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European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, addressing the European Parliament in Brussels on April 25, 2012, supported both sides in the issues facing the eurozone, calling for continued vigilance on structural reforms to improve competitiveness of countries in the eurozone such as Spain and Italy, and at the same time saying it was imperative to generate economic growth. He told the European parliament: "The uncertainty about the present situation is very, very, high... Any exit strategy is premature given the current economic situation." Saying that the fiscal compact had been negotiated recently to control spending, yet what Europe needed was also a growth compact- "but my most present thought right now is to have a growth compact." He emphasized that it was now upto governments and banks to pick up the ball. The ECB's achievement was buying time with its 3 year loans to banks in Spain and Italy and other EU countries in Dec. 2011-March 2012, which he described as no ordinary achievement. Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel seized on Draghi's comments to show they were doing the right thing. Merkel conceded that growth was needed, saying sustainable initatives would be good for Europe, that what Germany was opposing was simply stimulus spending that would increase debt without the structural reforms to improve competitiveness. Hollande for his part said he would call for eurozone bonds to pay for industrial and infrastructure projects, and a financial transactions tax....

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Stephen Harper's Conservative party won 167 of the 308 seats in Canada's House of Commons, the NDP won 102 seats, the Liberals 34 seats and the Bloc Quebecois 2 seats. Harper gave indications of how he would govern by saying that he would stay on the same path the Conservatives followed when they were a minority party. He said there would be no changes to Canada's public health care system. He told a news conference in Calgary, Alberta: "Even as a majority you have to, on an ongoing basis, keep the trust of the population." The Conservatives won only 40% of the popular vote, and this may be a reason for the caution in making major changes. The Conservatives maintained their base in western Canada, and gained seats in Ontario. The gains in and around Toronto, came because the left-of-center vote was split between the Liberals and the NDP. Experts say Harper will shut down a disputed registry for rifles, end direct government subsidies of political parties, and maintain scheduled corporate tax cuts. The Conservative government is also expected not take any significant steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions that are opposed by the oil and gas industries in western Canada. ...

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Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan visits the White House to meet president Trump. Mr. Trump welcomes Khan and lauds the Pakistani leader as an athlete and a leader. He tells him trade deals can be struck, future was bright and flow of aid can be turned on. Trump makes a casual offer to help mediate the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, even though it is certain that nothing comes out of this, because of India's position not welcoming other countries doing any mediation. At the heart of this reconciliation is Afghanistan and president Trump's conviction that Pakistan can get the U.S. out of Afghanistan. Trump stated this- "I think Pakistan is going to help us out, to extricate ourselves. Pakistan is going to make a difference." The idea is that Pakistan can persuade the militants, the Taliban, into a face saving settlement that will allow American troops to come home. Mr. Khan in turn stated that Pakistan had given up its policy of using Afghanistan to give it "strategic depth" against India. The army would not go behind the back of the civilian government to conduct a policy of its own. Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Trump are impatient to get this done. The deadline of Mr. Pompeo is September 1 and talks continue between the Taliban and representatives from Afghanistan. The U.S. effort is handled by Zalmay Khalizad. How Afghanistan is governed in the future is not determined and Pakistan has a key role to play in making a sensible solution take place if it decides that something new has to be tried.  In the past U.S. governments from both parties lacked the ability to take a good hard look at the facts the origin and evolution of this dispute. To tackle it directly with a willingness not only to call it for what it is but also to give the other side an incentive to try new solutions. The inventive style of the Trump administration to tackle the situation directly, but also come up with new and novel solutions is what is now being tried. ...

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Bloomberg View says it is important for the living wills for U.S. banks that are "too big to fail" to be ready by the end of August 2011. This is required under the Dodd-Frank legislation. The living wills are designed to provide the government and the FDIC with an orderly pathway for winding down the business of a bank. On August 8, 2011, when the Dow Jones Averages dropped by 634 points, shares of Bank of America and Citigroup led the decline. Bloomberg points out that investors think Bank of America's net worth is only one third of what the bank claims, and for Citigroup this is less than half. Investors view the stocks of these banks as risky because they are likely to need to raise fresh capital and this would dilute the value of existing shares.

