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Cars that will be seen at the Frankfurt auto show show the direction the industry is taking. Fuel saving technologies, hybrid engines for cars by BMW and Porsche better know for gas guzzling high performance engines. With environmental consciousness high in Europe the pressures to reduce auto emissions are building up in Germany and the rest of the EU. BMW will show concept car that has the higher ride of a sport utility and the hybrid engine running on gasoline and electricity. BMW is trying to change its image to become more in line with the environmental friendly that the German public requires. Mercedes Benz will show its new fuel saving technology and Prorsche will show a hybrid version of its Cayenne SUV. The other focus in Europe on coming up with smaller cars for sale in Asia and elsewhere, and for light driving in Europe. VW is coming up with a city car concept that cand be sold in Asia and also in Europe, it has a rear engine similiar to the VW Beetle and would come in different body styles that can be built for regional preferences but built off a single platform which is cost efficent to turn out....

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The critical variable in knowing whether lockdowns of cities and countries are working is called the coronavirus RO, or reproduction ratio. This ratio measures the average number of people infected by a carrier A. It could be that he infects 1 person at work and transport call it B people , or in large gatherings call it C people he infects 2 persons, or in other surroundings such as restaurants he infects 1 person call it D people. The people A has infected B+C+D are the ones now not infected by A with the lockdowns such as in New York, Italy, Germany, UK and France. It is determined by global health experts that the number of B+C+D is about an average of 4 persons infected by 1 person A with coronavirus, though it may be much higher in practice in some areas. The natural rate of RO or reproduction ratio is considered by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to be 3.86 or about 4, if no lockdown or social distancing or other prevention is practiced. This in a situation where people behaved as before unaware that the virus was around them. Governments such as New York and France, UK, Germany are including this key variable in their determination of how long a lockdown lasts, and for determining if the reopening is not going the right way or failing. In such situations the lockdown would be reinstated, or if it is a phased reopening such as in the U.S. and other countries go back to the previous phase. In Italy and Germany the RO reproduction ratio for coronavirus is estimated by official experts at 0.8. Germany's RO estimated by the Robert Koch Institute and Italy's by Franco Locatelli, scientific advisor to the government. In New York the margin is thin- with RO of 0.9, estimate from the state's governor. In France which has one of the tightest lockdowns of all with a document required to go outside it is at 0.6, the figure coming from the prime minister Mr. Philippe. In the UK it is below 1.0 but no accurate figure is reported. As Dr. Birx- leading the coordinated response in the U.S. - emphasizes over and over again this is a very contagious virus, about which not much is known. Social distancing, wearing masks, basic prevention measures such as frequent handwashing, and not gathering in large numbers of people, is essential for defeating this virus. This has to be followed up with extensive testing and contact tracing to win this fight.   ...

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This is an highly important interview by the BBC with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. We have followed the path breaking work of Mr. Lighthizer at Lyrarc.com over 10 years, and have great respect for his effort on behalf of the American people and American workers. Here are some of the remarks he made at the end of the term of the Trump administration. Lighthizer says the objective of trade is not just efficiency, it must be working men and women. This is the shift that Mr. Trump has made. It will be a lasting change as leaders in both parties see this as important, says Lighthizer. There are companies that immediately want to go back to the way things were but Lighthizer says members of both parties will prevent this. This will be a lasting change. Democrats in particular could soon face strident criticism that they have let down the working class from within their party, increasing the risks of the party to represent large parts of the American population. Lighthizer says its not accurate that we started a lot of trade wars, we have simply enforced our laws and insisted on fairness for American workers. There was really no trade war in the improved NAFTA deal in the interests of American workers, which also enhanced worker protections in Mexico, for a win-win on both sides of two neighbors. "We want strong communities in the U.S. and if that means T-shirts will cost another nickel, they will cost another nickel," sums up the way Lighthizer sees it, and the way all of America would see it if one regained the idea of government for the people, of the people and with the people. "We are proud of what we have done to reorient American trade towards working people in the U.S. and less towards outsourcing and corporations," says Lighthizer. And he says that was important to do. Lighthizer only highly underestimates what he has done for America and American workers.  A lot remains to be done. The about $800 billion in overall trade deficit the U.S. has with China, Germany and the rest of the world is not sustainable, he says. The job only gets harder now that the direction is clear.    ...

