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Surges in capital value can be wildly misleading. Nvidia a rapid computing company propelled in stock value. From the growth of crypto currency that led to losses and was perceived as a danger to the financial system by central banks and governments. This is happening when capital investment is a dire need in education and schools, good teachers and good classrooms, when only a third of American students pass NAEP tests on reading comprehension. Today's capital allocation system was never designed to accomplish this even as it sends hundreds of billions of dollars in one single day to a single company. Nvidia is now seeing a surge from chatbots computing coming out of ChatGPT,  leading to $184 billion change in its market value on May 25, 2023.  Nvidia was mostly a graphics processing company setup to make graphics on PC's look better. In 2006 Jensen Huang made the decision to open it up to developers to tinker with it and develop more computing capabilities. This has led to Nvidia designing much more powerful computing chips that perform thousands of calculations at the same time.   Nvidia designs the chips and sends production out to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. Suddenly Nvidia sees its share price surge and it joins companies such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla that have seen one day surge in the value of the companies by over $100 billion shown in this WSJ graph by date. Huang says he thinks that this is the beginning of a ten year period in which companies will redo their data centers to build them up with AI computing capabilities. WSJ also says China's top nuclear weapons research institute has bought these advanced chips even though it is on a US export blacklist since 1997. In 2022 the Biden administration imposed new licensing requirements on export of the most advanced chips. Since then Nvidia is following specifications for chips that allow it to export to China, says the WSJ.     ...

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This Times report looks at the management style of Jeff Bezos who started Amazon as a online store selling books and the extraordinary growth of the company. Bezos is stepping down from the day to day role of CEO to focus on new growth opportunities. His role as CEO will be taken by the head of the cloud computing business, Andy Jassy. He joined in 1997. Amazon was started in 1994.  Amazon's growth comes from carefully focussing on specific growth fields, first retail, then cloud computing, and changing the way business is run with innovative ways of conducting business. One click and Prime in retail, Kindle e reader in books, and massive investments in logistics, warehousing, cloud computing to run its business efficiently. During the pandemic criticism of low wages for warehouse workers was met with an increase in wages to $15 an hour.  Management style discourages meetings. Most meetings are held in the morning, and after 10 am. The person presenting is asked to hand out a six page memo which is read in silence before the meeting. The idea is that writing it out helps make the ideas clear. Decisions are made in this way. Employees are asked to think in innovative ways to run the business. Thrift is practiced as part of the Bezos way. Bezos is relatively young, only 57 years. Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1964 when his mother was in high school. His mother married a Cuban immigrant, Miguel Bezos 4 years later and the boy took the name Bezos. He spent much time at his grandparents ranch in South Texas working on the farm, and went to school at Princeton University, graduating in 1987. In 1993 he married Mackenzie Tuttle, a novelist, then started an online bookstore called Amazon from Seattle. Before this he worked at a telecom company and at a hedge fund, which helped him finance his new online bookstore. Bezos turned Amazon into a retail store selling a wide variety of merchandise, an built up a strong warehousing and delivery network. ...

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Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan visits the White House to meet president Trump. Mr. Trump welcomes Khan and lauds the Pakistani leader as an athlete and a leader. He tells him trade deals can be struck, future was bright and flow of aid can be turned on. Trump makes a casual offer to help mediate the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, even though it is certain that nothing comes out of this, because of India's position not welcoming other countries doing any mediation. At the heart of this reconciliation is Afghanistan and president Trump's conviction that Pakistan can get the U.S. out of Afghanistan. Trump stated this- "I think Pakistan is going to help us out, to extricate ourselves. Pakistan is going to make a difference." The idea is that Pakistan can persuade the militants, the Taliban, into a face saving settlement that will allow American troops to come home. Mr. Khan in turn stated that Pakistan had given up its policy of using Afghanistan to give it "strategic depth" against India. The army would not go behind the back of the civilian government to conduct a policy of its own. Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Trump are impatient to get this done. The deadline of Mr. Pompeo is September 1 and talks continue between the Taliban and representatives from Afghanistan. The U.S. effort is handled by Zalmay Khalizad. How Afghanistan is governed in the future is not determined and Pakistan has a key role to play in making a sensible solution take place if it decides that something new has to be tried.  In the past U.S. governments from both parties lacked the ability to take a good hard look at the facts the origin and evolution of this dispute. To tackle it directly with a willingness not only to call it for what it is but also to give the other side an incentive to try new solutions. The inventive style of the Trump administration to tackle the situation directly, but also come up with new and novel solutions is what is now being tried. ...

