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It is hard these days to walk on streets in Germany, Austria and other European countries without the fear of being hit by a speeding bicycle. Some cyclists are known for aggressive cycling on city streets and make it difficult to go out for a walk without constantly being on the alert for bicycles. This is completely different from when bicycles were rare ocurrence.

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Bondholders and the Greek government are stalled in talks and waiting for Germany and the IMF to come up with the 14.5 billion euros that is due on March 20, 2012. It may suit the bondholders holding out for a higher interest rate in the 4-5% range for the new bonds to be issued at 50% of face value with long term maturities, but is bad for Europe. This Journal editorial points out that this is bad for European taxpayers and points to other steps that can be taken which are being discussed in European circles. One step is for acollective action clause to be inserted for the existing Greek bonds under which all bondholders have to accept losses if two thirds of the bondholders agree to accept losses. To ensure the safety of the Greek banking system Greece would restructure the bonds held by Greek banks so that they continue to be acceptable as collateral with the ECB, and issue new bonds to the ECB with face values, interest rates and maturities matching existing holdings. The idea is to make it possible for Greece to reduce its total debt and its debt servicing costs- which is really the only way out of the crisis. The ECB and Greece would use the collective action clause to restructure the Greek debt to reduce interest and debt servicing costs on new bonds to be issued. The Journal editorial says it should also mean Greece and the ECB are not required to put up the 30 billion euros in up-front cash that was agreed to in a poorly devised agreement in 2011....

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Deutsche Bank's shares trade at all time lows following a new raid by German authorites for money laundering and tax evasion probe, according to this report in WSJ. The bank's shares have dropped 51% in 2018 to 8 euros.  The bank has also experienced many management shakeups in these probes and declining performance.

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How Britain is enforcing its lockdown preventing gatherings of more than two people outside and only for exercize, and as short as possible in the local area only. Violators face a 60 pound fine. In German states this is 2500 euros. The drive to nature spots to exercize is not allowed. Police have used drones in some areas.

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Spain provides 14 public holidays that are mostly Catholic holidays, and an additional 22 vacation days, which is similiar to the the EU average. Unlike the practice in the U.S. and Britain to have these holidays fall mostly on Fridays and Mondays, in Spain many of these holidays fall in the middle of the week. This disrupts productivity as Spaniards use bridge days or puentes to create long weekends during which many offices and factories are empty, disrupting productivity. Most companies cannot plan for meetings and work because counterparts may be using the bridge days during these holidays, and working with international clients is difficult and hard to explain. Spain's new prime minister is determined to increase Spain's competitiveness, and bring Spain to the level of competitiveness of countries that do well in this measure, including other European and Asian economies. He describes this in his book "En confianza. Mi vida y mi proyecto de cambio para Espana." ("In confidence. My life and project of change for Spain") In his inauguration address he said Spain should correct "the work calendar to make the rights of workers compatible with the competitiveness of our companies." Vacations are a sensitive issue in Spain because tourism generates 10% of GDP and employs 10% of the workers. Alberto Nadal, who addresses labor issues at the main business association in Spain, says a change of mentality is needed in Spain, and doing away with bridges shows Spain is grasping the idea that things should be done differently for the eurozone community of nations. This also shows some of the differences in the Iberian peninsula countries of Spain and Portugal, where the countries are embracing the change and there is less unrest even with high unemployment, as compared to Greece. In Greece the changes are being resisted by politically connected groups, where political parties enjoy little support and there is much unrest, making the project difficult. Mariana Rajoy, Sarkozy and Merkel are from centre right parties in Spain, France and Germany, and have had a close association for years before Rajoy was elected- during EU meetings of centre right parties, as is evident in Rajoy's book. They also share a similiar business and political orientation. ...

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The European Central Bank left all its interest rates unchanged on September 7, 2016. No changes were made to asset purchase program, which will run until March 2017 or beyond as needed. The ECB left interest rates at 0% for its lending operations, and for overnight deposits at 0.4%.  Inflation is a special concern, as inflation was at 0.2% for August. Business activity and investment in the EU and in the U.S. is weak, and Brexit is still a concern.

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This Wall Street Journal editorial calls for more transparency in disclosing bad debt problems at Spanish and other European banks. It faults recent and upcoming stress tests of EU banks for not being stringent enough and taking into account adverse scenarios. While Spain's central bank says only 20 billion euros are needed to recapitalize the cajas savings banks, other estimates are much higher. Moody's country report says Spain could need upto 120 billion euros to recapitalize its banks. A big problem is European banks exposure in Spain which is over 700 billion euros as of September 2010- Spanish banks have high exposure in Portugal and German banks have high exposure to Spain.

