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China's State Internet Information Office chief Lu Wei, 54, is a Communist Party official who assumed office in 2013. He attends many of the internet conferences and gatherings in China and overseas, loudly explaining China's Communist Party line that "respect for national sovereignty" on the Internet should be adhered to. Mozur and Perlez reveal the vigorous personality of Lu Wei as he argues for this view of the Web at gatherings, in sharp contrast to the way younger generation social media users and business users see the internet. Lu Wei spent his early years as bureau chief of the state owned Xinhua News Agency in southern Guangxi Province. He was promoted to positions as secretary general and vice bureau chief at agency headquarters, and to vice mayor of Beijing in 2011, chief of the city's propaganda department. He came into prominence following an article in the Communist Party journal "Seeking Truth," after pointing out that China needed to manage the way information about the country and the Party is presented using the new information technologies. He also perceived the risks posed by distorted or incorrect information to financial markets, and economic security. This was confirmed the following year with the rapid spread of reports about a high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou, China, and in numerous other incidents following this, as social media reports that could not be confirmed spread quickly in out of control fashion. He now is the director of a new Central Internet Security and Informatization Leading Group, headed by president Xi Jinping, with the task of coming up with a policy for balancing views of openness needed for the economy with government views on internet oversight. This is not only a political matter, as Chinese officials face the challenge of how to get the public to vent views on critical matters such as public anger about pollution, food contamination, contractors and badly constructed housing in a recent earthquake, mismanagement in the railways ministry, and a whole range of issues related to economic development, health and public safety. ...

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Erlanger and Castle look at the reasons given for the resounding defeat of the Labor party in 2016 British elections. Mr. Blair's view is that Labor as a traditional left wing party going against a right wing party produces a traditional result, reflects the Thatcher years when Britain was looking for a new way forward after the previous Labor governments and state involvement in the economy. More forces were at work in this election, say experts. Peter Mandelson of the Labor party and Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Micklethwait, say other forces are at work, with Scottish nationalism depriving Labor of a core constituency it had relied on, with 40 seats in the 2010 elections going down to 1 in 2015 general election. English nationalism meant the only gains for Labor in England came from Liberal Democrats not from Conservatives. Cameron appealed to Englsih voters that a Labor left oriented government in alliance with the Scottish National Party, which is more to the left than Labor, would be bad for England. Other commentators have suggested that liberal economics of the type espoused by Blair and Gordon Brown had failed to reduce inequality or improve living standards of working class people, led Britain into the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and lost credibility. Globalization, the decline of heavy industry in Scotland, and other changes in the global economy have also changed the playing field. The Conservatives showed flexibility in relaxing deficit rules after 2012, and were intent on protecting the National Health Service, giving their campaign theme about putting Britain on the right path to economic recovery more credibility. Other issues such as immigration also played out against Labor, hurting labor more than the Conservatives, with the defeat of Labor's Ed Balls in Leeds attributed to the increased votes going to the UK Independence Party from working class and centrist voters. In the end Labor received only 30.1% of the popular vote. ...

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The party congress of the Communist party does not look like its going to lead to any changes in the system, only to make sure it runs better by getting public input through pollsters on public officials, and on web sites on new legislation. The pollster, including a firm, Horizon Group, describes his role as working out a mechanism for people to express themselves as there is very real frustration in society. Websites airing public opinion helped introduce nondiscriminatory clauses in the new employment legislation. But otherwise there is actually a tightening of the control of dissent, as the party is worried that once it starts it will get out of control and jeopardize the economic progress However this leaves the future quite uncertain as there is still not enough room for airing the very real frustrations and concerns such as for the environment, health and services, the prevailing corruption, and the problems in the countryside of the poorer regions in the interior of the country. These concerns are being pushed into the future. For instance without a free press its hard to air corruption cases, as in India. Only two of the several thousand petitions under the system of letters and complaints xinfang are resolved. About 12 million are received each year by the government. Because of the obsession with tight control many activists end up in prison even though the causes such as the environment are popular. Like the activist who called attention to the Lake Tai pollution, and the rural blind activist mentioned who argued on behalf of women that were forced into late term abortions. Here the government actually stepped in to announce plans to cleanup Lake Tai, but the system continues its inexorable push to drive out any dissent even if it does not relate to political issues. This may be one of the severe distortions of the present system. ...

