Waste, Negligence & Cronyism: Inside UK’s Pandemic Spending - The New York Times

I see the US has picked up the UK Pandemic spending scandal whilst our Gov claims there’s nothing to see ⁦@JolyonMaugham⁩ ⁦@DamianHastie⁩ ⁦@allthecitizens⁩

Of the $22billion contracts awarded about $11 billion went to companies either run by friends and associates of politicians in the Conservative Party, or with no prior experience or a history of controversy. Meanwhile, smaller firms without political clout got nowhere.

Seven months on just over half the contracts awarded remain hidden from the public.

But 1 in 10 contracts that went through the Government’s VIP Crony lane were awarded compared to 1 in 100 through the ordinary lane.

What’s our anti corruption Tzar, Dido Harding’s husband, John Penrose, doing about it? (You couldn’t make it up).

The thing is, they think it is perfectly normal. I mean, they get the contracts because they are mates & donors who just happen to be better than the little folk.

Meanwhile companies like Multibrand who actually manufacture PPE just got ignored..

Lot of comment on RBI becoming Pro Growth & keeping Inflation in back ground. Few Points to ponder.
- Inflation is being pushed on back burner globally. ECB moved from Inflation to Growth long back. US Fed has publicly stated to tolerate higher Inflation.

RBI pre Inflation targeting framework was managing Growth, Inflation, Govt Borrowing, Rupee and Financial stability remarkably well. Nobel Laurate Joseph Stiglitz complemented RBI stating that US Sub prime crisis would have been averted if Dr Reddy was US Fed Governor.

Despite stupendous success of the RBI in managing conflicting needs of Indian Economy, Inflation Targetting Framework was established without proper definition/measurement of Inflation.

This was like attributing credit of Mahabharat Victory to Single minded focus of Arjun (could only see Bird's eye while shooting arrow) than all round guidance of Shree Krishna.

Oddly Central Banks around the world are now following RBI in managing conflicting objectives as per the need of economy.

1) Caste discrimination & atrocities
2) Caste based inequality in education, land, housing/other assets, income, health, etc.
3) Social structure based on Varna & Jatis

As social movements/activists, how do we prioritize & how much time & energy we devote to each of them? 1/n

In a society with inequitable social structure and caste based inequalities of above kind, discrimination might be -& as ex-untouchables like us know-it is every day affair.

So where do I put my head and heart on? 2/n

Do I shout & cry every day when I see discrimination or with a 'cool' head strategize & work for changing social structure & removing/reducing those inequalities?

At a societal level, who should do what? 3/n

If I don't shout, cry & protest, I might be seen as insensitive & perpetrators might take it for granted but if I keep doing it, where do I stop because discrimination of various kind in any geography internet society is every day affair & like happening in my own house 4/n

Why I am speaking loudly on these issues is being active on Twitter/FB for some time, I got an impression that what matters most or perhaps what is made more visible is discrimination than the root causes. Is my impression wrong? 5/n

Looking Back to Look Forward: 🧵

Like many, in March 2020 I started feeling very concerned about so many people losing their jobs , not having enough saved to cover basic needs like rent & food for even a month or 2.

And like many wonderful UAE residents, I too did my

best to support with 💰.
However, they say give a gal 🐟 , & she will eat one day; teach a gal to 🐟 & she'll eat every day.

So partly to quell my anxiety but mostly to help the avg. hardworking person learn how to invest, I started blogging about investing.

If you're new to investing or want a refresher, here is how you can catch up. A short course in blogs & videos.

Lesson 1: Why should you invest?

Well, if we’ve learned anything from this pandemic, it’s the importance of saving for uncertainties.

👀 @ 2 charts below H/T @SamRo

The top 1% holds 61% of their wealth in Equities & only 11% in Real Estate , 12% in 💵

Bottom 50% hold 55% in Real Estate, only 6% 💵 & 4% in Equity.

So, the top 1% have liquid assets that have 👍🏽 compounding effect to grow 💰.
I explain more

Lesson 2: Budgeting & How To Save

Yes, you want that fancy car, fancy address or clothes, shoes, bags for that extra Instagram shoot. Certainly have fun but remember less is more.

