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The coronavirus surge in southern states in the U.S. is different from the surge earlier in the northeast including New York and New Jersey. More young people are getting the virus. About half of those testing positive are now 18-35 years of age in Texas and Florida. Social distancing and masks is not mandatory with young people not practicing these safety guidelines. Many took the reopening to mean they could go back to the usual summer routines. Not taking it seriously is leading to more infections of young people. Cultural issues with practicing the guidelines and a tendency to not take it seriously has been a problem in the U.S. and parts of Europe since the beginning of the crisis leading to larger number of cases.

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US to take stakes in American companies to help them achieve goals of Make in America with Intel stake the first action. The $8.9 billion Biden intended for Intel to make chips in the US will be handed over to Intel but for a stake in the company of 10%. For years Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China have subsidized their companies in different and some hidden ways. Many times these companies have sustained losses as they built for the long term in volatile market situations. Nvidia now a trillion dollar company was at one time a company struggling to survive saved only by a Japanese corporate investor as shown in a recent WSJ report. The US has taken no such action losing its dominant position in many advanced industries including chips till the Biden and DJT administrations. Yet the media keeps voicing the old ideas of market capitalism as if there is such a thing when state capitalism operates with market capitalism in the Chinese model, and a form of semi state capitalism operates with market capitalism in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan with hidden subsidies by the state to build dominant positions in certain industrial sectors. Even US companies are willing to take such subsidies as when Elon Musk builds car plants in China with state assistance and support, which never comes up in the media even when the Chinese EV makers are learning from the Americans and Tesla is losing market share in China. Theory is for the textbooks and economists,  in business all forms of capitalism work including a mix of state and market, and America has to invent its way back to lead the way in advanced industries.  ...

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Prime minister Theresa May's Conservative party needs the 10 seats of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland to have a slim 3 seat majority in Britain's 650 seat parliament. Yet many members of May's Conservatives oppose an agreement with the DUP which is seen as not similar in social views. The DUP is the party of Rev. Ian Paisley which was in conflict with the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party in Northern Ireland for many years. Former Conservative prime minister John Major says an alliance with the DUP would be in violation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland. Under that agreement the UK and Irish governments stated they would have "rigorous impartiality" towards all the different groups in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein sees a new Conservative government with DUP support as preventing the power sharing agreement with DUP that brought peace to Northern Ireland. Complicating this further is the vote on Brexit with 56% opposed and 44% in favor in Northern Ireland. And the DUP wants a "frictionless border," an open border with Ireland so that it would not affect the way of life Irish people have enjoyed since the peace agreement. So that even as talks are supposed to begin this week on Brexit with the EU, Brexit is looking more and more in doubt. Negative impact on Britain's economy through increased uncertainty and rising prices, and increased participation of young people opposed to Brexit in the parliamentary election leading to the vote for Labor party of about 40% of voters, also contributes to this sentiment. (gist in 264 words, about 955 words in original article) ...

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The IMF and Egypt reach preliminary agreement on a $4.8 billion loan in Nov. 2012. Andreas Bauer, IMF division chief for the Middle East says fiscal reforms by reducing waste in expenditures, changing energy subsidies to better channel them to the most needy are part of the plan for Egypt. This includes tax reforms increasing progressive nature of income tax and broadening the sales tax. The goal is to bring the deficit down from 11% of GDP in 2011-2012 financial year to 8.5% in 2013-2014. As part of this plan more money can go to infrastructure investment. Monetary polcies will be geared to keeping inflation down and increasing Egypt's competitiveness to attract foreign investment and increase international reserves. Egypt's international reserves are at $15 billion in Nov. 2012. In all the program of assistance to Egypt including IMF assistance and other donor loans gives Egypt access to $14.5 billion in loans.

