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Honda takes its first loss since 1957 with a$15.7 billion loss on closing operations of electric vehicle manufacturing in the US. This is similar to losses taken by Ford, GM and Stellantis. Honda says in its statement that “In the U.S., the expansion of the E.V. market has slowed down due to several factors, including the easing of fossil fuel regulations and revisions to E.V. incentives.” It talks about reduced profitability after tariffs- "The extremely challenging earnings is compounded by a decline in the profitability of gasoline and hybrid models due to the impact of newly imposed tariffs.”

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Wayne Mullins, the Senator from Oklahoma, is doing his best to restore the reputation of the nation's Department of Homeland Security, after the messy period under Kristi Noem who violated the department's norms and allowed all sorts of inappropriate behaviours for what is the nation's largest law and order organization. It is vital that the people have full confidence in the Department to have full confidence in the rule of law, and for internal security in the US at a time of illegal migrants by the millions crossing the nation's borders with impunity during the last administration.

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Heather Stewart and Jessica Elgot ask if Johnson's Conservative party can deliver for Britain, can deliver for women, can deliver for climate change, can deliver for health, education and infrastructure, can deliver for workers dignity, can deliver for families and children, by looking at one of its leaders. He looks at the polished image of Rishi Sunak after his Stanford days. This Guardian report says Treasury insiders see this Tory leader with respect rather than warmth, with some saying that the smooth veneer or polished tech-bro image is hard to penetrate. In a separate piece Ian Jack looks at Jacob Rees-Mogg in The Guardian in January 2022. This comes as Johnson's leadership is challenged because of Christmas partying at a time when the Queen was alone in Westminster Abbey mourning for Prince Philip to follow Covid-19 protocol. What kind of leadership Britain needs for the future after the pandemic is the question put forward by these writers in The Guardian. ...

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Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, says the allies and NATO can improve their response to Russian president Putin's intervention in Eastern Europe by developing better intelligence sharing capabilities, and getting partner nations to invest more in their military capabilities. In an interview with an Italian newspaper on a visit to Europe. Carter said ceasefire terms in Ukraine should be implemented, and that the U.S. should exert more pressure on Ukrainian officials whom he blamed for the breakdown. He said about "Operation Atlantic Resolve," military exercizes in Europe, conducted to support Eastern European allies through training, cooperation and increased presence since 2014- "Our exercize and training programs, which are tremendously successful, they're tremendously popular- we need to do more of that, get more allies involved."

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The riots in Athens as the Greek parliament voted to support the passage of an EU plan of austerity cuts, including a 22% cut in the minimum wage, pension cuts and large cuts in the number of government employees. The Popular Orthodox Rally party in the governing Greek coalition withdrew its support, 22 members of the Socialist party and 21 members of the New Democracy party in parliament opposed the measures. Elections are planned for April, 2012. Antonio Samaras, head of the New Democracy party, told parliament that he supported the measure only so that Greece could continue using the euro and have "the possibility tomorrow to negotiate and change the policy that is being imposed on us today."

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The number of households without a car increased the fastest in Detroit of any city in the U.S. from 2007 to 2012- by 5% to 26%. In a city which neglected to put in a rail system, many residents endure subzero temperatures for long waits and long commutes to job locations in the winter of 2014.

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Ewen Macaskill of the Guardian travels on the bus with Jeremy Corbyn through the east Midlands region of the UK. He describes how Corbyn is handling the negative media coverage from the Daily Telegraph and the tabloids. Corbyn's response to the demonization by the tabloids underway for the last two years is that he does not let it get to him. He does not respond to personal attacks, including ones made by Theresa May, because he says it means he would have to descend to that level. "It actually devalues yourself and the process," says Corbyn. He is not stressed, says Corbyn because it would do him no good, and no good to the people around him who are putting in their best to support Labor in this election. Calm, composed, is how this reporter sees Corbyn on the trail. This means not following the latest polls but staying focussed on the goal and the day ahead. As a result the people who had only seen him through the negative image projected in the media are now becoming endeared to him. Little things count, whether the campaign workers are getting their tea and coffee, and looking for a knife to cut a chocolate brownie cake given at a prior event. Calm, composed, not letting comments or the pessimism affect him, as he is in his words "there for the long haul." This is true for the way he is careful not to allow intrusions into his family life, that would affect his wife Laura Alvarez and three sons. This is the way he has come across during his first day as Leader of the Opposition in parliament, and during the event where he launched the Labor manifesto. Preferring simplicity and ordinary life he prefers public transport, simple layout in the campaign bus, and if elected he says he would prefer to remain where he is instead of the house at 10 Downing Street. Corbyn is 68, but after the way he has tackled the challenge facing Labor, the graceful attitude and dignity needed especially today, he is likely to be around for much longer. ...

