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AT&T, Colgate-Palmolive, Medtronic and Nucor are added to the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index. Companies on this index have raised their dividend payouts for over 25 years. AT&T is the largest dividend payer in the world, paying about $10.2 billion with a yield of 5.9%.

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A study group at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy sends a public letter to U.S. president Obama on the Iran negotiations. It says the nuclear agreement negotiated with Iran "may fall short of the administration's own standard of a 'good' agreement." It is signed by some of Mr. Obama's main advisors during the first term. Some of these officials told the NYT that the letter was the result of serious concern that Mr. Kerry and other negotiators were moving towards major concessions that would weaken the international inspections of Iran's facilities, back away from making Iran reveal suspected past work on weapons, and allow Iranian R&D to move ahead with making nuclear fuel once the accord expires. The five Obama advisors from the first term who signed the letter are: Dennis Ross, Middle East negotiator, David Petraeus, CIA director, Robert Einhorn, State Department proliferation expert, Gary Samore, chief advisor on nuclear policy, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman Jt. Chiefs of Staff. Gary Samore is president of the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran. The letter was also signed by President Bush's national security advisor during his second term, Stephen Hadley. Such a large group of advisors to presidents Bush and Obama familiar with the details of Iran's development of nuclear technology and weapons capabilities could give Republicans support to kill any agreement that falls short on inspections during Congressional Review. On this key factor where only vague assurances are made by the Iranian side- such as signing an International Atomic Agency convention giving inspectors broad rights to visit suspicious sites, followed by Ayatollah Khamanei ruling out military sites- the letter is specific. Inspections it says " must include military (including Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), and other sensitive facilities. Iran must not be able to deny or delay timely access to any site anywhere in the country." Inspections work rigorously done is set as a precondition before any significant relief from economic sanctions on Iran....

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Three very important point about a soda tax. First, obesity was rated as the No 1 problem of concern for business leaders at a WSJ conference for business leaders at the beginning of the Obama administration in January 2009. If obesity related costs are taken out of health care, and even though they are not collected as statistics they must be significant, it would reduce the costs of providing universal health insurance. Especially considering that most diseases are exacerbated by obesity, and in some obesity figures as one of the leading causes. Second, Centers for Disease Control Data shows that a typical person now consumes 190 calories a day from sugary drinks, up from 70 a day in the late 1970's. That 120 calorie increase, an almost threefold jump in consumption of sugary sodas, represents one-half of the total daily caloric increase during that span per person, according to C.D.C. data. This is a crucial finding. Just one product alone can cause so much disruption in people's lives. Just as thrifty ways of living are becoming popular in America, better education in schools and communities on good nutrition and eating habits can become popular to reverse the bad habits acquired in the last 20 years, habits that are careless and reckless. Third, research shows that soda drinkers are price sensitive, so that in the past when soda prices went up by 10%, consumption dropped about 8%. So a tax on sugary sodas would make sense. The huge soda sizes at fast food places are one of the signs of the excess of this age with no regard for the consequences to health. living habits....

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The large Indian communities living overseas has always been an important factor in India's development, the remittances, the two way flow of technology as ideas and scientific knowledge is brought back. This was true for China in its period of rapid development and is true also for India today. This report looks at Indians giving up citizenship (about 225,00 in 2022) yet most of the people interviewed  in this report say they do this only because there is no dual citizenship route. There are some areas that Indian business can improve on easily which are work life balance which are the reasons some have chosen to live overseas- this would also improve the productivity of the workforce and needs to be considered by Indian business leaders for their companies. 

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Disagreements on how much to fund an education recovery effort in the Toy government of Mr. Johnson. Sir Kevan Collins resigns after his program designed to help students recover from the loss of study time from coronavirus at a cost of 15 billion pounds is rejected. The government plans to put 1.4 billion pounds, which Sir Collins calls too narrow, and not doing enough, delivering too slowly. Sir Collins had hoped to give 6th Formers and extra 100 hours of schooling and help prepare students for GCSE exams. He would have extended school time by 30 minutes in 2022 and setup a 35 hour week for students.

