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How Morgan Stanley's CEO, James Gorman, persuaded Moody's Investors Service to cut its credit ratings by only two notches instead of the three notches that was planned. Gorman showed the changes he is making at the bank to reduce risks including its shift from proprietary trading to its wealth management business.

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Oil prices went up by 16.8% in the 1st quarter 2011. The increase in oil prices for all of 2010 was 15.1% With the decline in inventories and and fears of a disruption in oil supplies, oil price has become a significant concern at the end of the 1st quarter 2011.

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The House bill on health care cleared the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with a vote of 31 to 28. Five Democrats joined all 23 Republicans. Compromises were reached with Blue Dog Democrats, centrist Democrats who had concerns about the cost of the health care overhaul. The bill will be taken up again in September after the August recess, when Congress will be faced with the task of recociling the House and Senate versions and reaching common ground on a number of proposals. Some common ground has already been achieved between centris and Blue Dog Democrats and Democratic members who support Obama's proposals. Among the changes on which consensus was reached in the House version: 1. Access Insurers will have to accept all applicants and will not be able to charge higher premiums because of medical history or current illness. All insurers will have to offer a minimum package of benefits, to be defined by the federal government, and nearly all Americans will be required to have insurance. Insurers will have to get prior approval from the government before increasing premiums over a certain amount. About 95% of Americans will be covered this time. The cost will still be approaching $ 1trillion over 10 years. Federal subsidies will be given to those who cannot afford health insurance and Medicaid coverage will be expanded. And the insurance will be made more affordable for the uninsured. Democrats also reached a consensus on creating some sort of government insurance plan or nonprofit cooperative to compete with private insurers. 2. Mobility And under this new plan it will be easier to change jobs as one would retains one's health insurance. This should actually help the job market, and help promote the mobility that is needed, now that jobs are shifting out of sectors like autos to sectors like energy. 3. Cost The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 47 to 11 to set aprocedure for the government to give federal approval of generic versions of expensive biotechnology drugs. By one estimate this saves $9 billion over 10 years. The Democratic proposals from the Energy and Commerce Committee would authorize the Health and Human Services Secretary to negotiate prescription drug prices for Medicare benificiaries. The agreement and consensus among the conservative, liberal and centrist Democrats, and Democrats with ties and connections to the health care industry was reached after intensive negotiations, and adoption of a package of amendments that helped bridge the differences they had. ...

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Visionary physicist Charles Townes conducted the breakthrough research that led to the development of the laser in a long career that spanned several decades of work as a professor at Columbia University, a researcher at Bell Labs, and at MIT and UC Berkeley.

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Questions about the euphoria for US stock market performance in 2011. Negative impact of housing market, rise in food and fuel prices, and the precarious condition of state and local government finances, raise concerns about the economy and stock markets for 2011-2012. John Makin sees a one third chance of sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, and a 40% chance of China not making a soft landing, in a video interview with Wessel of the WSJ, December 30, 2010. This would impact stock markets in the US. WSJ's Brett Arends column also expresses similiar skepticism. Robini sees housing losses in 2011.

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This article by Jim Carlton in the Wall Street Journal in 1998, shows a different side of Steve Jobs- a relentless hard driving manager, with sheer intensity and lack of patience with people who could not keep up with him, who can be arrogant and ride roughshod over employees. Supporters say he had the right intuition about decisions facing Apple, such as not cloning the Mac because it was already too late, closing Newton and refocussing the engineers on new devices, staying out of direct competition with the Wintel alliance and willingness to work with Microsoft to include the Office suite on the Mac. These moves came at a point where Apple was rapidly shrinking in the market, and was down to 2.6%, having lost half its share in the education market. Jobs dictatorial style came when Apple was in a chaotic situation without any clear direction, and the company was simply drifting into a steep decline, a style which was as one director put it, what Apple needed in that situation. Other aspects of Steve Jobs style included a penchant for secrecy. When the news of the folding of the Newton operation was leaked to the media, Jobs fired the head of the Newton group on the spot. At other times Jobs could back off, as when the launch of the G3 line of Macs was put off because of quality problems. The Jobs who returned to Apple in 1996-1997 comes across as a different Jobs- whose main motivation now was to show these "bozos" like Sculley who ousted him in 1985, and Amelio whom he replaced in 1998, how this (Apple's revival) is to be done. ...

