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James McIntyre's book about Gordon Brown, (title is Power with a Purpose) who like Jimmy Carter, was more respected in retirement for doing good work humbly and not getting into a revenue generating speaker's circuit or consulting, or boards of directors of companies. McIntyre looks at his career, the involvement of Mandelson as Business Secretary, the failures of Mandelson and Blair in New Labour, and Gordon Brown's failure to revive the Labour Party. The Times says Gordon Brown has grown in stature since leaving No. 10 Downing Street. Under Blair, Brown was No.2 and headed the British Treasury as finance minister. He only became prime minister at the end of his career during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. He started the effort to redefine Labour Party after Margaret Thatcher defeated the Labour candidate from Plymouth Mr. Foot and swept out socialist Labour and the trade unions. Then followed privatization and changes in the British economy which were followed by Reagan in the US by 1980. Through this period Brown and Blair tried to create the concept of New Labour which won in landslides as Britain switched back to Labour as the alternative. As the Blair magic withered Brown was left tackling the 2009 financial crisis but failed to define what Labour was- his Business secretary was Peter Mandelson who unlike Brown was in Labour but in for his own purpose and had a cynical attitude to politics as a way to retire in some privileged business position on boards of directors. The result is well known Cameron and the conservatives who were even less qualified than an earlier generation of Conservative politicians, their decision to call the Brexit referendum, the verdict of yes on Brexit leading to Cameron's replacement by Boris Johnson, and Britain having 4 prime ministers in a span of five years as discredited austerity drive was replaced by Keir Starmer's Labour. This project with McSweeney as Starmer's campaign manager cleared Labour of socialist outlook Corbyn supporters, won in a landslide in 2024, only to fail to define the purpose for which Labour stood for and Starmer's ratings dropping to new lows of 18% support as Reform UK's Farage took up the issue of migrants and the culture that enabled migrants to enter the UK. Britain has been let down by two generations of less competent, poorly qualified for public service politicians over three decades since the 1990's- through Blair/Brown, Cameron, Boris Johnson and left struggling with Keir Starmer. Sixty years after decolonization of an Empire in the 1960's, Britain has not gained in purpose and strength, only drifting along as new powers emerge in Asia and the world changes. ...

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The terms of the debt restructuring deal with the bond swap in Greece become clear on March 9, 2012. In the deal with private bondholders -using collective action clauses to force remaining bondholders into the deal- about 96% of the 206 billion euros of Greece's bonds will be exchanged. Private bondholders held out throughout most of 2011, delaying the inevitable as Greece's economic situation became increasingly hopeless. This created a logjam with the German government, which insisted on serious private sector participation and bondholder haircut as the cost of poor lending decisions of the French, German and other European banks that made loans to Greece out of proportion of the ability of Greece to payback loans. Charles Dallara of the Institute of International Finance, negotiating for European banks, offered a 10% average loss on the bonds in July 2009. It was not until German Chancellor Merkel told Dallara at a late night meeting on October 27, 2011: "this is my last offer," for a 50% loss on the face value of the bonds, was agreement reached. The Greek debt swap that now takes place will give private bondholders a loss of 53.5% from the face value of 200 billion euros of bonds that they hold. The new Greek bonds issued in place of the old bonds include short-term bonds issued by the eurozone rescue fund at 15% of the face value of the old bonds, and a series of Greek bonds with maturity ranging from 11-30 years valued at 31.5% of the face value of old bonds. That even this 53.5% bondholder loss will not be adequate, as Greece's economy looks irretrievably damaged as it spirals downwards, is shown by the value of these bonds already trading in a hypothetical "gray market." The new 30 year bond is quoted at 17 cents and the 11 year bond at 22 cents. The questions remain about the stalling by the banks in taking the losses earlier- was this the wisest move considering the losses beyond Greece as the eurozone economy as a whole has suffered from the prolonged negotiations stretching through 2011, lurching from one crisis to the next? Even if the stalling was designed to give time for banks to repair their balance sheets, was this the best strategy, considering the damage inflicted on European economic growth. John Taylor of Stanford points out that the European banks delayed the unavoidable serious debt restructuring for too long, when insolvency was the real issue not illiquidity, and exaggerated the effect of contagion from the beginning- in John Taylor, WSJ, 2/22/2012, A Better Grecian Bailout. And John Cochrane of the University of Chicago, points out that French and German governments if they bailout French and German banks should do so openly and frankly rather than cover this up as bailouts of countries, because this would lead to serious questions about the poor lending decisions of the European banks and government supervision of the banks- in Cochrane, WSJ, 12/2/2010, 'Contagion' and other Euro Myths. As early as Feb. 2010, Cochrane was suggesting the forced exchange of new bonds with long debt maturities for exisiting bonds with short debt maturities, as short term debt was the major issue here. ...

