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The Conservatives get a big boost from the 2021 budget. This budget increased the corporate tax to 25% by 2023 from 20% under previous Conservative governments of Cameron, and 19% under May. A survey by YouGov shows 55% of the British public thinks this budget is "fair," only 16% saying it is "unfair." This is the highest rating for any British budget since 2009. For Boris Johnson's Conservatives this means a 4% increase in popularity just in the last week up to 45% and Labour under Keith Starmer dropping 4% to 32%. This has opened a 13 point lead for the Conservatives likely to show up in the local elections coming up. This Conservative lead is higher than the 44% vote share for Boris Johnson's Conservatives in the general election.

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Current UK approval ratings show Labour losing a lot of support and would be he largest party but lead Tories by about 10 seats. Keir Starmer's unfavorability rating is about 61% and his favorability rating at about 27% by Ipsos in December 2024. Kemi Badenoch's is worse than Rishi Sunak and at negative 5% net approval (difference betwen approval and disapproval) approaches the negative 9% of Liz Truss. 

Reform UK of Nigel Farage could increase it's seats in parliament to 71 from 5 seats. Liberals would have close to Reform UK seats and Greens 8 seats. Labour according to one poll would have 256 seats to Tories 208. Labour could have a tiny majority with the help of Liberal Democrats compared to the landslide recently on 60% of eligible voters actually voting.

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Funding for US colleges decreases, fewer high school students graduate in 2025. Fewer foreign students. All this is affecting American colleges. For two decades American colleges allowed tution to get out of control making it unaffordable for a middle class that was already hit by the American leaders who allowed America's industrial base to be shipped out to China. As factory towns dwindled in importance and worker jobs and incomes declined across the length and breadth of America, universities and colleges took little responsibility even as young men opted to not go to college. Tution fees kept rising requiring loans that could not be paid off. Today the rust belt is coming to these colleges as the DJT administration has decided to give low priority to funding these colleges and universities and new career paths are being created through apprenticeships and other vocational education.

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DJT takes action sending in the Marines to Los Angeles to guard federal buildings, stop rioting June 10, 2025. At a White House briefing on fires including the fires in Los Angeles, US president DJT says the situation could have gone on for days as it did in Minneapolis when he acted after 7-8 days and the governor failed to call in the National Guard. DJT says he has seen this before and this is why he acted quickly before rioting destroyed the parts of Los Angeles that had survived the fires. 

Kristi Noem, the Homeland Secretary, a former governor, says action will be taken to enforce the nation's laws and that the comments by Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum that encouraged the protesters in contempt for US law enforcement were inappropriate and needed to be condemned.

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Borchers of the Washington Post reflects on why president Trump gave the long rambling interview in July 2017 to the NYT.  President Trump has  called the NYT both "failing" and "a crown jewel." He particularly respects the reporter Maggie Haberman, a reporter with whom Trump has a long relationship and whose reporting he respects. Haberman is seen by Trump as an influential political reporter, whose view counts, and who can be critical but also seeks to be fair in reporting. During the election campaign the NYT carried reporting critical of Trump, yet it also had reporters who were critical of Hillary Clinton. In many ways both the NYT and the WSJ from different points of view seek a place in the middle with fair reporting, needed particularly in today's politics where ideology sometimes trumps common sense and U.S. traditions of fairness.

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The Independent Panel Report on the Flint, Michigan, contaminated water crisis says the Department of Environmental Quality in the state "failed in its fundamental responsibility" to enforce drinking water safety regulations. It also says the Governor Mr. Snyder should have acted when the senior staff memebers at the governor's office asked him to do so.The EPA is faulted for prolonging the crisis by delays in enforcing drinking water standards. The problem began with the emergency manager appointed by the governor acting to make cost cutting moves for a city in financial trouble. The Panel Report puts the responsibility for overseeing the emergency manager role on the state government and the Governor.

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The Romney plan calls for putting a cap on federal spending at 20% of GDP. It is now over 23% of GDP. The Huntsman plan calls for lowering taxes for corporations and individuals, and eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends. This would be offset in the Huntsman plan by closing the mortgage deduction for loans over $500,000, and ending the child tax credit and other tax expenditures as recommended by the Bowles-Simpson Commission. Rep Bachmann and Governor Perry call for eliminating the taxes on American companies repatriating revenues from overseas back to the U.S.

