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davidraudalesuk · 4 years

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Bidenomics: the good the bad and the unknown

The two presidential contenders squared up this week in the first debate before America votes on November 3rd. President Donald Trump set out to make it a brawl, even throwing a punch at the validity of the electoral process itself (see article). Joe Biden spent the evening jabbing at Mr Trump for bringing the country to its knees. And the president went for what he hoped would be a knockout blow, accusing his opponent of being a weak man who would succumb to the left’s plans to dramatically expand government and cripple business.

Fear of just such a leftward lurch under Mr Biden is circulating among some American business leaders. However, as we explain (see article), the charge is wide of the mark. Mr Biden has rejected the Utopian ideas of the left. His tax and spending proposals are reasonable. They imply only a modestly bigger state and attempt to deal with genuine problems facing America, including shoddy infrastructure, climate change and the travails of small business. In fact, the flaw in Mr Biden’s plans is that in some areas they are not far-reaching enough.

When Mr Trump took power in 2017 he hoped to unleash the animal spirits of business by offering bosses a hotline to the Oval Office and slashing red tape and taxes. Before covid-19, bits of this plan were working, helped by loose policy at the Federal Reserve. Small-business confidence was near a 30-year high; stocks were on a tear and the wages of the poorest quartile of workers were growing by 4.7% a year, the fastest since 2008. Voters rank the economy as a priority and, were it not for the virus that record may have been enough to re-elect him.

Yet, partly owing to the pandemic, Mr Trump’s shortcomings have also become clear. Long-term problems have festered, including crumbling infrastructure and a patchy social safety-net. The underlying dynamism of business remains weak. Investment is muted and fewer firms have been created even as big ones gain clout. Mr Trump’s chaotic style, involving the public shaming of firms and attacks on the rule of law, is a tax on growth. Deregulation has turned into a careless bonfire of rules. The confrontation with China has yielded few concessions, while destabilising the global trading system.

As the 46th president, Mr Biden would alleviate some of these problems simply by being a competent administrator who believes in institutions, heeds advice and cares about outcomes. Those qualities will be needed in 2021, as perhaps 5m face long-term unemployment and many small firms confront bankruptcy. Mr Biden’s economic priority would be to pass a huge “recovery” bill, worth perhaps $2trn-3trn, depending on whether a stimulus plan passes Congress before the election. This would include short-term money, boosting unemployment insurance and help for state and local governments, which face a budget hole. Mr Biden would also extend grants or loans to small businesses which have not received as much aid as big firms. He would ease tensions with China, soothing the markets. And if a vaccine arrives, his co-operative rather than transactional approach to foreign relations would make its global distribution easier and allow borders to reopen and trade to recover faster.

The recovery bill would also aim to “build back better” by focusing on some long-term problems for America that have also been Biden priorities for many years. He is keen on a giant, climate-friendly infrastructure boom to correct decades of underinvestment: the average American bridge is 43 years old. Government research and development (r&d) has dropped from over 1.5% of gdp in 1960 to 0.7% today, just as China is mounting a serious challenge to American science. Mr Biden would reverse that, too, with more r&d in tech and renewable energy. He would scrap Mr Trump’s harsh restrictions on immigration, which are a threat to American competitiveness. And he wants to raise middle-class living standards and social mobility. That means more spending on education, health care and housing and a $15 minimum wage, helping 17m workers who earn less than that today.

This is hardly the agenda of a socialist. Mr Biden has ignored the Panglossian fantasies of the left, including Medicare For All, a ban on nuclear energy and guaranteed jobs. His plans are moderate in size as well as scope, adding up to an annual increase in public spending of 3% of gdp, assuming they could all pass the Senate. That compares with 16-23% for those of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. He would raise taxes to pay for about half of the spending that is approved, with higher levies on firms and the rich. Even if all of his tax plan were enacted, which is highly unlikely, studies suggest corporate profits after tax might drop by up to 12% and the income of the top 1% of earners by up to 14%. If you are rich that would be an irritant, but not a catastrophe.

The real risk of Bidenomics is that his pragmatism will lead him to be insufficiently bold. Sometimes he fails to resolve competing objectives. For example, he rightly supports ladders for social mobility as well as a better safety-net for workers who lose their jobs; his plans range from more affordable housing to free public universities. But equipped with these safety buffers, he should be willing to welcome more creative destruction so as to raise long-run living standards. Instead Mr Biden’s instinct is to protect firms, and he has too little to say on boosting competition, including prising open tech monopolies. Incumbent firms and insiders often exploit complex regulations as a barrier to entry. His plans are wrapped in red tape.

