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Efforts to impeach two previous presidents including Democrat Clinton failed in the Senate where the vote requires a two thirds majority. The first impeachment vote against Mr. Trump failed in the Senate. In the House of Representatives only a simple majority is required. Majority Leader McConnell says he will not reconvene the Senate before president Biden takes office. Vice President Pence has refused to invoke the 25th Amendment. House Democrats have moved ahead to vote for impeachment of president Trump for the storming of the Capitol offices in Washington D.C. Their impeachment statement says president Trump's remarks that his supporters had to fight like hell or they would not have a country, constituted incitement of supporters. President Trump won 74 million votes in the last election more than in the 2016 election and lost with Mr. Biden winning 81 million votes after polarization of the country. With such a large portion of the country voting for Mr. Trump Mr. Biden risks his agenda of fighting the pandemic, and other parts of his program, becoming immersed in partisan infighting. This would also result in continuing the division of the country, and continue polarization.  About 5 House Republicans are expected to support impeachment. In the Senate some Republicans say there are impeachable offenses yet only Mr. McConnell and the senator from Utah, Mr. Mitt Romney, favor impeachment.  Mr. Trump's style of governing was controversial from the beginning of his campaign in 2016, strident and taking on critics. He governed through relative moderation compared to his aggressive posture towards critics. For instance on Mexico his remarks offended critics, yet he negotiated a new trade agreement with Mexico replacing NAFTA to ensure worker protections in Mexico, and worker jobs and wages in the U.S. Negotiations with China on trade were conducted by a seasoned veteran, Mr Lighthizer,  who was deputy Trade Representative under Reagan, and negotiated the trade agreement with Japan that worked to reduce Japanese trade surplus in the eighties. On the economy before the pandemic hit in March president Trump made significant progress reducing unemployment.      ...

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The author of the study Youth in Germany Kilian Hampel says, German youth after the pandemic have increasing stress about soaring housing costs, inflation, war in Ukraine, and fears about old age poverty. This is similar to what is happening in the US. This will be a factor in the European elections. Though a lot is written about far right parties. Much of the work that remains is about ensuring fairness, and equity, tackling inflation and building housing. This needs greater investment than Germany is today undertaking. Much of the Greens and Socialist party plans to invest in the last federal election were stalled when they did not get a majority and had to depend on the FDP which is too conservative for making the investments needed in the economy. In the US Biden forged abipartisan effort and invested heavily in Republican areas in the south and west. A similar task is needed in Germany including investing in the East and in education, healthcare and building new infrastructure. Rail, road, airport and bridge infrastructure in Germany is dilapidated and only by investing in it can the economy gain strength to meet the aspirations of young people. ...

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Argentina's new president takes over a failing economy in 2019. Mr. Fernandez declared a public emergency until 2020. A legislative package recently passed includes tax increases on the wealthy, tax relief for the poorest, a 30% tax on foreign currency transactions abroad, and a currency cap of $200 per person per month imposed by the previous Macri administration.  About 70% of new revenues will go to social programs, including free food vouchers for two million of the poorest Argentines. About 40% of the people in Argentina are in poverty, according to the World Bank, a shocking figure for a country that should be doing better given its natural resources and agricultural resources. The economy is suffering from hyper inflation at over 50%, jumping external debt at 90% of GDP. Total debt is $332 billion including a $57 billion IMF loan. About half the total debt is in foreign currency and is hard to service now that foreign currency reserves have fallen from $66 billion to $43.5 billion. The debt restructuring strategy now is to delay as much of the $70 billion of repayments due before the end of 2020.  ...

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This editorial in the WSJ points out that it is not enough for a country to vote to leave the European Union. It must be ready to leave the EU, as it says happened in the case of Greece. Greece was willing to leave the EU but not capable of going it alone. This is true of Britain as Britain cannot bear the economic cost of losing the advantages of trade and commerce without serious consequences. Mrs. May's deal for a permanent customs union, a trade deal that mimics Norway's one with the EU, is not fully supported within her own party. Preserving relations with Ireland and Northern Ireland are important and some Brexit Leave leaders have alienated the Irish.  As the WSJ puts it GDP growth obscured regional disparities and shortfalls in productivity and innovation- so that businesses are right to warn of the consequnces of a hasty Brexit or a no deal Brexit. In short, Britain cannot afford to lose the trade benefits of EU membership. This should have been known from the beginning on all sides to avoid what has been a 2 year long fiasco which will affect Britain's future. A strategic error has been made by Brexit supporters in not thinking things through before launching out into the referendum. ...

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Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has differences with Mr. Trump. He made this clear in recent years on many issues and has remained silent on the Trump indictment. He is the senior senator from Kentucky.

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Spectacular scenery in Trail Ridge Road Highway to the Sky, Rocky Mountain National Forest, Colorado.