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The origins of the crude anti-Islamic video, a 14 minute trailer, produced in S. California by Steve Klein, a Vietnam war veteran whose son was severely wounded in Iraq. He is an insurance salesman from Hemet, near Los Angeles. It was translated into Arabic and reposted twice on YouTube to Muslim viewers. Klein is known for anti-Muslim actions. It shows Egptian security forces watching as homes of Coptic Christians were burned, and then goes to cartoonish scenes showing the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a womanizer, child molester and so on. It raises many questions about how stuff that is incendiary or induces hate and violence or other material is kept off sites such as YouTube which use new technology for which there is no proper oversight representing the public interest.

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Renewed warnings about the bubble in housing prices in China. Earlier warnings came from Krugman, Lardy, John Taylor. This one comes from Nomura economists Zhiwei Zhang and Wendy Chen. Could the government's action to curb rising housing prices not be adequate leading to a financial crisis as early as 2014, is the question posed by Zhang and Chen. They cite the rise of housing prices by 84% from 2001 to 2006, before the financial crisis of 2008 in the U.S., using the Case-Shiller housing price index. One problem- the government statistics may have underestimated the extent of the bubble. China's official index shows housing prices rising 113% in major cities from 2004 to 2012. Zhang and Chen say this is much smaller than the actual rise because it includes older, lower quality housing property. They cite an academic paper that adjusts for this and finds prices jumping by 250% in the period 2004 to 2009. Another problem is that China's housing prices growth slows after government action but then resumes the growth, leaving the risk exposure at the high level as before. Because the local governments are tied up in the housing bubble the problem would hit the banking system. About 14.1% of the outstanding bank loans are to local government financing vehicles, and 6.2% to property developers, according to Nomura economists. The declining potential growth rate in China means there is less room for bad loans to be absorbed by hyper growth levels than in the past. Errors in policy can magnify the risk including loosening monetary policy and exacerbating the bubble at the wrong time. In the absence of errors the risks still remain requiring the sale of public assets to bail out local governments and banks. The argument made by Krugman and other economists has been that China is not immune to the risks of a housing bubble going bad, in any way less than Sweden, the U.S., Spain and other countries, requiring bailouts of banks....

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Mr. McDonnell, says to loud applause at the annual Britain's Labor Party conference in Liverpool- "the greater the mess we inherit, the more radical we have to be." Mr. McDonnell told the Labor Party that the power balance had shifted against labor and workers in the last decade. The Brexit Secretary of the Labor Party left the option open for a second referendum on Brexit with the option "remain." Serious divisions have emerged within the ruling Conservative Party in Britain on the issue of withdrawal from the European Union. For the first time the Labor party conference endorsed the idea of nationalizing utilities, postal and rail companies and setting up a fund that would finance a $650 annual dividend for workers, with 10% of stock reserved for workers in companies with more than 250 employees. About a third of the seats will also be reserved for labor on company Board of Directors so that worker interests are better represented. Stagnating wages and low productivity is a major issue for the Labor Party in Britain. Mr. John McDonnell, as economic leader of the Labor Party, cited the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury, critical of the current situation with stagnation and low wages, lack of upward mobility. ...

