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S. Africa's slow progress in getting opportunites for black farmers and President Zuma's efforts to jump start this with a mentorship program. The program benefits S. Africa and white farmers as fewer young people want to stay on the land and farm. About 80% of farmland is white controlled, yet the number of white commercial farmers is declining rapidly, from 60,000 in 1994 to 37,000 in 2012, according to Theo de Jager, deputy president of Agri SA, a commercial farmer association. Jager says a new generaion of farmers from the black community has to fill the gap left by fewer white farmers. One of the problems is the high cost of the program and seed money for new black farmers. Since 2009 the government spent $122 million a year to support only about 1 in 10 farmers on redistributed land. The government has spent $730 million to buy white owned farmland since 1994. New farmers receive about $500,000 for equipment, seed and livestock. A mentor gets $600 per month.

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Tata and WIPRO executives say they depend on in-house training programs because many of the engineering graduates in the recruitment pool are not qualified. Recruitment firm NIIT Ltd. says 75% of technical graduates and 85% of general graduates are not fully qualified to work in information technology and other industries, based on assessment tests conducted by the firm. This is happening even as the engineering colleges in India have seats for 1.5 million graduates, according to the National Association for Software and Services. The problem is that the focus is on rote learning, and not on comprehension and critical thinking skills. By keeping the tution at low levels the revenue is not enough to pay teachers salaries at decent levels and attract good teachers. The schools do not generate the strong reading and comprehension skills necessary for jobs in growing fields. Annual surveys by Pratham looked at grade school performance of 13,000 schools across India. This shows about half of the fifth graders cannot read at a second grade level....

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Analysts do not see how Greece could avoid restructuring its debt. Debt for Greece is expected to grow in coming years. The 110 billion euro bailout of Greece by the European Union and the IMF does not reduce Greek debt- as the bailout comes as more loans. The EU estimate is that Greece's debt will go up to 375 billion euros in 2013 from 298 billion euros in 2009. Kenneth Wattret, chief euro-zone economist at BNP Paribas, says the markets are already pricing in some form of restructuring. This would include some form of "haircut" for bondholders. A restructuring presents several problems. Brussels think tank Bruegel estimates 20% of Greece's government debt is held by local banks which are weak financially. These banks will need some help if they are to take new losses. About one third of Greece debt is held by pension funds and insurance companies and these institutions may have to be stress tested before taking losses. And 80 billion of the bailout money came from euro-zone countries as direct loans, this would mean losses for these lenders....

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Polls show the New Democratic Party (NDP) surging in the polls in today's Canadian elections. The NDP is drawing voter support from the Liberal Party and from the Bloc Quebecois party in Quebec. The Liberals are now in danger of finishing third behind the NDP in the elections. The Liberals were in power for 32 of the last 50 years, with premier Pierre Trudeau being the most well known figure from the Liberal party. The Bloc Quebecois trails the NDP in Quebec by 16 percentage points in some polls. The NDP program calls for improved health care services, carbon reduction strategies and increased spending for seniors. The NDP proposes to spend 70 billion Canadian dollars for these programs.The party leader Jack Layton could become prime minister in a coalition with the Liberals or join an alliance with the Conservatives led by Steven Harper. In the last parliament NDP held 36 seats. It is now expected to win 100 seats in the 308 seat House. The Conservatives had 143 seats and need 155 to secure a majority, which now appears unlikely....

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Rupert Murdoch makes a $80 billion offer to Time Warner for a merger with 21st Century Fox. A deal would add HBO, TNT and TBS to Fox's broadcast network and its cable portfolio including Fox News channel. Most sports content such as NBA and NCAA games are watched live, attracting more advertisers compared to other content where commercials are skipped using DVR's. A key problem for Time Warner investors and management is that the way the proposal is structured- with supervoting shares going to the Murdoch family that controls Fox- gives too much control to Mr. Murdoch and too little say to Time Warner investors on how the future company should be run. An added complication is that Time Warner CEO Bewkes is 62 and has put in place its strategic plan after divesting some units. By comparison Rupert Murdoch of 21st Century Fox is 83, and his sons are seen by Time Warner as not having the experience to handle a company of the size resulting from a merger.

