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Father Hesburgh became president of Notre Dame in 1952, at the age of 35, when Notre Dame was a small university known for football and theological studies. He greatly increased the size of the university, hiring new faculty, increasing the endowment fund from $9 million to $350 million, and changed polcies so that women were admitted in 1972. The endowment fund is now $9 billion. Father Hesburgh played a prominent role in the U.S. and was close to presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, Carter and Clinton. By the time he retired in 1986 after 35 years as president of Notre Dame, he was considered the most effective university president in the country, and the most influential priest in the U.S. He fought for civil rights, for peaceful protest on campus, and brought lay control through a secular board to run Notre Dame. In all these issues he stood up for his progressive views when faced by opposition from the Vatican and the U.S. government. Following the Second Vatican Council of the mid 1960's, Father Hesburgh initiated greater involvement of lay Catholics in the Mass and practices of the Church. At a meeting in Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin, 1967, a group of Catholic educators led by Hesburgh put forward the position that the pursuit of truth should be the ultimate aim of Catholic higher education in the U.S., not religious indoctrination. In this way Father Hesburgh created a new level of credibility and respect for Catholic based education in the U.S. Ironically Father Hesburgh was not a big football fan and refused to pose for a picture of him with a football, insisting that collegiate sports not influence higher education. His passion from his early years was to be a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. In fact he had to be dissuaded from going to the Navy as a chaplain in 1943, to stay on campus at Notre Dame to train naval officers during the war. Hesburgh was born in Syracuse in 1917 to an executive at Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, and studied at the seminary on Notre Dame campus and in Rome for advanced degrees in philosophy and theology. He died in 2015 at the age of 97, having placed a large imprint on the shape of American higher education in the twentieth century. ...

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Snowden tells the WP's Gellman he feels vindicated by Judge Leon's describing the NSA security surveillance of phone records as "Orwellian" and the president's own panel calling for changes. He says he brought the same issues up for review by his superiors at the NSA. His goal says Snowden was for the public to have a say in the expanding information collection by the NSA, as the normal processes of review by Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had failed. For Snowden personally this meant making a decision in unknown territory not knowing how the public would respond, and what impelled him to act was the idea that doing something was better than the alternative of doing nothing.He says he considered the fear that the public would be apathetic- as it turns out the public has been anything but apathetic. After 9/11 defense and security officials operated on the basis that complete knowledge of information about U.S. and foreign citizens was needed, this gives the public an opportunity to test that assumption and see if that is itself a problem in a free society and too high a price to pay. Considering that Al Qaeda and other movements in the Middle East are a result of past U.S. support to dictators and autocratic regimes which have turned some parts of Islamist movements into forces hostile to the U.S., changes in U.S. policies to support freely elected governments are a better solution than hyper extensive policing and surveillance- defeating the problem at the source. That process has already been underway in the U.S.-in the media, and with policies supporting freely elected governments encouraging the people in the Middle East to decide their own future. With the change in policies bringing Arab and Muslim opinion on the side of the U.S. that chapter of hostility to the U.S. may be closed and a new chapter opened, making this an opportune time to close the chapter of hyper surveillance and return to surveillance that does not violate U.S. citizens right to privacy. Technology also played a part making such hyper surveillance possible- such as collecting the entire Library of Congress information in less than 15 seconds- and Congress and the Surveillance Court failing to address the issues raised by techonological advances, similiar to the way the S.E.C. and regulatory agencies failed to keep up with the changes in the financial system till after the 2008 financial crisis....

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John Taylor looks one step ahead of the March 2012 Greece bailout and sets up the most plausible scenario for the future. He says the risks of contagion were always exaggerated from the beginning- a planned default or restructuring of debt such as happened in Argentina in 2001, does not have the contagion risks associated with a chaotic and unplanned default as in Russia in 1998. Predicability in policy makes a huge difference, says Taylor. The European banks which stood to lose from writedowns exaggerated the fears of contagion- a process that always occurs for people who are adversely affected by writedowns- resulting in top officials in the European Union delaying the unavoidable serious restructuring. It was not until Chancellor Merkel handed Charles Dallara, who negotiated for the European banks, a note stating a demand for 50% bondholder writedown, on October 27, 2011, at EU headquarters in Brussels, did any serious writedown of debt begin. Merkel told Dallara: "this is my last offer." The July 2011 summit by contrast had only a 10% bondholder writedown in the agreement, when insolvency not illiquidity was the real issue. Walker Forelle and Meichtry, give a detailed account of what happened in the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 30, 2011. The important thing for Greece, says Taylor, is for what the IMF calls "growth enhancing structural reforms" - greater reliance on private markets, incentives, rule of law. He says this bailout won't work because IMF growth forecasts do not reflect the rapid shrinking of the Greek economy. Antonis Samaras, leader of the major opposition party, is in favor of pro-growth measures and has stated his desire to change the agreement. The 130 billion euro bailout provides 90 billion euros for recapitalizing Greece's banks, and financing the budget. This puts Greece in a situation where the political leaders win voter support by discarding the conditions from the Northern EU nations and come with a plan that is better suited for Greece. The EU in this scenario would cut off further bailout funds to Greece. Taylor sees this as the better outcome for Greece than the current situation, which leaves Greece no hope for growth, and also for the EU by getting out of bailouts that have little prospect of working. It would be difficult but doable for Greece says Taylor, because interest payments would be low and Greek banks would be recapitalized after the current March 2012 bailout. ...

