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Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister, says India's approach to pandemic aid appears to be the right one because it avoided handouts that have in the form of large stimulus packages in the US and Germany, created high inflation. India's focus was on providing food for weaker members of society during the pandemic.  The basic idea behind the approach was to conserve capital, and use increased GST tax revenues in such a way that capital could be concentrated where it would deliver the most in projects that would take India forward in infrastructure and development for 2042. This is essentially the approach taken by first, Japan, then South Korea, then China, in becoming advanced industrial nations, increased revenues and capital concentrated on projects that would deliver in terms of industrial progress such as infrastructure, today in climate change renewable energy, and other actions. Gati Shakti integrates this into a Master Plan for the country for 2042. ...

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To president Joe Biden the Democrats instincts of FDR and Truman, with the focus on building better lives for workers and families, comes naturally. Biden takes the Democratic Party back to what it was in the 1930's to the 1960's. Just today the Labor Department showed 336,000 jobs added and the unemployment rate steady at 3.8% for 2 years, 32 months of jobs growth. Brooks offers a clue on how this is happening- president Biden has aggressively directed American capital and resources to where it is needed most, in counties red or blue where economic growth has suffered in the past. Yet 57% of people polled cited by Brooks say the economy is in poor shape. There are another 14 months to go and the economy will get even stronger with the capital allocation and Biden economic policies of Build Better and America First. Workers and families will see real and tangible improvements in their lives in 2024.

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Former Immigration minister Lord Kirkhope says of the riots in the UK around race and immigration that the language used by Sunak such as "Stop the Boats," as a riot chant shows the dangers of the Tories getting muddled up by moving the old party of Macmillan and other respected prime ministers in the direction it should not be in. It is clear that the Tory government with 4 prime ministers over a short period and no focus on effective action on the immigration issue was simply pandering to the issue. Lord Kirkhope said-  “Some have found it politically expedient to conflate the issues of legal migration and asylum seekers.    The current situation with levels of social unrest not experienced in this country for a very long time is deeply worrying. The role of divisive rhetoric, including by some from the previous administration, has certainly not helped the situation. ‘Stop the boats’ has been one of the riot chants and that is a most unfortunate result.” ...

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Biden joins Harris at an event in Largo, Maryland on August 15 2024, the first time president Biden joins Harris for a rally after Harris takes on the role of nominee. Biden is sort of on this ticket as the nominee Harris's mentor and colleague. Harris runs on Biden's achievements and the president will forever be part of the Harris team with experience to get important legislation through Congress in the years ahead. At the rally Biden and Harris focus on cost of living and how Medicare now brings down prices of out of control pharmaceuticals. President Biden is the first president to restore Medicare's right and obligation to the American people to negotiate fair prices for pharmaceuticals. This right and obligation was stripped from Medicare by the younger president Bush in one of the worst decisions of a Republican president since World War II, causing terrible hardship from corporate greed to hard working American families. 

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Mattinson and Ainsley have guided Labour's efforts to win back the trust of working class people and families in the UK. Here they talk about their visit to America and how they found an eerie resemblance to the situation in the UK, the same concerns about cost of living of food and housing or rent, the same concerns about immigration, and the same uncertainty about the future and the lives of their children. Could they ever trust Labour and could Labour deliver for them? During their visit they say -what they see Democrats and Harris already doing- focus on delivering for cost of living and for immigration. Starmer and Harris are both prosecutors and when Starmer talked up breaking up the gangs transporting migrants, and Harris talked about her prosecuting transnational gangs, they were talking about what they would do. Starmer set up the Border Security command, and Harris made the pledge she would sign the tough Republican Lankford immigration Border legislation into law.  ...

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Overworking in investment banking has become a serious issue with serious effects on health. It is the focus of a WSJ exclusive report on the casualties coming out of an erratic approach to worklife and health. WSJ says it has become a norm to ignore policies set banks a decade ago after similar death and toxic work situations. Bosses it says make impossible and unreasonable demands and younger workers in deference to this are put in a dangerous situation. All this for $200,000 in entry level positions- now Dimon CEO of Chase JP Morgan asks what can we learn from this, saying there are many people at Chase "who give a damn about the human beings at work in this company." The results delivered are also not what is good for the country. Much of the capital allocation that takes place though investment banking leads to enormous waste and poor investment returns. And this is happening as needed funding for infrastructure and other projects for education health and public services remain unaddressed. ...

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The author Li Congjun, is head of the Xinhua News agency, official press agency of the People's Republic of China. He calls for rebalancing the global economy with China depending more on domestic consumption, efforts to restrain the excesses of property and asset price bubbles, and renewed focus on technology and investment.

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The US share of Japanese exporting companies went down from 20% to 16% in the 2007-2010 period, while the exports from Japan to China, India, and Brazil have gone up by 25% in the same period. Korean companies like Hyundai and Samsung plunged early into the Indian market. LG and Samsung have a significant share in the electronics and consumer appliance markets in India. By comparison Sony's share is about 5% according to Euromonitor research. Now Japanese compaies are putting a new focus on India. In food products Nissin is expanding aggressively by doubling its noodle making capacity, and making its Ramen brand available in smaller packages costing 10 cents each. The idea is to customize the effort to the unique nature of the Indian market.

