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Joshua Wong of the group Scholarism is 17 years old and just entering college. His arrest and detention of 40 hours for stepping into a government building area led to increased protests. In 2012 Wong was part of protests that led to the withdrawal of a "patriotic classes" plan for Hong Kong schools. Asked what Hong Kong would be like in 10 years, he says, "there will be universal suffrage." The age of the protesters is one remarkable aspect of these protests, as they are not just young, but very young. And this should give Beijing pause, as this is China's next generation. And what seemed right in your own day may not be right around the corner as time passes, as Mr. Jinping and his revolutionary veteran father experienced, struggled with, and overcame in their own lives because of the tolerance of others.

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This editorial in the Economist says Scots should get fiscal autonomy, and manage their own affairs including setting minimum wage, and tax rates. It says England should not subsidize Scotland as it currently does, and this will lead to Scotland bearing additional cost of about 8 billion pounds. It reminds readers that only about 50% of Scottish voters voted for the Scottish National party in the 2015 general election, and once Scotland has to balance its own books voters would have a chance to rethink the level to which they want a welfare state. As in Quebec the nationalist party may not have the same voter support when it has to tackle the difficult tasks involved in self government. This also means Scots would not be voting on how to manage affairs in England, leading to a federation for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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In this WSJ op-ed, Michael Oren, Israel's former ambassador to the U.S. 2009-2013, describes the difficult moments in the Israel- U.S. relationship during the 7 years of the Obama administration. He says prime minister Netayahu made mistakes, but president Obama acted deliberately against Israel's interests. Oren says two core principles of the Israel-U.S. relationship, that of "no daylight" or no open disagreements, and "no surprises," were broken during the two terms of the Obama administration. One such moment says Oren was in May 2011, when Obama endorsed the 1967 lines with land swaps- a former Palestinian position- as basis for peace-making. M. Netanyahu was seen as lecturing the U.S. president about this the next day, according to Oren, because he was assured by the Israeli ambassador that this was not going to happen and it came as a surprise to Netanyahu.

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Inflation in the eurozone is running at 0.7%, well below the target of 2%. In a opening speech for a 2 day conference organized by the ECB in May 2014, ECB president Draghi said the increase in the value of the euro since 2011 has made commodities like oil cost less in euros, contributing to lower inflation. A key concern referred to in Draghi's speech is the data from Spain and Portugal about the difficulty for business to get loans in Spain and Portugal. About 25% of Spanish businesses and 33% of Portgual's businesses have difficulty getting loans. Even profitable companies have difficulty getting loans. One way the ECB could tackle this is to make cheap loans available to eurozone banks conditional on the money being lent to businesses and not invested in government bonds, as has happened during prior ECB efforts to capitalize banks.

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Catalans formed a 400 kilometer human chain from the foothills of the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean to show their support for a secession referendum on Catalonia's independence from Spain. About 1.6 million people are said to have participated according to Catalan government officials. Spain's central government seeks to delay the issue to 2016 because of the financial crisis and high unemployment in Spain. The Convergence and Union Party of Arturo Mas takes a moderate position on this issue citing the concerns of the the government in Madrid, and the the ERC party which is the second largest party is firm about its demand for Catalan independence. Sentiment in Catalonia favors more autonomy, and a better deal for Catalonia in finances from the central government. Spain has setup a decentralized system of government following the long period of Franco's dictatorship, when Catalan language and culture were suppressed.

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Jesse Eisinger compares the public criticism and the response of two executives of major American banks- Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. He says Dimon may come out looking better with his reputation in much better shape because of the changes he made at JP Morgan Chase after realizing that he had made faulty judgements. Dimon has now set the goal of putting JP Morgan ahead of the other banks in its risk management and working with regulators. Blankfein is seen as making only minor changes in the culture at Goldman and having overcome a wave of public criticism without significant change in the way the company does business. In the process Dimon will have learned more from the financial crisis and make improvements that will be good for JP Morgan in the future, an opportunity that Blankfein is seen as missing.

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The number of people working lesss than 35 hours per week is approaching 7 million according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of these families are seeing furloughs of afew days amonth, pay cuts and shorter working hours. All this means buying at the discount store, like this family which keeps careful track of account balances while shopping, and keeping a meticulous track of purchases tossed into the shopping cart with a calculator so as not to go over the budget. This may be the reason companies like P&G have introduced affordable lower end brands, so as not to permanently lose these customers to store brands. See the link to P&G's discount brand strategy, which couples with its developing super premium brands at the same time, yet barely eking out a 1-2 % revenue gain in 2009 and 2010 by its estimates.

