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The media in US and in Europe presents the US and China on a confrontational course little aware that there is quietly emerging a new trend encouraged by both leaders of the two world powers. "Strategic Stability" in US -China relations instead of China seen as a rival and a threat- is now the goal of Xi Jinping of China in 2026 US-China dialogues and meetings. This was abundantly clear during the DJT visit to Beijing August 14 2026 and will continue to shape relations during Xi's visit in September. This is different from the confrontational attitude taken by both DJT in the first administration and Biden in his four years in office. The result is that these tensions are being gradually brought down which started in 2014, were exacerbated by Covid pandemic in 2019, and were put to the test in 2025 with tariffs policies of the incoming DJT administration. A decade of mistrust now being replaced by  buildup of cooperation, establishing a sense of trust and friendship. Partly out of necessity and partly from choice.This was not secured by giving up on issues the US or China saw as important. US did not concede anything on issues of fentanyl entering the US from Mexico, and tariffs for reducing trade deficits. Similarly China did not concede much on issues it saw as important, mutual respect for China as a significant power, and seeing China's different system of government and industrialization as legitimate and worthy of respect. On Hong Kong and on Taiwan both sides decided to see ambiguity and live and let live as the best option. So that in 2026 nothing, not the Iran War or anything that happens in the Middle East is to be allowed to deter both sides from making the educated good and decent choices that are available to them based on attitude of mutual respect.  ...

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Where do you place a winner of the Democratic primary in Maine, Graham Plattner, an oyster farmer who dropped out of college at George Washington University, served briefly in the Middle East wars of Bush and Obama, and had PTSD. Is he working class, middle working class or is he from a downwardly mobile professional class considering he has parents who are well educated and father a prominent lawyer in Maine? Plattner easily defeated a 3 term governor of Maine with his average working class demeanor and language. He is for universal health care, (Medicare for All) universal child care, affordable housing, affordable college. Politics in the US has been moving away from the simple divisions before 1950 created by the Industrial Revolution- the workers in factories and the owners of capital allied with the professional middle class. The few owners of capital mostly college educated allied with people from the non college educated workers in factories who are conservative in their values and beliefs and on the other side the college educated professional middle class now downwardly mobile because of the many recessions and high unemployment from frequent financial crises, with college costing $80,000 a year putting them in deep debt. There is today in the WSJ a story of a professional worker who at $194,000 a year salary is not able to payoff $15000 debt which owners of capital have set at 26% interest and is in downward spiral. Some of this comes from large college and other debt. There is says WSJ Analysis $1.25 trillion in credit card debt alone with highest delinquency rates in decades in 2026. Cost of living has only made things worse and some of this happened as Biden poured money into the economy to help people hurt by the pandemic, yet with some short run consequences with demand strong businesses including hotels, restaurants and grocery stores, auto dealers, jacking up their prices by over 20% in 1 year and Biden failing to respond, getting overwhelmed by open borders migrants under Mayorkas and Harris (also hit by a sudden Venezuelan migrant influx). This is the America one has today- a confusing mix. This in reality means Democrats may take issue with Democrats, Republicans take issue with Republicans, and Democrats join with Republicans on issue by issue basis. It might actually be rational than irrational. On cultural issues if the country has gone over its head and moved too fast on some issues that are not for the general public good, people of different backgrounds can come together to get the best path. On economic issues things are never so straightforward, there are unpredictable consequences and the rules of economics are really not so straightforward either.  Providing relief can mean the government shouldering the burden as during the pandemic which it should, yet with caution as businesses can use the excess demand to raise prices and one is back to square one with everybody worse off as happened with Biden. Migrant flows and fears of insecurity in public spaces can lead to a severe public "discomfort that can waylay the best intentions of a Harris or Biden, leading to public "backlash." In fact the title of a recent book is "Whiplash." Current books include Floridan Marco Rubio's "Decade's of Decadence- How our Spoiled Elites Blew America's Inheritance of Liberty, Security and Prosperity." Rubio means it. Its authentic because as Rubio says repeatedly, his parents could make a living in the 1960's working in a factory with decent wages, low cost of living and low cost of college, the arithmetic between salaries and what you needed for decent home in suburbs and sending children to good public schools, then to college, all adding up. The result is that Rubio could go to college and serve in the Florida legislature. Rubio says in 2026, after the elites under Bush and Obama and faulty economic theory shipped all of our factories to China, that the story of his parents and his education would simply be impossible. This is what he told people in India on his first visit last week. His parents were Cuban immigrants, yet he identifies with Spain and with western civilization, a devout Roman Catholic. Rubio is a Republican, and is in large contrast with Alejandro Mayorkas, also from Cuba, and Biden's Head of Homeland Security. This is the mix of people and representatives in Congress,  business people, small business owners, professionals, that we have today in 2026 in the US. Plattner and Rubio, one a Democrat and one a Republican- both have something in common. Plattner also has general disdain for "the corporate interests, the billionaires, the Washington DC elites, and the establishment politicians."  The winds are blowing in the direction of getting things right- remembering that Eisenhower continued the work of the Kennedy and LBJ administrations (Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System for instance, and LBJ gave America Social Security and Medicare). Before that Franklin Roosevelt a Democrat built on the work of his uncle Republican Theodore Roosevelt (TR gave America the idea of good governance and built the US Navy, FDR fought the Depression and stabilized a faltering economy after mistakes made by Republican Herbert Hoover could have happened even if Hoover was a Democrat. FDR was himself from a wealthy New York family and when he first met fellow New Yorker Frances Perkins before his struggle with polio, a haughty New York gentleman. That was before Frances Perkins as FDR's Labor Secretary joined forces with Roosevelt to give New York a modernized administration governance structure by 1940 that was applied to all 51 states after 1950. It allied labor with capital with fairness for all, and was the first such modern structure of this size the world had ever seen, which was the fundamental strength of the United States of America. It was imitated in Asia, first in the Shanghai region then China, and first in the Ahmedabad region and now India. The US is faced with the challenge of recreating and rebuilding this today, as first China, then India remind America of its roots which they have followed in their own style and culture.  First good governance, then good institutional structures, alligning labor and capital with fairness for all, strong affordable + accessible educational and healthcare systems, and investments of capital and labor for infrastructure + industrial development. ...