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An extraordinary moment in history took place at Rajghat Gandhiji Memorial in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. The leaders of 20 largest nations from all over the world observed a moment of silence after devotional hymns at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. Click on original article to pull up the larger picture and take our On the Spot Quiz on which countries were paired together on either side. On either side of Modi are Widodo (Indonesia) and Lula (Brazil), next to them either side Macron and Biden, Albanese and Sunak, EU's Michel and Leyen , Erdogan and Yeong, Fernandez and Meloni, Qiang and Kishida, Lavrov and Scholz, Sissi and Ramaphosa, Rutte and Trudeau. Can you tell which countries each pair of leaders are from? Answer below for our first On the Spot Quiz. Answer: France and US, Australia and UK, EU's pair, Turkey and South Korea, Argentina and Italy, China and Japan, Russia and Germany, Egypt and South Africa. It is an exceptionally well thought out arrangement. With Indonesia and Brazil on either side of India, you have the core of the aspiring population of 1.7 billion people more than anywhere else on the planet Earth, who think alike, act alike. And next to them are leaders of France and US, Australia and Britain, and the European Union, who are resolutely backing the shift in agenda- debt assistance, tripling renewable energy, and a new infrastructure building effort for ease of living.   ...

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Quiet quitting has become a phrase that means workers are working hard and doing things the way they did before, except that they are not letting a work culture that may have gone astray because of bosses  who set the wrong rules guide their lives. Even as companies such as Stellantis are taking on a new culture because of a new respect for workers work-life balance and getting a lot more from them, other companies are following older set patterns that did not include work-life balance or rejected work-life balance outright without saying this openly. Stellantis, Europe's largest car company itself shows why this is dependent on who is the CEO and what he believes in. The previous CEO had poor health habits including frequent smoking and irregular long hours without a structure of any sort that led to this being carried over into the work culture. The CEO changes and new rules are set and soon it permeates who is hired at different levels that are consistent with his habits and sense of work life balance. A new culture develops over time and gradually you have new work ethic that respects the mental health and fitness of workers and of managers, and that of the CEO. This report in WSJ starts with the premise that workers should'nt feel bad because worker are "quiet quitting" anyway after the pandemic. But in reality the statement is a bad one, as it does not say there are better models out there few as they are, that need to take pre-eminent place after the pandemic rejecting the old ones that recklessly ignored health and mental health and were less motivating for workers, and leading to less productive culture in the workplace. At Stellantis a lot gets done in regular hours so that the time after 5 or 6 pm is devoted to workers getting into exercize taking a bike ride, doing things that revitalize and build a healthy body and mind so essential for productive and good thinking type concentration in work. Emails over weekends need not be replied till Monday, and bringing up work during the weekend is discouraged. And still a lot gets done, the company will take the leading role in EV vehicles in Europe and has aggressive plans for 2030 for new EV models. See the link to Stellantis to see how this new CEO runs a company of about 100,000 employees around the world. His name is Carlos Tavares and he took charge of Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler combined operations called Stellantis in January 2021. This is important as it is the new trend that will take hold of the work culture after the pandemic only if workers and managers ask that it be so and as the word spreads that better more productive companies that can get a lot more done is the result of such an educated workplace that respects health and mental health, and the dignity of workers and families. Look, how can it not be so when the word still has to be spread on climate change in the business world? How can one take place without the other? There is a new sense of dignity in respecting the dignity of the environment, of water, soil, and air, how not so for the mind, the body and its connection to nature around it? And no better place than Stellantis and its CEO Carlos Tavares where the old CEO ran himself down with poor work and health habits and passed away while at work in 2018, to show a new way.  In Germany this new way of work-life balance based work culture is called by a more respectful term "Feierabend" than "quiet quitting" showing that what is wrong is with the work culture and bosses who do not grasp the importance of health, mental health, and what it means to be revitalized for truly productive and thoughtful work. Quiet quitting has that sense of workers having to feel a bit of guilt about this and still thinking it is right  doing it anyway. In Germany"feierabend" is popular and accepted, it means breaking away from work at normal times such as 5 pm or 6 pm when a workday ends so that one can go out and relax with a bike ride  or something that is good for health and fitness and rejuvenates. No email, no nothing so the mind can rest and revitalize. ...

