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Manuela Mesco's interview with Giovanni Ferrero, CEO of Italy's chocolate company, Ferrero SpA, in Nov. 2013. Ferrero outlines his plans to double the company's sales by expanding outside of Europe where it now gets 80% of sales. Euromonitor estimates show Ferrero with 8% share of the world chocolate market compared to Nestle's 12%. Ferrero SpA's sales are 8 billion euros for 2013. The company started with a small store in Alba, near Turin, Italy in 1942. Its hazelnut and chocolate spread Nutella is a popular product in Europe. Ferrero has expanded by about 45% since 2006, with rising sales of the Nutella and Kinder brands. A path Ferrero plans to take is expanding sales in China and other Asian markets, following up on the popularity of its Rocher brand of chocolates in China. The problems Ferrero faces in the U.S. is the presence of big established competitors Hershey and Cadbury, a fragmented distribution chain, and the uphill task of convincing peanut butter users to try Nutella for breakfast, and snacks. Ferrero is a family owned company and Giovanni Ferrero plans to keep it that way, seeing new opportunities in the chocolate and food market that the Italian company can take advantage of. In doing so he hopes to generate enough growth to compete effectively as an independent family owned company with Nestle and Hershey....

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In response to bellicose speeches by Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference on March 6, 2012, President Obama stated at a press conference: "This is not a game..The one thing we have not done is we have not launched a war.. If some of these folks think we should launch a war, let them say so, and explain to the American people." The U.S. president, advisors and intelligence officials believe that Iran has yet to acquire a nuclear weapon, that there is time for sanctions to work and make the Iranian government give up any weapons programs it is working on. Their view as stated by the U.S. President is that this time cannot be measured in two days or two months. Recent elections in Iran show divisions in the government between the Ayatollah Khamanei and premier Ahmadinejad, with the elections favoring candidates supporting Khamanei. There is also the dynamic of changing relations in the Middle East- between Iran and other countries such as Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, India- which have strong ties to the U.S., and Iran's relations with China and other countries which have close economic ties to the U.S. In addition in a country with a demographic skewed heavily towards younger people and a third of the people under 15, the democracy protests in 2011 about a flawed election in 2009 are supported largely by university and college students. That election may actually have been stolen by Ahmadinejad from Mr. Moussavi, who in an election eve television debate accused Ahmadinejad of "adventurism, illusionism, exhibitionism, extremism, and superficiality," (Nazila Fathi, NYT 6/4/2009). These factors are likely to be behind the Obama administration's sense of a "window of opportunity," to use Mr. Obama's words. Recent polls by the University of Maryland's Prof. Telhami show only 19% of Israelis favored a military strike without U.S. backing in Feb. 2012, and Israeli public opinion experts see Obama's position as reflecting a sound judgement. Research by Citigroup shows that at a price for Brent crude of $120 with an escalation in Iran, it would take 9% of the world's GDP to support the higher energy costs, hitting Europe especially hard (Liam Denning, WSJ 1/6/2012)....

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Sabine Kinkartz of the DW.com looks at the way in which Olaf Scholz achieved what was seen as impossible through patience, grit, and hard work in the face of adversity. SPD was seeing poll numbers of as low as 15% in the spring of 2021, just months before the election. Scholz believed in his party's ideas for the renewal of Germany, remained undeterred even after losing an election to lead the SPD to Esken and Walter-Borjans in 2019, when Esken and Walter-Borjans reinforced the idea that the SPD should stand for workers and families, what it always stood for. Scholz was put forward as candidate by Esken and Walter-Borjans in 2021 with conviction. By Spring 2021 it was clear that Scholz had achieved the impossible, getting the conservative Merkel and the CDU, with instincts against borrowing in all situations, to agree to a huge aid package for Germany to fight the pandemic, and a huge aid package for the European Union to fight the pandemic.  That Scholz remained undeterred in his campaign by low poll numbers and went on campaigning on the basis of convictions about what is right for Germans and Germany, comes from deeper convictions from his days growing up in the Hamburg youth wing of Social Democrats in the years following SPD's Wily Brandt and the post war recovery. Germany's most remembered leader after Adenauer, Willy Brandt was leader of the SPD Social Democrats from 1964 to 1987, and chancellor 1969-74. Both Adenauer and Brandt are respected some 50 years later in the world and in Germany. That Germany is going back to this tradition of leadership after the period of the Merkel years when Germany was held back, brings new hope to Europe and the world. In allying with the Greens under a younger generation leaders Scholz saw the promise of an opportunity to tackle problems of climate change and investment in infrastructure together. Both parties see borrowing as essential to invest big in the future. Scholz message to Germans, Europeans and the world is - "Big jobs, but our country is capable of doing them." A message sent out from the US by president Biden, and from Asia by the Indian prime minister. ...

