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Stefan Jacoby, a former head of VW USA, will be the new CEO of Volvo, after its acquisition with 100% ownership by Geely of China. Geely paid $1.3 billion cash for Volvo to Ford Motor, the original price was $1.8 billion but adjustments were made for retirement funds and working capital. Ford originally acquired Volvo for $6 billion. Ford has debt of $27 billion and will be able to reduce some of this debt wit cash from the Volvo sale.

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Critics such as Senator John McCain say Hagel was affected by micromanagement of defense matters from the White House. The White House maintains close control over policy. One problem seen in the administration is developing policy when no one is sure what the president wants. Only a small circle McDonough, the National Security Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and some NSA officials in the inner circle with the president determine policy. Michele Flournoy and Ashton Carter are considered as replacement for Hagel.

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London could lose 66,000 out of 353,000 finance professionals according to Centre for economics and Business Research. About $2.4 trillion flowed in and out of the UK in 2006 only $400 billion less than the USA according to McKinsey Global Institute. The London Stock Exchange has seen international listings fall by by 70% in capitalization year to date as many emerging market companies list in their home countries financial centers. Dubai, Shanghai, Moscow and other places are getting some of this business.

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This countercyclical regulation advocated by Charles Goodhart and others including some central bankershas been discussed a lot at USA Federal Reserve Bank conferences. But though some central banks have tried to do this it has not ocurred in the US, UK and most European countries.

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“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA." European perceptions of recent happenings in the Ukraine war and the war's progression from the beginnings over three years will matter in 2025 as Europe, as Germany, France and Britain take on the role of bringing a fair peace to Europe that closes the war and does the reconstituting of defense architecture of Europe under new institutions that needed to be taken up in the 1990's after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Republicans and DJT's perception of Europe as 27 states is likely to be false. Germany and France in the 21st century may just be stepping into a role that was prepared since the formation of the European community in the 1950's with Germany and France at the core of Europe. It may surprise many that Europe just steps into this role. And with it a reconstituting of the defense architecture of Europe that needed to be done after the fall of the Berlin Wall and not left to the vagaries of free market capitalism that have created the present situation. “It was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelenskyy, but obviously a manufactured escalation,” Merz of Germany has said recently of recent White House happenings.  “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” Germany's Merz says and means it even if it confounds the US, China and other nations. ...

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The Spanish government said it will inject 19 billion euros into Bankia SA.

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10.5 million vehicles is the new number at GM for USA auto sales in 2009. GM has consistently predicted a scenario for auto sales that is much higher than it has turned out to be, leading to a lack of proactive speedy decisionmaking where needed to close plants, get financing and other steps needed to pull the company out of trouble. This new lower number may also turn out to be higher than actual because figures for inventories, unemployment, foreclosures, consumer spending, exports, all are worsening.

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European manufacturers are expanding manufacturing in the US because of the high value of the euro. They are also looking east. Eastern Europe now comprises 15% of eurozone imports and Turkey and Russia and additional 7%, compared with 12% to the US, almost twice as much exported to the rest of Europe alone than the USA. And an additional 17.5% to countries in Asia excluding Japan. European manufacturers are also increasing productivity to meet the impact of the higer euro and this could have beneficial effects.

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Tata Consultancy Services like other Indian UT companies is overly dependent on the US and on financial and insurance companies for sales, it gets 51% of its sales from the USA. Because of inflation running at 11% in India and the rising wages and the industries it is serving facing finacnail difficulties and cutting IT spending profits growth is not as strong as it used to be. In the last quarter ended June 30, 2008, TCS saw sales growth of 24% but profits growth of only 7%.

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3.4 trillion USA dollars and growing at 8% in 2008 over 2007 according to research firm Gartner shows companies will continue to invest in software and services and in upgrades because to stay ahead in business is hard to do if one falls behind in technology. Gartner expects it to slow but only by a bit to 6%. And software and services part of technology spending is growing at 10% currently so companies continue to make the choices to stay ahead in this area.

