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Sears Holdings spent $1.46 per square foot in 2012 on its stores compared to an average of $9.45 per square foot for Target, Penneys, Walmart, Lowe's and Home Depot, according to this report. Lampert counters this by saying his fund made investments in technology and online retail. Yet Sears stock is up 41% for the year by Oct 2013 largely on the basis that Sears Holdings is worth much more for its parts. Land's End is being put up for sale as well as other pieces of Sears Holdings by Ed Lampert's Hedge Fund ESL Investments.

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India's crude oil imports were sharply higher in 2011 and 2012. India's imports of crude oil for the first 11 months of the 2012 fiscal year ending March 31, show a 40% increase over the same period in 2011 fiscal year. India's import bill was $128 billion for crude oil imports for the 11 months of fiscal year 2012. Indian subsidies to lower prices for fuel are $30 billion annually. The higher prices for crude create inflationary presssures in India and restrict economic growth.

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Juarez, the city across from El Paso, has done well in the last 10 months with 27,000 jobs added in the maquiladoras. These foreign owned factories continue to attract business interest even with a drug war raging in the background. The reason is that Juarez connects straight to American Interstate highways and this makes it possible to deliver goods in 3-4 weeks in some cases from the time of order compared to 10 weeks for China. And wages can run as low as $4.21 an hour. Companies get incentives in the tax treatment and worker training is supported by the local government.

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Oil prices are up and staying there longer in December 2011. The 12 month rolling average for oil prices for Brent crude oil is at $109, compared to $106 a barrel in September 2008, according to consultants JBC Energy. The situation is worse for eurozone countries because of the declining value of the euro estimated at between $1.16-$1.30 in 2012 depending on how the eurozone crisis is handled. The 12 month rolling average was 70 euros when Brent crude prices were at their high in 2008, compared to 78 euros today. France and Italy are seeing their current account surplus disappear with reduced exports and higher import bill for oil.

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US president Biden joins a UAW picket line in Detroit. Biden says he supports the UAW in its wage negotiations for 40% increase in wages. Workers wages are depressed because of concessions made a decade ago to ensure the survival of the US auto companies. UAW leader Shain Fawn was elected directly by the rank and file members for the first time. He has gone back to the UAW's roots for strike action, as it seeks to reverse concessions on tiered wages and address the cost of living crisis. 

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Autoworkers want a raise of 40% from depressed levels with two tiers one for entry level workers set really low during a crisis when auto companies were near or entering bankruptcy. Automobile companies want to use high profits for EV vehicles.  Autoworkers have worked hard through the pandemic and have suffered low wages for a decade, now face a cost of living crisis- the 40% should be seen in the context of starting a depressed level trying to meet costs of living that have surged in 2021-2022. If both conditions are removed the increase might be a modest closer to 10% over a hypothetical higher wage and lower cost of living.

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Changes in Eastern Europe, first with the departure of Sebastian Kurz after a second scandal. The Greens party in the coalition insisted that he resign. In the Czech Republic the government of prime minister Andrej Babis was voted out of office. A liberal-conservative three party coalition won 28% of the vote, and the Pirates and Mayors party won 16% of the vote. The two alliances won 108 seats in the 200 member lower house. Babis headed a minority government of ANO party, Social Democrats and supported by Communist party,(ANO is yes in Czech language), with many scandals, and opposed EU's climate change policies, says DW.com. 

With the changes in Austria this offers new opportunities for a closer European Union as Eastern Europe changes.

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A 16 year old girl, world junior climbing champion, who is one of the best climbers in France, with huge talent, slips unexpectedly on a path in the French Alps, falling 330 feet below. She was walking with family and friends on a path with a handrail in the Chartreuse mountains near her home in southeast France. It was such a banal incident. The French 2024 Paris Olympic Committee says with a lot of sadness that she had so many summits to climb. 

Climbers who went out with her say she had so much energy and joy and sent out so many positive waves. She did not consider the age and level of rivals but just went out with motivation and determination.

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With 18% of GDP and 22% of wages coming from the insurance and financial sector, New York state is vulnerable to the downturn and its effects will trickle to all parts of the northeast region. And the pull of this sector which had GDP growth of 4.4% in 2007, for the second largest state in the USA after California and Texas, will be absent as the country faces a severe downturn.

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A recent poll by Forsa, independent polling institute, shows the governing parties in German chancellor Merkel's coalition have only 34% support. Forsa does surveys for German magazine Stern. By contrast the Social Democrats and the Greens have 47% support. Merkel lost an election in May 2010 in North Rhine-Westphalia. Merkel has three years remaining in her term.

