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Russell Shorto, director of the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam gives a detailed account of lives of different people he visited in various parts of Greece in January 2012.

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Michas points out that the first bailout loan was made to the Papandreou Greek government without getting the opposition to agree on the terms of the loan. This has led to the opposition parties using the austerity cuts to win public support and undermine the government, making it even harder to carry through the changes and spending cuts.

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Mercedes is seeing signifcant sales growth in China. It is Mercedes's third biggest market with sales of 100,000 cars compared to 67,000 in 2009. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche says that given no downturn in the world economy Mercedes-Benz cars should reach its target for return on sales of 10% by the second half of 2012. He predicted EBIT of 2.5-3 billion euros for 2010, and plans to boost expenditures for R&D in fuel efficient technology and capital investments in new vehicle models in the second half of 2010. Analyst Warburton at Sanford and Bernstein, writes that Mercedes is likely to pass 7% margins in the first half of 2010, and will get a boost from a weaker euro plus strong sales in China. The only question is, as Dieter Zetsche noted, prospects depend on no downturn in the global economy. China's economy is growing too fast to be sustainable growth and a property bubble is developing, and its not certain how long strong sales in China will last. There are other signs of a slowdown in the global economy. See global economy....

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Doctors face a 21% cut in the amount of Medicare payments for treating seniors having Medicare, though this cut will be delayed till 2011 under legislation in Congress. This issue goes back to 1997, when a budget law set spending targets, and stated that if they were exceeded formulas to reduce doctors payments would go into effect. The formulas seriously cut into doctor payments by Medicare in 2002, so the formula was put off. The result of this is that the cuts based on the formula now amount to 21%. The cuts are not expected to go through, but at the same time Congress has an headache on its hands with the growing deficit. In the Senate there is opposition to a $120 billion bill to extend long term unemployment benefits which lapsed in June 2010, for tax breaks, and other expenses. Senators want to pare down the bill's price tag, as $80 billon of this is unfunded and will be added to the budget deficit. For a primary care doctor in Washington state, Medicare pays about $95 compared to private insurers payment of $129, and a plan for state workers that pays $140....

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Spencer Jakab provides this balanced perspective on Buffett's performance as an investor. Breaking the past 25 years into five periods gives a sense of how Buffett has fared in recent years compared to his performance in the early years. In the latest period since 2010 Berkshire stock has outperformed the market by a mere 0.9% annually. In the period 1995-1999 Berkshire performance trailed the S&P 500 significantly, making up for this in the next 5 years. As Berkshire became larger it was harder to generate results of the period around 1975. In that year returns were 129.3%. In 2015 Berkshire had to take big stakes in large companies such as Kraft. Gains for 2009 were 2.7%, 2010 21.4%, and 2011 minus 4.7%. Showing that Buffett's principles and approach remained intact- invest in what you know and be careful to respect what you don't know, invest in companies and their prospects for the long run (an option not easily available to mutual fund managers who are judged yearly), invest in companies generating large cash flows. Yet as Jakab points out performance has gradually declined over the years....

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Pfanner and Chen of the NYT talk to Samsung executives in Digital City, Suwon, head offices near Seoul. After capturing about 40% of the smartphone market Samsung still remains for the most part a hardware based company with strengths in production, cost and efficiency. Samsung still remains dependent on the Google Android software. Competitors in China are making smartphones that compete with Samsung products and cost much less. There is also the awareness of the problems faced by Motorola, Nokia, Blackberry, HTC, having only a temporary advantage in the fast paced software driven industry. Samsung's software efforts include merging its research effort in mobile operating systems with an industry effort that includes Intel Corp called Tizen operating system. In 2011 Samsung hired David Eun, who worked for AOL and Google, as one of the executives leading its software effort. The Boxee startup for television software was acquired and a partnership setup with the Flipboard news reading app company. In Feb. 2013 the Open Innovation Center was opened in S. Korea, New York and Mountain View, California, The same year the Samsung Accelerator program was setup in Palo Alto and Chelsea for tech startups to make products exclusively for Samsung. ...

