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According to analysts Yahoo's 24% stake in Alibaba and its stake in Yahoo Japan is what gives its share price momentum. U.S. Yahoo operations are estimated by Topeka Capital Markets to provide only about $10 of Yahoo's value per share. Alibaba's operations as a retailer in China account for $30 of the value per share, and Yahoo Japan $7 per share in value. Yahoo's current share price in Jan 214 is $40, having doubled in the past year. Analysts say there is not much CEO Marissa Mayer can do to reverse the slow decline in Yahoo revenues as it competes with Google, Facebook and other competitors for premium display advertising.

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This NYT editorial says that before he was elected Mexico's president Nieto, with his book "Mexico- The Great Hope," (Mexico- La Gran Esperanza)presented himself as a candidate who would transform Mexico. Yet says NYT three years into his administration it has turned out to be very different, with no effort to clear up the questions about the murder of 43 students in Guerrero state. Economic growth has not matched the hopes generated after the Pacto de Mexico was approved and new legislation limiting monopolies passed. The slump in oil prices has led to limited results following the opening up of the oil industry to foreign investment. The result is an administration increasingly unpopular in Mexico and failing to deliver on the hope generated in the early months of Pena Nieto's administration. Many of the tasks for transition of Mexico to a modern economy- free of monopolies, crime, a better education system, economic growth in all parts of the country, remain unrealized. During his term as governor of the state of Mexico 2011-2015, Pena Nieto's main achievement was the 608 Compromisos or promises which were placed on the internet website tracking progress on the health, infrastructure, highway and other projects. During the current administration the early results were achieved in the first year through agreement with the rival PAN party for the Pacto de Mexico, to reduce monopolies and open up the oil industry which had falled behind technologically with lack of investment. Since then the progress has been slow, the one bright spot being the auto industry with increased foreign investment. Regional disparities persist with the Bajio region, and the areas around Queretaro, Aguascalientes, near Mexico City growing fastest. Pena Nieto won the 2012 election with 38% of the vote mostly from this region, the incumbent PAN party at 25%, and the left front Of Lopez Obrador 32% drawing support from less developed areas in the south and the rest of the country. Just as the earlier Atenco protests and police action to clear protesters blocking land acesses by the state for expansion of Mexico City's airport, and the Soy 132 student protest movement during Pena Nieto's term as Governor of State of Mexico 2011-2015 affected perception of his administration, the murder of students at Guerrero affects perception of this administration. Nieto comes from the upper sections of the PRI as the nephew of two former governors of the state of Mexico, has a law degree from the Ibero-American University, and a masters degree in business administration from ITAM....

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An independent parliamentary panel in Japan described the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster as a "profoundly man-made disaster." It was sharply critical of TEPCO, the company running the plant, and the Japanese government's response. The investigation chairman Kiyoshi Kurokawa said in the report: "What must be admitted- very painfully- is that this was a disaster 'Made in Japan,' its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to 'sticking with the program'; our groupism; and our insularity." This comes as a report by TEPCO shifted public attention to "a tsunami beyond our imagination," creating a large credibility gap with the Japanese people, because the public is skeptical about TEPCO's attention to safety during the period leading to the accident. The parliamentary report calls attention to safety factors that were ignored so that companies would be required to take further steps including costly modifications of plant equipment. A critical flaw was the lack of a independent safety agency that could enforce safety measures that TEPCO might be reluctant to make because of cost considerations. Astonishing as this may sound, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) in Japan is part of the same government ministry that promotes nuclear power, creating a sort of "nuclear bloc," which before the accident connected the safety agency to the bloc. Because of this the panel report says, NISA did not require TEPCO to prepare for a full station blackout- the loss of main and backup power- because the "probability was small." Other factors that need to be addressed are the breakdown in communication and cooperation between the people operating the plant and the people responsible for Japan's nuclear safety. The prime minister's office waited too long before declaring a state of emergency. To come up with the conclusions the panel made 1000 intervews and conducted 900 hours of hearings. The questions left behind by the nuclear accident in Japan are whether Japan should continue with the same level of dependence on nuclear power, whether it should shift out of nuclear power on a gradual basis as Germany is doing ironically after the Fukushima accident while Japan is reactivating its nuclear plants to meet energy needs. If Japan continues with a smaller reliance on nuclear power what changes have to take place for an effective safety agency completely outside the "nuclear bloc," and the series of other changes that have to take place in the nuclear power industry's handling of safety. Public opposition continues to focus on this because of distrust of the nuclear power industry after the accident....

