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A 2011 survey by Universum shows technology firms such as Google, Apple and Facebook as the most preferred choice of university graduates during campus recruiting. Financial firms lag far behind, with J.P. Morgan Chase ranking 41st in that list. At Harvard Business School only 17% of the class went into investment banking and finance. Students from the University of Texas at Austin to Yale, say they want to build something tangible or follow their dream project.

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French officals are pushing for a new eurozone architecture to address many of today's problems. This includes setting up a pathway that leads to the joint issuance of eurobonds. It also would include coordination of monetary policy with the budgets and fiscal situation in the eurozone. French officials see the lack of this as the cause of many of today's problems.

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Susan Jaccoby brings up a major issue facing healthcare in America from personal experience. A third of the Medicare budget, she says, goes to the last year of life, and a third of this goes to the care in the last month. At the same time public opinion polls show Americans see the problem being too much medical intervention rather than too little. Especially when there is no hope except to prolong life for the patient with an highly deteriorated qulaity of life for a few months or a year, doing no service to the patient or future generations who may see their basic services cut when they most need it as a result of the unaffordable spiralling cost of Medicare. A Pew Research Center poll in 2006, shows 22 percent say a doctor should not always make efforts to save a sick person's life, and 70 percent believe that patients should be allowed to die in some situations, when it only prolongs life for a few months for instance and patients live in pain. The problem only gets worse in future years as an estimated 8.5 million Americans are expected to be over 85 years in 2030 with these same choices facing patients, their families, Medicare and the country....

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The WSJ study reported by Carrick Mollenkamp and Mark Whitehouse in the Journal on May 29, 2008, set off the investigation into the lowballing of the London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR by the 16 bank panel reporting the rate daily to the British Bankers Association. The rate is critical in setting the interest rate on trillions of dollars in transactions worldwide for securities, home and auto loans, derivatives and swaps. The apparent motive being to prevent negative perceptions of a bank's health if one bank was borrowing at a higher rate than its peers during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. banks doing the most lowballing for the LIBOR rate such as Citigroup, HBOS, were already perceived in financial markets to have higher risk during the financial crisis, divergence in LIBOR rates would reinforce these perceptions. Investigations later showed other banks such as UBS manipulated the rate they reported and influenced other banks to do so to increase trading profits. UBS settled charges for $1.5 billion and Barlays for $450 million. UBS was seen as an egregious offender as the practice was in the words of the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator, quite "routine and widespread" at UBS....

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Toyota is reducing senior management positions to 60 from 77. The board of directors will also be smaller, with 11 members instead of the current 27 members. It was felt that the large board did not enable discussion of important issues and slowed down decisionmaking. This is part of the new Business Plan and the new global vision for Toyota. The thrust is on sales in emerging markets which Toyota will target for increasing sales to 50% of the total sales by 2015, up from 40% currently. Sales in developed markets are set to decline to 50% of the total sales by 2015, down from 60% currently. The other push is in the hybrid sales area. Toyota will roll out 10 more hybrid vehicles by 2015, in addition to all electric cars, plug-in hybrids. Toyota will continue to have an all-Japanese board, and will use a committee of outside advisors to stay abreast of opinion in other countries. Akio Toyoda announced these plans recently and did this by himself, as he puts his own ideas to work for setting Toyota's direction....

