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Three CEO's have come and gone at Boeing in a couple of years. CEO backgrounds in finance did not work, backgrounds in engineering also failed. Boeing is searching for a new CEO and this time what is sought for is a worker centric mentality from the heart and inborn that identifies with what workers go through on the manufacturing factory floor. A picture emerges about the cost of missing quality culture at Boeing, and the cost of a culture of pushing planes as fast off the manufacturing floor as possible. The Guardian reports that Boeing said it would use $4-$4.5 billion due to crisis costs after a Jan 5 accident of a nearly new Max 735 aircraft and other accidents. This includes costs related to regulatory scrutiny and costs related to lower aircraft production and lower deliveries and is almost the entire gross profit of Boeing in 2019 pre pandemic year. What this shows that quality culture is basic to manufacturing and it starts with respect for dignity of workers shown through training, education, wages and benefits and a worker centric culture replacing a culture of managers addressing purely financial aspects of the business. Instead of saying lets take care of the financial aspects of the business, saying lets take care of the process of manufacturing  so that a good process centred on workers on their own motivation taking responsibility on the factory floor that will produce good financial results for the company as a whole.   ...

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The complete Transcript of the Harris Trump television debate on ABC Television that went on for 90 minutes. As expected Harris remained organized, thoughtful and precise in her answers to questions of cost of living, the economy, and never wavered in her focus on her plan for an Opportunity Economy that lifts all boats where she said Trump had none. Trump raised the immigration issue in questions about the economy and cost of living failing to tackle one issue at a time and do it well and convincingly. Harris brought up Trump's focus on himself and billionaires, and on Project 2025, when Trump talked about immigration. Trump's response on Project 2025 was long and rambling and failed to register losing critical minutes and spreading himself thin leaving behind the idea that he had no Plan for America, for if he had one would he not have offered it when the question was raised. This set the pattern for the rest of the debate. The next issue Trump hoped to focus on was migrant crime after immigration. This is where his exaggeration that migrant crime was rampant came under the first fact check of the evening by David Muir. Something that other moderators had amazing as it sounds neglected their duty to do - all of them failed to do this with rigor and on the spot- till David Muir. “As you know, the F.B.I. says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.” ...

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A 850 megawatt solar project, the largest in the US outside of Las Vegas runs into opposition from environmentalists concerned about the effect on views and on tortoises other endangered species. The planned project on top of Mormon Mesa would put over 1 million solar panels 10 to 20 feet tall in the Nevada desert. Across the US 800 utility scale solar projects are under contract for generation of 70,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 11 million homes, for more than Texas. Over half of this solar capacity is going into the southwestern US, with its sunshine and open land. For the first time the ardent advocates of renewable energy such as the Sierra Club are now opposing such projects. Solar made up one tenth of one percent of US energy in 2010, in 2020 it made up 4.5%. It is growing very rapidly because costs are going way down. Even before government subsidies solar is now below the cost of natural gas. Projects near Martha's Vineyard on the Massachusetts coast took 12 years to get sate and federal approval for wind energy. These battles are similar to ones being fought in Europe. The US is better positioned for solar because of vast desert spaces in the American southwest. President Joe Biden plans to use this advantage of solar and wind to get to 100% renewable energy by 2035. ...

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Tibet's history with the invasion ordered by British India's Viceroy Lord Curzon in 1904. China's version of the events is of imperialist invasion of Tibet. After the British withdrew from Lhasa, the Chinese Manchu rulers of Qing dynasty sent 2000 Chinese soldiers to occupy Lhasa. This ended in 1913 with the fall of the Qing dynasty. In 1951 Chinese Communists occupied Lhasa a second time. China's former president Hu Jintao spent time in Tibet during the Cultural Revolution. China has movies and books which show the imperialist occupation of Tibet and events of 1904 in that light. The significance of Tibet is also in the context of being a factor in the worsening of relations between India and China leading to the border conflict of 1962 and border tensions since.