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WSJ's Andrew Restuccia and Michelle Hackman look at another deportation of about 1 million people of Mexican descent in 1954 under the Eisenhower administration. It looks at the human toll. Many of the people were brought in to tackle the shortage of men to do farm work and harvest crops during the war period 1941-1945.   The alternative proposed by Biden and senior Republican senators McConnell and Lankford and supported by most senior Republicans is the tough immigration legislation drafted by Lankford that president Harris has pledged to sign. In 1954 the US economy was a small fraction of what it is today and struggling from the aftermath of the world war and the Korean War. The US economy would suffer shortages of manpower in construction and farm work that would reduce economic growth by about 1%, from the effects of a 1954 type plan and from the distraction for American focus on chips, science, and manufacturing that is needed to compete in a new world of India, China in addition to Japanese EU competition. States such as Kansas in the midwest feel this shortage, and in the Carolinas in the south, Red states and blue face shortages. Kansas is actively seeking new legal immigrants and welcoming them as shown in the WSJ. This is a different country than 1954 and this must be recognized or we will fall behind China, Japan and India. Cultural literacy is world knowledge and was proposed before by the Exxon Foundation and E. D. Hirsch in 1988. This needs to be revived so that children like Harris who know enough about American history, language and culture to be productive American citizens- as they learn in school and through interaction with fellow citizens in the neighborhood and libraries- can become the norm. There is no reason this cannot be done effectively with the resources committed to this from the federal and state governments in tens of billions of dollars, including to the library system, community colleges, community civic education centers, and to literacy and world knowledge sites such as Lyrarc.com, Wikipedia and Britannica.com. ...

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Net income will reach an astounding $16.2 billion for Maersk in 2021. This is more than the combined profit for the last 9 years. It is a result of shipping bottlenecks that have resulted in shipping prices sky rocketing.

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A six storey Arts Centre in the heart of Paris that arouses one's curiosity will close for renovation for 5 years in 2025. It is named after French president Pompidou who followed De Gaulle as president.

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Obama makes an effort to reach out to Turkey and the Muslim world. He said the U.S. would seek broader engagement based on mutual respect and mutual interest. And added "the US has bee enriched by Muslim-Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country. I know, because I am one of them." Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, and had a step-parent from Indonesia.

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Obama's town hall meeting with Turkish students. In answering aquestion on world peace he said something significant. "It will require young people never to stereotype, assume the worse about other people,. Learning to stand in someone else's shoes to see through their eyes, that's how peace begins, and its upto you to make that happen."

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Here Posen of the Peterson Institute and Jeffrey Garten of Yale speak in favor of nationalization. Nancy Pelosi also supports nationalization as away to protect taxpayers. The bad bank option is considered, but one of the drawbacks is that the taxpayers may not be sufficiently protected as bad assets become ever larger. Geithner and Summers made the case in the financial crisis in Asia in the 1990's that the government makes lousy financial managers. But is it more a political issue as charges from Republicans would be that the government is going socialist. Yet its more the way the word has negative connotations, more than what is to be done in this situation. The reality is that the banks are pretty much in government hands anyway with the amount of taxpayer money at risk, and without any way to get rid of the problem of valuing these toxic assets which nationalization effectively eliminates. The U.S. government has put in its own managers and gone through the cycle of owning and later privatizing banks successfully in the S&L crisis in the 1990's. Its very probable that its not the ideological thing that will carry the day, but the decisive action and the confidence it can build for the financial system. See the link to the Economist view on this. ...

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The figures are huge and it takes the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to do something however small in Japan about smoking. Now the half million vending machines that dispense cigarettes to some 26 million Japanese smokers can only dispense to adults because users have to have a special card called Taspo or tobacco passport that they insert into the vending machine. This will shift sales to convenience stores like the Lawson's chain. In Japan 29.2% of all adults and probably an even higher percentage of men smoke according to OECD data. In the US its about 17%. Like obesity and poor eating habits and the availability of fast food in the USA, smoking in Japan remains largely untouched by any efforts to educate young people and the public about the great dangers, with companies largely uninterested and the government and schools and universities largely apathetic about what are really huge health concerns that reverberate in so many ways across the fabric of society. For example a obese person consumes more health care dollars, a smoker also consumes more health care dollars. And health care dollars are scarce dollars and need to be spread out in better ways than wasted on preventable things like obesity and smoking through partnership in education and other measures between all groups and organizations in society and the government. ...

