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How low interest rates from the banks created 2009 financial crisis were squeezing Americans and most of all seniors
06/05/2024
In 2010 Charles Schwab pointed out that low interest rates were squeezing Americans, most of all seniors on fixed incomes and pensions. In 2024 first quarter the higher interest rates in one quarter alone created an additional $770 billion in interest and dividends for Americans, many of them seniors, according to US Federal Reserve. This is the damage done by the recklessness of the banks and financial sector and seniors have paid heavily for this and for the wars in the Middle East which reduced the growth potential of the US economy that were embraced by Reagan and Bush, Trump and Obama. The war money was not used to build new infrastructure to replace the old as it should have been leading to China having new infrastructure and America's being aging and worn out.
Linked Articles
Low Interest Rates Are Squeezing Seniors
Wall Street Journal 03/30/2010
Americans Have More Investment Income Than Ever BeforeWSJ 06/05/2024
Reagan, Greenspan and America's lost years 1980-2009
11/17/2023
It was in this period that many of the problems that we face today were created through policies of low interest rates, deregulation and financial market speculation leading to the financial crisis of 2008. At the beginning of the Reagan administration in 1980 China was still a country of bicycles and largely rural, by 2009 it had transformed itself into the largest manufacturing nation in the world and continued to 2023. In the US financial deregulation and lack of health care for all allowed financial interests to become the dominant force in the economy in a speculative way , and defunded manufacturing, infrastructure and public services. The work of FDR, Truman Eisenhower and Kennedy unraveled, Clinton, Obama and Trump continued that decline.
Linked Articles
Puerto Rico Was Supposed to Be John Paulson’s Paradise. Then Came the Lawsuits.
WSJ 11/16/2023
Trader Made Billions on SubprimeWSJ Jan 15 2008 01/15/2008
A parting of ways with Mr. Trump- Mr. Trump's Attorney General Barr followed by VP Mike Pence and now Joint Chief chairman Gen. Milley
09/30/2023
All three of the senior most members of Trump's administration make a parting of ways with Mr. Trump when it comes to the Constitution of the United States of America, free and fair elections, the separation of powers between Congress the Executive branch and the Judiciary, and the smooth transfer of power every four years to a newly elected government, with all 435 members of Congress elected every 2 years, checks and balances put in place by the framers of the US Constitution including Jefferson and Madison to protect Democratic form of government enshrined in the words "We the People.."
Linked Articles
Gen. Mark Milley Warns of Fealty to Dictators, in Exit Speech Aimed at Trump
WSJ 09/29/2023
Opinion | General Milley and the ‘Wannabe Dictator’WSJ 09/29/2023
Limits to China's economic recovery from local government debt and smaller pool of savings
03/07/2023
A smaller pool of savings and build up of debt during the pandemic limit the extent of China's economic recovery. The trillions of dollars of local government debt and the slowdown in the construction sector act as barriers to growth in China.
Linked Articles
Covid-Era Savings Are Crucial to China’s Economic Recovery
WSJ 02/26/2023
China’s Cities Struggle Under Trillions of Dollars of DebtWSJ 03/06/2023
Softbank the epitome of massively distorted capital markets even as healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technolgies, infrastructure suffered severe lack of funding
08/08/2022
How Softbank became the epitome and poster child for the distorted capital markets of today is shown here in the WSJ. It is a sad story of how America and Europe failed to invest in its people with egregious harm to 900 million people as healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technologies and infrastructure were neglected.
Linked Articles
WSJ 08/08/2022
SoftBank Reports Record $23 Billion Quarterly Loss as Tech Downturn HitsWSJ 08/08/2022
From the Himalayas to the Indo-Pacific - the common element
07/13/2022
How a free and open Himalayas and a free and open Indo-Pacific share a common element of being free and open throughout history and how the US mission of free navigation in the Pacific and the Indian efforts in the Himalayas seek to maintain this.
Linked Articles
China ‘drives away’ US destroyer in South China Sea
The Times 07/13/2022
S Jaishankar: Prime Minister Modi Has Given First Priority To Foreign PolicyThe Indian Express 07/13/2022
The danger to the US, European Union and India of concentration of chip production in Taiwan
06/20/2022
Concentrating 92% of chip production that powers cell phones, laptops, computers in Taiwan makes no sense. Five fabs are concentrated in just 1 Science Park- Hsinshu Science Park in Taiwan. A missile attack could take out half of the world's chip supply. After Ukraine the US, EU and India, South Korea, Japan need to take this seriously. Action taken now will bring results over 3-5 years. The Free World depends on creation of new supply chains using manufacturing in the US, EU, India and Japan.
