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The hardest hit group in this downturn are workers who have not completed high school, with the unemployment rate for this group going up to 15.5% compared to 8.4% last year. Workers with 4 year college degrees have unemployment at 4.8%, comparedto 2.3% a year ago. The unemployment rate for women in May is at 7.5% and for men at 9.8%. Women who have finished high school have an easier time finding jobs in health care and education. The male dominated manufacturing and construction industries are among the worst hit. Harvard University labor economist Katz says the recessions of 1990 and 2001 were more "egalitarian" than the present one, which is more like the recessions of the early 1980's and the 1970's when the less educated group was the hardest hit.

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Garry Wills doesn't like what he saw in the Bush Presidency with the elder Bush's advisor Dick Cheney having an influential role and almost independent powers within the Bush Presidency. What happens if the executive power has a former President and a newly elected President in the White House. He says that question was resolved in favor of not having this kind of plural Presidency when James Wilson of Pennsylvania's argument that executive power could best be checked with accountability in one individual as President was accepted by the framers of the Constitution. There appears to be a alienation from having a repeat of the Bushes Presidency in a Clintons Presidency among older white male voters, is this a trend that will hold true for the rest of the year?

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Boris Johnson made many gaffes, with inappropriate comments and patronizing attitudes, sometimes looking boorish, during his short period in office for 2 years 2016-2018 as Foreign Secretary. Johnson was a journalist who pushed for a hard line on Brexit and appealed to extreme right wingers in the Conservative Party.

Former prime minister Harold Macmillan described the persons holding the job of Foreign Secretary as either being dull or dangerous. Johnson rarely showed a dull moment tangling with foreign leaders at every opportunity and as he said once creating "opportunities for fresh disasters."

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This opinion in DW.com says Donald Trump has done exactly the opposite of what he said during the election campaign when he was severely critical of China on trade issues. This report cites the many statements in some detail made by Trump about China. During a recent visit to China he says president Trump seemed to go out of his way to show agreement with president Jinping, quite the reverse of what he said he would do during the election campaign. U.S. influence and prestige is seen as declining as a result of president Trump's policies.

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Remote work offers flexibility yet household chores and childcare make it feel like they are doing two jobs. Women hold 79 million jobs in 2024 Labour Department says. Of the prime age group of 25-54 years 78% of women are working or seeking work. Women doing remote work sometimes feel caught in a situation where after the pandemic and years of doing childcare and chores they do not have the opportunities of fulltime work that men have.

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The walkoff grand slam hit by Freddie Freeman in the last minutes of the 1st game in the American baseball World Series between finalists NY Yankees and LA Dodgers, a great sports rivalry since 1941. The great hitter Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees even made it into literary fame in Ernest Hemingway's nostalgic stories of an aging sailor in Cuba remembering Yankee hitter DiMaggio's grit and persistence in Old Man and the Sea.

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Mark Reuss is chosen by CEO Whitacre to run the North American division. Reuss and Whitacre share an informal style and respect middle managers to take on more responsibility. Whitacre made the decision after talking to many people in the company. Reuss headed GM's Holden subsidiary in Australia.

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Google introduces the Nexus 7 tablet for $199. It has a 7 inch screen and is designed to show books and media available on Google's Play service. It was developed with Asustek Computer and is intended for reading books similiar to the Kindle Fire tablet made by Amazon.

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Pope Francis and Cardinal Parolin have an intimate knowledge of the situation in Latin America and Cuba. This made it possible for the Vatican to host the meeting of the U.S. and Cuban sides in October, to set the stage for the restoration of diplomatic relations in Dec. 2014.

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The Fannie Freddie crisis is affecting Asian banks that have large holdings of debt issued by these 2 lenders. Note than Secretary Paulson made his announcement about Fannie Freddie plan developed by Treasury Department at 6pm on Sunday to be sure it happened before the Asian markets opened.

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Safety violations at American Airlines. The FAA imposes fines for failure to follow proper drug testing procedures, failure to perform necessary maintenance. The FAA says even after being alerted American flew planes for 10 more flights with defective autopilots, in all 58 flights were made without proper maintenance.

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Ecuadorean immigrant is killed in a fatal stabbing by seven teenagers in Long Island. Suffolk County executive is considered to have aroused racial hatred with comments and actions against immigrants and undocumented workers. His words says the Times have made hime popular with racist areas in Long Island.