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Japan has accomplished a remarkable transformation of its workforce and its economy even as the working age population is declining. For years Japan was seen as a stagnant economy with a rapidly aging population. In recent years Japan has shown how a change in policy can work. Since 2012 working age population declined by 4.7 million, yet the number of people working increased by 4.4 million. The proportion of the population in the workforce rose sharply since 2012. To do this Japan turned to three underutilized parts of its workforce and population- the elderly, women and new immigrants. Japan has pursued an active policy of reviving the economy by bringing women into the workforce and breaking taboos on new immigrants. In 2004 Japan raised retirement age from 60 to 65, and then made it mandatory for companies to raise or abolish the retirement age, or introduce a system for re-employing workers who retire. This has changed Japan a lot with Japanese men working well into their 60's and 70's. In the west coast city of Kanagawa which now has a bullet train to Tokyo, out migration was a big problem that added to a declining workforce. The head of Ohara, a family owned company that makes desserts tried a novel method of advertising to seniors in apartment blocks and starting attracting seniors to fill worker shortages. It found that seniors came to work on time, performed even tedious tasks, and brought a great deal of experience. Since then the regional government has started programs to get more retirees and women into the workforce. The special programs teach small companies to adapt to the needs of retiree workers who can work in shorter shifts of few hours and do less physical jobs. Women need predictable hours to pickup children from school and shorter work weeks, for which the regional government program helps companies adapt by sending in specialists to guide the companies. As a result female participation in the workforce, for very long a big handicap is no longer so. Female participation has jumped to 63%, higher even than that in the OECD where the average is 62 years.  Japanese women had a M curve that meant they worked most in their 20's. less in the 30's with children, and more in the 50's. First the government tried to correct this with extended parental leave, increased childcare, and rewarding companies with good work-life balance. Then in 2009 the effort accelerated with employers required to offer 6 hour days if a worker asked for this. Under prime minister Abe's "womenomics" effort child care was significantly expanded- by 2015 Tokyo went from 28 to 38 spots open for every 100 two year olds. Alongside these efforts the Abe government tried to get companies to rethink their assumptions about quantity of work and overtime as productive effort. One could work shorter hours and be productive, and the old notions were seen as resulting in lower productivity. As fathers with parental leave took on more responsibility the changes transformed the attitudes for women at work. Most remarkable is the quiet change in immigration policy. The government allowed foreign construction workers to address shortages for work on the 2020 Olympics. It introduced a 3-5 year visas program for nursing care workers. Two new categories of visas will add 340,000 additional blue collar workers over next 5 years. The total foreign born workers in Japan doubled from 2012 to 2017 to 1.3 million. ...

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Many African countries have high growth rates but this can be misleading. Much of the wealth is generated from drilling or mining for resources. There is no transparency about the wealth generated and its use, with much of the wealth siphoned off to go to the ruling elites. Even the thriving private sectors can give the false impression of progress, when they are cartels of firms run for the benefit of the ruling party and its cronies. Independent media is purchased by the ruling elites and the information is one sided, concealing the imbalanced development and widening gaps between the wealthy and the vast majority of poor. When investments are made they show a stark reality of years of neglect of education and healthcare. Angola has built 24 new hospitals with oil revenues, but has only 1500 doctors for a population of 18 million. Much of Nigeria's electricity supply comes from small generators as the government electricity system has seen underinvestment for years. State owned firms are "privatised" in Nigeria by giving them to cronies of the government in power. These countries lack a honest civil service, an ethic of responsibility in the educated and ruling classes, institutions of democracy with checks and balances, and independent media. The anti colonialist movements in African countries have failed to deliver on education, democratic institutions, and building a prosperous middle class in most of Africa with a few exceptions. Both military and civilian leaders have failed to relinquish power once in control, with the rare exceptions....

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Carl Schramm of the Kauffman Foundation which supports entrepreneurship says Venture Capital Funds have failed in recent years. With less and less of the partner's capital as low as 1% and more money from pension funds and other sources with short term pressures for performance, and the VC funds own 2-20 model (taking 2% each year as management fees and 20% of profits at time of IPO's) these funds have gone more into keeping companies only for afew years and selling them off rather than nurturing for the long run. In an earlier era the VC funds tried to nurthure the companies and did not take in so much in fees and profits. Today they are flipping more like the private equity firms do.And with the poor results turned in by the funds Schramm points out that returns are negative since 1997 for many of these funds. So VC funds are not supporting the new investments in biotech and clean energy even though there is a big need for investments. VC funds invested only $4.8 billion in 637 companies in the 3rd quarter of 2009 down 33% from $7.2 billion and 994 businesses in 2008 acccording to Price WaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association....

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A study by professors at Yale, University of Southern California, and UC Davis, (Geanakoplos, Magill, Quinzii) uses a MY ratio of persons 35-49 years in age to persons 25-34 years in age to predict stock market performance trend. This number is expected to rise in years 2018 to 2035 as more millenials come into an age when they need to start investing in the stock market. This kind of model would show a much better performance for the stock market and S&P 500 for the next decade than for the period 2000-2015, years of the financial crisis and recovery.  Part of the reason not mentioned here is the gradual completion of the recovery itself from the financial crisis and the controls put in place to prevent a recurrence of past mistakes in financial markets. Needs for infrastructure and defense spending, efforts to ensure more favorable trade relations, efforts to help the middle class, university students in future budgets to increase opportunity, would create more opportunities for equity price growth. ...

