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This WSJ report points out that upto this point the US volatility index in 2024 has been very low. The drop in the US stock market on August 5, started with the effects of monetary tightening in Japan and its effect on the market in the US. Because of this the underlying situation in the US, the underlying low volatility has not changed.

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C. Raja Mohan says in The Indian Express that India needs to look at the big picture of modernization in a new world for world trade in which the US is reindustrializing, Europe is reindustrializing, and India is on the road to modernization by 2040 over the next 15 years. All three processes are happening at the same time. 

The old order of world trade destroyed the industrial base of the US and Europe, it also neglected India's modernization, happening with the unwitting cooperation and connivance of the business interests of the US and Europe. It will do little for India. India must also change it's industrial structure and modernization effort to fit into this new world and bring it's strengths to build a new world in which the US, EU and India modernize their economies, manufacturing base, and infrastructure in a win-win for all sides.

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The CDU and the SPD agree on rules for 30% of supervisory Boards in Germany, similiar to Board of Directors in the U.S., to be made up of women.

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Following Brexit on January 31, 2020, Britain's government led by Boris Johnson prepares to negotiate new trade deals with the U.S. and other countries. The freedom to negotiate these trade deals was a key part of the plan of Brexit supporters and Mr. Johnson. The Times, Britain's leading newspaper, looks at the prospects of trade deals with each country- the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan. Facing re-election Mr. Trump is seen as favorably inclined to work out a trade deal that he can show during the campaign. Trade discussions have taken place between the UK and Australia, Japan. Mr. Morrison in Australia and Mr. Shinzo Abe want to see strong trading ties and investment with Britain. Japan or Australia could be the first countries that work out a trade deal with Britain as discussions are at an advanced stage.  Britain has a small deficit with Japan in trade. It has a small dollar surplus in trade with the Australia and New Zealand. With the U.S Britain has a large surplus, it exports 121 billion pounds and imports 76 billion pounds. The prospects of trade deals are enhanced by the similarity in outlook of the governments of the U.S., Australia, and Japan, which share views on jobs expansion, economic growth and are centre right in economic philosophy. They also share a strong connection with working class voters under Johnson,Trump and Morrison. Mr. Trump is seen as a strong deal maker so that any deal would involve some concessions from Britain that increase U.S exports, including farm exports. Difficult issues with the U.S. are -pharmaceutical drug imports that could increase Britain's NHS cost for drugs, the digital services tax from Britain on U.S.  companies such as Google and the Trump retaliatory threat to impose tariffs beyond the current 2.5% on car imports of $11 billion from Britain. On agricultural imports Britain's natural foods preference conflicts with imports of genetically modified (GMO) foods from the U.S. Experts say this could lead to a partial or Phase 1 deal that does not need approval from the U.S. Congress, similar to the Phase 1 trade deal with China which sidestepped the thorny issues on trade. This is something both sides can show their support base as a win. ...

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Texas is expected to surpass California in 2021 in solar energy with a new $1.6 billion project solar farm north of Dallas. California has 13,000 megawatts of solar energy. Texas has 29,000 megawatts of wind and solar energy production combined, the largest of any state in the U.S. Texas solar has potential to boost supplies in daytime when demand is highest. The cost of solar is coming down and the development of solar will accelerate in the U.S. in the next 5 years.

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China's president Xi Jinping visiting a trade fair in Shanghai, says China will shift to larger imports as it responds to calls from the U.S. and Europe to further open its markets, and buy more rather than focus on selling to the world. He said "it is China's sincere commitment to open the Chinese market." More than 80% of China's trading partners have trade deficits with China with severe complaints and tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the U.S. president Trump.

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10% estimated increase in US tomato prices- from Mexico imports  hit by tariffs 2025. Tomatoes could be grown in the local regions as an alternative to importing over long distances encouraging the use of local produce for vegetables and fruits. Transport alone could make up for the 10% and for the labor costs.

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Infosys built its business on outsourcing by U.S. business. President Trump's executive order to "Buy American, Hire American" is changing the way it does business. Infosys plans to hire 10,000 software engineers in the U.S. by 2019. 

A big change is also coming from new technologies in computing that require small teams to work side by side with customers. This is best done by having software engineers in U.S. offices and not engineers in offices thousands of miles away. A president of Infosys says this is the new face of computing at Infosys.

