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Three new cable stay bridges are coming up in New York, the first between Queens and Brooklyn replaces the old Kosciuszko bridge and is already constructed, the second replaces the Tappan Zee across the Hudson river just 10 miles north of the Bronx, the third  replaces the Goethals between Staten Island and Elizabeth, New Jersey. The cable-stay design is becoming popular because of its aesthetic looks and because its easier and economical to construct. This gives a face lift to the city. Much of the work is done under the leadership of the State Department of Transportation, New York State Thruway Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Brooklyn Bridge built in 1883 has this kind of cable design but from an earlier era.

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Denmark plans a huge wind farm project in Germany on an artificial island with 200 turbines. This will be Denmark's biggest infrastructure project. Germany plans to reduce emissions by 65% over 1990 levels by 2030. This means projects like this will be needed. Denmark prime minister Witte is on a 3 day visit to India with renewable energy projects under discussion. Germany's Economics Ministry has set up a joint working group with Denmark. 

The new project will be the size of 18 soccer fields setup on this artificial island in the Baltic Sea, to generate 3 GW enough for 3 million households. After this the project second stage is to install more turbines, for a total of 650 turbines, according to Der Spiegel. The project will cost 28 billion euros ($32 billion) with energy planned flowing by 2033.

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Alison Smale describes the German weekly's story on German finance minister Schauble shows the different viewpoints on the Greece crisis. This story citing an interview in Der Spiegel with the German finance minister is critical of Schauble's role.

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Indian prime minister Modi meets president Putin in Sochi, Russia. India is seeking to maintain its ties with Russia even as Russia seeks a new relationship with Pakistan including sales of military transport. Putin and Modi support a multi-polar world order in their discussions. India has 62% of defense imports from Russia in the last 5 years, as it shifts to a relationship of jointly developing arms systems and technologies, and shifting purchases to other countries. India joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Russian support. Russia is also active in building Indian atomic energy plants.

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Powell thinks that rates should have been higher- what is called the neutral rate for stable inflation and employment should have been higher some years back. This rate is closer to 4 percent. It also means fewer or no interest rate cuts in 2025. The Fed funds rate is now 4.3%.

Powell - "We only know it by its works." Fed chair Powell rejects a theory type approach, you only know it when it works for average Americans. 

One has also to factor in how interest rates reitred people who depend on interest rate for what they make on their savings. This also matters to new savers who are younger people.

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This report from Sicily, describes the situation in this region as comparable to Greece, with budget deficits, high unemployment, young people leaving the region, and corruption. This Der Spiegel report cites the deteriorating situation after the centre right parties won the election on Nov. 5, 2017, making the region hard to govern.

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Private labels like Vera Wang's at Kohl's will continue as they offer better value and trendy clothing which shoppers like to see even if its at lower prices than before because of the recession.

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France's rail strike goes into its second day with large stations such as the Gare de Lyon deserted, stations empty, platforms deserted and millions of travelers unable to get to work. French unions are testing the French government's effort to change the generous benefits granted in a different era for rail and other workers. Workers at SNCF France's rail system can retire in their fifties even as workers now live longer lives, as early as at age 52.  Workers are hired for life. Pensions are given at the highest salaries and housing is subsidized. SNCF is $68 billion in debt. Costs are much higher to run the system than in Germany. The unions are intent on preserving these benefits from a different period.  This issue came up in the election debates about how the pension system can be put on a good basis with proper funding. Macron has taken a firm stand and the centrist parties in parliament see this as a symbolic fight to changing the future of French society and the economy. The reforms will raise age for pensions, and affects only future hires not the current ones. Yet the unions have chosen to fight this.  Everything depends on how the public and commuters see this. One sign of the changes this time compared to successful strikes by unions in the nineties is that the percentage of employees of SNCF declined on the second day from 33 percent to 29 percent. Polls show a small majority of the French sees the strike as unjustified and Macron's popularity ratings going up slightly. The prestige of the labor union CGT and its strategy is also at risk. Macron's view is that overprotected entities in the French system- the "Statutory Society" referring to the Statute of Railway Workers from a different era- block changes in social and economic life that would increase social mobility. This and France's future is being put to the test.   ...

