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Tom Walsh, columnist at the Detroit Free Press is very skeptical that anything will change with Gettelfinger and the UAW, Cerberus, GM executives and other stakeholders who will stall and try to look for advantage even as Detroit's workers are at risk. Communities in Michigan are at risk and communities across America. He calls for President elect Obama to appoint a really good car czar who will force the different parties to make the changes that are required, or nothing will happen and things will get to the worst outcomes possible.

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United is looking for a merger partner as its one of the weakest of the large airlines. But no good fit is to be seen. United emerged from bankruptcy in a fairly weak condition and has not been able to come up with better margins. Its margin is only 2% compared to 6.1% for Southwest. Its planes are 20 years old and no new orders are being placed. Its possible that the airline may be sold piecemeal, such as its maintenance operations, its cargo business, and its Mileage Plus frequent flyer program.

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Collapsing sales for all automakers with GM results 45% decline in October 2008 over October 2007, and Toyota saw decline of 23%, Honda 28%, Ford 30%. One GM marketing executive said its like the lights were turned off in October. Dire consequences for the US and global economy. Toyota once seemingly immune to all this is affected not just here but back in Toyota City in Japan as the area around Nagoya is going into shrinking mode, and the Japanese economy will likely contract by 1% in 2009.

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Rove cites Quinnipiac poll surveys showing Trump with the worst ratings of the 12 Democratic and Republican candidates- 35% favorable to 57% unfavorable. The breakdown shows 60% of independents disliking him, and 69% of voters 18-34 saying they dislike him. He says Trump stands little chance against a Democratic nominee for president. This is why a splintered vote in the Republican primaries is dangerous for Republicans says Rove, pointing to the need for Republicans to focus on a good alternative candidate, who has experience and ability to win votes across many demographic groups.

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Perceptions of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping in China. The image of Jinping as one who stands up for ordinary Chinese and opposes corrupt officials is promoted in Chinese media. His visit to a small fast food place in Beijing, the Qingfeng Steamed Bun Shop, where he paid for the food, and took it to a folding table, is shown repeatedly on Chinese media. The cult of personality did not appeal to Communist leader Deng Xiaoping following two decades of a personality cult for leader Mao created by incessant propaganda. Under Hu Jintao, Jinping's predecessor the effacement was complete with the leadership taking a very low profile, and emphasizing scientific progress and technological development under a system setup by Deng's successor, Zemin, a former mayor of Shanghai. Some aspects of the old Mao era depiction of a strong leader who cared about China's interests above all else and was with the ordinary people, farmers, workers and students, is being revived today. It fits Xi Jinping's profile of a leader who spent time in the countryside with farmers, which happened when he was assigned at the age of 15 to Shanxi province during the Cultural Revolution period of the late 1960's- what Harvard professor Elizabeth Perry calls his adolescent socialization period- and his views of the positive role played by the Communist party, inspite of the excesses of the Party and the persecution suffered under Mao by Jinping's father when he fell out of favor. The link to Jinping's Hebei province shows the difficulties suffered of growing up during the Cultural Revolution, and his personal struggles including efforts to get into Tsinghua University as his father fell out of favor with Mao. As a result Xi has a inbuilt wariness for political positions. The story shows considerable ironies as Xi's father, a revolutionary war veteran from Hebei province, fell out of favor first with Mao and for a second time for criticism of Deng's crackdown at Tienanmen Square. Just to survive and grow during so many changes from the fifties China to the twenty first century China, shows remarkable resilience and strength, which is why Singapore's leader Lee Juan Yew sees much emotional stability in Xi Jinping. Is the personality building effort a Communist Party propaganda version of the careful nurturing of image done in western media for favored persons, or a revival of an older Mao type personality building effort? Xi's own wariness suggests it may be the former with some aspects from China's own past, as he promotes the Communist Party's claim to lead China for another generation by reducing corruption and furthering technological progress....

