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A record for Day 3 at MCG of over 83,000 in Australia India Fourth Test Cricket, the largest since 1937. The record for total attendance of 255,000 is likely to be broken. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar build a 127 run partnership and Reddy gets to 105. India are only 114 runs behind a massive Australian first innings of 474 with 1 wicket in hand.

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How politics is shifting in Germany as Die Linke a party of discontented Social Democrats and heirs to the East German Communists has 14% support in opinion polls and the public opinion is shifting in favor of more state involvement and protecting workers.

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This editorial in the WSJ says Reagan negotiated with the Soviets from a position of strength, while president Obama has made concession after concession till the Ayatollah could not turn down a deal. It says Iran is run by the Revolutionary Guards and the Ayatollah, who see the deal offered by Obama in their interests, and that the deal took place because of this, not because of the willingness of the Rouhani government to negotiate. It says even the relatively small sanctions against specific individuals and companies have been held back by the Obama administration because of an election in Iran.

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The Economist cites figures showing Canada lost 500,000 manufacturing jobs since 2005, with employment in manufacturing down to 1.7 million by 2013. From 2000 to 2013 manufacturing's share of GDP declined from 18% to 10%. This situation is shown by the decaying manufacturing towns seen in Ontario. About 500,000 manufacturing jobs were lost between 2005 and 2013, as the price of oil increased to the $100-$120 range and the Canadian currency was overvalued, leaving the Canadian economy more dependent on energy exports. Some of the auto manufacturing supplier base has shifted from the midwest to southern U.S. states, reducing the attractiveness of Ontario for manufacturing investment. Overvalued currencies have hurt the manufacturing sector of commodity producing countries dependent on exports of mining products or oil, especially Brazil and Canada. The depreciation of the Canadian currency in 2014-2015 may not help, as many of these jobs are not likely to return.

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Justin Lahart points out that concealed in the good profit performance of Ford Motor for the third quarter 2012 is a cause for concern. Ford market share of light vehicle sales in the U.S. market declined to 15.3% in the first 9 months of 2012 from 16.6% in 2011, according to WardsAuto. Ford's quality in the Consumer Reports' annual reliability survey shows Ford ranking 27th of 28 brands.

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Germany's economy has shown strong growth of 3.6% in 2010. Germany has benefitted from globalization, both on the demand side and the supply side. The euro provided additional demand from countries like Spain and Greece. And German machinery and automobile manufacturers see rising demand from China. Germany also has lower priced labor in Eastern European countries. The Mittelstand, the smaller companies making all types of machinery, are a strong part of the economy. And the Hartz reforms under former chancellor Schroder, have helped reform the labor market. Also German unions have been fairly restrained during this period of reforms. German schemes for retaining workers during the downturn helps retain core skills and supports a quick rebound. All this is helping make Germany look atttractive as a model to follow in the European Union. There are weaknesses in the lack of strong domestic spending, which means Germany is too dependent on demand in China and other countries. The other weakness is reduced productivity in the services sector....

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Greece's new finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos meets finance ministers of the EU in Brussels following the referendum. Chancellor Merkel opens the possibility of renegotiating the debt at a later stage. Merkel says: "Ofcourse, at the very end, one will have to discuss how debt sustainability can be recreated but not by saying first 'How do we close the gap?' but 'What can Greece do?' " Merkel added that "this program is, according to the now-withdrawn Greek request, meant to be two years long, so it is a multiyear program." This means that in addition to the pension cuts and tax increases rejected earlier, it would now have to include changes to labor laws to make it easier to fire workers, changes to product markets and the privatization of state assets.

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Brazil's oil company, Petrobras, has 55.7% of voting shares controlled by the government. Petrobras's nonvoting shares make up most of the widely held stock, which has increased significantly in recent years. Petrobras is Latin America's largest publicly traded company with market value of $96.9 billion. Oil production by Petrobras is 1.9 million barrels a day, larger than Brazil's expected consumption of 1.85 million barrels a day for 2006. The policies of former President Henrique Cardoso are credited with making Petrobras competitive. Cardoso passed a constitutional amendment that allowed foreign companies to compete against Petrobras. And he put new managers from banking in charge of the company, leading to significant changes in how the company was run. With new deepwater drilling oil production increased by 12% a year during the Cardoso years 1997-2002. Under the Lula administration Petrobras has also reflected the government's social goals by delaying passing on price increases in gasoline and cooking gas and limiting the price increases. Under President Lula the CEO and senior managerial appointments for Petrobras have come from the ranks of his political party, the PT. Jos Eduardo Dutra, and Jos Gabrielli are members of PT. Under the Lula government Petrobras faced little competition from foreign oil companies and Petrobras dominates the Brazilian oil sector....

