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Roubini sees hard landing and recession lasting at least for 2008. Bergsten sees companies like IBM, Caterpillar and GE and others helping moderate the downturn because of demand from China and India which he calls reverse coupling. Yu sees China entering a delicate stage, India helped by domestic demand.

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AARP shows 29 million Americans working and taking care of older parents. Many work 40 hours a week and work an additional 20 hours helping elderly parents. About six out of ten people of this 29 million work full time. In 2024 a lot more people are living longer and older people prefer staying in their own homes and need help from family members. A simple fall or a cancer diagnosis can lead to long hospital stay, months of treatment, and worrying for family members. Company benefits in 2024 do not include senior or eldercare support or even accomodating employees caring for their parents. In America today federal and state laws do not protect people caring for elderly parents from discrimination in the workplace. Consider how this is affecting companies, as about one third who are caregivers say they are going to leave, and half of the employees leaving are senior manager and executives with much experience. This comes to about 5 million senior managers and executives that American industry can ill afford to lose as it competes with China, India and Europe. About half of all companies are making this a priority in 2024, according to Care.com. Citigroup added 2 weeks of paid leave to care for immediate family member. Companies allow employees to add older parents on their health insurance. These benefits are being added to maternity and paternity leave. The fact that Congress and state legislatures have failed to enact laws protecting caregivers is one more reason for the discontent and unrest in the US after the pandemic. ...

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China's strategy for climate change action makes allowance for the need for coal as base energy, and insurance to prevent factory shutdowns from shortfalls of hydroelectric energy in drought seasons. It planned 80GW in 2024 for new coal powered plant construction. 

What should the US do? DJT and Republicans including North Dakota Governor Borghum say the US should also make some room for this in transition policy. DJT calls it "drill baby drill." Yet it is more nuanced than that, it means US will produce natural gas to supply Europe and keep gas and electricity prices down as a cost of living action. DJT knows industry has already put in plans for renewable energy production, it just won't be accelerated in ways that won't let the US economy grow. This is the rational for Alaska oil and gas and rare minerals policies shown alongside this article.

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Steep discounts continue to hurt profits at GM by eroding margins. Profits were $300 million lower because of discounts. With special gains GM's profit was $3,687 per vehicle in North America, without the gains it was $1,653 per vehicle. Ford made $2,806 per vehicle. Emerging markets showed adrop with the car market in China cooling off. One of GM's joint ventures with SAIC Motor in China saw a decline in sales of 32% in the 1st quarter. Chairman Akerson said the challenge facing GM was to reduce incentive costs, and cost cutting to counter rising commodity costs that pushes up the cost of finished parts. On car buying patterns, Akerson says its not all about smaller cars as the smaller fuel efficient SUV's are also attracting buyers, and the smaller cars are better equipped and have higher prices.

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The difficulties the new U.S. Treasury Secretary faces as she tries to navigate the politics in Congress and the tries to reach out to moderates and progressives within the Democratic party. All have different views on spending, and where stimulus money should go in a second stimulus. Her long experience with the Fed is seen as not preparing her for the political role of evaluating different opinions that are described by some experts as ten times more political than anything going on in Fed meetings. As a student of Prof. Tobin Yellen sees government intervention as needed in times of economic crises. Twice in ten years the U.S. and the rest of the world has been struck by economic crises- the bank leveraging behaviours and poor lending practices that induced the 2009 financial crisis and in 2020 the coronavirus pandemic. Lessons learned Yellen says about the 2009 recession are that not enough stimulus was provided after the initial stimulus to get a strong enough recovery. Democrats are eager to spend over $2 trillion in a second stimulus. Republicans much less so particularly with a new president. Even under Mr. Trump spending was set at under $700 billion by Republicans for a second stimulus. Another economic crises is one of the U.S. strategic economic position in the world. On this issue of trade Yellen's husband George Akerloff, also a economist is more skeptical of the value of free trade. The failure of the World Trade Organization to ensure a level playing field as China subsidized key industries, and the loss of America's manufacturing advantage over three decades is now the defining issue in American politics. It takes the shape of manufacturing communities that were once a part of Democratic party support shifting away after devastated local economies from the loss of manufacturing plants to China. It takes the shape of a Republican party that is committed to bring back American manufacturing, and a Democratic party that under Biden is seeking the same result. How much each party will invest in terms of making things happen to get this done is one of the issues facing all parties, Congress, the administration, Ms. Yellen, and the new president. Economics does not have the answers. As economists could not have predicted the increase in women participation in the workforce, the drop in Black and Hispanic unemployment rates under the Trump administration. The lack of moral will to get trade to work for the American worker was more of an issue under Democratic and Republican administrations for the last 2 decades, so that issues of growing inequality were never better addressed by any party. It depended more on focus of the president elected to help American workers, and to avoid the cost and distraction of foreign wars when American interests could be protected in other ways. Yellen was not able to make a difference at the Fed because of these reasons and low interest rates have both helped and hurt the middle class, as low interest rates meant Americans were less able to accumulate savings for retirement since 2000. Determination and action counts for more than ideology or policy is the lesson learned in building strong economies and manufacturing.   ...