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What Krugman makes of the $1.089 trillion dollar U.S. deficit for fiscal year ending in Sept. 2012. He points out that the U.S. can have a stable to declining debt to GDP ratio with $400 billion debt. He cites the Clinton years (1992-2000) when the debt to GDP ratio declined from 49% to 33% with steady growth. What about the remaining $600 billion. He attributes this mostly to temporary factors which are reversible as growth picks up. Of this remaining excess deficit he says $400 billion is from lower tax payments to Treasury because of the 2008 economic crisis and the recession that followed. This includes the payroll tax cut which is also temporary to keep up consumer spending in the recession. The $150 billion is from unemployment insurance, food stamps, and other aid which is also reversed once growth picks up. He places emphasis on restoring economic growth as early as possible and reducing unemployment and using the recession for business to continue to invest in R&D, productivity, and government to preserve the social fabric, invest in education, and provide incentives for growth. S&P Nov. 8 report says the net government debt to GDP ratio is estimated to be over 80% in 2013. It will have to stabilize at current levels for S&P to preserve the U.S. credit rating, says S&P executive Chambers. The higher debt to GDP ratio in 2013 and lower growth rates expected makes the situation different from the lower debt to GDP ratios during the Clinton period. Britain, France and other major industrialized nations with political parties at either end of the political specrum have also chosen to stabilize or reduce debt to GDP ratios rather than take on the risks of them going much higher. The U.S. has the added problem of health care costs out of control with an aging population and about 17.9% of GDP going to healthcare costs in 2010 expected to increase significantly, as Medicare actuaries estimate enrollee numbers jump to 80 million in 2030 from 50 million in 2012. Democrats and Republicans have largely sidestepped this underlying problem in fiscal cliff negotiations....

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers some advice to young people- In a marraige she says it helps sometimes to be a bit tone deaf. To ignore that remark someone made or comment which if reacted to would only make one feel worse. Who knows it was not meant that way, and maybe did not reflect the whole way that person felt, or even was transitory, This advice she got from her mother in law. Another piece of advice was from her father in law, to stop worrying and find a way to manage, find a way to do it, for something you want to do but are not sure you can. Something she learned from her colleagues in the court including Justice Scalia, was to get over it, not to spend time thinking about comments that are made or some things that happen in the course of one's daily life that one thinks shouldn't have happened.

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The French refusal to make concessions on subsidies to farming for a new trade accord comes from cultural and emotional factors. Food is important in France, and farming and quality farm product is take quite seriously. One reason is the varied climate which is very conducive to different kinds of farming, dairy, cheese, grapes and wine, olives, wheat depending on the climate. Compared to US and Britain, France is serious farming country in an emotional and cultural sense, and different regions have their own best farming product. Historically also France has protected its farmers and farm products, both during the monarchy when farmers were seen as a conservative element and late nineteenth century with high tariff walls, and after the Second War when a common program to support farming was written into the founding treaty. Useful information: France has 26,000 local farmers markets vs 500 in the UK. The regional focus for farm products has a term: terroir. Farm unions are amazingly well organized and command widespread support, upto the point that a former trade minister says "the politicians are frightened." One could say farming is part of the French culture....

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The SNP Scottish party and the Liberal Democrats favor early elections and will push for this in parliament. The thinking is that both parties can do better in an election before Brexit is passed. A You.Gov poll for The Times shows only one person in five or 19% see the EU withdrawal deal negotiated by Boris Johnson as "a good deal." SNP, and Lib Democrats say this means voters will vote for parties with clear for or against positions on Brexit including the Independence Party of Nigel Farage. Both SNP and Lib Democrats are for Remain. Labour Party under Corbyn is divided on how quickly to go into another election. The Tories under Boris Johnson are relying on polls showing they are leading by 10 points yet this can change as Theresa May faced a similar situation and called for an early election which led to losing its majority.  Experts on BBC say a December election is highly unusual and most unpredictable, posing big risks for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives particularly now with Johnson advisor Cummings tactics dividing the party. ...

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The effort to shift China's economc growth away from the rampant overbuilding in housing and industrial capacity of the past to domestic consumption, and focus on meeting the demand for better medical care, quality of food, education and other quality of life products. China's leaders met at the Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing in Dec. 2015 to work out ways to make this shift so that growth rate of 6.5% and other goals can be met. Plans include reducing industrial overcapacity, dealing with overinvestment and unused inventory in housing, reducing financial risks from high corporate debt to GDP ratio approaching 160% estimated by Standard and Poors Ratings Services. By comparison the U.S. debt to GDP ratio is 70%. A steep rise resulted from the huge China stimulus program of 2008-2009, when the ratio was 98% for China. Experts such as Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute are pessimistic about the prospects of successfully implementing reforms, saying reducing industrial overcapacity was a goal of the new Jinping Li-Keqiang leadership in 2013, but not much progress has been made in 2 years....

