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Peter Coy, Economics editor of Business Week, agrees with Paul Krugman's point made in a recent NYT op-ed column favoring staying on the course the Bernanke Fed has set, which is to continue its policy of monetary expansion as long as credit is tight and the economy is weak. The Fed has expanded monetary reserves Coy says by 114% over this year through May. The biggest increase since 1960 has been 16%. Coy says there is good reason for this. As other experts have pointed out, see links, most of the extra money the Fed has introduced into the economy has piled up in the reserves of banks. Consumers who who have debt at about 100% of USA GDP are not borrowing, businesses are not borrowing to invest, banks are not lending as before, and consumers are in a long period of debt reduction that will take years. This is why it is not inflationary. Consumer frugality, see links, is another factor that makes this situation a long term change in consumer behaviour, and a force for deflation. All this is happening in the background of a huge slack in the system as manufacturing capacity utilization is low at 68% and unemployment is increasing. Which is why informed experts looking at the situation on the ground see staying the course as the right action plan....

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Schools, shops, restaurants, cafes and offices are reopening and people are getting back to work and outdoors. What are the ways to reduce chances of getting the coronavirus and what is the latest advice from public health experts.  More attention is now being given by CDC and other experts to the aerosols, the smaller particles that are airborne that can spread the virus to people unawares in breathing, talking and singing activities. larger droplets come down to the ground, smaller droplets can be airborne for hours. This makes masks wearing very important, call it essential protection. Air filtration and proper ventilation is also important. What about social distancing? Experts now say 6 feet is good, 10 feet is better. This is from Joseph Allen director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard School of Public Health. No magic number but 6-10 feet or more is good for safety. Can one start expanding one's social circle? The fewer contacts the better says Dr. Allen. You can he says expand the circle but this depends a lot on how serious the other family is in taking precautions. Are elevators risky? If one can one should take stairs but do not board a crowded elevator unless the lobby is more crowded. Do not touch buttons, if you do use elbow or use sanitizer from your shirt pocket after pressing. This is where mask is essential. Here a tip is useful. Talking does not help as talking emits 10 times the particles than when you are quiet and this is true for small spaces such as elevators. Continual talk is not a good idea such as a long time spent talking, here watch that habit of getting into long conversations face to face.  Is it good to take a summer vacation. Here the answer is yes, as no one really knows how the winter will be. And remember outdoors is good for renewal of health, and one can look for places that are not crowded where the 10-12 feet or more can be easily done. One tip here is to take your own food and supplies from home so there is no need to go to crowded restaurants. Swimming in a lake or ocean is fine. Camping outdoors is fine and actually a good idea if you are with your own family. Try to use an empty restroom and one that is clean and wear the mask. While camping keep the 6-10 foot rule with people outside your immediate family, do not share food and drinks and try not to touch each other's supplies, and sanitize your hands or wash if you do. When hiking keep the mask in your pocket so you can wear it when you see others passing on trails. In hotels skip the cleaning service, in a rented property ask the owner to keep the windows open before you arrive, and put a day or two between your coming and the last person who rented the place. Renting a car is tricky allow a couple of hours to elapse between you and the last rental, open windows. Public restrooms. Always wear a mask many are poorly ventilated. Open the door without use of hands if possible,or use a paper towel to open and discard. Do not use air dryers. Is it safe for your house cleaning person to return. Keep the windows open to let in fresh air. Make sure your cleaner wears gloves. And all should wear masks. How to visit grandparents? Experts advise keeping visits outside and wearing masks when not 6-10 feet apart. Anyone not feeling healthy should avoid the visit. And bathrooms should be sanitized after people leave even wait a day if there is another bathroom. Experts advise against sharing food and buffet type meals. Ten feet distance is better than six feet. Can one use a gym? Here the advice is to exercize outdoors or at home if one can. It says be cautious unless your gym is limiting the number of people or spacing the equipment adequately. Ask about open windows, air filtration systems, ventilation.  This is excellent advice from experts with the latest information. Over the last few months from March to May most of the information was during lockdown, and a lot can be forgotten or seen as not necessary as things return to normal, as shops schools and cafes, office reopen, and cases remain steady and under control. Being vigilant is good for safely navigating this period through the summer and into winter till a vaccine is found. It is also about being a good civic minded person aware of one's own responsibilities, as when all take safety seriously and practice it everyday, it builds another layer of protection for everybody- because it creates a safer environment for all.     ...

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Mental health can play a part in the life of athletes, and in sports competition. Injuries are part of this, death in the family is part of this. Mikaela Shiffrin's hopes were dashed at the Beijing Olympics in Alpine skiing.Her father Jeff Shiffrin had accompanied her through every Olympics in her skiing career and was always at the finishing line. After his death before the Olympics in Beijing, Mikaela Shiffrin was told by a German fan that she subconsciously avoided getting to the finishing line because she would not be seeing her father there.  Dina Asher-Smith is a British sprinter whose hopes at the Tokyo Olympics were dashed because of a hamstring injury. Yet she bounced back and says she had time afterwards to grapple with her emotions- "Before Tokyo I did'nt have time to grapple with my emotions, you can't be crying  your way through rehab," she said. She competes now with a different frame of mind- "you can't run fast with baggage- you gotta throw it out" she says in an interview with The Guardian's Sean Ingle. ...

