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Matteo Renzi's effort to push electoral reforms that would give the elected party or coalition a stronger mandate to govern than the current system, which has made Italy less governable. Stronger government action is needed to pull Italy out of the economic slump, with 12% unemployment and production down in December 2013, say business and industry leaders. Confindustria, Italy's major business association, expressed its sentiment: "We are worried that time is passing and nothing is happening." Renzi and prime minister Letta are from the same Democratic Party. Renzi was recently elected party leader. He has expressed doubts about the pace of change under the Letta administration.

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Raghuram Rajan, former chief economist at the IMF, and William White, former head of the economics department at Bank for International Settlements, both see the need to raise rates. But expert opinion on the other side sees the need for caution as the economic outlook worsens, and supports ECB and US Fed's efforts to counteract a deteriorating economic situation.

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Barney Frank, of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, is interviewed by the New York Times one year after the passage of the legislation. He says we did not punt anything, it was because the legislators couldn't get everything right that they set up the provision for extensive rule making. He would rather forget financial matters as they are not his strong point, he has learnt more about repos and derivatives than he ever wanted. Critics have pointed to the extensive rule making delegated to regulators in Dodd Frank as a major weakness. It makes Dodd-Frank as effective as the regulators want it to be, something that goes back to an earlier period before 2008 when lack of regulatory discipline led to the financial crisis. He gives the regulatory agencies CFTC and the S.E.C. good grades for writing some of the rules because of the difficult conditions they face. His main fear is the stalling by Republicans in Congress and efforts to weaken the law by crimping resources for the agencies. And he fears the Republicans with support from the banking industry see the 2012 presidential elections as an opportunity to reverse the legislation....

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The 2011 State of the Union address by President Obama. A calculated effort to move the debates that will frame the future election to a different place. He emphasizes the importance of investing in the future, in global competitiveness, through spending on education, infrastructure, alternative energy and other projects. But there was little in the way of specifics for reducing the high jobless rate which stands at 9.4%. And little in the way of specifics of how the investments in the future for global competitiveness and infrastructure spending are to be achieved. Especially when the fiscal imbalances are growing after the compromise on the Bush tax cuts and the passage of health care legislation. The Washington Post says that a majority of Americans approve of his overall performance, yet they are generally negative in their evaluation of how the Obama administration and President Obama has handled key issues relating to the economy. And this is more so among independent voters who will be crucial in the 2012 elections....

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Kristof reminds readers of the NYT that the more that the British acted to suppress the American insurgents, the more that fueled the insurgents fighting the British. After all the land they were on was theirs they felt and not Britain's. The same is true for the $0 million Pastuns on both sides of the border, the Afghan side and the Pakistan side. He says Americans are not sensitive enough to nationalism abroad. The war in Afghanistan is costing $60 billion ayear. Adding another 40,000 troops will cost $10 billion, enough to send 2 million disadvantaged children to a solid preschool, or could be as high as $40 billion extra, which over 10 years would pay for almost half of health care reform. Kristof doesn't see the 40,000 troops doing enough to change the picture much, except increasing support for Taliban as the American footprint grows as foreign occupiers. He mentions that standard counterinsurgency ratios of troops to civilians would require 650,000 troops including Afghans.

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Samsung's decision to go with Android rather than its own inhouse developed software for its smartphones, and the execution of the new plan, was pivotal in its recent success. This is what differentiates it from Nokia and Research in Motion, companies which decided to develop their own software. In the case of Nokia, it made a costly switch from its Symbian software to Microsoft software. Samsung's other business in chipmaking is not as profitable, with margins dropping to 9.5%. Operating profit declined in the fourth quarter in the chip business, dropping by half from the prior quarter. The rapid changes with one costly error changing the whole playing field, also shows the precarious nature of the mobile phone business with changing leaders every few years, from Motorola to Nokia, to Samsung and Apple.

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William Daley, the head of Washington lobbying for JPMorgan Chase, is appointed Chief of Staff to President Obama. He also serves on the board of directors of Boeing and Abbott Labs, companies which a strong interest in Washington lobbying. William Daley is with Chase since 2004, and was hired primarily to strengthen Chase's Chicago connections. In the past he has served as the main liasion with the White House. In 2007 he joined the bank's senior leadership as head of its new Office of Corporate Social Responsibility, which oversees the company's global lobbying efforts.

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The director of research at one of two cybersecurity companies that monitors disinformation used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to analyze and give reports on the Russian disinformation activities 2014-2017, shares her conclusions. Information from Facebook, Google and Twitter was turned over to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, which in turn handed it over to the two cybersecurity companies for analysis and reports. The Russian disinformation activities have continued in 2018, according to DeResta. The domestic propagandists and actors have taken these methods and used it to target sub groups, expanding the scope of these activities. The advertising related segmentation provided by these companies gives a ready made tool to easily target subgroups in the U.S. population. The viral activity arising from this means the message is carried over to other groups. As a result many groups are affected, affecting how democracy works through vigorous, yet intelligent debate. Explicit bias happens in election campaigns yet this is not spread through anonymous sources that are not identified and whose interests are known, as in disinformation efforts in a medium that spreads information quickly and without any depth whatsoever. For some minority subgroups the effects as ubiquitous, says the report. This report concludes that it is the responsibility of government, private organizations and individuals, and the tech companies combined to tackle this, as tech companies do not have the resources to deal with it. Its not enough to adjust how you sell advertising as tech companies are doing, says the report. The whole ecosystem of information is being compromised in multiple and still not fully understood ways, making it essential that a comprehensive solution with multiple combined efforts address it effectively. ...

