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Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will provide $250 million to New York Times in return for warrants that can be converted into 15.9 million common shares at a strike price of $6.36, close to where the price was last week. The notes carry a interest rate of 14% and are due in 2015. The Sulzbergers control 19% of the company's equity and control the company through super-voting shares. If Slim exercizes the warrants he would control 18% of the company's equity. Times faces a liquidity crisis and the $250 million may not be enough for it to survive as an independent company. The New York Times borrowed heavily in the boom years and it had $1.1 billion of debt at the end of September 2008, and only $46 million in cash. Much of that debt is coming due in the next couple of years. It has a $400 million credit facility that expires in May 2009, $250 million in notes due in 2010, and a $400 million credit facility expiring in 2011. Its stock has fallen 50% already and its debt is rated "junk" by S&P....

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President Biden supports sending American Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Germany would agree to send its Leopard tanks to Ukraine if the US agrees to sending its Abrams tanks. German Defense Minister Pistorius says this does not have to happen at the same time.  German chancellor Scholz does not want to have German tanks as the only western supplied tanks as it would appear that Germany was party to the conflict. 

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Rep. Paul Ryan got his start in politics in 1983 when he was hired to work for a think tank Empower America. This think tank was formed by Weber, Kirkpatrick, Bennett and Kemp, to preserve Reagan era ideas of focussing on economic growth generated by private investment. This was followed by working as an aide to Senator Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Jack Kemp till his election to Congress in 1996. Kemp was the big idea guy and it was Paul Ryan who delved into the budget details at the time to support Kemp's ideas. Kemp was Republican vice presidential candidate, the same position that Ryan is in today. Ryan represented the area around Janesville, Wisconsin, in the U.S. Congress. He graduated from the University of Miami, Ohio.

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Russian view at SCO Summit-"A fair balance in the security sphere" meaning a fair settlement on the expansion of NATO and EU that may threaten Russia, something Northern Europeans have not settled.  Le Monde covers this side of the Summit at Tianjin, a coastal city near Beijing in northeastern China. Over long periods of European history since 1600 Northern Europe including UK, Sweden, Denmark, France, Poland and Germany have contended with Russia and seen purely from this perspective Russia sees itself as a Northern European power and seeks to protect it's interests. Britain, Sweden and France have for the most part been on the opposite side since 1600. US under a Republican administration, and this is not just DJT, sees the larger interests beyond Europe of Asia and the American continent in addition to Europe, and seeks a diplomatic way out of the war in Europe.

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The Indian Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeks to keep the fiscal deficit on a downward trajectory from 4.9% fiscal deficit in 2024, lowering it each year 2025-2028. The total expenditures for Indian Budget 2024 are $720 billion and the total government revenues excluding borrowing $480 billion, tax revenues $390 billion. To attract investment by foreign companies in India the corporate tax rate is reduced from 40% to 35%. And abolition of angel tax for startups. capital gains tax reduced to 20% for short term gains and 12.5% for long term gains. Simplification of the Income Tax Act of 1961 within 6 months. Lowering of taxes for personal income taxes to 30% above 15 lakh rupees. Exempt 25 critical minerals from basic customs duties to assist processing in India. Reduce basic customs duties on mobile phones to 15%. Customs duties to support domestic manufacturing, export competitiveness. Simplify and rationalize the hugely beneficial GST Tax, "a success of vast proportions, reducing the compliance burden and logistics cost for trade and industry." "The gross and net market borrowings through dated securities during 2024-25 are estimated at ` 14.01 lakh crore and ` 11.63 lakh crore respectively. Both will be less than that in 2023-24. 114. The fiscal consolidation path announced by me in 2021 has served our economy very well, and we aim to reach a deficit below 4.5 per cent next year. The Government is committed to staying the course. From 2026-27 onwards, our endeavour will be to keep the fiscal deficit each year such that the Central Government debt will be on a declining path as percentage of GDP." For the year 2024-25, the total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at ` 32.07 lakh crore and ` 48.21 lakh crore respectively. The net tax receipts are estimated at ` 25.83 lakh crore. The fiscal deficit is estimated at 4.9 per cent of GDP. ...

