the falling value of second hand vehicles and potential payment defaults on loans for leased vehicles in the USA. At Daimler you see a 491 million euro fall in the value of Daimler's remaining 19.9% stake in Chrysler LLC showing up in 1st quarter results but also similiar to BMW one sees a 151 million euro writedown to cover the falling value of cars that were leased to customers. This is from earnings announcements by Daimler and BMW.

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Goldman Sachs sees the unemployment rate peaking at 6.4% in late 2009.

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A bailout of Ireland with $136 billion bailout planned by the European Union. Fear of contagion effects on Greece, Portugal and Spain. Pressure on Ireland to accept the bailout for its banks.

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Spain released reports by audit firms that showed 62 billion euros would be needed to recapitalize the affected parts of its banking system. This is below the 100 billion euros in rescue funds offered by the EFSF, the eurozone rescue fund, in loans to the Spanish government. The Spanish government is pushing for direct aid to the banks to cut the knot between the banking risk and sovereign risk that is pushing up the yields on Spanish bonds to 7% in June 2012. Spain's 3 largest banks will not be accepting aid funds- Banco Santander, BBVA, and La Caixa.

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This Economist magazine editorial says two actions need to be taken after the Panama Papers scandal. Registers showing real beneficiaries not just "nominees" used to obscure the real owners, should be made for people using these tax havens. The second action is to make it a criminal offense to enable tax evasion. If banks are being policed for money laundering, why should these tax haven law firms and other firms not also be policed for money laundering or tax evasion activities, asks the Economist.

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The shadow economy is about 24% of Greece's economy, according to a study at the University of Chicago. Unreported income is $28 billion or 15% of GDP. The Greek government of Antonis Samaras is taking new steps to tackle this problem. New regulations allow customers to go without paying if service providers refuse to give a receipt for the transaction. Restaurants will be required to post the regulation in their menus. Doctors, lawyers and other service providers will have to follow the new rules.

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The Georgetwon University Center on Education and the Workforce 2015 report shows the different college majors, annual wages and lifetime earnings based on Census Bureau data. Engineering comes first, followed by computers. Advanced graduate degrees make a large difference in earnings in health sciences. A lot depends on the standing in the class with top 25% of the class in finance having much higher earnings. A lot also depends on the individual. Employment opportunities may be lacking even if annual wages are high, as in architecture.

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Tokyo Stock Exchange president, Akira Kiyota, says the TSE is hoping for 70 IPO's in 2013 if all goes well. The TSE and the Osaka Securities Exchange merged in Jan 2013, forming the Tokyo Exchange Group, the third largest exchange in market capitalization. TSE president is from Daiwa Securities and the OSE president is from Nomura Securities. The TSE hope to attract more overseas companies to list, developing into a market that is open 24 hours. Other strategies include developing securities markets in emerging market countries.

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Washington Post journalist, Abigail Hauslohner, and two young Egyptian journalists, Sharaf al-Hourani and Mansour Mohammed, in the Post's Cairo bureau, cover the police and military attack on Morsi protest camps near Cairo university. Police open fire with live ammunition on protesters and spectators on the streets of Cairo. Snipers with binoculars follow the movements of the Post reporters, as two helicopters circle overhead. Two other journalists are shot. Police officers tell the Post journalists: "If I see you again, I''ll shoot you in the leg."