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This NYT story describes the origin of the Panama Papers with an anonymous email sent to Bastian Obermayer of the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung- "Interested in data?" Obermayer, who had done previous investigations into money laundering and tax evasion, replied "Very interested." When the 5 member team of the Suddeutsche Zeitung could not cope with the torrent of data coming in, the International Commission of Investigative Journalism organized an effort that brought in about 400 journalists from 100 news companies in 80 countries to tackle the trove of data. This process went on for one year till the data was released in April 2016. In the first 2 months when Obermayer worked with a colleague, the two exchanged emails in the middle of the night at late hours, saying it was taking all their time.

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This story in the WP on the anonymous source of the Panama Papers and his initial contacts with Bastian Obermayer of the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, complements a story in the NYT about the source.

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Michael Barbaro describes how Romney reflected on his loss for the Republican nomination and worked hard to get things right in 2012. Romney does not see himself in the way voters did in 2008- as uncaring, emotionally detached, and somehow not authentic.

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The electric car industry in China is led by the state run electric companies. China Southern Power Grid is one of the companies leading the pioneering efforts.

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The remarkable recovery in Iceland after devaluation of the currency and a whole range of steps taken by the government to support those affected hardest by the recession. A recovery in exports and letting banks fail- not letting the burden fall on the government and taxpayers as in Ireland- also helped ease the path to recovery. Iceland is making repayments to the IMF ahead of schedule and is able to borrow on international markets.

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District court Judges are the first tier of the three tiered system of judiciary power. A series of US District Judge rulings stop the federal payments system, birthright citizenship, federal employees offered buyout plan, and other executive orders issued by DJT in first 72 hours in office. They were all designed to cut the federal bureuacracy in the US and gut agencies with overspending such as USAID $40 billion when rural America's needs are unmet, and tackle birthright citizenship which allows mothers to fly into the US and depart just to get citizenship for children. The White House plans to appeal these rulings to the next level the appellate courts in the US, all the way to the US Supreme Court. Some of the arguments against USAID $40 billion budget was that it funded bureaucrats pet projects, something that Senators such as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky have fought against for 25 years. Coming after trillions of dollars in spending under the infrastructure Investment Act oversight over such spending is in the American tradition. No less than Harry Truman as Senator from Missouri made his mark by tracking down overspending and waste, during the Second World War. Another problem not discussed enough is that in today's world more can be done with good governance and leadership, avoiding unneeded wars, and investment from India, China, EU and US than can be done with $40 billion spread thinly over the whole world. Sri Lanka is just one example where its undoing is waging ethnic war, corruption, and India is leading its recovery in ways that USAID could never do. ...

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This Canadian opinion in the WSJ by Philip Cross of Statistics Canada, says Canada's opportunity to diversify its exports to places other than the US, especially for auto exports is essentially nil, and for oil exports because of a lack of pipelines will lead to losses of tens of billions of dollars.  He then goes on to say that Canada should wait for American buyers to suffer as car prices increase by $12,000. No such increase is likely. As pointed out by the UAW's Fain Shawn and others capacity utilization at US auto plants is low with only 60 to 65% capacity utlilization. Ford with 60% capacity utilization, has 568,000 cars in inventory 8% higher than 2024, and make 80% of its cars entirely in the US. Ford is actually cutting prices of its cars as of April 2025 under it's "From America For America Program." Ford and GM could replace German and other cars as Americans shift to buying American. Hyundai and Kia are already shifting production to the US. South Korean and Japanese leaders will support the US as it is the right thing to do. This Canadian opinion does not acknowledge that the US is simply creating a level playing field, a point USTR Jamieson and DJT repeatedly make, and the Japanese, South Koreans, and even the Chinese understand. These countries were given the benefit they received for three decades through the absolute generous attitude of the American people.   ...

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Professor Rose Ann Kenny of Trinity College, Dublin, tells us what we can do to age-proof oneself and live a longer healthier life. Positive attitudes to life are important. Yoga, meditation, mindfulness help. Having people around us, volunteering and finding new purpose in life after retirement are a great help. There could be a difference of about 20 years in longevity and more importantly quality of life effects in how we approach aging.

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NYT reporters Confessore, Rosenberg and Hakim show how Michael Flynn after leaving the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 over differences with the Obama administration on unattended warnings about the rise of Islamic State militants, decided to do consulting and use his own connections. This led to the Flynn Intel Group, and the controversial connections with Russia and Turkey under investigation. This article gives a detailed account of the period 2014-2016 and Flynn's business.

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Interview of Mary Barra, new CEO of U.S. auto company GM by editors and reporters of the NYT.

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U.S. president Trump makes a call to Taiwan president Tsai Ing-Wen, which was arranged by former Senator Bob Dole. The call went into details about stability in Asia-Pacific. In Twitter posts Trump was critical of China for currency policies and activity in South China Sea.

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Alan Mulally talks to Charlie Rose about cost competitiveness, negotiations with the UAW, creating jobs, and the repayment of $20 billion of the $23.5 billion borrowed in 2006. Mullaly points out that 70% of R&D is connected with design and manufacturing- all the technology that goes into designing and building and the associated R&D.

