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Beppe Severgnini is a columnist for Italy's newspaper Corriere della Serra. Here he describes the rift between generations in Italy that is holding Italy back.

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Hillary Clinton's presidential election strategy appears to be writing off core Republican states such as Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virgina, and focussing on parts of the midwest such as Ohio, Wisconsin, the East and the West. It would be different from the election strategy Hillary Clinton used in 2008 which made an appeal to white working class voters and worked to win votes nationwide, similiar to the two Bill Clinton campaigns which appealed to centrist voters. This may also be because Hillary Clinton is perceived in 2015 as a polarizing candidate by many voters in southern states, with little prospect of winning in these states, making the new strategy a safe fallback option based on Democratic strategies in 2008 and 2012. Jeb Bush's strategy as a candidate with positions that would attract some Hispanic voters, and working class voters, could pose risks to this Clinton election strategy.

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Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs, Mitsuhiro Furusawa, emphasizes that Japan's effort to revive the economy is exactly what the IMF and the international community have been looking for Japan to do. The effort is designed with the primary objective of fighting deflation. The yen has declined by 15% since the new administration of prime minister Abe assumed power Dec. 26, 2012. It now is at 99 yen to the dollar compared to 80 yen to the dollar in 2012. At 80 yen to the dollar the IMF considered the yen "moderately overvalued." Furusawa assumed the new position recently. His previous position was IMF executive director 2010-2012. In that position he assisted IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, in efforts to manage the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone.

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CEO Ryan at CVS/Caremark. An unassuming man with a sharp focus on things, joined CVS right out of pharmacy school at University of Rhode Island. At 29, CVS owner Stan Goldstein gave him the chance to run pharmacy operations for CVS, then a regional drugstore chain in the eastern USA. Over the years CVS has made a number of successful acquisitions, the latest being the acquisition of Longs Drug store chain on the west coast, and it is now one of the largest chains in the USA. It has nearly 7000 stores and more than 50 million users of its CVS loyalty card in the US. As the pharmaceutical business evolved pharmacy benefit management (PBM's) companies like Caremark, Medco, and Express Scripts, came into being to manage burgeoning prescription costs. PBM's work with companies to save money, by filling recurring prescriptionsin 90 day quantities through the mail at reduced per pill cost. Now drug store chains instead of competing with PBM's are either creating or acquiring these larger PBM's. THe result is that a company like CVS which acquired PBM Caremark in 2007 for $27 billion, now has extensive computerized databases with patients information and drug usage histories. Ryan's clear focus is on these IT records as a distinct advantage, if he can use it to help the Obama administration's efforts to control health costs of chronic diseases like diabetes and arthritis, and back or neck pain, high blood pressure, and others, that end up clogging the hospital system and raising health care costs. By using these IT records to flag when a patient is not compliant or taking his medications and call the patient, Ryan can increase drug sales, get more visits into drugstores if the drugs can also be picked up at CVS stores, and increase sales through ancillary purchases during visits. This is now his strategy. It also includes setting up more clinics at stores and at corporate locations that divert the patient flow for small care like sore throats, flu and the like. As this is the way health care costs can be controlled, Ryan sees himself as helping achieve national goals while keeping CVS in the sales and profit picture for the US, even as health care as we know it goes through a complete transformation that removes the waste and unnecessary cost, and improves effectiveness and health. He sees CVS/Caremark right where it wants to be with its large patient drug database from about 1 billion prescriptions it fills each year, and as the largest single buyer and dispenser of prescription drugs in the country. ...

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Neal Wolin, Michael Barr and Diana Farrell who had roles in the Clinton administration are now key figures in the effort to get financial reform legislation through Congress against resistance from well funded lobbying groups. Farrell is one of two deputies to Lawrence Summers, Obama's senior economic advisor. Michael Barr is Assistant Treasury Secretary for financial institutions. Both Wolin and Barr worked at Treasury during the Clinton administration. After Clinton left office Wolin went to work for Hartford Financial Group and Barr went to teach at the University of Michigan. Barr has helped formulate much of the policy-making.