Netherlands plans to spend 2500 pounds per student, the US 1600 pounds per student, the UK 50 pounds per student. 

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So far the Italian government has already recovered $15 billion for 2011 in its fight against tax evasion. The fight includes an advertising campaign depicting tax evasion as anti-social activity and vigorous enforcement by tax officials and the financial police. Italy has already banned cash transactions to reduce possibilities for evading taxes. This problem is severe in Italy because the underground economy is about 17.5% of GDP. An estimated $150 billion is lost to the Italian treasury from tax evasion. As a result Italy has a chronic budget deficit problem and is not able to make necessary investments in improving competitiveness to keep up with other countries. This may be one of the lasting achievements of the new administration of Mario Monti, along with its efforts to change the way the public thinks about other issues including labor laws that place large burdens on small companies in hiring practices. Italians sense the need to change the way they think about taxes because this is one way to reduce the burden of austerity measures- higher tax revenues could enable lowering taxes. It would also enable investing in improving competitiveness that would the economy grow and provide the jobs to reduce the high unemployment rate among young workers. One of the lasting positive aspects of the eurozone crisis is the change in the way the people and society think about many issues....

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Even China has not campaigned the way Canada, Mexico and British, American media have against DJT Tariffs because China knows it is basically about getting an even playing field when it is the only country with $1 trillion in trade in its favor in 2024, 12 times the Japanese high of $82 billion trade surplus in 2007. But why should China campaign when the American and British, German media are going to do the job for China? A simple quiz to K-12 would ask school children when is the last time a country has a $1 trillion trade surplus? Answer: Never. Greg Ip has written a few years back that the devastation of China outshoring of American factories and jobs was unlike the 1980's Japan trade invasion because of first China's size, second by the speed with which it happened at 10-14% Chinese GDP growth. There is a third Japan was an ally needing US for security and backed down, China's case is different it is challenging the US for control of the world economy and will fight this one over the long haul. Greg Ip of WSJ on the 53 countries asking to negotiate US Liberation Day April 2, 2025 Tariffs. These countries include Allies of the US in full support asking to negotiate Israel, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, India Allies of the US in partial support asking to negotiate Britain Allies of the US not in full support asking to negotiate Germany, France Allies of the US in the past campaigning against the US, asking to negotiate Canada, Mexico Not Allies of the US, not in full support, not campaigning against the US China A look at his list tells one only one thing, mostly all trading partners except for the $146 billion exports of the US which represents exports to China are the exports that are at risk if things don't work out on tariffs. This is what the media today WSJ added this last week to the NYT, Wash. Post and the BBC, Guardian of UK, German media will not tell the reader.  The DJT Tariffs and Tariff negotiations are Lighthizer Tariff negotiations which won the fight with Japan in the 1980's over unfair trade and gaining a level playing field. Lighthizer as Deputy US Trade Representative conducted the tough negotiations with Japan. He was USTR in 2016-2020 and his Deputy Jamieson is now USTR in 2025       ...

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Graham Allison of the Kennedy school of Government at Harvard and John Deutsch former head of the CIA under Clinton and now a Professor at MIT, say it would be adesirable thing that Afghanistan develop into a prosperous, poppy-free and democratic country, but it is not vital for American interests. They say lets face it, one cannot push Afghistan into modernity overnight, just because we wish it. It would be atragic mistake to do so, and take a huge and ultimately failing effort to do this, with a vast expenditure of American blood and money, to do this. One can expect for Afghanistan after we exit to revert to conditions that exist in other countries at the same level of development, like Bangladesh, Sudan, Somalia. Allison sees a vital interest at stake in Pakistan because of nuclear weapons.

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Stamouli and Walker of WSJ describe the last days of negotiations in June before Greece pulled out its negotiating team, and German chancellor Merkel decided to call off the bailout of Greece. The impasse was over pension cuts and vaue added taxes, yet the negotiations were still going over details when Tsipras pulled out Greece's negotiating team with the surprise announcement of a referendum on July 5, 2015. By saying the Syriza party would call for a "no" vote Tsipras alienated public opinion in Germany. Chancellor Merkel seeing the shift in domestic opinion favoring Greece's exit from the euro during the tense months of negotiations with the Syriza government and acrimonious charges, moved to call off a continued EU bailout of Greece.

