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Israel vaccination drive has now reached 2 million people for the first dose and 400,000 for the second dose. What do early results show? As the effectiveness is only 52% after the first dose, according to Pfizer for its vaccine, vaccination drive is only one part of the solution. The number of cases in Israel are high at 10,000 a day. There is concern about the ultra-Orthodox community following the protocols and rules for prevention. Ben Gurion International Airport may be restricted to only essential flights. A mutation variant of the coronavirus, a UK detected variant, is seen as making up about 30% of the cases and could make up the bulk of cases in the future. Lessons being learned are that Pfizer vaccine is effective at about 52% for the first dose. Only after the second dose are enough antibodies triggered to resist the virus effectively. This can be as much as 6 to 12 times the increase in antibodies for second dose, compared to what happens after the first dose says the Sheba Medical Centre at Tel Hashomer, Israel.   ...

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Glen Hubbard, who was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President George W. Bush and is now Dean of Columbia University Business School, Hal Scott professor of International Fiancial Systems at Harvard Law School, and Luigi Zingales professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, say a different plan of action is needed from what the Obama administration is doing to tackle the banking crisis. They are really skeptical about the the Public Private Investment Program and other plans put forth upto now for several reasons. First, in every case they say there is a lot of carrot but very little stick, and this won't work. TARP program was mostly carrot, with Treasury getting back securities worth $78 billion less than the $254 billion invested, as pointed out by the Congressional Oversight Panel.The FDIC's guarantee of short term debt was worth $100 billion just for the original nine TARP participating banks, and the mortgage related asset guarantees offered Citibank and Bank of America were worth tens of billions. They see anew round of TARP injections with the conversion of the government's preferred stock into equity after release of the stress test results. Then there is PPIP the Public Private Investment Program, and its plans to subsidize the purchase of bank's"toxic assets" by hedge funds and other investors. They estimate the government will spend $2 for every $1 the private sector puts up. And even with this subsidy their thinking is that the probability of succes is low for the same reason that has prevailed since the earlier efforts by Treasury Secretary Paulson- there is just too big a gap between the bid and ask prices on the toxic assets, and add to that the reluctance of investors to partner with the government. Its time for more stick say these experts as the problem of toxic assets, and of credit and lending in the economy, will hang like a large shadow over the economy, as long as these tough problems are not wrestled with. This is the Hubbard-Scott-Luigi Plan: 1) The FDIC should announce that its guarantees of short term debt set to expire in October will not be renewed. Insolvent banks, defined not by stress tests but as those that cannot fund themselves in the private market, will be taken over by the FDIC under aclear and credible action plan. 2) The FDIC lacks the resources to run several large and complex banks which may become insolvent. And waving the idea of nationalization the creditors may try to get the government to bail them out. The authors of this plan say the FDIC should solit each bank into a "bad bank" and a "good bank." The "bad bank" would carry all the residential and commercial real estate loans and securitized mortgages as assets, and all the long term debt as liabilities. THe "bad bank" would obtain along term laon from the good bank to fund the assets of the bad bank. Al the remaining assets including the derivative contracts and the loan to the bad bank would be assets of the good bank. It would also have all the insured deposits and the FDIC guaranteed short term debt as liabilities. With the split accomplished the good bank can be released from FDIC receivership. 3) The long term debt holders would be compensated by receiving all the equity of the good bank. The old shareholders would get the equity in the bad bank. And in any restructuring bondholders should do better than equity holders. If banks are not really insolvent as some say and just facing temporary dislocations, then the bad bank will eventually surge in value, and the equity holders will do alright, and if not they will receive nothing as they should. 4) For this to work legislation needs to take effect before October for FDIC procedures for handling failed banks to be also applicable to bank holding companies. And this new legislation puts no new cost on the taxpayer....

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The lack of education mobility in the U.S. with rising student debt and soaring tution.

