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Svenja Schulze brings new hope and dynamism to Germany's Development Ministry. As head of the Development Ministry she brings international experience in fighting climate change as SPD minister in the last government heading the climate change related Environment ministry. There she launched the climate protection package measures aimed at making Germany climate neutral by 2045. She now heads a ministry with a budget of $13.5 billion (12 billion euros). She wants to cooperate better with the Global South with an effort to tackle poverty and help developing nations. After the shocks of the pandemic this is an essential and important task. Her predecessor as Development minister Heidemarie Wiezcorek-Zeul, SPD minister 1998-2009 says the ministry needs clout in decisionmaking and for this it is important that the Development ministry is separate and an independent entity not lumped in with the Foreign Office as in Britain. That would be quite disastrous she says.  Climate change issues are also seen as development issues and about poverty reduction. This is a useful point that Mr. Modi was trying to make as he addressed the COP26 Summit- that climate change has to be done in the overall context of mitigation, that climate change control is part of poverty reduction and brings in new opportunities when done this way. Examples are zero budget farming, and solar energy as low cost energy for rural areas in India. Here Schulze talks to employees at the Ministry and tell them "We must all strive to make a good life possible for everyone in the world, That may sound overly emotional, but it is our aspiration."  Martina Schaub, chairwoman for VENRO whivh represents 140 private and church development organizations in Germany sees Schulze as a sign of optimism. The need is great particularly in the weak health systems of many countries. It is a sign of hope, and of the new Germany under Schulz. ...

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CNN reporter Cassie Spodak provides this exceptional report into the minds of New Hampshire Democratic voters who gave Bernie Sanders a 22 percent lead in the New Hampshire Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton. In October 2016 Hillary Clinton has the support of Bernie Sanders against Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election. She described it as "100 percent support" in television debate. Sanders has appeared with Clinton twice, and campaigned 4 times in New Hampshire, and continually across the country. Younger New Hampshire voters still long for Sanders as their favored candidate. Older voters and some who have been motivated by Sanders to run for local office see the shaping of the Democratic Party platform as a victory for Sanders. Key planks of Sanders, taxes on the wealthy and higher incomes to pay for student tuition, infrastructure, and helping working class families, are now key parts of the Democratic platform. These voters see this as a pragmatic step and are enthusiastic in their support for Hillary Clinton. Overall Clinton now has 87 percent of Democratic voter support in New Hampshire according to a WMUR/UNH poll in mid October 2016, and she is doing well with millenials and independents nationally, a critical bloc of voters for Clinton to show nationwide support. One member of the steering committee for Sanders in New Hampshire named Dudley Dudley, reflects the opinion that has shifted the party to emerge united during and even more so in the final months of the presidential campaign of 2016- she tells the CNN reporter Spodak that she supports Hillary because "of the way she has grown, and stretched," and the way Clinton and Sanders are now campaigning together and working together. Both Clinton and Sanders deserve credit for their extraordinary ability to grow during their campaigns and during the party's way to shape the way forward. ...

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The first rally for Harris in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The road to the presidency goes through Wisconsin and Harris received enthusiastic support with Governor Tony Evers putting it this way-On the Tony Evers excitement scale that goes from ‘holy mackerel’ and maxes out at ‘heck yes,’ I am jazzed as hell to be welcoming our next presidential nominee to Wisconsin: Vice President Kamala Harris.” Harris used the same lines she used in Wilmington at her first rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In her legal career, Harris said, she “took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.” “So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type”  On project 2025, the blueprint for the first 100 days in office of a Trump second term, the action items are ones that would jeopardize the safety of American institutions that were set up with so much care by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and nurtured by the first president George Washington with little attention to himself, and protected by president after president through civil war under Abraham Lincoln, through 2 World Wars and The Great Depression under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, through recovery under Harry Truman and Ike, only to falter under a series of mediocre presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama and be endangered by a NBC television show and construction business person with support from new social media networks that were unknown throughout America history till 2010 and television networks that had degenerated into recklessly divisive behaviours to win silo audiences. ...

