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Improving relations between Turkey and Iran after the election of Rouhani as president of Iran. Efforts by both sides leading Sunnis and Shiites to head off an increase in sectarianism in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq. Both countries agree on the importance of democratically elected governments in the Middle East and reducing conflict.

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Pearlstein argues that the US and the Obama administration achieved most of its goals, even though the Europeans took the credit. On regulatory reform, Geithner's regulatory reform proposal he says, could well have been written at the French Finance Ministry, as at the US Treasury. And it gives Obama ammunition to prepare, as private equity, hedge funds, and banks try to water down his proposals for regulatory reform. By having member countries commit to adding $850 billion to the resources at the IMF, and regional development banks to provide help to countries in serious difficulties- and giving instructions that the money can be used not only for debt rollover, bank recapitalization and balance of payments support, but also for stimulus spending, infrastructure investment, trade finance and social support- the Obama adminstration has accomplished a great deal. It has succeeded in putting in place the necessary financial resources to support not only the financial systems of countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America that need help, but put emphasis on the need for resources to go for helping reduce job losses, create jobs, and provide some forms of income or support to people in these countries. This is a major step as it means the countries of Eastern Europe and other developing countries can deal with their crises in confidence. Mexico is taking loans from the IMF. Dominique Strauss Kahn had begun the policy of shifting IMF's focus to these social goals as significant parts of the recovery process in countries, but he faced the old mindset among the IMF staff, as when its reported staff wanted to increase interest rates in Pakistan by 10% instead of the 3% that was finally agreed to. That would have caused serious difficulty to the people of Pakistan, created chaotic situation and disturbed the social fabric of that country. See the link to this for S. Korea and for Pakistan. And as Gordon Brown put it the old conditionality that lay behind the IMF loans, is phased out. This makes it the new policy at the IMF backed by the G20 mandate. The Washington consensus which prescribed open borders, floating exchange rates and fiscal prudence is now ended. And to support this change the developing countries will have a bigger say in IMF policy and decisions. ...

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The Post's Lally Weymouth interviews Enrique Pena Nieto, leading presidential candidate in Mexico. Nieto discusses the war on drug cartels. He says his government is commited to continuing the fight, but says Calderon's strategy has not worked, and the need now is for reducing the rising level of crime. Nieto's priorities are to open up the economy to competition by reducing the power of the monopolies and oligarchs, reduce poverty by providing social security to all Mexicans, increasing private investment in Pemex, and increasing the taxpayer base to finance new investment and programs.

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The "cut, cap and balance" pledge of Republican candidates for the presidential election of 2012. The current House version requires capping federal spending at 19.9% of GDP by 2018. This say House leaders is in accordance with the average spending levels for the last 30 years. It would have to come down from 24%. The balanced budget amendment caps spending at 18% of GDP and a balanced budget within a decade. The pledge is written promise to cut spending immediately.

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Hillary Clinton is diagnosed by her physician as having pneumonia on September 11, 2016. Her physician Lisa Bardack, says she "has been experiencing a cough related to allergies." She was put on antibiotics  when the cough was diagnosed as pneumonia, and told to rest and modify her schedule for a few days.

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The top five foods for children and good for packing lunches, or at home, are egg yolk, oily fish, oats cereal and whole grain breads, beans, yogurt cheese and milk. This article by dietitian Emer Delaney, who has worked at many teaching hospitals in Britain, also provides the family-friendly recipes you need.

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As HP separates into two separate companies that can be focussed and nimble, CEO Meg Whitman says that it has been a difficult road for HP. The new organization will have a lower cost basis by making job cuts as HP sales shrink- about 30,000 additional job cuts will be made in addition to the 55,000 announced earlier, mostly in enterprise services as the outsourcing operations have declined. HP sales and profits have declined with profit of $8.76 billion in fiscal 2010 on $126 billion in sales dropping to $5 billion in profit on $111.5 billion sales by fiscal 2014. Meg Whitman, CEO, says this should complete the changes and set the business up for future growth in new business areas. She also says HP has not done anything stupid in the last 4 years, alluding to the losses on the ill advised Autonomy acquisition. A big shift is being made in the Enterprise Services Group by setting a rule that no single account should be more than 10%- in 2013 just 3 accounts made up 65% of operating profit. One area of growth is cloud computing related business where it sees revenue growth of 20% for the next couple of years. Other areas include data analytics....

