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With small margins of 5-10% many Chinese producers in Shenzen see the loss of the American market after the American tariffs of 20%. US president DJT put a10% tariff on all products imported from China on Feb 4, 2025 Executive Order. Another Order on March 4 amended this for an additional 10% to total 20% in March 2025. The local Chinese market where consumption is low cannot make up for the American market. The market in Russia is smaller with its population of 145 million and smaller consumption level. The markets in South East Asia are highly fragmented, and Brazil's economy is weak. India has a large trade imbalance already and is unlikely to let this get worse. Russia is imposing some restrictions on imports to not get flooded with cheap Chinese imports that drive local makers out of business.

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Difficulites facing Chinese auto manufacturers making for export include safety, styling. In manufacturing it includes systems integration, getting the car to come out just right for western customers. And the low end of the market is disappearing compared to where the Japanese found it 40 years ago, as greater reliability keps small cars on the road longer and the time to make is also shrinking as other joint venture models such as Honda are already being manufactured in China for export. All this means exports to the states by companies like Geely will take a few yeas longer maybe 2009-2010 and it gives Detroit car makers on less thing to worry about.

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Discussion with Doug Parker of how he is thinking of pulling off the second large merger in a short period of time, America West, US Airways, and now Delta possibly. What they learnt from their previous experience and what they are planning to do with the new merger, difficulties ahead and how they hope to accomplish this. The experience of US Airways employees with prior managements is telling. Parker realized this when he talked to employees and learned many things that would keep them motivated, instead of being cynical and skeptical. But it still comes too soon to have a second merger, when the first one is still far from having addressed all problems.

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Shows how buyers can compare vehicles for front side and rear. Rear is quite important and not all brands do well example Toyotas RAV4, Higlander and other suv's fared marginal or poor, so also saturn VUE, Honda Pilot, CRV, Subaru Tribeca, Ford Taurus X, and Hyundai Santa Fe had G or Good rating for rear hits. Hyundai Tucson was marginal and so was Ford Explorer so only Honda and Subaru and Volvo show consistently high ratings in rear and Toyota shows consistently poor or marginal. Has Toyota lost ground in safety and is Ford catching up, and is Honda's focus on safety showing up in results, are questions answered by a look at these ratings.

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Gives a long list of factors that are increasing price pressures in the US, Europe, China and India. Different factors in different areas all adding p to create a different environment than that we faced 10-20 years ago as inflation slowed with rising low cost imports from Asia. Not only imports but also domestic pressures in terms of very little spare production capacity in the US and Europe, and the shortage of skilled professionals and engineers is creating price pressures there as companies pass on higher labor costs and materials costs. See also industries like steel where prices are high because of consolidation in the steel industry which will keep them high for the foreseeable future.

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How the Frankdurt Auto Show was a kind of watershed for the European auto industry, where the German carmakers decided to commit resources and move technology in the direction of reducing emissions and improving mileage, with cleaner diesel engines, reduced emissions from gasoline engines and all round improvements in technology that was environment friendly. Mercedes and BMW appear fully committed to meeting new EU goals for emisssions of 120 grams per kilometer for 2012. At this show Mercedes had 8 cars equipped with Blue-Tec technology for cleaner diesel engine and 7 hybrid cars. It has new Dies-Otto technology that it is developing for delivering the best properties of diesel and gasoline.

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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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This report by Peter Baker shows President Trump only reluctantly agreed to certify the Iran Nuclear Agreement. He opposed it in discussions with the Secretary of State Tillerson. It took the combined effort of Tillerson Dunford of the combined chiefs of staff, Defense Secretary Mattis, and of National Security Adviser McMaster, to get Trump to agree to go ahead with the deal. President Trump wanted a new strategy to counter Iran in the Middle East. The Iranian foreign minister Zarif has not yet met with Tillerson of the U.S. Zarif says Iran may withdraw from the deal if there is significant nonperformance by the U.S. Trump advisers are wary about the influence on Europe as the EU is not interested in taking a new look at the Iran nuclear deal. The EU sees things differently- that the issues of Iranian influence in the war torn Middle East is a separate issue from the nuclear deal, and that in any case a nuclear constrained Iran is better than one with nuclear weapons. Another factor is that the Middle East is now a complicated place with relations crisscrossing in different and even conflicting directions. The U.S. played a part on the Iranian side in the retaking of Mosul in Iraq with U.S. bombing strikes against Islamic State. In Iraq the U.S. is supporting the Abadi government which is mainly Shiite in its structure and is supported by Iran. The Trump position is that president Obama gave away too much in negotiating the deal and was not against the negotiating process.   ...

