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Peter Hessler was a teacher in Sichuan province of China before living in Tibet and writing this article for The Atlantic.  It gives some insights into both the thinking of Chinese people and Tibetan people and the changes happening around them. Inevitably changes would have come to Tibet from outside or without China's takeover of Tibet in 1950, would have come in some other form, as it has in neighboring Nepal, Afghanistan, says Hessler, without some of the loss of some of the positive aspects of culture and of Buddhism.  Even in India feudal system of zamindars prevailed in villages into the late British period and the early Nehru period but has gradually disappeared over time, so that change has potential over time to happen, and comes inevitably.  Here he shows- the immigrants from Sichuan province, over 120 million people in the province, and part of a floating population of migrant workers in China, looking for jobs or economic opportunity, and some taking up life at the high Himalayan altitudes for 2-3 years or even 8 year terms. The belief Hessler says among Sichuan immigrants that high altitude was bad for the lungs over long periods and shortened life. The lack of women with a disproportionate number of men making the journey to start a new life in Tibet, the hardships, the enterprising nature of Sichuan immigrants in the shops and retail that Tibetans lacked the enterprising skills to do, the difficulties living with two cultures side by side, the lack of any incentive to learn the local language. The feelings of Tibetan people that they are somehow losing their culture and identity. The sense among immigrants that this is not their first choice of place but somehow would have to do till they go back and find someone to marry during brief trips back home to Sichuan. There is something timeless about this essay, as changes unfold, no one unambiguous trend, a more complex situation.  China's sense that the west has violated its sovereignty under the British and foreign powers in the nineteenth century. The feeling that somehow Tibet is part of this sense of China regaining what it had lost to the foreign powers. Without the realization that Tibet has served as a gift of nature, a given mountainous buffer that helped two Asian civilizations prosper in the Ganges and Yangtse river valleys, thousands of miles apart. And both having the similar experience with the British and foreign powers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and both recovering modernizing at the same pace.    The sense China has, says Hessler, that it is about China's sovereignty following a Qing dynasty entry into Lhasa in 1792, even though the Qing saw Tibet as a buffer state running its own affairs separating it from the British Empire on the other side of the Himalayas. Very little contact between China and Tibet for centuries simply because using yaks and mules it would take several months from northern China to Tibet crossing mountain ranges at 15,000 feet. The British saw this as a buffer state in the same way as happened also with the Mughals in the 15th to 18th century, and the Empires between the 11th and 15th century in India.  Because opium was shipped from Bengal under British colonial rule causing great poverty in India against the will of the Indian people, the same sense of violation of sovereignty existed in exactly the same way in the perception of foreign powers in India, so that the notion of violation of one's self respect being shared was serving no useful purpose in this context between China and India.     ...

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Seen as IRA's these accounts in DJT's One Big Beautiful Act with the government investing $1000 of its money for every newborn's savings account is a powerful way to create wealth for the next generation. It is designed to be invested in funds that grow with the S&P 500, will be available in 2026. Lets look at the power of accumulation in a fund that has $3000 invested in it $1000 by the government, $1000 by a grandparent and $1000 by a parent. Over 10, 20 and 30 years. If the child has $3000 invested in it till he is 18 years this would have $54000 of payments made into the fund.   The actual S&P return has averaged 12-13% over the last 10 years 2023-2024. Including dividends it has grown to 249%. Assuming it grows at 10 percent a year ,the power of compound interest is huge- it will grow to $47,000 in 10 years, 147,000 in 20 years, and 349,000 in 30 years. This is 3 times the average IRA of 127,000 in 2025. Fidelity Investments shows average IRA in 2025 as as $127,000, for 30 year olds 104,000. In a good set of years this account alone would triple the retirement savings of ordinary Americans.   ...

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A New York Times/CBS poll shows 69% of Americans polled between March 21-25, 2012, feel the U.S. should not be involved in a war in Afghanistan. This is up from 53%, in a poll only 4 months before this poll.

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President Obama uses the solemn occasion in memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to lay flowers. 60 relatives of victims attended the ceremony days after the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. In an effort to bring closure to the event the President used the occasion to show respect to the victims with silence and no speeches or remarks were made except for a short private address at the "pride of Midtown" firehouse. It was a time to reflect. It was in sharp contrast to the days after the attacks. Not much moved, the cranes on the construction site were silent, only the leaves on the limbs of the pear tree known as the Survivor tree rustled in the wind.