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This self portrait by Vladimir Putin about his growing up years in Leningrad and the life of his father and mother during the siege of Leningrad by Germans may offer a better sense of the mind and thinking of the Russian president than the Dresden years when he was a junior Russian official in Communist East Germany (the GDR). It is an interview of the Russian president in 2000 by Nataliya Gevorkyan, Natalya Timakova, and Andrei Kolesnikov over twenty years back. Putin's father suffered severe injuries during the war in the fighting around Leningrad, twice being given up for dead and being dragged wounded across the frozen Neva river to a hospital by a neighbor. His mother was half dead from starvation and his father passed on his food given to him at the hospital. Having gone through the memories of this period affected Vladimir Putin's view of the world and no amount of US or German assurance about NATO's intentions may have erased these memories from childhood. The long period in power and the Covid isolation may have led to  perceptions that were less likely to change so that Putin did his own research and wrote a long paper on Ukraine in 2021 that reflected Russia and Ukraine's long history but did not reflect the changing national aspirations of Ukraine's people in 2022. This may have led to the miscalculation and the errors by both Putin and the leaders Merkel-Bush-Obama that the detailed WSJ report of 20 years of events show to have happened. The WSJ report of April 1, 2022, was titled "Vladimir Putin's 20 Year March to War in Ukraine and How the West Mishandled It." The Social Democrats in Germany under Schroeder and Steinmeier mishandled it by deepening economic integration with Russia as a way to make up for what had happened in the German invasion of Russia, and the Christian Democrats under Merkel with business interests never really grasped the different thinking of the Russian president relying solely on deep economic integration of the EU and Germany with Russia as well as China as an answer. Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama from a distance even less so.  This has led to the miscalculation by Russia under Putin leading to invasion of Ukraine, and the US and Germany being unprepared about taking action to prevent it.  Beyond the key participants and the war damage, there is the enormous damage that is taking place in the mental health around the world after Covid with constant barrage of images of war and refugees streaming into Poland. There is the problem of food imports, of food scarcity in the Middle East, and inflation in food prices for Africa and the Middle East. As Brendan Simms, a Cambridge historian has shown in his book "Europe The Struggle of Supremacy 1453 to the Present," which is now being read by German chancellor Scholz, this has happened before with the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Russia engaging in these conflicts that led to prolonged wars and eventually to only small shifts in power. Yet with huge effects for ordinary people caught in the wars such as today's refugees and people struggling to feed their families in Africa and Asia after the effects of Covid on income. Food prices have gone up by 50% to almost double in these countries.   ...

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 Harris's role for the Border was limited to telling Central American migrants to stay home. Much of the migration was a result of wars started in the Reagan years in Central American states of Nicaragua and San Salvador. This destabilized the region and led to gangs taking over parts of the country in San Salvador and entrenching Castro style regime in Nicaragua, leading to outward migration of young people. As this report points out Harris was supposed to take on decades of such misguided policies in Central America in a few months. A drought hit agricultural coffee regions of Guatemala increasing migration. Her role instead was to ensure several wins. Win No.1 to generate stability setting up the peaceful transfer of power in Guatemala, singling out corrupt regimes. Win No. 2 to generate jobs. US AID and IFDC loans were increased, foreign investment attracted to generate 250,000 jobs. Win No. 3 the increased stability led to gradually declining migration from Central America. What replaced it was Venezuela. And that is a repeat story of Reagan style wars in Central America. Under the Trump Administration the US did not take up the Monroe Doctrine and act directly to support a stable fairly elected government in Venezuela, an obvious solution. Instead going half way- destabilizing the government but then left it on its own. The result about a third of the population leaving the country in these years to Colombia and other parts of Latin America in a immense humanitarian tragedy.  In 2023 Venezuelans not Guatemalans entered at the US Border in large numbers, most of them middle class families that left Venezuela after hyperinflation and mismanagement of the economy. Realizing the danger by January 2024 Biden negotiated with Senate Minority Leader McConnell and his Republican representative Senator Lankford to pass legislation in the Senate closing the Border. All that was needed was the House to act and 30 years of Border problem would be solved.This was blocked in the House by new Speaker Mike Johnson on advice from former president Trump who chose to use the issue in the 2024 election. Biden then used his executive powers to close the Border leading to lower numbers of migrants under Biden by July 2024 than under Trump. Migration Border Czar was never a term used by Democrats in the Obama and Biden years. Biden who also served in a role given migration as one of the issues to handle under Obama, had this as only one of his assignments. Biden played more important roles in foreign policy with his experience as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades. Border policy was made by president Obama and his advisers. The same is true of Harris, Border policy being done by president Biden and his advisers. Similar to Biden's role as VP Harris was given assignment to cover foreign policy and was the US representative at 3 Munich Security Conferences in 2021-2024 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chancellor Scholz of Germany said of Harris last week that he had full confidence in Harris as both competent and experienced. ...