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The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Program protects vaccine makers from much of the litigation risk faced by pharmaceutical manufacturers. It limits compensation for death to $250,000. This special vaccines court is called Office of Special Masters at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. This may be one reason for Pfizer's willingness to pay $68 billion for Wyeth which is amaker of childhood vaccines. Vaccines will generate $21.5 billion in sales by 2012, according to Sanofi-Aventis. Vaccines are biologic products that can't be copied. Wyeth's Prevnar is designed to protect children against 7 strains of pneumococcal disease. It has sales of $2.7 billion projected to grow to $5.5 billion in 2015 according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Vaccines have driven huge reductions in childhood diseases, and the Act is designed to potect makers of vaccines, who suffered from excessive litigation in the 1980's.

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How the outmoded computer systems at China's brokerages are the weak link in China's stock markets. Even though the Shanghai stock exchange computer systems are modernized the brokerages computer systems are falling behind and have not seen the level of investment and attention as the major exchanges. this could be a real problem in a downturn without access to terminals in crowded facilities investors not able to get out of the market may create panic. And overloaded computer systems have crashed in the past and could do so again. In China investors are responsible for executing their own trades rather than leaving orders with a broker so having access to a terminal and for it and computer systems to function properly are really important to investors in the market. This could be a aggravating factor if there is a severe loss of confidence in the market.

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Ingrassia presents a different view of Steve Miller. He became the bogeyman for putting the facts the way they were: the days of the highly paid auto workers were over in a global economy, where automakers compete globally and parts can be made anywhere in the world sometimes at a fraction of the cost in the USA. Should Steve get some of the credit for the union taking the wakeup call? Delphi did not benefit from this public acrimony with the union. Was there a better way. Dana's McCracken thinks so doing this in a less public way. On the other hand the debate needed some kind of point man who got the discussion into focus even with straightforward remarks that would make few friends. Was it risky for Delphi and GM ,with the possibility of a lengthy strike. This was a serious risk.

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Mandel of BW has done some calculations that show that consumers in the USA have spent $3 trillion more than if they had spent with the spending patterns of the 1990's. This acceleration in spending is an overhang that has to be cleared up and he thinks its going bring a nasty surprise in the next few months to the cosnumer stocks and also bring down the rest of the stock market in the next couple of months. Mandel is making a good point here that should be listened to carefully and which makes a lot of sense. its not about predicting the stock market but about using good common sense that the debt is just so large and the signs of consumers in a pinch so widespread in reports throughout the media that something like this just may be likely to happen.

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On line chats and blogs and use of the Internet for free expression has become an important way in which ordinary Chinese have found expression of their views on events in China in the aftermath of the earhtquake and influenced the government's actions. The 3 days of mourning announced by the government and its sensitivity to what ordinary Chinese are saying shows the effectiveness of Internet as a medium of expression in a time where most official media is controlled by the government. In this case the government actually welcomed the free expression on the internet because it was seen as an expression of national feelings and so respected and treated. It also influenced the actions of individuals and business in the private sector. So the earthquake may have produced some positive things in terms of promoting democratic free expression of thoughts and ideas.

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June sales are coming in at 12.5 million vehicles. And part of this drop is that there is a short supply of hot seeling small cars like th Honda Fit, Ford Focus, Toyota Prius, aand the Honda Civic.Honda's new plant in Indiana will increase its output of Civic by 200,000 per year. Honda sold 53,000 Civics in May 2008. According to JD Power Prius sell within 4 days of reaching the dealer. Ford has a 20 day supply of Focus cars, and it takes a month after putting a deposit on Honda Fit to have it available. While Honda has flexible production lines Ford cannot produce anything but SUV's at its Wayne SUV plant in Michigan so Ford has a lot of changes to make. About 20% of cars are small cars up from 12.5% and moving up quickly as supplies increase with the demand.