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Britain's Labor Party leader makes a speech favoring strong Britain- EU relations in an effort to attract support from pro-EU Conservatives in parliament and bring about early elections. Corbyn says he favors Britain's membership in the EU customs union putting pressure on prime minister Theresa May who favors Britain leaving the EU customs union so it can strike free trade deals on its own. A thin majority in parliament for Theresa May means this issue could lead to a parliamentary defeat and early elections.  The other facet of this is that the delicate peace process in Northern Ireland could be upset by having a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland which is part of the European Union. Irish peace process and the views of the Republic of Ireland and of Scotland would be respected with the Corbyn approach. Other benefits are keeping good trade relations with the EU intact because 44% of Britain's exports go to the EU and 50% of Britain's imports are from the EU. ...

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A look at Israel at 70 by the Economist magazine shows a country that has combined early achievements of socialist governments such as free health care system and good education system with the addition of 1 million immigrants from the collapsing Soviet Union, to build a highly trained technically skilled workforce and international companies.  It says the Israeli Arabs are still poor and unable to integrate. With ultra Orthodox Jews they make up 30% of the population, and many of them who do not work. Infrastructure has suffered from lack of investment and public transport is in poor condition. About 4.5 million Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza remain a continuous source of tension with no settlement in sight. The shift of the capital to Jerusalem is recognized by the U.S. Trump administration, a win for Israel, but leaving the divisive politics of Mr. Netanyahu in place. So that with the growing economy, there are social problems and political division which need to be addressed as much as the economy. A problem left for another administration, another leader from possibly a revived Labor party and another day. ...

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Exxon to invest $600 million in producing liquird transportation fuels from algae- organisms in water called oilgae. Its a research effort that will take 5-10 years to bring results with large scale commercial production. The project will be conducted in partnership with Synthetic Genomics, abiotechnology companyfounded by genomics pioneer Craig Venter. Algae generated energy is apromising technology which yields 2000 gallons of fuel per acre of production each year compared with 650 gallons for palm trees, and 450 gallons for sugarcanes which Brazil uses for producing energy. Corn which has become controversial in recent years yields 250 gallons per acre with energy, and water supplies required to grow corn, and the impact on food supplies. Exxon is also showing support for the work of Dr. Venter, ascientist who is known for decoding the hman genome in the 1990's. In recent years he has done research in searching for micro-organisms that can be turned into fuel. Algal biofuel called oilgae by environmentalists is made from algae that have molecular structures that are similiar to petroleum products like gasoline, and is compatible with the existing transportation structure....

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Fitch Ratings Agency says that 65-75% of homeowners getting home loan modifications under the Obama administration's Home Affordable Loan Modification Program (HAMP) will default in 12 months. This is because the median ratio of total debt payments to pretax income is about 64% according to a Treasury Department estimate. Many of these homeowners have large credit card and other debt, and little is left for food, clothing and other expenses. By April 2010, 295,000 homeowners had taken loan modifications under HAMP, which provides interest rates of as low as 2%. And another 637,000 homeowners are in trial modifications, which require that homeowners show they can make the lower payments consistently and provide documets to show eligibility. The Obama administration has provided $50 billion for the HAMP program, with financial incentives to loan servicers and mortgage investors to modify loans. Critics say the program would have worked better if the government and HAMP dealt directly with homeowners- as homeowners complain about the long time, upto a year, it takes for loan servicers and mortgage companies to get the loan modified on a long-term basis....