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Bolivia's economy showed 6.5% growth in 2013 and the portion of the people in extreme poverty has dropped from 38% in 2005 to 24% in 2013. Policies of president Morales are winning praise for being prudent from the IMF and the World Bank. A greater share of the revenues from natural gas production and high natural gas prices, Bolivia's main export products, has enabled the government to build international reserves to $14 billion. This is half the country's GDP, and the highest ratio of reserves to GDP in the world. Morales has adopted socialist policies and at the same time provided fiscally responsible management, showing the two are not inconsistent and can be adapted to local conditions to build a middle class and improve living conditions.

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Ghosn touches on another issue emerging in the auto industry. With prices of iron ore jumping steel prices are also increasing which will force automakers to raise prices in the foreseable future. With economic downturn in the USA and parts of Europe Nissan like other automakers will find it difficult to increase sales with higher prices. This makes the new markets of India, Brazil Russia, China and Africa and Middle East with exploding demand significant. As the president of Honda in India puts it its better to spread the profits and sales globally. Nissan laid the ground for a 1.1 billion plant south of Chennai, India, rather than wait for the infrastructure to deliver just-on-time in India, the infrastructure will come later.

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Leaders of North Korea and South Korea, Kim Jong-Un and Moon Jae-in meet on April 27, 2018, at the military demarcation line between North and South Korea.  After handshakes and Mr. Moon stepping onto North Korean soil for a few minutes, Kim Jong-Un visits Seoul for peace talks.  This is a historic moment for the two countries as this is the first time since the Korean War (1950-53) that a North Korean leader has visited the South. No peace treaty was signed after the Korean War. During the period of six decades that followed the Korean War, particularly the period after 1980, the South Korean economy recovered from the war and expanded following the Japanese export model with large conglomerates such as Samsung. The North Korean economy has struggled in the period and North Korea is one of the poorest countries isolated for most of this period like Burma from the rest of the world. The development of nuclear weapons was pursued to prevent any external threats to the government, and decades of sanctions followed with aborted efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. Recent ballistic nuclear tests and the installation of a new anti missile system in South Korea led to tighter sanctions with the cooperation of China. This heightened tensions, followed by the tighter sanctions. Kim Jong Un and the government are looking for ways to win approval in the international community, and find a way out of the tight sanctions. South Korea, Japan and the U.S. government are not sure whether this will lead to any results in denuclearization. The summit with Moon will be followed by a summit between president Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. If a way can be found for the North Korean government and party leaders to transition to acceptance in the international community followed by integration of the North and South's economies over an extended period, there is a possibility that denuclearization could work, because it is to maintain the current government in North Korea that nuclear development was pursued in the North. Ideological conflict is now less of a factor in the conflict between North and South Korea as it was in the early days of the Korean War with the Cold War and Communism's advances in Eastern Europe and Asia the big issue at the time. Today China itself is more of a state run economy under the Communist Party following capitalism with Chinese characteristics than the old Communist model, and ideological conflict is not an issue between the U.S. and Communist run countries. This leaves open the possibility of a solution particularly as at some point just as in the case of Vietnam and the U.S., North Korea could see its future more allied with that of South Korea than with China. That leaves an opening for a timetable of transitional actions plus effective implementation stages, with incentives for the U.S. and Japan to negotiate a settlement. ...

