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WSJ Original article ›
The Times of India Original article ›
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The huge difference 2 percentage point difference in votes in Delhi makes is the 40 seats gained by Modi's BJP for a landslide win. A win for the hopes and aspirations of 1.7 billion people of Bharat+ (Bharat plus Indonesia) can be seen in the Nation's capital Delhi.

Modi's BJP party gains 7.5 percentage points going from 38.3 percentage points of the vote in Delhi state to 48.8, and the ruling AAP party losing 10 percentage points going from 53.8 percentage points to 43.8 percentage points. 

The Guardian Original article ›
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Biden calls ending the war in Afghnistan a "wise decision" for the American people. He says in his foreign policy speech that "it is about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries." A Pew Research poll shows 54% of American adults support the decision.  In a sense the decision had already been made. Biden cited the Doha agreement president Trump signed a year ago with Taliban that called for the release of 5000 Taliban prisoners which included most of the top commanders, and no agreement on the future of Afghanistan. The decision had come much earlier than that when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the period of George Bush were rejected by the American people for the cost and lack of purpose during the presidential election of 2016. That period marked the rejection of policies set under Reagan, Bush and Obama for starting American involvement in the Iraq-Iran conflict first on one side and then on the other side. All the time precious resources that were needed for infrastructure and services in education and healthcare were diverted to these wars, impoverishing America and also Europe. Looking beyond the words thrown around for political advantage both Trump and Biden and the American people, had decided to put these wars behind them 5-10 years earlier. Biden said assertively that America had made a tragic wrong turn, that was all he could say about Reagan, Bush, Obama policy. In the meantime he stated something else was happening- the US was losing its position in the world by wasting its resources in these wars that do not serve the interests of America. "There is nothing China and Russia would want more in this competition than the US to be bogged down for another ten years in these wars."  Biden was saying that he had the courage and tenacity to make a decision that was the right one and a wise one for America against all the transient opinion of people who lacked a grasp of what was happening to the American people- the increasing impoverishing of America in both rural and urban areas. And a similar situation in Europe. It was time to take a new turn, close this chapter, and write a new one in American history, brighter and with new sense of hope. ...
The Economic Times Original article ›
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Serum Institute in India's vaccine developed with Oxford University is a leading one of the 6 candidates in India for coronavirus vaccine. It is expected to be ready by September. ICMR also has a vaccine that could be ready by India's Independence Day of August 15. One of the vaccines is for the elderly. Serum Institute has the advantage of being one of the leading manufacturers of vaccines in the world. India makes 60% of the world's vaccines giving it much experience in manufacturing that is needed today.

Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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The WSJ's Juan Montes, in an exceptional report from Mexico City, tells the story behind a landmark achievement for Mexico- Pacto Por Mexico of Dec. 2, 2012. The major political parties of the right, centre and left forge an agreement for the way forward for Mexico- beyond monopolistic pricing and industry structures in Mexico that hurt consumers, to increase foreign investment and new technlogies to modernize the national oil company Pemex operations, change labor laws, and create a climate for higher growth. The pact is broad ranging, shows a grasp of the problems facing modern Mexico, and ranges from anti-monopoly laws to getting junk food out of schools considering Mexico's high obesity and diabetes rate. It covers 95 goals. It is hard to overstate the significance of this achievement for modern Mexico. Montes describes the initiative of the PRD leader Zambrones in rebranding his PRD party as a moderate left wing party open to new ideas. This happened after the departure of Lopez Obrador from the PRD to form his own party in September. Zambrano and PRD moderates brought up the idea based on what happened in a landmark deal in Spain in 1977, that helped transform Spain after decades of stagnation under the Franco dictatorship. Around July after the presidential election, PRD president Zambrano, and the PRD's Jesus Ortega, held meetings in Mexico City with Jose Murat, a senior PRI politician, and PRI president elect Nieto's top advisor, economist Luis Videgaray. The decision was made by president Nieto and economist Luis Videgaray to pursue the discussions for joint agreement on vital issues facing Mexico. The PAN party was brought into the discussions. By mid-September nine people from the PRD, PRI and PAN started work on a draft agreement at Murat's home. The ground rules were set for discussions to be private, to have agreement on all points or assume nothing had been agreed, and not let current events disturb the talks. The nine participants set up the broad principles, and then a group of three, one from each party was given the task of coming up with the right language for the pact. By the end of November a 34 page draft was put together. A night of intense work to 2 a.m. followed the inauguaration of president Nieto on Dec. 1, with the Pact ready for announcement on Dec. 2, 2012. The Pact is a landmark achievement in its potential for changing Mexico and creating decades of economic progress similiar to that envisioned by the Spanish parties for Spain in 1977. ...
