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This report in WSJ says industry and Boeing officials now increasingly believe that workers at Boeing factory reinstalled a plug in 737 Max 9 jet but failed to put back the bolts. The door plug blew off 16000 feet over Oregon leading to an emergency landing. Boeing is affected by lack of good quality practices and worker training for quality standards for several years. The question remains why this sort of defect is not detected in the final inspection detail checklist, with a second final inspection and third for overall quality. And why the plane is not checked again for obvious defects by the airline when it receives the new plane.The cost of this is minimal compared to the cost of compensating airlines for losses in some way and loss of customer loyalty.

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Amtrak Biden says is an essential part of the fight to tackle climate change. Rail has 83% less greenhouse emissions than automobiles, and 73% less than plane air travel. It also has the potential to create half a million good jobs. President Biden was known as "Amtrak Joe" because he used Amtrak for decades as America's Senator from Delaware. In this video president Biden speaks at the 50th anniversary of Amtrak in Philadelphia. He says one of the conductors on his daily route estimated Biden has done 1.5 million miles on Amtrak compared to 1.1 million miles on Air Force One. Biden says he has traveled on Amtrak for as long as Amtrak has been in existence- for close to 50 years.

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Many of the News properties of Rupert Murdoch take positions that negatively affect women, inequality and mobility, cost of living, income and wages fairness, climate change action, government investment in infrastructure, healthcare, and education, childcare. After Rupert the media properties go to the 4 children  Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence with each getting one vote under a irrevocable trust set up in 1999 in Reno, Nevada. Rupert and James says this story in NYT are making efforts to amend this trust to change governance provisions for the news properties so that Lachlan has majority voting rights. This is now opposed by James, Elisabeth and Prudence with courts in Nevada asked to see if this is in good faith and in the interests of all 4 children.

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Advice from David Walker on the role of a chairman of a large bank and good bank governance. This is part of a 184 page report prepared for UK bank governance practices following the financial crisis. David Walker is now the new chairman of Barclays and considered an excellent choice with the experience and wisdom to correct the problems facing the financial industry. He calls for putting corporate governance at the centre of things in the current environment- this applies to banks in Europe and the U.S.- in the following passage from the report which deserves careful reading: "The need now is to bring corporate governance issues closer to centre stage. Better financial regulation has much to accomplish, but cannot alone satisfactorily assure performance of the major banks at the heart of the free market economy. These entities must also be better governed... The behavioural changes that may be needed are unlikely to be fostered by regulatory fiat, which in any event risks provoking unintended consequences. Behavioural improvement is more likely to be achieved through clearer identification of best practice and more effective but, in most areas, non-statutory routes to implementation so that boards and their major owners feel "ownership" of good corporate governance." Walker calls the role of the chairman paramount in doing this, requiring "exceptional leadership skills and the ability to get confidently and competently to grips with major strategic issues." This means that if done right there will be little time for a chairman to do any other activity....

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Argentina's new president takes over a failing economy in 2019. Mr. Fernandez declared a public emergency until 2020. A legislative package recently passed includes tax increases on the wealthy, tax relief for the poorest, a 30% tax on foreign currency transactions abroad, and a currency cap of $200 per person per month imposed by the previous Macri administration.  About 70% of new revenues will go to social programs, including free food vouchers for two million of the poorest Argentines. About 40% of the people in Argentina are in poverty, according to the World Bank, a shocking figure for a country that should be doing better given its natural resources and agricultural resources. The economy is suffering from hyper inflation at over 50%, jumping external debt at 90% of GDP. Total debt is $332 billion including a $57 billion IMF loan. About half the total debt is in foreign currency and is hard to service now that foreign currency reserves have fallen from $66 billion to $43.5 billion. The debt restructuring strategy now is to delay as much of the $70 billion of repayments due before the end of 2020.  ...

