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From the country of "Feierabend" the much appreciated German term for cutting off the workday to do something else like biking or running which is very healthy way of living during the pandemic and everyday, come more German expressions which tell us  more about how to live.  "Na Wie Lauft's" is the German expression most people learn because it means "how are you running", and shows people you care about them. Here DW.com, looks at other German expressions with wonderful pictures of people and scenery in Germany to accompany each expression that has a soothing, calming effect on all. The meanings are given by DW.com, the German national broadcaster which also helps people learn German. "Die Dinge Laufen Lassen," is another German expression that has a Zen nature and is one that one take comfort in for its calming effect. It means "let things run their course, and everything will be alright in the end." "Noch in den Kinderschuhen stecken It means things are only in the early stages, beginning to develop, unfold, the ball is only beginning to roll. With it goes "Laufen Learnen" which means you have to walk before you can run. "Lugen Haben Kurze Beine" means "Lies have short legs." It suggests walking or running. It says you won't get far with lying, you won't get ahead with it, somebody will see through you. "Auf dem Ruder laufen" means to lose control of an oar while rowing a boat to stay on course. It also means hang tight and things will right themselves eventually. And to go with this is the German expression about learning the procedure or techniques for getting the work whatever it is done correctly. Wie est der Ablauf" how will things run, what is the procedure for doing it? Positive expressions from the images of running or walking at the time of the pandemic when this can have a soothing and calming effect.   ...

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A new survey of senior lending officers of 45 emerging market banks by the Institute of International Finance is similiar to surveys done by central banks in U.S., Europe and Japan. The IIF is an asssociation of large global banks. The IIF's chief economist says the survey shows strong demand for loans in these countries. Emerging market banks are becoming cautious, but its difficult considering the strong demand for loans. In China and Brazil, banking authorites are trying to cool the huge increase in loans as asset bubbles are developing. The IIF's first survey shows strong demand for loans aross the board, especially in Brazil. Similiar information from Turkey shows strong loan demand. An index of loan demand for consumer loans in emerging markets- with a score of 50 indicating expansion of loan demand and below 50 contracting loan demand- is at 64.1. Similiar indexes for the U.S. are at 50.1, for Europe 49.8, Japan 48.5, according to the recent surveys by central banks. While 56% of emerging market banks say corporate loan demand has grown in the 1st quarter 2011- the similiar number for the U.S. is 35% in the Fed survey, and 28% for Europe in the ECB survey. The IIF survey looked at the bank's lending practices and found banks in emerging Asia were tightening standards while banks in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East were lowering the standards. 25% of emerging market banks tightened corporate lending standards, 16% relaxed standards, and the remainder left things as they were. A similiar Fed survey for the U.S. showed no banks tightening corporate lending standards, and 16% relaxing standards. And an ECB survey shows more banks tightening standards than relaxing them....

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Barry Schwartz, a Psychology Professor at Swarthmore College, and author of Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, points out that the 35 years of research shows that you get exactly what you pay for, but it turns out to be the opposite of what you want, and there are a lot of ways that incentive based compensation can go wrong. In theory choosing a parameter like share price and creating incentives to promote shareholder interests through higher share price as a measure of executive performance is reasonable, but it assumes that there is no manipulation of share price, or other external factors do not distort the measure of performance. In reality you get a situation like Merrill Lynch and other financial firms that gave out huge bonuses and executive pay even while bad decisions- that were later to sink the firms- were being incentivized. Schwartz points to research worldwide by Bruno Frey, Oberhozer-Gee, Uri Gneezy, James Heyman and Dan Ariely, that shows that incentives tend to remove the moral dimension from decisionmaking. Heyman's reaearch showed that when people offer passers by a token payment for help lifting a couch from a van, they are less likely to lend a hand when they are offered nothing. The question people ask themselves he says when money isn't part of the equation is very different he says: what are my responsibilities, what should I do that will fulfill these responsibilities to other people and to my country? In his view even though we put a lot of faith in incentives as a society to influence behaviour in a positive way, they actually do the reverse. Even if they work for some time, after a while some people who have fewer scruples learn ways to game the system and gradually distort the way it functions, leading to perverse results endangering all....