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India European Union Trade Deal - huge potential for EU and India for 2 billion people size markets, new manufacturing hubs, and advanced scientific + technological cooperation. Timing is critical. From the first term of DJT 2016-2020 it became clear that the supply chain concentration in China was a serious error for America and Europe. Modi came into manage the federal government in India in 2014- that first phase was to tackle the basic problems in health care sanitation and road infrastructure, agriculture. By the second term of DJT Europe had realized something had to be done to reduce concentration of trade  supply chains in China. Two things had to happen to bring India and EU together. The Ukraine War and China's indirect participation on the side of Russia, the change in administration from Merkel to SPD's Schulz,  and in 2026 to Merz and the CDU created a new awareness of the need for EU and India to come together. Yet Scholz SPD hung onto the special trade relationship even in the face of the Ukraine war and China's shift when it allowed the port of Hamburg stake taken by China to be retained. Something had to happen to jerk Germany and with it the EU out of its inability to shift towards India. Merz took this step in 2026 as the relationship with China soured over Ukraine war and the grasp of the dangers of overconcentration of the China relationship with Germany that Merkel had created. On the other side Modi had to get India's logistics, road and rail networks, ports ready for such a trade relationship where goods could be quickly shipped into and out of India. Modi worked on these investments on a rapid basis in his second and third terms. India had to offer stability in the relationship. This meant winning elections to set up state governments in key states such as Maharashtra for Bombay (Mumbai) region, Delhi capital region, and Bihar/ Orissa (Patna region northeast), Rajasthan (Jaipur northwest region), local city governments in Bombay (Mumbai) region and in the south in Andhra (Vizag region) + Trivandrum (Kerala). The combination of federal and state and city governments working in unison plus logistics and transportation, put India in contention for the role of a size and magnitude that would make a difference for Europe in its relations with China and Russia. That necessity was now fulfilled and in place. Merz and Modi, seized the chance at the kite festival in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, with a vist to the Sabarmati Ashram of modern India's founder Mohandas Gandhiji. Von Der Leyen also from CDU now joins the former premier of Portugal Antonio de Costa as heads of EU to attend the Republic Day parade celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. Nothing happened by chance. It took the hard work that in Robert Frost's words in Mowing ( "the fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows my long scythe whispered, for the earnest love that laid the swale in rows"). Japan plunged headlong into imperial ambitions after its modernization, China has ambitions under its Communist/ Markets system, India as the homeland of the Buddha and the Buddhist civilization of China, Japan and Indochina, and with its special place for Mohandas Gandhiji brings the European civilization in connection with a civilization that is just as old and advanced as the European in its philosophical and religious foundations with practice in real life, and not likely to flounder on the rocks as the Japanese and Chinese expansionist ambition based ideas. And once again with Robert Frost in- Putting in the Seed in Springtime, for Merz, Leyen, Da Costa, and for Gandhi and Modi - "On through the watching for that early birth when just as the soil tarnishes with weed, The sturdy seedling with arched body comes shouldering its way and shedding the earth crumbs."     ...

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In the small Dutch town of Delft a factory of Unilever that operated for 124 years is now closing after a 4 week strike and settlement of $25 miillon pounds. Its part of Unilevers restructuring plan led by a former Navy officer with Motorola experience. Unilever has far smaller sales than P&G but more employees and it has lagged behind in responding to a changing market while P&G has been moving with changing market trends and making quicker decisions. To speed up decisionmaking and get people to perform the roles needed by the market, the right people in different jobs its scrapping the opld system and letting go half of the executives in the company- a big move. Roles are being reassigned based on market needs, leadership skills, and sales and profits of divisions and growth areas.

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The recent effort to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in the U.S. because some of the money goes to abortions has run into a cloud of misinformation. In reality only 3% of the funding goes to abortions. Title X funds that help support these clinics cannot be used for abortion care at any time. Medicaid funds going to the clinics in 17 states can be used to reimburse abortion providers only if the life of the mother is endangered. The clinics see 5.2 million low income and uninsured women who need tests for infections, breast exams, pap smears, preventive services and screenings, contraception services. By reducing low income women's access to such health services through defunding the clinics would only increase the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Planned Parenthood centers provides contraception to about 2.5 million patients each year and educates women about birth control. By burdening the U.S. healthcare system- adding most of the 5.2 million who access these clinics -with problems ranging from cancer to other serious health issues when they could have been detected by tests at an early stage and treated earlier or prevented altogether, would also add to the burden of healthcare costs. In addition the 800 Planned Parenthood Clinics in the U.S screen 3 million patients each year for other problems such as blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and obesity related issues, also help treat these problems at an earlier stage, which is essential if costs to be brought under control. ...

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The U.S. Senate votes 92-2 in near unanimity to pass a bill on opioid addiction, for prevention, treatment and recovery. This comes as the U.S. faces a opioid addiction crisis in 2016. It increases funding by 47% for the efforts, with funding approval to be voted on separately.