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1209 N. Orange Street, Delaware, U.S.- the legal address of 285,000 U.S. businesses, including Apple, American Airlines, Bank of America, Coca Cola, Ford G.E., Google, Wal-Mart. Here they only have a drop box. Delaware has more public and private corporate entities than population- 945,326 to 897,934. Officials of many American states say these listings take away much needed revenue during a period of tight deficits and spending cuts on education, health care and infrastructure. The World Bank also points to problems arising from these listings.

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Simon Nixon points out the problems investors had with UBS before the Oct 2012 decision to drastically reduce the size of the investment banking operations. UBS had three fourths of its capital engaged in investment banking earning only about 5% return. Private bank and wealth management businesses earned far better returns of 25%-40%. Under the new plan core Tier 1 ratio on a fully applied Basel III basis would be 13% in 2014. And return on equity under CEO Ermotti's plan would increase to over 15% by 2015. UBS would put emphasis on the private bank and wealth management businesses under the new plan and shrink the investment banking operations with large job cuts.

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It is a reminder of far household debt went up in 10 years. Household debt was only 66% of GDP in 1998, Today it is 96% of GDP, and it is 130% of disposable income. For it to go back to the level only 10 years ago, it would have to drop 30%.

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As cases mount during the second wave Sweden abandons its response of voluntary actions by the public,  experimenting some say with herd immunity in mind. Ban on large gatherings, school closures, as the toll reaches a level of per capita deaths taht are among the highest in the world. There is now fear of the health system being overwhelmed just as in the rest of Europe. There has been heated debate on the voluntary response and critics charged the government with abandoning the less vulnerable in the population.

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Macron returns to the Sorbonne, France's oldest University, for his second address to Europe, following th first in 2017, 7 years back. Then as now Macron presents a vision for Europe, with a unique role for France. Defense of the ideas and ideals of Europe built through centuries, in contrast to USA and China, and India, other centers of world civilization. It is worth a try to read the whole speech if you are a European or a friend of Europe, to get a sense of the European ideas that come from France, Italy and the Netherlands and Britain, and Germany. It presents ideas not just about defense, including Ukraine. Most of the speech is about how can Europe and European ideas be made to grow and prosper with all the changes happening in the world in technology, content that is less and less European for the children of Europe- less than 3% Macron says. How it can invest to meet the oversubsidizing that the US and China are doing, the investments that the US with Inflation Reduction Act for $1 trillion in spending and investment including chips and science, and the similar investments in China- how can Europe make investments of $1 trillion, and ways to generate the funding. And investing $1 trillion on a Europe wide basis with a plan and a set of goals to maintain European leadership in a world dominated by the US and China, and soon India. Macron says in 12 months plans have to be developed and set into motion for this new European effort. ...

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Arun Jaitley is Finance Minister and minister for corporate affairs in the new Modi cabinet. He is a lawyer who practiced before the Supreme Court of India and has represented foreign companies. Under the Vajpayee administration (1999-2004), he was minister of commerce and headed the disinvestment ministry. Jaitley believes in removing bureaucratic hurdles for business and improving governance. He emphasized creating a climate of predictability for business as a priority, and said during the election campaign that the results would send a strong signal to the world business community and domestic investors. The new cabinet is much smaller and brings together related ministries under one minister to improve speed of decisionmaking, coordination and accountability. Piyush Goyal, is the minister in charge of the power and coal ministry. This ministry brings together power, coal and renewable energy under one minister. Goyal is one of the younger ministers with advanced education in American universities. He has a CPA and a law degree, and is a member of the Board at the State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. Other ministers are Sushma Swaraj as foreign minister, and Rajnath Singh as Home Minister....

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How Iceland got into the dire mess that is in from a fisheries nation of 400,000 to an international banking centre with its banks assets ballooning to 100 billion euros. This after a ten year boom since 1990 when growth of 2.2 % ayear depending on fisheries shifted to 7-9% growth annually in the shift to international banking in a world of easy credit. Just think of this tiny Iceland with 2 billlion euros in foreign exchange reserves trying to deal with a banking system with 100 billion euros in assets, Iceland is way over its head. Banking is finished in Iceland and the country's people are back to fisheries like their fathers before them.

