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This editorial in the Wall Street Journal says the U.S. presidential election in 2016 now looks like a referendum on safety after the Paris attacks. Rand Paul's chances are seen as nill because his policies, says the Journal, most resemble U.S. president Obama's. Hillary Clinton's comments about the need to defeat not just contain terrorism are seen as distancing herself from Mr. Obama, but the situation in Libya is seen as happening under her watch. The WSJ editorial lists a long list of the situations it has warned against in 2012-2015 since the Arab Spring led to the current situation in Syria, Iraq and Libya, the millions of refugees in camps in Jordan and Turkey, and the refugee movement to Europe.

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Efforts to increase wages by the Abe administration in Japan. Combined 10 of 12 major auto worker unions in Japan said companies had met their full demands in 2013. Toyota offered workers a bonus equal to 6 months of base pay- a 15% increase over 2012 bonus. This reverses a negative trend of declining wages in Japan- average annual compensation declined for part and full time employees, including bonuses, for 8 of 10 years 2002-2011, reaching 4.09 million yen or $42,800 per worker in 2011, according to the National Tax Agency.

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Anger in Greece at the austerity measures was evident in the results of the April 2012 elections. The two major parties polled even less than the low poll numbers that they expected. The Socialist Pasok party of former premier Papandreou received only 13% of the vote and not the 15-18% expected, the New Democracy party of Antonio Samaras received only 18.8% and not the 25% expected. As a result the two main parties that have ruled Greece received less than one third of the vote combined. The second largest party after New Democracy is now the Coalition of the Radical Left or Syriza, which received 16.78% of the vote. It is led by young Alexis Tsipras, 38, who has said the bailout treaties witht the EU and the IMF were "not salvation, but a tragedy." Syriza opposes the austerity measures and prefers to exit the eurozone. A extremist far right anti-immigrant party New Dawn received 7% of the vote showing the desperate situation. New Democracy's Samaras tried hard but failed to form a government, and under the Greek constitution each party gets a few days to form a government. The outcome is likely to be new elections in June 2012 and a caretaker government appointed by the president....

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The importance of a gap year in education remains underutilized in Indian education because of a lack of role models. A gap year in education during the early college and postgraduate years can give a person new experiences and skills, a new sense of purpose, that he or she may carry over into further education and create additional opportunities over time. In this way the gap year actually reinforces the idea that is behind changes in the way education is being setup today, that encourage young people to try out different subjects in the sciences and the humanities to find what they are best at and where their interests lie. In the same way new experiences including travel, meeting people, trying out new activities can enhance one's personal development and growth as a person.

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This picture essay in The Guardian shows the British-German Netflix production with Jeremy Irons of Munich- the Edge of War. It shows 1930's London as Britain prepares for war against Nazi Germany over Czechoslovakia.

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This report in The Times says one of the things going wrong at the talks for denuclearization between the U.S. president and Kim Jon-Un of North Korea in Hanoi was Mr. Trump's sense that he had a special rapport with Kim.  Another reason for breakdown in the talks it says was Mr. Trump's view that the most important thing was to end missile testing and further development, not denuclearization. 

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Amtrak Biden says is an essential part of the fight to tackle climate change. Rail has 83% less greenhouse emissions than automobiles, and 73% less than plane air travel. It also has the potential to create half a million good jobs. President Biden was known as "Amtrak Joe" because he used Amtrak for decades as America's Senator from Delaware. In this video president Biden speaks at the 50th anniversary of Amtrak in Philadelphia. He says one of the conductors on his daily route estimated Biden has done 1.5 million miles on Amtrak compared to 1.1 million miles on Air Force One. Biden says he has traveled on Amtrak for as long as Amtrak has been in existence- for close to 50 years.

