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Hansi Flick joined Bayern Munich as an interim manager in November 2019. In less than one year he has transformed the German team. Routing Barcelona 8-2 in the semifinals of the Champions League. Taking the team to wins in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. In the manner of Zidane he has a strong bond with the players and trusts each player to develop his own individual style of play, avoided depending on stars who cost a fortune saving the club much money, and giving opportunity to a new generation of talent. He trusted Kimmich, Alfonso Davies, and put Kingsley Coman in for the finals with PSG after his great performance in the Barcelona game. No star antics or displays as veterans Neuer and Muller worked gracefully alongside the younger player for their individual roles fitting into the larger scheme of play. Some of the acclaim puts Flick now ahead of Pep Guardiola and in league with Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, Zidane at Real Madrid. Flick and Zidane have something in common. ...

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French president Macron is skipping attending the Swiss Davos conference in 2019, as he attends to pressing problems at home. A year ago after attending Davos Macron appeared as a champion of globalization and took some risky actions in the euphoria over his win- stripping job protections at a sensitive time of rising inequality, and abolishing a decades old wealth tax. The election showed a regional and urban-rural divide in France even though Macron gained a large majority in the Assembly. The yellow vested protestors showed no particular allegiance to parties, only showing a sense of dissatisfaction with neglect of working class struggling to make a living. All that is changed now after yellow vested protestors rioted week after week over neglect of working class issues.Macron has resisted pressure to reinstate the wealth tax. He has suspended plans to increase fuel taxes and introduced 10 billion euro worth measures to boost purchasing power of working class French people, a major demand of the yellow vests. A series of town hall meetings are planned for Macron to listen to the voices he has not paid enough attention to before in his aloof style of governing. ...

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Paul Davies says the leadership at Deutsche Bank is short sighted and cannot afford more slip ups or missteps following the U.S. New York Fed's examination. The examination revealed serious shortcomings in regulatory reporting and failure to correct them. As U.S. operations represent one fourth of its balance sheet this raises issues for the bank's overall financial position. Deutsche Bank has committed additional $1 billion in systems investment and staff to tackle this. Added problems he mentions are that Deutsche Bank lobbied against the Fed's proposal for foreign bank capital requirements even though it remains undercapitalized. The bank's leverage ratio at 3.4% is low and Davies says changes at the top are needed if further missteps occur.

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Peter Eavis says the too big to fail problem remains unsolved, and with the recent consolidation the "big four" accounting for 70% of all assets held by domestically cahrtered banks. There is no effort by the Obama administration to prevent banks from getting too big. And the Fed has accumulated greater powers as a regulator. It is still the same Fed, Eavis reminds one that failed as abank regulator by letting Citigroup's common equity ratios drop to perilous lows. And its overstimulative monetary policies having built up more risk than the system could handle. There will be more regulatory capital at these big banks as a result of actions by Treasury, but risk remains.

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With the changes inthe accounting rules by FASB, watch for ajump in Level 3 assets says Eavis, and any vagueness in explaining the impact of the change companies have made in their valuation techniques.

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P&G CEO Lafley achieved cost reduction and reducing product lines during his return as CEO, but failed to increase growth which is at about 2% as he hands the CEO position to David Taylor.

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Ten years after the severe banking crisis in Ireland that led to a collapsing economy and a lost decade, the curtain finally comes to a close on the actions of banking executives at Anglo Irish bank. 

David Drumm of Anglo Irish bank is sentenced to 6 years in jail for his role in the crisis. Lise Hand describes the total silence in the court as the sentence is handed out, accepting the severity of what had happened for Ireland and the Irish people affected by flashy money of banks, politicians as well as regulators who failed to live up to their duties to Ireland.

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David Car describes Steve Jobs unique contribution to product development and marketing through revolutionary products in different categories from iPad to iPhone. Carr shows how Apple manages the marketing through complete secrecy and buildup of excitement.

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The Obama administration's foreclosure prevention programs were designed for subprime lending situations. They were not designed for the high unemployment experienced in the U.S. A Treasury Department effort allows jobless people to postpone mortgage payments for 3 months, the average length of unemployment however is 9 months. Only 7,397 participants are in this program. As part of the bailouts Treasury had $46 billion to spend to prevent foreclosures, as of May 2011 Treasury has spent only $1.85 billion. Because housing provide so much of the underpinnings for the U.S. economy, it is essential to put housing back on a stable footing for an economic recovery. The lack of a sensible plan in this area is simply incomprehensible. Morris Davis, a former Federal Economist, has estimated that a million more homeowners went into foreclosure because of a lack of help for the unemployed. Davis is an associate real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin. He says its simply outrageous that the Obama administration has done so little. President Obama recently took credit for a recovery and jobs saved in the auto industry in Detroit. The failure to come up with a workable plan and to do so little in the larger area of housing and unemployment, is likely to overshadow everything else. This is especially so with the Fed approaching its limits after QE II, and with the administration and the Congress in a stalemate over further stimulus and the deficit....

