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Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All plan in the U.S. draws support from about 60% of people polled for the New York Times. Over 66% support Warren's 2% wealth tax on people with wealth over $50 million. The support is consistent among all groups, gender and race. Only a group of Republican men with college degrees which is likely to include the bulk of the people with wealth over $50 million oppose the wealth tax and Medicare for All. Over the past year wealth tax and Medicare for All support has grown with about 60% of people supporting Medicare for All, a plan similar to government plans in most of Europe and in Canada which have worked over many years.

Warren's plan wins support by showing how it will be paid for and why most people will pay no more than they are paying today, and overall much less because of unnecessary costs taken out of the system.

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This story in WSJ says China may have a lead in electric car battery sales in 2024 and beyond. China is investing heavily in battery plants and EV plants in Europe and the US. This would help China meet the restrictions on import of electric vehicles from China by the Biden administration. CATL increased its market share in Europe from 10% to 24%. Sales of EV vehicles in China went up by 37% in the first 9 months of 2023, and China is the top exporter of electric vehicles. CATL's electric battery sales in Europe doubled compared to 60% for LG. And in excluding China sales CATL has caught up with LG both having 28% of the market.

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Tens of millions of migrant workers head back to their homes in poorest states as LPG cylinder prices quadruple and are in short supply April 13, 2026. This piece in Le Monde shows how India which relies on imports for 60% of LPG supplies used for cooking in a country of 1.4 billion people is affected by the actions of nations in Middle East interrupting open seas navigation. 

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Social Security payment are likely to increase by 3.3% in 2024 in line with about 3% inflation, after an increase of 8.7% in 2023. 46% of retirees paid taxes on a part of their benefits. About 40% of Americans depend on social security payments for half of their income, and 14% for 90% of their income. Average 401K balances are up to $223,000 for people 65 to 69 years, according to Fidelity Investments.

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A key takeaway from the UN Population report in 2023 is the youthfulness of India's population. India has 1.428 billion people in 2023. 26% of this is in the 10-24 year age group. As much as 68% is in the 15-64 years age group. The fertility rate now at 2.0 is less than the replacement rate of 2.1. This is the number of children each woman has in her lifetime.

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A Feb. 2011 NBC/Wall Street Journal shows only a small number of Americans think cuts to Medicare are necessary to "significantly reduce" the deficit. Only 18% favored cuts, 54% opposed cuts to Medicare to reduce the deficit. Only 22% said cuts to Social Security were needed, 49% said they were not needed. Tea party supporters by a 2 to 1 margin said significant cuts to Medicare were "unacceptable." What measures should be taken to put the entitlement programs on a sound financial basis? On this point over half of the people polled said they favor increasing the retirement age to 69 years by 2075, up from 66 now. A larger number said they support reducing Social Security and Medicare payments to wealthier Americans. Experts say these two measures could eliminate 60% of the underfunding of Social Security. On the issue of collective bargaining rights of public workers, this poll shows 62% of the people polled oppose effforts to weaken collective bargaining. This is similiar to the CBS/New York Times poll results of Feb 24, 2011 on this issue. See the group for this. This poll show a big yellow caution light for Republicans zealously advocating cuts to entitlements. Both polls show lack of public support for reducing the collective bargaining rights of public workers....

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Chinese government and China's Securities Regulatory Commission issues a scathing criticism of pwc accounting firm's audits of Evergrande real estate company. Evergrande went into bankruptcy on a huge scale and pwc's audits failed to disclose what was happening at the company when apartments that were not built or not completed were considered as revenue. This disguised the problems at the company  leading to huge losses and affecting the entire Chinese economy that depended too much on construction for GDP growth.

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Restraint in production being shown by OPEC, Russia and American shale oil producers is boosting oil prices. Oil prices rose to $53.21 on Jan. 11, 2021. Prices are now at levels that allow producers to cover their production costs. Demand for travel is likely to increase as vaccination drives proceed. This means prices could reach $60 or $65 later in 2021.

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Dr Bernadine Healy, was the first woman to lead the National Institutes of Health and the first physician to head the American Red Cross. Her pioneering role at the National Institutes of Health included launching the Women's Health Initiative. She focussed attention on the risks to women's health from cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and cancer. The focus on women's health was new at the time.

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Nestor Kirchner was a not so well known governor of the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz when he won the elections in the first round by only 22% of the vote in 2003. He steered Argentina out of the financial crisis in 2003 and Argentina has seen high growth rates with booming agricultural exports to China throughout the decade. In 2007 his wife Christina Kirchner was elected president and Nestor Kirchner assumed the leadership of the governing Peronist party. After initial difficulties and low ratings Christina Kirchner's ratings improved to over 40% in 2010 as growth rates approached 9.5%.

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Said, Kent and Faucon describe the meetings and maneouvring between oil producers that led to the decision to not cut production at the November 2014 OPEC meetings in Vienna. This led to a drop in Brent crude down to below $70 by Dec. 2014, with Russia, Iran and Venezuela losing, countries such as India, and motorists benefitting from lower oil prices.

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Compared to 2008 Hillary Clinton is now very clear that she will stand up for woman's issues openly- "it is about no ceilings, no limits, for any of us." About playing the women's card she says "deal me in." One of the paradoxes of this election season is that white women registered voters 35 to 64 years of age have shown less enthusiasm for Hillary, around 34-36 percent in polls such as the NBC-WSJ poll. Interestingly the figure climbs to 66 percent for ages 18-34, and to 56 percent for ages over 64, for all women. Experts attribute this to the fact that women over 35 are facing fewer barriers than the women over 64 who remember the hard won battles for women's rights when it was hard for women to get a credit card or run for office, or be promoted in business. Traditional career choices were being teachers or nurses. A lot has changed in the last 20 years, and this has left some women who are no longer facing such barriers turning to other issues to choose their candidate such as happened in their enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders. Overall for all women registered voters  Hillary gets 52 percent support, Trump 37 percent, according to a July 2016 NBC/WSJ poll.   ...

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China has 25 million 3G, third generation mobile wireless technology users.