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The Public-Private Investment Program of the U.S. Treasury Department has not had a good start. With most banks passing the U.S.government's stress tests and raising $50 billion in the markets, PPIP which was intended to to help resolve the situation of all the toxic securites siting on the bank's books, has gone the way of all the prior efforts to solve this problem. Simply postponed this time hoping that the housing market recovers. With the Rogoff-Reinhardt study showing that it takes about 6 years or longer before housing recovers from such aserious crisis as this one, it would be 2012, before one sees an improvement. See the link to the Business Week analysis that shows housing markets in the USA having some aspect of normalcy in 2012. Yet even this analysis is using an optimistic scenario, because it assumes Moodys Economy.com estimates of economic growth for GDP of 4-5% in 2011- 2012. This assumes the consumer debt that has reached over 100% of GDP will be reversed quickly in 2010, and the the factory capacity utilization currently at 68% and expected to drop further in 2009- with more automobile manufacturing capacity remaining to be scrapped -will recover quickly in 2010-2011. This is unrealistic considering the combination of factors at work. Here Devin Leonard talks to PIMCO chief Bill Gross, who with Warren Buffett and PIMCO CEO Mohammed El-Erian, are key proponents of the PPIP program. Both El-Erian and Warren Buffett say they conceived independently of such a program, in which toxic securties are taken off bank's books with government help. As PIMCO is one of the largest traders of mortgage bonds in the country and has years of successful experience in dealing with mortgage bonds, the New York Fed under Geithner turned to PIMCO for advice in 2008. By this time PIMCO was under ownership of Allianz, a German insurer, which bought PIMCO for $3.3 billion in 2000, with $233 million and a $40 million retention bonus going to Bill Gross. Bill Gross describes how the program would function. PIMCO puts up $500 million, and Treasury matches this with $500 million. Analysts estimate that this partnership would be able to attract as much as $ 4 billion in low interest financing from Treasury and the Fed. Gross says that some of these securities pay as much as 14% interest, and even with a 70% default rate, this partnership could make $250 million a year on the $5 billion partnership, or a 5% return, with PIMCO making a 25% return on its original investment. This isn't exactly pro bono work as Buffett had originally suggested to Bill Gross in the midst of the crisis. But a more fundamental concern is that no one really knows exactly how much of toxic securties the banks have on their books, even though estimates have been made. If this is closer to $1 trillion, PIMCO's expertise and efforts will simply fall short of dealing with a problem of this size, and the window dressing of a problem of this magnitude could only hurt efforts for the eventual resolution of this problem. If housing does not recover as is expected till 2012 at the earliest, and the economy continues to deteriorate in unemployment and factory utilization, then the toxic securities on the bank's balance sheets may pose a bigger problem that will require serious action....

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The leaders of Republicans and Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Minority leader Harry Reid, reached a budget compromise with the White House in October 2015 after long closed door negotiations, following years of deadlock in previous years. The compromise lifts sequester spending caps agreed to previously in a previous settlement of differences, and lifts the budget ceiling till March 2017. Speaker Boehner said it was time to "clean out the barn," as he did this over the opposition of Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz from the right wing of his party who opposed his efforts to compromise with Democrats. On October 28, 2015, the House of Representatives passed the two year budget agreement 266-167, and the following day Speaker Boehner passed on the Speaker's position to Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. On Oct. 29, 2015, the Senate voted 64-35 to pass the budget compromise agreement. The agreement increases discretionary spending by $80 billion over 2 years, giving half to defense spending with the increase in military threats overseas, and the other half to domestic spending programs. The domestic spending goes to limit premium increases for some Medicare Part B beneficiaries, and a prevents a 20% across the board cut to Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, set for 2016. This removes the uncertainty posed by threats of a showdown on the budget ceiling and threat of defunding Planned Parenthood posed by right wing Republicans in Congress, which were bad for the economy at a time when the U.S. and Europe faces increasing threats overseas. Without a budget agreement the U.S. Treasury Department would have seen its borrrowing authority expire on Nov. 3, 2015....

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Alan Meltzer is a respected voice on US Federal Reserve policies since the time Paul Volcker was Fed chairman He says the Bernanke Fed is making some serious policy mistakes. The first is concentrating on near term events, such as business response to Obama administration policies, over which it has little influence, while neglecting the long term consequences of its policies. The second is its effort to tackle unemployment by interpreting its mandate as a dual mandate of tackling both unemployment and inflation. By tackling one at a time, he says, the Fed is likely to fail totally. The US is unlikely to not feel the inflation that is going on around the world. By ignoring the changes in money supply growth the Fed is making another mistake. His advice is for the Fed to increase interest rates it controls to 1%, to signal that it is aware of inflation risks. Second, the Fed should annonce a specific, detailed plan explaining how it will reduce $900 billon of the $1 trillion banks continue to hold in excess of the legally required reserves. Third, the Fed should end QE II, the most recent round of treasury bond purchases. Meltzer says if the Fed waited for two more months in Nov 2010, it would have found that a double dip recession was not about to occcur and it could have held off from pursuing QE II. Meltzer emphasizes that slow growth and unemployment is not a monetary problem, because of the ample liquidity already in the financial system. Uncertainty about government policy and the future direction has been clarified by the election which will help put the economy back on track. Philadelphia Fed chairman expresses similiar views in other articles and an interview with O'Grady of WSJ....

