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The White House announced it has the plan for regulatory reform outlined in a 85 page white paper. It provides the bbasic steps planned and the the reasons the administration chose to modernize the existing setup analogous to redesigning and making improvements based on the existing framework rather than building from the ground up. The five key steps are: 1) Increase the power of the Federal Reserve to provide strong and consistent supervision of the larges financial firms. 2) Getting Congress to authorize the government to dismatle large firms to avoid the kind of chaotic collapse that ocurred at Lehman and which worsened this crisis. 3) New rules for derivatives trading and securites built from mortgage loans. 4) Creating anew agency to protect consumers of mortgage, credit card, and other financial products. 5) the administration having a setup to increase coordination with other countries to prevent businesses from migrating to less regulated locations. Obama's comments to CNBC were " Speed is important. We weant to do it right. We want to do it carefully. But we don't want to tilt at windmills. We want to make sure that we're getting the best possible regulatory framework in place so that we're not repeating the mistakes of the past."...

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The Biden administration policy is similar to the Trump administration. The response is to send migrants back to their home countries. One of the lessons for the European Union and for the US of the last few years is that the US and EU cannot have migrants issue create discord within public opinion, when so much needs to be done for infrastructure, competition with Asian countries such as China, and the needs for recovery from the pandemic. With wars, natural disasters, smuggling of migrants, new waves of migrants required a different approach. Promoting development and providing help to the economies of these countries is seen as a more effective approach, and the best way to do this is to help strengthen America and the European Union by building a consensus on development and infrastructure investment.

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Walmart is going to require employees to use certain hospitals for costly spine surgeries, an effort to weed out unnecessary procedures and lower healthcare costs. The retailer earlier used a voluntary scheme to get employees to use the hospitals offering lower cost quality care, but found that half of the people needing spine surgery who volunteered to travel decided not to undergo expensive spine surgery. A spinal fusion surgery costs $77,000 at Mayo Clinic which tries to first see if other options of physical therapy can do the job. Walmart has insurance coverage for 1 million people.

Costs are going up and up. The average cost of family health plans from employers is up 5% this year to $20,000, with workers paying one third of cost, a survey by Kaiser Family Foundation shows. 

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The Tokyo Auto Show with both the environment friendly new cars and the performance and speed cars.

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As Japanese sales in the USA drop from 4.35 million vehicles in 2007 to 4 million in 2008 and an estimated 3.67 million in 2009 according to CSM Worldwide, even the Prius and the Honda Civic are afected. The Mississipi Blue Springs plant originally designed for the Higlander SUV , then assigned the task of making Prius after the shift to smaller cars, now will not make the Prius. The plant investment will stop at $300 million, with the plant construction being completed but the equipment not being installed, and no plans to manufacture cars there till things improve and the plant is made fully operational. At the same time it is noteworthy that employees Toyota has hired at the plant will keep their jobs. Toyota has not laid off permanent staffers at its plants in North America or any other region despite slowing sales in its worldwide markets. What does this mean? The culture of the United Autoworkers Union developed through the prewar confrontations between the union and the auto companies, and union workers and union officials and company managers came to a consensus through these struggles with the coexistence of high executive compensation and union medical benefits and other benefits and job security. But its not really been a frutiful arrangement as it has constantly been whittled away and eroded to the point of going out of existence even as the union clung on to the old ideas and management just went on with the status quo. Jobs security is nonexistent and jobs constantly cut as plants close, and now high executive compensation will face government oversight with the auto loans. See the link to Business Week which states that the numbers show the auto workersin Detroit union plants pay about 5% of their medical costs as opposed to 30% for workers who have healtcare coverage in the USA. But what good is the additional benefit in an environment where plants are constantly closing and jobs being cut. Is'nt aworker at a Toyota plant with no job cuts but costlier medical benefits better off than his Detroit counterpart? Which is to say with forward looking management that lowered executive compensation and unions that discarded an entitlement attitude and proactively matched its medical benefits to levels to nonuninized Japanese plants, and management that proactively shifted to higher fuel efficency and smaller cars in the interest of energy conservation and good strategy to be level with companes like Honda ad Toyota in that performance measure, wouldn't that have led to fewer plant closures and jobs, and public support across the country including in dealer showrooms?...