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The story of Lee Kun-hee who over 3 decades transformed an obscure electronics parts maker into the company Samsung is today, as a leader in smartphones and electronics. He was born in 1942, during the Japanese occupation of Korea and lived through the war years. He studied at Waseda University in Japan and George Washington University in the U.S. By the time he took on the position of CEO in 1987 from his father Samsung had grown from roots as a small fish and produce trading firm. It had then added after the war with Japan and the Korean War in the 1950's other lines of business such as sugar refining, textiles and diversified later into simple electronics such as radios and microwaves.  He was for change and once said to Samsung employees "change everything, except your wife and children." He was both mentor and inspiration at Samsung, with self-discipline and resolve to make Korean companies match their Japanese counterparts in technology and growth. He was like Konsuke Matsuhita of Panasonic in some ways- keen on learning new technologies and bringing excellence and quality to the Korean peninsula. Companies in India and other developing countries can look to the experience of South Korea in making similar transformations in South Asia and beyond. ...

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Epidemic of betel nut addiction that affects China is the subject of this report in The Times. Chinese doctors study in 2017 shows that oral cancer patients related to use of the betel nut for chewing in recreational use could reach 1 million b y 2030. Betel nut is being banned in some cities. Advertising of betel nut online or on television is now banned. Over $10 billion is made by the betel nut producers and it has become a part of the local economy in the province of Hunan says this report. This shows the problems of public health that remain to be tackled in China, as well as India, after achievements in sanitation tackled the basic problems of disease. Tobacco use is a major problem in both countries, and a major danger to public health, with awareness happening only now.

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The Putin Trump meeting in July 2018 creates a storm in the U.S. over denials by the Russian president and the U.S. president about any interference by Russia in the 2018 U.S. presidential election. As the New York Times reports all intelligence groups in the U.S. have confirmed the interference. The images of the two presidents saying this just as the Mueller investigation gathers evidence is one more unusual event in 2017-2018, with what was once seen as improbable taking place.

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The Hulme Company mail order catalog business in Minnesota may not be representative of small business, considering the errors and the scale of the debt taken on. But even if a small fraction of this debt taking tendency is representative of small business, it means that small business will not generate jobs as it did in the past. Small business will actually layoff people. And small business will not be able to provide the bounce the economy will need in years to come. The following is an an anaysis of this venture. The owners of this small business Bidwell and Ms. Guarino bought a luxury goods maker that was losing money for $600,000. Their business was to sell $500 garment bags and $1200 duffel bags. The experience of Bidwell was with Target, Tonka Toys and a cigarette distributor. Ms Guarino had a $130,000 job with a magazine publisher, running regional magazines like Minnesota Parent, which she quit. She had some experience as a handbag designer in California before that. They had never seen hard times, no, they had only seen good times. And were willing to spend heavily on the business like the $600,000 for a business, Hulme Company, that lost $150,000 on sales of $450,000 making duck hunting gear, the business they bought in 2003. All this for a tiny factory employing 3 seamstresses, and with no brand name for luxury goods like leather duffels. Their lender's experience- Kassim who founded Maple Bank in Champlin, Minnesota, considered it pretty typical of small business in those days to do everything on debt and loaned $550,000 over 5 years. So the lender was in for the ride. Another bank Stephens bank loaned on SBA approved loans which were later cut off. Guarino had no experience in this business, and simply relied on Bidwell's experience. The borrowing went on and on from friends, taking in debt with total lack of understanding of what debt means, from their daughter, the entire $50,000 savings of Bidwell's wife, and finally with banks refusing to lend after having friends put up their CD's and collateral on loans. Debt to equity ratio gets to 5 to 1. Second mortgages on the house getting Bidwell and extra $130,000. Even in the best year 2006 sales at $1.4 million, and earnings before taxes and other items at $325,000, not enough to pay the interest and other payments on loans that later totaled $2 million by year end 2007. $500,000 from friends and family including $20,000 from his daughter or two thirds of their savings. 600,000 catalogs went out in 2007. With the Hulme Company behind on payments in 2008, the catalogs mailed in 2008 dropped to 175,000. It is a very capital intensive business from the standpoint of catalog cost. $1 million in inventory at year end 2007, or two thirds of sales of $1.5 million in 2007, was a sign of how expansion preceded even getting the financing in place, and going out into the dark thinking sales wil materialize. So even in the best year 2006 the business was not viable, and would have collapsed even without the financial and credit conditions of 2008, ruining the owners in the process. By 2008 it led to the usual things in this kind of business failure, Bidwell's divorce, loss of his home as he falls behind on mortgage payments, Guarino's loss of job and friends whom she borrowed from, and both deeply in debt. Evaluation of the failure is as follows. Seamstresses and the small factory space could be obtained for a fraction of the cost in an emerging market country, even in an eastern European country, and no cost needed to be incurred for the purchase of Hulme Company or for sending out catalogs. Only travel expenses to meet high end retailers who might carry this merchandise, and go to the country where the plant was setup. Sales would come first, and expansion to meet sales very carefully done so that the plant could be downscaled if sales dropped. Even then scores of small luxury goods makers in China or other emerging market countries could put the owners out of business. The lesson if you can't watch costs, if you don't understand what debt means, then you don't pass the most basic of tests. You cannot run business on savings, home equity or credit card loans, or business loans with personal guarantees. Costs tend to just run up to the money one has artificially created. It will ruin you. If you don't have experience with the business and the product area, or can't put together a group of people with the experience to guide you on the pitfalls and what to watch for, you don't pass the next basic test. Only then does one get to the other tests about whether there is a market, the price and value of the offering and so on. This is before the current economic crisis. Now all these tests become more important than ever, or it will kill you and quickly. One has to be paranoid and very careful after 2008. Stephens Bank loaned money on SBA loans ...

