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The Obama administration's proposed budget for fiscal 2013- for the year beginning Oct. 1, 2012- shows the budget deficit for the year at over $1 trillion. It shows new revenue of $1.7 trillion over 10 years mostly from ending the Bush period tax cuts on families earning more than $250,000 a year, restoring the estate tax to the 2009 level and limiting subsidies for oil and gas companies. It proposes raising the tax rate on dividends from 15% to as much as 39.6%, for households earning more than $250,000 a year. This measure is expected to generate $206 billion over 10 years. The budget also offers "principles" for future tax reform by proposing the Buffett rule replace the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT was not indexed for inflation so it has the weakness of putting more middle class taxpayers into AMT, leading to temporary solutions by Congress. The Buffett rule would have people earning more than $1 million pay a tax rate of at least 30%. Many wealthy Americans like Mitt Romney paid lower taxes using deductions to lower tax rates- Romney's tax disclosures show he paid effective tax rate of 14%. The White House says the budget will reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years through the new taxes, and small changes to Medicare and Medicaid and other spending cuts. This is in addition to the $1 trillion in spending cuts agreed to in a deficit reduction agreement in 2011 between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. The budget proposal proposes investment in education and transportation projects of $137 billion, and continuing through Dec. 2012, a tax break for businesses to increase investment. It includes mandatory spending of $2.7 billion for new community college programs, $6 billion to modernize schools, and $1.8 billion to make homes more energy efficient. It also increases the resources of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC (two agencies overseeing the banks), $26 million for a new Interagency Trade Enforcement Center to counter unfair trade practices, and cuts U.S. postal delivery to 5 days a week. The result is a program designed to be balanced in terms of economic fairness, making modest investments in the future for education and energy, continuing policies to stimulate growth, and extending the date for bringing the deficit under control to 2018 instead of 2014 as planned earlier....

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Canada Post plans to phase out home delivery to cities and suburbs in 5 years and reduce employees by 8000 through attrition. The Postal Service was expected to lose $1 billion by 2020 and faces difficulty funding pensions for older workers. The problem of putting mail in communal boxes at city locations where it can be picked up remains to be solved.

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Huawei's 4Afrika smartphone is priced at $150. GSM Association forecast is for most people in S. Africa to be using smartphones by 2017, increasing from 20% in 2012. In Nigeria about 30% of the people are forecast to be using smartphones by 2017. About a quarter of the 1 billion people in Africa are in the middle class according to the World Bank.

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Egypt's new prime minister, Hazem el-Beblawi, in July 2013, is a professor of Economics who received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1964. He has taught economics at universities in Egypt, Kuwait, France and the U.S. After 15 years teaching at the University of Alexandria, he worked in development banks in the Middle East for another 15 years, joining the Finance Ministry in 2011. He resigned in protest against military shooting of protesters at the time. Egypt has about $14.9 billion in reserves according to Egypt's central bank, less than the $15 billion needed for three months of imports. Egypt needs to negotiate a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF. Earler negotiations were stymied by the military in 2011, and el-Beblawi will now be negotiating with the head of the Constitutional Court as president, after the ouster of president Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

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A Wall Street editorial on the problems identified in the budgets and finances of U.S. states identified by the State Budget Crisis Task Force co-chaired by Volcker and Ravitch. This includes Medicaid costs, underfunded pensions, and budget gimmicks that understate the true extent of problems.

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Efforts by BNP Paribas to get bondholders to take a 50% loss on Greek bonds, and exchange their old bonds for new ones that mature in 50 years. BNP Paribas is working for the Greek government to get other banks and bondholders to accept this exchange so that Greece can tackle its debt load and interest payments on debt. Some arm twisting by BNP Paribas to get bondholders who have insurance through CDS to accept the exchange. This is being done on the grounds that the I.S.D.A. committe would declare the restructuring in Greece as being "voluntary" and not a default, so that bondholders who do not accept this deal would not get paid through CDS insurance.

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Three factors make up risk in diversification and risk reduction through bonds in 2025 with the estimated 1.5 -3 trillion in spending planned by 2030 with $400 billion in 2025 alone. AI in corporate bond indexes up to 15% and reach 20% by 2030 vs 40% of stock indexes (JP Morgan),  AI risk in bonds diversification from over issuance and downgrades is something to look at. One cannot assume bonds will reduce risk in the same way as before with overissuance of corporate bonds to power AI spending by Tech companies. There is also the risk to the Nation in the massive capital misallocation of funds that will crowd out essential spending in the crumbling infrastructure of the Nation, in education and healthcare, that degrade American leadership in industry, science and technology.