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Moore points out that there are twice as many people working for the government in the U.S. (22.5 million) than in manufacturing (11.5 million). In 1960, the situation was quite different, there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million working for the government. More workers in the U.S. work for the government than in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilites put together. Every state in the U.S. has more people working for the government- except for Indiana and Wisconsin- than people in manufacturing industrial goods. And California has 2.4 million government workers, which is twice the number in manufacturing in that state. New York and Florida have a 3:1 ratio, and New Jersey a 2.5:1 ratio of government workers to workers making industrial goods. Part of the reason for this is the huge increase in productivity and the advances in technology that make it possible to have higher production with fewer workers. This kind of productivity is missing in the government sector. And efforts to improve productivity tend to be blocked by the unions who favor the status quo....

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Captures the mood in 2007 end optimistic but do most people have their head in the sand, and not grasped that he problems created in housing and credit won't just go away. See the related end of the year piece in Abreast of the markets, Gaffen WSJ, Dec. 24, 2007.

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A good account of the history and weaknesses of the Amtrak based system of rail service in the USA. Questions abound about the queer situation where you find rail popular in Europe and so not prevalent and scarce in the USA. How efficient is Amtrak's rail service in conserving energy? Amtrak uses electricity made from coal, it uses 17% less fuel than a passenger car and 32% less than a airline airplane according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Is this based on new fuel efficient locomotives? No the locomotives are old and Amtrak equipment is aging, so much more fuel efficiency gains could probably be made with new technology and investment. Rail service is coming out of a 40 year period of neglect, and Amtrak itself was probably created to put in one place and hold together a dwindling service, as the passenger services of freight railroads were consolidated to create Amtrak in 1970 by the federal government after the interstate highway system built during the postwar Eishenhower years led to a boom in car travel and the spread of housing to spread out suburbs. At the time private operation was not a consideration as Amtrak itself was a rescue operation to preserve some semblence of rail service before it died out. Now with fresh incentive to do mass transit the whole question being posed is whether private operators should be brought in and would do a better job than Amtrak. Today Amtrak has in all 632 usable rail cars an astonishingly small number, its Amfleet cars are 30 years old, and the Acela trains are 8 years old. In all it carried 25 million passengers last year and in 2008 probably will get to 27 million. Many of these are on long haul routes and where passengers can get to small towns where there is no plane service. Its labor contracts require it to keep these routes. So its a peculiar Amtrak that exists today as a result of historical events and shift to road travel, and it may not be the best vehicle to move the USA towards greater use of mass transit to conserve energy, as its slow to change and takes years to introduce new technology and is not spread out evenly over short and long haul routes. The customer service suffered all these years with no competiton and competition may be healthy for better technology, better service and service on new routes. The UK rail service from London to different parts of the country has been privatised for instance. Better technology and fast service are essential to attract new customers and this is an area in which Europe has made significant progress. At this point even with federal money Amtrak would take years to get new technology from the current manner of writing specification for bids, picking a vendor and waiting for delivery especially as vendors have dwindled because of the lack of demand in prior years....

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From all accounts the lawyers against Musharraf, the opposing factions of Bhutto and Sharif and the Islamist parties alliance distancing itself from Musharraf's campaign against insurgents in the tribal areas and Waziristan, and the army's failure to do much against the militant islamist in the border areas with Afghnaistan present a picture of Pakistan coming apart. The army as a national institution is losing credibility even as the US needs the Pakistani military to continue the fight in the border areas while it is fighting with other Nato forces in Afghaistan's southern provinces. Actually whole areas in the British assigned areas of southern Afghaistan have been given up to militants or provincial leaders with their own forces. In this situation even as the people seem genuninely keen on a new direction their is no unified leadership or organization to hold it together which commands the confidence of large parts of the country and people. And so the US even under pressure to support democracy would simply put its interests in Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan before the interests of the people of Pakistan in finding some genuine solution to the problems. that would give Pakistan a chance to set a new longterm direction different from its past. ...

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Iran plans an ambitious $50 billion investment program to expand oil and gas output in the next 4 years. About half of that coming from Iran and the rest from outside oil companies. Iran expects to earn $54 billion in oil exports in 2006 vs. $47 billion in 2005. Iranian production represents 5% of global supply, about 4 million barrels a day. Only about 2.5 million of this is available for export. Iran has 2 problems in oil use and production. Gasoline use is growing at about 10% a year. And oil production is declining by about 5-6% a year from existing fields. The investment program over the next 4 years would increase production from new fields by about 1.3 billion barrels, but with existing fields generating less each year this will only generate about 500,000 barrels of additional output beeyond the 4million barrels today. And with domestic use growing rapidly and new refinery capacity being added to meet domestic demand of 500,000 barrels a day even this would leave no more for export than the current level of 2.5 million barrels a day, or probably less with growing gasoline use inside Iran. These are Iranian Oil Minister Vaziri Hamaneh's numbers. What this means is that with economic sanctions the whole global supply picture and the world price of crude oil would be seriously affected by economic sanctions in the next 4 years, as the 2.5 million barrels a day export number would be reduced by the increase in domestic consumption of gasoline by 10% a year, and the decline in existing fields of 5-6% a year. In the short term two year horizon this adds upto loss of some 700,000 barrels a day, about 400,000 from decline in existing oil fields and 300,000 in increased domestic use, which are no longer available for export. Hamaneh pointed to the investment as evidence of Iran's good intentions as a supplier in an interview with te Wall Street Journal. He says Iran sees the importance of preserving its credibility as a reliable supplier. It does not want to cause hardship to consumers around the world. Another reason for the pragmatic position taken by Hamaneh is that Iran depends on oil exports for 40-50% of government revenue....