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Scientist Kim Mishra at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has come up with a method to make chocolate not just from the cocoa seeds discarding the pulp, husk and juice as is done today. This is wasteful. The new method uses the cocoa pulp, the husk and the juice as a way to make chocolate without sugar and use the whole fruit. This will reduce the impact on the climate with more chocolate production and less deforestation for new cocoa planted in South American countries as an addition to production in African countries like Ghana. It will also benefit cocoa farmers in Africa and Guatemala by increasing their income. This report looks at the colonial past of chocolate production by companies such as Lindt as Swiss producers worked with French and British colonies to expand production in the late 19th century.

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The average for tens of thousands of companies in the US is not in the 30's, it is 42 years. Taiwan Semiconductor was started by Morris Chang in his 50's. The reason for this is that startups need extensive experience, some of that experience comes from industry and companies the founders have worked with. With a deep knowledge of the field thay are in these founders can apply this knowledge to create new companies and discover new opportunities.

Even in government this is the case. In the recent appointments nominees selected by the incoming Republican DJT administration for Health and Human Services, Interior Secretary, Department of Energy, Homeland Security, had decades of experience in their field, some were governors of energy rich states. Another characteristic that comes with experience is the energy and aptitude for the job that they can bring. 

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An international arbitration panel gives Exxon $908 million for oil assets nationalized by Venezuela in 2007. This is much lower than the $7 billion claimed by Exxon. Exxon invested $750 million in its Cerro Negro oil operations in Venezuela. The operations had an estimated value of $2 billion and are located in the heavy crude oil region of Orinoco. Venezuelan oil company PdVSA showed net profit of $4 billion in the first half of 2011. Another case is pending for Conoco-Phillips.

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Krugman questions Bair's idea of the aggregator bank buying up toxic assets of the banks because the government may be assuming these huge liabilities at taxpayer expense to shore up shareholders. He questions whether these banks will not continue to be the zombie banks, that they are today, if the so called toxic asets are priced in today's market. The idea that today's market prevents these assets being priced at fair value may be deceiving he says. As the economy deteriorates, these banks even after the government at great expense buys up "toxic" assets, may still be losing money and remain that way for years, essentially zombie banks. Better he says for the government to face up to reality and nationalize these banks and then do what the Resolution Trust Corporation did with the savings and loans in the 1980's, which is clean up these banks and sell them after fixing them to new owners. The government might end up with amuddle headed approach that looks like the Resolution Trust type of action but without taking over the banks end up with something else. All because nationalization is thought of among Republicans, Democrats and Obama's people as some kind of dreaded word, when these banks are already dependent on the government for survival....

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Lack of any effort by Democrats and Republicans to come up with a negotiated agreement to end the $85 billion in sequester automatic spending cuts in the U.S. for 2013. For the Republicans the risk is that president Obama gains ground in preparation for the 2014 midterm elections. For president Obama the risk is that his will become a distraction for his second term legislative agenda including immigration reform, and other legislation.

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The Conservative Party under David Cameron won 330 seats in the British parliament, securing a majority in the 2015 general elections. The Labor party won 232 seats, losing 26 seats compared to the 2010 election. The Conservatives gained 24 seats. The Labor party lost very badly in Scotland, winning only 1 seat. The Scottish National Party won 56 of 59 seats in Scotland. Opinion polls underestimated the strength of the Conservatives whose campaign theme was jobs created under the Cameron administration. Austerity was a theme for the Scottish National Party and Labor, yet as Greg Ip reported in his column on the British economic recovery the Cameron administration adroitly managed this by relaxing deficit targets after 2012 forecasts on the deficit cutting could not be met with lower revenues. Labor was hit by the sense that the Tony Blair type liberal economics had failed to reverse the decline in real wages and jobs for working class people, and the Conservatives were taking on a tough situation with the deficit and the 2008-2009 recession that started under Labor. This hurt Labor in Scotland and in the rest of Britain. Labor leader Ed Balls lost his seat. The UK Independence Party fared badly winning only one seat and its leader Nigel Farage lost his seat. Prime minister Cameron promised a EU referendum for 2017 during the election, and he will now have to manage this issue as his party favors membership in the EU with some changes. The improvement in jobs was a strong point for the Conservatives, yet Britain faces wage stagnation with low productivity gains which will be a challenge for the new administration....

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The effort to shift China's economc growth away from the rampant overbuilding in housing and industrial capacity of the past to domestic consumption, and focus on meeting the demand for better medical care, quality of food, education and other quality of life products. China's leaders met at the Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing in Dec. 2015 to work out ways to make this shift so that growth rate of 6.5% and other goals can be met. Plans include reducing industrial overcapacity, dealing with overinvestment and unused inventory in housing, reducing financial risks from high corporate debt to GDP ratio approaching 160% estimated by Standard and Poors Ratings Services. By comparison the U.S. debt to GDP ratio is 70%. A steep rise resulted from the huge China stimulus program of 2008-2009, when the ratio was 98% for China. Experts such as Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute are pessimistic about the prospects of successfully implementing reforms, saying reducing industrial overcapacity was a goal of the new Jinping Li-Keqiang leadership in 2013, but not much progress has been made in 2 years....

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The Labor Department figures showed the U.S. added 157,000 jobs in January 2013. The unemployment rate edged slighly higher to 7.9%. Government jobs declined by 9000 in January, and the risk remains that drastic job cuts under a sequester of government spending cuts supported by some in Congress would hurt the job market.

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Krugman on the failure of the Obama administration to take steps to help homeowners in the foreclosure crisis. The serious problems created in housing markets by a wave of foreclosures and declining prices. The failure of regulatory agencies to take necessary action that would reduce the wave of foreclosures. The impact this has in hampering an economic recovery.

