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One of the major changes coming out of the coronavirus crisis is Germany's new willingness, even a new found enthusiasm, to support  other countries in the European Union. Merkel now supports a shared fund for the EU. Old positions taken for financial discipline for the euro are now placed in a new perspective now that this discipline has largely been achieved. Facing a new situation and a common danger Germany now wants to expand the EU budget and invest "much more." "In coming weeks and months it is important to show that we belong together," says Merkel. There is a realization that Germany cannot be strong industrially and economically, if economies are collapsing around it. Merkel now supports the use of shared funds between EU member states. The health services in all EU countries need to be boosted. The focus of Merkel's EU presidency is now to set up an efficient health system in all EU member states. ...

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McGurn of the WSJ looks at the Gallup study on Trump supporters showing that they are older and white, but not more likely to come from communities adversely affected by trade competition. The study shows intergenerational mobility, health prospects, and relative racial isolation, more likely blue collar workers, as being key features, yet more likely to be employed or self-employed. Of this cultural angst, and lack of intergenerational mobility, poor health prospects, are critical findings. McGurn sees them as the people who feel left behind, and says the nation needs to look at them not as "losers" but to address the problems of intergenerational mobility in the U.S. following the election. Theresa May, the new prime minister of Britain has described the "burning injustice" in her first speech when taking office, in a reference to people who suffered under the 7 years of austerity programs in the Cameron years, people from similar groups who face a situation where their children's prospects are no better or worse than their own. ...

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WSJ's CEO council advocates a goal of 10% electric cars by 2020 and upto 50% of the fleet by 2030. Other top priorities of the CEO's from Google, Intel, Time-Warner, Fedex and other companies at a recent 1 day conference were obesity, a stimulus program in excess of $300 billion, and restarting the Doha round of talks for global trade.

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Spain's central bank was lauded for macroprudential supervision before the housing bubble burst. Will China's central bank and financial authorites which have managed the housing bubble upto this point face similiar problems? Can China be the sole exception even as housing bubbles burst with wide repercussions in the U.S., UK and Spain? Nicholas Lardy, of the Peterson Institute of international Economics, says urban housing stock makes up 41% of Chinese household wealth in 2011. The same figure for the U.S. is 26%. Chinese buyers invest in homes because low interest rates on savings accounts cannot keep up with inflation. Real estate investment was 13% of GDP in 2011. Home ownership is a recent development in China, only since 1990, Chinese have never experienced large price declines. Household debt as a percentage of disposable income has increased significantly in recent years, up to 53.6% in 2011 from 31.3% in 2008, according to Lardy.

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In the first quarter of 2011 consumer demand for gold in China increased by 47% over the prior year quarter to 233 tons, according to the World Gold Council's data. Most of this is for jewelry accounting for 64% in 2010, with gold bar demand increasing as an hedge against inflation. Orlik points out that if inflation decreases from the existing level of 5.3%, and with the increase in wealth management products from Chinese banks, the demand for gold may not be sustained as it offers no return. He says urban resident demand may have reached its peak and there is not much demand from the rural population. Central bank purchases to shift a small part of foreign exchange reserves to gold is the only other factor for a push up in gold prices.

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Kon Wen-je wins the mayoral election in Taipei, Taiwan, by 57% to 41% over a Koumintang party candidate. The Koumintang party prime minister resigns. The vote is seen as a repudiation of the closer trade ties to China pursued by the Koumintang. The wealth of Koumintang candidates, the benefits to Koumintang connected businessmen who benefit from increasing trade ties to China, at a time of higher housing prices and increasing inequality, was also an issue in the campaign. Wen-je ran as an Independent candidate supported by the Progressive Democratic Party. This also suggests the direction for the presidential election for 2016. Taiwan has shown increasing wariness over closer trade ties, at a time when protests in Hong Kong have raised questions about China's committment to western democratic values.

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U.S. Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen, says the Fed will be prepared to respond to the "twists and turns" in the recovering U.S. economy in 2014-2015. In many ways Yellen finds the recovery "disappointingly slow and consistent expectations for a pickup in growth dashed over a number of years." She sees the labor market behaving in "some perplexing ways and showing patterns that are novel." The high rate of long term unemployed is an abiding concern and Yellen says a healthy job market is "more than 2 years away." This clarifies remarks made at her first press conference, which were interpreted to mean the Fed would raise rates in a much shorter time frame. U.S. stock markets responded favorably to her remarks after declines and volatility over several weeks following the previous press conference.

