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Unilever's acquisition of Russian skin-care company Kalina for $850 million in October 2011.

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Renault-Nissan acquired a controlling stake in AvtoVAZ for $750 million in April 2012.

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The International Energy Agency sees a shortfall of 12.5 million barrels a day when it compares the needed 37.5 million barrels a day by 2015 with the planned supply increases showing 25 million barrels a day. A lot depends on the assumptions and what the 37.5 million barrels a day is based on. Does it account for a slowdown in the world economy and a drive for fuel efficiency and conservation habits by 2015? How much of this is reflected in the numbers? And on the planned increases of 25 million barrels a day- does it account for increases that may be planned in 2009 and 2010 in response to prices above $150 a barrrel which is expected? The IEA has a team of 25 analysts working on the forecasts but it gets no cooperation from Saudi Arabia about its individual fields production, and Venezuela, Iran and China also keep their information a secret. This makes supply forecasting a difficult business. IEA uses IHS Inc a data provider, USA Geologic Survey, oil and service companies information and national petroleum councilds information....

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Mr. McDonnell, says to loud applause at the annual Britain's Labor Party conference in Liverpool- "the greater the mess we inherit, the more radical we have to be." Mr. McDonnell told the Labor Party that the power balance had shifted against labor and workers in the last decade. The Brexit Secretary of the Labor Party left the option open for a second referendum on Brexit with the option "remain." Serious divisions have emerged within the ruling Conservative Party in Britain on the issue of withdrawal from the European Union. For the first time the Labor party conference endorsed the idea of nationalizing utilities, postal and rail companies and setting up a fund that would finance a $650 annual dividend for workers, with 10% of stock reserved for workers in companies with more than 250 employees. About a third of the seats will also be reserved for labor on company Board of Directors so that worker interests are better represented. Stagnating wages and low productivity is a major issue for the Labor Party in Britain. Mr. John McDonnell, as economic leader of the Labor Party, cited the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, critical of the current situation with stagnation and low wages, lack of upward mobility. ...

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US South Korea Trade Agreement with 15% tariff similar to Japan,  $350 billion  US "owned controlled" investments and $100 billion in energy purchases, all part of the agreement. After Japan the EU and South Korea have quickly followed in making agreements with the US on trade for a level playing field. 

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A Brooklyn, New York resident who created his own job during the pandemic. A neighbor gave him a used bike she was getting rid of. He sold it online for $400. This gave him an idea- he now pulls bikes from garages and barns all over the U.S. and restores them to new. Because of the virus related manufacturing slowdowns for bicycles, and people preferring bikes to trains demand has jumped. U.S. bicycle sales at $2.6 billion up 81% and use of city bicycles up 141% in New York city for Citibike- with single trip pass buyer at 516,000. Mr. Van Scyvoc a 33 year old Brooklyn resident collects bikes around Cleveland where his father a retired firefighter lives and takes them by pickup truck to a bike stand he has at Fort Green park in Brooklyn. There he sells bikes bought for $80 to $250 for $300 to 500. First he has to have them washed clean and then serviced in Brooklyn by an IT engineer who now repairs bikes.

 

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Germany's furlough scheme is called Kurzarbeit. About 10.1 million workers are signed up for the scheme with about 5.6 million actually using it because they are working shorter hours than normal. Under the scheme about 60% of workers earnings are normally replaced with government aid with contributions from companies. For the pandemic the German government increased benefits to cover 70%-80% of lost earnings if a worker has lost over 50% of working hours. It cost about 9 billion euros and payments are made by the German Employment Agency. This scheme is being extended from the initial 12 month period to 24 months. A similar scheme in Britain that ends in October covered 80% of earnings for workers lost earnings up to 2500 pounds a month, at a cost of 35 million pounds up to August for 9.5 million employees at the peak. The British scheme is not being renewed. The U.S. has its own program of payments and unemployment insurance, yet unemployment is higher in the U.S. In Germany it was 6.3% in July, a moderate increase.  ...

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India's economy growth rate was 8.2% in the third quarter 2025 up from 7.8% in second quarter of 2025. GDP reached $4.18 trillion, projected to reach $7.3 trillion in 2030. This make it the fourth largest economy in the world ahead of Japan, and projected to overtake Germany for third position by 2028. A quarter of the population of 1.4 billion people or 350 million people are between 10 years and 26 years age. GDP per capita is at $2700 lower than Japan at $32,000 and Germany at $56,000. India suffered from lack of ambitious targets, leaks in development budget from corrupt practices, a weak governance during the early period after independence in 1947-2000. Over a 15 year period starting with the first government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999-2004 and with the Modi government in 2014-2026  the political system has evolved for stable responsible governance and no leaks in the development budget, ambitious targets. When the first Modi government took office the country was ready for a surge in deveopment and modernization following the example of the Modi state government in Gujarat which started in 2001. After the failures of the Congress government 2004-2014, Modi took office in the midst of a wave of support for rapid modernization. The first decade has laid the foundations 2014-2025 and the second decade 2025-2035 is a period of rapid growth that should enable India to catch up with China. ...

