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U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Yellen launches a sweeping review of practices for supervision of large banks in Nov. 2014. The review is designed to check "whether there are adequate methods for decisionmakers to obtain all necessary information to make supervisory assessments and determinations," and whether channels exist for decision makers to take into account divergent views when important issues arise. This is in response to questions about how the culture at the New York Federal Reserve may have stifled differing opinions on how banks should be supervised and what is proper information sharing between regulators and banks.

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AIG and GE Capital are designated "systemically important" financial institutions by the U.S. Treasury in 2013.

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Rick Perry faces criticism from Republican candidates Romney, Bachmann, Huntsman and Paul at the Republican presidential candidate debate in Tampa on September 12, 2011. Perry defended his remarks on Social Security by telling viewers- "slam dunk guaranteed that program is going to be in place." Romney suggested Perry had been served four aces for his jobs record in Texas. And Santorum accused Perry of providing education assistance to illegal immigrants to attract the Latino vote. Perry defended his remarks on Fed chairman Bernanke printing money amounting to treasonous behaviour.

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Peters and Wessel provide profiles of middle aged American men in 2014- as tech workers out of jobs as technology shifts and worker skills fall behind, younger men with masters degrees in fields such as public administration where it is hard to find jobs and workers lack retraining, and other men who lost jobs from globalization or the 2009 economic crisis. About one in 6 working age American men 25-54 are without jobs- about 10.4 million. Of this group two thirds are not looking for work either because they cannot find decent paying jobs or are too discouraged looking for work, and are not counted in the unemployment rate calculated by the Labor Department. About three quarters of the working age men not working have only a high school education compared to 55% with jobs. Wages for highschool dropouts have declined by 25% since the 1970's, and 15% for those without a college degree but having a high school diploma- some of these men are going back to school, others lacking retraining are too discouraged to look for work and depending on a spouse or government benefits. It is these people U.S. Fed chairpersons Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen have in mind as they shape Fed policies since 2009 to not leave them behind....

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The management of the sovereign debt of different countries. The use of auctions to get lower rates. Shift of a larger proportion of financing to longer term bonds, to reduce rollover risk. The U..as reduced its dependence on short term debt maturing in 12 months, from 45% to 30%.

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High inflation and depreciating currencies in India, Turkey, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa in 2012-2014.

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Anne Lowrey looks at the situation facing the 7.4 million Americans working parttime in March 2014 because they cannot find full time jobs. She cites Alan Krueger, former chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, for research that shows only 1 of 10 workers who were counted as long-term jobless betwen 2008 and 2012 had a full time job a year later. In Nov 2013 7.2 million worked parttime because they could not find full time work showing an increase of 0.2 million by March 2014.

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Support from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, and IMF head, Christine Lagarde, for Japan's Abe government's efforts to reduce the value of the yen. Bernanke says policy conducted with a view to improving the domestic economy is good policy.

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As the federal revenues rise to about 18.1% of GDP (close to historical rates after return to growth) and outlays to offset the effects of the 2008 recession diminishing, the deficit is forecast to drop to 3% of GDP in 2014, and 2.6% in 2015, close to the average for the last 40 years. The deficit is estimated to be total $514 billion for fiscal year 2014, declining from $1.4 trillion in 2009. Real GDP growth (adjusting for inflation) of 3% is forecast for 2014-2017. In 2018 and the years to 2024 the deficit will increase because the pace of growth slows, and spending will increase- slower growth of the labor force as the population ages, increasing health care costs, subsidies for health care, and increasing cost to service debt. Outlays other than for health care, Social Security and interest payments on debt for year 2016-2024, are set to be the lowest percentage of GDP since 1940, according to the CBO report in 2014. Debt will increase to 79% of GDP by 2024 from an estimate of 74% for 2014. CBO projects unemployment only slowly decreasing, remaining above 6% till late 2016, with the rate of participation in the labor force- lower now because many people have opted to not look for work discouraged by the job prospects- slow to recover....

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China's housing developers are increasing the issuance of high yield bonds in 2013. European and American companies have issued $120 billion in junk bonds for Jan-March 2013. Chinese companies issued $8 billion to overseas investors for Jan-March 2013, increasing from $2.3 billion in junk bonds issued in the same period for 2012, according to Dealogic. Yields are dropping. In the U.S. yields have dropped from an historical level of 10% to 6% on junk bonds. The same pattern is seen for China's junk bonds. Yields for bonds issued by Chinese housing developers have dropped from 11-12% to 7-8%. Investors are taking on higher risks on these bonds and the current yields do not reflect higher risk, as the bonds are issued from overseas subsidiaries for foreign investors. As with the bankruptcy of Suntech Power, foreign bondholders could lose everything. These junk bonds are not backed by the company assets in mainland China, and local banks and creditors in China come first in getting their money back. ...

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Bloomberg View says it is important for the living wills for U.S. banks that are "too big to fail" to be ready by the end of August 2011. This is required under the Dodd-Frank legislation. The living wills are designed to provide the government and the FDIC with an orderly pathway for winding down the business of a bank. On August 8, 2011, when the Dow Jones Averages dropped by 634 points, shares of Bank of America and Citigroup led the decline. Bloomberg points out that investors think Bank of America's net worth is only one third of what the bank claims, and for Citigroup this is less than half. Investors view the stocks of these banks as risky because they are likely to need to raise fresh capital and this would dilute the value of existing shares.

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Krugman points out that the federal tax rate for the top 1% is 34% in 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office, because president Obama let the high end Bush tax cuts to expire. It is the number to remember says Krugman- 34. In 2008 the figure was 28.2. Under Hillary Clinton the average tax rate for the top 1% would go up by 3.4 percentage points, according to the Tax Policy Center. Some of this would help pay for the tution plan to provide access to the middle class to public universities. Under populist Trump, Krugman points to the elimination of the inheritance tax and tax rates going down substantially, and no such programs to promote the upward mobility that everyone is talking about, and no way to pay for a big infrastructure building effort for growth and jobs- upward mobility that is the focus of every candidate's election campaign including Sanders, Trump in appealing to older white working class families, Clinton, Ryan, Bush, and others in both parties.   ...

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The Labor Department figures showed the U.S. added 157,000 jobs in January 2013. The unemployment rate edged slighly higher to 7.9%. Government jobs declined by 9000 in January, and the risk remains that drastic job cuts under a sequester of government spending cuts supported by some in Congress would hurt the job market.

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Examination report of Deutsche Bank's regulatory reporting by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2014 shows serious regulatory reporting problems.

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Toyota reported a 77% drop in earnings in the first quarter of 2011, with a large loss in the Japanese operations. The strong yen trading at 81 yen to the dollar is a significant factor. And for the first time Toyota's CFO Satoshi Ozawa said "we have reached the limits of profitable Japan based production at 80 yen to the dollar." Japanese operatios lost $2.4 billion. Honda reported a 38% drop in earnings for the 1st quarter.