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A Brookings Institution study of hiring trends and unemployment in the 100 largest metropolitan areas of the U.S. at the end of 2012, shows 78 metropolitan areas adding jobs in the 4th quarter 2012. 14 of these areas had more jobs at the end of 2012 compared to before the 2008-2009 recession. Six of these cities were in Texas. This included Knoxville, which gained from jobs added at a nearby VW plant. Other cities were Oklahoma City, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Charleston. Only three cities in the East and West are on the list- Pittsburgh, Washington and San Jose, and none in the midwest, showing the geographical divide in job gains. And Washington D.C. will lose government jobs after job cuts in the government. Charleston will lose jobs from cuts in military spending.

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This is an adaptation in the Washington Post from the book by Neil Irwin- "The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire," published by Penguin Press in April 2013.

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Schneider points out that the IMF opposed the original deal in Greece rejected by the Cyprus parliament that taxed small depositors. The IMF rejected that deal on the grounds that small depositors should be protected and this would set the wrong precedent for eurozone countries. Other reports in the WSJ show Germany chancellor Angela Merkel also opposed taxing small depositors. It could very well be that after agreeing to the Cyprus demands for reducing the losses for larger depositors- including large deposits of Russian investors using Cyprus a an offshore tax haven- by taxing small depositors at 6.875% of their accounts, the patience of the IMF, ECB, and Germany with the Cyprus government was waxing thin. In the final deal the IMF, ECB and Germany insisted that only deposits larger than 100,000 euros should take losses, and that the economy based on offshore tax haven and lax banking laws had to go.

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The new management structure of EADS giving management more decisionmaking authority, and the efforts to tackle the problem of slow growth and low profitability in the Cassidian defense division based in Germany. The German government is intent on keeping jobs in Bavaria, a stronghold of the CDU, where Cassidian is based. More than half of the 23,000 employees of Cassidian work in Bavaria.

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The Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, has estimated cost of pollution in a new study of the costs of environmental pollution in China. The cost is estimated at $230 billion for 2010, or 3.5% of GDP, and close to 4 times the cost in 2004, showing the rapid degradation of the environment from rampant industrialization. The first such estimates were made in 2006 and since then come out spradically from the Environment Ministry. For 2004 the Environment Ministry estimated cost of pollution was $62 billion, for 2008 partial cost estimate was $185 billion. Even the $230 billion figure fo 2010 is incomplete say researchers. Only after strong public protests over Beijing's air pollution have government officials allowed candid reporting on environmental costs. Environmental costs extend to food contamination. A report on China Central Television recently said farmers in a village in Henan province used wastewater from a paper mill to grow wheat, which was then sent to cities as farmers in the village grow wheat for their own use from well water. A Deutsche Bank report in Feb 2013 says there will be a continuing decline in the environmental degradation for the next decade under current policies, higher coal consumption and growth in automobiles....

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Panasonic's renewed focus on profitability. Panasonic's new 3 year business plan under CEO Tsuga focusses on profitability. Tsuga says "the first thing we have to do under this business plan is to get rid of the loss making businesses." Business units will be reorganized so that each business unit will do the product planning, production and sales, as opposed to the current organization which splits units by functional areas such as development and production. The changes are likely to bring the units down to 49 from 88. In a sign of the changes Panasonic set new profit targets but no revenue targets.

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China's housing developers are increasing the issuance of high yield bonds in 2013. European and American companies have issued $120 billion in junk bonds for Jan-March 2013. Chinese companies issued $8 billion to overseas investors for Jan-March 2013, increasing from $2.3 billion in junk bonds issued in the same period for 2012, according to Dealogic. Yields are dropping. In the U.S. yields have dropped from an historical level of 10% to 6% on junk bonds. The same pattern is seen for China's junk bonds. Yields for bonds issued by Chinese housing developers have dropped from 11-12% to 7-8%. Investors are taking on higher risks on these bonds and the current yields do not reflect higher risk, as the bonds are issued from overseas subsidiaries for foreign investors. As with the bankruptcy of Suntech Power, foreign bondholders could lose everything. These junk bonds are not backed by the company assets in mainland China, and local banks and creditors in China come first in getting their money back. ...

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Capital inflows into banks in Cyprus in the form of demand deposits accelerated in 2008 after it appeared that the banking system in Ireland was having serious problems. About $40.7 billion of capital inflows went into Cyprus in the form of loans and demand deposits in 2008, 161% of the GDP of the country, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. Cyprus became the place for hot money from other countries because of the higher interest rates on euros and the lax banking laws.