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Modi speech for the ages to the people of Barrackpore, West Bengal, April 27 2026 surpasses any but the best of Gandhi's speeches for a century since the 1930's. "Shakti ki Bhakti" pilgrimage for the ages for the women and children and families of Bengal and India. A plea for freedom of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa as a north star for India, in the task of urbanization, modernization industrialization, and scientific revolution of India. "Purvi Bharat ka bahvisya sudhar kanrna chunav hai." This northeast that is key to the future of India's 1.4 billion people in this election in West Bengal of May 4, 2026 after 5 decades of failed governance, of failed industrialization and failed modernization in a region of 300 million people, half the size of the European Union. Impatience in Modi's voice with the pace of change that has failed the aspirations of a young generation of India.  This has left the northeast region as a backward agrarian economy. Change in federal  overnment for rapid modernization in India came in 2014 with Modi government. It was stalled for a few years by the Covid pandemic. The effort for modernization of the Indian economy after 5 decades of failed good governance is thus in its first decade and in that decade impeded by the state governments of Maharastra and Rajasthan in the western region that also includes Gujarat. In the northeast failed governance continued in West Bengal , Bihar and Orissa. In Delhi and the Punjab a similar situation. It is only now that Maharashtra and Rajasthan are aligned with federal government in industry and modernization goals. And it is only now that Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal are aligning themselves at the state level with the federal goals for modernization and rapid urbanization plus industrialization. In the south Tamilnadu (Madras region) and Kerala (Kochi), and Karnataka (Bangalore region) are also lacking in aligning with the efforts at the federal level. As a result the changes that are happening have the potential to bring a new wave of industrialization and modernization in the north, northeast and western regions of India with the federal government and the state governments in alignment on industrialization and modernization. This could bring to the world economy a development similar to China's second decade of development from 2000 to 2010 when a new surge happened in China's modernization. India's modernization will happen with the reindustrialization in the US and the European Union  and will set the pace for the world economy in the decades to come. ...

