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India is piuoneering and innovating in the field of lowcost health care. The Indians say state of the art is not what they aspire to but world class, which means coming up with solutions in tech and health care that are affordable in a poor country.

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FDA questions quality of life improvement claims for drugs known as ESA's or erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, which are the drugs Epogen and Aranesp of Amgen and procrit by J&J.

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Doing business in Bihar, India's poorest state.

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Krugman describes the break with orthodox economic policy of the Shinzo Abe government in Japan, and says this is working.

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Bordering Uganda and Kenya in the south Ethiopia is one of the populous countries in Africa struggling with a number of problems. There is very little industry or private enterprise and small businesses even by African standards, because the inept monarchy continued for too long and was followed by military rule which nationalized all enterprises. With few employment opportunities the unemployment rate for young people is as high as 70% according to the Economist. There is no democratic tradition and not enough time for it to take root, so that even after a promising start the government of Prime Minister Zenawi resorted to rigging the elections and violent suppression of dissent in 2005. About 2 million people are added to the population each year, with about 7 children for each mother, and the population is already at 75 million, one of the largest in Africa. The Economist says it could overtake Nigeria which has 140 million people, some time in the mid century. Improvements have been made is acknowledged here, with less corruption, investment in roads and schools and drinking water, significant by African standards. And in the light of the tribal divisions typical of Africa, holding the country together is also a challenging task in the midst of neighbors with different political regimes in Eritrea and Somalia. Chinese help is part of the improvement in infrastructure here, and bringing a new development oriented perspective to the thinking here, compared to purely European concerns. ...

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The designers finally get their say to bring a new vehicle to the market which is something quite different. Sales tends to be conservative and in this case the concept vehicle for the Flex was first shown at the 2005 International Auto Show in Detroit. Usually this is where so many people take different shots at it that by the time engineering, sales and production have modified it does'nt look the same. This is on situation in which the concept vehicle made it all the way to a production model at the New York Auto Show in 2007. The designers were able to sell it as a new kind of crossover idea to seat a family and draw customers who were dumping their large SUV's fpr other vehicles. As some designers see it a mix of the Mini Cooper and a Ford 1940's classic "Woody". Its one of the bold moves by Ford. Mulally after he took the CEo position at Ford supported the idea and its due to be in showrooms in summer 2008. See the link to the article on how much difficulty Ford (and GM) are having getting people to come to the showrooms and how Ford has had to resort to novel and extreme ways of getting people to test drive Ford cars and talk about them. What better way to do this than to come up with something new in design and let the product do the talking. ...

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Saving the deal between Mitsubishi UFJ bank and Morgan Stanley, done over the weekend, is huge in the dimensions this could have taken in unsettling financial and credit markets at this fragile stage, and sending all the wrong signals after the collapse of Lehman caused a tightening in credit markets. Its a remarkable effort by Treasury and the Japanese government and Mitsubishi UFJ to get a workable deal negotiated and ready for markets by Sunday. This makes for an infusion of $9 billion into Morgan Stanley by Mitsubishi UFJ and gives Mitsubishi UFJ decent terms on which to make the investment. The presence of the Japanese and American governments at the table made for extrarordinary precautions that nothing is left to chance and the details are worked out to a successful conclusion for Monday opening of markets. This is how global coordination is supposed to work and at no time was it more needed than after the Lehman collapse. An agreement with Treasury that Mitsubishi UFJ would be protected by the American government in the event that Treasury had to put money into Morgan Stanley and shareholders would lose the value of their investment. Second Mitsubishi wold get 10% dividend not on aportion of its investment but on its entire $9 billion investment, reminiscent of the Buffett deal, and is good for Mitsubishi. And third with Lehman's share trading at $9 range Mitsubishi now would pay ...

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This BBC report of Queen Elizabeth since 1953 when she took on the leadership of an impoverished nation that was no longer an Empire, shows how she has responded to one change after another till the coronavirus. She has appeared almost as a rock of ages for Britain in the midst of upheavals.  Here are some of her own words of these periods of change. "The traditional values etched across our history equip us well for this age of change." On the Commonwealth of Nations an entirely new conception in 1950's. "To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life." Warning of triumphalism after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, aware of the pitfalls of capitalism and socialism now more obvious than ever in 2022- "We, who claim to be of the free world, should examine what we really mean by freedom, and how we can ensure that, once in place, it is there to stay." On other happenings standing back from the fray, trying to filter out the "ephemeral from the enduring." "Distance can lend an extra dimension to judgement, giving it a leavening of moderation and compassion - even of wisdom - that is sometimes lacking in the reactions of those task it is in life to offer instant opinions." For Elizabeth, in the midst of all the changes what truly mattered was "the regular worthy rhythm of life."   ...

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The US economy is growing at a much faster pace than Europe or China in the last quarter of 2021- at 7% annualized growth in the fourth quarter up from 2% in the third quarter, according to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This compares to 2% in eurozone and 4% in China. Major US ports such as Los Angeles are processing 20% more container volume in 2021 than in 2019, while Rotterdam and Hamburg are almost flat compared to 2019 level. Consumption of durable goods has jumped 45% above 2018 levels in the US, only 2% in eurozone, according to ECB data. The factory gate prices in China are far outpacing the consumer prices in China, suggesting weak domestic demand and strong foreign demand. Lars Jensen, head of network at container ship company A.P. Moller-Maersk says the global supply bottlenecks were started by this surge in US demand with more ships headed for the US taking ships away from other places. The US economy will grow at 6% in 2021 and 4% in 2022, with wages growing 4% a year above the pre-pandemic trend rate, compared with 1% in eurozone, according to Bank for International Settlements. This is pushing inflation up in other countries by pushing up the value of the dollar. In Mexico hitting 7.4% and the central bank raising interest rates 0.5% point to 5.5%. In Russia inflation up to 8.4% and central bank raising interest rates by 1percentage point to 8.5%. The equipment investment in the US is up by 13% this year according to JP Morgan Chase, only 3.6% in eurozone, 0.1% in Japan. All this is creating a large gap between the US and Europe, US and China in economic growth and demand growth, and in income growth. ...

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Bill Clinton, says about his foundation, in talking to voters in Detroit- " all we have done is save lives. If creating jobs and saving lives is bad, I guess you can zing me with it." He told another crowd in Durham, N.C, that he was tickled by Trump's comment that the Clinton Foundation was a "criminal enterprise." The criticism of the foundation hurts Mr. Clinton because of the lifesaving work it has done for AIDS, malaria and saving lives. The Clinton Foundation made the error of taking donations from overseas in the zeal for donations, which gave some critics an opportunity to smear the foundation. Another error was not to strictly separate the work of Bill Clinton from Hillary's work at the State Department. Even though in its activities it has been exceptional in its work. In poor countries like Haiti it has helped people overcome poverty. On one achievement alone the Foundation's work is exceptional- bringing HIV/AIDS medication at affordable prices to 11.5 million people in 70 countries. It has also worked to reduce obesity among American school children, and improved lives through its health initiative, including lives of farmers in African countries. George W. Bush did exceptional work in Africa for AIDS/HIV. Clinton's activities continue an American tradition of helping people in Africa's poorest regions.  In this case the funds raised aggressively by Bill Clinton during speeches, were used to save lives or improve lives. This has been lost in the criticism of the Clinton foundation, as if the good work done by George W. Bush for AIDS in Africa can ever be fairly diminished in the slightest way by criticism of the Bush family. ...