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Millenials are moving away from political parties to look at individual candidates in 2014. Attitudes are changing moving away from gender politics. A Pew Research Center survey of March 2014 shows 50% of millenials consider themselves political independents. And 31% believe there is not much difference between Democrats and Republicans.

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Jay Powell signals that protecting working families from inflation even as he attacks inflation and strong labor market to moderate wage increases that could hurt jobs is a difficult balancing act that he wants to get right. Here are his own words at the Brookings Institution- "My colleagues and I do not want to overtighten because... cutting rates is not what we want to do too soon. That's why we're slowing down and going to try to find out way to what that right level is." He said he did not rely on forecasting that could be inaccurate and is feeling his way through this. It showed - the remarkable humility of this central bank governor unlike any of the last five decades, and he was warmly received by Brookings. He is keenly aware that the pandemic has hurt labour market participation as many have retired and some are still struggling to join the labor market, and there are other working families in the labor market who are being hurt by inflation.    ...

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This Editorial Board view in the WSJ asks what does it say when Mr. Biden beats Mr. Trump 44% to 41% even with Mr. Biden's low ratings of 33% in the Siena/New York Times poll, and Republicans looking good in the upcoming midterms to win both the Senate and the House. It says so far most of the recent elections for seats in the Senate and the House have shown that Trump backed candidates have not done well with one or two exceptions. It cites elections for two Congressional seats in Georgia where Democrats prevailed against Trump backed candidates.  It says Trumps position that the election was stolen is not going to help Republicans. That Democrats are keen on keeping the attention on Mr. Trump and not on inflation through events such as the January 6 hearings on the Capitol attacks. In swing districts the Trump distraction is the only factor that could hurt Republicans 4 months before the midterms, says, the WSJ. It says Trump is likely to announce his candidacy for president in 2024 before the midterms. ...

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A supply chain crisis, shortages of coal and oil are affecting major world economies. The Guardian looks at the economies of Britain, the US, Germany, Russia and Australia. Inflation is above 4% in Germany for the last month. Shortages of workers is affecting most economies. Ports are filled with container ships that have not downloaded their shipments because of a lack of workers. There were a record 10 million job openings in the US mostly in the restaurant and entertainment industries. Low wages have led many to reconsider their careers during the pandemic, a phenomenon called the Great Resignation. Other people have dropped out of the workforce because schools have not reopened and there is a lack of good affordable childcare. The chairman of the US central bank Jerome Powell, says "It is frustrating to acknowledge that people getting vaccinated and getting Delta variant under control remains the most important economic policy we have. It is also frustrating to se the bottlenecks and supply chain problems not getting better- in fact at the margin getting a bit worse." ...

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If Zambia can put in almost a billion dollars to make primary and secondary schooling free should not an affluent nation like the US make K-12 schooling free and support a big part of college and university fees. Zambia coming out of a IMF bailout during the pandemic is supporting it knowing that it is the best way to take the nation forward, not leaving millions without education behind. Instead America has chosen to let capitalist flaws such as capital allocation to unworthy projects waste capital. This last week alone about $1 billion in capital was shown to be wasted- $100 million for a new golf ball and $700 million for a new beauty business incorporating herbals. Every month wasted capital is shown in Lyrarc.com showing that the capital allocation process in America is deeply flawed and leaves little for education and healthcare because of its distortions and poor allocation serving the interests of a few, and not even that as the money gets wasted entirely to no one's benefit and a complete loss to the Nation. ...

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Ann J. Selzer who does the polling for the local Iowan Des Moines Register for three decades says- “It’s hard for anybody to say they saw this coming.” Yet the process does drive results. The only time Democrats did poorly in Iowa with reason was under Hillary Clinton, and it was clear that Obama did not have Tom Vilsack's back. Vilsack the three time popular governor of Iowa was Agriculture Secretary, yet Obama distracted by Silicon Valley did not give the support he needed. Joe Biden as president made Tom Vilsack one of, if not the most important part of his Domestic Agenda, underlining also to all that foreign policy would be driven by domestic agenda, and by domestic is meant in large part long neglected Rural America. Growing up as an adopted child in difficult childhood, Tom Vilack represented the best of Iowa and America in his public service in the state and the entire Great Prairie states that form the heartland of America's breadbasket, and for the world.   ...

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NYT looks at the corruption in city government in Los Angeles. During the turn of the century Tammany Hall was a term used for the organization down to city wards that controlled city government and under city bosses led to much corruption. Rapid real estate development in the city of Los Angeles with Chinese developers investing in building high rise office and other buildings in the city led to corruption. A large concentration of power, the lack of news coverage from local sources as one of the effects of the internet, surges in real estate growth, have led to reduced attention to the effects of corruption in the city of Los Angeles and in the state of California. Jose Huizar on the City council and Raymond Chang deputy mayor are shown here in this NYT report to be convicted of racketeering charges.  Over a decade 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, says the NYT. This is more than the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois. ...

