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Prime minister Boris Johnson outlines his plans for 2021 in the Queens Speech in May 2021. Johnson pledges to seize the opportunity coming from the "extraordinary spirit" with which the British people had faced the corona virus pandemic. He called it "an historic opportunity to change things for the better, level up opportunities across the whole of the UK and address the whole of the problems that have constrained us far too often before." By this he said  he referred to the deep wells of kindness, ingenuity and resourcefulness that exist in each village, town and city in the UK. The government's task will be to unleash that potential.

Jeremy Hunt, a Tory MP and former Health Secretary said that the government needed to address the problem of social care and the catastrophically high care costs that are hitting one family in ten in the United Kingdom.

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Washington Post calls a Netherlands unrealized capital gains tax of 36% unfair. The legislation was passed in lower house of parliament. Unrealized capital losses could be used to offset gains in future years under this legislation. The US only taxes capital gains after they are realized and at 15% or 20% for long term gains and a 4% added tax for high income persons. The 36% tax would apply to all who own stocks or bonds not just the wealthy.

In Netherlands the average take of the ogvernment is 3%% compared to 30% in US. Healthcare costs are split 65% 45% between the government and average worker, and mostly all (84% of workers) get additional coverage. The value added tax rate VAT is 21% in Netherlands about 3 times the US sales tax of 6-7%. And the Netherlands is in the EU a relatively moderate tax country compared to France and UK.

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Alternatives to the Keystone Pipeline if the Obama administration's objections to the pipeline are not overcome.

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In the end only concerted pressure from the U.S. including the personal intervention of president Trump, calls from Republican senators to Prince Abdulaziz, Saudi energy minister, salvaged a deal for OPEC+ oil cuts. The Saudis insisted Mexico cut production by 300,000 barrels a day, Mexico stood firm at 100,000 barrels a day. As the Mexican energy negotiator Ms Nahle withdrew to call Mexican president Lopez Obrador, the Saudi energy minister called this "disrespectful." Then president Trump intervened with calls and offered to make up with additional 300,000 barrels a day of cuts from the U.S. North Dakota senator called Prince Abdulaziz and stated that it could affect the U.S.-Saudi relationship if the Saudis did not come to an agreement. The agreement is for 23 countries to in total withdraw 9.7 billion barrels a day from the market, or 13% of world production. Oil production is expected to fall by as much as 30 million barrels a day in April 2020 as a result of the pandemic so it is not clear how much this will raise oil prices, yet it averts a complete collapse of oil prices from the $22 today when markets open on Monday April 13, 2020.  The U.S. Canada, Brazil and G20 countries outside OPEC will make a combined 3.7 million barrels a day in cuts. Saudis, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates combined will cut 2 million barrels a day above their quota.  In addition to warning both sides Saudis and Russia to come to an agreement, president Trump threatened to retaliate to protect U.S. producers from very low oil prices sending many into bankruptcy. Prince Abdulaziz took a tough stand with Mexico and other OPEC countries to present a unified stand. He is the son of the Saudi king and took the energy ministry in fall 2019. He has had difficulty in managing OPEC plus Russia called OPEC+ as its new chief with divergent views from small producers such as Angola and large producers such as Russia. At a conference in February he continued the standoff with Russia saying Russia would regret not making the production cuts he was calling for. The split with Russia after a 3 year collaboration for cuts ended in an all out price war right in the middle of a pandemic.  The Russians underestimated the size and impact of the pandemic. The Saudis took a firm position. Only president Trump's swift and active intervention and offering to make up Mexico's share of cuts saved the day for all oil producing countries, who would all be severely hurt by sinking oil prices below $20 a barrel.     ...

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US housing prices are seeing a decline in 2022 as a result of the Fed's interest rate increases even though there is no extra supply of housing. Renters are staying away from high mortgage payments at the higher rates, and families with a 3% mortgage are staying put rather than risk making larger mortgage payments for a new home. Fed's Jerome Powell has this to say- "You had housing markets go up at very unsustainable levels and overheating. Now the housing market is going through the other side of that and hopefully coming out at abetter place." This is more like the drop in demand for housing in 1979 which revived in 1983 after the Fed eased up on increasing rates, says the WSJ.

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US March 2026 Jobs report 178000 jobs created unemployment at 4.3%. The economy is holding up better than expected.