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Pearlstein argues that the US and the Obama administration achieved most of its goals, even though the Europeans took the credit. On regulatory reform, Geithner's regulatory reform proposal he says, could well have been written at the French Finance Ministry, as at the US Treasury. And it gives Obama ammunition to prepare, as private equity, hedge funds, and banks try to water down his proposals for regulatory reform. By having member countries commit to adding $850 billion to the resources at the IMF, and regional development banks to provide help to countries in serious difficulties- and giving instructions that the money can be used not only for debt rollover, bank recapitalization and balance of payments support, but also for stimulus spending, infrastructure investment, trade finance and social support- the Obama adminstration has accomplished a great deal. It has succeeded in putting in place the necessary financial resources to support not only the financial systems of countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America that need help, but put emphasis on the need for resources to go for helping reduce job losses, create jobs, and provide some forms of income or support to people in these countries. This is a major step as it means the countries of Eastern Europe and other developing countries can deal with their crises in confidence. Mexico is taking loans from the IMF. Dominique Strauss Kahn had begun the policy of shifting IMF's focus to these social goals as significant parts of the recovery process in countries, but he faced the old mindset among the IMF staff, as when its reported staff wanted to increase interest rates in Pakistan by 10% instead of the 3% that was finally agreed to. That would have caused serious difficulty to the people of Pakistan, created chaotic situation and disturbed the social fabric of that country. See the link to this for S. Korea and for Pakistan. And as Gordon Brown put it the old conditionality that lay behind the IMF loans, is phased out. This makes it the new policy at the IMF backed by the G20 mandate. The Washington consensus which prescribed open borders, floating exchange rates and fiscal prudence is now ended. And to support this change the developing countries will have a bigger say in IMF policy and decisions. ...

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Michael Boskin of Stanford University, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under the elder Bush, on the risks of protectionism and higher taxes to the economy in the long run, and the need for the Fed to balance the need for providing help with rate cut with the need to keep inflation at low levels. He suggests workouts of the losses from subprime mortgages not bailouts is the correct answer. P.S. A note on December 6, 2008, after the crisis with Bear Stearns in early 2008, and the severe October credit crisis and a series of bailouts of banks, financial institutions and the Detroit auto industry. If one looks for the thinking that was behind the Republican Bush administration's early stand to take no proactive steps to improve things in the economy, then Boskin's article summarizes some of the thinking behind it. Lowering rates at the time except gradually,after the Greenspan moves in preceding years to lower rates and let them stay that way too long (leaving too much liquidity and loose lending in the financial markets), was not to be taken lightly with additional concerns of pushing inflation upwards. And Boskin way underestimated the losses from subprime in December 2007 when he used the estimate of $300 billion investor losses centred in real estate made by the OECD at the time, or as he puts it just one-half of 1% of American's net worth. Concluding that in a $14 trillion economy such losses could be absorbed. He anticipated delays in financing and the need to mitigate that but did not anticipate a collapse of credit markets. Part of this may stem from not realizing the impact of highly leveraged debt on the books of financial institutions and what it could do if fear gripped the financial markets, and underestimating the impact of subprime debt with mortgage securities that had no transparency and distorted credit ratings. Which is why he says that policy should be for workouts not bailouts, emphasizing that the worst idea out there is for a broad interest rate freeze for mortgage borrowers which would throw into question the sanctity of private contracts and thus deter investment. This policy of resisting loan modifications continued as policy of the Bush administration even as Martin Feldstein, another Harvard economist and Reagan administration economic advisor, advocated just that from early 2008 with repeated oped articles in the WSJ throughout the rest of the year....