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Britain's prime minister spent 3 nights in intensive care for coronavirus. He said the "development of a vaccine is the most urgent shared endeavor of our lifetimes." He will confirm Britain's pledge of 388 million pounds for vaccine research, tests and treatments, part of 744 million pounds to the the global effort against coronavirus. "The more we pull together and share our research the faster our scientists will succeed."

An online pledging conference will take place on Monday as part of the vaccine fundraising drive of the European Union and other countries. The initiative from the EU and president of the EU Ursula von der Leyen, is to raise 7.5 billion euros for vaccine research and development of a vaccine for coronavirus. It has the support of Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Japan, Canada, and other countries. The month long investment drive will go on till the Global Vaccine Summit on June 4.

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Jim Tankersley in the NYT says administration officials point out that president Biden is determined not to repeat the political and economic mistakes of the Obama era. Economists now say that these economic mistakes slowed the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis caused by faulty mortgages of banks and excessive leveraging. Obama cut back on spending on education, on relief for workers and families affected by the financial crisis of 2008, and in investing in education and other public goods. Administration officials also point to polls that show the public increasingly sides with the president on this. "The American people are absolutely right in saying that having the super wealthy and special interests pay their fair share is the right way to cut the deficit," says a communications adviser to the National Economic Council. Huge social gaps opened up in America with these economic mistakes, including the transfer of America's manufacturing base to China, an overconcentration in one country that is only now being reversed under president Biden. Jim Tankersley has covered this loss of opportunity for American workers for over a decade. ...

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US president Biden says efforts are being made to provide emergency assistance to India for vaccine making supplies, as well as therapeutics, ventilators and other equipment. The White House says "The United States has identified sources of specific raw material urgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine that will be immediately be made available for India." Joe Biden said that "Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need." This assistance is now being coordinated at the highest levels and being done round the clock. Chancellor Merkel of Germany - "The fight against the pandemic is our common fight. Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support."  The European Union's von der Leyen said "The EU is pooling resources to respond rapidly to India's request for assistance via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. We stand in full solidarity with the Indian people."   ...

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Higher inflation and interest rates at 2.2% are having a profound effect on the Japanese economy. Japan is starting a new era of positive interest rates with the first interest rate increase in 17 years this week. Pay raises reached an average of 5.28% in 2023, according to the Japan Trade Union Confederation where the highest for the previous decade was 2.4%. PM Kishida has pursued a course that encourages workers to get needed pay raises. It will affect everything from US mortgages to how much money stays at home and is invested in Japan. Japan holds $4.2 trillion in foreign investment holdings of which $1.1 trillion is in US Treasury bonds. As the differential with US interest rates decreases - varying from 1.5% to 3%- it will increase investment in the Japanese economy and in manufacturing at home. Japan has seen low wages and a hollowing out of its manufacturing sector similar to the US creating a sense of less hope for the future. This shift to investing in Japan is a change for reasons of supply chain reliability and increasing confidence of workers and worker's families in Japan. ...

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President Biden is determined to stop the further loss of jobs in the US. He has sent Yellen to China to communicate this. India, the UK and Argentina are opening investigations into China's dumping of goods in their countries. Chile is considering new tariffs. Brazil and Indonesia are feeling the impact. They are joining the EU and the US to fight the danger posed by dumping by China. To offset a large property market bust China is pushing more investment in factories leading to overcapacity in markets, much of the product then ends up at lower prices in other markets around the world putting companies out of business in home countries and loss of millions of jobs. Couldn't other countries do the same. The US is taking that approach to support its own industries. Economists and business leaders in the US who have never felt the pain from factories closing have let America down with textbook theory that ignored this leading to the loss of 2 million jobs in the 2000 era, with failed presidents since then ceding American advantage in manufacturing.  ...

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A new terminal is taking shape at 41st st and 8th Ave. in New York City. This is the new $10 billion Port Authority Bus Terminal. NYT taks a look at the design of this new terminal that will replace one that had become old and haggard looking. Port Authority officials say the old building was a rundown 1950's era building that was a poster child for a failed infrastructure facility. The NYT says this brick building darkened two full blocks of midtown Manhattan. In its place will be a a brighter open looking space that is state of the art and has 2 office towers. Much of the US infrastructure was built in the period of the 1950's and 1960's. Much of it is crumbling and old, and the investment taking place step by step under the Biden plan for rebuilding infrastructure with trillions of dollars in investment is working. Construction will take 8 years by 2032 with coronavirus pandemic delay figured in. Step by step it will change the way cities, highways, airports, bridges will look in the US in the coming decade. ...