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Inflation in the eurozone is running at 0.7%, well below the target of 2%. In a opening speech for a 2 day conference organized by the ECB in May 2014, ECB president Draghi said the increase in the value of the euro since 2011 has made commodities like oil cost less in euros, contributing to lower inflation. A key concern referred to in Draghi's speech is the data from Spain and Portugal about the difficulty for business to get loans in Spain and Portugal. About 25% of Spanish businesses and 33% of Portgual's businesses have difficulty getting loans. Even profitable companies have difficulty getting loans. One way the ECB could tackle this is to make cheap loans available to eurozone banks conditional on the money being lent to businesses and not invested in government bonds, as has happened during prior ECB efforts to capitalize banks.

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The Economist magazine points out that Indian companies will have to invest more in innovation if they are to maintain return on investment. It says the GST, government action to reduce corruption since 2012 through court decision on crony capitalism, better functioning markets for land, natural resources and capital, more efficient supply chains, will force large Indian companies to compete by becoming more efficient. Under the previous regime before 2012 large Indian companies were able to make high ROI but this was an illusory advantage, as the growth in the Indian economy could create opportunities for firms that can compete with innovation, quality and efficiency. In this sense the Indian economy is entering a new phase under the Modi administration with stretch goals and efforts to create  the next ten year period of growth very different from the past.

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What is it like crossing borders today in Europe during the coronavirus, and what are European cities like at this time. Two NYT journalists Kingsley and Vancon are finding out by driving 3700 miles by car across many European borders. The hardest they find is entering Germany from the Czech border, where they were stopped and questioned in every way. Germany has strict restrictions- you can only leave for 48 hours if it is longer than this one has to do 14 days in quarantine. Germany also has managed the coronavirus better than its other neighbors France, Switzerland and Eastern European countries.

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The 2018 report on doing Business ratings shows China at 78th place same as before when it should be 85th in the world. The World Bank is correcting the data in the report. It is seen as the result of manipulation of data as a result of "undue pressure" reported by members of the the Doing Business ratings team at the World Bank. The 2020 report is also being corrected for giving the UAE and Saudi Arabia a higher rating. The review was carried out by senior management of the World Bank in place in June 2020.

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A new study using ECB data by the German Institute of Economic Research shows rising inequality in Germany. The 45 richest households in Germany own wealth equal to the bottom half of the population- each group owning 214 billion euros in assets in 2014. The wealthiest 5 percent of the people in Germany own 51.1% of the country's wealth. ECB numbers are underestimating the inequality by showing that 5 percent control 31.5% of the wealth in Germany. The Institute's analysis shows Germany is worse than Spain and France when the wealthiest household's wealth is taken into account. 

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Of the 291 million migrant workers, people from rural areas who work in cities, only about 120 million have returned to work by Feb 14, according to China's Transport Minister. Workers can choose to stay in their home region or come back to the cities and face a 14 day quarantine before being allowed to go back to work. In Beijing the entire city of 22 million has a 14 day quarantine. Even if workers complete the quarantine factories may be closed.

This is likely to cut the growth rate by half from last years 6.4% to 3% for the 1st quarter GDP.

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Tontine pension products are popular in Japan where longevity has risen to the point where many women are live much longer. To make their pensions last longer for older participants the women pool their investment assets so that the oldest participants do not outlive their savings. As participants die the remainder of the asset pool is divided among the remaining women so that older participants can continue to receive periodic payouts for longer. Annuity products of this type are offered by Japanese insurance companies where contributions are made by Japanese people in their 50's for pension payouts later in life.

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The struggle for the Donbas region is now centred around the town of Bakhmut with about 50-70 casualties a day and an effort by Russian infantry to advance to the once tree lined town of 70,000. The Ukraine war drags on into the cold winter of 2022.

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Research on the experience with online learning during the pandemic shows the importance of blended learning. Having a mentor or someone to help the student taking online classes considerably improves the learning process. Without this online learning does not do as well as regular classroom instruction by teachers.

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Saudi Arabia and partners in OPEC will increase oil production by 648,000 barrels a day in July and August. A two month ceasefire and truce with Yemeni Houthi rebels will be extended. This paves the way after extensive diplomacy for president Biden to visit Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

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The same trends hollowing out San Francisco downtown are hurting the hotel business in San Francisco says this report in WSJ. The lodging business is hurt by crime and quality of life issues even as New York and Los Angeles hotels recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

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The Stanford Law parents of the founder of cryptocurrency firm FTX Sam Bankman-fried who was charged with fraud by US federal prosecutors, are the subject of this story in the NYT. The NYT says the parents are under scrutiny for their connections to this crypto business.

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McCarthy says he is open to running for the Speaker's job. Scalise who is Majority leader and Jordan lack support of moderates who form the largest bloc of Republicans in Congress. WSJ reports that the chaos in Congress also hurts how Republicans are perceived by voters.

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Investing in bonds looks better today say experts. Most of these experts say the economy is doing much better with the infrastructure spending and this bodes well for both stocks and bonds in the long term. The old tech stock world is being replaced by an infrastructure investment world.

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After years being driven by others as government officials or party leaders, going back to civilian life can mean learning how to drive. Here Nicola Sturgeon Scottish leader takes her driver license test in Scotland and relearns driving skills after her resignation as head of the Scottish government.

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The Selby byelection win by Labour in Britain overturning a Tories 20,000 majority shows that Labour can expand its targets to achieve a landslide win in 2024, says this report in The Guardian. Keir Mather just 25 years old will be the new British MP in parliament from Selby.