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Friedman describes the lack of decisionmaking, initiative and courage in the Eurozone, India and China to tackle difficult problems. During his visit to India he describes the problems India faces. A serious problem with lack of good governance within the democratic framework. India also has a growing population that will soon surpass China's population, which makes the task of development that much harder, with the small steps India is taking to move forward not making a serious impact. Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, described it this way: "There is a complete lack of decision-making among leaders in the government. If prompt action is not taken, the country will face a setback. You must appreciate how serious it is." Friedman sees a similiar situation in the eurozone countries as new governments are being formed in Greece and Italy by Papademos and Mario Monti, both technocrats from the European Union. This has the added complication because these experts have not been elected. The fact that they have support and goodwill is because of the failure of the political class in Greece and Italy. The failure of the political class in the U.S. is evident from the stymied negotiations over the deficit, and the lack of leadership from President Obama....

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Cutting taxes has acted as a "stimulus" in Sweden, with the country showing a strong recovery.

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The Lisbon Treaty takes one more inexorable sep in bringing the EU to maturity. The EU needs a public face, and the ongoing EU Council President position instead of a 6 month rotating presidency plus the Foreign Affairs Representative position create this face. In discussions with the USA, China, India, Brazil and other countries the EU then has someone of stature to take up EU interests.

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Sheila Barr is brining her innovative ideas to help homeowners at IndyMac Bank which is being run by the FDIC. It could be a blueprint for the entire industry and is formulated upon a simple idea that a homeowners mortgage payment should not exceed 38% of his or her income. FDIC says those taking part in the fastrack loan modification have seen their monthly loan payments lowered by $430 on average. It is a blueprint for solving the mortgage foreclosure crisis that economists from Martin Feldstein to Hubbard and Alan Blinder think is at the root of the problem in the worldwide financial crisis. Bovenzi, the senior FDIC executive who is serving as CEO of IndyMac is overseeing the effort. He is an FDIC veteran who worked at the agency durng the savings and loan crisis of the early 1980's and 1990's. And one the key lessons from that period Bovenzi and Sheila Barr believe is that debt workouts help lenders and borrowers. A key statistic Bair pointed out in a Sept 17 speech to Congress is that the FDIC's recovery rate on nonperforming loans or loans in foreclosure averages just 32% of a loan's value. If the loan is kept current by making payments affordable and preventing foreclosure the agency has recovered 87%. And Sheila Barr's efforts are the one or two bright spots in an otherwise bleak picture for troubled homeowners, in which the Republicans have ignored two of their last 3 Presidents' key economic advisers, head of the Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Reagan and Bush senior, Marty Feldstein and Hubbard, and not supported efforts for loan modification to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Shortsightedness, lack of foresight, or simply not able to grasp the true nature of the crisis....

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Sheila Bair is playing a larger and larger role in this crisis as the Bush administration and Paulson take a series of missteps. She had earlier proposed her own plan for addressing the roots of the crisis which she said are home prices, and preventing risisng foreclosures was the best way to address this. She has offered loan modifications through FDIC run IndyMac bank. Now she speaks up about her disagreement with how the crisis should be handled as little has been done to help homeowners considering the scale of the crisis. Alan Blinder of Princeton university, a former Fed vice chairman has called her the real hero in all this throughout this year as she has had the foresight to suggest action to help homeowners, and has acted vigorously in other areas related to the banks. "Why there has been such a political focus on making sure we are not unduly helping borrowers but then we are providing this massive assistance at the institutional level, I don't understand it." And Sheila Bair went on to say "This agency, with its genesis in the Great Depression, has a sense of purpose now perhaps more than any other agency." Her term as chairman of the FDIC lasts till mid 2011 and her term on the FDIC Board till 2013. With 2 weeks to go for the Presidential election and her term going into the next administration, her voice is increasingly the one that will be heard by policymakers coming to grips with the economy. ...

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In addition to a new $1 billion credit line after the earlier $1 billion credit line, India is facilitating Sri Lanka's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. Indian focus is for stronger Neighborhood and economic development in the region at an accelerated pace after earlier setbacks in the region. This can be seen in Uttar Pradesh a region as large in population as the US, which faltered for 60 years after independence, but is moving forward with both state and federal government guided efforts. This also holds true for the entire Indian Ocean region countries where Indian experience in achieving development goals can be shared. 

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Prime minister Modi says India is achieving its aggressive climate change goals and has set the goal of 450 gigawatts from renewable energy by 2030. Solar energy will play a key role. A new Green Hydrogen Mission will be set up for a quantum leap in hydrogen. 

Indian railways will be a zero carbon emitter by 2030. Indian Railways is moving forward to achieve 100% electrification. CNG, PNG networks will span the whole country. 

He said India imports 1.2 trillion rupees of fossil fuels. Renewable energy will reduce this import bill and release resources for other vital investments for India's rapid modernization goals.

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This part of Wisconsin at Mount Pleasant has a 3000 acre site that has water and sewer improvements, highway building, but no factory 5 years after Taiwan's Foxconn announced it was building a large factory here with 13000 new jobs. If built the plant would have received $3 billion in stat3e tax credits. Now the project developed by Racine County Development Corporation is looking for other companies that want to build factories. Under agreements Foxconn is expected to pay $36 million a year for 24 years if the project was not completed. It shows the difficulties American states face as they compete with other states for good factory projects.