WSJ Original article ›
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The sharp drop in oil prices from the Saudi decision to increase output and cut prices is putting the U.S. oil shale drilling industry in a difficult position. About $200 billion in debt is coming due in the next couple of years for oil shale drillers who made large investments to get U.S. oil production up to 13.1 billion barrels per day by Feb. 2020. Most U.S. oil shale producers cannot make a profit at the oil price of $34 a barrel after oil price declines on March 9, 2020. At $34 these producers can no longer find it economical to extract oil.

Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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S. Korea and the U.S. propose limiting trade imbalances to 4% of each country's GDP by 2015. S. Korea is the host of the current G-20 meeting. Germany and Japan oppose this move, arguing that their governments cannot engineer such outcomes, as it was determined by economic activity in the private sector. Japan's representative, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, said that while he was dubious about the idea of setting strict numerical goals, it would be acceptable to use them as reference numbers. Germany has traditionally opposed the idea. Germany wants to be counted as part of the European Union, rather than as a single nation, in any such reference goal. China has not commented on the target. S. Korea has presented the idea as a way to use more than currency exchange rates to achieve a global rebalancing. And People's Bank of China Deputy Gov. Yi Gang said Oct 10, that China is planning policies that could result in its surplus falling below 4% of GDP in 3 to 5 years, from about 5.8% in 2009....
New York Times Original article ›
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The new government of prime minister Enrico Letta takes office in Italy in April 2013 following the reelection of president Giorgio Napolitano. Letta is 46 years old and represents a new generation in Italian politics. He is a former Christian Democrat and member of the European parliament. Letta studied at the University of Pisa, and did graduate work in international affairs. In the 1990's he was president of the European Young Christian Democrats. He was associated with Beniamino Andreatta, a Christian Democrat economist and founder of research group Arel. Letta was his chief of staff when he became foreign minister in 1993. In 1998 Letta was minister for European Affairs, and the following year Industry minister. In 2009 Letta became deputy secretary of the Democratic party. The firm European connections, a good sense of how Italians feel about the economic changes, a connection with young people, and his grasp of the needs of business and labor in improving Italian competitiveness, make him an excellent choice after the inconclusive parliamentary elections in Italy. ...
Economist Original article ›
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Demographic trends and Muslim populations around the world. some of the fastest growing populations are in Pakistan, India, Nigeria. Slower growth in Indonesia. In Europe faster growth in Spain and France relative to other countries. The Muslim popullation in Europe will be about 10% in places like Sweden and France in 2030. Where multiculturalism has been denounced, in Germany the Muslim population grows from 5% in 2010 to 7% in 2030, and a little over 4% to 8% in Britain. In France it goes up from close to 8% to a little over 10% in 2030. This is from research and forecasts done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in January 2011. It does not suggest a huge problem especially if the Muslim populations are affected by the trend to democracy in their home countries and improving standards of living, and a move towards integration in the different societies in Europe.
