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Stephen Moore says both Paul Ryan and his mentor had a singular grasp of the importance of faster economic growth on the deficit and fiscal problems. Though spending restraint is necessary the key to avoiding a fiscal crisis is economic growth generated by private investment. He says the increased focus by Ryan on spending restraint compared to Kemp reflects the difference between that era and this one, with the deficit much larger now. And not a reflection on Ryan's grasp of problems of the urban poor and struggling working class, something Kemp grasped. The problems are large on the spending side but says Moore this can only be solved by pushing hard for economic growth of 4% as targeted by Romney and Ryan. It is also important says Moore for the Romney-Ryan campaign to emphasize growth as the key message and not having this message lost in a back and forth with the Democrats about Obama's economic failures and voter fears about cuts that lead voters to tune out the conflicting messages....

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The efforts of Syrian fighters to prevent the Assad regime from using the Abu ad Duhur base for airstrikes around Aleppo. At least 3 MIG aircraft were destroyed. The Syria Free Army fighters are young, lack training, and poorly armed compared to the artillery, tanks and aircraft used by the Assad regime. With sheer determination and using groundcover Jamal Marouf and other men of the Free Syria Army have cut the road from Aleppo to Damascus. Before the war Marouf, 37, from the village of Deir Sonbul, near Jebel al Zawiya, was a construction contractor in Lebanon. The Assad regime responds with artillery attacks on the civilian population in neighboring towns. The Lakhdar Brahimi UN-Arab League mission seems remote to these people on the ground and has made no difference to the scale and violence on civilian populations in Syria. Without the leadership provided by France and Britain in a similar struggle in Libya, and the Obama administration on the sidelines, the young people of Syria are left to fight on their own....

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India's demographics show one startling fact. By 2020, the average age of Indians will be 29. This is happening just as the rest of the world is aging very fast. In the next 15 years India will have 130 million more people in the 20 to 49 age group. This compares with a shrinking in population of 100 million in that age group in developed countries and China, according to the U.N. Population Division. The problem facing India is malnutrition that runs as high as 43% for children with half the mothers anemic, weak educational system at the primary and secondary school levels especially in the government run schools, lack of good governance in the most populated states such as Uttar Pradesh in the Ganges plains which has 200 million people, the consequent overburdening of cities which have no plans to manage the migration of the rural poor to the cities. India has to find ways to fill the huge gaps in getting better nutrition, education, dignity and sense of opportunity, and work for the growing numbers....

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U.S. auto sales increased by 7.5% in October 2011. Chrysler sales were up 27% in October. Its Jeep vehicles had the best sales performance in 5 years. Jeep sales were up 25% and Ram pickup sales were up 21%. Ford Motor Company sales were up 6.2%, and GM sales were up 1.7%. Sales of Ford's F- series pickup trucks were up 7% and sales of Escape sport utility vehicles were up 30%. Lincoln sales declined 11%. For GM the Cruze small car and the Equinox crossover sales were up, while Buick sales were down 7% and Cadillac 12%. Because of limited vehicle supplies Honda and Toyota showed decline in sales by 1% and 7.9% respectively. The annualized seasonally adjusted selling rate in October was 13.26 million vehicles. Reasons given for the pickup in auto sales by analysts are that buyers had held off buying in 2009 and 2010 and are now back in the market as their vehicles show signs of aging. Hyundai sales were up 23%, VW's up 39.6% and Mercedes-Benz's sales up 28%.

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French president Sarkozy, and German chancellor Merkel, announce the decision to seek treaty changes to make fiscal discipline a critical part of the new EU treaties. They issued an ultimatum to other EU countries to decide within a week whether they wanted to be part of a eurozone under this arrangement. In any case France and Germany will move ahead for a tighter union. Merkel stated- "We need structural changes. It is not possible to do this in the framework of the current treaties." Germany secured France's acceptance for having national budgets submitted for review by a supranational European body and automatic sanctions. France secured Germany's acceptance of a way to override this if automatic sanctions are blocked by a strong majority of members voting to this effect. On the issue of bondholders, of private creditors sharing in losses, France and Germany agreed to limit this to Greece. Merkel stated: "Greece is and will remain an exception," to which Sarkozy added, "the message to investors from across the world is that in Europe we pay back our debts."...