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Janny Scott's account of the life of Stanley Ann Dunham, President Obama's mother. This gives a glimpse of the period when she lived in Indonesia, where she spent most of her adult life. It describes life in Indonesia at the time for the expatriate American community in Jakarta. It also shows how she believed in her son, how she made great effort to give him the opportunites he needed for the best education, and the formative experiences in Obama's early life.

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The radical restructuring under CEO Johnson in 2012-2013 at American retailer J.C. Penney that failed. Johnson made 19,000 job cuts and shut down the St John Bay women's brand which brought in significant sales volume for the retailer. In its place he tried to shift Penney to an upscale image and mailed out fancy looking brochures to customers. All the time neglecting the in-store morale problem created by the deep cuts. Johnson managed Apple's retail stores in his prevous position.

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Drone warfare of 2025 replaces mechanized regiments in Ukraine war says this report in  NYT 2025. Each side Russia and Ukraine plans to produce over 1 million drones in 2025. Abrams tanks are ineffective in this situation- it is World War 1 and World War II at the same time, trench warfare for inches of territory and drone warfare in the air and jamming of drones. There are newer fibre optic drones and AI drones that do not have radio signals that can be jammed. On an on it goes in this report in the NYT showing for the first time how this war has changed. What can be done to stop such a war? NATO was set up to oppose the Soviet Union. It was never reconstituted and changed to take note of the new situation. A new defense architecture's need was ignored when Russia was treated as insignificant for its GDP, just as China and India was treated for its GDP for most of the 20th century. A new defense architecture for Europe with new needs. After the end of the Soviet Union when the Warsaw Pact was dismantled did the NATO alliance that was set up to counter the Soviet Union also need to be dismantled as there was no more Soviet Union, no Warsaw Pact. The failure to integrate the European state in the East did not take place under free market capitalism. The warnings were ignored. Under Obama Russia was treated in terms of its GDP, a fundamental failure to grasp European history. As Le Monde analysis says the fall of the Berlin Wall was not understood in all its aspects including Russia's decision to forge a new path.   ...

