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Former president Lula da Silva of Brazil is sentenced to 10 years in prison on corruption charges. The charges are that Mr da Silva and his wife were illegally given about $1.1 million in improvements from a construction company for a beachfront apartment. The construction company was able to get lucrative contracts from the state oil company Petrobras. Many of Brazil's politicians are under investigation. The former speaker of the Brazil parliament, Eduardo Cunha, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for money laundering and corruption. The current president Mr. Temer is also under investigation. A culture where such activity was accepted had developed, and this effort started with a small investigation called "Operation Car Wash" in a smaller Brazilian city named Curitiba. Young lawyers determined to set a higher standard and fight Brazil corruption pursued the case that led upto the higher echelons of Brazilian government, the construction industry, and the state oil company Petrobras. ...

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Proposed ideas being considered at the EU headquarters in Brussels include the European bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), being made a bank with funding from the European Central Bank. The EFSF would be able to buy the bonds of Spain and Italy in primary and secondary markets alongside private buyers. As an alternative the ECB would be able to buy Spanish and Italian bonds directly. Here the problem is keeping private investors in the market given the large financial needs of Spain and Italy. In the restructuring of Greece's government bonds the ECB took the position that it would subordinate the claims of private investors in Greece's government bonds and not take loss. Concerns of private investors could be addressed by the eurozone governments giving an explicit indemnity to the ECB to cover any losses suffered in the purchase of Spanish and Italian bonds. Both steps, the direct purchase of Spain's and Italy's bonds by the ECB or through the EFSF would mean doing something that is not in the ECB's charter- the financing of government debt- and would be done cautiously and only in a crisis situation. The caution would also be motivated by the need to ensure there is action to improve the competitiveness of Spain, Italy and other eurozone countries through specific measures, and no backtracking bygovernments....

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The Fed's purchase of government bonds was supposed to drive down long term rates. But rates were up six weeks after the Fed's November 3, 2010 decision. So far the effect has not been what the Fed envisaged and the impact on the economy modest.

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Sweden's currency, the kroner, appreciated by about 4% in March 2015. The central bank responded by lowering rates further from minus 0.10 to minus 0.25%, and added to earlier announced 10 billion kroner purchase of government bonds with an addition of 30 billion kroner.

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AMD plans a six processor chip for the second half of 2009. And introduce six and 12 processor chips in the first half of 2010 in a more fundamental makeover of its chip design according to Randy Allen, the General Manager of its server division.

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Epic Systems of Verona, Wisconsin, is one of the companies engaged in digitizing health records. It has helped develop records for 40 million patients in hospital systems such as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Kaiser Permanente, the Cleveland Clinic, and John Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore and the Weill Cornell Physicians Organization of New York. Epic provides the software, the IT systems, the training and support. Epic is one of the pioneers in this, having been in the business for 30 years. About 40% of primary care doctors in the U.S. and 25% of hospitals use electronic patient records. The Federal government has provided $2.7 billion in funding from $27 billion of Stimulus funds assigned for the purpose of conversion to electronic medical records. This is likely to speed up the conversion. Other providers are Cerner, Allscripts, Meditech, Siemens Healthcare, G.E. Healthcare, and IBM. Epic Systems is considered the defacto standard in the industry for medical schools and some of the major hospital systems in the country. New contracts are leading to a major expansion of Epic Systems which employs 5100 people. Epic plans to hire an additional 1000 people. Revenue for the privately owned company are estimated at $1.2 billion, a 45% increase over the prior year. Epic is expected to have 127 million patients under medical records by mid 2013. To get the feedback essential for such a large conversion, CEO Faulkner relies on feedback from 250,000 doctors who use the Epic systems software, and on nurses and doctors from Epic who visit customer's sites to see first hand how it works and what needs improvement. Judith Faulkner started Epic more than 30 years ago. A project for the Psychiatry department led to other projects after she graduated in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. Epic continues to attract programmers to Wisconsin by making the Epic campus a fun environment and a great place to work. ...