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Aeroflot is listed on the London stock exchange. It is going through a makeover by ordering Boeing and Airbus planes to become profitable, because the older Russian made Tu-154 planes were costly to operate with higher fuel consumption. The Sukhoi Superjets are being built in partnership with Boeing. Kramer says the aircraft industry operates on long timelines so that the lack of local aircraft comparable to Embraer of Brazil and Bombardier of Canada is more a reflection of the situation in the 1990's than of today. Newer aircraft are planned for the next decade for smaller midrange planes. In the meantime Aeroflot is selling all of its Tupolev aircraft and plans to layoff 6000 workers during the transition to profitability. Till 2009 Aeroflot was run by Yeltsin's son-in-law, as were many other companies managed by Yeltsin's inner circle during that period. Following changes made by Putin in 2009, a new CEO was appointed to better manage the transition of the airline into a national and global carrier....

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The number of unemployed in Spain reaches 5.6 million people in April 2012. Finance Minister Guindos said the only bright spot was exports and a drop in the current account deficit which shows Spain's improving competitiveness: "This shows the Spanish economy is competitive, unlike some other European economies, thats the most important element of optimism for the future." The Spanish cabinet approved a Stability Program Report to be submitted to the European Union showing GDP growth of 0.2% in 2013 and 1.4% in 2014, following contraction of 1.7% in 2012, and unemployment falling slightly to 24.2% in 2013. Spain's government debt level is shown at 82.3% of GDP in 2013 declining to 81.5% in 2014.

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With July 9 deadline coming up, tariffs on Japan and South Korea go up to 25%, and a warning is sent to BRICS countries China, Brazil and India on July 7, 2025 of additional 10% in tariffs.

DJT stated on his social media site Truth Social- "Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged additional 10% tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy.”

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Newspapers slant is influenced as much by reader preferences and bias as by the political identity of the newspaper. This is one of the research findings in a 2010 paper by Gentzkow and Shapiro. Gentzkow, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, was given the 2014 John Bates Clark Medal by the American Economic Association.

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Color maps of home rental price increases by county regions in the US are shown in this report in the Washington Post. Though rent prices increased by 19% since 2019 prices increased for rent by only 1% in 2024, according to Washington Post analysis of rent data from CoStar Group. See how rents have increased by county regions in color maps. Price increases are cooling off, in some cases declining, says this report. US president Biden has proposed a limit of 5% for increases in home rentals. Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed help for families paying more than 30% of household income for home rentals.

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A third of 60 manufacturing companies surveyed by Manufacturer's Alliance say they will hold back on hiring till the "fiscal cliff" situation gets resolved and after they know what the effects of spending cuts will be on consumer spending.

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The Wisconsin Senate voted 18-1 passing legislation ending collective bargaining for public employees. This was done at short notice by removing appropriations items from the bill so that the bill could be passed. No Democratic Senators were present.

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How Ryannair is breaking up the package of services and product once sold as a package by other airlines, beverages, food, checked bags, and so on. Could movies be unbundled also? Other airlines are looking at these revenues also.

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Japan's new LDP government led by Shinzo Abe approved a stimulus plan of 10.3 trillion yen ($115.7 billion) in Jan 2013. This comes as Japan's current account deficit increased for November to $2.5 billion before seasonal adjustment, reflecting a decline in exports. The Abe administration says this will increase GDP by 2 percentage points from the current forecast of 1.7%.

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Experts say about 110,000 votes separate Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the three states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that decided the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. giving Trump the win. Post election reflection in the Democratic party points to a disconnect between the establishment in both parties and the white working class. It is described as something that was not thought enough about even though as pointed out in Lyrarc, and in The Washington Post by columnists, and in news coverage about the inequality movement long before Bernie Sanders appeared in 2015. In the period when banks were favored over millions of homeowners facing foreclosure in 2010-2014, the surging stock market and the zero to to half percent interest on savings that hurt savings of most of the working class and lower middle class without stock investments, and the continuing problems in communities facing job losses from trade for the third decade. The hollowing out of the regions in Ontario from job losses from the Canadian industry helped Justin Trudeau win the Canadian election. In this election it helped Trump in crucial midwestern states, combined with a degree of indifference shown by establishment Democrats. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean is planning to run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Bernie Sanders says he backs Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison to be the next chair of the DNC. Jeff Weaver, campaign manager for Sanders, says the problem lies in what has been clear for some time now "that the centrist wing of the democratic party has no standing with working class and middle class  voters in this country." In 2016 only 51% of union households supported Clinton the lowest since 1980, 43% supported Trump. Obama won 59% of union households in 2008 and 58% in 2012 to 40% for Republican Romney. Trump picked up 3% of union households, Clinton lost 7% of union households, creating about a 10 point gap that would be magnified in industrial states where union jobs are concentrated, for about 18% of the people who voted in the election, enough to create the shortfall in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsyslvania. Fed chairman Janet Yellen pointed out the problems at an Inequality conference in Boston in 2014, pretty stark in its reminder that inequality had surged to levels not seen since the depression of the thirties, with 62 million households having a net worth of $11,000. Krugman and other economists had pointed this out on the pages of the NYT. Yet the post election reflection in the media is as if this is some special insight when it was clear for all to see, and covered in depth in Lyrarc for years since 2008. There is voter fatigue after 8 years of one party in power as pointed out by Obama campaign strategist, David Axelrod. The loss of union enthusiasm made the task of  a third term for the Democratic party even more difficult.     ...