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Gerson describes Obama's failure to connect in 2012, compared to the 2008 campaign. What is left is more of the politician from the South Side of Chicago, the idealism of an earlier campaign is gone. What is left is a supposed ruthlessness that is opportunistic at every turn, says Gerson.

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Just before the general elections of Feb 24-25 in Italy, the centre left PD party of Luigi Bersani sees its 12 point lead over the coalition of Silvio Berlusconi go down to 6 points. Former EU commissioner and prime minister in 2012, Mario Monti, has 14 points. The maverick Five Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo has the support of younger voters looking for a break from the past in Italian politics with 15 points. Italy's election rules automatically gives the coalition with the largest number of votes a 55% majority in the lower house of parliament. In the Senate a similiar rule gives a majority on a regional basis. For the eurozone the best outcome is for a Bersani win. Bersani looks to the Monti coaliton, which has the support of Italy's business community, for credibility and backing. The Economist provides an insight into how Italy lost competitiveness and income per capita stagnated in Italy in the last two decades. The dynamism of the sixties and seventies is missing, Italy's infrastructure is old and needs to be modernized, the productivity growth is negligible, and application of new technologies for productivity in many sectors is lagging. Political mismanagement under Berlusconi and other administrations before him has led to an entrenched stagnation and Italy badly needs to get out of this. Italy and Portugal are the only two countries with a lower per capita real income in 2013 compared to 1999, when the euro was launched. Unit labor costs have risen, and productivity has declined in the last two decades leading to lost competitiveness. The inability to resort to devaluations, and the lagging application of technology in many sectors, has increased the lack of competitiveness, with the economy becoming dependent on higher public spending, higher public debt. The result is higher unemployment at 11% and youth unemployment at 36%, infrastructure that is old and badly needs modernizing. Foreign investment is small, and the cost of doing business higher, including electricity rates 50% higher than the European average, R&D spending low, all of which need to be reversed for Italy to grow. But there is hope. The Economist cites an OECD report that shows the Monti government's reforms in regulatory, labor-markets, product-markets, can generate 4 points of GDP growth in the next decade. An IMF report of Jan 2013 looks at proposed reforms in energy, transport, professional services, judicial system and public services and more labor-market improvements, with the larger impact when done in combination, could add 5.7% to GDP growth in 5 years, and 10.7% in 10 years. Adding changes to taxation and shifting public spending towards investment for growth increases the figure to 21.9%....

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Bond and derivative deals made between U.S. banks and Jefferson County in Alabama have resulted in steep losses and higher taxes to pay for the losses. Spencer Bachus represents Jefferson County in the U.S. Congress. He also received $7.1 million from financial companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. J.P. Morgan Chase which arranged the deal for Jefferson County, is also the largest contributor for the political campaign donations to Bachus.

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Unemployment in the eurozone drops to 7.7% in 2017. Unemployment in Spain drops to 17%.

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Fiat-Chrysler's Sergio Marchionne tells an automotive conference that the new fuel efficiency targets proposed by the Obama administration will be "an incredible stimulus for the American auto industry." He is confident that the new 2025 standards can be achieved. He said the industry had a bad habit of crying wolf and emphasized the need to get there so that the U.S. auto industry could be at the forefront of the changes taking place. He also cautioned the industry to not get comfortable with China's role as an emerging market that helped increase global sales. That growth is slowing and it presents another potential risk for the automakers- the potential for China to export 10% of what it makes to overseas markets including the U.S. and Europe. All of which increases the urgency of building the industrial base and competitiveness of the automotive industry in the U.S.

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Krugman says earlier profits at Citigroup and BofA were a figment of the accountants imagination. Both announced losses for the third quarter. He says the moment for radical action for banks has passed but now its all upto luck that even as the banks are not lending job growth can be supported. Beyond that there is he says a desperate need for financial reforms.

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The president of the Pew Research Center, Andrew Kohut, says Romney was an especially weak candidate for Republicans and this has to be taken into account in understanding the results of the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Romney failed when it came to establishing empathy with voters compared with Obama and this was a significant factor- 53% to 43% for Romney in exit polls. Even on the economy which should have been a Republican strong point Romney failed to get an advantage over the president with both tied at 48% to 49% for Romney. Republicans were favored in their approach to government- only 43% favored activist government in 2012 compared to 52% in 2008, and 49% disapproved of the Obama health care law and only 44% approving in 2012. On social issues exit polls showed 59% believe abortion should be made legal, and on immigration 65% support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Early in the primaries some commentators said the Republicans were not fielding strong candidates for president who could relate to voters and this has turned out to be true. This also explains the Republicans retaining a majority in the House of Representatives and continuing the hold on governorships. ...