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Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State meets with Tory group of MP's that want to see other issues relating to China tackled following exclusion of Huawei from UK 5G networks, and suspension of the extradition treaty with Hong Kong. This includes 120,000 Chinese students attending British universities and many students involved in advanced scientific research. Both Labour party leaders and Conservative party leaders support taking action to protect British interests relating to sharing sensitive technology, and national security. The U.S. is moving forward with a decoupling of economic relations with China on issues of sensitive technology, transfer of technology,  ownership of American tech companies, manufacturing jobs and regaining industrial strength, and on trade that transfers wealth from America to China. Britain is having to restructure its relations with China based on the general trend in U.S. China relations. China is the UK's 6th destination for exports of goods and services, only 3.6%. U.S. is far larger about 14%. The UK also has one third of its investments overseas going to the U.S. The U.S. has total investments in the UK of 758 billion dollars in 2018, showing that Britain's relationship with the U.S. is very close. ...

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Marie Le Pen and the National Front performed very poorly in French elections. Perceptions of voters are changing. The efforts in tackling the coronavirus, effective vaccination drives, public health protection, and building access to vaccine supplies, have shown the need for good leadership that believes in a science driven direction. Immigration is no longer the issue it once was and in some polls it is seventh on the list after climate change, economy,  education, pensions. The National Front in France and AfD are losing regional elections and popularity is dropping to about 10%. The Greens party in Germany and the Gaullist Republicans in France are being revitalized. Other factors are also present. The search for authenticity and effectiveness. After dismissing a popular prime minister who tackled the health crisis in 2020 France's president Macron fared badly in recent regional elections. His party En Marche was hastily put together in the last year of the administration of Mr. Hollande, the predecessor from the Socialist party. Its initial popularity has not turned into grassroots support. Mr. Hollande, Mr. Macron, are now seen as one term presidents. It is not so much that the centrist parties are gaining as a search for parties that can provide effective alternatives in the face of the challenges placed on the world by the pandemic- renewal of supply chains. climate change, public services, infrastructure, health, education, lives of the elderly. In the US, Europe, and India, countries in Latin America, there is a growing awareness of the need to rebuild with the people in mind, the people who have suffered badly in this health crisis and the financial crisis that preceded it in 2009. ...

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Research shows that when a home's value falls below 75% of the amount owed on the mortgage, the homeowner thinks hard about walking away even if he has the money to keep paying, as it does not make economic sense to keep paying. By 3rd quarter 2009 4.5 million Americans reached this point and by June 2010 it is estimated by Corel Logic, a real estate firm, that 5.1 million will reach the 75% point- or 10% of all mortgages. Homeowners who made the mistake of buying as the market was cresting are seriously considering walking away and bank's reluctance to reduce the payments is for them the last straw. The Obama administration hasn't helped as this comment by assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions, Michael Barr, shows. He discounts the idea that many people will walk away from their homes, saying that the overwhelming number will stay in their homes. Consultants at Oliver Wyman show from their research that at least 17% walked away from their homes even though they could make payments in 2008, or 588,000 people, and this was before the full impact of the global financial crisis. These numbers could be much higher in today's depressed market....

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Martin Fedstein has a new idea for solution to the mortgage and credit crisis. He has a Loan Substitution Program and this is how it works. The Government would loan mortgage holders 20% of their current mortgage loan, with a 15 year payback period, and an adjustable interest rate based on what the government pays on two-year Treasury debt (now just 1.6%).The loan proceeds would go to immediately reduce the borrower's primary mortgage, cutting interest and principal payments by 20%. Participation in the program would be voluntaryand participants could prepay the government loan at any time. The basic idea is to lower the Loan to Value Ratios and help prevent foreclosures and defaults so that house prices which may have another 10-15% to fall, do not fall steeply and overshoot as millions of foreclosures take place across the country in coming months. Legislation would require that the government must be repaid before all creditors except the mortgage lenders, and that the debt to the government would have to be paid, even if the homeowner defaults on a mortgage. The critical thing this would accomplish is that homeowners would pay less in total interest. In exchange for that reduction in that interest, they would decrease the amount of the debt they can escape by defaulting on their mortgage....