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Egyptian president Morsi's address at the UN General Assembly as "the first Egyptian civilian president elected democratically and freely." On the Egypt-Israel treaty he said: "we are committed to what we have signed on." He defended the Syrian people, who he said were trapped in "the tragedy of our era." For Syria, Morsi has formed a contact group of Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to defuse tensions in the region. Egypt backs the initiative of the Arab League and the UN led by an experienced diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, who recently visited Syria.

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India plans to convert 500 railway carraiges into places to keep coronavirus patients in Delhi.  Daily new cases now are over 12,000, with total confirmed cases of 320,000, deaths at 9195. Delhi bed capacity in private and government hospitals  for coronavirus is 9698 wit 4248 beds vacant. Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal says he expects a surge and is preparing for this as the economy reopens. Delhi, Tamilnadu, and Maharashtra are the worst hit states. The lockdown of March 25 has been lifted and markets are crowded. Many businesses and workplaces are now open. And local flights have resumed.

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Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post looks at the story of Horst Kasner, Lutheran pastor in East Germany, Angela Merkel's father. In 1954 when Angela was born, her father moved the family to East Germany, then called the German Democratic Republic. The family settled in 1957 near the town of Templin in the Brandenburg countryside. He had an idealism based on the Lutheran faith and believed at the time that it was possible to build a East German Protestanism that reconciled with the professed socialist ideals of the GDR. Over three decades that faith was tested and by 1990 Kasner was known for his dissent to the state repression practiced by the GDR limiting free expression and religious beliefs. He worried about the domination of economic thinking even in the churches after the reunification.   Angela Merkel was close to her mother, Herlind Kasner, who joined the Social Democrats after reunification. Her brother joined the Greens. Merkel joined the movement called the Democratic Awakening in 1989, which merged with the Christian Democrats after reunification. Horst Kasner died in 2011 about 6 years after Merkel became chancellor. Speaking at a church in Templin in 2014, Merkel said what she believes- "God created every human being. We should strive for perfection. But we can make mistakes." To some Merkel remains inscrutable, hard to make out. This may be because she retains some of the thoughtful way her father meditated on what life was about and how best to live it.  ...

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The cost of social stability in OPEC countries is changing the attitude of countries that advised moderation in pricing in the past. Saudi Arabia has committed itself to $129 billon in new spending for public sector jobs, pay increases for state employees, and allowances for the unemployed, to preserve social stability after the democracy protests in the Middle East. This is happening throughout the Arab world and in most OPEC countries. Algeria and Iran have also increased social spending. The oil price that Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget and pay for this is going up from $68 a barrel in 2010, to $88 in 2011, and $110 in 2015, according to the Institute of International Finance. Merrill Lynch says it is $95 a barrel for this in 2011. This is bringing the moderates like the Saudis and the hawks like Iran and Venezeula together on price issues. In the second week of April 2011, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, said the Saudis had cut production by 800,000 barrels a day in March because of oversupply in the market. A consultant for Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation which reflects Saudi and OPEC views, says: "OPEC members spending pattern is expected to bear on their oil price preferences and production policy behaviour." The only restraint on price will be that price at some point will affect the global economic recovery and lead to lower consumption and growth, something the Saudis have paid attention to in the past....

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Ian Thompson takes over as the new Chief Credit Officer at S&P. He replaces Mark Adelson, who will remain as a senior fellow at S&P. He was hired by the previous CEO, Deven Sharma. Deven Sarma was replaced by former Citigroup excutive, Doug Peterson, in September 2011, weeks after the downgrading of the U.S. sovereign credit rating. Ian Thompson reported to Mr. Adelson, as the head of the Asia-Pacific region. Adelson joined in 2008 with the task of making it difficult to earn the highest credit rating for issuers following the subprime mortgage crisis, in which credit rating firms gave top ratings to lower quality mortgage securities. Mr. Jacob, the structured finance chief, will also be leaving S&P. The frequent management changes are viewed as making it harder for S&P to win back credibility in its ratings.

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Galston points to the study in the Economist magazine by Ray Avent showing the hugely negative effect of Tech on jobs in the last 3 decades. He calls for using the full tools kit of solutions to tackle the problem. Society will face huge problems if nothing is done as divisions in society are likely to increase with a few people doing well with a large number of unemployed and the working class having stagnant wages. He points to BLS statistics showing worker wages increased annually by 0.3% after inflation for the period 1981-2014 in the U.S. This is not just a U.S. problem. It is a worldwide problem with particular relevance for U.S., Europe, India and China. Galston was deputy assistant to president Clinton for domestic policy, 1993-1995, and holds the Ezra Zilkha chair in governance studies at Brookings Institution.