Linked Articles
Opinion | China Is Losing Its Bet on Chips
WSJ 06/20/2022
Opinion | Semiconductor Dependency Imperils American SecurityWSJ 06/20/2022
America's self-reliant economy - Biden with Trumpian undertones
01/21/2021
The Biden administration is seen as continuing the efforts of president Trump to pursue American interests in trade, technology, American workers and business to restore America's leadership role in the free world to what it was in the 1950's. Biden from Delaware is in the same tradition as president Harry Truman from Missouri in that period. Because of Biden's age this could be a one term presidency, and strange as it may sound it could be a presidency of Trump in foreign affairs and trade, technological leadership, without the rhetoric, and a socially cohesive presidency of Democrats in the tradition of Harry Truman. What then to make of all the fights of the Trump presidency? Much of this can be seen as an effort to break the status quo which did not benefit American workers.
Linked Articles
Biden’s Economic Team Charts a New Course for Globalization, With Trumpian Undertones
WSJ 12/01/2020
Trump touts record of ‘no new wars’, standing up to China in farewell addressFrance 24 01/21/2021
How the WHO failed as early warning system in the coronavirus after being a model during the leadership of Dr. Brundtland in 2003 SARS
05/21/2020
The contrast could not be greater between the World Health Organization today and the WHO under Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, a three time prime minister of Norway between 1981 and 1996 with great experience and a record of handling difficult issues of climate change and sustainable development.
Linked Articles
A Failed Deception: The Early Days of the Coronavirus Outbreak in Wuhan - DER SPIEGEL
SPIEGEL ONLINE 05/20/2020
‘The only way forward for WHO is...’: Full text of Trump’s letter to WHO chiefHindustan Times 05/19/2020
The Guardian newspaper in Britain- pioneering funding for Quality information through Supporter memberships ($6 a month) and Donate
10/15/2019
The Guardian is experimenting with new sources of revenue and expanding its reader base and sustainable operations with an open access model. The target region is UK, USA, Australia, about a half a billion people in the region.
Linked Articles
Guardian most trusted newspaper in Britain, says industry report
The Guardian 12/17/2018
Road to 1 million: The Guardian has gone from 15,000 to 200,000 paying 'members' in the past year - DigidayDigiday 10/15/2019
Corporate America's choice between corporate buybacks and increasing wages/making capital investments for growth to help the middle class
03/01/2018
Linked Articles
Boom in Share Buybacks Renews Question of Who Wins From Tax Cuts
WSJ 03/01/2018
Corporate Tax Cut as Growth Elixir? Foreign Experience Suggests CautionWSJ 05/01/2017
The Trump executive order on coal and the continuing shift to natural gas because of market forces
03/28/2017
Linked Articles
Despite Trump Move on Climate Change, Utilities’ Shift From Coal Is Set to Continue
WSJ 03/28/2017
Trump moves to dismantle Obama's climate legacy with executive orderThe Guardian 03/28/2017
Why initiating Brexit by invoking the Lisbon Treaty's Article 50 could go into 2017, or even past 2020 into new general elections- (4) the elections in France and Germany in 2017, and chancellor Merkel likely to link granting benefits of the single market to free movement within the European Union
08/16/2016
Chancellor Merkel has clearly stated that she sees the benefits of a single market going along with the idea of free movement within the European Union. With elections in 2017 and after not giving into Eastern European states in 2016, Merkel is likely to again remind Germany and France of the the true spirit in which the founders setup the European Union.
