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The European Union goes forward with $39 billion for Ukraine aid. The aid is backed by interest from the $300 billion in Russian assets in Europe frozen when war began. Another $15-20 billon is expected from the US when legal questions about frozen Russian assets are resolved- the US asking for a 36 month review of sanctions to replace 6 months in place in 2024. The European Union offices in Brussels have done a poor job of communicating how the EU is  aiding Ukraine with its own resources. Lyrarc.com had to point out that Ukraine aid from EU was about twice that of the US at about $200 billion compared to about $95 billion for the US. Former president Trump stated that this was just the opposite the US spending twice what the US was spending. Media in today's world means little or nothing because it operates highly fragmented and organically outside the control of any particular source online, television or print. And established sources apart from bias are spread so thin many important matters for the betterment of people's lives or giving a true picture from which to make observations, are left to wither or distort. The highly formal  corporate environments of the EU are impervious to the outside so that institutions such as the ECB, European Union headquarters are out of touch with the people worldwide.  ...

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How savings habits changed from the last generation to this one. By age 45 savings rate rose sharply to about 30% of disposable income for our parent's generation. For the generation born 1955-64 savings rate remained unchanged at 10%, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. The result of the financial crisis is that credit cards are declining and savings are up. Credit cards shrank by 11% or 32 millon in 2009 according to Nilson Report.

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Ideas for tuning the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York into something like the pedestrian walkway and bicycle pathway similiar to the popular Walkway Over the Hudson. Work on a new $5 billion bridge to replace the Tappan Zee is expected to begin by spring 2013. Governor Cuomo calls it "an exciting option." Costs for demolishing the old bridge would run to $150 millon. Conversion of the bridge would create added open space in the Lower Hudson Valley.

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Tata Steel announced an impairment writeoff of $1.6 billon in May 2013 on Corus, the British steel company acquisition. The Economist cites analyst estimates that Corus is now worth a third of the $13 billion Tata Steel paid for it. Corus is losing about $1 billion in free cash flow each year. This raises questions about why the writeoff is small. Tata may be hoping to sell all or part of Corus or cede control to the banks.

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Turkey's trade deficit increased to $10.2 billion in June 2011, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. This is almost twice the trade deficit only one year ago in June 2010 when it was $5.7 billon. Imports went up 42%, and exports showed annual increase of 19%. Warnings of a "hard landing" were made by Standard & Poor's. Turkey's economy is on a unsustainable path with the economy growing 11% in the first quarter. The IMF forecast is for the economy to grow at 4.6% in 2011, compared to 8.9% in 2010, which suggests a sharp slowing down of growth for the remainder of the year. Concern is also rising because Turkey has fallen behind in competitiveness. The manufacturing sector depends on large inputs of imported raw materials and semifinished products. A breakdown of the trade figures show 71% of the $10.2 billon deficit was from intermediary goods including raw materials, and 28% from capital and consumption goods. Efforts to reduce the current account deficit were expected by analysts after the recent presidential elections, but this has not happened. It appears that the Turkish government is taking a wait and see attitude for possible sluggish growth worldwide and not taking actions of its own that are necessary....

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Alexei Kudrin , Russia's Finance Minister announced plans to increase procurement from Russian technology companies from the 15% of state procurement orders of $133 billon to encourage technology companies. Russia's overdependence on oil and mineral exports for 80% of its exports creates a dangerous situation exacerbating a technology gap with western countries. See the related article on the report on the 21st century by the Institute for Contemporary Development that sees a drain of talent to the west if current trends continue.

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The $500 million jury award to two persons getting hepatitic C as a result of "unsafe practices" at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. The jury decision for punitive damages was made against Health Plan of Nevada for $270 million, and Sierra Health Services for $230 millon in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. The plaintiffs argument was that the insurers paying the health care provider had a responsibility to monitor the quality assurance of providers in its network.

