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These are key provisions in the biggest climate change bill in history- Tax credits that last for over a decade for zero carbon plants- these tax credits go to companies that build new sources of emissions free electricity, for wind turbines, solar panels, battery storage, geo thermal plants. Tax credits also for new technologies that capture and bury carbon dioxide from natural gas plants and industrial facilities before it escapes into the atmosphere and heats the planet. This technology is rarely used because of high costs. Incentives for electric vehicles- It extends a tax credit of $7500 for new electric vehicles. It adds a $4000 tax credit for used electric vehicles. Tax credit goes only to people earning $150,000 a year (300,000 for joint filers) for new EV's and $75,000 (150,000 for joint filers) for used EV's. Help for people to lower energy costs - $9 billion in rebates for Americans installing energy efficient electrical appliances. And a decade of tax credits for Americans installing rooftop solar, heat pumps, water heaters and electric HVAC, or electric heating, air conditioning and ventilation technologies. Investments in Domestic Manufacturing- $60 billion for investments in clean energy manufacturing in the US. This includes $30 billion for production tax credits for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and critical minerals processing. $10 billion in investment tax credits to build manufacturing facilities for electric cars and renewable energy technologies. This action is to halt the shifting of clean energy manufacturing overseas to China. $27 billion towards a green bank that would finance clean energy projects in disadvantaged communities. Cracking down on Methane- the bill places a fine on methane gas emissions from oil and gas wells and pipelines and other infrastructure. Fees of $900 per metric ton in 2024 and $1500 a metric ton in 2026 when it exceeds federally set limits.    ...

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This editorial in the WSJ says the resignation and downfall of Boris Johnson in Britain comes from the dissembling that resulted in loss of confidence in his Conservative party, but also in a larger sense from the failure of his agenda to revive Britain.  Not much has happened in the promise to invest in and revive the failing economy and social setting in the north of England. Inflation was hitting British households hard with inflation at close to 9% in 2022. Home electricity and natural gas prices spiked 54% in April and are expected to go up 40% in October. Johnson raised the payroll tax 2.5% to fund the NHS. Corporate tax rate was to go up to 26% from 19%. Green taxes helped energy prices go up, and Johnson did not cut the consumption tax or green taxes on gasoline or diesel or household energy says the WSJ, and kept the household income tax brackets the same even with inflation so households would see a large tax increase. In this sense Boris Johnson with his exuberant personal style and enthusiasm promised a lot after taking Britain out of the European Union with Brexit. Yet as the months dragged on and after the worst of the pandemic found there was little he could show that would convince Britons of a brighter future. Not for the North of England, not for Britons in other parts of England and in London, and with high inflation and lacking the investment that could change Britain, not much to show for infrastructure improvement or plans for the future. The dissembling and eroding credibility led to the situation that only half way through his term in office his absolute majority in the 2019 election could not keep Boris Johnson in office, and the Conservative party was losing the confidence of the British people.  ...

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Nathaniel Taplin of the WSJ says the tariffs put on $50 billion high tech products by the U.S. and retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion products are not about a trade war but a way both countries will negotiate setting out their two positions.  A look at the role of foreign firms in China shows China has access to new technology using these firms as a conduit and these firms are also generating more jobs, being highly productive. These firms Taplin says will set back their investments if no agreement is reached or if it is harder to bring Chinese made products into the U.S. At this time China badly needs this investment and technology access because of their dynamism compared to inefficient state run firms as it struggles under a massive debt load with very high debt to GDP ratio.  A major issue is job growth as companies getting foreign investment are much more effective in jobs generation, delivering 10% of all urban job growth from 2007 to 2016, using just 5.5% of total investment. Return on assets at 9% compares to 4% at state run firms. If this dynamism is reduced or affected in some way China could have to provide more unproductive debt buildup stimulus.  For these reasons China has good reason to make concessions, says Taplin. Trump administration will ask for greater semiconductor purchases, much looser joint venture or foreign ownership requirements, higher Chinese payment for U.S. intellectual property. For all these reasons this is not about a trade war but about serious negotiations taking place so that there is a level playing field in the next phase of competition in high tech between the U.S., China and the E.U. changing the dynamics of the trade relationship in ways that reverse the trends of the past. ...

