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How Northwestern University Kellogg School's Inaba Yoshimi is trying to turnaround Toyota's performance in China. Toyota is a latecomer in the China market and cultural hurdles hamper Japanese managers in China. Because Toyota dealerships in Japan use a salesforce that gets income from salary and does not depend on commissions, selling only Toyota cars, the Japanese experience seemed irrelevant to China. The experience of Toyota in China is more like the experience in the U.S. market with a sales force earning income from commissions and dealers selling many brands. In other respects China's market is different from the U.S. The Chinese market is growing very fast, and millions of cusomers are joining the carowning population, all first time buyers in an internet information intensive environment with savy informed customers. Keeping the salesforce motivated and interested in selling Toyota cars is a challenge in China. Also how to allocate cars to dealers based on how many cars move off their lots, and how to buildup a large network of Toyota dealerships and widen the range of product available in China. Management challenges have been tackled by bringing experienced veteran managers from the U.S. to China, who are culture neutral and are seen positively by the Chinese managers and staff. General Motors has a big headstart in China and is marketing to the younger demographic in China. Median age of Chinese buyers is 35 years age. See the related article on Chinese buyers and what drives their buying habits in article by Bremner in Business Week, May 17, 2006....

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Shocking revelation that Forest Service discouraged firefighters from wearing masks that help prevent cancers from toxic smoke. Many firefighters only had bandannas. For several years fires have increased and this was happening with more firefighters doing dangerous work yet this only came up when NYT reporters brought this up recently. The head of Forest Service was summoned to a Congressional oversight hearing and rightly so.  Rep. Jared Huffman of California: “We’ve talked about the New York Times piece. Chief, do you feel like the Forest Service is doing everything that it can to make the safety risk of smoke inhalation known to firefighters?” Mr. Schultz: “We need to continue to focus on safety as we move forward, including this issue.” There are about 40,000 firefighters in Forest Service mostly young men and many more employed by contractors. Because they are first responders also the work of firefighters has 360,000 in the US and 600,000 volunteers. With such sheer numbers masks to prevent inhalation of toxic chemicals that can cause cancer is highly important and should be given high priority.   ...

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The US military is finally, after years of being left out and over 300,000 young Americans losing their lives from fentanyl drugs being brought into the US- after Coast Guard is overwhelmed by the scale of activity- is finally now being enlisted in the effort to save lives and restore the integrity of America's borders. The deaths in this war are more than 3 times that in the Vietnam War and Korean War combined which were about 100,000. Yet ineffective political leaders have not responded with American strength in the face of the magnitude of losses. And ignored or neglected the firm basis on which president Monroe proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine to keep colonial powers out of this hemisphere. The result is that America and the youngest of its people America's most precious resource, have paid the price. America can do a better job of protecting the interests of the people of this hemisphere because of its great traditions of good government over several centuries going back even to the British days- it is America's solemn duty and responsibility to do so to the people of this hemisphere. ...

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Areddy describes the choices facing China's president Xi Jinping as he faces protests in Hong Kong demanding the resignation of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Protestors are also calling for canceling of a plan to limit nominations for chief executive to a committee loyal to Beijing. Xi Jinping has experience with Hong Kong affairs as he held the portfolio for Hong Kong affairs as part of the leadership when he was vice president. There are precedents where Beijng has changed course, as it sees it important to put memories of Tiananmen protest suppression behind. In 2003 six years after Britain handed Hong Kong to China -under an agreement for "one country, two systems," that granted separate status and system of government to Hong Kong- an anti-subversion law was pulled back. And the unpopular Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, a shipping magnate, resigned after 18 months. Beijing has to balance its concern for the "contagion effect" of protests on other parts of China, with the need to maintain the right climate for business and investment in Hong Kong and other financial centres. With slowing growth and limits to overexpanding credit, a crackdown in Hong Kong would further exacerbate problems with the international community, and create tensions in Taiwan about future reintegration with China. China warned foreigners not to interfere, and the American Consulate in Hong Kong stated it "strongly supports Hong Kong's well-established traditions and Basic Law protections of internationally recognized fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of the press." The British government also pointed to Hong Kong's "fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to demonstrate," which were in the spirit of the 1997 transfer agreement....

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Changpeng Zhao, 46 years,  comes from a family that immigrated to Vancouver, Canada from China after the Tianmen protests. He studied computer science at McGill University and worked for Bloomberg Tradebook. In 2017 he started Binance as a cryptocurrency firm. In the same year China banned cryptocurrency. In March 2023 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Binance saying that the Binance exchange operated illegally in the US and violated rules on illicit financial activity. This WSJ report says traders are withdrawing billions of dollars from Binance as problems affecting the world's largest crypto exchange increase. Overall WSJ says Binance holds $63.2 billion in the exchange's publicly disclosed wallets. Regulators are concerned about bank runs of the kind that affected FTX, another crypto currency firm.