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In this Agenda column Simon Nixon takes on the U.S. Treasury's criticism of Germany for its current account surplus of 7% of GDP in 2012, and not doing enough for the economies of southern Europe. The German government called it "incomprehensible." Nixon says it is better for the German economy to remain strong and to boost competitiveness and consumer spending in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. He says the low eurozone inflation of annualized 0.7% for September 2013, which prompted the ECB to cut rates by 0.25%, is healthy to the extent that consumer prices are declining to adjust to a decline in wages. The reduction in labor costs is a way to restore lost competitiveness, just as Germany did in the last decade. The criticism is considered by many economists to be misdirected, and seen as "incomprehensible" by Germans, as Germans ask what would the U.S. have them do- provide stimulus when the government debt to GDP ratio is currently 82%, increase wages and how would this help Southern Europeans. Focussing on Germany's current account surplus says Nixon, is obscuring the larger issues of increasing consumer and business confidence and spending in the eurozone, and increasing bank lending. The new ECB bank resolution arrangements and other changes including deposit insurance if done right should help the recapitalization and restructuring needed for restoring bank lending to support recovery. Spain is furthest along in regaining competitiveness, with changes in Portugal, Italy and Greece also supporting a gradual return to growth....

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Another clear warning from Britain under Boris Johnson the failures from that time could still affect the US if it copies Johnson. Krugman looks at Project 2025 that has received the backing of the former president. He points to one aspect of this blueprint for a Trump second term, how civil service would be overhauled to remove civil servants not meeting the requirements put forth by the new administration. He says this takes America backwards. Till 1883 when president James Garfield set up an independent civil service in the US people employed by the government were routinely chosen from the winning party leading to flaws and much instability, weak administration. In Britain this type of effort of Project 2025 was tried under Boris Johnson by using an adviser who wanted to blow up parts of the British civil service for not cooperating. That experiment failed badly and the adviser was fired with much recrimination, Johnson being discredited, and administrative failures. Project 2025 would shut down the Education Ministry and the Homeland Security Ministry, for even more upheaval of the civil service. Not to mention the proposal to reverse the founding of the central bank the Federal Reserve in 1909 under Woodrow Wilson that stabilized the economy after banking panics. These are clear dangers. ...

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To correct misgivings in many quarters about Syrian refugees not finding a haven in Gulf states, this letter from the Cato Institute points out that the population of Syrian refugees living in the Gulf states including Saudi Arabia has gone up by 1.1 million by 2013 from the beginning of the civil war. He cites World Bank data showing 241,000 Syrians living in the Gulf states before the civil war. By 2013 that number is 1.4 million. For Saudi Arabia the figures are up from 111,000 to 1 million.

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Renewed warnings about the bubble in housing prices in China. Earlier warnings came from Krugman, Lardy, John Taylor. This one comes from Nomura economists Zhiwei Zhang and Wendy Chen. Could the government's action to curb rising housing prices not be adequate leading to a financial crisis as early as 2014, is the question posed by Zhang and Chen. They cite the rise of housing prices by 84% from 2001 to 2006, before the financial crisis of 2008 in the U.S., using the Case-Shiller housing price index. One problem- the government statistics may have underestimated the extent of the bubble. China's official index shows housing prices rising 113% in major cities from 2004 to 2012. Zhang and Chen say this is much smaller than the actual rise because it includes older, lower quality housing property. They cite an academic paper that adjusts for this and finds prices jumping by 250% in the period 2004 to 2009. Another problem is that China's housing prices growth slows after government action but then resumes the growth, leaving the risk exposure at the high level as before. Because the local governments are tied up in the housing bubble the problem would hit the banking system. About 14.1% of the outstanding bank loans are to local government financing vehicles, and 6.2% to property developers, according to Nomura economists. The declining potential growth rate in China means there is less room for bad loans to be absorbed by hyper growth levels than in the past. Errors in policy can magnify the risk including loosening monetary policy and exacerbating the bubble at the wrong time. In the absence of errors the risks still remain requiring the sale of public assets to bail out local governments and banks. The argument made by Krugman and other economists has been that China is not immune to the risks of a housing bubble going bad, in any way less than Sweden, the U.S., Spain and other countries, requiring bailouts of banks....