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Renault's low cost entry cars which were originally designed with emerging markets in mind, are now popular in France and other countries in Europe. Renault gets 30% of its market share, up from 15% in 2006, from low cost cars like the Logan, which cost conscious buyers buy for around $10,000, instead of buying a used car. This has helped Renault at a time when other segments are not doing so well, and when Peugeot had to arrrange a 1 billion euro emergency capital increase. The profit margin on these low cost cars is 6%, compared to 2-3% profit margin on other Renault models. Renault manufactures the cars under the Renault label or the Dacia lavel depending on where they are sold, and uses a factory in Romania. Renault's model is to set the margin first and then ask suppliers such as LG and others to try to come up with a low cost design that meets its margin requirement. This eliminates features that add cost and may be dispensed with for the customer in mind. It requires a fresh approach. Cutting edge is replaced by working with parts designed for older models that cost less. Renault also used the experience gained in the Romanian factory where some of the tasks are done manually instead of using robots, and waste is reduced. The process has taken time because the Dacia Romanian factory was acquired under a previous CEO Louis Schweitzer in the late 1990's, and the first Dacia Logan was made in the Romanian factory at Pitesti, near Bucharest, in 2004. The reliability of the Dacia made cars is well established, say experts. On the sales side the Logan is sold on a no discount basis with fixed price. Dealers are told no discounts are permitted. Total sales of these cars reached 814,000 in 2011 and are expected to cross 1 million in 2012. This is similiar to the achievement of Toyota with its low cost multipurpose vehicles for emerging markets, which is expected to cross 1 million in 2012. The difference is that Renault has achieved this with European buyers in a bold strategy. Tata Motors which pioneered the effort to build low cost small cars with its $2000 vehicle is planning its own entry in Europe, the Pixel as a low cost city-car in European markets in 2015. And Renault is moving further down in cost than the Logan, as its next step, with such a car manufactured in India by Nissan-Renault and regional partners....

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Chrysler's sales are dropping the fastest of all the car companies . April 2009 sales dropped 24% from March 2009. Ford sales are doing better than Toyota, as they declined in April over same month prior year by 32%, compared to 42% for Toyota. It appears that the Buy American factor may be helping Ford Motor more than the other American car companies, and that Chrysler also suffers from the lack of new models with new technology and investment in new features. At GM the situation is better at Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC, where sales in April 2009 declined by 29%, over same month prior year, which compares with a 55% decline in sales, of Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, and Saturn brands which are likely to be dropped. See the related link on same day on steep fall in Chrysler sales.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve Open Market Commitee takes a position of pause and wait as it decides in March 2012 not to take any new further bond buying stimulus measures. There is uncertainty in equity markets about the effect this will have on equity prices. During the last two pauses in 2010 and 2011 the equity markets experienced downturns after withdrawal of bond buying measures by the Fed, leading to Fed action with QE 1 and QE 2 followed by a surge in equity prices and the S&P at over 1400. At the peak during the 2001 and 2008 dot-com and housing propelled booms the S&P reached over 1500. At this rate the curve for U.S. equity prices for the 2008-2012 period resembles a repeat of a narrow steep V shaped curve with only a 7% climb in April 2012 needed to reach the 1500 point in the S&P 500 average at which the previous two booms in prices ended up in a bust. John Taylor, Stanford economist, in a separate op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on March 29, 2012, called for a change in the mandate of the U.S. Federal Reserve for a more rule based policy because of the dangers of repeated boom and bust periods in the U.S. economy as a result of ultra loose monetary policies. The problem at this point in April 2012 is that profits of companies are not expected by analysts to come in strongly in the second quarter, with a slightly improving unemployment picture, expected upward pressures on oil prices from the Iranian situation, eurozone debt problems in Spain and Italy, and slowing growth in China, India and Brazil. These fundamentals do not support an S&P at the levels seen during the height of the last two booms of 2000-2001 and 2007-2008....

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Grocery delivery by supermarkets has become popular during the pandemic. Yet grocery supermarkets are having difficulty turning a profit on delivery sales.

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A video of how the French people have come together during this crisis from France 24. It is an inspiring video of how France is returning to family values, a return to basics, about helping neighbors, children and others. Volunteers are helping, the state is helping by supporting 10 million people who have lost work and wages by paying these wages, a way in which the collective in France is helping the individual. There is also an interview with the founder of French app "Hello Neighbor" who describes the changes happening in France and a new sense of what it means to be human and loving thy neighbors. He says this is a time it is lucky to be French because of the respect in France for a strong public health service that serves all its citizens.