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Chinese companies are heavily invesing in the stock markets and many companies get a large part of their earnings from the stock markets. The myth is that the real economy will simply go on like before if the stock market takes a nosedive. This is not true because large and small companies are both playing the stock market and IPO's in a big way. They are using corporate funds to invest in IPO's and stocks to boost their earnings. Morgan Stanley estimates that more than one third of corporate earnings in China come from putting money in stocks. The figures are much higher for some industries. In the health sector this number is 54% including real etate earnings also and in consumer goods sector 65% according to Morgan Stanley. If the markets take a steep downturn then these companies will have to show the losses on their income statements, depressing earnings and pushing their stock prices down even further and more steeply. Japan experienced something similiar in the the eighties. And in one respect the situation is more dismal than in Japan. The financial statements may be even less transparent than the ones in Japan's boom period. And investors lack the expertise to figure out whats behind the financial statements. There is no effort to think deeply about what can happen when a nosedive in stocks hits corporate earnings and these losses create a vicious cycle that sends stocks into a further fall turning into a freefall. A Professor of Accounting at a Business School in Shanghai, head of China research at Morgan Stanley and a governance expert in HongKong all point to the dangers in the situation as it evolves. Most of these bubbles like the housing bubble in the US have a situation which George Soros described recently as it burst after he had kept predicting for years that its going to collapse and finally he got tired of saying that because it continued going up. Its possibly the nature of bubbles that a sharp observer can tell whats going on but the phenomena will continue for quite awhile even when its obvious that something is wrong. Its something to do with human nature and the dynamics of human situations where knowing the danger the person will continue to act the opposite way just because everybody else is playing in a certain way. This is the situation in China in 2007. ...

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Petrobras and the discovery 200 miles offfshore of the Tupi field with estimated reserves of 5-8 billion barrels of light crude oil. As Brazil is self sufficient in energy with its own ethanol industry helping substitute ethanol for oil at the pump, it can become a major exporter with this find. However even with Petrobras technology and expertise in offshore drilling its a challenge as the oil is 4.5 miles below the oceans surface, and involves drilling through 7000 feet of water and 17000 feet of sand rock and massive salt layer. Cost could approach $20 billion according to analysts with current inflation in oil drilling rig costs. It involves challenges like building floating liquefied natural gas plants. Gabrielli, the Petrobras CEO thinks Petrobras has the expertise to develop it on its own. If oil majors are given the chance to join in the development the investment terms will be ones that favor Brazil. Gabrielli pointed this out saying that Brazil had already incurred most of the risk in exploration offshore so the oil majors have far less risk and Brazil should invite them only on its own terms if needed. The Tupi field puts Brazil ahead of Canada in oil reserves and in the leagues of China and Nigeria, with new Brazilian reserves at 17.2 billion from the 12.2 billion barrels currently. Brazil has invested in refineries with 2 new refineries coming up in 2010 and 2014 to increase refining capacity by 40%. It is also investing to convert heavy crude oil into diesel and $8.6 billion to reduce sulfur at 11 refineries. The Tupi field will take about 7 years to develop. Similiarly the Kashgan field in the Caspian in Kazakhstan is also in difficult in this case icy and gases filled environment that will take years for a Eni led consortium to develop. When oil does come will the demand situation have changed with new conservation taking hold in the developed world and the cars in developing countries more like the Tata Nano at 54 miles per gallon consuming less gasoline? Even with increase in energy needs of developing countries, improved efficiency and new technology for conservation brought into developing countries could if not significantly reduce, at least moderate demand. To the point where prices drop from $100 a barrel to something more affordable to developing countries....

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How ArvinMeritor navigated the treacherous waters of the automotive parts buzsiness since 2000 when the company was formed taking in the automotive business of Rockwell International in Troy, Michigan. The combination was designed to bring the automotive parts business for roof and door systems, chassis and wheel products with the comercial truck business which makes drivetrain systems and components like axles, drivelines and braking systems. The business is in turmoil and ArvinMeritor last recorded a profit in 2005. Here is how they did it. First, the combination provided some linited diversification for the cyclicality of the automotive business passenger cars and trucking together. By 2004 the foreign makers especially the Japanese were taking market share from the Detroit Big Three car makers which only accelerated after that when the Big Three overconcentrated on SUV's and had no competitive car lineup to match the Japanese in 2007 and 2008. The Big three closed plants and companies like ArvinMeritor closed plants also. In the last couple of years first GM and then Ford began to emphasize emerging market countries like China, Russia, Brazil and India. Wagoner GM's CEO in citing improved results in 2008 specifically referred to the $500 million profit in Brazil as making this possible. He also said that when investors see the improved results so early they are forgetting that the model that GM has setup has changed completely from the model that investors were used to in previous years which was a large and growing US focussed market base. Now its a global focussed market base with particular focus on emerging markets. ArvinMeritor has followed this pattern and set up parts plants in new countries like Russia to supply the Big Three's plants there. But it appears from Phil Martens, Arvin Innovation's CEO's statement that only 20% of global automotive sales for ArvinInnovation, the automobile part of the busines that is being setup as a separate company, are coming from the Big Three of Detroit. And 65% of the sales are coming from outside North America. Which suggests that 15% of sales are coming from the foreign carmakers in North America. ArvinMeritor closed 11 plants in North America and the new company Arvin Innovation has 42 facilities in 16 countries with sales of $2.2 billion in fiscal 2007. ...