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Ford. will still make $8 billion to $11 billion this year even after losses of $3 billion in electric cars. By 2026 Ford says it will earn 8 to 9 percentage points in profit from EV's. Ford is basically investing in the EV industry now for the long run. It is also part of the effort to move away from fossil fuels. Government incentives and subsidies will help companies and buyers of vehicles make the transition to EV's to fight climate change.  Companies that have not invested in EV's such as Toyota risk falling behind in EV's at a time when climate change is a major priority for buyers and governments around the world. Toyota is moving to a new CEO who can better take up the challenge of EV's. Under the previous CEO Mr. Toyoda Toyota clung to a mistaken belief that hybrid cars were all that is needed to reduce use of fossil fuels. German, Chinese and US manufacturers are taking the lead in EV's and Japan has fallen behind.  WSJ has never favored government subsidies and is critical for this reason. Yet it is clear that in some situations such as fighting climate change, building infrastructure, and redesigning the supply chain, government has to take the lead. Eisenhower in the 1950's with a government led effort helped build the national highway system, the first in the world. Biden is making a similar effort on multiple fronts. The redesign of the supply chain comes after private industry without proper direction from the government over concentrated manufacturing in China with Japan as a supplier into China. Presidents Bush and Obama wasted time and resources better devoted to national priorities at home on wars in remote places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. President Biden wrapped up the war in Afghanistan and completely disengaged from an area that is of no constructive interest to America. Resources are now concentrated in the right way on real national priorities from manufacturing at home to fighting climate change, fighting the cost of living crisis and building better infrastructure for workers and families. ...

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As Germany looks back at the mistakes of the past in failing to get immigrants to integrate and letting ethnic communities form that failed both in terms of jobs and language/culture skills needed to become full citizens, it is now taking a fresh approach to the task of integrating about 1 million new immigrants. For the first time the government is putting this approach into legislation that is sure to pass, offering new incentives, requiring immigrants to look for work and to take jobs in smaller towns and communities. It offers new opportunities and at the same time takes away benefits if this is not done. Chancellor Merkel calls this "a milestone," and said about this legislation- " We are a country that makes a good offer to those who come to us, to those who are fleeing war, persecution, terrorism. But we are also saying very clearly- because we have learned from the past  when we did not provide these integration opportunities- that we're also expecting people to accept this offer." The lessons were learned after large immigration from Turkey in the 1960's and 1970's with ethnic communities being formed that never integrated with the rest of German society. The new law requires refugees to stay in municipalities where they are first assigned when arriving in Germany unless they have a job offer elsewhere. The government plans to subsidize creation of 100,000 new jobs across Germany, in work such as maintaining public parks, helping elderly, an alternative says Labor Minister Andrea Nahles "to doing nothing." The law also makes it easier for private employers to hire people in towns across Germany. The new German approach is for a two way handshake, and to take a pioneering approach. ...

