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David Brooks on the need for Obama to take a different approach of a dealmaker to build an agreement by finding areas of common thinking between Republicans and Democrats, and negotiate on middle ground with imaginative solutions. He points to the need to keep a distance from the political-entertainment complex, the Tea Party and the Left-Wing, so that prudence in managing the nations finances and building a strong middle class economy with investments in education, infrastructure and human potential prevails over futile ideological battles.

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NPR showed this report on December 2, 2022, which pertains to the debt ceiling vote. About a third of Republican pickups in the Congressional elections came from an unexpected place New York state. These moderates 4 from Long Island alone, come from districts where Democrats are a majority and they risk being defeated if they are not careful to let extreme Republicans get their way in a way that offends New York's voters. This has relevance today because 213 Democrats in the House have signed a petition to force a vote in the House. Five moderate Republicans are all it would take to get the 218 votes to pass lifting the debt ceiling.

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Mike Pompeo is a four term Congressman from Kansas, who was educated at West Point and Harvard Law School, and served for 1 year as CIA Director under president Trump. He now becomes the new Secretary of State for the U.S. after winning Senate nomination 57 to 42. He comes to a State Department that lost top diplomats and suffered from a downsizing effort that has left it demoralized during the period former Exxon CEO Mr. Tillerson headed the department. Pompeo has to meet several challenges including restoring morale in the State Department, better relations with the UN Representative Nikki Haley, setting the best course on the Iran nuclear deal which he now supports, negotiations with North Korea where he was sent as an emissary recently. In doing this he has built trust with president Trump with his intelligence briefings as CIA Director, and his military background brings him closer to Gen. Mattis at the Defense Department. Also a challenge is setting a path for the strained relations with Russia. His first visit is to Brussels and NATO headquarters for discussions with European allies. ...

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Reforms planned by the administration of prime minister, Naoto Kan. Plans to raise the consumption tax, to make changes to social security, and to commit Japan to join the Trans Pacific Partnership. Japan's business community supports the plan to join the free trade community called the Trans Pacific Partnership. This group consists of USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Peru, Chile. South Korea has signed free trade agreements with the USA and the EU, and Japanese business does not want to be left behind.

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Prime Minister May has fended off a cross party attempt in parliament to take control of the Brexit process including an extension to Article 50. The price for this is that May agreed to let parliament vote for or against a no-deal Brexit and for an extension or delay of Brexit.

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The perception of Chrysler's travails from Detroit. "Like a resourceful alley cat, disrespected, starving, kicked around, but tenacious," so begins Detroiter Tom Walsh's colum on June 11, 2009, in the Detroit Free Press. Disrespected by Ford and former Chrysler manager who left at the time Daimler took over Chrysler. Its a skinnier more haggard looking Chrysler, and Fiat may do a complete makeover starting with the product line, a Fiat small car line unlike the guzzzlers Chrysler was known for like the Dodge Ram pickup.

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Anger in Greece at the austerity measures was evident in the results of the April 2012 elections. The two major parties polled even less than the low poll numbers that they expected. The Socialist Pasok party of former premier Papandreou received only 13% of the vote and not the 15-18% expected, the New Democracy party of Antonio Samaras received only 18.8% and not the 25% expected. As a result the two main parties that have ruled Greece received less than one third of the vote combined. The second largest party after New Democracy is now the Coalition of the Radical Left or Syriza, which received 16.78% of the vote. It is led by young Alexis Tsipras, 38, who has said the bailout treaties witht the EU and the IMF were "not salvation, but a tragedy." Syriza opposes the austerity measures and prefers to exit the eurozone. A extremist far right anti-immigrant party New Dawn received 7% of the vote showing the desperate situation. New Democracy's Samaras tried hard but failed to form a government, and under the Greek constitution each party gets a few days to form a government. The outcome is likely to be new elections in June 2012 and a caretaker government appointed by the president....

