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Katy Balls of The Spectator looks at the stop Rishi Sunak, stop Liz Truss, Stop Penny Mordaunt groups forming in the Tory Party. Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, is the candidate for groups not favoring Sunak including Boris Johnson supporters who see his withdrawal of support for Johnson leading to Johnson's resignation. Mordaunt does not support Liz Truss and is expected to shift to Sunak if Liz and Sunak are in the final two. Penny Mordaunt is seen as having a good chance against Sunak if Penny and Sunak are the final two, yet her inexperience could also be a problem. Sunak had questions about his own tax payment and is opposed to cutting taxes, making it harder to get support across the party. 

This Tory leadership election in which 200,000 party members vote for a leader is taking place too quickly and too often. Johnson was elected in 2019, only three years later he is out. Before Johnson, Cameron was out and Theresa May was elected in 2016.

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Kagan argues that the U.S should hold Iraq responsible for continuing free elections and democratic process after the American withdrawal, and efforts to prevent sectarian strife and promote reconciliation between the different religious groups and factions. He cites Iraq's lack of aircraft to maintain air sovereignty, and the challenges facing Iraq in preventing use of its territory by terrorist groups and countering Iranian influence. Similiar concerns are expressed by Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, deputy commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

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Educational opportunity and mobility in the EU countries compared to the U.S. and Britain. Germany and France have maintained access to educational opportunity as a path to upward mobility for people of all classes in society. The deterioration in educational opportunity and access in the U.S. has long term consequences. It is also rarely mentioned in comparisons with Europe. Both sides of the Atlantic still espouse the same ideals for access to education for all, part of the ideals for their framework for democracy, even as the U.S. falls behind in practice. Better educated societies across all classes of society with upward mobility can also make more informed and better choices for society and government.

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Republican Jeb Bush's address to the 2013 CPAC conference focusses on the decline of social and educational mobility in the U.S. to its lowest point since 1945. In this address he points out that " the central mission of conservatives is to reignite social mobility in this country- restoring the right to rise." His focus on restoring the right to rise is on doing everything to increase opportunities for "quality education," an issue on which he focussed as governor of Florida. He sees technolgy and relative youthful population compared to China and other countries in Europe, as giving America a unique advantage. On this and individual efforts he pins the broad hopes of the middle class revival he sees. He puts the problems of America's middle class and working class as wages declined and the economy suffered from misallocation of resources in stark terms- "Today, the sad reality is that if you're born poor, if your parents did'nt go to college, if you don't know your father, if English isn't spoken at home- then the odds are stacked against you. You are more likely to stay poor today than at any other time since World War II." And he sees Conservatives having a response to this situation, and restoring the idea of America as a land of opportunity for all....

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Friedman draws attention to a very important thing that a perceptive eye like his has grasped, there is too much rhetoric on the democratic and Obama side about focussing on Afghanistan without knowledge of whats going on in the field and all the risks in haphazard involvement and expansion of the war, reminiscent of the small war that was going on in south east Asia when Kennedy assumed office. Another young and inexperienced President who needed to show that he could be tough and just as the cold war was taking shape with the Berlin airlift and other events in Europe. The early years of the Kennedy administration led to an haphazard expansion of the war without fully understanding the situation in the ground. Scweich and Rory's account and the cable by the British ambassador in Kabul and other links show that the war there has to be very carefully handled by the most capable people knowledgeable about what is happening in the ground.

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The Chinese car market is changing fast, with domestic brands making up a larger share of the local market. In 2000 these domestic brands made up 18% of total sales, whereas in 2010 forecasts show this to be about 32%, with the share increasing in future years. In a rapidly growing market this did not make much difference, but with the market growth moderating to 7-8% in the next ten years from the heady 33% of recent years, the foreign brands such as GM and VW will not see the growth of recent years. J.D. Powers projects passenger vehicle sales in China at 19.2 million by 2017, with Chinese brands taking 45% of the share, in one scenario. Under this scenario foreign brands like GM and VW would see sales growth of only 5% in the next 7 years. The foreign brands are not allowed to own more than 50% of local operations. And their partners are making their own domestic brands. If Japan is a useful example, China's automobile companies will like Nisssan, Toyota, and Honda, proceed to penetrate global markets and become a dominant player in their local market. This has implications for GM, VW and Daimler....