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The WSJ cites polls in Italy Feb. 8, before the two week blackout prior to elections on Feb 24-25. The polls cited show the Centre left PD coalition of Luigi Bersani at 35% of the vote, the coalition of Silvio Berlusconi at 28%, the centrist Monti parties at around 10%, and the surging Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo in a range around 20%. The Monti centrist parties are facing difficulty because of the austerity measures taken by Monti's government in 2012. The Economist cites higher figures for the Monti centrist parties at 14% and puts Grillo's party at about 15%, showing the variations in poll figures. WSJ cites figures showing undecided vote at about 20% of voters, about 5 million voters being undecided. Voter turnout is also a factor, with less than the 80% voter turnout of 2008 expected in the current vote. The regional vote which determines the composition of the Senate shows Grillo likely to lead in Sicily, and the vote divided evenly between the PD party and Berlusconi's coalition in Lombardy. The best outcome for the eurozone is one in which the PD party wins, but not with a majority large enough for it not to need the support of the Monti centrist party, which is supported by Italy's business community and favored by the EU and Germany. ...

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The humble roots of Jorge Bergoglio, born of Italian immigrants to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied theology in Germany before becoming a Jesuit priest in 1969. Bergoglio was made bishop in 1992, archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and cardinal by Pope John Paul in 2001. Bergoglio has spent much of his time working with the poor and improving education and has avoided the titles and trappings of the position. He lived in an apartment near the cathedral in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, and cooked his own meals as archbishop. He loves Argentine tango music and is a soccer fan of the San Lorenzo Club, which was founded by Father Lorenzo, a priest who assisted at-risk kids. The sense of observers is of a person of overwhelming authenticity. Many in the Catholic Church worldwide feel this was a good choice for Pope by the cardinals because this is likely to bring the church closer to the people in Latin America, Europe and other parts of the world, and infuse the Church with new energy for renewal. Evangelical churches have spread in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, and church pews are seeing smaller numbers of people in Europe. Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, is seen as the right choice to reverse this trend and bring a regeneration of Catholicism at a difficult time. ...

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Compared to the situation in 2008-2009 during the global financial crisis with the excess supply of labor, China in 2012 faces an excess in demand for labor. In 2009 about 20% of migrant workers were unemployed when the crisis hit, and wages dropped 10% for migrant workers, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Stanford University. The situation three years later is one of tight labor markets and higer wages. A large stimulus in not only not needed today in the way it was in 2008-2009 as a way to maintain social stability, it would reduce the benefits of the anti-inflationary steps taken in 2011-2012, by putting more pressure on wages and prices. Manufacturing sector wages increased by 20.1% in 2011, according to China's statistics bureau. This may be why the Chinese government is taking measured steps to avoid creating more bad loans through indiscriminate lending, and being more selective in accelerating development projects in the pipeline. According to Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Officer China plans to have about 7% growth. This shift in approach would help China refocus on growth strategies recommended in the recent Development Reform Commission and World Bank Report on China....

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November 2012 light vehicle sales of cars and light trucks shows sales up significantly for Honda at 39%, Toyota 17%, and sales at Ford up 3%, GM 6%. GM decides to reduce production and not reduce prices with incentives that match competitors. VW sales increased 29%, Audi 24%, Daimler 13%, and BMW up 45%. Experts expect the better conditions in the U.S. auto market to continue especially as many cars that reach a life of 11 years need to be replaced. Light vehicle sales reach 1.14 million in Nov. 2012, up 15% over the prior year, and seasonally adjusted auto sales of 15.5 million are the highest since Jan 2008, according to Autodata Corp.

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The Center for Economics and Business Research in London estimates GDP growth for the UK of 0.4% in 2012. According to Britain's Office of National Statistics the UK economy contracted by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the third quarter.