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On his first day Jan 18, 2023, Josh Shapiro, Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, signed an executive order that eliminated the requirement of a college degree for 92% of jobs in the state government, 62,000 jobs. Utah and Maryland made similar changes last year with Republican Governors. The Editorial Board of NYT says- for far too long, too many Americans see  society and economy as unfairly skewed to serve the needs of well connected elites, and people with a college education, looking down and excluding the rest.

 

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U.S. health insurance company WellPoint Inc. will offer higher payments to primary care physicians. This is part of new strategy to reduce emergency room visits and costs after deterioration in a patients condition by relying on primary care physicians for better care at the outset. Payments to primary care physicians will be increased by 10%, with higher payments when the results show better quality and preventive care. WellPoint has a network of 100,000 primary care doctors. Physicians who meet certain goals such as lowering the overall cost of a patient's health care costs will be given an incentive of 20-30% of the savings realized. The new effort will add 1-2 percentage points to the 6-8% of the $100 billion that Wellpoint pays for claims processed each year. WellPoint's management sees a reduction in medical costs of about 20% by 2015 as a result of such efforts.

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Jennifer Lind, associate professor at Dartmouth, says the right policy for the Abe administration is to follow Defence Minister, Itsunori Onadera's apology for Osaka Mayor Hashimoto's remarks about "comfort women" during the war period. Onadera said, Hasimoto had caused misunderstanding and mistrust in Japan's neighbors with his imappropriate remarks about the history of Japan, and emphasized previous apologies of the Japanese people. A senior Chinese delegate Zhou Bo of the Defense Ministry to the Singapore regional security forum, where Onadera made his statement, stated that Onadera's remarks pointed towards a optimistic future for the region. Editorials in the WSJ have consistently pointed out what Lind says in her op-ed- that the Japanese people support for the Abe administration is based on its efforts for achieving economic recovery and not for creating tensions in the region with neighbors. This also is evidently the policy of the U.S. government and its European allies.

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China's push in renewable energy with large 10,000 MW wind farms and solar energy panel manufacturing. China has built the world's larges solar panel manufacturing industry by exporting 95% of the product to Europe and the USA. WHen CHina built its first solar power plant in 2009 it required 80% of the parts to come from domestic manufacturers. And when the Chinese government took bids for 25 large contracts to build wind turbines, all contracts were won by domestic companies. One energy NGO expert in CHina says that this is because Chinese government investment in wind and solar energy even though it is much costlier than coal, cahn happen only if it helps build up the domestic industry in renewable energy.

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The Cass Commission for Britain's NHS on how transgender affects children has concluded that there are dangers in the gender affirming care for minors.

Cass Commission's 4 year research for Britain's National Health Service concludes that gender affirming approach is mistaken. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Department of Health and Human Services, are not a taking a science based approach to this important issue for parents of children, and the serious unease this is causing across the Nation in 2024, is shown in a report in the NYT by Pamela Paul.

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Denning says that because of the enormous repercusions on Iran's economy of a war in the Persian Gulf, a more likely scenario is not the cutoff of supplies of Iranian oil altogether but a smaller list of buyers for Iranian oil, making Iran sell the oil at a discount. Saudi Arabia's and Libya's added production would bring more oil to the market. The impact will be larger on Europe because of the decline in the value of the euro, with Brent crude on a 12 month average basis costing 14% more now than in the peak price in 2008. By comparison in dollar terms the comparable figure is 4% higher for the U.S. At a price of Brent crude of $120 in 2012, according to Citigroup, energy costs would take up 9% of world GDP, putting pressure on a economic recovery in Europe and the U.S.

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Corey Brettschneider of the NYT provides a detailed look at Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch's possible views on abortion and Roe v. Wade, though he has said little directly on the subject. It looks at the views of his mentor and dissertation advisor at Oxford, Prof. Finnis, and on whether abortion is a matter for states to decide.

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WSJ says that like the US economy in general Las Vegas and Nevada now relies for its economy on a small section of affluent people in the US. Las Vegas is now a luxury location. The steep rise in hotel rates, in automobile rentals rates, has made places like New York with hotel rates of $300-$400 as normal essentially luxury trip locations. This is true of many cities inthe US. The US is a different country now. 

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Captain Sumeet Sabharwal 56 years and First Officer Clive Kunder 32 years are the two pilots of Air India Dreamliner that crashed in Ahmedabad iseconds after takeoff in 2025. Preliminary investigation reports in WSJ shows the fuel switches were turned off depriving the plane of fuel in the critical moments of takeoff. The Captain is heard asking why the fuel switches are turned off seconds after takeoff.

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Efforts to boost the share of national income that goes to rural households and workers in China. The share of income taken by state owned enteprises and taxes paid by the enterprises would have to change for reducing the gap in incomes and reducing inequality in China.