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Simon Nixon points out the problems investors had with UBS before the Oct 2012 decision to drastically reduce the size of the investment banking operations. UBS had three fourths of its capital engaged in investment banking earning only about 5% return. Private bank and wealth management businesses earned far better returns of 25%-40%. Under the new plan core Tier 1 ratio on a fully applied Basel III basis would be 13% in 2014. And return on equity under CEO Ermotti's plan would increase to over 15% by 2015. UBS would put emphasis on the private bank and wealth management businesses under the new plan and shrink the investment banking operations with large job cuts.

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WSJ says that administration officials are considering aplan whereby on the first day of bankruptcy the government would announce the setting up of a "new GM" with Chevrolet, Cadillac, and good assets as part of it and a separate "old GM" that would hold the bad assets, retiree and health care obligations, Hummer and Saturn. The "good" GM would have responsibility for $20 billion in government loans. THe old GM could stay in bankruptcy for longer till buyers are found for parts of it or as it is wound down, with proceeds from the sales of assets going to creditors claims. WSJ sources familiar with the developments and the administration's views say that the administration prefers this route, and GM will likely will be forced into filing for bankruptcy protection in mid-May. That would be 45 days into the 60 day period President Obama has given GM to come up with a new plan that will work. The submitted plan was rejected by Obama's team on grounds that the assumptions for sales were too optimistic, none of the concessions from bondholders and the UAW that were needed had been made, the Chevy Volt was not going to pe price competitive, and fuel efficient car production was not a critical part of the plan. The government has asked Fiat to scale back its planned ownership of Chrysler to 20%, as part of an agreement for more government loans....

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AMD's ambidextrous strategy of incorporating circuitry developed by other companies in its chips. Modular chips would take chip circuitry developed potentially by ARM and other companies, and AMD is moving in this direction, says Rory Read, AMD's CEO. The chip industry is moving from separate chips towards chips for multifunction products called SoCs or systems on a chip. One advantage of SoCs is that they create savings in space and power especially for mobile devices. Both Intel and AMD are doing this for laptops and notebooks.

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Neel Kashkari Paulson's assistant, the assistant secretary of state for international economics, and one of the key people whom Paulson used as an assistant in the recent financial crises in September and now into October. He is expected to work on implementing the $700 billion purchase of mortgage assets from banks. He also comes from Goldman Sachs but is only six years out of business school and is very young for this kind of job that would be daunting for someone with years and years of experience.

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In a nationwide television address prime minister Modi of India calls for a Janata Curfew on Sunday March 22, for a test of people's self-discipline in fighting the coronavirus. He urged people to not go outside of their homes from 7am to 9 pm voluntarily in this curfew. The aim is to build public consciousness of the need for social distancing and staying away from crowds and people gathering, as an effective way to prevent spread of coronavirus. Only health care workers and people who provide essential services would be outside. He asked that at 5 pm on that day people ring bells to thank health workers and others who are doing what is necessary in the health crisis.

The prime minister said there should be no hoarding as the government will ensure that there are adequate supplies. He said an Economic Response Task Force has been setup under the leadership of the Finance Minister that will decide on an economic relief package.

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The UK Education Report from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson as shown in The Times says “In practice, high standards currently too often means high standards for some — our ambition is high standards for all”. It sees the basic emphasis on knowledge depth and excellence in education, the infrastructure as working well and intends to keep this. The change is to bring all schools up to these higher standards. Childcare infrastructure and services would be made available to all.  Rote education and stress on memorization, taking too many GCSE exams, student stress from the large number of exams more than Ireland and twice that of Canada, not enough apprenticeship training programs, will be points that will receive attention. “The national curriculum should remain relevant and up to date while embedding and recognising the importance of cultural knowledge stemming from the past.” More emphasis on developing this kind of national curriculum. ...

