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This story of soccer players is true for many of the best, coming close for the fans is not enough, many finals and superb performances are not enough. This is true for coaches. The same could be said for England coach Gareth Southgate, coming close for fans is not enough. Yet for the hundreds of millions around the world who enjoyed the Euro Finals it was a really good game with England so close to the very end with a bunch of repeated headers any one of which could have ended up in the Spanish goal. Speaking of Harry Kane one can think of Toni Kroos who is has played for Germany 108 times. Germany as the host country did not make it to the semifinals. It was Toni Kroos's last game, a player as gifted and patient as Harry Kane. Lionel Messi did not score in the Copa America Finals game against Columbia, in extra time Lautaro Martinez scored the only goal in Miami. Still the golden boot went to Dani Olmo and Harry Kane of the Spanish and English teams, such was the extent of their effort, giving it their all, and the people watching the game all over the world thank them for it. ...

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$700 million loss on a clean beauty brand during the pandemic by Carlyle taking money from investors. During the pandemic Carlyle private equity invested $700 million of investor's money in Beauty Counter, a direct seller of a clean beauty brand started by Mrs Renfrew. The product and concept failed. This is $700 million that could have been invested in much needed nation's infrastructure projects, in climate change action, in renewable energy, in healthcare, in education, with reasonable returns. Capital market misallocation is a huge problem for the last 2 decades, with hundreds of billions of dollars lost or wasted in dubious products such as $100 million for a new golf ball with hundreds of such projects and products that are not vital needs for the American people. Tax benefits for such dubious projects and ideas lead to more revenue that is diverted away from the essential needs of the Nation and the American people. Over two decades this adds up to huge losses which would mean a lot of the Nation's infrastructure could have been replaced by now using this money. The capital allocation system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up to meet the vital needs of the Nation and the American people. ...

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International issues took on larger significance for the U.S. Federal Reserve in September 2015 as it looked at a small increase in interest rates. Schwartz points to the memories of the 1997 emerging market crisis and how fragile economies like Mexico were adversely impacted by rising rates in the U.S.. Mexico needed a large bank bailout and contagion spread to other countries. Kenneth Rogoff says the risks are real with declining commodity prices and falling currencies of emerging markets such as Brazil, Indonesia and Russia. Ripple effects would carry over to India and other countries. The sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy in the second half of 2015 was too recent for the Fed to take any sort of risk in September 2015.

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Discussion inthe President's inner circle of economic advisors of issues like the nationalization of banks, the rescue of Chrysler, and other issues. This circle includes political advisors Axelrod and Rahm, Orszag Budget Director, Christina Romer of the Council of Economic Advisors, Geithner at Treasury, Summers as White House advisor, Austan Goolsbee who was the campaign economic advisor.

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As the U.S. economy continues to gain in job growth with unemployment at 3.8% in May 2018, wage gains remain low. Wage growth over the past year is about 2.7%. Labor participation rate is at 62.7%. Reasons given for low wage growth are the lack of wage increases for people who stay at their current jobs, the digital disruption lowering wages, decline of union bargaining, and low productivity growth. This gives the Federal Reserve more room to increase interest rates gradually.

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In Britain 6500 nursing homes are seen as "not fit for purpose" of elderly care. They are now seen as possibly closing without an investment of $15 billion pounds to make them fit for use. This also shows the neglect of elderly care in countries such as the UK, and the U.S. A clear distortion of priorities when so much money is being wasted in misallocation on the fringes of tech and elsewhere, without money for basic infrastructure and basic services. It also shows a mistaken set of priorities that have taken over in recent decades,a lack of decent respect for people as they get older in life. Countries such as Brazil neglected basic sanitation in the country worsening health and epidemics while building large soccer stadiums in the north and financing the Olympics. U.S. Britain, E.U. neglected elderly care and infrastructure, in the tech led booms of the past two decades, and pushed money into the wrong places through a distorted set of priorities. ...

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Brooks says no to the current health reform bill as most experts say it does little to control the bulging healthcare cost curve which will take it from 17% of GDP to 22% and beyond. He goes over the pros and cons. Passing this gets little done for health care reform in a fundamental way that is so badly needed today. Says Brooks the system today is rotten to the bone with opaque pricing and insane incentives, with consumers insulated from the costs of their decisions, this won't change with the current health care bill. In fact he says according to the chief actuary for Medicare it will cause health care spending to grow faster. At this rate we will be giving more money to insurance companies and programs that have great social value like expanded preschool and other needs that America has will be shoved aside. In coming years as the population of America ages there will be growing needs for health care. With no increase in supply, and the perverse incentives still in place, prices will continue to grow rapidly without the focus on efficiencies that is badly needed. Brooks points out that its not the politics is the chief obstacle to reform as most people say, but the reverse is the truth, unless one gets the fundamental incentives right politics will be terrible forever. ...