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Merkel prods Russia to follow Germany's example as she lands in Kiev on the 75th anniversary of the nonaggression pact signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Merkel said: "That today a German chancellor can be here shows what has happened... We want countries to be able to freely decide their political direction. We no longer participate, as the Federal Republic of Germany, in stirring up historical misery, and that is a good development of history." Russia badly needs to find a new place in a new world rather than stir up memories from the Soviet or Tsarist period, just as Germany has done in the period since 1945 with chancellors Adenauer, Brandt, down to Merkel and president Gauck today. The world today is very different from the period when Merkel grew up in the German Democratic Republic and Putin lived as a KGB officer in Dresden, Germany. Even more so as the manner of living in urban areas in different parts of the world, business, industry, the arts, culture, products is increasingly converging, with higher expectations. ...

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Sanger, Erlanger and Rudoren describe in detail the differing interests of Congress, the Obama administration, the Iranian hardliners around Khamanei, the Israelis, the Europeans, and the Russians each quietly pushing its own interests. Beyond the physics of a deal, a Republican Congress, Democrat Obama and Iranian hardliner Khamanei, each are trying to get their own narrative to look right with public opinion they face, that they have not backed down. The Israelis find any deal unacceptable and reject even a small lifting of sanctions, because of the "existential" threat. Add to this Sunni Saudi Arabia which says it will match Shiite Iranian capabilities with their own uranium enrichment facilities if Iran is allowed to retain capabilities. And economic interests also figure into this- Russian interest is in keeping Iranian oil off the market as long as possible so that oil prices do not fall further in 2015, which means delay an agreement as long as possible. The French see the Obama administration as likely to give too much away for an agreement and want tougher terms....

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As Britain goes to general elections in May 2015, one of the issues in the election will be new referendum on membership in the European Union promised by prime minister David Cameron. Cameron has said he will negotiate a better deal for Britain in the EU and hold a referendum by 2017. The last referendum was in 1975, in which two thirds of voters supported membership in the EU. British disapproval of the EU has increased with immigration from newer EU members since the 2008 financial crisis, and increasing unemployment. Some recent polls show 42% voting to stay in the EU, and 39% opting out, suggesting a close vote. Negotiations for better terms mean treaty change, which would be opposed by France. Germany's Merkel also opposes changes on the immigration rules that do not allow free movement of labor. Other EU leaders see Cameron's moves on the EU being an effort to counter the UK Independence Party's push for EU exit, as the UKIP could draw Conservative right wing voters in the 2015 general election. ...

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On one of the major issues of 2014-2015 U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky provides conviction and vigorous defense of liberties. Senator Rand Paul made this the centerpiece of his campaign for the U.S. presidential election of 2016. On May 30, 2016, Rand Paul said: "Tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program. I believe we must fight terrorism, and I believe we must stand strong against our enemies. But we do not need to give up who we are to defeat them. In fact, we must not." With Republicans split on this issue, the strong defense of liberties taken by Rand Paul makes it certain that the Patriot Act will expire on May 31, 2015, and the NSA bulk surveillance of phone data will end. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative Tea Party Patriots have praised the extensive debate on the issue of the damage done by such surveillance tactics. Both the ACLU and the Tea Party see the need to let the 2001 Patriot Act and legislation supporting bulk data surveillance to expire....

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Bloomberg Associates is a firm created by Mayor Bloomberg to help cities all over the world improve city living from Louisville, Kentucky to Mexico City. The focus is on cities using the expertise and experience gained in running New York City, and replicating some of the success in New York elsewhere. Public health, economic development and environment sustainability remain at the forefront. Other ideas include making more room for pedestrian plazas in busy areas, calorie counts in fast-food chains, curbing smoking, a customer-service hotline for city residents. This includes projects such as turning blighted or neglected neighborhoods into attractive public spaces and making subway friendly residential neighborhoods. In places such as New Orleans the Mayor's staff has already produced changes in the crime rate with innovative programs and financing from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Their will be no fees for sharing this expertise and knowledge. Joining the new firm are most of Mayor Bloomberg's top staff, including Amanda Burden, director of city planning. George Fertitta will run the firm....