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Martin Fackler talks to Yasuhiro Nakasone, former LDP leader and prime minister during the Reagan days. He gives his views on improving the relationship with the U.S., advice to prime minister Yukio Hatoyama on his goal of building a more equal relationship with the U.S., the issues surrounding the U.S. base in Okinawa. He says Hatoyama should have a relaxed conversation with president Obama, over dinner and after dinner. Not one or two hours but much longer and increased contact with much time as possible spent together to increase rapport. He points to a picture of him and Reagan in windbreakers walking through the woods in Camp David as an example of the trust needed to be built in the U.S.-Japan relationship. Nakasone once described Japan as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Nakasone does not think the LDP dominance was a good thing and says the DPJ's rise and the LDP voted out of power was good for Japan. His view is that Japan can become more equal by being closer to the U.S. than becoming apart from it. An approach he took by being less deferential than his predecessors at summit meetings, but at the same time working closely with the U.S. Nakasone says Hatoyama is not doing this by showing he values Japan's relationship with China more than its relationship with the U.S. These remarks he describes as not being prudent, and do not reflect the security alliance wih the U.S. and the shared values of a liberal democracy. Okinawa and other problems can be resolved through talking between partners, friendly relations and a relationship built on trust between leaders....

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Among the reasons given for Roche's bid are the need to bring the creative energies of Genentech inside Roche's own pharmaceutical division. This at a time when pharmaceutical companies are having a difficult time coming up with new drugs, without as Bill Burns the head of Roche pharmaceutical put it, a "Chinese wall" between Genentech scientists and Roche scientists. Other reasons are the opportunity for the Basel based company to capture all the profits from Genentech and achieve cost savings of $850 million annually by combining the 2 companies' clinical research teams and sales, manufacturing and administrative departments in the USA. Another reason is that the agreement with Genentech for Roche to market its drugs outside the USA expires in 2015. With Genentech's share price at a low Roche's bid at a 9% premium also appears as an attempt to get the remaining 44% of the company that Roche does not own for a low bid. It risks however the 18 year relationship betweeen Roche and Genentech, in which Genentech operated within its own scientific culture in the San Francisco area, almost like a separate company. Roche CEO Schwan, still wants to keep some of this arrangement and have Genentech drug researchers operate as a separate group, but its not clear how the cost savings and the interaction with Roche scientists would occur under the new arrangement. Genentech was founded in 1976 after a meeting between venture capitalist Robert Swan and bichemist Herbert Boyer at a bar near the University of California, San Francisco campus. It has come up with a number of successful cancer drugs such as Avastin, Herceptin, and Tarceva, and total sales are $11.7 billion, a significant part of Roche's overall sales....

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Vikram Pandit's style at Citigroup after 4 months, thoughful, asking lots of questions, fixing the little things that actually matter a lot, like the unwillingness of some heads of divisions to sit together in the same room, some hiring decisions and new lines of reporting and responsibiity and interaction in the organization structure that call for teamwork, discussion and collaboration. The oldtimers like Krawcheck used to clear lines of reporting are now getting used to the new culture of collaborative working. His style is first to come to grips with issues and not to come to snap decisions based on intuition, such as interviewing at length and asking tough questions at length to Ajay Banga, head of Citi's international group about the extensive defaults in Citi's consumer loan business in Japan. One of his views is that only if you get the foundation right can you talk about vision. Regarding pettiness in management and small grudges, its either going to be a partnership or you're not going to be here. some of his colleagues like James Forense say that they would take substance over form, judgement over form, any day of the week. And while he does not shy away from details like expecting lower level employees to pay for sporting event tickets Citigroup earlier gave out free, and he himself rides the subway sometimes, he has made some of the bigger decisions. Among these, getting capital from outside sources by travelling extensively abroad, urging Citigroup's board to slash the dividend for the first time in 20 years, selling off 2 peripheral units that did not belong and a third Primerica on sale also. And urged by his mentor former Treasury secretary Rubin who also used a note pad and a thinking thoughtful style like Pandit's at Treasury during the Asian banking crisis and the Mexican financial crisis, Pandit has been direct and realistic. He tells Wall Street that the fate of Citigroup is going to be decided to some extent by the duration of the environment we are going through, the twin perils of the debt-market crisis and the sluggish US economy. And that for now issues like these are going to overwhelm our actions. Pandit's father was a senior executive of one of India's leading pharmaceutical companies when the family moved to New York, so he has grown up around business, and is able to ask the question quite sincerely and matter of factly of his managers at the beginning of every meeting. "What are you doing with the shareholder's money?" After which come the torrent of well thought out questions, probing deeper each time, especiually where issues are festering for a long time, and remain unresolved. ...