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This New York Times editorial says the U.S. Obama administration and its Housing Secretary Donovan should stop pretending that its settlement is the best way to help homeowners under water. The editorial asks the serious question- how far would the $20 billion settlement the banks would provide under the deal help, when 14.6 million homeowners owe $753 billion more on their mortgages than the value of their homes? The Obama administration is pressuring New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, to accept the settlement with the largest U.S. banks for questionable foreclosure practices, including robo-signing. It asks Schneiderman to resist these pressures and not support the settlement. Schneiderman has resisted this pressure because he and other prosecutors would be restricted from pursuing their investigations into wrongdoings in housing mortgages. The proposal from the Times to the Obama administration is to make principal reductions for underwater homeowners who are currrent in their payments through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The proposal to help homeowners uner water on their mortgages was first proposed by Martin Feldstein during the mortgage financial crisis in 2008-2009 with repeated op-eds in leading newspapers including the Wall Street Journal. Paul Krugman called attention to the failure of the Obama administration on this issue in recent op-eds. Peter Coy of Business Week pointed to some form of loan forgiveness as an essential part of restoring the economic health of the U.S. and Europe in the August issue of Bloomberg Business Week. Higher unemployment has made the foreclosure crisis worse, and has created a strong headwind for the U.S. economy by erasing chances of an early recovery in American housing markets. The Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program has been a dismal failure in helping homeowners facing foreclosure and was a huge missed opportunity to take the correct action early....

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U.S. Senator Ben Sasse suggests an alternative approach of simply repealing the Affordable Care Act called Obamacare and replacing it at a later date. This is endorsed by president Trump. This is the new Republican strategy in July 2017. Forty nine senators voted in favor of this repeal in 2015, when president Obama vetoed this legislation. Two more senators are expected to support repeal according to Ben Sasse.

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Financial problems at Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and the Italian government's role has introduced an element of uncertainty in the upcoming election in Italy. This has helped former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi recover in the polls. In Spain the newspaper El Pais published information from the ruling Partido Popular financial records showing hidden payments of 25,200 euros a year between 1997-2008. The opposition leaders asked for Rajoy's resignation and Rajoy did not address the matter directly till a joint appearence with Merkel in Berlin, where he said: " I have exactly the same strength, the same courage, and I am just as determined to continue as prime minister to overcome one of the most difficult situations in Spain of the last 30 years." Rajoy has a solid majority in parliament, with his party firmly behind him. This is unlikely to affect the political situation in Spain.

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Studies at the University of Padova in Italy and by France's research agency INSERM show higher risks of dementia from retiring early. The INSERM study shows that for every additional year worked we reduce the risk of dementia by 3.2 percent. Retiring at age 50 is considered very, very poor decision, and before 60 very poor decision, as cognitive development, mood, and active engagement with work offering complexity, all relate to good mental health. Countries like U.S. and Denmark where people tend to work for longer than in France and Austria are shown to be doing significantly better in cognitive performance in a 2010 study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. The Italian study shows the longer you spend in retirement the higher the risks of cognitive decline.

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A key driver of the economic recovery is how India tackles a legacy of bad loans that have piled up in the banking system. Here Nirmala Sitharaman talks to Hindustan Times about the government's plan to remove 2 lakh crore rupees of bad loans from the books of banks, and a new framework that makes more people eligible for bank loans. Clearing bad loans from the banking system will increase lending to small, large business and expand the economy and employment. The government announced that it will provide 30,600 crore in guarantees to the National Asset Construction Company Limited to buy 2 lakh crore of bad loans from banks. This is in a 15-85% split with NACCL offering cash for 15% of the assets and issuing security receipts for the rest which banks can sell in the market.  Sitharaman says the bad laons have value particularly the way this is structured. India Debt Resolution Company is a company that will help make this happen with panels of experts for each of the debt categories. The specialized application of expertise will make sure that the assets are valued in a way that the market will be interested. IDRCL is 49% owned by the banks and the banks through the Indian Banking Association will have to take the initiative. NARCL will pay a fee to the government the longer an asset is not properly resolved. Sitharaman also says in this interview that climate change and India' response will not have an impact on the economy. She says- "Coal dependence will stay to some extent. But we are committed to closing down legacy thermal units that are inefficient, coal guzzlers with low productivity levels. Our economy has different regions at different levels of development. Completely removing thermal is impossible. PM Modi has invested and is committed to renewable energy." She said India had done its work to achieve COP21 with its own funds. None of the funds by developed nations of $100 billion has materialized.     ...