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Eco-power washes for engines developed by Pratt and Whitney, a manufacturer of jet engines, is aservice that costs $3000 to $5000 per wash. It helps take the dirt and sludge off the engines that accumulates after ears of flying. The caked on grime from the inside of the engine can reduce fuel consumption by 1.2%, which adds up over time. Pratt estimates that if the entire industry used this service $1 billion in fuel costs could be saved and emissions of carbon dioxide reduced by 3.2 billion pounds. There is additional savings in maintenance as the engines run cooler when cleaned, and airlines can avoid costly overhauls for as long as 18 additional months. Wasdhing takes 90 minutes, is clean and pays for itself in weeks. Southwest started its program in April and by late May 2008 had done 248 washes. It estimates savings from these washes at $1.6 million.

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Some frank and honest assesments of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan from a career foreign service officer, the British ambassador in Kabul, Afghanistan about the lack of trust, corruption and lack of viability of the Karzai government, as it faces insurgents who he says could make life difficult even in the capital. Both candidates plan an expansion of the Afghanistan war with Obama equally aggressive or more so with targeting of Pakistan from comments in the last debate of McCain and Obama. The ambassador may be warning of the danger of expansion of the war without carefully assessing the situation on the ground like the failure of the Karzai governmet to build trust, corruption, and as reported by the BBC News tv coverage the shipping of arms to insurgents under the tacit permission of corrupt Afghan governmet officials through highways controlled by the Kabul government.

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Hungary has only 17 billion euros of foreign exchange reserves but has to repay 27 billion euros to foreigners in the next 12 months, accordin to Barclays Capital. Hungary may need help from the IMF or the EU. Most Hungarians borrowed in Us dollars and Swiss francs and now that the currency has lost 21% ofits value just this month repayment is getting harder. As investors withdraw money from emerging markets the value of their currencies is dropping quickly. Even increasing interest rates is not helping as Hungary raised rates from 8.5% to 11.5% but the foriint dropped a further 3% on October 22, 2008. The Ukrainian, Polish and Turkish currencies have all seen a declilne of 20-30% in a few months and this makes debt burdens harder to repay. Hungary, Poland and Turkey all ran up large foreign debt in recent years when credit was easy.

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Of the 13 Republicans who lost their seats, nine were members of the Immigration Reform Caucus, which has opposed path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, with a 10th member trailing in his race. Caucus founder Rep. Tancredo and Rep. Hunt of California, both for increased border security are retiring. About 100,000 newly naturalized citizens voted in Florida, where 2 members of the immigration reform caucus lost their seats, as Republicans were perceived in their immigration reform stands as anti-Latino. Senator Dole lost her seat in N. Carolina also facing Latino opposition. In the current job losses environment unions will oppose business group's efforts to get more technical workers in on temporary visas, and there is no leadership on this issue like Ted Kennedy who has cancer. As a result the immigration issue may not see much action early in this administration even with the election results.

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The German government has taken notice of hate speech on social media and social bots. The Justice Ministry convened a task force on hate speech on internet. Justice Minister Heiko Maas promised legal action against social media like facebook and twitter if it violated laws of libel and inciting to violence. Chancellor Merkel is bringing in a data science expert Professor Simon Hegelich of the Technical University of Berlin for consultations in Dec. 2016. Only AfD of the main parties, with its anti-immigration stance, has not come out in favor of not using social bots or paid trolls in the 2017 elections. Hegelich in talk with DW.com says it is hard to legislate on this because the whole phenomenon has not been fully understood. Article 5 of the Constitution provides for free speech. Hegelich also says the state of technology moves faster than legislation, and being international sites like facebook, twitter and others pose additional issues. He does not say laws cannot be helpful but that its not clear how best to do this. Thomas Jarzombek is a CDU member of parliament and digital media expert. He says social bots are more likely controlled by foreign countries, and fake news sites are more of a domestic problem. Making this worse is the incentive for unemployed journalists to do blogging of the crude and aggressive type to make more money. Jarzombek sees the need for the press to do more in its role for the democratic process to function properly, by functioning in the role of "enlightenment" and "awareness."  Jenna Behrends, a law student and CDU local politician for Berlin-Mitte, says it is necessary for good bots to be used to fight bad bots, in an article in Der Spiegel. Major mainstream media would then have to launch social bots themselves to fulfill their role of providing the public with correct and fair information free of excessive bias and distortion of the bad bots. One example of this is shown explicitly here of German chancellor Merkel's picture with the words " Guilty of betraying the people," with links to "Drain the swamp," and "Brexit." A more complex question is one of how to let people vent out frustration about the mainstream media itself being biased in favor of the established views and not doing enough or giving enough space to reflect alternative views, so that these can be debated without inflammatory language and deliberate distortion. A whole range of tools and modifications of behaviour may be necessary ahead of next years elections in France and Germany, now that the phenomenon is better understood following a vote in the Anglo-Saxon countries.   ...