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Richard Portes of the London Business School provides two good reasons why the EU's decision to adopt the French Banking Federation's proposal for rollovers with 10% interest costs is a serious mistake. It doubles the interest costs from 4-6% to 10% with 2% Greek GDP growth and makes debt servicing untenable. Portes says the real Brady Plan from the 1980's included a 35-40% bondholders haircut. Deals of this type have a precedent- in Mexico in 1988 and in Argentina in 2001 such bond exchanges were soon followed by deals that placed bondholder haricuts on creditors. The lesson from Latin America in the 1980's, says Portes, is that the burdens of servicing a debt of such proportions under onerous conditions only extinguishes the enterprise, investment and productive capabilities of the particular country trying to service that debt, making the debt even less serviceable. See the Wall Street Journal's editorial on this deal which it calls "The French Deception." The terms sound like Greek to the editors leaving a sense that French banks are only saying "gimme." The only benefit achieved may be putting off the problem and avoiding contagion to Portugal and Spain. Yet this is not that much of a benefit when one realizes that the problem has not gone away, and is likely to look much worse six or nine months from now....

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The expansion plans of VW will add more competition into the US market which is declining. Martin Winterkorn ran VW's Audi business. He became VW's new CEO this year and brings a new leadership perspective to his job. He has several new strategies. In the area of pricing he wants to reduce unneeded features such as external mirrors that fold inward for narrow European streets, and bring down the price of VW Jetta and Passat models to be competitive with Toyota's Corolla and Camry models. Currently a Jetta is $17,000, a Corolla is $ 15,200 and a Passat is $23900 compared to a Camry at $20,000. VW's plans are to set a sales target of 1 million cars by 2018, tripling sales in ten years from the current 330,000 vehicles. In the next 3 years to 2010 sales world wide are expected to increase by 12 to 15%, VW wants to capture a bigger share by seeing its sales increase by 30% from the six million units today to 8 million units by 2010. Winterkorn sees this as possible given that VW has a more centralized management structure now which makes for quicker decisions. VW is also working on a new family of small fuel efficient cars on a common platform to be sold in China, India and other markets where a small car will be popular. Winterkorn referred to its new concept car as an example of the direction this would take. As importing cars from Europe is becoming costlier with the strong euro and the Japanese in contrast have the advantage of a weaker yen, the expansion plans will require lower pricing. VW looks to build a plant in the USA. Another strategy is to add 12 new models to its global product line and to launch more new vehicles in new product segments. This is what Winterkorn thinks has given Toyota its increased sales. A new compact SUV caled the Tiguan will be introduced. What all this means is that VW is seeking to move buyers of Japanese and American cars to try German cars, make German cars cost less and make a strong showing in the American and global markets. ...

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Complacency from the Bush Administration reflected in the remarks of Edward Lazear the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in the outgoing Bush administration. He sees no recession in the USA. "I would be very surprised if the NBER looking back at this period would date this as a recession" is what he is quoted as saying to reporters. He went on to say that the $152 billion stimulus of government checks mailed to the people, and Fed interest rate cuts should make the second half of the year a "solid growth period." What this means is that the moves by Congress to help homeowners stave off a new wave of foreclosures through a bill that just passed through Congress on May 7, 2008, is likely to be vetoed by Bush and efforts along the lines suggested by Martin Feldstein, Chairman of Council of Economic Advisors under Reagan, and Sheila Bair at FDIC, to help homeowners avoid foreclosure in her proposal may remain just that as proposals. This situation is likely to be turned over to a new President and make for an election that may revolve around economic issues, as the next wave of foreclosures lead to the start of a declining spiral in home prices leading to further loses in the credit markets and corporate bankruptcies of weaker firms and resulting losses in employment. Rising crude oil prices may result in much of the stimulus being eaten up by paying of some of the debt burden of consumers and rising costs of gasoline at the gas pump. And Feldstein has been very vocal, as have others, about the ineffectiveness of interest rate cuts in the current situation, even doing an oped piece titled "Enough of Interest Rate Cuts." In this sense the current spell of calm in the financial markets may be deceiving, giving Paulson an others in the administration a false sense of hope, and deprive the world economy of some reasonable action to prevent the wave of foreclosures and falling home prices that could set things distinctly downward in the world's largest economy and impacting the rest of the world....

