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This opinion in DW.com says the refugee camp in Calais, France, called the "Jungle" was ignored by the British who transferred border control to France and did nothing. The French government of Hollande also ignored the problem and the deteriorating conditions at the camp. Media attention and the election led to effort to disband the camp and find spots around France for about 7000 people. Because of the radical right in France the French government has not considered humanitarian help and providing certainty of status for the refugees.

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Serious issues raised about Ford management, strategy, new product, and a potential credit default. Is management upto the task? Ford employees say CEO Bill Ford also less visible around the automaker. They say that he is no longer at the employee cafeteria where he used to go frequently. What does one make of this and the soft marketing stuff coming out of Ford, when deep and big changes are needed. Goldman Sach's auto analyst Robert Barry say Ford's transformation is especially difficult because Ford has underinvested in cars for years and it is trying to make up lost ground. Couple of things are hitting Ford in particular- 1. Are sales in a free fall? Ford Explorer- down 30% from last year, even the Mustang down 8.5% 2. Cars sell at a steep discount -consider Focus $3060 less than average compact according to JD Power, Freestar minivan $3000 less than the Honda Odyssey, Ford Fusion $3100 less than average vehicle in that segment. The Fusion $20,150, Accord 22,200, Impala 22,100 3. While GM is weaning itself off of fleet rentals to build image, Ford is too weak to do this, fleet sales in April 30-40% of total !!! 4. Ford Credit earnings drop with the rest of the business. 5. On the probabilities of Ford credit default or bankruptcy- a chart made by J.P. Morgan in April 2006 shows the credit markets see a default more likely at Ford than at GM in two, three or five years than at GM. The probability of default in three years is 34% at GM compared to 43% at Ford. ...

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As the ECB reduces its monthly purchases under its QE program to 60 billion euros from 80 billion euros starting in April 2017, the initial market reaction was that quantitative easing was going out. This says Barley is not the case, and markets are overreacting. The ECB is now ready to buy bonds yielding less than the deposit rate. The ECB promised to extend purchases to Dec. 2017 or further. Look deeper says Barley and ECB forecasts headline inflation at 1.7% in 2019, less than 2% target. So continued QE made sense but at a lower pace. In the end it is the flow that matters not the stock of purchases, says Barley.

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Mike Flynn, who briefly held the position of National Security Adviser before resigning, tells the FBI and Congressional officials that he is willing to be interviewed if he is given immunity for prosecution. Flynn, a former general, resigned after accepting that he misled White House officials about the phone conversations with the Russian ambassador. Also an issue and seen as improper is that Flynn was paid for speeches by Russia's state sponsored network RT just before becoming an adviser to the Trump campaign, according to documents given to a congressional oversight committee.

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Steve Bannon is described in this indepth report by Scott Shane as a workaholic, born to working class family with his father a telephone line operator, who went to Virginia Tech and joined the Navy in the hope of advancing a career in politics. At Virginia Tech he won a leadership position of the student organization. He was described by another student who knew him well as passionate but not likely to get much done. The period at Virginia Tech and in the Navy were the Carter years followed by election of Ronald Reagan. The election of Reagan had a huge influence on Bannon- the same overtones of that campaign of Reagan are seen today in the forgotten men and women, white working class families that Conservatives then and Tea Party Conservatives in the Obama years felt ignored. The downward drift of the lower middle class families that saw incomes drop as manufacturing hollowed out in the U.S. with foreign competition, the failure of establishment politicians of both parties to protect American manufacturing and working class families, added to the sense of angst for Bannon. Bannon just like politicians in the Obama camp such as Emmanuel, found the way to politics through finance and gains made as the banking sector and financial institutions made huge financial gains by 2008. This was a stepping stone for their political ambitions. Emmanuel who is also a workaholic and passionate about his views worked to elect a black president, Bannon choosing to do the opposite and push for bringing back the Reagan era. Most on the liberal side see him as part of a racist movement. Reagan was none of those things. How does one reconcile the two? It is possible that seeing the fight against the established politics as an impossible task, Bannon in his passionate temperament did not object to the support of right wing extremists, in the same way that Trump did. As both Trump and Bannon have people of Jewish origin and black people in their circle of friends or family. What incensed Bannon as described here by Scott Shane of the NYT, was that after the financial crisis of 2008, hardly any bank executives who had committed wrongdoing went to jail, his father's line operator retirement savings were devastated by the financial crisis, and working class families struggled harder than ever, that his daughter at West Point was with mostly children of working class families who were the ones fighting America's wars. Many ironies abound in the story. Bannon got his business start in the same financial institutions that were involved in the financial crisis of 2008, Bannon & Co was acquired by Societe Generale. He is from an Irish Catholic working class family in Richmond and attended Benedictine High School, with a mother Doris that worked on the campaign to elect Douglas Wilder, a Democrat, as the first African American governor of Virgina.  The other ironies are in that Bannon sees Trump as "an imperfect vessel" but still good enough, and Trump sees himself as "making all the decisions" when asked about Bannon, as a range of interests struggle to form a coherent movement on the right in American politics- an unlikely combination of a telephone operator's son and real estate magnate's son who built his own real estate business in luxury real estate towers far removed from ordinary men and women they represent. ...

