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Changing bank loan payments from 36 to 72 or 82 payments and bank's confidence to make new credit available at interest rates of abot 12% has created a boom in auto sales with 2.46 million cars sold in 2007, according to the National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers, and car factories operating at near or full capacity. GM showed improved results last quarter largely on the basis of its Brazilian operations profits. Inflation at yearend 2007 was 4.5% and Brazil is experiencing a boom based on its commodity exports of iron ore, and other commodities. Foreign investment doubled last year to $34.6 billion, much of it going into the stock market, and the Brazilian currency is strong. And the Lula administration has also put money int he hand os the poor in Brazil so that the boom is more equally shared. The increase in availability of credit is in high double digits for everything from cars, and homes to consumer items like washing machines and televisions, because its starting from a low base as is true of most of Latin America where because of high inflation and interest rates banks were reluctant to lend and borrowers could not afford the high interest rates. Now home mortgages are available for 12% and car loans for 14%, still high but much better by Brazilian standards with extended payment terms. About 20 million more people are able to buy on credit with this new availability of credit according to Mr. Ferreira, President of the National Association of Credit, Financing and Investment Institutions. If interest rates drop further this boom will get new momentum as even more people will be attracted to buying on credit. The volume of outstanding credit in Brazil in February was 35% of GDP, the is compares to eurozone numbers of 116% for domestic credit to the private sector according to the World Bank figures for 2006, and 201% in the USA and 419% in Japan. Mr. Ferreira predicts that the proportion of personal debt to GDP would rise from 38% to 40% this year and increase by 3% each year to 2013....

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A discussion on the drying up of capital available to the financial institutions for deleveraging, and the way deveraging puts even more pressure on home prices and lower consumer spending also puts pressure on housing prices by delaying a housing recovery. And the pros and cons of letting Lehman Brothers fail. Sovereign wealth funds are losing money on their investments as stock prices of these firms fall, and their investments are worth much less, resulting in criticism at home. Korean economy has problems of its own so regulators in Korea were not eager to support state owned Korea Development Bank taking a large stake in Lehman. When Mr Fuld, Lehman's CEO stood out for a better deal they may have flagged their concerns to KDB negotiators. And middle eastern sovereign funds are looking for better opportunities in other parts of the world like India, Asia or closer to home. Private Equity funds which have about $450 billion are not able to increase stakes above 25% because of regulations that make them bank holding companies subject to regulators when they go above that limit. Private equity funds like Blackstone and Carlyle are asking for these restrictions to be lifted to be able to invest more in capital starved financial institutions. Meanwhile with share prices plummeting with Lehman losing 90% of its share price it will be harder to raise capital. Merrill lost 17% of its share price in one day so it affects other institutions. Regarding the pros and cons of letting a firm fail the Fed's and Treasury's fear is that markets today are bound together by complex financial instrments like credit default swaps and certain money market instruments that firms and regulators have limited experience handling in a crisis and the concern is that letting a firm fail might have ripple effects. Regulators are addressing the clearing and settling of these instruments but still need time to finish. And there is no formal procedure for disposing off the assets of an investment bank if it fails. And behind all this is the realization as Lawrence Meyer, a former Fed governor, who is vice Chairman of Macroeconomic Advisors LLC puts it : "There's no trend of improvement. It's not improving even slowly." ...

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Millions of people who are first time users for whom affordability is an issue in countries from Nigeria, Ivory Coast to India, Indonesia, are connecting to the internet. This time not with smartphones made by Samsung or cheaper Chinese smartphones made by Xiaomi or Huawei, but by using a new smart feature phone that cuts down the price such as the Jio phone by Reliance Jio in India. This costs only about $25 compared to $100 to about $300 for lower cost smartphones These phones provide basic features, some apps, messaging, internet access at low cost. About 3.4 billion people without the money to buy costlier smartphones are turning to this just like people did 20 years ago with lowcost Nokia basic phones until smartphones appeared. Monthly cost for mobile data access to internet is $2.50 a month for all the mobile data he needs or Rs. 1750. Batteries last for days in countries where electricity is unreliable. A fruit vendor in New Delhi makes $80 a month or  Rs 5600. A Jio phone fo him costs Rs 1400 compared to paying Rs 7000 or $100 for a Chinese smartphone. Reliance partnered with Hong Kong's KaiOS Technologies Inc. which makes the most widely used operating system powering smart feature phones. Jio sold 60 million Jio phones and 370 million such smart feature basic phones are forecast to be sold in 3 years by 2022. Reliance Jio is being imitated by others. Orange SA of France has launched an inexpensive smart feature phone bundled with inexpensive mobile data plans in Ivory Coast, Burkina Fso and Cameroon and plans to put this in other former French colonies in Africa and Arab countries. WizPhone plans to introduce a $7 phone in Indonesia. KaiOS is working with Brazilian manufacturers to roll out cheap phones there.  In advanced countries Nokia is offering revamped versions of its candy bar shaped phones with added web access to enthusiasts. These cost $100. A whole new group of people who could not afford a smart phone are now being connected after Jio's pioneering effort in India. ...