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Amazon is tackling the Indian market by addressing the need of rural shoppers in all parts of India- home to nearly 800 million people. Here WSJ shows how this works with a customer in Dhowachal, in the northeastern state of Assam, who had no access to stores except by travelling for hours to the nearest town.  The customer is a teacher who received an Amazon delivery of pairs of jeans, socks, curtains, glasses and other items. Rural shoppers in India spent about $400 billion in 2017. Barclays estimates Amazon had $7 billion in gross merchandise sales volume in India in 2017, about 2% of what it does worldwide. More than 80% of customers in 2018 are from outside India's largest cities.  To do this Amazon has changed its app to work on cheaper smartphones and patchy cellular networks, added hundreds of thousands of Indian language descriptions of products and videos. It has also opened physical Amazon stores to teach people how to order online. Tens of thousands of distributors were added to deliver packages and take cash or digital payment. Amazon is spending $5 billion in India to set up a logistics network and warehouses, including staff and content development for Amazon Prime. In doing this Amazon has learned from China where Alibaba and other online retailers have grown seven fold by reaching rural areas. Amazon could not compete with Alibaba in China. In India Amazon has no strong local competitors like Alibaba. It is learning how to operate in India. The app offer tips on how to order, no email is needed, only a phone number, machine learning translates all descriptions into Hindi. Icons work well. A digital wallet lets customers without bank accounts or cards to pay or get money back. Amazon is investing aggressively using an advertising campaign and discounts to pass Flipkart which WalMart bought for $16 billion in 2018. Amazon is trying new ideas in India's situation where small stores often closet sized sell a limited number of products often going through multiple middlemen resulting in high prices. Amazon is now enlisting these small stores as package depots in its own unique distribution network. The small store gets an 8-10% commission on sales for helping guide shoppers make a purchase. In Amazon's unique "I Have Space" program 20,000 mom and pop stores in remote areas of India offer to take packages and deliver in neighborhoods for a commission. They get a uniform, a bag and a week of training. Many of these store owners know the addresses in their neighborhood having lived there a long time. The entire effort shows Amazon has adapted its delivery effort, logistics and payment systems to Indian conditions in a well planned way. Compare this to the failed effort by Apple in India, with high management turnover and lack of understanding of Indian conditions and pricing, and no real plan to tackle the Indian market.     ...

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Alan Mulally focussed attention on Ford brands such as the Taurus, and the Fusion, to improve quality and fuel efficiency. To do this he sold brands acquired earlier- Land Rover to Tata Motors and Volvo to Geely. Under his management Ford pushed ahead with globalized product development and building a presence in the small car market. Ford still has weakness in the European and Asian markets. In Europe a large number of manufacturers are competing for a slow growing market and price competition has cut into profits. In Asia, Ford was slow to enter the Chinese market. As a result its sales in China lag far behind VW and GM, with only 2.7% market share. Mullaly is investing $1.5 billion on new factories in China, including two assembly plants and an engine plant. One of the plants in the southern city of Chongquing will produce an SUV and a luxury car. Mulally wants to see 70% of Ford's growth in this decade from Asia. The other problem facing Mulally is reviving the Lincoln brand which has seen a sales decline of 63% since 1990. Ford has hired a designer who worked on the Cadillac to redo the Lincoln's design. Mulally plans to cut the 900 Lincoln dealers to 600, to reduce the price competition for smaller sales volume. He is asking the remaining dealers to invest $2 million for new showrooms that will compete with Lexus in their look and feel. Asessing what has been achieved at Ford so far one sees the progress in pushing up quality. Ford now ranks above Toyota in J.D. Power quality surveys with its cars getting higher resale prices than some Toyota models. Ford cars are also being well received by new car buyers with market share up for the second consecutive year. This would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Also significant is how Ford under Mulally's direction managed to make good use of the $23 billion loan secured in 2006, avoiding bankruptcy and turning the corner to profitable operations. Ford earned $6.6 billion in 2010, after losing $30 billion from 2006 to 2008. Ford's challenges going forward are how to sustain profitable growth, manage $19.1 billion in debt and a junk-bond credit rating, and maintain the momentum without reverting to a dependence solely on SUV's and larger vehicles for profits. Chairman Bill Ford is forthright about Ford's history of wasting opportunities during the good times- of "losing the plot in the good times." Mulally makes the same assessment at a November town hall meeting of 200 employees - Ford is good at crisis managment he says but then "forgets why we're here." For Mulally a bit of inspiration from Heny Ford himself counts, this being a poster from 1925 that hangs on the office walls, a Saturday Evening Post cover with the slogan: "Opening the highways to all mankind." Mullaly says looking at this makes him cry....