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PM Narendra Modi addressed a World Bank organized "Making it Personal: How behavioural change can tackle climate change" conference. Modi called it part of democratising the battle against climate change. "Simple acts in daily lives are powerful, there will be a very positive impact on the environment. The people of India have done a lot in this matter in the last few years." "People driven efforts improved the sex ratio in many parts of India. It was the people who led a massive cleanliness drive. Be it rivers, beaches or roads, they are ensuring public places are free of litter. And it was the people who made the switch to LED bulbs a success. Nearly 370 million LED bulbs have been sold in India. This helps in avoiding 39 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year." The Mission Life Modi introduced with the Secretary General of the United Nations has achieved much in India- "The farmers of India ensured the coverage of nearly seven hundred thousand hectares of farmland by micro-irrigation. Fulfilling the mantra of 'Per Drop More Crop', this has saved a huge amount of water. Under Mission Life our efforts are spread across many domains such as: Making local bodies environment-friendly, saving water, saving energy, reducing waste, and e-waste, adopting healthy lifestyles, adoption of natural farming, promotion of millets." ...

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The Iran nuclear deal of 2015 begins to unravel as the European Union takes the first step towards the reimposing of sanctions. Britain, France and Germany triggered a dispute settlement mehanism in the agreement which can result in the United Nations reimposing international sanction on Iran's economy, banks, and top officials within 2 months. This follows Iran's resumption of nuclear activities banned under the agreement. Earlier the U.S. withdrew from the agreement and the European Union tried to save the agreement. Recent tensions and the U.S. insistence on the renegotiating for a new agreement have led to this collapse of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran.

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SEC's whistleblower cash for tips program once paid out $279 million on an Ericsson case. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is an anti bribery law of the US that prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign officials to win or keep business. In this case the prosecutors from the Southern District of New York in Manhattan bring charges about wrongdoing by Ericcson in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Kuwait and Indonesia from 2000 to 2016. Ericcson paid out $1.1 billion in a settlement with US authorites in 2019.

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Trudeau's agenda for Canada in 2020 includes addressing the widening social gaps in society. Plans include renewed focus on social policy, increasing child care spaces, and improving care for the elderly. Trudeau says the government can take on more debt to help the economy recover and create jobs. A second wave means more help is needed for the economy and people struggling on low incomes. The second wave is here in Canada as cases increased from 5000 a day to 8000 this week from the prior week.

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Natural Gas is set at a target of 15% by 2030 of India's energy mix from 6% in 2024. India is learning from China's experience where LNG is used to fuel heavy and medium commercial vehicles. As new LNG terminals to gas pipelines infrastructure takes time to be built the use of SSNLG or Small Scale Natural Liquified Gas projects is being adopted to speed up shift to natural gas which costs less and is less damaging for climate change.

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Dershowitz defended Mr. Trump in the impeachment trial in 2020. He says the case is not like that against president Nixon, where there was destroying of evidence and wilful obstruction. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 is relevant says Dershowitz, which lays out detailed procedures for handling records of former president, and a civil process for resolving disputes. The case itself evolved out of non compliance with special counsel Jack Smith by Mr. Trump in the way Biden and Pence returned the classified material immediately and cooperated with investigators, says Dershowitz. 

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The settlement price of wheat per bushel (60 pounds) is $6.13  August 18 at Chicago Board of Trade compared to $7.58 at the start of 2022 before the Ukraine war started. Russia's bumper crop and its ability to continue exporting is one reason. Higher commodity prices also mean producers plant more. This is good news for the cost of living not just in poor countries but also in the US and Europe. Peter Coy looks at the dynamics of wheat pricing and production.

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China's EV market is very competitive and price cuts by Tesla have led to falling prices. BYD sold 900,000 electric vehicles in the first 5 months of 2023, Tesla 200,000, and Li Motors 100,000. NIO is struggling and some companies have closed operations. Ford failed in this market and VW is still to make a dent in the market. Most of the top ten companies are local. With the slowing economy, consumers resisting purchases, price drops are needed to keep up sales of EV's.

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Strengthening labor rights in Mexico is part of the effort by Democrats in Congress to amend the Trump agreement with Mexico and Canada. Democrats say the lack of worker protections inside Mexico hurts U.S. workers wages and prospects. Democrats say the USMCA agreement negotiated by president Trump lacks enforcement provisions needed to ensure Mexico lives up to the agreement. Differences with the Trump administration which says these changes can be placed in followup legislation could hold up the agreement till after the 2020 elections in the U.S.

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Grade three muscle tear in shoulder for Ben Stokes as he sits out the Fifth Test at the Oval with India in August 2025. Bumrah and Pant are unlikely to play for India in Fifth Test. Ben Stokes has 14 weeks to recover before the Ashes Test Cricket in Australia. Stokes took on a record amount of bowling and batting in the Tests with India going as he often does all out to win leaving the England skipper more prone to injuries and a bit exhausted.

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Restricitons on FDI facing Vodafone's acquisition of Essar in the telecom industry are likely to become a thing of the past as India is hungry for foreign investment. The latest figures are $15 billion FDI in 2006, with $6 billion in manufacturing, with a target of $25 billion in 2007. The FDI to GDP is 1.5% compared to China's decade long 3%.

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Followup to yesterdays (Aug 16, 2007) wsj article on the failure of credit ratings agencies in the current crisis. This covers the European oversight of the role of ratings agencies. Conflicts of interest are being investigated by the European union's internal markets commissioner. Note the focus on the slowness of ratings agencies to respond to the deteriorating situation since mid-2006.

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Wolfgang Eder CEO of specialty and high end steel company Voestalpine with plants in the city of Linz in Austria has gone from a declining company in rust belt condition in the 1980's to a highly successful company in the high end steels industry niche. It has sales of 7.05 billion euros and profits of 765 million euros in 2006-07.