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Greece's minister for migration tells the Times that seven charities including one in London form part of a chain stretching from Somalia to Britain in which smugglers move migrants illegally.  One of the seven charities is in London and is seen as colluding with human traffickers who are putting lives of migrants at risk. Greece has 70,000 migrants living in squalid refugee centres. Of these 17,000 are on islands in the Aegean sea. Europe cannot cope with all these migrants illegally making the crossing, much less during this pandemic. It has also unsettled the countries where migrants are settled on a humanitarian basis as there is at the same time serious neglect of poverty stricken communities inside Europe who are not getting the assistance they deserve. The result is even less focus on the development needs, on infrastructure, education and healthcare of the countries in Europe where migrants are headed, with the attention diverted to the migrants issue. Economic progress in Europe and rapid development could not only improve the condition of people in all communities, it could also help finance more foreign aid development project assistance to Africa and other countries. This would if vigorously done keep people in their home countries and help fulfill their development aspirations there, which is the better way.  Chancellor Merkel of Germany should have opted for a better way by setting up a program for aspiring migrants in the countries of Africa with a generous visa program offering training and technological skills, which could then be brought back to the country in Africa where it could generate jobs and opportunities with the necessary capital from European and other financial institutions and governments. This effort made in alliance with Britain and France could be powerful in its impact. Instead a haphazard three years of migration led to internal divisions, loss of confidence in the CDU and the SDP, FDP parties in coalitions, ending up where it should have started in the first place- reducing the migration to a trickle, returning some migrants back to their countries, and focussing on bringing economic assistance and development assistance to African countries for opportunities in these countries and a brighter future so that no one would want to leave and drift on oceans in tiny boats in the first place. The condition of the people in Africa is not so hopeless that the best they can do is to send their young people to drift on boats on the high seas in the hope of refugee status. China has shown that the there is a path from famine during the years following the Great Leap Forward to the development of today. India is doing that now and can repeat that story. Japan and South Korea, Taiwan have done this after devastating wars and out of nothing. Imagine what the world would be like if all these people in Asia set out on small boats for Europe.       ...

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The transfer of high speed rail technology by Kawasaki to China, starting with deals made in 2004. Kawasaki did this fearing that other competitors would win the business. It transferred the technology believing that it would be years or decades before China would develop its own capabilities and compete with high speed rail manufacturers in Japan and Europe. Kawasaki says the understanding was that the transferred technology would be used inside China, and not for export. China insists it has improved on the technology that was transferred with its own innovations, and it has the right to compete in the world high speed rail market. A high speed rail line between Shanghai and Beijing is being built using Chinese technology by China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry Corporation (CSR), to cut the time from 10 hours to 4 hours. This is part of a network that will be extended to 9700 miles by 2020 according to the government's plan. As part of its export of high speed rail China Railway Construction Corporation is developing a high speed rail line connecting Istanbul and Ankara. China is bidding for contracts in Brazil and in the USA. The issue of transferring technology is becoming a sensitive one for Germany, Japan and the USA. It means transferring the technology as the price of getting a share of the Chinese market, but paying the price later on with competition from Chinese competitors in the same industry. China is developing its own civilian aircraft that would compete with the Boeing 737 and the Airbus 320. Min Zhu, special advisor for the IMF and former deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, that China's share of advanced machinery manufacturing could reach 30% of global exports by 2020, from 8% today. ...

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Mike Clancy of The Prospect writes in The Times of London that he has found that two thirds of remote workers working from home would like to have the right to unplug from work and not be expected to connect with the office at some point in the day, and that this would have a hugely beneficial impact on mental health.   The biggest problem that workers working from home have found during this pandemic for one year now is that it blurs the line between work and life outside of work having a negative impact on one's mental health. Surveys have found that about half of remote workers like the idea of working from home, having time from commute and being able to be have more freedom from being tied down to the office space. Companies are looking at cutting about 25 to 50% of office space but have not looked at the problems workers have and not set new rules about when the line for work is set and workers can cut off from work and not be expected to be reachable by the office. Clancy even goes on to say that companies have looked at the problems of the last century not this one and largely stayed away from tackling the real problems of workplace- stress, burnout and surveillance. Lyrarc recommends readers look at the way Germans approach this idea of blurred distinctions between work and life outside of work in the idea of "Feierabend" that literally means breaking away from work at some point say 4.00 pm or 5.00 pm to take a bike ride or walk or do something else. ...