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U.S. exports increased by about 17% to $1.8 trillion in 2010, according to the Commerce Department. China is now the No. 3 destination for US exports.

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This is what our energy wars, our climate change wars are about in summary. Europe has moved faster than the US, India and China in cutting fossil fuels use over 20 years 2005 to 2025. Europe going from 1525 trillion watt hours to 792- cutting use by half. The US from 2900 to  2553 trillion watt hours just 12%. And China...China tripled its use. This has come at a price as the costs of renewables push up electricity prices beyond what homes and industry can support. UK electricity prices 80% higher than US and half of UK energy users plan to ration its use 2025. Half of electricity costs in UK come from cost and delivery, other half of costs from subsidies of renewables and other. In Germany high electricity costs are hobbling industry and reducing economic growth. Lower electricity prices make the US more attractive than Germany as a place to invest. Another way to look at it- US and Europe cut fossil fuel use by about 1100 trillion watt hours and China increased its use by 4200 trillion watt hours or 4 times what the US and Europe cut in 2024 over 2005. Adding India, Brazil this would be 5-6 times what the US and Europe saved in 2024 over 2005. The "And "strategy of combining reduction in fossil with building renewable capacity is working out compared to dumping fossil in one shove and going all out renewable. There is also the question of equity. China and India argue equity means we should be allowed to use some fossil with renewable for 2.5 billion people's needs. The other side of equity is the US saying the same as "no fossil period" strategy puts the needs of the large part of the population for lower costs of energy  pushed aside as wealthy classes say it is OK. Even when the savings through cuts and sacrifices in US and EU are cut down, cut down by 5-6 fold increase in China, India, Brazil alone. In this kind of climate change war it makes sense not to go with labels such as climate change denial DJT vs China climate change affirming, when China is diluting US-EU climate change entire twenty year savings of 2005-2024 by a factor of 4, 1100 trillion watt hours wiped out by China's 4200 trillion watt hours added. And India, Brazil taking this to a factor of 6. This is why a lot of the discussion with self-righteous indignation becomes less purposeful. What is clear is that every action to cut cost of living in US and EU for large parts of the people is an effort in the right direction as it frees up resources for the fight against climate change, the sense that we are all in the same boat and in the same struggle. The fight against cost of living is part of the long run struggle against climate change. ...

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Hyundai introduced its first electric car named the BlueOn. The South Korean government is pushing the timetable forward for development of an electric car industry in S. Korea. Production for small electric cars to begin in 2011, and medium sized electric cars to begin in 2014. By 2020 the government hopes to see 20% of the cars on the road in the electric car category, and it plans to offer tax and other incentives to buyers. Hyundai has invested $34 million in the last year for the development of a car with a lithium-ion battery. SK Energy Co is the initial supplier for the battery. The S. Korean government will do a study on exchange battery system for electric cars, where one battery can be charging while another is in use.

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The European Union governments are finding it increasingly difficult to salvage the Iran nuclear deal and lifting of sanctions. European governments rejected Iran's 60 day ultimatum to help circumvent U.S. Trump administration sanctions. The U.S. sanctions have already led to Iran's oil export to drop from 2.5 million barrels a day to 1 million. Lost shipments have cost Iran $10 billion hurting its economy. Initially European nations France and Germany hoped to keep the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by working with Iran, but this has become increasingly difficult with the Trump administration increasing sanctions including limiting access to U.S. markets for nations that do not cooperate with U.S. policy. The U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and now it looks like the Europeans are faced with a difficult choice in continuing to work with Iran.

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China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, countries that are part of the G-20 are not part of the G-8. Without the developing countries no real progress can be made on climate change or on emissions control. Climate change was a key focus of this summit in Itlay for the G-8 but with India and China only on the sidelines and acting more as an opposition excluded from the main deliberations the whole climate change agenda had to be shelved. The European countries lose influence in an enlarged summit so the G-8 keeps going along. Sweden holds the rotating Presidency of the EU, so the Swedes are there also. And so is Portugal in away with Manuel Barroso representing the European Commisssion. Except Japan, Asia is not represented, and no country from Africa or Latin America is represented. The European club looks like an anachronism and it is. Merkel and Sarkozy say they know this, but there is too much resistance in Europe to giving up this privilege. When the Guardian reported that Italy may be left out in future meetings of an expanded summit. the Italian press and the Italian prime minister Berlusconi denounced the report. Other countries that lose influence in an expanded arrangement are Canada and Japan. ...

