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Freedman reviews Ben Horowitz's book about the struggle entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs go through when their company has its back to the wall. At such times the entrepreneur has to come up with the tough decisions that lead the way out. Jobs came through this when Apple faced bankruptcy. It is the ability to come up with the right move at such times that helps to build the company's future.

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Pultizer prize winning journalist for reporting on the Middle East, Karen Elliott House, reports on Saudi Arabia and Middle East following the Arab Spring and the changes in the Middle East. A vast demographic of young people is stuck in the region facing an impasse of poor leaders, internal divisions, and lack of jobs or economic opportunity, following a failed Arab Spring. Their aspirations for a better life on hold.

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During the Ozzie and Harriet era of the 1950's Americans saved 8% of their disposable income. Now thrift is becoming popular again. And one estimate is that as Americans go back to saving like this again about 10% of disposable income may be saved. This is also because of the need to pay down debt. And this means consumption will be much lower and businesses slow to add jobs.

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To get some idea of how tight credit conditions are, debtor in possession and exit financing is hard to get because GE one of the world's largest lenderslast year doing $1.75 billion of restructuring loans made a recent undisclosed decision to largely halt lending to companies in bankruptcy protection or near it. DIP financing is highly profitable for GE because its first to get paid back at high interest rates.

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Details of the the way Sheila Bair tackled the Wachovia merger with first Wells Fargo and then Citigroup and then finally back with Wells Fargo. Throughout the negotiations FDIC say was firm and offered Wachovia few options either merge or go into receivership and be seized by the federal government and FDIC. She was also the one who worked with Well and Wachovia to complete the final deal.

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Estimates of the contraction of the Iranian economy in 2012-2013 show GDP declines for 2012 and 2013. The IMF estimate of the economic contraction for fiscal year ending March 2013 was 6%. Former president Ahmadinejad's policies led to hyper inflation, a sharp depreciation of the currency rial, similiar to the situation in Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro. To get a sense of the the scale of the damage to the Iranian economy- a decline of 39% in vehicle production in 2012 with the lack of essental parts and decline in demand, oil production declining to about 700,000 barrels at one point in 2013 from over 2 million barrels in the period before 2012. This was a result of lack of access to needed technology and parts as sanctions began to take a toll, and because of the decline in exports from the enforcing of sanctions by 2013. By June 2014 the newly elected leader Rouhani had made economic recovery the to priority- inflation had been cut in half and the rial currency had recovered from the lows in 2012-2013, and oil production increased to 1.2 million barrels. The IMF forecast is for GDP growth of 2.35% for 2015. The auto maker Khodro Industrial Group is keen on increasing production and partnering again with Renault, which left the country with the sanctions. Iran's oil producing company estimate is that about 700,000 increase in production could be achieved quickly with the lifting of sanctions for oil technology and parts. Rouhani has put together a large group of business leaders inside Iran and overseas to improve Iran's image with investors and attract foreign investment....

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Arango takes a look back at the history of Iraq- the 400 years of Ottoman rule and the role of Gertrude Bell in defining Iraq's current borders under British rule. Saddam Hussein, Maliki and Islamic State pitted Sunnis against Shiites and Sunnis against Kurds for the last 40 years, leavig a divided country. The current effort to put Iraq together as a country with different faiths and communities under prime minister Abadi will take many years after so much bloodshed. Northern Ireland shows that it can be done after much pain and loss, when all realize putting the past behind is the only way forward.

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The Cajas, local savings banks, are a symbol of the excesses and lack of financial controls of the bubble years in Spain. The local savings banks were run by authoritarian leaders who remained in office for many years, and were influential in the political system. The Cajas expanded into real estate during the real estate bubble, and many of the cajas had to be merged by the federal government under new management after the bursting of the bubble. Minder describes the culture at Cajas banks in Galicia, the region in the northwest of Spain that is the home region of prime minister Mariano Rajoy. Julio Fernandez Gayoso, or known as Don Julio in the old baronial manner, was one such bank executive who ran the the larges cajas bank in Galicia as his own fiefdom till he was 80, and only quit when forced to resign in an investigation.