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A major shift in foreign investment may be taking place as the 2014 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum takes place in May 2014. Russian policy in Ukraine and tensions with the U.S. and Germany could lead to a shift in investment to other emerging market countries. China's tensions with Japan could lead to a similiar shift of Japanese foreign investment. At the same time India has elected a new government with an absolute majority and an overwhelming mandate from young people to accelerate development. The new government under the BJP party's Modi has a decade of experience attracting foreign investment in western India. Indonesia, Vietnam, Africa and other emerging market countries, could benefit from the shift in investment. Investment could also return to the home countries with lower labor costs in Southern Europe, lower labor/energy/transport costs in North America. For Russia the debate at the St Petersburg Economic Forum was about pursuing one of three policy paths with some riskier than others, or some combination also risky and uncertain- depending on state banks and oil windfall funds, increasing ties with Asian countries, continuing on the current path with lower foreign investment and continued capital outflows. The failure to use the time wisely to diversify the oil based economy which could have been better accomplished in an economy not overly dependent on crony capitalism and centralized economy, both current characteristics, will affect future progress. A key weakness for Russia compared to China is the centralization under one person Putin, more so in the third term. In China the two man team Keqiang and Jinping is part of a larger team chosen by consensus and negotiation and part of a rotational scheme. It has senior leaders who initiated the changes to a market driven economy in the nineties determined to see China on track....

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Feldstein's thoughts in April 2009, on Treasury's Public-Private Investment Plan. First, he says this plan will only remove $500 billion of impaired assets. The banks he says now own $3 billion of residential mortgages, $1.5 trillion of corporate real-estate loans, and $1 trillion of consumer debt. Not all of this is impaired but the banks will have to sell much more than $500 billion to regain confidence in their solvency. And with one third of all residential mortgages exceeding the value of the houses, and thie many homeowners under water, likely to default, the negative feedback loop of foreclosures begetting falling prices begetting foreclosures, threatens the whole effort to shore up the defences. If no workable solution is executed quickly to prevent this then even larger pools of mortgage debt will be impaired irretrievably. Feldstein suggests that the Obama administration seriously look at his plan suggested in March 2008 to provide government loans at low rates of interest like 1- 2% for 20% of the principal amount of the mortgage and then reduce the mortgage principal by 20%, thus keeping millions of homeowners above water. But this needs to be done quickly. All voluntary efforts have failed and have become asmokescreen for banks and lobbying groups with support from Congress to make it appear that this problem is being addressed. Thirdly Feldstein says that if banks sell these impaired mortgage assets at a loss- say 40-60 cents on the dollar on the upside with government and the FDIC picking up alot of the risk and financing for private investors under the new plan- they will now have to show the loss whereas they could have previously shown these assets at unrealistic price levels but still not taking losses. This might push banks into insolvency, so banks will need more injection of capital by the government to make this possible. What are the risks in this situation? Without an effective plan to prevent the negative feedback loop of foreclosure waves and falling houseprices, the quantity of impaired assets will simply grow larger. In effect even if some private investors take out some of the impaired assets from the banking system, it is possible that a new set of assets equal to or larger than these assets that are taken out are added to impaired assets in the banking system as house prices fall steeply from new foreclosures. That only means the economy is in the same hole as before, or in a slightly larger one, even with all the well intentioned steps. At some point the private enterprise argument has to be seen in the correct light. It is not that there is any argument that private enterprise can function better or far superior, it is only that the banks as private enterprises are in such an enormously stressed situation that the bank executive's cannot execute a way out of this mess. ...

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Powell at the Fed, the US central bank, and DJT have different views on reducing interest rates. Most of the business community and heads of banks see it as essential that the Fed be able to decide independently when to lower interest rates. Jay Powell was selected by DJT in the first term and Biden continued with Jay Powell. Powell carefully monitors the economy, the cost of living, supply chain inflation, jobs reports, and the international situation, to come up with his view, which is that inflation is moderating and job situation and the economy are good, so that the Fed does not need to take action at this time.  In this situation where the president wants to see lower interest rates to lower the interest burden on government borrowings for the larger defense budget and other priorities., including trade action, Bessent has stepped in. His advice to the president as he did earlier on tariffs is to show flexibility. The president listens.  Earlier with Liberation Day tariffs Bessent advised DJT to give financial markets confidence in the new policies by a willingness to reduce them or pause them. ...

