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The near collapse of Iran's state owned gas company following stricter Western sanctions and withdrawal of Total and other oil companies. Iran sits on top of the second largest gas reserves in the world but is able to export gas only to Turkey and Azerbaijan. Qatar which borders one of Iran's large gas fields is developing its side of the field with technology and investment from Shell and other foreign oil companies. The CEO of the company, Hamid Reza Araghi, told the Mehr News Agency that the company had declared bankruptcy, with debt of about $4 billion. Gas revenues have dropped to about $10 million a day and the company suffers from mismanagement.

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Wal-Mart promotes Doug McMillon, head of the expanding international operations since 2005, to the CEO position. He started as buyer trainee in sporting goods in 1991. He is a native of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and was mentored by Chairman Rob Walton of Wal-Mart. The current CEO Mr. Duke took the position in 2009. He will stay on as advisor to McMillon for one year, a practice followed by Wal-Mart, with the prior CEO Mr Scott staying on for 2 years when Mr. Duke took the position. Under Mr McMillon international operations in Mexico, China, India, Japan and other countries now make up 29% of sales of $135 billion for the year ending in Jan 31, 2013.

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A Pemex brokered deal for $5 billion in Argentine bonds as compensation to Spain's Repsol for its 51% stake in YPF. The Argentine government nationalized YPF saying Repsol was not investing enough in developing oil and gas reserves. With the discovery of shale gas reserves estimated to be third only to reserves in the U.S. and China and large shale oil reserves, the Argentine government is seeking foreign investment in the oil industry. A settlement with Repsol, with the help of Mexico's Pemex which has a 10% stake in YPF, enables Argentina to seek technology and investment from western oil companies. Chevron has invested in the Vaca Muerta shale field in Argentina.

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Gongloff points out that the word exemption occurs on 100 of the 200 pages of the final draft of the Volcker Rule published for comments in September 2011, for a total of 426 times. The banks have 2 years after its introduction in July 2012 to comply with its provisions and are allowed to petition the board for 3 one year extensions taking the process to July 2014 or July 2017. And this whole exercizes resembles some form of kabuki theater as the title of this piece suggests, and makes going through its detail meaningless. Especially since the probability of a new administration in 2014 or in 2017 are high. At that time new rules would be written.

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How in the last days before bankruptcy Chrysler executives pushed dealers to take therir allottment of cars even though they had unsold inventory sitting in their showrooms as sales plunged over 50% for Chrysler, the worst hit among all the carmakers. Dealers say this was aveiled threat to take the cars or face being terminated. For Jim Press and Chrysler this was about "You can help us, or burn all of us down," as Chrysler sturggled to show its viability to the government. See link to where White House economic adviser Summers argued against Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee's advice to let Chrysler go out of business, as there was too much capacity in the car business.

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Peter Eavis says the too big to fail problem remains unsolved, and with the recent consolidation the "big four" accounting for 70% of all assets held by domestically cahrtered banks. There is no effort by the Obama administration to prevent banks from getting too big. And the Fed has accumulated greater powers as a regulator. It is still the same Fed, Eavis reminds one that failed as abank regulator by letting Citigroup's common equity ratios drop to perilous lows. And its overstimulative monetary policies having built up more risk than the system could handle. There will be more regulatory capital at these big banks as a result of actions by Treasury, but risk remains.

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President Obama has 63% job approval rating in a New York Times/CBS News poll. His backing is among Democrats and independents alike which is very useful for Obama.But the poll shows more American having faith in the President than in the handling of specific issues. He gets good approval on foreign policy initiatives at 59%, but in the handling of the Auto bankruptcy, or of health care his ratings are below his personal ratings as President. A majority of those polled were concerned about the rising budget deficits. BUt his ratings among Republicans has fallen from 44% in February to 23%. Republicans were viewed favorably by only 285 of those polled, the lowest ever.

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For the government to recover its nearly $50 billion investment GM stock would have to rise above $68 billion. At its peak the stock was valued at $56 billion in 2000. With severe global competition expected as there is capacity for manufacturing 100 million cars and a market for only about 55 million according to experts, there will be pressure on prices and margins. GM will emerge as asmaller company after bankruptcy and more automakers will be going after ashrinking market. Any assessment of how well the government does will also have to take into account the benefits to the American economy of stabilizing the auto industry in a period of freefall.