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The Guardian shows pictures in both black and white and in color from the last 50 years of US president Joe Biden. The first picture is a black and white picture from 20 November 1972 showing him cutting his 30th birthday cake with his wife Nelia, sons Beau, and Hunter. He is shown taking the oath of office for the Senate as he turned 30 the youngest senator and now the oldest former senator to be president. On the Metroliner Amtrak in 1988. He spent decades riding Amtrak to Washington D.C. He campaigned with Jill Biden for president in 1988. Not till the extraordinary situation of the pandemic in 2020 did Americans who largely ignored him give him the opportunity to lead- and at what a time when the Nation desperately needed his vision and his leadership through the largest vaccination program in history with the exception of that in India. And following this with his skills in Congress to get the legislation passed with Republicans for trillions of dollars to go into aiding families recover, and the economy to recover, investing in chips and science, and in infrastructure in ways that have happened only three times in American history, first in the early days of rail transforming a largely agricultural country during Lincoln and Grant's years as president in 1860's and 1870's, and again during the TR, Woodrow Wilson years in the 1900, 1910 period, and in the period under FDR, Truman and Ike 1940's, 1950's. No other country recovered better and stronger, and yet because of the lingering effects of the pandemic with 1 million dead from the Covid virus, and increases in the cost of living even as inflation was brought down from 9% to 3% for reasons stemming from unwise decision of American business to concentrate the supply chain in China, from housing and automobile price increases, the Nation did not immediately grasp the sheer magnitude of what had been achieved. ...

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US Business has considerable apprehension about the former president in 2024 compared to its willingness to consider Trump in 2016. At the time executives from investment bank Goldman Sachs and heads of oil companies joined the Trump administration. This time US business and corporate interests are apprehensive about becoming the target of a tweet they might find the next morning under a Trump administration. They are not supportive of student loan forgiveness, but when it comes to the CHIPS and Science Act they see president Biden as effective and helping industry. Business leaders have a negative view on the Trump effort through appointment of 3 Supreme Court Justices of overturning decades old rights of women on abortion, and on this issue alone many will support Harris-Walz, overriding other concerns they might have. The visions of Harris and Trump are so vastly different with one calling climate change a hoax and hyping up social issues and infrastructure needs without any record of delivery when in office, and the other a strong position on climate change, wages and income, delivering on infrastructure and CHIPS that US Business. The result is that it leaves US Business with no better option in 2024 than to support the vision  that takes America forward. There are different sections of the business community which have different priorities.  Silicon Valley, and oil, pharmaceuticals because it profits most from light regulation which brings with it social costs is a special issue not addressed here. Other business, banking, automobiles, and a range of other industries have other priorities yet also see the need for the economy and the US to move forward with a different vision than one that simply ignores climate change, and fails to address child care, child poverty, wide disparities in wealth, and other issues facing of wages, cost of living facing most Americans.  ...

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Myanmar's economy shows slower growth in the early period of the Suu Kyi administration. Experts say part of the reason is that the administration has slowed investment in petroleum and mining and pushed it in favor of other areas to diversify the economy. The inexperience of the government is also an issue, as Myanmar needs workplace reforms. The IMF says growth should improve to 7.5% after 6.3% growth in 2016. The government is in office for only about 2 years, and this comes after decades of mismanagement and cronyism under military rule. Another problem is that Suu Kyi is considered a micromanager and is only now delegating matters to experts, some from Australia. In a sign of the sluggish foreign investment the two American companies investing in Burma are Coca Cola and a can making company. The initial enthusiasm for investment has waned. 