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A consensus on achieving growth with fiscal consolidation at the Camp David summit of May 2012. France wanted to send a signal to Greece that it should stay in the eurozone. Germany hesitated to do this saying that this would give Greece the message that it could ignore committments made earlier for fiscal reforms. One on one discussions between leaders including Obama and Merkel, and Obama and Hollande, but the way forward remains unclear and is left to responses as events unfold in Greece.

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Zenedin Zidane returns to coach Real Madrid team but fails to make an impact, winning only half of the games played. His predecessor had a better record of 68% winning games. Team owner Perez and Zidane have differences on how the team should be rebuilt. Sergio Ramos has 2 years left on his contract but the club may not renew it. Zidane wanted Paul Pogba to join Real Madrid but Paris St. Germain is not cooperating.  Other players on the way out may be James Rodriguez, Gareth Bale. WIth so much uncertainty the close rapport between Zidane and the players is a thing of the past. That rapport helped Zidane lead Real Madrid to winning 3 Champions League titles. He took this job because Perez called and Zidane lives in Madrid. Jose Mourinho is reported to be the alternative to Zidane. His predecessor was in the job for 4 months before Zidane was brought in by Perez. More changes including Zidane, as his relationship with Perez is fraying, would leave Real Madrid in an even more unpredictable situation. ...

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Becky Branford of BBC News gives five reasons for Emmanual Macron's win in the French presidential election. She cites experts who say Macron was lucky, had a canny ability to see the timing was right for a new party to be formed so that socialist voters had an alternative. His luck comes from the failure of Republican centre right party Fillon to mobilize right wing voters following reports that he had hired his wife and children for government jobs. Yet this is not a complete explanation. Macron had the intuition that something was happening in French politics and the courage to act on it early, the youthful energy to take up the challenge of a mass movement. The events were the declining popularity of the socialists, and the fragmentation of the left wing, the uncertain prospects of the Sarkozy effort at comeback because of his image from years in power, and the need to counter growing far right support for the National Front- to do this by offering an alternative in the centre. From that one courageous decision things from that point fell into place as the Republican party also failed to attract strong public support.  A mere 24% of the vote enabled Macron to enter the second round. Macron's grasp of the economy and conviction helped him win the final debate with Le Pen decisively. His sense of his own mission to revive the idea of Europe sustained him against attacks from the far right, including the late cyber attack on his emails in the last 24 hours.  Macron could still have prevailed over Le Pen without the strong campaign for staying on a positive message and confidence in his ability to turn France's economy around. Yet without a margin of victory of this size in the face of abstaining voters from the far left, Macron as president would not have looked the same. The next step is parliamentary elections in June, and governing France with a turnaround plan requires winning a majority in parliament of sufficient magnitude that he can implement a program which makes the French economy as competitive as Germany's. People forget that Germany was considered a economy with high unemployment and not as competitive under the Schroeder administrations that preceded Angela Merkel, this includes the French with the layers of pessimism. Emmanuel Macron deserves credit not for winning, but winning with the idea of Europe, and it has done as much for him from the French people who have put their faith in Europe when the chips are down, as he has done for Europe already. How this helps put a turnaround in the economy in place is that he will have the energy and enthusiasm of Germany behind him, as well as the energy of French industry and young people to do what Germany accomplished in the 2000-2010 period to emerge from years of high unemployment with a strong economy. ...

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Liverpool fans sing this song on Portugal's Diogo Jota from Clearwater Revival, the lines are-

"Oh, he wears the No 20 / He will take us to victory / And when he’s running down the left wing / He’ll cut inside and score for LFC / He’s a lad from Portugal / Better than Figo don’t you know / Oh, his name is Diogo!”

The roaring fans of the Liverpool Football Club in England remember Diogo Jota, the Portugal soccer player who won people's hearts. He died in a car accident.

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Questions are raised after a 16% drop in Faniie's share price and 18% drop in Freddie's share price whether the common equity in both will have any value left once the housing crisis has taken its toll. If capital raining by Fannie and Freddie do not get done at the right size which could be upto $46 billion of capital for Fannie and $26 billion for Freddie according to a Lehman Brothers report then the government may be forced to do something like takeover Fannie and Freddie leaving shareholders with pennies.

