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There is something about John F. Kennedy that makes his 1000 days simply the blueprint for America's first 100 years since his presidency in 1960- in space and by extension in climate change, in civil rights, in diversity that spans the whole world of Asia-Africa-Latin America, in the struggle for global literacy and education.

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US $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027 fiscal year by the president for military and defense spending is about 4.7% of US GDP forecast of $31.8 trillion in 2026. In 1960 it was 9% following the Korean War. It dropped to 3.1% of GDP by 2000 and stayed around 3.4% till the current effort to modernization of the US military is thought to require about 5% of GDP.  (World Bank charts). The US spent far higher during an earlier period reaching 14% of GDP in 1953 during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. This report shows WSJ Analysis of where the $1.5 trillion request for Defense is going-  $1.1 trillion for War Department and $350 billion for critical munitions. The munitions are in short supply and war in Iran shows that it plays a critical part in defensive systems such as intercepting of missiles as missiles in short supply affect overall capabilities. An additional $200 billion for Iran War. Pay raises for Defense personnel. $66 billion for shipbuilding- 34 ships to put the US back in the lead for shipbuilding it has lost to China, with the help of Japan which is also ramping up the shipbuilding it has lost to China. US and Japan were leading shipbuilders in the  1930's and in the 1960's, then lost it to South Korea and China. About a 12% decrease in other Department's budgets including Health and Human Services, Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Housing and Agriculture.  These cost reductions some of it coming from more efficient functioning and from concepts such as zero based budgeting where every line item in the budget gets reviewed every year for how much is needed for the purpose, is the purpose still valid, and can it be done more efficiently costing less. $660 billion is coming from the savings. The Nation's capital will also get a facelift, a major renovation, after being ignored for years. In the new Budget is $10 billion for the Presidential Capital Stewardship Program within the National Park Service for beautification projects in Washington D.C., which will give the National Capital a much needed new look for millions of visitors from the 51 states in the Union.    ...

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The British government called for 250,000 volunteers to help the National Health Service in its programs for older people. Instead it got 750,000 volunteers, in an overwhelming response. Hundreds of community based groups have also sprung up across Britain, with additional tens of thousands of volunteers seeking to help, says this report in NYT by Mark Landler. It is a massive and spirited display of national solidarity at a time of national crisis. As Queen Elizabeth II said in her television address: "Our pride in who we are is not in the past, it defines both our present and our future."

It also shows how in an affluent society one can now see the people who really matter when it comes down to this, the everyday effort to get through a day or a week at a time, says Landler. Everyone from garbage collection, grocery clerks, delivery service, and pharmacy workers, get us through each day, each week.

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How layoffs and cuts at National park Service are affecting millions of travelers and come at a bad time. The US National Parks were already suffering from lack of maintenance and repairs. This situation means the DJT administration is taking a hammer where a scalpel would be more appropriate. Millions of travelers this summer will feel the increasing neglect of the parks and lack of personnel. 

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Boris Johnson wins an 80 seat majority for the Conservatives in parliament in the 2019 election. He gets a mandate for a quick exit from the European Union by the end of January 2020, and billions of dollars in public spending on infrastructure, the NHS, and public services. He gets an unexpected 364 seats in parliament after winning the support of working class voters hurt by the financial crisis and by industrial decline. Working class voters in the north of England and the Midlands decided to trust Mr. Johnson. The Labour party won 203 seats, its lowest total since 1935.  The British pound surged to its highest level since May 2018, and domestic stocks surged with their best day since 2010. Part of the optimism stems from the size of the win that gives Johnson more flexibility at home and more leverage with the European Union to negotiate Brexit that works best for Britain. Working class areas that suffered for decades with loss of heavy industry, decaying infrastructure and poorer public services put their trust in Johnson's pledge to spend more to revive these areas. Johnson called his government "The People's Government" in his victory speech and promised to spend $131 billion on infrastructure, the National Health Service, schools, and public services. Johnson said in the speech that working class families may- "only have lent us your vote. I am humbled that you have put your trust in me, and that you have put your trust in us. And I and we will never take your support for granted." The other big event in this election is the election win in Scotland of the Scottish National party winning 80% of the seats and seeking a referendum on independence. Mr. Johnson has stated that he clearly opposes this. In Northern Ireland a majority of legislators were elected who favor unity with Ireland. This sets up a constitutional struggle that Mr. Johnson faces in his first elected term in office.   ...

