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PM Narendra Modi addressed a World Bank organized "Making it Personal: How behavioural change can tackle climate change" conference. Modi called it part of democratising the battle against climate change. "Simple acts in daily lives are powerful, there will be a very positive impact on the environment. The people of India have done a lot in this matter in the last few years." "People driven efforts improved the sex ratio in many parts of India. It was the people who led a massive cleanliness drive. Be it rivers, beaches or roads, they are ensuring public places are free of litter. And it was the people who made the switch to LED bulbs a success. Nearly 370 million LED bulbs have been sold in India. This helps in avoiding 39 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year." The Mission Life Modi introduced with the Secretary General of the United Nations has achieved much in India- "The farmers of India ensured the coverage of nearly seven hundred thousand hectares of farmland by micro-irrigation. Fulfilling the mantra of 'Per Drop More Crop', this has saved a huge amount of water. 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." ...

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The exceptional role played by US president Biden in ensuring the recovery of the US economy, reaching both low unemployment and bringing down inflation was made possible by the president's conviction that the bargaining power of labor and its share in the productive wealth of the economy needed to be restored. The chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers Jared Bernstein points this out in his speech at the Petersen Institute of International Economics. Bernstein points out that the Philips Curve which shows the tradeoff between reducing unemployment and increasing inflation is essentially flat and the president was right to push for full employment at between 3.5-4%. In the post Reagan era America was reduced to trickle down economics as president Biden has said at every State of the Union leading to a situation where workers had lost their bargaining power. See this as a resilience factor R in the economy which if it falls below a certain point leads to the economy operating well below its potential with high unemployment and worker incomes depressed. This strong conviction of the president and the efforts of the Fed chairman Powell have helped America recover from the pandemic faster than Europe, China and other countries, and is opening a path to meet the challenges of the future including infrastructure development and overcoming climate change, and meeting needs in healthcare and education, ease of living. ...

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Union leaders at plants more receptive to the VEBA, Voluntary Employees Benefit trust.Trust funding at discounted rate an issue. The VEBA could work both ways if its short on funds GM could step in, if it has more funds due a national health care plan being passed then GM could have access to liquidity from the VEBA. Meanwhile Clinton speech in Des Moines, Iowa on new Health Plan addresses the burden on GM to fund retirees health and other costs in the range of 1600 dollars vs Toyota's 200 some dollars. Senator Clinton offers for Governnment to take up the burden of catastrophic coverage for the large companies like GM in her Plan. She also cites the Mayo Clinic study as example of a consensus on the need for action on health care.

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Amy Chozick of the NYT describes the puzzling idea of a Methodist do-gooder, with serious concern for injustices in the South, making an effort to accumulate money. Especially considering that Hillary Clinton must have known that speechmaking fees would come up in a presidential election campaign. Chozick describes in some detail the two years Hillary tried to shore up the family's finances after Bill Clinton's defeat in the 1980 election for Governor. Following the defeat Bill Clinton went back all over the state to voters to hear their complaints, sometimes for hours at a time. It was upto Hillary to shore up the family's finances. Hillary had to stretch to buy a $112,000 home in a better residential neighborhood. Family friends say Bill was never that interested in money, and never worried about the family's finances. Things were so bleak according to this account that Hillary worried about how they would pay for daughter Chelsea's college tution, as her own mother's experience has always remained with her of being denied a college education because of lack of money. During the Democratic Convention this comes up in the video introduction, something that most people are unaware of, which must have been difficult for an intensely private person like Hillary. Her mother is described in that video as having to go to the corner grocery store as a child with coupons for food. The income of the Clintons as professors in the years around 1975 was $18,000 each. As governor Mr. Clinton earned $33,519 in 1978 with combined income at $51,173 adding Hillary's work at the Rose law firm. A one time deal in the commodities market made 100,000, and an investment in land in the Ozarks led to losses- all at a time when other highly educated people in Arkansas were doing extremely well, including the Walton family. It wasn't until 1992 when Bill Clinton was running for president did the couple make higher income of $297,177 reported in 1992 tax returns. At this time entering the White House, of recent presidents only Harry Truman had lower net worth. Hillary donated her book proceeds for "It Takes a Village," to charity, and turned down an advance. By the time they left office the couple were faced with legal debts, owing $5 million in legal fees- Hillary Clinton saying they were "Dead broke." The former president now sought help to buy a Dutch Colonial in Chappaqua, New York, for $1.7 million. President Jimmy Carter was also facing large losses in his peanut business in Georgia when he left office, only to turn to writing books to salvage his finances. Hoover, FDR, Kennedy, George Bush, George W. Bush, were from families with great wealth or built their fortunes, including candidate Trump, sometimes using influence or connections or in the case of Kennedy's family gaining from the end of Prohibition. Eisenhower, Reagan, Carter were of more modest wealth. Only Harry Truman remains the awesome exception of dignity with extremely modest wealth, a small house in Independence, Missouri, no presidential pension, only an army pension of $112.56 a month in 1953. Truman's story also offers another aspect of public service of an exceptional kind and its value to the country for people to reflect on. A presidential pension of $25,000 was set up one year after Truman left office.  Experts say Truman's Senate Committee over 8 years 1941-1948, helped save billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and in faulty airplane as well as munitions development during the war effort, including saving thousands of lives.  In his farewell address in January 1953, Truman said he had spent 17 hours a day for eight years with no payment for overtime. In the address he correctly predicts that the Cold War would be won and he set the course. It also happened as predicted in that address with changes in the Kremlin and failure in the satellite states. Hillary Clinton put in these 17 hours and gained unmatched experience as Secretary of State, and is in a positon to set the course ahead in a manner that Truman once did in a complex world where careful policy, good judgement and in some situations strong action is needed. Such invaluable public service has never really been rewarded in the way business leaders are, not by a small fraction - too long simply taken for granted.  Considering her life story Hillary Clinton appears to have struggled with this all her life, to create a safety net that too often cracked, sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly. Has this concern sometimes gone too far, could better judgement be exercized. Perhaps or probably. Should it be seen in the context that Truman's situation reminds us. Probably.         ...