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The BBC looks at the conflicting agendas when it comes to China of Rubio at State and Tulsi Gabbard at Intelligence. Lighthizer is the positive in correcting the trade imbalance with China because he served as US Trade Representative in the first DJT term and has experience going back to negotiating with Japan under Reagan as Deputy Trade Representative.  Controversial are the appointment of a Fox news person Hegeth as Defense Secretary, as he has no experience running an agency, and this one employs 3 million people. Gaetz as Attorney General is being questioned by many Republicans, and in the Senate by Cornyn (R). On spending the Office of Government Efficiency is not a department and Vivek Ramaswamy age 39 years lacks experience in administration, cost cutting. Elon Musk has cut costs at Tesla and Twitter but has no experience handling budgets of agencies. Trump has promised more spending. The cost cuts would be the opposite of what he promised if it cuts essential programs not for efficiency but for viewpoint.   ...

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On his last full day in office president Biden says at a church in Charleston, North Carolina-

“We know the struggle for redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing. The distance is short between peril and possibility. But faith — faith teaches us the America of our dreams is always closer than we think.”

We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. Must always keep the faith in a better day to come. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not kidding.”

(Biden is 82 years, DJT 78 years, Senator Bernie Sanders 82 years, and Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee 91 years).

“I’ve always heard before, ‘We’ve come too far from where we started.  Nobody told me the road would be easy.’ I don’t believe — I don’t believe He brought me this far to leave me."

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So much talk about age in office. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa is 91 years old and the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. So far he has handled the nomination hearings for Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi decently says this report. A lot of the DJT  immigration agenda and rebuilding the government agencies depends on the Judiciary Committee chairman.  Grassley remains unfazed after winning the 8th term in 2022- "We’ve got freedom of speech in this country,” he said. “But the voters speak, and I won by 13 percent or maybe 12 percent … Isn’t age just a number?” Age just a number, and president Carter made it to 100, president Biden who knows, who knows? Lyrarc.com in the adjoining article shows Biden saying at a church in Charleston, S.C. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not kidding. I'm in no ways tired." ...

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Gerard Baker's column in The Times of London looks at the possibilities and the risks for the new DJT administration. This column look at the DJT pardon of violent activity offenders on Jan 6, and the use of the office of the president for financial gains through the issue of cultural meme crypto $Trump and $Melania. The challenge for the Nation says Baker is the precedent this sets. This also poses risks and Susie Wiles wisely keeps the narrative by controlling the Musk Risk Factor in the adjoining article from The Times of London.  The many sincere efforts for public service as shown in the Senate hearings for many of the nominees that received sometimes enthusiastic bipartisan support are put at risk by losing the narrative for cultural literacy and and building an economy that works for all the people under a new administration that will also continue policies for the infrastructure and manufacturing that were put forward in DJT 2016-2020 and pushed forward by Biden in 2020-2024. ...

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The 2018 election in Mexico brings to power a party called The Movement for National Regeneration or Morena created in 2014 by Manuel Lopez Obrador, after he left the PRD. Obrador ran on the PRD ticket for president in the last two elections. Obrador won with 53% of the vote, about 30% above the vote gained by the next leading rival.  Elections for the lower house of parliament showed a steep drop from 204 seats to 45 seats for the PRI party which was in power under president Nieto. The next leading party PAN which ran the government before the Nieto term in office, and the centre left PRD, were badly weakened. PRD now has 21 members in lower house of parliament compared to 53 before. So deep were losses for the opposition parties such as PRI and PAN which alternately ran the government, and particularly the PRI which dominated Mexican politics since 1950, that experts see Mr. Obrador as replacing the PRI's dominance of politics with the centre left Morena. Morena's rise is a result of work at the grass roots level in Mexico just when the PRI was discredited for corruption and failure to maintain the rule of law. PRI candidate for president Antonio Meade was a U.S. trained former finance, foreign and social development minister who lacks grass roots activism support base. ...