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Manmohan Singh tries to get the nuclear deal approved even without the support of the communists as coalition partner. He faces election difficulties as inflation is running at close to 11% in India.

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Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announces the details of the $280 billion (20 lakh crore) economic package and action being taken to help (MSME) small and medium size enterprises in India. About 3 lakh crore or about $40 billion will be for support of the MSME enterprises. The MSME sector in India cover millions of micro, small and medium size businesses that support the economy. By increasing the size of the market by 2000 crores rupees through avoiding foreign tenders the government wants to give more scope for growth and investment to this sector. Some imports from China and other countries could now be manufactured in India as part of the push to be local and self reliant, as well as provide room for robust growth in the future after the blow from coronavirus.

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"They are not doing a goddamned thing" about climate change, says Gavin Newsom about large oil companies. "I came here on a car that uses gas. I'm not naive. Nor am I naive about their deceit and delay, and as a consequnce of the delay" in climate change action. As Gavin Newsom begins a second term as governor of California, and sets his sights on the 2028 presidential elections, he makes climate change action a key part of his platform. By 2035 a ban on the sale of gas powered cars. By 2045 no oil drilling in the state, By 2045 a mandate to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. A new law requiring major companies to self disclose their green house gas emissions. Such is the pace he is setting. He just 

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Djokovic who struggled with a knee injury and pain put every effort he could muster into his game. He won over young Spanish player Alcaraz in 2 tiebreakers 7-6, 7-6. The injury happened for a miniscus tear during his quarterfinals game with Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. He had only 24 hours to recover before the semifinals game against Italy's Mussetti and seemed very worried. It shows the effort put into the games by athletes in the face of adversity. In cycling overcoming tire punctures and precious seconds, in rowing 0.18 seconds separating Netherlands women's scull quad from the second place,  injuries of women's rower Brayshaw in a horse riding accident and a British rower who came back from a surgery after a bike accident to win gold.

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Some sensible guidelines in taking loans for graduate schools are provided in this WSJ report- debt repayments should not be more than 10% of discretionary income so that money is there for high food, housing costs and savings. Debt should not exceed the first year's salary whn starting to work.

And students considering grad school need to be aware that while they are in grad school their undergraduate loans can grow by 50% from say $27,000 to $41,000.

47.3 million Americans carry 1.777 trillion in student debt, of which federal government is 1.693 trillion, growing at $48 billion a year. The average debt per person at about $40,000 default at about 5%.

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The WSJ editorial says Gen McChrystal may bring the qualities of flexibility and imagination, and intellect, the way General Petraeus did to the war in Iraq. It says Defense Secretary Gates did well with President Obama to bring achange of leadership to the American effort to bring security to the Afghan people from the Taliban militants. It was the leisurely way the NATO effort proceeded under Gen. McKiernan in building the Afghan army- the only remaining institution that commands confidence in the country - that WSJ faults for having gone on too long. The other institutions like the corrupt police, and the failing government of Hamid Karzai, along with the spread of opium farming in the south have led to further deterioration in security.

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Samuelson points out that the golden age of bipartisan harmony never existed. Yet it is true to say that with the constant chatter on cable television and stridently expressed views, the activism of the more extreme wings of both American parties, and the role of money in politics, the partisan nature of politics in America has increased. And this is happening even when the Gallup polls from 1992 and 2010 show similiar numbers for the people who describe themselves as Conservative, Liberal or Moderate, showing that the people themselves haven't changed (42-43% Conservative, 35-36% Moderate, 17-20% Liberal), but activism at the edges of both parties has. In this condition, only 7% of americans have a "very positive view" of the Republican party, only 11% of Americans have a "very positive view" of the Democratic party and only 12% of Americans have a "very positive view" of the Tea party (even though the Tea party is at the height of its mometum). The net impact says Samuelson is that the nation's important problems get neglected. There is little discussion about the expenditure of blood and treasure in Afghanistan, says Tom Brokaw, see his article. There is little discussion of the need to rebuild America's deteriorating infrastructure. Or a serious discussion on deficits or energy. All this is lost in the dysfunctional politics of the moment. This is a significant observation....