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Now that finance ministries around the world are trying to save their economies with trillions of dollars in aid packages their finances are stretched to the limit. The so called digital tax is not really a digital tax. And efforts to recover lost tax revenues in Europe are being opposed by the U.S. because tax levies by France go only to France, not the U.S. The U.S. Treasury or U.S. government or the American people would not turn down tax revenues that it normally gets when its finances are stretched to the limit with trillions of dollars for cornavirus leaving little for crumbling infrastructure and essential public health services, other services that determine quality of life in America.  This Washington Post report shows that there is greater awareness that the right approach is to pay taxes based on where revenues are located and by the number of users in each country. But the problem goes deeper than that. The coronavirus changes the entire perspective and take this back to roots. Companies pay taxes because it is the right thing to do. In Japan Panasonic's founder Matsushita felt that it was a national duty to pay its share of taxes as it too was sharing in the benefits provided by society- in the health, sanitation, education and transportation, parks, and hundreds of services provided by government. Once this is seen as dispensable or somebody else's problem, then these very services and infrastructure can be starved of capital. Coronavirus changes this perspective. People crave for outdoor spaces- who is going to maintain them and set up new spaces. People crave for not moving around on crumbling bridges, roads, subway systems. Who is going to provide them? People crave for good schools, community colleges. Who is going to provide them? People crave for good sanitation systems? Who is going to provide them? People crave for good public health systems. Who is going to provide them? Its just good common sense. Is it possible for common sense to be missing? It is- just ask people today, and it is good common sense to have good critical infrastructure such as sanitation, medicine, public health, and local manufacturing of medicine, yet economic experts and economic theories thought it made sense not to do this.  ...

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What were the stories in the Economist magazine that were the most read stories of 2019? Not on president Trump. On Malaysia, China under Jinping, and exodus from San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The most read article was on the newly elected president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. The mismanagement of the economy particularly extravagant state spending on the Olympics and soccer stadiums for the World Cup at the expense of basic sanitation services, bus and transport services, health services, led to the result of a majority of Brazilians rejecting the Workers Party and its leader former president Lula. Unfortunately most of the media including the Economist did not draw attention to this gap. During a period in which income from mining with export of iron ore, and soyabeans to China, enabled Brazil to live beyond its means, there was no effort to draw attention to glaring gaps in development of public services such as sanitation, bus services and transport, lack of building infrastructure other than to support mining. Glaring gaps in education and health services made the situation worse. The second most read piece in the Economist  was on March 10th- Malaysia's PM is about to steal an election. Here the Economist magazine joined the Wall Street Journal which originally broke the story on the 1MDB fund and irregularities in Malaysia where a development fund was misused by the government. Najib actually lost that election and the WSJ covered the story of the developments that followed in which Malaysia's new governemnt led by a returning former prime minister in his nineties Mahathir Mohammed, ousted his own protege Mr. Najib.  The third most read piece in the Economist magazine was - How the West got China Wrong.  Unfortunately the Economist magazine and most of the media covered China in the two decade long boom years without covering the other emerging story as well in which Mr. Lighthizer (now president Trump's top trade adviser) and others questioned the huge unsustainable trade surpluses in U.S. trade with China. With the economy facing huge downside risks and rising trade tensions with the U.S. Chinese president Jinping's move to remove the limit on terms in office in the Constitution was considered a shift from the notion that China was likely to turn into a democracy. Mr. Jinping had already completed his first term in office and the anti-corruption campaign, managing the economic boom for a soft landing, was carried out with the central leadership of the party, after the destabilization evident in the early part of Xi Jinping's first term. Much of China's path was predictable and rational behaviour in its national interest, what was not clearly defined or defended was the way the U.S. could sustain the trade deficits that had reached a billion dollars a day. Leading to Mr. Trump seizing on this as an election issue to form a bloc of voters separate from the two main parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. The fifth most read piece was on Oct 11, 2018- the next recession. It pointed out that with low interest rates central banks in the U.S. and Europe and America could not cope effectively with a recession. The sixth most read piece was on June 29, 2018- Bullshit jobs and the yoke of managerial feudalism. It cited Prof. David Graeber of the London School of Economics, who wrote a short essay that went viral on the prevalence of work that had no social or economic reason to exist, work he called "bullshit jobs". Graeber said people want to feel they are transforming the world around them in a way that is leading to a positive difference. No. 7, 8, 9, were on Bitcoin, Netflix and programming language Python. No. 10 most read was on Aug. 30, 2018- Why startups are leaving Silicon Valley. It showed that in 2017 more people left the county of San Francisco than entered. The main reason the cost of living was burdensome and out of control. As Amazon shifts attention to India and Brazil, and Apple pulls back from India, social media companies coming under fire for disinformation, this period of Tech is making way for a shift in a new direction. A direction that focuses on people's lives, wages, spending on much needed infrastructure and services. ...

