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Belgium, Denmark, France and Sweden are the only major countries that have enshrined gender equality in laws for the workplace, according to a World Bank report.

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Moody's downgrade of France's credit rating from triple A in November 2012.

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Improving business conditions and lower unemployment are helping president Macron of France recover from a drop in popularity following the yellow vest protests. Macron tackled the crisis by changing his style of governance from top down to a listener style with regular town hall meetings and meetings with people who were critical of his government. Recent poll from Elabe shows 33% approve of the French leader compared to 23% in December 2018 at the height of the yellow vest protests. The yellow vest protests were from people who felt left out at the lower end of the wage scale who were protesting increasing inequality. Macron also offered minimum wage earners billions of dollars and shelved his economic agenda till he had a better grasp of the French public's opinions. The recovery in the economy means Macron has more flexibility in taking up priority items in the national agenda. The French pension system is fragmented with about 43 different plans, with some plans for transport workers offering generous retirement by age 52. The system is also likely to go into deficit of 10 billion euros in 2022. Brazil has run into major economic crisis from generous pension plans taking up a major part of the budget. Macron wants to increase the number of years people work before they collect pensions, not just increase the retirement age of 62. Most major European countries are at 65 years retirement age, the U.S. is at 66 years. Transport workers paralysed the nation's transport system including subways and bus systems recently to keep their generous benefits. Macron sees himself as promoting a national agenda similar to India for GST, and other countries tackling shortfall in pension systems by increasing the retirement age, even though in the short run people who benefit from the old system oppose it. By addressing grievances at the lower wage levels and tackling glaring issues in the way benefits such as pensions are distributed Macron can win enough support to offset the opposition of entrenched groups. Lawyers will see their pension contributions double for lower benefits and are opposing the pensions overhaul. For decades workers in different groups or sectors took to the streets in protest making any changes even if well thought out and in the national interest hard to make in France. By taking on entrenched groups tactically and first letting the groups express their sentiment before announcing top down changes, and by being an empathetic listener, Macron is showing that he has learned a lot from the past year without losing his sense of what is best for France. It just maybe that in the short run there is an offset gaining some support from neutral groups and losing support of entrenched groups. Yet in the long run when the dust settles there is more overall support particularly through empathetic listening and carefully planned flexible approach to making changes that improve the economy and reduce unemployment. ...

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About 86% of the total value of cash in circulation was affected by the withdrawal of 1000 and 500 rupee notes by the Modi government on Nov. 8, 2016. This is about 22 billion bills. The effect on the economy will take about a year to work its way through. The government has removed restrictions effect a March date for withdrawals from ATM machines previously limited to Rs 2500, as it says it has enough new bills printed in Rs 2000 denomination.

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The European Central Bank left all its interest rates unchanged on September 7, 2016. No changes were made to asset purchase program, which will run until March 2017 or beyond as needed. The ECB left interest rates at 0% for its lending operations, and for overnight deposits at 0.4%.  Inflation is a special concern, as inflation was at 0.2% for August. Business activity and investment in the EU and in the U.S. is weak, and Brexit is still a concern.

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For the second time in two decades U.S. carmakers embrace SUV's with growing demand, moving away from passenger cars. The last time this happened in the decade before the financial crisis of 2008, automakers in the U.S. took a big hit when SUV sales collapsed, with GM and Chrysler heading into bankruptcy, and Ford in dire straits. This time increases in fuel economy and a more favorable economy are leading to higher demand for SUV's. In 2017 sedans, coupes and other passenger cars made up 37% of U.S. sales compared to 51% in 2012.  The Trump administration's move to lower fuel economies in a way poses new risks for U.S. automakers, as it is the very strong push for higher fuel economy and rapid improvements in the technologies that make this possible that have made the newer SUV's such as the Ford SUV line more attractive to buyers.  Historically the U.S. automakers have slipped badly on this issue and not managed it well as economic swings have completely reversed automakers profits. This mistake will be repeated without the automakers own push to drive demand in directions that cushion it from reversals in the economy with a broad based product line supported by new technologies. A look at Japanese car strategy shows a commitment to this concept of maintaining a borader based product line with new technology advances in each segment. Something where the U.S. automakers have found themselves asleep at the wheel. ...

