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Difficulties in New York Times reporting on prime minister Manmohan Singh, BJP opposition leader Narendra Modi, and on Indian politics and government. The misleading nature of an analogy to black people in the U.S. for Muslims in India, Muslims in British India. Or Muslims in South Asia going back to the 12th century with the long history and culture of Muslims in the region linking up with Muslim civilization in Iran, highly developed with their own languages and dominant in the region during different historical periods. Yet also in decline during some periods such as the British period because of rapid advances in science and technology.

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The U.S. Labor Department reports that 4.4 million unemployed workers in the U.S. were out of work for more than one year. For the U.S. this is 30% of all unemployed. In some of the largest states about one in three unemployed workers have been out of work for more than one year. For New Jersey which has a 9.4% unemployment rate compared to 9.6% nationally, 37.1% were out of work for more than one year. Older Americans, the highly educated workers, are more likely to have longer stretches of unemployment. This is the situation in New Jersey and Florida where there is a larger population of older workers.

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Polls show 83% of the German public support increasing the minimum wage to 8.50 euros an hour. About two thirds of the public support increasing income taxes on high wage earners. The Social Democrats talks with the CDU to form a coalition are likely to lead to CDU accepance of the condition for a minimum wage of 8.50 euros an hour, but not to the condition for raising the taxes on high income earners. The SPD sees the higher taxes as a way to pay for new infrastructure. A survey done for TV broadcaster ZDF shows 61% of Germans favoring a SPD-CDU coalition. In the 2013 elections the SPD gained 25.7% of the vote and the CDU-CSU gained 41.5%. The SPD is pushing for flexible retirement age, equal pay for men and women, a tighter financial regulation, and a growth and employment strategy in the EU.

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WSJ reporter Bob Davis writes this report on the end of the China economic miracle in 2014 as he completes a 4 year assignment covering China. He says China's economy is slowing rapidly and he is pessimistic abou the future. Construction cranes visible across China's skyline says Davis, can no longer be interpreted as growth inducing. With rows upon rows of empty flats in third and fourth tier cities which account for the bulk of the increase in housing construction, the consequences of a debt fueled construction boom are easy to see. Davis cites the IMF on the dangers of credit fueled growth in China- only 4 countries have experienced as rapid an increase in credit to GDP ratio in 5 years. Each of the 4 countries Brazil, Ireland, Spain and Sweden experienced a sharp decline in GDP growth and banking crises following the credit bubble. Estimates of debt to GDP are as high as 250% for China. Krugman, Roubini and other economists have warned about the credit bubble, saying China is no exception to the rule for the risks posed by such a bubble. ...

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Philipp Rosler, head of the FDP party and Germany's Economy minister, says he opposes further involvement by German taxpayers or the ECB in the debt restructuring for Greece. He pointed out that the current negotiations between Greece and the bondholders (mostly French and German banks) were about private sector involvement. Tax payers of Germany and other European countries are already making a contribution he said. The IMF is pushing for the ECB to take a haircut or writedown on the $40 billion of Greek bonds it holds to supplement the haircut taken by bondholders of over 50%. Rosler said in an interview with the Journal that Athens should keep its side of the bargain by implementing reforms and not letting them just be on paper. On Germany or the EU directly taking responsibility over the Greek budget, Rosler said this should be the responsibility of the Greek parliament. At the same time he pointed out that its important to have a specific and rigorous montiroing process just to be fair to taxpayers in the EU....

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The June 2012 referendum in Ireland on the EU Fiscal Treaty.

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The U.S. and the EU join together for stronger economic sanctions on Russia. The sanctions affecting large Russian banks ability to raise capital in financial markets are likely to affect the Russian economy. Russia was suspended for export credit and development finance. VTB Bank was one of three more Russian banks added to the list of banks with economic sanctions. The EU took similiar action against Russian state owned banks and imposed an arms embargo in July end 2014.

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Rockets fired by Iran close to the U.S. aircraft carrier U.S.S. Truman in December 2015 could lead to a shift in sentiment in the U.S. following the nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 by the Obama administration. Ballistic missile testing was one of the issues in the negotiations leading up to the nuclear deal with serious differences between Congress and the Obama adminsitration on the issue. Recent ballistic missile tests by Iran may reinforce differences on this issue.

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Most Congressmen are skeptical of Obama's plan to give the Fed new powers to meet the kind of emergency created by the glovabal economic crisis. Their concern is that the Fed may let the property bubble develop wihtout taking any action, and that the Fed failed as abank regulator. Congressman Ron Paul is co-sponsoring abill that would require Congressional audits of the Fed, which has the support of two thirds of the House.

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Bernstein Global Research looked into how long it takes to regain losses if one remained fully invested in the market with a diversified portfolio. For the 12 month period starting July 1, 1931, with 67% decline the research showed it took 39 months to be made whole and recover the losses. For the 12 month period starting March 1, 2008, with a 43% decline the research shows it took 22 months to be made whole and recover the losses.

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Malkiel suggests as techniques for rebalancing investor portfolios- putting over 25% of the portfolio in international equities for diversification, as Europe and Japan are likely to improve competitiveness and do better in 2015. For the bonds part of the portfolio he suggests adding a dividend growth fund as partial subsitute for what is normally an all bond portfolio. Rebalancing is designed to reduce the total risk of the portfolio by reducing the weight of overweighted equities in classes that have performed well in the past.

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The Microsoft Board of Directors has nine members with extensive management experience, no member younger than 56 years, one member from IBM with 28 years working for the company, an auto executive, and two former bank executives. There is no member who understands well or has a grasp of the technologies sweeping the internet and the information technology field. Bill Gates who owns less than 5% of the stock still has significant influence and stature to decide who will replace Steve Ballmer as CEO. Value Act venture capital firm owns only about 0.8% of Microsoft shares. Though it is expected to get a board seat, its influence in the CEO choice is limited.