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Five rules the editors of the WSJ say should be followed when working on cleaning up the banking system. A clear no, as Krugman and other experts point out is for the government to make the rather imprudent move to take on all the debts of the banks as in Ireland. A second rule is not to underestimate the size of the problem and delay action till the problem gets much worse, when its harder to deal with. ECB president, Mario Draghi, pointed out the problem at Spain's handling of Bankia bank as a clear example, telling the European parliament recently: "There is a first assessment, then a second, a third, a fourth. This is the worst possible wayof doing things. Everyone ends up doing the right thing, but at the highest cost." A third rule is to set clear rules about banks, who gets rescued and who gets closed and why- so that its not left upto the discretion of officials. On this rule Spain's outgoing Zapatero administration gets good marks from WSJ for settting clear rules to the cajas svings banks. A fourth rule applicable to Europe is to first setup the expertise and conditions for a European banking regulator before setting up a banking union and direct injection of funds by the EFSF into banks of individual countries. A fifth rule is to avoid creating even larger mega banks by consolidating failing banks with large banks, and continuing the government's implicit guarantee of the bank because it is "too big to fail" and creates systemic risk- this is the situation after action by the U.S. Federal Reserve, regulators and the U.S. Treasury....

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Former German chancellor Angela Merkel and foreign minister Steinmeier are singled out for their policies that likely emboldened Russia into its invasion of Ukraine. The DW.com says Merkel's tenure now shows deep seated flaws in leadership with her policies with Russia having gone too far in the other direction and leaving Europe in a vulnerable position. Merkel saw herself as continuing old policies from the period of SPD chancellor Willy Brandt of engaging with Russia, then called the Soviet Union. Yet looking at it closely the policy of Brandt was to reach accomodation with the eastern half of Germany, called the GDR, not to weaken Germany's position. By distancing herself from the US Merkel was in sense out on her own. Consider says DW.com that in 2014 Germany imported 36% of its gas from Moscow, by 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine it was 55%. The SPD under Gerhard Schroeder and Steinmeier following Schroeder share responsibility with Merkel for this dependence.    A similar integration of the German economy with China's economy happened under the 4 term administration of Angela Merkel. This can be seen in the port of Hamburg. This may have similarly emboldened China in its relations with neighbors in the Indo-Pacific region and with Taiwan. German chancellor Scholz is by one report reading Cambridge historian Brendan Simms- "Europe The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present." This historical account of the relations of major European states in the 5 centuries before the present period shows the Balance of Power as critical to the liberty and freedom that Britain and Netherlands as well as other countries were able to keep. Sweden was attacked in 1700 with sign of weakness, Britain faced challenges from France in 1700 and in 1800, and allied with the Hapsburgs and German states to maintain its democracy and way of life. Merkel of CSU and Steinmeier of SPD may have failed to realize this when they ignored the history of Europe. The WSJ report on the miscalculations on the German and French side with Sarkozy, Hollande and Macron show that all these leaders failed to grasp that by leaving the issue unsettled of Ukraine's NATO admission they had created the situation that was bad for both Russia and for Ukraine, creating seeds for serious differences that could lead to future conflict and war. By not respecting and giving room to the lessons of history these leaders in Western Europe have created the conditions for the very opposite of what they intended to do.  ...