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GM will invest $3 billion in electric car production in Michigan. The Orion Assembly plant near Detroit  will produce electric pickup trucks- renovation costing $2 billion and bringing 1500 jobs. A new battery cell factory near Lansing would bring $2 billion in investment in 50-50 joint partnership with LG Energy Solutions creating 1200 jobs. Ford is investing in other states, with $11 billion investment in building 3 battery plants- 2 in Kentucky, one in Tennessee near Memphis. Tesla is investing in Austin, Texas. GM says it is revamping existing factories to save $10 billion through 2030. The new GM investments are part of $35 billion in spending on electric cars through 2025.  For the US as a whole these investments change the look of the auto industry from one that in the past put factories in China and Mexico for gas and diesel vehicles. The shift to electric is now being taken as an opportunity by the Biden administration to encourage auto companies to make a new beginning and speedily build the future electric car base in the homeland itself. So that American workers and families come first in the great American tradition. ...

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WSJ says that administration officials are considering aplan whereby on the first day of bankruptcy the government would announce the setting up of a "new GM" with Chevrolet, Cadillac, and good assets as part of it and a separate "old GM" that would hold the bad assets, retiree and health care obligations, Hummer and Saturn. The "good" GM would have responsibility for $20 billion in government loans. THe old GM could stay in bankruptcy for longer till buyers are found for parts of it or as it is wound down, with proceeds from the sales of assets going to creditors claims. WSJ sources familiar with the developments and the administration's views say that the administration prefers this route, and GM will likely will be forced into filing for bankruptcy protection in mid-May. That would be 45 days into the 60 day period President Obama has given GM to come up with a new plan that will work. The submitted plan was rejected by Obama's team on grounds that the assumptions for sales were too optimistic, none of the concessions from bondholders and the UAW that were needed had been made, the Chevy Volt was not going to pe price competitive, and fuel efficient car production was not a critical part of the plan. The government has asked Fiat to scale back its planned ownership of Chrysler to 20%, as part of an agreement for more government loans....

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Dirk Kurbjuweit of Spiegel says Merkel needs to show strong leadership to overcome the challenges with the rise of right wing populists in the U.S., Britain and France. He points to the leadership shown in the latter part of Kohl's term in office to promote German reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The challenges include talking to the German people directly in a convincing way, and meeting the day to day challenges of life for the people with investments in education, health care, infrastructure so that people see real significant improvement. It is even necessary to reorder priorities such as the shift from nuclear energy so that this challenge is met. It is not enough to hope that more Christian Democrats turn out to vote than Social Democrats, that the fifth of Germans who feel the economy is not working for them and feel threatened by immigration see real changes being made to address their concerns.

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Small pensions and rising health care costs are problems for China's older people. The misuse of pension funds and corruption in Shanghai raises serious concern about the future for an aging population.

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Laura Tyson says jobs and the economy should be the top priority. On the deficit front cost containment reform in health care and agradual multi year plan for debt reduction are priorities.

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A study and analysis in the One Earth journal for climate change action shows oil companies owe about $209 billion annually to pay for damage caused from climate change. The leading companies accounting for about 10% of global emissions are Gazprom and Saudi Aramco. These companies have benefited greatly from the oil price surge. The US and European oil majors who also have profited greatly from the oil price surge come next. Further distorting the effects of wars, financial crises since 2010, the war in Ukraine creates price surges from which oil companies benefit while the vast majority of people in the world are affected by a cost of living crisis made worse by higher energy prices. This is what is important to keep in mind as the US under president Biden prepares to play a leadership role in correcting these unneeded and bad distortions on how it affects the lives of workers and families in the US and Europe, as well as in Asia, Latin America, Africa. ...