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DW.com's Ines Pohl says the U.S. presidential election campaign in 2016 with Donald Trump is a reflection of the state of American society today. She says lets not kid ourselves, what is happening is a reflection of the changes in society, demagogy as a reflection of the society we live in- people's lack of interest in serious issues, the loudest getting heard, less interest in checking the facts, and looking for a good show or entertainment in the debate. She points to problems in today's society, new technologies in media, that have fostered a new kind of shallowness. This includes fragmented social media groups, media that allows scapegoat theories to thrive, and elites or people in authority that lack the ability to respond to the challenges posed by this. She rightly points out that it goes beyond this campaign season and will continue into the future till it is resolved. What would Abraham Lincoln think of this, or what would George Washington or Thomas Jefferson think of this? LyrArc has frequently quoted these lines from a letter by Washington to Jefferson in Feb. 1783, and in the First Letter from the Editor- "To merit the approbation of good and virtuous citizens is the height of my ambition;  and will be a full compensation for all my toils and sufferings in the long and painful contest that we have been engaged." Washington told his countrymen in his draft of the First Inaugural Address that "there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity." This has profound meaning and is truly applicable in meeting the challenges America and Europe face today.   ...

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As the auto market shrinks in the USA, BMW expands it S. Carolina plant. This suggests that something is happening in the auto market with BMW cutting 5000 jobs in Germany, new auto manufacturing investment into the US as it makes sense for currency reasons to manufacture in the US and not in Germany.

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Chancellor Scholz tells the German parliament before a special EU summit-that Putin "will not achieve his goals in Ukraine, not on the battlefield, not through a dictated peace." He responds to the Russian Defense Ministry claim that the western tank supplies are drawing NATO into the conflict and could lead to an "unpredictable escalation." Scholz said- "It is not NATO in war against Russia. It is Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

"From the first day of the war our strongest characteristic lies in our cohesion. We simply will not allow a country to invade another and disrupt peace in Europe."

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The average age of readers is 59 years and 75% are male for the Wall Street Journal. WSJ has about 3.4 million digital subscriptions. Emma Tucker, editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal says, she doesn't want the Wall Street Journal to become the German car industry of news publishing. She is pushing for changes to bring younger and more diverse readers to the WSJ. Emma Tucker was deputy editor of The Times of London and Editor of The Sunday Times in 2020. Her new role requires managing 1200 journalists compared to 120 in earlier work. Audience data is part of her way of responding to new changes.

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Though the numbers are relatively small about 450 migrants crossing in small boats to Britain, the strong response shows the political sensitivity to border crossing in Britain. Britain called on the Royal Navy to patrol the waters in the English Channel. This comes at a time when the issue of Brexit is dividing Britons. The Brexit referendum Leave vote benefitted from pictures of the migrant crossings into Europe from the Mediterranean. Placed on buses these posters were very effective in promoting the Leave campaign, even though at the time  the migration shown taking place was not into Britain but on the borders of Turkey, Greece, Hungary and Germany. 

 

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Low prices are a curse says an energy expert at Stanford University. He says it makes public policy sense to do something akin to boosting the price.

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Poland and the USA agree on the stationing of missile defenses in Poland by 2012. An American Patriot battery would be transferred from Germany to Poland and operated by a crew of about 100 military personnel.

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Google's Schmidt reminds newspapers that they can opt out of Google Search and Google News with a single line of simple code. Schmidt understands that the Web runs a serious risk of becoming a wasteland as reporting declines. Only a few brave reporters take up the immense burden of keeping the U.S. public informed in international crises, at important international events, and as major changes take place in different parts of Asia and Europe. Reporters in the U.S. perform similiar tasks, with fewer reporters assuming bigger responsibilities for informing the public. Newspapers in other advanced countries Germany and France face a similiar situation.

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How their strains in the the the Toyota manufacturing system and how Toyota's quality is not what it once was. Its image as a environment conscious company is also suffereing with its attempt to stall new fuel economy legislation in Congress like th Big Three American companies. And new hybrid engines are being introduced in joint development between Mercedes, BMW and GM so the novelty of Toyota hybrid may just wear out. And competitors from Germany and the US are now working harder to reduce Toyota's advantage by producing quality cars. As styling design and creative innovation has not been Toyota's strong point the Americans and the Germans have an opportunity to come up with something new. Even the incentives Toyota has to offer to sell its cars have now come up to what the Gm, Ford and Chrysler had to offer. According to CNW Marketing Research Toyota's dealer incentives have almost tripled in the last 3 years to an average of $3752 per vehicle. This is not a good sign. And we may have reached a point where the difference in quality between the GM Malibu and the Honda Accord from the Toyota Camry may really not be that much. No surprise that this is shaking up Toyota. The "Customer First Initiative" in response to quality issues and recalls is to have more power put into the hands of the chief engineer for any product launch to ensure quality problems are addressed early. And the dealers have EN2 (everything matters exponentially to address quality issues at the dealer level. And there aren't enough sensei or teachers of the Toyota Production System to meet the rapid growth of plants and the Global Production Centre was designed to meet this need by training teachers in an accelerated way in Japan. But there is a sense that a lot of the old Toyota magic may be fading just as Toyota reached te peak of its popularity sometime last year or 2005. Not because Toyota hasn't made the effort but because the whole dynamics of the car industry keep changing and Germans and the Americans are also pushing harder nowadays....