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Important year end reveiw of the oil price forecasting work of so many anlaysts and where they failed . The IEA and the US Enery Dpt forecast have year after year underestimated this pirce by over 20%. Analysts change the price forecasts within a couple of weeks based on changing information and assumptions. Of all this the Saudi Arabian forecasts have ben within 12 % of what has actually ocurred according to a study by Ronald Berger Strategy Consultants of Muich, Germany. And whats their forecast for 2008. By extrapolating from the Saudi budget and the assumptions, used such as giving a wide margin to avoid a deficit in the budget if oil prices undershot by a wide margin, one gets $75 for US benchmark crude. Forecast by experts are in the neighborhood of $80 average for the whole year 2008. Goldman recently revised theirs upwards from $85 average for 2008 to $95 within a 4 week period. How good is the Goldman forecast. No one really knows. Lehman has a forecast of $84 average for 2008 and bases it on the opacity of the market because no one knows what OPEC will do with supply and China does not provide good information on demand. So basically anlysts are adding an uncertainty premium to the price of oil. And this is especially so because as the Chief Economist at IEA says global space capacity is so thin and any event can influence price. Last year the rhetoric about Irans nuclear intentions was enough to stir up the price, as were other smaller events disrupting supplies. But the Iranian situation has since cooled down and diplomatic solutions are in the works. So what to expect in 2008 in the way of political uncertainty. Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Lebanon have all seen a cool off in the ast couple of years and the Bush administration rhetoric has become outmoded as has other rhetoric from Iran so that does'nt look like it will stir up oil prices in 2008. Still there will be some uncertainty premium about supply from OPEC and demand from China and India. And demand from the Middle Eastern oil producing countries themselves as well as the increasing demand in India and China will mean that lower demand in the US because of a recession will still mean an increase in global demand over 2007 of 1.5 million barrrels a day over 2007's 85 million barrels a day. What will change the dynamics of this situation is the government mandated fuel economy for all vehicles on the road with Europe more aggressive in this area under the pressures of global warming. If this impacts India, China and Russia as these fuel saving technologies are transferrred there overall consumption should see an impact. Europe's targets are only 4 years away for 2012. And the environment may cause China to bring in newer technologies that both contribute to improving environment and conserving energy. Because China's environmental record is almost catastrophic one could see some of this happen much sooner than expected after the Olympics in 2008. All that might change the way the world looks at oil and its use, and all energy sources and their use. ...

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In this interview with Der Spiegel Bernie Sanders reflects on the 2016 election. He says that the Democratic Party missed the fact that many people in the midwest, south and other parts of the country, were worse off after president Obama left than when he came in in 2008. He also says Hillary Clinton relied too heavily on speechwriters and advisers upto the point of  having three speechwriters say why she was running for president. He finds the cuts proposed to healthcare, in the budget, and action on climate change, immoral. He also points out about the investigations that Mr. Mueller is someone everybody respects and that it would be wrong to offer a biased opinion, that Trump supporters would see this in the way that he is picked on when he just came in. He also believes Trump supporters are like other voters and are likely to look at the results, how better off they are under the Trump administration.

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The only way the Conservatives can form a majority to govern in Britain is by getting the support of the Democratic Unionist Party with its 10 seats, and this would still give Conservatives 328 seats in parliament, with 326 required for a majority. This very thin 3 seat majority could lead to a fall of the government if a couple of Conservative party members defected. Here Davies points out that though the Democratic Unionist party supports Brexit it is of a very different nature. The party is based in Ireland and originated with Rev. Ian Paisley. With its Irish roots it wants free movement of goods and people across the border with Ireland which is an EU member, access to EU funding and protection for farmers. Ireland has shown serious concern about the Brexit vote, and Northern Ireland voters voted against Brexit 56% to 44% for Brexit. This open border and EU support is close to what is currently in place. As Davies points out this puts the whole Brexit negotiating process in doubt, with no coherent position for Britain at all, leading to a collapse of the talks and no deal with the European Union. Another reason the doubts about Brexit are likely to grow is that a large part of the UK Independence Party support has disappeared, with UKIP getting 1.8% of the vote compared to about 11% in 2015 election. The combined vote of the parties that see Brexit as a priority for Britain was in fact about 45.1%, combining Conservatives 42.4%, Democratic Unionist 0.9% and UKIP 1.8%. The parties that did not see Brexit as a priority for Britain won over 50% of the vote this time- Labor 40.0%, Scottish National party 3.0%, Liberal Democrats 7.4%, according to BBC. Davies says the increasing uncertainty is bad for the British economy. In coming months doubts are likely to grow about whether the referendum was a priority for Britain, and how this is a distraction from the other serious issues facing the British economy to ensure a better future. ...

