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A review of the aid program for Greece done for European leaders meeting in Brussels on October 23, 2011, shows that most of the money sent to Greece has gone to pay off bondholders (mostly European banks that lent to Greece). For the initial bailout program of the European Union and the IMF in May 2010, international loans amount to $91 billion. Of this $52 billion has gone to repay bonds that came due between May 2010 and September 2011, according to this review. The report was prepared by the European Commission in coordination with the IMF and the ECB. Greece owes over $300 billion dollars and Greece's borrowing extends far beyond the country's size and ability to repay, creating extraordinary risks to the financial system in Europe. The initial bailout program based its lending on little or no haircuts for the bondholders, who are mainly the European banks (mostly French and German banks) that loaned the money, which creates another set of risks, and a logjam, because taxpayers in the stronger financial countries such as Germany are equally adamant on not paying for the excess lending of the French and German banks. The financial leaders in Germany, Finance Minister Schauble, Axel Weber, the former head of the Bundesbank, and other prominent financial experts have also adamantly insisted on following prudent financial practices, and are opposed to using the European Central Bank to buy the sovereign bonds of France, Italy and Spain....

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From now on the vaccination program in India will be run nationally by the federal government. This will ensure fair access to vaccines to all parts of the Indian population. Earlier vaccine costs were bid up as states and private hospitals bid up prices. Under the new national program 75% of vaccines will be given out by the federal government and 25%  by private hospitals and other private health institutions. The government in New Delhi under prime minister Modi will offer adults free vaccinations. Modi said "We will increase the speed of procuring vaccines and also increase the pace of the vaccination program." Even in private hospitals the cost of vaccine will be kept at Rupees 150 or $2.06. Experts say this is the right policy and the government has learned from errors in letting states and other private institutions run vaccine policy, which made it too fragmented and subject to too many variables, resulting in inequity, and slowing vaccination drives. The Supreme Court stepped in asking for clarity, leading to the clear policy from the federal government announced today.  Advantage of the new policy is that the responsibility lies in one place, and the federal government also has the clout to make things happen, to negotiate with companies and other parties involved effectively. India has vaccinated 222 million people but because of the population being so large at 1.2 billion this comes out to be a small fraction of the population. This puts the task of getting vaccine supplies and getting the vaccination drives to work in the only place that has the determination and the resources to deliver results by vaccinating 1.2 billion people by December 2021. It has never been done before in history says Mr. Modi, and it is a challenge that India is now taking up for itself and for the global community. It also lays the ground for India to help its neighbors in Asia and in Africa, Latin America in 2022.   ...

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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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Specialized websites such as Realtor.com,Trulia, Zillow in the US and Rightmove in the UK have customized features appropriate for the field. In this case real estate search. This vertical search is proving superior to the horizontal search of the world's 182 million websites that Google searches, when it comes to specialized tasks. Restaurant reservations has OpenTable, job-hunting has Simply Hired. These sites do more than simply search, they also complete transactional tasks which Google doesn't. In the retail Amazon is adding new features specialized to the retail field, and also has consolidated online retail. Right now Google has 69.4% of the search market to Bing's 24.4%. For Google 96% of revenues come from search, even with diversification efforts through Android (mobile devices), YouTube (video advertising), and Chrome (browser software). Google acquired ITA Software in 2010 to compete in the travel field. Rayport says the search business is changing with users geting more sophisticated and demanding, and he sees a shift to vertical search. This shift appears to be the next step as the capabilities of horizontal search are being exhausted....

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Andrew Higgins provides this exceptional account of how the political and administrative authorites in Belgium are so divided because of ethnic and poltiical reasons, that they are often paralyzed. It is described as the Belgian disease. Belgium is a country that has French, Dutch and German ethnic groups and languages. Divided along linguistic lines, all centralized authority is resisted, leading to parts of Belgium becoming a haven for terrorist activity. Terrorists from Molenbeek, a part of Brussels, carried out the Paris attacks in November 2015. The German and French media coverage now ridicules the way Belgium is run.