NYTimes.com Original article ›
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Amazon expands during the pandemic when retail on line delivery has helped people reduce trips to the grocery or retail stores. Amazon hired 427,000 people to expand its workforce to 1.2 million people by November 2020, 9 months into the pandemic. Almost doubling the employee workforce. These workers are mostly at warehouses, with some software engineers and hardware specialists. This includes hiring in India and Italy and is worldwide hiring. This does not include 100,000 temporary workers for the holidays, and 500,000 delivery drivers working for contractors.  Only hiring of 230,000 people by Walmart about 2 decades a ago in one year comes close. Walmart hired 180,000 people during the pandemic. Walmart has 2.2 million employees. With the expansion underway Amazon looks to become the largest private employer in the world in 2 years, say experts.  Amazon pay is $15 an hour after an increase of $2 recently. Its coronavirus safety practices have been upgraded after early criticism in April and May. Recent expansion in Italy and in India are also part of worldwide expansion after Walmart has pulled back from its worldwide expansion. This also shows how quickly major aspects of life are changing during the pandemic as some companies in online business are becoming more prominent than others. Target and Walmart have also increased in size. Best Buy has changed its focus with its conversion into a company that leads with personal service in online plus store hybrid retail and a focus on seniors and older people for healthcare service and product delivery. Companies are changing the way they run or getting a new life in remaking their business. This is also a time when other aspects of business such as social media are becoming evident. Subtle aspects such as reports of higher rates of mental depression through use of social media platforms. There is also the awareness that information technology companies in Silicon Valley generate most of their money in advertising and this advertising of $100 billion is only a small fraction of the $12 trillion U.S. economy. Should Silicon Valley based in California decide priorities on where capital allocation should go through the part it plays in moving startups based less on America's priorities than other considerations. Healthcare, education, cities, and infrastructure have not received funding they need and capital allocation by financial markets has failed the American people, as it has failed in Europe and other parts of the world for similar reasons. This has hit hard communities and people across the U.S. and Europe and also in Latin America, Africa and Asia, with the loss of manufacturing to China and other countries from the U.S. India and Europe. ...
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Texas electricity rates are twice the national rate and rising. Texans pay anywhere beteen 13 and 27 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the national average of 9-10 cents and Texas uses more electricity than most other states. Texas deregulated electricity markets in 2002 but prices are higher than before. Higher electricity costs are a result of higher natural gas prices for power generators and congested transmission lines. A $325 million computer redesign is upposed to improve things.
DW.COM Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
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. ...
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
A WSJ study showing the plans offered under the new U.S. Health Care Law in the state of Oregon. For young people ages 18-34 earning about $17,000 and uninsured the law offers a bargain with insurance premiums monthly at about $52 and deductibles as low as $100, because of higher subsidies. The situation changes at incomes of $29,000 when the deductibles are about $6300 and the premiums per month at about $147 a month, because subsidies are much smaller, or deductibles dropping to $2500 at $172 in monthly premium. The federal subsidies disappear for single people under age 30 earning much more than $26,000 because of the way the law places them to specific plans on each state's exchange. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are 11.6 million people in the U.S. ages 18-34 who are uninsured. The federal government has to get as many of these people to get insurance so that the cost of medical care for the elderly can be supported.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Lt. Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges is the U.S. Army Commander in Europe. He describes the threats facing the U.S. in an interview with Sohrab Ahmari of the WSJ. Hodges says Russians are preparing for a conflict five or six years down the road, and should have capabilities built up in 2 to 3 years. The U.S. military remains stretched with 9 of 10 division headquarters committed to some requirement, and new crises popping up unpredictably, such as Islamic State and Ukraine in 2014- a situation not faced even at the height of the engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq. The budget sequestration cuts continue to limit the army's capabilities just when additional resources are needed. Hodges calls for depth in resources as the only way for the army to be there to counteract bad actors in Europe or the Middle East, or some other place. With further budget cuts the army will have to drop down to 420,000 personnel from 500,000 today, just when the number of crisis areas are increasing, hurting preparedness and modernization....