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The WTO setimates that global merchandise trade will decline by 9% in 2009. Betweeen 1990 and 2006 these trade flows increased by 6% a year, outstripping the growth of world output which remained at 3%. See the chart showing GDP and world trade growth year over year. Because of vertical supply chains products were shipped across borders and imported back into the country that exported a product, till the product was finally assembled in some third country like Mexico, in the case of automobiles. This interlinking of countries worsens the effect in adownturn, by bringing output down in many countries at once in any particular industry with these supply chains. And conversely positive effects are exaggerated in a upturn or boom cycle like that which was witnessed in recent decades. It makes a 1930's like situation less likely, where trade dropped by over 25%, because now all countries are affected, America's car industry exports as well as imports the same item as it is processed in several countries, and imported to the USA as a semifinished product and then assembeled in Mexico, as one example. Leaders of the G-20 agreed to fight protectionism athe the London meeting in April 2009. Is this enough? Should the Doha Round of talks be resumed? Arvind Subramanium of the Peterson Institute, and Aaditya Mattoo of the World Bank, argue that the Doha Round is too ambiious, as it tries to open markets for rich countries manufactured goods just when the crisis has hit developing countries making this ahard sell. At the same time DOha Round does not exclude Buy AMerica provisions and subsidies to fialing industries like the auto industry support measures taken by both the EU countries and the USA. So they sugggest anew "crisis round" of talks to replace Doha, and this makes sense as the items on the agenda can now be tailored to the pressing needs of a different time from when Doha round was conceived, and thus more realistic in its approach. And in the meantime all WTO members would commit to astandstill and take no measures that are protectionist. The Economist says the new "crisis round" would not do any better as there may not be the same level of interest in another round. It suggests that agood start would be for the leaders of the G-20 to be specificabout what protectionist measures it sees as unproductive and unhelpful in containing this crisis. Draw up a comprehensive list of protectionist measures that go beyond tariffs and export subsidies. The WTO would then be asked to monitor the countries based on this list and publish alist of offending countries, letting embarassment of these countries act as a kind of policing. And in addition an agreement should be reached on coordinating fiscal policy, so that it would reduce fears of leakages abroad. ...

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The contrast between Erdogan and a modest humble civil servant Kilicdaroglu is shown here in FR24. Kilicdaroglu is from the CHP or Republican party setup by Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk founded the party in Ankara after the colonial powers took over Istanbul by 1921 following victory in World War I and planned to breakup the Ottoman Empire. To resist this plan Ataturk responded similar to Japan by forming a new country based on the model of European nations and introduced a new alphabet to increase literacy. He took the country back to its European roots before the Ottomans in the 16th century and turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum. In the process rural people in the Anatolian heartland were not fully integrated by the 1960's and Erdogan appealed to these people, increased social mobility and incomes in Turkey between 2001 and 2018. In the period since then Turkey is faced with an economic crisis and rampant inflation that hurt ordinary Turkish people. The pandemic and earthquake made things worse. This is why Turkey is poised for a change and the Republican party hopes to build the Turkey of Ataturk with Turkey firmly seen as a European nation, with some changes that respect the right to wear scarves for women. For just the earthquake alone Turkey needs $90 billion for reconstruction and there are changes that are needed that would integrate the Turkish economy with the expanding economy of the US and the EU which can take place under Kilidaroglu and the new mayors of both Istanbul and Turkey who are deputy leaders of the CHP Republican party. ...

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Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England blamed the Brexit "fog of uncertainty" for the decline in the forecast for Britain's economic growth to 1.2% for 2019, worst in a decade. This is based on a "soft" Brexit. He said a no-deal Brexit would be a "economic shock" for Britain, that "we shouldn't be under any illusions about it."

Carney rejected the view of David Davis in The Times, that a 20% decline in the British pound would be good for Britain by "making  exports more competitive." Davis had called Carney's view "too doom-laden." A fall in the pound would be a necessary adjustment mechanism, Carney says, but it is "a hit to incomes, and not a step to prosperity." The pound declined by 17% from its 2015 peak after the referendum on Brexit.

 

 