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Lagging growth in GDP per capita, productivity growth, in Italy, with small family business unwilling to take risks for growth, and bureaucratic hurdles for business. To get an idea how Italy has lagged severely behind other countries in Europe, consider that GDP per capita increased by 28% in Spain, and 22% in France, compared to only 8% in Italy during the 20 year period 1993-2013, according to the Conference Board. Productivity growth measured by GDP per hour worked for Italy showed growth of only 13% in that 20 year period, compared to 30% in France and 23% in Spain. Since the 2008 global financial crisis the Italian economy has shrunk by 9% and growth is barely 1% in 2014. During 1993-2003 top performers Germany showed 31% increase in GDP per capita and 32% increase in productivity growth, the UK showed 44% increase in GDP per capita and 38% in productivity growth. Because of slowing population growth GDP growth has to come from productivity increases in Europe. France is the strongest in terms of productivity with $59 of GDP per hour worked, UK $51, and Germany $57. Italy at $45 has fallen behind Spain at $50. Conference Board statistics show GDP per capita in inflation adjusted, purchasing power adjusted 2013 dollars at $35,847 for France, $40,868 for Germany, $30,145 for Spain, $39,904 for Britain, and Italy lagging behind at $31,386. Most of the gains were made before 1993 for Italy, whereas Spain surged in the period after 1993 only slowing after 2008. The struggles in the U.S. auto industry showed how well meaning changes for labor in the early postwar period if not adapted to changes in the global economy decades later can lead to sharp decline before adjustment is made. In Italy well meaning labor laws in the early postwar period not adapted to changes in the global economy decades later, combined with cultural behaviour of entrenched group interests, and a bureaucratic government, have stifled growth and productivity....

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The increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index to 4000 by November 2013. In contrast to the period in 1999 the Nasdaq Index now has companies in the Index in a broader number of tech fields including medical technology, pharmaceuticals and consumer. Tech companies in the Index now have reliable tested products and generate significant revenues and profits. Apple has 8.02% representation in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Other companies are Microsoft with 5.15%, Google 4.80%, Amazon 2.88%, Intel 1.95%, Qualcomm 2.09%, Gilead, 1.88%, Amgen 1.42%. The Index is more diversified in 2013. B/E Aerospace and First Solar are part of the Index. About 13.5% are in Health Care technologies, including Celgene and Myriad Genetics. And 7.1% in Telecom, including SBA Communications. Priceline, Amazon are part of consumer internet companies in the Index. Tech based companies make up only 45% on the Index Composite compared to 66% in 1999, with these companies on stronger revenue and profit footing and not bid up speculatively as they were in 1999....

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A former deputy foreign minister of Germany, Ischinger, says the Germans support the European Union and the idea of an integrated Europe, but not the euro. Before the euro Germans had a stable currency. For Germans the euro by itself does not make a case for support. It is the idea of the euro as the way or means to achieve European integration that has support in Germany. This subtle difference is important, says Ischinger, and explains why Germans showed hesitation in backing a rescue effort, and yet the German parliament voted to support the European Financial Stability Fund. The German people are cautious after the experience of reunification and the global financial crisis, and are aware that their prosperity depends on the fragility of an export dependent model. For this reason the rescue effort has to be presented and seen as a way to save the European Union for it to get the backing in Germany that it needs.

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The Chinese government is concerned that lack of a safety net, fears about a general access to health care, and lack of other assistance for the farmers, elderly, rural poor, lack of unemployment protections and welfare, all are making Chinese to cramp up and spend less. Chinese households save a quarter of their income in normal times, now unless the government steps in a big way, which it has done only in small faltering steps, savings will increase even more in response to fears about the future. Lu Mai, secretary general of the China Development Research Foundation, says China has reached a point where it has to make a big decision, does it spend more on security and the police or on social benefits. He put out a report last week which estimates the government needs to spend 2.6 trillion yuan or 380 billion dollars by 2012 for the first phase of a social safety net. With a further spending of $838 billion dollars by 2020 to complete the improvement of health care, education, pensions for the elderly, low income housing, disability benefits, unemployment protections and welfare for the poorest. And these estimates may be low depending on the assumptions made, as the situation has taken a steep descent from the time these estimates were probably made. In the last few months tens of millions have been added to the jobless, and the severe drought has created a difficult situation on the farms in rural areas, even while millions of migrants return to these rural areas as businesses dependent on exports collapse in cities in coastal areas. What is the government allocation at this time? A target for health care overhaul of $124 billion was set recently. But the actual stimulus package is heavily skewed in favor of infrastructure and investment in construction. About 1% of the big stimulus package that was announced goes to health care and 7% to public housing. Says Zhuang Jian, an economist with the Asian Development Bank, this excessive investment in infrastructure, heavy industry and manufacturing will cause serious problems, if there is not strong consumption to match it. And Eswar Prasad of Cornell University, who was head of the China division at the IMF, says that an ambitious agenda is needed for higher social spending to take away the fears of average Chinese about the future. Chinese premier Wen says the government needs to do more, but the instincts of China's planners, and decades of development with built in incentives for promoting investment in construction, infrastructure and industry, have left China with huge unsustainable underinvestment in basics like education, health care and social benefits....

