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The IMF promised to increase the aid package to Greece from $45 billion to $120 billion. Together with aid from the EU and Germany the total would come to $160 billion. This after the markets responded negatively to efforts by Greece to obtain funds. With the junk rating for Greek bonds Greece is effectively cut off from the markets and it makes it increasingly difficullt to roll over debt including $8 billion euros due May 19, 2010. Equally significant are the rumblings being heard about Spain, which is a much larger country than Greece, and an economy 5 times as large. An IMF loan to Spain would have to be significantly larger.

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Brigid Schulte says French parents can be more relaxed in their parenting because of the reliable state financed childcare system in France. France ranks first in the 34 nation OECD for 100% preschool attendance, with the U.S. way below at 46%. The U.S. is the only country in the developed world that has no federal paid parental leave policy. This puts enormous stress on mothers, and also on fathers who share the tasks of parenting. This is one reason why there is a long tradition of working mothers in France, and why American mothers are constantly having to make choices of staying at home and parenting or trying to juggle work and careers.

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Few economists predicted the third quarter 2014 GDP decline of 1.6%. The bright side to this is that much of the decline is due to falling inventories. Experts say excluding this effect growth would be about 0.6% for the 3rd quarter. Growth is expected to pick up as falling inventories are replenished in 2015. It also discredits officials at the Bank of Japan and the Finance Ministry who insisted the consumption tax should go ahead and would not be a drag on the economy, giving the government more room for stronger action in the future. Prime minister Abe is considering holding a snap election to run on a pro-growth platform to push ahead with his plans.

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Experts say entrepreneurs are seen negatively in Germany and a startup failure is likely to be seen as a problem in a resume. Yet many of the small companies with less than 50 million euros in sales were started in the early post war period decades before. These companies with less than 500 employees employ about 60% of German employees, showing their importance. Social Democrats Economics minister Sigmar Gabriel is promoting the idea of increased funding for startups by venture capital and private equity funds, by increasing tax breaks for startups. Germany's Federal Statistics Office figures show 87,000 new companies registered in 2014 through Novemeber, down 28% from the prior decade and 47% below 1996.

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Merck's decision to organize R&D using four innovation hubs in Boston, San Francisco, London and Shanghai. Merck currently lacks a large R&D presence in London and it has commercial operations in Shanghai. Experts say innovation centers enable drug companies to take advantage of academic research at an early stage. Pfizer and other companies are also pursuing a similiar strategy. The new head of R&D at Merck, Dr, Perlmutter plans to shrink staff and focus on promising areas such as immunoterapies for treating cancer and vaccines. Perlmutter comes from Amgen and is bringing people who he worked with at Amgen. The focus is also shifting to tapping the new science behind dieseases.

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How to do the disposal of 99.1 million old television sets, that the EPA says sit in closets unused throughout the USA, in an ecologically friendly way is a challenge. State laws in 18 states and in New York CIty make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics. Similiar stautes were introduced in 13 other states in 2009. When states like Maine and Washington have made it easy for people to take their old electronics PC or television sets to dropoff points the response has been very good. In Washington the drop off is free of charge, and there are 200 collection points in the state, with 15 million pounds of electronic waste collected since January.

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Russia's largest companies in metals like nickel, iron ore and aluminium, may end up in state control by the end of the year as the government is loaning money to these companies. These companies owe billions of dollars to state controlled banks and foreign banks and are heavily in debt. This would be a reversal of something that started with the loans for shares under which tycoons like Potanin got control of state assets in metals companies, in exchange for loans to the state. A company that will combine the assets of Norilsk Nickel, UC Rusal, and OAO Metalloinvest is being formed, with the state taking alarge minority stake at the initial stage.

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A hisory of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Early struggles, success under Barron, the the depression and then post war success under Kilgore. Then again faltering as print gave way to television and the internet, and competitors such as CNBC of GE and Bloomberg News. Early success with the particular kind of journalism, information and statistics including the DJ average, branding, credibility and accuracy, situation stories under Kilgore, and the appeal to a wider audience that is interested in the business news. The inability to leverage the WSJ brand and inability to build WSJ's international papers, a general lack of funding and of direction, and failures in television branding are part of recent history.