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The coverage of the Republican healthcare bill and how it affects the elderly, and people on Medicaid, people in rural areas, is likely to have changed public opinion in the U.S. about the necessity of ensuring all Americans have health coverage. The Pew survey cited here in this NYT report by Zernike and Goodnough was done in Jan 2017, and shows a shift. The shift would be much higher today after people look hard at the consequences of what were simply hypothetical positions or ideological positions taken without looking at consequences in daily living. On Medicaid that opinion by July 2017 compared to Jan 2017 has shifted 10 percentage points for Republicans to 53% who think Medicaid is important to them and their families, according to Kaiser research. There is stronger sentiment about people having benefits taken away.  [article-55059] The opinion has shifted to where people see that coverage is important and people should not have coverage denied or benefits taken away from them. Opinion remains strong in favor of changes to reduce the high premiums, but not to replace the existing health benefits and law with no law at all to replace it. That leaves 20 million more uninsured according to the Congressional Budget Office. Changes have to be constructive is the popular view today,  and this requires dialogue between Republicans and Democrats- which has not taken place. ...

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Sources cited in The Times say that in seeking the resignation of chancellor Javid British prime minister Boris Johnson wanted to avoid early on the situation that existed between prime minister Cameron and Chancellor Osborne of differences in policy. There were differences between Mr. Johnson and Mr. Javid on balancing the budget and the appointment of the Governor of the Bank of England. Mr. Johnson and adviser Cummings wanted looser fiscal rules to achieve the levelling-up agenda, infrastructure spending, than Mr. Javid.  A decision on HS2 was to come from the prime minister alone not the chancellor. At one point 10 Downing Street communicated directly with the chief secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Sonak, who is now the new chancellor. Mr. Sonak 39, was only recently a junior minister.  Critical for Mr. Boris Johnson and advisor Mr. Cummings is the agenda of infrastructure and leveling up the country. It became apparent that finance would be critical for policy and investments to achieve this. It was then decided to set policy at No. 10 Downing Street and be sure that this was carried out by the chancellor and all ministers as the new way of operating. Mr. Johnson sees an opportunity to make changes for the long term through a long period in office and wanted a tight knit team right from the beginning.   ...

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Toyota showed a net profit of 290 billion yen or $3.71 billion for its fiscal first quarter. With its sharp rebound Toyota keeps it forecast of net profit of 760 billion yen, operating profit of 1 trillion yen, and sales of 22 trillion yen for the fiscal year through March 2013. Toyota set its annual production for the calendar year at 9.76 million vehicles, an increase of 23% over the prior year. By comparison General Motors showed second quarter profit of $1.85 billion, a decline of 38% from the prior year quarter, and Ford at 1.04 billion, a decline of 57%, with both companies showing losses in Europe. Toyota has smaller European sales as part of total sales. In the U.S. market Toyota expects market share to reach 14%, an increase of 1.1% from 2011, according to Takahiko Ijichi, senior managing officer.

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Development of the C919 aircraft by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). The C919 would compete with the Boeing 737 and the Airbus 320. China accounts for 22% of Airbus's orders and 15% of Boeing's orders. Comac has orders for 90 C919's from state owned airlines and two leasing companies. It also has help from suppliers GE and Honeywell. Says Bob Smith, chief technology officer of Honeywell, which has 4 joint ventures with Chinese companies to supply parts for aircraft projects from flight controls to wheels and brakes: "we are not just here to build an aircraft, we are here to build an industry." Zhang Xinguo, vice president of AVIC, a state owned company helping build the plane, says the government wants to see jumbo jets, regional planes, business jets, helicopters, all made in China by Chinese companies.

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As early as June 15, 2007, internal J.P. Morgan documents show, high-level risk management officers at Chase's investment bank sent e-mail to colleagues to report that Madoff was suspected to be running a Ponzi scheme. In Feb 2006, a risk analyst at Chase reported to his superiors that the returns of the Madoff Fund did not make sense, as it did far better than the securities reportedly in the portfolio. A lawsuit is being filed by the bankruptcy trustee of the Madoff Fund against Chase for allowing Madoff to bring billions of dollars of investor's cash into and out of his Chase bank accounts right upto the day of his arrest in Dec 2008. At the same time Chase had withdrawn $241 million of the $271 million it had invested in Madoff-linked hedge funds.