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Labour will introduce 40 bills in parliament to make changes in renewable energy, the environment, transport railways, and for cost of living action. Great Britain Railways and Great Britain Energy are two public companies to be set up to reach goals in public transport modernization and in getting a five fold increase in solar needed to meet 68% cut in emissions by 2030 (Paris Accords commitment). Great Britain Energy will be capitalized with 8.3 billon pounds. (Labour scaled down its 28 billion pounds Green Energy Plan because of Tory mismanagement of finances but will continue to invest in vital projects). The answer is to take a creative approach. More money will be released through the Crown estate bill that will have the crown estate use its auctions of offshore land for wind energy and make investments in green energy. National Wealth Fund will invest in low carbon projects.  Fro water Labour will hold the water bosses to account and put companies such as Thames Water in special measures. Renationalisation was considered but was considered costly at this time, other action is being taken.  Nine bills are part of the 40– the planning and infrastructure bill; the better buses bill; the three rail bills, which are the passenger railway services (public ownership) bill, rail reform bill and high speed rail (Crewe to Manchester) bill; the Great British Energy bill and crown estate bill; the sustainable aviation fuels bill; and the water (special measures bill) – that all focus on protecting the environment. ...

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WSH recommends that Congress consolidate $100 billon of the $270 billion the Education Department gives out and send the money to the states without conditions on spending. Much of this money can then be used by states to improve reading comprehension and math skills which are woefully falling behind in the US. With each state taking on its own initiatives and other states copying the ones that have good results. This is better than one single approach coming out of the federal bureaucracy, that also has vested interests over time building around it, and which means America is deprived of the ingenuity and successful approaches that some states can achieve, and which can be then copied by other states.

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El-Erian points to the risks posed by the long term unemployed in the U.S. He cites the 43.9% of the unemployed or 5.5 millon people out of work for 27 weeks or more. In fact the U-6 measure for unemployment that includes the people who have quit looking for work and parttime workers is abetter indication of where things are. This was an estimated 11% in November 2011, according to Ed Luce in the Financial Times, cited by Klein in the Washington Post.

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Newspapers like the New York Times are seeing an increase in digital ad revenues . The Times showed a 21% increase in digital ad revenue in second quarter 2010, with digital accounting for 26% of total ad revenue. But total digital ad revenues for newspapers is only $2.7 billion, and is still too small to make up for the $24 billon loss in print ad revenue from 2000 to 2009. On line classifieds are hardest hit. For newspapers display ads offer the best opportunity on line.

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There is no treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease linked to obesity. It is twice as prevalent in Hispanics compared to other whites and African Americans. The fatty liver is a result of bad eating habits and lifestyle with little exercize. It is expected to be the leading cause of liver transplants in the U.S. by 2020. At the current rate about 25 millon Americans are expected to have the disease by 2025, according to the chief of liver transplant division at UCLA School of Medicine.

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Italy's borrowing costs increased by one percentage point one week after the July 22, 2011 eurozone debt deal for Greece. The Italian Treasury sold 2.7 billon euros of 10 year bonds with a yield of 5.77%. The yield in late June for a similiar bond issue was 4.94%. Yields on Spain's 10 year bonds increased to 6%. German bonds are getting investors with a 10 year bond yield that has decreased to 2.62%, which means the gap between the German bonds and the bonds of southern European countries is widening.

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Financial conditions- as measured by the quantity of money available and the availability of credit- tightened in the fourth quarter of 2009. Issuance of asset backed securities went down from $51 billon in the third quarter to $29 billion in the fourth quarter, and commercial paper outstanding declined to $1.1 trillion in January 2010 from $1.3 trillion in September 2009. A ""financial conditions index" produced by Columbia, NYU, Princeton and Deutsche bank, Goldman Sachs, shows the conditions tightening, revealing a financial sector that remains weak and impaired even with very low rates by the Fed.

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Philip Clarke has spent his whole working life at Tesco from stocking shelves when in school to other assignments. He takes over as CEO from Terry Leahy. He was store manager, product buyer, marketer and then joined the upper management ranks. Tesco is now one of the top retail chains worldwide, with 472,000 employees, and revenues of 56.9 billon pounds. As head of international operations he started Tesco in S. Korea by acquiring the 38 discount stores under the Homever name. And also made the move into India.

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The Indian pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow by 13% to $24 billion in 2010. R&D is a special focus, as new drugs can be developed at much lower cost in India. Mr. Piramal, for instance, kept the R&D operation of Piramal when he sold the rest of the company to Abbott Labs of the USA. The Piramal lab in Mumbai has 300 researchers and scientists, and Mr Piramal says he can develop new drugs at a tenth of the $1.5- $2 billon cost it takes for this in the USA and Europe.