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Public perceptions in the USA of China are changing. Today 42% have unfavorable views of China vs. 39% tha have favorable views of China from survey results released in August by the Pew Research Center. This is a change from 2007 when 42% polled had a positive view of China and 39% a negative view. Things that have changed since then are the Tibet riots and China's strong reaction, the issues of contaminated Chinese products entering the USA market and the nationalism in China on the eve of the Olympics. The last touches McCain and his senior advisor on China, Michael Green of Georgetown University, who finds the Chinese reaction on issues like trade to be cocky but cocky to the point of being arrogant. His comment "the combination of arrogance and insecurity can be dangerous." Green was on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. McCain and Green want to bolster trade relations with other Asian countries like India to help the USA strengthen its bargaining power with China. McCain wants to strictly enforce trade agreements with China including blocking unsafe products from China. The shift in opinion in the USA at a time when there is a shift in opinion in China to a nationalistic tone sensitive to criticism of China even when it concerns issues like Tibet which do not affect any vital interests of China should be seen as significant. This is happening at the same time as a candidate like McCain who has less tolerance for Russia and a similar position for China is running strongly for President and has the experience and support of most Americans on foreign policy issues. Its useful also to see that the figures given here show 60% of Russians seeing China in a favorable light and only 30% in an unfavorable light. And when you look at France and Germany, 72% in France and 68% in Germany see China in an unfavorable light, only 28 and 26% respectively having a favorable opinion. Britain is an exception because 47% of the British public has a favorable opinion of China, only 36% having an unfavorable view. The figures are from Pew Research Center polls of 4,257 adults in he five countries conducted in March and April (international views)....

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WSJ's reporters Meichtry, L, Pokharel, and Soon look at the extraordinary rise of Gautam Adani through his efforts to develop reclaimed land at Mundra port in the state of Gujarat. Adani who started with a small family owned plastics maker in Ahmedabad developed Mundra port around 2001 with the help of the Modi administration. Modi saw the electricity shortages in Gujarat as an opportunity to tackle India's chronic electricity shortages. Adani's early development of a deep water port at Mundra offered both Modi and Adani the opportunity to tackle the electricity shortages by bringing coal in large ships to Mundra in the way that China was already doing by 2005 in its own efforts at industrialization. So deeply immersed was India under the Congress Raj of licenses and closed economy that India's established business failed to see what China was doing to break into the ranks of industrialized nations. India's first prime minister Nehru had build a command economy where not much happened without government licenses and approval often riddled unwittingly with corruption. Modi needed someone outside the established companies operating under the Congress Raj command economy and with a vision of an India with abundant electricity to take the risks Chinese companies were taking to build an entirely new economy. By 2005 Guangzhou was importing coal with large ships from Indonesia and Australia. State owned companies moved slowly and would take years to develop the port capacity. Using China's example Modi pushed ahead with Adani on a rapid time delivery making Mundra a Special economic Zone and helping to connect Indian Railways to the port of Mundra for coal deliveries. Adani Enterprises built the thermal power plants near Mundra and build electricity transmission lines on a rapid mission mode giving Gujarat abundant electricity supplies and giving Gujarat state in northwestern India a great leap forward in the way China was already doing right in front of everyone's eyes by 2005 with world class ports built at Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzen, Hong Kong and logistics connections set with the help of Maersk.  Maersk is now doing the same for modern logistics in India in collaboration with the Modi administration.  Modi and the younger generation of aspirational youth in India see a New India that can break into the ranks of the largest industrialized nations with world class infrastructure in the way China has done, and use new technologies with innovation that will speed up the process in a way that the world has never seen. A quick look at Mundra Port in Wikipedia shows the timeline, It starts in 1998 when Adani Port Ltd was setup and Mundra port work began, 2002 the port integrated with Indian Railways, 2003 when it was made a Special Economic Zone by the Modi government in Gujarat, 2007 when IPO of 40 million shares at price band of around Rs 400 was done.  The Biden administration and the Trump administration support India's efforts to build a new modern economy with a rapid shift to renewable energy. As India is building the ports and logistics with the help of Maersk and other companies in the European Union, president Biden is working with prime minister Modi to build a new supply chain that removes the overconcentration of manufacturing and supply chain logistics in China. This means new ports with the latest technologies in India to handle shipment to the US and the EU. Jake Sullivan set out the goals for president Biden to accomplish this task in meetings with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval this week on iCERT. President Biden and Republicans, Germany and the EU, see India as a critical part of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies, and the new supply chain. For the Adani Group the IPO pause offers an opportunity to do what Nirmala Sitharman has done in the Indian Budget this week- build a stable growth path ahead for the long term in line with India's Amrit Kal the next 25 years to centenary of freedom in 2047. Nirmala Sitharaman set a goal of rapid capital spending and investment increasing capital spending in 2023 by 33% in 2023 over 2022, yet maintaining a stable fiscal path by keeping the deficit below 6%. ...

