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Amazon is cutting 27 of 30 private clothing labels in an effort to cut costs and fend off antitrust scrutiny.

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Neil Irwin of the NYT provides some positive news on U.S. housing. Access to housing at affordable prices is improving as more home are built at the lower end. In July home buyers bought single family houses at the annual rate of 654,000, highest since 2007, according to government reports. This is an increase of 31% over 2015. Builders are building new houses at the rate of one million homes a year every month since April 2015. Census Bureau report shows median sale price at 294,600 for new homes in July down from $310,500, largely because more homes are being supplied which is good for first time buyers. And home price increases are moderate, about 5% a year for the last 2 years, based on S&P/Case Shiller home price index composite of 20 cities. The home ownership rate is now at 62.9%, and though this is down from 69% in 2016, this is close to the 63-64% that prevailed during the period from 1965 to the eighties.  It could move higher as the economy improves and supply at the lower end increases further, but other factors are present such as delaying buying a house as student debt has soared, or not buying at all because of lack of affordable prices. Investment in housing is likely to increase- at 3.8% of GDP it is still below the 4.6% average since 1947.   ...

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The creation of a two tier wage structure in Japan with different pay and benefits for Temporary workers is holding back consumption in Japan as temporaryworkers feel tooo insecure to spend much. And there are a substantial number of temporary workers, from 18% in 1987to 23% in 1997 and now 33% in 2007 about a third of the work force, with some workers as at Hino Motors making a mere $10 an hour.

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David Ellison's Skydance buys Free Press site for $150 million and merges with Paramount Global in $8 billion merger to acquire CBS News. Bari Weiss of Free Press is made Editor in Chief at CBS News.

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Mexicois facing adeep recession and rising unemployment- the economy is expected to see adecline of 7% in 2009. And President Calderon though he retains apopularity rating of 70% has lost the midterm elections and the opposition party the PRI has amajority in Congress. The government is trying to raise tax revenues and support social spending. It wants to raise spending on antipoverty programme Opportunidades and achieving universal health care. The highest earners face taxes going upfrom 28% to 30%.

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Larry Saboto, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, and editor of the crystal ball newsletter, www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball says a few states will determine the outcome of the U.S. presidential election of 2012. In the midwest and east the states are Michigan (16 electoral votes), Ohio (18), Pennsylvania (20), and Wisconsin 10), Iowa (6), Virginia (13). In the west and south the states with large Hispanic votes are Nevada (6), Colorado (9), and Florida (29).

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How savings habits changed from the last generation to this one. By age 45 savings rate rose sharply to about 30% of disposable income for our parent's generation. For the generation born 1955-64 savings rate remained unchanged at 10%, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. The result of the financial crisis is that credit cards are declining and savings are up. Credit cards shrank by 11% or 32 millon in 2009 according to Nilson Report.

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Wal-Mart's Sam's Club is tailoring promotions to individuals based on their buying history. eValues was started in August 2009. Sam's Club eValues can be seen by "Plus" members on the company website. Sam's Club executives say the response rate is as high as 20-30%. Customers say this covers a lot of items on their grocery lists. This approach to selling is called predictive analytics and involves using a lot of customer data to tailor promotions.

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France has some obvious strengths in nuclear energy with 58 nuclear plants generating 80% of France's electricity. And Electricite de France is owned 85% by the French government. The French government is working to setup a partnership between EDF and the other nuclear energy generator manufacturer Areva. Problems include the larger reactors that Areva makes and the company falling behind in the schedule to set up reactors in Finland. Abu Dhabi recently opted for South Korean reactors.

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David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under Reagan, is interviewed by Tom Keene. Stockman says the US has $52 trillion of debt on a $14.5 trillion economy, a ratio of 3.6 times GDP. Historically, before 1980, it has been around 1.6. This debtification of the US, he says, is the major problem facing the US today. Stockman sees little or no economic growth in the next 5 to 10 years, as debt reduction progresses.

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Japan's domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses, declined by 27% from a year earlier in October 2010, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. This follows a 14% fall in September 2010. Japan's government ended its subsidies for fuel efficient cars on Sept 8, 2010. And JADA expects a 30-40% drop in sales in future months. This adds to the difficulties of Japanese automakers, in addition to the problems from a strong yen.