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In this editorial the Wall Street Journal says it supports the "sequester" or trigger of automatic cuts in 2013 if the Supercommittee in the U.S. Congress fails to reach agreement on budget cuts. Across the board budget cuts are not the best option, but says the Journal given that politicians have failed to come to agreement this is the best option available. This will generate $68 billion in savings in 2013. The Congressional Budget Office estimates cuts will be 7.8% for domestic programs, and defense will take a 10% cut. Medicare spending will fall by 2%, mostly payments to providers. To put this in perspective the Journal points out that total domestic discretionary spending doubled to $614 billion in 2010 from $298 billion in 2000, providing a higher starting point for cuts. It says some of the cuts in defense could be restored through a supplemental bill as planned by Sen. McCain.

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Analysts say the second phase of building China's strategic petroleum reserve will begin in the first half of 2011. This addition is expected to be for 168 million barrels, adding to the 100 million barrels in the reserve. China International Capital Corporation, a Beijing investment bank, says this stocking up and the rising inventories at Chinese oil companies could increase oil prices by $6.50 a barrel in 2011 and 2012. Existing Chinese reserves cover only 12 days of demand, compared to the 103 million barrels or 40 days for the US strategic petroleum reserve. This increases the uncertainty in world oil markets. A daily addition of 150,000 barrels a day would meet one third of the expected second phase in 2011, and this amounts to about 10% of the International Energy Agency's forecast increase in global demand for 2011. At the same time if oil gets too expensive, China could decide to wait for a more opportune time to build stocks.

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Global infrastructure needs are expected to go up by 20% to 2.1 trillion dollars annually for the next 10 years compared to the previous ten years, according to the Samsung Economic Research Institute. India's investment in infrastructure will double to 1 trillion dollars in 2012-2017. compared to the prior five year period. Toshiba hopes to increase sales by 20% to $38 billion for nuclear power generation and distribution equipment and railway equipment, by the year ending March 2013. This is 38% of total revenue for Toshiba. Hitachi has set a goal of a 46% increase in sales to $29 billion, or 20% of total revenue for Jan 2011- March 2016. The Japanese Government and a consortium of Japanese companies are working together on deals such as the deal signed with Vietnam in October 2010 for nuclear power. The International Nuclear Energy Development of Japan entity, includes 12 companies and the Japanese government. The consortium was critical to negotiating the Vietnam deal.

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Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler Group, is known to take personal responsibility for getting it right for the small details of quality of Chrysler cars. When one test showed a defective door handle for a revamped Dodge Charger engineers reported on the status of the fix every couple of hours to Marchionne. He believes that if one wants to run the business right one has to get involved at this level. Marchionne has 23 people reporting to him at Chrysler and 25 more at Fiat in Italy. For Marchionne this has helped the two companies to work closely. Chrysler under Marchionne has spent $1.1 billion on revampig 14 models which are now in production. This was the only way to boost sales, as customers did not want the old models. His way to judge the performance of the revamped 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee was to drive it 3,500 miles through Quebec, New Brunswick and New England.

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Investors in China fear that the overheated economy and property bubbles, may see a sharp turn with excessive tightening of monetary policy. China rebounded quickly after the 2008 crisis, but did this with a huge stimulus and by encouraging excessive lending levels. Some of this local government lending is suspected to have gone into low quality projects with the danger of bad loans. Inflation was 2.8% in April, and as lending tightens the Shanghai Composite Index has fallen 16% in the last month. The crisis in Europe, the extremely short 2-3 month horizon of mainland Chinese investors, the excessive supply of shares- attempts to raise $74 billion in share issuance in mainland and Hong Kong markets and an IPO of $30 billion for Agricultural Bank of China- all put pressure on stocks. OECD index of leading indicators for March 2010 show a drop from February, and the Chinese economy grew 11.9% in the first quarter 2010.

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After public opinion comes out against it, the Obama administration decides to end the NSA's bulk collection of phone data program in March 2014. Under the decision the phone companies will not be required to keep the data for longer than 18 months, as it was determined that older data was not as useful. And the specific phone records can now be obtained ony after permission from a judge with a new kind of court order. The bulk collection of phone data program was justified by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, passed under the Bush administration to tackle terrorist threats following the 9/11 attacks. That program was outside any judical oversight. In 2006 the Bush administration Justice Department had the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorize the program. Under Section 215 the FBI is able to get court orders for records relevant to an investigation and this authority was broadly interpreted as allowing NSA collection of bulk phone data.