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India's robust debate as a democracy is of an astonishing size and diversity of opinion. The debate did not diminish when there was one federal party in many states under Indira Gandhi (1970's). It actually increased many times during this period compared to the period under Jawaharlal Nehru (1950's) taking the example of one state Gujarat as an example of what was going on in 18 states of that time. Newspapers in Gujarati such as Jansatta, Gujarat Samachar and others carried on a vigorous debate with opposing points of view to the Indira Gandhi government at the state and federal level of the 1970's. Most people in places like New York and London fail to understand or see the local language newspapers or are totally unaware of their existence, and the debate carried on in their pages. So that they falsely assume what a small group of English language newspapers tell them about the vigor of Indian democratic debate that is truly unmatched anywhere in the world. And in terms of its 22 languages in one nation one could say in the entire history of the world. Swapan Dasgupta in the Times of India gives the staggering number of publications today in 2023- 144,520 publications reaching 386 million people every day. And 392 television news channels . All in 22 languages. To ignore the local languages as if they did not exist is to ignore India as if a billion people did not exist. Or as it is for China to say that everything written in Chinese papers and Chinese news channels did not exist. Dasgupta also points out that one should take Mr. Modi and the BJP out of this as at the national level its a 10 year old phenomenon. Look back from 2010 for the sixty years from 1950 to 2010 and India was as badly misconceived, misrepresented, and misperceived back then. India he says fell from 105th place in Freedom House rankings in 2006 to 140th place in 2013. Mr. Modi only enters the picture after that. Dasgupta points out the small sample for these ratings 150 respondents and the methodology having missed much if not everything that is needed in a robust democratic debate. There is another aspect which is present which is prominent in New York and London and Washington D.C. and that is that non-alignment is not popular.  One has to see the way Adlai Stevenson running against Eisenhower twice in the 1950's very warmly received Jawaharlal Nehru on his visit to the US and compare it with the way the US perceived India under John Foster Dulles after Dwight Eisenhower was elected in 1952 to understand this aspect of American perception. Dulles was facing the Soviet Union and the British under Churchill then Macmillan had an equal disdain for Nehru's non alignment and tilt towards the Soviet Union. These root perceptions did not change with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and continued into the 1970's when Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi was prime minister and continued non alignment.  India's political alignment after the pandemic is anything but non-aligned. It thinks, acts and lives in a way that is similar to the people of the US and Europe. Not even because it chooses to but because of what it is, coming from being part of its ancient path of Vedanta and Buddhist civilization that is the core Asian experience. It also needs to bring 400 million out of poverty and build the next phase of industrialization and modernization that requires fossil fuels in large quantities at lower prices to sustain its rapid growth. Some of it comes from Russia purely as an economic decision during the pandemic. The Biden administration fully supports India in this task of rapidly growth to meet the aspirations of a mostly young population- sourcing fossil fuels from whichever source that makes sense. To become a key part of the US new supply chain that reverses the overconcentration of the supply chain in China. It can only be said then that Freedom House has the peculiar affliction left behind from the John Foster Dulles period, combined with a bit of arrogance in failing to grasp the central fact of India which is its 22 languages forging one nation- a task nowhere seen in the history of the world. ...

