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BP has committed to cooperate with the government and pay fines to put the problems related to the refinery fire, oil pipeline leaks and the improper energy trading in propane behind it. A firm response to BP's failure from the EPA, CFTC, and the Justice Department.

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Qatar plans to invest $15 billion in coming months in USA financial companies. You could call it recycling of the capital that goes to middle eastern countries to pay for increasingly pricey oil. And with this these countries will have greater stakes in the US economy.

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Finbarr O'Neill, president of J.D. Power and Associates, talks about the prospects of auto companies looking towards 2012. He talks of a 15 million car market in 2012, and says that if car companies plan on a10 million car market and pare their expenses accordingly, profitability should come back. In his view new car launches will be critical to success, and he goes over a number of the things that car companies have to get right consistently.

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Toyota plans to spend $1 billion on a marketing and advertising plan, spending that is 30-40% more than normal, to ramp up production and fill out inventory. It includes money to subsidize lease and loan rates, customer incentives and dealer ads. One aim is to raise the projected resale value of its vehicles used in calculating montly lease payments. Akio Toyoda is also giving more decisionmaking power to local executives for the markets they are more familiar with.

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Intel and the Federal Trade Commission plan to settle an anti-trust case. This will require Intel to change monopolistic practices in the microprocessor market. One of the ways Intel has tried to fend off competitors like AMD is by offering rebates to HP, Dell, and Acer. In a private settlement Intel paid $1.25 billion to AMD in November 2009. It paid a $1.45 billion fine to the EU after a ruling against Intel for such practices.

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This WSJ editorial in September 2014 says Britain plays an important role in the world as a role model democracy. The vote to keep Britain united affirms that there is room for different stories under one nation state. Devolution it says can bring power closer to the local regions, and can be a good thing. The challenge is for the British government to come up with a workable arrangement for devolution of powers. The world needs a united Britain.

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Concern about stimulus spending for infrastructure. Are the best projects being funded? Are some projects that are shovel ready but not the ones we should be doing first going to get done before other essential projects. The lack of acoherent plan for rebuilding the nation's crumbling infrastrure of roads, bridges and highways. Martin Feldstein says that this recession will last longer than others, so the stimulus spending even if slow will show its impact in 2010 and 2011.

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Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has modeled his positions on that of the Trump image. He is the Republican candidate for Governor of North Carolina and Republican Senator Tillis of North Carolina sees him as taking extreme positions that are counterproductive. Josh Stein the Attorney General is the Democrat opposing him. North Carolina had a popular two term Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and this state is closely watched. Cooper concentrated on roads, bridges, infrastructure, public services. Other governors in Michigan and Kentucky have the same focus. Culture wars are a wasteful and unnecessary distraction from the real work in rebuilding manufacturing, and rebuilding infrastructure facing America that are in the Biden plan.

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T-Mobile will use the $2.4 billion to pay down debt and improve network service.

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Central Huijin, part of China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, bought shares of China's four major banks in October 2011 to prevent steep price declines. China's bank stocks have lost about a third of their value in 2011. The four major banks- China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China- control two-thirds of the banking industry in China. In China's interlocking system of relationships between the state, the banks and the state controlled industrial companies, Central Huijin owns 35.4% of Industrial and Commercial Bank, 67.6% of Bank of China, and similiar stakes in the other 2 banks. It was created in 2003 to bail out China's banks after bad loan losses, and was transferred to China Investment Corporation in 2007. As part of the 2007 move bonds were issued by CIC to compensate the central bank. This means the banks pay dividends to CIC so that it can make payments on the bonds. Today the 4 major banks pay half of their earnings in dividends to CIC. CIC chief Lou Jiwei, says Central Huijin needs 300 million renminbi a day, or $47 million to pay interest on the bonds to the central bank. The 4 major banks are also under pressure from China's regulators to increase their capital reserves, because of large bad loans to local governments after the global financial crisis of 2008....