Here’s how I saved 32% of my income in my mid-twenties AFTER

NEW: @OleMiss is trying to compel its ombudsman to turn over confidential communications in order to unmask the #UMemails whistleblowers who exposed a web of racism among UM officials and donors.

The effort has "terrified" faculty members.

“We’re all worried the university is going to get a hold of his communications & that our names will be revealed,” said one faculty member (not a whistleblower) who shared concerns with the ombudsman, fearing retaliation if they raised them elsewhere. 2/

Two faculty members said they worry the university could be laying groundwork to eliminate the Ombudsman Office altogether.

“If they took that Ombuds office away, there would be nowhere for faculty to go. ... That’s the only place we have on campus." 3/

"People would be terrified of speaking up because people who speak up get hammered at this university. There is no place to go except the Ombuds office to be treated fairly & with respect. Paul Caffera as the ombudsman is the only place women can go.” 4/

The University of Mississippi EORC, which is charged with enforcing Title IX, is leading the investigatory effort to unmask the #UMEmails whistleblowers on "hostile work environment" allegations" after they exposed a web of racism and sexism on campus. 5/

Over a month ago, we completed a big restructuring @FOCUSBRANDS to adjust for scale and prep for next growth phases. My 2nd big reorg in 10 years there, and I'm so proud of it! Will share more soon, but here's a thread on making changes before you are forced to + tough calls.

I am so grateful for leadership changes we made over the last 2 years - wish I would have made some even earlier. I can't imagine going through a large reorg (+2020) w/o the new presidents and leaders we promoted, invested in and hired, which also meant parting ways with some.

Making changes when you "don't have to" is a bit of a paradox. You DO have to. It's just that you aren't forced to (yet). I've learned to redefine crisis & know that a time will come that pressure-tests my team. I know that I "must" do it before I "have" to do it.

I use that knowledge to initiate changes in human, caring, and direct ways. An example of one of those convos (major paraphrasing): "you were a fit for some time, but no longer, we're not parting ways today, but we need to unwind by "X", let's build a plan to do that together"

There is much left out of that little clip of a sentence: development attempts, collaboration, etc. etc., but when you know, you know, and often (always in my experience) they do, too. At that stage, their optimal growth will be somewhere else - I want to get them there.

There is a ton of contradictory stuff flying around about what @MichelBarnier says is the EU's bottom line for fair competition in any free trade agreement with the UK. As I understand it, what follows is the EU's position. For the "level playing field commitments" there...

should be "non regression" - ie on standards for working practices, environmental etc, the UK must stick to current EU rules, subject to tests and the risk of legal challenge if there is a perceived breach of the obligations. And the non-regression rules apply to the EU as...

well as to the UK. They are mutual symmetrical obligations in that sense. The requirements not to give unfair subsidies to businesses, the state aid rules, are different, and more complicated, because subsidies to businesses given out of EU funds (as opposed to national funds)...

are not subject to state aid rules. So Barnier is proposing a solution to that "UK problem", such that the state obligations would be seen to bind both the UK and the EU. The big point is that @MichelBarnier seems to be trying hard to create a framework in which the...

obligations to engage in fair competition bind both the UK and the EU, and are not simply the big bad EU imposing its will on the UK. The baseline for both at the start of any free trade agreement would be the same, and subject to the same processes to prevent unfair...

Behind the scenes of Great Reset

IMPERATIVES21 ($15 trillions in assets)
Created as a basis for masive economic system change Driving a RESET from shareholders to Stakeholder Capitalism = Socialism as a New Economic Model
No property, no privacy.

👇Your new owners. Voted for them? "Founding members: B Lab, B Team, CECP, ‼️Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism with Vatican (Lynn Forrester de Rothschild), Conscious Capitalism, JUST Capital have been working independently for years to manifest a new vision of the economy.