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is building huge aluminium smelters powered by crude oil. Some of these aluminum smelters are near new economic cities coming out of desert landscape. This is part of an effort to create new jobs for young people at the cost of about $600 billion. The Saudi unemployment rate for young people is officially 12%, but probably more like 24%, because there aren't that many of the kinds of jobs which Saudis would accept. But a smelter like one being built on the Persian Gulf Coast creates about 10,000 jobs, and even 10 of these smelters couldn't create more than 100,000 jobs, and takes up 600,000 barrels a day of Saudi production. With a population of 24 million there is a need to create more jobs in which these smelters make only a small dent. Most countries use natural gas for electricity and for a high energy consuming industry like aluminium use natural gas. Because Saudi Arabia needs a lot of electricity to power heavily subsidized and wasteful use of electricity and has not been able to get natural gas production upto where it should be, the government has made the decision to use its crude oil for producing electricity to meet its growing needs. This means a lot of crude is being used in a manner that its normally not used and quite wastefully because its heavily subsidized. Because of the soaring electricity needs the head of the Saudi Electricity Company sees the need for six big power plants to raise generating capacity to 55,000 megawatts over 7 years, about what the United Kingdom uses, all using crude oil. As production is not going up by that much it means more of Saudi crude will be used up in Saudi Arabia and not available for export. The figures show that Saudis used more than 2 million barrels a day in 2006, up 6% from 2005 when Saudi production dropped by 2.3%. Just to remain level with the current production of 9 million barrels a day the Saudis have to bring an additional 600,000 barrels a day each year to make up for depleted and declining wells. And it is becoming more difficult to increase capacity. Apart from the fact that more Saudi oil will be in future used up by a growing population, there is a question about whether the investments in aluminium, petrochemicals and new economic cities estimated at $600 billion in future years is the best allocation of resources to create jobs. If oil prices decline and oil revenues decline with prices then these projected investments especially in the economic cities and costlier projects may have to be abandoned In that situation there will be more oil available for domestic use but the situation for unemployment may not be much improved. ...

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In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mark Carney, the head of Canada's central bank and the head of the Financial Stability Board, says China is falling behind in its earlier committments made at G-20 meetings to move towards rebalancing the world economy. He pointed to the fact that consumption in China has moved from about half of China's GDP to about a third, in the last ten years. China's investment has also declined from half of GDP to about one third. Carney also raised concerns about the strength of the Canadian dollar for Canada's competitiveness. The report "China: 2030" by the World Bank and China's Development Reform Commission also calls for changes in the way China's economy has increased its dependence on state run companies.

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Job cuts may be in the future for Opel plants following the acquisition by PSA Peugeot. CEO Tavares is known for making efficiency gains and this may be the only way forward at Opel as PSA makes changes to the way the company is being run.

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Microsoft's sale of its 50% stake in MSNBC.com to NBC News in July 2012 for $300 million.

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H-P CEO Leo Apotheker defends H-P's plan to spin off its PC unit. He says it wasn't possible for H-P to invest enough in the business to be competitive and make the necessary structural changes needed in other parts of H-P's business. The new product development cycles are much faster than what a congomerate like H-P could accomplish in areas such as the tablet PC, as consumers are looking for a stream of new product devices. H-P's PC unit generated $40.1 billion in revenues and $2 billion in operating profit in the recent fiscal year. Analysts say H-P has overpaid for Autonomy, leaving less money available for additional strategic moves. Apotheker defended that decision saying the Autonomy acquisition makes it possible for H-P to skip a generation of technology as it enables businesses to make sense of unstructured data.

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The McNeil unit of J&J has made serious errors in its response to FDA's warning letter of of consumer complaints about its Tylenol arthritis caplets. Reminscent of the recent problems at Toyota which like J&J had been a leader in product safety and quality, J&J has mismanaged the FDA complaint. In January the FDA sent a warning leter to McNeil that it had failed to investigate properly consumer complaints made since 2008 of a musty odor from the bottles of Tylenol Arthritis caplets. The source of the problem lies in failure of quality control in its manufacturing facilities. McNeil is now conducting a comprehensive review of its quality management systems. McNeil has identified the cause of the smell as the breakdown of a preservative, used to treat wooden transport pallets, that had leached into the products at a company plant in Las Piedra, Puerto Rico.

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T-Mobile plans to spend $4 billion to upgrade its wireless network to LTE. The failed plan to merge with AT&T has affected T-Mobile because plans to upgrade its network were put on hold. As a result T-Mobile will be 2 years behind Verizon in upgrading to LTE and will be the last wireless network upgrading. Contract customers declined in the 4th quarter of 2011 by 802,000 with all the uncertainty surrounding the merger. AT&T made a cash payment to T-Mobile of 2.3 billion euros for the failed merger. However the situation has turned out negatively for Deutsche Telekom because of a 2.3 billion writedown in the value of T-Mobile USA ,and an additional 800 million euro writedown in Europe. If T-Mobile decides to offer the Apple iPhone to attract contract customers additional financial commitments will have to be made.

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Biodiesel is having a tougher time to win acceptance as the costs of making it in Europe have gone up and its much costlier to make than regular diesel. And their are costs to the environment of making more biodiesel as it involves more use of land and water resources. Biodiesl costs $1440 per ton or $4.80 per gallon compared to $840 per ton or $2.80 per gallon for regular crude oil based diesel. This is because the prices of most of the crops used to make biodiesel have doubled and oil companies are finding that it is too expensive to buy compared to fossil fuel. Europe only uses 2 % of transportation fuels in the form of nonfossil fuels like biodiesel and the goals of getting to 10% of transportation fuels for nonfossil fuel is now more elusive than ever now that biodiesel is not taking off.