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Speaking at a banking conference, advisors including the head of Russia's largest retail bank Sberbank, German Gref, minister of the economy, Aleksei Ulyukayev, and head of the central bank , Elvira Nabiullina, express deep concern about the economic prospects in 2015. Foreign investment is down from about $90 billion in the 1st quarter of 2013 to a negligible amount in the 3rd quarter of 2014. Capital outflows following the Ukraine crisis are estimated at about $110 billion by former finance minister Alexsei Kudrin. The ruble dropped to its lowest level against the dollar since the 1990's. And the sharp decline in oil prices with Brent crude at about $90 is another risk factor as 50% of the budget comes from oil and gas revenues and 60% of exports are still oil and gas, with no serious or effective effort to diversify under the Putin adminstration. Putin told the banking conference that a deficit free budget and reserves of $460 billion are "fundamental factors supporting stability." Advisors and leading bankers remain unconvinced. The problem is that even at the beginning of 2014 before the Ukraine crisis foreign investment had slowed to a trickle, similiar to what India experienced in 2013. The central bank head says her effort to open up the bond markets in Russia to foreign investors is now in vain because there are few foreign investors. Instead of reversing the situation as is happening in India with the new Modi administration, policy under Putin and the Ukraine conflict may have scared investors away with the increasing western sanctions and stagflation (estimated 8% inflation and about 0.5% growth in 2014). The head of Sberbank Mr. Gref told the banking conference- "The Soviet Union broke apart because of the mind boggling incompetence of the Soviet leadership. They did not respect the laws of economic development." The problem with sovereign reserves is that it can protect a sovereign currency such the Russian ruble or the Brazilian cruzeiro to some extent, but today's vibrant economies need foreign investment and foreign technology for growth. Even a country such as China with a trillion dollars in reserves needs the reserves in its special case because of its billion plus aging population, and is no exception to these laws of economic development about the need for foreign technology and foreign investment. ...

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Eisinger says the Volcker Rule is voluminous and complex with 530 pages, because banks and lobbyists with complicit regulators wanted it that way. This is also what Volcker told Charlie Rose in an interview, that banks can't complain that it is complex and at the same time work to add complex language to the rule.

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This editorial lists the essential points that the Volcker Rule- as it is written by U.S. regulators -must include to ensure the safety of the American financial system. These points cover limiting speculation, putting in place clearly defined and strong penalties, and addressing loopholes.

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Japan's governing LDP party wins over two thirds of the seats in parliament in a snap election called one year before the end of the term in office. Prime minister Abe's popularity by summer 2017 dropped to about 30%, and yet with a divided opposition he managed to win the election with a large majority. The opposition led by the Democratic Party and Tokyo Governor Mrs Koike fragmented with the formation of new parties, Yuriko Koike's Party of Hope, and the Consitutional Democratic Party. Mrs. Koike failed to keep the opposition united with some missteps including asking for a loyalty pledge from candidates. This election win makes it possible for Abe to get a third term as leader of the LDP and eventually becoming the prime minister with the longest term in office. Abe had a poor start during his first effort as prime minister when he resigned in less than a year. This is a comeback for Shinzo Abe from that difficult period. Yet the constitutional changes to support Japan's Self Defense Forces with the growing threat from North Korea are not getting the same level of support. Opinion remains divided on that issue.  One aspect of this election is that very few women candidates are running for parliament. In contrast to the election in Britain with more women running for office and getting elected, in Japan's 2017 snap election less than 10% of candidates elected are women. ...