Announcement of Commitment: Imperative 21, October 24, 2019. A full page ad in the New York Times, September 13, 2020, the 50th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s seminal essay on shareholder primacy, kicked off the RESET campaign.

The plans were made, without no crises, they had to invent one. Systems used to change after the war/revolution. It looks that we are in the middle of silent WW3. Virus, lockdowns, vaccines are weapons. Goal: change of socio-economic system into

Reset's Countdown:2019&2020
Oct,18: Event 201
Oct, 24: Imperatives 21 announced
Nov 19: Council for Inclusive Capitalism met with Vatican
Nov 22: Kissinger visits China
Dec 2, Schwab, WEF: Davos Manifesto
January 21:WEF meeting
March 11:Pandemic declared
May: The Great Reset

Repainting Religious Landscape: Economics of Conversion and Making of Rice Christians in Colonial South India (1781-1880) by M. Christhu

The ‘rice Christian’ of the Orient goes through the very same steps, when he is after rice and the missionary is after him—Mark Twain

Missionaries believed that calamities and famines were opportunities to make more ‘believers’.

During the eighteenth century, few British writers and missionaries compared the economically-challenged Roman Catholics in England with that of rice Christians in India.

The colonial administrators noted that the Dutch missionaries in India, who established schools for religious instruction, denominated the converts as rice Christians.

Income by race converged at the greatest rate between 1940 and 1970.

However, as of 2018, Black/white income disparities were almost exactly the same as they were in 1968, 50 years

Although clear majorities supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a national poll conducted shortly after its passage showed that 68% of Americans wanted moderation in its enforcement.

In fact, many felt that LBJ was moving too fast in implementing integration.

On the heels of Reconstruction came a period that Southerners called “redemption,” a violent project to restore white hegemony.

Redemption coincided with the vast upheaval of industrialization and urbanization, when the United States more broadly plunged into the Gilded Age.

But as the century turned and the Gilded Age gave way to the Progressive Era, a diverse group of reformers grabbed the reins of history and set a course toward greater economic equality, political bipartisanship, social cohesion and cultural communitarianism.

Some six decades later all of those upward trends reversed, setting the United States on a downward course that has brought us to the multifaceted national crisis in which we find ourselves today, which bears a remarkable resemblance to the Gilded Age.

1/25
Patrick Byrne, former CEO of Overstock. com & he’s served in executive leadership over several other large companies in the tech & manufacturing industries.

2/25
He is a Constitution-loving registered Libertarian and who has helped the FBI fight the rampant corruption on Wall Street. He says, “I knew what the Bad Guys were going to do this Election and I had a reason to know that there was something big coming, that I won’t go into

3/25
right now.” While the Democrats and the Mainstream Media have been claiming that there is “no evidence of widespread fraud” during the 2020 Elections, this is because they refuse to investigate the matter or report on it.

4/25
In fact, Tucker Carlson turned Patrick Byrne away, when Sidney Powell recommended he interview him. That’s why Byrne decided to make a spate of appearances on Independent Media, such as on Black Conservative Patriot and on The Pete Santilli Show.

5/25
- 2018 DALLAS ELECTIONS FRAUD -
In November of 2018, the Dallas elections, which were run on Dominion systems had encountered irregularities, so Texas’ state government had hired a cybersecurity firm to figure out and explore these irregularities.

Happy #JobsDay. 8:30 ET @BLS_gov delivers the most-important signals abt how economy is changing.

Forecasts' center:
+432,000 jobs
6.8% unemployment, tick down from 6.9%

But lots of reason to expect weaker jobs growth.

+245K jobs gained last month (mid-Oct to mid-Nov).

Small +11K revisions of last 2 months.

This continues the deceleration of job growth we seen steadily for months.

We are down 9.8 million jobs since Feb and growth is decelerating, likely to turn negative over the current month.

For comparison, during the Great Recession, we lost fewer than 9 million jobs.

We lost 9.19 million jobs over the last 12 months.

We gained 245K last month (0.2 million). This is half the growth rate over the last 3 months and an eight of the growth rate over the last 6 months.

Deceleration is clear.