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The WSJ offers this profile of a son of German immigrants who accumulated timber lands in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Pacific Northwest of the US. George Weyerhaeuser's company made the diapers for store brands across America. He says he was shocked at seeing the land when the timber was taken and the area cleared and started the practice of reforestation now a major goal set by COP26 in Glasgow.

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Germany is seeing more demographic changes as its population gets older. Only 10% of its 83 million population is in the younger age group of 15-24, according to Federal Statistical Office Destatis. Only 8.3 million are in the young age group 15-24 years. Compare this to 1983 when it was 17%. It also makes Germany a more conservative oriented country politically. And accelerates the shortage of young workers as the economy expands.

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Cost to reduce global warming to 1.5 degree centigrade goal set for climate change is estimated to cost $131 trillion. $116 trillion would be for electrification, new technologies, rebuilding electricity networks, efficiency. $24 trillion needs to be redirected quickly from fossil fuel investment to investment in reducing climate change by investing in other energy sources. 

The danger lies in 2.7 degree centigrade warming of the planet by the end of the century.

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The World Cup Soccer 2026 will take place in 16 cities in US, Mexico, Canada. It starts June 19 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. The last time it was plaed in the US was 1994. The final game will be played at the MetLife Stadium 82,000 seat in East Rutherford, New Jersey, built in 2010. It will be played all over the US most in Dallas, in Toronto, Vancouver, Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara.

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A key takeaway from the UN Population report in 2023 is the youthfulness of India's population. India has 1.428 billion people in 2023. 26% of this is in the 10-24 year age group. As much as 68% is in the 15-64 years age group. The fertility rate now at 2.0 is less than the replacement rate of 2.1. This is the number of children each woman has in her lifetime.

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The European central bank chief and former French finance minister takes a dim view of crypto currency. It has called for direct regulation of crypto currency, and their inclusion in anti money laundering and terrorist financing laws. ECB's view is- "Since Bitcoin is suitable neither as a payment system nor as an investment, it should be treated as neither in regulatory terms and should not be legitimised."

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50,000 Olympics volunteers in Paris with turquoise shirts make this Olympics special. This Washington Post reporter says he was greeted by one as he got out of the subway at the exit of Nanterre Prefecture Metro station. This is Omodele and her big foam finger showing people the direction to swimming venue. 80% are French locals. There is also this one from Denmark driving a taxi. They volunteered without pay and enjoy a new experience. 

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Krugman points out that the federal tax rate for the top 1% is 34% in 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office, because president Obama let the high end Bush tax cuts to expire. It is the number to remember says Krugman- 34. In 2008 the figure was 28.2. Under Hillary Clinton the average tax rate for the top 1% would go up by 3.4 percentage points, according to the Tax Policy Center. Some of this would help pay for the tution plan to provide access to the middle class to public universities. Under populist Trump, Krugman points to the elimination of the inheritance tax and tax rates going down substantially, and no such programs to promote the upward mobility that everyone is talking about, and no way to pay for a big infrastructure building effort for growth and jobs- upward mobility that is the focus of every candidate's election campaign including Sanders, Trump in appealing to older white working class families, Clinton, Ryan, Bush, and others in both parties.   ...

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S.E.C. Inspector General David Kotz says his office will put out a report on the destruction of probe related records at the S.E.C.. Darrell Flynn, an S.E.C. attorney alleged that the S.E.C. destroyed about 9000 files in clear violation of laws that probe records cannot be destroyed. He sought and obtained whistleblower protection. Senator Charles Grassley disclosed the accusations and asked the S.E.C. to explain the effect of this on investigations.

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Changes to dividend policies for state owned companies made at the Third Plenum in Beijing in November 2013. Plans were approved for state owned companies in China to increase dividends for the government to get 30% of after tax profit by 2020, up from about 15%. Frangos says it would be difficult for the companies to implement the 30% target without having listed subsidiaries make dividends available to all investors.