Macron's role in setting up the nonrepayable $390 billion common funding for the European Recovery Fund

07/31/2020

Macron's effort to persuade Merkel and Germans of the need for common funding for European recovery and his persistence at negotiations with the Dutch and Swedes to secure 390 billion euros of funding aid has earned him increasing popularity in France. It also brings Spain, Italy, Greece and eastern European nations closer together with France and Germany as they fight the pandemic.

Linked Articles

Macron's popularity climbs after signing EU pandemic stimulus, reshuffling gov't

France 24 07/30/2020

DW.COM 07/21/2020

Bernd Riegert

Luckin Coffee a China startup for aspirational coffee drinkers- billions of dollars in investment that never reached infrastructure and health services,and huge losses

06/13/2020

Linked Articles

China’s Changing Tastes Offer Upside for Coffee

WSJ 06/13/2020

Lucy Craymer

WSJ 06/13/2020

Problem in U.S. coronavirus effort - the lack of a well funded institution setup by the government for quality data on the virus

05/15/2020

Reliable quality data on the coronavirus is centralized in other countries so that decisions can be made with confidence by state and federal decisionmakers. The U.S. lacks such an institution and information is collected and presented from disparate sources without consistency by private individuals or organizations leaving decisionmakers exposed to errors from lack of quality data that can prove very costly.

Linked Articles

States Are Reopening With No Clear Picture of U.S. Coronavirus Cases

WSJ 05/15/2020

Deanna Paul, Brianna Abbott

WSJ 05/09/2020

Jon Hilsenrath, Jon Kamp

Rebuilding Health care systems in Africa

01/24/2019

Linked Articles

Okigusuri : A Japanese Approach for Better Access to Medicine in Africa / JapanGov - The Government of Japan

JapanGov - The Government of Japan 01/24/2019

Wall Street Journal 06/05/2015

Betsy Mckay, Betsy, Mckay

Republican House health care bill in 2017 and shift in priorities- $337 billion in savings, expected lower premiums, but leaving 14 million more uninsured in 2018

03/13/2017

A shift in priorities from the poor to the middle class- targeting lower premiums for people who have seen their premiums increase sharply, reducing the overall cost with savings of $337 billion, yet leaving 14 million more people uninsured.

Linked Articles

CBO Sees 24 Million More Uninsured, $337 Billion Deficit Cut in Coming Decade With GOP Health Plan

WSJ 03/13/2017

Stephanie Armour, Kristina Peterson

BBC News 03/13/2017

The 1976 Montreal Olympics, the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the Rio Olympics- decades long debt hangovers and costs growing from the $1+ billion in Montreal to $50+ billion in Sochi

08/24/2016

Developing and developed countries alike have seen the cost of the Olympics as a huge burden. Many countries or cities that committed to hosting the Olympic games during boom years were facing economic hard times by the time of the games. Corruption and mismanagement of public funds, overspending and cost overruns added to the problems. Citizens uproar caused cities such as Boston and Oslo to withdraw bids for the Olympics. The Olympics appears to be a costly way to show off a country, and raises questions about better allocation of funds in other directions, especially when upward mobility is a problem for the middle and working class, countries have other infrastructure needs, and neglected basic needs in education, healthcare, public services.

Linked Articles

The 40-year hangover: how the 1976 Olympics nearly broke Montreal

The Guardian 07/06/2016

The New York Times 08/23/2016

Michael Powell

Brazil's 2016 Summer Olympics- indifference and anger of ordinary Brazilians that the $12 billion was not invested in improving public services, infrastructure, healthcare and education

08/04/2016

Linked Articles

A Chastened Brazil Welcomes Its Summer Games

WSJ 08/04/2016

Reed Johnson, Luciana Magalhaes, Patricia Kowsmann

The New York Times 08/04/2016

Simon Romero

Donald Trump's proposal for 45% tariff on China's exports to the U.S.- how a policy of bringing jobs home could lead to the loss of 1 million U.S. jobs