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Feldstein is back after his proposal that the government step in with low cost loans to families thatwould help homeowners reduce what they owed the bank by 20%, for those homeowners who are close to negative equity but not there yet. This is needed to prevent the next big wave of defaults on loans, from homeowners who see that walking away from their loans is a rational solution once they reach the point of negative equity. Feldstein hammers away at some critical points that point out that reducing rates risks more than it accomplishes. Food prices globally do not benefit from lower rates, as governments may have to raise interest rates to cool inflation in their economies. Rising food prices threatens the livelihoods of poor and working classes in the global economy, especially in developing countries of Asia and Africa. It also does little to stimulate the economy in the USA and actually helps increase inflation for commodities like oil and food products. So why is the Fed lowering rates even though the costs are more significant than the benefits. Lowering rates would be counterintuiive in this situation as Feldstein points out. Bernanke's response would be that its a temporary crisis response, lower interest rates helps financial firms restructure their debt and helps them restore health to their balance sheets in the fragile financial markets, where the financial architecture itself is being questioned. And the immediate crisis was in the financial markets, whereas some other solutions could be found for the damage this caused to the overall world economy in terms of inflation. Feldstein quotes estimates of inlation at 4% in the last 12 months and of 4.8% this year. The inflation rate in China is estimated much higher at about 8.5% and has become the focus of government efforts including relaxing the exchange rate, as the rise in prices especially of food affects the large working poor in China. Another aspect of lower interest rates is that lower rates surely would do little when there is such a large inventory of unsold homes. Significant also is the fact that lowering rates for fed funds by 3% from this time last year, has done little to lower mortgage interest rates which have come down only by 0.5%. So it does not give much relief to homeowners either. So is lowering rates a medicine that comes with a lot of side effects that you adminster only because the patient is in a critical condition, as the financial and credit markets appeared to Bernanke and Paulson that weekend only a few weeks ago? Probably so,which takes one back to Feldstein's main point. That main point is that the only way to get to solutions that strike at the core of this crisis is to help homeowners avoid default on their home mortgage loans, by reducing the loan amount by something like 20%, through government loans which can later be recouped to some extent. It cautions the Fed to use the medicine of lower rates sparingly, and urges the market participants and the public that insists that there be no "bailouts" to come to their senses, and accept that their will be tolerable losses for all if there are not to be intolerable losses for all....

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Martin Feldstein on the U.S. economy in 2014 and the risks of the U.S. Federal Reserve tackling the economy on its own with monetary policy, without Congress taking on the task of policies to promote economic growth. Feldstein points out the 3.6% GDP growth estimate for the third quarter 2013 does not look that good considering that half of this is from buildup of inventory. GDP growth is about 2% as net result. With paralysis of Congress and the Executive branch the Fed's policy of huge buildup of long term bonds to reduce short term interest rates to zero and stimulate stock and home prices, he describes as the only game in town. The problem is that the size of the effect of increase in consumer spending from this increase in household wealth is small and not enough to contribute to significant GDP growth. The risks of this approach are that it contributes to destabilizing the economy as investors buy risky securities and bid up prices. He suggests a five year $1 trillion infrastructure development program, including defense, as a stimulus Congress should consider. Not the kind of stimulus that happened after the 2008 crisis. If not enough investment ready projects are available as in 2008 that will contribute to future growth, Congress should take another one year to prepare for this before moving forward. Debt reduction is key, and debt as a percentage of GDP should be reduced and set on a path to go where it was before 2008 to about 40%, deficits to below 2% of GDP. This should be done by slowing growth of Social Security and Medicare, and increasing revenues by limiting subsidies in the tax code that Feldstein as pushed for since 2010....