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Gross exposure for derivatives, credit default swaps and other financial instruments tied to a default in five EU countries- Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy- is about $616 billion according to information from Markit, the Bank for International Settlements and and data firms. Christopher Whalen, editor of the Institutional Risk Analyst, says the financial industry is not cooperating to provide the information needed to understand the true extent of the exposure and the risks involved. This is why the Europeans are afraid of a default, he says, they have no idea what to expect out there. Darrell Duffie, Prof. at the Stanford School of Business, says this raises questions whether regulators know what contagion might occur among swaps holders.

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The story of Eiji Toyoda is largely the story of the modern Toyota company. He guided the company as president from 1967 to 1982 and following that as chairman and senior advisor, a service that spans the entire period from the formation of Toyota during the 1930's by Sakichi Toyoda and his son Kiichiro Toyoda till today. Eiji was Sakichi Toyoda's nephew, and 18 years younger than Kiichiro. He worked in the company's textile loom business in the early days before the formation of the company to manufacture automobiles as an entrepreneurial venture by Sakichi and Kiichiro. An auobiography by Eiji Toyoda pubished by Kodansha in 1985 tells the story- Toyota- Fifty Years In Motion. Most of the prewar period was spent manufacturing buses and motorized vehicles for the military. It was after visits to Ford's Rouge automobile plant in Detroit in the fifties that Eiji first picked up the ideas for a suggestion system and getting workers to provide ideas and make improvements that later became kaizen. Eiji was born in 1913 before the beginning of the first world war and passed away at the age of 100 in 2013. He lived a remarkable life that witnessed most of the events of the twentieth century, the transition from a militaristic to a peace loving nation, and technological progress in many fields. The technological evolution continues with the development of electric cars. In the early days of the automobile Sakichi had imported a German electric car which was limited by the short battery charge, a limitation Toyota and other companies are still tackling to this day, showing the technological challenges still ahead. The story of Toyota shows pioneering efforts and progress is continuous, as Toyota picked up the ideas from Ford and added new ones of its own for better products. Family companies with dedicated service spanning a century are rare and Toyota is one of these companies. When the recall crisis of 2011 brought the young CEO, Akio Toyoda, Kiichiro's grandson, to the verge of tears at a public event, the memories of a generation of leaders and the need to live up to their ideals and the work that preceded him must have gone through his mind....

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The borrowing costs of Italy declined sharply as 9 billion euros of Italy's government bonds were auctioned at a yield of 3.25 percent on Dec. 28, 2011, compared to 6.50 percent at a prior auction in November 2011. The rate on 1.7 billion euros of two year bonds auctioned declined to 4.85 percent from 7.81 percent in November. This follows action by the ECB providing a large infusion of low cost funds to European banks charging only 1 percent on three year loans.

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Both sides harden positions before the June 30th deadline for 1.5 billion euro repayment of debt to the IMF. Greece's prime minister Tsipras accuses the IMF of "criminal responsibility" for the pain of austerity programs in Greece. Eurozone leaders says Greece's default on its debt and exit from the eurozone is a possibility. The Economist points out that a Greek default and Greece's exit from the eurozone would be a mistake. It points out that this means repudiating debts of 317 billion euros, or about 180% of GDP. Yet the repayment is at low interest rates spread out over decades. Until the early 2020's interest rates are about 3% of GDP a year. In theory a devaluation would help exports, but Greece with its small trading position, may not see much benefit. The drop in nominal wages by 16% has not led to a surge in exports. The cost in terms of broken banks, sharp decline in savings, and collapse of confidence could be disastrous. The very people Syriza is trying to protect the poor and elderly, would be hit hardest, as the collapse in the currency would lead to a shift to a barter economy as in Argentina during its default crisis. For the European Union, the problem would not go away, as it would have to deal with a bigger problem of a failed state on the Aegean on the EU's southern flank. Syriza's gamble that this can be used to extract concessions by holding off till the last minute is failing, because it is leading Greece back to contraction after the small growth in 2014 under prime minister Samaras- with capital flight from the banks and investors leaving in a general fall in confidence. The management of the economy and negotiations by Syriza is now seen as incompetent and has jeopardized any difficult progress made....

