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Japanese carmakers are still recovering from the loss of sales in China's market after the dispute over the Senkaku islands, and are losing ground to GM, VW and other carmakers in the interior of the country.

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Hysteresis is the term used for entrenched stubborn unemployment especially as workers stay on the job market for so long that they become dispirited and permanently unemployed. Britain's New Deal policies introduced by the Labor party do not work well in such situations because forcing people to find jobs has to be accompanied by jobs being available. The most successful so far are job subsidizing programs like Germany's Kurzarbeit. Kurzabeit encourages companies to adopt shorter working hours and reduce job losses and layoffs, because 60% of the lost income is paid to workers by the government. Since September 2008 the numbers taking advantage of this scheme went up from 80,000 to 1.4 million in June 2009. At present the OECD counts 22 governments that support a shorter working week to reduce job losses.

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The PM of India is interviewed by Smitha Prakash of ANI before the April 2024 federal elections.  PM Modi describes his effort to bring transparency and remove the use of "black money" in elections and politics. He sees this use of "black money" as a constant danger to India's democratic process and to the development of the country. Electoral bonds was one idea he tried to do this, says Modi. About Enforcement Directorate on illicit activities PM Modi says it was the opposition Congress party that made the laws to prevent corruption of the democratic process yet never enforced the laws, in large part merely left them on the books. About the fears surrounding his party and the PM coming in for a third successive term Modi says there is no need to fear as he has devoted his life to the development aspirations of the young people of the country regardless of color, caste religion or region. He said the striking difference between him and the ranks of opposition parties in Maharashtra, Bihar, UP, Tamilnadu and West Bengal was the "parivar vadi" or dynastic spirit of the leaders who followed age old practices of promoting family members to lead, such being the case in the INC after Nehru for several generations, depriving the country of better leaders and stifling democratic processes. He did not say this yet Indians of all ages remember the leadership of Lal Bahadur Shastri who succeeded Nehru in 1964, his championing of farmers with the slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. Like JFK in the US his life was cut short  before he could put his mark on the period after 1964. Shastri was Parliamentary Secretary in the first Indian government in 1946 and served in every capacity for India at the state level in Uttar Pradesh India's heartland around the Ganges river, and at the federal level till 1966. During this interview PM Modi was asked about Tamilnadu and southern states, a north-south divide, Modi does not see India in "tukde tukde," piece and piece-even as Chief Minister of Gujarat he said he aspired to progress of India and Gujarat's progress and modernization as part of this Republic India.  ...

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Barry Posen, Director of M.I.T.'s Security Studies Program looks at U.S. options as it confronts North Korea over missile tests. He says a conventional attack with bombers could invite a conventional attack from North Korea. A nuclear attack by the U.S. is seen only in the context of an impending attack from North Korea. Very little warning would be given to South Korea resulting in large casualties, says Posen.

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With an extraordinary sentiment for China's people Joe Stilwell showed America as different from the colonial powers of which Japan was a part with its occupation of Korea and China in 1930-1945. America should recognize and be proud of men like  Joe Stilwell who commanded all American Forces in China and the Asian sector in World War II. Such forced labor as shown in Tuchman's book "Stilwell and the American Experience in China," was never seen in its human aspect. Stilwell was the first American to understand the ordinary Chinese people struggles of that period. He participated in their struggles, once even hid himself in Chinese freight trains in the 1930's to collect intelligence about Japanese intentions in northern China.  The war conditions for the Imperial Japanese war effort railway built through dense jungle between Rangoon and Bangkok in 1942-43. Tamil Indian and Indonesian laborers who died working on the railway are remembered here. 250,000 romusha or forced laborers of whom 90,000 died were Asian Indian. A much smaller number were Britishers and European POW's 12,000 in number immortalized in Bridge over the River Kwai, a movie about this period. Till now most of the Indian laborers remained obscure like so many millions obscure in the history books about the colonial period for Indonesia and India, with a population now numbering 1.7 billion people in the world. China with 1.2 billion people suffered the same fate in bombings by Imperial Japanese forces that rampaged across China in the war years. Such forced labor as shown in Tuchman's book "Stilwell and the American Experience in China," was never seen in its human aspect. Stilwell was the first American to understand the ordinary Chinese people struggles of that period. He participated in their struggles, once even hid himself in Chinese freight trains in the 1930's to collect intelligence about Japanese intentions in northern China.  ...