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US president Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan is being compared to the New Deal infrastructure plans of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930's. FDR was preceded by Republican administrations under Hoover and other presidents who followed policies that can be compared to the Reagan administration policies when public sector spending was not seen to be as efficient as private sector spending. By the time of the economic collapse in the 1930's it had become clear that only the federal government could save the country in the depression. During the pandemic and collapse of the health systems it was clear that only the federal government could save the country. It is now also evident that infrastructure building led by the government can rebuild America. In the 1930's and during other periods in American history such as the building of the Erie Canal and other public sector infrastructure projects in the 19th century it was the federal government that led the way to building America. ...

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With millions of Italians and people of other EU nations struggling during the pandemic, migrants continue to gather in war torn North Africa for passage across the seas to Italy. Fragile governments in Italy and other countries including the government of Mario Draghi face the prospect of tackling another migrant situation. 

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US economic growth surged at a rate of 6.5% for the April to June period in 2021. This pushes the economy beyond its pre-pandemic size. Growth was lower than the 8.4% forecast of economists, yet strong enough to increase its size to exceed the pre pandemic level. It was powered by the business reopenings, vaccination drive, and the government infusion of pandemic aid to households and business. New restrictions after this summer for coronavirus following last year's pattern with extensive summer tourism and spread of coronavirus, could again slow the economy. Government infusions of aid aided consumer spending, and this could slow in the months ahead, and lockdown restrictions could limit growth.

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Without government aid about 12 million more people would have fallen into poverty in the US during the pandemic in 2020-2021. This is evident from census figures analyzed in the WSJ and NYT. The Supplemental Poverty Measure -which takes into account a broader range of income and expenses including hundreds of billions of dollars of pandemic aid -shows that poverty actually declined, dropping by 2.9% to 9.1%, as a result of government taking action in the US under the Trump and Biden administrations. The $400 billion  dollars of stimulus checks and aid during the Trump and Biden administrations in 2021 have made a real difference in the lives of not just poor Americans but Americans in the middle class and all sections of society. Similar aid was delivered in the European Union and Britain. In India government aid was distributed by depositing money directly into hundreds of millions of bank accounts of poor and marginal income people. Aid included food aid in grains, lentils and vegetables directly provided at subsidized prices or free by the government. Right wing or left wing government designations were meaningless as governments of different persuasions acted decisively to provide direct and timely help in US, Europe, and India. ...

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The US has more e-commerce and white collar jobs now than before the pandemic. Restaurants, travel and government employment lags behind.

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The situation in Argentina in April 2021. Economic growth of 7% is expected with higher prices for soyabean exports. The financial crisis with extravagant borrowing by the Macri government led to negotiations for help from the IMF. The IMF under its new head, Georgina Kristalina Georgieva, is working with governments around the world to lessen the burden of loan payments.

This report shows that the pandemic has hit working families in Buenos Aires suburbs very hard. The Peronist administration of Mr. Alberto Fernandez is making efforts to help working class families during the pandemic.

Argentina is too dependent on agricultural exports. Diversification of the economy would add stability and protect Argentina with less fluctuation in financial reserves.

 

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Government aid in the US played a critical role in helping workers and families cope with the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Government aid played a similar role in Europe and India.

