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The huge contrast between Chancellor Merkel's approach and the approach of Obama and Cameron to the Syrian refugee crisis
08/20/2015
The German chancellor will be remembered in history for the way she handled the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, and for the courage to say, "if Europe fails on the question of refugees, its close connection with universal civil rights will be destroyed." Reports in the Guardian newspaper say Germany is likely to accept about 1 million refugees in 2015. Chancellor Merkel says about 800,000 refugees will be admitted in 2015. Contrast this with the UK reports the Guardian which has 166 refugees admitted to the UK, and reports in the WSJ that about 1500 refugees have been admitted to the U.S.. Merkel has taken on the challenge in a spirited way as Europe faces anti-immigrant sentiment and rallied German society in a way that is remarkable. The withdrawal of the Obama administration from the Middle East led to the collapse of the fragile situation in Libya, Iraq and Syria, and the unravelling of these countries, leading to the current refugee crisis with about half of the Syrian population dislocated and large parts of the population of Libya, Iraq, and Kurdish regions dislocated.
Linked Articles
U.S. Pressed to Take More Syrian Refugees
Wall Street Journal 09/05/2015
Why some German universities will educate refugees for free - The Washington PostWashington Post 08/20/2015
The Obama administration's efforts on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), after losing allies in Asia and Europe to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
04/17/2015
The Obama administration pushes a free trade pact that includes the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. This free trade pact is now seen as a U.S. effort to counter China in the Asian region. India, UK, Germany, France, Italy and other European countries decided to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank sponsored by China, on its merits, after the U.S. refused to join.
Linked Articles
TPP: Momentum on Trade Deal Bolsters U.S., Japan Efforts to Counter China
Wall Street Journal 04/17/2015
Lawmakers Introduce ‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill, Triggering Democratic DiscordWall Street Journal 04/17/2015
U.S. defense preparedness in Europe and in other continents in 2015-2016- the views of Lt. Gen. "Ben" Hodges and Gen. Raymond Odierno
02/09/2015
Linked Articles
This Is No Time to Cut The U.S. Army
Wall Street Journal 08/14/2015
The View From NATO’s Russian FrontWall Street Journal 02/09/2015
U.S. president Obama's 2015 State of the Union address- a disconnect with Congress and programs that have no prospect of being implemented
01/20/2015
Linked Articles
Bold Call to Action in Obama’s State of the Union, Even if No Action Is Likely
New York Times 01/20/2015
In State of the Union, Obama Makes Middle-Class PitchWall Street Journal 01/21/2015
Abenomics advisers Yamamoto and Hamada, and Japanese prime minister Abe's decision in Nov. 2014 to challenge the Finance Ministry's views
11/20/2014
Abe calls for a snap election in Dec. 2014 after delaying the second increase in the consumption tax from 8% to 10% in 2015. About 53% of the Japanese public opposed the doubling of the consumption tax by 2015 in 2011 poll as the DPJ party Noda administration pushed for it on the advice of the Finance Ministry. Now after the 3rd quarter showed Japan in a recession over 70% of the Japanese public oppose a second increase in the consumption tax to 10% from 8% in 2015. Abenomics advisors Hamada and Yamamoto now say this increase in the tax (especially when wages are only gradually increasing) was never a part of the Abenomics.
Linked Articles
Japan’s No. 1 Reflationist Does a Victory Dance
Wall Street Journal 11/20/2014
With Bad Economic News for Japan, Abe’s Magic Seems to EvaporateNew York Times 11/20/2014
The huge negative effect of tech on jobs in the U.S., and other countries- prioritizing solutions in 2015-2025
10/06/2014
The Economist and William Galston writing in the WSJ, look at the hugely negative effect on jobs as technology makes it possible to produce the same output in goods with fewer workers. Galston offers solutions for the U.S., and the Economist offers solutions for EUrope, Asia, and other regions that need to create jobs.
Linked Articles
Countering Tech’s Damaging Effect on Jobs
Wall Street Journal 10/15/2014
The world economy: Wealth without workers, workers without wealthEconomist 10/06/2014
Lufthansa low cost carrier Eurowings and Air France-KLM low cost carrier Transavia in 2015- an effort to setup separate airlines to remain competitive
09/28/2014
Linked Articles
Lufthansa Chief Carsten Spohr Defends Airline’s No-Frills Push
New York Times 12/08/2014
Air France Pilots End Two-Week StrikeNew York Times 09/28/2014
Tim Cook's effort to fill the role played by Steve Jobs at Apple, and fill in gaps where Jobs could have done more
06/15/2014
Linked Articles
Tim Cook, Making Apple His Own
New York Times 06/15/2014
Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product PhilosophyNew York Times 06/16/2014
Emerging Markets 2014 financial crisis (1) - Argentina, Turkey and Thailand, shown to have failed to learn the lessons of the 1997 financial crisis
01/30/2014
Linked Articles
Emerging-Market Slide Tests How Much Nations Learned From Past
Wall Street Journal 01/30/2014
Emerging markets: Don’t panicEconomist 02/04/2014
China PBOC's efforts in early 2014 to slow and slightly reverse appreciation of the yuan and have it trade in a 2% up or down trading range
12/10/2013
PBOC continues to carefully manage the currency in 2014 by slightly lowering its value, with plans to widen the trading range up or down by 2%. The yuan appreciated by 2.9% in 2013.
