America's great divide: The large parts of America behind by today's economy Kim Hart https://www.axios.com
Economic prosperity is concentrated in America's elite zip codes, but economic stability outside of those communities is rapidly deteriorating.
Data: Economic Innovation Group
Distressed Communities Index
Map: Lazaro Gamio / Axios
What that means: U.S. geographical economic inequality is growing, meaning your economic opportunity is more tied to your location than ever before. A large portion of the country is being left behind by today's economy, according to a county-by-county report released this morning by the Economic Innovation Group, a non-profit research and advocacy organization. This was a major election theme that helped thrust Donald Trump to the White House.
The 2017 Distressed Communities Index
The Distressed Communities Index (DCI) combines seven complementary metrics into a broad-based assessment of community economic well-being in the United States. Relying on Census Bureau data for the years 2011 to 2015, the DCI covers over 26,000 zip codes and 99.9 percent of the U.S. population as well as cities, counties and congressional districts, enabling Americans to understand how their local well-being stacks up at every scale of life. The DCI groups places evenly into five different tiers based on their performance on the index: Prosperous, comfortable, mid-tier, at risk, and distressed.
As you’ll see below, the U.S. economy contains a diverse and fragmented landscape of economic well-being—one in which many communities are flourishing, while far too many are left behind.
The 2017 DCI finds that52.3 million Americans live in economically distressed communities—the one-fifth of zip codes that score worst on the DCI. That represents one in six Americans, or 17 percent of the U.S. population. By comparison, 84.8 million Americans live in prosperous communities—the one-fifth of zip codes that score best on the DCI. These top-performing zip codes contain 27 percent of the country’s population, a far greater share than any other tier. Underlying indicators of well-being vary drastically across the different tiers of U.S. communities. READ MORE > http://eig.org/dci
Doesn't look like the 16-year war is ending any time soon
Afghan Air Force receives first Black Hawk helicopters
Reuters Staff September 19, 2017 / 4:02 AM / 6 days ago
KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Air Force took delivery of its first four U.S.-made UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters on Tuesday as part of a planned replacement of its aging fleet of Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters, officials said.
The U.S. plans to supply a total of 159 Black Hawks to Afghanistan in the coming years as it boosts the capacity of the AAF, considered one of the best-performing parts of the Afghan Defence and Security Forces.
“The first Afghan Air Force UH-60s arrived today in Kandahar. They will help further develop a capable and sustainable AAF,” the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said.
The robust Soviet-era Mi-17 is the workhorse of the AAF, accounting for around half of all sorties in recent months and is very popular with Afghan pilots.
As well as moving troops and casualties and flying in supplies to areas difficult to reach by road, the helicopters can also be fitted with weapons for close air support to units on the ground.
Blogger Note:
According to this report on 18 Nov 2013Earlier this year Pentagon had agreed to buy a total of 63 Mi-17 V5 helicopters for the Kabul government at a cost of $1.1 billion. Photo: AP
Russian military experts have accused the U.S. Defense Departmentof playing politics and bowing to lobbyists in its cancellation of an additional $345 million worth of Russian Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan air force. The Pentagon last week cancelled a plan to buy 15 more Russian Mi-17 helicopters to beef up the Afghan air force, citing weapons sales from Rosoboronexport, the state arms exporter, to the Syrian government. "From the very beginning it was clear that this deal was very sensitive. There were constant demands in the U.S. to get out of it for political reasons," said Vasily Kashin, an expert from the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. Kashin added that previous to this, no one had doubted that the Mi-17 would be the best choice for the Afghan air force. "In Afghanistan, there is a big problem with the staff. They at least still have some technicians who have experience with Soviet equipment. But Afghans do not know how to properly maintain machinery from Western producers," Kashin said. The United States, whose troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan in early 2014, already purchased 20 Russian Mi-17. According to an agreement that is part of the joint effort of Moscow and Washington to combat international terrorism, the Pentagon had agreed to buy a total of 63 Mi-17 V5 helicopters for the Kabul government at a cost of $1.1 billion.
However their age makes them increasingly difficult to maintain and replace and they are to be phased out over the coming years and replaced with refurbished Black Hawks, one of the mainstays of the U.S. Army’s helicopter force.