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The unexpected and rapid price drop in 2014 for ultra high definition UHDTV televisions. The price declines are driven by Chinese manufacturers who are using the large Chinese market and Chinese buyers eager to try out the latest technology to lower prices. NPD DisplaySearch estimates 2013 shipments of UHDTV's at 1.9 million units globally, of this 1.7 million were sold in China. Estimates for UHDTV for 2014 are 12.7 million units globally and China will be 78% of this. Sales in North America are estimated for 2014 at 800,000 units. The sales are surprising because there is hardly any UHDTV content available. Japanese makers use special chips that enable HDTV content to show improvement on UHDTV sets to justify higher prices. The price drops are steep- from $4503 to $973 to about one fourth in the Chinese market and from $18,667 to $1986 or about one ninth in the U.S. market for 2014. The price competition from Chinese manufacturers is likely to affect the profitability of Samsung, Sony and Panasonic in televisions....

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Under a proposed capital infusion into Peugeot the French government, Dongfeng Motor of China, and the Peugeot family would each control 15% of the company. Dongfeng and the French government would buy new shares of about $7.50 to $8 each, and providing 800 million euros each. The Peugeot family would provide 100 million euros. Currently the Peugeot family controls 25.4% of the shares and 38.1% of voting rights. Earlier GM sold its 7% stake in Peugeot, and Peugeot turned to its partner in China for the capital increase. Peugeot shares declined by 11% to 10.21 euros on Jan 23, 2014, as a result of investor concerns about the prospect of three different shareholders interests. Peugeot expects to use the capital increase for technology investments as it struggles to come out of a prolonged slump in its European markets. One of the conditions made by Dongfeng Motor is that the current chairman Thierry Peugeot be succeeded by an executive not connected to the Peugeot family or the French government....

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Brazil's unemployment rate dropped slightly in 2013 to 5.4% from 5.5% in 2012, according to Brazil's Institute for Geography and Statistics. Fewer people are entering the workforce as Brazil's population ages, which has helped keep labor markets tight even with a low rate of job creation. Industrial jobs have declined as a share of overall employment after the recent consumer boom in Brazil. More service jobs are being created than industrial jobs as a result of a stronger currency. GDP growth was less than 3%, according to the statistics agency. Higher inflation constrains growth and the central bank increased the interest rate by 0.5% to 10.5%. Wages have kept up with inflation as the average monthly wage increased by 1.8% after inflation to 1,929 reais ($798) for the ninth year. President Rousseff's Worker's party has governed Brazil since Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva became president in 2003. She is likely to be reelcted in this year's elections as polls show her support at 47%. The lower middle classes which benefitted as the middle class expanded in Brazil supports Rousseff. ...

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Carney breaks down Fannie Mae's 2013 earnings figures of $84 billion to show that this is due to unusual factors- such as low interest rates that it gets to access capital from the government, and the reversal of a write-down of deferred-tax assets. $45.4 billon is from the reversal of a writedown of deferred tax assets, $14.6 billion to gains not easily repeated, and about $12 billion because Fannie was able to borrow at 2.06%. (Mortgage securities generated interest income of $22.12 billion. The mortgage guarantee business generated about $12.3 billion which is a result of the 2012 change to the bailout agreement terms) He sees Fannie's core earnings that it could keep generating at about $12 billion. The additional reserve capital requirement that it would face as a systemically important or "too big to fail" financial institution at about $100 billion, making it about 8 years for it reach the reserve capital requirement. The situation at Fannie Mae is not as rosy as the 2013 earnings figures suggest. ...

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German politicians are critical of Finance minister Schauble's remarks comparing Putin's takeover of Crimea to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland. Merkel distances herself from the remarks considering that a singular event. Former chancellor Kohl tells the Bild newspaper, "there's been a lack of sensitivity in dealing with our Russian neighbor, especially President Putin." Decades of hard work in building relations with the Soviet Union since Willy Brandt initiated engagement, followed by Schmidt, Kohl and Schroeder, are seen as being put at risk by the German public and government. Business interests are also at stake. Polls show 60% of German's oppose sending the German air force to NATO's eastern borders, and German foreign minister Steinmeier said there was no way for Ukraine to join NATO. A former German ambassador to the U.S., head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, says Germany not the U.S. would suffer the most from a deterioration in relations. Companies like Siemens and Deutsche Bahn put a high priority on de-escalation of the crisis....