Linked Articles
China Intervenes to Lower Yuan
Wall Street Journal 02/27/2014
Brawny Yuan Stands Apart from the CrowdWall Street Journal 12/10/2013
Stanford Hoover Institution's Fouad Ajami on the Middle East policies of U.S. president Obama that led to sectarian conflict and increase in terrorism
10/24/2013
Without a residual U.S. presence in the Middle East acting as a restraining influence on Shiite militias, Sunni groups, other foreign powers, leading to an exacerbation of sectarian conflict by the Malliki government, created the conditions for the rise of terrorism. Only in 2015-2016 were the effects of this seen with the breakup of Syria and Iraq, and the millions of refugees making their way to Turkey, Jordan, and Europe, followed by the increase in terrorism in Europe and the U.S.
Linked Articles
Notable & Quotable: Fouad Ajami on the Sunni-Shiite Fight
Wall Street Journal 01/05/2016
Fouad Ajami: A Lawyer Lost in a Region of ThugsWall Street Journal 10/24/2013
Shell, Chevron and Exxon withdrawing from shale oil exploration in Europe and China in 2015
08/01/2013
Linked Articles
Non-U.S. Shales Prove Difficult to Crack
Wall Street Journal 03/19/2015
Shell's Profit Falls on Shale Write-DownWall Street Journal 08/01/2013
Airbus shift away from Europe and German government financing after increasing publicly traded shares to 72%
06/16/2013
Linked Articles
Airbus Vows to Fly With Own Wings
Wall Street Journal 02/27/2014
Airbus on Track to Double Profit Margin by 2015Wall Street Journal 06/16/2013
German experts and public opinion who see Greece's exit from the eurozone as the best thing for the euro in July 2015 (1)
07/07/2015
Chancellor Merkel's statement that the the Euro is the EU, now place more emphasis on building a strong future for the euro. Experts in Germany believe the euro is better off without Greece by July 2015. As the WSJ editorial points out political contagion is now a bigger threat to the euro, with euro skeptic parties joining populist parties with no committment to the common currency and its basic rules.
Linked Articles
German Finance Chief’s Hard Line on Greece Limits Angela Merkel’s Room to Maneuver
Wall Street Journal 07/09/2015
It’s Time for Greece to Leave the EuroNew York Times 07/07/2015
Japan's fighter pilot Harada's message of "never to forget," the new generation of leaders, and a public unaware of the horrors of war
04/03/2015
Harada and Noonan describe the problem today of a generation of leaders and public that were born following the Second World War, who have no knowledge of the horrors and the pain of that war. He has tried to keep the memory of that conflict and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, by teaching Japanese children in a kindergarden so that a new generation does not forget.
Linked Articles
Retired Japanese Fighter Pilot Sees an Old Danger on the Horizon
New York Times 04/03/2015
Misplaying America’s Hand With IranWall Street Journal 04/04/2015
Lt. Gen "Ben" Hodges, Commander U.S. Army in Europe, on the Russian moves towards Mariupol in eastern Ukraine in Feb. 2015
02/08/2015
Ben Hodges describes the Russian threat to peace in Eastern Europe under president Putin and the need for U.S. preparedness.
Linked Articles
The View From NATO’s Russian Front
Wall Street Journal 02/09/2015
Desperation and Destruction in Contested Ukraine CityNew York Times 02/08/2015
The miscalculations and missteps of Russian president Putin in 2014 leading to a major crisis for the Russian economy in 2015
12/18/2014
A major miscalculation was totally misjudging Merkel and post-war German public opinion about policies that remind people about the period between the two World Wars- this is anathema to Germans who see the European Union as a way to build a new and different Europe. The other miscalculation was on how a foreign adventurous policy in Syria would affect Sunni world opinion, in particular Saudi Arabia. Just as Brezhnev took Russia into Afghanistan where Russia had no vital interest leading to eventual Soviet collapse, Putin risked alienating a key member in OPEC pricing moves and hurting Russia's economic interest. By not listening to Kudrin, the head of Sberbank, and other economic advisers from the first and second terms of the Putin-Medvedev administrations, Putin opened the door to two years of serious missteps, risking the very real accomplishments of the first and second term of creating a stable growing Russian economy with close economic ties to Europe. The only positive outcome of the crisis and low oil prices would be making the shift away from oil dependence, which was talked about but never seriously attempted in the Putin administrations. For this to happen major new investments would have to be made and technology links to the outside strengthened, both hammered by the missteps in 2013-2014. The irony of all this is that Putin gained the support of rural Russians in the countryside in the 2012 presidential elections by promising no return to the economic crisis conditions following earlier ruble collapses. Now by ignoring Kudrin and other wiser counsel from the first and second administrations he does just that.
