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Another clear warning from Britain under Boris Johnson the failures from that time could still affect the US if it copies Johnson. Krugman looks at Project 2025 that has received the backing of the former president. He points to one aspect of this blueprint for a Trump second term, how civil service would be overhauled to remove civil servants not meeting the requirements put forth by the new administration. He says this takes America backwards. Till 1883 when president James Garfield set up an independent civil service in the US people employed by the government were routinely chosen from the winning party leading to flaws and much instability, weak administration. In Britain this type of effort of Project 2025 was tried under Boris Johnson by using an adviser who wanted to blow up parts of the British civil service for not cooperating. That experiment failed badly and the adviser was fired with much recrimination, Johnson being discredited, and administrative failures. Project 2025 would shut down the Education Ministry and the Homeland Security Ministry, for even more upheaval of the civil service. Not to mention the proposal to reverse the founding of the central bank the Federal Reserve in 1909 under Woodrow Wilson that stabilized the economy after banking panics. These are clear dangers. ...

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The place is Spain, see adjacent article on places within Spain. If you know Spanish that is an added advantage to talk to the locals. It has changed over the years. In the 1990's one could go to Madrid and freely walk out of the Puerta de Atocha main train station there with little traffic. Over the years after the financial crisis Madrid and Spain suffered. Under PM Pedro it has recovered. Yet it is not the same with international tourism from China, India, US having made visits crowded and less friendly. There is the garbage can index for tourism that tells you something is wrong when garbage cans are overflowing- it happened as tourism jumped to France in the last 2 decades- with garbage overflowing outside Notre Dame before renovation. (After 1993 Japan removed all garbage cans from streets.) About 100 million tourist visited France in 2024 and 80 million to Spain. It brings $100 billion in tourism receipts to Spain and about $80 billion each for France and UK, so that it is a key source of revenue for countries. How to make trips that avoid the rush - careful planning for season and month, finding the right places depending on one's interests nature, history, science, or other, and avoiding tours as there are plenty of resources to do it on one's own, finding right places to stay and visit, using local transport, tram and speed trains in Europe, giving enough time for each place, talking to locals and taking a lesson on Rocket languages online which uses locals and practices word pronunciation so you sound like a local. ...

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At a time in Jan. 2022 when 73% of Americans have received two dose vaccines and 39% have a booster shot according to the CDC, the US Supreme Court is deliberating on the Biden vaccine mandate that seeks to get the rest of the people vaccinated.

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Maine is the only state in the US where the median age declined in 2021. More people from other northeastern states migrated to Maine during this pandemic leading to population growth as younger people move in. This puts Maine in the ranks of sunbelt states such as Florida and South Carolina. This has one drawback- the increase in home prices that requires the state to pitch in to make housing more affordable for locals. During the pandemic three years Massachusetts lost 100,000, New York 600,000 to out migration. Maine has some of the most spectacular scenery in the northeast with Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor on the long coastline.

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Home energy prices in the European Union eased to 25% over the prior year in December 2022 from 35% the prior month. Consumer prices eased from 10% to 9% in December.

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GST revenue collections in February 2022 rose by 18% year on year to Rs. 1.33 lakh crore. GST revenues support India's effort to build infrastructure and support rapid economic development.

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Economic growth drops to 0.4% in the eurozone and Germany avoids a recession with slight increase in growth to 0.2% in the 3rd quarter of 2024. Energy cost have hit German industry hard.

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Australia seeks to reduce migration to pre-pandemic levels by putting a cap on foreign students. The cap is set at 270,000 for 2025. Each college or university will be given a restriction.

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Over 110,000 temporary workers in the US were laid off in the last 5 months of 2022, in a sign of labor markets responding to increasing interest rates by the Fed.