03/08/2016

By damaging the international trading system including with allies such a Canada, Britain, France and Germany, the result of a downward spiral through higher tariffs in other countries, could end up costing the U.S. 1 million jobs. Under such a system the U.S. would lose many of the advantages of its booming tech sector, its tech driven global advantages in many industries, without signifcant gains in low cost imports such as clothing which would simply migrate to other countries such as India. The problem of worker wage stagnation in the U.S., and loss of jobs in certain sectors, is very real, but this is the wrong way to tackle the problem. China is already moving towards a consumer driven economy. Economists show that trade with Mexico would be seriously hurt both ways, creating more pressure of migrants at the border under such proposals as a 45% tariff and its indirect effect on Mexico, when the actual fact is that net migration from Mexico is the lowest it has ben in decades. Politics can do strange things as when two senators Smoot and Hawley from agricultural states Utah and Oregon, at the head of important committees in the U.S. Congress pushed and passed legislation for a 60% tariff in 1930 for the industrial sector they had no idea about. When Smoot and Hawley lost reelection in 1932 they left behind a lot of damage, especially for the farmers and workers they thought they were fighting for.

Linked Articles

How Trump’s Hard Line on Trade Could Backfire

Wall Street Journal 03/25/2016

Bob Davis, Bob, Davis

Wall Street Journal 03/08/2016

Holman W. Jenkins Jr., Holman, W., Jenkins, Jr.

The lost sense of moral purpose in the Obama presidency (3)

11/17/2015

Linked Articles

U.N. Says 60 Million People Have Been Forced to Flee War

New York Times 12/18/2015

Nick Cumming Bruce, Nick, Cumming Bruce

Wall Street Journal 11/17/2015

Editorial

2016 U.S. presidential candidate Jeb Bush's Tax Plan that spells out details, and takes a shot at 4% growth for restoring lost social and economic mobility in the U.S.

09/09/2015

The efforts to wrestle with the deficit in 2011-2012 led to a vigorous debate on changing the tax code, yet political leaders failed to take up new ideas or spell out the details. Jeb Bush, with advisors Martin Feldstein and Kevin Warsh, takes the unconventional approach of putting in the details, and taking up ideas such as the idea of limiting itemized deductions to 2% of adjusted gross income proposed by Feldstein in that debate. On the $2.1 trillion in income held overseas by U.S. companies Bush proposes 8.75% tax paid over 10 years. On business investment he proposes capital investment be allowed to be deducted in full immediately. It is based on the idea that business investment can drive a vigorous recovery, that workers bear 50% of the burden of higer taxes through sluggish wage growth. It levels the playing field for debt and equity capital, removing "carried interest" provision, as a lesson from the excessive leverage taken by financial institutions in the past.

Linked Articles

The Bush Growth Plan

Wall Street Journal 09/10/2015

Editorial

New York Times 09/09/2015

Alan Rappeport, Alan, Rappeport, Matt Flegenheimer, Matt, Flegenheimer

Errors made by the IMF, Syriza Tsipras far left government, leading to the third bailout program of 2015 for Greece

07/06/2015

Just when the first signs of growth in the economy were taking place in 2014 the IMF held back on a 7.2 billion euro payment to Greece which would have increased liquidity to the private sector for growth. The IMF hope to gain leverage with a future Syriza far left government. The first half of 2015 led to economic anxiety in Greece with a failed negotiating strategy of Syriza far left government focussing only on the debt and not on the economy. The damage led to about 85 billion in addtional financing needed following the closing of Greece's banking system in July 2015.

Linked Articles

IMF Warns Eurozone That Greece Needs Far More Debt Relief

Wall Street Journal 07/15/2015

Ian Talley, Ian, Talley

New York Times 07/06/2015

Gikas Hardouvelis, Gikas, Hardouvelis

Ukraine and the Minsk 2 agreement of Feb. 2015- (1) the U.S. and Russian views on implementation by June 2015

06/06/2015

Linked Articles

Putin Urges Western Pressure on Ukraine in Peace Effort

New York Times 06/06/2015

David M. Herszenhorn, David, M., Herszenhorn

Wall Street Journal 06/06/2015

Gordon Lubold, Gordon, Lubold