Linked Articles
Wait and see: Theresa May is in no hurry on Brexit | Europe | DW.COM | 15.08.2016
DW.COM 08/15/2016
EU Governments Gird for Steely New British LeaderWSJ 07/12/2016
Carlos Tavares and the contrast with Fiat Sergio Marchionne, Tesla Elon Musk- the need today for new role models for health and worklife balance, respect for dignity of workern
02/05/2024
Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis that brings together Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot, as shown in a WSJ report, respects workers right to have a weekend free of email requests to recharge their batteries for the new week starting Mondays. Tavares sees great value in worklife balance, respect for dignity and health of workers. He believes this delivers productive work better than alternatives such as that under Sergio Marchionne the Fiat leader running Chrysler who worked constantly, with excessively long hours, unending travel and smoking incessantly say reports, that took its toll on health- setting a poor role model for managing business and for the younger generation. A similar situation is presented by Mr. Musk compared to Mr. Tavares. Striking is the respect for the dignity of workers that comes with respecting worklife balance. This was a major issue in this years UAW negotiations. Leaders from Scholz in Germany and Biden in US, Modi in India, have called for respect for dignity of work and workers as the kind of society we want to build and we want to live in. The founder of Silicon Valley Andy Grove who founded Intel that powers the chips on every laptop always reminded his readers this is the kind of society he wanted to live in.
Linked Articles
Elon Musk Says Donald Trump Should ‘Sail Into the Sunset’ in Latest Spat
WSJ 07/12/2022
WSJ News Exclusive | The Money and Drugs That Tie Elon Musk to Some Tesla DirectorsWSJ 02/04/2024
Li Keqiang and the era of Openness in China 1977-2023
11/02/2023
LI Keqiang was able to pass entrance exams to Peking University in 1977 after entrance exams were reinstated following Mao's death. He led the modernization of China during the 2000-2022 period two decades of fast growth turning China into a middle income industrialized country after centuries of decline. During this period China urbanized at a rapid rate and Li's advanced studies focused on urbanization. It was also a period when China realized the damage done to the environment and quality of air, water, with haphazard growth, and shifted to climate change action through focus on solar energy and limiting use of coal.
Linked Articles
China Mourns Former Premier Whose Death Hovers Over Xi Jinping
WSJ 11/02/2023
Next Premier Came of Age in Era of OpennessWall Street Journal 11/16/2012
The collapse of American education and the slowest growth in America's history 2000-2020 as Biden tries to reverse this in 2024
05/19/2023
Krugman looks at the extraordinary effort put in by Robert Gordon of Northwestern University to look at the growth of America since 1850 over periods 1850-1870, 1870-1910, 1910-1950, 1950-2000 and 2000-2020 showing that the last 20 years have the lowest growth in American history. Gordon looks at the near collapse of American education, scores on NAEP of two thirds of 8th graders failing reading comprehension reflect this sad state of affairs that president Biden is trying to reverse in 2024. Other research shows a drop in potential GDP of 2 percentage points when education is failing as it has been for 2 decades. Other researchers have shown what is openly evident today that technology such as social media do more harm, that other internet use technology has not done much for education only established monopolies as with Google and Apple.
Linked Articles
Paul Krugman Reviews ‘The Rise and Fall of American Growth’ by Robert J. Gordon
New York Times 01/25/2016
'Secular Stagnation' May Be for RealWall Street Journal 08/27/2014
Common sense and wisdom for passage to India Pakistan trade after the floods in 2022 with one third of Pakistan under water
08/30/2022
In 2012 Michael Boskin, who helped George W. Bush, with the NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement, wrote this article in the WSJ about the normal trade using trade models that take into account the advantage of cross border trade and size of economies would be 20 times the $2.7 billion in trade between India and Pakistan in 2012. This would be $50 billion. This would have increased to $100 billion by 2020 under normal trade. Instead in the year of the 2022 floods when Pakistan is one third under water, and cross border trade never made more sense, the OEC data show trade at less than $300 million or one three hundredth portion of what trade could be if normalized.
Linked Articles
Pakistan: Food prices soar amid floods | DW | 30.08.2022
DW.COM 08/30/2022
Michael Boskin: A Passage to India-Pakistan PeaceWSJ 04/15/2012
Years of hyper growth followed by slight or shrinking growth in China
07/31/2022
For years China pushed hyper growth without correctly understanding the sources of that hyper growth and its consequences in the long run. Communities in the US and the EU simply could not cope with the hyper shift of factories from local regions to China that created the hyper growth in China. Local governments in China and self interested investment banks in the US and Eu pushed for this growth and the central government failed to act with restraining action. The result is alienated public in the US and EU, intense trade and competitive frictions and permanent damage to friendly US China, US EU relations. The domestic side of this hyper growth was the overdependence on the property sector which was asked to carry a bigger burden for development leading to the crisis today with local governments strained for financing by $900 billion as reported in WSJ today July 31. 2022. This did not need to happen. China entered this experiment with capitalism without restraining action with very little knowledge of the market economy and how it operates correctly only with restraining and corrective action in the interests of the whole people of the country. Too much has gone wrong for peoples on either side, the unintended effects and consequences in the simple unbridled pursuit of self-interest alone.
