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

Charles R. Schwab, Charles, R., Schwab

WSJ 06/05/2024

David Uberti

"Pay their fair share of taxes" Biden asks of corporations showing 2017 predecessor tax cuts did not increase investment and added $100 billion yearly to the US Deficit

03/08/2024

By paying their fair share of taxes Biden says in State of Union speech to US Congress 2024 one can increase investment in education, affordable childcare and better living for seniors in their homes, and still cut the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. What is fair share? Certainly not zero percent that 55 of the largest corporations paid on $40 billion in profits in 2020, and corporate minimum tax was introduced at levels of 15% for which most ordinary Americans are not eligible for. And certainly not 8.2% that Biden said was being paid by 1000 billionaires in the US. Not a single penny more is being asked of hard working Americans earning less than $400,000 a year. Biden said he wanted to see the corporate minimum tax at 21% not 15%, and the top corporate tax rate set at 28% not the 21% that it was reduced to in 2017 from 35%. In short his predecessor turned to help companies and billionaires profit from the popular distress of the shipping of jobs overseas and the 2009 financial crisis caused by Bank executives without investing the nation's capital resources in manufacturing at home in scale to match and exceed China's. And at the same time neglecting to do anything about the concerns of the people for ease of living- affordable access to childcare, preschool education, education, health care to match Europe/China/India in quality and cost, and aging transportation infrastructure of airports, subways, roads and bridges. The savings when this is done properly go to cut the deficit by over 4 trillion dollars and keep America as the leader of all G-20 economies.

Linked Articles

Biden Draws Sharp Contrast With Trump in State of the Union

WSJ 03/07/2024

Ken Thomas, Tarini Parti

WSJ 03/07/2024

Andrew Restuccia, Andrew Duehren, Richard Rubin

Try hard but not too hard-cutting yourself some slack improves health and concentration, the Andy Grove principle for slack in your work routine reinforces this

09/15/2023

People forget that this applies to sports athletes and high achieving people. Andy Grove, founder of Intel and of Silicon Valley, believed in keeping some slack in his work routine and schedule. He left Hungary in 1956 after the Hungarian revolution and Russian invasion as a refugee, and graduated first in his class in the City College of New York in chemical engineering 3 years later. In 3 more years he obtained a PhD from UC Berkeley. In his book Output Management he says productive arrangement is one that keeps slack in the way that highway planners know that having too many cars compared to capacity means everything comes to a halt. In his daily work he always believed in having some slack. Today people pile on work upon work forgetting these basic principles. The other principle is leveraging of activities which is where the output comes from. To leverage effectively concentration of mind is needed and a chance to reflect and think, which requires slack and slack that adds additional time for healthy living that aids mindfulness. This adds to Motivation and Training which Grove says affect Output. To do this requires some slack to think and reflect and healthy lifestyles that power this process. This is also why the competing styles today show contrasts between those of Boeing's top managers and Stellantis managers similar to Grove and Musk's style for Tesla also shown in WSJ in the last few months being just the opposite.

Linked Articles

Burnt-out from work? Try following Hugh Jackman’s 85% rule

The Guardian 09/15/2023

WSJ 09/11/2023

Rachel Feintzeig

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

Paul Krugman, Paul, Krugman

Wall Street Journal 08/27/2014

Willliam Galston, Willliam, Galston

Changes in retired living in the US after the pandemic- better home caring and parent day care

03/07/2023

Changes in retired living are happening following the pandemic. With worker shortages employers are likely to offer benefits such as parent day cay care so there is less difficulty taking care of older parents. Other retired people over 65 are helping take care of much older retirees in their 80's as home caring companies facing worker shortages depend more on older workers.

Linked Articles

They Retired. Now They Are Taking Care of Other Retirees.

WSJ 03/05/2023

Clare Ansberry | Photographs By Mason Trinca For The Wall Street Journal

WSJ 03/06/2023

Tara Weiss

1041 elections in 2022 at American companies support unionized workplaces- protecting worker's rights during the pandemic

01/21/2023

The United Nations International Labor Organization calls for protecting workers rights and promoting decent work during a pandemic that devastated many workers. A new respect for unionized workplaces after decades of decline and respect for the dignity of work. Still the process of recovery has only started as only 10% of American workers are represented by unions, only 14 million workers.

Linked Articles

Trade Unions matter in a human-centred recovery from COVID-19

ILO 01/21/2023

WSJ 01/21/2023

David Harrison

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

Mike Clancy

WSJ 07/08/2022

Ryan Felton

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

American men - losing the battle to get a university education

09/21/2021

The percentage of men at universities in America falls to an all time low of 40% creating shock waves about problems related to the cost of education, failing social safety nets, and social issues during the pandemic.

Linked Articles

Opinion | Why Men Are Disappearing on Campus

WSJ 09/19/2021

Richard Vedder, Braden Colegrove

WSJ 09/06/2021

Douglas Belkin

Robert Lighthizer and the fight to make Made In America the new symbol of American revival

12/18/2020

Robert Lighthizer talks about the efforts under the Trump administration to bring American manufacturing back to where it was in the days after World War II, and restore the rights and dignity of American workers. For three decades the U.S. lost jobs and allowed its manufacturing to be outsourced hurting American workers and reducing the manufacturing base of the U.S. The efforts to ensure fairness in trade also protects American workers and manufacturing at home.

Linked Articles

How to Make Trade Work for Workers

Foreign Affairs 12/18/2020

BBC News 12/17/2020

Eliud Kipchoge and Roger Bannister - contrasts and the running style

10/13/2019

Kipchoge's entire focus is on running in 2019 with the world watching and the richest man in Britain heading company Ineos backing him. Bannister is only shown later on BBC and is focussed on completing his medical studies, with no major financial supporter.

Linked Articles

The barrier broken on salad and spikes

The Times 10/13/2019

John Goodbody

BBC Sport 04/26/2019

The story behind President Trump's action to support new elections in Venezuela under an interim government in 2019

01/25/2019

Linked Articles

Intervening Against Venezuela’s Strongman, Trump Belies ‘America First’

New York Times 01/24/2019

Peter Baker And Edward Wong

WSJ 01/25/2019

Jessica Donati, Vivian Salama