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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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Ford's new 2013 Fusion model was radically redesigned to compete with the redesigned midsize Camry, and expected redesigns of the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, the VW Passat and the Chevy Malibu. Ford hopes to gain market share with the Fusion after making only a small gain in market share of one tenth of a point in 2011, compared to half a percentage point for GM and 1.3 percentage points for Chrysler. VW Passat sales doubled in the last quarter of 2011 compared to all of 2010, showing increased competition in this segment. The new Fusion was designed at Ford's design center in Cologne, Germany, where the Focus was designed. Ford is shifting responsibility for car design to Europe and keeping pickup truck and SUV design in the U.S.

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Delta Airlines has one of the oldest fleet of planes in the U.S. Delta is turning this into a strategic move by having to invest less in new planes and with the ability to get good flight performance from older planes with proper maintenance. Delta says it is saving about $1 billion by acquiring 49 MD-90 planes with age of about 13 years from China Southern and other global airlines, compared to the cost of buying new planes. The estimate is that it is about 10% cheaper per seat to run these planes than new 737's, when the cost of buying planes is figured in. It also took over the leases for 88 Boeing 717's with average age of 11 years from Southwest. The focus at Delta is on profitability and debt reduction by selecting routes carefully, avoiding unprofitable ones, using tight cost management. Delta is on its third year of making profits and is on plan for reducing its debt from $17 billion in 2009 to $10 billion by 2013. The older Delta fleet is also the most punctual of the large airlines in the U.S., with 86.3% of flights on time in the Jan-Sept. 2012 period. Fitch Ratings raised Delta's credit ratings to B-plus and says Delta is "the strongest player in the much improved airline industry in the U.S."...

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Few will believe Jill Biden taught aclass on the day of her husband's inauguration as U.S. president. Times change and anew president takes office. With him is Jill Biden a dedicated teacher for all her life. She has two masters degrees and a doctoral degree on the problems in higher education with dropping out in community colleges in the U.S.

As the U.S. goes back to the days of the Truman presidency in 1952 when it was all about rebuilding the country- education and access to education, healthcare and access to healthcare, infrastructure and funding the infrastructure from bridges, roads, airports, terminals. A new focus takes shape.

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The constructive influence of John McDonnell in the Labor Party. McDonnell played a part in running the Greater London Council and understands what it takes to run an administration. He sees the dissension in the Labor Party as a distraction from the very real task of offering an alternative to the fracturing in the Conservative Party over soft or hard Brexit. 

Labor Party still has about 40% support edging out the Conservatives and can be seen as ready to form the next government, says the Economist magazine.  What is important is Corbyn's continued ability to compromise to bring together different elements in the party and focus on big initiatives.

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Just 18% of the US population will decide who is the next president of the US. In 2020 even with a lead of 7 million votes Biden could have lost the election without 45,000 votes in Georgia, Wisconsin, and Arizona. Mrs. Clinton with 2.9 million vote lead lost the Electoral College without 80,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The US Electoral College is unique among western countries and is based on a concept that the passions of the "general mass" of the population should be moderated by giving more power to smaller states. The US president is elected not by a direct vote but by a vote cast by state and its electoral college, and the total electoral college votes determines who won and who lost. The focus is on swingable states of which there were 10 in 2020. 

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The U.S. Federal Reserve, America's central bank, is staying away from riskier investments, junk bonds, leveraged loans, non government backed mortgage bonds, as it intervenes to support U.S. capital markets. On March 23 the Fed said it would launch facilities to buy not just Treasurys but also corporate bonds carrying investment grade ratings. Companies from Nike to Pfizer were able to issue $177 billion of invesrment grade bonds, according to Dealogic. As a result the corporate bond market is stabilizing. The Fed is not supposed to take credit risk, and just as the government intervention with aid to business has focused on keeping down unemployment, the Fed focus is on helping the parts of the market that are not leveraged, to help companies that were doing fine before the pandemic hit. As the president says repeatedly this pandemic was not their fault.

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Focus of questions in the U.S. Senate in July 2014 on why GM General Counsel Mike Milliken still runs GM's legal operations following the GM recall and the issues raised about the legal handling of customer complaints.