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Health and Education are the best bets for investment to revive the economy. BW's Mandel says the health and education fiscal channel is still functioning, while other ways of stimulating the economy are in breakdown mode. Taxpayer money given to banks, businesses and households will be saved to pay down high levels of debt and because of uncertainty. But funds directed to schools and hospitals will be spent to buy new equipment, modernize and update, put up new buildings, and hire workers. Health care especially is keen on hiring new nurses, medical technicians, home aides, and so on. And over the past year health care and education workers have risen by 500,000. In these hard times the hardest hit areas like Michigan have seen health and education make up 23.7 % of jobs, while manufacturing has dropped to half that, only 12.5%. And in the past decade health and education has had a stabilizing influence already. Nationally these areas have hired steadily, adding 5.3 million jobs since 1999. Meanwhile the rest of the economy has seen booms and busts, and off shoring and outsourcing overseas, with only 400,000 new jobs created in 10 years. Education has suffered neglect for needed infrastructure including broadband and internet capabilities for classrooms, and health care suffers inefficiencies such as computerization of records, and cost inefficiencies. These areas can be modernized and improved, adding to benefits years from now. They are large sectors employing 30 million workers or 22% of the workforce, and now badly needed to stabilize the economy as these employees are well paid and could help keep consumption from falling badly. A Gallup poll taken in February, shows 56% of Americans showed that education investments were "one of the most important items " for stimulus spending, coming out on top, and beating tax cuts....

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SDP candidate Olaf Scholz is seen as the most convincing of the candidates, and ahead of the Green's Baerbock and CDU's Laschet in a poll following the 90 minute television debate on German television. Scholz maintained an unperturbed demeanor as he responded to an attack from Laschet on a money laundering investigation being conducted on the finance ministry. He said Scholz was presenting a misleading picture because it was centered on the possibly illegal activities of a single employee in Cologne. He added that he had increased the financial oversight at the ministry since he took over in 2018. Looking at the problems facing German industry, and the challenges from climate change facing Germany,  Scholz had this to say on the scale of the effort needed in renewable energy- "We have 250 years of economic and industrial history behind us, based on coal, gas, and oil. And if we are to change that now that means we have to do an awful lot, for it to really work." The SPD goes into the election at this point with a six point lead over CDU. SPD at 26% vs CDU at 20%, Greens at 15%, in the INSA poll. The election debate on television continues to give SPD and Scholz the confidence needed to stay ahead. Unlike the period facing Merkel Germany after the pandemic faces challenges in social, safety net, child care, climate change, and foreign policy that require new thinking and ability to tackle new frontiers. ...

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Germany's kurzabeit or short work system avoids layoffs in a crisis. The Bundestag parliament in Germany quickly reintroduced it following the coronavirus. It provides subsidy to employers so that wages of upto 2500 euros can be paid to employees. The German parliament changed the requirement that makes it law fro a 30% of workers of a company being impacted by a crisis to 10%. About 2.3 million workers will benefit at a cost of 10 billion euros says this report in The Financial Times. The Federal labor office has a fund of $26 billion to which workers and employers contributed just for this purpose of safety net.  Workers get about 60% of their wages under this scheme while the crisis lasts. The last time it was used during the financial crisis of 2008-2009 1.3 million workers benefited from this scheme to prevent layoffs.  Germany with its strong vocational training system invests in worker training. The logical next step was to preserve this knowledge component of workers and avoid its loss through layoffs due to some crisis that is temporary and beyond the control of the company. Britain is adopting this idea this time with the British Treasury supporting  80% of lost wages upto 2500 pounds a month in the new economic aid package announced by the British government. Spain has a scheme under ERTE for 70% of wages to be paid as safety net. France has set aside 8.5 billion euros aid for assistance to workers in a similar scheme as safety net. ...

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Voter fatigue with the Conservatives under prime minister Harper is showing up in the province of Ontario. The area around London, Ontario, and Toronto is critical in the 2015 general election. A large loss of manufacturing jobs has left this key manufacturing region of Canada so weakened that the recent 20% decline in the Canadian currency is not leading to a rebound in the manufacturing sector. The Liberals under Justin Trudeau have promised to run a slight deficit to invest in infrastructure that would help the manufacturing sector, while Harper's Conservatives plan to keep the status quo. The vigorous campaign run by Trudeau, the son of a former prime minister, is also helping the Liberals, who are moving ahead in the polls.

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An off the cuff remark by Romney in Nashua, New Hampshire- "I like to fire people who provide services to me"- referred to health insurers that are not providing good care. Perry, Gingrich and Huntsman, the other candidates in the Republican primaries seize on this reference to firing, and another about pink slips made by Romney, to focus attention on the people Romney fired at the companies he acquired for Bain Capital. Huntsman tells reporters in Concord- "Governor Romney enjoys firing people, I enjoy creating jobs." Gingrich tells NBC's "Today" show- "Look I'm for capitalism, but if someone comes in, takes all the money out of your company and then leaves you bankrupt while they go off with millions, thats not traditional capitalism."