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How the grandiose visions of Saudi new cities in the desert are being reset after the war, and the people in the poorest countries are being faced with higher prices for food, fuel and fertilizer when they can least afford it in 2026. The media focus has been on the Hormuz without saying, A. -that now with the Omani route added to the Iranian route in Hormuz a new defacto 2 route Hormuz is setup by the US Iran agreement. B.- that China has already reset its energy policy to do without the 3 million barrels a day it got through Hormuz, India has already setup new oil supplies from Venezuela, Japan is working out new arrangements, US is creating incentives for oil companies to produce in other regions of the world. And C.- the renewable energy policies, how much energy to use per unit of GDP under effcient use, is being accelerated in EU, India, China and Japan, and indirectly also in the US as cost of renewables comes down compared to fossil fuels. These will be constructive aspects of the situation. The world also shifts away from the Middle East a source of decades of wars that brought down the Soviet Union, destroyed some economies in South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan), created the distraction for the US that led to letting its infrastructure and economy to weaken, and destroyed the economic and social fabric in many parts of the Arab world and North Africa (Libya, Iran, Iraq, Syria). It closes a chapter of the Middle East from which lessons can be drawn for a focus on economic development and using science and technology to improve living standards of the people of the world, to tackle climate change, and for peaceful cooperation of major nations. ...

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The 2011 State of the Union address by President Obama. A calculated effort to move the debates that will frame the future election to a different place. He emphasizes the importance of investing in the future, in global competitiveness, through spending on education, infrastructure, alternative energy and other projects. But there was little in the way of specifics for reducing the high jobless rate which stands at 9.4%. And little in the way of specifics of how the investments in the future for global competitiveness and infrastructure spending are to be achieved. Especially when the fiscal imbalances are growing after the compromise on the Bush tax cuts and the passage of health care legislation. The Washington Post says that a majority of Americans approve of his overall performance, yet they are generally negative in their evaluation of how the Obama administration and President Obama has handled key issues relating to the economy. And this is more so among independent voters who will be crucial in the 2012 elections....

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Dow Chemical CEO Liveris says he sees signs of recovery in China in 2013. He says small and medium sized businesses in China have better access to financing in Dec. 2012 after a period of destocking and hard times accessing credit.

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Athens is far from being her normal self with high unemployment, shuttered shops and periodic violence. Unemployment at about 23% and the worsening economic crisis is leading to dwindling support for the main parties Pasok and New Democracy. Support is growing for fringe parties, including neo-nazi type parties. The mood is shifting in Europe, with the presidential elections in France and the likely election of Socialist candidate Hollande, who has described the EU's handling of Greece as deplorable. New elections will take place later in 2012 in the Netherlands.

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Public sector layoffs in Spain in 2012-2013 under the governments deficit reduction plan- as mandated under fiscal compact rules agreed to in the December 2012 eurozone meetings- will worsen Spain's severe unemployment rate of 25%. These public sector layoffs are only now taking place. Upto now local governments had helped offset rising layoffs in the private sector by preserving employment. The result will be a further increase in unemployment in Spain, creating a crisis of large proportions.

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Everyone over 50 years is to be given the vaccine in just a few months of 2021 by the NHS. A massive logistics and training effort is underway. The government changed the law to let student doctors, physiotherapists, and dental workers to give the vaccine. Retired doctors and nurses are called in. Britain has a war effort to counter antivaccine propaganda unlike other countries such as France and Germany. Compare that 79% of Britons are seeking the vaccine, 54% in France and 64% in the U.S. showing that the UK is doing a much better job. Vaccination starts next week for over 80 year old people. The world is watching.

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Inflation in India is at 9.1% in May 2011, compared to the prior year. GDP growth for the first quarter of 2011 slowed to 7.8%, from an annual rate of 8.3% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Other figures show the same trend. Local investment growth for the second half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011 was at 4.1%, a decline from 14.7% at the beginning of the year. Foreign investment in the first quarter 2011 declined 32% from the prior year, down to $3.4 billon. Car sales have also declined to the lowest rate in two years.

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The Netherlands government of prime minister Mark Rutte collapsed on April 22, 2012, after the Freedom party of Geert Wilders said it would not support futher budget cuts. Mr. Wilders said: "We don't want our pensioners to bleed just to meet the dictates coming from Brussels." Government forecasts had predicted the Netherlands deficit at 4.6% of GDP in 2012, above the 3% goal set by the European Union. And negotiations that collapsed were about making $18 billion in budget cuts to help meet the deficit goal. Rutte will now lead a caretaker government till elections in September or October 2012. Credit agencies may lower the Netherlands credit ratings from AAA and this would raise Netherlands borrowing costs in coming months. The result would be to increase the deficit even further. The Netherlands government was a strong supporter of Germany to introduce strict austerity measures and budget cuts in the eurozone during the debt crisis in EU countries in 2010-2011. With the elections in France and the defeat of French president Sarkozy in the first phase of elections by Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, the austerity programs in Europe appear to be unravelling. The deeper Europe goes into a recession in 2012-2013, the more likely new measures will be needed to address competitiveness, growth, interest rates and overvalued currencies as opposed to largely fiscal and budget measures alone....

