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A New York Times/CBS poll shows 69% of Americans polled between March 21-25, 2012, feel the U.S. should not be involved in a war in Afghanistan. This is up from 53%, in a poll only 4 months before this poll.

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JetBlue airline has hired ad agency Firstborn, to make an experiential advertising effort that uses the comments of JetBlue customers on why they like the airline, and puts this in video clips on its site. By clicking on experience on the JetBlue site or by going to experience.jetblue.com one can see these comments. Experiential marketing is about not interrupting people's activities to draw attention to products. which is what happens in today's saturated advertising medium. Instead letting people who use the product talk about it and letting users themselves click on experience on the JetBlue site.

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Mario Monti says he had to do things quickly after his financial emergency government took office in 2011. There was less consultation and most of the initial reforms were done under pressure from the EU and a crisis situation in financial markets. Change takes some time to accomplish, says Monti, his period in offfice was too brief to tackle the entrenched interests and bureucracy. He and many of the cabinet had never been part of any government, yet had to act quickly. The oath of office on Nov. 16, "Save Italy" decree on Dec. 4. His government simply told the unions this is the pernsion reform, did not consult with them. As the crisis receded the pressure receded, and with 2013 elections approaching the political parties were back to electoral politics. Monti's view is that for decades the interest and corporatist groups have taken over government. Under the right, the inital mood of change gave way to takeover by entrenched interests leading to no changes under Berlusconi. The left feared pension reform would hurt them politically. If he had five years, Monti says, he would have tackled the bureaucracy the first day. In the end, Monti views his coming to Rome as landing from Mars, someone from the outside tackling deepseated problems in a short time frame. An assessment of Monti's contribution should take this into account. He was unpopular for the austerity measures which may have deepened the recession. Yet his contribution was in bringing a new seriousness to Italy's problems after decades of neglect by both the right and the left in Italian politics and government, and by corporatist interests in government. The beginning made by Monti, now gives Matteo Renzi a chance to make the tougher changes needed for Italy to return to growth....

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The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers meet i Sao Paulo, Brazil. On the side the BRIC countries finance minsters hold their first meeting. Brazilian President Da Silva calls for greater say for the BRIC countries and for countries like Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria, S. Korea and other large developing country economies in shaping the new global financial architecture. There is extreme frustration in Brazil that all their efforts to build a better life for millions of Brazilians may come to nought, and the first real sustained growth in decades that came to Brazil may now be cut short abruptly with huge cost to millions or rural and urban poor, a fate shared by all the BRIC and other developing countries. Wall Street source of the crisis remains closed to the BRIC and developing countries in the sense that what goes on there is determinied by insiders from the G7 countries, but the severe consequences of a fallout in Wall Street on trade and credit hit these countries just when there was hope for millions to live a better life. Just as when the Asian crisis and other crises hit in the last two decades there is a lot of talk about global financial architecture with Treasury's Rubin then and IMF's Kahn and World Bank's Zoellick now making statements, but no clue except to accept the need for getting the large developing countries of the G20 to the table for concerted action. ...

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A detailed breakdown of the the waste, fraud and improper payments in federal spending is shown in this WSJ report. . Of $4.1 trillion, a big chunk of the $6.7 trillion the US had in federal spending in 2024 according to CBO, 3.7% is self identified by agencies as improper payments or $149 billion. 90% of improper payments are overpayments. It reached a high of 7.1% of federal spending in 2021 during the pandemic when loose controls led to more improper payments. Only $22 billion was recovered for 2024. Outside agency control including state and local control where the federal and states are running programs is the single most difficulty in getting improper payments back. Top government programs with improper payments are: Health and Human Services Medicare $31.7 billion Medicaid   $31.1 billion Medicare Advantage $19.1 billion Medicare Prescription Benefit $3.6 billion Treasury - Earned Income Credit $15.9 billion Agriculture- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance $10.5 billion Social Security Supplemental Security Income $6.5 billion Labor- Federal and State Unemployment Insurance $5.1 billion ...

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Mr. Arjun Meghwal from the reserved constituency of Bikaner in Rajasthan is appointed by prime minister Modi to be the new Law minister of India. It also ensures smoother relations between the federal government and the Judiciary.

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Tour de France director tests positive. French prime minister takes test after sharing car with the director of Tour de France.

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One of the brighter signs in the gloom in the credit markets is the Fed's action to provide short term lending to Banks in December. Borrowing by banks at 2.82% at the Fed's Term Auction Facility for 28 days has been robust and helps ease the squeeze in credit markets.

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Fronterra Cooperative Group Ltd. cuts it forecast payout for the current dairy season to 4.70 New Zealand dollars per kilo (U.S. $3.70) for milk solids, a sharp decline from NZ$8.40 in 2013. This reduces farmer incomes by NZ$6 billion. Farmers are culling herds and cutting the size of farms as it becomes unprofitable to remain in dairy farming. Milk makes up 30% of overseas sales for New Zealand. Lending to farmers increased 42% since 2008 to NZ$34.5 billion.

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Following the Wisconsin primary Ted Cruz plans his campaign to prepare for a contested convention. The strategy is to focus on California, and states such as Nebraska and Indiana, and on delegate selection, so that Trump has little chance of winning the required 1237 delegates on the first ballot at the Republican Convention. To do this Cruz plans to hire additional staff, and work at the local city and county level winning endorsements from local and state officials. A similiar process unfolded in the Wisconsin primary, with local Republican base support that was crucial to his win. The focus inside California is on Orange County, San Diego county, San Fernando Valley, rural agricultural Central Valley, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo his wife's home town. In the New York primary where he is behind Cruz is planning to win delegates in heavily Democratic Congressional districts, using ads by pro-Cruz super PAC Trusted Leadership, to add to his delegate count. Cruz is depending on mid-size donors with the help of Jeb Bush and previous backers of Senator Rubio, for additional fundraising to increase campaign efforts....

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The story of Zhang Yiming of TikTok. He founded the App in 2012 in Beijing. His first app was Jinri Toutiao, translates to Today's Headlines. And came up with the idea of feeding people more of what they have read. This is the beginning of how today's echo effects of the news people read and opinions that are shaped in the process being one sided without any dialogue or mixing with others. This is not good for demcoracy and the dumbing down in social media adds to the lack of literacy. In the case of this China based app it means 170 million Americans are spending time in ways that deplete not add to cultural literacy. Some of the same arguments operate for social media as X and other social media divide rather than bring people to exchange views and thinking for better understanding and education.