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Parmeswaran Iyer's unique background in water and sanitation at the World Bank led to his work as Secretary of Water and Sanitation in the Government of India. At that point he was chosen to head prime minister Modi's campaign for Clean India called Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. It was an effort to provide clean neighborhoods and tackle a problem that had eluded earlier efforts including Gandhiji- open defecation. Iyer was instrumental in making it work by having 90 million toilets built in India.

From that mission he was selected to head India's overall development plan as CEO, NITI Aayog. In a piece in the Times of India Feb 14, Iyer puts forward the  mulltipronged effort for development in India based on ensuring financial strength, controlling inflation, supporting microenterprises, housing, health and education efforts, and technology advancement through digitalization including 5G.

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 Simon Nixon points out in The Times of London that the government of British prime minister Theresa May is locked into a confrontation with the European Union in negotiations in the summer of 2018 for even the soft Brexit options she has put forward. This could lead to a cross party majority and a new government, a new prime minister, with passions going up in Britain, with no clear way on the issue of Britain's future relationship with the European Union.

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This story in the NYT showing America's GE building a wind turbine three times as large as the Statue of Liberty in New York harbour, comes after a decade of bad news from GE, beginning with its role in the mortgage financial crisis when its stock dropped to new lows. Bad bets on conventional power generation in its power division are leading to the change at GE where it is now investing in renewable energy. Under CEO Immelt GE did not anticipate the surge in growth of renewable energy powered by government subsidies. Now GE is pursuing an aggressive strategy by building larger wind turbines than its competitors Vestas in Denmark and Senvion in Germany. A 12 megawatt turbine is planned by GE called Haliade-X, to be built at a cost of $400 million for demonstration in 2019, shipping units in 2021. Competitors are looking at building a 10 megawatt wind turbine. Vestas SA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have a 9.5 megawatt wind turbine in operation as prototype in Denmark. The bit of good news comes with the backdrop of big changes at GE as its power division falters badly. GE under Immelt badly misjudged the market for gas and coal turbines, building inventory and resorting to aggressive pricing, not anticipating the push evident in Germany and in China towards renewable energy. The shift to renewable energy reduced demand for conventional power in Germany and the U.S. In Germany. Electric companies in conventional power generation are struggling. At GE orders declined by 25% and profits by 50% in the 4th quarter over the prior year. 12,000 job cuts are planned in the power division, 18% of its workforce. Older board members at GE are expected to leave, and GE under new CEO/Chairman John Flannery plans to shed $20 billion in assets in a major restructuring and shift to renewables.   Larger wind turbines of 10 megawatts or larger are the next stage in wind energy as the Netherlands and Germany move to build wind farms free of subsidies. The economics of larger wind turbines are critical as less geographic acreage is needed with larger turbines. ...

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What can be guessed easily the less forunate or poorer sections of society are way more likely to be charged high interest rates or exorbitant interest rates by credit card companies is confiremed by a research report. Demos, a nonpartisan public policy research and advocacy group, says in areport, that low-uincome and lower-middle class income cardholders were about five times more likely than the wealthiest cardholders to pay more than 20% interest. It breaks down users into 4 categories, with the last two being late payers and people with revolving balances. If this graphed out the picture would show practically the entire profit of the credit card companies coming from these two. The reason being that the other two categories are those who have cards and don't use them so don't get billed, and those who pay before the due date so they pay no charges except what the credit card companies make from the business from whom the purchase is made. This means says Singletary of the WPost that the better off well to do sections of society are actually having their annual fees subsidized by the poorer sections of society, or the lower middle class. Singletary says to a online discussion person who though his cards without annual fees were free, they were never really free, and few people think of this. As a society its like hitting oneself in the foot, because by impacting students, minorities, the lower middle class and other sections of society- which form amajority of the people in the country- at a time when they are deeply in debt, is to make for another hurdle to economic recovery. Its going to impact consumption, foreclosures and worsen the cycle that creates more unemployment. ...