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The state agency for facilitating pipeline development in N. Dakota estimates only a few pipelines under construction will start transporting oil in 2016, and over 50% of N. Dakota oil will still be transported by rail in 2016.

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Hangzhou, hard hit by closing export focussed factories, is trying a$100 million voucher program to increase spending. Since January, a fifth of the residents of this city have received $30 vouchers, and more vouchers are being issued. Taiwan just tried a voucher program with $102 going to each Taiwanese citizen. Taiwanese President Ma says 50,000 retailing jobs were saved and about two-thirds of one percent addded to GDP. The problem in China is the lack of a safety net and poor access to health care, that is making average Chinese to save over one fourth of incomes. Consumer spending is 35% of GDP. The government has focussed on exports, and used export generated revenues for huge infrastructure spending. With exports down by over 25% in January, the export model is fading away quickly. Japan and Taiwan have seen much higher drops in exports, and China should see even more deceleration in exports, with a lag of some months, as a lot of products made in China use parts made in countries like Japan and Taiwan. The China Development Research Foundation says one fourth of the population have no health insurance at all. Though by some estimates this number may be about two thirds of China's 1.3 billion people. Hundreds of millions of people have huge bills for treatment of serious illness that are not covered by even the most basic insurance. Public pensions cover less than one third of the workers. And an estimated 130 million migrant workers have no unemployment insurance. Even payments to the poor reach only a fraction of people eligible. The government has only tentatively moved to correct his. And outside economists say that something needs to be done in abig way to build this safety net. The government has announced a $123 billion 3 year initiative to deliver basic, universal health care and health insurance. This follows a 3 year drive to provide compulsory and free education to students through 9th grade. David Dollar, the World Banks's country director, described ameeting with Finance Ministry officials, and wrote in areport on the Bank website that the government had the resources to expand these programs quickly. Instead the government has taken a piecemeal approach when action on a large scale is needed. One of the problems may also be that to make universal health insurance, the current health system may need to be examined and rebuilt, so that economical cost effective treatments are encouraged and costs are managed effectively. This would make universal health care affordable by keeping costs manageable, in the same way that the Obama administration is trying to do in the USA. ...

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How globalization which for over a long period since China and India and other emerging nations joined the global trading system helped bring disinflation and lower prices to the developed countries is now closing that chapter. And starting a new one in which the rapid development of these developing countries is strengthening their currencies and the growth of the middle class and increasing demand for commodities, food and energy, in this way driving up prices. China wants to move up to manufacturing more sophisticated products and is no longer interested in the kind of development where workers wages suffered so that domestic consumption suffered, where lax environmental protection caused serious damage to the environment and where the fous was on production of low value added products in textile, toys, shoes, furniture. This means a lot of factories from this era will close and those that operate will raise prices to reflect increased costs to meet new laws and loss of rebates for low value added products. All this means the disinflationary impact of production and export from China is over. Meanwhile a number of trends have gone to raise prices of food products and commodities. Its astonishing but the price of rice has gone up by 147% over the last 12 months. The World Bank estimates that food prices have gone up by 83% over the last 3 years. This adds to the distress of communities across the developing world. And iron ore producer Vale of Brazil pushed through price increase of iron ore by 65%. This will be reflected in price increases in everything made of steel like Caterpillar tractors and so on. Baosteel in China has raised prices by 17-20% recently. Countries with pegs to the dollar and exporters of commodities like the Middle Eastern countries are seeing inflation from both the peg as the dollar loses value and everything costs more and from the boom fueled by government spending....

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A Brooklyn, New York resident who created his own job during the pandemic. A neighbor gave him a used bike she was getting rid of. He sold it online for $400. This gave him an idea- he now pulls bikes from garages and barns all over the U.S. and restores them to new. Because of the virus related manufacturing slowdowns for bicycles, and people preferring bikes to trains demand has jumped. U.S. bicycle sales at $2.6 billion up 81% and use of city bicycles up 141% in New York city for Citibike- with single trip pass buyer at 516,000. Mr. Van Scyvoc a 33 year old Brooklyn resident collects bikes around Cleveland where his father a retired firefighter lives and takes them by pickup truck to a bike stand he has at Fort Green park in Brooklyn. There he sells bikes bought for $80 to $250 for $300 to 500. First he has to have them washed clean and then serviced in Brooklyn by an IT engineer who now repairs bikes.