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Key members of Congress like Barney Frank, Treasury Secretary Paulson and key officials at the Fed had discussions over the weekend in advance of a critical auction of debt by Freddie that could affect confidence in the company and unsettle financial markets. As part of the confidence building process Treasury announced that it plans to seek approval from Congress for a temporary increase in a longstanding Treasury line of credit for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Treasury also said that it would seek temporary authority to buy equity in either company to ensure that both companies have sufficient capital. The plan also has a provision giving the Fed a "consultative role" in the process of setting capital requirement for the two companies and other "prudential standards". Meantime the Fed's Board of Governors met Sunday in Washington and voted to grant the New York Fed authority to lend to Fannie and Freddie. This effectively gives the two companies access to the Fed's discount window if there were to be a short term funding crisis at the two companies. In this process Treasury's plan is to expand the Fed's authority and supervisory role in the financial markets to prevent any future financial crisis in which the Fed would have to intervene. ...

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Infrastructure development in Indonesia neglected by previous administrations gets a boost under President Jokowi. Since 2014 Jokowi has taken advantage of a fall in oil prices to cap the fuel subsidy given by the government.  This has allowed more money to go into infrastructure projects. In 2014 $15 billion was allocated to infrastructure, increasing by 2017 to $30 billion.  Jokowi has plans for 222 national strategic projects , including roads, railways, bridges, power stations. Of this 127 are under construction, 20 completed. Under president Suharto from 1968 to 1998 for 3 decades infrastructure was neglected. One example is the situation in Jakarta where only 4% of the residents are connected to the sewer system. Most of the investment is being made (80%) by the government. Much remains to be done in this densely populated country with many islands and poor roads. A China supported plan to connect Jakarta with Bandung by high speed rail remains held up for 2 years with difficulties in moving people in Java's densely populated areas. ...

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Shiller says the underlying problems in the economy such as the sociological factors that led to overoptimism about real estate prices and the dot com stocks play out over many years. They are lost in the headlines about the Fed or some short term developments that get cited along with the bad economic news about unemployment. Yet these underlying factors such as the bubble phenomena in housing are what makes these problems so intractable. The bubble in home prices caused a 131 percent rise in home prices in the period 1997-2005, 85% in inflation adjusted terms, according to the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. The long term expectations of price increases well into the indefinite future lag the price decreases as the bubble bursts, even as the expectations decrease. For 2012 the Case-Shiller survey shows expectations are for a 1% increase in prices. With the increase in the personal savings rate from about 1% in 2005 to about 5% today, Shiller says consumer spending will not support a strong recovery....

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The process leading to the credit rating downgrade for the U.S., including S&P's $2 trillion error in estimating the total U.S. deficit in the next ten years, is causing both Republicans and Democrats to agree on the need for greater public scrutiny of the agencies. Congressmen from both parties in Congress now agree that ratings firms need to play a smaller role in the financial system than they have in the past. It now appears certain that there is no chance that Congress will allow a change in the Dodd-Frank legislation provision that requires regulators to take out references to ratings from their rules. Banking trade groups had been pushing for a change in the provision. Karen Petrou of advisory firm Federal Financial Analytics says this event will also make U.S. regulators look for ways in which changes can be made to international financial agreements that require credit ratings. This includes the capital and liquidity requirements laid out by the Basel Committee. The credit ratings firms say they support efforts to decrease reliance on their ratings in the rules....

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Walter Isaacson's "The Innovators," covers the beginnings of the silicon chip with William Shockley in the fifties and the first transistor. Pat Haggerty at Texas Instruments has the marketing ability to get people interested in transistors for radios, just as Steve Jobs did for iPods, iPads and iPhones, products they did not know they wanted until they tried them. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, Gates of Microsoft, Jobs at Apple, Brin and Page at Google, and the internet developent, is covered as more recent material. No one person does it as each is standing on the shoulders of people before them. Social media does not get much attention. The messy work of venture capital and the errors and missteps of Apple and Microsoft are given less attention in Isaacson's exuberance and enthusiasm for the inventors. Patents play a part as the inventor Atanasoff did little to patent his creation of the first computer in the 1940's ,and instead was forgotten, as John Mauchly who based his invention on some of the same ideas took his place....