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Spain's deficit as a percentage of GDP is expected to be 6.0 percent for 2011. The target set by the Rajoy government is for the deficit to be lowered to 4.4% in 2012. Newly elected prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, told parliament that the "outlook could not be darker," with the economy expected to contract in the fourth quarter and in 2012. Rajoy, plans to introduce emergency budget measures on Dec. 30, 2011, labor market changes in the first quarter of 2012, and a banking sector cleanup in the first half of 2012. Savings of 16.5 billion euros will be needed to meet the 4.4% of GDP deficit target for 2012. Rajoy is studying the situation before announcing budget cuts. He affirmed that pensions which were frozen in 2011, will be raised in 2012 in line with inflation. He enjoys the support of France's president Sarkozy and German chancellor Merkel, as all three leaders are heads of conservative parties in Europe, and has excellent rapport with them going back to the period when Rajoy led the opposition party in Spain....

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It goes beyond gun control. Arizona has taken the freedom to carry guns all the way back to the Wild West. High capacity ammunitions are legal. And this is why one person could fire 30 rounds into the crowd in Tucson, and only when he was trying to reload could somone disable him. Also you can carry guns to work and carry guns on college campuses, carry concealed weapons, and little effort is made to restrict someone with history of drug use or other offences by requiring identification checks. The ammunition in this shooting was purchased freely at a Wal-Mart in Tucson. Residents of Arizona seem to think it makes them safer as is evident from comments made by people of different political opinions. Rep. Giffords district also has a 104 mile border with Mexico, which is going through a spree of drug gang related violence. And the shift in the political landscape happened recently with a new Republican governor and the legislature going Republican with hardened attitudes on immigration issues....

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The problem of information providers is linked to the problem of the recipient of the information- the common man in America. For the common man in America these are distant places with strange cultures and manners of living, remote from his everyday existence in an industrialized country. Why should the common man in America care if a small fraction of GNP and a trained military with advanced equipment will be sufficient to deal with situations in remote places. A fast growing economy between 1950- 2000 could also absorb the costs of local conflicts. The reason the common man in America should care is that the economy is expected to grow slowly, so that poor information leading to poor decisions on allocating limited and declining resources for different local conflicts- a war in Iraq costing 1 trillion dollars, and a war in Afghanistan 1 trillion dollars- can compromise future economic security, investment in America and overall defense needs. Especially when money wasted with poor decisions cannot be retrieved or put back in the Treasury, and creates future problems....

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Self-compassion as a useful trait. Being on good terms with oneself helps in improving motivation, self-discipline, and reducing anxiety.The result is a calmer, stronger person in the long run. Actually the research goes back to the 1930's and 1940's, with the books of Harry Emerson Fosdick. He called it self-acceptance and showed that by doing this people shouldered responsibility for themselves. This was for Fosdick a part of "being a real person," also the title of one of his books. The difficulty is that then as it is today, the prevailing notion was that if one engaged in self-acceptance we would take less responsibility for ourselves. In 1927 Fosdick was appointed radio minister for the National Vespers Hour. For 17 years his voice went out to the whole nation struggling with self-doubt during a depression and war, from a room in a church tower overlooking the Hudson River in New York city, each time building in people a faith in themselves.

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The failure of the Obama administration to negotiate a trade treaty with South Korea during the G-20 talks in Seoul. The lack of efforts to lay the groundwork for such a treaty in the last 2 years. The Journal is critical of Mr. Obama's embrace of Federal Reserve policies to buy $600 billon of Treasury securities, which drew criticism from all sides during the G-20 talks. Failure of Mr. Geithner and Mr. Obama to draw attention to China's sterilization of capital inflows and recycling them into US government debt, instead of allowing capital to flow in and out more freely. Overfocus on the call for limiting each nation's trade surplus to 4% of GDP, when attention could have been drawn to a number of serious concerns about China's policies. Valuable political energy lost in defending the Fed's move and calling for the 4% of GDP limit to surpluses. Result is a loss of American leadership for the first time at a summit conference of world leaders.

