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German management consultancy Roland Berger says in astudy that the cash for clunkers plan in Germany is likely to backfire by pulling in sales from 2010. It says car sales in Germany may fall by 20% in 2010, about 90,0000 jobs may be lost, and one in 2 car dealerships could be threatened with failure. GDP in Germany it says could take ahit. Roland Berger's partner Ralf Landmann says the German car market is good for 3.0 to 3.3 ,million cars per year. With sales in 2009 expected to be at 3.7 million, the forecast for 2010 are at 2.7 million to 2.8 million. Economist Carsten Dreger of DIW research institute in Berlin goes further. He says the cash for clunkers program was cannibalizing sales of other consumer products, in addition to taking sales from 2010.

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BMW's CEO Reithofer says in a conference call that the company will redirect cars from the USA to China and Russia and other countries because of the currency exchange rates and unfavorable market conditions in the US. These market conditions caused a236 million euros charge to compensate for the falling value of second hand vehicles and potential payment defaults on loans for leased vehicles in the USA. At Daimler you see a 491 million euro fall in the value of Daimler's remaining 19.9% stake in Chrysler LLC showing up in 1st quarter results but also similiar to BMW one sees a 151 million euro writedown to cover the falling value of cars that were leased to customers. This is from earnings announcements by Daimler and BMW.

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The Kishida government's support for chip makers is seen in the state backed Japan Investment Corp.'s $6.3 billion offer for chip maker JSR so that it can build more plants. This will accomplish what the US is doing bringing the chip making industry back to the US, by bringing back chip making production to Japan on scale as it competes with Taiwan and South Korea, China. Like the US, Japan had leadership in this field 25 years ago.

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Sales of automobiles are shifting from trucks and SUV's to cars in the USA and overall sales are seeing large declines. How is Europe faring in this regard? Spain's car manufacturer's association Anfac said car registrations in June 2008 dropped by 31% from June 2007. Spain' GDP showed a decline to 2.7% in 1st quarter 2008 compared to 3.5% in 4th quarter 2007. In Italy car registrations dropped 19.5% in June from a year earlier. In France car registrations went up by 2.1% in June from provisional figures. Auto sales in Japan dropped 3.6% in June according to the Japan Automobile dealer's Association.

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Betsy McKay reporting from Harper, Liberia, gives this exceptional report on the shattered health system of Liberia and how the country is coping following the Ebola Virus epidemic. The dilapidated poor state of health facilities in Liberia, and in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, have made these areas especially vulnerable to the spread of Ebola Virus. With pictures and details about the lives of ordinary people McKay brings to life one of the poorest regions in the world, racked by years of war and neglect, showing people struggling to find their way with minimal health care. Tabeh Freeman, a professor of public health at William S. Tubman University in Harper, Liberia, says Liberia cannot cope if another epidemic takes place, with such a poorly equiped and broken health system. Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone estimate the need is for about $1.47 billion in the next 30 months to build and equip a new health system. The World Bank and other donors have come up with $1 billion for Ebola recovery. A particularly urgent problem is to see that adequate funding goes to build the infrastructure for the health system and to train people to provide health services....

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To increase the appeal of the Conservative party and help it stage a comeback, party leader and now prime minister Cameron, made a pledge not to reduce the budgets for health care and the National Health Service. By sticking to keeping this pledge Cameron is committing to much deeper cuts in government agencies, public sector jobs, and other areas. Carl Emmerson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says that because of this the cuts elsewhere will rise to a much deeper 25%. Phillip Cowley, a political scientist, says that the NHS is a totemic issue with the British people, and helped Cameron get the top job, as the Labor party could not hit the Conservatives on the issue of the National Health Service.

