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The Chinese market for medical care is growing. China will spend $125 billion on a three year plan to boost medical care. This means funding 31,000 new hospitals by 2012. Medical equipment market is estimated to grow at 13.5% a year to $15.5 billion in 2012, according to Philips Electronics. And Credit Suisse sees the pharma market up from $44 billion in 2008 to $110 billion in 2015. GE is designing inexpensive imaging equipment for fast growing rural markets, with cost at 10% of urban markets.

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For years the WSJ opinion editorials pointed out weaknesses in Fannie Mae and Fredddie Mac, and the possibility that the Government may have to bail out these companies because of their aggressive expansion and lack of adequate supervision oversight by the government or supervisory financial authorites. This time may have arrived as the 2 companies are the only ones left actively dominating the mortgage market, handling 80% of all mortgages bought by investors in the 1st quarter this year just as Wall Street retreated. This 80% is more than double their share of the market in 2006. But their combined cushion is $83 billion, capital required by regulators. And this supports a huge $ 5 trillion in debt and other financial committments. They suffered $9 billion in losses in 2006, and they are sitting on $19 billion in additional losses which have not beeen acknowledged according to analysts. These companies operate under an imbalanced arrangement where the ownership is by investors but the guarantees are from the government and the supervisory oversight is incomplete, with Congress not having authority over them. The regulators not having the authority or the charter to conduct adequate surveillance and supervision, and controls. The companies raised $13 billion from investors last year and regulatory filings show that they have $7 billion above required minimums for a safety net. But like many things in the financial system today these minimums set in another time and place may be entirely unsuited to the risks they are taking, and their is no effective supervision or controls in place. This is exactly what lays the situation ripe for a financial crisis if foreclosures throughout the country create huge losses for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that this safety net is just both unsuited and never designed to handle for the situation today. And it takes too long for a lame duck administration or Congress without effective leadership in an election year to correct the regulatory errors in the Fannie Mae Freddie Mae situation- the lack of effective controls, regulation, and the lack of clear powers and authority of a financial supervisory authority over them....

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Sales of new vehicles are in even steeper decline in Japan than in Germany. Germany saw a boost with reunification with East Germany. Eastern Europe is next door for sales and manufacturing. Sales declined 7.6% in 2007 over 2006 to reach 3.406 million vehicles, the lowest level since 1972. With 9 new models Toyota's sales declined by 6% in 2007. Something is happening in the developed country markets that shows the markets there are declining relative to the new markets in Asia and other emerging markets. How automakers fare in the future and which survive and grow will depend on how they prepare and execute strategies for these markets focussing on new design, efficient manufacturing and new technologies These markets will bring a different set of customers looking for improvements.

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Why the BBC would in 2023 bring back events from 2002 is mind boggling and shows its lack of respect for India's institutions and a colonial mindset, including a lack of respect for India's Supreme Court, says Shashi Vempati. Coming at a time when India is working hard under Sab ka Sath, Sab ka Vikas, everyone's support for everyone's development, and is catching up to the western nations in technology and scientific progress, investments in modern infrastructure, the BBC falls into a colonial era trap of underestimating the potential of the Indian people for advancement in the modern world.

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The Labor Dept. shows U.S. job vacancy rate of 2.6% and 3.5 million job openings at the end of Feb. 2012. This was an increase from three million in the prior year. The job vacancy rate shows job openings as a percentage of total U.S. jobs. The large and increasing number of job vacancies suggest that there is a mismatch of skills that will take a long time to be corrected and a slower decline in the unemployment rate.

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How is it that GM would predict sales close to 16 million when no one else sees that happening. Is it just optimistic, even in the face of last years forecast which also stumbled badly with no improvement in the second half as expected. Instead GM closes the year 2007 with sales down 6% over 2006. And much worse numbers for Ford which saw 12% decline, and Chrysler a 3% decline. Chrysler continues to sell to rental fleets. Toyota's and Honda's sales grew by 3.1 and 2.8% respectively. But this year 2008 Toyota doesn't expect to do well with only a 1% increase. Nissan and Hyundai are in the same straits as the Big Three American makers in inventory of cars and sell to rental car fleets. In terms of inventory per point of market share Nissan has excess production capacity and more cars as inventory, about 39,000 per point of Nissan's market share similar to the Big Three. Toyota and Honda have 28,000 per point of their market share.