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This editorial in the Economist points to the slow progress made in the first year of the Modi administration in India. Because the last years of the previous Manmohan Singh administration were a period of slowing economic growth and the built up expectations are high, there is a general sense that the Modi administration could have moved faster to make changes. As the Economist points out India is a large region with accumulated problems, and the Modi administration needs to have a good grip on the problems and how it plans to tackle them. Key bottlenecks such as energy will free up huge resources in the economy. How to tackle these individual problems with the most leverage for growth is critical to the approach to be taken, as all of the problems cannot be tackled at once. Coal India is an example of the government trying to find an approach that will work, following previous wholly unsuccessful efforts to overhaul the monopoly coal supplier. Modi also has to work within the framework of democracy, so the Indian experiment in change is likely to involve freeing up other energies for rapid development, unlike the Chinese experiment which was able to use the Communist party's total control of the country and top down direction. Under such a framework Modi will have to improvise and come up with a different framework for making rapid changes, that includes keeping the support of the farmers and working classes for a sustained 10 year effort. Moves such as the 150 million new bank accounts and the structure of providing relief to the poor in rural areas come from a good sensible approach, but also help the Modi administration completely change the way things are done, a cultural change which removes the old culture of support developed by Congress administrations since 1947. A similiar cultural approach is seen in the Clean India campaign, which is huge in cultural terms because in a democracy people have to change the way they think to keep their neighborhoods clean. In this sense the Modi administration as it studies and grapples with the problems to plan effective solutions to seemingly intractable problems in a vast region, is simply laying a strong groundwork for 2016-2018. Steps taken for the groundwork covered separately in the Economist report on India in the issue of May 23, 2016, are the efforts to get a goods and services tax implemented to improve the federal government's revenues, the shift of revenues so that about 62% of revenue goes to the states to promote development- which economic advisor, Arvind Subramanium, calls a big constructive change as states are better at competing for talent capital and investment, and the setting up of the think tank to replace the Soviet style Planning Commission of the Congress administrations since 1947....

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Phased retirement is becoming a popular option for many Americans nearing retirement. An example is a employee taking 25% less income for 13 weeks of additional time off to spend more time with a reitred spouse, for vacation, and for trying out new locations for retirement. It gives working Americans an opportunity to gradually adopt a more relaxed lifestyle, to better understand what it would be like in retirement. This option also has the advantage of using good health to add some working years and improve the retirement portfolio, with less demands of work.

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Inspirational talk given to Prime Minister's Office Staff on June 10, 2024, by Indian PM Narendra Modi. In this video Modi tells staff about the nature of the PM's office as a catalytic agent for creating new enthusiasm and energy for the nation's development efforts. Before 2014 prime ministers before him considered this as a power center, says Modi. He tells staff that the development effort was hard work for achieving the vision of a modern developed nation Vikshit Bharat 2047. That this was work 24 hours a day 7 days a week to accomplish goals set to meet the aspirations of 1400 million people in India. He says three points to remember was that work had to be done with concentration on the goal without getting distracted and determination to achieve it, second to have the character to do this in real life setting priorities and tasks. Third, the frame of mind that is always learning, always studying, always acquiring new knowledge about the tasks ahead.  ...

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Ariel Mckenzie is the daughter of  Boeing machinist who told his daughter to join Boeing as generations of Boeing workers in the Seattle area have done. Not anymore. Airel says she can't tell her 15 year old daughter that it can provide a good life today with wages falling behind soaring costs in the Seattle area. Note that the new contract states the 437 billion dollars of planes backlog Boeing has will not be made in non union plants in the South, most will be made in the Seattle area home to Boeing since it's founding. How does Boeing see this happening without a wage deal that workers are not happy with, when since 1997 the workers were being treated as a transaction and losing out. Boeing workers say the new contract has no bonus program and does not restore fixed benefit pensions which were replaced by 401 K's . The housing prices index in the Seattle area for last decade rose 128% and average price of a home in Seattle is $835,000. Average worker pay in 2024 is $75,000 and fallen far behind costs of living. It's all been downhill say veteran Boeing workers after the 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas and the shift of corporate offices to Chicago. ...