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How Iceland got into the dire mess that is in from a fisheries nation of 400,000 to an international banking centre with its banks assets ballooning to 100 billion euros. This after a ten year boom since 1990 when growth of 2.2 % ayear depending on fisheries shifted to 7-9% growth annually in the shift to international banking in a world of easy credit. Just think of this tiny Iceland with 2 billlion euros in foreign exchange reserves trying to deal with a banking system with 100 billion euros in assets, Iceland is way over its head. Banking is finished in Iceland and the country's people are back to fisheries like their fathers before them.

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The State Budget Crisis Task Force is co-chaired by former Fed chairman Paul Volcker and Richard Ravitch, a former lieutenant governor of New York. The Report of the Task Force says rising pension expenses and healthcare costs for public sector employees and Medicaid costs are severely reducing the ability of states in the U.S. to fund essential infrastructure improvements, education for low income students and other services. The report said there were six major threats to the fiscal situation of states- including Medicaid spending, underfunding of retirement, "budgetary gimmicks" to address the short term needs, and uncertain tax revenues. Ravitch told a news conderence: "It will be a hell of a lot more expensive to deal with theses problems in five or ten years than to deal with them now." The report focussed on California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia and Texas. It was funded by the foundation of Blackstone Group co-founder Peter Peterson, and George Soros's Open Society Foundation....

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Pulitzer prize winning journalist reporting on the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, Karen Elliott House, describes the changes in Saudi society and politics against the backdrop of the changes in the Middle East. Her exceptional reporting and insights provide a look into the Middle East at a time when young people make up the largest demographic and are looking for jobs and economic opportunity, with political structures lagging far behind in meeting the growing aspirations. The larger backdrop of the region extends into South Asia, with large Muslim populations unable to make the right choices for freedom and economic progress because of internal divisions, widespread illiteracy and lack of education of the rural population, and poor leadership. The lag affects western society in different ways, including the threat of terrorism, sporadic involvement in the region's conflicts, and a sense of not being able to do the right thing by its own ideals.

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Monthly reports are issued on bank lending by the Treasury. The report for February shows business lending is down by 24% in its dollar value from the previous month, and a similiar decline in student, auto and credit card lending. The only increase is in mortgage lending as government efforts to hold down interest rates heave led to a refinancing boom. The two largest lenders Wells Fargo and Bank of America reported a 35% jump in mortgage lending in February over January. Businesses are charged more for loans by Chase, which it says is to reflect increased risks, and Chase has sharply reduced its business lending. This is bad news for the economy, because it means businesses will continue to pull back, and some businesses will layoff employees and others may close for lack of financing. The other link to the report in the WPost about the consumers who have jobs, but are acting flat broke suggests consumption will continue to decline, which puts stresses on businesses as sales revenues for all sorts of products decline across the spectrum of the economy. With less acess to costlier financing, and declining sales, the picture of continued large job losses is being etched, and will continue to be etched as these are becoming things that will not change for a long time. Banks are insolvent or close to being insolvent, so lending is only like to change if the government takesover the banks and puses through lending at attractive rates. But it has to do this quickly, before confidence drops to a level where the demand for loans just isn't there. China is able to push lending through the banks because government controls the banks, this cannot happen in the US unless the government actually steps in to take over the insolvent banks and push through a large lending program. In this sense the Obama program while admirable and helpful to stabilize things a bit, is only part effective, and can never really restore confidence or a serious measure of economic stability because of the three pillars of progress in this situation, it can impact only two directly- foreclosure prevention, and business plus consumer lending. The third consumption is something it can only indirectly control through foreclosure prevention and lending, but which is headed down as Americans convert to a frugal lifestyle. And in these two areas of foreclosure prevention and business lending the government is failing. The fourth pillar of progress in the recovery is employment, and this is also an area the government can only indirectly control through stimulus spending on infrastructure, education and energy, but is largely influenced by foreclosure prevention- which keeps home prices from falling rapidly and overshooting and reduces household wealth- and business/consumer lending. These are ER (f) FPL (CE). Economic Recovery as a function of Foreclosure Prevention and Lending, and Consumption and Employment, where indirect control is shown by ( ). With not much in place for FPL- the only two variables government can directly control if it takes strong and immediate action before its influence on these two variables begins to diminish over time- Obama's inexperience and learning curve and failure to take bold action to get serious results on FPL, may result in admirable demeanor and rhetoric but medicore results and a struggling economy for years to come. ...