In addition to operational considerations, the Pentagon has also long faced political pressure from Congress to switch spending to U.S.-built aircraft.
Strengthening the Afghan Air Force is a central part of President Ashraf Ghani’s four year plan to improve Afghan security forces which have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency since the NATO-led coalition backing the government ended its main combat operations in 2014. Source: https://www.reuters.com
Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
Just in case . . . Published on Sep 22, 2017 Views: 13,467,027
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I made a brick mold that makes bricks 25 x 12.5 x 7.5 cm from wood. A log was split and mortise and tenon joints were carved using a stone chisel and sharp rocks. The mold was lashed together with cane to prevent it from coming apart when used.
Next, I made a mixture of mud and palm fiber to make the bricks. This was then placed into the mold to be shaped and taken to a drying area. 140 bricks were made.
When dry, the bricks were then assembled into a kiln. 32 roof tiles were then made of mud and fired in the kiln. It only took 3 hours to fire the tiles sufficiently. The mud bricks and tiles were a bit weaker than objects made from my regular clay source because of the silt, sand and gravel content of the soil. Because of this, I will look at refining mud into clay in future projects instead of just using mud.
Interestingly, the kiln got hot enough so that iron oxide containing stones began to melt out of the tiles. This is not metallic iron, but only slag (iron oxide and silica) and the temperature was probably not very high, but only enough to slowly melt or soften the stones when heated for 3 hours.
The kiln performed as well as the monolithic ones I've built in the past and has a good volume. It can also be taken down and transported to other areas. But the bricks are very brittle and next time I'd use better clay devoid of sand/silt, and use grog instead of temper made of plant fiber which burns out in firing. The mold works satisfactorily. I aim to make better quality bricks for use in furnaces and buildings in future.
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折田吏毅
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Перевод песен
Caption authors (Slovak)
Tay Tay,
Перевод песен
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Zsolt Kadar
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Guillaume F
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Sigve Hagesæter
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Jens Delorge
Let's get down to the nitty-gritty: There was an earliest post on this blog about plans for Boeing to move jobs from Seattle, WA here to Mesa when the World Trade Organization was about to rule on subsidies from the State of Washington that might get taken away, and looking to either/or the City of Mesa or State of Arizona to provide "incentives" to land more jobs here. Now there's more to deal with in international competition in the markets, the question of tariffs and subsidies and trade/finance blocks in global regions and domestically - where resolving some of the problems depends on whom Trump chooses to appoint [and get approved by Congress] for vacancies on the Security & Exchange Commission where Patriarch Partners owner Lynn Tilton has been under investigation for six years, and for seats on the board of the Ex-Im Bank. . . that's all a mash-up in some ongoing details farther along in this post. First, back to the article in The Economist:
“WE WON’T do business with a company that is busy trying to sue us.” So said an uncharacteristically stern Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, alongside his British counterpart, Theresa May, in Ottawa on September 18th. The two had teamed up to take on Boeing. The giant American aeroplane-maker is pressing Donald Trump’s administration to impose duties on commercial jets made by Canada’s Bombardier. Boeing says its smaller rival is using Canadian government subsidies to sell aircraft to Delta, an American carrier, at below cost price. . .
Few in either country question that Bombardier has had vital financial support from the Canadian and British governments . . . It was not until 2016 that the aircraft’s future seemed assured, when Delta ordered 75 units. Boeing then accused Bombardier of dumping the jets into America at “absurdly low” prices and asked the Commerce Department to impose countervailing duties. A preliminary ruling is due on September 25th. . . Naturally, Boeing itself got billions of dollars of help (in the form of military contracts) to get off the ground back in the 1950s and 1960s. . . Boeing has reasons to guard against Bombardier. First, it fears encirclement by state-subsidised aircraft makers—not only Airbus and Bombardier, but ambitious state-supported Chinese and Russian producers. . .
If Boeing gets its way, about 3,500 jobs will be threatened in Quebec, where Canadian politicians are wary of stirring up separatist sentiment, and a further 4,500 in Northern Ireland, where Bombardier is the largest private-sector employer. Mrs May’s Conservative government is propped up by the ten MPs from the province’s Democratic Unionist Party; Bombardier lies in east Belfast, the party’s heartland.
