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Failure to provide principal reductions to millions of U.S. homeowners under water and the prospect of further price declines in housing in 2012-2013. This would prevent a recovery in the U.S. economy.

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This behind the scenes account  shows how the NATO communique with policy declaration was prepared by July 6 before European leaders and Mr. Trump set foot in Brussels on July 11. It shows to what lengths key members in the Trump administration will go to achieve American objectives in preserving the NATO alliance. Particularly now that Russia is taking an aggressive stance to NATO near its borders.  General Mattis at Defense Department pushed for the 4 30's initiative which is about preparing a rapid deployment force to be ready by 2020. This is in the communique. Also in the communique is the setup of a command post in Norfolk, Virginia, ready to act to deploy forces in Europe. U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kailey Hutchinson, received the demand from National Security Adviser Bolton to have ambassadors from all countries work overtime to get the declaration done by July 6. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General supported this effort. All were concerned that there should be no repeat of the mess that happened for the G-7 communique when at the last minute president Trump refused to sign on, leading to derisive comments about Canada's Justin Trudeau. It was seen as critical to preserve the sense of unity in the U.S. alliance with Europe. This time there was no disruption even though Mr. Trump acted unpredictably in Brussels. ...

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U.S. vice president Mike Pence visits the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and says that North Korea should not pursue its nuclear weapons program. Pence says the U.S. wants to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program "through peaceful means" but "all options are on the table." Pence said North Korea should not test "U.S. strength and resolve."  Snap elections are to be held May 9, 2017 in South Korea, with one of the candidates saying he would reconsider deployment of the THAAD missile system. Following the deployment of THAAD anti missile system in South Korea China has responded with a economic boycott of South Korean goods. Seoul is only 30 miles from the border with North Korea and the sentiment in South Korea is to avoid military action which would affect the region around Seoul of 20 million people. The missile tests by the North are also seen as a threat to South Korea and Japan. China sees the THAAD system as an effort to increase American presence in the region and has opposed deployment. The U.S. response has been to speed up the deployment of the THAAD missile system ahead of the election in South Korea on May 9, 2017. ...

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Lisa Klauser, vice president of consumer and customer solutions at Unilever NV, says its seeing recession period habits becoming a part of the normal shopping behaviour. With some consumers living from paycheck to paycheck, she says Unilever is seeing sales pickup in the first week of each month for lower priced items like Suave shampoo, Skippy peanut butter and Ragu sauce. See the link to P&G about the shift to address this change in consumer behaviour.

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Denmark's central bank sells $16.3 billion in Kroner in January 2015 alone to protect the peg to the euro at 7.46 Kroner. The move is designed to avoid deflation and preserve export competitiveness. Similiar moves were made by the Swiss central bank till it sold Swiss francs for about 80% of GDP, finally abandoning a peg setup in 2011. Denmark has sold Kroner for about 30% of GDP in comparison to the Swiss. The Danish situation is different from the Swiss, say analysts, as the Danish Krona may be slightly overvalued and should be closer to 8 to the euro, as the Swedish Krona is about 9.4 to the dollar.

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New rules set by Brazil for investment in the oil industry give about 80% of revenues generated back to Brazil. The rules require 30% participation for Petrobras, Brazil's state owned oil company, in all projects and operating of oil fields. The rules also mandate sourcing of equipment inside Brazil to develop local suppliers. Shell and Total, eager to add to oil reserves, will participate in development of the Libra oil field. BP, Chevron and Exxon declined to participate. The Brazilian government faces the difficult choice of keeping as much of the benefits of oil production inside Brazil and yet making it attractive enough for major oil companies with the knowhow for deep water drilling to participate. Delaying development for years means pushing revenue generation further into the future even as the growth rate for Brazil is slowing- down to 0.9% in 2012 and expected to be 2.5% in 2013. The street protests in 2013 making it even more important to show that the benefits of oil production will stay inside Brazil and yet not delay the generation of revenues needed for investment in Brazilian education and infrastructure....

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A study published in the British journal Lancet shows that the number of people suffering from diabetes went from 153 million in 1980 to 353 million in 2008. The study shows the U.S. having 24.7 millon diabetics in 2008, which is three times the number from 1980. About 70% of this is from population growth and aging, and the rest from obesity, lack of exercize, changing diet. The American Diabetes Association estimated the cost of treating diabetes in the U.S. at $174 billion for 2007. About 138 million diabetics live in China and India. In India there is an additional cause- malnutrition in early childhood years for the poorer segment of the population. European countries have done better than the U.S., Mexico, India and China. S. Korea and Thailand have done better than other Asian countries. And this is attributed to healthier lifestyles, diet and less obesity in these countries.

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Cost overruns at its Westinghouse nuclear reactor subsidiary led to a $9.1 billion loss for Toshiba in 2017. This comes on top of an accounting scandal in 2015, raising questions about the survival of Toshiba. Toshiba is looking to banks for more time and is considering selling its semiconductor business to Foxconn. Toshiba still holds a leading position in the flash memory chips used in smartphones giving some hope of continuing to stay in business.

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Changes to Mexico's political system with the setup of a new national election agency and allowing re-election of legislators and mayors. This is an effort pushed by the PAN party to have elected officials at the local level and in the legislature work for the long term. The election agency is designed to bring a level playing field and fairness in elections, including implementation of spending limits.