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The agreement reached Dec. 12, 2012 to setup a single supervisory authority for large banks in the eurozone is a major and historic step. The ECB takes up this role after parliaments in the eurozone countries ratify the agreement by March 2013.

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The Sergei Magnitsky bill in the U.S. Congress which would impose visa and other restrictions on Russian officials involved in the imprisonment and death of Sergei Magnitsky.

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Governor Newsom of California is joining Republican Governors of Montana and Alabama to allow cities to act to limit encampments of the homeless in American cities, taking the case to the US Supreme Court. The Biden Administration is walking a delicate path by supporting rights of the homeless that lower courts support  yet not wanting to see the spread of homeless encampments affect the overall safety and health of cities where homeless encampments affect quality of life in neighborhoods. Homelessness of 600,000 people in the US, with more than half sleeping outside in open spaces and parks is now before the US Supreme Court. The pandemic, the large increase in housing costs in the western states, and the cost of living have pushed many people over the edge, at an alarming rate for four years. Justices ask city attorneys of Grants Pass, and in effect other cities in the US, where are people supposed to go if no other shelter is offered by the city, that they have a right to sleep, and breathe. "Sleeping is a biological necessity- Justice Elena Kagan. "Are they supposed to kill themselves, not sleeping," Justice Sotomayor.  Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts questioned whether judges should be making decision that should be made by policymakers. US Supreme Court is reviewing a lower court ruling upholding rights of homeless people in the US  under the 8th Amendment that is opposed by the city of Grants Pass, Oregon. A small western town of 40,000 people facing a problem of a significant portion of its population, about 8%, having to sleep in parks and in open public spaces because they have nowhere to go. It has only 138 beds from the Gospel Rescue Mission for homeless situations with strict rules. It faces in today's America rising homelessness- affordability of housing affecting people in many states. In 2022 an three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which covers western states Oregon, California, and Washington upheld a lower court decision barring the city of Grants Pass from enforcing a citywide ban on sleeping in parks at night if no other shelter was available with fines ranging $75 -$295. As a result of this decision encampments of the homeless are increasing in the western states because restrictions on public camping no longer play a deterring role. Cities say this increases crime and drug use, disease, and hazardous waste.  ...

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The view from Asian officials and scholars that it was not the savings glut that originated in Asia that caused the economic crisis in the U.S. The idea of a"savings glut" that caused low rates for along time and set up conditions for a housing bubble was presented by Ben Bernanke in 2005 before he was governor of the Fed. It was considered acontributing factor in the crisis. Mr Panitchpakdi, head of the UN Confreence on Trade and Development says that Asians did not borrow heavily for consumption and Americans did. Consumption levels he says are normal in Asia and average 40% of GDP. Household consumption in China is 36% but thats because growth in investment and exports has been very strong, npot because consumption has been weak. Speaking at the same conference Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan sais Chinese consumption needs to rise and saving rate fall but micro factors like regulation played an overwhelming part. Zhou says the increase in the savings rate in recent years comes not from households but from corporate savings as retained profits. Lawrence Lau, another economist, says China's trade surplus was at 2% for many years till 2005 when it jumped to 5% of GDP. ...

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Karl Rove, who guided the George W. Bush election campaigns, says why the U.S. presidential race is not over after the Romney gaffe about the "47%" who would always support Obama because of dependency on the government for benefits. He points to the situation facing Reagan- a useful reminder of how difficult it is to know which way the presidential race will turn. As a Hollywood actor, Reagan with the new idea of supply side economics- considered "voodoo economics" by George Bush, his rival in the primaries- was seen with skepticsm before the election. Rove cites Gallup polls at the time, showing in mid-Sept. 1980 Jimmy Carter leading Ronald Reagan by 44% to 40%. By late October 1980 polls showed Carter ahead 47% to 39% for Reagan. On Election Day this turned to where Reagan won by nine points. A more revealing figure about the real feelings about the electorate in Rove's view is that in the past month in only 9 of 83 national polls and daily tracking surveys does Obama reach 50%, and the average is 47%. And the economy still shows high unemployment, enough for the Federal Reserve's Bernanke to announce a QE III program for support....