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France signed a framework agreement with India to build 2 nuclear reactors in the state of Maharashtra, along with supply of nuclear fuel for 25 years. The reactors would be sold by state owned company Areva SA. France plans to sell 6 nuclear reactors to India in future years. India has 4,560 megawatts of nuclear power and plans to increase this 14 fold by 2032. The French project will provide 10,000 megawatts. US suppliers are trying to get a change to liability laws in India that will transfer liability to plant operators, before concluding nuclear deals.

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Frank Rich says the bankruptcy trustee in the Madoff case may do what the Financial Inquiry Commission failed to do, and what the Pecora Senate investigation of 1933 accomplished. Michael Lewis, author of "The Big Short," said of the efforts to prevent a future crisis on MSNBC: "I feel like we're living in a house built on sand because we did'nt reform the system." By not holding people accountable their is risk of the same behaviours recurring. By saying everything went wrong in general Shakespearean terms the Financial Inquiry Commission report did not accomplish the purpose of its investigation.

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Liz Rappaport of the Wall Street Journal interviews Neil Barofsky, inspector general of the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program. Barofsky is asked what is his biggest failure. He says the biggest failure is the failure of TARP to preserve home ownership. He goes on to say that the biggest nonfinancial cost of TARP is "too big to fail." And he warns that the there will be another bubble because of all the money that is going into the housing, commodities and other markets. The next blow he says could be much more signifcant for the U.S. economy. Is Fed chairman Bernanke listening?

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Speaking at the Davos forum, economist Nouriel Roubini, who correctly predicted the global economic crisis, says this recovery is likely to peter out by the end of of 2009 with a long period of "sub-par gowth" ahead. His optimism for the emerging market economies is tempered by what he sees as an "asset price bubble" developing in China, Russia's aging population and political obstacles to structural overhauls in Brazil and India. In the U.S. and Europe other economists also generally agreed that the recovery will be "U-shaped" or "W-shaped" implying this recovery in late 2009 will not last beyond 2010.

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Fabrice Tourre joined Goldman Sachs in 2001 right out of Stanford University. He worked in the mortgage securitization trading operation. Emails written by him are helping the SEC investigate whether Goldman knew but did not share with investors the way in which hedge fund John Paulson & Co. helped select the underlying mortgage backed assets he was going to bet against. One former SEC lawyer says, the SEC may be hoping that Fabrice Tourre, the 27 year old Frenchman who joined Goldman right out of Stanford University, would be easier to put pressure on to reveal what he knows and other fradulent transactions.

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South Korea's Posco received environmental clearance in January 2011 for a steel plant with a capacity of 4 million metric tons a year. Posco has now been given permission to clear forest land for the $12 billion plant and infrastructure. The plant capacity will later be increased to 12 million tons a year. Indian law does not allow forest land to be cleared if villages have claims to the land. Projects by Arcelor Mittal and Posco have been held up for five years because of hurdles in getting environmental clearance and permission to clear forest land.

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Following the record fundraising by U.S. president Obama in the 2012 presidential election, outspending Romney at a critical point in the campaigning in Ohio, Republicans and right wing groups are making their own effort to raise fundraising levels. The spending goals set by David and Charles Koch at the winter retreat in Palm Springs is $889 million to be raised from Koch and 300 other donors. Hillary Clinton's Super PAC plans to raise $300 million. The Republican total spending in the 2012 presidential election was $657 million. Koch's 2012 organized donor effort spent $400 million for the 2012 elections.

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Donald Trump in the week before the Republican caucuses in Iowa. Trump says he will be the winner in Iowa. He is introduced at an event in Pella, Iowa, by Senator Chuck Grassley, who has not formally endorsed Trump. He stays at an Holiday Inn Express in Sioux Center, Iowa, and attends church sunday service at Muscatine, Iowa.

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India's largest oil refiner, state owned Indian Oil, had a loss of $4 billion in the June 2012 quarter. Analysts say prices have to go up by 26% for sales to be profitable. The government mandates fuel prices at below market rates. Below market prices for diesel are estimated to cause 60% of the loss at refiners.

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Is G.M. pushing too early for an I.P.O. offering in the fourth quarter. Would a year or more of good results improve the chances of making an I.P. O. on attractive terms. By then the proceeds could be used to invest in growth, fund healthcare and pension liabilities, instead of just offering an exit for the government.

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The WSJ's Susan Carey's interview with Doug Parker, the CEO of US Airways, on the difficult days before the merger with American Airlines was approved by the U.S. Justice Department. In the days prior to this, Parker says he had a big job to do to convince skeptical managers at both airlines that the deal would go through.