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Erlanger and Smale of the NYT describe the reaction in Europe, from Chatham House in London, Bruegel think tank in Brussels, and the German Council of Foreign Relations in Berlin, to the election results in the first round in France. There is a sense of relief that the poll results held and that Macron is the front runner, yet a sense that the issues of social justice, taking account of the marginalized need to be addressed. The parliamentary elections in June, soon after the second round of voting, are also seen as a factor as governing without the support of the legislature would mean very little gets done. For the first time the main parties are not being represented in the presidential office, with a fractured Socialist party and the Republican Party candidate not in the second round.  The Dutch elections, followed by the French and German elections could push back the populism in a negative direction of withdrawing from the global community and openness in the economy.  The economic reform message of  Macron resonates in Germany, as France suffers from high unemployment and needs to build a stronger economy. A stronger French economy is the sure way to bring French people together after the divisions of the current election.       ...

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The 32 year old leader of the movement called Five Star started by comedian Beppe Grillo in Italy, Luigi Maio, now leads the effort to form a government in Italy. The M5S party party won 32% of the vote in Italy's 2018 elections. The Northern League a far right party based on the region near Milan led by Matteo Salvini, came in second. In combination with Berlusconi's Forza Italia it has 37% of the vote, not enough to form a government on its own. The M5S is a centre left party which shares euroskepticism with the Northern League, but remains a centrist party that has little in common with the Northern League and Berlusconi. The FIve Star Movement sees fresh elections as the only next step as it sees no chance of a coalition with the far right parties.   

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The famous Chilean author of books including: A Long Petal of the Sea, talks to the BBC about her life and travels, about her home country Chile. She left Chile in 1975, spent 13 years in Venezuela and three decades in California. Here she talks about Chile as Pablo Neruda describes it as that long petal on the sea, a country with an insular mentality surrounded by high Andes range, Patagonia, and the Atacama desert. She is not entirely critical of Chile's development under the administrations that came after the dictatorship years. Chile has some upward mobility, the economic conditions have improved compared to the rest of Latin America even though a lot remains to be done. The events in Venezuela show the limits of regimes that have attempted change. Even with administrations from both ends of the spectrum Argentina has turned to the IMF in economic crisis the last in 2018. Brazil has seen a commodities boom followed by a severe bust, and the lack of funding for basic services including sanitation and health. This gives a sobering view of the economic situation in Latin America. Allende says Chile has modernized and created prosperity though at some social cost.  Isabel Allende is still nostalgic about her home country and still calls it home as she reaches 75 years, with a world wide audience for her books in 42 languages, 70 million copies sold. ...

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Angela Merkel's handling of the coronavirus crisis wins praise from world leaders and leaders in Germany. Public opinion from Argentina and New Zealand to Britain and the U.S. gives her a lot of credit for the way she has tackled the situation. She now has the highest approval ratings in Germany since 2017, after a period of 2 years during which her popularity waned with the migrant crisis.  Much of her period in office was consumed by crises- the eurozone financial crisis, the migrant crisis, and now the coronavirus crisis. She brings her style of a scientist rationally looking at the situation, her experience, and her willingness to take bold positions under much criticism. Today even one of the premiers in Thuringia from the socialist Left party praises Merkel for being "pleasantly calm and goal oriented, particularly evident in the well structured video and telephone conferences." He says he prefers a leader "a quiet scientist" rather than "pompous men who as populists, dangerously ignore the facts of the danger." Merkel now assumes the 6 month presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1.  Germany faces the future in rebuilding its economy, in rebuilding its infrastructure and public services, for now Merkel provides the leadership needed for this time. As Andreas Nick, vice president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe puts it she is "always analytically scrutinizing and carefully weighing up, soberly Protestant and refreshingly unpretentious, a trained scientist with life experience in the downfall of an all too self-confident ideological system."   ...