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The cushion of pandemic savings of US households is thinning About 35% of it is spent already and by the end of the year 65% of it will be spent, says this report in WSJ. American households accumulated $2.7 trillion by the end of 2021 in extra savings during lockdowns that restricted spending and with stimulus government aid. At the exact time when transfer payments by the US government to households stopped there was inflation lowering the purchasing power and this has resulted in some households increasing credit card balances, dipping into savings and cutting spending. This is what economists are seeing at the Fed as resistance to price increases. Estimates show the percentage of disposable income saved in the US doubling to 16% in 2020 from 8% in 2019 with lockdowns, then dropping to 3% in 2022 with extra spending, and up to 4.5% by the end of 2023. This will have the effect of putting up resistance to inflation and lowering the Fed's interest rate increases to cut inflation. ...

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In this New Yorker essay after Biden's Soul of the Nation speech at Independence Hall Philadelphia, Jelani Cobb stated in the New Yorker that it was a speech made not just for the midterms in 2022, but for setting the country back on the path it has followed since Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR, to once more as in the times past through civil war, through depression, through world wars, to restore the ideas of equality and democracy when they were under assault. Biden said- This is where we set in motion the most extraordinary experiment with self-government the world has ever known with three simple words, "We the People." "We the People." These two documents and the ideas they embody- Equality and Democracy- are the rock on which this nation is built. They are why for two centuries America has been a beacon tho the world." As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise." ...

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Binyamin Applebaum of the NYT Editorial Board says the gap from 1972 to 2021 of 21% of GDP in spending and 17% of GDP in taxes taken in is a serious problem because it creates $31 trillion in debt and over 475 billion in interest payments each year. And much of the spending is wildly popular 63% that goes to Social Security and Medicare, and vital spending on health care and education, social services that takes up 15%. The rest is defense and interest payments. The rest of the G7 spend about 50% more on average he says. This is why he says Republicans holding up raising the debt ceiling is not the issue that needs to be faced each year there are better more direct and sensible solutions that also address the need for the Renewal of America after years of underinvestment in everything from infrastructure to health and education. And capital markets that overcrowded essential government spending to finance massive capital misallocation by tech companies, the costs of which are only now being understood in America. ...

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China is in isolation and in a freeze in ways that are unprecedented, that have never happened before. It has depressed world trade, disrupted supply chains of world trade, forced companies to restrict their employees movement, or bring them back home. Apple with 10,000 employees has closed operations and offices in China till Feb. 9. This is happening for many foreign companies in China as they deal with something they have never encountered before.  There is slowing down in demand fro crude oil as the lockdown affects the economy of China and world trade, Oil prices dropped 16% since the virus was detected. When the Sars virus happened in 2003 the Chinese economy was sixth in size in the world, now it is the second largest. At that time 7 million Chinese travelled abroad, today it is about 150 million, affecting international tourism. First quarter growth in China is now forecast by economists surveyed by WSJ at 4.9%, the lowest in decades. ...

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The WSJ covers men's falling enrollment in colleges, with a sharp drop in community college enrollment during the pandemic, in a recent report. The NYT look at this issue from the perspective of women pointing out that women have historically experienced a disadvantage. Women are shown to be struggling in lower paid professions, and underrepresented in higher income fields and positions. Seen from this perspective what is seen as a calamity for men is also not happening in a way that is providing visible advantage for women. Women stayed home more than men during the pandemic and were more likely to quit work during the coronavirus pandemic to take care of children when schools were closed. This was happening not just in the US, but also in Europe. The result is that both men and women have suffered setbacks during the pandemic. Biden's families and workers plan investment in America comes at a time of severe stress for families and workers. ...