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The southern city of Chennai (or Madras) is fast becoming a hub for car manufacturing in India. It will turn out 1.5 millon vehicles very soon. Hyundai, Daimler, Ford, Nissan and BMW all have manufacturing here. About 200,000 people are employed in the car industry in the state of Tamilnadu, of which Chennai is the capital. Hyundai entered the Indian market early and turns out 650,000 cars in Chennai. Tamilnadu state has reduced the red tape and simplified the government approval process, making it easier to setup business in the state.

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Of the $41 billion borrowed by states in the US from the federal government to pay unemployment insurance benefits, $8.8 billion was borrowed by California by mid-Nov 2010, according to the Labor Department. As states try to pay back these loans state payroll taxes are rising. One estimate showed 41 states increased unemployment insurance payroll taxes in 2010 by 34%. As unemployment periods are stretched out this time, states are running short of funds. In 2008-2009 fiscal year, states collected $31 billion of unemploymet insurance taxes and spent $79.4 billon on jobless benefits.

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Prof. Admati, of Stanford, says that with the March 2012 stress tests the Fed has prematurely announced the banks are healthy. Prof. Cole of DePaul University, questions some of the assumptions used by the Fed as too optimistic even though it used a 13% unemployment rate and decline in stock and real estate values by 21%. He says the loss of $56 billon on home equity lines of credit and second lien mortgages, 13% of the portfolio, is highly underestimated. He says the legal liabilities of banks are also underestimated.

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Foreign direct investment in Indonesia surged 30% to 51.5 trillion rupiah ($5.6 billion) for the first quarter of 2012. Indonesia's Investment Board says the mining sector gained $1.1 billion of FDI, telecom $800 million and plantations $500 millon. Singapore invested $1.2 billion, Japan $600 million, and S. Korea $500 million. Meanwhile S&P retained the BB+ credit rating for Indonesia because of concern about the government's decision not to raise subsidized fuel prices by 33% to cut a fuel subsidy bill of $15 billion, and other "policy slippages."

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An increasing portion of Spain's 663 billion euros, or $876 billion, in home mortgages is likely to default. As unemployment rises and unemployment benefits run out for the unemployed more people are likely to default under the burden of large debt. Some of the largest Spanish banks are likely to need a bailout. Analysts estimate a bailout of Spain to be at least 200 billion euros or $264 billon. The large increase in the IMF Fund recently completed by IMF head Christine Lagarde may be designed to handle such a crisis.

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U.S. housing firm Fannie Mae reported a loss of $6.5 billon for 1st quarter 2011. Home price declines pose an added risk for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the firms have a large number of foreclosed homes. Fannie and Freddie had 218,000 homes at the end of March that have to be resold, a 33% increase from 2010. Fannie Mae has about $206 billion of delinquent loans on its books. Both firms are on government life support. Fannie said it would ask for $6.2 billion in new funds from the U.S. government.

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100 billon euros. That is 100,000 millions and rising, thats the total banking debt of Ireland, says John Banville. And this for a small country of 4.6 million people. Debt for our children, and our children's children, and our children's children's children, he says. And the enemy cannot even be identified. He says one Irish building firm, owned by a decent man and well-meaning man is said to have debts of 1.5 billion euros. One thing the Irish have learned, he says, is the value of public and private honesty.

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Natural gas prices have declined to $3.34 per million BTU's in Jan 2013. This is about a fourth of the prices in 2006 and 2008, when prices were above $12 per millon BTU's. The result is a rebirth of industry in the midwest and other regions in the U.S. Here the WSJ's John Miller covers a Nucor $750 million investment in Louisiana for a new steel plant. Oddly Nucor did just the opposite in 2004, taking apart a steel plant and shipping it on ocean barges to Trinidad, where natural gas is abundant.

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Japan's new prime minister runs into difficulties in improving public finances by cutting some of the pork-barrel spending and making chages such as abolishing the gasoline tax to put more money in the hands of consumers. Cuts of wasteful spending came to less than a fourth of the target of $33 billion. The Finance Minister said that tax receipts for the year ending March 2010 would come in at $400 billion, about $100 billion less than estimated earlier, and this is less than the deficit for the current fiscal year of $590 billon.