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This report in the WSJ on the Indian economy says the impact of growth in India's largest state of Uttar Pradesh with 240 million people will play a big part in the growth rate of the Indian economy. It fails to say why. The answer is good governance, investment in infrastructure, logistics and manufacturing, a huge pool of tens of millions of engineers and hundreds of millions of factory workers. The lack of a large enough investment pool of investment funds and  failure to eliminate leakages from corruption, the lack of a plan such as the current Master Plan Gati Shakti for the whole Indian economy, lack of governments at the state and federal level combining setting targets and delivery dates for infrastructure roads, bridges, airports, logistical hubs, factory for advanced industry, lack of governance entirely focussed on delivery and timelines, were the missing pieces in development in India for 5 decades since the 1960's, a period in which as Mr. Modi says repeatedly Japan, Korea, China moved ahead and India fell behind. Does this potential exist only for Uttar Pradesh? India's industrialization model started in Gujarat, population of 72 million under Modi as head of the state government from 2001-2014. It now covers the western region of Gujarat, Maharashtra population 128 million and Rajasthan population 82 million  the region around Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur of about 282 million people. This will be the fastest growing region and the engine that will propel the Indian economy in the years ahead. Uttar Pradesh in the north is integrated into this development. So is another region Bihar population 104 million and Orissa 46 million, Assam 35 million states in the northeast of the country with a total of 185 million people. What do all 3 regions of over 700 million people have in common? The answer is state and federal government working using the Gujarat tested and proven model for development, rapid delivery, good governance, government working with industry, large investments in infrastructure and modernization, Make in India hubs for manufacturing, digitization. ...

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Suggested books for retirement to help understand better how to lead the life you want to live in your 60's and beyond are shown here.  The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, by Marc Freedman 65 Things to Do When You Retire, edited by Mark Evan Chimsky (a collection of 65 essays by achievers in their 60's with unusual and fulfilling activities during retirement) Second-Act Careers, by Nancy Collamer The Encore Career Handbook, by Marci Alboher Don't Retire, Rewire, by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners (these do just what they say with examples) Transition to retirement can be arduous- and here is where these books come into draw on the experience of hundreds of people between 50 and eighty years to shape a healthy and rewarding life in retirement. The Couple's Retirement Puzzle, by Roberta K. Taylor Retirement for Two, by Maryanne Vandervelde       ...

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The return of sound money is good for the US economy and US savers among the common people. The end of tech excess valuations and profits is also good for the US economy. Joe Davis of Vanguard talks about ways in which the policies of the Biden administration and the US federal Reserve's Jay Powell are benefiting the US and the American people including millions of savers after the excesses of Tech and the financial sector since 2009. The return to a more stable long run economy is now facing the US, says Davis.

The rest of us other than them, other than the Tech sector and others who benefitted from negative rates, we will benefit from this change. By Vanguard calculations ten year return forecasts will increase by 2% percentage points annualized for equities and for fixed income since last year. This is a good thing for America.

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Many Russians in Moscow and other cities do not support the invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24 on multiple fronts. There are also 3 million Ukrainians in Russia, and Ukraine neighbors with whom Russia has a close relationship. In this sense the invasion is a strange event, coming more from the failures of leaders from Merkel in Germany, leaders in the US and Russia. And leaders at NATO and the EU (Stoltenberg of Norway and Leyden at EU), the US and Russia, who stuck to positions of strict sanctions and buildup of forces at the border, and did not explore other new approaches for building common ground other than trade and finance. Trade and finance are too fragile and complicated for enduring relationships, the emotional relationship that Adenauer and Brandt built, that post war Russian leaders and American leaders built during those years offered a stronger basis for peace and a better future.

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Takaichi Sanae calls snap election with 62% favorability rating Jan 2026. For decades few prime ministers of Japan had such a high rating. Sanae now has the chance to get an absolute majority in parliament.

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Shubman Gill's amazing strokes to get his 200 against New Zealand in ODI cricket.

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Infrastructure spending under president Duterte of the Philippines has increased from 4% of GDP to about 6-7%. Many new projects are started as part of the $177 billion building program. This includes the Clark City project to house 1.2 million people and government offices to move congestion out of Manila. Duterte's plans include cutting traffic down by one third on the artery along the sea that takes 2 million people into Manila from the outskirts every day.

Duterte has continued infrastructure projects planned by his predecessor, and 69% of Filipinos support this infrastructure building program. Conservative spending under his predecessor gives Mr. Duterte more room for increasing spending. Indonesia at 72nd rank and Philippines at 96th rank have fallen behind in infrastructure development in a World Economic Forum recent survey of 141 countries.  

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The new cabinet of ministers of prime minister Modi following the second wave of the pandemic brings in 36 new faces to the Ministries, many in important new roles such as Health, Education, IT, Information and Broadcasting, Social Empowerment, Law. Railways. The Council of Ministers goes up to 78, three short of a statutory limit of 81. By bringing in new and younger faces as well as some experienced IAS and other persons in certain states, this new group. An experienced IAS officer was put in charge of the important Railways ministry, as the railways take on modernization and technological progress. Where ministers were lacking in performance the prime minister has made the needed changes. 

