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In a buyers market where sellers find it hard to sell their house they are not negotiating the price they pay for commission of 2.4% of the price of house for the sale. Agents are not interested in changing the way things were.

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Calls for accountability of the regulators. A week later Judge Rakoff raised the same question in calling the SEC $33 million fine to Bank of America for Merrill bonuses something that lets the SEC look good and the Bof America protest overzealous regulation. Quoting Oscar Wilde he said acynic was one who understands the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Experts on the side of the public interest say that the people will have to kick and scream to make sure regulators do their job. Prof. Kane at Boston College calls for inspectors general for each agency charged with regularly auditing the performance of regulators, and checking for corrupting influence on regulators.

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Ford's downsizing of its Visteon auto parts operations and sale of Visteon plants as part of its restructuring effort under Mulally and Fields. The downsizing of Visteon and the way it was handled helped Ford avoid the bankruptcy experienced by GM, say experts.

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776 million euros -cost of COP30 Summit in Amazon region's Belem, capital of Para State in Brazil. 159 countries are represented in this unique effort to bring climate change issues to the Amazon river. The Portuguese colonized this region in 1616 because of its location connecting the Amazon river to the Atlantic Ocean. It is known for sale of spices, fruit, fish, rubber, oil, cacao and other local products shipped to Europe and other parts of Brazil.Ver-o-peso one of the biggest open air markets has been renovated, roads repaired and new roads built, new parks, water treatment plants set up.Yet most of the population of 1.4 million lives in shanty areas or slums in Belem which are affected when rain leads to floods overwhelming the tin roof houses. Much of the nearly billion euro investment is going to bring Belem to international standards. Housing 50,000 participants was ahuge task and the Brazilian government of president Lula brought in 2 large cruis ships to accomodate many of the participants. This report in FR24 says prices for accomodation reached $4000 a night which shows that in today's world climate change action which is a problem facing all people, has been embraced by groups that can afford such costly daily rentals creating skepticism from ordinary people affected by the cost of living concerns. ...

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WSJ's Kate Linebaugh talks to Pedro Pizzaro CEO of Edison electric utility company in California on the impact of president Biden's $369 Climate bill on California's energy needs. He describes what his company is doing today with the wild fires, and how the Biden bill will help the transition to renewables in a state that requires 100% renewables by 2045. His company Edison is at 35% renewables today. By 2045 energy use will increase by about 60% in California and he is looking ahead to that future.

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With occupancy declining to below 76% on many of the downtown San Francisco buildings the value of this is decliining fast. The Embarcadero Center that once defined the downtown area is now on sale for $90 million, according to the WSJ report, down from $245 million that was paid for it in 2018. Owners of these office buildings in San Francisco are liable for payments on $12 billion in bonds, according to S&P Global. Half of the stores in the Union shopping district have closed and Amtrak ridership is down 61% over 2019.

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Almost all countries have lower commissions for real estate sales. In the US about 3-4 houses are sold over a lifetime. At 6% commission this amounts to a cost of 25% of the sale price of these homes. This adds to the cost of living for American people and reduces their savings for investment in quality of food, education, health and leisure activities. By comparison in the UK it is 1.3%, in Netherlands 2%, in China 2.5%. In most countries only 33% of sales are done by buyer agents in the US 89%, in the UK less than 5%.

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The UK Supreme Court rules that minority government prime minister Boris Johnson's suspension of parliament was unlawful. Judges led by Lady Hale said, "the effect on the fundamentals of democracy was extreme."  Lady Hale emphasized that the ruling in the case was "not about when and on what terms" the UK left the EU- it was about the decision to suspend parliament. She said it was unlawful because "it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification."  The decision of the court was unanimous for the 11 justices. The court also criticized the length of the suspension, saying there was no reason "let alone a good reason" for this. This makes the suspension of parliament null and void, and of no effect. Speaker Bercrow called immediately for parliament to meet today to meet without prime minister's questions to attend to important matters. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for the prime minister to resign at the Labour party conference in Brighton. The call to resign comes from the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and from Tory MP's including John Major, a former prime minister. Boris Johnson says he will respect the ruling but that Britain will still leave the EU by October 31st even though parliament has legislated for an extension beyond October 31st.  ...

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David Brooks of the NYT is critical of the way Google CEO Sundar Pichai handled the Damore email affair. Pichai cut the discussion short and fired a 28 year old engineer who wrote a controversial memo about women and working in the software industry. Brooks says the memo actually makes things harder for women in a male dominated tech world.  Not mentioned here or in the coverage in the media is that Google could have used this as an opportunity to refocus the discussion on how to correct the exaggerated tilt in favor of men in the male dominated tech world- about 80% male. Even with the differences between men and women is such a huge tilt a good idea? How could it be handled by giving women better opportunities and changing the culture itself to ways that can make it good for both sexes. An extremely competitive environment with its corresponding behaviours is not the best environment for all. Most of the male dominated tech world does not walk the talk by actually helping women in tech in multiple ways, including changing their own culture- this itself could have become the focus of the discussion. Google could turn its gaze inward and say this is happening because it was too late or not doing enough, and use this as a wake up call- letting people be heard, yet quietly redoubling its efforts as some contrary voices explain how the current situation happened, is another way to respond effectively that eluded Google.  ...

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California is looking at population decline as it becomes a less attractive place to live with housing increasingly inaffordable, a split between low and high income population and fewer middle class, wildfires. As rents jump the median sale price of a single family home reaches an astounding $830,000.Corina Knoll of the NYT looks at the problems facing California as more people decide to leave the state and population drops to 39 million. California lost a Congressional district in the 2020 census and more could be lost in future. The swing in conditions between floods and wildfires has affected the environment.

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Being linked to the dollar emerging country economies see the effect on their economy of a reduction in interest rates by the Fed. This is clearly evident in the Gulf countries and Middle East where the link has produced a looser monetary policy in a booming economy and only increases inflation which is already high in many countries. China, India and Russia are seeing increasing inflation as their currrencies are linked to the dollar and though a revaluation of their currency can reduce price of imports and lower overall inflation this is not an easy thing to do because in the case of China it increases the price of goods it exports to the US at the very time the US is in a recession.