New York Times Original article ›
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A brief history of Xinjiang which translates as New Frontier in Chinese. Its the western frontier of China and a vast area that comprises the desert region of the Tarim basin. It has 13 sizeable ethnic minority groups and borders eight countries. Because of the lack of irrigation technologies these arid expanses were settled very late in history, says Victor Mair, a Professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Even the Uighurs were tribes from the Mongolian steppes who settled Xinjiang in the 10th century. For China it was mostly aplace for havin border military garrisons. Around the 10th century and the Tang dynasty in China, trade on the Silk Road- with places like Kashgar oasis towns on the fringes of the desert as hubs- was at its height. It was not until 1760 under the Quing dynasty of ethnic Manchus, that this area was annexed by CHina and serious effort made to settle it with demobilized troops. A civil and military administration encouraged immigration, say scholars Millward and Perdue in a 2004 book of essays by 16 scholars, "Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland." About 50,000 demobilized troops were offered benefits, seeds and land if they stayed. A similiar situation seems to have been repeated after Mao annexed Xinjiang in 1949. In the early 1950's the Chinese government established the Xinjiang Province Production and COnstruction Corps, which was setup to manage large farms and construction projects called bingtuan and provide jobs for demobilized troops. The bingtuan are profitable enterprises and an estimated one of every six people in Xinjiang are employed in bingtuan, or 1.3 million people. THe HAn who were 6% of the population in 1949, now comprise 40% of the 20 million population of Xinjiang. Another source of employment is in the oil and gas industry, with the Communist party secretary of Xinjiang for the last 15 years being aprotege of President Hu Jintao, from his days in the Communist Youth League, coming from the oil industry province of of Shandong. These jobs are mostly all reserved for Chinese which causes resentment among the local Uighurs. Wong quotes a Uighur university student as saying, who is the foreigner here and whose culture, language and way of life should be protected. This may be the crux of the grievances of the Uighurs, as their use of the language and religious practice is restricted, and they feel they are second class citizens in their own land. Other articles in the NYT and Economist go to point out that the links with international terrrism are not a source of the problem, and the unrest among the Uighurs is more about a feeling of loss of culture, language, religion and identity, and jobs. And the idea that the best way to work with minorities, or regions with different language, religion and culture, just as the British did in South Asia and India is doing now is through tolerance. See the links to NYT and Michael Wines on 7/11/2009 about the Communist party secretary for Xinjiang, Wang Lequang, whose policies in Xinjiang and now in Tibet through a protege, may be worsening this situation. ...
DW.COM Original article ›
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Sweden and Finland say they want to preserve their right of self-determination to join NATO. Russia will meet with NATO in the context of the NATO-Russia Council on Jan. 12, 2022, for discussions. Russia has given its list of grievances and demands to the US in meetings between Biden and Putin. The Western alliance and NATO aligned nations in Eastern and Northern Europe see standing firm together as the best way to counteract Russian pressures as it places 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders.

Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Renewed warnings about the bubble in housing prices in China. Earlier warnings came from Krugman, Lardy, John Taylor. This one comes from Nomura economists Zhiwei Zhang and Wendy Chen. Could the government's action to curb rising housing prices not be adequate leading to a financial crisis as early as 2014, is the question posed by Zhang and Chen. They cite the rise of housing prices by 84% from 2001 to 2006, before the financial crisis of 2008 in the U.S., using the Case-Shiller housing price index. One problem- the government statistics may have underestimated the extent of the bubble. China's official index shows housing prices rising 113% in major cities from 2004 to 2012. Zhang and Chen say this is much smaller than the actual rise because it includes older, lower quality housing property. They cite an academic paper that adjusts for this and finds prices jumping by 250% in the period 2004 to 2009. Another problem is that China's housing prices growth slows after government action but then resumes the growth, leaving the risk exposure at the high level as before. Because the local governments are tied up in the housing bubble the problem would hit the banking system. About 14.1% of the outstanding bank loans are to local government financing vehicles, and 6.2% to property developers, according to Nomura economists. The declining potential growth rate in China means there is less room for bad loans to be absorbed by hyper growth levels than in the past. Errors in policy can magnify the risk including loosening monetary policy and exacerbating the bubble at the wrong time. In the absence of errors the risks still remain requiring the sale of public assets to bail out local governments and banks. The argument made by Krugman and other economists has been that China is not immune to the risks of a housing bubble going bad, in any way less than Sweden, the U.S., Spain and other countries, requiring bailouts of banks....
The Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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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.

New York Times Original article ›
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Andrew Jacobs provides this exceptional accoount of disillusionment of ordinary people in Brazil with the corruption scandals, deep recession, and the drop in president Rousseff's popularity from 50 percent in 2014 to 16 percent in April 2016.