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The Pirate Party enable's participation by members using its software Liquid Level Feedback. It helps harnesss the internet for what it does. As founder Rick Falkvinge and others who see the potential of the internet in new ways put it: first there was the written word for people to communicate by reading, then the printing press of Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, sometime in the mid-15th century, so that people could read in the language written for large numbers of people. Now with binary code and technology for the internet it is possible to communicate for large numbers of people- with a final barrier of language removed with automatic translation- creating an active participatory community. The language barrier removed creates a world community, making the essential step needed to cope with the problems created by industry and finance- which operates in an interconnected manner worldwide without any element of participation of an interconnected community worldwide- as seen in the total lack of participation of the global public experienced during the 2008 global banking and financial crisis. ...

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Nestle's strategy to meet increases in commodity costs going into its products is to steadily but gradually increase prices. Nestle has detected the rise in commodity costs early from its close contact with 600,000 farmers around the world. This goes back to 2007, when it steadily increased the prices of milk powder and did not lower prices as commodity costs temporarily decreased. Nestle relied on the expectation of rising prices as demand in developing countries surged. Even when prices of milk powder declined from $5500 a ton in 2007, Nestle did not lower prices. The commodity price increases will add $3 billion to Nestle's costs. The other part of the strategy is to lower packaging and other costs- savings in this area reached $1.5 billion in 2010- so that price increases on food products can be kept at 8-10% a year. Without these savings Nestle says the increases would have to be be higher, approaching 12%. Nestle is also developing new products that command higher prices. An example is the single serve capsules for its Nespresso coffee machines....

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The Journal editorial points out that the refusal to seriously look at the restructuring of Greece's debt is moving from the amusing to the dangerous. Greek 2 year bonds yield 20%, and credit default swaps are priced as though a default is likely. EU denials continue, but Greek, German EU and IMF officials are conceding in private the need to look at this option. The EU thinking was that openly discussing debt restructuring would lead to capital flight, and better to muddle through than to have Greek and European banks take losses and need further bailouts. The editorial emphasizes the importance of Greece restructuring its debt in an orderly fashion. Financial markets have already priced in the likelihood of debt restructuring. Better to conduct serious stress tests with sovereign default scenarios and let investors, taxpayers and governments respond in an orderly way to this situation. The worst possible situation is a Lehman Brothers type panic. The lack of clarity was the biggest problem with Lehman, and the resulting uncertainty led to the financial panic....

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Air Canada is planning a campaign to persuade business travellers to try Air Canada hubs in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, for flights to Europe, Asia and other long distance destinations. This strategy is aimed at secondary markets in the U.S. that lack direct service to Asian countries. Toronto's Pearson airport has just completed a C$4.4 billion modernization. In Vancouver and Montreal passengers connecting to the U.S. will no longer have to claim their baggage and will go directly to U.S. customs. The same arrangement is being planned for Toronto this fall. Air Canada is counting on its fleet of younger planes and wide body aircraft and a pleasant experience through Canadian airports. Recent capacity additions for Aisa will also help. Air Canada's trans-Pacific traffic increased by 22% in 2010 from 2009. Air Canada made a profit in 2010, after suffering a serious loss of 1 billion Canadian dollars in 2008. Air Canada's CEO Calin Rovinescu's strategy is part of his effort to make Air Canada "an international powerhouse," making Toronto and other Canadian hubs some of the world's major gateways....

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The IMF's latest economic report says there is a very real risk that Greece's debt crisis could spread. "Contagion to the euro area, and then onwards to emerging Europe, remains a tangible downside risk," the report says. Sentiment in the financial markets is for Greece restructuring its debt, possibly as soon as late 2011. Increasingly the concern focusses on Greece never being able to pay back the $464 billion in debt, as a result pushing losses onto bondholders and banks in Europe. The IMF's director for Western hemisphere, Nicolas Eyzaguirre, said Latin America is in danger of going into a full blown economic crisis if the situation is not managed correctly with overheating in their economies. Speaking at a conference of central bankers in Rio de Janeiro, he said the Latin American region could see major weakness in currencies with an external shock such as drop in commodities prices or increase in U.S. interest rates. He said Brazil "should rein in the economy through an array of measures to avoid excessive exuberance, or it could end in tears."...