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Gerald Seib of the WSJ describes the huge wave of young supporters who helped Labor party leader Corbyn in Britain's 2017 general election. He cites an analysis by the Financial Times that shows young people backed Labor over the Conservatives by 51 points more than the national average. People over age 65 backed Conservatives by 32 points more than the national average. This points to a staggering age gap of 83 points, said the Financial Times. Young people failed to turn out in large numbers during the Brexit vote, and this was a large factor in the pro Brexit win. One exit poll shows turnout went up by 12% in 2017 compared to the 2015 parliamentary election. Only 26% of voters in a WSJ/NBC poll for ages 18-34 years say they approve of U.S. president Trump's performance, 64% disapprove. Seib says the movement of Corbyn is similar to the Bernie Sanders movement in the U.S. and has implications for a similar surge of support showing up in the U.S.

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Infrastructure development in Indonesia neglected by previous administrations gets a boost under President Jokowi. Since 2014 Jokowi has taken advantage of a fall in oil prices to cap the fuel subsidy given by the government.  This has allowed more money to go into infrastructure projects. In 2014 $15 billion was allocated to infrastructure, increasing by 2017 to $30 billion.  Jokowi has plans for 222 national strategic projects , including roads, railways, bridges, power stations. Of this 127 are under construction, 20 completed. Under president Suharto from 1968 to 1998 for 3 decades infrastructure was neglected. One example is the situation in Jakarta where only 4% of the residents are connected to the sewer system. Most of the investment is being made (80%) by the government. Much remains to be done in this densely populated country with many islands and poor roads. A China supported plan to connect Jakarta with Bandung by high speed rail remains held up for 2 years with difficulties in moving people in Java's densely populated areas. ...

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The yellow vest protests in France puts Macron as a change agent as out of step with the broader changes taking place in France as fears of economic security and financially struggling families take precedence over other issues. Macron had hoped to setup business friendly policies but has only a small support base. Only about 24% supported Macron in the first round of voting with 40% claimed by parties to the far right and left.  The yellow vest protests are spontaneous and do not have nationalism or race, migration as motivating factors. No far right party is involved, or far left party, or the socialists. It is basically about the institutional and political structures not able to respond to the fears of economic insecurity in rural France and in smaller towns. It is about loss of social cohesion in the economic progress of the last two decades. The focus is now on minimum wage, salaries, and a sense of fairness and opportunity that existed in a previous era that now appears ruptured. ...

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David Malpass is the choice of the Trump administration to head the World Bank. He has worked with Latin American countries at the State Department, was the Treasury official responsible for the World Bank in the Reagan administration, and worked on Argentine currency, China trade matters in the Trump administration.

Malpass negotiated a $13 billion replenishment for the World Bank in 2017, with U.S. share of $1.2 billion. This capped the bank's lending at $25 billion.

Last year the World Bank provided China with $60.5 billion in loans for 400 projects, which this WSJ editorial says is loans China does not need with its $3.07 trillion in foreign reserves. This editorial is critical of the current World Bank head Dr. Kim for taking a job with a World Bank partner the private equity fund GIP.

The World Bank has played a significant role in development for South Asia and China in the early years after World War II.

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Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England blamed the Brexit "fog of uncertainty" for the decline in the forecast for Britain's economic growth to 1.2% for 2019, worst in a decade. This is based on a "soft" Brexit. He said a no-deal Brexit would be a "economic shock" for Britain, that "we shouldn't be under any illusions about it."

Carney rejected the view of David Davis in The Times, that a 20% decline in the British pound would be good for Britain by "making  exports more competitive." Davis had called Carney's view "too doom-laden." A fall in the pound would be a necessary adjustment mechanism, Carney says, but it is "a hit to incomes, and not a step to prosperity." The pound declined by 17% from its 2015 peak after the referendum on Brexit.

 

 

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The CEO of Salesforce Mr. Benioff was able to win support from president Trump for an initiative to plant a trillion trees as a way to improve the environment. Mr. Trump is skeptical about climate change and has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. But he is enthusiastic about planting trees.

As trees grow they absorb the gas emissions that cause climate change. Estimates from experts show 1.2 trillion trees could absorb as much as 25% of carbon in the atmosphere.

Mr. Benioff says planting trees is the ultimate bi-partisan issue, and who isn't pro-tree. Young Republicans are shifting away from the party on the issue of climate change and Republican leaders are making modest proposals as a way to show they are also concerned about protecting the environment. Some say Mr. Trump's views on this issue are shifting even though he has his own views on how quickly to move away from fossil fuels. 