NYTimes.com Original article ›
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China's BYD started in electric batteries and expanded into electric cars. It has emerged as the dominant electric car company in the world as China now has half of the electric cars on the road in the world. 35% of exports of electric cars are from China. Keith Bradsher of NYT reports from Shenzen that its first car was made in 2007 of poor quality, similar to Toyota in the 1930's as it tried car manufacturing for the first time. It has surpassed Tesla in making electric cars. In each of the last 2 years it has increased electric car sales by one million to reach electric car sales on 3 million. EV sales in China were up in 2023 to 9.49 million cars giving BYD the largest share of 31%., by comparison US electric car sales were 1.2 million. New assembly lines are being built in Brazil, Hungary and Thailand. And new lines are planned for Mexico and Indonesia. This kind of growth was seen only by General Motors in 1946 after the end of the war. It also shows the progress China is making. In solar panels something like the addition of 900 million solar panels meeting the entire increase in electricity demand for each year, so that emissions targets can be met earlier than planned to tackle climate change.  The same changes are happening in electric cars. China now has 40% of electric cars or gasoline/electric plug in cars going up to 50%. For export China is building large carrier ships, the first that will take 5000 cars for export to the Netherlands. The lowest priced electric car model the Seagull was priced at $11,000. BYD's lowering of manufacturing costs have given it the ability to price the cars to attract new car buyers.  Wang Chuanfu who studied at Central Southern University in Changsha known for its battery research, was an engineer who started the company in the 1990's to make batteris for Motorola. Between 2003-2006 he experimented with making cars in the hope of making electric cars. Stalled efforts in 2009 and 2011 were met with arenewed effort in 2016 trying a new approach to cut costs by developing a battery where supplies of lithium or cobalt would not be a constraint. He developed a new battery using iron and phospate to replace lithium cobalt batteries. A big break came in 2020 with the Blade battery that increased range to the level of cobalt lithium batteries at a much smaller cost. BYD hired German Audi designers for new model design. This time BYD was in the right position to build a car company matching all others with costs lower by about 35% than VW for some models. This comes from- lower costs to make in China, making its own parts inside the company for 75% of parts compared to VW only about 35%, and by the savings from its battery research.  BYD has shown ability to shift with market needs and opportunities. In 2022 assisted driving was facing hurdles, BYD had second thoughts about the new technology, by 2023 as it was increasing in use BYD committed $14 billion in autonomous driving technology. Driving range is a problem for people in urban areas going back to their villages in China. BYD has an advantage here compared to Tesla- it makes hybrid plug ins that account for half its sales. Toyota has also had emphasis on hybrid plug ins where it missed the opportunity was that it moved very slowly on all electric cars not realizing how fast things were moving outside it's world. This is the situation America also faces in 2024 and beyond who can deliver on the infrastructure capabilities, new research ,and tap American potential to compete in this new world where one innovation will follow another. ...
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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The fiscal 2016 U.S. budget of president Obama proposes government spending at 7% or $74 billion above the caps set in a bipartisan deficit reduction deal reached in 2011. It proposes $561 billion in defense spending with an increase of $38 billion, and $530 billion in non defense spending with an increase of $37 billion. Across the board cuts known as the sequester were set in 2013 following a 2011 bipartisan budget deal plan to take $2 trillion out of the federal budget deficit over 10 years. Spending caps were set at the time and a supercommitte was setup to look for ways to trim $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. With the failure of the supercommittee the sequester went into effect until Sen. Murray (Democrat) and Sen Paul Ryan (Republican ) agreed to ease cuts through fiscal year 2015 ending in September. The Democratic president's effort is to remove the caps in 2016 to invest more in infrastructure, medical research, other strategic priorities and defense.
The Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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$2000 rebate to all Americans to help meet cost of living concerns is put forward by the US president. This would put the tariffs revenue to good use to achieve the goal of bringing back manufacturing and supply chains to the US using tariff policy. This is to counter other nations use of subsidies and other ways to put American manufacturers out of business in industry after industry for 30 years by pricing way below US producers. The rebate would offset the domestic effects on US consumers of products imported with tariffs, which are priced somewhat  higher because of the tariff even though most of the tariff is borne by exporters. The end result is the goal of bringing the product manufacturing for these products back to America, where manufacturing was shipped overseas through the shortsighted behavior of American producers since 1990, mostly to China. The WSJ takes no responsibility for this behavior of American corporations, and does not see this complete dependence of the US on overseas supply chains as a threat to America being able to conduct and independent policy for the Nation based on its own interests. For 30 years the WSJ and American economics profession has adopted the view that it does not matter if product after product is made in another country, or in only one other country as is the case with China as the sole manufacturing superpower in 2025. Who made China the manufacturing super power? Who ignored warnings of concentration of manufacturing in one place? It is these same economists and media such as the WSJ that have through their willingness to ignore these concerns even when it comes to advanced technologies that has made China the superpower in manufacturing it is in 2025. DJT and most of America is fighting a battle to bring these supply chains back to America knowing this is best for America and the American people. It is owing to this new spirit that once mighty industrial towns that had fallen to new lows are making a resurgence in the US- an example is in today's Washington Post report by Irina Ivanova with the title- An Old Manufacturing City sputters back to life, Nov. 11 2025. ...
dw.com Original article ›
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Germans are afraid to move in public spaces after dark, especially young women. DW.com confirms this in its investigation in September 2025. It includes discussion with criminologist Susanne Karstedt that is cited here. The area around the main Frankfurt train station is a site for prostitution says this report, and this attracts crime and drug crime. This was unknown during our previous visits to Frankfurt over 15 years ago and is a result of changes in the Merkel years when infrastructure was neglected allowed to deteriorate ,and migrant populations were allowed into the country. It is astonishing for a visitor to see the Frankfurt station in such a dilapidated state as it is the commercial and banking city of Europe and Germany, where the European Central Bank is located. Chancellor Merz says Germans are "afraid to move around in public spaces due to migrants who do not have permanent residence status, do not work, and do not abide by our rules." A recent poll shows only one third of the poll participants think the chancellor is incorrect. Many people want to avoid the label of racism when asked about it,  but still know that public safety is clearly not what it was in the past in the 1980's and 1990's. The chancellor is only stating what he sees- "I don't know whether you have children. If you do, and there are daughters among them, ask your daughters what I might have meant. I suspect you'll get a pretty clear and unambiguous answer. There's nothing I need to retract." "There are a lot of people who say, see, and judge it this way. Once again: Ask your children, ask your daughters, ask your friends and relatives. They will all confirm that this is a problem — once it gets dark, if not before." For a visitor to Frankfurt this is clear to see as plain as daylight and reflects the decline of the Schroeder-Merkel years  similar to the decline in the US over the last two decades under Clinton-Bush and Obama. To see this in Frankfurt and other German cities near urban hubs and train stations is astonishing, sad and very disconcerting. ...
WSJ Original article ›
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April 2025 WSJ forecast of recession in next 12 months is 45%. In 2022 and 2023 forecasts for recession in US were at 60% higher than the 2025 forecast of 45%, yet no recession happened.  It all depends on the USTR's Jamieson, and DJT's advisers Bessent, Luttnick, and Navarro, and Lighthizer, DJT using all their experience and carefully using Tariffs to achieve US goals. This means working out the details of the US economy, of inflation, GDP growth, cost of living, to maintain confidence of people in America, the confidence of the working people in America. Action on pharmaceuticals bringing production back home is a win as here it is a clear way to get companies to reduce prices. Permitting imports removing backward looking laws restricting pharmaceutical imports would create the competition that was missing. US automobile companies knowing the government has their back can actually cut prices in the first 12 months of 2025, with Toyota and Hyundai-Kia following suit. This would remove another source of inflation. On iphones and computers getting companies to create a new US+1 with India by 2027 would enable 60% of iphones and computers to be made in India and the US by 2027, The new strategy would be to combine the industrial base of India with the US to create plenty of good US jobs as the priority. Piece by piece the puzzle can be put together with attention to details and keeping overall goals in mind to restore US manufacturing and US industrial base, jobs, that will create its own tailwinds for decades of future growth.   ...

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