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Connection between inflation and spending (fiscal stuff) by the government is misunderstood or misstated, say Wharton Prof. Smetters. Doug Holtz-Eakin former CBO budget director agrees.  Does higher growth mean higher inflation? It depends. The climate change action renewable energy subsidies are expected to increase growth by 0.2%, yet this should reduce fossil fuel costs, mitigating effect on inflation of government spending. Will higher deficits increase inflation? Again it depends. In 2021 direct financial help for households during the pandemic led to a third of the higher inflation in 2021, 2022 and first half of 2023. Inflation peaked at 9.1%. In 2023 the deficit is up significantly but it is mostly of the accounting kind with lower tax revenues by $278 billion from capital gains taxes due to a stock market slump in 2022, and higher interest costs of $136 billion.

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Mark Tully BBC's voice in India, a child of the British Raj born to a British mother herself born in India, covers India after Independence 1962-2020. He opposed the BBC's centralization culture in 1994 with Tory emphasis on management methods saying it was an attempt to make the BBC the best managed broadcasting institution instead of the best broadcasting institution in the world. He was for modernization and improvements but thought Tory methods were haphazard and destroyed the spirit of the BBC under management of the time. He covered India at atime when there was avast Indian audience for the BBC and a vast Asian audience for the BBC for its broadcasting reputation and the spirit of the BBC. Some of this is missing today.

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The International Energy Agency says China used 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2009 compared to the 2.170 billion tons of oil equivalent used by the USA. This oil equivalent measure covers crude oil, nuclear energy, coal, natural gas and renewable energy like hydropower. To give an idea of the scale of the increase- China's total energy use was only half of that of the USA in 1999 ten years ago. China plans to reduce emissions by cutting the carbon dioxide per unit of GDP by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. But China looks at higher energy use in the years ahead. Much of the energy use is propelled by infrastructure building and energy intensive use in industries.

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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer interview by NYT's Lulu Navarro looks at the swing state of Michigan and its popular governor. Asked about president president Biden's 3 trillion dollar investments in Manufacturing, in Chips and Science, in Infrastructure, Whitmer says the public is still just coming out of the pandemic and has seen only some of the beneficial effects of this program of massive investment in the US economy. She says it is similar to what she heard from Michiganders which amounted to "Governor Fix the Dam Roads." She says the former president Trump lacks any such vision for the US economy, and for the future. Of the present time Whitmer says that the pandemic has taken a toll in people's lives, people are stressed out, and just hanging in there trying to pay the grocery bills, get the kids to school, and show up at work. They have hardly the time to figure out what the CHIPS Act means. Whitmer is in her second term as governor and comes from the western part of the state around Grand Rapids which is traditionally Republican. In her election for governor she was able to win with good margins in this western part of the State even as a Democrat. This interview show Whitmer wanting to be able to work with Republicans in the best interests of the state and the Nation. ...

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US president Biden holds his first formal news press conference of 2022 on January 19. It comes at the end of Biden's first year in office. Biden's achievements include 200 million Americans vaccinated, and $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed with a direct impact on the nation's infrastructure gaps. A $2 trillion Build Back Better plan for building healthcare and education, and a climate change plan are next on the agenda requiring the president to increase support for national revival and addressing challenges of climate change.

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China build its solar industry with huge subsidies, the US did not. From 2018 to 2022 the US solar industry suffered with lack of help from the US government under the Trump administration and the first year of the Biden administration. 30 US based solar companies shutdown in a bloodbath and many jobs were lost. Enter the climate law in 2022 under president Biden and in 2023 the US investment in solar reached $8 billion, three times what it was in the previous 6 years. 