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Studies by Mexico's Interior Ministry show that 62% of the $23 billion in remittances to Mexico by Mexicans living in the U.S. go to the lower middle class. As migration to the U.S. diminishes to zero Mexicans who are illegal aliens in the U.S. are returning to Mexico as small entrepreneurs using earnigs made in the U.S.. This offers them a chance for upward mobility and a return to families that they never had in the U.S., and is aiding the growth of a Mexican middle class. About 12 million Mexicans, or 15% of Mexico's labor force lives legally or illegally in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Experts say that in the first 3-5 years remittances go to help their families, after 7 years the money goes into savings and investment fueling growth of small towns such as Santa Maria in Mexico. About half of Mexico's 112 million people have family living in the U.S., which is having an influence on atttitudes and ways of thinking of the lower middle class that emigrated to the U.S.and is now returning to the country. Other factors are reinforcing the trends such as the lower price of consumer goods with the entry of retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco into Mexico. Nestle, P&G, and Unilever, all sell at low price points in Mexico. The government's effort to setup a basic safety net subsidizing schooling, health care and food has also helped in this direction. Rapid change in demographics in all of Latin America, including Mexico with a shift to smaller families is creating new opportunities to invest in children for better educational opportunities and working lives....

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Anglo American responds to declining commodity prices and the slowdown in China with deep cuts of 53,000 jobs from its 151,000 workforce. Some of the jobs will be layoffs and other job cuts will be through sale of mines. In Australia mining employment is down 13% in the 2d quarter of 2015 over prior year. Anglo American plans to sell over a quarter of assets in the downsizing. BHP has spun off over ten mines into a separate company called South32. American Pittsburgh based company Consol Energy says it will no longer provide guaranteed health insurance to retired workers. Anglo American is one of the hardest hit companies. It had losses of $3 billion for the first half of 2015, and needs $1.5 billion in cost cutting to become profitable again.

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Studies at the University of Padova in Italy and by France's research agency INSERM show higher risks of dementia from retiring early. The INSERM study shows that for every additional year worked we reduce the risk of dementia by 3.2 percent. Retiring at age 50 is considered very, very poor decision, and before 60 very poor decision, as cognitive development, mood, and active engagement with work offering complexity, all relate to good mental health. Countries like U.S. and Denmark where people tend to work for longer than in France and Austria are shown to be doing significantly better in cognitive performance in a 2010 study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. The Italian study shows the longer you spend in retirement the higher the risks of cognitive decline.

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More than 30 states in the USA are facing budget deficits totaling more than $127 billion over the next 2 fiscal years. A look at how Mississippi Governor Barbour has tackled this issue. Barbour has cut the state budget 5 times, including education, mental health and other areas being cut by 10%. Barbour has access to $2.6 billion in stimulus funds from the federal stimulus, which prevented deeper cuts, and he signed into law 2 tax increases. Now Barbour feels he has reached a limit to the effectiveness of budget cuts he can make across the board, and he will have to look at restructuring some things. 2012 is going to be another tough year, as state tax revenues continue to be hurt badly because of the economy.