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The Public-Private Investment Program of the U.S. Treasury Department has not had a good start. With most banks passing the U.S.government's stress tests and raising $50 billion in the markets, PPIP which was intended to to help resolve the situation of all the toxic securites siting on the bank's books, has gone the way of all the prior efforts to solve this problem. Simply postponed this time hoping that the housing market recovers. With the Rogoff-Reinhardt study showing that it takes about 6 years or longer before housing recovers from such aserious crisis as this one, it would be 2012, before one sees an improvement. See the link to the Business Week analysis that shows housing markets in the USA having some aspect of normalcy in 2012. Yet even this analysis is using an optimistic scenario, because it assumes Moodys Economy.com estimates of economic growth for GDP of 4-5% in 2011- 2012. This assumes the consumer debt that has reached over 100% of GDP will be reversed quickly in 2010, and the the factory capacity utilization currently at 68% and expected to drop further in 2009- with more automobile manufacturing capacity remaining to be scrapped -will recover quickly in 2010-2011. This is unrealistic considering the combination of factors at work. Here Devin Leonard talks to PIMCO chief Bill Gross, who with Warren Buffett and PIMCO CEO Mohammed El-Erian, are key proponents of the PPIP program. Both El-Erian and Warren Buffett say they conceived independently of such a program, in which toxic securties are taken off bank's books with government help. As PIMCO is one of the largest traders of mortgage bonds in the country and has years of successful experience in dealing with mortgage bonds, the New York Fed under Geithner turned to PIMCO for advice in 2008. By this time PIMCO was under ownership of Allianz, a German insurer, which bought PIMCO for $3.3 billion in 2000, with $233 million and a $40 million retention bonus going to Bill Gross. Bill Gross describes how the program would function. PIMCO puts up $500 million, and Treasury matches this with $500 million. Analysts estimate that this partnership would be able to attract as much as $ 4 billion in low interest financing from Treasury and the Fed. Gross says that some of these securities pay as much as 14% interest, and even with a 70% default rate, this partnership could make $250 million a year on the $5 billion partnership, or a 5% return, with PIMCO making a 25% return on its original investment. This isn't exactly pro bono work as Buffett had originally suggested to Bill Gross in the midst of the crisis. But a more fundamental concern is that no one really knows exactly how much of toxic securties the banks have on their books, even though estimates have been made. If this is closer to $1 trillion, PIMCO's expertise and efforts will simply fall short of dealing with a problem of this size, and the window dressing of a problem of this magnitude could only hurt efforts for the eventual resolution of this problem. If housing does not recover as is expected till 2012 at the earliest, and the economy continues to deteriorate in unemployment and factory utilization, then the toxic securities on the bank's balance sheets may pose a bigger problem that will require serious action....

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The U.S. Supreme Court said it will hear the Trump travel ban case. It said in an unsigned opinion that part of the request by the Trump administration to stay a lower court ruling would be granted. This part of the request relates to "foreign nationals who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the U.S.", only these people would be prevented from entering the country till the full case is heard by the Supreme Court. The revised travel ban related to 6 mostly Muslim countries for 90 days.

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DW.com sees "back paddling" in Trump's latest foreign policy speech, replacing bigotry against immigrants with the idea of a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. with "extreme vetting" of new immigrants, including an ideological screening test. Trump it says repeated his claim that he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, which it says is false. Trump's statement that he would reduce the current nation building strategy pursued under president Bush, it says doesn't make sense because the current situation in the Middle East ( rise of ISIS and chaos in Syria) arises from American retrenchment reversing in the opposite direction the policies of president George W. Bush. It is also true that Bush started his presidency with no intention of nation building, it was only after 9/11 that he adopted this policy. The elder Bush, George W. Bush's father, is reported to have said that his son as president was ill served by bad advisors in the invasion of Iraq over weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Obama's retrenchment has also led to differences in policy, with Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton believing the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction, as shown in LyrArc's coverage. The speech was read using a teleprompter to avoid the frequent gaffes in previous speeches. Clearly an effort to make immigration and terrorism issues to win voter support, after previous efforts resembling bigotry and intolerance. ...

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Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves dropped to $2.9 billion in February 2023, says this report in the WSJ, enough to cover 2 weeks of imports and a fraction of debt servicing requirements. Under an IMF agreement that is being negotiated $1.1 billion will be given by the IMF, which would lead to further lending by other countries and banks based on IMF oversight. This includes putting $630 million in  additional taxes and increasing the price of electricity. Successive governments have decided to avoid the IMF conditions of increasing taxes and price of electricity. Donor countries such as Saudis and Qatar, UAE, would step in once IMF oversight is in place and invest in airports, power plants, oil and gas companies, and make loans to Pakistan once the IMF oversight is in place, says WSJ.   Sri Lanka faced a similar situation after it delayed an IMF program and loan, leading to financial crisis. The situation is now stabilized with the IMF on the verge of making a $2.9 billion loan and other banks making loans on the basis of IMF oversight. In Sri Lanka's case India is a serious donor, investor and supporter of Sri Lankan recovery. ...