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NBC Wellness, under diet and fitness provides these useful tips to protect the back and also to do your yoga stretches routine the right way. Most of the yoga classes with more people lack the one on one interaction in which a yoga instructor can provide these important tips.  The first bring navel to spine, shoulders to ears for right posture. Bringing navel to spine and shoulders to ears was a prescribed method for Zen Buddhism in Japan and China since the period 1200 AD. Dogen of the Eiheiji temple in Japan in the 13th century turned this admonition into a waka poem- My nose is in line with my navel My ears are on the same plane as my shoulders and in this Japanese verse written for the Kamakura court on the meditational mood-  In the heart of the night                   The moon framing                            A small boat drifting                        Not tossed by the waves                Or swayed by the breeze   This engages the abdominals and is also important as a posture for meditation. Relaxing the shoulders reduces neck and upper back tension and enables sitting in meditation for longer periods. Engaging the inner thighs is important for mountain pose and for pose of upward facing dog. This also protects the knees and is good for walking uphill and downhill. It is also done in the bridge pose for strong knees. Navel to spine, shoulders to ears, engage the inner thighs are critical three must do advice for healthy yoga and meditation. Other useful tips are to keep the hips a good distance apart in warrior pose, and in downward dog keep the hands turned slightly outwards rather than aligned all in a straight line pose.   ...

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Hon Kongers have tripled the amount of renminbi they hold to about US$11 billion because of the clear path of yuan appreciation signaled by the government. It has appreciated 7.1% so far this year with the Chinese government controlling the changes in the exchange rate. Forward markets price in another 4.4% gain in the next 12 months. The flood of outside money is why the Chinese reserves have grown by $1.6 billion a day in 2008. At the end of June it stood at $1.81 trillion up 18% from the beginning of the year even though the trade surplus is down 12% from a year earlier and Shanghai's index of domestically owned stocks is down 49% this year. In the first half of 2008 analysts estimate about $50-$200 billion were brought into China even with the tight currency controls. All this new money creates inflationary pressures in China and the central bank knows that it poses risks for the financial system but China is also intesrested in maintaining growth so it may not want to kill this inflow altogether and some of it may go to finance investment in the country....

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Alexandra Stevenson provides this insightful glimpse into a highly inflated property market. Microflats in Hong Kong of 275 square feet, smaller than a bedroom, sell for $722,000. Smaller flats of 165 square feet are planned by developers. Since 2003 property prices are up 300% in Hong Kong. Experts see another fall in prices similiar to the one in 2003 during the Asian financial crisis. Mainland Chinese investing in Hong Kong flats have never experienced a collapse in prices. Hong Kong mortgage rates are low, about 2%. Experts see a rise in U.S. interest rates affecting buyers, as Hong Kong interest rates are tied to U.S. interest rates. With low rates on savings accounts, savings are going into an highly inflated unsustainable property market. One estimate shows 41% of household wealth in China is tied up in the property market. A downturn in prices could lead to a large decline in consumer spending. Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute of International Economics sees China not immune to the kind of housing price collapse that hit the U.S., Spain and other countries in the last decade....

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After an initial period of a year Japanese companies are now making the move to pull back some of the production shifted overseas with the yen at 80 to the dollar. Canon made 40% of its product overseas in 2009 before the shift to 60% by 2013. Now it is shifting production back home to reach 40% overseas production. Other consumer electronics companies Panasonic, Sharp, Daikin, are shifting production back to Japan. This is similiar to the shift back to the U.S. of products made overseas as costs have risen in China and other Asian countries. The sharp swing in exchange rates is accelerating the trend. Auto companies Subaru, Toyota, Nissan, Honda are continuing plans to manufacture close to customers in the U.S. Shorter product cycles make it possible to shift production for electronics companies compared to longer product cycles at auto companies. Murata Manufacturing will continue to make smartphone parts close to its customers in China, lifting production overseas from 14% to 30%. As a result exports have increased in Nov. 2014 by 10.8% from the prior year and imports up 2.2%, according to the Finance Ministry....