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Biden issued executive order on June 3, 2024 to close the Border with Mexico and deny asylum. Once border crossings reach 2500 a day the border is closed. Then it is opened only when crossings drop to 1500 a day and after 14 days. Officially permitted including humanitarian parole pathways are limited to 1500 a day. This is being done because the legislation that passed in the US Senate on bipartisan basis negotiated for closing the Border with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Republicans and Senator Lankford (R) was blocked in the Senate by Mike Johnson on instructions of Mr. Trump who sought to use it as an election issue. "Today I’m moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border,” said president Biden. The signs “SECURING OUR BORDER” were prominent in the White House East Room. “Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation,” he added, “but Republicans left me with no choice.” On this page the WSJ looks at the Border on August 5, 2024 and finds the border crossings have dropped to levels in 2020 and to levels seen during the last year of president Trump. The US and Mexico have cut border crossings with Mexico moving migrants back to southern Mexico in a Chutes and Ladders program where migrants head north, and the Mexican gocernment buses them back south, at which point some return to their home countries. At the Guatemala border there is busing to take them to other locations in the south of Mexico. ...

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Biden issued executive order on June 3, 2024 to close the Border with Mexico and deny asylum. Once border crossings reach 2500 a day the border is closed. Then it is opened only when crossings drop to 1500 a day and after 14 days. Officially permitted including humanitarian parole pathways are limited to 1500 a day. This is being done because the legislation that passed in the US Senate on bipartisan basis negotiated for closing the Border with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Republicans and Senator Lankford (R) was blocked in the Senate by Mike Johnson on instructions of Mr. Trump who sought to use it as an election issue. "Today I’m moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border,” said president Biden. The signs “SECURING OUR BORDER” were prominent in the White House East Room. “Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation,” he added, “but Republicans left me with no choice.” On this page the WSJ looks at the Border on August 5, 2024 and finds the border crossings have dropped to levels in 2020 and to levels seen during the last year of president Trump. The US and Mexico have cut border crossings with Mexico moving migrants back to southern Mexico in a Chutes and Ladders program where migrants head north, and the Mexican gocernment buses them back south, at which point some return to their home countries. At the Guatemala border there is busing to take them to other locations in the south of Mexico. ...

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Are there constituent "nations" or "nationalities and regions" in Spain? Seven people drafted the Spanish Constitution that was signed by King Juan Carlos I of Spain in 1978. Two from Catalan region wanted the word "nations" instead of "nationalities and regions" instead the pro-Spain supporters including aformer minister in the Franco government wanted to keep the words "nationalities" to limit the interpretation of self-government to one that would be within Spain. Today a far right party wants to se the clauses that give self government to regions and nationalities removed from the Constitution. Catalan independence supporters say the Constitution allows the right to call a referendum. Left parties see the promises for housing, healthcare and pensions as too vague in the Constitution. What was seen as a huge advance in the early years of democracy in Spain are now seen as creating room for dissension and strife in Spain, with a fragmentation in the political parties and loss of confidence in the two main parties.   ...

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New estimates of the coronavirus cases and deaths show Peru having twice as many than estimated before. Peru has the world's highest mortality rate per capita in the world. Most of the jobs were pushed into the informal sector in the last 2 decades. This is also true of Columbia and other Latin American countries. During the first and second wave of the coronavirus these people in informal jobs were the hardest hit having little access to health care. In Colombia the result of the stress from the pandemic and the other problems have led to street demonstrations and violence. The president Ivan Duque lacking public support faces violent street protests. Duque who is from former president Uribe's party won the electon in a runoff with a former leftist guerilla leader Gustav Petro who was Mayor of Bogota. Uribe and Duque had not supported the peace agreement with the rebel left movement in Colombia negotiated by presiddent Santos.  In Peru the election is between Mrs. Fujimori from the Fujimori family and a Marxist politician Castillo. The problems in the informal economy during the pandemic have led to the election of Castillo as the next president. Many of Latin America's problems from Brazil to neighboring countries remain unresolved even as Asian countries have moved forward, with lack of basic access to sanitation, tap water, health care and education, and lacking basic infrastructure. The pandemic has shown the weakness in decades of development in Latin America.   ...