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Cygnus is the rehearsal for a full blown pandemic that the British government conducted in 2016. After preparations accelerated following the SARS crisis in 2009 and the H1N1 pandemic in 2015, the British government accelerated its preparations for H2N2 the next pandemic. The exercize took place in October 2016 for 3 days, for a worst case scenario flu pandemic affecting 50% of the population and causing 400,000 extra deaths. For 3 days people were told to imagine being in the 7th week of the pandemic, facing peaks in demand for health and hospital care. Cobra meetings were to be held. This report in the Guardian gives details on the Cygnus exercize. It showed a lack of UK readiness.  By July 2016 prime minister Cameron was replaced by Theresa May in the Conservative Party and a full blown crisis emerged for Brexit. Britain lost interest in Cygnus or the pandemic prevention effort as Brexit consumed Britain's energies. Soon it was forgotten by the time Boris Johnson became prime minister and won the Brexit election. This shows how even a sincere effort and preparation over years of planning can result in nothing. This also happened in France. See France 24's coverage of this and our groups and links on this. One insight was that while every agency acted there was no coordinated response with someone in the central authority guiding the entire effort step by step. Care homes entirely privately run were also identified as a concern and anticipated significant pressures because of staff absenteeism at these social care centres in a pandemic, as reported in the Guardian ...

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This report in the NYT looks at median household checking account balances of households in the lower classes, middle classes and upper income groups as they changed during the pandemic. The deep plunges are seen in the graph for the lower classes making below $30,000 and a jump of as much as 100% after every effort by the government to send in pandemic aid money. The income groups making over $70,000 also benefited from the government aid money by as much as 40%. Six months after the aid the household checking balances show sharp declines.

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A look at graphs showing how much and where the $1.9 trillion aid for the pandemic is going for households, businesses, local governments and programs. This package of aid is ready to pass the US Congress in March 2021.

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Only 6% of Chileans support president Pinera of Chile and 81% call management of the pandemic a failure. Parliament adopted reform that allows citizens to have 10% of pension savings paid out as emergency coronavirus aid. Latin America has no aid funds in the way aid is given in the U.S. and in the European Union, and in Britain, leaving people dangerously exposed during the pandemic. Chile was presented as a much more affluent country but this no longer holds true. This DW.com report says the government remains overwhelmed and helpless in the face of the pandemic and internal protests that started over pension inadequacies and subway price hikes, lack of healthcare services.

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As schools reopen in India children bring stories that show how difficult three years of pandemic have been. Disruption in education is seen everywhere. In Delhi the government has set aside the syllabus to focus on the basics of reading, writing and maths.

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Not much will change in Italy's place in the European Union, says Maria Ferraresi, editor of Italy's Domani newspaper. Italy expects 200 billion euros of solidarity aid from the European Union that is dependent on following EU rules. And coalition partner Berlusconi says he will drop his support if Meloni adopts any anti EU rules positions. Meloni's Brothers of Italy party with 26% of the vote has roots going back to the Social Movement in Italy in the 1930's. To attract support she has remained in opposition even when Matteo Salvini of the League and Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia parties joined Mario Draghi's unity government during the pandemic. She has turned to a pro EU stand from a EU skeptical stand. Meloni is also forming one of seventy Italian governments since 1945 such is the pace of government change in Italy making every government dependent on fickle political sentiments that shift quickly. The Italian economy has fallen into a stagnant situation with growth less than 1% in 2022, and the main concern of voters and the elected governments is the economy and standards of living, so that EU aid acts as a critical part of rejuvenating the economy. The Eu solidarity aid of $200 billion in coming years is critical for Italy's economic revival. It also shows the European Union in action after the years following World War II when it was realized that some sort of sound European economic framework was needed for the common good. Ferraresi also points out that Italy has also gone through an EU led effort to make the judiciary fully independent and able to function similar to the judiciary in France and other EU nations. Italy also has a very de.centralized government with state and local governments playing a major role in administration. This reduces the impact of changes in the capital Rome.  ...

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Clearing parking lots for housing and office space in Buffalo and other cities. Local governments are erasing decades old minimum parking rules. Parking lots and garages that are increasingly unused in cities after the pandemic are being demolished as shown in this report in WSJ. Major retailers are leasing unused spaces for new development. This creates more space for people to live in. Urban planners say this reduces housing cost by adding more land availability, holds down rents, revitalizes cities following the pandemic, and mitigates a housing shortage.