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Changes in Eastern Europe, first with the departure of Sebastian Kurz after a second scandal. The Greens party in the coalition insisted that he resign. In the Czech Republic the government of prime minister Andrej Babis was voted out of office. A liberal-conservative three party coalition won 28% of the vote, and the Pirates and Mayors party won 16% of the vote. The two alliances won 108 seats in the 200 member lower house. Babis headed a minority government of ANO party, Social Democrats and supported by Communist party,(ANO is yes in Czech language), with many scandals, and opposed EU's climate change policies, says DW.com. 

With the changes in Austria this offers new opportunities for a closer European Union as Eastern Europe changes.

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What is the Pirates party in European Union countries? It started as a party of tech savy young people about 15 years ago who were fed up with the mainstream parties. For the first time Pirates and Mayors party in Czech Republic will form a coalition government in 2021. Ivan Bartos head of the Pirates party says the party is "a new wind, no oligarch or big sponsors and completely transparent." It is in a way a party like the Greens, away from established parties, with younger people who are tech savy and want openness in society. In the Czech election the party was able in alliance with other centrist parties to defeat a scandal ridden minority government of billionaire Babis that opposed EU climate change policies.

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Dvid Attenborough, the naturalist and broadcaster, says he has campaign for years against plastic pollution and no one paid attention. Now he says people are fed up with politics of Brexit and are showing great interest in fighting single use plastic. He says the people in the U.S. are acting even though the president Mr. Trump has taken action for withdrawing from the Paris climate change agreement. He sees things can change quickly if there is a new president and policy changes. 

He is heartened by the way people have received the movie Blue Planet 2 and the action politicians and ordinary people are taking. He thanks primary school teachers for all the work they are doing and the enthusiasm shown.

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India produces 60% of the world's vaccines. India's contribution in vaccines is significant as it brings low cost vaccines to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. India itself has children that in total equal the children in 20 to 30 smaller countries. Prime minister Modi is working actively with GAVI the Global Vaccines Alliance for vaccination of India's children. Mission Indradhanush was one of the first programmes of his administration, intended to vaccinate all of India's children even in the remote areas. A new program was agreed to between India and GAVI for the next five years at the Global Vaccine Summit in the UK opened by prime minister Boris Johnson of the UK on June 4.

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Over zealous interpretation of data privacy laws is leading vaccination workers to in Lower Saxony state of Germany to guess people's age by their names. The Deutsche Post database used for finding names of people over 80 years only partially includes date of birth. Health ministry of Lower Saxony admits that not all people will receive letters for vaccination who are over 80.  Official records are held by 5283 local authorites across the country. Once again say former federal commissioner for data protection and other data protection officials, "the false impression is created that data protection is the highest good and prevents necessary measures." Post office data should not be used and minimal access ensured for vaccination purposes with a little common sense.

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The oldest sister of the Thai King Princess Ubolaratana is running as the candidate of the Thai Raksa Party of the Opposition in the presidential election. The military runs the country and the military's candidate was expected to win the election. The entry of the royals puts a new twist in the plans of the military to continue running the country.

Thailand's economy has slowed down and it faces competition from Vietnam. For 20 years Thailand is split between the Thaksin faction which favors the rural north and northeast of the country, and the military, government bureaucracy in Bangkok. Elections were won by the Thaksin faction till the military intervened. The royals were seen as being with the military till this time.

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Dropping birthrates in China are a major concern especially in the northeast states.Women are pushing back against pressure to have 2 children after 3 decades of one child policy. State subsidies and incentives are not working as birthrates continue to drop. Improving education standards and incomes have delayed marriage and childbirth. In 3 decades more than a third of the population could be over 60 years of age. A struggling economy in some states and cities places extra burden to delay childbirth. In Hubei province hospitals have offered to cover the costs of childbirth as well as give 500 yuan subsidy for first child and 700 yuan for second child. Extended maternity leave is also offered. A beautiful families campaign is being run by some organizations.

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This report in the WSJ shows even chancellor Merkel, Mr. Roller her economic advisor, ignored reports that went back ten years about wrongdoing at Wirecard. Chancellor Merkel supported Wirecard's acquisition of a Chinese company that itself was in trouble in talks with Chinese leaders in September 2019. AllScore the Chinese company had at the time been fined for misappropriation of funds by the central bank of China at the time, as reported by the WSJ. The German Finance ministry had provided documents showing that Wirecard was being investigated before the meetings to Mr. Roller. The Finance minister Olaf-Scholz's ministry oversees BaFin but little was done by BaFin even after the Financial Times in January 2019 reported financial irregularities at the company.

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A day in 1936, 75 years ago, when New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia opened the city pool in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The pool was the seventh pool built by the parks department with money from the federal Public Works Administration. Admission was ten cents when the pool opened, with children allowed for free in the morning. Robert Moses was the parks commissioner in those years. The pool meant a lot to New Yorkers then, 40,000 people attended its opening. The good thing says the current commissioner Mr Benepe, is that the city continues to invest in its parks and infrastructure.

