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As the first military plane with 100 deportees from the US lands in Amritsar in the Punjab state, there is this reflection in India on why migrants decide to come mostly from Gujarat and Punjab two of India's prosperous states, and Gujarat a centre for industrial development under Vikshit Bharat 2047. Modi visits Washington Feb 12 for meetings with DJT.  Times of India says agencies that track illegal migrants report 90,415 migrants illegally entered the US from Mexico or Canada between October 2023 to Sept 2024. Half of the 90,415 migrants were from Gujarat. The two leading states for migrants are Punjab, Gujarat followed by Haryana, UP and Maharashtra.  In the Punjab this report shows business communities and urban professionals as part of the illegal migrant flow looking for better life- for reasons of governance, and social security, including people from well to do families. And not for reasons of job scarcity. And this is changing demographis with decline in population in Punjab with it being made up by migration from Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar states into Punjab.     ...

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Some countries such as France are increasing kilometres of bike lanes in Paris and suburbs. Traffic has dropped in Paris and other cities to a point where people living in cities are looking for ways to preserve some of the good things from the public health crisis such as the quieter streets, less or no pollution, less traffic congestion. Some cities are closing areas on their rever fronts so that people have more room to walk and exercize. Cities doing this are Oakland, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago and Philadelphia in the U.S., and Calgary, Winnipeg, Vancouver in Canada. Cycling and walking is becoming popular.  In Berlin motor vehicle lanes are being replaced with bicycle lanes in many streets. In Bogota 35 kms. of auto traffic laneshave been converted using cones into bicycle lanes. In March the mayor of Mexico City suggested 130 kms of temporary bicycle lanes. This report in the Guardian says London is one of the cities that have not acted quickly to make these changes for larger bike use. ...

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Ms. Le Pen of the National Front called her going into the second round runoff against Macron's En Marche movement, "an act of French pride." Emmanuel Macron has his own way of looking at this. As this NYT editorial points out Macron says his is a movement "of patriots fighting the threat of nationalism." At his rallies and the rally following coming out the front runner in the first round of elections Macron is shown with people waving French flags all around him. The message- that in today's world of global cooperation for economic progress nationalist feeling has to be balanced with healthy cooperation and integration into the regional community, the European Union. That he is a patriot who also has in him a feeling for the communities in his wider region. That real economic progress can only be achieved working in cooperation with neighboring countries and regional community, and around new ideas for renewal.

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The recent history of two companies making kitchen cooking tools one in Germany and one in Italy also tell the story of the economies of the two countries since the start of the euro currency. Italy's economy has grown by 7%, Germany's by 31%. The Piedmont region's household income fell by 5% to 21,000 euros while the North Rhine Westphalia region's income was up by 18% to 26,000 euros since 2007. These are the two regions where Bialeti and Zwilling are located. A major issue with the euro is that countries like Italy or Spain could not devalue their currencies to become more competitive. Russia for example has used a devalued currency to become more competitive and return to economic growth. Zwilling sales have tripled to 700 million euros while Bialetti's sales have fallen 20% from a similar starting point of 200 million euros. Bialetti even had to give an equity stake to a New York hedge fund in a debt restructuring deal.

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Andrea Martin-Lof has designed about 1200 homes in Stockholm. He is designing apartments in Sweden's tallest building in Gothenburg, the 73 story Karlatornet, under construction. Interestingly he is designer for low income housing as well as for the elite. He loves diving into archives and looking into the history of buildings. This makes it possible for him to appreciate the old with the new, combining and bringing in a dialogue with the past into his contemporary designs. He can be original and capable of reimagining. He built a summer house in the Stockholm archipelago entirely of plywood and marble. Another of his innovations is in working downstairs from his office, which gives him proximity to get ready for a meeting or go down for a quiet lunch.  During architecture school he reveals in his new book that he was diagnosed for brain cancer. After the tumor was removed he learned to work differently listening rather than telling, appreciating gut instinct and curiosity. ...

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Con Agra is having to cut prices on its Pam cooking sprays, Wesson cooking oils, Egg Beaters and other produts to compete with growing sales of private labels . In its consumer foods segment the amount of food sold declined by 4% in its fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 22. Kraft Foods saw a loss of 2.5% of sales volume in the fourth quarter 2008 because people bought less Kraft products. And Kraft has lowered prices on some nuts,cheeses and coffee.Heinz saw sales volume decline by 6% in its most recent quarter. In 2008 food producrers pushed through price increases of as high as 10%. The situation now is that consumers are shifting to austerity spending and this will increase price competitive private lable products even more. And Nielsen data from the Private Label Manufacturers Association show private label sales of food and grocery products in the USA grew 10.3% in th 12 months ending Nov 2008 to $82.9 billion.

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The 140 billion in stock market losses in GE stock in just the last 12 months (2017-2018) ranks as the worst in history in the corporate world. In this report a retired GE worker at 61 years is shown looking for a second job after the losses wiped out a substantial part of his retirement savings in the form of company stock. This is the worst in history and is about twice that in market losses for Enron, and more than the losses in bankruptcies of GM and Lehman Bros. As a result GE is one of the worst funded pension programs in the corporate world. About $100 billion in pension obligations for 600,000 people who get GE pensions is underfunded by $30 billion. GE will need to borrow $6 billion in 2018 to contribute to the pension plan.

