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How an outside director is heard at meetings of China Netcom Group (Hong Kong), in this case former Goldman banker Thornton. This is rare in Chinese board meetings. There is a story behind this and Jason Dean tells us what happened to bring Thornton, Roderic Hills a former SEC chairman, McKinsey, Qian, a governance expert at UC Berkeley, Tian, a US trained founder of Netcom, and Mr Zhang together to shape Netcom's corporate governance, as a model for the other state controlled Chinese companies. Especially useful is the insight from Zhang about the role of the Communist party committee in Netcom, of which he is party secretary, and its counterparts which really run state controlled Chinese companies. The communist party committee is responsible for six functions, not spelled out here, but probably refers to the social goals as perceived by the communist party. One of the goals is modernization- bringing Chinese company management to best practice standards in Europe and the US. Netcom's incentive is that it needs to stand out against its better positioned competitors China Telecom and China Mobile, which have a big share of the market. Zhang gives the impression of being a thinking type willing to try out new ideas to help achieve the goal of "catching up" to best practice governance....

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Like Japan China is looking to wean its exporters away from dependence in the export markets- one of the steps agreed on at G-2- in Pittsburgh- and increase spending by Chinese consumers to buy more of the same products at home. Bicycle manufacturer Tandem has lost 40% of the American sales, now it is looking to the Chinese market as incomes are rising in China. As Tandem's general manager puts it in the US the shift is now to buying cheap things. Chinese exports after rising 20% each year for years, recorded a drop in August 2009 of 23% down over August 2008. In China urban household spending was up 9.2%. THe savings by American households jumped to an annualized $566 billion in the second quarter of 2009, quadruple the rate at the start of 2008. Batson gives this account from Shunde in Chinawhere Tandem has it head offices. He talks with managers at Tandem and sees the struggle within the company to some up with anew mindset, and organization, to sell bicycles in the domestic market where other bicycle manufaturers like Giant Manufacturing Company of Taiwan already have a large share in the high end market. Mr Tseng had to convince his fellow managers and the board that it was a good idea, as the domestic market is tough to pentetrate, kickoffs are common, and competition is intense. Tseng says Tandem will approach first the children's market where competitors haven't focussed, and treat as atoy for kids. Tandem will bring higher quality better built bikes into this market. And this is similiar to what it sells to American kids with lots of colors and funny names. Tandem managers aren't sure Chinese distributors or retailers will pay enough attention to their bicycles so they decided to open astore in Shunde and start small and scale up. Tseng says that Tandem will have to pay its tution first and learn about the market. This means it will still continue selling to America and Europe. Chinea's government is now encouraging these efforts to target the domestic market with tax breaks and coupons. But as China and Japn also become more inward looking economies and trade inside Asia increases, the domestic demand is not enough to make up for the loss in the American and European markets. The US and Europe each put in $9.5 trillion into the global economy, even at their current recession diminished pace, compared to the $1.5 trillion spent by Chinese households. Per capita incomes tell the story. In the US $35,486 and in China $2,270. T...

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Zakes Mda, a South African describes the Nelson Mandela of 1944 in the living room of his father Ashby Peter Mda, and Mandela's protest agianst the African National Congress of that period. He compares it with the African National Congress of Jacob Zuma in 2013. Maylie and McGroarty of the WSJ and other journalists interviewing young black South Africans in Johannesberg in Dec. 2013 also finds them saying they would not vote again for Zuma and the ANC. Mda describes the disillusionment on South African university campuses with the corruption of the Zuma administration.

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Rakuten CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani, lived in Connecticut, completed graduate studies in the U.S. and speaks fluent English. It is now two years since his announcement that all business in the company will be conducted in English. July 1, 2012 was set as a target date after which all employee communication, including internal emails and memos would take place in English. All employees were required to take English language classes and employee tests in the language. Mikitani planned to expand Rakuten's operations overseas, and in these two years it has expanded to 12 countries from two countries, and plans to take this to 27 countries with 70% of sales generated overseas. Mikitani runs an e-commerce competitor to Amazon and he sees opportunities for the company worldwide and the need for employees to come out of their shell. He has long been a critic of Japanese elementary and secondary schooling in English. Most of the 3000 hours studying English after the seventh grade are wasted he says because most Japanese have trouble speaking English. A similiar effort to get employees to learn English has been launched at Uniqlo, a clothing retailer, and there is much discussion about this issue of improving the country's language proficiency as Japan's population ages and companies have to focus on overseas markets....

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Kamala Harris describes her vision of The Opportunity Economy in an address at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina. Like president Biden she wants to build America's Middle Class. When the Middle Class does well everyone does well, Biden says this many times. By contrast she said Trump's plan would cost Americans $3900 a year raising cost of living. Kamala Harris said- "And key — key to creating this opportunity economy is building up our middle class.  It is essential.  (Applause.) The middle class is one of America’s greatest strengths, and to protect it, then, we must defend basic principles — such as, your salary should be enough to provide you and your family with a good quality of life. (Applause.) Such as, no child should have to grow up in poverty.  (Applause.) Such as, after years of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity.  (Applause.) And you should be able to join a union if you choose. Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency, because I strongly believe when the middle class is strong, America is strong. " (Applause.) Harris described the vision of president Trump, as a complete contrast- "Now compare what Donald Trump plans to do.  He wants to impose what is, in effect, a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other countries.       That will devastate Americans.  It will mean higher prices on just about every one of your daily needs: a Trump tax on gas, a Trump tax on food, a Trump tax on clothing, a Trump tax on over-the-counter medication.       And, you know, economists have done the math.  Donald Trump’s plan would cost a typical family $3,900 a year.  ...