Making trade alliances great again

Mr Biden’s climate policy represents real progress. Building green-power grids and charging networks makes sense because the private sector may hold back. But, again, its effect will be blunted by the rule that 40% of spending must favour disadvantaged communities and by perks for domestic suppliers: a recipe for inefficiency. His plan to cut emissions involves targets, but shies away from a carbon tax which would harness the power of capital markets to reallocate resources. That is a missed opportunity. Just last month the Business Roundtable, representing corporate America, said it supported carbon pricing.

This lack of boldness also reflects the lack of a fully developed strategy. Mr Biden has a record as a free trader, but he will not remove tariffs quickly and his plan indulges in petty protectionism by, say, insisting that goods are shipped on American vessels. That would complicate the daunting task ahead of him: to create a new framework to govern the economic relationship with China, which involves persuading America’s allies to sign up even as they flirt with protectionism, too (see article).

It is the same with fiscal policy. To his credit, Mr Biden wants to pay for some of his spending—a novelty these days. Nonetheless, by 2050 public debt is on track to hit almost 200% of gdp. There is little reason to fret now, when interest rates are near zero and the Fed is buying up government debt. But America would benefit if the next president faced up to this long-term challenge. That would mean beginning to build a harder-nosed consensus on entitlement spending and a sustainable tax base.

Mr Biden still has to win in November, so his ambiguity is understandable. But there is a risk he assumes that victory and a return to growth and competence will be sufficient to set America on the right track. If he wants to renew America’s economy and ensure it leads the rich world for decades to come, he will have to be bolder than that. On the threshold of power, he must be more ruthless about his priorities and far-reaching in his vision.■

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healthtimetaylor · 5 years

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Xanthohumol inhibits colorectal cancer cells via downregulation of Hexokinases II-mediated glycolysis.

PMID: Int J Biol Sci. 2019 ;15(11):2497-2508. Epub 2019 Sep 7. PMID: 31595166 Abstract Title: Xanthohumol inhibits colorectal cancer cells via downregulation of Hexokinases II-mediated glycolysis. Abstract: Deregulation of glycolysis is a common phenomenon in human colorectal cancer (CRC). In the present study, we reported that Hexokinase 2 (HK2) is overexpressed in human CRC tissues and cell lines, knockout of HK2 inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, and xenograft tumor growth. We demonstrated that the natural compound, xanthohumol, has a profound anti-tumor effect on CRC via down-regulation of HK2 and glycolysis. Xanthohumol suppressed CRC cell growth bothand. Treatment with xanthohumol promoted the release of cytochrome C and activated the intrinsic apoptosis pathway. Moreover, our results revealed that xanthohumol down-regulated the EGFR-Akt signaling, exogenous overexpression of constitutively activated Akt1 significantly impaired xanthohumol-induced glycolysis suppression and apoptosis induction. Our results suggest that targeting HK2 appears to be a new approach for clinical CRC prevention or treatment.

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cancersfakianakis1 · 5 years

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Cancers, Vol. 11, Pages 251: Pan-Cancer Analyses Reveal Genomic Features of FOXM1 Overexpression in Cancer

Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers11020251

Authors: Carter J Barger Connor Branick Linda Chee Adam R. Karpf

FOXM1 is frequently overexpressed in cancer, but this has not been studied in a comprehensive manner. We utilized genotype-tissue expression (GTEx) normal and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) tumor data to define FOXM1 expression, including its isoforms, and to determine the genetic alterations that promote FOXM1 expression in cancer. Additionally, we used human fallopian tube epithelial (FTE) cells to dissect the role of Retinoblastoma (Rb)-E2F and Cyclin E1 in FOXM1 regulation, and a novel human embryonic kidney cell (HEK293T) CRISPR FOXM1 knockout model to define isoform-specific transcriptional programs. FOXM1 expression, at the mRNA and protein level, was significantly elevated in tumors with FOXM1 amplification, p53 inactivation, and Rb-E2F deregulation. FOXM1 expression was remarkably high in testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT), high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC), and basal breast cancer (BBC). FOXM1 expression in cancer was associated with genomic instability, as measured using aneuploidy signatures. FTE models confirmed a role for Rb-E2F signaling in FOXM1 regulation and in particular identified Cyclin E1 as a novel inducer of FOXM1 expression. Among the three FOXM1 isoforms, FOXM1c showed the highest expression in normal and tumor tissues and cancer cell lines. The CRISPR knockout model demonstrated that FOXM1b and FOXM1c are transcriptionally active, while FOXM1a is not. Finally, we were unable to confirm the existence of a FOXM1 auto-regulatory loop. This study provides significant and novel information regarding the frequency, causes, and consequences of elevated FOXM1 expression in human cancer.