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Lee Hockstader, writes the European Affairs column in The Washington Post. He visits the city of Wolfsburg, a town founded by the Nazis for their "strength through Joy," program. VW is cutting a fourth of its German jobs over 5 years, about 35,000 employees. Half of the 120,000 people in Wolfsburg work for VW. Germany faces deindustrialization as a result of its dependence on heavy industry, on automobiles, chemicals, metallurgical engineering. Its failure to digitize and to move ahead in AI and software presents a problem. While countries such as China surged ahead with bold investments in EV vehicles VW was slow to respond. Japan pushed forward in hybrids. India in digitizing fast. Cost of labor have caught up to inflation and rising, electricity costs are up, and profits from Chinese production are vanishing with China's BYD and Geely, and other Chinese auto companies taking away VW and GM market share. VW's US Tennessee EV plant faces an uncertain future with loss of EV subsidies by DJT executive orders. In the US the effects of deindustrialization underway were covered up for decades by Compliant Media and Economists with the idea that it brought consumers lower prices, a facade for not saying that labor was more compliant in Asia after a period of job banks in Detroit and other hindrances put up by labor in the US in the 1970's souring management. That generation and period is gone and America badly needs to get its act together. Here in Wolfsburg the schools supported by VW like the Wolfsburg New School will lose VW funding as well as the public services in the city from lower tax revenues. This is what happened in the US catching up to the last of the industrial players of the twentieth century now facing a competitive China and a future competitive India.   ...

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The leaders of India and China, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping will meet at a 2 day summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, China, on April 27, 2018.  The meeting is significant because for the first time the 2 leaders will meet on a one on one basis for a significant part of the time without aides to get a better understanding of each other, and a get a sense of how to establish a good relationship between the 2 countries. Ma Jiali of the China Reform Forum, a think tank affiliated with the Communist Party's Central Party School says a better relationship would serve China's interests for regional calm, so that China can focus on internal issues of tackling poverty in the interior of China, tackle economic issues arising from a difficult trading relationship with the U.S. including the tariffs of the Trump administration.  China's leadership have not anticipated the decisions made by president Trump and the Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to take a strong stand on correcting an imbalance in trade that leads to about $1 billion in trade deficit each day for the U.S. with China. Previous administrations in the U.S. have not taken action. Also at issue in the U.S. China relationship is for the first time transfer of technology for "Made in China 2025." China's earlier advances were made with a free flow of technology from the U.S. and Europe.  The last time the two leaders met was in 2014. This time the issues of border relations in the Himalayas, and the relations with China in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean region, the growing relationship between Australia, U.S., India and Japan, are seen in a different light with the strong disagreements on trade relations with the U.S.  China sees a need for improving relations with India. Prime Minister Modi faces new elections in 2019 and the need to focus on infrastructure and development to win a second term in office for the ruling BJP Party.  A reduction in tensions serves the interest of both countries and leaders.   ...

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Toyota sales increased by 12% in April 2012 over the prior year. Toyota increased its market share to 15% in the U.S. market. Ford and GM sales declined by 5% and 8%. Toyota was doing this without offering incentives by offering newer models for the Prius and the Camry, compared to Honda, which is offering incentive plans and larger discounts.

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Walmart to implement a program of tighter safety and environmental compliance for its suppliers in China implement energy savings plan in its 113 stores in China. Walmart will issue these changes to its supply chain at a global supply-chain summit in Beijing this week. Walmart will phase in energy efficincy requirements with chinese suppliers next year and expand the program worldwide in 2010.

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Doubts about a decoupling of the Asian and European economy from the US economy. Opinion that the US economy could have a stronger impact on the export driven economies of Japan S. Korea and China than is usually thought and differet view from the one given recently in the Oct-Nov. report from the IMF, the OECD forecast and other reports suggesting only a modest impact of the housing crisis in the US and the credit crunch.

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Steps that might ease the crisis in food supplies and rising prices. Prevent hoarding of supplies, boosting research in yields, and investing more in irrigation and rural transportation. And producing biofuels with solar and wind energy Also powering African farms with solar and wind energy. These steps could eventually lower food prices and increase the supplies in the market. Countries like China and japan also could put more supplies on the market. And traditional food exporters could do more.