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President Macron takes up a difficult part of his promised changes in the election campaign- an effort to rewrite the rules and consolidate disparate pension plans in France. It comes at a difficult time and requires considerable courage as yellow vest protests against inequality had led to Macron holding townhall meetings in France to hear public opinion, after what appeared as a presidency that had lost touch with ordinary people. Macron has revised his plan to allow a retirement age of 62, yet the plan calls for combining many disparate plans with different rules into a streamlined national plan. Most affected are transport workers, lawyers and other professions that have generous benefits, with early retirement, leading to more strikes. Not taking action means the pension plans would become insolvent in the near future.

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Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman's view of Afghnistan differs significantly from New York Times correspondent Filkins understanding from years of reporting going back about a decade. Filkins sees the complexities of Pastun country inside Afghnistan and Pakistan and the military and ISI's involvement, and other correspondents have pointed to the narcotics trade and corruption. Kerry's simplistic view is that the Taliban do not enjoy much support, when actually Americans are seen on the ground as foreign occupiers. These correspondents in the field point to this as an everpresent danger, which would tilt support to those fighting foreigners, with nationalist and Muslim sentiment prevailing over everything else. And Kerry appears to be too willing to dismiss allegations of narcotics involvement of the Karzai administration with the "show me" comment. For critics of the Bush administration this is simply astounding, when so much is at stake. Does patient mean digging in one's heels slowly? But that is how the Vietnam intervention ran into trouble, without public sentiment in support of the plans....

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Krugman sees France has a fairly successful country with a strong safety net, contrary to perceptions. He asks then why the vote for Le Pen of the National Front, with its perceived racism and ideology. He points to the bureaucrats in Brussels and how they are perceived in Britain, the way austerity policies were favored by the European Union and Germany. Much of the reporting to date shows the effects of neglect for rural communities and small towns and the loss of jobs as the reason for discontent with established parties. It appears that this has affected the vote more than the anti-European Union message. During the last debate Macron was more effective in showing that there were advantages for France in remaining connected to the global community and to remain in the eurozone, calling it a huge mistake to follow Le Pen's policies. 

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The former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Mr. S.Y Quraishi, looks at the 2019 Nigerian elections. Nigeria has about 47% of the population of West Africa. Muslims and Christians are almost equal in numbers and there are 300 ethnic groups. About 82.3 million voters were registered to vote. Quraishi sees the 41% registered voters to be disproportionate to the total population. In India about 62% of the total population is registered to vote. The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) chairman, Mr. Mahmood Yakubu, says security, fake news, hate  speech, and expenditure control are the top issues. Postponement, delays and chaos at polling stations contributed to a historic low turnout, 35.6% compared to 44% in 2015. Police presence was discreet and needed for the elections. A coalition of 70 civic organizations monitored the elections and contributed to its credibility. In Lagos there were 1.1 million valid votes. India has strong interest in Nigeria's democracy. Over 135 Indian companies have operations in Nigeria, including  State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, Tata, Bajaj, Birla, Kirloskar, Mahindra. The election commissions of the two countries have met yet there is need for more engagement. About 50,000 Indians live in Nigeria. By continuing the process established by the two earlier elections including a peaceful transition from Mr. Goodfellow to Mr. Buhari, Nigeria is strengthening the democratic process. In continuing the fight against corruption, building infrastructure, the difficult process of modernization and development is taking place even with difficult economic conditions. ...

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Niall Ferguson, a history professor at Harvard, and Moritz Shularick, a economic history professor at the Free University of Berlin, coined the term Chimerica, to describe the Chinese export machine and the American overconsumption right down to negative savings. Now they call it an economic monster that needs to be given a burial. It does little good for America. For America its a 10-10 deal the authors say, 10% growth for China and 10% unemployment int the USA. The mood in the USA is no longer to go on with this arrangement they warn, and ask that the Obama administration take steps to end this arrangement. The USA should ask China to make a 30 % depreciation of the renminbi say Ferguson and Schularick. Krugman makes a similiar point and warns of dire consequences in aworld out of balance on the same page of the NYT, see the link. Ferguson and Schularick point out that unlike China, both Germany and Japan let their currencies appreciate by 60% for Germany and 50% in Japan, at a similiar period in their country's development. China's renmibi is pegged at 6.83 renminbi to the dollar, and China's government used $300 billion in reserves to keep the renminbi from appreciating this year. Throughout the 1980's and 1990's it was pegged at around 8.28 renminbi to the dollar. For the USA this has been very costly, with a distortion in the global cost of capital significantly reducing long term interest rates, and helping create the real estate bubble in the US. They point out that with Japan and Germany dollar reserves increased roughly in line with growth of American GDP at about 1% and stable before moving slighltly higher in the 1970's. By contrast China's reserves have grown from about 1% of Ameica's GDP in 2000 or $165 billion to 5% in 2005 and 10% in 2008 and headed for 12% in 2009 end. This is simply unsustainable any longer; carrying on any longer risks China losing the very basis of its economic success which is the open global trading system....