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Efforts by prime minister Erdogan of Turkey to reach a peace agreement with the Kurdish PKK and its leader Mr. Ocalan who is in a Turkish prison since 1999. Mr. Ocalan is reported to be ready to reach an agreement. Prime minister Erdogan is keen on reaching an agreement because of the war in Syria, where a group related to the PKK and Ocalan is in control of the Kurdish northeastern region in Syria. This creates a situation where the Kurds in northern Iraq and in Syria could form a Kurdish state. Other reasons for Erdogan to push forward with an agreement are his intention to rewrite the Turkish constitution to setup an executive presidency. Erdogan would then be able to run for president. He would need Kurdish voters support for this move. In recent years Turkey has moved closer to Iraq, is its main trading partner and a destination for Turkish exports. Turkey now sees itself as a regional power in the Middle East after years of waiting to become part of the European Union. Turkey sees other advantages for this move to a peaceful Middle East- it sees benefits from trade with Egypt, and a new Syria after the fall of the Assad regime, making the whole region a destination for Turkish exports and foreign investment. As part of this move Erdogan's administration is lifting curbs on the use of the Kurdish language in the Kurdish southeast of Turkey and in the regional capital of Diyarbakir. This is an example of how trade, commerce and changing political conditions can create peaceful progress. It is reminiscent of the situation in Spain where the Catalan language was suppressed by the government of Franco till the 1980's, when the formation of the European Union and the changed political climate led to autonomy for Catalonia under a elected federal government....

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A poll conducted twice each year by the University of Hong Kong researchers since 1997 shows Hong Kongers increasingly identify with their city including Hong Kong diaspora returning to the city from overseas. The latest June poll shows this identification increasing in intensity as time passes. Compared to 1997 and 2007 more Hong Kongers identify themself with Hong Kong and much less with "citizen of the People's Republic of China." After "Hong Konger" the identification next is with "Asian," "global citizen," and "members of the Chinese race." Culture is one major aspect of this, the other is the sense of being drowned by mainland people, by the large number of people from the mainland cities buying housing in Hong Kong, driving up prices and making housing unaffordable for the local people. Other aspects of this are the mothers going to maternity wards so their children can get Hong Kong residency, and the slots in elite schools going to mainlanders. Even the tycoons and large business interests are seen as distanced from the local Hong Konger because of the increasing inequality in society, their benefitting from business ties with the mainland with willingness to give up Hong Kong's local interests. At another level one can see this local identity across other parts of mainland China also, as the educated middle class in Shanghai and Beijing see themselves as apart from the "country bumpkins" and migrants from surrounding rural areas. This is a cultural phenomenon quite different and apart from the ideological concerns of the Communist Party, cultural difference which always exist below the surface. The business elite of the Communist Party can relate more to the environs of Sydney, Australia, than to the rural areas around Shanghai, just as much as the business elites in Bombay with connections to a ruling party can relate to Sydney or Toronto. Not everything about humans fit neatly into ideas such as "China Dream," or a "India Dream." And this may be a good thing when all is said and done- only human nature seeking not to be disturbed. ...

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Shabana Mahmood, new UK Home Secretary in September 2025 says -"Will do whatever it takes to secure our borders. I am not the kind of person who just hangs around."

About Shabana Mahmood it has been said- “She prides herself on not being woke. She prides herself on having normal-person instincts and understanding where the electorate is.”

The Times says this may be just what Labour Party and Starmer needs right now.

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The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 327,577 illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2011, ending Sept 30. This is a steep decline from the 1.6 million apprehended crossing the border in 2000. The numbers have been dropping since the 2009 financial crisis and high unemployment in construction and other trades employing migrants. The figures for 2011 suggest a drop of about 25% from 2010. Researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center, say the balance now is about zero for people entering the U.S. across the border from Mexico and people returning to Mexico. In fact there are stories of money being sent to migrant workers without jobs in the U.S. by families in Mexico, which has affected the flow of migrant workers.

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Year over year inflation in Dec. 2013 was 9.9% in India. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan plans to focus on headline inflation which focusses on food and fuel which are about 60% of the consumer basket in India. Earlier RBI efforts used a number of indicators- inflation, growth, financial stability and exchange rates which created confusion in the minds of investors about the serious control of rising prices. Inflation for the last 5 years has been over 8%, and is persistent even as growth slows. The policy rate is now about 2 percentage points below inflation. Inflation targeting under Rajan could take the shape of 8% target in the first year, dropping to 6% and then a range between 2-6%.