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A small group of founders of the Pay Pal company Sacks, Thiel and Musk  are only a small fraction of the larger tech universe that includes Apple, Google and Amazon and other technology companies in many industries including auto, aerospace, chips, other manufacturing,  possibly no more than 10--20%. They are now enabled by US Supreme Court decisions to allow business supported PAC's to operate freely to influence political events in 2024 for promoting their own business interests.  The influence operates through social media channels in ways that limit verifying of information because of the speed with which information can be posted on the internet. This has created new challenges for 2024 and the American system of representative government enshrined in the words in the preamble of the Constitution about  "We the People" - "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." ...

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Munich Security Conference is being organized by Christoph Heusgen, the conference chair, who was an adviser to Angela Merkel and previous German  Representative at the United Nations. It will be held Feb 14-16 at the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich. JD Vance will be attending for the US with alarge delegation including Keith Kellogg US DJT envoy to Ukraine and Zelensky of Ukraine. German federal elections are on Feb. 23, 2025 with CDU's Merz holding a lead. Pete Hegseth Defense Secretary is not attending the conference. Hegseth has expressed views skeptical about Ukraine. Mark Rutte, the former Dutch PM is attending as Secretary General of NATO. The Munich Security Conference Report cites DJT and says- "Indeed, the notion of 'resource scarcity' has become a central premise of Republican foreign policy thinking." Germany barely spends 2% on defense. DJT wants to see 5%. DJT's comments are published in the Munich Security Report- "We were being ripped off by European nations both on trade and on NATO." "If you don't pay, we're not going to protect you." ...

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EU Japan South Korea face serious negotiations ahead, regardless of ITT ruling on May 28, 2025 saying the president did not have emergency powers. The ruling does not apply to sector by sector action by DJT just not across the board tariff of 50%. And the ruling is being appealed.  Initial analysis is that this does nothing to affect the US president's other options to use other legal authorites and laws, conduct sector by sector investigations of harm done to the US in unfair trade, take action on sector by sector basis on steel, semiconductors, autos, pharmaceuticals.  Another factor is that all are allies, EU and India is dependent on US for security cooperation, and Japan, South Korea are entirely US dependent on security. Japan also has a past history of unfair trade practices and the prime minister senior officials both understand the US need to rebuild manufacturing, and support this. This is also true of the UK which has completed it's trade negotiations and deal with the US, and sees the ITT or other actions as an internal matter for the US people. ...

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Judith Warner coins the phrase "dysregulation," for the cultural phenomena that may be behind the lack of restraint exercized in everthing that relates to personal lives like obesity, to the lack of regulation in the gulf and financial crisis. Citing Whybrow's book, "American Mania: When More Is Not Enough," she points to a disturbance in the national psyche, something that disturbs some inner clock or mechanism, that disturbs some inner balance that is built into us from the beginnings of man in the universe.

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Only 23% of meals in America include a vegetable. The number of dinners made at home with a salad dropped to 17% in 2010 compared to 22% in 1994. Salads ordered at restaurants dropped to 5% in 2010 from 10% in 1989, according to NPD research company in its 25th edition of "Eating Patterns in America." The U.S. is going backwards in good eating habits and no enough attention is being paid to this in the debate about cost of health care. Their is a clear connection between good eating habits and health, and while invention and use of the latest research and innovations in health care are lauded, the decline in patterns of healthy living and food habits are receiving less attention.

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Glenn Hubbard is Columbia University's Business School dean. He is also a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. Hubbard came under criticism in "Inside Job," a 2010 documentary about the financial crisis for reported connections with financial services firms. Here he talks to the Wall Street Journal's Melissa Korn on the ways in which Columbia is changing its business school programs to ensure interdisciplinary learning. Hubbard thinks a broader education is needed, not just expertise in a particular area, for today's students turning into the business leaders of tomorrow. One of the big changes today is that a student today may have significant responsibilities and leadership position in a shorter period 5-10 years. Earlier generations of business leaders had a much longer period before they assumed such responsibilities. This makes it even more important for a business student to have a broader education and have broader perspective. In the next ten years Hubbard sees two major changes- continued globalization, and the reshaping of major industries such as financial services. This will require students to have a broader grasp of the changes that will be taking place, which cannot come from merely having expertise in a particular field. He says this kind of education will be needed for business decisionmakers to be capable of preventing a broader economic meltdown. Hubbard believes ethics courses simply marginalize the subject, when in reality ethics and doing the right thing is woven into everything that happens, decisions that take place in so many ways and places, and often over many years. For this reason Columbia seeks to cover this ground in case discussions in different subject areas across the breath of the curriculum. Some of the developments and decisions occur over 25 years as in a GM auto industry case taught at Columbia. ...