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Gerald Seib of the WSJ says don't be shocked at the resignation of Mattis at Defense after the withdrawal decisions on Afghanistan and Syria by president Trump, the shutdown of the government in Washington D.C. over Mr. Trump's demandsfor $5 billion to build the border wall with Mexico on grounds of security. As president Trump prepares his reelection bid he is going back to his own sense of what the public and his support base want. The border wall issue was popular with his supporters, and by withdrawing troops from Afghanistan Trump is lowering the troops number to below that when president Obama left office, for a war that is unpopular in the country. Mattis is looking at it from the perspective of sacrifices made in Afghanistan by U.S. soldiers. 

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Spain's National Court is looking into the problems at Bankia and the leadership of Rodrigo Rato, a former head of the IMF and Economy minister in the government of Mara Aznar of the Partido Popular. The current prime minister Rajoy was deputy prime minister in the Aznar government which lost the election in 2004.

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Ben Hubbard of the NYT describes the problems created by the Russian bombing campaing in Syria for the civilian population, and the lack of any changes on the ground. Russia may soon be looking for a way out from its involvement in the region, says Hubbard, because of the costs of such an involvement over time.

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With the popularity of Apple iPhones and smartphones, Nokia has lost ground. Its share price is down 73% from 2007 end. It is looking for a new CEO. The lack of new mobile phones to compete with the iPhone and other smartphones and generate the kind of excitement that Apple's iPhone has generated, is Nokia's main problem.

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The labor force participation rate in Canada dropped by only about a half of the drop in the U.S. since the 2008 financial crisis, even though the population in Canada is slightly older there than in the U.S. This suggests that discouraged people who have stopped looking for work is more of a factor in the decline.

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This NYT editorial before the Greece parliamentary elections calls for compromise on both sides- the EU, Germany and Greece. With 61% of Greeks desiring to remain in the eurozone, and Greeks looking for an easing of the severe austerity plans leading to unemployment at 25% and deep recession, debt relief is needed as a way forward.

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The Obama healthcare law is expected to reduce the total number of hours Americans work by equivalent of 2.3 million full time jobs in 2021, according to Congressional Budget Office projections. Earlier forecasts for this were 800,000 equivalent full time jobs. Some of these hours will be taken up by other workers looking for jobs, according to CBO's report.

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Japan in 2007 with a new mix of anglo-saxon capitalism and Japan's postwar social cohesion base industrial model. A strong industrial sector with a inefficient services sector, and a largely inward looking society which has changed somewhat by adopting some of the aspects of the anglo-saxon model with low immigration and foreign investment compared to European countries.

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Rates are falling all over Europe and in other countries Not since 1039 have rates reached 2% in the UK, eurozone rates down to 2.5% and Sweden down to 2%. ANd the Fed in te Us where rates are down to 1% is looking at unconventional measures to stimulate the economy including buying out delinquent mortgages.

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Applebaum talks to two researchers at the University of Chicago and Princeton, Prof. Sufi and Prof. Mian, on the record of U.S. president Obama and Fed chairman Bernanke in helping homeowners facing foreclosure and underwater borrowers, comparing that record with their record in helping the banks. The issue is relevant as the policy and handling of homeowners had to be part of an overall effective plan for recovery in the U.S. economy, because ultimately without the U.S. consumer any recovery would be weak in the long run- a situation the U.S. faces in early 2014. The response to the issue of irresponsible homeowners borrowing beyond the limit without an equally robust response to irresponsible bank management that allowed wildly excessive leveraging of assets, and successful aggressive lobbying by banks in a shortsighted policy of going through with a wave of foreclosures; besides creating questions of fairness and equitable handling of the problem, also had major ramifications for the future of the U.S. and global economic growth. Here Christina Romer and other administration advisors say Bernanke was right in tackling the problem from the perspective of the banks needing to be recapitalized. Thoughtful advisors looking at the entire problem, Martin Feldstein and Sheila Bair strongly pushed for providing the same help to homeowners without getting caught up in the issue of who was responsible home buyers or the banks, and looking at the interests of the U.S. economy and the U.S. people. Proposals by Feldstein and Bair were equally robust in helping banks as they were in helping homeowners, only the banks understood their interests narrowly and had more access to policymakers in the Bush, as well as the Obama administration, Paulson as well as Geithner. This leaves us with the ultimate irony of the Obama administration pushing for the minimum wage, even to the point of electoral posture, when lasting damage had been inflicted on homeowners from the weaker portions of America's middle class by a policy that went against what two respected financial and economic experts from the Reagan period, Sheila and Bair had strongly advocated. See links and groups on Feldstein and Bair. Applebaum has followed most aspects of this problem closely and continues to provide exceptional reporting including the piece on the thinking of new Fed chairman, Janet Yellen. Private enterprise rules that require management at banks just as for other companies to take responsibility for failures, and be replaced with new management, was largely avoided leading to a fundamental failure in how a free market economy such as the U.S. and western European economies are supposed to function. Rules aggressively pushed by Geithner's mentor Treasury Secretary Rubin for a vigorous cleanup at banks in South Korea during a similiar situation in 1997, were not followed in any way here, also setting wrong precedents for the long run. ...