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Automakers taking a charge for bets on EV's encouraged by Biden- Stellantis $26 billion follows Ford $19.5 billion, GM $6 billion.  Stellantis Chief Executive Antonio Filosa says about the write-downs- It “largely reflects the cost of overestimating the pace of the energy transition that distanced us from many car buyers’ real-world needs, means and desires.” The Biden administration took climate change seriously but failed to get Congressional support for the EV charging stations needed and infrastructure needed across the US to keep pace with automakers shift to EV's. Stellantis took the change as an opportunity to develop many new EV models under CEO Carlos Tavares. Also overlooked by the Biden administration is the cost of cars which increased by about 20-30% during the 2022-2024 period. The lack of charging infrastructure, lack of battery technology advances for powerful batteries, and the costs involved pushing up prices of all automobiles, acted as severe bottlenecks when the Republicans fought the election on cost of living action. Biden era incentives were removed and gas prices were brought down by DJT extending the life of gas powered vehicles and making them the average man's choice. Of the $26 billion 65% is for canceled vehicle platforms for EV's for Dodge Ram and Jeep Wrangler. Another $8 billion is for cash payments to suppliers for canceled orders.   ...

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Ford's new 2013 Fusion model was radically redesigned to compete with the redesigned midsize Camry, and expected redesigns of the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, the VW Passat and the Chevy Malibu. Ford hopes to gain market share with the Fusion after making only a small gain in market share of one tenth of a point in 2011, compared to half a percentage point for GM and 1.3 percentage points for Chrysler. VW Passat sales doubled in the last quarter of 2011 compared to all of 2010, showing increased competition in this segment. The new Fusion was designed at Ford's design center in Cologne, Germany, where the Focus was designed. Ford is shifting responsibility for car design to Europe and keeping pickup truck and SUV design in the U.S.

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The automobile market in the U.S. showed strong sales for Chrysler, Ford and GM in November 2011. As a result automakers expect to sell 12.7 million vehicles in 2011, 10% higher than 2010. The average age of vehicles in the U.S. is 11 years, and this is leading to more buyers coming into showrooms. Some of this demand was for prickup trucks and SUV's. Ford Explorer sales tripled from the prior year. Ford sold 26% more trucks and 9% less cars compared to the prior year November sales. Sales of Jeeps went up 50%. GM sold 31% more pickup trucks. In the past sales of trucks and SUV's slumped with rising fuel prices and a slower economy.

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Year over year rise in prices in January 2022 that contributed significantly to inflation of 7.5% in the US are-

For power up by over 10%, gas prices up over 20%

For groceries bakery, cereals etc up by 1.4%

For housing prices up by over 4%.

For used cars over 40%, new cars over 12%.

Health care services costly in the US far above the other OECD countries not down significantly continuing to burden American households.

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The government sets a goal of reducing the number of automakers in China from 70 currently to a much smaller number by 2015. With slower growth in the Chinese market, 55 of these companies sell only 11% of the total cars sold, and no sales for 10 manufacturers. Foreign car companies are investing heavily and control 58% of the 18 million cars sold in China. Domestic car companies are faring poorly. Cherry sales dropped by 30% in November 2011 acccording to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Changan, Guangzhou Automobile Group and BYD have seen sales declines of 10% in 2011 for domestic sales.

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A series of actions by Ford to cut prices, Toyota to have no price increases, and Hyundai to invest $21 billion to Make in USA and similar actions by GM, mean that except for about 300,000 imported German VW cars the car market in the US will have no price increases for average Americans. Foreign media and media in the US that is misleading say there will be price increases in the US for cars after US tariffs on imports from Japan of 24% and on EU of 20%, South Korea 25%.  NHK Japan reports that Toyota will not increase prices in the US despite DJT Liberation Day announcement of 24% tariff on Japanese imports including auto imports. Toyota will continue to make the 3.12 million cars it makes in Japan as well as the employment, of which 586,000 are exported. Toyota says it needs to cross the threshold of 3 million domestic car production to keep its technological capabilities.  Toyota will also look at ways to increase US production.  Hyundai is planning investments of $21 billion in the US from 2025 to 2028. Hyundai is likely to follow Toyota and make no price increases till it ramps up American production to Make in the USA. Ford is cutting prices of cars under its From America For America sales program. Ford has 568,000 cars in inventory. It has 60% capacity and can ramp up to make up for VW cars that are priced higher to give American buyers of German cars a cost effective option.  ...