Canada has also threatened to cancel a likely $5bn order of military jets from Boeing if the American company prevails against Bombardier; Britain could follow its lead. Several airlines, fearing less competition among planemakers, are unhappy with Boeing’s behaviour and privately threaten to shun its jets if it continues to bully its smaller rival. This may be the trade case that ends up costing Boeing much more than it has to gain.
Online research suggests that one of the issues for industry supporters of the Export-Import Bank is urging action on three nominees stalled in The Senate.
If export financing isn't available, the project doesn't stop. You just find an export credit agency in another country - when that happens the supply chain leaves the United States and finds a home in that country.
At the same time Ex-I'm Bank is caught in the crossfire of conservative groups like The Heritage Foundation and "Tea Party" activists who say the government should not be involved in export credit financing.
60 other nations do that. Trump has given mixed signals . . .
Industry supporters of the US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) are urging quick ... that Eximbank helps small US companies as well as large ones such as Boeing, ...
> Why Governments Shouldn't Treat Companies as 'National Champions'
Boeing, with its proven record of slopping at the government trough, is another example of government favoritism. In fact, the Export-Import Bank is sometimes referred to as ‘Boeing’s Bank.’ A study released two years ago by the non-profit organization Good Jobs First showed that over the previous 15 years, Boeing was one of five triple dippers – companies that received funds from three sources: state subsidies, as well as federal grants and tax credits, and federal loans, loan guarantees and bailout assistance. At $13.4 billion, Boeing had received far more state and local subsidies than any other company. But what has this huge subsidy actually bought for Americans? The aerospace giant has been pruning staff for over a year, sharply cutting jobs in its home base of Seattle and in South Carolina. . .
Canadian and U.S. governments enable Bombardier and Boeing in their addiction to corporate welfare. Even worse than the direct dollar cost are the indirect costs: Corporate welfarism distorts investment, shifting capital in the markets based not on value but on government favoritism. It prompts more capital to go to big companies with a foot in the government door, drying up capital needed by start-ups and SMEs. It encourages businesses to invest in lobbying government rather than developing new products. And it undermines the process of creative destruction that drives the creation of wealth.
The Take-Away:
Governments should not treat companies as national champions for a simple reason – they aren’t. Bombardier does not champion the interests of Canadians, any more than Boeing champions the interests of Americans. They champion the interests of their investors, as they should. Governments need to champion the interests of their people. The best way to do that is to refrain from lobbingsubsidies to some favored companies, and encourage an open marketplace for all of them.
Blogger Note:Allan Golombek is a Senior Director at the White House Writers Group
> Ex-Im Bank Cronies: 0 Pro-Market Advocates: 1
by Veronique de Rugy September 7, 2017 2:14 PM Source: National Review
After the Export-Import Bank’s charter was reauthorized at the end of 2015, it was still unable to function at its full crony potential. The bank needs a quorum of its board if it wants to approve loans larger than $10 million, but it currently only has two members instead of the three needed. I would like to see the Bank fully dead, but since that doesn’t seem to be in the cards right now I am pretty content with this current state
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/451146/ex-im-bank-cronies-defeated-export-import-bank
> Trump picks wrong side in battle over 'Bank of Boeing'
There's a battle looming over the "Bank of Boeing," with President Donald Trump squaring off against the business community, including some Illinois-based companies.
The "Bank of Boeing" is what critics sneeringly call the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a federal agency that provides low-cost loan guarantees that help companies, including Boeing, expand and compete internationally.
Trump wants the Senate to approve former congressman and Ex-Im Bank nemesis Scott Garrett as president of that federal lending agency.
The reality is the bank serves an important public-private purpose that helps the economy.
One of its main functions is providing U.S.-backed guarantees on higher-risk loans to global buyers of big-ticket items from U.S. manufacturers. The bank makes business loans, provides insurance and makes sure firms selling overseas are paid promptly.
That translates into jets from Boeing, heavy equipment from Caterpillar or parts from any number of Illinois-based companies and suppliers employing thousands of people.
Trump was critical of the Ex-Im Bank during his campaign. Yet earlier this year, at the prodding of bipartisan and pro-Ex-Im Bank forces, he voiced a change of heart and vowed to revive the bank.