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The S&P is up 1.3% for the 1st quarter of 2014. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Tech IPO's, biotechnology stocks, solar energy stocks and junk bonds pulled back in March 2014 after what were seen as excessive gains in trading. In the bond market the Barclays U.S. Aggregate bond index was up by 1.8% in the 1st quarter, as investors responded to dampening economic news and the emerging markets crisis. Analysts point to the 10.6% rise in S&P 500 earnings in the 4th quarter of 2013 over the prior year quarter, as giving earnings a chance to catch up to the higher P/E's and boosting prospects of stocks in the latter part of 2014. S&P 500 stocks trade at 15.2 times the next 12 months expected earnings figures, according to FactSet, compared to 13.2 and13.8 average for the last 5 and 10 years.

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US corporate pretax profits fell by $250 billion in the fourth quarter 2008, a 16.5% drop from the previous quarter, according to the Commerce Department. In the financial sector the drop was $178 billion, and that does not include the huge writedowns as value of troubled assets dropped. Compared with the 4th quarter of 2007 the 4th quarter of 2008 showed a drop of 20%. What this does is reduce the level of investment in plnat and equipment, in technological improvements, in R&D that companies can make and in the ability to hire staff. Reflecting this the Commerce Department gave out new GDP numbers showing 6.3% drop in GDP on annualized basis in the 4th quarter of 2008. The Labor Department says 5.5 million Americans were on unemployment benefits for the week ending March 14, and 652,000 new claims for unemployment benefits last week rising from the week before, which should get the figure to 6 million.

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The 41 year old actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, is elected president of Ukraine winning 73% of the vote, compared to 24% for Petro Poroshenko. He plays a fictional Ukrainian president in a popular television comedy Servant of the People. Zelensky's team has promised a new era in which political and business interests are unable to interfere in the judicial system. Poroshenko made similar promises but failed to live upto them. A member of the Zelensky team Ruslan Stefanchuk, says "we need to cut the lines between the presidential administration and the courts and prosecutors."

Many of the countries in Eastern Europe that emerged from the fall of the Soviet bloc, face similar challenges. Zelensky emerged as Ukrainians were struggling with the issues of corruption and deteriorating relations with Russia following a separatist movement in the eastern part of Ukraine supported by Russia. 

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Japan is meeting a shortage of workers by bringing in workers from other countries including China. In jobs ranging from apple picking to airport baggage handling Japan is getting foreign workers, and making changes in its immigration laws. Prime minister Abe is pushing for these changes to increase growth of the Japanese economy. In the past 4 years the number of foreign workers has nearly doubled to 1.46 million and a new visa system will accelerate the process to bring in more workers. Out of 27 countries in a Pew Survey Japan is the only country where more people favor immigration to rise than those who think it should decline. The Chief Cabinet Secretary Mr. Suga says- " In my view that shows how real the labor shortage problem is." Immigration authorities say they gave visas to only 82 refugees in 2018, less than 1% of those applying, so that there is not a sense of recasting Japan as a nation of immigrants or fulfilling any obligation to accept people from war torn nations. The problem Japan is facing is that 3 in 10 people are over 65 years old. In 2018 the population declined by 430,000, causing a need for job applicants. In fact cities and towns are looking for new ways to hire older workers who retired by offering flexible hours. ...

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The US and Saudi Arabia are working on a partnership in which the Saudi Public Investment Fund will invest $15 billion to secure mining stakes for metals such as cobalt needed in electric car batteries. The US would buy the supplies from the Saudi owned companies. US is a copartner with India on a new economic corridor infrastructure project that will connect India with the European Union and the US through Saudi Arabia. Saudis will invest $20 billion said MBS, Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia, at the meeting of the G20 in New Delhi alongside Modi, Biden, Scholz, Macron and the heads of the EU. This is a major new project for which the seeds are being put in for future generations.