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European banks hold $147 billion of Portugal's assets and $117 billion of Greece's assets. The banking systems of Euopean lending countries are heavily exposed in the event of a sovereign default which is why it is in the self interest of Germany and France to come up with an aid package that restores confidence in financial markets, to avoid a direct hit to their banking system. Because of the ineptitude of Europe's decisionmakers, especially Chancellor Angela Merkel, private investors will not play the role in helping roll over Greek debt at tolerable interest rates that they could have played. With the now larger aid package of $160 billon there are still concerns from other angles. One is that debts of Greece will continue to grow- hence the three year aid plan. Analysis by the Economist suggests that the Greek government debt would rise to 149% of GDP by 2014 even with an aggressive budget deficit reduction of 12 percentage points (excluding interest costs). This assumes an interest cost of 5% in the aid package. In an average year Greece needs to refinance 40 billon euros of its debt and $70 billon is needed to cover cumulative budget deficits till 2014, hence the need for the IMF to step in and the nervousness in financial markets. ...

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In August 2008 Russia invaded Georgia and established the independence of the 2 breakaway countries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia tried to enter NATO that year but the French and the Germans objected, and the U.S. did not want to commit deep in the Caucasus region. In the 2012 election the anti-Moscow government of Mr. Saakashvili was replaced by a government that sought friendly relations with the West and with Russia. There are still no embassies between Russia and Georgia. A special representative to Russia was appointed in the new government of Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his money in metals and banking in Russia. Saakashvili is now a Ukrainian citizen and is a governor of Odessa province, on the Black Sea, with separatist influence. Russia's trade ties with Georgia, a destination for Georgia's exports including wine, are gradually being restored after a trade embargo imposed in 2006. The trade embargo was lifted in 2013. The representative to Russia says its no use keeping the illusion of NATO membership even though it is an objective, as Georgia has to defend itself, the consequence of being in a difficult region. The strident anti-Russian rhetoric is now muted, as Georgia rethinks its relationship with Russia and the West to live in a difficult neighborhood. Ukraine went through some wild swings with the Orange Revolution, and the change in government to a pro-Russian government that jailed the earlier leader for corruption, leading to the protest movement calling for close relations to the West, the collapse of the elected pro-Russian government followed by the election of Mr. Poroshenko, and the Russian intervention in Ukraine in 2014-2015, leading to western sanctions on Russia. The sanctions end in Jan 31, 2016. The situation in Ukraine may stabilize where the NATO readiness force and German chancellor Merkel's call for "a persistent NATO presence in the Baltic states," lead to a situation where Russia determines the best course is cooperation with its neighbors, and trade, economic relations....

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Stories of German athletes, soccer players and working mothers in this video of staying in shape and good mental health in DW.com.

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Trade shows and exhibitions for different industries are limping back to life in Europe. One show for camper vans in Dusseldorf, Germany, uses a limited physical event with online and virtual contact as a way to stage a successful event. The new world is one of hybrid shows in 2021 and beyond with digital media and physical activity in the real world mixed in. Europe's cities depend on a large share of their business on fairs. Everything in trade fairs is being scaled down and new ways are being tested.

The CIbus agricultural products fair in Parma, Italy too place is a slimmed down version focussed on a conference on how to relaunch Italy's agricultural and food industries. Masks mandatory and social distancing strictly done. Two auto camper fairs are planned one in Dusseldorf this weekend and one in Parma.

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The European Union governments are finding it increasingly difficult to salvage the Iran nuclear deal and lifting of sanctions. European governments rejected Iran's 60 day ultimatum to help circumvent U.S. Trump administration sanctions. The U.S. sanctions have already led to Iran's oil export to drop from 2.5 million barrels a day to 1 million. Lost shipments have cost Iran $10 billion hurting its economy. Initially European nations France and Germany hoped to keep the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by working with Iran, but this has become increasingly difficult with the Trump administration increasing sanctions including limiting access to U.S. markets for nations that do not cooperate with U.S. policy. The U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and now it looks like the Europeans are faced with a difficult choice in continuing to work with Iran.

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The pandemic came to young German people at a time when the trend was for less opportunity, more inequality. These trends are now aggravated and the loss of opportunities, and the loss of hope is even worse now in 2021. Job searches are being conducted while experiencing intense social isolation, boredom and lack of physical acitivity. The job competition is described here as horrendously competitive, a few roles and so many job seekers jostling to get them as companies have been hammered during the pandemic. 

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Issues in dialogue with the Europeans include Guantanamo Bay prisoner relocation, missile bases in Poland and Czech Republic, tensions with Russia, nuclear development in Iran, and Afghanistan.

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For Deere 80% of production of farm tractors is in US and 75% of suppliers in US. It is working on ways to tackle tariffs impact which is about $500 million. Its plan is to raise prices 2-4%. Deere has to tackle the imports from Germany of midsize tractors and its exports to Europe which also face tariffs. Other production is in Mexico and China.