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Stolberg describes how Supreme Court Justices have waited to retire at the right time under the right president so that their view would continue to be reflected at the Court. This happened with O'Connor, Stewart, Souter, Stevens, White, Blackmun, but due to ill health did not happen with Thurgood Marshall. Justice Ginsberg may be reflecting on this or may just think that her health is fine.

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Panera casual food restaurant chain plans to cut 150 artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors and preservatives from the menu items by the end of 2016. Panera has 1600 restaurants for sandwiches, salads and soups in the U.S. and Canada. This includes fat substitutes and propylene glycol. It has cut sucralose artificial sweeetener and titanium dioxide used to whiten mozzarella cheese.

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Economists at Goldman and Citigroup see a loss of another 2 million jobs, with job losses into 2010, for total job losses of about 4 million jobs, even after the jobs saved or created of 2.5 million jobs from the large stimulus of $700 billion that the Obama administration is said to be planning. A lot depends on smart policy from the new Obama administration because it will require enough stimulus and public investment to break the loop of falling unemployment, and at the same time allow private investment and business to get back to work with new investments in plant and equipment without getting bogged down in industrial policy with the government trying to do alot more than it is capable of.

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Retail sales in Vietnam for the first 2 months went up by 21% from same period in 2008, down from 32% growth the prior year, but still holding up. At its height Vietnam's consumer price index went up by 28% in 2008, now its down to 14.8% in February 2009. This gives a big boost to disposable incomes. As a result Vietnam expects growth of 5% a year, according to the IMF. It was 8.4% in 2007, 6.2% in 2008. Vietnam is less dependent on exports and this has helped sustain growth. The inflation shock acted as abigger brake on GDP growth, and now this is easing. And exports were down by 5.1% for the first 2 months, not the steep decline in countries like Taiwan and S. Korea. The Philippines has 30% of growth dependent on exports compared to 70% for Thailand, and it has a steady flow of remittances from workers overseas employed in stable fields like health care and education. These remittances go into disposable income and are spent quickly so they acted as a stabilizer. Indonesia also has a growing domestic market, and is not as dependent on exports. Domestic consumption in both countries should help them see 4% growth according to government estimates for the Phillippines and Indonesia. See the link to Honda motorcycles to observe how the domestic market is continuing to grow for Honda in Indonesia....

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Remittances to developing countries are an important part of the social safety net in these countries. They are spent quickly so they help support food and housing costs, help reduce the impact of an economic downturn, and leave more money for health and education expenses. Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean were at about $69 billion for 2007 and 2008. Now these remittances are declining. Mexico's declined by 12% in January 2009, Columbia suffered a16% drop, Brazil a14% decline, Guatemala and El Salvador a 8% decline. For countries like Guatemala remittances at $4.3 billion are ahead of coffee, and sugar, and 10% of the people some 1.35 million live in the USA, And 3.5 million people in Guatel=mala depend on these remittances. Any appreciation of the US dollar cushions the decine in colume of remittances. Ecuador has a dollarized economy and has been hit hard. That is because it has alarge population in SPain, and Spain is one of the hardest hit economies, and the euro has declining versus the dollar. Low skilled professions in which these people work, in construction, manufacturing, hotels and restaurants, are oftent he hardest hit. Migrants are stayingput in these countries even turning doen incentives like those in Spain of lump sum payments to return home, and tend to be resilient, working odd jobs and longer hours and making do with less to tide over abad period....

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The culture of risk at Societe Generale. Is this typical of this period the glorification of the quants and the general aspiration to attain the status reserved for them. Did this lead to a lax supervision that led to the huge losses of a single youthful trader. How was it possible to allow a single trader to take positions amounting to $50 billion? See the link to the WSJ article.

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A sobering view of international conflicts looking at the ones in the English experience, with the Scots and the Irish. The conflict with the Scots actually went on from 1296 when King Edward I tried to claim the throne of Scotland with resistance from William Wallace and Robert Bruce, with terrorist tactics, frequent burning, looting and killing on both sides. And many battles that were inconclusive. The accession of Scottish person to the English throne as James I did not end it and it was'nt till 1745 till it ended. A referendum was held in the 18th century in Scotland and the commercial interests of Glasgow and Edinburgh prevailed in the end. Scotland saw the rich opportunities in trade and commerce from the expanding British Empire. Something that can be seen in exhibits at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. In this sense political rapprochment fails when the time is not ripe, and when there are other changes in society and economy things can change enough to create an entirely new situation in which old conflicts simply take a backseat to something else. For Ireland the economic changes of the recent years creating a vibrant Irish economy gives Ireland enough confidence in itself to work with England, and set things on the path to peaceful development on the Irish isle. ...

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Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, in meetings with bankers and business leaders says Britain should remain in the single market 2 years after exit from the European Union, according to the Sunday Times. Theresa May plans for Britain to exit the EU in 2019. The reason is that this would protect business as it adjusts to leaving the single market, a kind of transition or Brexit buffer period. This period "really informs what businesses need to do because you transition and restructure during that window," Carney told a House of Commons Treasury Committee. About the changes in the politics in the U.S. and Europe Carney has said about basic fairness in bankers language- "market fundamentalism can devour the social capital needed for capitalism" to work, referring to the moral failures in operations of the banks by 2009 and how it hit the middle and working class incomes and wealth.