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Sinn Fein is very different today from what it was decades earlier as the political wing of the Irish Republican party. When Ireland became independent Britain retained a third of the country as part of the UK as Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein's goal was to reunify the country.  It is popular today along the border and in regions struggling with poverty, including rural areas. As a left of centre party it is unique in Europe as both the main parties are right of center. Housing is an issue for Sinn Fein because it is the first to call for government to play a role in building new housing to tackle a severe housing shortage. With social policies that include government involvement to support social programs, Sinn Fein is likely to be the largest party winning 25% of the votes, with Fiana Fail the current party getting 24%,  and Fine Gael 20%. Yet rival parties are not likely to form a coalition with Sinn Fein. It also shows how much has changed when Irish reunification is now on the agenda with a referendum in 5 years proposed by Sinn Fein, as an accepted feature of the political landscape with Britain leaving the European Union. Under Mary Lou Macdonald who is from Dublin, replacing Gerry Adams, the image of the party is very different today, compared to the violence tinged past of the links to the Irish Republican Army. Most supporters today have few memories of that period, growing up in the period after peace was established in Ireland between different factions.  The exit of Britain from the European Union has provided momentum to the idea of reunification of Ireland from all sides for the first time. The links to the EU are popular in all parts of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The links to the economic crisis of 2009 and free markets have tainted the record of Fiana Fail, long the dominant party.  In Northern Ireland Mr. McGuiness is succeeded by Michelle O'Neill, who was just 21 when the peace deal was signed. In Ireland Mary Lou McDonald entered politics after the peace deal and has a Dublin accent.  The new generation looks at the EU as a natural partner, distancing itself from England. It also thinks and acts differently than Sinn Fein of the past. In just the way Scottish independence has found its way as an accepted idea in Scotland, Irish unification is seen as a positive idea with its association with the European Union, ...

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Jean Claude Trichet is one of the last leaders from a generation that helped create the euro currency union and a pathway to closer union of European nations. For four decades he has worked at the upper echelons of European economic policy making. In accepting the Charlemagne prize he stayed true to his idea for closer integration in the European Union. He said- "Confronting the challenges of the future requires strengthening the institutions of economic union." He would like to see a finance ministry for the EU, saying that "in this union of tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, would it be too bold...to envisage a ministry of finance of the Union?" Such a ministry would exercize oversight over European nations economic policies and exercize veto power over national budgets. In the current crisis in Greece such a ministry could take actions and make decisions applicable to Greece. Trichet's remarks were delivered in Aachen, Germany. At the very same time finance ministry officials from 24 European countries were meeting in Vienna to come up with a solution to the Greece debt crisis. A main stumbling block is disagreement between Germany and others including the ECB, about how to make private-sector creditors share the burden of helping Greece avoid a default. Trichet and the European central bank and other central bankers have rejected Germany's insistence of an extension on the maturities of Greece's bonds, because they fear this would be perceived as a default by financial markets.This in turn would lead to contagion effects spreading to Spain and Italy, and a Europe wide crisis. In direct exchanges between Trichet and French president Sarkozy, Sarkozy has told Trichet he represents the bankers views whereas Sarkozy and Merkel have to take public opinion into account. In fact in past resolutions of financial crises in Latin America this type of extension of maturities for bonds has been applied, as for instance in the Brady Bonds and negotiated settlement arranged by the U.S. for banks, and Latin American and some Asian governments. Search term "brady" and see Landon Thomas's piece Nov. 30, 2010, in the NYT. This becomes necessary when countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal are unlikely to ever be able to repay the debt without a renegotiation of the original debt agreemments, spreading the debt over longer maturities, and private creditors taking some losses. By shifting the entire burden on austerity and spending cuts the current agreements leave the EU lurching from crisis to crisis as the underlying situation remains unresolved. It is here that Trichet's laudable vision of European unity runs aground because of the failure to build bridges between the outlook of the financial community and the public opinion of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other countries. The governments of creditor countries such as Germany seek a renegotiation for a restructuring of debt. The governments of Greece, Ireland and Portugal understand that severe austerity cuts alone with declining growth can never resolve the situation, and would welcome a restructuring especially because the cuts are deeply unpopular. The renegotiation has to be conducted with the full faith and credibility of the European governments, ECB and the support of the U.S. government, so that financial markets are given a certain reassurance that the situation will be managed to a successful conclusion, and not lead to contagion effects on Spain and Italy. When asked about this Nicholas Brady recently said this required "a unified decision." This would include money set aside for recapitalization of European banks that are affected by such a restructuring. In such a restructuring the German government and other European governments would still come up with taxpayer money for the resolution, yet the shared cost by all parties would create a fair and workable financial arrangement that has the potential for successful resolution to the sovereign debt crisis. This disconnect between the political leaders and the bankers is why observers say the Europeans have not been able to wrap their arms around this problem. ...