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Juliet Small on ECHR how it got to this in 2025 where it ignores the right of governments to protect their own ctiizens. Of law turned upside down by lawyers in Strasbourg in 50's and 60's and after to where the legal class appears to have messed it up so much and left it to politics to clean up this mess in Europe.

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India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal sets out the new Foreign Trade Policy. It moves away from giving incentives to exporters to remission of taxes and lower costs for smaller medium sized enterprises. The new export target is for goods and services exports to reach 2 trillion dollars by 2030 from $760 billion in 2023. The new policy will go into effect in April 2023. India's exports have grown 75% from $435 billion in 2015 to $760  billion in 2023. Under the new policy Indian exporters can source goods in one country and send them to a third country without touching Indian shores. Wider engagement will take place with States and Districts to promote exports at grassroots level. DGFT, Director General of Foreign Trade offices of DGFT will interact with district collectors to push exports. India's Commerce Ministry will also conduct a massive global outreach sectorally and country wise in tandem with the External Affiars Ministry  over the next 4-5 months. E commerce hubs will be established to generate $200-$400 billion in e-commerce exports. India's share of world trade is very low and needs to be pushed up to 7-10% says Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal. ...

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Greece passed what prime minister Samaras called the last of the austerity cuts in November 2012 and called for action by lenders in the EU. The EU's Rehn says it is time to dispel the notion that Greece has not made progress in making the economic changes needed. Finance ministers of the eurozone meeting in Brussels agreed to give Greece two more years to reach deficit reduction targets. The cost of this to the eurozone will be 32.6 billion euros. A $40 billion payment to Greece is still on hold till Nov. 20, 2012. The cuts passed in parliament in November 2012 by the Samaras government will raise 17 billion euros over 4 years. The 2013 budget passed in parliament has cuts of 9.4 billion euros to salaries pensions and benefits, and raises the retirement age from 65 to 67. As of Nov. 2012 the bailout packages to Greece from the eurozone countries are at $240 billion.

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Starting in 2023 the penalty on missed RMD drops to 25% from 50%, and down to 10% if corrected in 2 years. The statute of limitations for missed RMD's is three years.

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A Washington Post-ABC News survey conducted in mid April 2011, shows 49 percent of respondents saying they disapprove of Obama's handling of the war- only 44% said they approved. Of self-identified independents 53% said they disapproved of Obama's handling of the war. A survey conducted in March 2011 showed about two thirds of Americans think the war is not worth fighting,

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Good tips for wellbeing and mental health during another election cycle. Amanda Ripley has some good advice in the Washington Post. Move out of a 24 hour news cycle and pause to decide what to read and not to read. Relationships are real and matter, will be there when all this is over years from now. It is about equanimity, maintaining mindfulness. Being a good moral person and teaching your kids the right things, are you doing what is important. Accepting that there was Beaverbrook type journalism before after a British press baron from the last century who loved crises and profited by selling tons of newspapers. Today's versions simply do it using video and podcasts and electronic versions. So it means getting off the rollercoaster ride that profits some press baron. Think in terms of years- a couple of years later there will be 2027 primaries, and five years from now even ten years from now. For someone older one can remember JFK and the New Frontier speeches- was president Harry Truman right to ask John Kennedy not to run because he was too young, would history have turned out better if his energy and zeal for America could have come up later in the nineteen seventies or eighties? Then people worried about too young a candidate, today it is the opposite. The Lord says I am partial to none but supremely dear to me are the wise, in the Bhagavad Gita, in Buddhist texts and in the Bible. And again he says by the raft of knowledge alone you shall go across all sin. Listening well and openness are the road to knowledge and wisdom, leading to mindfulness and peace in 2024 and beyond. ...

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Popularity of podcasts in 2024 to engage young people and for news events.

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Most of the sales increases in the U.S. market in the 2012 fourth quarter are seen as going to Toyota and Honda. The arrival of new models for the Accord and Camry and the new Civic are likely to boost the Japanese automakers.