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A few events in the last 50 years are rewriting the rules for business, finance and economics, says the WSJ in this analysis. The admitting of China to the World Trade Organization under president Clinton in 2001 was one, another was the global financial crisis in 2009 with the selling of bad mortgages by the financial industry, the euro currency financial crisis with the bad accounting, real estate industry speculation, and lack of financial oversight in countries such as Greece, Ireland, Spain. The coronavirus pandemic is one more addition to this string of crises and events that have made the working class and middle class in US and Europe poorer and in worse shape after the recovery following World War II.  The changes indicated here are some of the surface changes- such as the shift to the suburbs for cleaner air and better living, the work at home as a serious option, the new focus on health care, wellness, exercise, nutrition and mental health, remote learning and community college as a realistic option to high tuition costs by the education industry, and a pharmaceutical industry refocused on public health and vaccines as it was in its early years before its shift into a simply profit driven industry. The underlying thread for all these changes on the surface is a deeper change in the public mind- a change that redefines what the people believe in just as happened after World War II. Rebuilding the devastated economies of Europe, America and Asia required a new vision at the time after World War II. And reconstruction could only happen with all the people involved and working for the public interest.  This also created a new hope for the future. President Biden's vision is for a new set of priorities that make child care, women's position in the economy, community college education as a right for all as a first step to opening the access to education that existed after the war in 1945. Investment in infrastructure, in building new roads, bridges and rail, water, internet connections, public services in transport, better layout of urban areas, better lives for retirees, are all part of an effort to improve quality and ease of living for all parts of society, not just those who can afford it.  This is uppermost on people's minds and administrations or governments that fail to deliver or simply talk with no action, will not have the support of ordinary working men and women in all countries. This is true for countries and regions as varied in their level of development as the US, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico, and African nations. Democracy, government adminstration, technology and business structures exist for the people, to improve the ease of living, quality of life, through better health, education and public services.  ...

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Andrew Lownie's book provides glimpses into the lives of the Mountbattens, Edwina and Dickie. Mountbatten was the head of the British government in India in 1946 as negotiations were started with Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah for independent India. The Cabinet Mission (including Cripps) plan of 1946 was  to setup a federation in India with provinces in A, B, and C categories. A being the Central Provinces, United Provinces, Bombay, Madras and other parts of what is now India, B being the Punjab, Sind and what is now Pakistan, and C being the region of Bengal, what is now Bangladesh and West Bengal.This was rejected by Nehru, Sardar Patel, and the Indian National Congress, leading to  Jinnah's call for action, a civil war, and the partition of India 9 months before the plan date of June 1948, in chaotic circumstances, in a hurried manner. The legacy of that two year period is with us today in the upheavals in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, drawing the U.S. and western nations also into endless wars. The period 1939-1941 is covered when Edwina's rather aimless life upto that point changed completely with service to war wounded and for the Red Cross. She also visited the U.S. in 1941 when Mountbatten was given command of an aircraft carrier at Norfolk, Virginia, visiting 28 states. Edwina made up for he aimless years by relentlessly pushing herself to be an equal to her husband in the war effort. This has given the couple their fascinating character. It was also a period of great change as the Labour party under Clement Atlee winning a post war election made the decision to end the British Empire in India. The war had depleted British wealth and Britain lacked the resources to continue the Empire in India. The job of managing the transition went to Mountbatten, a naval officer in the Royal Navy, coming in the tumultuous years of 1946-48 with the quick partition of India under Mountbatten in 1947. Mountbatten stayed after independence in August 1947 as the first Governor General of India.  Edwina and Dickie Mountbatten struck a friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru, and this review in The Hindu shows Jawaharlal, Edwina, Dickie and their daughter Pamela having tea at the residence in Shimla, 1946. Nehru's rejection of the Cabinet Mission plan leading to the appointment of Mountbatten as Viceroy was partly based on his idea that priorities for India post independence was modernizing the economy and reducing poverty. Seven decades later the priorities are still the same, following the experience of Japan, South Korea and China at modernizing the economies in east Asia requiring a greatly accelerated effort.    ...