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Does housing and rising oil prices combine to affect growth and by how much. Note the comments about oil prices. That cost of producing a barrel is only $25 a barrel, thats the average cost according to John Herold Inc. a research company for finding oil, developing the field,pumping it, and delivering it to storage. Oil Analytics president Fingerman thinks prices at $85 are not supported by fundamentals and prices should be $30 to $40 lower. Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer also thinks industry fundamentals do not support prices above $60. What will this do in the long run? Will China's growth slow after the Olympics? Are alternative fuels and more fuel efficient cars, and a shift to smaller cars, and even electric cars, going to have an impact down the road in gasoline consumption. Geopolitical instability from Nigeria, Iran and most recently Kurish Iraq and Turkey has been part of the runup in oil prices, also insufficient inventory buildup for the winter season, and the generally low rates of replenishment of oil that is being consumed with new exploration. How many of these factors may reverse in the coming years? ...

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A study by Charles Elson of the Center for Corporate Governance of the University of Delaware which refutes the idea that excessive compensation is needed to retain good talent in industry.

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A fight in the U.S. Congress with an unusual alliance between the Obama administration, the Judiciary Committee, and Speaker Boehner up against Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell ends with the passage of the USA Freedom Act, which requires court approval for government to look at collected bulk data in phone calls. Republican Rand Paul fought hard against both factions to end the bulk surveillance altogether. The Act was passed in the House earlier. It cleared the Senate June 2nd 2015 with 67 in favor and 32 opposed.

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Half the buyers who buy the Prius want to make a statement one survey shows. About 400,000 sold and on track to sell 175,00 in 2007. Whats the secret? One possibly is that to make a statement you need to have the name synonymus with hybrid something Honda Gm and Ford failed to do as they had hybrid versions of aregular car or suv. Honda is trying now to build one from scratch. Interestingly its Accord hybrid version did not deliver much more mileage than its gasoline version (why?) and is being discontinued. GM's Volt will be built only as a hybrid.

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Donald Trump's remarks at a Wilmington rally that caused a storm- "Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. But the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." The second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution gives people the right to bear arms. Some newspapers saw it as threat, especially considering the heated rhetoric in Trump's other remarks in his campaigning. Speaker Paul Ryan called it a joke gone bad, and that the Second Amendment should not be talked about in this way.

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U.S. president Trump signs an executive order on March 28, 2017, reversing the American commitment to the Paris climate change agreement. The executive order also lifts a moratorium on the sale of coalmining leases on federal lands. The Obama administration 2015 clean power plan was designed to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. It was blocked by courts in 2016. Trump says he is reversing president Obama's war on coal. Earlier he approved the Keystone pipeline for bringing oil from oil sands in Canada to the U.S.. Under the Paris agreement the U.S. agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions 26-28% by 2025 from 2005 levels. Market changes including the availability of cheap natural gas from technology advances fracking and hydraulic fracturing is leading a shift away from coal, apart from Obama administration regulations. Another factor is the long term trend towards cleaner energy, with large energy producers such as American Electric Power and other companies planning for the long term which is likely to be in the direction of cleaner energy. These companies see the Trump administration changes as a situation that may not be for the long term. ...

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BYD and Brilliance Auto display their cars on the main floor of the Detroit Auto Show. BYD plans to sell an electric crossover vehicle with a 250 mile range and a plug in hybrid vehicle by 2011. See the link to its electric car development ahead of rivals Toyota and GM. It introduced an electric car in China recently, and is the first to bring one out.

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Spain's economy in 2017 is back to its size before the collapse in 2010 with the eurozone debt crisis and failing housing market. The unemployment rate has dropped from 26% to 18%, still high but gradually coming down. The economy has improved competitiveness and the auto industry is improving exports providing 17% of total exports. The SEAT auto plant has undergone a major transformation. Here Goodman of the NYT describes how this economic recovery is taking place in the port city of Barcelona.

