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The 2008 bailouts helped the very banks and financial institutions that caused the financial crisis through the issuance of bad mortgages. The stock market and economy recovered leaving workers behind who did not benefit and were hurt financially, causing a deep resentment among Americans that led to protest movements. This resulted in the the remaking of both political parties, with Mr. Trump remaking the Republican party, and Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren remaking the Democratic Party, in a sharp shift to protect American workers and American business. A lot has changed since then.The legislation passed in Congress for a $2 trillion aid package is driven by a desire to protect working families first. Companies that get loans are expected to avoid layoffs. The focus is entirely on preserving jobs in American industry and small business. A separate allocation is made for unemployment insurance and direct payment to households so that the safety net is secured. This may not prove enough, so that there is a vigilant attitude in Congress to ensure that workers and working families needs are met in the coming year and years. ...

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prepaid credit cards are taking off. From $4 billion in 2007 to $8.7 billion in 2008. Especially with the young and college students, this is becoming increasingly popular way as an introduction to plastic. With the new credit card law making it difficult for anyone under 21 to get acredit card without an adult to cosign for him or her, this will become even more of the norm among college students and the young facing debts to be repaid.

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Sales of autos once at 14 to 24% increase year after year was down to essentially flat in the latter part of the year with full year growth at about 6.7% over 2007. And 2009 could be flat or see declines in sales. Consumers are feeling the effects f drop in the stock market and drop in housing prices as well as a slowing economy.

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Britain's National Health Service has setup a medical review of gender treatment of young people. It's conclusion after 4 years of research- "The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.” This NHS review found no clear proof that  gender dysphoria in children or teenagers was resolved or alleviated by what is called gender-affirming care, where a child's declared “gender identity” is affirmed and supported with social transition, puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones. After Cass the British government issued an emergency ban on puberty blockers for children under age 18. A similar approach is being taken in the Scandinavian countries, and in Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the move is away from medical treatment of gender issues. American medicine, Cass says is “out of date,” and has put politics ahead of science.Not one American medical association or governmental official has reached out to discuss Britian's Cass report. Says Cass- “I think that’s where you’re misleading the public. You need to be honest about the strength of the evidence and say what you’re going to do to improve it.”   ...

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Congressional Budget Office analysis that shows 14 million more people uninsured in 2018 under the Republican House health care plan, this increases to 24 million by 2026.

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A building boom during the pandemic led to extra supply of new apartment complexes in Austin. This is now coming down as the supply is 72% down from the peak year in 2025. As a result there are fewer special offers of discounts on rentals in Austin. Austin, Nashville and Phoenix experienced a wave of new apartment building complexes added to supply during the pandemic years, with Austin getting the largest supply because of new job opportunities in technology fields. Homes were going at 15% discount compared to bidding wars in San Francisco and San Jose in northern California. 

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Mexico continues to be a problem state for the US with drug trafficking a part of the culture, not fully recognizing the damage it does to society in its neighbors, and not accepting responsibility for good governance that respects the lives of people in the North American region. More lives are lost to this drug trafficking across the US borders from Mexico, more lives lost in the US than in all the wars combined since the First World War in 1914. No recognition of this fact and the common responsibility of leaders to the people of North America.

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Push to stop nuclear weapons development in Iran in light of  South Korea/ US/ Japan's North Korea experience. When seen in the light of small state nuclear weapons proliferation the policy of stopping the spread particularly in areas of repeated wars for over 5 decades (the Middle East) as pursued by the current US DJT government is something to take seriously, and not politicize, as has been done by politicians and others for their own interests. The world is a safer and better place without nuclear material in the Middle East being used for hidden nuclear weapons programs.