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Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive is the new Treasury Secretary in the Trump administration. His ties to Goldman Sachs go beyond his own work at the firm. His father joined Goldman in 1957, and worked for his entire career at the investment bank. Steven's brother Alan also worked at Goldman. During the campaign Trump was severe in his criticism of his opponents Cruz and Clinton's ties to the bank. Ironies abound, not only is the new Treasury Secretary from Goldman, his connections go back a generation. The Treasury Secretary under Clinton was Goldman Sachs executive Robert Rubin. Under Bush who followed Clinton the Treasury Secretary was Goldman Sachs executive Henry Paulson. Under Republican and Democratic administrations Goldman Sachs executives have held key positions. Mr Mnuchin was campaign finance chairman for Trump for 6 months leading to him being chosen for Treasury Secretary. Mnuchin joined Goldman in 1985. During the campaign Trump was also severe in his criticism of financier George Soros, making this a key point in a debate with Clinton for taking Soros's support. This report by Das and Ensign points out that in 2002 Mnuchin left Goldman to run a credit fund set up by George Soros. In 2004 Mnuchin founded hedge fund Dune Capital Management LP with Soros support.  When IndyMac bank collapsed a deal with the government was arranged that covered a part of any future loan losses being taken by FDIC, and Dune was one of several hedge funds and private equity funds including Soros funds that acquired it for $1.5 billion. The renamed IndyMac bank was called OneWest with Mnuchin as chairman. OneWest was sold in 2014 at a large profit to CIT Group Inc. This report says CIT Group took a $230 million charge in July 2015 for accounting problems at OneWest.  During the latter part of the Trump campaign after he joined it in May 2016, Mnuchin set up a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee. This made it possible for major donors to give to the Republican party and Mr Trump. The head of the Republican National Committee is Mr. Lewis Eisenberg. Having run the technology division at Goldman, Mnuchin was prominent in Goldman and investment banking circles in New York.    ...

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U.S. president elect Trump meets with the heads of tech businesses on Dec. 14, 2016. CEO's of Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft were present. Trump was exuberant about the advantages secured by U.S. tech companies in global business, saying- "there's nobody like you in the world. Anything that the government can do to help this go along, we're going to be there for you." The discussions covered need for more vocational education, advantages and disadvantages of trade with China, and immigration. Quarterly meetings of this type are now planned with a smaller group organized by Jared Kushner to cover immigration and education.  Jeff Bezos of Amazon described the meeting as "very productive." Bezos says he told the group that the best way was to use innovation to create jobs outside of tech in agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing elsewhere, to create large number of jobs. Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, and other executives are part of the Strategic and Policy Forum set up to provide business input to the president. ...

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Under new lending facilities the U.S. Federal Reserve will buy $500 billion of short term debt of U.S. states, counties with more than 2 million residents and cities with more than 1 million residents. This is intended to ease funding strains for cities, counties and states in the U.S. that are seeing large revenue drops and rising expenses from simultaneous economic and health crises. Two other changes from the Fed. New classes of debt are included under the Term Asset Backed Securities Lending Facility or TALF. The Fed will now accept triple A rated tranches of existing commercial mortgage backed securities, and newly issued collateralized loan obligations. $100 billion is available under that program. To help business with less than 10,000 employees or revenues of less than $2.5 billion loans will be made through the Main Street Lending Program. This will initially fund up to $600 billion in loans, with restrictions on stock buybacks, dividends, and executive compensation. The emphasis is on helping businesses that were doing well before the crisis hit. Some that were carrying A ratings and were investment grade but downgraded to B after the health pandemic hit are considered "fallen angels." The Fed will also support new debt issuance by these firms in its corporate program.   ...

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With the decline of about 40% in Ford Motor's share price under Mark Fields, a new CEO Jim Hackett takes over in 2017. He has a history of implementing turnaround strategies, and headed the Mobility unit at Ford. His turnaround stories were at the University of Michigan football program and at furniture maker Steelcase. Hackett spent 17 years at Steelcase and admired Jo Schembechler, football coach at the University of Michigan. Quotes from the coach were used at Steelcase, and Hackett was hired to get the University of Michigan's football program back on track. His main trait is persistence and perseverance from his football days, when he was too small and too slow for the position in the team, but labored on making others work harder. He landed Jim Harbaugh by calling him every week, which made him popular with Michigan team fans and with the chairman of Ford Motor, Bill Ford. He was seen as having originality by Silicon Valley companies, which impressed Bill Ford. Hackett, 62 years, has to tackle the job of running a large company, something he has not done before. Facing the challenge of driverless cars Ford is turning to an outsider from a different industry, but unlike Alan Mulally of Boeing in an earlier turnaround, Hackett comes from a small company. ...