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Both the Remain and Leave campaigns for the EU referendum are suspended in Britain following the killing of Labor MP Jo Cox.  The killing was described by police as done by a man with links to right wing extremism and mental health services.  David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn, leaders of the Conservative and Labor parties, say this is an "attack on democracy."

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Peter Eavis of WSJ cautions about the ability of the Fed to manage things after a flood-the-zone policy of central banking, because such a policy is hard to reverse and create stable effects for the long term.

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David Super, a professor at Georgetown University Law School, says letting the fiscal cliff cuts in spending go into effect is fairer to the poor and middle class than the $1.2 trillion in spending cuts proposed by president Obama and the Democrats. He says the pressure of public opinion would lead to some minideals for the Bush tax cuts to go to lower incomes and for restoring some funds to defense after the fiscal cliff agreement goes into effect, leading to a fairer outcome.

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Committing to staying social is a key part of retiring. David Richter, professor at Free University of Berlin, says that we have solid proof that first social contacts are reduced, then cognition declines.

Other activity that aids healthy retirement-

Being open to new experiences, pivot from one part of life to another

Volunteer work

Do something creative or novel

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The Fed gets tougher on "too big to fail" but how tough? Does it have the guts to go after this problem asks Peter Eavis. If he does Bernake would go down in history as a hero says Eavis. Meanwhile Fed Governor Tarullo clearly point to the utterly inconceivable fact that after a crisis of these proportions with large banks being bailed out, the remaining banks and financial institutions are larger than before the crisis. And the banking lobby has stalled regulation to control the problems in derivatives trading and other areas. Splitting up or downsizing the banks and separating their social function as deposit takers in the economy from their trading desks and investment activity, is being advocated by central bankers from Volcker to Mervyn King. See links.

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Rahul David turned down the opportunity to coach the Indian cricket team in favor of the coaching job for the under 19 team. Many of the young players hardly 21 or 23 years old who played against Australia in the Fourth Test including Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj, come from this under 19 training with Rahul Dravid. The persistence and devotion to excellence on the field at the beginners level in under 19 created under Rahul Dravid helped India overcome injuries and other problems to win the Test series against Australia. Rahul Dravid achieved this with a knock of 180 runs in the Test match against Australia at Eden Gardens Kolkata. Gill and Pant batted well for India to beat Australia in the fourth Test at Brisbane. The example set in 2001 by Laxman and Dravid was followed by Gill and Pant, by concentrating with determination on the work at hand.

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Peter Eavis describes the results of the new Federal Reserve LISCC's determination under Tarullo, Gibson and Taylor, to bring discipline to financial markets and reduce systemic risk. Over the last 3 years Goldman Sachs has spent $16.3 billion in buybacks, about 70% of profits, to return money to shareholders and improve metrics such as earnings per share. This strategy will now have to be reversed. With the Fed stress tests in Feb. 2015 the focus is on banks with large trading desks. Goldman unlike other banks has counted on a strategy of preserving a large trading operation in the hope that this will earn the bank larger profits when the market recovers. This does not sit well with the Fed in the 2015 stress tests- showing a $23.8 billion loss if the stock market fell by 60% in a crisis, leaving Goldman with a bare minimum in reserves. Goldman will now have to reduce the buybacks to add to reserves after the current stress tests, and pare down its trading desk operation.

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There is a sense from Remainers and Brexiters in the Conservatives and in Labour that Brexit is "acting as a drag on UK growth and limiting its potential" after the pandemic and inflation. Senior members of both parties are meeting in Oxfordshire including David Lamy of Labour and Michael Gove of the Conservatives, and the heads of banks and large business. Gove and Boris Johnson led the campaign for Brexit, and Gove is now interested in ensuring Brexit is not viewed as a failure in the long term. The Office of Budget. Responsibility says Brexit will reduce Britain's per capita GDP  by 4%, over the 15 years from 2016. Labour sees it as a threat to any future Labour government to leave unaddressed the relations with the European Union. In a bipartisan effort what sort of conversation to have with the EU so that Britain's economy benefits? President Biden's effort in working with like minded Republicans for America's renewal may be seen by Labour and the Conservatives as reason for doing the same in Britain to ensure European recovery.   ...

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NYT columnist David Brooks says Biden will be judged in the long run by what he has done to bring the two parts of America together that have drifted apart -one educated, affluent, city based and the other less educated, poorer, living in smaller towns and rural areas. One from the professional classes, and college educated that benefited from the tech boom, the other from working classes that felt the brunt of the shift of jobs to China. Biden is old enough to remember his emotional mentor Franklin Delano Roosevelt who faced a similar split America with farmers in small towns and workers who lost jobs in the Depression on one side and the smaller affluent classes of professional workers, small business owners in the earlier tech boom of the 1920's. Biden's father experienced unemployment and had experiences as a blue collar worker in Pennsylvania after business failures. It is an experience that has shaped Biden's views on America and the need to bring back hope after the pandemic that followed decades of neglect of working class Americans.   ...