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The manufacturing purchasers index for the eruozone was 45.1, remaining at the same level as May, a three year low, according to survey firm Markit. The figures are based on a survey of purchasing executives. Index figures below 50 indicate contraction in the manufacturing sector. Germany was at a PMI of 45, Spain at 41.1. The PMI reports indicate a contraction of 1% at an annualized rate for the eurozone economies in the 2nd quarter of 2012.

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Calpers, the largest pension fund in the U.S. representing 1.6 million California public employees, plans to liquidate $4 billion of investments in 30 hedge funds. Calpers sees the hedge funds as too costly with fees of about 2% of investments and 20% of profit, and too complex, lacking the ability to scale up for a pension fund of its size. Hedge funds have done poorly in the current investment environment where index funds have performed well.

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The market for copper experienced a global oversupply in the last 4 years with a sharp decline in prices. The Sierra Gorda mine in Chile and the Constancia mine in Peru will add more supply of copper. Prices of iron ore dropped 50% in 2014, and copper 14%. The CEO of Glencore PLC, Ivan Glasenberg, says the problem is a huge misallocation of capital, as companies in the mining business continued to invest heavily with supplies outstripping demand.

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BB&T Capital Markets analysts say Bed Bath &Beyond prices are 6.5% lower than Amazon. When the 20% coupon is added this can reach 25%. The 5-10-% in sales tax created a gap in Amazon pricing vs. brick and mortar retailers. Now that sales taxes are collected on internet sales in states such as Florida, Texas, New Jersey and California this narrows the pricing gap. Best Buy is offering guarantees to match Amazon prices in their stores.

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Southwest started flights to New York's La Guardia and Boston's Logan airports in 2009 but has cut service on other routes. It is cutting capital expenditures in half 2009 and recently cut flight capacity by 4%. It has locked in 40% of ts fuel needs in secon half 2009 capped at $71 a barrel, and 30% of its fuel needs for 2010 at $77 a barrel. The new contracts allow it to use planes as collateral withcounterparties.

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The New York Times has lost half its share value in the last month closing at $5.72 on November 20, 2008. Its down 67% this year and reported a third quarter loss of $100 million. IT has two $400 million revolving credit accounts for short term cash needs one of which expires in May and has $398 million in short term debt on Sept 30, 2008. It is seeing a rapid drop in newspaper advertising revenue.

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Shinzo Abe is determined to avoid the mistakes made during his last term as prime minister 2006-2007, which lasted only 10 months and ended with defeat in the upper house elections. The LDP is aware that it won by a landslide because of the splintered opposition. The LDP won only 40% of the vote in the electoral districts in Japan. His focus will be on the economy, on tackling deflation, on central bank policy and efforts to support exporters with a weaker yen, and this time he will be cautious about sounding too nationalistic. Abe told a news conference: "I once fell to rock bottom and was hit with a storm of criticism. Now, I want to prove it's possible to start over again." During 2006-2007 Abe followed a popular LDP leader, Junichiro Koizumi, and hope that he represented a new post war generation of leaders. One approach he might take is to stay close to the U.S. on policies. The early stumble in this respect hurt DPJ's prime minister Yuko Hatoyama after differences with the U.S. shortened his term in office....

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A trial by Merck and Schering Plough that lasted 2 years with 720 patients in the Netherlands found that while Vytorin helped reduce cholesterol more than Zeta taken alone, the plaques of patients on Vytorin grew twice as fast as the one on Zeta alone. Vytorin is a combination of Zetia and Zocor in a single pill. About 60% of patients take Zetia in the Vytorin form. Zetia by itself reduces cholesterol by 15-20% but its not clear if it reduces the plaque formation in arteries at all. The trial was completed in April 2006 but released now only after articles were written about it in the media. Zetia and Vytorin account for 20% of the overall cholesterol lowering drug market. Its about 70% of Schering's earnings and about 100 million prescriptionhave been filled in US so far. The drugs cost $3 a day. For Merck its reputation after the Vioxx issues would be affected by these results leaving some doubts in the public mind.