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How to do the disposal of 99.1 million old television sets, that the EPA says sit in closets unused throughout the USA, in an ecologically friendly way is a challenge. State laws in 18 states and in New York CIty make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics. Similiar stautes were introduced in 13 other states in 2009. When states like Maine and Washington have made it easy for people to take their old electronics PC or television sets to dropoff points the response has been very good. In Washington the drop off is free of charge, and there are 200 collection points in the state, with 15 million pounds of electronic waste collected since January.

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Asking the right questions is important to Tim Brown at IDEO. But how do you find the right questions, that takes work says Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO. He was supported as a 21 year old by the head of a large woodworking company in England, given the opportunity to show what he could do with design. He has tred to do the same with young people in his company. He is eager to participate in the new ideas that come up, but now makes sure others own their ideas and gain confidence and grow. He delegates operational stuff that others can do better so he can focus on the important questions facing the company.

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Adolf Merckle, a native of Dresden, left for West Germany after World War II and built up businesses RatioPharm a generics pharmaceutical maker, and Heidelberg Cement. After making a bad bet in shortselling of VW shares, just when the Prosche family moves ran up the price of VW shares from 210 euros to 1000 euros in 2 trading sessions to obtain majority control of VW, Merckle faced losses of several hundred million euros and possible loss of RatioPharm. A badly timed acquisition by Heidelberg Cement also created worsening finances for Merckle's business. When he failed to get a bridge loan Merckle committed suicide. A public outcry prevented the state government there to provide any loans to Merckle.

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Gisele Freund's photographic account of how a world changes, the world of her childhood at the turn of the century Berlin (she was born in 1908) and then after her return to Berlin in 1957 before the wall went up. This was an unfamiliar world to her. Her pictures are at the Willy Brandt Haus exhibition in Berlin, and at the Ephraim Palais for the pictures from 1957 and 1962. In the subsequent 50 years the Berlin Wall was to go up and come down, bringing more change and a new Berlin different from that in the late fifties, and a even more different Germany. A story of change told in photographs of Berlin.

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Total USA sales fell 35% from a year earlier in the last quarter of 2008. At Chrysler the fall was steeper, at 46%, according to Autodata Corporation. On average vehicles sold in December had been on the dealer lots 92 days before being sold, up from 59 days in 2007, according to J.D. Power & Associates. Chrysler vehicles were on the dealer lots for 142 days before being sold, the most for any automaker, up from 70 days in 2007. And AutoNation Inc, estimates that 3.2 million vehicles sit on dealer lots around the country. At the current pace of sales this would last 4 months. AutoNation's CEO Mike Jackson said that he is cutting vehicle orders by half.

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The 1953 coup that toppled the elected Mossadegh government was supported and attributed to planning by the CIA. During a cold war with the Soviet Union countries in the middle were considered expendable by either side. Added to this was the interest of big oil companies similiar to the Anglo-French response in the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. This still rankles with Iranians. In response to the election of President Obama and his offer for an open discussion the Iranian President Ahmedinejad calls for an apology for that coup and the toppling of an elected government. This led to replacing it with the Shah's monarchy which was overthrown in 1979 after 26 years.

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Honda's policy of hiring from certain counties within a 50 mile distance from its new plant in Greensburg, Indiana, to keep a good distance from closed UAW plants and keep away from new workers who have UAW loyalties. Honda's policy of hiring at wages near the prevailing wage in the region surrounding the plant, and the freedom from the UAW that enables Honda to follow this wage policy. In a very competitive automobile market the gains made by GM in its negotiations are undercut by Honda and Toyota's own efforts to bring its wages more in line with the area where the plant is located, which are generally lower than the higher wages paid in the past.

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A new EU law on transport biofuels would require that biofuels companies prove that their biofuel production and use reduces greenhouse emissions by at least 35% compared with production and use of traditional fossil fuel. That means rapeseed oil based biofuels pass with 37% emissions cut and corn based ethanol which only does 22% fails. No US corn based ethanol would be imported into the EU and it shows that in these policies the EU is way ahead of the USA. See the link to the Yale -Columbia survey rating countries record on greenhouse emissions and the environment where the EU is way ahead of the USA, and the USA lags way behind in many areas.