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Egypt's presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi, leads in the first round of presidential elections over Amr Moussa. He has no ties with the Mubarak regime and comes from the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi is an engineer trained in Egypt and the U.S. Morsi graduated with bachelors and masters degree in engineering from Cairo University, and a PhD. from the University of Southern California in 1982. From 1982 to 1985, he was a professor at California State University at Northridge, California. In 1985 he returned to teach at a university in Egypt. He was elected to parliament as an independent candidate as the Mubark regime banned the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2011 he was elected head of the Freedom and Justice Party and made its candidate for president. Because of the severe economic problems facing Egypt- a demographic explosion of young people with few job opportunities, enough foreign reserves to finance a limited period of food and essential imports and dependent on the IMF for financing, neglected infrastructure development during decades of misrule under Mubarak- a candidate with an advanced engineering background trained in the U.S. could bring the right set of skills to the job of rebuilding Egypt. ...

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With government spending currently at 24% of GDP, the budget proposed by Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Commttee, proposes to bring this down to 22.5% in 2012, and to 20% by 2018. The Ryan proposal would cut spending by $5.8 trillion for 2011-2021, with spending $6.2 trillion less than proposed by the Obama administration. It is a bold effort by House Republicans to bring the deficits down from the $1 trillion plus levels of the last 3 years. Major changes are made under this proposal to Medicare, and Medicaid. People who retire after 2021, would choose from an array of private insurance programs, and the federal government would help pay the premium. Medicare under this arrangement would be a "premium support" system. Medicaid would become a block grant for the states. This proposal estimates a saving of $771 billion on Medicaid over 10 years. The Food Stamp program would also become a block grant system. In addition to this the top individual and corporate tax rates would be 25% instead of 25%, with the changes being revenue neutral as a series of tax breaks would be eliminated....

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The rate for obesity for school age children in Saudi Arabia is 9%, according to the UN and the Saudi Journal of Obesity. The overall rate for people in Saudi Arabia is 35%.

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Estimates are for a 9% increase for Apple laptops and iphones Made in China if Apple passes through the price increase following DJT's 54% tariff on Chinese imports. Instead Apple may decide to be patriotic and reduce the huge margins it has charged American customers for three decades now as part of its $500 billion plan to invest in Made in the USA, after waffling and delay for so so long. Even after the first term of DJT in 2016 Apple has waited 8 years to not move some of the production home to avoid an overconcentration in China. This is a sign of its management not having listened to the mood of America preferring huge profit margins to doing the right thing, literally waiting till the last minute.

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A couple of things can be noted about the burgeoning Chinese market for cars. Most car buyers are first time buyers. But that is to be expected as China started with a small bases of cars to begin with. What is interesting about these first time car buyers is that they ask a lot of questions do their research and are looking for the best car for the money in terms of features, safety, reliability. So its also a sophisticated first time buyer that carmakers are dealing with. This car buyer is also looking at waiting to save enough to buy a better car as far up the ladder as the car buyer can go in terms of features and value in safety, reliability, design, even if this means waiting longer and saving for longer periods.In this sense the Asian car buyer may be different and less bent on instant gratification to get into a 4 wheeled vehicle. What this is doing is putting the domestic manufacturers under a lot of pressure to match the overseas manufacturers. Geely and Cherry the larger domestic makers have to come up with just as good or better a product to get new customers. At this time the overseas makers of cars like the Buick Excelle, the Toyota Camry and the Volkswagen Jetta have the advantage as they are established brnads. Its interesting to compare this with the experience of japan the other large Asian carmarket. In Japan Toyota, Nissan and Honda were the only carmakes available because of trade barriers in the Japanese market in postwar Japan. China is a relatively open market and China's approach seems to be to get the Chinese carmakers to do better in an intensely competitive market as opposed to giving them favorable treatment. Another aspect of this first time car buying in a country where car sales have increased eight fold since 2000 and now exceed sales in the Japanese market, is that this market is abit precarious as the example of the Li family shows. Li Rifu purchased a Geely for $9000 but later after he contracted cancer and had $40,000 in medical bills had to sell the car. China has no social safety net so that if there is a medical or other emergency or crisis in the family there is nothing to fall back on and the family ends up selling the car to pay for expenses....

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The most important quality for a manager is not the technical expertise- technical expertise comes way down in importance- it is the way a manager connects with the people who work for him and how he makes himself acccessible. This means how he makes time for one-on-one meetings, how he asks questions that help bring up solutions, and interest he takes in people's lives and careers.