Linked Articles
China’s Economy Tested by Strained City Finances
WSJ 07/31/2022
China’s Manufacturing Sector Unexpectedly Contracts Amid Weak Demand, Covid LockdownsWSJ 07/31/2022
How Carlos Tavares is setting the way for remote workers in an hybrid work model to disconnect during the day and on weekends
07/08/2022
Carlos Tavares heads a auto company that has 75,000 employees across the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America and plans 75 new electric car models by 2030. He favors a hybrid work model and works one week a month from his home in Lisbon, Portugal. He works Portuguese time 7am to 4 or 5 pm when he disconnects from the workday by taking a one hour walk. Germans call this practice "feierabend" literally to break away from work to revitalize and get fresh by say taking a bike ride through the woods or in a park. Tavares does not call or email employees on the weekend, and believes to be in game shape on Monday one needs to disconnect on the weekends.
Linked Articles
Right to disconnect is vital for future health of home workers
04/23/2021
This Auto CEO Won’t Put Remote Work in ReverseWSJ 07/08/2022
On the occasion of Mr. Biden's launch of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework bringing together workers and families of America, Europe and India
06/01/2022
In 1931 Gandhi visited the Lancashire textile mill in Darwen owned by Quaker and Socialist Davies family. This BBC account of that visit shows the enthusiasm of workers in Lancashire for "Gandeye" and how Gandhi felt the workers treated him as one of their own. Only 14 years later the same workers and families voted in Labour and Clement Atlee who immediately started the negotiations with Gandhi for Hind Swaraj and the independence of India. It shows how Gandhi would look at the economic alliances and new supply chain president Biden announced and Mr. Scholz of Germany called for at the Hanover Trade Fair in 2022 - that the sound foundation for a new supply chain is the interests of American and European workers and families, as well as interests of workers and families in partner countries such as India in the Free World.
Linked Articles
When Gandhi met Darwen's mill workers
BBC News 06/01/2022
Gandhi Jayanti 2018 special: When Mahatma Gandhi was welcomed by textile mill workers of LancashireThe Indian Express 06/01/2022
India's growth predicted at an "unprecedented acceleration" in 2021-2022 after the pandemic
12/08/2020
India's unprecedented growth in mobile manufacturing planned for 2025 under PLI incentives and in 5G technologies by 2021-2022.
Linked Articles
HTLS 2020: India’s new era will be defined by the idea of decentralization
Hindustan Times 12/08/2020
‘India will prove cynics wrong...’: Mukesh Ambani on economy, Jio 5G, vaccineHindustan Times 12/08/2020
Lessons in Fighting the Coronavirus - Flattening the Growth Curve
04/12/2020
Linked Articles
These simulations show how to flatten the coronavirus growth curve
Washington Post 03/20/2020
Are Countries Flattening the Curve for the Coronavirus?NYTimes.com 04/03/2020
Do tax cut benefits go mainly to the 10% of Americans who own 84% of the stocks- evidence of corporate buybacks vs increasing wages/new capital investment for growth to help the middle class
03/01/2018
Linked Articles
Boom in Share Buybacks Renews Question of Who Wins From Tax Cuts
WSJ 03/01/2018
Tax Cuts Benefit the Ultra Rich, but Not the Merely RichThe New York Times 12/19/2017
Is the growth boom that supports the case for 2017 tax cuts skewed to higher income Americans based on evidence?- views of Greg Ip (WSJ) and Krugman (NYT)
12/20/2017
Linked Articles
Corporate Tax Cut as Growth Elixir? Foreign Experience Suggests Caution
WSJ 05/01/2017
Opinion | Passing Through to CorruptionThe New York Times 12/18/2017
How U.S. economic growth and interest rates can play out in ways contrary to what is expected for 2017-2019
12/14/2016
Linked Articles
Will the Trump Era Bring Higher Interest Rates? Don’t Count On It
The New York Times 12/14/2016
A Trump Economic Boom? The Fed May Stand in the WayThe New York Times 12/13/2016
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