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This WSJ report by Collins, Belkin, Parti and Whyte takes an indepth look at the issues surrounding anti-semitism on US campuses, in particular UC Berkeley, U Penn, Harvard, Columbia universities. It looks at what happened in the first term and how with the Gaza war the issues of antisemitism on US campuses increased and the DJT administration, Education Secretary McMahon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, and domestic advisers in the Trump administration, decided it was time to rein in the antisemitism seen at top ranked universities.  On the campus of UC Berkeley in Feb 2019, Hayden Williams was a young conservative activist who set up a table to recruit students to Turning Point USA. He was punched in the face in an argument which attracted media attention. DJT said at the time that "we got to do something about this." In meetings with Hayden Trump discussed actions such as cutting off federal funding to universities with free speech violations. This is the genesis of the current action says WSJ where Harvard faces cut offs of funding for lack of action to control antisemitism on campus and the president asking Harvard to stop enrollment of international students. Some international students have been involved in the activism tending towards antisemitism.  There is also the sense that some universities are admitting far too many, as many as 40% of the enrolment, from overseas students- a form of neglect of local American students, who now have less access to the resources that the federal government is giving to these universities which they should be entitled to as Americans. U Chicago, Harvard and Penn are in the 30%+ range for overseas students and Columbia around 40%. ...

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The new CEO of Stellantis, the company formed by Carlos Tavares with the merger of Chrysler-Fiat with Peugoet Citroen of France, is Antonio Filosa. Filosa was the head of Americas operations of Stellantis and is Italian from the Fiat operations. Stellantis faces a dropoff in sales in the US with 20% higher inventory and uncertainty about tariffs on production of cars in Canada and Europe. He succeeds Carlos Tavares in a changed environment for automobiles. Tavares had pushed ahead with plans for EV vehicles which now face considerable uncertainty.

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Financial expert Guy LeBas- questions bond investors need to think about are whether $3 trillion in AI investments are societally productive, economically and financially productive. This WSJ podcast is a discussion on the effects in the bond market of financing by AI. LeBas says the corporate bond market is dominated by banks in 2025. AI financing makes up 7% of the corporate bond market in 2025 and is likely to double to 15% with the 5 Tech companies issuing corporate bonds. He says the question is what effect this will have on the economy, on society, and the larger question is what effect it will have on the Nation's priorities- for tackling crumbling infrastructure, investing in American manufacturing shriveled after 3 decades of neglect and unfair trading practices of trading partners, tackling climate change, needed investment in pharmaceutical manufacturing in the US, in education and childcare.

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Jessie Diggins US Cross Country skier at Olympics in Italy 2026. She is known for her endurance in long distance cross country skiing.

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Barney Roney Analysis of England's 3-0 defeat in three matches in Australia in December 2025. Roney writes in the BBC Analysis that there was a basic lack of tension and discipline, of not doing the homework needed and not recognizing the need for homework when playing a side like Australia. Australia without Cummins, Smith and other injured players- made it work with Mitchell Starc and Travis Head in the bowling and batting attack. Roney does not fault Stokes as much as he does McCallum the coach of the England team. Other reports show Stokes and the England cricket team spending time at the beach for days that suggested a lack of discipline. England did not trust the process it trusted the captain's instincts and brave comments, Australia trusted the process and this helped it improve as the game went on even without key players. 

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Daniel Yergin cites an estimate by IHS Cambridge Energy Associates which shows oil from shale and dense rock, which was about 1 million barrels a day in 2011, could reach 3 million barrels a day 2020. North Dakota where much of the production is taking place is now fourth in oil production in the U.S. after Texas, Alaska, and California, and is likely to move up to second place. U.S. imports of oil come primarily from Canada 25%, Mexico 11%, Venezuela 9%, and the Persian Gulf 16%. Canadian oil sands development has increased production and the completion of the Keystone pipeline will increase the share of oil imports from Canada. This is shifting the dynamic of oil away from the Persian Gulf, with the volatile politics in the region, and more towards North America.

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The president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce China Center says the White House has a supportive community when it comes to getting China to abide by fair rules relating to intellectual property. Mr. Bolton talking to the CEO Council was frank about the U.S. government's efforts to get China to to implement a broad set of reforms. He even called for a show of hands from executives who think its acceptable to live by the situation today which hurts the U.S. when it comes to intellectual property. No one showed their hand. U.S. executives once skeptical about the tariffs from president Trump on Chinese products are now shifting their views on the confrontational approach taken by president Trump on issues of U.S. technology transferred to companies in China that lead to the U.S. losing its technological advantage.