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Without government aid about 12 million more people would have fallen into poverty in the US during the pandemic in 2020-2021. This is evident from census figures analyzed in the WSJ and NYT. The Supplemental Poverty Measure -which takes into account a broader range of income and expenses including hundreds of billions of dollars of pandemic aid -shows that poverty actually declined, dropping by 2.9% to 9.1%, as a result of government taking action in the US under the Trump and Biden administrations. The $400 billion  dollars of stimulus checks and aid during the Trump and Biden administrations in 2021 have made a real difference in the lives of not just poor Americans but Americans in the middle class and all sections of society. Similar aid was delivered in the European Union and Britain. In India government aid was distributed by depositing money directly into hundreds of millions of bank accounts of poor and marginal income people. Aid included food aid in grains, lentils and vegetables directly provided at subsidized prices or free by the government. Right wing or left wing government designations were meaningless as governments of different persuasions acted decisively to provide direct and timely help in US, Europe, and India. ...

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In the U.S., Brazil, and now Mexico wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic has become politicized. Here "Amlo" as president Lopez Obrador is popularly called says he will wear a mask once corruption is ended in Mexico and he does not need to talk about corruption. Amlo gives his own advice for fighting the pandemic- stop eating junk food or taking junk drinks, lose weight, and find spirituality, which is all good advice. President Trump recently wore a mask and called it "patriotic" to wear a mask taking some of the politics out of this simple and basic prevention action. The governor of Texas made it mandatory to wear a mask after initial hesitation.  

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Shows how buyers can compare vehicles for front side and rear. Rear is quite important and not all brands do well example Toyotas RAV4, Higlander and other suv's fared marginal or poor, so also saturn VUE, Honda Pilot, CRV, Subaru Tribeca, Ford Taurus X, and Hyundai Santa Fe had G or Good rating for rear hits. Hyundai Tucson was marginal and so was Ford Explorer so only Honda and Subaru and Volvo show consistently high ratings in rear and Toyota shows consistently poor or marginal. Has Toyota lost ground in safety and is Ford catching up, and is Honda's focus on safety showing up in results, are questions answered by a look at these ratings.

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A problem the renewable energy industry faces is how to store energy so that it can meet demand when it is cloudy or calm, conditions when solar panels and wind energy generators are not working. A company in Switzerland is working on a novel solution. It uses cranes to lift 35 ton bricks that are stacked to form a 400 foot tower. When energy is needed the kinetic energy from bricks coming down powers generators. 

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Three tankers held off the coast of Mumbai by India's Cost Guard have been sanctioned for carrying Iranian oil. India stopped buying Iranian oil in DJT's first term 2016-2020. In his second term DJT wanted India to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil as a way to reduce funding for Russia's invasion of Ukraine now in its fourth year. India has stopped buying Russian oil as part of the goodwill effort to reach trade agreements with the US, EU, and Germany. The seizing of the oil tankers is part of a new effort by India to support bringing Russia to the negotiating table to end the Ukraine war. Russia has demanded Ukraine turn over Donetsk region to end the war, which is a major stumbling block as Ukraine says there are Ukrainians living in Donetsk region. Germany's increase in its defense budget and investment in its armed forces has led to Germany+ (Germany plus UK and France) acting as the chief supporter of Ukraine, after the US has taken more of a neutral stand. The US basically wanting to end the war in 2026 so that the US can address the situation in the western hemisphere with drug and migrant trafficking gangs in Mexico, Venezuela and Columbia, and rebuild its economy to bring back manufacturing from China. For India the guiding principle of its foreign policy is Gandhiji's thinking and advice for fairness and peaceful coexistence - it does not believe in a British inspired NATO expanding on the borders of Russia, and at the same time does not see how a war on a neighboring Russian speaking region is in Russia's continued interest for a fourth year with bombing of energy infrastructure to leave Kviv in darkness. Non -alignment was Nehru's not Gandhiji's idea- the ideas of respect and fairness are basic to Gandhiji's thinking and India will remain true to his ideas in world relations. One aspect of this change in world affairs is missed by all and the media, that is that with the EU and US+ Japan, and India+ Indonesia there is a population of 1 billion of western peoples, and about 2 billion of Asian peoples, for a total of 3 billion people. This is a region three times the size of China, which with its access to capital and technology, labour and good governance is in a position to industrialize and reindustrialize, and bring manufacturing/science and technology to the core of this economic region by 2035. An industrialized India with 2X-3X the size of its current GDP will still be governed on Gandhiji's ideas for world relations in 2047. ...