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While Italy's budget deficit of 5.3% of GDP in 2009 is relatively healthy, its public debt as a percentage of GDP is rising and forecast to be 118%. The growth in tax revenues is negligible because Italy has seen only 0.54% annual average growth in GDP in the past decade, so its much harder to manage the debt. As the interest on debt exceeds the rate of growth, debt keeps rising all the time, say experts. This makes it harder for Italy to borrow in capital markets, a 9.5 billion bond offer in April 2010 drew onlly 9.78 billion euros in bids. The debt financing is helped by the Italian households having a high savings rate of 15%, and holding 25% of Italy's bonds.

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Instead of going through layers of executives before speaking to the CEO, quality chiefs at Toyota now speak directly with the CEO. Mr. St. Angelo who heads the Quality group at Toyota for the American region met directly recently with Mr Akio Toyoda. There are in all 6 Quality chiefs for six regions worldwide. Akio's questioning during a Congressional investigation appears to be a turning point and he is determined to shake things up. He choked up at the National Press Club in Washington while thanking employees and dealers for their support. See the links to Akio Toyoda for Akio's education and experience in the U.S., which may have better prepared him for this challenge than his more parochial mindset predecessors who lacked this type of background.

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The US share of Japanese exporting companies went down from 20% to 16% in the 2007-2010 period, while the exports from Japan to China, India, and Brazil have gone up by 25% in the same period. Korean companies like Hyundai and Samsung plunged early into the Indian market. LG and Samsung have a significant share in the electronics and consumer appliance markets in India. By comparison Sony's share is about 5% according to Euromonitor research. Now Japanese compaies are putting a new focus on India. In food products Nissin is expanding aggressively by doubling its noodle making capacity, and making its Ramen brand available in smaller packages costing 10 cents each. The idea is to customize the effort to the unique nature of the Indian market.

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Only 23% of meals in America include a vegetable. The number of dinners made at home with a salad dropped to 17% in 2010 compared to 22% in 1994. Salads ordered at restaurants dropped to 5% in 2010 from 10% in 1989, according to NPD research company in its 25th edition of "Eating Patterns in America." The U.S. is going backwards in good eating habits and no enough attention is being paid to this in the debate about cost of health care. Their is a clear connection between good eating habits and health, and while invention and use of the latest research and innovations in health care are lauded, the decline in patterns of healthy living and food habits are receiving less attention.

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Insights offered by a actor- growing up as a child in London of parents from Ghana and Sierra Leone- on the younger years of Nelson Mandela. Idris Alba is interviewed by Barbara Chai of the WSJ on his role in the movie "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom." To understand his role Idris spent one night at the prison on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life. Idris says he focussed on bringing the younger Mandela to life, not on his lines but everpresent the idea of a man setting a revolution in motion. In doing this he was bringing to life a man with all his character and flaws, a man unknown to young S. Africans, who only know the older Mandela.

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Taghreed's account in the NYT of a wounded surgeon caught in the crossfire in a Gaza City neighborhood, with his wife and child cut to pieces in an exchange of fire between suicidal fighters and an overpowering army on the other side. A reminder that the civilian side of the story in every war that goes on way beyond its time, the 60th year for Palestine, the 61st year for Kashmir, the 30th year in Afghanistan, is the story that is told less often and takes less print and television space than coverage of the hostilities and the war rhetoric. This continues to be the case even after fatigue sets in among the people from many years of conflict, casualties and the poverty that wars cause.

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Spotify acquires podcasting firms to broaden its appeal and acquire nonmusic content including listening time on radio. Spotify thinks it can bring to nonmusic content podcasts what it has done for music by bringing better curation, customization and recommendation, while developing tools and collecting data for podcasters. Talk enhances the experience of listening to music, says Spotify CEO Daniel EK.  Spotify aims to take some of the two hours people listen to radio globally and make money off of it. Ek says video is a bout $1 trillion market, and music plus radio $100 billion, but he questions whether our eyes are worth 10 times as much as our ears." Adding more monetization opportunities is key. Spotify says it has seen that podcasts command an engaged audience- people who see podcasts spend twice as much time using the service, and tend to stream more live music. They are less likely to cancel subscriptions.  Spotify has 206 million users and 96 million subscribers. Average revenue per user is 4.89 euros as many of Spotify's users come in through family plans and in international markets with lower pricing power. ...