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Peter Navarro's thinking is genuinely felt and genuinely thought out after 20 years  at Harvard, UC Irvine and other universities, as an economist who abhors sitting in the office with textbook theory that has no relevance to life of working families in the heartland of America. He says of these textbook theory economists and the American companies that have recklessly shifted America's industrial base to China year after year and decade after decade- “The same damn fools who supported NAFTA, China’s entry into the W.T.O., and every other trade deal that was supposed to benefit America but only benefited Wall Street and the foreign nations screwing us. Those mainstream economists need to get out more often — maybe to Ohio or North Carolina or Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or Michigan.”  He says the 70 nations including the big ones Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Britain and the European Union are already neogtiating with the Trump administration. What more proof does one want. The Nation will get a better deal as it is about fairness in world trade, and an even playing field. Navarro calls it "a beautiful thing." The three dimensional unique approach taken by Navarro, Bessent and Lutnick and by Trump is working, says Navarro. Fifteen decades ago A. Lincoln stated- "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion.As our case is new we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and we shall save our country."   ...

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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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This editorial in the WSJ after Jeb Bush's opening campaign rally, says his candidacy livens up the field because he could act as someone who brings the country together compared to other candidates who would act as polarizing figures- Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and others. It gives high marks to Jeb Bush for his two terms as governor of Florida, and says the only governor coming close for the last 20 years is Mitch Daniels of Indiana. And it says the Republican party needs someone who can attract non-Republican voters if it is to win in 2016, which means taking states like Florida and swing states Colorado and Virginia. It cites as a plus Jeb Bush having a nearly 60% approval rating in Florida when he left office. On immigration and other issues affecting the middle class Jeb Bush has the potential to act as a unifying force in the country. His goal to achieve 4% growth, after the 2% growth in the Obama years, will be needed to improve the prospects for the middle class and working class people in the U.S., after the damaging effects of the 2008 financial crisis....

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England make it to the semifinals of Euro Cup soccer 2024 with a 2-1 win over Slovakia. Jude Bellingham's overhead kick puts England ahead.

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US fuel exports are increasing with higher fuel prices overseas. The exports of oil, diesel and jet fuel from US Gulf Coast ports increased by 32% in the first quarter of 2022 over previous year says this report in WSJ. The exports of natural gas by pipeline or tankers to Mexico and Canada increased to 22% of total US production in the same period. Companies and exporters are gettting higher prices overseas than they could get in the US. This is also pushing gas prices higher in the US to over $5 a gallon.

Demand for US exports has gone up exponentially say experts and a lot more US exports could take place to Europe and other countries. And domestic prices have had to rise to keep supplies in the US. With the increase in natural gas prices come increase in cost of electricity and households are expected to limit their use of energy as this happens.

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The Mission LIFE launched by pm Modi in Gujarat in 2021 has achieved significant results-

"Under Mission Life our efforts are spread across many domains such as: Making local bodies environment-friendly, saving water, saving energy, reducing waste, and e-waste, adopting healthy lifestyles, adoption of natural farming, promotion of millets." 

"These efforts will save over 22 billion units of energy, save nine trillion litres of water, reduce waste by 375 million tons, recycle almost one million tons of e-waste, and generate around 170 million dollars of additional cost saving by 2030," he said.

"Further, it will help us reduce the wastage of 15 billion tons of food," Mr. Modi said, noting that the global primary crop production in 2020, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, was about nine billion tons.

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Europe behind the scenes support with its bases in Iran War, March 2026. French, British, Portuguese, and Greek bases used by American aircraft.

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With continued job growth the US Fed is planning to continue its sequential interest rate increases. The Fed raised interest rates 0.75% at each of the last 3 Fed meetings and a fourth 0.75 rate increase is expected when it meets on November 1-2, 2022. This is the most rapid rate of increases since the 1980's and it is designed to bring inflation under control.

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WSJ says GM straddles the past and the future. GM's plans to invest $11-13 billion each year for new electric vehicles. GM also plant to cut costs by $2 billion to maintain profit margins as car prices drop from higher levels. GM US largest automaker profit in 2022 kept up the pace of 2021 by remaining at over $14 billion. As car sales decline in 2023 GM plans to offer sales incentives and make up for this by cutting costs in corporate and other overhead.