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U.S. president Obama's chief of staff and former deputy national security advisor, Denis McDonough, meets with Peter Altmaier, Chancellor Merkel's chief of staff, and Gunter Heiss, head of Directorate-General 6 of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service in July 2014. The meeting was part of an effort to improve U.S.-German relations following the problems created by NSA spying in Germany. This meeting took place following the shooting of a Malaysian airline flight over Ukraine and the call for stronger western sanctions on Russia. U.S. president Obama sought to convey to Merkel the importance he placed on German-U.S. relations after Obama failed to make a serious effort to soothe tensions with Germany over spying revelations.

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T.S.R.Subramanium, India's most senior civil servant and his thoughts about Indian development, the civil service politicians and the judiciary, expressed in abook titled GovernMint in India. He was Cabinet Secretary under three prime ministers. He is interviewed here by the WSJ New Delhi Bureau chief, Paul Beckett. He talks about the timidity of the civil service in the face of political ineptitude and the political class using government to benefit themselves without the checks on them. He says the politicians have come to dominate the civil service , have no checks on what theydo, and are twisting the civil service for their own gain. He knows of three cabinet level ministers in the last government that made money from their positions, with nothing done about them. Proble here could be that the framers of the constitution had some tough problems to deal with. If they made the civil service all powerful, could it turn out that the civil service like in Japan would not bend to the wishes of the people? And if they made the civil service subject to the wishes of the people the politicians could use it for their own narrow purposes and affect the task of delivering essential services and progress to the people. They chose the latter. Its true that the British civil service was disciplined and honest but they did not have to respond to the wishes of the people. The only safety valve left by the framers was in the electoral process and the wisdom of the people in throwing out politicians who did not deliver. The problem of dignity and national purpose in politics had to be left to the people themselves, their leaders and the thinking public in the society. He sees the judiciary as having failed too, in controlling the politicians. And he sees part of the problem in that the judiciary stems from the same English educated class as the bureaucrats. Says T.S. R. Subramanium, the political class is the only one that is not constrained by checks and balances, follws no effective code of conduct, and considers itself king. Subramanium's solution of a messiah type figure, is quickly disapproved of by all his colleagues, and he takes pains to clarify that what he means is someone who can get the public backing to cleanse it. ...