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JP Morgan agrees to a legal settlement of $4.5 billion for losses to investors from toxic mortgage securities sold by Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns. JP Morgan acquired the two financial institutions following the 2008 financial crisis. The investor group includes Black Rock Inc, Allianz's PIMCO, MetLife, and Goldman Sachs. The same group of institutional investors settled with Bank of America for $8.5 billion. JP Morgan has set aside $23 billion at the end of the third quarter for legal losses. The settlements now are at about $20 billion. A private suit by Deutsche Bank National Trust Company representing 100 trusts for poorly perfoming bonds sold by Washington Mutual, and seeking $10 billion is still pending. The FDIC is arguing that JP Morgan is liable because it inherited the liabilities when it acquired Washington Mutual. JP Morgan says the acquisition was made as part of a government arranged acquisition at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. It says the FDIC receivership that took Washington Mutual's assets when it failed in September 2008 should pay for any claims related to misrepresentation and false promises for the bonds. ...

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Dexter Filkins points out how the Pakistan army and ISI officers are running affairs in Pakistan. And the army and ISI officers are playing a double game both supporting the Taliban and using American dollars to finance it, and at the same time obtaining American financial aid to fight the Taliban. Never quite finishing off the Taliban in its shows of force, keeping it alive to obtain American financial aid. Filkins confirms this by talking to a malik or tribal elder from the old feudal structure, and to independent Taliban commanders who operate outside the control of Baitullah Mehsud. He calls it Playing the Game.

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Voter awareness and discomfort about the $1.6 trillion deficit this year, does not translate into wanting to see spending cuts in Medicare, Social Security and popular programs. It is the view of public opinion that is determining political leaders inaction on these issues, which are at the heart of controlling spending and the deficits. It is no surprise then that the Obama budget showed no action on these issues. Both parties are careful not to talk about cuts to popular programs without broad public support. The Pew Research Center survey shows 12% of Americans want to cut spending on Medicare or on Social Security, only 6% want to reduce spending on veterans benefits. Politicians can do the math from these numbers. They may be sending loud signals to Democrats and Republican politicians that voters will punish those who cut these popular programs. Polling done by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News produced similiar numbers.

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As car sales drop and Chrysler drops some models from its production line, it is running many plants on one shift, leaving the factories idle the rest of the time. This means higher costs per car, as the fixed costs do't change by that much with lower production. Chrysler may also have steeper sales decline than the other carmakers, because it has fewer small cars in its lineup. All this means losses that won't be disclosed as it is privately owned, through 2009, as the economy goes through what looks like a prolonged recession of at least a couple of years. As losses are not disclosed management does not have to worry about the effect on stock price, but the longer this situation lasts, the harder its going to get for Chrysler, for a long time the weakest player in the American car market compared to the others from the US, Germany and Japan.

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Efforts by Special Counsel Jack Smith to keep the case on the US election on schedule on March 4, 2024, by taking it to the US Supreme Court.

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The SNP Scottish party and the Liberal Democrats favor early elections and will push for this in parliament. The thinking is that both parties can do better in an election before Brexit is passed. A You.Gov poll for The Times shows only one person in five or 19% see the EU withdrawal deal negotiated by Boris Johnson as "a good deal." SNP, and Lib Democrats say this means voters will vote for parties with clear for or against positions on Brexit including the Independence Party of Nigel Farage. Both SNP and Lib Democrats are for Remain. Labour Party under Corbyn is divided on how quickly to go into another election. The Tories under Boris Johnson are relying on polls showing they are leading by 10 points yet this can change as Theresa May faced a similar situation and called for an early election which led to losing its majority.  Experts on BBC say a December election is highly unusual and most unpredictable, posing big risks for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives particularly now with Johnson advisor Cummings tactics dividing the party. ...

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Britain's Labor Party leader makes a speech favoring strong Britain- EU relations in an effort to attract support from pro-EU Conservatives in parliament and bring about early elections. Corbyn says he favors Britain's membership in the EU customs union putting pressure on prime minister Theresa May who favors Britain leaving the EU customs union so it can strike free trade deals on its own. A thin majority in parliament for Theresa May means this issue could lead to a parliamentary defeat and early elections.  The other facet of this is that the delicate peace process in Northern Ireland could be upset by having a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland which is part of the European Union. Irish peace process and the views of the Republic of Ireland and of Scotland would be respected with the Corbyn approach. Other benefits are keeping good trade relations with the EU intact because 44% of Britain's exports go to the EU and 50% of Britain's imports are from the EU. ...