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As the market in larger cities matures, the market in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities is where most of the growth is expected in China's market. An expanding middle class is one source of buyers. One forecast is for 51% of Chinese families having disposable income of 106,000 yuan to 229,000 yuan or between $17,000 and $37,000 by 2020, according to McKinsey. There were only 6% in that income range in 2010, showing how skewed the income distribution was, and why the growth of luxury cars has benefitted BMW, Benz and GM. A new generation of younger buyers is another source of growth- Nissan's chief planning officer, Andy Palmer estimates the youth market at 240 million. This group is being called the Transformers generation. A big surge in buying for SUV's has helped companies such as Ford Motor Company. Benz and Ford plan to add new dealerships, with Benz planning dealerships in 40 new cities and opening 100 new stores in 2014. Audi is planning a new certified used car program to keep used car resale values high....

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A WSJ study showing the plans offered under the new U.S. Health Care Law in the state of Oregon. For young people ages 18-34 earning about $17,000 and uninsured the law offers a bargain with insurance premiums monthly at about $52 and deductibles as low as $100, because of higher subsidies. The situation changes at incomes of $29,000 when the deductibles are about $6300 and the premiums per month at about $147 a month, because subsidies are much smaller, or deductibles dropping to $2500 at $172 in monthly premium. The federal subsidies disappear for single people under age 30 earning much more than $26,000 because of the way the law places them to specific plans on each state's exchange. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are 11.6 million people in the U.S. ages 18-34 who are uninsured. The federal government has to get as many of these people to get insurance so that the cost of medical care for the elderly can be supported.

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Diversification has helped BHP weather the decline in commodities prices better than Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and Vale. BHP is expected to report profits of $12.5 billion for the last fiscal year. BHP is also in the oil and gas business, in addition to iron, ore, copper, coal and aluminium. This has made it possible to take writedowns of $5.5 billion and still make stable profits. Andrew Mackenzie, the new CEO of BHP, is a Scotsman who is focussing on the productivity of capital and cost-cutting. BHP announced $1.9 billion in cost savings since July 2012. Mackenzie's goal is to reduce capital expenditures from $18 billion today to $15 billion or less in 2-3 years. Capital is tied up in incomplete projects taken up in the boom period of higher prices, and the process of reducing capital expenditures is gradual. Capital expenditures in the mining business increased dramatically from $20 billion to $120 billion from 2003 to 2012. For most of this period China's economy registered growth rates of over 10%....

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The reorganization underway at NBCUniversal under CEO Steve Burke. Burke is quick to end the practice of different fiefdoms operating at NBCUniversal incuding NBC Sports, and expects all divisions to work together to produce synergy. He uses the example of a Symphony orchestra. Of 20 senior executives at NBCUniversal from the GE days only 5 remain, and the rest of the management structure is streamlined. Dick Ebersol who ran NBC Sports as his own sports empire, including the Olympics, with little oversight is out. About $12 billion has gone into sports because of the potential for advertising. Burke, 55, is from a family with a history in the television business- his dad was CEO of Capital Cities/ABC. He was in corporate strategy at Walt Disney Co. before he joined Comcast in 1998 to develop corporate strategy and acquisitions under Mr. Roberts. The opportunity at NBC gives Comcast a shot at building a business that spans its cable business and a content development company. Operating cash flow for NBCU is up 21% for the second quarter of 2013....

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Robert Morgenthau, a former district attorney for New York County, says the American deportation effort is putting about 1000 people out of the U.S. every day. He calls it a deportation effort that has gone wildly astray. Here he says the new leadership of Jeh Johnson is likely to be better than her predecessor Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in ensuring that the agency can move in a direction that ensures fairness for immigrants who are law abiding. Morgenthau says in his long experience as district attorney he has learned that the trust and cooperation of the immigrant community in New York is essential to going after the criminal elements that are a danger to society. And some of this trust has been eroded by the actions of the ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, part of Homeland Security Department, through large scale and record breaking deportation approaching about 400,000 a year. A report for the last fiscal year shows only 14.5% of the deportees in immigration court were criminals or suspected of terrorism....