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The countries that would be affected the most from a slowdown in China are the commodity producer countries- Australia, Brazil, S. Africa, Chile. Other countries include Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Currencies such as the Australian dollar, the South African Rand, the Brazilian Real and the Chilean peso would decline in value. South Korea, Taiwan and Japan which supply large machinery for construction and manufacturing would be affected. Oversupply of steel and other products in China would mean higher exports causing a drop in steel prices and prices of other items. There would be a decline in commodity prices. Germany which provides the high tech machinery for China's industrialization will be affected. Exports growth to China from Germany increased by 44% in 2010. It has been pointed out that China is the seventh largest export market for Germany, coming after France, the U.S., the Netherlands, the U.K., Italy and Austria, exports to EU countries being the largest market for Germany. A global economic slowdown, with the Chinese slowdown as a part of this would impact German exports, leading to a slower growth in Germany. The U.S. would be affected also because exports were picking up in 2010-2011, and remain the one bright spot for the U.S. economy's recovery....

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The 2016 Republican platform is written to express the ideas in the Republican Party for family values, child rearing using the Bible and traditional values, calling pornography a "public health crisis."  The Family Research Council and tradition or family focussed groups played an important role in writing it, with Mr. Trump playing less of a role. Instead of "physical barrier" with Mexico, it says "a wall"  should be built in a taking up Trump's idea, but in general it is a clear expressing of traditional family values that Republicans have supported for years and expressed frustration with the movement of social lives in an opposite direction. The same sex marraige decision by the Supreme Court and transgender debate were not present in 2012 election, so in that sense the Republicans see the country as moving in a different direction. More of the pendulum having swung too far in another direction is how Republicans perceive it, and their response is to go back to how things used to be and the world they knew, based on what they see as positive outcomes for the whole of society. Hence language that encourages teaching of the Bible in public schools, condemning pornography as a menace particularly for children, and insisting on "man made laws being consistent with God given natural rights." A good understanding of the Bible is considered "indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry."   Amendments opposing gay and transgender are being added. ...

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William Galston in WSJ points to the failure of governance as the cause of so much of the uncertainty and sense of unease felt by people in America, not decline in religion. He looks back and sees wars in the Middle East under Reagan, Bush, Obama and Trump that wasted resources while neglecting the rebuilding of infrastructure and investing in education and healthcare. Tech monopolies have not led to better educated citizens, and instead lowered the literacy required for a democracy to function well, leaving sites like Lyarac.com with the hard work of doing this. The 2009 financial crisis led to financial speculation by Banks and hurt the middle class. The shipping out of manufacturing destroyed hope for workers in America's factories. The pandemic caused about a million deaths.It is only now that America is coming out of it. Supply chain disruptions have led to higher cost of living. President Biden is taking action on each of these problems and the plan is bringing hope to the middle class, restoring America's manufacturing base, investing in infrastructure in a way that has not happened since the 1950's and 1960's, and investing in healthcare and education.  This not looking to religion is what would restore faith in the Nation and the democracy that America is, for the US and no less for the world, says Galston. Behind the cultural issues is a deep sense of ignoring the needs of the middle class and the workers in America's factories, and the people in lower income groups. It is now about restoring the spirit of the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy that was our misfortune to be cut short in 1963, about an America ready to meet the new challenges it faces from now on to 2050. ...

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China and India as rooted today in the original scientific mind of the Buddha and the Rishis are capable modern science based societies that can not only coexist with Christian Europe and Americas but also inspire other societies. About 33% or one third of the 1.2 billion Chinese people believe in Buddhism or a Bodhisattva, and 18% believe in Taoist deities. 47% believe in feng-shui arranging objects in space for environment and harmony. This is shown in a Pew Research survey. Buddhism is a religion that is not practiced officially with hierarchy and churches as in Catholicism. As a result faith and prayer happens in visits to small shrines in the home or in the neighborhood. Only 4% of people will say that they identify with a religion as religious beliefs are seen as close to superstition and backwardness that held China back from adopting science and modern technology from 1400 to 1900. This makes surveys difficult to trust in a Communist society.   A close observation from a Buddhist perspective in Asia would show that the vast majority of Chinese have a faith in Buddha or Taoism. Buddha's writings show a modern mind asking scientific questions about the mind and about life which can be consistent with science and technology and being modern. As in the original Upanishads and Vedic writings of Rishis what is called Hinduism in western language also ask questions with a scientific mind which were obscured by myth and superstition over 1000-1900. Both the original Vedic and Buddhist writings are not only not going to hold India and China back, when correctly presented they are capable of becoming a new force for advancing science and technology in society while retaining the roots of civilization in Four Forms of Mindfulness of the Buddha that give societies hope for the future. This offers hope for the future of China and India as a modern, scientific civilization with roots in the writings of the Buddha. ...