https://ift.tt/2ItlVPK

#Oncology-Sfakianakis

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brianfrench1995 · 4 years

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Air California hybrid livery. Plane was leased from United airlines. Vintage postcard @postcardtimemachine

#travel #airplanes #airplane #plane #planes #aviation #flying #ephemera #advertisement #postcard #postcards #united airlines #Air California #AirCal #deregulation knockouts #hybrid

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ekambi · 7 years

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If Miss Le Pen needed to land a knockout punch to win the election, she failed, but the differences between the two candidates could not have been clearer. They spent a lot of time on the economy, unemployment, social security, public debt, etc., with Miss Le Pen taking the populist, almost paternalist position, while Mr. Macron stood for deregulation and free markets.

Macron and Le Pen Square Off - American Renaissance

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takebackthedream · 7 years

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Trump Offers “A Nation of Miracles.” Your Move, Democrats by Richard Eskow

The bad news for Democrats in President Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress is that he exceeded expectations. A Washington Post headline called the speech “surprisingly presidential.” it’s likely to solidify Trump’s hold on his base, and will probably gain him some additional ground.

Expectations weren’t very high, especially after the apocalyptic tone of his inaugural address. The fact that he didn’t announce the End of Days and call down hellfire on four-fifths of the globe probably caused sighs of relief all over the country.

Still, Trump’s detractors forget that he has a gift for aspirational rhetoric that plays well among many Americans. It’s a gift many Democrats seem to have lost.

A Nation of Miracles

Trump was clearly chastened by recent criticism over his seeming indifference to racism. He began by noting Black History Month, a wave of anti-Semitic threats and vandalism, and the shooting of two Indian-American men in Kansas City.

Trump’s remarks were uplifting. We know, because he told us so.

“I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength,” he said, “and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart.” He spoke of “American greatness,” “a new national pride,” “a new surge of optimism,” and “the renewal of the American spirit.”

“Our children will grow up in a nation of miracles,” Trump said as he promised jobs, medical breakthroughs, and the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure.

The speech hewed to themes laid out by Trump political advisor Stephen Bannon at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “The center core of what we believe,” Bannon said, “(is) that we’re a nation with an economy… a culture and a reason for being.”

That belief is as exclusionary as it is visionary. Trump’s comments about economic greatness were matched, almost word for word, by fearmongering about immigrants. When it comes to that “nation of miracles,” it seems that only native-born Americans need apply.

The Fine Print

The president seemed to promise a major infrastructure plan in his speech, but it’s important to read the fine print. Trump said:

“I will be asking the Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure of the United States – financed through both public and private capital – creating millions of new jobs.”

That connecting phrase, “financed through public and private capital,” is telling. It sounds like a plan to sell off some the resources Americans hold in common – from bridges and dams to the federal highway system – coupled with massive corporate tax breaks and a plethora of financial deals that will funnel billions in public funds to Wall Street’s already-overflowing coffers.

You didn’t think Goldman Sachs was staffing his administration without getting something out of the deal, did you?

Falling in Line

Trump’s speech made clear he has brought most recalcitrant Republicans firmly to heel. “I am sickened by what I heard today,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said last October about Trump’s videotaped sexual remarks. “Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified.”

“I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States,” Ryan said as he introduced the president to the gathered lawmakers. Ryan, Vice President Mike Pence, and other GOP leaders stood and applauded over and over as Trump lied about crime, terrorism, or immigration.

Weren’t they supposed to be the decent ones?

But the Republicans in Congress have tamed Trump, too. Tuesday’s speech largely toed the Republican party line.

Take infrastructure. On the campaign trail, Trump promised major government investment. On Tuesday, he promised a financial boon for corporations and bankers.

He promised no American would go without healthcare. But the ideas Trump floated on Tuesday could have been written by the insurance executives he hosted on Monday – and probably were. There, too, Trump’s political independence has been replaced by Republican orthodoxy.

He promised not to cut Social Security or Medicare, as Congressional Republicans are determined to do. But he pointedly refused to repeat that promise on Tuesday night.

Republicans applauded lustily for most of Trump’s speech. But the applause seemed to grow tepid on both sides of the aisle when Trump mentioned having killed the TPP trade agreement. The TPP, like NAFTA and other such pacts, was a bad deal for American workers. Nevertheless, a “bipartisan” consensus of Washington insiders – a group that is heavily funded by corporate contributions – has supported those agreements for decades.