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How the supply and demand for oil is changing according to updated forecasts by the International Energy Agency. Demand is expected to be 500,000 barrels a day less than originally forecast for the fourth quarter by IEA. Also Iraq's northern fields produced 600,000 barrels a day and Angolan production also went up to increase supply by 1.4 million barrels a day. This provides some slack in the supply-demand situation to ease price pressures. Examples of energy conservation are given one of a refrigerated truck firm, Willis Shaw Express in Arkansas which runs a fleet of 725 refrigerated trucks and has installed "governors" on its truck engines to max speed at 65 miles per hour and thus get more fuel economy per gallon used. The full impact of recent price increases has not been felt at the pumps till noand this should also encourage further conservation. The slowing down of the U.S. economy should help reduce demand in 2008 as the full impact of the mortgage crisis is felt (see the OECD report of further losses ahead estimated at $300 billion by 2008-2009) this should lead to slowing demand. At this time demand in the US is rising by 1% down from 3-4% in the 1990's. This could be be part of a trend that could lead to actual decline in consumption in the industrialized countries. The impact of a US slowdown could impact less industrialized countries and moderate demand there. Slower growth is reported for Eastern European countries. Meantime Saudi Arabia states its on schedule to increase production from 11.3 million barrels a day to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009. ...

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Changes to China's five year plan to include critical social goals, reduce income inequality, and provide a social safety net. The influence of local governments in distorting central government policy.

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China lifts pump prices for gasoline by 10%. Supply shortages have been reported The rising value of Asian currencies such as the rupee help to cushion the increase in crude oil prices in India and other countries. In China and India the Government keeps the price of gasoline and other fuel at affordable prices and oil companies cannot pass on the increase in oil prices. China's oil consumption is increasing rapidly at about 9% a year and lower oil prices does not encourage conservation, at the same time oil prices to consumers especially in the rural and farming areas can be painful if food prices are also going up. How to balance these two considerations and also the international aspect where increases in China's demand for oil are itself a cause of demand side pressures leading to ever higher oil prices, is a challenge for China's policymakers.

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The South Ferry station, terminus for the No1 trainopens January 2009 with artists work by Doug and Mike Starn commissioned by the rts for transit Program of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It includes curved floor to ceilin glass walls with silhouettes of trees, a marble mosaic of a vintage topographic map of Manhattan, and other imagery drawn from nearby Battery Park. Says Mike about the artwork, the brothers have been working with the idea of the splitting and changing of the trees and branches of the subway system, something that happens in time as well as in space. Its also rooted in their preoccupation with time and natural bonds part of their continuing project on the "Structure of Thought." The Starns proposal was selected in 2004 because of its imagery and its melding of technology for materials and of organix and urban history, and is part of the rebuilding of lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.

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An exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York in January 2012 which offers clues for future development of the city - "The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan 1811-2011." It shows how Simeon De Wittt, Governor Morris and John Rutherford laid out the plan for the city of New York in 1811. Because of the growth at the port New York City's population had grown quickly to 96,373. By 1870 the population had grown eight fold to 800,000. The grid plan used by the planners gave a sense of order to the city and it stretched north to 155th street. Upto that time most of New York was below Canal Street.

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The U.S. effort to protect the sea lanes in the straits of Hormuz as the Iranian backed Houthi rebels advance into the southern port city of Aden in Yemen. This involves support of Saudi airstrikes in Yemen and control of airspace over Yemen. In Iraq the U.S. makes airstrikes to support Iranian backed Shiite militias near Tikrit. The lack of a coherent policy and years of inaction by the Obama administration in the Middle East leads the U.S. into a situation where it is drawn into airstrikes on both sides of the Middle Eastern sectarian Sunni-Shiite conflict.

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After all the media talk about tariffs inflation- inflation is at 2.4% in May 2025. Tariffs was part of the toolbox of strategies under Lighthizer and Jamieson on getting fair world trade, and not like Congressman Hawley in the 1920's who understood little about the workings of the US economy. This fact the official media such as the WSJ and NYT, Wash Post, BBC need to get it right about the Hawley Tariffs. Hawley was born in rural Oregon in 1864 went to country schools, and was president of Willamette University in Salem, when it's population was 4258. As House Ways and Means Committee chairman he wrote the failed tariffs bill Hoover signed in 1930. DJT's US Trade Representative Lighthizer in 2016 led the successful negotiations with Japan under Reagan, Scott Bessent who leads negotiations on tariffs with China with USTR Jamieson, has a deep understanding and grasp of today's financial markets. Tariffs is one of the tools in the US toolbox to get Japan, China, South Korea to even the playing field for US companies and bring back manufacturing to the US. Without it China would not budge from its unfair advantage and would not negotiate in fairness. This is proven in the way Japan in the 1980s and China today are responding to the US position preparing their economies for not relying on sudden surges in exports putting whole industries and workers in America and Europe out of work and out of jobs. DJT says- "No we are not going to accept that," the EU is catching on and adopting a similar position, China knows that.  The media is irresponsible in presenting tariffs in a negative way, irresponsible to American workers the 10 million put out of work since 2000, and to American families and the Nation.   ...