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New hurdle for the banks. Floating rate notes which the banks use come due in over the next year or so beginning in September and banks will have to pay off at least $787 billion in floating rate notes and other medium term obligations by the end of 2009 according to analyst at JP Morgan Chase Alex Roever. As banks scramble for funds to pay off these notes they be less willing to make new loans worsening the credit crunch in the USA and Europe.

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Some positive signs that drivers are sticking to their new fuel efficient ways even as gas prices drop below $3 a gallon in the USA mindful that the economy just got worse, jobs are shrinking, may be paying less, and the cost of groceries and other things have gone up. This will mean contiued decline in gasoline consumption that should help ease oil prices in the long run even as conservation helps reduce consumption, helps fight climate change, and sends fewer dollars overseas to pay for oil.

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Germany is the world's leading exporter, with export of goods generating 41% of GDP, twice the rate in the UK and Japan and 5 times that of the US according to the OECD. With the global slowdown the German government now expects GDP to grow only 0.2% in 2009. And exports are expected to decline in 2009 with a worsening economic situation in most countries. Slowdown in the EU which takes in two thirds of the exports and in the USA will affect these exports.

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Higher property taxes depress investment in housing, and make housing less affordable than otherwise, leading to decline of cities in upstate New York when combined with the effects of manufacturing decline since the 1950's. Buffalo has lost half its population in the postwar period, Syracuse and Rochester lost one third. Half of Buffalo's housing stock is vacant and the poverty rate is twice that of the USA. A visit to the city of Buffalo shows evidence of the decline everywhere, with fewer young people.

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The yuan has gained 16% since the peg to the dollar ended in 2005. For years China has resisted letting its currency appreciate significantly, why the change of heart now? Its seen as a positive thing by China's leaders to let the yuan appreciate and its now part of Chinese policymaking. First it helps keep inflation down, keeps the rising prices of imports energy, commodities, and food under control as they are denominated in USA dollars. Second it sends a signal to manufacturers to move up to more sophisticated value added products that are not sensitive to pricing and can accomodate a stronger yuan, because its precisely the manufacturers who operate on thin margins and make lower end products who will go close down. They also cost the economy in terms of higher pollution and damage to the environment in a way that higher tech products do not. And China wants to undo or limit the damage to its environment. Third by lowering rebates or eliminating rebates and letting the curtrency appreciate its changing the emphasis from exports to domestic markets and domestic consumption. This combined with new laws on wages and benefits is designed to promote domestic consumption which can better carry the burden of economic growth than exports because of the slowing down of the developed western economies especially the USA which is going through what may be a severe and protracted downturn. It also helps that China need no longer be portrayed as taking advantage of free trade through huge surpluses. Its constructive as it will help rebalance the world trading system as the USA can improve its trade deficit and China can accelerate its growth by importing more western machinery and technology and not have to depend on precarious export markets for economic growth that it badly depends on to improve the living conditions of hundreds of millions of its people. By building a large middle class of consumers china can continue growth using its domestic markets at a pace that is still very healthy and not likely to build inflationary pressures which may be a welcome thing....

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"Who are the Taliban? They are the local people," says one Afghan from Marja. Another man Hamza says he will not let foreign forces raid his house. Their is fear and resentment of night raids for antinarcotics purposes. A local leader in Panjwai, west of Kandahar, says people lay mines for the Taliban only to feed their families, and says 80% of insurgents are local people driven to fight out of poverty and despair. Offered another way to lead their lives only 2% would support the Taliban. A leader in the provincial council at Helmand says people do not trust the government as it has not kept its promises in the past, so that even if they are defeated militarily and security is 100% it will take time to restore trust. This confirms earlier reports of the deep unpopularity of the Karzai government. All this reporter Carlotta Gall of the NYT finds out on the ground, in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, as the USA launches an offensive to push the Taliban back towards Pakistan. In recent years the Taliban has established control over most of Helmand and Kandahar provinces , and many villagers prefer to be left alone without foreign forces causing bombing and fighting. ...