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A major problem for President Hollande of France in the 2014 budget is how to handle the deficits in the country's Social Security System. Over the years the deficits were transferred to a vehicle called the Cades, which is approaching its legal ceiling of 270 billion euros. The vehicle was originally set up in 1996 with the idea of separating past deficits, so that the state could balance its budget every year for the Social Security System, which covers health care, pension and family allowances. Previous governments have for the most part bypassed this and added new deficits to Cades instead of making cuts in spending. The Hollande administration says it is controlling health care expenses and increasing pension contributions as a way to bring the deficits under control. It will not assess a special tax for the deficit in Social Security in 2014, as new taxes are highly unpopular. Cades lifetime has been extended twice, first in 1997 to 2014, and during the 2009 financial crisis to 2025. In 2010 following the crisis, Cades chairman, Ract Madoux says, the short term borrowing had reached 60 billion euros. It is down to 30 billion euros, which he still considers too high....

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California's governor Jerry Brown has put forward his budget plan for fiscal 2013 showing a budget surplus of $851 million. Brown was able to get Proposition 30 passed in the November 2008 elections. Higher income earners pay more in taxes for several years and the sales tax is increased. An improved economy with unemployment down from 11.3% in 2011 to 9.8% in Nov. 2012 is helping with higher tax revenues. General fund revenues are expected to increase 3.3% to $98.5 billion in the 2013 fiscal year from $95.4 billion the prior year. Brown has accomplished a remarkable feat of balancing the budget for 2013 and still continuing to invest in education and healthcare. Spending will increase 5% to $97.7 billion in fiscal 2013 from $93 billion in fiscal 2012 with higher spending on education and health care and lower spending in other areas. Brown's path to achieving this was eased after Democrats won control of both houses in the the state legislature. Says Brown: "Right now, for the next 4 years, we'll be talking about a balanced budget, we're talking about living within our means... This is new." Even Republicans praise this effort from a veteran of California politics- his father was governor in the Kennedy years, and he was governor in the 1980's....

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Ma's big margin 58% of the vote to Hsieh's 42% plus his large majority in legislature elections in January as leader of the Nationalist party and his independent stand on issues creates an opportunity for Taiwan to start a new era of peaceful relations with Mainland China as an independent country. It means direct flights from Taiwan and direct postal and shipping routes are now likely. The vote reflects Taiwan's reliance on China for its growth and as growth slows and markets in US and Europe see a slowdown Taiwan's main hope for reviving is economy is in closer ties with the mainland. Taiwan's growth rate in 2007 at 5.7% is much lower than earlier decades of fast growth an much of the manufacturing industry in Taiwan has moved to the mainland and with it a lot of Taiwanese managers are working in China. At the same thime there are restrictions on direct contacts and investments in the mainland. What Ma's policies will do is open up a new era of economic relations with China to increase growth in Taiwan. Both Taiwan and Japan have depended on China for a large part of their economic growth in the last ten years....

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Something bolder like California's at 35.7 miles per gallon target by 2016 compared to the Bush Administration's 31.6 miles per gallon fuel efficiency standard by 2015 would really have a better chance at bringing oil prices down by effective conservation. In fact the gas prices behind the studies at the Transportation department used a price of $2.86 for the years 2011 to 2015 to calculate the rule's costs and benefits when prices are already at $3.50 per gallon today, so the analysis itself is behind the curve and not upto date. This is not likely to stand the test of time as the whole issue of fuel economy is likely to change as time passes. For instance all the three remaining presidential candidates have expressed support for California's efforts to curb gasoline consumption even with resistance from EPA, and the 2 democratic candidates support fuel efficiency above 35 mpg over time. So its realistic to expect that something similar to the California standards will carry the day as time passes and as fuel economy becomes a real big issue as prices continue to escalate and environmental and other considerations also call for better management of fuel supplies through conservation in transportation not just in the USA but around the world....

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This earthquake in Sichuan may have changed China forever. It will no longer be the same country. Its not just how the government responded with premier Wen Biao taking a prominent role and receiving good marks for this, the government had it responded in the way it did in previous earthquake in 1976 with hundreds of thousands killed, would have found itself isolated by public criticism and mistrust. Consider- much of the force for open discussion and sharing of information comes from young people who are most of the 228 million internet users in China, who also use cellphones and blogs. Its not just criticism its been used for civic action. Chinese users of Twitter, a group instant messaging system, was quick to disseminate information about the earthquake as soon as it happened. Groups of university students in Chengdu set up a website to collect tips from front line reporters in the field. One report drew attention to 9000 people trapped in one village. What experts are saying- Demand for information has grown exponentially in China in the last ten years. Its not just about human rights or democracy. Its about education, safety, land rights or an accountable government. (a researcher at China Media Project at Hong Kong University). iternet users in China...