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David Uberti looks back at a time when this part of Massachusetts between Rhode Island and Cape Cod witnessed a coal power boom with the Brayton Point Plant. How this helped build the local economy with coal. It used ten thousand tons of coal and one billion gallons of water from the Taunton river every day. It shows the kind of economic transformation that is happening in China and India with coal even as the switch to renewables is happening. In Massachsetts this was followed by the switch to wind power farms in Somerset started under Biden in 2022. This has stalled under DJT and facilities remain idle all along the New York and Massachusetts coast. What it says is that to switch to renewable one has to have some coal for economic transition to communities hit by deindustrialization. That bringing back America's industrial base, ending culture wars, and getting a bipartisan understanding of the transition from workers, communities all over the country are all part of the effort to put renewable energy on a sound basis. ...

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DJT on Canada "lives because of the US," and Carney's referencing the relationship and saying "Canada does not live because of the US." Rupture in relations started earlier but was mended. This time Carney takes the first step after visiting Beijing to clearly distance Canada from the US in speeches at Davos, by being openly critical of US policies. This does not bode well for negotiations onthe USMCA agreement that is being rewritten. Disputes with Mexico continues over US preference to strike on land against drug cartels in Mexico that are trafficking drugs to the US with loss of hundreds of thousands of lives more than the Korean and Vietnam wars, and World War 1 combined over the last decade. The USMCA involves negotiations with Mexico and Canada. The Border has been secured but like Eisenhower in 1954 DJT faces the problem of how to send back the surge in migrants that entered the border illegally through Mexico with the Mexican government not intervening and the Biden/Harris/Mayorkas government failing to secure it -asking for legislation as late as 2024 when most of the illegal entry had already happened. In 1954 Eisenhower organized Operation Wetback to do this, which is now underway in the US in a different way by DJT in 2026 with the clear focus on getting criminal activity out. ...

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The 47 seconds of a UC Davis Law School debate for the election of Attorney General California. The year 2010, Kamala Harris 45 years old had endorsed Obama early in 2008, was becoming well known in the California Democratic party. The debate was with Steve Cooley, a popular Republican District Attorney elected in 2000. Cooley was looking into outlandish salaries for public officials in the City of Bell. The issue of double dipping had been raised in the primary by Cooley's opponent Eastman. Jack Leonard on of three panelists said he would ask the question about double dipping to Cooley, about Cooley taking his taxpayer paid pension to add to his salary as AG of $150,000, that would get him to make $400,000. "Do you plan to double-dip by taking both a pension and your salary as attorney general?” Mr. Leonard asked. “Yes, I do,” Mr. Cooley said outright Leonard glanced at Ms. Harris. She said nothing.    “I earned it.” But Mr. Cooley was not yet done. “I definitely earned whatever pension rights I have, and I will certainly rely upon that to supplement the very low, incredibly low salary that’s paid to the attorney general,” said Cooley. Everyone felt a moment of silence and amazement. And then Harris said "Go for it Steve. You earned it." Harris campaign was about broke with only $750,000 left, just enough to run one ad spot for only 1  week. And Kamala Harris had the courage to do just that. At that moment the campaign was won, a last minute counter ad did not register as Meg Whitman the governor candidate for Republicans  was seeing her campaign go off the rails. ...

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Timothy Egan vists the west coast of Ireland, near Dingle, where David Lean filmed "Ryan's Daughter," and sees abandoned half-finished houses. One in eight houses in Ireland sits empty he says, as the excesses of the boom years now are there for all to see.

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David Brooks on the ground in Wardak province of Afghanistan, points to the efforts to restore the indigenous government and community structures that will be so important to restoring to Afghanistan what was lost in years of war, and which has left a vacuum in which the insurgents flourish.

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As Britain goes to general elections in May 2015, one of the issues in the election will be new referendum on membership in the European Union promised by prime minister David Cameron. Cameron has said he will negotiate a better deal for Britain in the EU and hold a referendum by 2017. The last referendum was in 1975, in which two thirds of voters supported membership in the EU. British disapproval of the EU has increased with immigration from newer EU members since the 2008 financial crisis, and increasing unemployment. Some recent polls show 42% voting to stay in the EU, and 39% opting out, suggesting a close vote. Negotiations for better terms mean treaty change, which would be opposed by France. Germany's Merkel also opposes changes on the immigration rules that do not allow free movement of labor. Other EU leaders see Cameron's moves on the EU being an effort to counter the UK Independence Party's push for EU exit, as the UKIP could draw Conservative right wing voters in the 2015 general election. ...

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Britain's National Health Service IT initiative failed because of a top down emphasis and focus on procurement. The project was started by Labor in 2002 and budgeted for 12 billion pounds. Lohr talks with Dr. David Brailer, and Dr. David Blumenthal, who headed the program for health IT in the Bush and Obama administrations, and with Richard Alvarez of Canada Health Infoway, which is the nonprofit corporation setup for conversion to electronic health records in Canada. Dr Brailer says the program in the UK was forced top down on doctors and nurses, and seen as a procurement program, ignoring the human aspects related to doctor preferences. Dr. Blumenthal empasized the need for collaborative effort all the way with doctors and nurses in a program of this kind. The confrontation that resulted from the lack of participation by health care professionals led to failure. Britain's new Cameron government ended the program.