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Juleanna Glover points to the need for financing of the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq as the central government in Baghdad has failed to make payments to the KRG for its share of national oil income. The KRG would receive 17% of Iraq's national oil income under negotiated agreements, but only $2 billion of $12 billion owed to KRG has been transferred in 2015. The Kurds also have to support 1.8 million refugees from Syria and Iraq with the ongoing civil war. The World Bank predicts a shortfall in funding for KRG of $1.5 billion in 2015, and it needs a $2.4 billion bridge loan. Peshmarga forces it is reported have not been paid for 3 months even as the Kurds have borne a disproportionate share of the burden in the war.

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The auto industry has only itself to blame for shaping and sustaining the retrograde world it finds itself in, says Politico magazine. GM supported the Trump administration's efforts to push back the fuel efficiency rules setup earlier. With Chrysler and Ford it went a step further in getting out of cars altogether and having a line of SUV's and other vehicles. This step is seen as retrograde and a result of several possible lines of thought among the car executives in Detroit. One is that the SUV higher profits would provide a cushion as this cycle in the industry's revival comes to a close. Another is that in a situation where GM's shares are depressed while Tesla with no profits is seeing a higher valuation, this could increase its share price. This has not happened and President Trump is as critical of the layoffs of 15% and closure of plants in GM's announcement, as Democratic senator Bernie Sanders is. Still another is that GM needs to prepare for all the tech changes happening in driverless cars, new tech advances, that a move like this would better prepare itself for the new world of transportation. This remains nebulous however and GM has failed to take account of the fact that only a short time ago about half of all car buyers were still not buying SUV's. Gas prices are volatile and will continue to be so that strategy cannot be based on cheap gas prices and SUV profits.    ...

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Japan is playing an increasingly positive and significant role in stabilizing the international financial system, and in providing new ideas for solution and proactive measures, some of it based on its own experience with a long sustained economic downturn from which it only recently emerged. It has dedicated $100 billion to the IMF for loans to emerging economies, which will be a significant help in preventing a severe downturn in developing countries. Here Prime Minister Aso outlines ideas that Japan will bring to the global talks this weekend November 15-16, 2008. The significant immediate steps are early and thorough disclosure of nonperforming loans based on valuation and reliable standards, and the removal of these loans from their balance sheets as a top priority. Japan was slow to do this prolonging its downturn into a decade or more of no growth. Other two priorities are injecting capital into banks with government money, and supplying ample liquidity from central banks and US dollar liquidity. After the immediate challenge there lie 7 areas to be addressed in the medium term. Improving savings and reducing consumption in countries dependent on external debt and moving to domestic demand led growth in export dependent economies. Bolstering the resources of the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank. Changing the governance structures of the IMF and the World Bank and other bodies to give proper representation to emerging economies that play an important role in the world economy. Giving the Financial Stability Forum a status above standard setting institutions like the Basel Committee, the Forum reinforced and reorganized to give membership to emerging economies. International Accounting Standards Board, governments, companies and investors in ajoint effort work to come up with a set of standards that have global application. And tightening standards for credit rating agencies through the International Organization of Securities Commissions. Aso proposes giving various countries legal authority over these agencies and the nurturing of credit rating agencies in each region in addition to global agencies, for the development of regional bond markets. Aso is also pushing for regional cooperation like the initiatives in East Asia such as the foreign exchange swap mechanism. ...

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Leaders of Africa's development banks and the president of Kenya make this plea for adjustments on debt repayments and a moratorium on debt servicing before the annual conference of global finance at Marrakech, Morocco. The problems are: a 35% increase in debt repayments to $62 billion for Africa with increase in interest rates. The total debt of Africa now at $1.8 trillion. The neglect of education and health when countries such as Zambia and Ghana default on debt. The complexity of debt renegotiation with 40% of debt in private hands and 31% with China which is not part of Paris Club. It took 3 years for Zambia to negotiate its way out. And 23 nations in Africa are near default out of the 52 in the world facing this situation.

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Yellow vest protesters in Paris have a point about the rising cost of living in Paris. Paris now ranks as one of the top 3 most expensive cities inthe world after Hong Kong and Singapore.  This is using 150 items in 133 cities worldwide in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. Other cities that are in top ten include Zurich and Geneva ranked fourth and fifth followed by Seoul, Tokyo. Israel's Tel Aviv entered top ten for first time. New York and Los Angeles rank eight and tenth.

London property prices fell for second year in a row in 2018. No German cities in top ten, Munich overtook Hamburg and Frankfurt moved up three places. In Canada Vancouver is dropping and Toronto is still holding up.