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Nossiter of the NYT describes the growing popularity of Nicolas Sarkozy in France as he tries to regain the presidency. Sarkozy's book, which has placed the importance of preserving France's identity as the main question in the upcoming general election, has climbed to the top of a popular best seller list. With weakness on the right in local elections, Mayor Juppe of Bordeaux and Francois Hollande appearing content with the status quo, Sarkozy hopes to gain the support of voters dissatisfied with the way France is tackling terrorism and its sense of identity as a predominantly Catholic and Christian country. France's political scene which makes it harder for outsiders to break into politics is likely to help Sarkozy, says Nossiter. The other factor is the campaigning style of Sarkozy and projection of strong leadership- which may be more attuned to the present voter sentiment shaken by terrorism than it was in the last election when he was seen as arrogant and self-centred. Sarkozy also lost the last election because of the economy, something that has not improved under Hollande, more likely because the economy takes many years to change to a pattern of growth following a crisis and beyond the control of any particular party. ...

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Jaishankar was asked at the 2021 GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava in 2021 why he thinks anyone will help India in case of a problem with China after it did not help others for Ukraine. Chancellor Scholz of Germany cites Indian Foreign Minister Jasihankar's remarks in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2021. Jaishankar said- "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems, but the world's problems are not Europe's problems. That is if it is you it's yours, if it is me it is ours. I see reflections of that. There is a linkage today which is being made. A linkage betwen China and India and what's happening in Ukraine. Chia and India happened way before anything happened in Ukraine. The Chinese do not need a precedent somewhere else on how to engage us or not to engage us or be difficult with us or not to be difficult with us." These are Scholz's remarks at the Munich Security Conference. Scholz says Jaishankar has "a point."  "This quote from the Indian Foreign Minister is included in this year's Munich Security Report and he has a point it would't be Europe's problem alone if the law of the strong were to assert itself in international relations." To be credible European or North American in New Delhi or Jakarta, it is not enough to emphasize shared values. "We generally have to address the interests and concerns of these countries as a basic prerequisite for joint action. And that's why it was so important to me to not merely have representatives of Asia, Africa and Latin America at the negotiating table during the G-7 Summit last June. I really wanted to work with these regions to find solutions to the main challenges they face growing poverty and hunger, partly as a consequence of Rusia's war, as well as the impact of climate change or COVID-19. There is another side to this -Scholz and Germany's president Frank Walter-Steinmeier are from the social Democrats party which has sought closer cooperation with Russia, and also carry a great deal of ambivalence for the war. America is not fighting this indirect war in its neighborhood, Germany is. And some of the roots of this conflict go back to the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in the 1800's period and the German invasion in the 1940's. Macron is even more ambivalent in his position and he has remained this way from the beginning- not committed to humiliating Russia. In a way it is the position of the Social Democrats from the historical context of Germany's invasion of Russia, and Christian Democrats eagerness to create a German recovery with low cost Russian energy that created the dependence that Russia sought to use. In what it sees as the unfairness of NATO being allowed to expand right next to its borders. Because of a sense of righteousness on both sides- Russia of the Soviet period failing to see the feelings of a Budapest in 1956, East Berlin in 1953, and Prague in 1968, sees little wrong in an invasion of Kviv. And with it all the biography of Brezhnev the last leader of the Soviet Union, describes that very struggle in the Great Patriotic War the soviets fought against Nazi Germany which was fought by Ukrainians including Leonid Brezhnev with great will and purpose against all odds.  Cambridge historian has written the history of Europe that Scholz is cited to be reading in 2021- Europe The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present.  It shows Europe since 1453 engaging in balance of power of European powers, Sweden Denmark, Russia, Austria, Germany, France, Britain, Turkey, continually for 500 years. Europe simply forgot its own history. Asia including Japan, China, Indonesia and India, simply emerging from the situation of falling behind in science, technology, and the industrial revolution and building their economies with the help of the US since the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868. The Balance of Power Simms says was maintained for 500 years is simply based on no country allowed to act with impunity, no country allowed to do whatever it wanted because of its position of strength at that moment or period of time. In that situation all other powers regrouped to keep the balance from being upset. The war in Ukraine is also likely to end in a way that is consistent with that which Brendan Simms writes about because this has not changed now for over 500 years. Biden knows this and it has fallen on America to shoulder the burden for this in the last 150 years, Scholz is aware of this, Modi in India sees this, and Jinping in China realizes this even with its concerns about Taiwan.   ...

