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

Caitlin Mc Cabe

WSJ Jan 15 2008 01/15/2008

Gregory Zuckerman

Severe floods in Germany 2021 Italy 2023 and effects of climate change in Europe

05/21/2023

The floods in Germany and Europe, the severe drought in parts of Spain and Italy are seen as signs climate change is here. At one southernmost point in Sicily the temperature recently reached about 49 degrees centigrade the highest ever in Europe.

Linked Articles

Italy’s disasters suggest the climate crisis is at the gates of Europe

The Guardian 05/18/2023

France 24 07/16/2021

The trajectory in 2023 and beyond for Russia and Ukraine that was not evident in the first year of the war

04/07/2023

Russia faces a difficult situation ahead for its economy. Ukraine has survived the most difficult period with EU assistance and American support.

Linked Articles

Russia’s Economy Is Starting to Come Undone

WSJ 03/28/2023

Georgi Kantchev, Evan Gershkovich

SPIEGEL ONLINE 04/07/2023

Michael Kröger, Benjamin Bidder, Der Spiegel

Deforestation- is the pledge at COP26 Glasgow a bit too late for Indonesian rainforest?

11/02/2021

This is one of the amazing links in Lyrarc because it shows WSJ article from 2007 noted by Lyrarc that year, showing UN maps on deforestation in Borneo island in Indonesia for 2000, 2005, 2020. By 2020 most of the rainforest is shown as gone. Deforestation and climate ecologist Clare Rewcastle Brown, sister in law of former British prime minister Gordon Brown, from Britain, recalls colonial days in Sarawak, north Borneo Island, where her father was a police officer. And how much of the canopy of forest from that part of Malaysia was disappearing. She continued her protests from outside Malaysia in 2013 as reported by NYT and noted in Lyrarc that year. This is an amazing story of how deforestation of some of the last rain forests in the world took place at a time when awareness of climate change was sorely lacking in 2007-2013, and how by 2020 the rain forests in Borneo may have already disappeared from planet earth to combat climate change. One woman's fight and a fight that is still on after world leaders took a pledge to end deforestation on the planet by 2030 including Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, China, and the US, and a UN report that had the foresight to show a rainforest disappearing in 2007 in Tom Wright's WSJ report from Surabaya, Indonesia the same year.

Linked Articles

Indonesia's Logging Fight

WSJ 07/03/2007

Tom Wright

New York Times 08/16/2013

Gerry Mullany, Gerry, Mullany

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

Veronika Hackenbroch, Bernhard Zand, Der Spiegel

Hindustan Times 05/19/2020

The United States - Mexico Trade Agreement - removing the negative connotations of NAFTA with protections for American auto and steel workers

08/28/2018

Linked Articles

What the U.S.-Mexico Trade Pact Says

WSJ 08/27/2018

Josh Zumbrun

WSJ 08/28/2018

Jacob M. Schlesinger, Josh Zumbrun In Washington, Robbie Whelan In Mexico City

Lessons for India, Mexico and China from the failures in Brazil

04/03/2018

Linked Articles

These Developing Countries Are Getting Old Before They Get Rich, with Dire Consequences

WSJ 04/02/2018

Paul Kiernan, Luciana Magalhaes

The New York Times 03/05/2018

Shasta Darlington, Donald G. Mcneil Jr.

The moderating influence of business executives Gary Cohn, Wilbur Ross and Muilenburg on president Trump- change in policy on NAFTA, Mexico, China and Export Import Bank

04/14/2017

Business executives help moderate the campaign positions taken by Donald Trump during the first 100 days of his presidency, putting him closer to the traditional view on China, Mexico, NATO and Russia.

Linked Articles

Donald Trump’s Recent Policy Reversals Reflect Business Influence

WSJ 04/14/2017

Eli Stokols, Michael C. Bender

Washington Post 04/14/2017

Damian Palettadamian Paletta

Public focus on good governance, corruption and the rule of law- the situation in Mexico and Brazil in 2016

06/10/2016

The Worker's Party in Brazil and the PRI have seen a sharp decline in popularity by 2016 with public discontent over governance, corruption and the rule of law.