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NATO was formed in the days of the Truman administration on 25th July 1949, following the Berlin Blockade, the coup in Czechoslovakia by Soviets, and the efforts to set up pro soviet governments in Turkey and Greece. It accomplished its purpose by pushing back against the Soviet effort securing democracy in Greece and Turkey in the 1950's. Much of this was achieved under Heads of NATO from the US- Gen. Eisenhower, Gen. Ridgway, Gen. Guenther and Gern Norstad proteges of Ike all from West Point by 1964, when Brezhnev was new head of Soviet Union and by 1991 Warsaw Pact of Soviets setup in 1955 was dissolved yet NATO was not. The US interests shifted to Asia - Gen MacArthur leading a UN effort in Korea and the US leading its own effort in Vietnam in the 1960's. The Soviet threat actually receded after 1964 when Brezhnev became head of Soviet Union till 1982. During that period in the 1970's till today the face of NATO as today was from a series of heads of governments of Dutch Stikker in 1970's or other small European states such as Norway Stoltenberg and Rutte Netherlands again in 2025. It could be said that none of these leaders  of small EU countries represented US interests- or even European interests- a point the DJT administration is trying to make. It hurt the US in Venezuela as Russia propped up a regime which led to millions of refugees entering the US illegally. And it hurt Europe as Russia propped up the Syrian regime with millions of refugees entering Germany and destabilizing its political structure. Going back if a new defense institution was set up to replace NATO by the Europeans in 1970's this would have been the right step which would have not led to Russia propping up regimes in the Americas or the Middle East. A goal that is being discussed with Russia by the DJT administration to refocus American efforts in a new direction and pause not just the Ukraine war but also put the US  and Russia in a new direction with the new competition from 3 billion people in China and India. WSJ Editorial Board takes the British position on the Ukraine peace proposals with centuries old skeptical attitude on Russia's intentions. The US government position put forward by DJT is that there are constructive discussions with Russia, and the need to settle the underlying issues behind the conflict. This includes NATO's future. NATO setup in 1949 for Soviets,  on the borders of Russia in 2025 after the end of the Cold War when its rival the Warsaw Pact set up in 1955 of the Soviets was disbanded in 1991. The British position comes from centuries of conflict in Europe and its interests in protecting its Empire till the 1950's remaining unchanged, and cannot reflect American interests in the 21st century as its economy competes with China and India and the EU, and seeks to do this by keeping former colonial powers out of the Americas including Russia, and China.   ...

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E-book sales reached 20% of total U.S. book sales in 2011- a total of $970 million. Book sales in paper copies were a bit lower than $5 billion in 2011, close to where they were in 2011, showing that book sales have not fallen as e-book sales have increased. This is based on figures from the monthly industry reports of the Association of American Publishers. The Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five publishers for price collusion is having a serious impact on Barnes & Noble, as Barnes & Noble's made a profit of about 30% or $3.90 under the pricing model Apple helped establish, where the e book title sold for $12.99. In a lower pricing arrangement Amazon establishes Barnes & Noble's profits would decline substantially or even lead to a loss. Barnes & Noble's stock lost 17% in April, 2012.

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World War I was the first major worldwide war since the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, and World War II was fought after World War I's punitive reparations exacted from Germany led to the Nazis. US General Pershing did not want to see the French negotiate the settlement, preferring the war to continue till the destruction of the German Empire's war machine rebuilt by the Nazis. Mistakes were made in Europe for which millions of Americans gave their lives to liberate Europe. Russians and Americans see themselves as part of western civilization. On this point there is no difference, none, it is only who is the more important and whose view of the world is right. Asian civilization including China and India see the benefits of western civilization, of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution and embrace it wholeheartedly and wish it had come sooner on of their own volition and intent. Other than the Korean and Vietnam wars fought in their origins against the Japanese and the French colonialism and Empires, the wars of the Middle East since the end of colonialism stand out. In Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen the only other major wars since the 1970's there are religious and ethnic wars that are of no interest to the people of three continents Europe, Americas, and East and South Asia, for whom the spread of nuclear weapons to the Gulf region brings nothing but dangerous developments for their peoples and for the peace of the world. ...

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The domestic German public opinion has shifted against further bailouts to the point where a poll conducted July 1-5 before the referendum shows only 10% of German supporting further concessions in negotiations with Greece. This reduces even further the room domestic public opinion gives German chancellor Merkel for flexibility in talks following the Greece referendum "no" vote to earlier proposals from Germany and France. The multi year program planned for Greece following the referendum involves reforms such as making firing workers easier, changes to product markets and privatization of state assets, which were left out in the June 2 proposal from Merkel and Hollande, which was rejected at the time by Greece.