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Fearing retaliation by Chinese regulators, US executives are silent on trade issues. As a result the issue of wind energy subsidies to Chinese manufacturers was brought up not by GE, a manufacturer of wind turbines, but by the United Steelworkers Union in the US. The US filed a WTO complaint in this matter based on the US Steelworkers petition. GE has stayed silent in this matter in deference to Chinese regulators. Only Solar World, a German company, has stepped forward to strongly endorse the investigation. Solar World has manufacturing sites in Oregon and China, but no plants in China.

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A sanitary health expert Arne Panesar of the German Corporation for International Cooperation says for about six of ten persons in the world there are no sustainable sanitary systems for the waste. It is not enough he says to build toilets, equally important  is how the waste is treated and disposed. Prime minister Modi of India has stated that toilets are more important than temples in India and the goal is set for all Indians to have secure sustainable toilets in 2019.  Panesar says of Dacca, Bangladesh, that for its 16 million only 2% have securely managed sustainable sanitary provisions. Waste that is not treated and correctly disposed off ends up in streams and neighborhoods creating health hazards- diseases like cholera, typhus and polio thriving in such conditions. It is not clear says this report that sanitation needs can be met by even 2030. In India the focus is now not just toilet building but on on safe sanitary provisions to make health a priority, as well as women's education which suffers without adequate toilets. ...

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Under Mette Frederiksen immigration which reached 21,000 in 2015 was down to a little over 1000 a year. She is a strong fighter for workers and families and labor rights and yet tough on illegal immigration. She has been proven right about this as Britain and the US under Biden are seeing illegal immigration as a threat to workers and labour, are seeing the risks of distraction from illegal immigration doing a serious disservice to workers and families by making it hard to fight for workers and families on wages, cost of living and other issues.  Even with a strong record of fighting for workers and families, Frederiksen was one of the first European leaders to see the dangers of illegal immigration to society. It gave parts of the political spectrum that had no interest all along in workers and families doing well, an issue to run on that would come to cause grave harm to workers and families. This turned out to be the error of Angela Merkel a CDU leader brought up in Communist East Germany, who had no idea of the risks of her approach for open immigration. As Merkel let this chapter unfold it created fissures in Europe, with Tories and Nigel Farage taking Britain out of the EU and laying waste to its economy for 5 years till Labour's Starmer adopted a tough immigration policy and became prime minister in 2024. That danger then spread to the US in 2016 which also suffered as Republicans and Trump did the same in the US around rhetoric but without serious action on immigration till the Lankford- Biden legislation.  That bill would have closed the border with Mexico and ended immigration as an issue forever if passed into law in December 2023, as Senator Lankford says would have happened. Ending immigration as an issue forever alongside foreign wars as an issue, so that a concentrated effort could be made on improving badly damaged lives of workers and families. And on rebuilding badly damaged manufacturing in the US, rebuilding collapsing infrastructure, and competing with better education and healthcare with the large Asian countries China, Japan/ South Korea, India. ...

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The Finance Ministers of Germany and France, Wolgang Schauble and Christine Lagarde, support a reprofiling of Greece's debt. This is a form of restructuring of Greek debt under which Greece's private creditors would be expected to take repayment over a longer period. This would help Greece cover its fiscal gaps in 2012 and 2013. Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of 17 finance ministers of the EU also supports this move. This is opposed by the ECB Executive Board member Jurgen Stark of Germany, Jens Weidmann, Bundesbank President, and Christine Noyer, head of the French central bank. The ECB's view is that there would be contagion effects from a restructuring which would affect Ireland, Portugal and Spain. Creditors such as Societe General bank support this view. The finance ministers have a political constituency and recent elections in Finland and Germany show lack of public support for additional financial support to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The ECB is pushing for Greece to exhaust all options include privatization and further spending cuts, and for European governments to come up with the money. The ECB position including a threat by ECB officials to stop accepting Greek bonds as collateral for loans is coming under criticism. Sony Kapoor of Brussels think tank Re-Define, says the ECB is following anarrow interest and considering the political opposition has an untenable position- forcing Greeks and the people of the eurozone countries to bear the entire burden of the crisis with no contribution whatsoever from the banks that made the decisions to make these loans. Not even to the point of a milder form of restructuring that reprofiling would accomplish, that extends debt repayments to creditors over a longer period. Krugman and and an editorial this week in the Wall Street Journal also take this view....