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Going outdoors for sunlight which gives Vitamin D and getting exercize is becoming more important today with the coronavirus. Getting out to a park, green spaces or places to walk or run is increasingly important for maintaining good health after a long lockdown. Sunlight adds to our immune system and brings many benefits for mind and body as shown here.  

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Several experts point to a dangerous change in the nature of unemployment in this downturn. Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, says people are more likely to get stuck with unemployment now than at any time in the post war period. Andrew Stettner, deputy Director of the National Employment Law Project, says a larger share of the unemployed are not going to be able to go to the same line of work. They will need new skills, just like an auto worker in a permanently downsized industry would have to find new skills to make a product in the renewable energy field or health care. And the law as it currently stands does not help either. Because if an unmeployed worker looks for training or goes back to school he loses his unemployment benefits, something the Obama administration proposes to change. What this means is that many of the unemployed will end up as permanent job losers. Rob Valetta, an economist at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank says that throughout the the last 3 decades including good times, the unemployment pool is shifting towards permanent job losers. Lawrence Katz, a Harvard University economist, points out that once workers exhaust their unemployment benefits and don't get new training, they become disconnected to the labor market, and bascially end up on disability or become permanently unemployed. The statistics bear this out. In April 2009, 47.1% of the people collecting state unemployment insurance exhausted the usual 26 weeks of benefits without finding work, according to the Bureau of Laor Statistics, that is the highest rate on record. In December 2007, there were about 2 unemployed workers for every job opening, according to Labor Department data. In March 2009 there were five unemployed workers for every opening. Mark Beaupre, 49, of Providence, R.I. lost his $8 an hour manufacturing job an year ago, one of many manufacturing jobs he has held since the 1980's. His wife Cathy lost her customer service job a year ago. This couple who together made $50,000 a year, are now behind on their mortgage payments and have applied for food assistance. At a recent job fair in Providence he says three thousand people turned up and he could not even get into the parking lot. ...

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Acquisitions by Siemens in health care business, even as it gets $11.4 billion euros for its automotive business sold to Continental. Siemens acquired Dade Behring Holdings a maker of medical diagnostic products based in Deerfield, Illinois, for $7 billion.

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The Gulf States sovereign funds lose value with Abu Dhabi and Kuwait's funds losing a third of their value. Prince Alwaleed 's Kingdom Holding loses $7.92 billion. and business confidence index takes a big hit.

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Wal-Mart has fallen behind competitors CVS and Walgreen in its drive to open medical clinics in its stores. Walgreens now has 350 in-store clinics, CVS 600, Target 44, and Kroger 80. Wal-mart has 149 in-store clincs in the U.S.

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G-7 nations reach agreement for a global minimum tax of 15% a floor for taxes that the Biden administration finds acceptable. This agreement was reached at a meeting of the Treasury chiefs of the 7 G-7 countries in London on June 5, 2021. The G-7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and US. Next agreement from Russia, China, India and Brazil in the G-20 nations would establish new ground rules for the major economies. The G-20 meeting is in Venice July 9-10. The OECD is steering the international efforts to achieve that goal. For the agreement to be effective a number of small nations that use tax rates of below 15% to attract business have to be part of the new rules. One of these countries is Ireland with a tax rate of 12.5%. For the Biden administration in the US the goal is a significant one as president Biden seeks business to pay its fair share so that long neglected priorities for education, healthcare, infrastructure, post pandemic improvements can be met. France and other nations in the EU face similar needs in the post pandemic environment. By setting a floor the Biden administration is both creating a new cultural concept of fairness in taxation and making it possible to finance the $2 trillion spending programs for these priorities of president Biden. Behind this are important facts that have left the large tech businesses paying little or no tax depriving governments of the very revenues that are needed for infrastructure and services for a modern well run state. The Biden administration seeks to include the tech businesses as well as all businesses in the new tax rules so that a uniform idea of fair taxation applies across the whole economy for the first time in two decades. In this way it makes up for the missed opportunities in the OBC administrations of Obama, Bush, Clinton that have led to loss of faith in the state and institutions in the US. A similar situation prevails in the UK,  France and Germany where previous administrations failed to address this important issue of fair taxation and financing infrastructure and priorities in health, education, and critical needs of the people.   ...