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Referring to a mountain Orange Hill he once climbed and took his 2 children Kamala Harris's father, Donald Harris, a professor at Stanford from Jamaica, says Kamala bounded forward and ran through shrubs and over branches "like a gazelle in the Serengetti, with utter joy and unleashed curiosity" to explore that terrain. There are aspects of the Democratic nominee that remain from her father's encouragement of Kamala as a young girl. She reminded listeners at the Convention in Chicago how she remembered and did so to her father's words to go outside and explore- "Run, Kamala, Run."

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Egypt plans to tackle the financial crisis after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine by increasing natural gas exports by one third. It has the LNG terminals to do this which are underutilized. The LNG could be exported to Asia or Europe at ten times the price buyers in Egypt pay for it. The way this additional natural gas is to be exported is to impose 15% cut in use of natural gas in Egypt similar to what the European Union has done with its 15% mandated reduction. This will then be diverted to LNG terminals. The max temperature for air conditioning is 25 degrees under the new plan and lights are dimmed or shut off after 11 pm in streets, shops and malls.  The war in Ukraine has doubled the price of wheat and other basic food necessities imported from Ukraine and Russia. This put a heavy burden on state finances in Egypt with subsidies on bread and other food for 70 million people out of 102 million people. Investment needs are also affected. Saudi Arabia has stepped in with help as no IMF program has been set. A 14% devaluation of the currency took place in 2022 and another devaluation of the currency is expected. ...

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Anne Applebaum describes the seriousness of the problem on internet trolls spreading information and disinformation to create confusion. Her proposal is that individuals take responsibility, and be able to post on media sites only after taking individual responsibility, no psuedonyms, no anonymity allowed considering the danger of such activity. Applebaum points to the effects shown of such comments following an article in media publications, which can influence the reader to actually doubt the content of reliable and well informed journalism.

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US beat Japan 1-0 with a goal from Trinity Rodman to make it to the semi finals of Women's soccer at the Paris Olympics 2024.

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This editorial in the NYT says it is time for both sides to take a deep breath and agree on extending the deadline of March 29, 2019 for Britain to leave the European Union. More time is needed to work out deep and contentious issues. 

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The Times concludes that neither Bolsonaro or Lula have the policies needed to put Brazil on the development and growth track. Both fell short of the 50% needed in the first round of elections. This election has been hotly contested in Minas Gerais and other states with the public evenly divided.

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Equity markets in Europe and the U.S. are likely to see some of the 62 trillion yen, or $630 billion, which the Bank of Japan plans to add to holdings of banks and households in two years 2013-2014. A senior advisor to Deutsche Bank, Thomas Mayer, says equities of Germany, France and Britain are likey to see interest from Japanese investors, as are bonds and equities of the U.S. Japanese companies such as Toyota and consumer product companies such as Sony and Panasonic will now be able to better compete on price against their S. Korean, American and European competitors.

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Infosys built its business on outsourcing by U.S. business. President Trump's executive order to "Buy American, Hire American" is changing the way it does business. Infosys plans to hire 10,000 software engineers in the U.S. by 2019. 

A big change is also coming from new technologies in computing that require small teams to work side by side with customers. This is best done by having software engineers in U.S. offices and not engineers in offices thousands of miles away. A president of Infosys says this is the new face of computing at Infosys.

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Lack of ammunition on the Ukrainian side. Russia losing huge numbers of casualties as a large part of its army is committed to the war. The sense of a war no side can win. Dysfunctional aspects of foreign policies in Europe that will cost $138 billion to $750 billion to fix by rebuilding damage in Ukraine, money that could have been used in the absence of the conflict to support the action against climate change and in development needs after the pandemic devastated economies of many countries. No country has surplus money after the pandemic- NYT reports today that China is struggling to meet the high health costs of the elderly during the pandemic. India has huge needs in transport, logistics, housing, healthcare. Both India and China lack a system of social security like that of the US and EU countries. 

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The Indian Finance Minister Mukherjee presented his new budget and talked about the new administration's plans for investment and its priorities. The Rural Employment program which guarantees 100 days of work to each indigent family will get an increase in funding to $8.1 billion or 391 billion rupees for this fiscal year. THe goal was set for cutting in half the percentage of the people in India that are poor in five years, which the government measures by calories consumed. The Indian government estimates that 27.5% of Indians were poor in 2005 using this measure. To finance investment government spending will increase 36% and the deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year will reach an estimated 6.8% of GDP, up from an estimated 6.2% in 2008. Abig part of this spending will be increases in infrastructure spending which will go up from 6% to 9% of GDP by 2014.

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Credit card debt in the U.S. increased by $46 billion to $930 billion in 2019, well above the peak seen in 2008 before the financial crisis, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Proportion of debt in serious delinquency is up to 5.32% in fourth quarter 2019.

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Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion in January 2014. Google paid $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in 2011. The Moto X model has not sold well in competition with Apple and Samsung smartphones. Google will retain 15,000 of 17,000 patents acquired as part of the Motorola acquisition, patents worth billions of dollars and helping it defend its Android mobile operating system. Google sold Motorola Home which made setup boxes to Arris in 2012 for $2.35 billion. Motorola Mobility had $2.9 billion in cash at the time of the acquisition. In addition Google is retaining a research group led by Regina Dugan working on new technologies.