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Who will take up the difficult work in American childcare centers at $10-$15 per hour when retailers such as Amazon and Target are paying $20-$25 an hour during labor shortages in the US in 2021. As a result thousands of childcare centers in the US are closing and others are operating at a fourth or fifth part of their capacity. The result- less childcare and fewer women able to return to the workforce. Fewer men who can go back to work if caring for a child. This leads to further labor shortages. For a long time retailers like Amazon and Target were faulted for paying wages that made it difficult for workers to support their families. With the increase in inflation of about 5% in 2020-2021 it is even more difficult to pay for essential food and clothing. Another problem that America and Europe have lived through under different administrations in the last 2 decades is now getting even worse. Left to markets alone the whole system breaks down when one by one essential services such as healthcare, sanitation, childcare, transportation, cannot be provided. The US is facing an existential crisis not just in climate change but also in childcare, healthcare services. Both are caused by same source, a lack of emphasis on the right and essential national priorities. The causes go back to faulty capital allocation in America and Europe. $390 billion is allocated for childcare in Biden's plan in October, yet the Biden Families and Workers plan faces resistance. Gradually many of president Biden's programs for women including paid leave, child care and others are being shriveled into smaller and smaller amounts and the $3.9 trillion in spending for the workers and families plan is down now to $2 trillion.  The US and Europe face splits in society with one more urban and from the professional classes and the other more rural and in smaller urban communities and from the less educated classes each having different priorities. Only a clear resolution in the proper direction can bring relief for women, children and all segments of society, needed for a good society. ...

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Who is Caludia Sheinbaum, expected to be new president of Mexico? What would a Sheinbaum administration in Mexico look like? What would interaction with the US look like on immigration, the border and the economy? WSJ's Jose Cordoba, Santiago Perez and Steve Fisher try to answer these questions in this detailed report from Mexico City. Sheinbaum was mayor of Mexico City and was environmental chief during Lopez Obrador's term as Mayor of Mexico City. Obrador has remained popular throughout his 6 years as Mexican president with favorable ratings consistently of over 60%. Mexico limits a president to one six year term. Obrador's party Morena derives from Mexico's indigenous culture and reflects Mexico's history in the 20th century of passion for protecting its national assets including the oil industry from foreign domination or influence, and ardently seeks respect for dignity of Mexicans and Mexican culture. Under Obrador Mexico reached a level of living with organized crime gangs after decades of war against these gangs. The US needs support from Mexico for its border policies and control of border. Obrador was a son of a provincial shopkeeper and spent little time outside Mexico.  Sheinbaum sees him as her mentor after work supporting migrant welfare in California with Carlos Imaz, during a period when she finished doctoral work at UC Berkeley and Stanford. Her father was a chemical engineer and her mother a biology professor. Her grandparents were of East European Lithuanian and Bulgarian origin. Sheinbaum says she follows Obrador's principles, yet it will be Claudia that will run the government. Her policies include setting up 100 industrial parks for Mexico's development, and setting up professional police services to control crime throughout Mexico's different states. ...

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To help growth in the present situation of the pandemic the U.S. central bank is adopting a new policy of letting inflation float above 2%. Interest rates will be kept low for a longer period to support jobs and growth. Jerome Powell the head of the Federal Reserve announced the new policy.  Powell is mainly concerned about jobs. He sees a lot of difficulty in the services sector as jobs are lost. It will take time for this sector to recover. This is "a strategy where undershoots are not forgotten" Powell told the Jackson Hole gathering, meaning that the Fed in contrast to current policy will adopt a strategy of staying with a goal of full employment till the people who are lagging behind in regaining employment are back on the boat with the rest. In the past these people were left to fend for themselves, even when the loss of work was due to no fault of their own- crises from banks overlending and losing money as in 2009, or today because of a virus from Wuhan.  This is the part of economic policy that resonates in the country today and it shows that the Fed is on board in the effort to revive the American economy putting the people first as in the early years after the second world war when national unity prevailed under both Truman and Eisenhower. Powell uses both economic jargon about "a long tail" and common sense language in a way few central bank presidents have in America. He says the Fed is looking at "a long tail of a couple of years at least" during which he says the Fed will "stay with these people, the millions of people still looking for work." No mathematical formulas will be used. Just plain common sense and putting the people of America first, which is just what is needed. Mathematical economics have taken America nowhere. ...