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Adam Bryant talks to 4 women executives about the problems women face in taking up higher management positions. One of the problems addressed directly and at length by the head of Pfizer Nutrition, Amy Schulman, is what she calls "the dutiful daughter," doing what is expected of you. This is also described as a serious problem for women executives in Asia by Riva Gold, where women not having 100% of the skills for a higher management job will step back, whereas men with only 50% of the skills step forward. Schulman says women have to be well prepared and have a good grasp of the subject matter, have acquired experience, and having done that they need to make their voice heard. Any anxieties about not getting it just right, or asking the question about whether "she belongs" need to be left behind. The leaders of companies need to create the environment in which biases and assumptions about women in the workplace do not hinder getting a mix of different voices in the corporation, which can only benefit from that diversity of people and styles. Another point she makes is that women have to spend their political capital, to stand up for colleagues and the team where appropriate, for principles that are significant, to be build credibility and win credit. ...

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A slight shift in American opinion favoring a deal with Iran is shown in a WSJ/NBC poll in July 2015 compared to the poll in April 2015. Support for reaching a nuclear deal with Iran remains stable at 36% in both polls, the opposed drops by 6 percentage points to 17% from 23%, and the percentage of people who say they do not know enough to formulate an opinion goes up to 46% from 40%. The intricacies of a nuclear technology deal and the sites involved lead to a high percentage of don't know enough to give an opinion. Factors hindering a deal include inspection of military sites, and Iranian intentions. Factors favoring reaching a deal now is the risk that this would mean Iran would go back into isolation and the opportunity to work with moderates might be lost. The Rouhani administration was an effort by voters to elect a government that could ease or remove sanctions to improve the economy and living conditions- its failure would lead to Iran losing an opportunity to open up to the world. The pressure from the U.S. Congress and Israel served to push for a verifiable and effective agreement to control development of nuclear technology for weapons systems. Behavioural factors involved are the very young population in Iran which has no memories about the period before the revolution in 1979- 70% of the population of 74 million are people under the age of 35. This group is eager for ties to the outside and could change Iran's outlook and policies int the future towards moderation. Risks in not reaching a deal also include the possibility of the Saudis developing nuclear technology and nuclear proliferation. Winners from a deal because of the flow of Iranian oil to world markets and a period of extended low oil prices are the U.S., Europe, China and India. Germany gains new markets to replace the growth in the Russian market after sanctions. Lifting of an arms embargo, an added risk in the last days of the talks, would be mitigated by making the lifting of that embargo very gradual....

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The trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange has seen a jump in the last week from an average of 4.26 billion shares traded daily in 2011, to an average daily volume of 7.31 billion shares in the first ten days of August 2011. Analysts say this reflects market anxiety, trading on conviction now compared to the light trading and a rising market in the earlier part of the year. The jump in volume also looks ominous as individual investors pull back say analysts.

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This Washington Post editorial says Obama and the politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, want something for nothing. The Ryan budget, Obama's health care plan, all require paying for it with higher taxes, but the mention of the word "tax" is the last word any of the politicians will say. These comments come as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the mandate that young Americans and others be forced to pay for health care along with the rest, as required by the health care mandate, with the idea of keeping costs down. The idea of getting something for nothing was also emphasized in an op-ed in the WSJ, March 29, 2012, by Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, where he called for letting the Bush tax cuts expire for all income groups, and an up or down vote in Congress on the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan, as part of a two step plan.

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The Harz labor reforms in Germany in 2003 changed the way unemployment was treated. The idea was to get the government to work more closely with private employers through several initiatives to fund jobs that did constructive work within these companies. This helped reduce structural unemployment because of the almost indefinite unemployment benefits that existed earlier, reducing it from 12.7% in 2005 to 7.1% in November 2008. In November 2009 even after a year of recesion it stands at 8.6%. Are there lessons for other countries in the German experience? THe Harz reforms directed the German Labor Agency to work closely with private employers to fund newly created jobs. One such program paid a Dutch staffing agency Randstad to teach 15,000 Germans information technology, business English an other skills. THe Labor agency funds jobs at a Daimler truck facility in Worth, near Stuttgart, where short term employees instead of being laid off work as mechanic trainees. Another initiative pays parts of the wages of workers hired from those who are jobless, so that the costs of retraining are shared by the government and the employer, making it more attractive to take a chance and go out and hire. And if you lose your job the Harz reforms made it possible to get unemployment benefits for an additional 6 months, if you went out and started a small business. Like the case of an employee who worked at a Kawasaki motorbicycle dealership, who started his own bike repair shop. There are political pressures to extend unemployment benefits as the recesssion becomes more severe. And the structural mismatch in jobs going unfilled, and the number turned out by universities is still a problem. One study by Adecco Institute, shows 29% of large German companies having trouble filling technical jobs, which is why these companies try to keep all their experienced employees....

