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U.S. gasoline demand is at about 8.6-9.2 million barrels a day down from the 9.6 -10 million barrels a day before mid March. It fell to 5 million barrels a day in April when prices were briefly at zero before recovering with the oil deal negotiated by president Trump. The lack of school reopenings, offices still closed and the surge in the pandemic in July and August has led to drop in the outlook for oil demand. Oil prices are now in the low $40's per barrel. Yet the overall recovery is strong considering that it is only 6 months into the pandemic.

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India continues to reopen its economy even as cases surge for reasons of keeping the economy's reopening and ensuring the livelihood of millions of people. The Taj Mahal draws 7 million tourists every year and it has reopened. Fatigue with extreme measures has set in and the government is reluctant to go back to the lockdown measures that affected the economy in April and May. India's economy contracted by a quarter in April- June. A million people are being tested daily and still this is not enough.

India has recorded 5.4 million cases and could overtake the U.S.

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U.S. economic growth in the third quarter of 2020 was 7.4%. This is a record and the closest to this was the economic growth in 1950 which was 3.9% a little over half of that. This is the equivalent of 33% on an annualized basis.

The economy is about 3.5% smaller than when the pandemic started. This record is better than the one in 2008 financial crisis when over a period of one and half years the economy declined by about 4%. By 2021 the U.S. economy will have recovered to where it was back to its original shape if recovery proceeds at this rate.

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This story in The Times shows how Gareth Southgate has rebounded from a penalty miss in Euro Soccer 1996 playing for England. After 25 years Southgate is back inspiring his players to take the English team to the quarter finals of Euro Soccer in 2021, and with a win against Ukraine can put it in the top 4 teams. He is shown as a learner with humility and respect for other people who helped him develop as a person and a player. He is seen as someone who believes in sharing success with others who helped make it happen and unlike  other egocentric coaches. 

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Luis Enrique suffered a nose injury in the 1994 Euro soccer quarter finals against Italy, and a loss to Italy. Now the coach for the Spanish soccer team is back with the win in the quarter final against Switzerland, that game going to penalties. Spain is now in the final four with Italy, England and Denmark. He will meet Italy now as the coach of the national team. Spain has gone through long periods when the national team has not done well. Spanish soccer revived after 44 years with a win in penalties in Vienna that took it to the soccer semifinals in 2008.

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American men took the biggest hit for life expectancy in an Oxford University study, with life expectancy dropping by 2.2 years in 2020. American women life expectancy dropped by 2.65 years. Lithuanian men had a decline of 1.7 years. This is the largest decline going back to the days of the Great Depression in the 1930's

Elsewhere in Europe, life expectancy declined in many countries for the first time since the Second World War. This happened in Spain, Italy, England, Wales and Belgium. Women in 8 countries and men in 11 countries had drops in life expectancy over more than 1 year.

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The head of a pilots union says he no longer trusts that Boeing is following the quality practices it has followed for three decades that have made Boeing planes safe. Serious concerns about quality issues under management that comes from the financial sector without the extensive experience in the manufacturing or other related areas, about how workers put together the planes. A senior manager is cited in this BBC report that the culture at Boeing has been toxic to trust for over ten years so that even if new safety steps are introduced and new procedures added the lack of trust makes them nearly ineffective.

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Issues of lack of leadership on climate change that face David Malpass, head of the World Bank are discussed in this report in The Guardian. The Biden administration sees this as a problem because of the need for strong leadership and action in developing countries on climate change, and for financing to support this. Malpass was selected by president Trump for this position and Mr. Trump is known for taking the US out of the Paris Climate change Accords. The climate change related floods, drought and fires in 2022 have created anew awareness of the need for strong action worldwide by all institutions and world leaders.

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Drought conditions prevail in the avocado growing region of Spain. The La Vinuela Reservoir in this region in Malaga province is only 12% full.  It has been reduced to a mere puddle says this report in DW.com. Across the world from the dam reservoirs in Nevada, US, to Uttar Pradesh in India the water levels are extremely low because of a lack of rain. Drought conditions are more frequent and last longer with the effects of climate change say experts. This means sunflower oil output a major export for Spain will drop by a third this year for use in Europe.