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Dow Chemical announces a price increase of 20% on its products, which are used for diapers, plastic wrap and other consumer products. Dow says its oil and gas related costs are up 42% in the first quarter 2008 over 2007.

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Dirk Kurbjuweit of Spiegel says Merkel needs to show strong leadership to overcome the challenges with the rise of right wing populists in the U.S., Britain and France. He points to the leadership shown in the latter part of Kohl's term in office to promote German reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The challenges include talking to the German people directly in a convincing way, and meeting the day to day challenges of life for the people with investments in education, health care, infrastructure so that people see real significant improvement. It is even necessary to reorder priorities such as the shift from nuclear energy so that this challenge is met. It is not enough to hope that more Christian Democrats turn out to vote than Social Democrats, that the fifth of Germans who feel the economy is not working for them and feel threatened by immigration see real changes being made to address their concerns.

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Efforts by the Obama administration to persuade the credit ratings agencies not to downgrade the credit ratings on U.S. Treasury securities. As deficit reduction talks stalled in July 2011 credit ratings agencies considered a downgrade. John Chambers of S&P says political leaders must agree to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years to be sure there will be no downgrade. Cuts less than that could lead to a downgrade, according to S&P.

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Nizhar Mhani, a 30 year old oral surgeon in Cardiff, Britain, returns to Libya in Febrary as democracy protests erupted in Tripoli. Here he decribes his activities in the Tripoli underground resistance movement. He used a satellite dish to inform people in the capital. His activities included draping the old black, red and green Libyan flag on bridges at night and painting it on roads, and set up loudspeakers on street corners broadcasting the old Libyan national anthem.

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IMF economist Oliver Blanchard, says the euro's depreciation vis-a-vis the dollar "would be a good thing." Because "in a way Europe needs it more than the U.S., and the U.S. could probably offset it in some way." The IMF forecast is for a 0.3% contraction in the eurozone in 2012 and growth at 0.7% in 2013. Blanchard says a drop in the euro exchange rate of 10% would normally boost growth in GDP by 1.4%.

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The competing choices offered between the Romney-Ryan ticket and the Obama-Biden ticket in the 2012 U.S. presidential election on how large the government should be. Romney-Ryan would keep U.S. government spending to around 19-20% of GDP, closer to its historical average, compared to around 22-23% for the Obama-Biden Democratic approach. The difference is in the approach with Republicans counting on reduced uncertainty for private sector investment to grow and generate jobs.

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Oracle's account of the meeting of Mark Hurd and the M&A head at Oracle with Mike Lynch of Autonomy and his banker Frank Quattrone. After the meeting in which slides were presented to shop Autonomy to Oracle, Oracle stated that Autonomy's then market value of $6 billion was "extremely overpriced." In the end H-P ignored these warning signals and paid over $10 billion for Autonomy. Mike Lynch denied he had shopped the company to Oracle.

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Years of neglect under the Mubarak government have led to a situation in which Egypt imports 80% of its wheat supplies and agricultural products. Corruption in the sale of fertile land to developers for building homes, lack of electric supplies to farmers to pump water, lack of investment in infrastructure and irrigation, and the liberalization efforts which led to farmers diversifying from wheat into more profitable products such as fruit and flowers, have led to the current situation.

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The employment-to-population ratio for people aged 20-24 fell to 60.1% from 67.1% in the last 3 years. Prof. Katz says young people who have not entered the labor force and a large number of people who have applied for disability benefits are problem areas. The unemployment rate of 9.4% does not reflect the people who have given up looking for a job, or those who retired, and those who applied for long-term disability benefits.

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The IMF commmittment to troubled European economies is large, at $320 billion, 40% of its theoretical financing capacity, and exceeds its role in the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Concern that the IMF is now helping politicians protect the eurozone. And fears that the lack of the option of devaluing currency leaves too much of the burden on cutting spending in the midst of a recession. Deficit reduction in the current situation will take years to happen.