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Chancellor Merkel has shown exceptional leadership during the coronavirus health crisis in Germany, leading to increasing popularity for her government. Her approval ratings are the highest of any coalition government in the last 23 years. The government says this report in DW.com has appeared level headed in its actions, and Merkel has paid careful attention to advice from Germany's Robert Koch Institute, the German public health agency. Merkel also shared important facts for tackling coronavirus in an effective television address. By listening to the expertise of RKI public health agency the government has maintained calm and better handled the crisis. In the U.S. a similar process is taking place with the heads of the public health agencies, Dr. Fauci and Dr Birx playing a similar role, and president Trump paying careful attention to health experts. DW.com says doctors, nurses, police officers, and people working at supermarkets and pharmacies, are being applauded by the public, with people taking to the balconies to applaud. This is also happening in Spain. The hope expressed by DW.com is that going forward these professions will be better paid and public health become a top priority. ...

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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 significant part of the haze and air pollution in New Delhi, India, comes from crop burning in the neighboring Punjab and Haryana region. Here the Hindu newspaper looks at the practice that has not changed even after a 2015 government and NGT order banning the practice. This report cites data from the state of Punjab showing 65% of the 1.85 million farming families in the Punjab are small and marginal farmers. The problem is that the rice paddy harvest leaves 19.7 million tons of paddy straw in the fields and the farmers see burning this as a quick way to avoid incurring the cost of machinery and labor. The Punjab government is required to provide machinery to farmers for preventing the burning. Farmers say it has not provided this. Punjab government seeks funding from the central government in Delhi for meeting the cost. Till then marginal farmers continue their old ways creating a thick haze over New Delhi. Solutions proposed are having more biomass plants to generate energy and use the paddy straw, a Happy Seeder variety that takes works with the straw, and shifting to Basmati rice instead of the common rice crop. The way Indian democracy works political parties have remained wary of collectively working out solutions, letting the problem continue.  ...

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See spectacular images of the Earth half lit by moon, and of the Atlantic/ Iberia /eastern South America in this BBC Pictures report of Artemis II Lunar Mission April 3, 2026. To take these pictures the Orion spacecraft did the lunar injection burn that took it out of earth's orbit and flung it to the far side of the moon. The spacecraft reaches the far side of the Moon on April 6 and then reaches back to Earth's orbit April 10. This is the first time it has gone this far since 1972. The sheer excitement and the enthusiasm reflected by the four astronauts and the people on planet Earth shows how the Lunar Mission and planetary Mission's bring people together from all over the planet.

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Questions raised by Nicholas Kristof of the NYT on Russian hacking during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Kristof says the implausible or far fetched idea of foreign interference in U.S. elections is not as implausible as it may appear.

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Mexico's domestic market is growing and compacts are about half of Mexico's 1.13 vehicle market. The San Luis Potosi plant will be able to make 160,000 compact cars a year, an investment of $650 million. Some of this could go to Mexico's own need for compacts in the domestic market. Also this could supply the U.S. market where GM needs compacts to compete with Japanese and Korean models. One of the reasons Mexico is able to compete with the Southern United States is is its high quality work force at a fraction of the cost. See the link to Mexico's turning out a large number of engineering graduates. When companies look at where to put a new plant, Mexico is starting to compete a lot more with Detroit, said Gabriel Renero, a consultant at Deloitte in Mexico City. They are finding a very attractive work force in this country. In the last year, American automakers have all introduced a variety of new models from their Mexican assembly plants. Being able to produce any kind of vehicle looks good in the global market, says Renero....

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Of the 10 parties expected to win seats in the Greek parliamentary elections, 7 oppose the IMF program for Greece and 2 call for exit from the euro. A Pasok-New Democracy coalition government is by no means certain. Pasok and New Democracy largely supported the IMF program before the elections. Greece has to make 3 billion euros of spending cuts right after the elections and 12 billion euros in 2013-2014 under the IMF program. Poor showing by Pasok and New Democracy could lead to calls for changes to the IMF program. About 73% of Greece's debt is now in official hands- 23% with the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), 21% bilateral government loans, 21% ECB, 8% IMF. Only 27% is now in the hands of private investors after the debt restructuring. The election of Socialist candidate Hollande in France who has declared the handling of Greece by the EU deplorable and a failure of governance not only in Greece but in Europe, would also add support to calls for changes in the IMF program to include growth measures. Hollande predicts a large public contribution by governments, the EFSF and the ECB, the IMF, to match the 70% contribution of private investors. The IMF appears to have anticipated this by recently enlarging its rescue fund....