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Apple and Microsoft make up 13.3% of the S&P 500. Apple makes up 7.1% of S&P 500. Other tech stocks such as Netflix, Google, Facebook and Amazon have lost value. Apple and Microsoft are the only two stocks that have gained ground. One has to go back to IBM and AT&T in 1978 to see two stocks with a significant share in the S&P 500. During the banking crisis Apple and Microsoft have acted as havens in the stock markets. Both energy and banking stocks have lost value. Tech stocks lost value in 2022 and are regaining some ground.

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For National Governance Day- Praveen Siddharth, private secretary to the president, writes about the way Atal Bihari Vajpayee handled the difficult situations he faced in parliament after his government faced no confidence motions and his government collapsed for lack of one vote, leading to a government that lasted 13 days, before finally winning the 1999 elections for a first full term in office. This opened the way for a post independence modernizing India based on good governance, "sab ka vikas sab ke sath, sab ka prayas." National governance day is observed on the day of the birth of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 

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Rafael Nadal makes a remarkable comeback to beat Medvedev after losing the first two sets in the 2022 Australian Open tennis tournament. The match lasted 5 hours till 1 am the next day. Nadal says "Being honest one month and a half ago, I did not know if I will be back on the tour plying tennis again... you don't know how much I fought to be here." Nadal is one of the of the most resilient players in sports having comeback from difficult situations repeatedly, as he gives his all down to the last point regardless of the score. 

 

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This Guardian report provides a timeline for lunar exploration. The last Apollo Moon missions date back to 1972 with Apollo 17. It lasted 12 days with the first crewed space flight to the moon taking Schmitt and Cernan to moon's surface while Evans orbited above. Since then it has been quiet for lunar exploration till Chang'e 3 lander and rover from China in 2011 put China on the moon, followed by Chang'e 5 in 2020. Today August 23, 2023 India puts its own moon lander and rover on the South Pole of the moon which is expected to have water.

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Few remember it today, yet there was a period of players during the Ken Rosewall-Rod Laver period of the sixties and seventies that the lob and the drop shot were what made tennis exciting and fun. Ilie Nastase, a Romanian player of that time was adept at the drop shot and lob. Kurt Streeter of the NYT looks at the game of Spanish player Alcaraz and his frequent use of drop shots even from a distance that are taking tennis back to that era. In the woman's game Tunisian player Jabeur is also known for the drop shot. Marshmallows is a.k.a. for drop shots.

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The internal feuds within Silicon Valley about ideas of altruism that support unlimited personal pursuit of profit including monopolistic behaviours, in the measure of their greed. And the presentation of lack of personal involvement in such gains by calling it altruistic. This justifies and puts a neat face on unlimited personal wealth creation in Silicon Valley at a time of great inequality and poverty in America. The consequences can be seen in the crumbling infrastructure and transportation services in New York City compared to that in newly industrializing countries such as China and India, the result of misallocation of capital.

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Reports from Europe that a V shaped recovery is happening in the economy. Andy Haldane the chief economist of the Bank of England says roughly half of the 25% lost output in the economy in the lockdown in April and May has been gained back in UK. This is good news for Europe after the bad hit it took from the pandemic since March. The reopening of the economy in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Britain is taking place with greater reassurance as the curve is flattening out at low levels of cases in July and people are generally following rules for prevention.

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There is a clear difference between Biden and Trump on the Climate. Biden put the US back into the 2015 Paris Climate Change Treaty in fight against climate change after Trump took the US out of it. Trump supports coal and oil & gas. Biden is working to phase out of coal and fossil fuels in a way that still keeps the economy strong. There is place where the difference is so starkly clear. Expect climate change events, storms, fires, floods to grow under Trump, and storms, fires and floods to be made to recede under Biden with strong climate change action.

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French officals are pushing for a new eurozone architecture to address many of today's problems. This includes setting up a pathway that leads to the joint issuance of eurobonds. It also would include coordination of monetary policy with the budgets and fiscal situation in the eurozone. French officials see the lack of this as the cause of many of today's problems.