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DJT administration 25% tariffs on Canada Mexico for not stopping fentanyl flows as domestic policy go ahead on March 4, 2025. This lays the ground to tackle aproblem that has led to 490,000 American deaths and devastated communities across the US - the flow of fentanyl into the US from Mexico, Canad and China. Separately an additional 10% tariff is going to effect on China on top of earlier tariffs on China.  The media keeps talking about this tariff as a economic action, not as action to stop all fentanyl flows as is repeatedly stated by DJT and the Administration. Most of the media has failed to talk about the fentanyl deaths over 12 years referring as one of the prominent media states as the "death of thousands" not giving the staggering number and the scale of the devastation of communities in America after the damage from the 2009 financial crisis caused by banks, the deindustrialization of America that was allowed to happen under Bush Republicans and Obama Democrats, and the covid pandemic crisis.  ...

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The DJT Executive Order removing birthright citizenship on Jan 20, 2024 applies to future undocumented immigrants, and is based on the part of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution passed in 1866 by the US Congress and ratified by states in 1868.  The 14th Amendment came after the US Civil War and was aimed at giving emancipated black slaves citizenship. The US Supreme Court gave US citizenship to one Chinese immigrant in US vs Wong in 1898 following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This did not set a precedent as at that time immigration from Asia was extremely restricted and the case was not intended to apply to millions crossing borders as this did not exist. For most of the period 1900-1960 Asian immigration was negligible because of the laws in existence until the Kennedy administration. Immigration from Mexico was mainly for US agricultural farms. When this led to a surge in illegal crossing of the US Mexican border in 1944-1954 a similar situation to today existed when Eisenhower conducted Operation Wetback in 1954 to deport about 1 million undocumented immigrants. ...

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Estimates of net income JP Morgan has gained from the acquisition of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual since 2008 are about $16 billion. This acts as a offset against the $13 billion legal settlement with the Justice Department. Eavis and Protess point out that JP Morgan Chase acted in its own interest to buy these to firms at a bargain price in 2008, even as it was working with regulators in this arrangement. For this reason the Justice Department settlement is not seen as unfair to JP Morgan.

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Asian economies have seen a an increase in export dependence in recent years, with 47% of GDP depending on exports. China is a big exporter and will see its 11 % growth in peak years down to 8% and India which is not as big an exporter as China down to 7%. 5% growth would spell trouble in these countries with migration to urban areas from farming country and the lack of a social safety net as well as large number of people who need jobs to earn a living.

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RFK Jr. Report on nutrition, pesticides, overmedicalization, other threats to children's health. Critics cited in the NYT about action raises the question why the critics never made this their top priority all these years, and raising public awareness of the issue has been already accomplished, with the next steps to follow requiring the efforts of all of us. 

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The freedom of movement without danger, or public safety on the Nation's streets, in public spaces and on the transit systems buses and trains, is a basic right implicitly guaranteed by the US Constitution as much as explicit guarantees of free speech as a basic right. A free society could not exist in the absence of this right.

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Redistricting for Hispanic districts under Proposition 50 in California which passed by 64% in November 2025. A separate Louisiana case challenges redistricting by race as conducted under the Voting Rights Act. The US Supreme Court will have to rule on this issue. It is not always clear how this will work as Hispanic population has done well in employment statistics.

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The US president says he will make the final decision on the US for the Israel Iran war. He says his supporters support him on seeing to it that Iran was not having a nuclear weapon. DJT says Iran was weeks away from getting a nuclear weapon and that Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it had one.

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A group of oil producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia stall progress on climate change goals at the conference in Belem, Brazil. Even deforestation goals are left out. A standoff between European nations and oil producing countries leads to lack of agreement on how to phase out fossil fuels. The US is not present.  

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Baker and Rudoren of the NYT describe how the relationship between Netanyahu and Obama gradually deteriorated over a number of years.

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As the heat wave in Spain, in western Canada and in other parts of the world shows, the situation is not getting better. Climate change action needs a new urgency.

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Good old walking exercize as a preventive measure for knee pain and osteoarthritis is shown here in the NYT. Exercize is also a prevention action for fingers and hands.

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Shohei Ohtani is a rare phenomenon in American baseball as a star pitcher and hitter. NYT looks at Ohtani's  prodigous season in the American League.

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Demand from China and the Middle East alone will increase by about 2 million barrels a day this year, with another 2 million barrels a day increase from other growing economies, the U.S., Europe and Japan not changing much. This will drive prices according to the International Energy Agency. Supply is not growing enough, consider Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, which have stagnant production levels and increasing demand. Price volatility has been a feature of oil markets with so much uncertainty, including uncertainty of non-OPEC production so that OPEC alone cannot determine oil price levels. Economic crises in the the US and Europe and prospects of a recession have so far not affected oil prices. If demand continues to grow in places like India, China and the Middle East, then prices will continue to remain high.

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Jeb Bush calls for comprehensive immigration reform. He is against small fixes and says the problem is that the law is broken and new laws are needed. As an example he says the chain migration from the provision for family preferences in the current law is not in the U.S. best interest. By comparison visas are in short supply for talented, well educated immigrants from other countries, something that is in the best interest of the U.S.