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In over a decade after Mandela the A.N.C. under Jacob Zuma sees its vote drop from 62.5% to below 50%. The opposition Democratic Alliance wins 27% of the vote and the A.N.C. loses in the important cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth. South Africa's urbanization is proceeding rapidly with the country 65% urban today. In this situation the country is seeing a political situation of racially diverse cities voting against the A.N.C. under Zuma's administration, which is seen as corrupt and mismanaging the economy. Zuma is seeing his support now left mostly in the rural areas. He is also losing the support of women. Mmsi Maimane is a young black lay preacher, who leads the Democratic Alliance, a party with its origins in liberal politics during the Apartheid era, with participaton of whites, coloreds, Asians and blacks in urban areas.

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Automakers will have to ensure that 40 to 45% of a car's content is made by workers in the U.S. earning at least $16 per hour. If this is not met automakers pay a 2.5% tariff for cars brought in from Mexico. Mexico makes 2.3 million cars and Canada 1.8 million. Automakers invested tens of billions of dollars in Mexico turning it into a lower cost export hub. This has led to job loss in the U.S. Mr. Trump's efforts in the new trade deal with Mexico are designed to increase investment in the U.S. auto industry.

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DW.com's Krishnan discusses the proposed sale of India's national airline Air India. The airline has recurring losses over the last ten years with debt of about $8 billion. By 2011 the airline's losses meant it did not have enough money to pay salaries and further government infusions were planned at that time. The market share of the airline has dropped to 13% as SpiceJet and IndiGO have taken larger share of the market. The Modi government has taken a decision to divest government ownership as losses continue to mount.

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Barclays agrees to pay $450 million to settle claims that it manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). THE U.S. CFTC set a penalty of $200 million. The Financial Services Authority set a penalty of $92.8 million and the Justice Department in the U.S. imposed a $160 million penalty.

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Russia and the West agree to a calming down of tensions in Ukraine and no increase in sanctions. Talks in Berlin lead to a decision for Ukraine to pay $2 billion for past purchases of natural gas and negotiations on price increases, according to European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger.

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The Sunday Telegraph reports that RBS bank in the UK plans to pay out $1 billion British pounds in bonuses. It is 70% owned by the government after receiving 20 billion pounds of government money. It also had a huge loss for 2008 setting a record for the industry.

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Workers who have not received wages in Russia number 300,000 people according to government data and back pay amounts to $145 million. Prime Minister Putin promised new measures including lower corporate taxes and higher unemployment payments. Government data show growth in industrial output slowed to 1.6% in October 2008.

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Note the reference to the embarrassment the Jobs Bank is causing for the UAW and the UAW moving away from it. How this opens up the way to worker acceptance of the buyout plan. See also the link to Korea, how fast the Korean operations are growing and the link to GM in China and the rest of the world where GM's operations are growing. The picture it presents of a shift to becoming a globalized company with global manufacturing and global vision.

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A plan being put together in eurozone financial circles is for Spain to request aid and the European Stability Mechanism fund to provide far less than 100 billion euros approved for aid to Spain. With the request Spain would agree to conditions set by the EU, ECB and the IMF for improving competitiveness, reducing rigidity in labor markets, and controlling spending by regions in Spain. This would lead to the ECB taking action to buy Spanish bonds and lower borrowing costs.

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Spanish banks agreed to reforms and job cuts as a condition for a 37 billion euro loan from the eurozone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism. The restructuring plan applies to Bankia, Novagalicia Banco, Catalunya Banc and Banco de Valencia, with the largest job cuts at Bankia bank. Bankia will have 6000 job cuts, 28% of the total employees, and cut branches by 39%. Banco de Valencia will be absorbed into Caixabank and receive 4.5 billion euros of the loan payment approved.