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Alicia Munnell, is the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Munnell says the Domenici-Rivlin deficit reduction proposals should serve as the basis for putting Social Security on a sound financial basis. Tackling the budget deficit should not be focussed simply on the 12% of the budget that makes up nondefense discretionary spending in his view. Tackling Social Security would build confidence and reduce the long term deficit. The Domenici-Rivlin plan has the following proposals for Social Security- indexing the full retirement age after it reaches 67 to improvements in life span, a smaller cost of living adjustment, increasing the earnings subject to the payroll tax to about 180,000 from 106,800 in a gradual way, and gradually taxing employer and employee premiums for health insurance.

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The GM restructuring plan of the Obama administration, as GM enters bankruptcy, was designed so that the UAW plays a constructive role in building the new GM. There is a wage freeze, and a no-strike clause until 2015. The union gets a 17.5% ownership of GM, which helps to align the union's interests in improving the share price. At the same time the unions health fund's shares are novoting, so that the union does not make decisions for the company. At Chrysler even though the union has 55% ownership shares, it has only one person on the Board. In the same way the union has a limited role in running GM. The idea is to get the union out of the us vs. they habits of the last 50 years.

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The hardest hit group in this downturn are workers who have not completed high school, with the unemployment rate for this group going up to 15.5% compared to 8.4% last year. Workers with 4 year college degrees have unemployment at 4.8%, comparedto 2.3% a year ago. The unemployment rate for women in May is at 7.5% and for men at 9.8%. Women who have finished high school have an easier time finding jobs in health care and education. The male dominated manufacturing and construction industries are among the worst hit. Harvard University labor economist Katz says the recessions of 1990 and 2001 were more "egalitarian" than the present one, which is more like the recessions of the early 1980's and the 1970's when the less educated group was the hardest hit.

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WIth governments of conservative parties in power in France, Germany and Italy, taking steps to help industries and companies affected by the financial crisis, and working to protect jobs, these parties have shelved their market oriented reforms and are enacting policies that protect workers. As a result they are becoming stronger and the socialists and social democratic parties are looking weaker, especially when these parties in France and Germany and Italy have fractured into many groups. Another reason the conservative parties are popular is that by preserving and strengthening the social safety net for health care and by strengthening infrastructure and public transport investment, and exercizing good judgement and pragmatic and unideological based policy in a global economy facing unanticipated problems, they have come to be seen as reliable.

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How the discount drug programs at the big drug store retail chains like CVS. Walgreens and Walmart are leading to increasing competition and lower prices in generic drugs that are now sold for one month supplies for hundreds of unbranded drugs. Mass mechandisers like Target have their own programs selling drugs in the same manner as the Walmart which started this with its $4 generic prescriptions for one month supplies in 2006. Its changing the landscape for drug pricing gradually and will become part of a larger trend as health care costs are challenged in different ways by customers, merchandisers, and others in a low inflation cost conscious economic environment, with an overstretched indebted consumer looking for ways to cut costs on everything from groceries, shopping needs and prescription drugs.

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Cost estimates to Boeing of the strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, representing 27,000 workers at plants in Kansas, Oregon and Washington, is about $100 million a day in deferred revenue and postponement of the long awaited 787 Dreamliner. The walkout started September 6, it concludes November 2, 2008, a little sort of 2 months, which suggests a loss in deferred revenue of about $5-6 billion. The union members include electricians, painters, mechanics and other production workers. So what did the union get out of this? The union says the new contract protects 5,000 factory jobs, prevents the outsourcing of certain jobs and preserves health care benefits. It also promises pay increases in 4 years instead of three, as outlined in previous offers.

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Anxiety problems look different in men than women. Worry and avoidance of certain situations leads to anxiety, which can appear masked as anger and irritabilityfor men. Result could be headaches, musches and aches, and difficulty sleeping. Problematic thinking can result in the anxiety that manifests itself in ways that cover up the underlying situation including depression. This report looks at ways to tackle this for spouses and the use of cognitive behavioural therapy which sorts out problematic thinking, and the use of meditation and yoga to restore healthy mind. Reducing social isolation and increasing social interactions is away to tackle this. In our society with less and less personal interaction, which has worsened with use of tech devices and smart phones, and the tendency for isolation to increase with age as younger generations engage less and less with older ones, the problem is only getting worse. In many situations the anxiety may not be grounded,  and in other situations a problematic thinking process is the fault, and in other situations the thinking can be turned into constructive behaviours to address the problematic fears directly and find there is nothing to be afraid of. ...