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Punjab National Bank has seen fradulaent transactions for $2 billion in 2018 by 2 jewelers, a power and steel company defrauding it of $550 million in 2019, and now bad loans defrauding it of $491 to a housing lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Dewan Finance is in insolvency resolution under the RBI, the central bank of India.  To clean up this banking sector mess, a result of bad loans by banks after the 2008 financial crisis, the RBI has taken some serious steps. One of the steps in 2017 was to order major banks to resolve bad debts or refer the debts to bankruptcy courts. RBI took over Yes Bank , and the largest state bank the State Bank of India organized a consortium of banks to invest $1.35 billion to support Yes Bank. In other action the government has merged smaller lenders and banks with larger banks. Much of the bad lending is a result of bad lending practices without due diligence taken, poor management, and bad administration from an earlier period. The lack of strong banking sector is holding back India's growth and GDP growth as there is less to lend for infrastructure or industrial projects. The result is growth that has fallen below 6% in recent years, and the Modi government sees this as an obstacle to rapid growth of the economy under its Atmanirbhar Bharat plan for a self-reliant economy. ...

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Barboza and Daniel provide a detailed account of the ownership circle of Jack Ma at Alibaba and its affiliated companies, with connections to different individuals in China's business circles.

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The unnerving and distracting effect of a long IPO process and investor demands on two co-founders of Box Inc., as competiton and market perceptions change for a once promising tech startup in cloud computing.

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Bill Gates describes the successful work of 2 million volunteers and millions of children and parents in India's poorest rural areas to get all the children in India vaccinated for polio. This includes the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. He decribes his visits to India and realizing over time how bringing vaccinations, healthcare, improvement in agricultural development would enable hundreds of millions of India's children to participate and contribute to bringing out India's full potential. Harnessing their full potential is the next big challenge in India's development and modernization.

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The credit markets continued their recovery, shrugging off the negative news from Chrysler's bankruptcy.

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Places like Rapid City, South Dakota, and Topeka, Kansas, where people are choosing to live because of the affordability of homes. Average 30 year mortgage jumped from 3.1% at the end of 2021 to 5.0% by April 2022. High housing prices in coastal and mountain region cities and remote work flexibility are reordering where people choose to live. Rapid City, South Dakota is near the Wyoming border, here you are in what was once the Wild West of Teddy Roosevelt, a western wilderness found in an 8 hour drive to Grand Teton National Park. Nearby to this 145,000 population city are Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills mountain range.

Other cities that are getting attention from younger buyers are Santa Cruz, California, Santa Rosa, California. These are smaller towns of less than 600,000 population with outdoor recreation opportunities and small city feel, and are also attractive to retirees.

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Coronavirus cases on a daily basis exceed 70,000 in one day in Brazil with 26,000 in Sao Paulo alone. Brazil's cases now exceed 2.5 million, the worst hit after the U.S. followed by India. President Bolsonaro has failed to provide leadership in the pandemic, himself contracting the virus and not following social distancing, mask covering till recently.

President Macron of France gains in popularity with over 50% satisfied with his performance after his hard fought gains in getting the 390 billion euros nonrepayable common debt funds for the European Recovery Fund for hard hit pandemic countries. Macron was able to get the full support of Merkel of Germany to get this approved after Dutch premier Rutte's effort to stall the aid effort in weeks of long negotiations. It is a show of European solidarity and brings Europe together, giving much needed aid to Spain and Italy.

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Harold Meyerson looks into the causes of the decline of white working class Americans by 2015. A whole section of society that was helped by the work of FDR is being undone by a combination of forces, from the decline in working class wages and jobs through globalized business, social structures unravelling, and support structures weakening. Meyerson refers to the Deaton-Case Princeton study on increasing death rates for this group. The white working class is much smaller now than in 1940 when he says 82% of Americans over 25 had only an high school education, down to 29% in 2007. The result is that it has less power to affect policies, yet is close to one third of Americans. Economic recovery, the American dream, all remain hobbled without efforts to tackle this problem. Trump's effort to appeal to this class, Meyerson points out, is similiar to the National Front's effort in France, making the political dialogue even more divisive by targeting immigrants.