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Jerry Seib provides a summary of the reasons why Chuck Hagel was asked to step down as Secretary of Defense. He was not deeply involved in the decision to not follow up on the president's "red line" remarks on Assad. He was seen as too laid back as the Iraq and Syria conflict flared up. His fit initailly seen as favorable as a war veteran bringing 2 wars to an end, suddenly appeared to be unfavorable as the administration had to increase committment to the war effort. Following the midterms and the president's NSA defense team being seen as weak by Republicans the pressure to make changes increased. The military establishment did not want to see the loss of gains made in Iraq and pushed in one direction, whereas the NSA team was pulling in another direction, and Hagel's recent memo to the NSA advisor expressed the frustration that action was too slow. As spokesman for the administration's policy Hagel was not seen as credible to adminstration critics.

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Muhammadu Buhari wins the March 2015 presidential election in Nigeria winning 54% of the vote compared to 45% for incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan. The peaceful transition is another first for Africa for the size of a country like Nigeria. Buhari was a military ruler for 20 months following a 1983 coup. This is his fourth try running for president. This time he campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, and anti-terrorism campaign as Boko Haram insurgency is affecting the northeast of the country. He also campaigned for economic development and jobs, as Nigeria is sorely lacking infrastructure development such as road, water, electricity, especially in the Muslim north of the country where Buhari is from. Incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan failed to tackle the problems, and the situation deteriorated in 2014-2015 with the lack of security in the country, as the Boko Haram insurgency affected the northeast. In 2015 oil prices collapsed leading to a sharp depreciation in the value of the Naira, Nigeria's currency, and lower oil revenues, a significant setback....

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Tesla Motors delivers 10,350 vehicles in the 1st quarter 2015. This is a 55% increase over the same quarter in 2014. The target set by CEO Elon Musk of Tesla Motors is for deliveries of 55,000 in 2015, and reaching 500,000 by 2020. The new model Tesla Model X sport utility vehicle comes out in the second half of 2015. Tesla's expenses are going up rapidly with the higher sales, especially for a global supercharger network in North America, Europe and Asia, to meet new buyer concerns about the infrastructure. Capital expenditures budget for 2015 is $1.5 billion. Future expenditures include a $4-5 billion plant to make electric batteries. Tesla says it will not be profitable till 2020. Tesla is using attractive lease deals to overcome buyer resistance at a time of low gas prices. It is cutting back on plans for China. Tesla share price on April 2, 2015 was $191. This gives it a dizzy $24 billion capitalization, about half of the capitalization of GM at $58.8 billion in stock market capitalization, and Ford Motor at $63.4 billion. ...

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German politicians are critical of Finance minister Schauble's remarks comparing Putin's takeover of Crimea to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland. Merkel distances herself from the remarks considering that a singular event. Former chancellor Kohl tells the Bild newspaper, "there's been a lack of sensitivity in dealing with our Russian neighbor, especially President Putin." Decades of hard work in building relations with the Soviet Union since Willy Brandt initiated engagement, followed by Schmidt, Kohl and Schroeder, are seen as being put at risk by the German public and government. Business interests are also at stake. Polls show 60% of German's oppose sending the German air force to NATO's eastern borders, and German foreign minister Steinmeier said there was no way for Ukraine to join NATO. A former German ambassador to the U.S., head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, says Germany not the U.S. would suffer the most from a deterioration in relations. Companies like Siemens and Deutsche Bahn put a high priority on de-escalation of the crisis....

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This NYT editorial describes U.S. president Obama's West Point speech as lacking substance and overhyped. Issues of how to tackle relations with a more assertive China and Russia were left unaddressed, and the increase in tensions in Asia and in Europe were left out. Much of the speech used platitudes without spelling out what the U.S. would do, such as saying that there was no question that the U.S. would lead, it was about how it would lead. Questions raised about Obama's handling of foreign affairs will not be addressed by this speech, says NYT. The WSJ editorial on May 29, 2014, expressed a similiar opinion, suggesting that many are asking the same questions about whether there is a policy or whether it is being framed by Mr. Obama's personal preferences to stay out of most foreign issues and focus on domestic affairs, even though this means neglect of issues in which the lack of U.S. leadership will have serious implications for the future. Was the address an attempt to gloss over these obvious deficiencies with Mr. Obama's rhetorical skills?...