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Bob Kocher, special assistant to President Obama for healthcare policy in 2009-2010 describes how hospital mergers with the passage of the Obama Healthcare Law are not doing much to control health care costs in the U.S. This is contrary to what was expected during the policymaking in 2009. In 2015 there were 112 hospital mergers in the U.S.  He says smaller physician led health care organizations do better at taking steps to improve productivity, adopt technological improvements and control costs.

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Peter Bernstein, colleague of Robert Heilbroner, economic historian, communicator and developer of efficient market theory and portfolio theory. He wrote several books on capital, risk and Wall Street and diversified investing. He like Heilbroner was a Keynesian, who believed government spending was critical to supporting the economy, and disagreed with Reagan. He believed that the deficit was not too large relative to the nations output, and government's role in the economy should not be curtailed. Government spending was necessary to a healthy market economy in Bernstein's view. His other point was that regulation of markets was needed to prevent a market collapse. His view was that the wealth and entrepreneurial energy generated by arising stock market were worth the risk. In a semimonthly newsletter he published for many years he said a week before he passed away at 90, that "with hindsight, most readers today would find our position in 2005 to have been a prescription for tragedy." He went on to say quoting Alfrd Tennyson, " tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. There was wisdom in Tennyson's words. Who can say he was wrong beyond debate? That would be asorry world indeed." Whats is interesting this that unlike many who get blinded to dangers such as selfinterested behaviour like that of the ratings agencies, the mortgage innovators who were more selfinterested than innovators, and banking executives interested in their bonuses, Bernstein, Heilbroner and others like him take positions on either side on the merits and on ethics, leaving out ideological bias. He is for financial innovation but is cautious at the same time, preferring to build theory he says. Its interesting that in 2005, he wrote the book "Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation," a subject that another financial industry leader from that period, Felix Rohatyn, also talks about in his book "Bold Endeavours." There is a difference in the kind of selfinterested and reckless "innovation" of Mozilo, Prince and Moody's successors in the ratings agencies, and the innovation, watchfulness and entrepreneurial energy that Moody, Rohatyn and Bernstein have in mind....

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The doubts among the unvaccinated and America's pandemic of the unvaccinated in the south and west of the country, difficulty reaching a consensus on things as basic as spending $45 billion or 2% of the $2 trillion Biden plan for workers and families on 2 years of community college, or finding a way to stem what is an alarming decline in enrollment in college of young men in America, all go back to a standoff between Republicans and Democrats. Tennessee in the South is Republican yet passed a bill supporting state paid community college with a supermajority, yet at the national level it is lacks support of Republicans and centrist Democrats. To see how this happens this NYT report presents the picture from the Democrats side of how Montana residents blocked a National Heritage area in the state. Other stories relate to distortions from the other side from the Republican point of view. One man, one vote is not entirely the way Democracy was designed by Jefferson, Madison and other founders. The Senate of the US is based on one state one vote, giving Montana an equal vote as California or New York. At one time Mike Mansfield, Democrat of Montana was the Senate majority leader. The intent was to design a system that looks not just for democracy but checks on majorities of the moment.  This means unity is the way to renewal of America, for building its infrastructure, education and health care. If Tennessee feels that way about community college it should express it, so should other states in supporting president Biden's plan to Build Back Better. ...

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About 60% of Americans think the testing for coronavirus and getting medical supplies to health care workers is too slow, in a poll by Wall Street Journal/NBC News. About 6 in 10 Americans in a new survey say they are concerned that the U.S. would move too fast to loosen coronavirus restrictions to slow the spread, and only 3 in 10 say they are concerned that it is not moving fast enough. About twice as many Americans thinking the risks were higher that public authorites and governors would reopen states too soon. About 75% of respondents in the survey say they are very or somewhat worried about themselves or a family member getting the virus. Mr. Trump's approval rating  remains unchanged from March with 46% approving. Most people place their faith in the governor of their state- 66%, and Mr. Fauci, Director National Institute of Infectious Diseases- 60%, than anyone else. On the economy president Trump is seen as being better at handling the economy 47% to 36% than Democratic nominee Biden, even though Biden has a nine point lead. This confirms the widespread dissatisfaction at the way medical supplies shortages are felt at hospitals, and the way testing for coronavirus is happening with not enough testing. President Trump perceived by business and the public as better at handling the economy is also confirmed in this survey. The dissatisfaction with the president for supplies shortages and testing lagging behind may also be tempered by a sense that the public has not taken aggressive action in supporting an early lockdown with many governors and people not supporting or following strict distancing rules till late March. By contrast the president acted quickly to stop all flights from China. ...