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Cost of living action on oil and food prices, and wage gains by workers, the overall economic expansion and jobs, will play a role in Northampton County, Saginaw County and Hillsborough County, in the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire. Other counties in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin affected by the same issues and hurt by the demanufacturing in the US from the Reagan era, the sense of falling behind in places like Bethlehem, Pennsylvania will determine the direction of the US in 2024.

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Erfurt is a very German city in the heart of Germany with its many churches and medieval past, the home town of Martin Luther. Katrin Bennhold provides this exceptional report of how Erfurt is coping with new refugees from talking to town officials and observing the process of resettlement. Erfurt has a population of 208,000 with only about 500 Muslims, and few people from Africa. The town's mayor sees it as the biggest challenge since World War II, larger than reunification with the east, as 300 migrants arrive every week and 4000 have to be resettled by Christmas 2015. Under Germany's quota system the state of Thuringia gets 2.5% of refugees, and Erfurt gets 10% of this. When the Soviet bloc expelled 14 million Germans from the eastern territories in the bloc, 670,000 passed through camps in Erfurt. The difference now is the language barrier, and the anxiety among some Germans of how this could change their lives, which is visible from the questions asked at a town hall meeting in Erfurt. Because of the suddenness with which Germany was confronted with the refugee problem it will take time to get organized- in September 2015 there is a shortage of housing space, cots, temporary shelters, translators, social workers, and some of the infrastructure has to be put in on an improvised basis. Rarely has a people come under the spotlight of world attention in modern communications media, in the way small cities and towns throughout Germany are now facing, and providing a glimpse into the hearts and souls of so many....

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China is well positioned to cope with the cutoff of supplies of oil from the Middle East after decades of focus on building up its stocks of oil. China has made self sufficiency in energy a key goal for the economy. China uses 16 million barrels a day of oil, of which 12 million is imported, and production inside China is a little over 4 million barrels a day. It normally adds 1 million barrels a day to its stockpile inventory. This inventory stockpile is 1.2 billion barrels and is good for 100 days. China is able to make up for oil supplies by importing more from Russia. The Power of Siberia 2 pipeline for natural gas is being pushed forward for natural gas supplies from Russia to China. China has large supplies of coal for electricity. It also is increasing its capacity to make renewable energy, solar panels and wind turbines.

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In his State of the Union speech president Trump was off on some points such as how many jobs were created, how good the economy is, and on on safety of cities El Paso and San Diego after border walls and fencing, according to the WSJ. El Paso was the second safest city of twenty similar sized cities in the U.S. before the border wall with Mexico, and continued to be that way after the wall was built over that section. San Diego has seen 91% drop in border apprehensions over a decade after fencing the border but this has not meant a discernible impact on people crossing illegally.  Mr. Trump was right that customs duties increased by $13 billion in the third quarter of 2018 after placing tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods. Wages are growing faster for manufacturing and construction workers than service occupations, as Trump claimed. On the growth of the economy the economy GDP grew by 3.5% in 2018 before slowing down by the end of the year. India and China's growth in GDP is much faster. Growth in jobs was at the pace in the first 2 years of the Trump administration in some 2 year periods of the Obama administration, and much faster in manufacturing in the 1990's, says the WSJ.   ...

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Nearly 9-10 million Indians work in the Persian Gulf kingdoms. They are affected by the war with Iran. About 1 million have returned to India during the current war in 2026. About 2.2 million of the 9 million are from Kerala state in southern Indian coastline with cities such as Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram the capital. Of the $50 billion they send back as remittances to India Kerala gets the largest amount among the states in India. As aresult this is affecting the state economy. Many people in the Gulf are being laid off as the Gulf economies are hit by the war. Recovery will be strong in 2027 only in Saudi and UAE (Emirates), others Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman will take much longer to recover according to some forecasts.

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The revival of NATO in 2022 as America "prepares extensively and carefully" to meet the challenge from Russia as it invades Ukraine. President Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Germany's Scholz and America's Biden form a partnership as the Europeans and Americans join together to defend the interests of Europe, America, Latin America, India and other Asia, Africa, the entire free world in a way that FDR and Truman, with Adenauer defended the free world after the Berlin Airlift in 1948. Biden tells Europe and America the days ahead will be hard but America and Europe and the allies in Japan, India and the rest of Asia, Latin America, Africa, are resolved to met this challenge.