Small Dreams

But it is Trump’s optimism in the speech, not the specifics, that many people will remember. And with Trump’s approval rating at historic lows, he has no place to go but up.

That’s why it’s so frustrating to see so many Democrats continue to flounder in the face of a political phenomenon they don’t seem to understand. Americans in the Republican base feel hopeless, so they vote for politicians like Trump. Americans in the Democratic base feel hopeless, too, so many of them don’t vote at all.

Trump offered a bold-sounding vision of trillion-dollar spending and major policy reform. But the policy portion of former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear’s Democratic response began with Beshear boasting that he had been “fiscally responsible… balanced our budget and turned deficits into surpluses without raising taxes.”

Too many Democrats remain obsessed with irrelevant political processes and outdated fiscal notions, even as their nemesis weaves a vision of a better life for millions. These self-appointed arbiters of expectation behave as if idealism itself was irresponsible. They seem to pride themselves on the smallness of their dreams.

Beshear led off by explaining that while he is a Democrat, he is also “a proud Republican and Democrat and mostly American.” That may have just been a gaffe, but it reflects a long-standing Democratic reluctance to associate themselves with their own party.

For what it’s worth, Beshear improved considerably after that.

Restarting the Engine

If Trump scored points with his proposal for a “deregulation task force,” was he also scoring a subliminal association with his “deportation force”? That’s partly because Democrats have failed to make the case for government’s vital role in keeping Americans safe and secure.

If his childcare plan sounded generous when it’s actually a giveaway to the rich, that’s partly because Dems haven’t agreed on one of their own.

And if his underhanded corporate giveaway on infrastructure raised some people’s hopes, that’s partly because so many Democrats haven’t dared to think big for a long time.

Trump claimed that tax breaks for corporations would “restart the engine of the American economy.” But workers, not corporations, drive the economy. This country needs a political party that will make that case, boldly and directly.

Democrats who were hoping Trump would inflict a knockout punch on himself Tuesday night undoubtedly walked away disappointed. It looks like they’re going to have to learn to fight for themselves.

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consciousowl · 7 years

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Is There an Upside To Setbacks?

Hello darkness, my old friend,

I've come to talk with you again,

Because a vision softly creeping,

Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence.

Paul Simon, “The Sound of Silence”

Have you ever flunked a major exam and failed the class? Have you ever had advanced placement, only to find that you weren’t up to the challenge, and better go back to the next class of freshmen coming in?

Maybe you have even been suspended from school, and had your relatives and friends lecture you and tell you that you were up to no good.

Either you felt like a dunce forced to sit at the back of the class and face continual ridicule, or a juvenile hood or punk, like one of the famed motorcyclists, “Born to Raise Hell.”

Is a Setback Really a Setback?

We all assume that a setback is either all our fault, or someone out there is to blame for messing us up. We often start out with a tight agenda in life, and it better be filled. If we have aspirations, we want an ivy league education, professional credentials and early membership in a rising star startup that all but guarantees we turn millionaires by our early 30’s.

We rarely consider that we primarily learn through challenges, obstacles and setbacks, like a flabby prize fighter who has never been thrown into the ring or done advanced training.

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One knockout punch, and it would be all over. You don’t get to take on the World Heavy-Weight Champion until you are more than ready… until you’ve gotten enough beating to get there.

Life doesn’t usually throw us the most severe challenges until we are ready.

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Character-building is no joke. Most millionaires, even billionaires, have declared bankruptcy several times in their careers. Just look at Donald Trump! You aren’t a seasoned pro until you’ve been around the block.

Welcome to the club!

Revisiting the Past Can Be Enlightening

I find Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle the most intriguing TV / Movie series I have ever watched. It was introduced before Donald Trump ran for President, and President Obama was in his heyday. It is based on the premise that President Roosevelt was assassinated early on, and America waddled through the Great Depression much longer and sat through World War II until the fascists proved invincible.

By the second season, American boys in school are saluting the Nazi flag and chanting “Heil, Hitler!” An authoritarian society has become the standard, and a liberal society is but a distant dream, with a handful of Resistance operatives risking their lives daily.

There is only one problem with this whole scenario. Yes, Donald Trump has become our President, and yes, he has German ancestry. However, we can never fully return to the past, even though we see his Presidential orders reversing many of President Obama’s key initiatives. We are now in a global society, and too many people in too many places know too much.

History spirals forward, constantly moving in circles, but always inching upward.

We don’t have expansion without recession, booms without bust, regulation without deregulation. Everything moves in cycles, much like the celestial bodies. Reversing direction is nature’s way of driving us to the next level.