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This interview by Michael Schmidt of the NYT with president Trump shows a more conciliatory mood following the passage of the Republican tax law. Trump says he feels Mueller will treat him fairly but that the investigation will drag along for some time. Trump says this is bad for the country.  On the tax law he says he would have tackled the local and state tax deduction either not touched it or worked out a compromise if Democrats agreed to talk to him about taxes. Democrats he says thought they had McCain's vote when he left for Arizona, yet that did not happen. He says expensing for investing in equipment should unleash growth through new investment in the U.S. On infrastructure he sees a hundred Democrats joining the Republicans in Congress to do a deal. He says Democrats need him for DACA on the Dreamers issue, and he will work with them.  Other topics covered were the election itself which Trump says he fairly won by focussing on the Electoral College and going frequently to small states like Maine, up and down the East Coast knowing he would lose New York. He says there was no collusion with the Russians for his campaign and says it was Democrats who did the collusion. Manafort worked longer for others including Reagan, says Trump, and was with him for only about 4 months. This interview shows a upbeat Trump following the passage of the tax legislation. ...

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In all elections since 2002 Mr. Erdogan has prevailed except June 2015. Much of the support for Erdogan is a result of economic gains by Turkey including 70% rise in per capita incomes since 2003.  These gains are under threat now because of heavy dependence on foreign investment and the decline of the currency Lira from 2.15 to the dollar in 2014 to 4.50 to the dollar in June 2018, losing half its value since the election of 2014. Experts say recent developments in Turkey have dented investor confidence, with investors uncertain about Mr. Erdogan's plans. The presidential candidate most likely to face Erdogan in a runoff election if Mr. Erdogan does not get 50% of the vote on June 24 is Mr. Muharrem Ince. Ince says he sees a wind of change, saying Turks are "very tired of this one-man regime" and that unlike before the economic trouble is so severe and harder to cover. This time the opposition is better coordinated and the secular CHP Party which was once dominant after Ataturk, is running in an alliance with traditional Islamist party Saadet, and with new secular nationalist Iyi party. Erdogan has called early elections a year and half ahead of time because he sees the economic troubles are at an early stage and his AKP Party would do better now than in 18 months when the economy may be in worse shape than it is now. ...

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Italy's governing coalition of the Five Star Movement and the Northern League retreats from its plans to raise welfare and pension spending after spending plans leads to loss of investor confidence. Disputes on fiscal discipline with the European Union hurts Italy as ten year bond yields rise from 1.7% to 3.7% after the coalition took office. Italy's GDP declined by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2018 with lower business investment and consumer spending, creating risks of falling into recession. The result is that the coalition government led by Matteo Salvini and De Maio is looking for ways to meet the EU fiscal discipline rules after statements that it would follow its spending plans. Italy's national debt of 2.3 trillion euros is equal to 131% of GDP and perceived as riskier than most other euro countries. Promises made by the coalition government include: allowing retirement at age 62 instead of 67, and intoroducing "citizenship income" or basic welfare of around 780 euros a month for poor and unemployed. These plans are in the budget. Political leaders want to avoid losing face with voters by removing this from the budget. The alternative of the EU opening fiscal disciplinary proceedings against Italy would lead to further loss of investor confidence worsening the economic situation, is also a step Italy wishes to avoid. The EU Commission's view is that the budget plan would increase the structural deficit by $22 billion or 1.2% of GDP. ...

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China auto sales were up 14.5% in May over the previous year, as sales make a recovery. April's 4% increase ended a 21 month decline.

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Advertising has been significantly impacted for Google as it generates a large part of revenue from small business and travel, two sectors hard hit by the coronavirus.

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Questions and Answers about Islamic State on the BBC website give a short and simple look at Islamic State or ISIS in Syria and Iraq, its origins and how it developed upto the Iraqi government's efforts to retake Mosul in northern Iraq in Dec. 2016.

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Scientists say the drought in the western region of the US is the worst in hundreds of years. At Lake Mead the reservoir is only 28% full. The other reservoirs on the Colorado river are in similar shape. Lake Mead is a reservoir from the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and stretches for 120 miles in the states of Arizona and Nevada. It is the largest reservoir in the US and the water depletion in this and other reservoirs all the way into Oregon is affecting agriculture in the western US and the access to water for cities in the region. 

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Mohamed Bin Zayed was educated at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in the UK and graduated in 1979. He is a strong proponent of US leadership in the Gulf region and Asia. He is now the third president of the United Arab Emirates with which India has significant trade and economic relations with 8 million Indians living in the Gulf region. Of the approximately 10.1 million people in UAE about 1.1 million are citizens and the rest are foreign workers. Mr. Modi has thanked Mr. Zayed for the good treatment given to Indians in the Gulf region by Zayed and his administration. 

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The Rupee is moving close to 80 to the US dollar with increase in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve. The IMF expects the Rupee to go past 94 to the dollar in 2029. India's Reserve Bank is interested in carefully managing the steady decline so that business decisions can be made with some measure of stability. The weaker rupee will help increase exports at a time when India's is raising its logistics capabilities and creating the capabilities on the ground that will give India a key role in the new supply chain the US and the EU are building in Asia.