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With fewer and fewer good startup companies and massive amounts of capital wasted on startups that did not produce either jobs or lasting value questions are being raised about the startup culture and role of startups in a growing economy. The coronavirus has speeded up the process- already underway was a lack of quality in startup companies, now these companies that were wasting capital are facing a completely different environment. Reasons given for their situation are the lack of job creation over last two decades from startups. The startup founders being many just out of college or with a few years of experience, lack of accumulated experience in industry of founders, the glamour that had nothing behind it except the search for quick results. Primarily though the reason is that it takes time to build good companies that also create good jobs and add to the country's GDP, and this means additions to technology, bringing experience and building up of experience of founders, that patience and persistence is lacking in today's startup culture and startup companies. There is a bigger problem and this is a problem for all of society and the whole nation in every country. This is the misallocation of capital, the erratic shift away from infrastructure, public services, health services and education, and employment in the national interest, that form the backbone of the economy of any country. It is in this sense that the shift in capital allocation, away from misallocation on a massive scale, has to be made in the national interest, interest of society, interest of the people.  ...

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Approval process by government is now much stricter and the approval process takes longer for new wind turbines. A leading renewable energy developer BayWa re. estimates 45% of the old turbines installed 20 years ago would not be approved under today's stricter standards. As these become unprofitable a lot of new turbines have to replace older ones. After years of gains suddenly in 3 years the wind power capacity installed each year is dropping sharply, and is in deep trouble. Especially because wind energy plays a big role in Germany, accounting for 25% of total electricity production in 2019, solar only has 10%. For all of Germany only 290 MW was installed in first half of 2019, 80% drop from same period 2018.  In 2018 2800 MW of wind turbines were installed, and that was down from 5000MW in 2017. Problems in addition to stricter approval standards is the resistance from the public which fears wind turbines close to residential areas could affect health of residents. In Bavaria 10H ban is imposed on new installations, requiring 10 times the height of the wind turbine as minimum distance from homes. Other issues are wildlife and the impact on  birds in the area. 300 turbines for 1200 MW are blocked for this reason. Other reasons are military concerns, FM radio beacons. It used to take 10 months for approval. Now the process is so long that the technology itself has changed by that time. Commercial risks are growing for operators in this environment as new costly regulations come into place. A regulation in Brandenburg requires payment of 10,000 euros to neighboring municipalities per wind turbine. Subsidy eligibility is also being cut. ...

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The India- U.S. trade deal after the negotiations and the visit of the Indian prime minister to the U.S. is expected to take additional time. The U.S. wanted to see a 20% duty on mobile phones and ethernet switches to be reduced, greater access to the Indian market for medical devices such as stents and knee implants, and greater access for dairy, agricultural products. Making these products affordable in India is a goal of the government preventing it from making concessions. India wants preferential access to the U.S. market as a developing country restored under the Generalized System of Preferences.  A comprehensive trade deal would have to include issues of intellectual property, e-commerce, and the sensitive issue of H1B visas. Commerce minister Piyush Goyal led negotiations for India and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said the two sides "narrowed" down their differences. India's Jio from Reliance Group has hugely reduced the price of mobile phones and mobile data making it accessible with 4G across the country at prices that are the lowest in the world. The introduction of a universal health care program requires bringing down the price of medical products to improve access to modern medicine. This means less room for American products that would increase the price and reduce access in a vast developing country. India is also playing catchup in these technologies so that there is less room for unrestricted entry in the Indian market.  Efforts were made to increase trade and investment in India with the help of Mr. Bloomberg during the visit of the prime minister, and the Bill Gates Foundation continued its commitment to public welfare gains in India in the fields of sanitation, hygiene and healthcare.  ...

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At the height of the market a year ago Citigroup acquired Nikko Cordial for 1.6 trillion yen ($17.7 billion). Now in a reversal of an earlier decision, after announcing a loss of $8.3 billion on Jan 16, 2009 for 4th quarter 2008, Citigroup will consider Nikko Cordial a non-core asset, meaning that it would be sold if a buyer can be found in Japan. Japanese banks are relatively healthy and there are propects for finding a buyer there.

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The suicide of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain who had a popular television program, brings new attention to the increase in middle age suicides ages 45 to 64 in the U.S.  The CDC figures show a 60% increase for women and 37% for men between 2000 and 2016. A clinical instructor in psychiatry and medicine at Cornell, Ms. Boardman says life satisfaction is low at this age,a dip in satisfaction called the U curve. A 2016 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine  shows stress factors as problems with intimate partners job/finances, health, family, and criminal/legal problems.  The demographic group driving suicide rates up is mainly white people without a 4 year college degree, who have done poorly compared to that group in a previous generation, say experts at Columbia University. 

Generally isolation and loneliness is also a factor, and social connections a big antidote to depression type stress.