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Strong criticism from Attorney General Luisa Ortega, and dissension inside the government, led to the Supreme Court retracting parts of its decision to nullify the powers of the legislature. Ortega called the move "a rupture of the constitutional order." Most of the judges are appointed on the court by the Maduro government. Strong criticism by the OAS calling it a "self inflicted coup", by other governments in Latin America, also led to retracting parts of the decision by the Supreme Court. Nicholas Maduro succeeded Mr. Chavez who was the democratically elected president of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013. Maduro narrowly won the election in 2013 by a margin of about 1.5% over Henrique Capriles. In 2015 in National Assembly elections the opposition parties won a majority in the National Assembly. Protests against the Maduro government were followed by a recall attempt in 2016 which was suppressed. Inflation and economic conditions in Venezuela worsened under Maduro with the collapse of oil prices. The devaluation of the currency, high inflation and shortages of basic goods have led to widespread protests. As the situation worsened the Supreme Court in support of the government gradually chipped away at the powers of the National Assembly since 2016, leading to the situation in April 2016 with  the effort to strip the Assembly of all powers and remove the immunity from prosecution of legislators. Maduro is a former bus driver for the city of Caracas bus system, and a trade unionist. He was part of the movement supporting Chavez release after a coup attempt, foreign minister 2006-2013, and appointed Chavez successor in 2012.  Max Fisher and Amanda Taub of the NYT go on to discuss the writings of political scientists, including Dutch expert Cas Mudde, who pointed out that populism often starts its climb because established institutions and elites have become unresponsive to pubic needs. Yet the replacement is with what starts out as an effort to bring fairness- yet ends up creating another elite, suppressing opposition, and creating a new set of problems, even threatening the institutional framework of democracy such as elected assembly as happened last week in Venezuela.  In Venezuela the Chavez populist movement was initially intended to reduce corruption in the court system, the established parties control over media, and ensure oil revenues were used to provide services to poor regions and neighborhoods.  In the process over two decades it introduced a system that set up a Bolivarist class of its own based on socialist goals, failed to integrate the economy into the global economy for modernization, and created an overdependence on oil revenues that hurt the country when prices dropped sharply. High inflation, corruption, shortages of basic goods, and an economy slipping behind neighboring countries in Latin America, are the result by 2017. Seeing the situation in Venezuela in the context of current populist trends in the U.S. and Europe may be a stretch because the situation in Venezuela is unique to Latin America in some ways and is from an earlier period. High inflation, collapsing economy, debt problems and mismanagement of the economy, devaluation of currency, are problems faced by Brazil, Argentina, and other countries in Latin America, happening under conservative as well as populist governments since the 1960's. It is different in two respects, the disconnect with the global economy that prevents modernization, and the trend towards authoritarianism, as seen in Venezuela.     ...

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People in Japan are living longer healthier lives. So much so that people are working well into their 70's. In Nagano, Japan, people say that those in their 40's and 50's are like a child with a runny nose, and people in their 60's and 70's are in the prime of their careers. In this WSJ report, 38 years old Norohiro Aizawa is a part time farmer, who says he plans to work into his 70's like many farmers in Japan. Today his father in his early 70's is active and in charge. Sachiko Kobayashi runs a crafts business, has a job making box lunches, and a garden full of pumpkins and radishes. She is 65 and gets up at 3 am. In Nagano she is called by the term pre-elderly, not elderly. For elderly she has a long way to go. Japan has 29% of the population in under over 65 years group, Europe 21% and US 17%. Yet something else is happening. People are just taking better care of themselves and their health, and living, working longer. A 70 year old today in Nagano is in health status like a 60 year old one or two generations ago. Perceptions of what is elderly have changed.    Japan's White Paper on the Elderly in 2021 shows studies suggesting that many in the 65-74 year group do not share traits associated with the term elderly.  Only 6% require care by others. Half of 65-69 year olds hold jobs, and a third of those in their early 70's also hold jobs. Life expectancy in Japan stretches into the late 80's for women, and early 80's for men. This is almost 5-8 years more than countries like the UK with a strong national health service. In April 2021 a revised Employment Law took effect, telling big employers to offer work to workers until age 70, up from previously government sanctioned retirement age of 65 years. Government says it is meant to protect the right of people to work longer. There is even a term called late-elderly.  Oshima 82 of Nagano, leads a volunteer group that shoots video of community festivals and works late into the night, and is cited in this WSJ story as saying that even if people called him late elderly, his response is oh yeah? I don't care. It is all about living a full life, terms don't matter at all when one stays healthy.   ...