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Quiet quitting has become a phrase that means workers are working hard and doing things the way they did before, except that they are not letting a work culture that may have gone astray because of bosses  who set the wrong rules guide their lives. Even as companies such as Stellantis are taking on a new culture because of a new respect for workers work-life balance and getting a lot more from them, other companies are following older set patterns that did not include work-life balance or rejected work-life balance outright without saying this openly. Stellantis, Europe's largest car company itself shows why this is dependent on who is the CEO and what he believes in. The previous CEO had poor health habits including frequent smoking and irregular long hours without a structure of any sort that led to this being carried over into the work culture. The CEO changes and new rules are set and soon it permeates who is hired at different levels that are consistent with his habits and sense of work life balance. A new culture develops over time and gradually you have new work ethic that respects the mental health and fitness of workers and of managers, and that of the CEO. This report in WSJ starts with the premise that workers should'nt feel bad because worker are "quiet quitting" anyway after the pandemic. But in reality the statement is a bad one, as it does not say there are better models out there few as they are, that need to take pre-eminent place after the pandemic rejecting the old ones that recklessly ignored health and mental health and were less motivating for workers, and leading to less productive culture in the workplace. At Stellantis a lot gets done in regular hours so that the time after 5 or 6 pm is devoted to workers getting into exercize taking a bike ride, doing things that revitalize and build a healthy body and mind so essential for productive and good thinking type concentration in work. Emails over weekends need not be replied till Monday, and bringing up work during the weekend is discouraged. And still a lot gets done, the company will take the leading role in EV vehicles in Europe and has aggressive plans for 2030 for new EV models. See the link to Stellantis to see how this new CEO runs a company of about 100,000 employees around the world. His name is Carlos Tavares and he took charge of Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler combined operations called Stellantis in January 2021. This is important as it is the new trend that will take hold of the work culture after the pandemic only if workers and managers ask that it be so and as the word spreads that better more productive companies that can get a lot more done is the result of such an educated workplace that respects health and mental health, and the dignity of workers and families. Look, how can it not be so when the word still has to be spread on climate change in the business world? How can one take place without the other? There is a new sense of dignity in respecting the dignity of the environment, of water, soil, and air, how not so for the mind, the body and its connection to nature around it? And no better place than Stellantis and its CEO Carlos Tavares where the old CEO ran himself down with poor work and health habits and passed away while at work in 2018, to show a new way.  In Germany this new way of work-life balance based work culture is called by a more respectful term "Feierabend" than "quiet quitting" showing that what is wrong is with the work culture and bosses who do not grasp the importance of health, mental health, and what it means to be revitalized for truly productive and thoughtful work. Quiet quitting has that sense of workers having to feel a bit of guilt about this and still thinking it is right  doing it anyway. In Germany"feierabend" is popular and accepted, it means breaking away from work at normal times such as 5 pm or 6 pm when a workday ends so that one can go out and relax with a bike ride  or something that is good for health and fitness and rejuvenates. No email, no nothing so the mind can rest and revitalize. ...

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Biden has put forward a new initiative to strengthen democracy by getting increased commitments to key features for democratic processes in the world. The idea is not to limit partnerships with other countries says Anthony Blinken, Mr. Biden's main adviser and secretary of state. This means India a key partner in both democracy and the Indo-Pacific can for defending its thousands of miles of border in the high Himalayas with enroachment of China into border areas such as Tibet, maintain its good legacy relationships with Russia as happened in last weeks Modi-Putin meeting.  The idea says Blinken is- "The US does not want to limit your partnerships with other countries. We want to make your partnerships with us even stronger." This means the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, can maintain economic and development related ties with China which contribute to their economy, and build stronger relationships of culture and democratic processes with the US, India, European Union and Japan. For this reason the White House has emphasized that this is not about the US giving stamp of approval or disapproval of which country is a democracy and which is not. Too much of that happened under previous governments including Reagan, Carter, Bush, Obama.  The situation of Turkey relates to independence of judiciary and the unwillingness to take another look at problems. There is also the issue of technology is to be used so that citizens are protected from undue surveillance. Mistakes can be made but judiciary acts as an independent branch under the arrangements of checks and balances in American, British and now European frameworks of democracy built over centuries of struggle between monarchies and the people dating back to the Magna Carta in Britain. Neglect of workers and families also is an issue for democracies as for instance the effort now taking place in Germany under Scholz to "respect" workers and families. Lack of this led to the movements in US and European democracies giving room to vent that could ultimately lead to subverting democracies in the homeplace of democracies in the US or Britain. Why such a large gathering of 100 countries? Biden understands that the processes of democracy are always being improved and are a work for each new generation. For this reason there is no perfect scorecard- an ever renewing effort to make the process work in the best interests of the people of the country one generation at a time, to improve the quality of life and do this by preserving the right of peoples to choose their governments.  Why exclude China and Russia, till recently China had a consultative arrangement to run the country and Russia has elections? On this question the response of the Biden administration is that countries commit to the process and back initiatives to "counter authoritarianism. combat corruption, and promote respect for human rights."   Pakistan because it struggles with a long legacy of shortfall in the area of education after the collapse of Mughal rule that was seen under the British, and the general poverty of the Indian subcontinent that is striving to preserve the practice of elections, judiciary, and other democratic processes that were introduced in the Punjab and Sind provinces, and elsewhere since 1900. This is true for much of Africa, and also in parts of India, where aspirations of the people are for democratic process but faced with difficulties, corruption and poverty. In India the efforts of Naoroji, Gokhale, Gandhi, Nehru and Rajagopachari, Govind Pant, almost all leaders of the period since the 1850's, and able well meaning administrators since Lord Mayo in 1868 were to let democratic processes gradually find deep roots. Biden see aspirational in the face of difficulties as acceptable, even truly remarkable, with a willingness to learn from other countries to strengthen its own processes for democracy. It is no longer an Anglo-Saxon model alone as Germany and Europe are part of this process to be renewed by each generation. So are India and Japan. India after a century of elections since 1900 gradually expanding voters from one million to 5 million in the 1930's and to 900 million in 2019, with independent judiciary in a system of checks and balances as in the US.    ...