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Note the reference to the embarrassment the Jobs Bank is causing for the UAW and the UAW moving away from it. How this opens up the way to worker acceptance of the buyout plan. See also the link to Korea, how fast the Korean operations are growing and the link to GM in China and the rest of the world where GM's operations are growing. The picture it presents of a shift to becoming a globalized company with global manufacturing and global vision.

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The issues raised by the storage of residue from Canadian oil sands production processed into coke at midwestern oil refineries. The Marathon refinery in Detroit processes this residue for export companies such as Oxbow owned by the Koch Brothers, which then export this to China, India, Mexico and other S. American countries. A huge open pile of this dirty coke is seen along the Detroit river in May 2013. Residents in Detroit and Windsor ask if Detroit is considered a dumping ground?

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China's campaign against corruption and the popular programs that the Chinese government of Jinping encourages on television. This includes the 52 part series on television called "In the Name of the People." The programs show how the Communist party's upright officials stand up against the corrupt ones. The idea is to build up the reputation of the Communist Party, as it sagged under the previous administrations during the period of rapid growth when such behaviour was tolerated to in some ways.

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Bernard Lewis's "The Arabs in History," is a short book which confirms Zakaria's point about the openness of Islamic societies before the 19th century, with some exceptions in certain periods. Most books or a quick look at Wikipedia shows us that the Renaissance in Europe in the 15th century got its boost from books by ancient Greek authors that were available in Arab societies long after they were forgotten in Europe. His point about Indonesia and India is also true to a large extent except for periods such as the one under Aurangzeb (17th c.). Muslim societies in British India (todays Pakistan and Bangladesh) experienced less social and educational reforms under the British than Hindu societies for various reasons leading to larger backwardness, illiteracy which breed extremist ideas. This is likely to change throughout North African Arab societies and South Asia in the next 50 years, especially with the modernization drive underway in India, which is likely to spread to other parts of the region. Islam as a missionary religion with force of arms spread in the 7th-9th century rapidly over Arab North Africa and parts of west Asia, and later to South Asia. Once established there were long periods of openness to ideas and books, and different cultures ( with the exception of preferences for Muslims), and a stress on commerce which inherently reduces religious vehemence, as the example of Britain shows. For this reason the current conditions in Islamic societies is more atypical than typical. A factor that has worsened it is that 19th c.-20th c. Islamic societies have put less emphasis on commerce and industry than historically seen in prosperous Islamic societies, on which more research is needed to understand why. Another factor is the impact of the interface with technologically and scientifically progressing Europe and America not becoming a learning experience for acquisition of this science and technology and making it one's own, a pattern seen in Buddhist societies of Japan in 19th c., South Korea in 20thc.,and China 21st c. Because Buddhism sprang from Hinduism or a response to Hindu ideas in India, India could be put alongside China for the 21st c. rapid assimilation of western science and technology making it one's own. When there is a violent collison between Japan and U.S. Admiral Dewey's ships, or China and British advances around 1900, the initial reaction of rejection is reversed with adoption of western technology and practices making it one's own. Similiar response in India. Islamic societies have had an extended period of rejection for reasons not fully understood even today. This is likely to generate the kind of internal debate about how to revert back to the usual mode of adoption in Islamic civilization, with the potential catalyst in India and other locations in the Middle East. The most respected German of the 19th century is Alexander Von Humboldt, a naturalist who advanced scientific knowledge, and a mentor to Charles Darwin in England, author of "Origin of the Species." Humboldt says- "There are no inferior races, we are all humans, and we are all destined to reach for and grasp liberty." That Humboldt spent most of his best years in Paris, France, which he compared to the provincialism in his native Berlin, goes to show how Humboldt, Darwin and Humboldt's friend Aime Bonpland of France, maintained close cooperation and friendship and anticipated the close cooperation in Europe since the second half of the 20th c., long before European politicians and governments grasped this. Commerce, science, travel, media and free exchange of ideas, are as favorable to progress as politics and ideology is inimical to it....