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Presley says the Governor's election is not about right vs. left, not Democrat vs Republican, just those of us on the outside vs those in the inside. NYT covers Brandon Presley's effort to win the Governor's race in a Deep Southern state Mississippi. He plans expansion of Medicaid in a state with alarming health conditions. He hopes to revive rural hospitals. He approved raises for public school teachers of $5100 a year. He is conservative on social and cultural issues. In 2001 at age 24 he was elected mayor of a small town Nettleton with 1900 people in northeastern Mississippi. He was elected four times to represent northern Mississippi on the Public Services Commission.

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Workers in the gig-economy at companies such as Uber and Lyft are protected under a new California law AB5 that requires them to be classified as employees with minimum wage, sick pay and holidays. It also requires health care for workers with more than 15 work hours a week. This law is now being challenged in court by these companies. The challenge requires 623,000 signatures. The companies are also using the challenge as a way to protect from lawsuits.

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Britain's Labour party will now back a motion in parliament supported by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Tories for a general election December 9 or December 12. This is the first December election since 1923, almost one hundred years. December elections in winter could have uncertain turnout, but the high turnout in the election in 1950 with Labour's Clement Attlee shows that when major issues are involved voters do turnout.

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Airlines are not taking delivery of planes from Airbus and Boeing as travel on airlines remains restricted by a surge in the coronavirus cases in July 2020. Boeing delivered only 20 aircraft in the second quarter down from 90 in the same quarter in 2019. Airbus delivered 74 jets in the second quarter down from 227 in the prior year. This is straining finances for Airbus and Boeing. This affects suppliers such as engine maker GE. 

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A Flash Eurobarometer poll before French elections in 2017 show 56% of Europeans in the EU saying the euro is a good thing, only 36% saying its not, those saying its good at 64% in Germany, and being 57% in Spain, and 53% in France. Walker of the WSJ says the euro has survived the crises of the last few years, with some but not all the steps taken to avoid a repeat of the problems, and public opinion still favoring the eurozone as it looks forward to economic growth in coming years. The middle class is not attracted to risking its savings in euro denominated assets, costs of the turmoil that might be caused by leaving the euro act as a signal for caution, and in Southern Europe countries remember the days before the euro with devaluations and high inflation. With gradual economic recovery it appears that the euro is still the best option there is. Surveys show three fourths of the French oppose leaving the euro, and experts say the euro is not to blame for France's slow economic recovery- more confidence and political stability with economic renewal are seen as the ways to get France going again. This may be why the national elections in France will likely bring a president who is pro-EU. ...

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U.S. auto sales increase to levels seen before the recession in 2006- with 16.5 million units sold in 2014. Sales increased by 5.9% over 2013, according to Autodata. Fiat Chrysler NV sales reached 2 million units in 2014, for an astounding recovery under Marchionne, close to the 2.4 milllion units sold by Toyota and the 2.5 million units sold by Ford Motor.

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Under a new program the ECB will tilt the purchase of bonds for maturing debt towards weaker economies. Leading to purchase of $208 billion of bonds of weaker  economies such as Italy. Italy's bond yields climbed to 4.2% in June 2022. This will help prevent the fragmentation of the bonds in Europe into segments and is part of new thinking at ECB after the pandemic. Italy's bond yields dropped and stocks gained after the announcing of the decision. Under Merkel such decisions simply would not take place with the different thinking under that administration.  Today solidarity is uppermost in EU after the pandemic at EU in Brussels, at the ECB, and at the chancellor's office in Germany. No one even thinks twice about this.  Italian bond yields dropped from about and its stock index gained 3.2%. The stress in eurozone is reflected by the gap between the yields of 10 year German and Italian government bonds. It dropped from 2.4% to 2.13% after the decision. To keep the two yields close and not fragment eurozone yields is what preventing fragmentation means. ...