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The German and French positions on solutions to the eurozone debt crisis are in conflict. As a result the negotiations between France's Sarkozy and Germany's Merkel are deadlocked. The basic differences revolve around three basic issues. Germany wants to see a lasting solution in which Greece debt is restructured so that banks and other creditors that loaned money to Greece voluntarily take losses so that Greece's debt can be reduced to a sustainable level of no more than 50% of what it is now. France, the ECB and the French banks do not want to restructure Greek debt in this manner beyond the 21% reduction in value of debt under the July 2011 agreement. The voluntary reduction in Greek debt by the banks would prevent a default by Greece and unsettling of the financial markets. France fears market contagion from the restructuring of Greece debt that would place pressure on French banks as the value of the Greek, Spanish and Italian sovereign debt French banks hold declines in value. That would require a major recapitalization of French banks and additional cuts to the French budget. Additional twists to the negotiations are that Sarkozy is unpopular in France with elections six months away. For this reason Sarkozy would prefer to recapitalize after 9 months. A way to get around the need for more deficit cutting (austerity measures) in France, is for the European Financial Stability Fund to be able to borrow money from the European Central bank. The ECB can print euros in that situation. Germany's chancellor Merkel has to consider German public opinion and experts from the German central bank, who are adamantly against using the ECB to print money and Germany committing itself to bankrolling most of the effort. Germany wants France to use its own money to recapitalize French banks, with Germany only responsible for recapitalizing its banks. Merkel told her parliamentary caucus in Berlin that "the path is closed for using the European Central Bank to ease liquidity problems." Because of Germany's insistence on financial soundness for any solution, France being in the more difficult financial position and Sarkozy facing elections willing to come up with a short term fix, and the unwillingness of French and German banks to take the losses necessary for a lasting solution, the Germans see a real solution taking a long time. ...

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The Southern Nevada Water Authority has cut water consumption coming from the Colorado River by 25% over 2 decades even as population has grown by 50%. It has done this by fining people for excessive use and paying landowners to remove turf grass. One television ad shows a person being scolded for excessive water use and the line "Vegas is enforcing water waste big time."  As a result of water conservation, water pricing, and replacing turf grass, the seven states fed by the Colorado River and the reservoir Lake Mead have seen much improvement in water usage. Lake Mead hit by a drought in the years 2000-2015 is now risen by 25 feet to 1096 feet in 2020 making it 44% full, the highest level in 6 years. The water conservation efforts in Southern California have yielded results. Metropolitan Water District of Southern California gave out $350 million in rebates for replacing turf grass. Irvine Ranch Water District cut drinking water use by 20% with higher pricing for inefficient use beyond a set limit. Building codes are amended preventing turf grass in front of homes. Lawns and golf courses replaced turf grass, with some golf courses using desert landscapes. In this area of 10 million people 200 million square feet of turf grass was taken out. ...

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Affordability should be a major factor in figuring out what is the best place to retire. Climate gets Arizona and Florida the top two spots. Yet considering today's higher cost of living and smaller retirement savings in the U.S., Britain, and European countries, and the higher cost of living in India, China, and other Asian, African, and Latin american countries, affordability should play a much larger role so that savings stretch out and one can afford a better standard of living, more travel and room for better choices in food and other things.  Bankrate for instance gives 40% importance to affordability in its retirement assessment of locations. Climate gets only 15% in this assessment of location. Places which are friendlier, with which you are familiar ar attractive for other reasons. Bankrate gives Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri top ratings in this commonsense approach.  Also important after affordability, are access to healthcare, weather, culture and crime. Bankrate analysis gives affordability 40%, wellness and healthcare 25%, culture 15% weather 15%, and crime 15%. Access to healthcare is a factor that is also included in Affordability as the premium in Florida for Medicare Supplement, is $286  month vs $90 a month in Nebraska. Using a similar approach places in India, China, other African, Asian and Latin American countries countries that are in high demand and have rising cost of living may not be the best places to retire. Using Affordability, wellness and healthcare, culture, and friendly atmosphere and familiarity with having lived there for a time, may be the best criteria with less importance to weather. A better standard of living and access to better things in life with one's dollars or rupees or whatever currency one uses stretch is important.   ...