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GM shares dropped by 31% October 8, 2008 to a postwar low. And Jeff Schuster head of auto forecasting at JD Power says the global market in 2009 may experience an outright collapse. The slowdown will extend to Europe, China, india and Brazil. Previously JD Power estimated sales at 14 million for 2009 now it thinks it will be more like 13.2 million in 2009 and this may come up for revision as the economic downturn deepens with higher unemployment, loss in savings, and collapsing consumption. With access to financing drying up, and sales collapsing GM is rnning low on funds to run day to day operations and is expected to be acutely short by the end of 2009. Ford faces a similar situation. One forecast by Citigroup global markets in the link in Detroit News October 9 points to only abot $1 billion remaining by the end of 2009 and even with asset sales generating some $5 billion being thin ice for GM.

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Americans loaded up with debt may be turning to older thriftier ways of an earlier generation. This this will affect consumer spending, have an impact on Chinese exports, and on the Japanese economy which is dependent on China for growth. Some argue that there is a culture of consumer spending that runs through recent American history. Even after one boom was over the stock boom was replaced by a housing boom, each boom and easy credit offering free spending and borrowing lifestyles. Is it going to change now? But it could be that a point has been reached where the finances of households and of the nation's credit system can only go so far, and culture won't matter if banks tighten up credit. There is a limit for the Fed to act to lower rates, and household debt has reached highly serious proportions. The savings rate went from one tenth of income in 1984, to 5% in 1994, to slightly negative in 2008. Today for those who borrowed against their homes in 2003-2007, 34 million households or one third of the US households, savings rate was negative 13% in 2006 June. Thhis came down to 7% in end of 2007, according to Moody's Economy.com, which suggests that the cutback in consumer spending from this group of people had already begun. What will this mean for consumer spending in the USA? It means that even though the top fifth of American earners who generate half of all consumer spending according to Barclay's Capital, will continue spending though a bit more carefully than before. The rest of the American people will be cutting back, especially the one third of the nation that is heavily in debt, and the unemployed if job numbers aren't that good. Which could be why Goldman Sachs predicts that Japan is already in recession using the Japanese definintion of decline in output, and China may be slowing down more significantly than is understood because of the poor data that is coming out of China. The Chinese economic activity too chaotic to accurately measure, and with large time lags before what is actually happening is detected and quantified correctly. ...

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Government data show that the German GDP declined by 0.5% in the thrid quarter after declining 0.4% in the second quarter. IMF predicts GDP decline of 0.8% in 2009. Germany's recession look like the worst in Europe except for the UK which has many of the same problems as the US economy. Germany's housing market has seen prices grow by almost zero in the last 10 years and German consumers are not in debt so Germany felt fairly immune to the troubles facing the US and the UK and Spain. But Germany is a big exporter and it has become more dependent on exports in the last 10 years. Exports account for 41% of GDP and CHina sucked up alot of machinery exports from Germany and China is in the midst of a drastic slowdown. In fact for the first time China is seeing a decline in monthly electricity output. And China's GDP growth rate may go from 12% to the range of somewhere around 6% in 2009, considering that Chinese export factories are closing down as the USA its main export market is seeing a rapid slowdown. Its already reached 9% and the slowdown is just beginning as the US market is also at the beginning of its slowdown. As the US market declines further in 2009 China's export factories will face a further decline in orders. Comparing the US at 10%, Japan at 20% and Germany at 41% of GDP one can see how heavily dependent the Germans have become on exports, especially with Asia's booming economies sucking up German exports. New orders for German goods declined by 18% from their peak in November 2007. And this is just the beginnning. So German unemployment is expected to increase. Its true that German banks invested heavily in mortgage related securities and other risky assets abroad, and the international financial crisis has led to a bailout fund of 500 billion euros setup by the German government. But Bundesbank figures show that what is causing the drastic contraction is the drop in investment spending as loan demand has dropped. ...