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The U.S. bans travel from most of  Europe and India imposes quarantine on visitors and overseas citizens entering the country for 14 days. Countries around the world reacted quickly to the situation in Italy, France and Germany. The strict measures taken by China are gradually being adopted by other countries. Quarantine done early has worked limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Countries with strong public health systems are better positioned to weather the health crisis. Where strong action is taken early and in anticipation, with a strong public health response, there is better control over the spread. This comes with some economic cost as it has hit the Chinese economy, yet the rebound is likely to be that much quicker and done with more confidence. For instance air travel in China declined by 85% in February from a year earlier to 8.3 million journeys according to Chinese aviation officials. Moves to keep social interactions to a minimum have yielded results. Only food stores and pharmacies remain open in China till March 25.  ...

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GM' second largest market is China where it sold more than a million cars in 2007 and sales growth was 21%. Brazil is the third largest market. Russia is the fastest growing market with sales growing 75%, and it has a favorable pricing environment in Russia with growing class of more affluent buyers as Russian economy grows quickly. And India is a market that GM is trying to buildup sales with the introduction of GM's Spark car. Overall this should enable GM to maintain momentum even as sales in N. America declined 6%. Toyota's N. American sales declined 4% so it is seeing a slowdown there also. But compared to GM which has 65% of revenues from N. America, Toyota has 40% of revenues from N. America and 30% of global profit.

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FR24 looks at the work of Didier Deschamps in building a good French National team. Karim Benzema was back, with Mbappe, Griezman, Pogba, for the first time during the European championships. Deschamps takes the French team into the World Cup in 2024 without Benzema and by turning Griezman and Giroud into players who can take the place of Benzema and Pogba out from injuries. He was the youngest captain at 24 to win the Champions team title for a French club Marseille in 1993, and he brings experience that goes back 30 years as player and coach.

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The trend in retailing to lower priced stores in a weak economy with the change of 560 Limited Too stores aimed at fashion conscious preteens to the lower priced Justice brand. The Justice brand is priced about 20% below the Limited Too brand.

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Wages in U.S. manufacturing are declining as the U.S. regains competitivness with Mexico, China and other emerging market countries in manufacturing, through a combination of productivity from new machinery and lower wages. At the same time as this revives U.S. manufacturing this is lowering wages in manufacturing based economies in the midwest and other parts of the country. This can be seen in cities like Dayton, Ohio, where in the past good paying jobs could be found in manufacturing without a college diploma. Many of these jobs paying $15-$20 an hour are being replaced by lower paying jobs paying $10 an hour. With the cost of college education already spiralling beyond the reach of ordinary incomes, and college debt reaching $1 trillion and harder to payoff, the move to lower wages increases the probabilities that college will remain elusive to children in these families. The automated plants and lower number of workers needed to operate machinery in new and modernized plants means unemployment in manufacturing will see slow growth. This is likely to lead to continued high unemployment in cities that lag behind in college education for opportunties outside of manufacturing and in manufacturing jobs. This is also why more experts are calling for government, college and private sector support for vocational training to improve job and income opportunties....

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CNN reporter Cassie Spodak provides this exceptional report into the minds of New Hampshire Democratic voters who gave Bernie Sanders a 22 percent lead in the New Hampshire Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton. In October 2016 Hillary Clinton has the support of Bernie Sanders against Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election. She described it as "100 percent support" in television debate. Sanders has appeared with Clinton twice, and campaigned 4 times in New Hampshire, and continually across the country. Younger New Hampshire voters still long for Sanders as their favored candidate. Older voters and some who have been motivated by Sanders to run for local office see the shaping of the Democratic Party platform as a victory for Sanders. Key planks of Sanders, taxes on the wealthy and higher incomes to pay for student tuition, infrastructure, and helping working class families, are now key parts of the Democratic platform. These voters see this as a pragmatic step and are enthusiastic in their support for Hillary Clinton. Overall Clinton now has 87 percent of Democratic voter support in New Hampshire according to a WMUR/UNH poll in mid October 2016, and she is doing well with millenials and independents nationally, a critical bloc of voters for Clinton to show nationwide support. One member of the steering committee for Sanders in New Hampshire named Dudley Dudley, reflects the opinion that has shifted the party to emerge united during and even more so in the final months of the presidential campaign of 2016- she tells the CNN reporter Spodak that she supports Hillary because "of the way she has grown, and stretched," and the way Clinton and Sanders are now campaigning together and working together. Both Clinton and Sanders deserve credit for their extraordinary ability to grow during their campaigns and during the party's way to shape the way forward. ...