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Rapid growth in SUV sales in China in 2011-2014. SUV sales increased by 49% in 2013 over 2012.

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Gerald Seib of the WSJ describes the huge wave of young supporters who helped Labor party leader Corbyn in Britain's 2017 general election. He cites an analysis by the Financial Times that shows young people backed Labor over the Conservatives by 51 points more than the national average. People over age 65 backed Conservatives by 32 points more than the national average. This points to a staggering age gap of 83 points, said the Financial Times. Young people failed to turn out in large numbers during the Brexit vote, and this was a large factor in the pro Brexit win. One exit poll shows turnout went up by 12% in 2017 compared to the 2015 parliamentary election. Only 26% of voters in a WSJ/NBC poll for ages 18-34 years say they approve of U.S. president Trump's performance, 64% disapprove. Seib says the movement of Corbyn is similar to the Bernie Sanders movement in the U.S. and has implications for a similar surge of support showing up in the U.S.

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IBM is using Peace Corps type programs to give managers and other employees exposure to foreign countries and cultures. They do small projects in groups to help people in Asian and other developing countries to gain exposure and learn how to work in other cultures and languages. Its anew way to do management training in alive setting for a business like IBM's that is now truly internationalized with a majority of sales coming from foreign countries. In 2009 500 people will participate and it will do small projects in 9 countries including Brazil, India, Malaysia and South Africa. The group spends 3 months before going overseas reading about their host countries, studying the problems they are assigned to work on, and getting to know their group members. Once in the host country they work with local governments, universities and business groups to do projects from upgrading water quality in alocal area to upgrading technology for a government agency. ays Kevin Thompson who conceived of this Corporate Service Corps and manges it. He says the goal is to create a transformative experience in a foreign culture. One IT manager says she has learned to work closely with tam members in India and China as aresult of this experience. Before this she would tend to assign something and leave it to them....

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With more women getting higher education and pursuing careers, young Chinese women now prefer to be independent and postpone marraige. This has important consequences including smaller households and lower demand for some products. Women now make up more than half of all undergraduate students and half of graduate students in China. Beyond pursuing a career many women also see the importance of a loving relationship before marraige as opposed to being introduced to someone and finding a partner to go through life.

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Benjamin Pavrd's 20 yard goal with France behind 2-1 against Argentina in the World Cup will be remembered as the goal of the tournament. Pavard's parents living near the Belgian border in a small town made great sacrifices, and travelled a lot to send Pavard out at 10 years to practice soccer with teams in France including Lille. 

He accepted an offer from Stuttgart after getting few opportunities to play in Lille. He was also made part of the 23 member team for France only when a player could not play due to injury.

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The Rousseff administration announces plans to cut $30 billion in 2011 spending. Inflation is up by about 6% in January. Most of the cuts says Finance Minister Mantega, will be achieved by cutting earmarks added to the budget, and by slowing hiring in the public sector. But analysts say this will not be sufficient to control inflationary pressures, as 2011 spending will still be above 2010. Higher inflation puts pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates at an high of 11.25%, which in turn brings in speculative money and creates a highly overvalued currency.

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According to the American Society of Civil Engineers over 10% of the 607,000 bridges in the U.S. are structurally deficient. And 42% of U.S. highways are congested. A poor transportation system makes the U.S. less competitive. The cost to U.S. businesses from a poorly funded and maintained transportation system is about $430 billion more in operating expenses by 2020 and $1.7 trillion in lost opportunities, according to ASCE.

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Rattner calls his own contact with GM's culture a revelation of what went really wrong at the automaker before the bankruptcy. He refers to the "nods" and the "salutes," the superficial power point presentations, and failed leadership, calling it hugely disappointing and stunning in its scope and extent. The greatest damage is done to GM's employees, its partners and customers, and to America, with the collapse of values and culture at a key manufacturing company. Did Akerson and Whittaker, CEO's brought in from the outside after the bankruptcy, get a grip on this and make changes, or was their period at the company too short to make an impact. The period since the recalls has not convinced the American public that GM is now a different company.