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Chadwick Matlin's review of NYT's Ross Sorkin's book "Too Big To Fail," tells the story of Fuld's cockiness, overconfidence, whats the right word? He got into a fight with his ROTC officer as a student writes Sorkin in his new book. And there he is turning down offers from a Korean bank, Barclays and Bank of America - making the wrong decision each time- because he did not recognize the danger Lehman was in and had an inflated view of Lehman, helped by staffers. Perhaps says Matlin, encouraged by the people that he surrounded himself with. A anecdote in the book is cited that shows Fuld in New Delhi asking Treasury Secretary Paulson if he could get clearance from Russia for his flight to cut 5 hours of flying time, and Paulson telling him he couldn't get that for himself.

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Olivier Blanchard, chief economist of the IMF says that as government borrowing around the world surges, interest rates will go up. Governments borrow by selling bonds to investors, and to attract investors the government competes with stock and corporate bond markets for investor's money, leading to rising yields for investors. As the confidence has returned to corporate bond markets this is already happening. From the end of 2008. the yield on the benchmark 10 year Treasury note has increased by one and ahalf percentage points, rising to 3.54% from 2%, the sharpest upward movement in 15 years. In Germany the yield on German 10 year bonds has also risen, rising to 3.57% from 2.93%. Similiarly British bond yields have risen to 3.78% from 3.41%. Congressional Budget Office estimates are that net government debt for the USA will rise to 65% of GDP at the end of fiscal 2010, from 41% at the end of fiscal 2008. In 2009 and 2010 the US government will sell $5 trillion in new debt, according to Citigroup. A decade from now the government's outstanding debt could equal 82% of GDP, or about $17 trillion. Every one point rise in interest rates costs the Treasury $50 billion annually over a few years, and Kenneth Rogoff estimates that this could reach $170 billion annually if the average yield on 10 year Treasury note goes up to 4.7%, as the Congressional Budget Office estimates. This will dampen the effects of stimulus spending. It is a big issue says Rogoff. A year ago under old policy and assumptions before the financial crisis the Congressional Budget Office projected outstanding debt at $5.3 trillion in 10 years. Now the estimate is $17 trillion, which is triple the old number and an increase of $11 trillion. A recovering economy would make these numbers less relevant. But with struggling industries like autos and banks needing more help from the government, and with consumers having to reduce a mountain of debt, a weak economy for a long time and small growth for a decade would make this a story that won't go away. Rogoff says its like what happened to the subprime borrowers, people assuming that the funding is always going to be there. In 2009 and 2010 Citigroup says, the Euro zone countries will sell nearly 1.6 trillion euros or $2.6 trillion in new debt, and Britain will offer 490 billion pounds or $799 billion in new debt. Over the next decade this would slow Europe's recovery and prolong the downturn. Britain faces a bigger problem in the near term as Britain's governmetn debt equals 55% of GDP, and Standard and Poors estimates it could approach 100% by 2013. South America and Eastern Europe will also face the situation of rising rates. Asian countries like China with lower levels of debt are in a better situation, IMF's Blanchard says....

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Friedman visits the campaign office of Abdel Moneim Fotouh, a doctor running for president of Egypt. What he finds is a lively debate among Egyptians, new and many voices discussing the future of Egypt and a transition to democratic forms of government and economic progress. One newly elected member of parliament Hamzawy tells Friedman that Islamists from the Brotherhood have about two thirds of the seats, the liberals 20%. Moderates within the Islamists like Fotouh, who left the Brotherhood, form a separate faction inside the Brotherhood. There will be a need to transcend differences and work together. Egypt is still under the rule of the military, but many democratic voices are now present and a lively debate is on which will provide the impetus for real change and progress, if properly channelled.

