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China's Bright Foods Group acquires a 60% stake in Britain's cereal maker, Weetabix Food company. Cereal demand is growing in China and increased to 1.2 billion yuan or $191 million in 2011. This is an increase of 70% over 2006, according to Euromonitor International. Everbright sees large potential for Weetabix cereal in Asian markets. Cereal Partners Worldwide, a joint venture of General Mills, Nestle SA and Seamild Group of China, has the largest share for cereals in the Chinese market. Everbright is looking for more acquisitions as it plans to double sales in China by 2015 to about $14 billion. It has 3,300 retail stores in China. With the Weetabix stake Everbright gains shelf space and distribution channels in Europe and the U.S. An effort to take a 50% stake in French yogurt maker Yoplait failed in an earlier bid when it lost out to General Mills.

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WIth extensive experience as Chief Investment Officer from 2003 to 2012, Sauter has seen market swings and extreme volatility over a long period of a decade. For the current investment cycle and the pullback in Oct. 2014, he points to the pullback of -16% in spring 2010, and pullback of -18% in summer 2011. In the bigger picture of the chart for this period since 2010 these pullbacks look less significant. There are reasons for a pullback. The conflicts around the world bring more uncertainty for business investment, though Sauter's point about the conflict being more than any period since 1946 may be an overstatement because this includes the period of the Berlin Airlift, Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.There are problems in the eurozone economies with near contraction in Germany in the 3rd and 4th quarter. China is slowing down at the same time. The U.S. economy and lower oil prices are the bright side of the picture. Overall the comment by Christine Lagarde during the eurozone crisis in 2012 is still relevant. When asked about the situation then, she suggested adding perspective to what was happening by asking "compared to what?" referring to the situation in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Sauter says investors who remain steady are more likely to be happy some years from now that they remained that way....

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A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows that 58% of people polled want the President to worry more about keeping the budget deficit down even though this may mean alonger recession and asloer recovery. Only 35% say they favoring boosting the economy. What may be vague here is what a longer recession here means, its length from 1 to 2 years or 3-4 years, and what boosting the economy means; when the stimulus package has already been passed and its impact has still to be felt as a lot of the money is not yet spent. Democrats are evenly split with 50% favoring boosting the economy, and 42% urging a deficit focus. Republicans overwhelmingly are worried about the budget deficit. Independents by 2 to 1 also are worried about the deficit. Overall 31% of those polled say job creation and economic growth should be the highest priority for the government. And 19% say deficit and government spending should be the highest priority. About 16% say they see health care as the biggest priority, and 14% said national security and terrorism should be the highest priority. This means that the Obama administration will have two conflicting concerns throughout the early years in keeping the stimulus measures in place, and at the same time paying attention to the budget deficit....

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Friedman points to Congressional Research Service numbers showing that of the D.of D. workforce contractors accounted for 48% in Iraq and 57% in Afghanistan. Allison Stanger of Middlebury College who wrote the book "One Nation under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy," says tasks of diplomacy, development, defense and even intelligence are all outsourced. And State and USAID are also heavily outsourcing. In 2008 roughly 80% of State Department budget went out in the form of contracts and grants.

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How the promise of free or low cost transportation for the 584,000 students who have a free or a half-fare card has helped bring a diverse group of students to New York city schools as students can commte distances to reach their desired school without having to worry about the cost. This can be $700 for a school year for a typical student. Now with budget cuts at New York city's MTA starting in Sept 2011 these students will lose this benefit. Its asymptom of cuts going on across the nation, from fee raises in the University of California system to student fares on the New York City MTA.

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A CBS/New York times poll shows that 63% of the American people approve Obama's performance as President. And 77% are optimistic about him being the President for the next 4 years. 55% of Americans are just making ends meet, and more than 6 out of 10 fear that someone in their household may lose their job. Most say it will be years before any significant improvement. Over 53% feel the stimulus plan will improve things, half of them say it is not likely to shorten the recession, and two thirds expect more money will be needed. Nearly all Americans are concerned that the cost of the economic programs will have significant long term effects on future generations, with 65% being very concerned. Yet about 75% say they are more concerned about the economic crisis. On the partisan politics, of those polled 63% say Republicans opposed the legislation for political reasons, not policy ones. 79% want Republicans to work in a bipartisan manner. And 56% surveyed want Obama to folow the policies he proposed during the campaign, rather than working with Republicans, and to make this his priority. All this suggests that a large number of Republicans are supporting the President, even though both Republicans and Democrats are concerned about the cost of programs, because a large majority of those polled are more concerned about the effects of this crisis on jobs and the economy....

