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Friedman compares the anti-corruption movements in India and the U.S., the world's two largest democracies. The Occupy Wall Street anti-corruption movement in the U.S. focusses on the excessive influence of banks on lawmakers, regulators, and the government, through the use of campaign money, revolving door for government officials and regulators to join banks, and intense lobbying. The anti-corruption movement focusses on corruption in government at higher levels, such as the handling of government licenses, and at the basic levels of needing to bribe officials for something as simple as getting a birth certificate or other government document. Both have pernicious effects, in the U.S. excesssive bank influence leads to taking excessive risk for higher bonuses, putting the entire financial system at risk and creating a crisis in housing that delays the economic recovery. And in India the corruption leads to retarded progress, as funds to invest in infrastructure and development are siphoned off, business and entrepreneurs are required to pay bribes at each step, and ordinary people face the need to pay bribes for the most routine interactions with government officials. In the process this creates more unequal societies by skewing the distribution of benefits from wealth created to groups that are better equipped to game the system. The economic system once distorted in these ways has tendencies to take talent away from productive activity and innovation which create wealth, and direct it towards speculative activities....

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An hour by hour, day by day account of how Thain and Fuld, two men at the top of Merrill and Lehman, handled the crisis facing their firm. Also an account of how both men acted in the year and the months before the climactic week when Lehman filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Thain arranged for Bank of America to buyout Merrill. How Thain did it and how Fuld failed to save his firm, their background and personalities offer a striking contrast to different approaches to the crisis one facing reality and taking actions one after the other palatable or not, and the other too complacent and missing opportunites to save the firm even after the collapse of Bear Stearns left Lehman exposed to the next crisis of confidence. For example while Lehman failed to raise capital and get rid of undesirable or toxic assets, Thain sold $31.1 billion in toxic assets to a investment company Lone Star for 22 cents on the dollar, even financing 75% of the sale. It raised $8.8 billion in a deal that diluted Merrill's shareholders severely, and announced Merrill would sell its stake in Bloomberg for $4.4 billion. Lehman and Merrill were both heavily leveraged. So are Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs at this time in a financial market that is coming down hard on these highly leveraged investment banks....

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Britain's chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, tells parliament it will be difficult for Britain to avoid a recession if Europe goes into a recession in 2012-2013. He also told parliament that British debt reduction will take longer than planned because of the economic slowdown. This means the British public will have to go through two more years of austerity than previously planned, now upto 2017. Britain will need to borrow an additional 111 billion British pounds through 2015. Britain's Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts economic growth at 0.9% in 2011, and 0.7% in 2012. Debt as a share of GDP will peak at 78% in 2015, instead of the 71% expected earlier. With strong opposition from the unions and a major strike planned by about 2 million workers on Nov. 30, 2011, the Cameron government plans to go ahead with its austerity measures. This includes eliminating 600,000 public sector jobs, and limiting pay increases for public sector workers to 1% for two years after the end of the current pay freeze....

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NATO airstrikes played abig role in defeating Gaddafi's army. NATO has so far flown 7,459 strike missions, covering thousands of targets. The result has been the destruction of the Gaddafi regime's infrastructure and fighting capabilities of his forces. With every passing week the coordination betwen the rebel units and NATO for pinpoint strikes has improved. And in the final assault towards Tripoli NATO strikes destroyed any attempts by Gaddafi forces to launch an attack to retake Zawiyah. On the ground special British and French units have helped train rebel forces and improve their coordination and capabilities.

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The new Noida International Airport, Asia's largest when completed in 2024, will be a model for connectivity with connections to high speed rail, bullet trains. It will also be developed as an export hub for the country to provide needed logistics for India as a manufacturing hub in the new world supply chain. As part of the Master Plan for Gati Shakti it will be integrated into the development of the country as a whole over the next two decades.

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Jannick Sinner of Italy wins in 4 sets over Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open in a decisive manner 6-1,6-2, 6-7, 6-3. Novak Djokovic had an unbeaten 20-0 record at the Austrlain Open. Sinner is the rising 22 year old from Italy who has emerged in the way Spain's Alcaraz has in world tennis over the last 2 years.

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Jannik Sinner has a new coach Vagnozzi as he resets his game in world tennis.

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This is a big desicion by the Obama administration, and has global implications for the amount of oil consumed and the emissions discharged. The Obama administration will introduce one national standard for automile emissions and mileage standards, replacing the patchwork of standards and skipping over the challenges to the California standards by using those standards to set the national rules. The rules take effect in 2012. It will create a new national standard for a car and light truck fleet in the USA, that is 40% cleaner and more fuel efficient by 2016 than it is now, with a new average of 35.5 miles per gallon. The current national standard is 25 miles per gallon, and this standard has fallen way behind the Japanese and the Europeans. The Europeans went through their battles for fuel efficiency a few years ago with auto industry resistance, and this was finally settled with tougher standards, giving the European industry advantages in technology over the Americans. The American car industry stalled higher standards, and what standards were passed were whittled down by heavy lobbying in Congress. As a result a battle raged between those interested in conservation and the environment and the Detroit car industry, especially in a deteriorating global environment for this type of prolific oil consumption on American highways. This lack of foresight on the part of Detroit carmakers, and their management, accelerated their financial collapse in 2008 and 2009, as large car and truck sales collapsed. That this tough new standard of 40% improvement in 2016, would in fact not have been possible without this fiinancial collapse and turning to the government for a bailout - with the entire board of General Motors being replaced- is one of the ironies of this situation. This decision will almost certainly accelerate the development of smaller models, and bring the kind of attention to them that will give them the quality and features and comfort to make them command higher prices and become profitable, as is the case in Europe. For too long the American small car became synonymous with being a lesser car in many dimensions of design, quality, comfort and performance, so that it became a cheap car that you upgraded from to a larger car as you became affluent. It had been that way, but did not have to be that way after the world had changed. And the larger models like the pickup trucks and large cars are more likely to be phased out with the new regulations. This will also bring a `new sanity to oil prices, as the reduced consumption in the US will accomodate the increased consumption in India from the small cars like the Tata Nano which look set to sell in the millions, and still keep oil affordable for tight budgets worldwide. In this sense it is a victory for global good sense. For President Obama this is a personal quest, as he co-sponsored 2 bills in 2006, during this second year in the US Senate, one to raise fuel economy standards, and the other to encourage the use of alternative fuels....

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Car size shrinks as the Focus, Spark, Aveo, Cruze small cars attract attention at the 2010 International Auto Show in Detroit. The big change is that these small cars are following the European small car in being refined and sophisticated, with a lot of features. This isn't the Chevette that Americans knew in the sixties and seventies, and the perception of what is the right size and comfort is changing completely as a new generation of buyers brought up in a world of pc's, i-phones, and globalized cultures is in the driver seat.

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Karen Eliott House on a Saudi monarchy out of touch with ordinary Saudis in a way that the Brezhnev government was losing relevance in the waning days of the Soviet Union.