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The UN Security Council passes a resolution for initiating a peace process for Syria 15-0. Many differences remain to be resolved between Russia and the U.S., the Saudis do not see the process to be workable, Iran sees itself retaining influence in Syria, and the Russian bombing campaign in Syria, tensions between Russia and Turkey, create further complications for the process to be effective.

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Sanders wins in New Hampshire Democratic primary election with 60% of the votes, to Clinton's 34%. Voter turnout was record breaking in the Democratic primary. Women voted for Sanders 55% to 44% for Clinton. In the Republican primary Trump won 35% of the vote to Kasich's 16%, followed by Cruz, Rubio, and Jeb Bush. The Republican primary continues to show a fragmented vote with many candidates.

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Ford's plans to cut product capacity in Europe by closing the car plant in Genk, Belgium, and indications for shutting down a plant in the UK. After the plant closures Ford will operate at 85% of capacity by 2015 instead of 71%, according to a Barclays analyst. The action taken by Ford takes place as pretax losses for 2012 mount to $1.3 billion, acccording to Morgan Stanley.

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Eli Lilly is trying new methods to reduce time for developing new drugs for cancer and diabetes. One method is to complete trials for testing dosage and efficacy simultaneously saving 14 months. Two of 5 research units are focussed on cancer and diabetes and all departments turning molecules into medicine are located together. On Oct 23, 2011, the patent for $5 billion revenue schizophrenia pill Zyprexa expires.

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Research by Matthew Slaughter of Dartmouth shows that only 4% of all American firms and 15% of American manufacturers export. Overall 80% of America's trade is conducted by just 1% of the firms that export or import. Exports as a share of GDP are 10.9% in 2009, much lower than other exporting countries. These numbers will increase as America focusses on exports to rebalance the economy.

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Liverpool has depended more on government help for its revival than other cities in Britain. The austerity budget will have a serious impact on Liverpool. The Northwest Regional Development Agency will be affected by cutbacks. About an eighth of all public sector jobs may be lost, and this could wipe out the 37% increase in public sector jobs gained in the 13 years before 2008.

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New auto sales in Japan experienced a sharp decline of 51% in April 2011, higher than the 37% fall in March. Sales of Toyota fell 69% to 35,557 vehicles in April, Nissan's dropped 37%, and Honda's dropped 49%. About 500 suppliers in northeasern Japan are affected by the earthquake. Toyota president Akio Toyoda says the production will return to normal by November or December.

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The supply of shale oil in the U.S. is changing the landscape for Mexican crude exports to the U.S. especially light Olmeca crude. Mexico's exports of crude oil declined to 881,000 barrels a day in 4 weeks through Jan 10, compared to 1.8 million barrels in Feb 2013, according to the Energy Information Administration. The Keystone Pipeline from Canada could also impact Mexico's exports.

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The $15 billion in losses at RBS in 2013 continues the bad news from RBS. It now goes through another restructuring. This time with new CEO Ross McEwan. RBS plans to reduce the seven business lines to three lines, and set medium term cost cutting target of 8 billion pounds. Headcount will go down by 20,000. Risk weighted assets will be cut by 50 billion pounds.

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Peaple points to the challenge facing new Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Ben Van Beurden, with low return on capital below 1% on U.S. projects from high costs and declining prices. Shell's 2013 price earnings multiple is at 8.1, well below Chevron and Exxon. Van Beurden will become the CEO in January 2014. He worked for Shell for 30 years, with 10 years in the LNG business.

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U.S. Federal chairman gave his semiannual report to Congress at the U.S. Senate on July 17. Bernanke told Congress about Europe: "We appear to be in a muddling-through type of environment." About the changes in Europe, setting up depositors insurance, bank regulatory authority for the eurozone, and other structural changes, Bernanke says- "It appears to be something that could go on for quite a while, unfortunately."

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Indonesia's Lion Air makes an order of $24 billion new single aisle jets from Airbus. Lion Air ordered 234 A320 and A321 series jets. This includes 60 of this generation A320s and 174 of a new series of A320 and A321 aircraft with more fuel efficient engines. Deliveries will begin in 2014 with the planes averaging $92 million to $117 million at list prices.