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Progressive caucus in the US House of Representatives led by Pramila Jaypal, a first time Indian American Congresswoman defeats an attempt by Josh Gottheimer of the Problem Solvers caucus to separate much of the president Biden's agenda in health, education and social policy and risk it being defeated by Senators Manchin and Sinema in the US Senate. Without the efforts on child care, education and health, climate change and social services part of the Biden Workers and Families Plan much of the Biden agenda would remain unfinished and Democratic party promises not kept. This also means that Manchin a Senator from West Virginia with a population of 1.8 million and Arizona with a population of 7.2 million, both conservative leaning Democrats could sink the entire agenda of president Biden to support American families and workers for a population of 331 million people. That two states with a population of less than 3% of the American population could sink the entire agenda of president Biden shows how fragile a situation has been created within the Democratic party to support workers and families even during the pandemic following the leadership of Carter, Clinton, and Obama Ms. Jaypal, a three term Congresswoman from Seattle, Washington state, was first elected in 2016 with an endorsement from Bernie Sanders who was the Democratic Party's leading candidate for president till the late stages of the 2020 US presidential primaries. Bernie Sanders says of Jaypal- "I think she is doing an extraordinary job. And I think the Progressive Caucus is doing an extraordinary job." Sanders founded the Progressive caucus after getting elected to the Senate from Vermont 30 years ago. Even though it is hard to imagine the Democratic party being the Democratic party without bold policies in climate change, affordable housing, reducing income disparities,  investing big in childcare, education and healthcare, attempts were being made to sink the entire Democratic party and national agenda going back to Franklin Roosevelt. Jaypal is described in the WSJ as diplomatic and firm, saying "I am so proud of our caucus; I have never seen our caucus so strong. And I am a very good vote counter also." Fifty members of the 100 member Progressive Caucus held firm in support of president Biden's original agenda without which the president would have little to show in keeping promises he made to the American people in the election and little to differentiate him from Mr. Trump who also supported infrastructure spending. Separating the infrastructure bill would have risked sinking Mr. Biden's plan for recovery of America from the pandemic and the devastating policies pursued by American presidents in the last two decades. Policies by previous presidents that have impoverished the country, created huge income disparities, weakened America in the world in trade and technological leadership, and wasted resources in foreign wars. There are no centrists or far left- these are just labels. When Ms Japal said "Let's just remember the Speaker (Nancy Pelosi) is a great champion of this agenda. I think she was trying to do as much as she could to get this done," she could have said it is Mr. Biden's own agenda pushed forward with conviction to help workers and families during the pandemic, and build a solid American recovery, restore American leadership in the world. Pramila Japypal is the first Indian American woman in the US Congress, and one of only two dozen naturalized American citizens in the US Congress. That she could play such a critical role for good in the US Congress shows that with the right convictions, determination, experience, much can be done for the common good in America and the world.   ...