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The closest parallel of the campaigns for president in 2016, 2020, 2024 are in the campaign of 1952. The difference is that Eisenhower was widely respected in both parties and had fought the war against Germany and Japan alongside Gen.George Marshall under president Harry Truman. His name was put on the ballot in New Hampshire but he himself preferred not to run or run as an Independent according to JFK. The Eastern Establishment including Governor Dewey of NY pushed for Eisenhower while the Midwestern States more isolationist in their approach supported Robert Taft. Eisenhower also did not choose Senator Nixon and he was chosen to win support in California and as a compromise with the Taft group. Eisenhower did not at any time approve of the reckless criticism tactics of McCarthy, though he remained silent on the issue not wanting to distract from the need to find a new approach to ending the war in Korea and with the Soviets than the one offered by Truman. There was also the weariness of the people with the wars.   ...

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This NHK documentary looks at the idea of "Cheap Japan" as wages and prices have stagnated for over three decades. Where the US has grown by 58% for wages over that period Japan has declined by 12%. Japanese companies wages offered even in Thailand and Malaysia, and for low wage products in factories of Vietnam and Bangladesh are cheap and uncompetitive. A Japanese apparel brand is shown looking for factories in Bangladesh that can make shirts at $1.65 to be sold in Japan at $6. Japan's wages and prices are now falling behind developing countries and a Japanese economist calls it "declining Japan." Foreign investment is key to reviving growth by attracting new talent, changing business thinking and style of managing that is more open to new ideas and expansion. It may be of interest to note that Chinese companies in Japan may be focused on electronics and advanced technologies than American private equity in Japan focused on hotels and health care simply to boost profits. ...

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Pope Francis recalls his days as a boy playing soccer on the streets outside his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a rag ball because they did not always have a leather ball. "There was not always someone with a leather ball so we played with a ball made of rags, a pelota de trapo." Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants in Argentina. He calls it a great school of life for him being the goalie and having to take all the shots taken at him. His leadership has shown concern for the marginalized and the poor through the repeated economic crises and the current pandemic. In his talks with world leaders including Trump, Biden, and recently Modi of India he has shown the importance of taking good care of the environment, the downtrodden and the marginalized in society. 

Some of the influences in his life come from his father, an accountant from Asti in northwest Italy, who loved reading to the children and had a library.

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How the expression "owning the libs" found its way into the current vocabulary and its meaning today. Seen as it relates to the Republican party and choices of some sections of the party to overemphasize the importance of so called culture wars on the difference of opinion about abortion and women, immigration, diversity. This happens in the context of the larger issues of national importance of national character, America's leadership in the world, America's position in science and technology in the world, American education, fighting climate change and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. After the Ukraine war, differences with China, and the reorganization of America's supply chain in the world reducing concentration in China, creating new opportunities for America in science and technology leadership, a new attitude is taking hold. One that deemphasizes this type of "owning the libs" discourse that leads nowhere in rebuilding America to rebuilding America and also its European and Asian allies to prepare for a better, hope filled future. ...

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Google has come out firmly on the side of parents struggling to deal with schooling at home for children, with social distancing during the pandemic, as it supports working from home all the way till summer of 2021. For 200,000 full time and contract Google employees is sure to offer some relief.  Sundar Pichai the Alphabet CEO made the decision after a debate in Google Leads a small group of executives at the company.  Mr. Pichai told staff " I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months."  He was especially concerned about parents trying to tackle schooling of children. The surge of the pandemic in California where Google is located is likely to have convinced Google executives that this was the right step, with no vaccine in sight, and the possibility of a second wave after this one. Remote work has also proved to be effective in the software industry, creating this option. ...

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In a nationwide television address prime minister Modi of India calls for a Janata Curfew on Sunday March 22, for a test of people's self-discipline in fighting the coronavirus. He urged people to not go outside of their homes from 7am to 9 pm voluntarily in this curfew. The aim is to build public consciousness of the need for social distancing and staying away from crowds and people gathering, as an effective way to prevent spread of coronavirus. Only health care workers and people who provide essential services would be outside. He asked that at 5 pm on that day people ring bells to thank health workers and others who are doing what is necessary in the health crisis.

The prime minister said there should be no hoarding as the government will ensure that there are adequate supplies. He said an Economic Response Task Force has been setup under the leadership of the Finance Minister that will decide on an economic relief package.