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The trillions of dollars in debt taken on by local governments in China acts as a barrier to economic growth. WSJ shows a third of China's cities are struggling to pay the interest on the debt they owe. This will slow growth for years to come.The debt built up during the pandemic as costs of lockdowns and covid testing were borne by cities. Revenues from land sales dropped with the slowdown in construction worsening finances. Wuhan, Dalian and Guangzhou have cut medical benefits because of strained city finances. Teachers in Shenzen are affected by cuts in bonuses a major part of their pay. And in rustbelt parts of the northeast there are impending cuts to heating after power companies failed to get help from the local government.

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EIA says half of the benefit of higher fuel efficiency standards for Automobiles 2010-2020 in US was lost because of SUV's and the incentivizing of SUV's in the 2006 CAFE standards have made things worse. The first SUV's came in the 1980's. By 2004 SUV's made up half of car sales and by 2025 outsold cars 2 to 1. What if we took all SUV's and large cars off the roads, or even some of these SUV's by deincentivizing of SUV's in the US CAFE corporate fuel efficiency standards? What would be the savings in crude oil and in carbon footprint? Would it be about the same as releasing an additional 400 million barrels of oil into the markets in addition to the 400 million barrels that are now released through EIA and member countries? This New Yorker essay touches on this idea. During the Iran war the volatile Middle East as a source of oil supplies is a major problem for countries. Some are rationing supplies and in one country 40 million children are not going to school for 2 weeks starting this week because of the sources of oil are so precarious, government offices will only have half of the employees, the rest working from home (almost like Covid pandemic). Many other countries face that situation. The International Energy Agency recently reported that, if “SUVs were an individual country, they would rank sixth in the world for absolute emissions in 2021, emitting over 900 million tonnes of CO2.” The agency says governments must redesign their CAFE standards and their policies so that it would reduce S.U.V. sales, tax gas guzzling vehicles. EIA cites governments in the EU doing this- “Some governments have already started introducing relevant measures, such as France and Germany, which have put a tax on large and high-emissions cars.” Within SUV's also there is an opportunity to reduce the size and make more efficient space utilization designs. Small savings also add up. One has to realize that the current freedom to use energy freely in places like the US with self sufficiency in oil comes with a sense of responsibility for using it wisely so that it can be exported to cut the trade deficit, precisely what the president is doing with India, to cut a trade deficit of $58 billion before it gets to $100 billion. Section 301 is already in place for investigations by the US of 18 countries for a new basis to use tariffs after the Supreme Court decision. A similar approach is taken with EU for hundreds of billions of reductions in trade deficit that will only strengthen the US dollar and the US economy in the long run , and be good for stock markets and jobs as it reduces oil prices and increases the manufacturing capacity/cost for the Nation. Europe, India and China can do the same. Remember that in 2010 SUV's made up 17% of total world sales, and by 2025 SUV's made up 46% of world vehicle sales. This would create another 400 million barrels for the oil markets, which would triple what was released through EIA  this week to 1.2 billion barrels and this would create 120 days of supply replacement for the 10 million b/d lost from Straits of Hormuz, and effectively end the Iran War as it would be clear that prices can be kept low even in the $50's. Essentially buying time till the SU can get more production in Venezuela and other parts of the world to replace much of the Middle Eastern oil that is ending up in a quagmire. This is the best way for the US and Europe, India, China to ensure jobs growth, economic growth with low cost crude oil in the $50 range and ensure much of the poorer countries like Egypt and Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, have access to oil at prices they can afford and eliminate poverty. ...

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By letting Evergrande be dismantled without government aid, the Jinping government is signalling an end to construction anfd housing as the engine of the economy. The shift is to electric cars, renewable energy, and advanced technology industries to support growth after decades of construction based growth. This is good for climate change action and for UN sustainable development growth targets which include assistance to rural and other neglected regions. A similar process is taking place in the US as large economies realign their economies after the pandemic showed weaknesses in the frameworks.