Linked Articles

Mexico’s Ruling Party Loses Gubernatorial Races in Several States

WSJ 06/10/2016

New York Times 05/12/2016

Andrew Jacobs, Andrew, Jacobs

Donald Trump's proposal for 45% tariff on China's exports to the U.S.- how a policy of bringing jobs home could lead to the loss of 1 million U.S. jobs

03/08/2016

By damaging the international trading system including with allies such a Canada, Britain, France and Germany, the result of a downward spiral through higher tariffs in other countries, could end up costing the U.S. 1 million jobs. Under such a system the U.S. would lose many of the advantages of its booming tech sector, its tech driven global advantages in many industries, without signifcant gains in low cost imports such as clothing which would simply migrate to other countries such as India. The problem of worker wage stagnation in the U.S., and loss of jobs in certain sectors, is very real, but this is the wrong way to tackle the problem. China is already moving towards a consumer driven economy. Economists show that trade with Mexico would be seriously hurt both ways, creating more pressure of migrants at the border under such proposals as a 45% tariff and its indirect effect on Mexico, when the actual fact is that net migration from Mexico is the lowest it has ben in decades. Politics can do strange things as when two senators Smoot and Hawley from agricultural states Utah and Oregon, at the head of important committees in the U.S. Congress pushed and passed legislation for a 60% tariff in 1930 for the industrial sector they had no idea about. When Smoot and Hawley lost reelection in 1932 they left behind a lot of damage, especially for the farmers and workers they thought they were fighting for.

Linked Articles

How Trump’s Hard Line on Trade Could Backfire

Wall Street Journal 03/25/2016

Bob Davis, Bob, Davis

Wall Street Journal 03/08/2016

Holman W. Jenkins Jr., Holman, W., Jenkins, Jr.

The devaluation of the yuan in August 2015 as China responds to lower exports, the appreciation of the euro and the yen, and the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to raise rates

08/12/2015

China's currency appreciated 9.2% against the euro and 57% against the Japanese yen with its soft peg to the dollar in 2013-2015. The 8.3% decline in China's exports for July 2015 over the prior year led to the policy action to devalue the Chinese currency, the yuan on August 11, 2015.

Linked Articles

China is trying to save its economy with a cheaper currency - The Washington Post

Washington Post 08/12/2015

Matt O'brien, Matt, O'brien

Wall Street Journal 08/12/2015

Editorial

The miscalculations and missteps of Russian president Putin in 2014 leading to a major crisis for the Russian economy in 2015

12/18/2014

A major miscalculation was totally misjudging Merkel and post-war German public opinion about policies that remind people about the period between the two World Wars- this is anathema to Germans who see the European Union as a way to build a new and different Europe. The other miscalculation was on how a foreign adventurous policy in Syria would affect Sunni world opinion, in particular Saudi Arabia. Just as Brezhnev took Russia into Afghanistan where Russia had no vital interest leading to eventual Soviet collapse, Putin risked alienating a key member in OPEC pricing moves and hurting Russia's economic interest. By not listening to Kudrin, the head of Sberbank, and other economic advisers from the first and second terms of the Putin-Medvedev administrations, Putin opened the door to two years of serious missteps, risking the very real accomplishments of the first and second term of creating a stable growing Russian economy with close economic ties to Europe. The only positive outcome of the crisis and low oil prices would be making the shift away from oil dependence, which was talked about but never seriously attempted in the Putin administrations. For this to happen major new investments would have to be made and technology links to the outside strengthened, both hammered by the missteps in 2013-2014. The irony of all this is that Putin gained the support of rural Russians in the countryside in the 2012 presidential elections by promising no return to the economic crisis conditions following earlier ruble collapses. Now by ignoring Kudrin and other wiser counsel from the first and second administrations he does just that.

Linked Articles

Putin’s Year of Defiance and Miscalculation

Wall Street Journal 12/18/2014

Gregory White, Gregory, White, Anton Troianovski, Anton, Troianovski

Wall Street Journal 12/18/2014

Alexander Kolyandr, Alexander, Kolyandr, James Marson, James, Marson