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A state wide ban on single use plastic bags goes into effect in New York state March 1, 2020. This is part of a global push to get rid of single use plastic bags that pollute the environment, end up in waterways, rivers, on trees and landfills. Some clues are offered here on why store owners still used plastic bags, and why large grocery chains still use plastic. The plastic bags cost much less than paper bags. Here one small store owner says 100,000 plastic bags cost him $2000, the same number of paper bags $15,000. New York state uses 23 million single use plastic bags a year. A public education campaign is underway. New York city requires stores to charge 5 cents per paper bag, with 3 cents going to an environmental fund and 2 cents to a the local government. Astonishingly for a large city in a developed country this report shows a Moroccan immigrant saying that it is already popular in her home country Morocco where the ban on single use plastic bags has reduced litter. Americans are not used to carrying reusable bags to the grocery store in the way Germans or people in other countries are. ...

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In a first Vietjet Air will connect Hyderabad, India to Da Nang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam by November 2022. Direct flights will also be set up from Ahmedabad and Bengaluru to Vietnam.

This will build the connectivity for business and tourism as the new supply chain is set up by the US and EU in Asia with Vietnam and India.

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Pocketbook issues are taking increasing importance in the French election on April 24. Greg Ip of the WSJ says inflation has risen in importance more than immigration, the war in Ukraine, and other issues related to Islamist separatism. About 45% cited purchasing power as the main issue in a BVA poll, and this is even higher for people who voted for Jean-Luc Melenchon who came within 1% percentage point of Ms. Le Pen in the first round. Greg Ip says that in economic issues France has done better than Germany, Italy or the UK. Unemployment is at 7.4% the lowest since 2008. Economic output has risen more than in Germany, Italy or the the UK since Mr. Macron took office. And one study shows disposable income has risen higher under Macron than under predecessors Hollande and Sarkozy. France also spent heavily to tackle the Covid pandemic's effect on workers and companies. Ip says Macron's efforts to liberalize labor markets, simplify taxes and wage bargaining and make training programs more effective could be the reason. Youth unemployment is the lowest in nearly 40 years, and the number of apprenticeships doubled from 2019 to 2021, according to BNP Paribas. Pisani-Ferry, economist at Sciences Po says compared to past performance the French economy did much better. Le Pen has promised to cut the value added tax to tackle inflation's effect on voters. Macron has said he will be flexible when it comes to raising the age for retirement and pensions and calls Le Pen's lowering the retirement age creating problems for the solvency of the pension system and highly unrealistic.   ...

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China auto sales were up 14.5% in May over the previous year, as sales make a recovery. April's 4% increase ended a 21 month decline.

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Stevenson and Caselli describe the mood in Buenos Aires as negotiations with hedge fund holdout bondholders fail in July 2014.

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DFA's David Booth runs paasive investing funds with assets of $800 billion. He asked Errol Morris to do this documentary on passive investing called "Tune Out the Noise," offered now free on You Tube for 1 month. It shows the idea of passive investing inthe market by investing in a basket of stocks covering and representing the whole US economy.

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Efforts to impeach two previous presidents including Democrat Clinton failed in the Senate where the vote requires a two thirds majority. The first impeachment vote against Mr. Trump failed in the Senate. In the House of Representatives only a simple majority is required. Majority Leader McConnell says he will not reconvene the Senate before president Biden takes office. Vice President Pence has refused to invoke the 25th Amendment. House Democrats have moved ahead to vote for impeachment of president Trump for the storming of the Capitol offices in Washington D.C. Their impeachment statement says president Trump's remarks that his supporters had to fight like hell or they would not have a country, constituted incitement of supporters. President Trump won 74 million votes in the last election more than in the 2016 election and lost with Mr. Biden winning 81 million votes after polarization of the country. With such a large portion of the country voting for Mr. Trump Mr. Biden risks his agenda of fighting the pandemic, and other parts of his program, becoming immersed in partisan infighting. This would also result in continuing the division of the country, and continue polarization.  About 5 House Republicans are expected to support impeachment. In the Senate some Republicans say there are impeachable offenses yet only Mr. McConnell and the senator from Utah, Mr. Mitt Romney, favor impeachment.  Mr. Trump's style of governing was controversial from the beginning of his campaign in 2016, strident and taking on critics. He governed through relative moderation compared to his aggressive posture towards critics. For instance on Mexico his remarks offended critics, yet he negotiated a new trade agreement with Mexico replacing NAFTA to ensure worker protections in Mexico, and worker jobs and wages in the U.S. Negotiations with China on trade were conducted by a seasoned veteran, Mr Lighthizer,  who was deputy Trade Representative under Reagan, and negotiated the trade agreement with Japan that worked to reduce Japanese trade surplus in the eighties. On the economy before the pandemic hit in March president Trump made significant progress reducing unemployment.      ...

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Japan's economy minister, Mr. Seko, says that with no-deal Brexit Britain will lose access to Japan's new economic partnership agreement with the European Union which last month created the world's largest free trade zone. Seko said 1000 Japanese companies have invested in the UK creating 150,000 jobs, because it served as "a gateway to the European market."

Nissan is scaling back its Sunderland factory. Sony and Panasonic are relocating their EU headquarters to Amsterdam. Honda will close its Swindon plant in 2021. Seko said "uncertainty for the consequences of Brexit is spreading in Japanese industry."