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George Osborne, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, says he supports giving regulators powers to take action to split banks that do not ring fence their risky operations and separate deposit taking from risk taking activities. He says this as parliament considers legislation on banking regulation after the LIBOR investigations and problems in British banking following the 2008 financial crisis. Osborne said: "Irresponsible behavior was rewarded, failure was bailed out, and the innocent- people who have nothing to do whatsoever with the banks- suffered." Referring to the larger role of the financial industry in the British economy, Osborne stated: "Our country has paid a higher price than any other major economy for what went so badly wrong in our banking system." This comes as Britain feels the impact of a decline in growth in 2013.

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Herbert cites figures from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston which divides households into 10 groups based on annual household income at looks at unemployment levels in eachfot 4th quarter 2009. The highest group with incomes of larger than $150,000 had unemployment of 3.2%, the next group at $100,000 to $149,999 at 4%, households earning $60,000 to $75,000 had jobless rate of 6.4%, with $50,000 to $59,000 a 7.8% jobless rate. Its only when you get $40,000 to $49,000 that you see jobless rates of 9%, that is close to the national average. The worst pain is in the lower middle class groups with the 7.8% and 9% unemployment and in the income groups of $12,500 to $20,000 which have 19.1% unemployment. For workers at the bottom the unemployment rate is 31%! The workers in service industries, such as food preparers, building cleaners, less educated, high school dropouts, blue collar workers, workers in the construction industry, many blacks and Hispanics, are all hard hit. This also gives some idea why the jobless situation does not cause the same anguish in the media coverage as most of it is concentrated among young people, immigrants, illegal immigrants, Hispanics, minorities, and in service and construction industry type occupations. This creates a fragile situation from a social cohesion perspective especially as the lower middle class is also in the same situation and this combined with the working class blue collar and service and construction workers is a large segmet of society....

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Blackston and Karnitschnig describe the European Central Bank's role in the current crisis and buying of bonds of troubled eurozone countries. And the resistance in Germany to the ECB's purchase of bonds of eurozone countries to prevent contagion effects in the eurozone. ECB President Trichet only reluctantly pushed the ECB into bond purchases in the recurring crises, and saw the ECB's role as strictly limited to controlling inflation and maintaining a stable euro currency. There is resistance in Germany to the ECB printing money to cover eurozone debt of Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. This comes from the searing experience with hyperinflation, an economic crisis similiar to that of the U.S. with the Great Depression, when the Reichsbank printed money in the 1920's to buy large quantities of government bonds. The Bundesbank that ensured Germany's postwar recovery focussed on a single mandate to control inflation, and this is a key part of the ECB's charter. The first president of the ECB when it was founded in 1998, was Dutchman Wim Duisenberg, who would tell politicians: "I hear you, but I don't listen." When Frenchman Trichet became the second ECB president, he focussed on inflation fighting efforts. He warned against the extravagant spending and fiscal irresponsibility of some eurozone countries saying "we are dancing on a volcano."...

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Sanford Weill built Citigroup into a mega bank through repeated acquisitions. He was the strongest voice for the repeal of the Depression era Glass Steagall Act banning banks from risk taking activities in investment banking. The Glass Steagall Act was repealed in 1999, and repeal legislation was given the name of "Citigroup Authorization Act." On July 23, 2012, Weill told CNBC: "I am suggesting that they (the big banks) be broken up so that the taxpayer will never be at risk, the depositors won't be at risk... Mistakes were made." Weill said that the housing bubble and the financial crisis has proved that the repeal was a mistake.

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The U.S. Dodd-Frank legislation has a provision requiring U.S.- listed oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments to governments for access to mining and oil resources. The S.E.C. will decide how to implement this rule which goes into effect in 2012. This has a severe effect on the economies of developing countries as it siphons away significant part of revenues for the resources into the hands of government officials. From Nigeria to Equatorial Guinea in Africa, and in other parts of the world in Latin America and Asia, this is a serious problem and results in underdevelopment and retarded societies.