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A magistate's court in Hong Kong orders Joshua Wong, who led the protests for democracy in Hong Kong, to do 80 hours of community service work for unlawfully entering a fenced area outside Hong Kong's government headquarters on Sept. 26, 2014. Another activist Nathan Law was ordered to do 120 hours of community service. Wong and Law have formed a new party called Demosisto. Law plans to run in the legislative election on Sept 4, 2016. The first pro independence rallies happened in Hong Kong in early August. Wong says he is pushing for self-determination after the "one country, two systems" framework operating since 1997 expires in 2047.

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Powell thinks that rates should have been higher- what is called the neutral rate for stable inflation and employment should have been higher some years back. This rate is closer to 4 percent. It also means fewer or no interest rate cuts in 2025. The Fed funds rate is now 4.3%.

Powell - "We only know it by its works." Fed chair Powell rejects a theory type approach, you only know it when it works for average Americans. 

One has also to factor in how interest rates reitred people who depend on interest rate for what they make on their savings. This also matters to new savers who are younger people.

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Gasoline pries hit $5.00 a gallon in California in October 2012.

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As the U.S. population ages and grows at a slower pace the demand for automobiles is likely to peak in 2013-2014, and moderate in subsequent years. Automakers need to be vigilant about adding manufacturing capacity to avoid the problems faced in the last decade when sales and profits declined.

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10 year U.S. Treasury yields drop below 1.5% in June 2012. German bond yields in negative territory.

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HP's long overdue overhaul of its antiquated and cumbersome internal systems and processes. Older Oracle software has been replaced with better software from Salesforce and Workday which uses cloud computing. Long delays hurt customer satisfaction and hurt sales. This was a priority for CEO Meg Whitman. Whitman hired a IT head at customers Verizon and Boeing to manage the change, as he knew the problems up close.

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Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, shows clear thinking and agrasp of the situation in Iran, in this lucid and well written article in the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times. He says the four sources of legitimacy for the Iranian government, competence in managing the country's affairs, the official religious authority, committment to Iran's independence, and a stable base of social support, have all been irretrievably undone. He points out that the situation has been changing for some time even before the voterigging. Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most prominent clergyman in Iraq, opposed the principle of velayat-e-faqih (rule of the clergy), and Ayatollah Ali Montazeri (Khomeini's would be successor) had argued that the doctrine of clergy's powers was a form of false god-making or proof of shirk. The economic rule of the bazaars and the large landholders also had moved away and no longer supported the government. Basically the rule now has come down to rule by a " military-financial mafia," says Bani-Sadr, who was the first President of Iran, after the 1979 revolution. He points out that the Revolutionary Guard now occupies the entire government -as the Revolutionary Guard is also part of economic enterprises its really the only group occupying the government- with the clergy conveniently endorsing this group. Bani-Sadr says the protest movement still needs time to spread throughout the country. At the same time he says this time the government's own cardres oppose Mr Ahamadinejad, and a deepening economic crisis is increasing discontent, indicating that the Iranian people may see this thing through over time....

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Efforts to setup an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria based on the model set by the Autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. An opportunity for Kurdish people to be able to live with their own language and culture within the framework of a federal state in Iraq and Syria. The Kurdish Autonomous region based in Erbil has acted as a mediator between Sunni and Shiite interests and worked within the framework of a federal state in Iraq. Turkey still fears the minority Kurds within its borders and seeks to assimilate them into Turkey. The government of prime minister Erdogan has shifted the political stance with Kurds by seeking Kurdish support in elections. There is the example in Europe and Asia of people in certain regions working within a federal state that tolerates the culture and language of the people within the state- the Catalans and Basque people in Spain are one example. This has come after years of repression of language and culture, and it has only changed as a new spirit of tolerance has prevailed in Europe after the pain of the period between the wars. A range of other communities with distinct language and culture have learned to function and prosper within a federal state- French Quebec within Canada is another example in N. America. In Asia, the best example is India, which is a federal state with many languages and cultures, varied enough to be amazing. A properly functioning democracy and economic system, with educational systems that support tolerant attitudes, provides the framework for this to happen. It is challenging at times but it is a better alternative to generations of conflict....

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Studies by Mexico's Interior Ministry show that 62% of the $23 billion in remittances to Mexico by Mexicans living in the U.S. go to the lower middle class. As migration to the U.S. diminishes to zero Mexicans who are illegal aliens in the U.S. are returning to Mexico as small entrepreneurs using earnigs made in the U.S.. This offers them a chance for upward mobility and a return to families that they never had in the U.S., and is aiding the growth of a Mexican middle class. About 12 million Mexicans, or 15% of Mexico's labor force lives legally or illegally in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Experts say that in the first 3-5 years remittances go to help their families, after 7 years the money goes into savings and investment fueling growth of small towns such as Santa Maria in Mexico. About half of Mexico's 112 million people have family living in the U.S., which is having an influence on atttitudes and ways of thinking of the lower middle class that emigrated to the U.S.and is now returning to the country. Other factors are reinforcing the trends such as the lower price of consumer goods with the entry of retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco into Mexico. Nestle, P&G, and Unilever, all sell at low price points in Mexico. The government's effort to setup a basic safety net subsidizing schooling, health care and food has also helped in this direction. Rapid change in demographics in all of Latin America, including Mexico with a shift to smaller families is creating new opportunities to invest in children for better educational opportunities and working lives....