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Even though immigration makes the headlines for the average German and daily German life polls and surveys show says the NYT that the main concerns center around a failing economy. For 5 years Germany has experienced little growth. According to Eurostat, Germany's GDP growth rate is 2023 -0.2% 2022: 1.37% 2021: 3.67% 2020 -4.1% Tankersley and Eddy report from Lutherstadt Wittenberg Eastern Germany. As Germany's economy slows companies may move jobs and manufacturing to Austria and France says one CEO of a company that makes fertilizer and additives for diesel motors. This could lead to loss of 10,000 jobs in an already depressed region. The problems faced buy German industry are increasing with higher costs of energy- even after prices have come down energy is 20% costlier than the European average according to Eurostat. Industry leaders say this is the result partly of efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Increasing competition from China means Germany cannot compete as before. Investment in public infrastructure has not kept up with crumbling roads and bridges and a rail system with underinvestment and plagued with delays. Investment in digital technology has lagged behind China, India and France.   ...

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Episode 121 of Mann Ki Baat by PM Modi of India on April 27, 2025 covers a range of subjects from the economic advancement of Kashmir region and the efforts to disrupt this economic progress, to the fight for freedom at Champaran and the role played by Rajendra Prasad. It looks at the British rule in India forcing farmers in Bihar to destroy their land's productivity by planting indigo to meet British traders demands. This was leading to farmers and their families starving for lack of food till Mohandas Gandhi took up the struggle to help farmers with the first test of Satyagraha struggle.Modi describes the months of April as a period of independence struggles from the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre by the British in the Punjab, and the Dandi March from the sea to protest British Salt Tax. Modi describes the efforts to aid Myanmar in earthquake relief, and vaccine aid to Nepal and Afghanistan. He talks about India's scientific mission to Moon, Mars and its 106th launch of space satellite flights. He describes how science is attracting the nation's youth and its imagination as even in Chhatisgarh science centers are attracting young people. This gives a good sign about the future for modernization of the biggest nation in the world. ...

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“Getting gas from America is always a good thing.” Alaska's governor Dunleavy tells Japanese and South Korean, Taiwanese investors. Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba says the LNG from Alaska is "wonderful for us." It takes just 7 days to get this LNG to South Korea or Japan.  Mike Dunleavy's plan, called Alaska LNG, is for a 800-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay that would feed gas to a to be built liquefied natural gas terminal at Nikiski near Anchorage. What was once just a hope as investors pulled out is now a reality with DJT telling Dunleavy, "lets get it done, let's not just talk about it." Note that something similar is likely to happen for car investments by Japanese and South Korean companies. Already Hyundia Kia has announced a $21 billion investment. For Alaska LNG pipeline South Korea has said this has "infinite possibilities for growth." US Navy is rebuilding for protecting the Asia-Pacific, Japan and South Korea know the importance of the actions of the new Republican administration for Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region, and tariffs can be a time to invest more in American manufacturing and show restraint in pricing. ...

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Mnay people who have engineering degrees and jobs which pay 60,000 to $75,000 in the auto companies are now visiting food banks as they exhaust their unemployment benefits. They live in suburbs of Detroit, in Rochester Hills, in Dearborn Heights, in Taylor and so on. THe unemployment rate has reached 14.1% and there are more layoffs ahead. THis is also affecting the health care business as companies cut benefits. By the end of of 2009 100,000 residents will have lost their benefits, according to the state's unemployment insurance agency. THe US Department of Agriculture provides 20% of the food aid in the state to food banks and is watching the situation closely. In May, the caseload of the Michigan Food Assistance Program, which adminsters the USDA's food stamp aid for the state rose to 719,000 households, up 3.1% in April and nearly triple the figure in 2000. THe USDA has doubled its shipments to Gleaners, a food bank, which says it is stretched, as it does not serve the once affluent suburbs....

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American Airlines share price ended at $1.98, down 33%, on Oct. 3, 2011. AMR averted bankruptcy protection in 2003. This is the lowest level for the share price since 2003. AMR suffers from higher labor costs than other large airlines that went through bankruptcy and realigned costs. AMR says its labor costs are $800 millon higher than its competitors. AMR says it has $4.2 billion in unrestricted cash as of Sept 30, 2011, a decline from the $5.1 billion on June 30, 2011. Debt obligations due for AMR are $2.5 billion for 2011, $1.8 for 2012 and $1 billion in 2013. AMR raised $726 million in aircraft- backed bonds to refinance part of $1.3 billion in debt obligations due in second half of 2011. AMR has ordered 460 new fuel efficient aircraft in a lease financing deal offered by Boeing that does not stress AMR's balance sheet. Fears that AMR is burning cash with its expected operating loss caused Moddy's to change its outlook for AMR to negative from stable. AMR had $17.1 billion in total debt on June 30, 2011....