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A Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile attack on Kviv is repelled with all missiles shot down on May 16, 2023. For the first time in the war the missile attacks are causing far less damage than in the early days of the war. A DW.com German reporter in Kviv on German television says the whole attack lasted only 15 minutes before things were back to quiet over Kviv with missiles exploding in the sky not on the ground.

This week Mr. Zelensky visited Berlin, then Aachen for the Charlemagne Prize as a symbolic acceptance of the Ukrainian people into the European community of nations with Zelensky speaking in Aachen in Ukrainian. He then went to Paris and London. Next week the G7 meet in Hiroshima, Japan. The war that followed a pandemic enters its 64th week in 2023.

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President Biden says he opposed reducing minimum sentences for crimes in Washington D.C. such as carjackings, as proposed by a new law in D.C. Biden says Republican efforts to block that legislation would bring that to his desk and he would not veto the Republican proposal blocking reducing sentences. Crime is up 40% in Washington D.C say police. In the New York election for Congress, and in the recent Chicago mayoral election crime was an issue for Republicans leading to losses for Democrats and for Lori Lightfoot in Chicago. Biden wants to focus on the major issues for workers and families in the country, on infrastructure, jobs, inflation, and the US economy, and not let his plan for America's renewal lose focus because Republicans are able to make crime an issue.

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The US Air Force plans to order 100 planes of the B21 Stealth Bomber at $700 million each. This aircraft is made at Plant 21 in Palmdale, California. The development of this plane was kept hidden for seven years even to families with someone working at the plant. It is made by Northrop Grumman. The previous version of the plane was the B2 Spirit of which only 21 were made leading to a high cost of $2 billon per plane. These planes last for many years. The B52 bombers of the Vietnam era are still in use. Their cost is prohibitive for most countries. During the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union investment in these bombers declined. With new risks emerging for NATO in Europe and in Asia this aircraft is seen as an American deterrent.

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Germany's and the European Union's oil imports from Russia are undermining western sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air says Russia earned 63 billion from fossil fuel exports since Feb. 24. Germany paid 9.1 billion euros for fossil fuel deliveries in the two months since the Russian invasion. Italy is next at 6.9 billion euros in oil and gas imports from Russia. China is third with 6.7 billion euros of oil and gas imports from Russia. The European Union is the main importer accounting for 71% or 44 billion euros of Russian oil and gas. CREA has found that western oil companies continue to do high volumes of trade in fossil fuels with Russia. This includes Total. BP, Shell, and ExxonMobil.

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Gopalakrishna Gandhi shares these stories about Rajagopalachari, only Indian governor general of India in 1950, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, first vice president (1952-1962) and second president of India (1962-1967). A candle turns up on the fourth night at Vellore jail Dec. 24, 1921 to light up the jail cell of Rajagopalachari who is jailed by the British in the Gandhian struggle for Indian freedom Hind Swaraj. "Never did I see a candle give such quiet holy light before," said Rajaji describing that night on Christmas eve. An affinity for Shakespeare in describing the troubles and the ordeals of that time when Gandhi was surrounded by extraordinary talent in the form of Rajagopalachari, Radhakrishnan, first president Rajendra Prasad, and others. Rajagoplachari and Radhakrishnan are both from Chennai, Prasad from Patna.

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The importance of a gap year in education remains underutilized in Indian education because of a lack of role models. A gap year in education during the early college and postgraduate years can give a person new experiences and skills, a new sense of purpose, that he or she may carry over into further education and create additional opportunities over time. In this way the gap year actually reinforces the idea that is behind changes in the way education is being setup today, that encourage young people to try out different subjects in the sciences and the humanities to find what they are best at and where their interests lie. In the same way new experiences including travel, meeting people, trying out new activities can enhance one's personal development and growth as a person.