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General Electric, GE, experienced a steep decline in the last decade. The worst news came in 2018 with the loss of half its share price and market value. One story tells about an employee who was forced out of retirement back to work seeing the loss of value in GE shares in 2018. Rarely has a company of this size seen a fall in stock price this steep, for a stock that was once seen as safe for widows. About 60% of GE business comes from jet engines, electric power generators and wind turbines. GE now plans to sell its health care business and other business that do not relate to core infrastructure in energy, aerospace, and other markets. Under Jack Welch a faulty model of adding diverse businesses that had nothing to do with its core business and expertise in infrastructure were added. A home mortgage lending business was added and GE Capital expanded. NBC Universal was added with little justification in a period when CEO's acted without much consultation. The home mortgage lending unit collapsed with large losses during the 2008 financial crisis and GE's share price dropped drastically to $6.00. Under Welch's successor Mr. Immelt the GE Capital unit was shrunk in size, but losses continued to mount. An oil field service unit was added which also sustained losses.  Immelt's successor Flannery faced a loss of $15 billion from the financial lending unit. Sale of some businesses was not sufficient to meet the loss. Flannery is now taking GE out of all the businesses which were not core business. The NBC Universal television business was sold to Comcast in 2013. GE Healthcare is next. This closes a bad chapter in GE's story under Welch and Immelt. GE's dividend was cut for the second time since the Great Depression. The story of GE is also the story of American business during the last two decades, with icons such as GM, Ford and GE suffering decline, businesses that operated like little fiefdoms of old nobility in Europe, with CEO's operating in a CEO centric culture, not tolerating contrary opinion for informed debate on issues facing the business. Alfred Sloan founder of Genral Motors called constructive debate central to good management. Later Intel CEO Andy Grove coined the phrase constructive confrontation as a way of constructive debate, and the CEO was shown as the first of equals. The CEO centric management ignored these warnings and admonitions in running their fiefdoms.   ...

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Was the deal with Cerberus to let it own a significant part of GMAC bad for GM, along with other decisions and missteps that led to disaster. The decision by GMAC to raise credit standards just when the full force of the credit squeeze was hitting financial markets has to have hurt GM sales, and aggravated a bad situation in which consumers first turned away from SUV's and trucks, which were big in GM's and also Detroit's product lineup, and then in November simply postponed purchases of automobiles. The November numbers coming in at over 40% below 2007 numbers for the same month, were a disaster for GM, making it necessary to turn to the government for help. Brian Johnson of Barclays Capital says GMAC financed just 1% of GM's sales in November compared with as much as 45% in a normal month. Thats huge for impact. And Cerberus appears to be responsible for the decision to raise the credit standards, and it has not acted in the best interests of GM but more in its own interests as a private equity firm. And its decisions have been heavily influenced by its souring investment in Chrysler, and its desire to extricate itself from Chrysler without putting in any more funds than it has absolutely need to put in. Now with government help to GMAC, the situation is being restored to where the credit standards are set at the minimum acceptable credit score of 621. Johnson of Barclays Capital estimates that with this lower score GMAC should be able to recapture about one third of its former loan volume, which considering that it had 45% of GM sales is only 15%. This still leaves GM in a bad situation compared to things before October 2008. And with the deteriorating unemployment situation in 2009 and further economic strain in 2009, this will not be enough for the uphill climb facing GM sales. ...

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Dealerships especially for premium and upscale cars like the Lexus and mercedes are providing special services and a five star hotel type of attention to customers to promote sales.

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DJT and US diplomacy given a chance, patient waiting for Iran to make a unified proposal with split in Iran government, while the US naval blockade goes on- April 21 2026. About 2 million people lose their jobs in Iran as inflation exceeds 50% and economic activity, steel, car making and petrochemical industries are affected with major disruptions and supply chain issues.

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Ford gets $5.9 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program of the U.S. government. It will use hte money to rettol 11 factories in the midwest. It will help Ford make 13 of its models more fuel efficient. Ford plans to sell 4 models of electric vehicles by 2012. Lawmkers in Congress are pushing to increase the size of the program from $25 billion to $50 billion. The $5.9 billion will be loaned to Ford and given between now and 2011, with Ford beginning repayment in 2012. THe plants are in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, and employ about 35,000 engineering and factory level employees.

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If he now believes it is a structural shift and not a cyclical one, if he thinks consumer behavious is changing, and rapidly, CEO Wagoner of General Motors owes his shareholders and other stakeholders like the company's own employees and loyal customers an explanation of why it took so long for him to arrive at this conclusion. And why is the Hummer still sitting there in GM's product line, and the Chevy Suburban, vehicles that never belonged once the craze for bigger vehicles was past its peak in 2006 and 2007, some 1-2 years prior to today.

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Six years after the VW diesel emissions scandal was uncovered in September 2015 by the California clean air agency, CARB, perceptions have changed in Germany. This report says the charges leveled against the defendants including former CEO include organized commercial fraud and tax evasion. The grounds for this are that thousands of former VW customers were able to claim tax credits in Germany for the vehicle misstated low emissions levels. In Germany organized fraud is subject to up to 10 years in jail. German experts cited here say it is very unlikely that higher management were no aware of the effort to distort emissions results. 

Much has changed in Germany since then. The auto industry has shifted away from diesel to electric cars. German federal government no longer sees Germany's auto industry in the same way that it did in the early years under Merkel.