 

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U.S. frustration with China as coronavirus toll reaches 300,000 deaths worldwide. President Trump says- "They could have stopped it in China where it came from. But it didn't happen that way. " Worst hit are countries in Asia and Africa with food security threatened. After the coronavirus he says of the trade deal he signed in January- So, I make a great trade deal and now I say this doesn't feel the same to me.The ink was barely dry, and the plague came over. And it doesn't feel the same to me." Under that trade deal the China agreed to buy $250 billion in additional goods and service for 2 years in an effort to correct a huge trade imbalance - built up on the advice of American economic theorists and experts who advised American presidents for three decades that it was of no consequence - in exchange for a roll back of American tariffs in stages of part of the tariffs. 

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With the departure and replacement of Dan Cummings, the prime minister gets someone with extensive financial and other experience to replace his free wheeling adviser who lacked experience. Dan Rosenfield who worked at Treasury till 2016 under both Labor and Conservative party chancellors is the new choice for prime minister Boris Johnson's chief of staff at 10 Downing Street. Experts say less games, more interest in what matters in managing the costs of covid budgets. Here Mr. Rosenfield is described as the person at Treasury who put together the Olympics budget that came out at a little over 9 billion pounds after little preparation was done and Britain won the bid for the Olympics by bidding only 2.3 billion pounds. As Rosenfield puts it, there wasn't even a cats in hell chance of doing the Olympics at that cost, and the only option was to control costs as aggressively as we could. Britain now faces the task of keeping Covid budget costs manageable and getting a recovery in place in 2021-2022. ...

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This analysis of coal use using graphs shows a clear move away from coal in the world, except for two growth markets China and India which account for 60% of the increase in coal use since 2008. India has gone black in its shift to increasing use of coal. China has begun the shift away from coal to address the smog over large urban areas, poor air quality and health impact of coal use. Because China used five times the coal used by India in 2017, the overall impact in China and India is showing a shift away from coal to hydropower, other renewables including solar energy. It is likely that India will make the shift following China's example in the future. 

The trend is clear when one looks at the incremental terawatt hour and where it comes from. The shift is clear to renewables, hydropower, and non fossil uses in the rest of the World and China which account for most of the coal use in the world.

 

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Google will take part in the Digital India project of the Indian government with a $10 billion investment over five years. This is about leveraging the power of digital technologies for transforming lives of farmers, young people and for creating new businesses. Google Search and You Tube reaches 245 million Indians. Local language content is popular for 66% of the content online. For Google CEO Pichai this as he says is deeply personal as the investments in early computers and digital use in the first 20 years after independence in 1947 provided the opportunities for Pichai and Microsoft CEO Nadella and countless others to learn about these technologies in schools and universities in India. These investments will lay the ground for opportunities to be created for new generations. Earlier Google partnered with Tata Trusts to launch Saathi so that the internet could reach India's villages. About 23 million women in 300,0000 villages have gained through Saathi the first use of internet. ...

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China faces three main challenges and how well it handles them will determine if China does well in the future because the things that helped China in the last 30 years of development are now gradually coming to a close. The three main challenges are a changing work force and the gradual phasing out of the demographic dividend thats responsible according to some experts for a third of the progress this far, the gap between the rich and the poor, and severely constrained resources and supplies of energy and environmental resources. On the first its not something China can do to much about, on the second its going to have to have a more balanced development and repair the network of social services and redirect resources to the poorer sections (see the link to the conference at Lindau, Germany and Nobel Prize Winning economists opinions on this issue). This will bring more discussion and challenges about how to proceed as a lot of actions to build new infrastructure and new construction has been done by taking over land where needed. And on the third challenge has not been done so well so far as the amount of energy required to each yuan of economic output has not changed much, seeing a 3.7% improvement over 2006 in 2007 and only a 2.9% improvement in the first half of 2008 over 2007. All this is why Secretary Paulson cautions that many American might be worrying about the wrong thing, China overtaking the USA, what really is the worry he says is whether serious troubles in China will affect the stability of the USA and global economies....