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Vindu Goel of the NYT gives this report on IBM's expansion in India including an interview with Vanitha Narayanan, chairman of IBM India. In 2017 IBM had 130,000 employees in India, at operations in Pune, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore and other cities, double that in 2007. The U.S. operations have about 100,000 employees. As IBM's revenues have declined with technology disruptions, it has concentrated on expansion in India with its vast base of knowledge workers and costs of about one half to one fifth of what it would cost in the U.S. IBM has 380,000 employees worldwide, with 26% in the U.S. and 34% in India, and 40% in other countries. Microsoft employs 8000 employees in India and 124,000 total worldwide, Google has 1800 in India and 72,000 worldwide.  IBM removed operations in India in 1978 after a dispute with the Indian government. In 1993 it started operations in India in a joint venture with Tata. By 2004 the operations had expanded and IBM took full control. A $750 million 10 year contract was signed in 2004 with an Indian phone company Bharti Airtel. As Goel points out the shift is happening towards expansion in India with the growing demand from industry and government in India. The Watson venture has expanded in healthcare in India with contracts including one with Maniphal Hospitals. In 2016 this had reached $38 billion in hardware and software, services, to Indian industry and the government agencies. IBM's work is not simply in offsourced work from American companies. High tech and cutting edge research is also taking place and expanding. IBM is now uniquely positioned to get an expanding share of the business as more tech services are provided to the hundreds of millions of people in India who did not have access to tech and tech services before. Research concentrates on doing this at a fraction of the cost and in new ways suited to the local region, so that services can be delivered with a wider reach. This report provides a new perspective on how the next decade could see American companies with a long term focus take advantage of the rapid growth in the fastest growing large economy in the world, with advantages for both the U.S. and India. ...

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How does the National Rural Employment guarantee Scheme compare with what Brazil has done under President Lula with the Bolsas Familias program to help rural people with income below the poverty rate? India its reported is looking at the Brazilian program. There the focus is on cash payments with cards like debit cards issued on each individual's name that only that person can use so that the funds cannot be stolen by corrupt intermediaries with the person receiving it having to make sure that his children are in school and vaccinated. The focus there is on nutrition, education and health care especially of the family unit and in this way it has been a success according to the World bank and other experts.

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The inflated costs for spinal surgeries at some hospitals in California. How surgeons, doctors, consultants, distributors and hospitals operated in a flawed system to make revenue gains through overbilling, and focus on increasing the number of surgeries performed.

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France's finance minister says the focus in 2013 will be on meeting the structural deficit goals. The recession will likely make it difficult to bring the budget deficit in France down to the 3% target in 2013 as planned.

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Petrobras plans investments of $224 billon over the next 5 years 2010-2014, up from $174 billion planned in the 2009-2013 plan. The focus is on development of large offshore oil reserves in the presalt area in the Atlantic ocean.

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After the 2008 election of president Obama rural whites left the Democratic Party, Following the election of president Trump educated suburbanites left the Republican Party. These two trends have accelerated as seen in the 2018 U.S. Congressional elections. Democrats won in and around major cities, and Republicans won in rural and small town America. Democrats won 27 GOP Republican COngressional seats to win the majority. Republicans added 2 seats to their Senate majority.  The electorate is sharply divided in terms of education in a way that is regressive and not good for America, and in a way that has never happened before. Republicans share of of House districts with lowest shares of college education bachelors degrees increased from 44% in 1998 to 60% in 2018. Democrats share of House districts with the highest share of Bachelors degrees went up from 50% in 1998 to 81% in 2018. Much of the Democrats support from educated suburbanites comes from lopsided support from educated women. The result is that the Republican Party is trading faster growing counties for slower growing smaller counties and now has a base of older voters. The Democrats have to find a leader who can rally support from this new combination of educated suburbanites, younger voters, and minorities. And big issues are at stake. About 77% of people in recent polls now support a national health care insurance like than in the UK and Canada. Poor reading skills and reading comprehension in school tests show a need for greater investment  in education. Infrastructure investment is a big priority for a decade that has yet to be tackled directly. Of the 50 new Democrats in the House of Representatives 24 campaigned on a promise for a national health insurance like that in Canada or UK. The focus on economic issues would move the Democratic Party back to where it was in all the post war years till the distractions from cultural issues  in the last decade shifted its focus from its historical base support of working class voters. ...

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Indian PM Modi meets DJT on Feb 12-13, 2025, at the White House. Focus is on trade, and on defense issues. Shown alongside is the situation of illegal migration from India, mainly from the Punjab region of India and from Gujarat. India will make the case for its exports based on the new supply chain shift reducing overdependence on China, and the shift to Make in America for jobs and factories.

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Prof. Neera Chandhoke of Delhi University points out that Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders of the Congress made great contributions for India. First in the freedom movement and then in helping India take the first steps to modernization. During the early years India needed the leadership of Nehru and Gandhi to establish a functioning democracy. Even though the focus has shifted to the economy and the next steps in modernizing the economy, the contribution of the early years should not be forgotten, as it laid the basis for what happened later.

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As BP reports large losses in the second quarter resulting from its focus on safety, and building a smaller but more profitable company, BP's CEO Dudley says- "One of the things we are not going to do is drift off the path of focus on safety." He emphasized this by adding that "stepping up the accelerator of performance in place of that is not going to happen." BP has cut overall production from 3 million barrels a day in 2009 to 2.3 million barrrels as it focuses on safety and profitability. Dudley says "its going to be value over safety." As it finishes repair and improvement work in the Gulf of Mexico, BP will repeat the exercize in its North Sea fields. Extensive maintenace work is leading to extended shutdown periods.