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The continued debate about the relevance of a G-8, the need for more countries. OBama sees the G-20 as the really important meeting, and the G-8 meetings as a smaller less significant meeting between the G20 meeting in London and the next one in Pittsburgh. This however leaves the other leaders outside of the G-8 meeting on the sidelines at G-8 meetings, which does not work very well. In this meeting in Italy, Turkey and Egypt were also present, as were leaders from Africa, and from Australia.

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GDP of the USA contracted by 3.8% in the 4th quarter of 2008. Excluding the inventory adjustment which is the inventory of products made but sitting on inventory shelfs, the GDP contracted by 5.1%. In the last week of January 2009 there were 70,000 layoffs in the U.S. in all sectors from trucks to technology. 2009 is going to get a lot worse which does not bode well for Detroit automakers and other industries, and for economies overseas like China and South Korea which are heavily dependent on exports, and in turn for Germany which is dependent on the Chinese market.

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The political deadlock between U.S. Congress and the President and its impact on efforts to reduce the unemployment rate. The failure of the Obama administration and Congress to tackle the jobs issue, leaving too much of the burden of action on the Federal Reserve.

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Germany is well known for its auto industry and machinery industries. It lags well behind other countries in its investment in internet infrastructure. Germany ranks 33rd worldwide in average monthly fixed broadband connection speeds, and 47th in mobile, according to Speedtest Global Index. The U.S. ranks No. 7 in fixed broadband and 37th in mobile. To get a sense of how far behind the U.S. and Germany are in mobile infrastructure and in average monthly mobile connection speeds consider Croatia is No. 9 and Canada is No. 3, Australia No. 4 in mobile. Consider in fixed broadband Romania is No. 4 and Hungary No. 10. What happened? In Germany strict fiscal rules prevented investment in infrastructure without considering how much good essential infrastructure can add to economic growth. There was a decade of disinvestment under Merkel in the country's infrastructure. Consider that Germany relies on copper for rather than glass fiber for linking end users to the fixed line network. Deutsche Telekom laced a strategy for investing in a new network in the last decade when early on in the decade Telecom companies inFrance ad Portugal were rolling out new all fiber networks in keeping with a 2010 European Union report that recommended EU countries invest in fiber. So that today after a decade of disinvestment in essential infrastructure Germany is finally waking up to the fact that its development is uneven at best and lopsided for certain with production facilities in cars and other machinery but failure to invest in the technology that drives machines and cars. Even the updating excuse given by Deutsche Telkom of vectoring or reducing interference sounds strange a decade ago as stated in this report, using the same cooper connections simply reducing noise, a failure of singular proportions to modernize. As a result some of the fastest connections are now in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea in Asia or countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland in Europe. ...

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What is not thought possible, water poverty in America in 2020, in this Guardian report, as millions of ordinary Americans face increasing bills for running water in their homes. More than 4% of household income for water bills annually is considered unaffordable and more than 6% for energy. This is more important today as coronavirus makes running water essential for fighting the pandemic. The source of the problem is aging infrastructure, environmental cleanups, changing demographics, climate emergency. Cities include New Orleans, Santa Fe, Cleveland, Fresno, Tucson and Austin where low income residents face rising costs and water shutoff or even lead to homelessness from unpaid bills. It also is a problem in places such as San Diego and Seattle, with 13% of low income people in Seattle struggling to afford water. Federal funding peaked in 1977 and has fallen since leaving local utilities to raise the money for infrastructure and upgrades for chemical contaminants, and other climate issues. About 90% of these local utilities are really municipally owned at the city level and a few large companies. At least $35 billion is needed for water upgrades for infrastructure and quality each year for 20 years- $700 billion. WIth these kinds of needs America has no room for foreign wars in remote places, and no room for offshoring its vital industries that removes the tax base for cities and states and the federal government affecting not just jobs and livelihoods but the very basic infrastructure itself.  ...

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Fiat-Chrysler's Sergio Marchionne tells an automotive conference that the new fuel efficiency targets proposed by the Obama administration will be "an incredible stimulus for the American auto industry." He is confident that the new 2025 standards can be achieved. He said the industry had a bad habit of crying wolf and emphasized the need to get there so that the U.S. auto industry could be at the forefront of the changes taking place. He also cautioned the industry to not get comfortable with China's role as an emerging market that helped increase global sales. That growth is slowing and it presents another potential risk for the automakers- the potential for China to export 10% of what it makes to overseas markets including the U.S. and Europe. All of which increases the urgency of building the industrial base and competitiveness of the automotive industry in the U.S.