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A new EU law on transport biofuels would require that biofuels companies prove that their biofuel production and use reduces greenhouse emissions by at least 35% compared with production and use of traditional fossil fuel. That means rapeseed oil based biofuels pass with 37% emissions cut and corn based ethanol which only does 22% fails. No US corn based ethanol would be imported into the EU and it shows that in these policies the EU is way ahead of the USA. See the link to the Yale -Columbia survey rating countries record on greenhouse emissions and the environment where the EU is way ahead of the USA, and the USA lags way behind in many areas.

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Donald Trump proposes a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. until U.S. authorites have figured out what is happening following the San Bernardino terrorist attack. A poll by PPP polling firm cited in The Washington Post, shows 30% of Republicans thinking Islam should not be legal in the U.S. and 21% not sure, showing how Trump is appealing to white working class Americans and their fears. Experts say this is similiar to a movement in the 1850's which was anti-Catholic, except that at the time there was not the media attention and the presidential elections season running for a year, so that this was happening more at the local level.

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A conservative Catholic farmer becomes prime minister of New Zealand in 2016. Bill English grew up on his family's 125 year old farm, and says it was not about politics for politics sake in his family, but about education for their kids, farming and such things. He says it is very helpful for someone in public life to sit down and hear for an hour in mass about forgiveness, sinfulness, mercy, worship, and lives of people in a  thousand years, which are absent in daily discourse.

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Krugman points to the return to business asusual in the banking sector with bonuses and compensation. He also notes President Obama's reluctance to take afirm stand on this issue and back the Fed's efforts to cap bonuses, especially the remark by Obama that while banker's pay issues was raised nothing was said about Silicon valley and for sports sector pay.

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Light vehicle inventory for automobiles was up 12.7% above what is normal for September, according to auto analyst Ceraso at Credit Suisse. There is a pronounced upward trend since July 2010. Foreign brands fared worse with closer to 20% overstocked rate in September, 2010. Noticeably Ford which had been understocked throughout the year was overstocked above 5% in September and GM over 10%.

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Watson Pharmaceutical's acquisition of Swiss company Actavis in a 4.5 billion euros deal makes it the third largest generics manufacturer after Teva of Israel and Novartis AG's Sandoz unit. Actavis was owned by Icelandic billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson's private equity firm and was taken over by Deusche Bank when the Icelandic bank Landsbanki Islands collapsed in 2008, leading to restructuring of debt.

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Amr Darrag, member of the executive board of the Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt, was minister of planning and international cooperation in the elected government of president Morsi, which was overthrown by the Egyptian military after only one year in office. Here he points to the Egyptian military's effort to return Egypt to the days under Mubarak of repression and economic stagnation.

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Responding to a WSJ article that GM is considering cutting some of its brands, General Motor's sales chief Mark LaNeve sent a letter to dealers that the extent of the examination of the brands was limited to the process of engaging dealers in the process of improving the business, and examination was not meant to be for cutting some of the brands.

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The uncertainty for the Crossrail fast train line in London, after Brexit. The $20 billion infrastructure project was designed to improve transportation in London, and cut travel times in half. It is considered Europe's largest infrastructure project. Brexit has created uncertainty for this project.