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The coronavirus pandemic has pushed New York into a $8.7 billion deficit for the fiscal year that began April 1, 2020. A bipartisan bill in Congress would have given $160 billion to state and local governments in the $908 billion bill. 

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Addressing the UN General Assembly in a virtual setting Mr. Trump tells delegates that China should be held accountable for certain actions in letting the coronavirus pandemic spread. He included the denial by China of human to human transmission very early before Feb-March, and its allowing Chinese flights to go overseas when it had completely banned flights domestically. He said flights were allowed to leave China after the virus spread from Wuhan even after Mr. Trump banned flights from China to the U.S. This spread the virus from China to Europe and to America.  Mr. Trump says the WHO is controlled by China. And this happened after foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and other foundations partly replaced the strong role played by the U.S. government at the world health agency during the post war period maintaining strong U.S. and European oversight in the earlier period. The lack of cooperation by China to let American experts into Wuhan immediately in January played a role in delaying the U.S. getting a first hand look at the coronavirus at the epicentre. Instead a 2-3 week delay left the U.S. Europe and India unprepared for the speed and havoc caused.  The only way to tackle the coronavirus was with speed and that speedy response was doubly needed because Europe and the U.S. had no recent experience with epidemics. Even India and rest of Asia, Latin America, Africa have no experience with this type of transmission and spread making time absolutely critical.  This speed was affected because China and the WHO acted as stumbling blocks in this view of what happened. The result was that in past pandemics were fought together, this pandemic was fought on a country by country basis, a bad precedent. ...

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On September 26 Germany holds a general election to decide who will lead Germany after Merkel. Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats is seen as personally popular for his work in government with 48% support in recent polls, with Armin Laschet of the Christian Democrats at 24% and Annalena Baerbock at 27%. The Social Democrats poll 24% and are expected to form a government with the Greens at 16% and the FDP party. Baerbock of the Greens and Armin Laschet of the Christian Democrats have lost support in recent weeks with the floods and other events. The figures are from Deutschlandtrend poll by Infratest dimap Institute.  The CDU of Merkel looks less likely to form a government under leadership of Armin Laschet today compared to a few months before. Merkel is still popular with most Germans but this support does not carry over to Armin Laschet. There may also be some sense among Germans that it is time for a change in government after the Merkel years even though she is personally popular. The difficulties imposed by the pandemic on the German people, and the added problems of the floods could lead voters to look for change in government under new leadership more sensitive to the problems of today- infrastructure, employment participation of people held back by the pandemic, and rebuilding healthcare, education, childcare systems, tackling climate change issues. ...

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US president Biden's multi-trillion dollar spending plans for infrastructure, climate change plans, education and healthcare, are based on a changing perception about the effectiveness of the public sector spending initiatives. The Reagan period idea that the public sector is not as efficient as the private sector that lingered through the Clinton, Bush and Obama, Trump administrations is no longer accepted. After the pandemic another perception is taking root that when it comes to health infrastructure the government has a leading and indispensable role to play. Gone are the doubts about this that hung like a cloud over the nation's plans for infrastructure in health, education and supply channels. Following the global competition with China a new factor is also playing its part. The need for government to play an active role in trade, in protecting technological resources, and in supporting US technological firms in competition with other countries. There is a new perception that the government should be determined to play this role. In the effort to be self-reliant after the pandemic the government is expected to play a role in redesigning the supply channels and providing the direction and incentives for supply channels worldwide that give America a competitive advantage and less dependence on other nations. ...

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NYT reports from China show how China is handling a complete U Turn on how to handle Covid. Most pandemic restrictions are lifted, and people can now recover at home. A rising number of infections and China is now open to bring in western medicines. It is seen as a boost to the economy. Even the government officials are wondering how to shape the new narrative. It shows the flexibility of the leadership in China and the willingness to learn from new developments in dealing with the pandemic. A similar step was taken by Democrats in the US as they relaxed restrictions in line with new evidence that was coming in with milder strains of the virus.