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Toyota's goal is to remain the preeminent automobile manufacturer in emerging markets and the IMV is part of its strategy for achieving this goal. The IMV series for emerging markets, with one million in manufacturing capacity coming off a single platform to lower costs, is designed to meet local needs from a price standpoint and rough road conditions. Sales of one million off of a single platform is an achievement only Toyota will have achieved. A minivan, a sport utility vehicle and 3 pickup trucks are all made from a single chassis, with localized production since 2004. The IMV series is expected to account for 10% of the 9.58 vehicle sales goal for 2012. CEO Akio Toyoda plans to increases sales in emerging markets to 50% of total sales by 2015, up from 40% in 2011. IMV vehicles are made in 11 emerging market countries- in Argentina, India, South Africa and Thailand, and are sold as the Hilux pickup, the Fortuner SUV, and the Innova minivan. Over the years Toyota has transferred more of the design and development to emerging market countries to meet local preferences and reduce the effects of a strong yen, leaving only core components to be designed and manufactured in Japan. As it recovers from supply disruptions due to floods in Thailand and the tsunami in Japan, Toyota is planning on sales of 9.58 million in 2012, a steep climb of 21% from the 7.95 million sold in 2011....

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Prime minister Modi of India's visit to Japan in September 2014 leads to a commitment of about $35 billion in Japanese investment over 5 years. Japanese companies such as Suzuki, Toyota and Toshiba already have large investments in India.

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China's diesel imports declined by 46% in October year over year, according to General Administration of Customs, and China was a net exporter of gasoline for 2 months in a row, signs that the slump in China is serious.

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In launching the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission prime minister Modi says it "has th potential of bringing a revolutionary change in India's health facilities."  Following the launch of Arogya Setu app and the 900 million vaccine doses given under Co-Win for the free vaccine campaign this is the next step.  To take healthcare facilities to a new level and integrate it with technology prime minister Modi noted the 1.25 billion remote consultations under telemedicine that have taken place since March 2021 under e-Sanjeevani. Using this people in all parts of India are able to connect with doctors of large hospitals in cities. Ayushman Digital will connect digital solutions of hospitals across India to each other. This would make process simplified and enhance ease of living. Under this plan every citizen would now get a digital health ID and health records digitally protected. The overall model is for preventive healthcare and in event of disease easy, affordable, accessible healthcare.  Part of the plan is to build the facilities and resources to be able to handle needs. For doctors and para medical manpower a comprehensive network of AIIMS and modern health institutions is being setup, and one medical college is being setup for every 3 Lok Sabha parliamentary constituencies. In villages and rural areas primary health care network is being strengthened. Over 80,000 centers of this type have been operationalized.    ...

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Vast majority of DJT supporters 88% (down from 95%), approve of the president DJT's overall performance. On tariffs and Big Beautiful Bill. Democrats vastly disapproving, the messaging on cuts to Medicaid even though it's funding had grown close to $1 trillion ($909 billion in 2024), the uncertainty on tariffs even though the $1 trillion China trade surplus needed serious corrective action, federal government job cuts, leads to much larger proportions of Democrats opposing than Republicans supporting leading to about 60% unfavorable overall on tariffs and Big Beautiful Bill. Such unpopular action is sometimes the role of government like the action to rebuild the trading system and bring restraint to runaway spending on benefits, and can be overcome with a strong economy and capital investment for growth in future years. Another problem for the DJT administration is in the messaging to get the message across when some of the president's actions can be inconsistent or appear inconsistent. Add to this the distractions such as international diplomacy on Ukraine that take the president's time. Yet changes were needed in the international trading system and tough action is sometimes necessary when most countries and groupings, China EU, Canada, Mexico, can game the system their benefit to the detriment of the American people and jobs/communities at home. On the Big Beautiful Bill at the rate of growth in funding for Medicaid to $909 billion in 2024 from $2 billion at its inception under LBJ in the 1960's some restraint on spending would ultimately keep such help flowing where it is needed over the long haul. ...