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Higher inflation in Germany could help rebalance the German economy by increasing imports. German inflation has averaged 1.6% since 1999, compared to 2.0 % for the eurozone. It was 2.3% in December. And after years of wage restraint German unions are increasing the wage demands. IG Metall is looking for a 6.5% wage increase. And interest rates at 1% are quite low for Germany where unemployment is down to 5.5%, according to Eurostat, and employers have to meet higher wage demands. The ECB is aiming at 2% inflation and Germany has a 26% weighting in the calculation of the rate. But as Italy, France and Spain see inflation decline there is room for addditional inflation in Germany before the eurozone goes well above the 2% inflation rate. By freezing wages and improving price competitiveness with German products, other countries could increase exports. Yet the prospects of this making a large difference is limited because German companies are likely to push for wage restraint. The Bundesbank predicts wage increases of 2.4% in 2012. Over time the wage restraint in other eurozone countries and even slightly higher wages in Germany would reverse the trend since 1999 of Germany having much lower inflation, and this could be one of the factors helping in rebalancing....

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Efforts by Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to influence or slow the transition to democracy in Egypt.

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Underwater homes where houses are worth less than the value of the mortgages are estimated at roughly 9 millon. Barney Frank's proposal is for the federal government to step in directly with government guarantee for $300 billion in new cheaper loans. Under this plan homeowners would be issued new mortgages for 90% of the new value of the home, the governmet would get a 5% stake, and the holder of the loan whether a bank or investment pool that holds the mortgage securities gets paid 85% of the new value of the home. Underwater homes would be appraised at market values for the new loans and its important that after this the prices not keep falling much below the ne appraised value. Note also the criteris for eligibility. Under Frank's plan those who took out loans from Jan, 2005 to June 2007 1 million people according to his estimate would be helped. Would lenders face losses? Yes they would have to recognize these losses rightaway but the foreclosures may mean bigger losses for the lenders especially as the downward spiral would probably give them much less than the 85% as appriasal values sink....

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Clint Eastwood talks about stuff in politics, real people, in a way that is humorous, and is asked about his various roles in movies he has made that show relations between countries and races. He recalls the time playing golf with the president and another real estate billionaire, when both told him within earshot of the other that all the real estate deals that the other was making would go bad. This he says was funny. In all this he was always the lone guy, as in the movies. This guy is 89 and he has still got stuff for some interesting movies, and he has ideas about the country and what it needs.  Mr Eastwood was mayor of a little town in coastal California in 1986 for 2 years. And yes he did not like all the regulation in the state. He tells about his removing one in the city that banned the public sale of ice cream, besides drinking a lot of tea and chatting with everyday folks. Most have forgotten and others simply from a new generation. The 2008 movie Gran Torino is one in which a Korean War veteran faces up to immigrants from Laos in an inner Detroit suburb. And what happens? Eastwood says people liked this one that grossed $270 million because it showed how someone with views at one extreme could learn more and shift to the other extreme just from seeing and talking to different people who you have not encountered before. Eastwood portrayed the American male when it was a kind of manliness unabashed. The thing about Eastwood is  that he he is sensitive to all that this meant in an intelligent thoughtful way that takes us by surprise. Some of these characters he played did not have the niceties, abrupt he calls it or that gruffness of masculineness, even a bit dumb. Talking about relations between countries and of race Eastwood had some ideas to make the Japanese language "Letters from Iwo Jima" - to give the view of what it was like for a Japanese soldier sent out from the islands to Iwo Jima. The famous battle was one he did from the American point of view in "Flags of Our Fathers." About that Japanese soldier he is sent out and told that he wasn't ever coming back. It won Japan's equivalent of an Academy Award. The interview in the WSJ with Varadarajan closes with Eastwood feeling  for the genteel ways, not calling names out loud, of an older time, without the masculinity that he himself portrayed, or only appeared to be that way when in reality he was intelligent and sensitive to other people and their ways. Perhaps that former mayor of New York, says Eastwood, offering his own idea of a switch back to older genteel ways for the country.   ...