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Following the executive order by U.S. president Trump reversing Obama administration policies on climate change and clean energy, BBC correspondent points out that the strategy of the Trump administration and Republicans is to change the narrative to job creation and with court challenges let the Clean Power plan be delayed. This would be followed by a different plan with less regulation of the coal industry. The clean energy policies were unpopular in states where Republicans had support.

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In this WSJ column Russell Mead describes the Middle East as an opportunity when in reality it has done serious damage to the US and the European Union. With the shift to renewable energy and localized sources for natural gas and oil within EU and the US, the Middle East may no longer be relevant to the US and Europe. Afghanistan which has cost so much for the US and Europe in trillions of dollars that could have been invested in badly needed infrastructure is an extension of the Middle East. Iran is also part of the Middle East. These reserves of oil and gas in countries deeply imbedded with thinking and policy against modernization are more risk than opportunity for the US and European Union. The US and European Union need to look to bringing back manufacturing and renewing supply chains with India and Vietnam, the rest of South East Asia as an opportunity and shift mightily to renewables to fight climate change. This is the opportunity facing the US and the EU today. In a sense the chapter that started with the efforts of British oil companies in Iran in 1900 and Franklin Roosevelt's meeting with the Saudi King on an American ship during World War II is now coming to its closing and a new chapter has to be written on renewables and rebuilding US and EU strength in manufacturing in alliance with India and Vietnam, rest of South East Asia in what is called the Indo-Pacific.  ...

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A sense of entitlement and hold on power can be seen throughout Africa. A lack of the kind of education that creates an ethic of responsibility for the educated and ruling classes, an honest civil service, and experience with and development of democratic institutions with their own checks and balances, account for some of the principal reasons for this failure in government. Even in South Africa, which has experienced several elections and is on the path to gaining experience in democratic government, Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress display some of these tendencies of entitlement to power.

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This op-ed essay by the President of Toyota Motor Company, Akio Toyoda, talks frankly about the situation that led to the quality failures at Toyota and promises that Toyota will try to live up to the ideals that shaped its beginnings some 70 years ago. Toyota had humble beginnings in the thirties when the original founder of Toyoda was in the textile loom manufacturing business. Following a new venture in automobiles in the 1930's, for three decades Toyota was only trying to catchup with the U.S. in auto manufacturing. It started with the current chairman Shoichiro Toyoda's father -and Akio Toyoda's grandfather Kiichiro- visiting a Professor of Metallurgical Engineerig at a university in Tokyo to collect ideas and information for entering the automobile manufacturing business. Akio Toyoda seems quite cognizant of these beginnings in this essay. Action steps he mentions are a top down review of global operations, establishing an Automotive Center of Quality Excellence in the United States, and asking a blue-ribbon safety advisory group of outside experts in quality management to independently review Toyota's operations, with the findings made public. Akio Toyoda points to the lack of effective communication in quality matters in its global operations that led to the problem festering for so long. He says that in regard to sticking accelerator pedals, Toyota "failed to connect the dots between problems in Europe and problems in the United States because the European situation related primarily to right-hand-drive vehicles." Toyota also moved to address problems in its Prius and Lexus HS250h models for anti-lock braking systems....