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This editorial in the WSJ after the New Hampshire primary, points out that the attacks by Republican candidates on each other instead of educating voters on Donald Trump, will only lead to them falling behind. During the Republican television debate the sharp exchange between Christie and Rubio hurt both candidates in New Hampshire. It says that one of Trump's important weakness is that one third of the voters who voted for Trump have reservations about him. Trump was also lagging behind in voter confidence in his ability to handle an international crisis. Ted Cruz was not able to win big with non evangelical voters in a state on the East coast, which would affect him as a Republican nominee in November 2016. It also points out that voter perceptions about Sanders are changing- voters may now see a "socialist" as electable, if Republicans can nominate a person with no serious credentials and a volatile temperament. Voters may also now see Clinton having electability problems of her own with the email controversy, and voter skepticism about her honesty and trustworthiness. The Democratic Party has shifted in the Obama years- with exit polls showing 7 of 10 Democrats in the New Hampshire primary saying they are liberals, and one fourth "very liberal." ...

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This article in the Economist magazine says Brazil's new president Michel Temer, once impeachment proceedings lead to the resignation of Dilma Rousseff, is only slightly less popular than her. Polls show 58% of Brazilians say Temer should be impeached close to the 61% for Rousseff, and his party is also affected by the Petrobras corruption scandal. Brazil's large trade unions supporting the Worker's Party of Rousseff see it as a "coup" or "golpe" and promise strikes, combined with large street protests, this comes as the country faces a second year of falling GDP at 3.8% according to the IMF. Brazil has a budget deficit of 10.8% and needs changes in public spending, including pension reforms, which are unlikely under Temer or his party the PMDB, or under the PMDB's Mr. Cunha. Some experts see the change in Brazil as part of a broader shift in Latin America, that happened in Argentina recently with the election of Mauricio Macri as president, towards governments that move to the centre in politics and reduce state intervention in the economy to stimulate growth. This is unlikely to happen in the short run, with society deeply divided and the area in front of the Brazilian Congress cordoned off to separate the opposing factions and rallies of political supporters....

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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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In an overwhelming victory in Burma's 2015 general election Aung San Suu Kyi's party wins 80% of the vote, with the military backed party winning only 41 seats of 491 seats in parliament. The National League for Democracy wins 397 seats. Both sides underestimated their strength. Suu Kyi supporters estimated they would get 60% of the vote, and the military expected to win about 130 seats. The 1990 elections and Suu Kyi's victory were annulled by the military. This time Suu Kyi will appoint the president, as she is banned from taking office under the military drafted constitution. It has taken 25 years for the change in Burma. China and India supported the military rulers in Burma, while the U.S. and UK consistently opposed the military. India a regional democracy put regional considerations ahead of democratic process, showing how even democratic governments failed to respond, especially when the military cracked down on Buddhist temples in 2007. Mrs Bush, Hillary Clinton, and other Americans showed strong support for Suu Kyi throughout her house arrest following the 1990 election. Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar as U.S. Secretary of State in 2011 to show her support for Suu Kyi, which may have set the process in motion for the 2015 free election in Burma. ...

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Afghanistan, says aUN report, s seeing the development of narco-catels similiar to Columbia, where drug profits are seen as more imortant than insurgent ideology. The interdiction of opium crops says the UN office on Drugs and Crime has reduced production by 10% with 22% less land being cultivated. But this does not mean that the flow of opium has beeen affected. A stockpile of 10,000 tons of opium has been built up and is in the hands of narco-gangs, which is about 2 years supply for world demand. This also suggests that the efforts to cut financing of the insurgency are being dwarfed by the access for terrorists to this large source of financing. It also raises other questions about the billions of dollars that can be used for terrorist purposes. As the war situation deteriorates this financing suggests two ways in which the situation becomes intractable, first through the financing of the insurgency, and second through the corruption in the government of Afghanistan that this engenders. with the complete loss of confidence among ordinary people in the government. In these circumstances a democratic election does not have anywhere near the kind of credibility that for example the Iraqi elections had. Quite the reverse....

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This Wall Street Journal editorial on August 18, 2011, says Texas Governor and U.S. presidential candidate Rick Perry made a poor choice of words when he called the Fed chairman's policies "treacherous or treasonous." While admonishing Rick Perry for the use of the wrong words, it says Perry has done a public service to draw public attention to Fed policies. These policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve- Bernanke's and Greenspan's- which allowed the tech and mortgage bubbles to develop and then engaged in loose monetary policies to correct its errors over a ten year period since 2000, should be the subject of debate. Current monetary easing has also added a large element of inflation, and some experts such as Kenneth Rogoff are calling for inflationary levels of 4-6%. Critics of Fed policy such as Allan Meltzer and some Fed governors of regional banks, including Hoenig of the Kansas City Fed, say the Fed has not given enough thought to the long term consequences of its actions. The U.S. needs to address these major changes in policy as serious issues with the public and presidential candidates engaged in the debate. They have everything to do with a vision of a future America....