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This NYT report on Mohamed Bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, who comes from Abu Dhabi one of the 7 emirates in the Gulf Coastal region, is rare and unusual. It provides stories the prince loves to tell that make a point about how he sees the world. Here he tells them to Robert F. Worth, in the only interview Mohamed bin Zayad has ever given to a journalist from US or Europe. It took a year just to get the interview. The title about a Dark Vision is inappropriate as Mohamed Zayad simply reflects what is a British way of looking at things- valuing the Constitution, keeping religion private even its deeply held beliefs and cultural traditions such as Bedouin's practice, and a general tolerance that characterizes British society and similar societies throughout the history of Europe and Asia that were sitting on shipping lanes and practiced trade for a livelihood. It is also important because the other Mohamed, Mohamed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is seen as someone influenced by the ideas of Mohamed Bin Zayad of Abu Dhabi. President Biden plans a trip to the region in coming months to continue on building a narrative of development for the region. This provide an insight into the coastal regions that include Gujarat across the Gulf in India, that for centuries traded with the Gulf kingdoms. They have a trading mentality and with it comes a tolerance that is also seen in trading nations such as England. This is what brought Britain to India (and China) says Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi went so far as to say that if there was trade on the moon you would find a British shopkeeper was first to setup shop there. Zayed has as a minister in his cabinet, a woman who is minister of Tolerance, Sheikha Lubna al Quasimi.  Zayed is unique for three reasons. He has embedded in his views the spirit of tolerance. As Worth puts it in NYT, Zayed has grasped what is true to the spirit of the Gulf region. The country's location on an ancient shipping lane has bred a type of Islam in the Gulf region, that is open to the world and tolerant.  His father Zayed Nahyan's  tendencies to openness and frank demeanor combine with this tolerance to provide a different kind of leadership. His father had the pluralist instincts that combined traditional Bedouin attitudes with a rare liberal mindedness. He died at age 86 in 2004. Zayed bin Nahyan MBZ's father was selected for these very reasons by the British in 1966 to rule the small Gulf kingdom of Abu Dhabi. In 1966, says this NYT report, the country was mostly illiterate, half of all children died during childbirth and one third of the women during childbirth, there was a complete lack of western medicine. Zayed Nahyan's brother was averse to development making the British select Zayed Nahyan at the request of Abu Dhabhi families. These early years shaped Mohamed Bin Zayed's views of how to see the world. Zayed the son loves to tell stories, and this one in the NYT shows how Mohamed bin Zayed the son and Mohamed bin Nahyan the father share a sense of what it means to be human and support all people's aspirations for a better life. This is the narrative in India and the region of 1.8 billion people that extends from India to Indonesia and Vietnam. This was seen at the G7 when leaders of India and Indonesia were invited to meet with the G7 in Munich, Germany and taken as utterly serious participants in the discussions to shape the Free World. To see the difference- UAE has signed agreements to increase trade with India to $100 billion over 5 years and was thanked by prime minister Modi for treatment of 8 million Indian workers in the Gulf region during the pandemic. Saudis are now stabilizing the Turkish and Egyptian economies with aid and providing some of the funding assistance for Siemens to modernize the entire Egyptian rail system with the latest technology over the next 5 years. Projects of this size that have never been undertaken since 1945. Sometime in the 1980's when Zayed was a young military officer having completed training at the Royal British Military Academy at Sandhurst, England, and educated in Scotland, he went to the grasslands of Tanzania. During his visit to Tanzania he went to several villages to see the Masai tribes. When he returned he sat with his father crosslegged on the floor in traditional Bedouin and Asian style and told him about his travels. His father asked Zayed about all the details- the wildlife, the Masai people and their customs, the extent of poverty in the country. After hearing it all his father asked Zayed what he had done for the people he had encountered. In response Zayed shrugged and answered, the people he met were not Muslims. Zayed still recalls his father's reaction, sudden, forceful and indelible from memory. Zayad says his father took a sudden hold of his arm and spoke to him in a harsh tone and stern demeanor- " We are all God's children."     ...

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The affluent class and its handbags from Europe vs the US Navy not able to build the ships America needs with 50% outshoring of ship manufacturing to China, and the loss of 5 million jobs, removal of America's industrial base though outshoring. A level of self centeredness unparalleled in American history- for mere handbags, mere handbags and toys. The media not knowing any better in 2025, economists steeped in economic theory peddling the same theories that are not grounded in reality.

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WSJ shows the first website as European research organization CERN's Tim Berners-Lee releases the code for the World Wide Web into the public domain. The year- 1993, thirty years ago.

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Lower gas prices lower inflation in the US to 2.4%. Unemployment with boost in healthcare sector and 130,000 jobs in January 2026 is at 4.3%.

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Elelven of twelve Fed Governors support the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to keep rates low till unemployment falls below 6.5%, as long as inflation remains subdued at 2-2.5% and inflation expectations are low. Only the Fed governor of Richmond expressed a dissenting vote. The Fed in its policy statement said it was addressing the problems of the last three years in housing and joblessness. Charles Evans of the Chicago Fed put it this way in a Sept 2011 speech- suppose the inflation rate was 5% when the target was 2%, then central banksers at the Fed would have acted as if their hair was on fire to tackle inflation, then why shouldn't the Fed do the same for unemployment. He succeeded in convincing Bernanke, Yellen and other Fed governors. Bernanke emphasized the enormous cost in human potential and productive capacity of the U.S. economy from high unemployment and people dropping out of the labor force.