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Saudi global forum on oil price issues meets even as differnces emerge inside OPEC with Algeria, Iran and Venezuela opposed to increasing oil supplies and to a unilateral decision by the Saudis to increase production. After the Bush visit the Saudis increased production by 300,000 barrels a day or 3% to 9.45 million barrels a day. The bulk of the unused production capacity of 2 million barrels a day in OPEC is with the Saudis. The Algerians and the Saudis blame the price increases on futures speculation, lack of refining capacity to produce gasoline in the western countries, and geopolitical tension. For the Saudis and the Kuwaitis there is also resentment that they are asked to use their declining oil supplies while the USA is not allowing offshore drilling and drilling inside its borders to the extent that it could. Note that the ordinary Saudis lower and middle classes are not seeing much change in their lives as inflation is high, and the prices of food and other needs is reducing their purchasing power. Much of the oil price windfall is going into large projects to build aluminium and other plants, and to build new cities in the desert for a growing population, which effectively rechannels the money back to western countries who are actively involved in these projects. The projects themselves may produce value but it is still an open question whether this is the best way to invest this money. And the other serious question is whether this will come at the expense of future oil earnings as the world reduces its dependence on oil. The money is also spread very disparately across the Middle East, with neighboring countries like Yemen in southern Arabia without oil revenues suffering serious lack of development. The political structures like Saudi Arabia created after the first world war by western powers, itself may impede a proper distribution of commodity resource revenues across the region....

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The current economic expansion in the U.S. in April 2014 is at 58 months from the beginning of recovery in 2009. In this exceptional account Josh Zombrun of WSJ compares the current expansion to previous expansions since 1950, with the views of experts such as Stan Hall of the NBER committee, which studies turning points. This expansion is forecast to go for 90 months into 2016 by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and 102 months into 2017 by the CBO. Sooner or later, says Stan Hall, some adverse unpredictable event takes place that ends the expansion. So far the expansion has been slow and protracted, as predicted by economists Reinhart and Rogoff from previous financial crises in the last century, giving it room to grow as corporate earnings continue to improve. Fed chairwoman's sense of slack in the economy also provides room for employment and incomes to grow in the later stages of the expansion. This is good news for the emerging market economies such as India and China, and for the European Union, faced with slowing growth. So how does this expansion compare with earlier ones. The expansion of the 1991-2001 of the tech boom was 120 months, 1961-1969 of the Sixties 106 months, 1982-1990 of the Reagan era 92 months. The controversial one on shaky foundations is the recent housing boom 2001-2007 of 73 months ending in a huge bust with the 2008 financial crisis. The shorter expansions are the 1975-1980 Post-Vietnam one for 58 months, and the 1970-1973 spurt before the OPEC price surge. Figures are from the NBER, CBO and the Federal Reserve's Summary of Economic Projections....

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Whats happening at design schools in Paris like the Creapole, where masters students are experimenting with new designs of vehicles with making as small a carbon footprint as possible as a startingpoint for all design. And whats happening at other design schools in Brussels and Tokyo.

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Compared to the situation in 2008-2009 during the global financial crisis with the excess supply of labor, China in 2012 faces an excess in demand for labor. In 2009 about 20% of migrant workers were unemployed when the crisis hit, and wages dropped 10% for migrant workers, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Stanford University. The situation three years later is one of tight labor markets and higer wages. A large stimulus in not only not needed today in the way it was in 2008-2009 as a way to maintain social stability, it would reduce the benefits of the anti-inflationary steps taken in 2011-2012, by putting more pressure on wages and prices. Manufacturing sector wages increased by 20.1% in 2011, according to China's statistics bureau. This may be why the Chinese government is taking measured steps to avoid creating more bad loans through indiscriminate lending, and being more selective in accelerating development projects in the pipeline. According to Hong Kong's new Chief Executive Officer China plans to have about 7% growth. This shift in approach would help China refocus on growth strategies recommended in the recent Development Reform Commission and World Bank Report on China....