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The resignation of Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo, from his positions at the company on Jan. 17, 2012. Yahoo hired a new CEO, Scott Thompson, from eBay's Pay Pal unit n 2011. Yang started Yahoo with David Filo. They setup "David & Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web," a list of favorite websites, as computer science students at Stanford in 1995. What followed was a trajectory similiar to the one observed today for Facebook- by 1999 the company was valued at $120 billion in the dot com bubble. A decade later Google, a newcomer with a search algorithm, replaced Yahoo as the most widely used search engine. Yahoo and its peer site AOL from the 1990's never recovered from the technological change in the internet with broadband and a new generation of search engines. Yang holds a 3.8% stake in Yahoo. Yahoo has a 40% stake in Ali Baba, which was formed when Yahoo turned over its Chinese operations to Ali Baba in exchange for a large stake in operations. Yahoo is planning to sell its stake in Ali Baba....

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Only 8 months into office, the leader of the Democratic party in Japan, resigns as Prime Minister. After perceived indecisiveness by the Japanese public on the Okinawa base change issue and on issues related to cutting wasteful spending. The base issue related to a campaign promse to move the American base out of Okinawa and even out of Japan. The North Korean government's aggressive behaviour led to a changing perception of the base issue, with a lengthy disagreement with Washington and eventual reneging on the campaign promise. By this time Hatoyama's popularity dropped to 25% and he resigned. Also resigning is Mr Ozawa, the Democratic Party's secretary-general. The indecisiveness and lack of leadership on issues made it difficult to sustain the electoral support which led to the Democratic party winning an overall majority, mainly to bring change for the post Liberal Democrat era.

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Tom Brokaw is perplexed by the absence of the war in Afghanistan as a campaign issue in 2010 US elections. Especially because the war is in its 9th year, has caused 5000 dead, 30,000 wounded, and cost over $1 trillion dollars. He reasons that this is because the vast majority of Americans can opt out of fighting the war on the ground. The all volunteer service draws from 1% of the population, with the majority from working class or middle class backgrounds. This has an unintended effect in making the costs of the war less visible, when actually it is taking a toll in other ways. The US is short of funds to build much needed infrastructure or update infrastructure. States and local governments are laying off teachers because of budget shortfalls, and the national budget deficit makes less money available for solving pressing problems in carbon emissions, energy, and infrastructure. Only recently New Jersey Governor Christie put on hold a new tunnel into New York City because of a lack funds. Pressing infrastructure issues elsewhere will be postponed in this manner. And the outlook for the next 20 years, according to Robert Gordon of Northwestern University, is not going to be better with slower growth at an average of 1.5%, leaving less money for the kinds of projects that defined America from the Erie canal to interstate highways. Brokaw says, the country would benefit from an effort to discuss what happens next, in the continued expenditure of blood and treasure. A discussion of what happens next in this effort to deal with Islamic rage....

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Dallas Fed president, Richard Fisher, says the Fed cannot create jobs, and why he is opposed to the Bernanke quantitative easing policy.

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The Chicago Sun Times files for bankruptcy. It owes the IRS $510 million in back taxes for 1996-2003 when Hollinger International, which controls the Sun Times, was owned by Conrad Black, who was convicted of fraud. It had an operating loss of $344 million in 2008. Its newspaper the Sun Times has a circulation of 313,000. The Sun Times had expected advertising revenue to drop 30% this year. The Tribune Company, which owns the CHicago tribune and the Los Angeles Times filed for bankruptcy in 2007 Dec. Other papers that filed for bankruptcy include the Philadelphia Newspapers and the Star Tribune Holdings of Minneapolis. Sun Times stock which was at $6 in early 2007 was at 2 cents in April 2008!