Linked Articles
Putin’s Year of Defiance and Miscalculation
Wall Street Journal 12/18/2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin Seeks to Reassure on EconomyWall Street Journal 12/18/2014
Obama's second term- (6) failures in foreign policy of the Obama White House in Syria and Iraq and the conflict in historical context
10/07/2014
Linked Articles
Former Defense Chief Panetta Criticizes Obama in New Memoir
Wall Street Journal 10/07/2014
Will Syria Be Obama’s Vietnam?New York Times 10/07/2014
Warnings at a banking conference in Moscow in October 2014, and the ruble on the brink of collapse on Dec. 17, 2014
10/02/2014
The central bank head, Nabiullina, the Economy minister, Ulyukayev, and the head of Russia's largest bank Sberbank, German Gref, all expressed skepticism about president Putin's confidence in economic policy at a banking conference in Moscow in Oct. 2014. The architect of Russia's finances in the first and second terms of Putin, Alexei Kudrin, expressed alarm in Nov.-Dec. 2014 about lack of confidence in economic measures as the ruble took a hit from lower oil prices. The Putin administration made errors in handling economic policy leading to the ruble going to the brink of collapse by Dec. 17, 2014. This was preceded by miscalculations in policy towards the European Union and Germany leading to a loss of international confidence, and deteriorating relations with OPEC's leading member Saudi Arabia leading to OPEC's production decisions hurting Russia.
Linked Articles
Russia Introduces Measures to Calm Economic Jitters
New York Times 12/17/2014
Putin Trumpets Economic Strength, but Advisers Seem Less CertainNew York Times 10/02/2014
Obama's second term- (5) the U.S. president's foreign policy failures in Syria and Iraq seen up close by Clinton and Panetta
08/11/2014
A Defense Secretary and Secretary of State in the Obama administration describe up close president Obama's failure to act at key moments in the crisis in Iraq and Syria. This has badly damaged the U.S. credibility and what it stands for in the Middle East and the rest of the world.
Linked Articles
A Rift in Worldviews Is Exposed as Clinton Faults Obama on Policy
New York Times 08/11/2014
Former Defense Chief Panetta Criticizes Obama in New MemoirWall Street Journal 10/07/2014
Hope and reality in India and Nigeria- The Singh administration in India 2010-2014, and the Jonathan administration in Nigeria 2011-2015
02/21/2014
Are too many young people in the most populous countries of Africa and Asia seeing their hopes dashed and their dreams vanish with the mismanagement of the resources of the country and of the economy? Is the demographic dividend in these countries about to be wasted? Is the goodwill of foreign investors in Europe and the U.S. eager to bring the latest technologies to these countries, as they did in China, about to be wasted by sheer mismanagement and misallocation of resources? These questions are on the minds of young people in Nigeria and India as they rest their hopes on the Buhari and Modi administrations.
Linked Articles
Nigerian Central Bank Governor Ousted
Wall Street Journal 02/21/2014
India Allocated Coal Fields to Private Companies Illegally, Top Court RulesNew York Times 08/25/2014
Faces the U.S. Federal Reserve's Janet Yellen will have in mind as she shapes Fed policies
01/23/2014
The long term unemployed will shape Yellen's thinking on Fed policy in 2014-2015, especially men of working age.
Linked Articles
More Men in Prime Working Ages Don't Have Jobs
Wall Street Journal 02/06/2014
Don’t Expect Job Data Alone to Persuade Fed on RatesNew York Times 01/23/2014
Greece and EU in 2015- (3) How do people in Europe see the European Project? How do Greeks see the European Project?
11/04/2013
Linked Articles
Support for the European Union Is Rising, Survey Suggests
New York Times 06/02/2015
Athens's Love Affair With the Euro PersistsWall Street Journal 11/04/2013
Questions of fairness- could the U.S. government have done more to help homeowners in foreclosure? (2)
09/13/2013
Linked Articles
Fannie, Freddie Payments Nearly Match Aid
Wall Street Journal 11/08/2013
A Toxic Subprime Mortgage Bond's Legacy Lives OnWall Street Journal 09/13/2013
Microsoft and the risks in having directors serve on Boards for long periods of time
07/16/2013
The problems of the lack of new energy and new ideas, and the lack of younger members with fresh perspectives.
Linked Articles
Microsoft Board Shows Little Taste for Bold Choice in CEO
Wall Street Journal 09/02/2013
The 40-Year Club: America's Longest-Serving DirectorsWall Street Journal 07/16/2013
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