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All the extreme rhetoric on how Project 2025 is going to be adopted under a DJT administration has led to unease that there will be deterioration in the government and society.  Yet it simply may not work that way.   A second objective look at Project 2025 and how it's value to Republicans will be carefully evaluated piece by piece by DJT is needed. Keeping in mind 2026 House and Senate elections, winning broad support for the traditional Republican conservative line of thinking, and maintaining the support of all Republicans in the business, government, media and other sectors.  1. Replacing federal employees with party loyalists. This happens at the top of every agency of the government for every government in the US and Europe after an election for the last century. At today's unemployment level of 4 percent, adult males actually 3.9% and adult females 3.6%, and considering the higher salaries paid in the private sector, the tenuous nature of joining as a party loyalist as the national mood can shift at any time and things change again in 2027; where was the federal government going to find employees to be replaced at mid and lower levels? There is also the situation seen in 1928 when a Republican Hoover victory made Democrat NY Governor Al Smith compel a reluctant Franklin Roosevelt, who was just recovering from polio, to run for NY Governor. By 1931 over 3 years Franklin Roosevelt and Columbia University's Frances Perkins tested programs to stabilize employment in the US, introduce unemployment insurance as a new concept, and a 40 hour week also new, in the entire northeastern + midwestern states, all governors working together. By 1931 in just 3 years Franklin Roosevelt was on the clear path to sweeping victory in 1932 with a tested program to stabilize employment. 2.  The No. 1 goal is to restore the traditional family. It is clear in 2024 that the vast majority of Americans, whites, women as well as men, of all age groups, whites as well as Latinos and Asians, blacks, see that things like transgender "have somehow gone too far." 3. Cultural Literacy is needed for any nation to long survive. This is not even on any platform. Yet knowledge about America's history of settlement of the continent -correcting for treatment of American Indians, blacks, Chinese, Japanese without pointless race controversies- is being rapidly lost, and with it an understanding of America's civic institutions and Constitution, its founders and presidents, and evolution of the nation over the 20th century with the Industrial Revolution. The very terminology that has defined public knowledge about these United States is fast disappearing. It is a cause for unease in the minds of people in rural and urban, conservative and other parts of the political spectrum alike of what will happen to America as this is lost. 4. On immigration  a consensus was reached by president Biden that migrant flow was mishandled and the Lankford legislation offered by Republican leaders accepted by both parties to stop the flow. During his first term president Eisenhower conducted a program of returning illegal migrants to their home countries, Germany is doing this now and the UK's Labor party has made it No. 1 priority to stop migrant smuggling. 5. An effort to increase oil and gas production. This will help bring down the cost of living by reducing energy costs in the US and also helping Europe to do the same. Biden had already accepted the idea of the temporary need to do this to ease cost of living burden on the people of this Nation. The economic cost of wind and solar, are ultimate drivers for expanding renewable energy as major form of climate change action. In the first term of DJT 2016-2020 the lower cost of natural gas made it economical to switch from oil to gas. In the Biden term 2020-2024 all the effort to increase EV's on the road ran into the problem of lack of charging stations. It is possible that spread of charging stations could reverse this in the second term of DJT. It is the private sector and also the local governments that play a big part, climate change action will continue, and new R&D breakthroughs will happen to jump start it again.    ...

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How Merck has approached the Vioxx lawsuits. Taking each case and looking at whether Vioxx was taken continuously for months or years and its proximity to the heart attack, did Vioxx or something else cause the heart attack. It had no choice because 105 million prescriptions were written for Vioxx for the five years preceding the Vioxx concerns, 100,000 heart attacks for 20 million Vioxx users. The question remained what really caused the heart attacks cholesterol, obesity or something else other than Vioxx, or Vioxx, in each individual case the situation could be different. About 45,000 cases have been filed and so far only 20 have reached juries. It has cost Merck $1 billion but its exposure would have been huge, $25 billion vs the $5 billion this strategy might cost. Its stock has gone up 80% since it hit a low from the Vioxx controversy. So far Merck has won most of the cases that went to juries, and this has discouraged additional lawsuits.

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China to introduce local-content requirements for alternative fuel and hybrid cars to qualify for expected subsidies. This is aimed at Toyota which imports parts from japan for the Prius and assembles it in China. National Development and Reform Commission is drafting new rules for the automobile sector. GM's solution to keeping its own technology within the company is to establish its own research center in China. Previously it had a setup research center with its partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation which has 1300 employees. The new research center in Shanghai will be devoted to hybrid and other advanced technologies. The way the Chinese market is growing and becoming a key part of GM's global market GM now sees this as a good investment especially in the light of the new local content rules and the fact that with its own research center the technology will not be able to be copied. Note that Honda, Ford and VW also have announced plans for their own research centers....