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Quiet quitting has become a phrase that means workers are working hard and doing things the way they did before, except that they are not letting a work culture that may have gone astray because of bosses  who set the wrong rules guide their lives. Even as companies such as Stellantis are taking on a new culture because of a new respect for workers work-life balance and getting a lot more from them, other companies are following older set patterns that did not include work-life balance or rejected work-life balance outright without saying this openly. Stellantis, Europe's largest car company itself shows why this is dependent on who is the CEO and what he believes in. The previous CEO had poor health habits including frequent smoking and irregular long hours without a structure of any sort that led to this being carried over into the work culture. The CEO changes and new rules are set and soon it permeates who is hired at different levels that are consistent with his habits and sense of work life balance. A new culture develops over time and gradually you have new work ethic that respects the mental health and fitness of workers and of managers, and that of the CEO. This report in WSJ starts with the premise that workers should'nt feel bad because worker are "quiet quitting" anyway after the pandemic. But in reality the statement is a bad one, as it does not say there are better models out there few as they are, that need to take pre-eminent place after the pandemic rejecting the old ones that recklessly ignored health and mental health and were less motivating for workers, and leading to less productive culture in the workplace. At Stellantis a lot gets done in regular hours so that the time after 5 or 6 pm is devoted to workers getting into exercize taking a bike ride, doing things that revitalize and build a healthy body and mind so essential for productive and good thinking type concentration in work. Emails over weekends need not be replied till Monday, and bringing up work during the weekend is discouraged. And still a lot gets done, the company will take the leading role in EV vehicles in Europe and has aggressive plans for 2030 for new EV models. See the link to Stellantis to see how this new CEO runs a company of about 100,000 employees around the world. His name is Carlos Tavares and he took charge of Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler combined operations called Stellantis in January 2021. This is important as it is the new trend that will take hold of the work culture after the pandemic only if workers and managers ask that it be so and as the word spreads that better more productive companies that can get a lot more done is the result of such an educated workplace that respects health and mental health, and the dignity of workers and families. Look, how can it not be so when the word still has to be spread on climate change in the business world? How can one take place without the other? There is a new sense of dignity in respecting the dignity of the environment, of water, soil, and air, how not so for the mind, the body and its connection to nature around it? And no better place than Stellantis and its CEO Carlos Tavares where the old CEO ran himself down with poor work and health habits and passed away while at work in 2018, to show a new way.  In Germany this new way of work-life balance based work culture is called by a more respectful term "Feierabend" than "quiet quitting" showing that what is wrong is with the work culture and bosses who do not grasp the importance of health, mental health, and what it means to be revitalized for truly productive and thoughtful work. Quiet quitting has that sense of workers having to feel a bit of guilt about this and still thinking it is right  doing it anyway. In Germany"feierabend" is popular and accepted, it means breaking away from work at normal times such as 5 pm or 6 pm when a workday ends so that one can go out and relax with a bike ride  or something that is good for health and fitness and rejuvenates. No email, no nothing so the mind can rest and revitalize. ...

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In this WSJ post Musk is shown as having regrets on his posts in social media X. It only underscores the volatile nature of the activities of the Tesla founder which do a disservice to the genuine work of cutting costs- something that we have shown was taken up by Harry Truman during the spending in World War II with much grace and by walking in the shipyards and factories of the US without the constant chatter of social media posts. This is what made a mark for Truman in the US Congress leading to the vice presidency, and then in 1944 the presidency, and again in 1952 barnstorming the country by railcar to win over Wendell Wilkie in 1948.  President Jimmy Carter started Planning Programming Budgeting systems which is a truly effective way to budget by simply asking that all budget items be prepared from scratch from zero each year so that spending from past years does not simply getting carried over.  As Susie Wiles and other Republicans around DJT know it is important to keep the long term in mind and act responsibly, speak responsibly to the American people, in the manner Lincoln would have done today. ...

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Germany's Foreign Ministry warned in a cabinet note that investment by China's COSCO in Hamburg port terminal "disproportionately expands China's influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as Germany's dependence on China." Germany handed over a 25% stake in the Hamburg port terminal to China's COSCO shipping with the decision approved by chancellor Scholz. Several government ministries in Germany including the Economy ministry headed by Habeck and the Foreign Ministry have opposed the bid which is seen as having geopolitical aspects as Germany has no stakes in Chinese ports. "On behalf of the Foreign Ministry, I point out the considerable risks that arise when elements of Germany's transport infrastructure are influenced and controlled by China- while China itself does not allow Germany to participate in Chinese ports," said the note from the Foreign Ministry brought forward by Anna Luhrmann, Minister of State for Europe.  China is seen by Germany and NATO as posing security challenges. "In this respect the acquisition of the container terminal does not only have an economic aspect, but also a geopolitical aspect."  ...

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China's plan to lift all birth restrictions by 2025. The one child policy was replaced with a two child policy, and now with a three child policy in 2021, as China's birth rate declined below the level needed for a stable population. The plan now is to lift all restrictions as the decline in population is expected to be very steep. Not enough young people to support a growing elderly population is a major problem for the economy. A mindset has developed over 70 years for one or two children that is seen as hard to change. Women now work and pursue careers, their expectations in life have changed. Couples are also finding it hard to get access to schools and afford the costs of education and home space needed for larger families. Housing in most cities is costly, making it harder to raise families. Attitudes are hard to change. Experts see little impact of the new policies. The three northeastern provinces suffered most in the shift to a market economy. This is where the drop in birthrates is very steep. The government will remove all birth restrictions in the northeast before applying it to the whole of China. ...