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This report by Landon Thomas Jr. of the NYT describes what happened in the days before and the 48 hours before the referendum decision was announced by June 27, 2015. It shows talks progressing right up to Monday, June 22, 2015. By June 23 Greece received a paper marked in red from the IMF, EU and the ECB on their proposal of June 22. The Greek proposal of June 22 rejected pension cuts and removal of tax breaks for Greek islands, but proposing instead a series of tax increases and increase in pension contributions to be made by companies in Greece. The reply marked up disagreement areas on the paper which voiced objections to too many tax increases as hurting business growth, need to simplify value added taxes, and insisting on pension cuts and reforms. The two advisors Tsipras had used were a complete contrast to the new advisor and finance minister Mr. Tsakalotos he was to use in negotiations after July 7, 2015. Nikos Pappas is described here as an academic with a temper and Varoufakis as a person who would not hesitate to confront and lecture the creditors negotiators. Varoufakis who already had arguments and shouting matches with his counterparts on the other side, had a difficult relationship with the Dutch finance minister, Dijsselbloem, who was the chief of eurozone finance ministers. Dijseelbloem especially objected to Varoufakis lecturing on the need for a debt haircut. Varoufakis was removed from the discussions for a period of several weeks as a result and his reintroduction on June 25 was to have a negative effect on the EU and German negotiators. The same issue of debt came up again in discussions on June 25, 2015, and Varoufakis confronted the EU ministers by calling on the IMF's Christine Lagarde to state if the debt was sustainable. Before that Dijsselbloem had already told him flatly that any discussion on debt reduction would make a deal impossible. At one point German finance minister Schauble argued with EU official Pierre Muscovici of France about his favorable comments on the Greece proposal, saying he could not get the Greek proposal through the German parliament, and saying the ony solution now was capital controls. IMF's Christine Lagarde responded by saying that debt reduction needed to be considered. According to this report the Dutch finance mnister did not wait for Lagarde to explain- he told Varoufakis that it was take it or leave it....

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A Report by the Institute of Contemporary Development is titled "Twenty-first Century Russia: An Image of the Desired Future." President Medvedev serves as chairman of its board of trustees. Thoug it does not have direct influence on Russian policy it still is part of the debate going on in Russia about which direction to take in the future. It calls for restoration of election of governors, an end to censorship of the news media, dissolution of the Federal Security Service, and importantly Russian membership in NATO from a foreign policy perspective. Its them is a theme Medvedev has emphasized - how should Russia modernize? The report makes the point that unless it modernized more of Russia's brightest young people would go to the West.

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Ike (President Eisenhower) quotes Eric Hoffer in his book "The True Believer", for a longshoreman's wisdom and insight. Writing to a veteran who asks Ike why the lack of certainty in his voice in 1959 as he nears the end of his second term. "Faith in a holy cause, is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves." Ike tells Biggs that, " in a democracy debate is the breath of life." That there is no universal degree of certainty, the confidence in in their understanding of our problems, the clear guidance from ahigher authority. This is important to keep in mind today as one looks at the way leaders from those in finance, industry and central banking and in government who acted as though there was this universal degree of certainty about the financial system and its workings, always to the good, and for the way in which the policies were handled in dealing with other countries. Its also true when one looks at the situation from other countries such as the period under Gandhi and Nehru in India, or Mao and Chou en Lai in China. There also what appeared to have universal certainty did not turn out thay way and policies had to be reversed and legacies examined. What Biggs wanted was "someone to speak for us and to back him completely if the statement was made in truth." And Ike's response was to say that dictatorial systems, and here one can include systems with figures who created their own sense of awe and hero image, make one contribution to their people that leads them to support such systems. And this was "the freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions."...

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In an effort to not cede the market in tablets and smartphones completely to Apple and Google, and e-books to Amazon, Microsoft is now in an alliance with Barnes & Noble's Nook digital business, and Nokia in smartphones. The deal with Barnes & Noble's Nook, includes an agreement to bring out a Nook application that will bring access to digital books, magazines and newspapers to Windows devices. Microsoft will get a share of revenues from sales of this content. For Barnes & Noble this is an alliance with a well funded company, at a time when the digital business is losing money because of the huge investments needed to compete. Markets recognized this by pricing Barnes & Noble shares over 50% higher after the announcement, up to $20.75.

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The "cut, cap and balance" pledge of Republican candidates for the presidential election of 2012. The current House version requires capping federal spending at 19.9% of GDP by 2018. This say House leaders is in accordance with the average spending levels for the last 30 years. It would have to come down from 24%. The balanced budget amendment caps spending at 18% of GDP and a balanced budget within a decade. The pledge is written promise to cut spending immediately.

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Schmemann ponders over the situation in Spain with Catalonia and Scotland with Britain, where national identity arouses pride and there is a strong sentiment for autonomy or independence. He says the situation in Slovakia which sought its own identity and separated from Czechoslovakia, but sought an otherwise peaceful status in the EU, should not be confused with the nationalism that has aroused conflicts in other regions and periods. He puts Scots interest in autonomy or independence in this light, as simply seeking its own future in the EU, with closer attention being paid to the local interests in Scotland.