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Former German chancellor from the SPD party, Gerhard Schroeder, is interviewed by Rayond Zhong of the WSJ. Here he describes his views on the way Agenda 2010 was implemented in 2003 in Germany to gain public support for changes to Germany's welfare state. He also talks about the eurozone crisis and how Angela Merkel has handled the crisis, and the right approach for an Agenda 2020 for Europe. The interview was made at Schroeder's law office in Hannover, Germany. This is a detailed and exceptional interview by Zhong covering all facets of the eurozone crisis and Germany's response. Schroeder says it was right to give Greece more time to make the reforms, so that the Greek people could see that this path would help in a positive way. In doing this he cites his own experience when as the reforms for Agenda 2010 to make Germany more competitive were taking place- including cuts in spending and lower taxes- he turned down his finance minister Hans Eichel's proposal in 2003 for an additional 20 billion euros in cuts to put Germany in compliance with EU law....

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The Economist says working age young people arriving as migrants from war torn areas such as Syria should be welcome in the EU, because the EU's society is aging. As the labor force declines in the EU, it will need younger workers to make up for the declining labor force and the large number of pensioners to be supported. Fears of terrorism could be overcome by having a strong screening process, and cultural assimilation can be speeded up by providing free language education and access to the university system, as in Germany. This would turn the Syrian refugee crisis into a plus for countries such as Germany, which have a large program for newcomers. The war in Syria is so deep and widespread, and emigrants have made a long and perilous journey, making asylum a credible reason.

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Jean Claude Trichet is one of the last leaders from a generation that helped create the euro currency union and a pathway to closer union of European nations. For four decades he has worked at the upper echelons of European economic policy making. In accepting the Charlemagne prize he stayed true to his idea for closer integration in the European Union. He said- "Confronting the challenges of the future requires strengthening the institutions of economic union." He would like to see a finance ministry for the EU, saying that "in this union of tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, would it be too bold...to envisage a ministry of finance of the Union?" Such a ministry would exercize oversight over European nations economic policies and exercize veto power over national budgets. In the current crisis in Greece such a ministry could take actions and make decisions applicable to Greece. Trichet's remarks were delivered in Aachen, Germany. At the very same time finance ministry officials from 24 European countries were meeting in Vienna to come up with a solution to the Greece debt crisis. A main stumbling block is disagreement between Germany and others including the ECB, about how to make private-sector creditors share the burden of helping Greece avoid a default. Trichet and the European central bank and other central bankers have rejected Germany's insistence of an extension on the maturities of Greece's bonds, because they fear this would be perceived as a default by financial markets.This in turn would lead to contagion effects spreading to Spain and Italy, and a Europe wide crisis. In direct exchanges between Trichet and French president Sarkozy, Sarkozy has told Trichet he represents the bankers views whereas Sarkozy and Merkel have to take public opinion into account. In fact in past resolutions of financial crises in Latin America this type of extension of maturities for bonds has been applied, as for instance in the Brady Bonds and negotiated settlement arranged by the U.S. for banks, and Latin American and some Asian governments. Search term "brady" and see Landon Thomas's piece Nov. 30, 2010, in the NYT. This becomes necessary when countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal are unlikely to ever be able to repay the debt without a renegotiation of the original debt agreemments, spreading the debt over longer maturities, and private creditors taking some losses. By shifting the entire burden on austerity and spending cuts the current agreements leave the EU lurching from crisis to crisis as the underlying situation remains unresolved. It is here that Trichet's laudable vision of European unity runs aground because of the failure to build bridges between the outlook of the financial community and the public opinion of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other countries. The governments of creditor countries such as Germany seek a renegotiation for a restructuring of debt. The governments of Greece, Ireland and Portugal understand that severe austerity cuts alone with declining growth can never resolve the situation, and would welcome a restructuring especially because the cuts are deeply unpopular. The renegotiation has to be conducted with the full faith and credibility of the European governments, ECB and the support of the U.S. government, so that financial markets are given a certain reassurance that the situation will be managed to a successful conclusion, and not lead to contagion effects on Spain and Italy. When asked about this Nicholas Brady recently said this required "a unified decision." This would include money set aside for recapitalization of European banks that are affected by such a restructuring. In such a restructuring the German government and other European governments would still come up with taxpayer money for the resolution, yet the shared cost by all parties would create a fair and workable financial arrangement that has the potential for successful resolution to the sovereign debt crisis. This disconnect between the political leaders and the bankers is why observers say the Europeans have not been able to wrap their arms around this problem. ...