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Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would help 16.5 million U.S. workers improve wages at a time when 45 million workers are below the poverty line in 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections. Most of the low wage workers are in retail and fast food industries. The total number of workers in 2016 the higher minimum wage pulls out of poverty in 2016 are 900,000. About 500,000 fewer workers would be hired because of the higher wage.

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The 28 year old pilot Andreas Lubitz of Lufthansa Germanwings Flight 9525 was being treated for depression at Dusseldorf University Hospital at the time of the flight. Several torn up doctors notes found in his apartment by investigators, including for the day of the flight by his neuropsychologist, show he did not disclose his condition to his employer. Prosecutors say he had intended to "destroy the aircraft" when he flew the plane into France's southern Alps.

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Zimbabwe is facing a huge crisis from drought conditions in the country. About 2 million people in Harare lack running water as the dams are drying up to a trickle. Waters from the Zambezi river that go down to Victoria Falls are a third less than in normal conditions. The Falls separate Zimbabwe from Zambia. 
BBC's Hard Talk program shows a parched desert looking region with elephants struggling to survive in the national park near Victoria Falls. 

This report in The Times says that 815,000 acres of forest are being chopped down each year in Zimbabwe as desperate residents cut down remaining trees to fight lack of fuel, blackouts and poverty. One has simply to see this devastated region to grasp the effect of drought and effects of climate change combined with effects of poverty and lack of governance.

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Would a generic Democrat do better? Mr. Biden's weakness is with less engaged voters says this analysis of a Times Siena poll showing less support in battleground states. One queer aspect of this poll is that Kamala Harris does slightly better because she does better with non white voters. Mr. Biden does well with white voters retaining all of his support achieved in the 2020 election with white voters. Another queer aspect of this poll is that a so called generic Democrat would win by large margins of over 5% in most of the battleground states over Mr. Trump, in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Another queer aspect of the poll is that Michigan has all three- the Governor's position, the State Assembly and other positions in the hands of Democrats who have performed well in the state.

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Walking is great for mental health, for keeping up your spirits and reinvigorating the soul. Its the best way to stay healthy in our sedentary world. Walking inside and walking outdoors, never spending too much time sitting. Useful tips-

Shoes should be comfortable should hug the feet not be tight.

Take gentle steps. Footsteps light rolling from heel to hoe to avoid a hard flat footed landing, says one orthopedic surgeon.

Start with posture stand up straight, relax your shoulders, keep pelvic neutral, engage the core, as these muscles keep your posture erect when walking. Look not down but 10 feet away or further.

