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Miller compares the situation president Clinton faced in 1995, with Republican calls to balance the budget in 7 years, to the situation president Obama faces with Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's plan in 2013 for a balanced budget in 10 years. Clinton decided to ignore his economc advisors and go with a balanced budget plan leading to the economic recovery that followed.

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Chancellor Scholz of Germany holds talks with PM Narendra Modi on growing ties between Germany and India in trade, clean energy and new technologies. Scholz is on a two day trip to New Delhi and Bengaluru. The trip takes place in the backdrop of G-20 talks in India.

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Perceived average savings needed for retirement in the US shown in surveys are 20% higher in 2022 over 2021. Americans believed about average $1.25 million would be needed for retirement. This varies by state and the cost of living by state, and whether they would be supporting older parents, grownup children.

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Ford takes a $2.7 billion charge for Argo startup in driverless cars and says  fully profitable fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off. Ford and VW have each a 40% stake in Argos startup. Ford will now concentrate on partial automated features already offered.

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India's testing for coronavirus is at about 30,000 per million. For the first time India's positive cases exceed 78,000 on August 30, the highest daily cases ever in any country. India continues to reopen its economy. The official count of deaths is at about 2%. 

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A WSJ poll taken on Dec 3-7 of 1500 voters shows popularity of De Santis and Biden tied at 43%, Trump at 36% for all voters. Between Trump and De Santis the popularity of each is at 52% for De Santis vs 38% for Trump, among likely primary voters.

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Shell Oil's higher hurdles for investments in low carbon alternatives even as it stabilizes oil and gas production are called into question in this report in WSJ. In addition Shell will distribute 40% of cash flow back to investors. This poses risks for responsible action on climate change.

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This WSJ report looks at NATO armies and the case of Sweden where conscript selection picks out 10% of the most motivated and healthy recruits including women. It is considered in employment as companies look for such recruits who have served for a period then joining the reservists. 

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Hotels in New York City can cost a fortune- $1100 a night in December near Christmas, $300 in September, $150 lower in January. Here dawn Gilbertson shares a small condo with an Airbnb host for $155 in December in Brooklyn about an hour subway+walk  to Manhattan.

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Everything you might want to know about coffee, where it comes from, how cultivation is changing with climate change and higher temperatures, and the effort to map the coffee genome. With higher temperatures the farming of coffee moves to higher altitudes in coffee growing countries in the tropics, but it is easier to cross breed the 124 varieties to produce a plant that can withstand the change in temperatures and one that can resist fungus.  A coffee fungus and higher altitude rains destroyed much of the crop in Central America including Guatemala. This led to increased migration to Mexico and U.S. of farmers leading up to Mr. Trump's plan to have the National Guard of Mexico police Mexico's border with Guatemala.  Coffee is a sensitive plant and needs cooler weather and water which is found more in the tropics. Growing it in California or in Italy makes it very costly leading to Frinj coffee being sold in California at $16 a cup. Climate change could reduce the area where coffee can be grown by about 50% in the tropical countries from South east Asia to African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and in south America Colombia and Brazil, says Climate Institute, Washington DC based climate change experts.   ...

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The election in Catalonia leaves the region as divided as before. The pro independence parties won 47.5% of the vote and the parties opposed to independence won 43.5% of the vote, so that only 4 percentage points separates the pro and anti independence parties. By seats in the Catalan parliament the vote showed pro independence parties with 70 seats, a loss of 2 seats from the previous parliament. The party of Mr. Puigdemont won most votes by a small margin within the pro- independence parties. On the other side the Ciudadanos party which is strongly opposed to independence won about 25% of the vote. About 80% of 5.3 million voters cast ballots. Prime minister Rajoy hoped for a better result to preserve Spanish unity. Most Spaniards support a unified Spain. Pro union Spaniards are strongly opposed because they see the efforts of Mr Puigdemont for independence coming at a time when Spain was just recovering from a deep recession with millions unemployed. This is affecting the economy of Barcelona and the Catalan region. Unemployment is higher and tourist flow has slowed. Because the pro independence parties are themselves divided on how to proceed, and with the anti independence parties also winning a significant share of the vote, the negotiations between the Catalan regional government and Madrid will be protracted. ...

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A terrorist attack on july 15, 2016, by a Tunisian born delivery truck driver using a large delivery truck to crush people on a Nice promenade. The death toll is about 85 with 50 people badly injured. The delivery truck driver is Bouhlel, 31, born in Tunisia and from Msaken, Tunisia, who moved to France in 2005. President Hollande extended a nationwide state of emergency for 3 months. The Euro 2016 soccer games in France went without any incidents, only to be followed by this attack.  Georges Fenech who headed a parliamentary inquiry into intelligence and terrorism said about the attack - "it is a predictable tragedy." He said France "is clearly not equiped to fight against Islamic terrorism," in an interview with news channel iTele. This was one of the conclusions of the parliamentary inquiry which called for a new agency to be setup, and merging of existing intelligence agencies. The president of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region told BFM-TV about the Hollande administration: "I don't want to hear the usual "we are going to do an investigation." He questioned the Interior Minister Cazeneuve for how a single person could have breached the security line at the Bastille Day clebrations in Nice on a prominent promenade, Promenade des Anglais. ...