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The WSJ looks at Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All plan that marks a major shift for the U.S. economy.  Households would see their costs go down by $11 trillion, boosting their ability to spend on other goods and services. Because income and wealth was highly skewed in the past three decades in one direction, the spending capacity of lower and middle income households was pushed down. This and other similar plans would help restore a higher level of spending and with it an essential element of inflation of 2-3% to the U.S. economy which was missing in the last decade. This sets the tone for the kind of broad based recovery that happened after 1950 that strengthened America's middle class and made it the core of the economy, the core of the post World War II recovery in America and Europe. The plan would be paid for by higher taxes on corporations, tax rate of 21% for corporations going back up to 35%, and reverse depreciation schedules in the 2017 Republican tax law. The argument that this would reduce business investment does not hold that much says the WSJ because amid new trade tensions business investment has declined over the last 2 quarters, and has been sluggish overall. The other source for the estimated $13 to $20 trillion cost of Medicare for All plan of Elizabeth Warren is a 6% annual wealth tax on billionaires, in an attempt to have all pay their fair share and reduce wide disparities in wealth. Mark Zandl, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, says his sense is at the end of the day from a macroeconomic view- because $11 trillion in the hands of 80% of households who could boost spending after lagging behind in the last decade- the negative effect on business investment will be cancelled out by the higher consumer spending. The overall effect and today's context is infused in this analysis. Private insurance, premiums for insurance, and out of pocket cost that the public pays would disappear in this new system where all health payments pass through the government. Health insurance premiums paid by employers would convert into a new employer Medicare contribution to the government starting at an amount employers pay now and adjusting gradually toward national averages over time. Smallest businesses are exempted. Mr. Zandl says the most important aspect of this now is that Mrs Warren has shown that her plan's revenue sources match the cost so that the plan would not lead to deficits increasing and pushing interest rates higher, leading to negative effects on the economy. Republicans under Mr. Trump have paid little attention to expanded deficits caused by their tax law, and economists across the landscape have also shown less concern. Still attacks are made if the plans don't add up. For this reason a sound assessment in today's context of depressed consumers and an overall impact becomes essential. The WSJ quotes from a pre- assessment of Warren's plan by Simon Johnson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who co-wrote it with Mr. Zandl and Betsey Stevenson of the University of Michigan. What they point out is that putting cash in the pockets of the lower and middle class for spending makes a lot of sense today, and taking money out of the pockets at the way upper wealthy end,  does not contract the economy at all. Other effects they say are constructive by letting all workers get health coverage from the government instead of employers, this makes it easier to change jobs increasing labor mobility and productivity. A worker getting a better job and better utilization of skills could then shift without looking at the employer health care plan. Warren says there would be a five year transition so that workers in health care insurance industry can work in other insurance fields and in Medicare, no one would be left behind. The important thing being to build America's middle class again. ...

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Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama campaign together in swing states such as North Carolina. Hillary Clinton capitalizes on the surging popularity of Michelle Obama, who has a 64%  approval rating, according to Gallup, 10 points more than president Obama, and above Hillary's 43 percent. Both women show a mutual admiration and sisterhood as they campaign together with rising crowd enthusiasm. For Michelle her unprecedented effort as First Lady is a result of the dirty campaign fought by Donald Trump to turn off voters to the political process, and her effort is meant to counter this. She says about this demeaning of women, "Enough is enough." Both women are drawn together with a campaign for a woman as president. And the slogan coined by Michelle has taken off  "When they go low, we go high." It has energized the very African American and millenial voters that have played an effective role in previous Democratic campaigns.

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A professor of sociology at the University of Basel describes the growing inequality in Germany, in graphic terms. For the lower middle class the efforts to gain upward mobility are like trying to move up on a downward escalator. About one third of jobs are temp jobs which lack the protections of permanent jobs which were at one time 90% of all jobs. Her book is titled- "The Hidden Crisis; German Social Decline at the Heart of Europe." Nachtwey says on the surface Germany has become competitive and has maintained its growth rate, benefiting from the strong manufacturing sector with trade surpluses, low unemployment. Yet this conceals the underlying crisis of the cost which this has come at- a persistent erosion of the social compact of one elevator where everybody moved up together that was the norm in the early postwar period, fulltime employment, a strong welfare state. Job protections weakened, and while manufacturing sector pay remained stable or rose, less skilled and low wage workers suffered. This has also led to the fracturing in the vote with the fragmentation of political parties following the refugee crisis and the weakening of centrist parties. Voters are now open to different messages after the increase in inequality and uncertain economic future for the lower middle class. ...

