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Turkey's lira depreciates by 21% in 2013 and an additional 7% by January 24, 2014. The central bank uses up a third of its foreign exchange reserves or $19 billion in intervention to support the lira since June 2013. The intervention on June 24, 2014, did not work and the lira continued its downward slide to 2.30 to the lira. The political protests in Turkey and divisions within factions in the government about corruption probes has led to a political crisis and investors pulling back from Turkey. The central bank failed to increase interest rates as expected by investors and suggested by the IMF. Inflation is running at 7.4% for 2013. In August 2001 a currency crisis caused the banking system to collapse. The financial position is stronger than in that crisis, yet the recent political crisis and the large current account deficit has badly dented investor sentiment.

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S7 is one of the largest private airlines in Russia and its purchases of Dreamliners and other Boeing planes show that it is planning for a large expansion in the Russian airlines passenger market as Russia continues its rapid growth, alongside China and India.

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Infosys growth is slowing down significantly. Infosys estimates sales growth of 6-12% for the 12 months April 2013 to April 2014. Infosys gets two thirds of revenue in North America and a quarter of revenues in Europe. Infosys is preparing a strategic plan "Infosys 3.0" to move to higher end consulting and cloud computing.

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The WSJ's Laurence Norman talks to Yukiya Amano, head of the UN agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has the responsibility of verification and inspection of Iran's nuclear development and facilities. Amano describes the issues raised by a 2011 report which outlined 12 sets of concerns to which Iran has to explain, a condition included in the final nuclear agreement. Iran has to respond by mid-August, IAEA then responds, and does work in Sept and Oct, and submits its report by Dec. 2015. Yamano says he has to fill in all the missing pieces in this jigsaw puzzle to get a full picture of Iran's nuclear development. Iran has denied access to military sites and Mr. Amano couldn't say if he has access to the Parchin military site. A concession that was made in the agreement is the long interval of three weeks before access to a particular site that arouses suspicions-the agreement gives Iran the right to appeal an IAEA request to visit such a site to a special commission. The U.S. and its European allies have a majority on the commission yet three weeks are allowed in which Iran could move material to some other location. For critics the question will be why such a concession was needed if Iran truly has decided not to develop nuclear weapons technologies. The U.S. president's response at a news conference on July 15, 2015, was that with the laws of physics the U.S. monitoring tools would detect nuclear activity at that site. The agreement also gives Iran an earlier than planned lifting of a ban on sales of arms and missiles and missile parts if the IAEA says Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful. Iran could conceivably wait till the ban is lifted and its economy in a much stronger position to withstand any future limited sanctions to pursue nuclear weapons development. This would have delayed development for a few years during which time the hope is that Iran has changed into a more peaceful nation pursuing economic development in its region, yet even if this is the case as as happened with India and Pakistan it could still pursue nuclear weapons development. The alternative is a status quo till a better agreement is reached with the leverage of tight economic sanctions and continuing dialogue during which time Iran continues to get closer to a nuclear weapon, or the use of force to prevent this. Iran added the arms embargo issue during the last weeks of the negotiation in June, a controversial move on Iran's part, as this may have complicated the picture with ballistic missiles technology exports to Iran approved after 8 years in the final agreement, compared to the agreement reached in April 2015 which made no mention of the lifting of the arms embargo. Iran played on the notion that if Zarif returned to Iran without an agreement hardliners including Khamanei would veto any agreement, yet this could just be the Iranian negotiating strategy. U.S. president Obama stated at the July 15, 2015 news conference that it would be hard to hold sanctions for longer. Critics might argue that China was already benefitting from the small easing of sanctions by increasing Iranian oil imports by 30% in 2014, and would have less incentive to withdraw from sanctions, as it is dependent on the U.S. and the EU, major markets for its exports and access to technologies. A WSJ/NBC poll in July shows almost half of the people polled in the U.S. saying they do not know enough to express an opinion, a steady 36% support an agreement, showing that the public has not been educated and taken along during the different steps in the largely secret negotiations....