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Modi speech for the ages to the people of Barrackpore, West Bengal, April 27 2026 surpasses any but the best of Gandhi's speeches for a century since the 1930's. "Shakti ki Bhakti" pilgrimage for the ages for the women and children and families of Bengal and India. A plea for freedom of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa as a north star for India, in the task of urbanization, modernization industrialization, and scientific revolution of India. "Purvi Bharat ka bahvisya sudhar kanrna chunav hai." This northeast that is key to the future of India's 1.4 billion people in this election in West Bengal of May 4, 2026 after 5 decades of failed governance, of failed industrialization and failed modernization in a region of 300 million people, half the size of the European Union. Impatience in Modi's voice with the pace of change that has failed the aspirations of a young generation of India.  This has left the northeast region as a backward agrarian economy. Change in federal  overnment for rapid modernization in India came in 2014 with Modi government. It was stalled for a few years by the Covid pandemic. The effort for modernization of the Indian economy after 5 decades of failed good governance is thus in its first decade and in that decade impeded by the state governments of Maharastra and Rajasthan in the western region that also includes Gujarat. In the northeast failed governance continued in West Bengal , Bihar and Orissa. In Delhi and the Punjab a similar situation. It is only now that Maharashtra and Rajasthan are aligned with federal government in industry and modernization goals. And it is only now that Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal are aligning themselves at the state level with the federal goals for modernization and rapid urbanization plus industrialization. In the south Tamilnadu (Madras region) and Kerala (Kochi), and Karnataka (Bangalore region) are also lacking in aligning with the efforts at the federal level. As a result the changes that are happening have the potential to bring a new wave of industrialization and modernization in the north, northeast and western regions of India with the federal government and the state governments in alignment on industrialization and modernization. This could bring to the world economy a development similar to China's second decade of development from 2000 to 2010 when a new surge happened in China's modernization. India's modernization will happen with the reindustrialization in the US and the European Union  and will set the pace for the world economy in the decades to come. ...

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After a good start the vaccination drive is slowing both in India and the US. Vaccine supplies need to be boosted in India and the government has given approval to the Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines to boost supplies. The Sputnik vaccine from Russia has also gained approval with new supplies of that vaccine expected in India. Vaccine skepticism is a problem in the US and Europe. Supplies of the Pfizer vaccine will be boosted in Europe with the EU contract for 1.8 billion doses signed recently. This should give the slow vaccination drives in France and Germany a boost.

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The Thai government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has committed to buy unmilled rice from farmers at 15,000 baht or about $500 a ton for the harvest in 2011. This is pushing up world rice prices.

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Get to your core- vision and team to execute in good times and bad, and get a good grasp of your customers. This is critical for setting the right foundations for a new company. Make sure your investors are the right kind who will help achieve that vision. And find opportunities to execute in better ways to achieve that vision as you go forward under different conditions.

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French-American, Sarkozy-Obama relations, get off to a good start with the town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France. Obama is received with much enthusiasm and tells the crowd- "We're not looking to be the patrons of Europe, we're looking to be the partners with Europe." And Sarkozy -"it feels really good to work with a U.S. president who wants to change the world."

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Luis Gutierrez, Charirman of the subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, has a bill in Congress that is presented as a reform effort by the lending industry, many Republicans and some consumers. It would allow payday operators in the $50 billion payday lending industry, to charge what amounts to an annual percentage rate of 391%. Rep. Maxine Walters described the bill this way, "we've got to resist any attempt to make it look as if we are cracking down, when in fact we are opening the door to more abuse." This is what Countrywide's Mozilo does in a interview with BW, that he gave at the time the housing and mortgage crisis was breaking open in 2008. And this is the way those in both political parties in Congress, lobbyists, and businessmen who profited from all the unethical things that went on in the housing lending industry, all worked together to undermine the foundations of the country's economy by putting toxic assets at the centre of the credit and banking system of the US. They did this by saying that they were helping the poorer classes get access to housing, and used the term "a piece of the American dream," which seems to be the phrase that opens all sorts of caves in the American imagination, like Ali Baba and his magic lamp and his magic phrase did in Arabian times. And so the NYT editorial writer, facing the greater evil suggests that a smaller evil, an usurious rate of 36% that is an option afforded to military families is a desirable option, when at that rate the loan numbers would double in less than 3 years. All this when the government at federal state and local levels could assume this among the many activities it already undertakes, because it does best those activities, such as some of the public transportation and other services. The government bank could require proof of desperate need, and provide loans for purposes of medical care, care of elderly, care of children, educational needs, food and shelter needs, at rates of 10-15% to make up for losses in loans not repaid, and run it as a nonprofit. Capitalism is also of the good kind and the bad kind, the 391% payday loan capitalism or the loans at pricing that made them unaffordable to low income people, or loans to low income people who did not have incomes to afford housing (where the risk was then passed on to the owners of the securities after a false sertification of A rating had been obtained by undermining the rating process) is a bad kind of capitalism, and the 36% usurious rate for military families is of the tolerably bad kind of capitalism, and the 10-15% kind of payday government sponsored loan is of the good kind of capitalism. And critical to its understanding is what experience has taught us in the last 100 years- that for this good kind of capitalism, there is a critical social role for the government to play. ...