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Mark Landler's interview with Hussain Haqqani in Oct. 2013 provides insights into the misperceptions on both sides of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship since 1947. Particularly the way Pakistan cannot shake free from seeing everything through the prism of India. He points out that Ambassador Holbrooke had a forward looking approach to the South Asian region, but failed to get the support of president Obama and the weak leadership of president Zardari, resulting in a squandered opportunity for the region to look beyond the twentieth century's conflicts towards a brighter future.

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State Bank of India saw its deposit base jump by 40% in the last 3 months of 2008, as customers transferred money from foreign banks and private sector banks to State Bank of India. State Bank of India is 60% owned by the Government of India. Over the last decade ICICI and other private sector banks modernized, had better looking, airconditioned branches open longer hours, compared to the older shabby looking branches with fans of State Bank of India. Now State Bank of India has tens of billions of additional deposits, has $20 billion in cash above the amount it needs to operate, and is able to offer interest rates on loans that are 2% lower than the competition. ITs also investing in modernization of its branches so that it canoffer the same cheery looking, airconditioned branches as its private sector competitors. It hired 25,000 workers in 2008, plans to hire 10,000 in 2009, is investing in 4000 additional ATM's and adding 2000 branches to its 10,000 existing branches. Competitors attribute State Bank's growth to lhigher deposit rates and lower loan rates more than the flight to quality. State Bank says about 60% of new loans are coming from competitors. And State Bank hopes to recover the market share it lost to private sector banks in the last decade. Lending at State Bank and other public sector banks rose 29% last year, up from 20% in 2007. Lending by private sector banks rose11.8% in 2008, compared to 24% in 2007, and at foreign banks increased by 16.9% in 2008 compared to 30.7% in 2007...

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Samuelson discusses the differences between the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for June 2014 using the Payroll Survey and the Household Survey, each telling a different story. According to the Payroll Survey 288,000 jobs were added. The Payroll Survey is a monthly survey of 554,000 business locations, with firms asked to give the number of people on payrolls, pay and occupations. The Household Survey of the BLS asks households in monthly interviews with 60,000 Americans whether they have a job, is it part time or full time, are they looking for full time work, or jobless and for how long. The Household Survey showed June 2014 job increase at 407,000, using an estimate of 1,115,000 increase in part-time jobs and a loss of 708,000 full time jobs. Of the two the payroll survey is larger and considered by economists to be more representative. Other statistics show the parttime workers at about 3 million higher than 2007 before the 2008 financial crisis, suggesting the shift to part time jobs has been one negative result of the crisis....

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Janet Yellen Fed chairwoman, says many obstacles still exist for women in the workforce. Bringing more women into the workforce will increase the productive capacity of the American economy. The increasing participation of women in the workforce was factor in the growth and prosperity of America by the middle of the 20th century. In a speech sharing her personal narrative at Brown University, her alma mater, she described how other nations had passed the U.S. in women's participation in the workforce, and how it remains stalled at 75% for women either working or looking for work. Her speech was at a conference "125 Years of Women at Brown." The U.S. is now 17th among 22 developed nations in participation of women in workforce, mostly because of government and business policies that relate to paid maternity leave, affordable child care, and flexible work schedules.

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Two men, Tommy D'Alessandro, U.S. Congressman from Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore, from Italian stock, and Fred Trump a builder in Brooklyn and Queens  from German stock, bring different visions of the future. One looking out for immigrant families mostly from Europe at the time, and the other a builder who benefitted from government money used for housing under president Roosevelt's New Deal. Today their struggles are seen in the next generation, with Alessandro's daughter Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, and Fred Trump's son Donald Trump in the White House. Maureen Dowd writes in her inimitable style about the U.S. president views being shaped by his wealthy upbringing, and Pelosi's views shaped living with Italian families and immigrants in the post wartime years after 1945, with the trauma suffered in the war.

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Facing pressure from environmentalist groups to reduce the use of palm oil, Unilever is looking at oil from algae materials that could serve as a substitute. The use of palm oil has led to increasing deforestation in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. As part of this effort Unilever made an investment in Solazyme Inc, a California company that makes algae oil.

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Krugman describes the President as coming across as bland and timid, and asks what happened to the guy with the inspiring message. Oliphant in a Washington Post cartoon shows the "pragmatic" Obama in 2011 debating the "inspiring message" Obama of 2008. Krugman says he thinks the country is looking for someone to lead, who believes in something- outside of re-election.

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Treasury is looking at doing what Gordon Browns plan does in the UK which is to inject capital directly into banks. Paulson pointedly stated that the bailout law gives Treasury the right to use the $700 billion to inject capital into banks as needed. In return the law Paulson stated gives Treasury the right to take ownership stakes in the banks.