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General Electric, GE, experienced a steep decline in the last decade. The worst news came in 2018 with the loss of half its share price and market value. One story tells about an employee who was forced out of retirement back to work seeing the loss of value in GE shares in 2018. Rarely has a company of this size seen a fall in stock price this steep, for a stock that was once seen as safe for widows. About 60% of GE business comes from jet engines, electric power generators and wind turbines. GE now plans to sell its health care business and other business that do not relate to core infrastructure in energy, aerospace, and other markets. Under Jack Welch a faulty model of adding diverse businesses that had nothing to do with its core business and expertise in infrastructure were added. A home mortgage lending business was added and GE Capital expanded. NBC Universal was added with little justification in a period when CEO's acted without much consultation. The home mortgage lending unit collapsed with large losses during the 2008 financial crisis and GE's share price dropped drastically to $6.00. Under Welch's successor Mr. Immelt the GE Capital unit was shrunk in size, but losses continued to mount. An oil field service unit was added which also sustained losses.  Immelt's successor Flannery faced a loss of $15 billion from the financial lending unit. Sale of some businesses was not sufficient to meet the loss. Flannery is now taking GE out of all the businesses which were not core business. The NBC Universal television business was sold to Comcast in 2013. GE Healthcare is next. This closes a bad chapter in GE's story under Welch and Immelt. GE's dividend was cut for the second time since the Great Depression. The story of GE is also the story of American business during the last two decades, with icons such as GM, Ford and GE suffering decline, businesses that operated like little fiefdoms of old nobility in Europe, with CEO's operating in a CEO centric culture, not tolerating contrary opinion for informed debate on issues facing the business. Alfred Sloan founder of Genral Motors called constructive debate central to good management. Later Intel CEO Andy Grove coined the phrase constructive confrontation as a way of constructive debate, and the CEO was shown as the first of equals. The CEO centric management ignored these warnings and admonitions in running their fiefdoms.   ...

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A sense of how the U.S. Supreme Court Justices viewed key aspects of the Obama Health Care Law after three days of hearings on March 28, 2012.

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This NYT editorial on June 26, 2015, says the arguments of the plaintiffs before the U.S. Supreme Court for the Affordable Care Act were specious, based as they were on a reading of four words phrase in the Act leaving ambiguity about what exchanges were covered by health care subsidies. It says the plaintiffs with strong emotions on the subject decided to pull their argument out of thin air. That only one Justice acted as the swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, shows the Supreme Court like the rest of the nation is not above emotion- Justice Scalia called the 6-4 decision based on "jiggery-pokery" and not "honest jurisprudence"- and needed Chief Justice Roberts to provide the larger view in 2015 as he did in 2012.

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Short time work programs, paid leave, aid to small business for employee retention with the government paying a big percentage of wages, and unemployment benefits till companies rehire employees with government paying for this, are all different ways in which the U.S. and Europe are coping with the coronavirus crisis.  In the U.S. 22 million have applied for unemployment benefits with the U.S. government picking up a substantial part of the wages till companies rehire these employees. In the UK the government has launched a program that gives 2500 pounds or $3100 to each worker each month upto 80% of the worker's pay. The money is sent to businesses for retaining employees. This could cover estimated 8.3 million workers in the UK at a cost of $52 billion. The U.S. has a similar program with the first phase $377 billion already distributed to small businesses which requires retention of employees for government forgiveness of these loans. The basic idea is retain employees who could stay at home or be in short work programs or work from home. The French government is paying the wages of 9.6 million workers, almost half of workers in the private sector by sending the money to 785,000 small businesses. In Germany the Kurzarbeit program covers 725,000 companies which supports the wages of employees in a downturn and is financed from a special fund. The cost for Germany, France and Spain is about $147 billion or 135 billion euros for such programs. The European Union will step in with a 100 billion euros loan package. ...