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Nagourney and Dougherty of the NYT give this report on the housing crisis in California by 2017 with the median cost of a home skyrocketing to twice the figure for the U.S. This price is now $500,000. The result is longer commutes even for people with incomes over $150,000 a year, stretching to as much as 2 hours one way. It means people lacking housing stay in vans with improvised kitchens and other sleeping arrangements. Not enough homes are being built because of strict zoning and planning regulations that are kept in place by neighborhood groups, effectively excluding outsiders. Now its not just the coastal areas that are affected but the whole state. Governor Brown of California tried to pass a measure in 2016 that would push communities to build more affordable housing, and ran into opposition from local officials and environmentalists. Now the opinion in the state is changing with younger people denied a chance at decent housing at the forefront and some elected officials such as the Mayor of Los Angeles, Mr. Eric Garcetti. A new bill in the state legislature would make it harder for cities that are falling behind in building housing to lose the right for City Council to hold back on approval of new construction, effectively bypassing it. California's law capping property taxes after Proposition 13 was passed in 1978 has also held back construction. Other factors are the building of new offices for  companies in the tech boom around San Francisco without a corresponding effort to build new homes for these new office workers. California was slow to respond to housing needs for young people, with only 311,000 housing units built since 2006. ...

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The southern city of Chennai (or Madras) is fast becoming a hub for car manufacturing in India. It will turn out 1.5 millon vehicles very soon. Hyundai, Daimler, Ford, Nissan and BMW all have manufacturing here. About 200,000 people are employed in the car industry in the state of Tamilnadu, of which Chennai is the capital. Hyundai entered the Indian market early and turns out 650,000 cars in Chennai. Tamilnadu state has reduced the red tape and simplified the government approval process, making it easier to setup business in the state.

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A new US agreement and security partnership with Australia and UK will help build nuclear submarine capabilities in Australia. China's relations with Australia are deteriorating and Australia is building its own defense capabilities for the Indo-Pacific region.

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Student loan default reaches 22% in 2017 up from 17% in 2013. Defaulted loans are $84 billion or 13% of $631 billion required to be paid by borrowers.

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A historic win for the SPD in Saarland, Germany.

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Japan's economy minister, Mr. Seko, says that with no-deal Brexit Britain will lose access to Japan's new economic partnership agreement with the European Union which last month created the world's largest free trade zone. Seko said 1000 Japanese companies have invested in the UK creating 150,000 jobs, because it served as "a gateway to the European market."

Nissan is scaling back its Sunderland factory. Sony and Panasonic are relocating their EU headquarters to Amsterdam. Honda will close its Swindon plant in 2021. Seko said "uncertainty for the consequences of Brexit is spreading in Japanese industry."

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The Oxford vaccine is showing promising results and is expected to be authorized for use by December 2020. The vaccine being developed in partnership with Astra Zeneca PLC for marketing and Serum Institute of India for mass manufacturing is shown to be proven 90% effective in preventing infections in clinical trials. The partners say there were no serous safety events and the vaccine has proven 62% to 90% effective with an average of 70%.  This vaccine is significant because it is being developed with this partnership not seeking profits from this venture, providing it at cost and keeping the price to about $4 a dose compared to competitors Moderna and Pfizer whose vaccine is expected to be at $24 a dose. The Oxford vaccine also uses existing technology for vaccines and manufacturing is being done in India with the world's top manufacturer of vaccines. By using existing technology unlike the Pfizer and Moderna technology Oxford has taken an approach that could prove to be unique by minimizing side effects for vaccines that are being developed with such speed. By not requiring refrigeration at very low temperatures the vaccine makes itself ready for immediate and widespread uses all over the world. By use in its home country India with its large population Oxford vaccine can gain even wider acceptance because of India's long experience in pharmaceutical technology and manufacturing. Of particular interest is the study of 23,000 participants showing that the 90% effective dosage is one that only requires half a dose for the first shot. This say scientists is because the vaccine first dose prepares the body for a more powerful second dose and creates the maximum effect. This means the vaccine can be used for more doses than 2 full doses. It can be stored in a fridge making it easy to use in many countries. The full study will have 60,000 participants spread across U.S. Britain, Brazil South Africa and India. ...