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Friedman on the ouster of president Morsi after only one year in office following large scale protests. He sees this as the beginning of a fallback of political Islam, with the protests of secularists in Turkey, the shift to a moderate candidate Rouhani in Iran's presidential election, the shift of the Emhada Islamist party in Tunisia to work with center-left parties in writing the constitution, and the election of a western educated political scientist to lead a coalition government in Libya. In each country the secular and liberal leaders and the young people felt the revolution was being stolen from them by Islamist parties and are asserting themselves to gain a voice in government. The Islamist party in Egypt has older leaders, an authoritarian structure and hierarchy, which failed to incorporate liberal and other opinion in writing the constitution and in forming the government. A more tolerant and open Islamist party needs to be part of a broad based government with other parties, which can focus on the economy, unemployment, infrastructure and public services....

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Ken Murray, a retired family medicine professor at the University of Southern California, describes how doctors address the option of prolonging life when the prospects of survival improve say from 5% to 15%. The choice is based on the human need to find closure in an atmosphere that gives comfort, a sense of peace and a sense of place with home and family, with hospitals not deisnged to and not able to perform that role. Murray gives the example of his cousin Torch, who he says was born at home by the light of a flashlight, who decides to not choose aggressive treatment, which would have prolonged his life for no more than 4 months. Instead he spent the next 8 months with family and did everything he could do with the 8 months that made for quality of life, rather than just choosing quantity in and out of hospitals. He died peacefully in his sleep. The heroics in and out of hospitals would actually have deprived the patient of the opportunity to reach a sense of closure that comes from the comfort of home, family, and arriving at a sense of peace....

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Lehman Brothers CEO Fuld and the 48 hours before the weekend decision by the Fed to back takeover of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan and to extend lending to investment firms like Lehman to prevent any further spread of the collapse to other investment firms.

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Carlos Tavares runs Stellantis the company that combined the operations of France's Peugeot, Italy's Fiat and America's Chrysler right out of his living room in his Lisbon, Portugal home one week every month. He is a believer in the advantages of hybrid work model and says most of the 75,000 workers at the company can work remotely most of the time.The quality time that is generated in this new work model that allows life balance and getting fresh air walks outside is needed when you consider that auto companies such as his are embracing world of electric cars- Stellantis will have 75 models of electric cars by 2030 In this interview with the WSJ shown here he says the fact that one is giving back high quality time that otherwise goes to commuting means you get more time during the day. Carlos Tavares says remote work is an opportunity to recreate a better life balance. He doesn't see any risk in it at all. He sees how hard people are working, harder than they did before, and says giving back one half hour or two hours of quality time actually helps the process of getting good work. Look he says after a long day of remote work people need that time to go out and have a walk for an hour just to refresh one's mind, because the work was so intense. Tavares asks why shouldn't we trust each other? He believes it is the only way to go. Asked about his own work routine for remote work.He says it is the Portuguese routine of  7 am to 4 pm or 5 pm and then an hour out for a walk. He has a small desk in his living room, and he is sitting there with his iPad, grandkids are going by but nobody sees them. Does he miss the face to face contact? He does says Tavares. He still sees other employees as he does go to the office. What about mentoring for junior  employees? This does not have to be five days a week, you may want coaching one day a week, what you don't want is someone on your back five days a week. For Tavares it is all about the quality of time that is used. On company culture the much abused word Tavares makes some good points. If you say this is the culture and hand it to somebody then how do you get that creative mind to exercize his own judgement, how do you get diversity of thinking. Tavares is forthright and honest here- he says if I give you a culture and put you in that box I will get it wrong, and by killing the valuable diversity of thinking I will make it counterproductive. Actually with French, Italian and American operations under one roof and employees of 170 nationalities there is a value in appreciating the value each employee can bring. Practices at Stellantis- Tavares says if you want your people to be in game shape or in great shape mentally don't call them or email them on weekends, so that they can use the weekend to recharge themselves. He even apologizes for calling on a weekend. Or if you email your people tell them to not respond till Monday. ...

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US National Archives 737 Freedom Plane with first stop in Kansas City, March 6, carrying founding documents of US for 250th Anniversary. Founding documents include The Treaty of Paris, George Washington's oath of allegiance, 1774 Articles of Association. Look for it in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, Miami, Dearborn (Michigan), and Seattle. Six eighteen wheeler Freedom trucks will also take exhibits to schools, libraries and community gatherings across the 51 states.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says of the talks with Iran in Feb 2026 - “I won’t speculate how far away they are, but they are certainly trying to achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles. And I would say that the Iranian insistence on not discussing ballistic missiles, it’s a big, big problem. And I’ll leave it at that.”