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The top 1% of Americans owns more wealth than the 90% at the bottom, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The Economic Mobility Project points out that the U.S. provides less intergenerational mobility than most other industrialized countries. A key factor is less educational investments to give better educational opportunities to the less advantaged. Michael Spence, a nobel prize winning economist, says we have in America gone from one propertied man, one vote; to providing voting rights to all regardless of color or gender or property, and back to where it is now one vote for so many dollars. The financing of political campaigns has made good policy decisions for the financial sector based on merits and wise judgement impossible, as Congress and the White House are beholden to interests that finance political campaigns, says a former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

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Turkey's lira depreciates by 21% in 2013 and an additional 7% by January 24, 2014. The central bank uses up a third of its foreign exchange reserves or $19 billion in intervention to support the lira since June 2013. The intervention on June 24, 2014, did not work and the lira continued its downward slide to 2.30 to the lira. The political protests in Turkey and divisions within factions in the government about corruption probes has led to a political crisis and investors pulling back from Turkey. The central bank failed to increase interest rates as expected by investors and suggested by the IMF. Inflation is running at 7.4% for 2013. In August 2001 a currency crisis caused the banking system to collapse. The financial position is stronger than in that crisis, yet the recent political crisis and the large current account deficit has badly dented investor sentiment.

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Germany and the European Union are improving their defenses as the conflict drags on. The US position DJT has articulated is to bring an end to the war to end the daily loss of lives on both sides. Looking back was it worth loss of hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides and the damage to the economy, to housing from bombing, and the millions of refugees many older people, just for the Association Agreement with the European Union in 2013-2014. This has been completely mismanaged by all sides, the EU officials responsible, the governments in Europe including Russia and Germany, and Ukraine's political parties and their appeal to the people, and by the administration of Obama in the US. DJT and administration officials have long made it clear that they don't want this war, the war in Ukraine. A conflict that has been going on in some form or other between parts of Ukraine in the west and Russian influenced regions in the east as governments changed before and after protests in Kviv in 2013 over an agreement on association with the European Union long before the current war; some favorable to Putin and some not like the current government. So it is surprising that Medvedev would make remarks about DJT and the US to draw a confrontation between the two powers US and Russia in this way in X, remarks DJT calls "inflammatory."  Especially when the US is trying its best to negotiate and end to the war by pressuring both sides. It's defending of Ukraine only to stop the missile attacks on it's cities to give peaceful resolution a chance, not to aggravate the conflict.   ...

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US to take stakes in American companies to help them achieve goals of Make in America with Intel stake the first action. The $8.9 billion Biden intended for Intel to make chips in the US will be handed over to Intel but for a stake in the company of 10%. For years Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China have subsidized their companies in different and some hidden ways. Many times these companies have sustained losses as they built for the long term in volatile market situations. Nvidia now a trillion dollar company was at one time a company struggling to survive saved only by a Japanese corporate investor as shown in a recent WSJ report. The US has taken no such action losing its dominant position in many advanced industries including chips till the Biden and DJT administrations. Yet the media keeps voicing the old ideas of market capitalism as if there is such a thing when state capitalism operates with market capitalism in the Chinese model, and a form of semi state capitalism operates with market capitalism in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan with hidden subsidies by the state to build dominant positions in certain industrial sectors. Even US companies are willing to take such subsidies as when Elon Musk builds car plants in China with state assistance and support, which never comes up in the media even when the Chinese EV makers are learning from the Americans and Tesla is losing market share in China. Theory is for the textbooks and economists,  in business all forms of capitalism work including a mix of state and market, and America has to invent its way back to lead the way in advanced industries.  ...

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Lucy Powell Central Manchester MP elected Labour's Deputy Leader with 54% of the vote in 17% vote turnout. In a sign of the big changes in UK politics and economy Lucy Powell was fired by PM Starmer as leader in the House of Commons as recently as September 2025. Starmer clearly has not led the Labour Party in Britain in ways that would win the confidence of the people of Britain as demonstrated in a recent Wales by-election with Labour having only 11% of the vote after Reform in a previously safe seat.  Lucy Powell says about the lack of listening within Labour to the grassroots people and organization- “I think we often feel like our members and elected representatives are something we need to stand against or not value. They are our strengths. “They connect us to the national conversation. Instead of just telling people what we want them to do, we need to respect, value and include them more, and recognise that debate is not division or dissent, and recognise you have to take people with you and hear from broader voices, not just a narrower group of voices. “They haven’t felt they have been included and connected as they should in recent months, and that’s what often happens when you go into government. “I’m going to really help to do that, to re-engage with the party, and make them feel part of the conversation again. I’ll do that through working with Keir [Starmer], working with government, working right across the party in the leadership roles that I will have.”     ...

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The response of Ronald Reagan and George Bush in a Republican presidential primary debate to the question: Do you think the children of illegal aliens be allowed should be able to attend Texas public schools free, or do you think that their parents should pay for their education? Bush's response: "I would reluctantly say I think they would get whatever it is that society is giving to their neighbors... If they're living here I don't want to see a whole thing of 6-8- year old kids being made totally uneducated and made to feel they're living outside the law. Lets address ourselves to the fundamentals. These are good people, strong people. Part of my family is Mexican." Ronald Reagan's response was: "Rather than talk about putting a fence, why don't we work out some recognition of our mutual problems with Mexico? Make it possible for them to come here legally and with a work permit- and then while working and earning here, they pay taxes here. And when they want to go back, they can go back. And open the border both ways by understanding their problems."...