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On December 10, 2009, after insisting for months that they would go ahead with the bonuses at Goldman Sachs, and with public opinion increasingly turning against Goldman, Blankfein decides to hold back the bonuses. This was after the British government had announced a decision to tax 2009 bank bonuses at 50% and pressure was building for the US to also to tax bonuses and limit executive pay.

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The average European worker has 11.3 sick days vs 4.5 days for the average American according to the OECD. And the cost of the lost workdays is as much as 1.3% according to a OECD economist. Belgium has one of the worst sick leave problems. Some Belgian government departments average 35 days of sick leave per year compared to 17 for Belgium and 5 for the USA.

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Japanese drug company Astellas makes a $1.1 billion hostile tender offer for California based CV Therapeutics. CV Therapeutics makes an angina drug that recently received FDA approval to isgnificantly ease safety warnings that have been placed on the drug. Astellas is the second Japanese company looking to bolster its drug product line by making an overseas acquisition. Takeda Pharmaceutical acquired Millenium Pharmaceutical for $8.8 billion in 2008.

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With a new corporate board in place the government is planning to sell a 51% stake in Satyam to a private bidder. Satyam's capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange is now $600 million down from $7 billion in May 2008. Spice, a tech firm, Larsen and Toubro, Mahindra and others have expressed interest. One estimate of cost to settle lawsuits is $440 to $840 million.

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Tough terms and invoking of a systemic risk clause in banking law by Paulso to dictate terms to banks was the right call say analysts after all the dithering and missteps. It will lift the Tier One capital ratio of a bank like Chase JP Morgan from 8.3% it forecast as of Sept end to over 10% and will give a sizable boost to all bank ratios.

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United Airlines incurred a loss of $779 million in the third quarter of 2008 largely because of a$519 million charge to reflect the declining value of its hedging contracts for jet fuel. SOuthwest said it lost $120 million, its first loss in 17 years, because of its own charge of $189 million for hedging contracts declining value. Without htis Southwest would have earned $69 million.

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Walmart to implement a program of tighter safety and environmental compliance for its suppliers in China implement energy savings plan in its 113 stores in China. Walmart will issue these changes to its supply chain at a global supply-chain summit in Beijing this week. Walmart will phase in energy efficincy requirements with chinese suppliers next year and expand the program worldwide in 2010.

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Sales of autos once at 14 to 24% increase year after year was down to essentially flat in the latter part of the year with full year growth at about 6.7% over 2007. And 2009 could be flat or see declines in sales. Consumers are feeling the effects f drop in the stock market and drop in housing prices as well as a slowing economy.

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Jaguar Land Rover is dropping the Land Rover name and will be called JLR with an all electric line planned by 2036. The holding company JLR will have 4 brands- Range Rover at the high end, the off-road Defender made in Slovakia, the Discovery as a family brand, and the Jaguar now priced at the high end. The strategy is designed to cope with stiff competition from Tesla and other EV brands, by moving it upscale- the average price of JLR going to 77,000 pounds from 44,000 pounds.  Batteries will be sourced from a new gigafactory in Europe built by Tata Motors, the parent company. A new Range Rover all electric will come out in 2024. With the new strategy only 330,000 vehicles would take it to breakeven instead of 660,000. JLR turned profitable in the last financial year generating cash flow of $1.3 billion pounds in last 6 months. It will invest 15 billion pounds over 5 years. 29,000 employees out of 40,000 will be upskilled to support the all new electric line to build, sell and service new EV's. ...

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Africa's Harrison Mwillima looks at Geman reunification from an African perspective of regional integration, and says unity should be an everpresent endeavour. Visiting cities in East and West Germany organized by DW's Africa department he is struck by how much East Germans feel left behind. Merkel herself grew up in East Germany but like many young people in 1990 left for the west and seemed to forget the east where they came from. He remembers the time when people from Angola , Mozambique and other African countries studied at universities in the German Democratic Republic, former east Germany,  and the sense of socialist solidarity that aroused much enthusiasm.  Mwillima says a sense of unity can only go so far if there is a lingering sense of inequality  between the two parts. He sees a distinct hunger to achieve unity among regions and peoples or countries. Yet 31 years later in Germany its not only worth pursuing this ideal but remembering that it has to be done as a natural and ever growing endeavor that is not just an event. ...