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DJT comments on Denmark's comments on its contributions to NATO overseas operations like the one in Afghanistan. DJT stated the facts about participants such as Denmark that made small contributions in numbers- DJT said on Fox News -We’ve never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them. They’ll say, they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that, and they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.” About 41 Danish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan and about 800 Danes went in. DJT is probably talking about the  brunt of the action being taken by the US including the effects of road side bombs. About 2500 US soldiers died and 20,000 were wounded and the US took the brunt of the fighting. These were Bush-Obama wars that during that time distracted the Nation from the serious challenges that emerged later in drug cartels in Mexico that led to more deaths in the US than in the Korean and Vietnam wars and World War combined, and the deindustrialization of the US that began with the Clinton era decision to allow China to enter the World Trade Organization without any safeguards continued into the second term of the Obama administration. In the European media there is rarely any mention of the huge losses from drug trafficking into the US that requires action along the lines of the Monroe doctrine which also protect Europe from drug trafficking into the EU. ...

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Latin America has made a huge turnaround through successful vaccination drives. Today more people are vaccinated as a percentage of the population in Latin America at 62% than in the US at 56% or Europe at 60%, according to Our World in Data project at Oxford University. There is little resistance to vaccines in Latin America after successful vaccine campaigns against yellow fever and other diseases. During the first year of the pandemic Latin America had one third of the deaths in the world with 8% of the population. Deaths after vaccination drives have dropped to 8%.  Brazil with 617,000 deaths from coronavirus was second only to the US with 800,000 deaths. Brazil is now back to normal after a successful vaccination drive that has 66% of the population fully vaccinated, and 80% with one dose, some of the highest rates in the world, according to Our World in Data at Oxford University. In Colombia with 50 million population about 50% of people are fully vaccinated. Cases have dropped from 30,000 in June to 2000 a day and deaths from 700 daily that month to 50 a day in December 2021. In Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, 83% of three million population are fully vaccinated, 14% have received a booster. Buenos Aires city health minister says Argentine society has an affinity for vaccination campaigns. "They rapidly accepted receiving them," he says. Yet from the point of view of new variants emerging there is a different situation in rural areas. In industrial states such as Sao Paulo 78% are fully vaccinated, yet less than 40% are fully vaccinated in poor Amazon state of Roraima.   We make it a point to honor the brave reporters in these countries who provide the reports in the WSJ, as we did earlier for NYT Stephanie Nolan's reports from South Africa and Zambia about frontline workers against Omicron in Africa.  Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo, Jenny Carolina Gonzalez in Bogota, and Sylvina Frydlewsky in Buenos Aires and Kejal Vyas writing this report from San Salvador. ...

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An amazing first- the Celtic Interconnector is a 550 kilometer cable that connects the electricity grids of Ireland and France with nuclear and wind from the French side going to Ireland.

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Airbus and Boeing learned a lot from the cost overruns, manufacturing delays, outsourcing issues and other problems in the development and manufacturing of the Dreamliner and the Airbus 350. This is changing the way the two companies approach manufacturing processes for newer complex models of planes.

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The new bill will increase defense spending- $858 billion an increase of 10% over the prior year. Domestic spending allocation is $772 billion. This will ensure that needs are met for 2023. 

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British regulators say they have"absolute confidence" in the Pfizer vaccine after analysis of over 1000 pages of data on the vaccine. The vaccine was approved by the Medicine and Health care products Regulatory Agency. The first vaccines to be shipped to Britain are being packed in Belgium. Britain has secured 40 million doses enough for 20 million people. Vaccination will begin as soon as doses reach Britain. The NHS will prioritize, first care home staff and residents, then healthcare workers, followed by people over 80 years age. Clinically vulnerable people will get a jab alongside people ages 70-74. People with severe obesity and underlying conditions will get jab after people over 60 years, followed by people over 50 years. About 34% of the 66 million population of Britain is over 50 years age, which is about 22 million. This means the Pfizer vaccine ( with doses already secured by Britain enough for 20 million people) covers over 90% of these people or 19 million people and the 1.1 million workers in NHS. Rapid progress in vaccinating these people would make Britain the first country in the world to have done this, a remarkable achievement. By the end of the year the Oxford vaccine should also be available making it possible to proceed with vaccinating the rest of the population of 46 million people. ...