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Pearlstein touches on the main issues raised by Obama's regulatory reform proposals. A thorough and independent analysis by a panel of seasoned regulators and independent experts would have done better, Pearlstein says. It would take more time, but the regulatory reforms need to be thorough, considering the damage that has been done to the financial system, and considering the opportunity to do something serious about this. It would have also shielded the administration from criticism if tough action was needed in some areas. Hearing all sides of the matters at hand, and weighing the pros and the cons on each issue is helpful, but there are gaps in this approach when some of the key actors like Geithner and Summers have worked too closely in the past with the financial firms that are being regulated, and may have a tendency and bias in that direction. The President's lack of expertise in these areas, and a desire to keep the regulatory hand as light as possible, and intense obying by financial firms, can tilt things away from serious regulatory reform. The danger is that the opportunity to fix things with major structural changes where necessary, and some tough actions where needed may be lost. Some of the obvious gaps are mentioned by Pearlstein. There is no measure to tackle the situation with the ratings agencies. There will be more transparency than before but complex derivative trading can take place prettty much like before. Credit default swaps will continue as before. If you set up acouncil of regulators, then why not bite the bullet and consolidate them into a single agency, asks Pearlstein? Banks will continue to have their proprietary trading desks, from where they ran up huge losses, these act like in-house hedge funds. Ultimately a lot depends on who is running these agencies, or the Fed, and what is the prevailing opinion about markets in the country. The prevailing opinion that the less regulation the better for free markets, and the lack of independent regulators, and poor appointments, had a lot to do with the capture of the regulatory agencies by the the firms they were supposed to regulate. And on this point the President is on safer ground, as he can ensure that he appoints tough regulators and create a new culture that puts regulation right where it should be, as a necessary ingredient for free markets, just like rules of the road. And in one area the President has created a new structure, a new agency with powers- this is where consumer protections are at stake- so that the abuses that took place with mortgages do not take place....

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Example of a aluminium company in Quingtongxia which disconnected from the national electricity grid and connected to the local electricity grid with the consent of the regional government to bypass the increase in electricity prices mandated by the central government in Beijing designed to discoutrage electricity consumption by energy intensive industries. As a result of this type of activity China has seen only a 2 % decrease in electricity consumption in the first half of 2007 by official estimates. To meet the goal of a 20% reduction in energy consumption per unit of output by 2010 China would have to see reductions in the range of 4% per year. This example of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is an interesting one. Ningxia is in the western region of China and unlike the coastal regions which were the early beneficiaries of China's manufacturing boom years, this part of the country lagged behind. Its near Inner mongolia and far to the north west of the country near Gansu province. its one of the samllest o the provinces and autonomous regions, having a population in 1949 of about only 1 million, its since grown with migration and indutrial development but is still lagging behind. It has plentiful coal and so it is felt here that this is a natural resource asset that would help it grow in energy intensive industries like aluminium and help it close the gap with the coastal proivinces. The industrial development came to Ningxia only in the last 10 years so that its local economy and regional government officials feel they would be left out if they aren't allowed to catch up. So to them it all makes sense. Several other factors play a part. The rapid economic growth means more opportunities for relatives and friends of regional government officials. This is happening across China in coastal provinces and in the provinces of the interior. How can senior government officials in the coastal and large cities in the east point a finger at hese offendors when they are all beneficiaries of the same system and are using it to their benefit. And then there is the factor that rapid economic growth is considered the main objective if it slows down and there is social unrest from unemployment or other worker or farmer unrest then all government officials and communist party officials lose out if the communist party loses control. And the fear of chaotic years following social unrest create a common interest in pursuing rapid economic growth at all costs. So its a roller coaster that while the leaders in Beijing and Shanghai and the big eastern cities are aware of the risks and costs to the environment and other costs they are not able to control regional and local policies and actions....

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Sarah Wagenknecht is combining socialist credentials with support for workers and unions with a platform opposing migration. She is polling 10-20 percent and is second to AfD right wing party inthe polls in three German states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. Nationally she is polling 9 percent. Not that this is new.It is new only in Germany with CDU/CSU and Socail Democrats, Greens, Free Democrats dominating with right wing anti migration position taken by AfD. Mette Frederiksen in Denmark the Danish prime minister has long felt that migrations hurts working class families and distracts from the main issues facing workers. On this platform she has won elections in Denmark. Scandinavia is moving in this direction taking up working class issues, policies that favor unions and workers, support child care and families, yet opposing migration, but not with extremist right wing ideologies not compatible with democracy. This is a more effective and sensible path for Europe as there are more urgent issues, climate change, child care and families, wages and incomes, cost of living action, why the need to distract the attention, the vital attention needed to these overwhelmingly important tasks. Here it is common sense that should prevail- by keeping migrants out of this, no more distraction from the tasks at hand for the Nations of Europe, and keeping borders safe. ...

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NHTSA and NASA conclude a 10 month investigation in Feb 2011, saying that "pedal misapplication" not faulty electronics were the likely cause of unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles.

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The manufacturing purchasers index for the eruozone was 45.1, remaining at the same level as May, a three year low, according to survey firm Markit. The figures are based on a survey of purchasing executives. Index figures below 50 indicate contraction in the manufacturing sector. Germany was at a PMI of 45, Spain at 41.1. The PMI reports indicate a contraction of 1% at an annualized rate for the eurozone economies in the 2nd quarter of 2012.