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The Federal Trade Commission says food companies in the U.S. spent $2.3 billion in 2006 for advertising to children. With the epidemic in childhood obesity in the U.S., this raises serious questions about how product packaging, images and themes affect the eating behaviour of children. New guidelines have now been written at the request of Congress. They were written by the F.T.C., the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture Department, and the Centers for Disease Control. The regulatory agencies say they will take comments and consider changes before submitting a report to Congress. The guidelines call for foods advertised to children to include healthy ingredients such as whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, or low fat milk. The foods cannot contain unhealthy amounts of sugar, saturated fat, trans fat and salt. The sugar requirement would have cereals contain no more than 8 grams of added sugar per serving. Fruit Loops for example contains 12 grams of sugar per serving. The guidelines apply to both children and teenagers. However these guidelines are voluntary. At this time an industry led effort has not produced results. The Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, which is operated by the industry, lets each company set its own nutritional criteria. The regulatory agencies see the need for the food industry to follow a uniform set of standards. Without serious action on this issue the U.S. healthcare system will continue to be burdened with high rates of obesity related illnesses in the general population, and out of control costs. And the U.S. will continue to face the urgent problem of a lack of healthy eating habits of children teenagers, and adults....

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J.C. Penney sales decreased by 23% to $3.02 billion in the quarter ending July 28, 2012. Internet sales declined by 33%. New CEO Ron Johnson's strategies have failed to produce results so far.

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President Hollande of France is interviewed by Sylvia Kauffman of Le Monde, Angelique Chrisafis of The Guardian, Berna Gonzalez Harbour of El Pais, Jaroslaw Kurski of Gazeta Wyborcza, Alberto Mattioli of La Stampa, et Stefan Ulrich of Suddeutsche Zeitung in mid-October 2012. He tells the reporters that France is the bridge between northern and southern Europe and says he is against division, rancor and the idea of 'each for one's own.' He called recession being as big a threat as deficits and emphasized the need for growth. Hollande pointed out that it was false to say Germany was the only country paying to help, that France was also paying for the solidarity with other eurozone countries. From now on he sees the need for monthly meetings of eurozone countries as opposed to crisis driven meetings which have failed to produce results needed and led to procrastination and political maneouvring. On Merkel's side there is internal politics and parliament which has affected decisions in in the interests of the eurozone and the EU, which he said he respects but which also requires putting the interests of Europe first. On specifics Hollane sees no need to further delay action on direct aid by the European Stability Mechanism to Spanish banks and efforts to bring down Spain and Italy's borrowing rates, and calls the gap between France and Germany's borrowing rates of 1% and Spain and Italy's 7% "unfair."...

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India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, goes to the polls in February 2012. Uttar Pradesh in the northern region has an estimated population exceeding 200 million. 15% of the parliament seats are from U.P. Uttar Pradesh used to be a major stronghold of the ruling Congress party since independence in 1947 during the Nehru and Indira Gandhi years. More recently in the 2002 and 2007 elections Congress failed to get more than 25 seats out of a total of 219 in this state. The state government is now run by a caste based party called the Bahujan Samajwadi party- which draws its support from Dalits a caste lower placed in the caste hierarchy- led by Kumari Mayawati. The election campaign is also being conducted under new rules designed to limit campaign expenses and limit extravagance in election campaigning.

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Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal headed the Joint Special Oprations Command from 2003 to 2008. He is a hands on guy who spends m ost of his time in the field. He is good at building up a sophisticated network, and using his Rolodex to have extensive contacts with people in the field. He used this to track down insurgents and Al Quaeda in Iraq, helping destroy the insurgents leadership.

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The US ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach after Liberation Day- soon to be relics from the China Trade of yesterday. On April 9 US responded to China's 34% tariff with another 50% tariff of its own on China. The US tariff now stands at 104% to China's 84%. China says it won't back down and "will fight to the end." The US president DJT is now certain to restore world trade to the days before China entered the World Trade Organization and upended the world trade order leading to the deindustrialization of the US when US corporations followed Apple in 1998. With Tim  Cook in charge of Apple manufacturing in 1998 doing the first major act of outshoring the whole manufacturing base of a company to China. It was a strategy- to use the huge profits of a three punch approach- brand the product at the high end to command high price in the US through innovation and design (punch 1), followed by making using Chinese labor at low cost in China (punch 2), to generate the huge profits to create a virtuous cycle of investment from these profits to generate new cycle of growth (punch 3). What Apple gained, America's workers lost. This was sold by economists at the service of corporate narrative that it was good for America in the face of the facts showing just the reverse for 25 years 2000-2025. Soon almost the entire manufacturing base of the US was shipped out to China, or Chinese supply bases Vietnam. Japan fell in line and became a supplier to this China Manufacturing for the World. What started out as Microsoft demolishing Apple by 1998 and Apple using this 1-2-3 punch strategy turned into first a disaster for American workers, a loss of the working class leading to the loss of the middle class backbone of America, replaced by Silicon Valley and financial interests in New York City and disproportionate rewards to capital, the rural and small towns, cities across America's heartland thrown into decay and neglect.   ...