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Stevenson and Gough describe the remarkable success of AirAsia under Tony Fernandes, who turned it into Asia's largest budget carrier with 43 million passengers in 2013. Fernandes acquired the airline for 1 Malaysia ringgit or 29 cents in Sept. 2001 from a Malaysian conglomerate. He is an accountant educated in Britain, originally from Goa, India, who worked as a Warner Music executive in Southeast Asia. Fernandes says he was encouraged by the founder of British budget carrier EasyJet, and hired executives from Ryanair. Expanding in Asia was accomplished with acquisitions and partial ownership in local airlines located in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Japan and other countries. Using the Ryanair model AirAsia has maintained a low cost structure, while increasing revenues with prices for addon options such as seat selection and checkin. It has revenues of $1.1 billion and is profitable. The airline uses relatively new Airbus 320 planes that are also used by other successful budget carriers. Fernandes has a hands on style of management reflected in this account of his handling of an AirAsia accident in Indonesia in Jan. 2015....

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Eventually China's stimulus efforts and efforts to build up its reserves of commodities like its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, may not boost demand for oil, iron ore and other commodities enough to offset the recessionary impact on the industrialized economies. And China's demand is large but not that large that it can tilt prices one way or the other. In the first quarter China accounted for 9% of global oil demand, compared with 55% for the largely recession impacted industrialized world. Stockpiling of resources is a temporary factor. Sanford Bernstein estimates the first phase of China's Strategic Petroleum Reserve may have boosted imports by 400,000 barrels a day in March and April. Another factor is consumption. Stimulus dollars pushed fixed asset investment by one third in the first quarter, yet consumer spending went up less than 10%. Consumption will remain weak. Ultimately China's stimulus efforts may act as a brake on sudden falls in commodities prices, and not support continual upward pressure on commodities prices right smack in the face of a deep recession and large underutilization of manufacturing capacity in the industrialized world....

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Dealerships have taken enthusuastically to the new Penske ownership of Saturn. But its not clear whether the Penske name will help boost sales. Saturn sales were down 58% through May 2009 over a year earlier, down to 35,256 vehicles. Kia sold 4 times as many cars in the USA over the same period. Saturn sales improved in June, with a35% year over year increase in June. But its not clear if this will last and what the effects of the penske name will be over the long term. Autodata estimates that there is a105 day supply of Saturn cars, or 32,647 cars for 350 dealers. By comparison Buick has a74 day backlog. Customer loyalty says J.D. Power is down from 45% in 2007 to 37% today. This compares to retention rates of about 65% for Toyota. And the failure of the Astra to genrate customer interest and its being discontinued will leave Saturn without acompact car in its lineup. Its important for Saturn to have an affordable small car to hang onto loyal customers.

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Krugman points out that some depreciation in the value of the dollar is welcome because it would make US exports more competitive and reduce our trade deficit. He says China's policy of keeping the yuan pegged to the dollar actually devalues the Chinese currency and makes it possible for China to siphon off growth from other countries. So what should America do. By putting pressure on China to revalue the yuan upward would America be risking China responding by selling some f its $2.1 trillion in dollar assets. This would not be such abad thing if the Chinese sold some of their dollar assets says Krugman, as lowering the value of the dollar at this time is not such abad thing. Malpass and Alan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon, point out the importance of maintaining the value of the dollar in a separate piece. There the idea is not to have sharp fall in the value of the dollar that could economic disruption because of loss of confidence in the currency as opposed to a gradual decline.

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A survey by Boston Consulting Group of 5000 users of online news content shows that only 48% of Americans are willing to pay to read news content online. They are willing to pay about $3 per month for access to online news content. This is much smaller than European countries presumably because of the acess to so much news content free online in the USA. The study was done by Mr Rose and Dominic Field, head of the media practice at BCG. News content is so fragmented in the USA, say the authors, that its still possible to find free content if some papers charge. Interestingly Americans were more likely to pay for sites that offered access to online news content for multiple papers. The most avid news readers are the ones most lik,ely to pay.The study concludes that charging for online access won't increase revenue that much but because the cost of reaching internet readers is very low, it has potential for significantly higher profits. Other countries surveyed are Germany, France, Spain, Norway and Finland....