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A study by Prof. Joseph Gyourko, of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, shows that the FHA risks having $50 billion in losses over the next couple of years. Analysts say the largest banks could face billions of dollars in losses if the FHA were to push defaulted mortgages back into the hands of the banks that originated these mortgages. If home prices continue their decline, a restructuring at FHA and a taxpayer bailout will be inevitable.

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Amy Hood growing up in a small town in Kentucky, then a move to Nashvile, Duke and HBS. She joined Microsoft in 2002 on its investor relations team. She moved into management the same time as Nadella who is CEO. Before the pandemic Microsoft's capital expenditures and investments cost about $16 billion. It is now 4 times that at $64 billion. It is Amy Hood's job as Chief Finanacial Officer to see that all that money is well spent for products with demand. AI services bring in about $10 billion annually.  Yet this may just be deflecting by Wall Street of the real question about the funding needs that are being neglected in education, health care and child care, when huge amounts of capital are being diverted by capital markets in ways reminiscent of the warnings of Franklin Roosevelt at the Democratic Convention of 1932. Warnings that the whole capital markets system was not working right, was only defunding the vital needs of the American people. ...

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This NYT report by Thrush, Shear and Sullivan, looks at retired Marine general John Kelly, the head of Homeland Security till he was made the new chief of staff at the White House. He replaces Vince Priebus, who was the Republican National Party chairman during the 2016 election, becoming the new White House chief of Staff in January 2017. Priebus lasted only 6 months. This report points out that presidential family members Kushner and Ivanka Trump now report to Kelly, as part of the new discipline imposed by Kelly in an effort to reverse the chaotic situation in the White House with different quarreling factions. Kelly made this a condition for his taking the position, which Trump accepted as he was keen on firing Vince Priebus and had asked Kelly to take the job since May. Kelly is shown here as monitoring the contacts of Cabinet secretaries with the president. Who sees the president and for how long is now determined by Kelly to impose rigorous discipline. Kelly supported McMaster in the dismissal of a National Security Council member supported by Bannon and Kushner, in an effort to bring discipline. There is one area Kelly does not get into- the tweeting and personal affairs of the president. His job as he sees it is to put some bureaucratic competence around the president. In doing this he takes a tough approach that so far is respected by president Trump, as the presidency suffered from repeated setbacks from infighting and leaks. Will Kelly last where others have failed is a question posed in this report. Two people who were superiors of Kelly give their opinions. Kelly reported to Leon Panetta, a former chief of staff under Bill Clinton who was Defense Secretary, and to Robert Gates,  a Republican who was Defense Secretary. Panetta may know him closely as Kelly was his chief military aide as Defense Secretary. Panetta says of Kelly, that Kelly never minced words, said what he thought looking at you in the eye- if he thought a proposal was nuts he would say it right out. The big question Panetta says is whether president Trump will give him the authority for long. Also stated in this report is that Kelly called Comey when he was fired as FBI Director, and that Kelly even considered resigning in protest.  Less noticed even in this report is the way in which a team of experienced politicians and the senior most officials in defense and national security are working together in August 2017. In an interview with Washington Post editor Ignatius broadcast on PBS, Republican Senator Corker described how he works closely with them, and how the key people in defense and national security work together before they see the president. The appointment of Kelly helps to create a core independent group of advisors around the president, which is positive in the event the U.S. has to respond to a crisis. ...

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Saakashvili, the President of Georgia who was elected in 2004 has spent a lot of time in New York, as a waiter, as a student at Columbia Law School, and was elected at the age of 36, and runs an administration with a lot of 30 year olds. He says he has "American va;ues". HE also ran for election in 2004 on the platform of taking back the two ethnic Russian regions of Abhkazia and South Ossetia. Note also that the mountains near Abkhazi border the region around Sochi where Putin goes for vacation and likes to ski in the mountains and where the winter Olympics are to be held in 2014. He has also had run ins when he has talked to Putin saying he has western support for his position and has met with disdain from Putin. See th link to other articles in the New York Times about Putin's perspective on all this and how the two men share a dislike for one another which may have exacerbated Russia's response still further.

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How the Lebanon war may have weakened U.S. -Middle East relations.