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Sara Korshid, a Egyptian journalist, laments the wasted last two and a half years in which the military was ousted only to have the Muslim Brotherhood take office under a flawed and rushed road map set by the then military leaders, without a clear allocation of powers between the judiciary, parliament and the executive branches of government. The failure of the Muslim Brotherhood led by older authoritarian leaders to reach out to accomodate liberals -who supported Morsi and helped him get elected with 51% of the vote- leading to the ouster of president Morsi brings the Egyptian people back to square one. Real misgivings about having the military intervene are shared by liberals like Korshid, who are yet determined to start the process over to get it right.

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The Obama administration is pushing for new U.S. fuel efficiency standards of 56.2 mpg by 2025. In May 2009 President Obama announced domestic car and light truck fuel efficiency standards of 35 mpg by 2016. Europe is expected to reach fuel efficiency of 60 mpg by 2020. This would still leave Europe considerably ahead of the U.S. in fuel efficiency for automobiles, but the gap would be much smaller. For the last several decades the U.S. has fallen sadly behind Europe and Japan in fuel efficiency. The perception of poor fuel efficiency hurt the automakers badly during periods of high fuel prices and when buyers were facing difficult economic choices. The automakers are beginning to grasp this fact. Mark Reuss, president of General Motors, commented that- "it's very challenging, but its upto us engineers to provide high value to the customer and support the environment." This is an issue that has serious national and global implications as it affects the future prices and demand for oil, emissions, and future economic growth. It would also bring the U.S. in line with Europe and Japan when it comes to fuel efficiency of automobiles. ...

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Germany's calls for closer political and fiscal union for the eurozone countries to complement and support the euro currency arrangement. German chancellor Merkel calls it "more Europe," "step by step." It all hinges on French president Hollande and how well the Socialist party does in the elections to the National Assembly on June 10 and June 17, 2012. If he does well and gets a working majority with other like minded parties he will not need the support of parties that are opposed to giving up sovereignty. Hollande's mentor is Jacques Delors, a former president of the European Commission and a strong supporter of the idea of European Union. England under the Conservatives remains Euro-skeptic. France and Germany were driven closer by the idea of European Union by necessity, because of history and three wars. The European Union had strong support after 1945 from French and German leaders, Monnet and Adenauer, who struggled with political opposition but won over skeptics, with the process continued by German chancellor Kohl, a mentor of Angela Merkel....

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Germany's economy has shown strong growth of 3.6% in 2010. Germany has benefitted from globalization, both on the demand side and the supply side. The euro provided additional demand from countries like Spain and Greece. And German machinery and automobile manufacturers see rising demand from China. Germany also has lower priced labor in Eastern European countries. The Mittelstand, the smaller companies making all types of machinery, are a strong part of the economy. And the Hartz reforms under former chancellor Schroder, have helped reform the labor market. Also German unions have been fairly restrained during this period of reforms. German schemes for retaining workers during the downturn helps retain core skills and supports a quick rebound. All this is helping make Germany look atttractive as a model to follow in the European Union. There are weaknesses in the lack of strong domestic spending, which means Germany is too dependent on demand in China and other countries. The other weakness is reduced productivity in the services sector....

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The OPEC meeting in Qatar in April 2016 to stabilize oil prices with a freeze in production is not likely to affect supply and demand. Saudis and Russia are producing all out, and Iran plans to increase its production, making it difficult to reach an agreement. The International Energy Agency, IEA, predicts demand will rise by the end of 2016 from 94.8 million barrels a day to 95.9 million barrels a day. Production is at 96.4 million barrels a day, and this is expected to lead to narrowing the gap between supply and demand. Experts say cars are becoming more fuel effficient, and electric car technology is becoming commercially viable, leading to a lack of growth in demand in developed and middle income countries. This may have to be factored in for the intermediate and long run for demand growth.