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The high risk of failure as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan in 2012-2013. The U.S. is handing over to an Afghan Army that faces a high desertion rate, high turnover, and uncertain loyalties. The turnover is so high that the Afghan Army has to replace a third of the 195,000 army every year. The problems from the corruption in the Karzai government, the flawed elections, and other issues have not been resolved, leaving a fragile government and a fragile army and police force as the U.S. withdraws. A decade of sacrifices in resources, lives and wounded, is at risk. A negotiated settlement in talks with the Taliban has not moved forward to create a post U.S. withdrawal Afghan government that brings in all parties. The untimely death of American diplomat Holbrooke who set up the accord that made peace in the Balkans, and the failure to get results at the talks only leaves the whole U.S. project at risk.

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This was one of the last reports written by Anthony Shadid, New York Times foreign correspondent, before his death in Syria. It covers the Islamist movement's shift to modernism and incorporating an outlook that includes ideas of liberal democracy from Britain, as seen from Tunisia. No longer is the main source of ideas coming from Egypt. A diverse group of thought is being developed in Arab and North Africa, and in places like London, where emigres from the Middle East during the years of repression gathered to discuss ideas for the future. Said Ferjani's as one of these emigres is one of sources of the new thinking and approaches of Islamist thought.

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Automobile advertising in the European Union. The European Parliament with a measure sponsored by Chris Davies a british member proposes to require car ads in European Union countries carry tobacco-style label warning of the environmental damage they can lead to. Under this plan 20% of the space or time of an ad has to be devoted to information on a car's fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. as a contributor to global climate change. The European Parliament cannot legislate but it can put pressure on the EU Commission which has lawmaking power. Europeans are taking the global warming issue and climate change as well as the environmental impact much more seriously than Asians and Americans. This has implications in how the gas guzzling vehicles are perceived by the European public. Will Europe be the trend setter in this area, for the Americans, as Americans are shying away from the bigger SUV's in showrooms? It remains to be seen.

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Analysis by Sentier Research of U.S. census data shows U.S. median household income declined from $54,983 in Jan. 2009 to $50,964 in June 2012, adjusted for inflation. This is $4019 in lost real income. The decline is 8% from $55,470 in 2000 before the burst of the dot come bubble. Some of this is because of trends of smaller family, lower fertility rates and more Americans living alone. But as a look at the figures in this research by Catherine Rampell of the NYT, 8/23/2012 shows, the losses in income affects all demographics, hit blacks and people with some education like a high school diploma but no degree the hardest, and also reflects the persistence of long tem unemployment which lowers income.

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Anti-immigrant sentiment in the city of Dresden,in the former East Germany. Sentiment is muted compared to places in the western part of Germany, because only 2% of the population in the east are foreigners. It is also muted in comparison to France, because of low unemployment.

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Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan, after her first year at the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan was appointed by President Obama in 2010. Kagan talked about her experience at the Supreme Court at an Aspen Institute event. Kagan replaced Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens says Kagan has voted very similiar to how he would have voted on most of the cases. And Justice Ginsberg says about Kagan: "she has already shown her talent as an incisive questioner at oral argument and a writer of eminently readable opinions." Kagan takes writing opinions for the Court very seriously. She described her style at the Aspen Institute event as figuring out how to communicate difficult ideas to people who know little about the subject. An additional aspect of Kagan's writing is that she strives to put things using vivid and colorful language that sticks with people. She has used expressions such as "loosey-goosey," for instance. In her dissent on the campaign finance case she described the supposedly smoking gun found by her colleagues, as: "the only smoking gun here is the majority's, and it is the kind that goes with mirrors." The media tends to compare Roberts with Kagan, the two youngest chief justices on the court, both articulate and vigorous in their opinions, with similiar intellectual backgrounds but taking different positions. Kagan says the most valuable experience to prepare for her new position, was the year she spent as Solicitor General, where she was trying to persuade nine chief justices of the court why they should take a particular position. The difference now being that she must persuade eight justices. The most striking aspect of the two appointments by George W. Bush and Obama, with the absence of a retirement age for the U.S. Supreme Court- as in other democracies such as India- is that both Roberts and Kagan may well be on the Court for 25 years or longer. ...