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Tensions on the India China border as India builds roads and infrastructure in the mountainous Himalayan area close to the border in Ladakh to match the Chinese buildup of roads in the region over the last decade. India has also built up its troop presence in the region to match China's troop presence along the border in Ladakh.

India has supported a call from Australia for an investigation into the early origins of the coronavirus. The call was supported by many countries around the world and by the U.S., Japan and France. The 350,000 deaths from coronavirus and the 5.5 millions confirmed cases, the economic damage, most of them in western nations in North America and Europe, have  led to growing tensions between China and the rest of the world. 

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The difficulty of protecting vital petroleum facilities in the Gulf region from drones and missiles even with existing advanced Patriot systems is likely to result in fresh thinking about the tight sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on Iran. American pressure on Asian buyers of Iranian oil, Japan, China, India, and South Korea, has resulted in cutbacks of oil imports to Asia from Iran, reducing Iran's oil output and damaging the economy.  The election of a new government in Israel led by Mr. Gantz, departure of Mr. Bolton, Mr. Trump's flexibility to meet with Mr. Rouhani of Iran to renegotiate the nuclear deal, and America's effort to remain in control of its policy in the region consistent with avoiding entanglements in foreign conflicts, all point to a reappraisal of current policy. 

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This article from the John Hopkins University experts in Chinese investment in Africa say the charges that China was setting up debt levels for African countries beyond sustainability levels set by IMF are not founded except in a few instances. Only in Congo, Zambia and Djibouti does China account for over half of public debt, says the report. This comes as criticism is mounting about African countries being burdened with debt from Chinese financing of projects and loans.

In 17 countries identified as vulnerable including Ethiopia and Cameroon, China was the largest creditor but yet more than half of the debt was held by western banks and other lenders. In Mozambique it was Credit Suisse bank. In other words China is not preying intentionally to put countries into financial distress from debt buildup.

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The new coronavirus test for antibody detects antibodies Immunoglobulin G and M. It is designed for people with symptoms and is a quick test used in China, and to be deployed in Britain. The FDA approved the first antibody test for coronavirus developed by Cellex. Immunoglobulin M is made a few days after infection. Immunoglobulin G is made later and is designed by nature in the human body to neutralize the invading virus. The test gives a positive or negative answer whether these antibodies are present to overcome the virus. Unlike the swab test for the nose this test takes only a pin prick and is quick with quick results. For asymptomatic people the swab test is needed as it detects the material in the nose which carries the virus itself.

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Prof. Cochrane of the University of Chicago goes over the Federal Reserve's new "Enhanced Prudential Standards and Early Remediation Requirements" for big banks. He finds serious shortcomings in the Fed's proposals to regulate the largest banks. He points to the proposal that puts less than one dollar at risk for every 10 borrowed dollars as ridiculously low, and says the Fed is admitting it really does not know how to correctly measure and regulate credit exposure in today's banking system. The Fed's remediation requirements are basically ways to get regulators to take action early with "triggers," because regulators were slow to act in the last crisis. This is down to regulating the Fed, not the banks. As stated in recent editorials in the Journal, and supported by Daniel Tarullo at the Fed, the best way to protect the financial system is in having capital reserve requirements that are high enough and reliable enough for a crisis.

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The written WSJ interview with Xi Jinping ends with a quote used by Jinping from Chinese philosopher Mencius- "It is only natural for things to be different." Jinping couples it along with another old Chinese saying for a broader meaning- respect your own cultural values and differences, yet be open to outside exchanges if you don't want to end up being ignorant. That quote is: " Learning alone without exchanges with others will lead to ignorance." This focus on outside exchanges seen as technological cooperation so that China has access to western technology to continue its progress in modernization and growth, is something most developing countries accept as critical. Is it seen as broader by learning from the general experience in many fields of other countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia?

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Expectations of lower inflation in the U.S. for 2012. The Commerce Department showed inflation slowing with consumer prices up 2.5% over the prior year in November, down from 2.7% in October and 2.9% in September. The Labor Department's consumer price index went up by 0.8% annual rate in the last 3 months. Increase in labor costs are also mild. Hourly wages of private sector U.S. workers were up 1.8% in November 2011 over the prior year. Commodity demand in emerging markets is slowing with lower growth, which reduces pressure on commodity prices. The consumer price index is expected to rise by 1.2% in 2012, according to J.P. Morgan economists. The Federal Reserve in its recent statement after a Dec. 13 meeting stated it expects inflation at below 2%.