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Brazil faces a debt crisis in 2015-2016. Between 2010 and 2015 foreign debt of local governments and Brazilian firms increased from $100 billion to $250 billion, and dollar debt in local currency from 210 billion reas to 655 billion reas, according to Bank of International Settlements data. State banking institutions BNDES and Caixa Economica Federal financed 35% of loans in 2010, by 2015 this increased to 55%. Subsidized loans at 5.5% by BNDES to firms make Brazilian banking a fiscal operation, requiring additional funding. Petrobras increased debt issuance enormously during this period, and now needs government support as its debt is now one notch above junk status. Interest payments on Brazil's debt is 6% of GDP in 2014. Public sector debt is 66% of GDP, and credit to the private sector is 55% of GDP up from 25% in 2005. It will take Brazil years to recover from a huge borrowing binge.

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Easwar Prasad, Cornell University economist, and a former head of the IMF's China division, says the new report by the World Bank and the Development Reform Commission (DRC), is part of an effort by government officials in China to push the agenda for change forward during the transition to a new leadership. This includes Premier Wen. There is pushback from large state enterprises. The DRC and the World Bank had called for a change from the current situation to allow more private sector involvement in the economy, which means restricting the growth of the large state owned companies and letting the private sector operate in more parts of the economy. The alternative is to see growth slowing quickly and -some economists- say suddenly without warning. The role of Zhu Rongji, a former prime minister during the period Jiang Zemin was president, in pushing for changes appropriate to the period, is also cited. The last decade under prime minister Wen Biao is seen as one in which China relentlessly pursued its currrent export led model of development with large state run companies and state run banks dominating the economy. This has made change even harder to achieve because of the pushback to preserve the status quo....

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As auto sales decline in Spain, France, Italy and other parts of Europe auto companies are looking at improving efficiency and closing inefficient plants. Italy is tackling labor laws that prevented a revamping of the auto industry to improve productivity. New laws make it possible for companies like Fiat to hire or fire workers rather than having to place them on a state backed temporary layoff program that pays workers two thirds of their salaries while not working. Chrysler-Fiat CEO Marchionne sees sales dropping below 10 million units from the 13.1 million in 2011 if the euro were to disintegrate. With the higher efficiency of Fiat's plants in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, Marchionne is not willing to make any exceptions for the Italian system any longer. In 2009 Fiat's plant in Tychy, Poland, making the Fiat 500, made 600,000 cars with 6,100 workers, whereas the five largest Italian plants made 650,000 cars with 22,000 workers. Marchionne put forward his 5 year revamp of Italian operations in April 2010 with an investment of 16 billion euros. Unions were asked to agree to new work rules in exchange- shorter breaks, reduced absenteeism, doubling of overtime hours if needed, and pay tied to performance in addition to seniority. In the fall of 2010 Fiat shifted the production of the Fiat 500L to Serbia. Following this unions agreed to the new rules. One of the plants revamped was the Pomigliano plant which would turn out lower cost Pandas instead of the Alfa Romeos at a cost of 800 million euros to redesign the plant for efficient manufacturing. The new plant requires fewer workers and only 3000 of the 5000 workers at the plant have been hired. Priority was given to younger workers. Marchionne sees the revival of the manufacturing plants in Italy closely linked with his plan to import Italian cars to the American market because of the declining sales in Europe. The transformation of the auto industry and Chrysler was achieved by changing work rules and reducing labor costs. A similiar process is now underway in Italy....

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S&P downgraded France's credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Jan 13, 2012. S&P downgraded Italy's credit rating to BBB+ and Spain's credit rating to A. The AAA ratings for Germany, Netherlands and Finland were left unchanged. S&P stated its reasoning: "Today's ratings actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policy makers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the eurozone."

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Axel Weber, former Deutsce Bundesbank president, will becomes the new chairman of UBS bank in 2013.