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Galston says Hillary Clinton is right to say as she did at Roosevelt Island in her opening campaign speech, that "growth and fairness go together, for lasting prosperity, you can't have one without the other." Economic growth was at 4% for 5 of 8 years of the Clinton presidency, but in the 15 years since the economy has managed 3% only twice in the George Bush presidency, and fallen below 2.5% in the last 5 years. The high growth rate following World War II was a result of the increase in the workforce and productivity. The workforce increased by 2% annually between 1950 and 2000. Since then as female participation peaked and the baby boomers reached retirement age the workforce has increased by 0.7%, and is slowing to 0.5% annual growth for the next decade. Growth in productivity of 1.9% between 1991 and 2007, slowed to 0.4% after 2010. Galston tells the next president to go all out to increase the labor force- adopt family friendly policies similiar to Europe so more women can work, get more immigrants into the labor force, more elderly should be encouraged to work given the better health, reduce the college dropout rate to reduce incarceration and bring more young people into the labor force, get more people who qualify for disability but could work part time into the labor force, and emphasize the importance of increasing the labor force participation rate a policy being followed by the Federal Reserve's Janet Yellen....

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The lower house of the French parliament approved the EU budget discipline treaty that limits deficits to 3% of GDP. It passed with a large majority of 477 votes to 70. About 284 members of the left parties voted for the bill. Sarkozy had pushed for passage of this treaty and Hollande agreed to it in his talks with chancellor Merkel of Germany. At the same time Germany and France agreed on promoting growth measures. The new French budget for 2013 reflects this committment to reducing the deficit to 3%. France's deficit declines from 4.5% in 2012 to 3% in 2013 under the new budget. It does this with shared sacrifices and higher corporate taxes and without sharp cuts in government spending that could hurt the economy.

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Toyota resale prices are dropping. Analysts at Kelley Blue Book estimate the price of a new Toyota Camry will fall by $500 to $1000 and a new Prius hybrid by $1000 to $1500 from the effects of the recalls now in motion. This is already in cars being resold at dealerships. Toyota was able to get higher prices for its cars because of higher resale values, so this will cut into the profitability at Toyota. The premium for Toyota used to be $1000 to $2000 on cars priced in the $20,000 to $25,00 range and this may be beginning to disappear for the first time in decades.Cost of lost sales estimated by Toyota at 100,000 vehicles from the recalls and $2.01 billion.

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In an effort to not cede the market in tablets and smartphones completely to Apple and Google, and e-books to Amazon, Microsoft is now in an alliance with Barnes & Noble's Nook digital business, and Nokia in smartphones. The deal with Barnes & Noble's Nook, includes an agreement to bring out a Nook application that will bring access to digital books, magazines and newspapers to Windows devices. Microsoft will get a share of revenues from sales of this content. For Barnes & Noble this is an alliance with a well funded company, at a time when the digital business is losing money because of the huge investments needed to compete. Markets recognized this by pricing Barnes & Noble shares over 50% higher after the announcement, up to $20.75.

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Howes gives Marchionne high marks for doing what Daimler failed to do. He says Fiat took the best of what Chrysler had and melded it with the best parts of Fiat to create an integrated company. Both Chrysler and Fiat benefit in the process. There is a lot to be done especially with paying off government debt, building the fuel efficient vehicles essential to do well in a time of high gasoline prices, and operating in a highly uncertain economic environment. But the steps taken so far show Marchionne has put Chrysler on the right path. The new version of the Jeep Cherokee has done well- with a sales increase of 34% in first quarter 2011 over the prior year.

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Petrobras bonds lose the investment grade rating from Moody's in 2015. Petrobras went on a borrowing binge after 2011 with a 63% increase in debt to $135 billion by third quarter 2014. About 60% of this debt is in dollars, according to Moody's. As a result Petrobras owes more every time the Brazilian currency, the real, depreciates. Fitch Ratings considers Petrobras as only a one notch above junk rating. Standard & Poors has not downgraded Petrobras yet because it sees the Brazilian government coming to the rescue of Petrobras. Corruption scandals and weak management at Petrobras also are likely to influence future ratings. Petrobras has lost access to capital markets, leading to cuts in production and slow expansion with tight cash flow.

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Janet Yellen empasizes that she will provide "a great deal of continuity in the Fed's approach to monetary policy," in testimony before the U.S. Congress in Jan. 2014. She served as vice chairwoman with Fed chairman Bernanke, and she says helped formulate the current strategy. She pointed out the job reports with low job creation for Dec. 2013 and Jan. 2014 could be a result of recent bad weather and one should be careful not to jump to conclusions. Yellen says it is important to look beyond the unemployment rate to understand conditions in the labor market, especially people out of a job for more than 6 months, and people working parttime but prefer working full time, both numbers unusually high.