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Typically one spouse is healthier than the other. As one ages, kids and other things are less in the foreground, health matters more. This is when the conversation if carried on the right way, nudging in the right way can get results.

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BAE Systems has a $120 million contract to provide social anthropologists to the Defense Department of the USA. In December, L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. acquired International Resources Ltd, a Washington based economic-development firm which is different from its military advisory business. This is the way the Defense Department and the suppliers to the Defense department are changing in response to Defense Secretary Gates philosophy that economic development, rule of law programs and strategic communications and a whole host of soft power initiatives are essential needs, and to the new President's philosophy. Now US Defense suppliers Lockheed and Northrop are providing peacekeepers thorugh the State Department, and BAE SYstems is providing social anthropologists in addition to armored vehicles to go with US troops on village patrols. The State Department, Agency of International Development and a changing Defense Department are all getting the attention of suppliers who are building new relationships for new needs and new services tackle the issues of terrorism, poverty, drugs and crime that generate or exacerbate conflict in other countries. In the first budget presented recently Obama pledged $50 billion double the amount before for foreign assistance. A portion of the $130 billion requested for wartime operations in 2010 will be allocated to these new kinds of services which are more effective and generate better understanding and support for the US in other countries....

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The Federal Reserve acts to help freexzing credit markets with a $200 billion program called the Term Securities Lending Facility, where the Fed will lend safe treasury money such as Treasury securities for 28 days to banks and financial institutions and will accept nongovernment mortgage backed securities with premium credit ratings as collateral. Its a creative move by the Fed and the size of the move $200 billion should help the cash squeeze that is hitting all parts of the credit markets even those where the risks may not be as high as they are presumed to be because in this market with lack of information on who owns what of risky securities and the complexity of the securties all credit is being maligned.

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United Airlines has asked Airbus and Boeing to come up with competing bids for 150 new jetliners, an order worth an estimated $10 billion. After the 9/11 bombings, with the slowdown in air travel and the steep losses airlines suffered from high oil prices, its the overseas airlines that made the big orders. The domestic airlines were content to work with an aging fleet. United's move at this time may be calculated to take advantage of the improving credit situation, and the lower prices of steel and other commodities to get better pricing from manufacturers. The thrust of the order is to replace 11 of United's wide body fleet, the Boeing 747,757,767,and 777 model fleet. The average of these planes is 747-13 years, 777- 10 years, 767- 14 years, 757-17 years. See graph. The most crucual conditions United is looking for are financing arranged by the manufacturer that does not use United's cash, and the flexibility to change the order later if market conditions change. United sees this as amove to get good pricing and financing terms now so that when the planes are delvered over time, spread out over several years, the planes would come in just when air travel is picking up with an economic recovery. If it does not get the terms it wants, United may wait. It has already retired half of its oldest planes, the Boeing 737's, with the remaining half due to be replaced by end of 2009. United's competitor American Airlines, announced in fall 2008, that it wants to order upto 100 Boeing jetliners if it can get new agreements with its pilots union. In spring 2009 American speeded up deliveries of 737-800's to replace some of its old MD-80's. Newer aircraft mean better fuel efficiency, and ways to cover routes that are not possible with older aircraft....

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The problems in the commercial real estate bad loans that make it too hard for the government to rescue. An adjustment here could slow the economy in the years ahead and expose banks to big losses in the $3.4 trillion outstanding commercial real estate debt. Big banks benefitted from the gvernmet TARP program, and after the stress tests raised funds. But big banks held only 29% of the $1.84 trillion commercial real estate debt on bank balance sheets in the 2nd quarter of 2009, according to Foresight Analytics. Smaller banks with $1 billion to $10 billion of assets had $450 billion in commercial real estate exposure in the second quarter equivalent to 330% of Tier 1 capital. For the largest banks that ratio was much less at 99%, according to Foresight. And the smaller banks did not get stresstested the way the larger banks did and so wer not able to raise enough equity. Governmet plans to deal with this coming crisis are to hopwe that real estae prices recover. a recovery of 10% could cut those loans underwater to 37% from 68%. And regulators issued guidelines to encourage banks to restructure, not foreclose on problem commercial mortgages. But even if prices rise banks would want to pare exposure not refinance these loans. Meanwhile the $700 billin market in bonds backed by commercial real estate loans is moribund....