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In this interview with Herndon of the NYT Bernie Sanders refutes the labels "progressive" or "left" and says it is simply about policy that benefits the workers and families that make up the vast majority of this Nation. Sanders says 60% of workers are living from paycheck to paycheck. The vast majority of people 60-70% support Medicare for All, improvements in Social Security, cutting pharmaceutical costs, and tution support to make higher education accessible to all. Why he asks do workers support Trump? He says it is because the truth is that the Democratic party has abandoned its roots. He does not go into this, yet it can be said that the rise of the Tech industry in the last two decades has led to tech billionaires and business people coopting the Democratic party for their agenda. In the last year of the Obama administration it was evident that Rural America and people who represent rural America such as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack of Iowa felt ignored while Obama spent more time with tech and internet business people. Former president Trump simply stepped into this void as Democrats failed to turn up for rural America. President Biden has turned things around by making Tom Vilsack an important part of his administrations with the president listening to  him and others speaking for rural America. The passion with which Senator Pat Schumer talked recently on CBS Face the Nation about bringing broadband to rural America shows how Biden and Harris, Harris and Walz see Rural America. This Democratic ticket is fighting for Rural America every step of the way to bring hope and a better life to Rural America. Sanders reminds people of FDR in 1936 after four years of fighting the Depression and improving lives there was so much that needed to be done. It is the same today and Sanders is wading into this fight with Harris and Walz in the same way as FDR did in 1936. ...

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Anglo American responds to declining commodity prices and the slowdown in China with deep cuts of 53,000 jobs from its 151,000 workforce. Some of the jobs will be layoffs and other job cuts will be through sale of mines. In Australia mining employment is down 13% in the 2d quarter of 2015 over prior year. Anglo American plans to sell over a quarter of assets in the downsizing. BHP has spun off over ten mines into a separate company called South32. American Pittsburgh based company Consol Energy says it will no longer provide guaranteed health insurance to retired workers. Anglo American is one of the hardest hit companies. It had losses of $3 billion for the first half of 2015, and needs $1.5 billion in cost cutting to become profitable again.

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While the Fed will continue to carefully monitor conditions and the changes resulting from DJT's actions in immigration and tariffs, and federal workforce cuts, Powell says "the economy is in a good place," though it remains to be seen what happens with spending and investment with these changes. On changes in rapid sequence in first 100 days of DJT second term Powell says- "The new administration is in the process of implementing significant policy changes in four distinct areas: trade, immigration, fiscal policy and regulation,” Powell says at a University of Chicago Booth School of Business economic forum in New York City. “Uncertainty around the changes and their likely effects remains high. “We are focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves. We do not need to be in a hurry and are well positioned to wait for greater clarity.” ...

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With 7 caps for Germany and winning the Bundesliga title for Bayern in 2005, Tobias Rau retired in 2009 after injuries. His next career- teaching sports and biology at the peter August Gasemschule in northwest Germany.

Gheerbrant of The Times of London talks to soccer players who decide to take the road not taken and branch out into different things. 

Rau says as a child he was lucky to have good teachers, and school was a part of life he really loved. With a wife and two small children he likes living in a small town. Werther the home town he came back to to teach at a Gasemschule.( a comprehensive with real mix of abilities and qualifications). He likes that he gets to spend quality time with his children, and does not have to deal with the high of adrenaline of competitive sports which can tax the body and system. He was 27 when he retired, quite young so that helps, as he could get back to university easily at that age. 

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US Vice president JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance and their three children are on a 4 day state visit to India, to New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. Vance said- "There’s a vitality to India, a sense of infinite possibility,”  It’s a striking contrast with too many in the West, where some in our leadership class seem stricken by self-doubt and even fear of the future.” Vance says relationship with India will define the 21st century. India's pride in its thousands of years old civilization dating back to the Buddha in 2500 BC and the Upanishads, its history and culture, Vance says contrasts with Western countries that are critical of India while embracing the “same bland, secular, universal values.”   ...

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This report on Germany's view of US DJT Tariffs does not cite any German economists or experts. It simply rehashes the views of American economists who are the source of the problems America has on world trade because they supported textbook ideas about trade that have no connection to reality onthe ground - the experience in towns and communities dependent on factories across America for two decades. It says nothing, prefers to ignore and present a false narrative that has been around for so long in America that has led to it's deindustrialization with loss of 5 million jobs and tens of thousands of factories. It is destroying America's industrial base, while Germany sends its millions of cars Made in Germany into the US.  This is the kind of approach taken by Germany and China because they benefit from a system that American companies and economists, and three previous presidents have allowed or tolerated from Clinton, Bush, Obama for 25 years. ...