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The IMF promised to increase the aid package to Greece from $45 billion to $120 billion. Together with aid from the EU and Germany the total would come to $160 billion. This after the markets responded negatively to efforts by Greece to obtain funds. With the junk rating for Greek bonds Greece is effectively cut off from the markets and it makes it increasingly difficullt to roll over debt including $8 billion euros due May 19, 2010. Equally significant are the rumblings being heard about Spain, which is a much larger country than Greece, and an economy 5 times as large. An IMF loan to Spain would have to be significantly larger.

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It took a week longer for each country to impose a lockdown. In China first Wuhan then the whole country went into lockdown and quarantine. The same process is repeated in Europe and in America as authorites see numbers of infections increasing rapidly without strict controls. First the Lombardy region in Italy around Milan, then the provinces in Northern Italy, followed by a complete lockdown in the country on March 10 as infection spread faster without lockdown and enforcement of lockdowns. Germany and Britain follow Spain and Italy on March 20. France followed Spain in the days after Italy's complete lockdown. Macron ordered the lockdown on March 16 with stringent enforcement. Infectious Disease specialists at Imperial College warned of "unintended consequences for the entire nation" if a lockdown of Britain did not take place. The goal is to limit the spread of infections from rapid to slow as public health systems and economic measures are ramped up in preparation for the crisis. Most countries were lacking the preparatory steps having lost time waiting to see what happens next or analyzing data in the vain hope the virus does not spread.  Bad economic results of lockdowns were initially a concern, but this concern became less important as the coronavirus spread rapidly in Europe. Decision makers in Europe decided that not acting forcefully would lead to equally or worse economic outcomes. Public health systems overwhelmed would diminish public confidence rapidly and lead to equally bad or much worse economic outcomes. The European Union executive body has supported state aid, stimulus action and border controls in this crisis. In America and in Europe the hope is that shoring up the safety net with massive aid to businesses and households would buy time to tackle and overcome the coronavirus through a combination of lockdowns, quarantines, contact tracing, large scale testing and medical technology measures. The examples of China, South Korea, Taiwan showed this pathway exists for phased control and reducing fatalities to zero. ...

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There was some element of reckless behaviour when Britain tossed aside misgivings to let Tories let in private sector investing into companies in the water sector. The WSJ now calls it the world's largest failure in private sector water investment. Today there is eColi in the water in River Thames so much so that in the Oxford Cambridge rowing race rowers were advised not to make contact wih the water. It goes back to Victorian sewers which was a problem not tackled by companies interested in profits in areas that wiser men had decided is best done by public sector investment. These are the hidden failures of the Thatcher/Reagan years that are only now coming to light. The company Thames Water loaded up on debt to pay investors dividends while the company failed to upgrade London's sewer system, which has spilled what amounts to 34,000 Olympic swimming pools of raw sewage into the river since 2020. The US has not been so reckless as most water and sewage systems are still publicly owned. Near central London a matted mountain of wet wipes and sanitary products along with sewage washed into River Thames is called Wet Wipe Island. Thames Water took on so much debt $23 billion that it defaulted on its debt. How could this be in a modern developed nation, and what about all the other infrastructure investments in Britain rusting  from the Industrial Revolution that need investment? Tories have let Britain down. There are lessons for the US and Germany, France, India and China. ...