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Sir Fred Goodwin left RBS with a 693,000 British pounds annual that was arranged in the contract. At the end of 2007 Sir Fred was owed 597,000 British pounds, but when he was forced out in October 2008, Sir Fred 50 years old, was given credit for 10 years more work, increasing the payout to 693,000 British pounds a year. With the highest annual loss in British history of 24 billion pounds reported by RBS for 2008, the government is asking Sir Fred to take areduced pension. This has resulted in a nasty exchange with Sir Fred who has refused, and the British public and the people of Edinburgh especially are furious. "There is asense of fury that the government seems impotent, unable to act when the man chiefly responsible for the bank's collapse is able to walk away with apension that others can only dream of- and at the ripe olfd age of 50!" said David Pickering, aspokesman for the Edinburgh Association of Community Councils. "And what is worse that we, the British taxpayers are actually paying for it."...

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Three BP managers are indicted, two on manslughter charges, in the U.S. Justice Department $4.5 billion settlement with BP on the Gulf Oil Spill. Attorney General Eric Holder called their conduct "reckless and wanton," and described this as a clear message to people who engage in this kind of behaviour.

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Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will provide $250 million to New York Times in return for warrants that can be converted into 15.9 million common shares at a strike price of $6.36, close to where the price was last week. The notes carry a interest rate of 14% and are due in 2015. The Sulzbergers control 19% of the company's equity and control the company through super-voting shares. If Slim exercizes the warrants he would control 18% of the company's equity. Times faces a liquidity crisis and the $250 million may not be enough for it to survive as an independent company. The New York Times borrowed heavily in the boom years and it had $1.1 billion of debt at the end of September 2008, and only $46 million in cash. Much of that debt is coming due in the next couple of years. It has a $400 million credit facility that expires in May 2009, $250 million in notes due in 2010, and a $400 million credit facility expiring in 2011. Its stock has fallen 50% already and its debt is rated "junk" by S&P....

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This report in the WSJ gives an inside look at recent events in Venezuela. Venezuela's Opposition was fractured without a common strategy to deal with Mr. Maduro for the last 3 years, until Jose Guiado and a small group called Popular Will decided to take action. On Jan 23, 2019 very few opposition leaders knew that the leader of the National Assembly, Jose Guiado, would declare himself president in front of a crowd of 100,000. Venezuela is enduring horrendous inflation of over 1 million percent for the year. After 3 years of setbacks a small group of opposition leaders decided to take action seeing the National Assembly as reflecting democratic voice in the country. In December leaders discussed strategy and a breakthrough came on Jan. 4th when the Lima Group of 14 Latin American countries and Canada called on Mr. Maduro to hand over power to the National Assembly. Most countries have not accepted the results of the recent election of Mr. Maduro. As recently as Jan. 22 even Mr Guiado was not convinced. It was only after Mr. Mike Pence the U.S. VIce President called to express support that he came around. ...

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The election strategies of the ruling Congress party and the opposition BJP party in India for the 2014 general elections.

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The defeat of Eric Cantor in a Republican primary in 2014, by David Brat, a professor of economics at Randolph-Macon College of Ashland, Virgina. Brat did this with just $200,000 and the support of local talk show person Laura Ingraham, compared to $5.4 million raised by Cantor. Brat did this without national Tea party support, depending more on local activism in a conservative district, and the sentiment locally for Anybody but Cantor (ABC). This shows how quickly sentiment on the ground can change, as Cantor had previously won primaries with much as 79% of the vote in an area stretching from Richmond to the Washington suburbs.

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The relationship from college years at Amherst College in the U.S. of Greek political leaders Antonis Samaras and George Papandreou. The efforts to setup a national unity government that failed. The increasing support for the opposition New Democracy Party led by Samaras- with 16% unemployment- and the prospect of new elections. Samaras supports spending cuts. He also favors tax cuts, and a flat tax rate of 15% on business. Greece has a long history of tax evasion and distrust of central authority going back to centuries of Turkish rule. Samaras believes that the lower tax rate of 15% would help change the Greek cultural trait of evading taxes becaue it would be on the honor of people to pay such a basic tax. EU leaders are skeptical that lower taxes are the right policy to reduce the deficit. This adds to the political uncertainty as the new government would have to implement the measures agreed to between the current Greek government and the EU leaders. A similiar situation existed in Portugal but the recent elections there, participation of the opposition party in talks, and the newly elected government conducting its own negotiations, has removed that element of uncertainty which exists in Greece. ...

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The "Greenspan put" and rethinkingaction to dampen bubbles in the economy.

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Greece is estimated to lose $30 billion in uncollected taxes each year. In an effort to make the wealthy pay their fair share in deficit reduction and austerity measures the Greek government is going after tax havens in London of Greeks shifting money abroad. This includes important members of parliament including the president of the Greek parliament.