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Peter Galbraith explaining the true reason for his firing by Eide and the UN Secretary General Moon. The statement announcing his dismissal to be accurate would have said that this was over differences whether the UN was going to remain silent over evidence of electoral fraud in the Afghan elections, and the issue of ghost polling stations. There is another angle of this which risks endangering the US trrops in the north of the country. Karzai's opponent in the elction is half Tajik and half Pashtun, fraud in the elections may turn the Tajik north against US and coaltion troops, further complicating life for the US, and this is on top of the loss of credibility with the Afghan people of the Karzai government. See the separate article on General Jones telling McChrystal who commands US forces in Afghnistan to cooperate with the strategic review now underway, by not making statements to the press. The other questions arise about the manner in which this dismissal ocurred. A few days before this Hillary Clinton, Eide, and other representatives from the coalition told the press that they think Karzai would win. Had Obama authorized this and what would be the point of such a statement, and at the same time trying to conduct an unbiased assessment of the war in Afghanistan. Here Galbraith comes across as one who had the courage to decide according to what he believed would be right for America and the values it represents. His point is that he could not tolerate the last act of dishonesty in the dispute that went on for months, because of the loss of credibility for the UN itself among the many Afghans who do not support Karzai. This would destroy also the credibility of the US in the country. Can any number of troops make up for this? Wars in Asia have proven that popular support decides the eventual fate of the mission. Only by standing up for its values can the US not undermine the very principles that the troops are fighting for and the people support. ...

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Relations between Iran and Arab Sunni states Saudi Arabia and UAE are improving especially as Arabs distance themselves from the Bush Administration after faulty inelligence estimates about Iran were corrected by the CIA concluding that Iran wasnot pursuing a nuclear weapons program. The Arab Sunni states arenot altogether happy with the US policy in Iraq and Palestine. Note that that even before this there is a stron economic link between UAE and Iran. About 400,000 Iranian expatriates live in the Emirates and 9000 part Iranian owned firms are registered with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. One look at the map show why Dubai is closest to Iran just a short strip of water dividing the two countries. This bodes well for oil prices as any volatility in the region would only increase pressure on oil prices. Peace in the Gulf region would do a lot to decrease the volatility affecting oil prices. It would also give Iran confidence to address its own role as a supplier by modernizing its oil industry. See the link to Mexico where President Calderon wants to transform Pemex and Mexico's oil industry over 10 years after Petrobras was pushed into reform by President Cardozo in Brazil. Commerce and Industry...

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Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, says when you consider that London gets 7 times the infrastructure spending per person than West Midlands, "its not bloody surprising" that his region is not growing fast. West Midlands covers a large part of central England, including Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry. Even life expectancy is lower by 8 years in Blackpool, and disposable income can be quarter in Camden compared to North London. Labor's Corbyn and Conservative's Thatcher in the British general election are both campaigning for reviving the regions outside London, that have seen investment in people and technology lag substantially behind London. Regional revival is the big issue in this election. Consider that London which accounted for about 15% of economic output in the 1980's now accounts for nearly 25% of economic output of Britain. Berlin is about 4% of Germany's economy, and Paris 10% of France's economy. A word of caution on Brexit is sounded by experts at the University of Birmingham, who say the whole process of Brexit is so complicated that it may detract from the task of reviving this region. Even though the political upheaval had origins in this discontent, was it more about shifting government attention to the gap between London and the rest of the country, and less about a complex process of withdrawal from the European Union. ...

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Refugees in Germany are 3.48 million in 2024 at 4 percent of the population, government data shows. This is 60,000 more than in 2023. One third of them are from Ukraine and many of them seek a return to their home country. Clara Bunger a member of the German parliament requested the information from the government. Bunger says- "It's in clear contradiction to the misleading portrayal of an alleged 'national emergency. Such scaremongering deliberately distracts from actual social problems and uses fear to make refugees a scapegoat." This distraction from the problems of cost of living is why immigration hurts workers and families, why PM Mette Frederiksen, Denmark, PM Michel Barnier, France, US president Biden/Harris who negotiated the legislation with Republicans in Congress to close the Border are taking this important step to refocus on the future of America and Europe, and the world at large. ...