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Mexican president Nieto's poll numbers are at all time low of 24%, according to Reforma newspaper. He took office in late 2012 and has been hurt by human rights scandal of the murder of 43 students in the state of Guerrero, corruption issues, and failure to improve the economy. The invitation to Trump to visit Mexico left even people close to the president surprised, and was criticized widely inside Mexico. It is not clear what Trump or Nieto gained from the trip. As Trump continued his talk about building a wall on the Mexican border and having Mexico pay for the estimated $23 billion it would cost. He did this in a speech to supporters in Pheonix on the same day he met Nieto, showing the use of teleprompters and prepared script was not his way of campaigning. Just as the message to black people that Democrats take them for granted cannot resonate without the basic message delivered with compassion and understanding- such as done by the presidents Bush and Reagan- so also the message to Hispanic people is suffering from the same lack of empathy. Recent polls show only 3% of blacks support Trump. McCain and Romney gained only 4-6% in the U.S. presidential elections of 2008 and 2012. The message of the wall is also baffling as an election strategy. A Gallup poll in July 2016 shows only 15% of Americans opposing a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and only 24% of Republicans. There is another problem in the strategy. The rhetoric about walls and mass deportations, and the Trump temperament combined with handling of nuclear weapons is not winning college educated women in the suburbs with polls showing Trump lagging behind Clinton by about 20 points or 4 million voters with this group. It is hard to undo the damage done by this kind of rhetoric used in the primary elections as it gains distrust of voters. It would require a bad economy with illegal immigrants taking local jobs, and handling of immigration seen as weak, for such a message to gain some national traction. Both are absent for the most part with a steadily improving economy since 2012, lower unemployment, a tough enforcement policy on deportatons under Obama that exceeded that under Geoge W. Bush, and the talk of a wall comes with illegal immigration having declined steeply since the 2008 financial crisis. The real culprit appears to be elsewhere, the triple hit taken from hollowing out of the manufacturing economy that hurt the Conservatives in Canada, the insecurity created for older whites from the job losses and hits to net worth from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and the increasing loss of access to health care and educational opportunities with high  costs. About 62 million households or the bottom half of the distribution in the U.S. have a net worth of about $10,000, a quarter of this group having zero net worth, according to the Federal Reserve's Janet Yellen at an Inequality Conference in Oct 2014. Problems no wall is going to solve, problems that built up over 2 decades, problems that will take a generation to fix.  It shows the tech miracle of the last 2 decades as a mirage for quality of life of the middle and working class. Tech as a tool to a goal, not a goal in itself, is the better way forward. ...

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The views of Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Fed, of Robert Steel Undersecretary of the Treasury, and of r Schwartz of Bear Stearns and Dimon of Chase JP Morgan and Ben Bernanke in answering questing at a key congessional hearing of the Senate banking Committee about the Bear Stearns collapse. The $2 a share was determined after Geithner and Paulson knew that JP Morgan was prepared to bid $2 a share, and Paulson saw the need to keep the price as low as a higher price would create the possibility of moral hazard. Dimon's view he was buying a house on fire and he had to do in 48 hours what it would take a month to do, Schwartz, view the rumors did Bearn Stearns in ans set the stage for a bank run, Geithner's view the Fed would not have lent money to Bear Stearns directly under its new policy of lending to investment banks because it felt very uncomfortable about Bear Stearns knowing what it knew at the time. Officials say that the first $1 billion in losses from Bear Stearns would be borne by JP Morgan and after the $10 a share upgrading of the Chase offer the Fed lent $25 billion to Bear Stearns/Chase to complete the deal separate from the $30 billion Fed support of the original deal. Fed disclosed that securities firms borrowed an average of $38.1 billion a day through the week ending Wednesday and direct lending to tradtional borrowerswent up dramatically to $7 billion a day up from $550 million a day the previous week and the highest level since 9/11. Ben Bernanke's view it was action necessary in the interest of the American economy, and the bailout of Bear Stearns was a bailout of the markets in general. This includes Asian markets because the pressure was to do something before Asian markets opened Sunday night....

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This WSJ editorial on March 7 with Cruz winning in Maine and Kansas with wide margins, and Trump winning narrowly by 3.6% in Louisiana and in Kentucky, says that the Cruz win in Maine shows he could win in other states. It points out that Trump actually lost in Louisiana with those who voted on election day, that early voters made a difference. As Trump gets not just media attention on which he thrives, but also close scrutiny in media the situation appears to be changing. The WSJ calls for Trump to release his tax returns, particularly important in Trump's situations says the Journal because of his flamboyant statements about competence as a wealthy businessman. Also a factor in the elections in March will be how much Trump spends on ads as he has spent little so far.