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A career diplomat who as served in Kenya and at the UN , and at the Beritish Embassy in Washington DC replaces Lord Mandelson as British Ambassador to the US. He is chosen over Varun Chandra Business Adviser to Sir Keir Starmer on the advice of Sir Olly Robbins, the most senior civil servant in the Commonwealth and Foreign Office that a career diplomat is the right choice. Lord Mandelson was asked to resign after involvement in the Epstein files.

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As to financing of $6000 child tax credit costing about $100 billion a year as estimated by Office for Responsible Budget some of it would come from the $360 billion in tax savings over 10 years by Medicare negotiation of prices with Pharma, other would come from taxing corporations and high incomes at rates that are similar to what firemen and teachers pay of 20-25%. In his speech at North Carolina Aug 15, 2024 at Wake Tech in Raleigh, president Biden said- "You know how many billionaires there are in America?  There’s now a thousand billionaires.  You know what their average tax they pay — federal tax?  8.2 percent.  Anybody want to trade with a billionaire — their tax rate?  (Laughter.)  Well, guess what?  If they just paid 25 percent — it’s not the highest bracket by a longshot — 25 percent — do you know what that would do?  That would raise $40- — $400 billion over the next 10 years.  Imagine what we could do with that.  We could fundamentally sh- — slash the federal deficit.  We could make sure there’s home care.  We could do so many things — consequential — including finally making sure that we take care of Ukraine from that butcher Putin.  (Applause.) ...

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The ANC loses the 2016 municipal elections in several large South African cities to the Democratic Alliance. The city of Port Elizabeth, long associated with Nelson Mandela, is now with the Democratic Alliance. It shows voter dissatisfaction with the ANC and Jacob Zuma.

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Support for Mandela's African National Congress, the ANC, has dropped as it fails to manage the economy for growth to meet aspirations of young people. Support dropped to below 40% and a majority for ANC in parliament is unlikely in the upcoming election. The pandemic hit South Africa hard and the weak economy, lack of growth, high unemployment, are serious problems.

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Mr. F. W. De Klerk, former president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and deputy president under Nelson Mandela till 1996, set the path for reconciliation and a mutiracial open society based on democratic process after Apartheid. Here he says some of the original vision for reconciliation and multiracial society based on constitutional processes is being lost under the presidency of Jacob Zuma of the ANC. He points to the growth rate of 5% achieved under president Thabo Mbeki from 2005 to 2007. The economic stagnation and corruption under the Zuma administration means South Africa is falling behind in tackling problems of wide disparity in incomes of the vast majority of black people, as only about 15% of the black population have benefitted under president Zuma. WIth political appointees in key positions for state run enterprises, municipal administration, and in the public service, services to the public are deteriorating. The Communist Party's hold on key postiions in the ANC and 12 cabinet positions, is reversing policies for an open economy with more state control. De Klerk says the point at which this happened was in Dec. 2007, when certain factions led by Mr. Zuma took control of the ANC at its national conference in Polokwane. The drop in commodities prices have hit South Africa hard and poor management of the economy adds to South Africa's many problems in 2015....

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This editorial in the New York Times points out that the new president of the ANC party -that runs South Africa and has a monopoly of power in the post Apartheid years, under Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma- faces a uphill task as the ANC remains deeply divided after supporting Mr. Zuma in office till the very end. Apart from the stagnant economy, there are challenges the ANC faces in the lethargy of the post Apartheid years, and the culture of corruption, and patronage management that led to mismanagement of state enterprises.

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Young South Africans, the so called born frees- born after the end of Apartheid and free elections in 1994- are diillusioned with the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela. They are disssatisfied with the lack of jobs, a poor education system, and tired of the corruption scandals under former president Jacob Zuma. A recent IPSOS poll shows only 55% of 18-24 year olds supporting the ANC compared to 61% overall. Some polls showed support dropping from born frees to below 50%. Almost half of the 58 million people of South Africa are born frees. Their view is expressed by one mother of three living in a shack in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg. She says we tried the ANC but are still living in squatter camps and dirty places. Only the ANC's reach into rural areas, its superior organization, and lack of viable alternatives, are likely to keep the ANC back in power. The Economic Freedom Fighters led by Mr. Malema, a former head of the ANC youth wing is likely to double its vote to 12% from the last election.  ...

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Jimmy Kimmel on ABC Disney- makes a joke that is not a joke. "This is something beyond the pale Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC" posted on Monday afternoon by the president on Truth Social. The president calls it a "call to violence." Just days later an attempt at assassination of the president at the White House Correspondents dinner at the Washington Hilton in DC.