The large number of new faces gives the government an opportunity to train new people before the next parliamentary elections three years from now.

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The Federal Railroad Administration and the DOT agencies now require that there be 2 person crew on all freight trains to ensure railway safety. Accidents have taken place in recent years requiring action. Over 50 years we have observed that cost cutting that undermines safety, costcutting that forgets or ignores the process needed for quality, only leads to higher costs sometimes in the billions of dollars and loss of public goodwill. A freight train with toxic materials derailed in Ohio last year causing much loss of goodwill with local communities and impacting the health of residents. Workers form a key part of the processes that generate products not just machines, respecting the dignity and health of workers, providing the training and work hours that improve quality and concentration are essential. Companies and executives do well only when this is made to happen.

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France produced 3.1 million tons of plastic waste, with 2.1 million tons being in packaging. A new environment protection law by president Macron requires supermarkets and other stores to use refill stations for packaging so that unpackaged goods can be sold. This is a legal obligation under the law to cut plastic waste.

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BBC Travel looks at travel to the French Alpine lakes region around Annecy arriving through Geneva, Switzerland.

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The large inequalities in Chilean society are exposed after a transport fare increase leads to violent protests.  A climate tax and fare increases led to protests against inequality in France. The Chilean pension system does not provide the working lass with adequate pensions on which they can retire. Large inequalities in wealth under the Chilean model are seen as a result of free market principles which were enshrined in the constitution of Chile after the departure of Chilean dictator Pinochet. Some of the free market ideas worked to improve living conditions in Chile, others such as the financing of the pension system are seen as having failed to provide for a secure retirement for workers. some of Chile's success can also be attributed to demand and pricing of copper with Chinese demand in the past, a situation confronting Brazil and Argentina also. In Brazil the problem is just the opposite with politicians having granted extremely liberal pensions leaving little room in the budget for public services including basic sanitation.  There are also inadequacies in education and health care based on these free market principles, which favor certain groups and not society at large. Protest movement's goal is a rewriting of the Chilean constitution which president Pinera has declined. ...

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This editorial says the patent system has become too costly and a hurdle to companies trying to make innovations. The "non-obvious" nature needs to be enforced, says The Economist- so that Amazon's one click or the Apple patent on rectangular patents with rounded corners should not be given. Google's patent in 1998 on ranking websites by numbers of users and sites linking to it, is cited as an example allowing companies to build a monopoly using a key element for presenting search results.

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Italian immigrants like Mr. Bonato on his 4200 acre farm in Brazil's central savannah are trying to change the way Brazil looks at wheat. Once a wheat importer from Argentina, Brazil is trying to change this by growing tropical wheat. Italian immigrants in the cooler southern states such as Rio Grande do Sul were wheat producers. Now Brazil's agricultural agencies are getting these farmers to produce wheat in the more tropical central region of Brazil. Higher wheat prices are changing the way farmers look at wheat. Rotating wheat and beans is a good agricultural practice and the Brazilian agricultural agency is encouraging this. Brazil's agricultural agency Embrapa launched the wheat variety BRS 264 as a highly successful one for tropical wheat growing. In 2021 Brazil imported 40% of 12 million tons consumed mostly from Argentina. The idea is that with central Brazil meeting Brazil's wheat needs this would free up wheat from the cooler southern part of Brazil to replace the lost production from Eastern Europe. Mr. Bonato says his work is helping feed more people, and his interest in his work comes from holding wheat growing on the ground as a child on the family farm. After all he says, what is more important than bread?   ...

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The trade agreement with Australia starts a process of taking India's exports far beyond the current figure of $400 billion and creating the jobs that come with it. It will double bilateral trade over 5 years to take it to $50 billion. This also shows the wisdom of India not joining the Comprehensive Economic Partnership pushed by president Obama.

The natural ties within the English speaking peoples and the common historical ties within the Commonwealth of Nations that include Australia, Canada, Britain, the Gulf Nations, and South East Asia provide a natural trade and economic region for India.  Next planned are trade agreements with Canada and Britain, and an effort to bring all the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council into and Economic Partnership with India, An agreement was also signed with the United Arab Emirates. Very important is a trade agreement with Germany and the European Union for close economic integration with Europe.

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For the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus and its variants- the US, Brazil, India, Europe, Russia, China and Africa, the researchers and the frontline workers in South Africa are doing an incredible job. This report by Stephanie Nolan in the NYT shows the work of researchers at KRISPS advanced medical research center and the frontline workers in South Africa, who are making a difference. Shown are researchers and scientists at KwaZulu Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform in Durban, South Africa on whom the world depends for stepping up the fight against the coronavirus- Dr Tulio de Oliveira, principal investigator of the national genetic monitoring network, and Saleem Abdul Karim, epidemiologist. On the frontline workers who visit patients homes to make sure immune compromised patients have access to their medications is Sizakele Mathe, community health worker. Stephanie Nolan has provided a much needed account of what work is being done on the frontlines to keep us all safe. ...