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The Obama adminstration and Democrats start the U.S. "fiscal cliff" negotiations with a call for $1.6 trillion of additional tax revenues, twice the amount of $800 billion discussed in talks with Republicans in the summer of 2011. During the Obama-Boehner talks in mid-2011, the Republicans and Democrats neared agreement for a plan to cut the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, with new revenues of $800 billion. Obama then pushed to raise the revenue to $1.2 trillion and talks collapsed afterwards. The Republican side through GOP senior aides says $1 trillion in new tax revenues is where this could end up. The Republicans would agree to cap deductions for the wealthy as proposed by Feldstein-Romney, and the Democrats would agree to changing Social Security and increasing the Medicare eligibility age to above 65 as proposed by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Maryland) in such a scenario.

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The "negative Tier 1 capital" at Deutsche Bank's U.S. bank holding company Taunus Corp. of negative 7.58% cited by FDIC chairman Sheila Bair. Parent Deutsche Bank has total equity lower than U.S. banks Citicorp, Chase and Bank of America, with total equity equivalent to 4.4% of assets using a U.S. style approach says Eavis, making the Bair criticism relevant and timely in 2010.

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Zalmay Khalizad, a former diplomat to Iraq, reports from Iraq after discussions with prominent Iraqis, describes the state of U.S. relations with Iraq under the Abadi government. He says the Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq prime minister Abadi, and Iraqi public opinion, now favor improved relations with the U.S. following the sectarianism promoted by prime minister Maliki and Iran's expanded role in Iraq. Other reports show Iraqi opinion in transition as the U.S. withdrawal promoted by Maliki has led to 2 million refugees, and huge dislocation of people with the expansion of Islamic State from Syria into Iraq. The change in opinion is also towards promoting better relations with Sunni countries. People in the region do not see a bright future with an increase in religious tensions that only lead to more destructive behaviours and increase in refugees. Towards the end of the Bush administration there was some hope that Iraq would see a bright future, only to see this reversed under Maliki's sectarian policies. U.S. public opinion has shifted away from any involvement following the failure of the people in the region to resolve differences and live peacefully. The cost of the wars with little gained as a result of the failure of the people in the region to work together in the common interest is a part of the public debate in the U.S. presidential election of 2016. Sectarianism in the region is the root cause of the growth of the Islamic State and the expansion of the war in Syria, and this has not only worsened the situation for the people in the region, delayed economic development given large oil resources, and left the region worse off than before. It has also led to the refugee flow into Europe worsening the situation in the European Union, adding to tensions in European societies such as France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, following terrorist attacks and political parties promoting fear of immigrants. What started as a U.S. response to terrorism originating in this region in New York, followed by the war in Iraq, has led to more convulsions in this region, a huge number of refugees, whole country populations displaced, and requires a fresh rethinking about what people in the region can do to live and work together and promote the peaceful participation of people in their own development and growth, before Western societies consider further involvement. The statement about lost to Iran in the title also suggests framing of statements in the old way that are the root of the problem. When the dust settles years from now Iranians, Iraqis, Saudis, Yemeni, Turkish, Pakistani, Indian and other Muslim societies may want to look back at this period as reflecting the dangers of getting caught up in the geopolitics of world powers, letting religious sentiment override calmer thinking, and reflect on the brighter aspects of the common Islamic heritage in Iran, Turkey, India, expressed humanly as it is always is in different ways and forms. They can also take hope and confidence in the fact that European societies have struck the same rocks and emerged calmer, wiser, and better than before....

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Tankersley of The Washington Post looks at a 30 page analysis of Trump's economic policies by his two senior advisors Peter Navarro, UC Irvine economist, and Wilbur Ross. In it the authors say Trump will be able to increase economic growth from 2% to 3.5% by providing a better and even playing field for American companies in the way they compete with other countries. It means the renegotiation of treaties with these countries will lead to better trade for the U.S. This would include they say the U.S. saying it would leave the WTO unless changes are made. The authors say that with Trump in the White House unfair trading practices would end, instead of it leading to trade wars as some other economists believe.

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The coronavirus surge in southern states in the U.S. is different from the surge earlier in the northeast including New York and New Jersey. More young people are getting the virus. About half of those testing positive are now 18-35 years of age in Texas and Florida. Social distancing and masks is not mandatory with young people not practicing these safety guidelines. Many took the reopening to mean they could go back to the usual summer routines. Not taking it seriously is leading to more infections of young people. Cultural issues with practicing the guidelines and a tendency to not take it seriously has been a problem in the U.S. and parts of Europe since the beginning of the crisis leading to larger number of cases.