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Ideas for tuning the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York into something like the pedestrian walkway and bicycle pathway similiar to the popular Walkway Over the Hudson. Work on a new $5 billion bridge to replace the Tappan Zee is expected to begin by spring 2013. Governor Cuomo calls it "an exciting option." Costs for demolishing the old bridge would run to $150 millon. Conversion of the bridge would create added open space in the Lower Hudson Valley.

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The difficulties Microsoft is having in integrating Skype into its products even as the use of Skype increases by 26%. This is similiar to the situation EBay faced when Microsoft acquired Skype from EBay in 2011. Skype users are now estimated at 250 million Microsoft has given Skype management special autonomy with its head offices and president Bates located in Silicon Valley. Microsoft CEO Ballmer say it is importaant that Skype work well on all platforms and devices.

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Anand Chaturvedi, an executive for Korean Company Doosan Infracore- which acquired Bobcat from Ingersoll Rand- and his wife Garima, a doctor in internal medicine, both in their mid 30's, and their lives between two continents. Chaturvedi works for Doosan in Atlanta and Garima set up the diabetes clinic in Udaipur, Rajasthan. A couple's unique way of working to provide help to deal with diabetes in India, as a way of honoring a brother who died of cancer.

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U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sees negative perceptions increase after media scrutiny of fund raising efforts in a WSJ/NBC poll April 26-30, 2011. The poll shows negative perceptions increased to 42% from 36% in an earlier March 2015 poll. The percentage of people who consider her honest and straightforward went down sharply from 38% in summer 2014 to 25% in this poll. Hillary Clinton still has loyalty within the Democratic base with 76% approval.

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Financial firms in the U.S. S&P 500 are expected to increase 4th quarter 2013 profits over prior year by 24%, according to FactSet. Increase in long term interest rates increases the spread between short term rates that banks borrow at and the long term rates at which banks lend, easing the pressures on bank's net interest margin that were present as the Fed lowered rates. Prospects of recovery and increased lending improves the prospects for banks in 2014.

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A strong demand for U.S. corporate bonds in the 1st quarter 2014. Corporate borrowing on the bond market in the U.S. increased to $317 billion for the 1st quarter, according to Dealogic, the highest since 2009's 1st quarter figure of $347 billion. Combining price appreciation and interest payments high grade U.S. corporate bonds returned 2.94% for the 1st quarter of 2014, according to Barclays PLC. In comparison the S&P 500 total return was 1.81%.

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Only 5% of Australian grain farmers trust Archer Daniel Midlands, according to a survey in the Land newspaper. Grain farmers are launching a campaign to have the government stop a deal for ADM's acquisition of GrainCorp. GrainCorp controls about 60% of the Australian grain transportation and storage system for wheat, barley, canola and other grains. ADM's past history of corporate actions has created a sense that the company may not be a reliable partner for Australian farmers.

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Losses and layoff at Qantas Airways as it faces increasing competition. On domestic routes price competition from Virgin Australia has reduced prices by 20% for business class compared to 2003 adjusted for inflation, according to Australia's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. The mining boom had provided Qantas with higher margins in domestic flights to distant locations within Australia. Qantas also faces competition from Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand, all airlines with state backing.

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Innovation Network Corporation of Japan will invest 140 billion yen in Renesas and take a two thirds stake in the company. This is an effort to restore and strengthen Japan's semiconductor industry. Renesas has struggled to cope with falling chip prices and the effects of the tsunami. The company posted a loss of 150 billion yen for the year ending March 2012. Renesas was formed in 2003 by merging the chipmaking operations of Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC Corp.

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Efforts by the Chinese government to control a bubble in housing prices in 2012- 2013 include a 20% capital gains tax on property transactions. Sales volume for real estate developers in Shanghai in the last quarter of 2012 was up 63% over the prior year, according to real estate agency SouFun. Prices increased by 26% for that period. China Overseas Land and Investment shares were up 46% over the prior year on the Hong Kong market.

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Acer President Gianfranco Lani says the company will ship between 10 million and 12 million netbooks in 2009, and 32 million to 35 million laptops including netbooks, which suggests that netbooks which sell for as low as $200 are almost half of its laptop/netbook sales. This shift and the pricing and sales pressures in the global economy resulted in a31% dropin profit, and operating margins dropping to 2.2% in the first quarter 2009, compared to 4th quarter 2008.