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The moves by the Obama administration and the national feeling and mood, its views as taken in poll of 998 adults by CBS News/New York Times. On taxing those above $250,000 income levels at higher rates- 74% of respondents support it. On populist sentiment - 71% say Obama cares more about ordinary Americans than for large corporations. On the vast expansion of spending and programs 48% prefer smaller government and fewer services and 41% favor bigger government and more services. On spending to stimulate the economy at the risk of higher deficits- 45% support this. On the budget proposal- 56% support it, but 79% of Democrats like the priorities, only 27% of Republicans like them On helping banks recover- 29% supported this in Feb, 47% support this now. In the freedom to use his own judgement at a time when Republicans have rejected almost everything he does- by three to one people say they trust Obama to make better decisions about the economy than Congressional Republicans. This includes one quarter of Republicans, which is significant in giving President Obama the room to use his judgement of what is best and take aggressive action where necessary. This aggressive action may be necessary if taking over some failed or insolvent banks is considered to be the best option, and President Obama's advisors like Mr Axelrod must be taking notes from this poll by CBS News/New York Times. On security, on safety- by tqo to one people say they trust Obama to keep the nation safe. ...

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This report by Juan Montes in the WSJ shows how much Lopez Obrador has changed since he lost by a small margin in the 2006 Mexico presidential election. His campaign manager, Tatiana Clouthier, says broadening his appeal to women, evangelicals, middle class Mexicans, rich and poor, is needed for Obrador to win in 2018. In elections in 2006 and 2012 Obrador continued to be seen as the candidate only of the working class. An effort is being made to change this image. Obrador, 64 years old from the party of the left, formed his own party in 2010 after leaving the PRD party. He is a former mayor of Mexico City. Five recent polls show Obrador leading by an average of 7.5 points over Ricardo Analya, the PAN candidate for president which now has the support of the PRD. PAN on the right and PRD on the left are other opposition parties. PAN party formed the government under Felipe Calderon before the current PRI president Nieto now tainted by corruption scandals became president in 2012. If he were to win Obrador would change the way Mexico was governed for 5 decades. His first step would be to review the 91 exploration contracts given by the government under the Nieto administration to check for signs of graft. Corruption is a key platform of the parties running against the current government of president Nieto, for both Obrador and the PAN/PRD alliance candidate Anaya. Obrador says he would keep balanced budget deficits and respect the central bank's autonomy. The shift would be from the current export model that Mexico has supported for 35 years, to one based on import substitution policies, higher salaries, and more government spending for education, jobs programs, healthcare, new oil refineries. With the Trump administration's stance on trade and immigration Mexicans are now showing anger and frustration, with 75% of Mexicans in a Reforma poll looking for change. Both the PAN/PRD and its new face in Ricardo Analya, 38 years old, and the Obrador party see corruption and with it in the Mexican context the rule of law as a key issue.  ...

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The leaders of India and China, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping will meet at a 2 day summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, China, on April 27, 2018.  The meeting is significant because for the first time the 2 leaders will meet on a one on one basis for a significant part of the time without aides to get a better understanding of each other, and a get a sense of how to establish a good relationship between the 2 countries. Ma Jiali of the China Reform Forum, a think tank affiliated with the Communist Party's Central Party School says a better relationship would serve China's interests for regional calm, so that China can focus on internal issues of tackling poverty in the interior of China, tackle economic issues arising from a difficult trading relationship with the U.S. including the tariffs of the Trump administration.  China's leadership have not anticipated the decisions made by president Trump and the Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to take a strong stand on correcting an imbalance in trade that leads to about $1 billion in trade deficit each day for the U.S. with China. Previous administrations in the U.S. have not taken action. Also at issue in the U.S. China relationship is for the first time transfer of technology for "Made in China 2025." China's earlier advances were made with a free flow of technology from the U.S. and Europe.  The last time the two leaders met was in 2014. This time the issues of border relations in the Himalayas, and the relations with China in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean region, the growing relationship between Australia, U.S., India and Japan, are seen in a different light with the strong disagreements on trade relations with the U.S.  China sees a need for improving relations with India. Prime Minister Modi faces new elections in 2019 and the need to focus on infrastructure and development to win a second term in office for the ruling BJP Party.  A reduction in tensions serves the interest of both countries and leaders.   ...

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As Air Deccan goes with Kingfisher airlines, this group will intensify the competition with Jet Airways which also operates Sahara airlines, and with Indian airlines which is the smallest of the three groups. Kingfisher has promoted its brand by offering premium .meals and other features for a higher price. With rapid growth in the airplane market and bigger passenger market with the shift from rail to flights the market will continue to develop in new ways.

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A range of opinion from concern for the sourcing of products from a country with no environmental or other regulation, concern for Chinese workers exposed to toxic substances, to concern for hundreds of millions of Chinese children exposed to leaded paints from aa Professor of Environmental Health. The Professor states that 5 of 11 brands of paint that he bought in China had 100 times the US limit, and calls for a Chinese ban on lead in paints.

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Doubts about a decoupling of the Asian and European economy from the US economy. Opinion that the US economy could have a stronger impact on the export driven economies of Japan S. Korea and China than is usually thought and differet view from the one given recently in the Oct-Nov. report from the IMF, the OECD forecast and other reports suggesting only a modest impact of the housing crisis in the US and the credit crunch.