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The Republican tax bill that passed the House and Senate in Dec. 2017 is likely to increase the deficit in the range of about $516 billion according to Tax Foundation or $ 1trillion according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, after boost to growth is included. This time in an effort to get a win Republicans cast aside doubts about the effects on the deficit to get it passed. During the Obama years tax legislation failed to get Republican support because of impact on deficits. The reluctance of president Obama to touch the deductions as proposed by the Simpson-Bowles Commission showed the politically cautious approach taken by Obama.  The new bill was examined by the NYT for its impact on various income groups. For people making over $50,000 over 80% get a cut in taxes, about 10% see no difference and the rest see increase in taxes. This goes up by a few percentage points to 84-85% in cuts for people making over 200,000 to $ 1 million, and drops to 80% for over $1 million incomes. About 20% see an increase in taxes for incomes over $1 million.  As evidence of how the tax bill impacts in greater detail this is not provided by the NYT, and shows that the impact of the bill is still not fully understood.     ...

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Independent contractors rule reinstated by DJT administration following employee status push by Biden and unions. This affects 11.9 million workers in the US. Independent contractors cannot unionize and lack some of the protections of labor law. The independent contractors get to choose where they work for remote work days and get to choose the projects they want to take up, set their own hours which can help for childcare or care for parents. It includes workers in real estate, construction, arts, design, and personal care, where most of these independent contractors work. Only a small part is in Uber drivers or DoorDash delivery gig workers. This Editorial Board opinion in Wash. post cites Bureau of Labor Statistics that says from a 2023 survey that 80% of this worker group prefers independent contractor work to full time traditional employment which has less flexibility.

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In Argentina the Right and Left politics have failed for most of this century, the economy struggles again in 2026- Millei and Argentina as shown by the NYT's Cohen. Yet inflation is down and something different is being tried. Bloated bureaucracy is cut down to basics, investments in mining and oil, manufacturing weak and infrastructure investments lacking, no clear solutions. Mexico benefits from American reshoring of factories in automobiles yet is the place where drug trafficking is happening and this is a problem of major dimensions, Brazil benefits from its vast agricultural wealth in the Amazon region, Argentina is seeking a mining boom, Venezuela after a deep shock from Chavez ideas and hyperinflation only now recovering, much of Latin America and Africa have missed the economic and technological changes that are underway in Asia for the last 50 years.

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Ford Motor Company profit increased in 2015. Ford made $1.9 billion net profit in the 2nd quarter 2015, a 44% increase over the prior year quarter. Revenue declined to $37.3 billion, as margins reach the projected 8-9% range for 2015. Full year operating profits are estimated by Ford between $8.5 and $9.5 billion. Prices on the F-150 truck were up $3600 over the prior year, reaching $44,000. Ford sold more larger vehicles and pickups than sedans. A favorable sales environment is helping sales of more profitable larger vehicles- low interest rates, low gas prices and higher fuel economy on newer F-150 vehicles, including an aluminium body on the new F-150 truck. Recent China sales also show increased demand for the larger vehicles and SUV's, with Ford China market share increasing to 4.5% for 2014. In the U.S. Ford and GM are losing market share, with a focus on profitability. In China sales are growing at a slower pace with the economic slowdown, with 2015 sales growth estimated at less than 1%. Worldwide sales for VW and GM increased to 5.04 million and 4.9 million for the first 6 months of 2015, on the basis of larger market share in China. Toyota worldwide sales declined slightly to 5.02 million. Future prospects may not be as good, as the market in China could become very competitive with too much capacity. The price competition in smaller cars could reach the larger vehicles at some point with the slowdown reducing profits from China....

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Old Lane hedge fund firm with old Morgan Stanley executives, was bought for 800 million by Citigroup partly for the executive talent of old Morgan Stanley executives. Mr Pandit reaped $165 million from the deal and Mr Guru Ramakrishnan, the CEO, tens of millions of dollars. How successful a firm was Old Lane and where is it now? Old Lane was started in 2006. It has returned all the money to original investors last summer, broke even on its original investments, and it has not lost money in the brutal market conditions. The hedge fund unit is now pretty much closed and the executives like Ramakrishnan are leaving. With Citi's worsening condition the hefty price tag for Old Lane has angered investors.

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Even with the best US effort heroin production increased to 9000 tons in Afghanistan says this report in The Economic Times. Indian coast guard and Gujarat anti-terrorist squad size large amounts of heroin at Mundra port and along the Porbandar coast.  Afghanistan has a 2000 kilometer border with Iran and another 2000 kilometer border with Pakistan. There is now increased risk of this activity along India and Sri Lanka's coastlines and borders, says the Economic Times. Much of the colonial period was marked by British traders use of opium from Bengal and other parts of India in illegal activities in China through Chinese ports for sale of opium -leading to the Opium wars in 1850 with China's feudal monarchy and eventually to China turning to the CCP. This was conducted under the British East India Company and condoned under the British Empire- making it one of the worst activities of colonial powers in history. Some of the same activities are being conducted and condoned by countries in the region. A multinational allied task force Combined Force 150 keeps track of the oceans in the North Arabian Sea and in the Horn of Africa. More naval forces are needed from India, the US, UK, Australia, Japan and other countries to keep the oceans safe and clear, and protect people in the region. ...