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Court blocks deportation of a group of Venezuelans on the basis of Alien Enemies Act of 1798, says other remedies can be tried. This is one of 4 laws passed under John Adams in 1798 to remove citizens or subjects of a hostile nation during times of war or invasion. The case now goes to the US Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit is based in New Orleans with 3 Judges making the decision. Bush appointee Southwick joined Biden appointee Ramirez against Trump appointee Oldham in a 2-1 decision. Oldham in a 131 page dissent says-“Today the majority holds that President Trump is just an ordinary civil litigant. His declaration of a predatory incursion is not conclusive. Far from it. Rather, President Trump must plead sufficient facts — as if he were some run-of-the-mill plaintiff in a breach-of-contract case — to convince a federal judge that he is entitled to relief.” Southwick does not appear to see this as an invasion ignoring the deaths from fentanyl and drug trafficking in the US, the strain on public resources and cities of uncontrolled flow of migrants in recent years, saying- “A country’s encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, to disrupt or to otherwise harm the United States.” Yet even an armed organized force was pushed back in the War of 1812, and has little chance where the current problems have led to the deaths of more young Americans from drug trafficking than three times the deaths in the Vietnam and Korean Wars combined, three times the deaths in World War I and about 75% of the deaths in World War II, something that needs reflection and action. With the changing public sentiment in the UK and Europe and in the US on law and order and on migrants the Supreme Court is faced with coming up with a decision in the best interests of the Nation and its People. ...

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Friedman describes the leaks on income and expenses by wives of Chinese government officials after the officials took on mistresses. This has provided an unusually detailed acccount of the corruption of government officials in China.

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Senator Lamar Alexander is a kind of misssionary for electric cars and for a major push with government assistance in this area. A bill sponsored by Alexander and Senator Byron Dorgan plans to designate 5 to15 urban areas as model locations for electric car use. These areas would get money for infrastructure such as recharging stations, and people in the areas would get an additional tax credit to take the tax credit from $7,500 to $10,000. The bill has important provisions for promoting research at companies and universities to improve electric car batteries. $1.5 billion would be allocated for research in electric car batteries, and a $10 million prize for the person or company able to build a battery with a 500 mile range. The total cost- $10 billion.

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The view from Germany on Trump's economic plan and the need for changes by his advisors. DW.com's Wenkel says Trump needs to understand that 80% of job losses in recent years have come from not from globalization, but automation and higher productivity, rationalization. He says higher tariffs on Mexico could backfire.

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Within minutes of the SNB's decision to lift the cap on the euro the Swiss Franc surged 30% against the euro and 18% against the dollar. FXCM, retail currency broker, suffered severe losses and the company needed a $300 million investment from Leucadia National Corp. to survive. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank AG each had losses of $150 million. Hedge Funds Discovery and Comac also suffered losses. FXCM losses stem from use by FXCM clients of borrowed money, along with higher leverage the company also has lower margin requirements. Interestingly FXCM fought CFTC efforts under Dodd-Frank legislation to limit leverage to 10 to 1- saying "it would have a devastating impact and drive it overseas." The limit finally set at 50 to 1, meant that an investor could borrow $50 for every dollar he put in of his own. The leverage meant large losses for inexperienced investors and threatened the survival of FXCM in a matter of minutes.

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The school as an extension of the caring nurturing family, starts with the good motivated teacher, one student at a time. The example of teachers at a Union city public school in New Jersey. At one time a failing school it is now an example of what can be done with good motivated teachers. David Kirp, professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of the book: "Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of the Great American School System and a Strategy for America's Schools." Kirp reminds us that the answers are closer to us than we think, the nurturing influence of the schools extends the work of the family, more intuitive, and resembling more of the ways we think and feel children respond to good teachers.

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UK 'one in, one out' deal with France to return migrants crossing Channel in small boats November 2025. It is an effort that comes ten years after Denmark's Mette Frederiksen of the socialists pointed out the dangers of illegal migration to European society and five years after Wilders from the Netherlands pointed out the problems of illegal migration.