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Joe Nocera joins Simon Johnson and other experts in saying that Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo's suggestion to raise capital requirements of U.S. banks to 14% makes sense. He quotes Anat Admati, a fiance professor at Stanford Business School, who says the only way to get rid of bailouts is to raise capital requiremets to an adequate level. The Wall Street Journal editorial on June 16, 2011, also supports the higher Tarullo capital requirements. Why is it that European banks and the Basel III accords provide a 7% capital reserve requirement phased in over many years- to as far out as 2019- if this is the case? The European banks are in much worse shape than the U.S. banks especially with Irish, Greek and other debt on their books and Basel III is designed to accomodate this. The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, is also advocating higher capital reserve requirements than Basel III, including the flexibility for countries like Britain and Sweden to set their own capital reserve requirements based on their own situation and the need to protect taxpayers. The U.S. stands to gain a lot from setting its own standards if France and Germany and other European countries decide to user lower standards through Basel III....

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This Wall Street Journal editorial on August 18, 2011, says Texas Governor and U.S. presidential candidate Rick Perry made a poor choice of words when he called the Fed chairman's policies "treacherous or treasonous." While admonishing Rick Perry for the use of the wrong words, it says Perry has done a public service to draw public attention to Fed policies. These policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve- Bernanke's and Greenspan's- which allowed the tech and mortgage bubbles to develop and then engaged in loose monetary policies to correct its errors over a ten year period since 2000, should be the subject of debate. Current monetary easing has also added a large element of inflation, and some experts such as Kenneth Rogoff are calling for inflationary levels of 4-6%. Critics of Fed policy such as Allan Meltzer and some Fed governors of regional banks, including Hoenig of the Kansas City Fed, say the Fed has not given enough thought to the long term consequences of its actions. The U.S. needs to address these major changes in policy as serious issues with the public and presidential candidates engaged in the debate. They have everything to do with a vision of a future America....

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A major problem for President Hollande of France in the 2014 budget is how to handle the deficits in the country's Social Security System. Over the years the deficits were transferred to a vehicle called the Cades, which is approaching its legal ceiling of 270 billion euros. The vehicle was originally set up in 1996 with the idea of separating past deficits, so that the state could balance its budget every year for the Social Security System, which covers health care, pension and family allowances. Previous governments have for the most part bypassed this and added new deficits to Cades instead of making cuts in spending. The Hollande administration says it is controlling health care expenses and increasing pension contributions as a way to bring the deficits under control. It will not assess a special tax for the deficit in Social Security in 2014, as new taxes are highly unpopular. Cades lifetime has been extended twice, first in 1997 to 2014, and during the 2009 financial crisis to 2025. In 2010 following the crisis, Cades chairman, Ract Madoux says, the short term borrowing had reached 60 billion euros. It is down to 30 billion euros, which he still considers too high....

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11 Pacific Rim nations form the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2018. The Obama administration supported the trade pact alienating supporters in its union base particularly in the midwestern states. Mr. Trump opposed the TPP in his election campaign and made it a significant issue for swing voters in midwestern states after job losses in the auto industry. With the opposition of president Trump the U.S. decided to withdraw from TPP.  The 11 nations agreeing to join a revised agreement are Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. So far six countries have formally approved the deal, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan, setting the stage for two rounds of tariff reductions starting December 30, 2018. Agricultural products duties will be duty free within 3 to 7 years including for Japan and Mexico. Australia, New Zealand, Canada are major agricultural exporters. Japan supported the deal as a way to counter China's influence in the region. In the U.S. the gains would be in intellectual property rights but losses for workers in the auto and manufacturing industries, a point Mr. Trump recognized in his election campaign as he campaigned in the midwestern states. Mr. Obama pursued TPP over objections of workers organizations and unions including auto workers union, with his advisors suggesting this as a way to counter China's influence in the region. By 2018 the Democratic party support base fractured on this as one of the major issues.   ...

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Spain's plan to reduce corporate taxes by 5% and individual income taxes by average 12.5% in 2015-2016, reversing earlier austerity measures. A similiar move in Italy.