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Land reforms in China to improve rural incomes and increase agricultural production with larger farms to keep food price inflation down two key goals in today's China. And both long neglected in the headlong rush to industrialize and urban centred modernization which left a huge gap which now must be fixed that gap in incomes for the rural 700 million peopr in the countryside who have seen their incomes stagnat and the rural -urban gap widen with farmer protest against corrupt officials seizing land for factories exacerbating the situation for years. Only the 10-12% a year growth has kept the situation under some control as rural folk could depend on income from migrant labor or the young women who left the countryside to work in cities where factories for exports turned out goods for western markets. With this market in serious trouble in debt burdened western societies China may be looking at growth of half the previous rate down to 6%,and so this is move to change the focus to building a bigger domestic market through raising rural incomes as well as urban incomes and shift China's focus to the domestic and Asian markets like India and other Asian countries....

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Jean-Marie Le Clezio is hailed as "author of new departures, explorer of humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization," by the Swedish Academy. This Frenchman loved to explore foreign cultures from North African immigrants in France to native Indians in Mexico and islanders in the Indian ocean. He wins the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2008. His novels include "Desert," about a Sahara woman and her encounters with European civilization, the "Prospector," and others. Le Clezio's novel "Onitsha," is based in Nigeria during the British colonial period. His father was a British doctor with connections to Mauritius where he also lived. He was born in Nice and studied at Bristol university in the UK and spent a year in Nigeria. He now spends time between Nice, Mauritius, and Albuquerque.

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The WSJ provides a fact check of Trump statements on crime, debt, and taxes. Trump says he is looking at a new plan for taxes not the $10 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years reducing tax collection by 22%, but something about a third of the size. No details are available on the plan. WSJ disputes Trump's statement that the U.S. is "one of the highest taxed nations in the world." WSJ points out that the U.S. in 2014 for federal, state and local government taxes collected 26% of gross domestic product in taxes, compared to average of 34% for about 30 countries, according to OECD. Debt to GDP ratio is about 75% that is high, but because of low interest rates the budget deficit is less than 3% of GDP, which is close to the long run average. For this reason economists say the government should invest in infrastructure and R&D that supports long run economic growth. On crime the record is mixed with increase in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, but decreases in Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Police shootings were 67 in 2016 compared to 62 in July 2015, and the high being 280 officers in 1974 when Nixon was President. Crime was an issue in the 1968 Republican National Convention during the Vietnam era protests, police shootings and terror incidents attracted attention in July 2016, yet the situation today is very different from the war protests of the Vietnam era. On terrorism fact checks by the NYT and in Lyrarc shows Clinton at State Department and Panetta at Defense Department taking hawkish stands only to hit a barrier from President Obama for taking action needed in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Panetta's new book calls for robust action where needed. A Clinton administration would take action with allies in the Middle East. Even Hollande and Obama who pulled the U.S. and France out of following up in the French-British Sarkozy-Cameron led intervention in Libya, have changed policy, with Obama calling it his biggest mistake. France under Hollande with the U.S. is now actively engaged in the Middle East, having changed policy. It is highly unlikely that a Trump led policy which alienates most allies in the Middle East- Iran, Iraq and Saudis- is likely to work better than a determined Clinton-Panetta led effort which has support of the local countries on the ground actually currently on both sides because of complexities of Middle Eastern politics.  On trade a new administration will still have to work with China, India, the European Union, and other countries, as global trade supply chains are not likely to evolve overnight. Lessons will have been learned by Clinton about the need to bring back jobs and ensure the strength of U.S. manufacturing. Economic and jobs growth will require prudence in strengthening U.S. manufacturing coupled with global cooperation, which a Trump administration that alienates trading partners without the possibility of making any serious immediate gains in jobs, is highly unlikely to do better.      ...