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Germany's social-affairs minister, Ursula von der Leyden, presents the "fourth poverty and wealth report," in March 2013. The issue of inequality is arousing public sentiment in Germany with this becoming an election issue along with the euro crisis and energy reform. The term Gerechtigkeit means "justice" in German and is associated with the idea of equality. The Social Democrats Party and the Greens talk about this in terms of "social scissors" opening wider. The Minder Initiative which passed in Switzerland enabling shareholders to restrict executive pay has led to public discussion in Germany for a similiar approach to be adopted by Germany. The ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) of Angela Merkel and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) party are different from other parties in Europe because of their Catholic and Lutheran roots which favor social solidarity. The FDP party in the ruling coalition supports free market principles but lacks popular support. The Economist cites the work of the German think tank DIW on inequality, which shows inequality showing sharp rise after German reunification around 1991, especially in East Germany. The situation moderates with improvements in inequality in East Germany and a slight improvement in West Germany after 2005. Both East and W. Germany have moved up overall in the Ginni coefficeint which measures inequality from about 0.4 in 1991 to about 0.5 in 2010, showing that the situation has stabilized at a higher level of inequality. Part of this could be because of the shift to temporary workers at lower wages about this time as German industry made efforts to keep wages down and improve competitiveness, even as overall conditions in the economy improved in the last decade. The Economist cites another study by the Initiative for a New Social Market Economy, a German think tank, which compares Germany with other members of the OECD. Germany ranks closer to Scandinavian countries in seventh place in this study, but does poorly in equal oportunities with 14th place. Germany lags behind other OECD and European countries in opportunities for women to work full time. Germany lacks enough daycare facilities for small children so that their mothers can work full time. There is a shortage of about 150,000 for preschool daycare openings in Germany, acccording to information cited by Deutsche Welle from government sources....

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The use of fast track procedures under 510 K, for approval of Ren-Gen's Menaflex product to treat knee injuries. Under 510K rules for fast track no clinical trials are required, because the product is similiar to already existing products. Menaflex does not have asimiliar product, yet the FDA allowed Menaflex to be treated as fast track. The closest is orthopedic surgical operation, which is quite different. Menaflex is a C shaped pad used to repair a torn meniscus, a rubbery substance made from cow collagen that that acts like ashock absorber between the knee bones. Their is a booming market for meniscus repair among sports athletes. In fact originally Ren-Gen did not even apply as fast track, but only afte its clinical trials ran into trouble, did it try for fast track, which was turned down several times. At which point Ren-Gen got Democrats Senator Robert Menendez, Rep Frank Pallone, Chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep Rothman of Hackensack where Ren-Gen is based, and Senator Frank Lautenberg to intervene. At this point Senator Menendez and the others wrote to the FDA Commisssioner Dr Von Eschenbach, and Menendez spoke to the Commisssioner personally on the phone. After this intervention things started moving in Ren-Gen's dirtection, bypassing the FDA staffers who had reservations, and a special panel was appointed that again excluded anyone that had reservations, in an unusual procedure, which approved Menaflex. Now Congress and the Obama administration are being asked to review the whole process the FDA uses for medical devices because of the controversy this has caused about what is seen as unfair influence of companies in FDA approval process. Menaflex say those who had reservatoions faces alot of pounding and wear and tear between the knee bones and its safety and effectiveness needs to be proven before approval. It has been approved in Europe for afew years, but only 2800 patients have used it in Europe, only a small proportion of patients, and not enough is known about its effectiveness and any issues. ...