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The dangers to your back from Bend Lift and Twist as shown by expert doctors in orthopedics. How not to put stress on your spine- a few good tips to follow to be back healthy.

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Obama ACA subsidies to go directly to the people through Health Savings Accounts proposed by Republican Senators Graham, Scott and Cassidy in 2017, and again in 2025, and not to Insurance companies. In a post on his social media site DJT tells Congress that the ACA subsidies given directly to people rather than money sucking insurance companies would lead to a better result of people getting their own and better coverage for less money than under Obama type subsidies sent to insurance companies.  Much of Obamacare was done under a campaign from insurance companies and other health vested interests that undermined the original objectives so that however good the original objectives the watered down, disincentivising of reducing unproductive costs, led to a hotch potch band aid result. A common sense approach with the courage to get the right result that works for the people of the Nation to get good health care similar to Japan and other nations in Europe at reasonable cost is not a goal that an advanced nation like the US should see as unreachable or beyond our efforts, skills and wisdom. Obama and Bush failed, Bush in a major error to remove the negotiating power of government Medicare agency with pharmaceutical companies that Democrats failed to push back. ...

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Using knowledge of molecular crystal formation with a degree in industrial chemistry, and a chocolate making apprenticeship in Antwerp, this is what brings Thierry Muret to the exciting work of making new truffles. He originally wanted to become a scientist inventing new things. Today he uses his science degree every single day, as its all about crystals, says Muret, who is the main chef at a large chocolate maker, Godiva. His view is that chefs are all the time decomposing food and recomposing it as they see fit using creative ways and ideas. He says chocolate is a very difficult material, and it takes sometimes as long as 12 months to get one product right. One deals with temperatures and time and half a degree Fahrenheit is what the fluctuation allowed is. Here he describes a typical day at a chocolate maker and days when he gets creative, passionate about a creation, putting everything aside. Other days at a satellite kitchen in New York, or in Brussels talking about new chocolates for Christmas 2020. ...

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The U.S. bans travel from most of  Europe and India imposes quarantine on visitors and overseas citizens entering the country for 14 days. Countries around the world reacted quickly to the situation in Italy, France and Germany. The strict measures taken by China are gradually being adopted by other countries. Quarantine done early has worked limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Countries with strong public health systems are better positioned to weather the health crisis. Where strong action is taken early and in anticipation, with a strong public health response, there is better control over the spread. This comes with some economic cost as it has hit the Chinese economy, yet the rebound is likely to be that much quicker and done with more confidence. For instance air travel in China declined by 85% in February from a year earlier to 8.3 million journeys according to Chinese aviation officials. Moves to keep social interactions to a minimum have yielded results. Only food stores and pharmacies remain open in China till March 25.  ...

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The inability to convince farmers to trade land for a fair settlement in money, new homes, schools and other benefits and to make this a win-win proposiion between farmers and companies is holding up abut $98 billion in investments in steel plants and other plants. A bill in Parliament would require companies to negotiate directly with farmers and reach a settlement that is good for farmers to resolve what is increasingly a serious problem. It is holding up an industrial revolution and the creation of manufacturing industry in India to provide the kinds of jobs that are needed badly.