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Baden-Powell was founder of the Boy Scouts which has given millions of boy scouts throughout Asia, Australia, Africa, Latin America and North America a sense of purpose when they were attending elementary and secondary school throughout the twentieth century. For girl scouts it added confidence to girls and enabled them to grow in many ways.  So it comes as a surprise that Baden-Powell is seen in this way. Gandhi never questioned British rule directly during the period when he fought for human rights in South Africa during the period 1893-1915. During the Boer War in 1900 Gandhi volunteered to form the Natal Ambulance Corps that as stretcher bearers helped treat British soldiers in the Boer War. He was given the Queens South Africa medal. In the Zulu war he repeated this by being part of the ambulance corps supporting British troops, but also treated Zulu wounded. Gandhi acted as a loyal part of the British Empire and throughout most of the period into the 1920's acted with loyalty to the British Empire. Few questioned British rule at the time, and Gandhi followed Gokhale's advice in 1915 as he returned to India at the age of 45. Gokhale was a moderate who accepted the British rule in India and sought provincial assemblies and self-rule under the British Empire. Gandhi's whole thinking was shaped by British traditions, British laws, British democracy, having attended a British school in Rajkot, Saurashtra province of Gujarat state. The letter helping him make his move for education as a barrister in England came through the British political agent in Rajkot, who was a friend of his father, the Diwan of the princely state of Porbander, Gujarat. Even Swami Vivekananda was helped by leaders of princely states in Saurashtra who pledged loyalty to the British Empire in India, one of whom was a close friend who helped Vivekananda come to America. It may be too easy to look back and make everything look good, when in reality it is complex, but yet ordinary human beings are in search for the right path. As Vivekananda's guru said you will still get there but "it is good to travel by a clean path." I visited the Gandhi home and museum in Porbander in September 2019. Driving in along the Saurashtra, Gujarat coastline we hit a rainstorm and when we reached the home it was in heavy rain. After visiting the home I went to a small bookshop in the museum and came across a copy of a small book Gandhi wrote in 1910 on a steamship back to South Africa from London, with the title- "Hind Swaraj or Home Rule." That little book written in the form of a dialogue between the reader and the editor by Gandhi amazes me as it was the basis of the movement after 1915 all the way into the 1930's. His clarity of thinking and his sincerity and steadfast purpose was such that it stood the test of time. Gandhi even goes as far as to say the English did not take India, India was given to them, given to English traders as Indian princes vied with each other for the favor of Company Bahadur, British forces designed to protect the East India Company's warehouses. That they remained in India for the purpose of trade and Indians helped them to do so. To blame them was for Gandhi to perpetuate their power. For him British arms and ammuniton were perfectly useless.  Gandhi writes this dialogue about Gokhale in the book which is worth reading at this time, as it was in 1910. Reader: Gokhale has constituted himself a great friend of the English, he says we have to learn a great deal from them, that we have to learn their political wisdom before we can talk of Home Rule. I am tired of reading his speeches. Editor: If you are tired it only betrays your impatience. We believe that those who are discontented with the slowness of their parents and are angry because the parents would not run with their children, are considered disrespectful to their parents. Professor Gokhale occupies the place of a parent. What does it matter if he cannot run with us? A nation that is desirous of home rule cannot afford to despise its ancestors. We shall become useless if we lack respect for our elders. only men with mature thoughts are capable of ruling themselves and not the hasty-tempered. Moreover how many Indian were there like Professor Gokhale, when he gave himself to Indian education? I verily believe that whatever Professor Gokhale does, he does with pure motives, and with a view of serving India... our chief purpose is not to decry his work , but to believe that he is infinitely greater than we are, and to feel assured that with his work for India, ours is infinitesmial."   ...

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Bernie Sanders tells his supporters at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that "immediately right now, we have got to defeat Donald Trump, and we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine." He says this campaign was not about just electing a president but about transforming the country. And for this he was planning to back about 100 candidates with similiar thinking across the U.S. He called on supporters to continue the campaign for social, economic, racial and environmental justice. Voters for Sanders were offended by the information shown in DNC email leaks of the bias against Sanders shown by DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has since resigned.

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Frederick Taylor's engineering time standards for each activity are back now in retailing with H.B. Maynard now called OWO a company that devises engineered labor standardsfor every activity in the cashier line, from greeting to scanning and bagging. The idea is to monitor performance based on these standards. OWO says its methods can cut costs for labor by 5% to 15%. Stores like Limited, Gap, ToyR Us, TJX, Nike, Meijer supermarkets and others use them. If a cashiers falls below 95% of the standard he is watched by a manager and then he receives counselling, after which he may be transferred to a lowerpaying job or fired. Those who cannot handle the stress leave after a year or so on the job. Has OWO considered the impact on older customers who may simply decide not to shop at Meijer as cashiers may end up rushing them. Has it considred the impact on customers who now may not be looked in the eye with a friendly face. There is less talk between cashiers and it can speed up the line but wait there are fewer cashiers now so the waiting time may not change much as the whole idea is to cut labor costs by 5-10%. ...

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Spain's Repsol accepts $5 billion in a settlement with Argentina for its stake in YPF nationalized by the government. Argentina will pay Repsol dollar denominated bonds with market value of at least $4.67 billion. Repsol can sell the debt at any time.