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Gerard Lemos writes from London about Chinese society today. He was visiting professor to Chongqing University of Business and Technology from 2006 to 2010. During this period he talked to many ordinary Chinese to find out what was on their minds -concerns that stemmed from China's one child policy, urban migration, health care needs, education and jobs were all uppermost in their minds. Lemos says even with the rapid industrial progress the lives of ordinary citizens are affected by fears and uncertainty about the future. The lack of jobs, lack of good healthcare, children who have migrated, are all part of their daily lives. For older people the one child policy in an aging society means the prospect of being alone in old age and the prospect of inadequate health care. For the young education and job concerns. Lemos points out that it is not about a choice between China's model and a Western model, it is more about a search for the Chinese soul, now that the basic material conditions are in place with the usual gaps and problems. At the same time it is a society prone to political sentiment such as the anti-Japanese protests....

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A report from India's Directorate of Civil Aviation given to the New York Times shows problems at most of India's airline companies. This includes a lack of enough pilots at Air India Express, shortage of engines and a lack of enough pilots at Kingfisher Airlines, two year delay in auditing the international operations of Jet Airways, not enough instructors for the Boeing 737 at SpiceJet, and investigations for Indigo that were never completed. According to the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, the number of people taking flights in India has increased to 150 million in 2011, triple the number in 2004. Analysts and regulators believe that during this surge in demand for air travel the airline companies lacked enough pilots, flight trainers, safety experts, and maintenance engineers. One of the problems facing the industry is the severe price competition leading to losses at most of the airlines. The losses in the Indian airline industry range from $5 to $6 billion in the past 5 years, with expected losses of another $2 billion in 2012, according to Kapil Kaul, South Asia chief of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation....

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Fiat's third auto manufacturing hub in Eastern Europe, after Poland and Turkey, is in Serbia. Fiat is investing 700 million euros together with the Serbian government in the old automobile plant at Zastava. In Tito's Yugoslavia under the socialist system this plant manufactured the Yugo automobile. About 220,000 cars were manufactured here with 16,000 factory workers in the 1980's. The Yugo was based on the Fiat 127 model in 1980, and the relationship with Fiat goes back to 1954. After the war following the breakup of Yugoslavia the plant was partly destroyed and it recently turned out 15,000 Punto hatchbacks a year under Fiat license. Fiat Automobili Srbija, is a new joint venture formed in Dec. 2009, with 67% ownership by Fiat and 33% by the Serbian government. About 1000 employees of the 2600 at the plant were brought back and another 1433 will be hired to start production. Wages in Serbia are about 300 euros a month, and the Serbian government plans to make the country a manufacturing hub with special incentives. Plans are for 200,000 cars in 2 models to be made at the Zastava plant in 2011-2012, with 100,000 more planned in subsequent years....

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Ford's efforts in the Asian markets, boosting capacity by 50% in China and 100% in India since 2007. Capacity is 450,000 cars in China in 2010 and 200,000 cars in India. In China Ford is tied for No 11 with Geely and FAW, 2 local companies, VW, GM, Suzuki and others are way ahead of Ford. Suzuki dominates the Indian market with 53% share. To keep up with demand Ford is sourcing heavily locally with 85% of Figo components sourced locally in india and 90% of parts purchased locally in China. The lack of early focussed effort in China is evident from the lack of choices- only Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo and S Max Minivan are available as choices. And one new model choice is to be added each year from now till 2013. Ford is betting heavily on the $7600 Figo for motorbike users who shift to autos, but GM has the Chevy Beat and VW has the Polo in this small car segment. And VW plans to launch seven locally produced models in 2010 and GM plans 10 new models this year. In fact GM now sells more cars in China than in the USA....

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Aaron Back says this time China is likely to feel the effects of the volatility in the stock markets. The surge in the stock markets added about half a percentage point to GDP growth in the 1st quarter of 2015, according to Capital Economics. GDP growth in the 1st quarter 2015 was 7%. Capital Economics says removing the boost from the stock market to a sluggish economy would mean a loss of 1 percentage point in GDP growth. Equity issuance was one way China hoped to reduce high debt levels at companies, and that avenue would the be that much harder to access to reduce debt levels. Margin financing is about $354 billion, or 3.5% of GDP according to Goldman Sachs, posing another source of problems and potentially affecting growth if stock losses lead to defaults. Declining investor sentiment and confidence in management of the economy would be another casualty in this situation. Only 10% of Chinese households own stocks compared to 50% in the U.S., yet Aaron Back says the effects of this are likely to be felt in lower economic growth and shaken confidence in the economy....