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In the year ending March 31 Indians had $14 billion on their cards, 4 times the amount of 2004. According to ratings agency Crisil the amount of unsecured loans and credit card receivables more than 3 months overdue is aabout 7% to 9% of total loans outstanding this year and could go as high as 15%. One of the leading banks ICICI has lifted its provisions for bad loans by more than 43% to 9.24 billion rupees ($185 million). The number of credit cards in India has tripled to 30 million in the past 5 years. Regulations on lending were relaxed leading to car loans and cards being issued to people in rural areas and lower income groups without regular salaries.

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Honda will invest $750 million in the GM Cruise LLC, followed by $2 billion invested in development of self-driving autonomous cars over 12 years. Honda takes a 5.7% stake in GM Cruise, with Softbank having a 19.6% stake after investment of $2.2 billion in June 2018. Honda's investment with GM Cruise LLC which is a separate entity created by GM to develop autonomous self-driving cars, is a culture change for Honda. In the past Honda prided itself on its tech prowess, now this is changing. Automakers are likely to team up as they face competition from Waymo, a unit of Google's Alphabet, setup in 2016.

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The Trump administration is looking at ways to protect U.S. automobile manufacturing by enforcing stricter environmental rules for automobile imports. The EPA is looking at whether VW which has 3.5% of the American market can be asked to meet stricter standards because the diesel emissions scandal gives the U.S. legal justification to set stricter emissions rules. VW has accepted that it used illegal software to evade government emissions tests. Such non tariff barriers are faced by the U.S. companies in Japanese, South Korean, Chinese markets. It is not clear how this would affect the 17.1 million cars made in NAFTA factories with parts made in one country and shipped for assembly in another country, between Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

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The weak dollar and lower unionized labor costs may make exports an attractive goal for US carmakers as the US market is shrinking. After years of shunning export markets US carmakers may finally be waking up to the potential in places like Brazil, China and India. GM is considering export of the Malibu to Brazil, and expects to send 25,000 Buick Enclaves to China because the Buick brand sells very well there. With the new UAW agreemets and lower unionized costs, the US carmakers backs to the wall and open to trying new things and not so America centric, and a cheaper dollar, exports may be one more way in which US carmakers can revive the automobile business in a declinig uS market. It is possible that after this recession the US market may have matured to the point where US sales levels may have peaked like that in Japan and Germany and exports and international markets are the only ways to growth. In this sense the transformation to making the so called Big 3 into global companies has begun in earnest in a true sense, and their company structures and the kind of people who work there will in future reflect this global nature of their business. The UAW is on board in this effort, new wages are at $14 per hour for new hires, and the UAW understands that exports mean additional jobs. In fact the Lordstown, Ohio plant is one location for another GM small car in the future which would be exported, this 42 year old plant once a target for closure could then become an example of renewal in a new kind of business model. Note that the US exported $50.66 billion in vehicles, half of it to Mexico and Canada. It imported $150 billion in vehicles. From now on the shift wold be to export to emerging markets....

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This report looks at the high tech devices that help monitor seniors at elder care facilities and at home in Japan. Japan has a rapidly growing seniors population with three million expected to be over 90 by 2025, and over 65's expected to be one third of the population by then. The government's goal is to keep seniors in their home for as long as possible, and use information technology to support caregivers. Of 92 Japanese startups looking for valuations over $1 billion 25 are focused on health care, with backing not much from VC's (only $32 million in 3rd quarter 2018) but from large companies looking for growth businesses. Patient monitoring devices are getting funding from companies such as Sharp Corp, Canon and others. Devices check details including whether people are at risk of falling out of bed or taking too long to get back from the toilet. Healthcare for elderly in Japan will reach about $300 billion by 2025 and new advances are expected in monitoring seniors- including for such devices as DFree that help patients  know about how to monitor bladders, also used by caregivers to know when to take someone to the bathroom.  ...

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Lobbying by the pharmaceutical and health care industry and U.S. president Obama's promises to the industry as part of his shaping the health care law.