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Emmanuel Macron graduated from Sciences Po University in 2004 with a degree in public affairs. He joins the Finance Ministry as an inspector and then buys himself out of government service contract by 2008 to join a private bank. He arranges an acquisition from Nestle and other business deals during this period. In 2012 he is appointed as deputy secretary general for the president's office after Francois Hollande a socialist is elected to the presidency. In 2014 he is offered the position of Minister of Industry and Digital Affairs in the second Manuel Valls government. He makes some changes to French government but opposes the wealth tax or tax on business, and is generally pro-business, though he acts as a member of the Socialist party.  He uses this period to build momentum for his own run for the presidency as support for Hollande falters having lost support from his working class base with Macron and Valls inspired changes.  Macron finally announces he will run for the presidency forming his own En Marche movement which he finances with his own fund raising. Throughout this period right up to the election in 2017 Macron has not run for public office. When he wins the presidency in that year he lacks the experience needed as the youngest president in French history at the age of 39. Like another young president Obama he handles his public image with the media for his En Marche movement promising to unblock France. This public image and his lack of experience makes him impervious to the social changes going on in France that lead to the yellow vest protests in 2018. This is a period when there are changes in the midwest as workers in Michigan and other midwestern states turn away from Hillary Clinton and Obama.  French workers are in the position of workers in the US with the decline of manufacturing, much of it shifted with the supply chain to China and Japan, and the gap opening between rural and urban tech educated areas. Macron follows Obama's quick rise from Senator to run for president yet lacks experience, and lacks sufficient grasp of the social changes with loss of manufacturing, the wide gaps between rural and urban tech educated people, conditions in the rural and farming areas. Macron survives this period, is reelected in 2022 with the help of socialist Melenchon voters. He says he will govern differently, less distant from average Frenchmen, but his instincts are to push for pension reform. At a time of cost of living crisis, and when the French budget office says the change in pension from 62 to 64 was not critical at the present time when inflation was hitting the public after the pandemic. Macron does this by Article 49 in the way he has done under the Manuel Valls government, by executive action alone. This time he faces a no confidence motion in parliament in March 2023 following some of the largest protests France has seen in years, with two thirds of the French according to FR24 opposing the change in pension law. Women see this as coming at a time when age discrimination hurts their chances of earning a living after 50 years of age.  Age discrimination is widespread in France, in a way it is not in Germany, say reports in the NYT. And with the cost of living crisis acts as a major hurdle for the average French person, if pensions are delayed without addressing these cultural issues in France. The result is that the protests have substance and Macron is seen as not sensitive to this at a time when he lacks a majority in parliament. ...

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Under new lending facilities the U.S. Federal Reserve will buy $500 billion of short term debt of U.S. states, counties with more than 2 million residents and cities with more than 1 million residents. This is intended to ease funding strains for cities, counties and states in the U.S. that are seeing large revenue drops and rising expenses from simultaneous economic and health crises. Two other changes from the Fed. New classes of debt are included under the Term Asset Backed Securities Lending Facility or TALF. The Fed will now accept triple A rated tranches of existing commercial mortgage backed securities, and newly issued collateralized loan obligations. $100 billion is available under that program. To help business with less than 10,000 employees or revenues of less than $2.5 billion loans will be made through the Main Street Lending Program. This will initially fund up to $600 billion in loans, with restrictions on stock buybacks, dividends, and executive compensation. The emphasis is on helping businesses that were doing well before the crisis hit. Some that were carrying A ratings and were investment grade but downgraded to B after the health pandemic hit are considered "fallen angels." The Fed will also support new debt issuance by these firms in its corporate program.   ...

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The WSJ shows the full text of Justice Scalia's dissenting opinion for the Supreme Court 6-3 decision on the Affordable Care Act health subsidies

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This article in the NYT explains why the loss of jobs particularly in the auto industry to Mexico, with the experience of NAFTA passed by president Bill Clinton, has caused widespread opposition to the TPP trade agreement proposed by president Obama. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016 oppose the TPP.

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Timothy Egan points to the huge gap between a T.R. in 1910 making the speech in Osawatomie, eastern Kansas, and Professor Obama making an election speech in 2011. T.R.'s was an election manifesto that brought up the issues of conservation, child labor, a plea for an income tax, call for worker protections, limits on corporate power and influence on the laws and direction of the country. The speech was made in 1910, after Taft had assumed the presidency with Roosevelt's backing, and would lead to T.R. running against Taft and Woodrow Wilson. Most of what T.R. advocated became part of the country's social and economic fabric, much of the work beginning with Theodore Roosevelt's two terms as president, and also pursued by Woodrow Wilson, the president elected in 1912. By contrast, in line with the timidity of today's politics, Obama's speech called for approving his nominee for consumer protection bureau chief, and continuance of tax cuts for the middle class. Egan calls it a curse of today's politics and national debate that no politician can set the course for revitalizing America the way T.R. did. Some of what T.R. said in Kansas that day is: "There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done." "The right to regulate the use of wealth in the public interest is universally admitted." Jackie Calmes covered the extensive ties of both candidates, Obama and McCain, to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in her report for the New York Times, on September 9, 2008- "For 08' Rivals a Skein of Ties to Loan Giants." Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, who with his reporters did some of the difficult reporting on Fannie and Freddie, wrote in one of his columns with a note of pessimism, that he wasn't sure that either of the presidential candidates were interested in what was happening. ...