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Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama campaign together in swing states such as North Carolina. Hillary Clinton capitalizes on the surging popularity of Michelle Obama, who has a 64%  approval rating, according to Gallup, 10 points more than president Obama, and above Hillary's 43 percent. Both women show a mutual admiration and sisterhood as they campaign together with rising crowd enthusiasm. For Michelle her unprecedented effort as First Lady is a result of the dirty campaign fought by Donald Trump to turn off voters to the political process, and her effort is meant to counter this. She says about this demeaning of women, "Enough is enough." Both women are drawn together with a campaign for a woman as president. And the slogan coined by Michelle has taken off  "When they go low, we go high." It has energized the very African American and millenial voters that have played an effective role in previous Democratic campaigns.

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Demographic trends and Muslim populations around the world. some of the fastest growing populations are in Pakistan, India, Nigeria. Slower growth in Indonesia. In Europe faster growth in Spain and France relative to other countries. The Muslim popullation in Europe will be about 10% in places like Sweden and France in 2030. Where multiculturalism has been denounced, in Germany the Muslim population grows from 5% in 2010 to 7% in 2030, and a little over 4% to 8% in Britain. In France it goes up from close to 8% to a little over 10% in 2030. This is from research and forecasts done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in January 2011. It does not suggest a huge problem especially if the Muslim populations are affected by the trend to democracy in their home countries and improving standards of living, and a move towards integration in the different societies in Europe.

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Lally Weymouth of the Washington Post interviews Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak on June 20, 2012. On the negotiations of the P5+1 countries with Iran in Baghdad, Istanbul and Moscow, Barak says the Iranians are simply buying time, hoping that by being a little forthcoming they can delay giving up nuclear weapons programs capabilities and see if the situation changes with a new President in office in the U.S.. The Iranians are trying to reach a "zone of immunity," the way Pakistan and N. Korea did, and it will take a resolute determination on the part of the U.S. the Europeans, the Russians and the Chinese to prevent a nuclear Iran and nuclear proliferation. By the third meeting in Moscow it should be clear whether the Iranians are willing to give up capabilities that lead to nuclear weapons. Ayatollah Khamanei is the person in charge in Iran, but decisions are made collectively with the moderate Ayatollahs still ayatollahs, says Barak. The addition of the Khadima party to the coalition government of prime minister Netanyahu increases Israel's desire for dialogue and seeking progress on a peace with the Palestinian Authority- if not a peace arrangement then even unilateral steps towards peace by both sides. The way forward in Syria is for the U.S. to talk with the Russians about a new government. The important thing is for the removal of the Assad family, the entire Syrian state does not need to be dismantled as happened with the Baath party in Iraq. Israel continues to build a fence in the Sinai facing Egypt, as it fears infiltration during the period of civil strife in Egypt. Israel views Egypt from the standpoint of any future Egyptian government honoring its treaty committments with Israel, otherwise says Barak it is upto Egypt to decide its future government....

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Shipments of LG phones were up 54% in the 1st quarter of 2008 from a year ago, about 4 times the average growth of 14% in the industry., according to Strategy Analytics. The market share goes up to 8.6% from 6.4%. This puts it near overtaking Motorola for 3rd place ater Nokia and Samsung. Its biggest hit so far is the Chocolate, a skinny phone that looks like a chocolate barwith a dial pad that glows red. About 18 million have been sold worldwide sine introduction in May 2006. It also developed a pricey handset called Prada designed with the Italian fashion house and introduced in March of 2007. What is interesting is the way LG has approached product development. The Chocolate's creator Skott Ahn got the top job at the LG cell phone business unit in early 2007. And he has been put in charge of all areas of design developmet with the authority to make decisions in the way he would run this business. Ahn doubled the headcount of designers to 150 and engineers to 4000. He launched an inhouse design competition. The winner of the 2008 competition is the Secret, made from sleek yet sturdy carbon fiber and tempered glass and with a 5 megapixel camera and software to let users create their own music videos. This phone was intorduced in Europe this month. LG's profits on cell phones are expected to double to $2 billion according to Mirae Securities in Seoul, with a 50% jump in sales, and the stock is up 57%....

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Former Louisiana fovernor Bobby Jindal comes under severe criticism from the Washington Post for policies it says hurt the poor by turning down federal Medicaid funds under Obamacare, for using rainy day funds, and cutting spending on education and other needed programs in the state. It says Jindal pursued Grover Norquist's no tax pledge leading to spending cuts in the state and budget gaps, merely to appeal to voters in the GOP presidential primaries. Jindal's appeal to Republican voters actually fell sharply because of unpopular policies and he did not qualify for participation in the presidential televised Republican debates. Republican voters turned to outside candidates such as Trump, Carson and others.

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Victor Cha, a professor at Georgetown University, describes China's foreign policy committment to maintaining a divided Korea becacuse of fears of a unified pro-western neighbor to the south. He sees the need for China to change its policy and work with the U.S., South Korea and Japan for a lasting solution for North Korea. Also absent from the calculations of the countries involved is the future of the North Korean people, emphasized in the editorial by the editorial Board of the Washington Post on Dec. 20, 2011.