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The Economist magazine says Mr. Trump's claim that he could fix things because he is an outsider is now quickly proving to be false. The lack of experience works against the Trump administration as it stumbles from one crisis to another. The tweets that were used to turn voter sentiment against opponents now work the other way. There are other problems that are noted here but not emphasized to the extent they need to be. Mr. Trump, as Peggy Noonan, a Reagan aide, has pointed out in the WSJ, risks alienating the very blue collar vote, and older voters whose interests he claimed to defend. This happened with the Ryan Republican House health care bill as millions of poor Americans approaching retirement were one of the worst affected groups. The Economist points out that the next project to tackle tax reform has the same possible consequences for the Trump blue collar base, as it says Republican plans for tax reform are seen as regressive. Tax reform has eluded previous administrations, and requires more experience in building coalitions which the Trump administration lacks in its confrontational attitude towards Congressmen on both sides of the aisle who disagree with him. Improving the U.S. trade position, infrastructure investment are other areas that the administration plans to tackle, yet the first 100 days show that the lack of experience and the lack of a calm composed mind is hurting the Trump administration, to the point of policies that hurt the very voters who put their faith in the Trump administration to improve things. A similar process is unfolding in Britain as it faces a Brexit negotiation that the Economist points out has been badly handled by prime minister Theresa May, and could lead to worsening the economy if no deal is reached because the European Union sees that it is not in its interest to do so, and Ms. May realizes only later that she has taken nationalist sentiment a bit too far for a European economic arrangement to work and provide mutual benefit. A continent wide economic arrangement that it was the wisdom of past leaders from Britain, France and Germany to support for over six decades is not easily undone by one vote, or one government. ...

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O'Malley, Sanders, and Clinton emphasize the issue of wages, income disparities, rising inequality, and a shrinking middle class in the first Democratic debate of the U.S. 2016 presidential election. Clinton points out that "at the center of my campaign is how we're going to raise wages." Sanders says that "the middle class of this country for the last 40 years has been disappearing." Clinton points out her opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement because it does not help raise American wages. Clinton calls herself a progressive, but "a progressive who gets things done," and a moderate when it comes to getting things done. Sanders points to the "deep injustice, an economic injustice that threatens to tear our country apart, and it will not solve itself." Sanders points to the wealth concentration in the U.S. "with the top one tenth of 1 percent owning about as much as the bottom 90 percent, and 57% of all new income going to the top 1 percent." Clinton comes to Sanders defense on the issue saying "it's our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn't run amok and doesn't cause the kind of inequities we're seeing in our economic system."...

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This analysis in the NYT shows that Labour won 412 seats in the British Parliament with only one third of the vote, and only 60% of voters participating. And Reform UK of Nigel Farage with 14% of the vote across UK won only 4 seats. The Greens won only 4 seats with 7% of the vote. The Conservatives with 23% of the vote won 120 seats. Labour's share of the youngest vote in the youngest seats actually dropped from 51% to 44%, with votes going to Reform UK and to the Liberal Democrats. Conservatives dropped across the board but still did better with older voters. And the Liberal Democrats astonishingly gained about 60 seats with just a slight increase of votes of only 0.08% increase in votes from 11.6% to 12.2% pushing its seat count from 11 in 2019 to 71 seats in 2024. This is why Keir Starmer has won big yet knows he has alot of work to do and promises stability as well as change that begins today for Britain, a cautious approach that also seeks to make further gains in the future by winning the hearts of the British people and also bringing relief for cost of living to the British public and good government. Building infrastructure and public services will come as Labour wins the confidence of Britons with a larger vote share in the coming years to support sweeping changes that Britain needs for infrastructure health, education and public services. ...

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The Washington Post gives the green light to most of the nominees of DJT except Pete Hegseth at Defense, RFK Jr. at Health and Human Services, Tulsi Gabbard for National Intelligence, and Russell Vought for Office of Management and the Budget (OMB). RFK Jr has support for his stand on obesity and drug costs, if he convinces the Senate on vaccines. Jamieson Greer was Deputy Trade Representative under USTR Robert Lighthizer, Greer and Stephen Miran at Council of Economic Advisers give DJT the resources to create a level playing field for America in world trade, business and manufacturing at home, to reverse the lack of government support of three decades that destroyed much of American manufacturing. Elise Stefankik is a good choice of young Congresswoman from upstate NY who has potential to put America's position before the world.  Kristi Noem brings good experience at Homeland Security as 2 term governor of South Dakota, and experience in Congress. Dough Borghum is a two term governor of North Dakota and is a good choice for Interior Secretary. Tom Homan as Border Security Head complements Noem and Borghum as a Border Patrol Agent who has worked, the WSJ says, under 6 administrations including the Obama administration and is likely to combine immigration goals of DJT with realism. Homan would focus on getting immigration right so that the migration issue is resolved cutting out crime, illegal migration, and restoring the southern border.    ...