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RIM's Blackberry phones struggle to compete with Apple's iPhone and phones using Google's Android software. RIM's second quarter net income fell by 59% to $329 million, from $797 million in the same quarter prior year. Gross margins declined to 39%, from 46% the prior year. Revenue declined 10% to $4.2 billion. The Playbook tablet computer is also struggling. RIM shares lost 19% of their value in after hours trading following the announcement on Sept 15, 2011. RIM introduced 7 new phones that are updates of existing phones. It is not known when the new phones using the QNX operating system will be available.

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At the Pittsburgh G-20 summit it is officially announced that the G-7 will now become permanently the G-20, with nations India, China and Brazil and countries in Latin America becoming part of the discussion group on major world issues.

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Valero may sell some of its refineries and become smaller and more focussed on efficiency. Globally more refineries are coiing up in places like China and India and capacity growth willshrink margins. Valero's strategy reflects this. It is the USA's largest refiner.

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The next mission for ISRO is the one next year, a joint space flight with NASA to the International Space Station. This will take Indian astronauts into space for the first time. Following this there will be a followup to Chandrayan 3 called LUPEX with the Japanese Space Agency JAXA in 2024-2025 for lunar exploration of the dark side of the moon that does not face the sun. For this the lander will be from ISRO, the Rover and spacecraft from JAXA. Gangayan mission will put Indian astronauts in space on Indian spacecraft next. The sample return mission is next in the Chandrayan missions similar to Chang'e 5 for China in 2020 bringing a sample of lunar rocks back to the earth.

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Peter Navarro's thinking is genuinely felt and genuinely thought out after 20 years  at Harvard, UC Irvine and other universities, as an economist who abhors sitting in the office with textbook theory that has no relevance to life of working families in the heartland of America. He says of these textbook theory economists and the American companies that have recklessly shifted America's industrial base to China year after year and decade after decade- “The same damn fools who supported NAFTA, China’s entry into the W.T.O., and every other trade deal that was supposed to benefit America but only benefited Wall Street and the foreign nations screwing us. Those mainstream economists need to get out more often — maybe to Ohio or North Carolina or Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or Michigan.”  He says the 70 nations including the big ones Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Britain and the European Union are already neogtiating with the Trump administration. What more proof does one want. The Nation will get a better deal as it is about fairness in world trade, and an even playing field. Navarro calls it "a beautiful thing." The three dimensional unique approach taken by Navarro, Bessent and Lutnick and by Trump is working, says Navarro. Fifteen decades ago A. Lincoln stated- "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion.As our case is new we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and we shall save our country."   ...

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With more women getting higher education and pursuing careers, young Chinese women now prefer to be independent and postpone marraige. This has important consequences including smaller households and lower demand for some products. Women now make up more than half of all undergraduate students and half of graduate students in China. Beyond pursuing a career many women also see the importance of a loving relationship before marraige as opposed to being introduced to someone and finding a partner to go through life.

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Ford announced on April 19, 2012, that it will build a $760 million plant in Hangzhou, China. This follows an announcement for $600 million expansion of a plant in Chongqing. Ford forecasts the Chinese market will grow at 5% annual rate for the next 10 years. It is planning to take sales away from other manufacturers by offering an expanded product lineup. Ford was slow to enter the Chinese market and has only 2% market share in China. The expansions will give Ford an annual capacity of 1.2 million cars in 2015, up from 450,000 in 2011. Ford's Chongqing operations are located far inland and a long distance from the west coast of China, which will make it more difficult to export if it turns out that there is too much car capacity in China.

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Emerging multinationals are keen on acquiring companies in Europe and the USA. They are also potential competitors. They are from countries like China, India and Brazil. GE's Immelt takes them seriously.

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India shows national solidarity and collective resolve to fight the pandemic as it responds to prime minister Modi's call for all lights to go off and people to light a candle for 9 minutes on April 4 at 9.00 pm. A huge show of resolve across the whole nation of 1.2 billion people.