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A.G. Lafley returns to P&G to take over from Robert McDonald as CEO. Lafley retired from the CEO position 4 years ago. He worked his way up in the detergent division starting as brand assistant for Joy dishwashing liquid in 1977. McDonald's role as CEO was marked by weak growth in the U.S. for P&G's premium priced brands during the period following the financial crisis of 2008-2009, when consumers were becoming frugal. McDonald increased emphasis on emerging markets but this could not make up for weak growth in P&G's largest market in N. America. Lafley had built up the premium brands during his period as CEO, and not focussed enough on reducing costs of manufacturing and overhead as much as competitors. This turned into a problem for P&G when consumers became more frugal and price conscious. In 2000 Lafley was brought back the first time after the abrupt departure of CEO Durk Jager following a large earnings shortfall and decline in share price. This time private investor Ackman had pushed for McDonald's replacement....

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Eisinger says the Federal Reserve's staff plays an important role in regulatory reform. He quotes Cornell law professor, Robert Hockett, who says the general counsels tend to become more conservative over time and inclined to support the status quo. This makes required regulatory changes such as increasing the capital reserves at banks and reducing leverage more difficult. Eisinger describes the position of the U.S. Federal Reserve's general counsel, Scott Alvarez, on disclosure of lending by the Fed during the banking crisis, and on capital reserves, which veered more to the position of the banks which preferred less information be released and capital reserves be left at the 5% level than the 6% proposed by the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Comments by Alvarez in nonpublic hearings to Congressional staff members on May 18, 2012, about the JP Morgan London Whale trading losses, according to Eisinger, shows lack of awareness of the overall implications of the breakdown in financial controls and supervision inside the bank....

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President Obama will nominate Jacob Lew for Treasury Secretary to replace Timothy Geithner. In making this decision Obama stayed within his close advisors. Lew has held firm in budget negotiations, at one point walking out, and at another point in negotiations of the last two years saying flatly Medicaid is off the table. This signals Obama is not going to give in to Republican demands without a fight. In picking the 57 year old Lew, Obama is choosing someone who has substantial experience in budget matters and in working with Democratic leaders, all the way back to working with Speaker Tip O'Neill from the Reagan days. He was head of the Office of Management and Budget, and is currently White House Chief of Staff. He was chief operating officer of Citi Global Wealth Management and Citi Alternative Investments for 2 years, which suffered large losses in the 2008 financial crisis, but was not closely involved in the way decisions on investing were made. He was brought to Citigroup by Robert Rubin, a former Treasury Secretary under Clinton....

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Russell Gold's interview with Shell CEO, Jack Voser. Voser describes his perspective on the global oil situation in the next three decades with a doubling of demand in 40 years, a third of which would come from renewables and 10% from nuclear, the rest from fossil fuels. Natural gas plays a large role in Shell's future strategies. Voser sees the potential of China's shale gas supplies being larger than the U.S., with clearer energy policies than the U.S. The cost of producing China's shale gas will be higher because of complex geology. He sees the potential for the reindustrializing of the U.S. midwest with the abundant shale gas supplies, bringing back jobs that were exported to other countries. Clear standards and regulations are needed to make investments. He thinks it will be very unusual if the U.S. did not grasp this opportunity. Shell's operations generate $470 billion in revenues and its capital budget for 2012 was $32 billion, providing enormous scale and requiring careful planning for long term projects in Australia, Africa, Canada and the Middle East....

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Sargent offers an assessment of Hillary Clinton's years in office as U.S. Senator and Secretary of State following her role as First Lady. Less polarizing, respected by 4 of 10 Republicans, and respected for her tenacity and effort. He cites Hillary's remarks in 2008 that the glass ceiling has about 18 million cracks in it- that Hillary who grew up during the feminist revolution helped take it further even if the achievements were incomplete. In retrospect the Clintons served the country with passion and dedication right upto to the end, and strove hard to put behind them any blemishes to their record. The Obama administration was itself built upon the public servants who gained experience in the Clinton administration, more so than previous aministrations, because of Obama's relative obscurity as a community activist in Chicago. Names like Panetta, Lew, Napolitano, show how much of the old is in the new, and the humility to work with them as colleagues and fill the lack of experience of the new president, may be the best example of public service the Clintons could offer....