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According to the General Accountability Office inquiry, 28 drug products had price increases over 100% in 2000, in 2008 71 drug products had such large increases. Medicines like Adderall for attention deficit disorder, Inderal for chest pain, Sumycin for infections were in the list of 416 brand name drug products where makers or distributors raised prices at least once by 100% or more for period 2000-2008. As large pharmaceutical companies sold their marginally profitable drug products or small selling products to smaller companies, these smaller companies would immediately increase prices to recover the money they paid to the large pharmaceutical companies. 26 of the brand name products saw prices raised 10 fold. A third of the drugs with large price increases treat depression and disorders of the central nervous system.

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Difficulty attracting foreign investors to India's bond market. After adjusting for consumer inflation India's three month Treasury bill pays a negative 2.3%, according to Citi. Official foreign funds data for India shows as of Dec. 16, 2013, that foreigners used up only 32% of the quotas assigned to them in the bond market. If they were to use up the entire quota this would be $81 billion compared to the deficit for the year ending March of $50 billion. Foreign investors also have to deal with the risk that the currency could depreciate as in the summer of 2013, for which they need higher interest rates. The RBI increased interest rates twice since Rajan's taking office in September 2013. During 5 months of 2013 foreigners made a net withdrawal of $12.9 billion.

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Sara Korshid, a Egyptian journalist, laments the wasted last two and a half years in which the military was ousted only to have the Muslim Brotherhood take office under a flawed and rushed road map set by the then military leaders, without a clear allocation of powers between the judiciary, parliament and the executive branches of government. The failure of the Muslim Brotherhood led by older authoritarian leaders to reach out to accomodate liberals -who supported Morsi and helped him get elected with 51% of the vote- leading to the ouster of president Morsi brings the Egyptian people back to square one. Real misgivings about having the military intervene are shared by liberals like Korshid, who are yet determined to start the process over to get it right.

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Britain's 2013 budget provides some benefits to home buyers. Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne says the Bank of England will have more leeway with its inflation target to aid economic growth. Britain's Office of Budget Responsibility says growth will be down to 0.6% in 2013, and 1.8% in 2014. This is a result of weak exports to the eurozone and decline in consumer spending. The government now expects to borrow 240 billion pounds more than forecast for the 5 year period ending April 2016, as a result of the weaker economy. Debt as a percentage of GDP will not decline by 2015 as planned earlier, it will be 2018 before this happens. Osborne said: the plan "is taking longer than anyone hoped. But we must hold to the right track."

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Zeit Online shows in this article the continued efforts of the Russian government of president Putin to discredit Chancellor Merkel, following efforts to do this for Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election.  During the Ukraine crisis and the settlement accords of 2014 Germany was seen as a partner by Russia, following sanctions, and renewal of these sanctions Russia no longer sees Germany as a partner. This report shows Russian efforts to discredit chancellor Merkel and the use of RT German channel, WikiLeaks reports of Chancellor Merkel and the TTIP agreement, for the same purpose. The refugee crisis following what is happening in Syria with Russian involvement, terrorism, financial crisis aftermath from 2008, are being used  says Zeit Online to support a movement for "order" as the state ideology now put forward from the Russian government. This could be an early indicator for the 2017 German federal elections, says Zeit Online. Merkel has said that she supports continuation of western sanctions on Russia. It is hard to see what Russia has gained in improving its economy and the standard of living of the people from this type of political action. Putin was able to achieve economic goals during 2005-2010 using good Germany- Russian relations as shown in LyrArc. This was the earlier period of Putin's terms in office, with a broad group of advisors, including finance minister Kudrin, who set forward a prudent economic course for Russia including foreign investment. The world and Russia are poorer from the departure from this earlier set of policies which would have enhanced Russia's economic growth. Kudrin was fired in September 2011, and the economic course has gradually drifted away from what is most prudent for the Russian economy and growth, and for the global economy. Nationalism was part of an earlier period before 1950, that led to frequent wars and economic catastrophes. A new course has been set since then, especially by American presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and people in India, China, the developing world, in Europe and in the U.S., would see little to gain from the politics of that earlier period in world relations.  ...