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The departure of Steven Sinofsky, who headed the development efforts for Windows 7 introduction in 2009 and Windows 8 in 2012. His departure after 23 years at Microsoft comes after hardware companies working with Microsoft and other teams inside Microsoft described difficulties in working with Sinofsky. Microsoft CEO Ballmer referred to this lack of collaboration with other senior executives and polarizing nature, when he called for more "alignment across all Microsoft teams." Sinofsky was made a techncal assistant by Bill Gates in the early years and helped Gates recognize the importance of the world wide web in internet software development.

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In a year of budget cuts San Diego's civic organist, who plays the outdoor organ in Balboa Park, has her contract renewed for another 10 years. Carol Williams plays the organ for free concerts Sunday afternoons at Balboa Park. The outdoor organ is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It is completing 97 years. The organist has been on the city payroll for close to a century. Of the $250,000 budget for the concerts, the Spreckels Organ Society gets $42,000 from the city of San Diego, $30,000 from members, and gets the rest from donations and grants.

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France signed a framework agreement with India to build 2 nuclear reactors in the state of Maharashtra, along with supply of nuclear fuel for 25 years. The reactors would be sold by state owned company Areva SA. France plans to sell 6 nuclear reactors to India in future years. India has 4,560 megawatts of nuclear power and plans to increase this 14 fold by 2032. The French project will provide 10,000 megawatts. US suppliers are trying to get a change to liability laws in India that will transfer liability to plant operators, before concluding nuclear deals.

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The longer the recession, the lower the wages on the next job and the quality of work in the next job, says Columbia University labor economist, Till von Wachter. It may take years for the wages of these workers to catch up to what they were before the recession. From 2007 to 2009, more than half the full time workers who lost jobs they had held for more than 3 years, and then found full time work by early 2010 reported wage declines, according to the Labor Department. About 36% reported the new job paid at least 20% less than the earlier job.

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Auto sales in the U.S. reached 1.33 million vehicles in May, a 25% increase over the previous year, with the previous years figures skewed by the tsunami in Japan and shortages for Japanese manufacturers. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate was 13.8 million vehicles. Employment increased to 644,000 workers in the U.S. auto industry, an increase in the first quarter of 2012 of 6% over the prior year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. The basic reason for the increased demand is the aging of cars on the road to about 10.8 years, according to vehicle registration information.

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Nancy Koehn reviews Marc Freedman's "The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife." Freedman says baby boomers need a new "map of life " to approach the extended years of life that modern medicine and longevity provides. Some way to redefine their lives with purposefulness and commitment. He calls this the encore stage of life, and sees this as a new opportunity if handled in the right way. Accumulated experience and struggles through prior years can be helpful evolving in new ways to find one's passion, for purposeful activity that contributes to the life of future generations.

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NBC Entertainment chief, Bob Greenblatt, and the effort to revive the network after years of low ratings. Greenblatt is introducing new series including 2 new dramas in the 2014 season- "Crisis," about a hijacking, and the thriller "Believe." The hit "Blacklist" in fall 2013 helped move NBC up in the ratings for the 19-49 years advertising audience. Compared to cable, Greenblatt says television shows present a bigger challenge with more hours to fill, audiences looking for better storylines, and the need to try new approaches something Greenblatt has done. It still is like hanging onto a moving train, says Greenblatt.

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With 5.7 million jobs lost since December 2007 fewer people are paying payroll taxes to support Medicare and Social Security says Labor Secretary Solis. As aresult Medicare will run out of funds by 2017, 2 years earlier than predicted last year. Medicare and Social Security issued their annual report yesterday, suggesting the nation cannot afford the cost of Medicare at the rate of current expenditure growth. Social Security will run out of money by 2037 four years earlier than predicited before. The only way to keep Medicare solvent says Mr Geithner is to reduce the rate of growth of health care costs.

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Different visions of primary education, one from the Cambridge Primary Review, and the other from Sir Jim Rose, for children in the UK. Sir Jim Rose thinks there is a lot of overcrowding of subjects in primary education or curriculum overload, and wants to go back to a core curriculum, computer skills, a foreign language, and replace the 12 subjects taught with 6 crosscutting areas of learning. Cambridge Review doesn't see overcrowding as the problem but the lack of good quality teaching of subjects outside the narrow diet of numeracy and literacy. They don't like the dumbing down to core subjects and want to see a broad, rich and balanced curriculum. The Government is following Sir Jim Roses's report as it has been commissioned by the government and is written by one government report writer. By contrast the Cambridge Primary review is independently conceived and has been years in its preparation and draws on international experience and many experts. They are both very different in their perspectives. This is too important an issue, the educational upbringing of a whole new generation of children, to be left to a kind of random selection without discussion of the different views and their merits. ...

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Girls Scouts reaches out to minorities and Hispanics and a changing USA, as it reaches its 98th year, two years short of the 100 year mark.