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This report by Juan Montes in the WSJ shows how much Lopez Obrador has changed since he lost by a small margin in the 2006 Mexico presidential election. His campaign manager, Tatiana Clouthier, says broadening his appeal to women, evangelicals, middle class Mexicans, rich and poor, is needed for Obrador to win in 2018. In elections in 2006 and 2012 Obrador continued to be seen as the candidate only of the working class. An effort is being made to change this image. Obrador, 64 years old from the party of the left, formed his own party in 2010 after leaving the PRD party. He is a former mayor of Mexico City. Five recent polls show Obrador leading by an average of 7.5 points over Ricardo Analya, the PAN candidate for president which now has the support of the PRD. PAN on the right and PRD on the left are other opposition parties. PAN party formed the government under Felipe Calderon before the current PRI president Nieto now tainted by corruption scandals became president in 2012. If he were to win Obrador would change the way Mexico was governed for 5 decades. His first step would be to review the 91 exploration contracts given by the government under the Nieto administration to check for signs of graft. Corruption is a key platform of the parties running against the current government of president Nieto, for both Obrador and the PAN/PRD alliance candidate Anaya. Obrador says he would keep balanced budget deficits and respect the central bank's autonomy. The shift would be from the current export model that Mexico has supported for 35 years, to one based on import substitution policies, higher salaries, and more government spending for education, jobs programs, healthcare, new oil refineries. With the Trump administration's stance on trade and immigration Mexicans are now showing anger and frustration, with 75% of Mexicans in a Reforma poll looking for change. Both the PAN/PRD and its new face in Ricardo Analya, 38 years old, and the Obrador party see corruption and with it in the Mexican context the rule of law as a key issue.  ...

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Barley points out the resignation of prime minister Monti in Italy is not a cause for panic, as his likely successor Luigi Bersani, head of the centre left Democratic party which leads in the polls with its electoral alliance having about 43% support, has committed to following through with Monti's policies and committments to the EU. Berlusconi is not the factor he once was with only 15% support in the polls, and anti establishment parties opposing public corruption such as Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement appealing to younger people have about 20% support changing the political landscape in Italy. Other factors favoring Italy- a lower level of debt redemption in 2013 of 158 billion euros compared to 200 billion euros for 2012 will lower Italian bond issuance, Italy's primary budget surplus, the Italian economy bottoming out, and credit conditions improving. Year to date Italian bonds have returned 19.5%, and he sees no reason for an exit from Italian bonds. If polls continue to show a committment to the policies introduced by Monti, Italian bonds will continue to be attractive for investors. By setting Italy on the path to restoring and strengthening governance Monti has removed a key element for volatility in Italian bonds....

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The Obama administration's misleading statements about the true nature of events during the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Intelligence officials providing testimony to Congress say there were no spontaneous demonstrations before the attack as stated in the administration's version, and efforts to protect the diplomatic mission were stymied by the State Dept and officials in the Obama administration. A dangerous situation was left without the needed attention and action, leading to the tragedy for America's diplomatic mission and the loss of life for brave diplomats helping the Libyan people struggle for freedom.

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This report in the WSJ says several forecasts for GDP growth in the U.S. economy for the third quarter show seasonally adjusted annual growth of over 3 percent. This includes Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta with GDPNow model predicting 3%, Macroeconomic Advisors 3.1%, Oxford Economics predicting 3%.

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Everyone over 50 years is to be given the vaccine in just a few months of 2021 by the NHS. A massive logistics and training effort is underway. The government changed the law to let student doctors, physiotherapists, and dental workers to give the vaccine. Retired doctors and nurses are called in. Britain has a war effort to counter antivaccine propaganda unlike other countries such as France and Germany. Compare that 79% of Britons are seeking the vaccine, 54% in France and 64% in the U.S. showing that the UK is doing a much better job. Vaccination starts next week for over 80 year old people. The world is watching.