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 A English school teacher at Middle College High School in South Los Angeles, says it gives her close to a livable wage, in this report on Los Angeles school teachers. Before she did other part time jobs including as an Instacart worker, not an healthy situation for students or teachers created by two decades of neglect of school teachers and education during the tech era of Silicon Valley in California's largest city. A settlement is reached in the Los Angeles Unified School District strike with a pay increase of 21% over 3 years, covering 35,000 schoolteachers.  The agreement includes a $20,000 pay increase for nurses, mental health workers, counselors and special education teachers. It reduces class sizes by 2 students, which creates more teaching positions per campus, as well as additional mental health services and counselors. The trade union serving 30,000 members, including bus drivers, janitors and teaching assistants, also reached an agreement after a brief strike. Overall this provides 42,000 students in the school district a better environment for studies after the pandemic.   ...

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50 years from 1975 and the passing away of the 40 year Franco era, and 44 years from 1981 and joining the European Economic Community Spain is still finding its way. This report from Spain in The Times of London looks at the period before 1975 when Spanish politicians of every party came together to support the transition to democracy and becoming part of the European Union. He looks with dismay at the fractious nature of today's politics and the frequent name calling, Socialists under Sanchez and the Partido Popular, Vox party, Podemos, failing to agree on how to handle the Catalonian independence movement. Those who supported autonomy for Catalonia and the Basque region in 1975 did this not as a pathway to the breakup of Spain, but to give room for regional aspirations and difference in language and traditions within the federal union of Spain. Much of this was forgotten in the politics of Arturo Mas and other politicians from Catalonia. Catalonia is now run by the Socialist party, elsewhere in Spain  the Vox party and Partido Popular in Andalusia and the Madrid region remain popular. The financial debt and housing crisis in Spain, the pandemic and other economic problems have affected Spain similar to the rest of Europe, creating problems in the economy which only now have been overcome.  ...

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Non Gazprom companies such as Novatek and Rosneft now produce 27% of Russia's natural gas production, up from 10% in 2000, according to IHS CERA. The Russian government is opening up this sector to competition to improve efficiency.

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Evan Newmark says the UAW's attitudes still go back to a different era. And without change at the UAW taxpayers who now own alarge part of GM have as a partner a union with old habits and old attitudes that contributed to GM's collapse.

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The ten week trial begins Tuesday in the US government's efforts to rein in Big Tech companies such as Google who have unfairly profited from a monopoly of the internet.

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Caterpillar Inc. CEO and Chairman, Doug Oberhelman, discussed the acquisition of ERA Mining Machinery Ltd., a maker of roof supports for coal mines, acquired in June 2012 for $700 million. The acquisition was "botched" said Oberhelman, leading to the $580 million writedown for the 4th quarter of 2012 and the 55% drop in profits. Former managers of ERA misled Caterpillar about the condition of the business, and in Obherhelman's words "fabricated documentation to cover their tracks." Caterpillar later found inaccurate inventory data and improper revenue recognition. The move to acquire ERA Machinery was an effort to increase sales of mining equipment in China, the world's largest coal producer. As in the Autonomy acquisition by H-P the diligence in checking accounting and other data failed. Caterpillar lowered its forecast for 2013 based on slower growth in mining and decline in investment by mining companies. Mining companies are seeing management turnover over overextended mining projects that went sour. Revenue for 2013 is forecast at between $60 billion and $68 billion, compared to $65.88 billion in 2012. Analysts see risks in the forecast because mining equipment orders may not accelerate till 2015. Mining equipment forms a bigger part of Caterpillar sales and sales growth than construction machinery- sales of mining equipment increased by 14% to $5.78 billion in the 4th quarter 2012, even as sales of construction machinery declined 25% to $4.03 billion. In the U.S. construction machinery sales declined 17% to $1.45 billion in the 4th quarter 2012....