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Sternberg points out that China's banking system lacks the experience in consumer credit and consumer finance products that would provide the impetus to a surge in consumer spending in China for imported products from the US or Europe. Outstanding consumer credit in China is only 13% of GDP, according to a 2009 study by McKinsey and Company, compared to 48% in Malaysia and 70% in S. Korea. China has lost a decade or more he says in allowing foreign banks to develop a consumer-finance market, and Chinese banks have little compettitive pressure to serve lower income consumer borowers. The Dutch PPF Group was allowed into this field for the first time in November 2010 to introduce in-store financing for durable goods purchases, something available to consumers in Brazil and other developing countries for many years. Large banks have an entrenched mindset to lend to businesses, and especially to state owned enterprises which have the collateral and government guarantees and support to obtain this lending. Risk averse banks in a financial system that lacks the kind of credit ratings system for consumers that the US and Europe have, prefer to lend to make loans to state owned enterprises where the government guarantees the loans. Interest rates on deposits are low and the government deliberately allows a wide spread for the banks so that they can ensure enough earnings to pay for non-performung bad loans, both from the last decade and from the binge in stimulus lending in 2009-2010. This reduces consumption by reducing the earnings on savings for consumers and households. These problems can only be solved gradually if the government and leadership want to change course, but this oddly enough is not happening. Other problems are that China's export factories are part of a global supply chain in which other countries do the product development, logistics, marketing, and retailing. Chinese firms lack the experience in these areas to shift to domestic consumers. As a result, says Sternberg, to lose a foreign customer can mean going out of business. Without government leadership and new direction through large scale re-allocation of capital and labor to the small scale businesses that serve consumers in the domestic market, all the talk of rebalancing will be just that, talk only and no real rebalancing....

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Small shortfall in China's agricultural production can make a big difference in world food prices. A 5% shortfall in China's grain harvest can take up 20% of current global grain exports, according to an analyst at Standard Chartered Bank. China's food imports are small- about 3% according to an economist at HSBC. Just a small increase in the exports as a result of drought can have a large increase in food prices. The use of good agricultural land in places like Shandong province for industry, means more of the agricultural production is being shifted to the drier north, which has water shortages. China's agricultural land is shrinking- going down by 12 million hectares since 2000 according to the government.

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The Chevy Volt GM's plug in electric car comes out in 2010. Toyota plans to bring its plug in electric car in late 2009. A company in China, BYD, has already come out with an electric car, the F3DM, priced at 150,000 yuan or $22,000. By contrast the Chevy Volt is expected to be priced at $40,000 when it comes out in 2010. Essentially this gives the market leadership to BYD, because it would have 2 years of experience with its cars on the road, and $40,000 is just not a commercially viable price if a competitor can sell it for half the price. So how does BYD do it? Wang Chuanfu is founder and chairman of BYD Co. a battery and car maker. BYD has built up low cost, high quality and highly motivated research and development capabilities. Wang put together about 10,000 technicians and engineers, many fresh out of colleges and technical schools in China. As it learns the efficiencies of manufacturing and design it is able to bring this to bear on the H3DM improvement, for introduction of other new electric car models. And this technical capacity comes at a much lower cost in China compared to western countries. Wang's focus on this area making it possible to price at $22,000. The CEO of Mid American an Iowa based energy producer with majority stake ownership of Warren Buffett, was attracted to BYD for this very reason, and bought a 10% stake in BYD for $230 million. Wang believes there is a more level playing field in electric cars because of the simplicity of their design and fewer parts, making for a faster move up the learning curve. Electric cars have just 2 motors (45 parts each) and 2 gearboxes (60 parts each), a total of 210 parts excluding nuts and bolts. BYD's gasoline car the F6 has 1400 powertrain parts, 840 parts for the V6 and for transmission 560 parts. Says Wang, this puts all of us on the same starting line. The F3DM is the first real electric car being able to go for 60 miles exclusively on electricity on a full charge. A car that can go 180 miles on one full charge called the BYD e6 is planned for 2009. BYD uses iron-phosphate technology which is safer because of stable chemicals and less chance of fire from overheating. This is a key criteria for this lithium ion battery technology for cars. The Chevy Volt battery being developed by A123 company at MIT uses a similiar technology. BYD started with lithium ion battery development years ago. Its founder Mr Wang was fascinated by batteries when he studied metallurgical physics and chemistry in the mid 1980's for his Masters degree. He found a research position at the General Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals in Beijing, then decided to form his own company BYD in 1995, to develop lithium ion batteries with about 20 engineers. Experience was gained selling batteries to Samsung, Nokia and Motorola. In 2002 the company went public on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Wang was attracted to the idea of electric cars at this early stage even though he did not know how to drive. In 1998, says Wang, he had his engineers start upscaling development from cellphone battery technology to electric car battery technology. At the same time to pursue his vision for the development of electric cars Wang made the decision to learn car development by making and selling gasoline cars. The first car was a small sedan called the F3 brought out in 2005. By the last quarter of 2008 the F3 was one of China's best selling automobiles. Demand for BYD's F3 and F10 models is growing even as car sales are dropping in China, helping BYD to gain in car sales relative to Cherry Automobile and Geely Holding, two of the largest competitors. ...