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With interest rates at 22% and inflation of over 20% Turkey's foreign investment and consumer driven economy continues to struggle. In Istanbul's markets fruit vendors say buyers buy half the quantity they normally used to buy. Prices are high with the loss of value of the Turkish currency the lira, that lost about 40% of its value in the space of about 1 year. Turkish president Erdogan has in the past increased support with the economic boom in Turkey, which is now fading. High interest rates need to be brought down for the economy to recover. Erdogan fires the central bank chief for not cutting interest rates. In the past foreign investors continued investments in Turkey, yet today the confidence of foreign investors is declining, affecting the value of the Lira currency. High interest rates are a central bank policy response to keep the value of the Lira from declining further, but at a cost for ordinary Turkish people who pay high prices, reducing the standard of living. High interest rates to attract foreign capital to support the Lira also reduce investment and employment with the higher cost of borrowing.  The high prices because imports cost more with a weak Lira mean less can be purchased reducing what can be purchased with existing incomes. ...

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Saudis and Russia fail to reach an agreement on cutting production in response to lower demand after the coronavirus crisis, resulting in Saudi decision to boost output and cut prices.  Saudi prince Salman asks ministries to lower budgets for expenditures. Saudi oil production was boosted by 300,000 barrels a day (bbd) to 12.3 million bbd. Saudis also cut oil price which is at about $34 a barrel on March 9, 2020 for Brent crude. Meanwhile behind the rhetoric from Saudis a mediation effort is being made by Mr. Falih from the Saudi side with Mr. Novak of Russia. Mr. Falih is minister of investments. He was the oil minister who negotiated an agreement with Russia in 2016.  The U.S. under president Trump sees oil price reduction as good for the economy in the face of the coronavirus impact. The U.S. oil shale industry will be affected with more bankruptcies, as many companies cannot operate at $30 a barrel. The Saudi budget requires a price of $60 which is why the Saudis favored production cuts but failed to convince Russia. Russia sees no need for production cuts at this time. Russia is also better positioned to handle the oil price decline as its budget is less dependent on oil prices. ...

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A new plan for the eurozone crisis from the German Council of Experts which would create a European Redemption Fund to take over sovereign debts in excess of 60% of GDP, and impose constitutional brakes on spending on troubled eurozone coutries.

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India imposes a travel ban for 30 days for visitors and overseas citizens of India in an effort to control spread of the coronavirus. The rule goes into effect on March 13, Friday. Visitors to India will face a quarantine of 14 days. The ban was announced on the same day that the U.S. president Trump announced a travel ban for 26 European countries for 30 days.

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Thre drug companies are placing bets on the vaccine business. Johnson and Johnson paid 302 million euros for 18% of Dutch biotech company Crucell NV, to jointly develop vaccines. Abbott Labs says it will acquire a unit of Belgian conglomerate Solvay SA for 4.5 billion euros in adeal that includes a vaccine business. And Merck obtained the marketing rights for a seasonal flu vaccine from Australia's CSL Ltd. This follows Pfizer's Wyeth acquisition. Low prices, high costs and fear of lawsuits made most drug makers to exit the business in the 1980's and 1990's. Now vaccine sales are growing faster than other prescription drugs and are largely protected from generic competition. And government agencies here in the USA and around the world are reliable buyers of vaccines as they seek to stockpile medicines that could be needed in aflu outbreak. Merck never exit the vaccine business and now makes 8 of 10 vaccines recommended for adults. Flu and other vaccines are especially attractive for entering drug markets in Brazil and China and developing countries. Governments lke the idea of lowcost prevention at $10 adose, and with this new relationships are developed in these countries. And even at price of $10 or $20 a dose they provide asteady stream of revenue.Vaccines are estimated to generate $21.5 billion in revenues by 2012 according to Sanofi-Aventis SA, which is a leading vaccine maker....

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The politics of BP's Russian venture TNK-BP Ltd. Are the 3 Russian partners , some remaining Russian oligarchs you could call them, trying to find a way to get the maximum for a future sale either to Gazprom or BP, as BP is separately working on a broad partnership with Gazprom.

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Russia is very close to the US in Alaska which was given to the US in 1867 for $7.2 million by Russia. Diomede islands 2 miles apart separate US and Russia, Bering Strait 57 miles apart separate US and Russia. The first time a Russian president set foot in Alaska is 2025 with president Putin landing there to meet the US president on August 14, 2025. Putin says he is landing there to meet DJT for talks with mutual respect.

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England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith's 184 helps England  get to 407 at Edgbaston against India, July 3, 2025. Smith hit the fastest century for an England batsman except for Jessup by doing this in 80 balls. Gilbert Jessup was at the Oval in 1902 against Australia, with a century hit in 76 balls. Smith's century will go in the books as the fastest for England in the last 100 years,  a feat thoroughly enjoyed by cricket fans.

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Boeing plans to make an additional $3.5 billion payment for its pension liabilities ahead of the time due. This is a result of its increasing confidence as sales of Boeing jets have increased with a backlog of orders of $500 billion. Shares are up 36% in 2017.

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Whites are aging faster in the U.S., census figures show, and white deaths are higher than white births as the birthrate for whites declines. This is also leading to anxiety among whites about uncontrolled immigration, and behind the Republican party's moves on immigration. The effects of world trade and the hollowing out of some industries with the effect on local communities in the U.S. has exacerbated the anxiety. Signs of this were evident in the last decade leading to the Trump campaign based on immigration issues and trade in the 2016 election, which resonate more in the mid sections of the U.S. with the lack of the tech industry and financial industry of the two coasts.

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Novavax gets $1.6 billion to deliver 100 million doses of vaccines for use in the U.S. possibly by end of 2020. Regneron gets $450 million federal contract for vaccine  development.