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Haruhiko Kuroda, 68 years old, a senior finance ministry expert who ran the ministry's currency policy as vice finance minister for 4 years in the early 2000's, is prime minister Abe's nominee for central bank chief. He lectured at Hitoshibashi University for two years before becoming the head of the Asian Development Bank. His book "Success and Failure in Fiscal and Monetary Policy," is critical of the Bank of Japan for mistakes in being first too accomodative in monetary policy to set up the 1987 crash, and then tightening too quickly leading to the deflation and recessions of the last two decades. By choosing an expert with a long experience in the field of monetary policy and a vigorous advocate of getting things right to shake off the deflationary trends, Abe is sending a strong signal to financial markets. Kuroda says he is looking at a shorter time frame to achieve a 2% target for inflation- about two years. In essence Kuroda is taking a page from the policy book of a small group of MIT trained economists, Bernanke at the U.S. Federal Reserve, Draghi at the European Central Bank, and Mervyn King at the Bank of England to boost domestic economies in the context of increasing global growth. The yen weakened to 94.77 to the dollar on Feb 25, 2013, after the announcement. Abe's nominee for one of two deputy governor appointments is Kikuo Iwata, a 70 year old economist who was also critical of Bank of Japan monetary policy since the 1990's. The Abe administration has also carefully communicated this message. Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. Abe said Japan's goal was to increase exports, but at the same time it will increase imports which should benefit the U.S., China, India and other countries. He described a recovery in Middle America from the Dakotas to the Carolinas and sees something like this happening also in Japan. Even the appeals to nationalist sentiment are also coupled with the message to China and S. Korea of not climbing up the escalation ladder and seeking good relations to promote mutually beneficial development. Abe's focus is on building the U.S.- Japan relationship....

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U.S. president Trump set up a separate task force called the Great American Revival Industry Groups. He read each of the names out loud during his press conference on Monday, a list of about 200 industry leaders from all the main industry groups, many of whom he personally knows. The first meeting of this group met in a hour long call with about 35 participants.  Most of the leaders praised the strong action taken by the president. On the task of reopening the economy the participants told president Trump that current testing levels were inadequate for effectively reopening the economy.  This is the first of four calls the president plans to make and included leaders from banking, retail, hospitality,  and food industries. The tasks facing the task force are to provide advice on how to reopen the economy and how to respond to the economic damage.  The U.S. president decided to set up this task force after talking to his friends in the business world so that he could get the broadest possible range of advice and thinking. Dr. Fauci, the leading helth expert on the president's team along with Dr. Birx, said on April 14 that reopening would require testing and virus tracking that was efficient and reliable and that the U.S. was not there yet. U.S. has conducted about 3 million tests. Health experts say there should be millions of tests per day before people can return to work. ...

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U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was the negotiator who tackled Japan's huge trade surplus in the eighties under president Reagan. In 1985 he was the Deputy Trade Representative under Reagan. He negotiating a trade deal with China that includes U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. Here he tells the incoming Biden administration that the tariffs were a good idea in the American interest, and should remain in place till China reduces the huge trade surplus with the U.S. Lighthizer says "we want a China policy that thinks about the geopolitical competition between the United States and an adversary- an economic adversary." As this report says the cleavage with China has widened since then with the the virus that started in Wuhan, China, then spread to the U.S., killing more than 387,000 Americans and with 23 million people affected by the virus. Lighthizer has serious questions about the approach of the Biden team to seek consultations with allies in Europe and Asia. With his long experience  he is one of the very few who understand how things work. He says the U.S. started dialogues in the 90's. Nothing happened. "All of them were just a waste of time," says Lighthizer. Other countries could slow or veto U.S. actions. This is why the new incoming administration needs to show it has learned from history. In the trade negotiations with Japan the approach taken by Lighthizer worked. The U.S. can only not listen to his advice at its peril. ...

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For a long time CNN struggled with how it could avoid the peaks and valleys of viewer attention for its news programs- with a jump in viewers when a big news event happens and then a fall in viewers when not much is happening. Programs like Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown," have helped CNN tackle this problem. At first in 2012 and early 2013 when Bourdain's name came up in discussions at CNN for such a show, there was much disagreement about it, as some did not see the merits of bringing in someone who is not a journalist. By 2012 Bourdain had achieved prominence with his program on food "no Reservations," on Travel Channel. CNN's approach was to have a non-journalist take people around the world and tell stories about life and culture of the country and its people, in unique restaurant settings. By having a doumentary travel series CNN hoped to use the flexibility to delay a show if a news event broke out. Many viewers take tips on travel from the show. It has an enthusiastic following, thanks partly to Bourdain's style which is informal, relaxed, and jovial. Especially how he doesn't take himself seriously, and not thinking too much about Obama's guest appearance on the show at a small restaurant in Vietnam, where Bourdain picks up the tab of $6. That has won him over 800,000 viewers consistently from the 1st to the seventh season of the show. ...