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Summer tourism is helping support a second wave of the pandemic. This report says Croatia is a case study on how the opening of tourism can trigger a second wave. Because Croatia depends on tourism and Croatia had controlled coronavirus cases in May, the government decided to open its coastline areas to tourists from Europe. These tourists returned home with the infection and spread the virus. Clubs and bars were allowed to reopen for the summer season after the lockdown in April along the Adriatic coast attracting visitors. With 500 miles of coastline and Mediterranean climate, ancient towns and affordable stay, Croatia is crowded with tourists. In 2019 21 million visitors came here according to the Croatia Tourist Board. On Italian visitor from Parma cited here says she found crowded parties and bustling bars and restaurants where hardly anybody kept social distancing and wore masks. People in shops and bars she says told people they did not need to wear masks. The governments in Europe were keen on making up for the economic costs of the pandemic and opened the internal borders of the European Union in June. The opening of resorts in the sunbelt of Europe in Spain and Portugal has led to the spike in cases in Madrid and other cities in Spain. The same is happening in France. But vigilance dropped especially in Croatia where little or no restrictions were visible. Not only were bars allowed to open but the social distancing rules and mask rules were never practiced. Some Croatians call it incomprehensible. It has led to the spike in Germany, Czech Republic and Austria. The Koch Institute says 12% of all new German cases are traceable to Croatia. It is now a fact that international travel is a way the coronavirus accelerates. Governments in France, Germany, and the UK which are not especially dependent on tourism have the option to encourage people to stay in their home countries and remove this cause of acceleration while keeping shops and offices open so that business and jobs are preserved. For people hurt by lack of employment in the hospitality industry and others with lost wages from being in an occupation that acts to accelerate the virus it is a better option to offer financial assistance than to end up closing offices and shops in another partial lockdown. Opening bars helped accelerate the pandemic in California after the lockdown with steeply rising numbers of new cases. Educating the public to the extent that it should be about the dangers is also missing.    ...

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Cutter and Adams of the WSJ show the inner workings of a large consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. A University of Chicago professor started the firm in 1926. By the 1960's the firm would hire new graduates and train them in its consulting culture to do studies and make recommendations on issues facing client companies. Consultants are not hired for long  experience in each field, they are hired from top business schools and universities upon graduation and trained in the company culture. Work involves extensive travel from different offices, with long hours typical also of the financial firms, with little acknowledgement of worklife balance for productive effort even after the pandemic. Cutter and Adams do not cover an earlier period of McKinsey during the financial crisis of 2008 with a controversy around insider trading information about Goldman Sachs which hurt the reputation of McKinsey.  The WSJ investigation into 1MDB Malaysia fund scandal showed Goldman Sachs involvement leading to less confidence in large financial firms as well as consulting companies. This consulting business is growing after the pandemic with about half of it related to companies seeking to prepare and set up AI. This report looks at the new setup in McKinsey where hundreds of senior partners now elect the head of the firm for two 3 year terms. The head of AI at McKinsey is challenging the the current head of the firm in an upcoming election. It cannot be said that consulting firms are improving the management of companies, as more companies today use it sparingly and mostly for special needs or studies including AI. As a result these consulting companies are using the same branding mechanisms, and as Cutter and Adams point out, these professional service firms are run by partners through a system of extensive wining and dining, talking and communicating, so that people who can set an internal consensus do well. The process of development of management skills in the US dating back to Alfred Sloan at General Motors when Mr. Mckinsey started his firm at University of Chicago in 1926, and to Andy Grove founder of Silicon Valley in the 1970's, with their  emphasis on constructive confrontation and skills Grove later outlined in his book "High Output Management" has little to do with such consultancy firm services. Even less can it be said about these consultany services that they have anything to do with the management intuition, vision, wisdom and skills of Matsushita in his book "Not for Bread Alone, Akio Morita in "Made in Japan," or for Grove's unique perspective in "Only the Paranoid Survive."  ...