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Mohamed Hanif of the BBC's Urdu Service points to the manner in which the CIA and the ISI collaborated in the two time destruction of Kabul. And he points to a Pakistani view outside of the military which is not obsessed with India and would like to get down to the basics- electricity and infrastructure, better lives, and a safer neighborhood. In this perspective the Pakistani military and the Americans both do not understand the basic needs of the large majority of Pakistanis yearning for a better life. Contrast this with the Thomas Friedman piece which complains on the other side, with a note of innocence, of becoming a sucker in this game of a two-faced Pakistani military and intelligence services using the Americans for their own game, supporting the Americans and the insurgents at the same time. Hanif almost has the last word in this, pointing to the ordinary Pakistanis who are just poor and looking in.

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The US Federal Trade Commission is changing its focus after two decades of letting monopolies grow in many industries. It is now headed by Lina Khan, a 32 year of student of anti-trust and its role in US history to preserve the negotiating power of individuals and groups with large corporations. For decades since the breakup of large companies including oil and energy by Theodore Roosevelt at the start of the 20th century, anti-trust has followed a clear road that said large companies could not monopolize business in industries. This only changed with Reagan in the 1970's leading to the situation today where large corporations are seen as insensitive to what the public wants and what is good for the country. Apple can do most of its manufacturing overseas when communities in America have lost factory jobs for 20 years. IT companies can pay little in taxes by offshoring manufacturing and headquarters to places outside the US. The models simply don't work because they are outdated from a different time. Not just pricing but negotiating power has to be considered. Taxes to fund infrastructure are part of the overall goal that society needs to pursue. In this situation anti-trust is to be redefined in a much broader context. Does it regulate the structures of business in a way that does not affect the national interest to be competitive in technology, independent in supply channels, to keep manufacturing jobs, build infrastructure, improve public services. Antitrust, taxation, administration, all have to work together to achieve an overall goal of improving the living conditions of the people. ...

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Sara Ehrman describes the time when Hillary Clinton worked in Washington D.C. as a 26 year old lawyer working on the Watergate committee, and Bill Clinton was teaching law in Arkansas. In August 1974 Hillary was living for about 1 year with Mrs. Ehrman, a friend who was a congressional aide at the time. She is 97 today, and recalls that time when she tried to discourage Hillary from going to Arkansas to join her boyfriend. Ehrman felt not much would come out of Bill Clinton, though she thought him to be handsome, and later worked in his presidential campaign and Hillary's presidential campaign. Ehrman was 55 then, and describes Hillary Clinton as a bit sloppy in her habits, such as not making her bed and having a lot of stuff strewn about her room, but really intelligent and very hardworking. At the time both lived together. Ehrman describes a daily routine of seeing Hillary go to work with coffee in the morning and come back exhausted late at night, having yogurt and going to bed, day after day.  The two met for the first time in 1972 when Ehrman was co-director of issues and research in the McGovern campaign in Texas, and Hillary was helping with voter registration. This report describes in detail the road trip to Arkansas that the two made together, when Mrs. Ehrman drove Hillary to Arkansas in her old Buick. They stopped at small towns  in the 1200 mile journey, and this journey ends with Mrs Ehrman crying that she could not get Hillary to change her mind about Bill Clinton and Arkansas. About what she thought was a bright woman throwing her life away in the deep South of the seventies. Hillary she remembers insisted she loved Bill Clinton, and having passed the Arkansas Bar exam had firmly decided on settling in Arkansas. ...

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This WSJ editorial calls the ISI and Pakistan army's playing both sides of the game- acting as an ally of the U.S. and supporting the Taliban- unacceptable. The editorial points to the Taliban and its leader Mullah Omar running the operations out of Quetta, in Baluchistan. And the Taliban faction loyal to Jalaluddin Haqqani having sanctuaries in North Waziristan and the tribal regions of Pakistan. Al Quaeda's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, it says, could very well be in Pakistan in some compound in the manner of bin Laden.