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General Electric has become an example of how not to run a a business. Once  a leader in American business it is now a shadow of its former self, and withered in many of its markets, with a slumping share price. This report in the WSJ shows how the involvement in banking and capital markets was the first error at GE that hit the company's share price hard during the global recession of 2009. Other decisions and a hard driving culture led to more mistakes leading to the current situation. By 2008 GE Capital brought 38% of GE's revenue, for a company that was a leader in infrastructure a huge misstep, and the start of the decline. In terms of company culture and management a more thoughful management style, a willingness of management to have self-criticism and different views represented are better for companies. A hard driving culture can hurt companies over time- here the example Jack Welch CEO, and Jeff Bornstein as CFO are given for this hard driving culture. Renault-Nissan is a recent example of CEO running into issues with the company's culture and profile developed under a larger than life personality. There is a lot to be said in favor of a gentler disposition, a healthy lifestyle, and a thoughtful style, in the management ranks of companies at all levels which produce better results. This serves as a part of Lessons in Management and Culture. ...

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Total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms was a record $135 billion in 2010, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal. This is up 5.7% from the $128 billion in 2009 for the same firms. The 25 largest financial firms saw revenues increase to $417 billion. Things are going back to where they were before the financial crisis with total compensation and benefits now exceeding the levels in 2007. In 2010 deferred compensation made up half of the total pay compared to being one third of total pay in prior years.

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Manchester City lose 4-2 to PSG in Paris, France. Barcola, Neves and Ramos score for PSG. City were a shambles at the back says this Guardian report. Barcola was at his best.

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Biden commutes sentences of 1500 people put under house arrest during Covid 19 pandemic.

Biden says-

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,”

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Gerson describes Obama's failure to connect in 2012, compared to the 2008 campaign. What is left is more of the politician from the South Side of Chicago, the idealism of an earlier campaign is gone. What is left is a supposed ruthlessness that is opportunistic at every turn, says Gerson.

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It was a Labour government in 2005 that inroduced the rule that allowed a migrant who remained inthe UK for 5 years to be able to apply for leave to remain and to have path to citizenship. It is now 20 years since then and this has done  a great deal of damage in the UK as it faces divisions in society that affect the plans to improve lives of the people and invest in building infrastructure. European Commission of Humnan Rights also drafted these rights in wanton fashion not accepting the rights of any people in any nation to live in their own neighborhoods without what are called asylum hotels and migrants. Denmark had such laws before 2015. Denmark changed these laws, and the UK finally is set to change these laws that hurt growth and investment in Britain with unnecessary distraction from the task of building infrastructure and investing in public services from migrants illegally entering the country. Under the new rules in Denmark temporary residenc epermits are granted only for 1-2 years at a time, no permanent visas are granted. To gain permanent status one has to have full time job for several years and speak fluent Danish. Shabana Mahmood, the new UK head of the Home Ministry says-  “Denmark shows us how to be firm but fair: removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to their borders while providing refuge to those in genuine need. “That is why we will follow the Danish model to restore order and control to our borders.” Mahmood's position is supported by Green and Labour voters is shown More in Common polling. This is important for Labour to succeed. She says about illegal migrants and the strain on public services- “The levels of illegal migration are putting immense strain on our country, and our public services – creating division within communities across the country. “Illegal migration is undermining the contract between government and its citizens – eroding support for the asylum system entirely.” ...

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The Obama administration makes the decision on June 13, 2013, to supply arms to Syrian opposition forces to the Assad regime and enforce a limited no-fly zone inside Syria. The decision comes as forces of the Assad regime make gains over poorly armed opposition forces and threaten the Syrian opposition's base in the city of Aleppo.

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Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina retires. A much loved player he was always gracious. He won the 2009 US Open final with a win over Federer and was runner up to Djokovic in the 2018 US Open final. After wrist injuries and surgeries he had to retire from tennis and is missed in the tennis circuit. In a period of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic dominating world tennis Del Potro had to make a lot of effort to compete and he did this with grace and style of play, adored by the fans.