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Interview with Honda CEO Takeo Fukui. In June Honda will rollout a new hydrogenpowered fuel cell vehicle called the FCX Clarity. Its powered with electricity produced by combining hydrogen and oxygen in batterylike fuel cells. Honda will have this vehicle available for lease this summer in California and aims to deliver about 200 of these cars by 2010. Fukui's attitude is refreshing when compared to that of other automakers when answering a question by John Murphy of the WSJ about why try to build a hydrogen car when the stations to power the cars do not exist yet. He tells Murphy if you asked were there any gas stations when Henry Ford came up with the Model T, there weren't any, lets build the cars first and the infrastructure will follow. And Honda is working on the technology that will make it possible to charge hydrogen into fuel-cell vehicles at home . He sees it happening first in California and some other states, and in Japan and Europe. And he sees it taking about 10 years to get some sort of infrastructure in place. Considering the long term nature of the demand side with the gradual inclusion of billions of people in China and India as well as Brazil and Russia into the world economy as well as people in other developing countries this is a solution that takes patient and focused development of technology which Honda is setting out to do. He does not see a safety issue in use of hydrogen vehicles as he is confident Honda can develop the expertise to handle the safety issue for hydrogen. What is his thinking on green vehicles? What happened to the Insight the first hybrid car that Honda introduced? The Insight was never intended to be a mass seller, only to establish Honda's record as having the best record in fuel efficiency. What is Honda doing in this area. Honda does see a problem in this area. Toyota he says developed a green image largely on the back of one car the Prius. Honda will come up in 2009 with a dedicated hybrid vehicle to match the Prius. And Honda is setting the bar high for this Honda hybrid, saying that his feeling that this model will have to overwhelm and overtake the Prius. He goes on to say that this is key for us. Honda he says will take on the challenge and compete with Toyota with its products, its technology, and its racing spirit. This gasoline-electric hybrid will be introduced early next year in the USA, Japan, and Europe, and it will be the first of 4 hybrid models Honda will introduce by 2015. Regarding price the company says it will be "affordable". Honda's goal is to sell 500,000 hybrid vehicles a year. Toyota aims to sell 1 million hybrid vehicles early in the next decade and is working on developing its own hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. Is Honda developing electric cars? Takeo Fukui thinks the practical feasibility of the electric vehicle is very limited. The two biggest issues in his view being driving distance and recharging time. The FCX Clarity can be recharged in one minute, compared to the several hours for an electric vehicle. In his view the electric vehicles will be uselful only for restricted applications like golf carts. Nissan and General Motors are planning to launch electric vehicles. What is Honda's environmental strategy? Honda being a smaller company has to focus its resources wisely with strategic choices. His focus is on the hybrid as the core product, and after that comes fuel cell and clean diesel as the core products to tackle fuel eficiency and CO2 issues. Takeo has spent more than a decade on Honda's racing teams. He drives a CR-V and enjoys driving up and down the mountains, does not race but does get on Honda's test track once or twice a year. And what has he learned from all the years in racing. When he was fully engaged in the motorcycle racing teams he says the pressure was very high and if they did not do well they got bashed by managers and the media. And actually the results were disappointing for years and the teams kept losing. For hime the series of difficulties and challenges was something that he feels everyone should experience because in some ways he acquired wisdom and creativity to get through these experiences. This is some thing Honda and Fukui will need as they try to develop their own hybrid to take the lead from Toyota and come up with industry leading technology in tackling fuel efficiency and CO2 issues. His own approach to management? Two things he always keeps in mind are take time to keep up good communication with associates at work, and testing Honda's own products with his own hands. What does he think about the auto industry in 2008, is it a turning point? He says it has becom clear in 2008 that a company has to have the technology to deal with carborn dioxide and fuel efficiency issues. And its clear that smaller vehicles are more attractive than larger vehicles. And its possible he says that we may go back from automobiles to motorcycles. In fact in India Honda is promoting motorcycles in a big way, while Tata is developing the Nano for mass market, so Takeo is talking about something that Honda sees happening in some places. ...

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Obama's politics of consensus face a test as some of the issues before the country require strong leadership in the face of competing interests, intense lobbying, and politics as usual. Wavering support from supporters during the primaries, as leadership is delegated to Congress heavily influenced by lobbying on healthcare. And loss of support from the centre and independents who are unconvinced by the lack of clear direction and the tendency for the debate to be carried by competing interests. These independents are also concerned about the costs of a not well thought out plan influenced too much by rival interests.

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Krugman points to the return to business asusual in the banking sector with bonuses and compensation. He also notes President Obama's reluctance to take afirm stand on this issue and back the Fed's efforts to cap bonuses, especially the remark by Obama that while banker's pay issues was raised nothing was said about Silicon valley and for sports sector pay.