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Feldstein emphasizes the need to help homeowners with a plan he suggested back in June.. And suggests spending by the government to build infrastructure, other spending initiatives to stimulate demand, and rebuilding military capacity. Spending he suggests should be large enough to make an impact, as the loss of household wealth from falling home and stock prices could result in a loss in aggregate spending of $300 billion or more. He points to the need for urgent action.

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Krugman points to the low productivity improvement in the U.S. since 2005, and looks at the nature of tech changes since 2005 with products from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other companies targeted more at consumers than at the core industrial economy. Listening to my favorite music or using smartphones does not add to productivity in the same way that changes in an earlier period improved productivity. Low productivity improvement hurts workers in the U.S., Britain and in the eurozone, as this is holding back growth in wages. Figures actually show a further deceleration in productivity since 2010 to a mere 0.3% annual growth in the U.S., from 1.3% since 2005, and 2.9% for the period from 1995 to 2005.

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Islamist parties are having difficulty integrating into political life and bridging the differences with secularist or liberal political parties in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Pakistan and Turkey following the democratic transition in 2011-2013 in the Muslim world. Some progress has been made, but lack of experience, lack of respect for the opposition and other opinion, overreaching, personal styles of individual leaders such as Erdogan and Morsi, and poor economic conditions after decades of neglect under military rulers in Egypt and other countries, is creating problems for Islamist parties in government.

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GDP growth in India's economy decelerated to 5% in the last quarter after 8% growth in full year 2018. Stimulus measures, recapitalizing banks and increased infrastructure spending is supported by the Modi government as a way to cope with this crisis. Much of the problem stems from bad lending by banks from an earlier period.  Lack of credit is hurting the retail and auto sectors. Drought conditions in some rural areas hurt the rural farm based economy.

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Luis Almagro, president of the Organization of American States, from the small South American nation of Uruguay, says he has decided to speak up on Latin American issues, for respecting the sentiments of the people and democratic process. This is a welcome trend and more Latin American voices need to be heard, for Latin Americans to make their own assessment of the needs of the people, the problems and how to tackle them. More dialogue is needed between the government and the opposition parties to come up with better approaches and throw light on problems. The effort of Mr. Chavez however well intentioned, following neglect of social spending and needs of neglected groups under previous administrations, has gone to the other extreme leading to isolation from the rest of the industrialized world's economies- something no country can afford to do today because of the pace of technological change, much less smaller oil or commodity dependent economies. Large petroleum subsidies need to be addressed in Venezuela, as Mr. Maduro now says, and opening of a dialogue with the opposition parties is one result of Mr. Almagro's efforts. At some point a transition is needed with support of all political parties to bring Venezuela back into the global economy. Inflation of 141%, and contraction of the economy by 10% hurts all Venezuelans. Not even faint traces of the Monroe doctrine that asserted U.S. dominance in South America exists today, and it is upto Latin Americans to tackle problems of corruption, misguided policies, lack of emphasis on innovation and education. The Washington Post's deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl, does a service to Latin America by calling attention to such voices for dialogue and problem solving....

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Friedman describes the lack of decisionmaking, initiative and courage in the Eurozone, India and China to tackle difficult problems. During his visit to India he describes the problems India faces. A serious problem with lack of good governance within the democratic framework. India also has a growing population that will soon surpass China's population, which makes the task of development that much harder, with the small steps India is taking to move forward not making a serious impact. Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, described it this way: "There is a complete lack of decision-making among leaders in the government. If prompt action is not taken, the country will face a setback. You must appreciate how serious it is." Friedman sees a similiar situation in the eurozone countries as new governments are being formed in Greece and Italy by Papademos and Mario Monti, both technocrats from the European Union. This has the added complication because these experts have not been elected. The fact that they have support and goodwill is because of the failure of the political class in Greece and Italy. The failure of the political class in the U.S. is evident from the stymied negotiations over the deficit, and the lack of leadership from President Obama....

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The Economist argues that a grand coalition in Japan of the Democratic Party of Japan with the old LDP is a bad idea, because it means going back to the old ways. It is these old ways with a collusion between government and the nuclear industry, says the Economist, that led to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima. Better for the DPJ to go to the country and seek a mandate in new elections.