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What oil analysts would like to know about the Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia is can it deliver. This is the Saudis big effort to sustain and increase oil production as other fields are aging and declining. The Saudis would like to see it add 1.2 million barrels a day to its current production of 11 million barrels a day. no date is set for when this oil field will come on stream and how much of the 1.2 million barrels a day will become reality. The Khurais field has been sitting there for many years while the Saudis tapped the Ghawar field just 60 miles away because of the complexity of the Ghawar field which situated deep within the rocky layers of the earth and dunes. Its been described as a hard sponge compared to the wet sponge that Ghawar is. The natural pressure is not enough to bring the oil up so natural gas or filtered salt water would have to be used. As natural gas is needed for soaring power generation needs filtered salt water will be brought from over 120 miles away from the Persian Gulf through pipes to Khurais and more than 100 injection wells have to be drilled so that 2.3 million barrels a day can be pumped down in a manner that would push the oil up but not kill an oil wellby going through a rocky fissure. All this has to understood through geologic mapping of 2700 square miles down to the microdetail for an area the size of Connecticut so that nothing goes wrong. 2.8 million 3-dimensional images of underground strata to trace any fractures in the rock that might cause trouble and building of models to simulate how the oil field may respond to water injection. The production would have to be monitored from Dhawan where the central monitoring facilites are for Aramco. Aramco the Saudi Oil company brought in for oil field services Foster Wheeler as project manager, Halliburton for drilling wells, Eni SpA's Saipem unit for water injection work, in the plan developed in 2005 with estimated cost of $6 billion. Halliburton is drilling more than 300 wells that go over a mile deep and then branch out horizontally, and 125 water injection wells. Nansen Saleri who heade reservoir management for Aramco and headed the Khurais revitalization effort is now running his own firm in Houston. He described it - the trick is to understand Khurais down to the smallest detail. This is a picture of the complexity and the resulting uncertainties of Khurais. A former head of Aramco oil exploration Mr. Husseini who retired 5 years ago says its quite possible that Aramco may achieve its target of 1.2 million barrels a day but isn't sure that production can be sustained at this level and what it might cost. Khuransiyah project was expected to generate half million barrels a day by 2007 en but is a year off schedule and many projects are running late from a shortage of steel and manpower. It used to cost $4000 to add one barrel of capacity through the 1990's now its estimated by experts to cost closer to $16,000 for a barrel added. So when will Khurais come on stream? And will the even more difficult Manifa field in the Persian Gulf come onstream? Its not certain. meantime oil reached 119 dollars a barrel. But analysts will be sure to watch this one and the new fields in Brazilian offshore waters to bring prices down just as conservation kicks in and global demand slips a bit from the super heated growth of the last few years especially from Asia. ...

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Glenn Hubbard, says Bowles and Simpson, have provided the framework for solutions to the US deficit. He says the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction and other actions such as elimination or reduction of deductions for charitable giving and employer provided healthcare subsidies, actually help reduce the marginal tax rates. Bowles-Simpson report, he says, correctly identified the problem that you need higher offsetting marginal tax rates because of these kinds of deductions to raise offsetting revenue. The two chairmen want to see government reduce marginal tax rates to a range of 8 to 23%, as opposed to 10% and 35% now, and this is a positive development. These kinds of deductions favor upper income households more than other households. He sees the co-chairmen's proposal to cut the tax rate for corporate income tax to 26% from 35%, as being a wise move, as it should not require much offsetting revenue, because OECD research has shown this to be the revenue maximizing rate. He concedes that liberals would have difficulty with the report, because the proposal accepts that maintaining a broad welfare state is inconsistent with the need to balance the country's finances through economic growth and social insurance. Yet he sees the limits on tax deduction and cutbacks in the entitlement's benefits for upper income households, as giving Bowles-Simpson proposals a progressive character....

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The insurgency remains strong in Mosul, a city dominated by Turkmen Sunnis.

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DJT takes action on Venezuela for not taking action fast enough to accept deportees from the eight million that left the Latin American country over the last 10 years because of mismanaging the economy, runaway inflation and repression of dissent. He also cited that free and fair elections were not honored by the regime of president Maduro who followed after the death of Hugo Chavez in March 2013.

The US immigration problem comes largely from the Venezuela problem. What happened there hurt the US with the flow of millions of migrants across the border from Venezuela and gangs other elements entering the US. 

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The SEC is conducting an investigation of the rumors that on three separate occasions led to drop in Lehman's share price of 10-21% in one day. This happened also to Bear Stearns and the SEC is cracking down on this practice by short sellers who hope to profit from their actions by driving down the price of Lehman's shares. This should also help to calm the financial markets and hold those responsible as it can have a serious negative impact on the markets.

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The calm and quiet experienced in gardens during coronavirus and lockdowns is one of the positive aspects of this period.