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Opinion polls in late July 2015 showed Syriza with support of 33% from Greek voters, well ahead of other parties. After accepting the third EU bailout following a "no" vote in a referendum in early July, prime minister Tsipras still remains popular in Greece. On August 20, Tsipras announced snap elections to win a new mandate to implement the program of cuts that enabled Greece to get 96 billion euros in the third bailout program. Some members of his own party remain opposed to the bailout, and Tsipras relied on opposition parties support to get approval of the bailout in the Greek parliament.

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A biography of Steve Jobs that Jobs asked Walter Isaacson to write about his life. Isaacson is the author of biographies of Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. After being diagnosed with cancer in late 2003, Jobs called Isaacson and asked him whether he would write Jobs's biography. He told Isaacson he wanted his kids to know him as Jobs wasn't always there for them. Jobs told Isaacson to write freely and sought no control over the content. The book delves into the effect on Jobs of his adoption, his search for meaning in life, the women in his life, his extreme behaviour and a sense even among his friends that he could be mean. He fathers a daughter at age 23, and does not have much to do with her till she is 10, and he coud treat his adoptive parent sometimes with callousness. His adoption affects Jobs early on as he describes it- at age 6 a girl living across the street asks Jobs if his adoption really expressed that his "real parents did not want you." His adoptive parents who did not have a college education, were very supportive and caring of Jobs. The effect of his adoption led Jobs on a search for meaning in life, on a seven month visit to India, into Zen Buddhist readings, extreme diets and primal scream therapy. Jobs was not interested in mechanical things and "did not want to get his hands dirty," says his adoptive father. It was the excitement of the surroundings in the early eighties in the area around Palo Alto and San Francisco that affected Jobs. The book describes his relationships with Joan Baez, a folk singer, computer consultant, Tina Redse and former Goldman Sachs trader, Laurene Powell. Right down to his last days Jobs met with Isaacson, reflecting on the meaning of death and what survives after it. Maybe its just an an on-off switch he says....

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According to the MM Research Institute the Amazon Kindle had 38% of the Japanese market for e-readers in a 12 month period for 2012-2013. Rakuten's Kobo had 33% and Sony 25%.

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Public sentiment shifts sharply against free trade in the March 2016 Michigan primary for the U.S. presidential election, with candidates saying trade agreements do not take into account the interests of American manufacturing workers making large gains. Between 1999 and 2010 public sentiment shifted against trade agreements for all age, education and income groups. A study by Autor, Hanson and Dorn showed loss of 5.6 million jobs in the last decade and large trade deficits, and demonstrated the effect by counties in the U.S. most hurt by trade policies.

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Friedman says Obama's 2012 presidential campaign lacks bold vision, a failure to articulate tangible achievements, and owes too much to campaign consultants. He describes it as being developed in test tube fashion. The failure to embrace and strongly advocate his own presidential commission's Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan, which could be coupled with long term investment in the productive potential of the U.S. economy, shows the lack of courage to prepare a plan going forward. It is likely to cost support of independent, center and center-right voters in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

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Norwegian skier Lie McGrath with father US alpine skierand Norwegian mother on Vermont ski team, does something unusual in the Olympics. After leading 0.59 seconds and in a good position for first in downhill skiing in slalom he goes all out but makes one error missing a tightly set gate, then decides to throw his poles, teke off his skiis and go into the woods. He says-

"I thought I would get some peace and quiet, which I didn’t because photographers and police found me out in the woods. I just needed some time for myself.”

McGrath is a 5 time World Cup winner in slalom. He had lost his grandfather just at the start of the games and was distraught. He just decided this was it after the slight error. The Gold, Silver or Bronze medal meant little by that time.

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VW's Scout Motors plans in 2026 to sell direct to buyers. A Scout Motors VP says of VW's plans- “We have heard over and over again, ‘Please give me an alternative. You see that there is very little trust in auto dealers today.”  Dealers have lobbied to have the laws in US set so that no one else but dealers can sell cars. Yet this may be becoming an outdated way to sell cars if car makers can provide good service over 10 years to buyers and make the whole process of buying and owning a car a pleasant experience for owners. It is far from that today and the experience is not one that is consistent in quality and have ease of use as the experience varies with each dealer and can change with a single dealer over time, quality is not assured.