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Parti Tarini of WSJ covers Kamala Harris, US vice president, as she makes an abortion rights tour starting in Wisconsin. Following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision ending the constitutional protections on abortion, Kamala Harris as a prosecutor who handled sexual assault cases involving women and children, is able to talk to women in different states about the effects on women. In Wisconsin following the Dobbs decision Wisconsin's 1849 law banning abortion was reactivated. Harris talks to women in Wisconsin and Georgia in this WSJ report. In Georgia the law now has a six week abortion ban with exceptions in rape and incest cases with a police report. Harris told women that she knew that it was a difficult conversation to have, but one had to face reality, showing what it means to get a police report in such a situation. As former district attorney in California, and as California Attorney General she was fighting fro women's rights back then, involved in legal battles about women's reproductive health and abortion, including a multistate case on the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby case in 2014. She was raised Harris says by a mother who was a breast cancer researcher, and conversations at the kitchen table were also about women's reproductive health and hormones. Harris says in this interview that this stuff should not exist in the shadows, when it happens in this way it is women who suffer. On many issues that involve women Harris is uniquely qualified. For instance the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza and Israel have a huge impact on women and children, and Kamala Harris is taking on the role of bringing and end to the conflict in Gaza by participating in Biden's talk with the prime minister of Israel. Harris has prepared for this role more than it appears and she is able to talk to women in a way that is rare for an elected official says this report, and also to the people of this country on issues that determine their future. On the Special Counsel's report Harris can also talk about this in a way that is direct, sincere and from experience. She said about the prosecutor's report : "The way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized -could not be more wrong on the facts, and clearly was politically motivated." She called the comment on the president's age "gratuitous" and described the role of a prosecutor as "requiring a higher level of integrity."    ...

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A second term Trump-Vance will face uphill risks and a mess in economics from a Trumpian Republican party and Congress, says WSJ. WSJ Editorial Board says a second Trump term is not without risks. Tariffs cost 1.1% in annual growth in the Trump first term says WSJ, and it did have an impact on inflation. It would have had greater impact on inflation with the supply chain crisis of Biden's first term, had this supply chain crisis happened in Trump's first term. A second term Trump-Vance support tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese imports which would have a bigger effect on inflation and economic growth than of the first term. The key difference is that with tax cuts a basic rule for Republican policies Trump-Vance second term would not invest in infrastructure the way Mr. Biden has done and Biden will do so in a second term. As a result the economic growth is likely to be greater and inflation smaller under a Biden administration. Trillions of dollars in investment in the economy and infrastructure under Biden in a second term will be missing in a Trump-Vance tax cuts administration policy. And with it hundreds of thousand of jobs created each quarter will be missing in Trump-Vance second term. Add to this the level of clarity of stable economic policy under a Biden second term and contrast it with some of the chaos in economic policy of a Trump-Vance second term. The basic contradiction between tax cuts policy and the nation's need for infrastructure spending/rebuilding under a Republican under Trump administration will not go away, present a huge stumbling block. Chaotic policy could come from Project 2025 that says consider abolishing the US central bank Federal Reserve. This kind of erratic and unwise policy proposals are clearly not happening under Biden and Yellen. Another key difference is the cost to the economy of delays of several years in doing nothing for climate in Trump-Vance 2024-2028. Severe effects on climate if nothing is done could cause acceleration of climate negative costs which a future economy under Democrats would face, in reality the Nation would face. America's Business has taken a short term approach to climate change, when the time comes to pay the costs of short term thinking it assumes it is somebody else's problem- this happened with supply chain concentration in China the burden falling on the middle and lower classes, it would happen again with missing climate change action under Trump-Vance second term. ...

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NYT's Mokoto Rich provides this excellent report from Daegu, the fourth largest city in South Korea, where the current president's father attended teacher's college, and where she draws her base of support. Her father is the dictator president Park who ruled South Korea from 1961 to 1979, known for efforts to modernize South Korea and protect it from the Communist North.Most of the city's residents no longer support president Park Geun-hye because they say even though she herself is a good person, she had poor judgement in having a friend who they say swindled her. That friend Ms. Choo Soon-Sil won favors and contracts using the powers of the presidential office with the full knowledge of the president. This makes her incompetent for the presidential office say even conservative supporters who disagree with the opposition's protests. 

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Trevor Manuel, as head of the national planning commission, may have even more authority -as he oversees all economic policy on behalf of the President- than in his previous position as finance minister of South Africa. President Zuma knows that he is not a person fond of policy details and long reports, and he may be wisely creating this position in the President's office so that he could delegate this important work to Trevor Manuel. The head of the tax department, Mr Gordhan, becomes finance minister. Asked what his priorities would be, Zuma in his characterstic manner joked , " My rooibos tea, honey and lemon."