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Medvedev who won 71% of the vote in the March 2008 election for President answers questions from journalists and the public in the course of the election campaign. It reveals his own thinking about Rusia, its past, present and hopes and plans for the future. These are useful answers to get insights into his thinking. He sees the 8 years of the Putin Presidency as only a small beginning. Russia he says needs decades of stable development. He seems to say the goals of stable development after all the upheavals of the 20th century are so pressing that he and Putin are committed to simply continuing the policies of promoting economic development that gives dignity and respect to the people of Russia. He shows a deep dissatisfactionwith the corruption and the lack of respect for the law that is so prevalent in Russia and sees this as part of the overall goal to create a civilized state. And he harbors no illusions about the weaknesses prevalent in Russia from is beginnings centuries ago, a sense of legal nihilism and lack of respect for the law as he calls it....

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The authors, Becker, Davis and Murphy, are from the University of Chicago. They point out that the uncertainty created by the Obama administration's programs including healthcare and social investments in education, energy conservation, and the desire to reduce carbon emissions, all tend to slow business expansion and investments to create jobs by putting additional costs on business. The expanding federal deficit and national debt also create additional uncertainty. Their point is that it was a mistake to start making major changes to transform the U.S. economy at this time, and that it would have been wiser to do these changes after the economy had recovered completely from the crisis. All efforts they say should have been concentrated on establishing conditions for a strong recovery. When combined with the lack of regulatory reforms to fix problems left behind from the crisis, and other failures, serious questions arise about how things will turn out in coming years. See Krugman- The Feeling of 1937, where Krugman takes this up from another angle, again with concerns about the future....

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The Trump administration suspended all flights from Europe on March 13, about one month after suspending all flights from China. This report in the NYT says there were about 10,000 estimated undetected infections in New York on March 1 when only 1 case of coronavirus was confirmed. It also says that researchers have tracked the mutations of the virus in all American states and found that most of it came from New York. Could the Trump administration have acted earlier than March 13 to stop flights from Europe? The state and city authorites in New York did not take the threat seriously by March 13, making it not clear that they would have acted earlier.   In places like Michigan which has Italian Fiat owned Chrysler operations, and automotive connections with Munich, Germany, reports show the virus coming from Europe. Munich based auto companies have extensive operations in China. In Louisiana the Mardi Gras celebrations around Feb. 25, received large numbers of visitors from New York, with research showing the virus mutations in Louisiana originated in New York. There was little awareness of the seriousness of the virus because of lack of past experience as happened in Asian countries. So that these kinds of public events bringing huge numbers of people in close contact were allowed to happen, and people who were cautious were likely to be ridiculed or shoved aside. New York continued to hold public gatherings at Madison Square Gardens and sports stadiums well into March, with complete disregard of the dangers, a decision made by local authorites.   ...

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There is cramped space for renters and limited supply of housing space per capita in Shanghai, China. After a decade of hyper building China still lacks affordable housing space. The residential space per capita in Shanghai is only 183 square feet or 17 square metres per person- about the size of a small room. And estimates by GK Dragonomics Research show one third of China's 225 million households lack kitchens and plumbing. At the same time housing is increasingly unaffordable for the middle class. Government restrictions on price increases reflect growing concern with the fact that the average Shanghai residential home sold for about $276,000 in 2011, even though annual per capita income in Shanghai is about $13,000. Prices for homes in Shanghai increased 2.6 times in 5 years, according to the Shanghai Urban Real Estate Surveyors Company. With the slowdown in construction developers are working through inventories, and more homes were sold than built in 2012, compared to about 1.5 units built for every unit sold in 2011. ...

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Much of the US jobs market is stalled with a "noticeable deterioration" by June says the Fed. Companies are not laying off people, yet they are also not hiring. The class of 2025 faces a job market with a real slowdown. Hiring has dropped 44% compared to June 2022 says one payrolls company Gusto looking at data from 400,000 businesses. The economy has 4% unemployment, yet for new college graduates it is 6.6% for 12 months ending May 2025. Some companies are pushing back dates of hire into 2026. 

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Mexico's president Enrique Pena Nieto describes his plans for increasing economic growth in an interview with Lally Weymouth. He looks back at the changes made through the Pacto de Mexico in energy, education and telecommunications, and in other areas. Changes made will allow political parties to form coalitions after 2018 following a presidential election, to form a majority in the legislature so that new legislation can be passed. A new criminal code for the entire country will override a patchwork of laws in different states. Economic growth is a high priority after disappointing 2.6% growth in the last 3 years, with infrastructure projects planned- new airport for Mexico City, doubling port capacity, new rail lines and high speed rail line Mexico City to Queretaro.