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On November 17, 2008, as the Bush administration and Secretary Palson ponder their options including merging the 2 companies GM and Chrysler, firing old management and putting in new management, and someone to oversee the process of bankruptcy Chapter 11 with guaranatees such as debtor in possession financing and warranty guarantees by the government, and protections for the supplier base, so that an orderly bankruptcy takes place with clear goals of renegotiating terms with the unions, dealerships and debt holders. Under this process Chapter 7 liquidation would be clearly avoided and the process of recovery set in motion. Its interesting to note that Sorkin has outlined just how something like such Chapter 11 would work with all of the above steps taken. As the issue finally reaches closure with Secretary Paulson's decision expected at any time now its interesting to note Sorkin's comments about Wagoner's leadership saying that it was under Wagoner that the neglect of the things GM should have done ocurred and to think that he should be there running the company in this situation is laughable, yeas laughable. Something that echoes the public sentiment and expert opinion on this issue around the country....

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As the Bush administration and Secretary Paulson look at Chapter 11 though acarefully arranged and orchestrated process with government support oversight and backing, Sorkin of NYT outlines how this would happen. It would clearly avoid Chapter 7 and be an orderly and organized process with warranty backing and debtor in possession financing. And echoing a lot of public sentiment on this issue Sorkin calls Wagoner's effort to say with a straight face that he still should run the company is laughable. It was his neglect of some of the important decisions that needed to be made that have created this situation and no serious changes can be made with current management and board.

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GE is selling three of its healthcare units in India to its venture with Wipro, third largest Indian software and IT company. The idea is to develop products faster. The units are Medical Systems India, Life Sciences and Medical Diagnostics.

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The Eli Lilly settlement for drug Zyprexa for $1.2 billion to Zyprexa patients.

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The British pound fell 5% against the yen and to a 7 year low against the dollar, and the Lloyds Banking Group led stocks down with a drop of 31%. There is doubt that the government moves this week will work as the huge losses at RBS led to larger support from the government. On Tuesday JP Morgan and other bank stocks fell more than 20% in the US.

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What Peter Bernstein, 90, remembers about the Great Depression. He says one was conscious of it evertime you walked outside on the stree, and people looked so threadbare. A mass of policy errors made the situation worse. And life was different then, more like a developing country as the USA went through the throes of urbanization and industrialization. Food took up about a quarter of disposable income compared to one tenth today. About 20% of the jobs were in agriculture in 1930, compared to 2% today. Less than half of the jobs were in service industries in 1930 compared to 75% today. And there were no food stamps, no unemployment insurance, no social security, no medicaid and medicare, none of the automatic income things that maintain income in the USA today for people out of work. Economist Robert Solow, 90, remembers growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and how his parents constantly worried about the next month's money. Paul Samuelson, another economist, 93, remembers attending classes at the University of Chicago during the depression years. And he says the economics lecures were on laissez-faire principles, which stopped making sense when he looked out the windows and from what he saw and heard on the street. Showing how out of touch policies were in the early years when the depression's worst chartacteristics took shape. However we are in the early stages of this, and it can still be very painful as people make it through the storms ahead. What will things look like as the nations unemployment rate hits 10% by 2010,? Which means things are much much worse in parts of the country like the midwest, where industries like the automobile industry depend on sales of vehicles which have seen sales go down from 15 million vehicles down to 9 million annualized in 2009, and may see further declines in 2010....

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How the new intelligence assessment was arrived at and the errors avoided this time from what happened with the 2005 intelligence estimate that concluded Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

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The GM management does not get it , the GM spokesman does not get it, the workers don't get it, says Andrew Sorkin from what he hears them say. GM faces many problems, too many dealerships, too many models and brands, and union benefits and retiree benefits from another world of post 50's economic expansion, that can only be solved by a government sponsored bankruptcy or GSB. GSB is a necessary part of the solution as chapter 11 makes solutions possible without dealerships suing as state laws protect dealerships, unions striking and management insisting on the status quo. In all he sees the 35 plants of GM and Chrysler cut in half, only the Chevrolet , Cadillac and Buick and Jeep brands retained and Dodge Ram pickups merged with Chevrolet, in a GM-Chrysler merger. He cites Deutsche Bank's estimates that reducing the brands to the 3 mentioned for GM would reduce costs by $5 billion annually and reducing the dealerships by another $4 billion. Buick would be retained because its a huge seller in China. The government would setup a warranty insurance fund to insure the warranties of all GM and Chrysler vehicles bought while they are in Chapter 11. And some of the rescue money would go into retraining and helping promote new industry....

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Xi Jinping, president of China says at the Davos Forum that world leaders should "join hands and rise to the challenge" from protectionism coming from the new U.S. administration. He called on world leaders to support the Paris climate accords- "to stick to it instead of walking away from it."

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Krugman says there is cause for concern from May's U.S. jobs report of only 38,000 jobs added- low even with Verizon strike jobs added back in- compared to the 200,000 a month average since Jan 2013. One cannot read too much into one months report, yet the political uncertainty in a election year adds to the problem. The low interest rates near zero offering little possibility for rate cuts, make it difficult to come up with a policy response. Under a Clinton administration the infrastructure spending option would face Republican resistance.  It is not clear how a Trump administration would respond. Krugman says the jobs figure reflects a stronger dollar- a result partly of the Fed's plan to raise rates- that is hurting U.S. exports.

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The Nikkei jumped 5% on March 13, on comments that the Japanese prime minister supported calls by the U.S. government for increased stimulus spending by G20 countries. Taro Aso, the Japanese prime minister said he would announce an addditonal stimulus soon.

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This WSJ article provides a detailed account of the positions of Clinton and Trump on Wall Street, the financial industry, banks, Dodd-Frank, regulatory reform, 6 weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

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U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson calls Russia "incompetent" for letting Syria hold onto chemical weapons even after a deal to remove the weapons was made and implemented. Tillerson was also critical of Russian attempts to influence elections in France and Germany.

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Farmers near Jodhpur, Rajasthan and the farming of Guar beans which are used for hydraulic fracturing to produce natural gas.