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Some of the gentlemanly aspects of the game going back to the 50's and 60's, and 70's, including courtesy and sportsmanship are lost as media hypes winning and losing at the US Open Tennis at Forest Hills. Always looking for television moments and attention getting the media enlarges the slightest faults of players, much more than players themselves who go through the game focused on their game skills. A game between Bonzi of a France and Medvedev of Russia in 5 sets which Bonzi won is yet another example. Late night games with crowds are not new to the game. Ilie Nastase and Rod Laver played many late night games with crowds keen to see the skills of the players not focused on winners and losers in the 1970's.

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The shocks to the UK banking system resumed Monday with the announcement on January 19 that RBS faced losses of a huge magnitude, of 28 billion pounds for 2008 with fresh losses in 2009. RBS shares went down 66%, and at closing on on January 21, 2009, were at 12.5 pence. Lloyds Banking Group shares are at 45.1 pence, at 66 pence. Barclays which has avoided taking government money saw its shares drop 25% on January 16. The government is hoping that its plan to provide insurance that would limit bank's losses on bad loans and investments will work, but uncertainty on how the insurance will be priced is raising doubts about the plan's effectiveness to restore confidence. Especially when RBS is collapsing. The government owns 70% of RBS and 43% of Lloyds. The next step would be nationalization of the banks. According to WSJ nationalization would mean that taxpayers have new liabilities of about $3 trillion or $4 trillion, an amount far exceeding the UK's entire annual economic output.

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Washington Post looks at history of rare earths since 1945, and how the US EU and Japan let China become the sole supplier of rare earth minerals. This error is being corrected in 2025 and the US, EU, Japan remain vulnerable for the next 2 years till these countries build up an alternative supply of rare earths. It is a situation where vital national interests in the US and EU, Japan were lost sight of for three decades.

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The Biblioteca Alexandrina, as a symbol of the new Egypt. This library dates back to classical antiquity. Youths formed a human cordon to protect the new library during the weeks of protests in Alexandria. The library's director, Ismail Serageldin, says the people love the library and protect it. He says the library is revising its work program to operate from now on as the focal point for the promotion of reform and civil liberties. In 2002, the library opened with a soaring structure designed by the Norwegian architectural firm Snohetta. It was funded by Unesco, the Egyptian government and other Arab countries, Mr Serageldin says the library is spreading the values of democracy, pluralism, freedom of expression, tolerance, diversity, which he is hoping is taking root in the younger generation. The library had 1.5 million visitors and 700 events in 2010. It has 4 museums, a planetarium, a children's science center, a library for the blind and 8 research institutes. It holds 1.6 million books, including a gift of 500,000 books from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. The library has access to 50,000 electronic journals, and houses an archive of every page on the internet. We taught a lot of the kids who are demonstrating and protesting how to use the internet and how to use social media, and he is glad it has been put to good use, says the chief librarian, Sohair Wastawy. Wastawy is now dean of libraries at Illinois State University. Debate at the library has been open and and annual confernece is held by its Arab Reform Forum to promote human rights and civil society. A website is run to facilitate communication between Arab NGO's. Vartan Gregorian, a trustee of the library, who formerly headed the New York Public Library, says Serageldin has been a marvelous defendor of freedom and scientific thought....

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The haggard condition and failing health of the Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic. Mladic is wanted for war crimes and ethnic cleansing as commander of the Bosnian Serb army in 1992-94. He eluded arrest and was in hiding for 15 years, till his arrest in mid 2011. The efforts to transfer him to the Hague to stand trial at the International Court of Justice. The Serbian government is keen to use the arrest as an opportunity to close this chapter of the nation's history and start a new one with membership in the European Union.