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Alexander Van Der Bellen, a pro Europe independent candidate supported by the Green Party wins Austria's presidential election with 53.3% of the vote. The anti immigrant Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer wins 46% of the vote. Van Der Bellen is for an open Europe and is pro Europe. The election is seen in Germany as "lifting a great burden off of our shoulders," in the words of Sigmar Gabriel. This is important for the future of Europe as France, Netherlands and Germany face major elections in 2017.

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During the Greek debt crisis in 2011 the ECB bought Greek bonds at a discount to face value to support the price of Greek bonds. It did so under the agreement that the bonds would be worth the full amount. Now as part of the negotiations between Greece and private bondholders (mostly French and German banks) about how much losses private bondholders will take- to make Greek debt serviceable as its economy shrinks and tax revenues decline- the ECB says it will take $11 billion in losses on these bonds as its contribution. The ECB will do this on the condition that Greece comes up with an agreement with private bondholders that makes debt serviceable. This could mean increasing private bondholder losses to 70%. from 50%. The central banks of EU countries hold $12 billion of Greek bonds. The ECB says this will not apply to these bonds. Negotiations are also underway between the EU and Greece for a 20% reduction in Greece's minimum wage and an additional 3 billion euros in government spending cuts, and pension cuts for retirees. The EU is asking for a written committment from the Greek government and from Antonio Samaras of the New Democracy party to the austerity program, as the measures are highly unpopular in Greece and are leading to continued street protests in Athens. ...

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Adolf Merckle, a native of Dresden, left for West Germany after World War II and built up businesses RatioPharm a generics pharmaceutical maker, and Heidelberg Cement. After making a bad bet in shortselling of VW shares, just when the Prosche family moves ran up the price of VW shares from 210 euros to 1000 euros in 2 trading sessions to obtain majority control of VW, Merckle faced losses of several hundred million euros and possible loss of RatioPharm. A badly timed acquisition by Heidelberg Cement also created worsening finances for Merckle's business. When he failed to get a bridge loan Merckle committed suicide. A public outcry prevented the state government there to provide any loans to Merckle.

LyrArc Article Gist
With some aspects of Marie Le Pen's programme possibly violating the French Constitution and some parts of the programme leading to France being forced to leave the European Union, what was not looked at carefully in the first round vote is now happening for the second round. The Le Pen draft law on "immigration, identity and citizenship," is seen by multiple analyses cited by The Guradian, as violating the principles of equality enshrined in the French Constitution. Constitutional experts say this would also violate European law and lead to a progressive or indirect exit from the European Union. Le Pen's proposal to lower the retirement age to 60 was coming under scathing scrutiny, with Jean Tirole, the 2014 Nobel prize winner in Economics saying it would cost 68 billion euros and "permanently impoverish the country." Countries such as Brazil that lowered the retirement age in this manner have found that it seriously affects public finances, leading to the deep economic crisis in Brazil following the commodity price collapse a few years ago. Macron has moved in the opposite direction to raise the retirement age gradually and now with a proposed national consensus, at the cost of losing some support, simply to shore up public finances. So that needed investments in infrastructure and climate change can be made. For this reason it may become evident to undecided voters that Le Pen's proposals have some serious flaws if implemented, weakening the French economy and yet not tackling the deeper problems of younger people. These problems The Guardian says in a separate report are the precarious and low pay jobs, asset based inequality, and rural urban regional differences developing as a result of the offshoring of manufacturing to China, and are common to Britain, France, Germany, and the US. These problems are beginning to be addressed after the lessons learned from the pandemic by western nations.   ...