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The story of one Guatemalan immigrant. About 1.35 million Guatemalan immigrants or 10% of the population live in the USA according to the Central American Institute of Social and Dvelopment Studies, a think tank in Guatemala. Remittances at $4.2 billion in 2007 are ahead of coffee, sugar and other exports.

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Fuji Heavy which makes Subaru cars is targeting sales of 50,000 cars in 2010 for China. It has no factory there and says it needs 100,000 in sales for putting up a factory in China. Sales in the US were robust and went up 39% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, to 227,000. Sales for 2010 are targeted at 244,000 vehicles for USA. Fuji Heavy plans to source smaller models from Toyota- which has a16% stake in Fuji Heavy- so that it can address demand in emerging markets like Russia and China.

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Growth in China is supporting growth in other Asian countries. But other Asian countries are still dependent on the economies of Europe and the USA. About 60% of the exports to China by Malaysia, say Malaysian officials, are components for products that are re-exported to the western countries. Domestic demand in China is insufficient to support the high level of growth in China and other Asian countries; in the event demand in Europe and N. America slides back in the face of austerity cuts in 2011, growth across Asia is likely to fall sharply.

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Russia and Nigeria are two of the largest gas flaring countries. Because of the lack of infrastructure most of the gas is burned off. Now Nigeria has a no flare deadline for 2008. Already Shell and Chevron have built gas export facilities to export some of this gas to Europe and the USA. The entry of Gazprom will take this one step further. Gazprom is interested in Nigeria and would help develop the gas and build the infrastructure faculities needed for Nigeria to become a major gas exporter.

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This chart shows sharply divergent earnings trends. Looking at percent changes from a year ago the Bureau of Economic Anlaysis numbers show that fourth quarter earnings domestic profits were down 6.5% while earnings from the rest of the world jumped 42.8% the largest increase in 27 years. How strongly will these export markets hold up as we get to 2009 and there is a global impact of the recession that starts in the USA. And lower earnings in US markets will mean lower capital spending in the US.

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Apple had its strongest quarter with 2.3 million Macs sold in the 1st quarter of this year. Revenue increased 43% from the same quarter last year. Apple reported that it had 33.7 million visitors to its 181 stores in the USA up 57% from the same quarter 2007. Apple is onof the few companies with such vigorous customer interest even as consumption throughout the economy is weakening. Amazing achievement of pioneering products and ways of reaching the consumer like its novel store arrangements to appeal to people and attract them.

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A reading crisis in Sweden spreads from secondary school students to college students. 

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the OECD showed that in 2022, 25% of 15-year-olds lacked basic reading and writing skills. In 2000, the figure was 13%. This has spread to college students. Scores in the US for NAEP and in the UK are much worse than Sweden yet there is nowhere near the same level of alarm about it.

 In December 2024, the Minister of Education and leader of the Liberal Party, Johan Pehrson, met with representatives from universities, student organizations and the national education agency to go over steps needed to tackle the "reading crisis."

 

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Estimates are for a 9% increase for Apple laptops and iphones Made in China if Apple passes through the price increase following DJT's 54% tariff on Chinese imports. Instead Apple may decide to be patriotic and reduce the huge margins it has charged American customers for three decades now as part of its $500 billion plan to invest in Made in the USA, after waffling and delay for so so long. Even after the first term of DJT in 2016 Apple has waited 8 years to not move some of the production home to avoid an overconcentration in China. This is a sign of its management not having listened to the mood of America preferring huge profit margins to doing the right thing, literally waiting till the last minute.

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As the auto market shrinks in the USA, BMW expands it S. Carolina plant. This suggests that something is happening in the auto market with BMW cutting 5000 jobs in Germany, new auto manufacturing investment into the US as it makes sense for currency reasons to manufacture in the US and not in Germany.