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BP Russia is the only large joint venture in which a foreign company has a 50% ownership and it is highly profitable with net profit of $5.7 billion on annual revenue of $24.9 billion. The Russian government is consolidating the oil industry to make it largely a state owned industry and renegotiating old contracts for a majority position in all oil joint ventures. In the light of that policy and its implementation for several years it would appear that the BP joint venture also would be seen as part of the same scheme of things. The minority partners and BP would negotiate their way for the best possible situation in this scheme of things.

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John Holmes the UN deputy secretary general and relief coordinator says after a 4 day situation that the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. Afghanistan's food needs he says are very great considering the worsening food situation cause by world food prices surging and by the loss of about 40% of Afghanistan's wheat crop from drought that has affected food producing areas. The UN appealed 6 months earlier for $400 million in food aid to meet the needs of 4.5 million people or 14% of the people and for seeds and fertilizer to increase food production. Complicating food delivery is the worsening security situation with 432 deaths to insurgent attacks, and 62% rise in civilian deaths, displacement of 160,000 people.

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Sri Lanka has an inflation rate of 26%. Government spending on the war against Tamil separatist movement in the east and north makes things more difficult. Central bank is squeezing credit to control inflation. And there is a need to spend more to rebuild the wwar ravaged eastern province. And the war has taken a toll on human rights and on the free press as the country became increasingly polarized. The Rajapakse brothers won the last election to as Maninda Rajapakse, the president says to have peace and development by defeating the Tamil separatists who have created a continuous conflict on the island for decades sapping government resources and attention from development.

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The Putin Medvedev administration is reluctant to lowere the value of the ruble seeing the stable ruble as sign of the hard won recovery of the last decade. The Russian stock market has lost 68% of its value so far in 2008 and the banking sector is affected. Russia has committed about $200 billion in the bailout plan and the central bank has raised intrest ates for the fifth time most by 1 percentage point to reduce capital outflows from the country. For weeks Russia has used its foreign currency reserves to keep the ruble from falling further. In the process it has used up $112 billion in reserves since the summer. It still has $485 billion in reserves.

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Comments from readers of WSJ about the interview with Rubin at Citigroup (Ken Brown, David Enrich, NYT, Nov. 29, 2008), and his defense of $115 million in compensation since 1999 on its pages. Readers expressed strong sentiment after the housing foreclosures, bank bailouts, and the shock to the nation's financial system. One reader says history will find Rubin, Greenspan and Barney Frank in the financial scrap heap, another says he is incredulous at the way Rubin condescendingly points to his opportunities to do better elewhere, another says Rubin uses a lot of B school mumbo jumbo like risk book and inflection points and laments the failure of Wall Street executives to take responsibility for errors of judgement.

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How Lehman Brothers CEO underestimated the situation facing his firm and failed to realize the true extent of the economic environment that the country is facing. He did not move fast enough for the speed with things deteriorate in this new environment which is nothing like the environment they faced before. In the end he held out for a better deal when he was negotiating with potential partners till the other side walked away. As a trader who led the firm for 14 years he was used to snap decisions so when he negotiated with Korea Development Bank and things were difficult he grew frustrated according to the Wall Street Journal and threw up his arms and the meeting ended. After the two sides parted subsequent talks faltered. At that August meeting the Korea bank proposed to invest $4 billion to $6 billion into Lehman and on the other side the CEO of Korea Development Bank had once been the head of Lehman Brothers in South Korea. The Journal report says that the Koreans felt their approach was realistic and were prepared to move forward but that Mr. Fuld was holding out for a better deal. The Koreans would have received a large stake in the firm. But not reaching the deal in the negotiation with the Koreans in June and then again in August and not marking down the firm's large holdings of real estate to reflect new conditions, and relying too much on the access to capital from the Fed, may all prove to be the undoing of Lehman because its stock has dropped precipitiously in the last few days losing more than 40% of it value in one day and then continuing down a slippery slope. Mr Fuld has led the company for 14 years and is the decision maker in this company, being called by employees as "the chairman" or "the gorilla". In these 14 years he gained a reputation for driving hard deals and in this case he may have not realized the crtical situation the company faces required a more urgent approach and a willingness to consider different deals some of which may have led to giving up some of the complete independence with which he operated....

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Car lending rates and standards expected to tighten and could have further negative impact on sales. Delinquencies on auto loans have risen. Significant is that even top rated borrowers are having a difficult time with payments, 4.5% of auto loans to top rated borrowers are delinquent by 30 days or more as of Sept 30, a jump from 2.9% as of August 30.