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The original Times story on Richard Sharp, the BBC chairman, led to his resignation. It said the BBC chairman was appointed to the role by Boris Johnson in an improper manner contrary to the guidelines that require no conflict of interest in the making of the appointment. A sense that even an institution such as the BBC, with its increasing importance today as Britain, the European Union and the US make decisions on what sort of society to create for the future that best serves the interests of the people, is being upset in this important role by political meddling. 

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Zelensky is going to Hiroshima to make his own case for support directly to all G7 leaders. The fact that G7 leaders are meeting in Japan also has significance as Japan unlike Europe with NATO faces Russian presence in its northern islands and China in the South China Sea and around Taiwan, North Korea, with only the American defense agreement in any conflict. Japan, Australia and India would want to see a clear end to the conflict in Eastern Europe that also sends a message that the status quo will be preserved on Taiwan and other issues in Asia. 

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The Quad meeting of the US, Australia, Japan and India took place in Hiroshima, as shown here. The leaders expressed their deep concern over the economic effects of the Ukraine war, including "food, fuel and energy security, critical supply chains. The meeting was to take place in Sydney, Australia, but was cancelled due to debt talks taking place between Biden and Republicans in the US Congress. The next Quad meeting is in India in 2024. Biden will meet pm Modi in the US June 22. PM Modi also meets Macron on Bastille Day in Paris on 14 July as a special guest of France.

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Biden says at Hiroshima G7 Question time with media organizations, that a thaw in relations with China will happen soon. Responding to a question about communications in a crisis he said he and Xi had agree that this would be done and then Biden says there is "this silly balloon" with intelligence equipment that passed over the US that delayed this decision being implemented. He says the US and its European allies are restricting high tech equipment from being exported to China not because it is a hostile act but we just want to maintain the status quo.

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With a divided Congress the US will not be able to implement the minimum tax negotiated by the Biden administration with other countries. Now the global minimum tax is moving ahead. The OECD spelled out how the minimum tax implemented in the European Union, UK and South Korea will interact with the US tax system. Under the minimum tax system negotiated by Janet Yellen of the US nations agreed to adopt the 15% tax on their home country companies. France for example would require a French company to pay at least 15% on its operations in the UK, US, or anywhere else.

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The Ukraine war is heading in the direction of a wider war, says Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations. "I fear that the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war, it is doing so with its eyes wide open." On the lack of strategic vision and near term thinking focused on gaining that slight advantage in the near term, and the actions of global finance, he said it was deeply irresponsible and immoral. He says a "radical transformation" is needed, as without it one side will pile up wealth and the other left on the wayside with crumbs. 

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The vehicle scrapping policy gets more financing in the 2023 Indian budget. This will have the effect of increasing car sales and jobs as newer cars, buses and other vehicles are put on the road. By increasing electric vehicles it is a fight for climate change prevention. The simple act of removing fossil fuel guzzling older vehicles with newer fuel efficient vehicles cuts oil use and cuts oil import costs. Doing this on scale is what will help in the fight for climate change. In just one move India will remove about 1 million buses, trucks and transport vehicles used by federal and state governments by April 1, 2023.

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One of the goals of the Northern Ireland deal is closer relations between the EU and Britain putting to rest the tensions from Brexit. The EU sees Sunak as a good faith negotiator and made concessions on the application of EU laws for Northern Ireland. In Britain 60% of people now say in opinion surveys that they see the 2016 vote to leave the European Union as a mistake. A genuine relationship with the EU will happen only after a change in power from the Conservatives to the Labour party in the January 2025 election, says Mark Landler in the NYT.

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Shockingly Silicon Valley Banks spends half a million dollars on lobbying and this works to avoid government regulation. The bank with $209 billion in assets collapsed this week leaving depositors at risk. This report in The Guardian says this bank did not have a chief risk officer in the months leading to its collapse and more than 90% of its deposits were not insured. The lobbying worked and the bank avoided regulation. By 2015 the CEO hired a former Obama administration Treasury Department official for its board, and by 2019 the CEO was placed on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of California. 

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The $1.2 billion that was approved in a ballot measure called HHH is just not enough to tackle the homeless problems in Los Angeles. That was supposed to build 10,000 apartments for the homeless. But every year the numbers of homeless living on the street keep growing from 21,000, in 2016 to 28,000 in 2022. Only about 3400 apartments were built for the homeless at costs approaching $500,000 a homeless unit. Communities such as Venice where one of the projects were being built on a parking lot show resistance and projects go thorough a time consuming process of getting approvals and permits, getting the land.