Setbacks: The Macro Perspective

While it is true that global warming and climate change are a direct threat to our collective survival, it is also true that other priorities need to be addressed. Recent Democratic Presidents, such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, have done a lot to bring us together on a planetary scale. But they have also made miscalculations on the domestic and international scale that severely set us back.

Anyone who has lived through the Cold War era has no interest in seeing relations with Russia deteriorate. A massive amount of psychic energy was wrapped up in the Eastern and Western blocks. We couldn’t collaborate in any meaningful way, such as conducting joint missions to other planets. The collective firepower of America and Russia was such as to annihilate humanity 50 times over!

Yet the Democratic Party has been relatively clueless about challenges within Russian society, or their struggle to transition out of a planned socialist economy into a thriving capitalist economy. Had America been more helpful in the 1990’s, the 2000’s might have gone a whole lot smoother.

Donald Trump revealed that economic politics in the United States have replaced identity politics.

Just think of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. While affirmative action and other programs have done much for minority groups throughout the country, youths of European descent are challenged to start a new life and buy a house. They must stay with their parents throughout their 20’s. Manufacturing has all but evaporated here.

There are always two sides to any issue.

Setbacks: The Micro Perspective

Several years back, I was hospitalized for a relatively minor surgery. Due to complications, I had to stay two full weeks, with unpleasant financial repercussions. From there, I had two months of convalescence where I was challenged to walk normally.

During the first week in the hospital, I have one of the most moving spiritual experiences in my life, where I was never closer to God. I felt thankful to everyone and everything. I enjoyed a beautiful suite with a view, and constant attendance by the nurses and specialists. Those people who were really there for me came several times. I, myself, felt like an honored guest.

After the hospital stay, I had a chance to get much closer to my best friend, getting much more in synch with her. We developed a deeper understanding and appreciation of one another than might ever have been possible. What was initially a major upset (initially my very life was in danger), turned out to be a great blessing, and I am healthier than before.

Always Have a Plan B

It is always a good idea to have a Plan B to back up your Plan A. Reversals have a way of occurring when you least expect them. You needn’t change your objective, just the way that you fulfill it. My partners and I planned to enlighten the world with a book revealing our new planetary age. When the book didn’t realize the traction in the market we had hoped, we took a major step backward.

Later on, it became most apparent that our grand vision was too big for most to grasp and we needed to create this web portal, and address people’s day-to-day challenges, so our vision could be more easily shared and seen, and so that our reader’s might more easily apply this to their lives.

It has been joked that, so often in life, our Plan A turns to Plan B, we might as well start off with our Plan B. Yet in no other way could we arrive at the place of designing and executing flawless Plan A’s.

Trust in Appearances or Trust in God?

The choice is yours! We can look around us and thoroughly convince ourselves that what we think we see is what is really there. However, quantum physics has made that assumption totally obsolete. All is energy and consciousness. Matter is form, and form is information. We are a delightful dance in universal consciousness.

It takes great courage to trust in Supreme Being despite contrary appearances. Sometimes, it really seems the world is about to end, as one ice shelf after another slips into the ocean, in both the Arctic region and Antarctica.

Yet, as we go within, we can find direct access to the greatest peace and the greatest love imaginable. When things are going well for us, and life seems easy, we have no time for God. Yet, when we are driven to a point of total surrender, we find a power within us that can move the stars.

Cosmic Humor Is the Perfect Prescription

Russians have a great sense of humor, although often it is very deep and black. It comes from massive challenges over the centuries, including fighting off the Monguls, fighting back Napoleon’s armies, and suffering the loss of 20 million people when the Nazi’s again tried to take the country. To top it all off, Russia had to muddle through 70 years of official State Communism, where free speech was too often curtailed, and free thought usually discouraged.

Yakov Smirnoff, who emigrated to the U.S. from Russia in the 1970’s, became a leading American comedian, who played off being both Russian and Jewish. He turned oppression into a source of amusement.

Even though Yakov revealed many weaknesses in the former Soviet Union, he also fostered a love for the Russian people themselves, apart from any political or economic system:

In America, you can always find a party.

In Soviet Russia, The Party can always find you!

Yakov

In my earlier days after my first transformational training, I obsessed about surviving. One of the friends in the movement countered my insanity by suggesting, “You may NOT survive!” Then it dawned on my how absurd such a preoccupation was.

Life is a precious gift. We live by the grace of God (your inner power). As long as God gives me breath, I have a purpose here. Let it be fulfilled!

Whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Is There an Upside To Setbacks? appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.

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