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Mitsubishi's investment in Morgan Stanley of $9 billion for a stake of 24.9% in the firm may be the only thing standing between it and a rescue by the government through direct injection of capital or merger with another bank in the environmet of fear on Wall Street. Its shares sank 26% on October 9, 2008.

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The risks to the Romney campaign in the U.S. Republican primaries after his work at Bain Capital comes under scrutiny. In the 1994 Senate election in Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy defeated Romney by focussing on the loss of jobs at companies acquired by Bain Capital. Kennedy's television advertising showed employees at Ampad who lost their jobs after a takeover by Bain Capital. A study by Stephen Davis of the University of Chicago, John Haltiwinger of the University of Maryland, Jos Lerner of Harvard, Ron Jarmin and John Miranda of the Census Bureau; looks at 3,200 buyouts between 1982 and 2005. It shows private equity firms shrinking the number of employees by about 6% more than other firms in the first 5 years. It also shows the firms largely offsetting the job losses through the firms that succeed and are expanded with new employees. This study does not look at a longer time frame. A recent examination of buyouts by Bain Capital over an eight year period by the Wall Street Journal gives a better picture because some of the firms went into bankruptcy during the 8-10 year time frame. Many of the jobs added are in the retail sector with lower wage levels- at Sports Authority, Staples, Toys R' Us, and Michael's for Bain Capital. ...

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Nestle's chairman is interviewed by the Journal's Brian Carney. He has some very interesting and important things that to say about water, biofuels, and food prices.

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This WSJ editorial says opposition to the military rule and suppression of liberties in Egypt will only grow as the Egyptian military government of Gen. Sissi cracks down on the secular liberal opposition. Meanwhile all sorts of xenophobic theories about the western influences are growing in Egypt similiar to the period under Mubarak. The editorial points out that the Muslim Brotherhood should have been voted out of office not pushed out by the military taking over in a repeat of previous decades of military rule.

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Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, says at the World Economic Forum in Davos, on Jan. 26, 2016- "If prices continue to be low, we will be able to withstand it for a long, long time." With $630 billion in foreign currency reserves the Saudis are following a long term policy of full production. Gasoline subsidies are being reduced, IPO of Saudi Aramco being discussed to raise additional capital, and other steps being taken to plan for long term oil prices. Flexibility for a change in policy is diminished with the addition of Iranian oil production to supplies following the lifting of sanctions. The events in 2015-2016 of Russian bombing campaign in Syria, and the cutoff of diplomatic relations with Iran, have worsened the standoff with Iran and Russia in the Middle East conflict. As a result it appears that the Saudis are settling down for a long term policy of full production which would keep oil prices low for the long term. India, Japan, China, the U.S. and the European Union, Turkey and other countries benefit from low oil prices when their economies need a boost in 2016-2017....

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Dow Chemical CEO, Anthony Liveris, is co-chair of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, an effort to bring together federal government, industry, universities and other groups to invest in new technologies that would generate good-quality jobs and increase U.S. competitiveness. He writes this letter in the Wall Street Journal to correct two misperceptions. The first, is that government has no significant role in nurturing an environment that is good for business and manufacturing industry. Because other countries, including China, are now operating like companies, it is important not to let the U.S. be in a disadvantageous position. Government has always been involved in its writing of tax and incentive policies, regulations, trade agreements, and creating a climate of certainty. The second, is that the loss of manufacturing capacity and job losses in the last 10 years are different from the job losses in the 1980's. These are not the low tech and less efficient manufacturing job losses of the 1980's, but job losses as a result of moving advanced manufacturing capacity and research and development centers to outside of the U.S. Of the 8 million jobs lost in the last recession, he says two million manufacturing jobs of higher pay and supporting employment in other sectors were lost. His point: its time to focus on expanding manufacturing in the U.S. because manufacturing is the sector with the highest multiplier effect on other sectors. Public-private partnerships are critical to this effort for increasing technology development and increasing investment. This view is supported by other experts....

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Peter Coy call for debt forgiveness- writedowns of debt for debt burdened European countries that have no chance of ever repaying the debt, and writedowns of mortgage loans to homeowners in the U.S. who are under water. The alternative is to trap the productive capabilities of the countries as they struggle over many years to pay down the debt, even as the economy is contracting. This would drag on for many years, and is bad for the U.S. and bad for Europe. By taking the writedowns now, and making the arrangements to make this possible for banks and other lenders, the economies of the different countries can resume growth much sooner and leave these problems behind.