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Said, Kent and Faucon describe the meetings and maneouvring between oil producers that led to the decision to not cut production at the November 2014 OPEC meetings in Vienna. This led to a drop in Brent crude down to below $70 by Dec. 2014, with Russia, Iran and Venezuela losing, countries such as India, and motorists benefitting from lower oil prices.

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The strong challenge to prime minister Netanyahu from the Zionist Union party in Israel's March 2015 general elections. Public dissatisfaction with the Netanyahu government is increasing in Israel, giving the Zionist Union party and its leader Isaac Hezog, an opportunity to lead Israel.

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U.S. unemployment declined to 7.7% in November 2012 from 7.9% the prior month, with 146,000 jobs created, according to the Labor Dept. The rate for the prior two months was revised downward by 49,000 jobs. The labor force dropped by 350,000 jobs, with fewer people looking for work, which suggests continued problems in finding jobs. The number of people saying they had a job fell by 122,000. The retail sector added 53,000 jobs, leisure and hospitality 23,000 and professional and business services 43,000.

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Chief Justice Roberts and President Obama both excelled at Harvard Law School, one as managing editor of the Law Review and the other as President of the Law Review. One raised in suburban Indiana, and going to small Catholic boarding school started 5 years earlier by Chicago and Indiana businessmen like his father, a steel company executive. The other fatherless trying to construct his own identity at a school in Hawaii founded in 1841 to educate the children of white missionaries. Roberts adminstered the oath of office to Obama in January 2009.

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The resignation of nuclear advisor Toshiso Kosako. He criticized the government of Naoto Kan for a government decision allowing children living near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to receive doses of radiation equal to the international standard for nuclear plant workers. He also criticized the government for an overly high level limit on radiation exposure for workers at the Fukushima plant.

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David Gelernter, Yale professor of computer science, says above all things Steve Job was designer-in-chief. At his Stanford commencement address in 2004, Jobs recounts his experience in a calligraphy course at Reed College as one of the singularly important experiences of his life, and something he carried over to the the revolution in portable devices- portable Macs, iPod, IPhone and iPad. The search for and building of elegant, easy to work, fun to use devices. Job was able to grasp the potential of such devices, says Gelertner, from his very first visit to the Xerox research labs in Palo Alto in 1979. In doing this he gives credit for long forgotten pioneers of the personal computer, who were just as important perhaps even more so, Douglas Engelbart and Alan Kay. At Xerox, Kay built on the earlier innovations of Engelbart. Engelbart was first to develop the mouse, onscreen window, and the concept of computers doing more than just computing, such as controlling machinery, doing everyday stuff, and doing things with pictures. Xerox's corporate executives failed to grasp the significance of the developments in their labs. Jobs grasped this rightaway and put all his efforts into developing the Apple Macintosh in 1984 incorporating these ideas. A decade later Gates copied the Mac's eay to use features and created economies of scale, creating the personal computer that we know today. The internet was a parallel development during that decade after the pioneering work of Tim Berners-Lee on the worldwide web. Jobs took the experience one step further and created new devices like the iPhone and the iPad that brought mobility, ease, and refinement to the internet experience....

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Without good governance India would fail to meet the aspirations of its youthful population of 1.2 billion people. The prevailing sense of impunity brought the country to an impasse 10 years ago and development of the country to a standstill, says prime minister Modi. Only 15 paise out every rupee reached the final beneficiary of government programs leading to a loss of confidence in government, said one prime minister. At this rate 16 lakh crores rupees out of 27 lakh crores transferred to final beneficiaries and the poor would have been lost, says pm Modi. During the struggle for independence of the 1940's, the drafting of the new constitution, early period after independence with distractions of partition, Mohandas Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Nehru, did not realize that for a period that would stretch from the 1950's for about 70 years almost as long as half of the period of British rule India's institutions would struggle to operate. India's institutions so carefully set up would struggle to operate effectively as political parties turned to state and local funds meant for development to finance their election campaigns. A new culture got entrenched that considered this to be an acceptable way of operating- destroying the chances of development in the world's largest nation and keeping 1.2 billion people in a permanent state of underdeveloped economy.    ...