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General Electric Co. GE says CEO Jeffrey Immelt will retire and be succeeded by John Flannery in August 2017. Flannery is head of the healthcare business at GE.

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The Saudi government announced sharp cuts in spending and subsidies to cut the deficit in 2016. The deficit in 2015 was about $98 billion or 367 billion riyals , according to Al Arabiya Saudi news channel. In 2016 the budget is designed to cut the deficit to $87 billion or 326 billion riyals. The 2016 budget is for 840 billion riyals, compared to 975 billion riyals in 2015. Saudi Arabia's foreign exchange reserves of $640 billion could be exhausted at this rate by 2020, experts say. Actions being taken by the government include increasing the price of some grades of gasoline sold domestically by 50%, as subsidies are being cut. The drop in oil prices to about $35-$40 is hurting Russia, Saudis and Venezuela. The Saudis have increased defense spending for conflicts in Yemen, and in other areas, as they oppose Iran and Russia in the Iraq- Syria conflict.

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Petrobras remains stuck in 2016 with a huge debt load of over $125 billion and a slump in oil prices. CEO Aldemir Bendine is a career government banker appointed by President Rousseff in 2015, as she faces impeachment proceedings for a corruption scandal involving Petrobras. His 11 months in office have been marked by disagreements with the board, with Bendine walking out from one meeting. Petrobras has changed chairmen twice in the 11 months. Bendine's goal of divesting assets worth $15 billion in 2016 may not be achievable say analysts, with other oil companies also divesting assets. As an outsider Bendine faces skepticism from insiders in the company. A oil strike went on for weeks before workers won a raise, resulting in lost production.

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Lack of coordination between EU nations and with Turkey on terrrorism risks is a serious problem. Information on one of the suicide bombers in the Brussels airport and subway attacks in March 2016 is not shared by Turkey with the EU countries because of lack of adequate coordination and no proper mechanism for this. Hillary Clinton points to this as a serious problem to address in a speech at Stanford University following the attacks.

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U.S. Bancorp filed a lawsuit which would require Bank of America to repurchase all loans in a $1.75 mortgage bond deal. The suit says that Countrywide was engaged in a practices that failed to comply with underwriting guidelines and representations made to investors. Bank of America under Ken Lewis made the disastrous acquisition of Countrywide run by Angelo Mozilo.

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Nokia is initiating a search for a new CEO to replace Mr Kallasvuo who became CEO in 2006. Since then Apple's iPhone has changed the market and Nokia has not been able to match the trend set by iPhones in the mobile phone device market. Nokia's stock has fallen 42% since April 19, 2010. Nokia's response to the iPhone was to replace its mobile phone executive and to create a separate operation for smartphones. Nokia plans to have a new line of smartphones in 2010 to compete with the iPhone. The main problem is its operating system software which needs to be more sophisticated. Nokia holds about 40% of the cell phone market with Europe and countries like India being its strong points. But Nokia's margins in India are low because of intense competition. Apple has already surpassed Nokia in the profit in phones, making $1.6 billion in profit in the third quarter of 2009 compared to Nokia's $1.1 billion.

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The 8000 government jobs that are likely to be lost in Longbenton, England, at "the Ministry," work done for the revenue and customs part of the tax agency of the UK. Premier Cameron plans to eliminate 192 independent government agencies. The north-east of England has long been a part of the UK with lower per capita incomes, and the region more dependent on government jobs.

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Krugman points out that the loss of 490,000 public sector jobs in Britain, as laid out in British Finance Minister Osborne's plan, is equivalent to the loss of 3 million jobs in the U.S.. He does not see the private sector being able to create the jobs to make up for this loss. He cites Osborne's speech to Parliament, in which he said that "Britain was on the brink of bankruptcy," as a shift in rhetoric of the Cameron government from hope to concern that jobs in the private sector would not materialize.

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Britain faces many risks as a series of spending cuts are implemented in 2011. Inflation was at 4.4% in February, 2011, above the BOE target of 2%. This increases pressure on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to increase rates from 0.5%. BOE is widely expected to keep this rate on hold because the inflation pressures are seen as temporary. The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimate is that real household incomes have fallen by 1.6% in 2008-2011. Borrowing by the government was higher in February at 11.8 billion pounds, reducing the deficit reduction in 2011. Slower growth will cut tax receipts and reduce deficit reduction in future years.

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Tushar Morzaria, CFO at Barclays is leading the effort for restructuring of Barclays and its large investmetn banking business. He was hired from JP Morgan Chase, where he was made the finance chief for the investment bank in 2010. Morzaria is the son of Indian immigrants to Britain who left Uganda during the Idi Amin dictatorship. Colleagues at Chase say he has a broader outlook and is able to look beyond the numbers.

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Kei cars are the super small size cars in Japan. In 2013 40% of new cars sold in Japan were Kei cars, an astonishing fact! The kei car is smaller than a Toyota Prius or a Ford Fiesta. It goes to show the level of energy conservaion in Japan that makes the U.S. look like a gas guzzler even after recent fuel efficiency improvements. It also shows how ordinary Japanese are adapting to stagnation in wage growth and increasing part time employment of the last 2 decades.