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"There is'nt another planet to export to," is what Paul Krugman of the New York Times says, when referring to the impossibility of all countries keeping up exports and reducing imports at the same time. In crises similiar to what the US faces today, countries have increased exports as a way to stage an economic recovery. But this time countries are depressing their currencies to gain or preserve a large share of global demand achieved through high exports. China has resisted demands for a significant revaluation of the yuan, and persists in efforts in currrency markets to keep the value of the yuan low. This cuts off one avenue of recovery. Bloomberg Business Week and Bloomberg News interviewed Edmund Phelps, Jan Hatzius, Krugman, and other economists, with the idea of figuring out how the US could stage an economic recovery. Krugman is not optimistic, considering the effects of the financial crisis being really protracted. Krugman points out that when comparing the US currently to the eaarly stages of Japan's lost decade, the US is doing worse. Unemployment is worse, and overall he says, a weaker policy response. And he says Japan is still a depressed fragile economy 18 years after its financial crisis. Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs, predicts that the unemployment rate will rise back to 10% in early 2011, with a 30% chance that the economy will fall back into a recession. He says that in the postwar economy, there has never been an increase in the unemployment rate of one third of one percentage point that did not result in a recession. Phelps and Hatzius see one way the US could stage a recovery is with replacement old structures and equipmet as wear and tear and obsolescence takes place. Phelps sees the possibility of technological innovation resultig in a new burst of activity. Robert Gordon of Northwestern University, is less optimistic about this, and predicts a lower growth rate of 1.5% over the next 20 years. ...

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Mr. Kasowitz  is hired by U.S. president Trump as his personal attorney on the Russia probe by Congress of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Kasowitz  has worked with Trump for 15 years helping keep his divorce records sealed, and in lawsuits. He is known as an aggressive litigator with his own firm of 270 attorneys- Kasowitz, Benson Torres LLP. This follows the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. election with wide ranging powers. This report says Senator Joe Lieberman who is being considered for the post of new FBI chief works at this law firm, creating a potential conflict of interest situation.

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There is a marked shift away from downtowns to suburban retail spaces in the US as a result of remote work. In major American cities the average use of office space in downtowns is still only half of what it was before the pandemic, as remote work shrinks activity and people in downtowns.

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Ways in which PC's are sold in China and India. Close touch and eye to eye retailing across as many cities as possible through a large as possible retailing network is the way the Chinese and Indian market is described. But HP which lags Lenovo in China is the leading computer seller in India so there may be other things and factors at work. Still the markets in poor developing countries are going to be quite different in cultural and regional makeup and their needs may be quite different in what is most important to customers and what companies must do to respond to these needs to get established.

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Economists are calling this a "wage-less" recovery in the U.S. With unemployment at 8.8%, wage pressures are weak. Average hourly earnings were flat in March 2011. The annualized growth of average hourly earnings for the last 5 months is 1%, according to Gluskin Sheff chief economist Rosenberg. After accounting for higher inflation, real wages are actually falling.

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Apple is in a quandary about what straegy to pursue in the large China market. Apple's pricing depends on its image of bringing in exciting new products. With growth slowing in iPhone sales and lack of new products like the iPhone Apple can go after the market of lower end smartphones to maintain growth. In that segment Apple faces strong competition from manufacturers who make products in-house and have the scale to compete effectively such as Samsung. Other manufacturers such as Lenovo are also surging in this part of the market. Sales figures for the smartphone market give some idea of the problem Apple faces. Smartphone sales for the industry slowed to growth estimated at 41% for 2013, compared to 136% in 2012. In 2014 IDC forecasts growth slowing even further to 17% and by 2015 the smartphone segment looks even less promising with only 12% growth. And much of this growth is likely to go to regional smartphone companies such as Lenovo Group of China, and other brands which are better at competing in the lower priced smartphone segment of below $100, say analysts. Apple sales were 7.9% of the smartphone market in China, Samsung had 15.4%, and Lenovo 13.1%, in the 4th quarter of 2012, according to IDC....