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The Editorial Board of the Washington Post says people should be concerned about going back to the 70's when New York City struggled with funding and went downhill. The very goal of affordability that Mamdani is trying to achieve could end up being hit because the methods may not work at all. It says free bus service means a transit funding hole, city run stores would hurt privately run stores, and a rent freeze would depress housing supply. Greg Ip in the WSJ compares Austin with NYC with Austin seeing 20% increase in housing supply to NYC 3% in 2020-2024. Austin had a 23% jump in one year in housing prices but it came down and over 4 years rent increases in NYC are 20% in Austin 11%.  It is only that much of the New Yorker educated elites have let the city down so much by not finding solutions to the affordability crisis and not focusing on fixing infrastructure and modernization of the American cities, in the last three decades that this has happened- as a desperate young population turns to giveaways or free services across the board as a solution that never works. A fiscal crisis could happen as in the 1970's creating another vicious cycle says the Washington Post. It says one can only hope that the damage is at the margins. ...

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Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra has the right attitude in sports. He is 38, has decided to play cricket only in certain formats, about 8 matches a year. He is a fast pace bowler for Himachal Pradesh cricket team. Here he shares thoughts with PTI reporter that he does not follow what people say about him, about his age, and does not follow Twitter or Facebook. He says what matters is how he practices for the sport. After 12 surgeries and a injury this year Ashish says he knows what it is to be under the knife. People will say many things if he plays well and even more things if he does badly. Ashish says what matters in the end is how he prepares for the sport, like any sport it is the preparation and long hours of practice that make a difference. What he does and how he plays the selection board and the captain of the team know very well, which is why he was invited to play again for India. Ashish can bowl fast comparable to younger bowlers, and has played for India as long as other veteran players M.S. Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh. He conserves his energy by not playing 5 day Test matches. He can then give 100 percent to the 24 or more balls he may bowl in a game. He bowls at about 140 km per hour. In many ways Ashish has the right attitude for sports. Leaving aside the praise or criticism and concentrating on what is ahead. Not even thinking too far ahead. Sometimes it is just the next game, this year, which needs all the attention and can make all the difference. Playing the right way, working diligently at it, helping coach younger players, is all that really counts, in this sport, or any sport.       ...

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Trust bank is rescued with a $530 million injection by Russia's central bank in Dec. 2014. The bank was taken over by the Deposit Insurance Agency which guaranteed the deposits of customers. As Russia raises interests by 17%, the ruble stabilizes with a 5% gain on Dec. 22, 2014. Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister and the architect of Russia's improved finances during Putin's previous terms in office, told a news conference that Russia now faces a full fledged economic crisis that will be painful in 2015. He expects a drop of 40% in imports, inflation at 12 to 15%, and decline in living standards. He also said Russia's credit rating could fall to junk status making it difficult to obtain financing. Kudrin was critical of the way the Russian government handled the crisis, saying action was slow and the government did not act as one team. He called for improved relations with western partners- "For a way out of the crisis, it is of high importance to regulate relations with our foreign partners- first of all with Europe, the U.S. and other partners."...

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Liverpool has depended more on government help for its revival than other cities in Britain. The austerity budget will have a serious impact on Liverpool. The Northwest Regional Development Agency will be affected by cutbacks. About an eighth of all public sector jobs may be lost, and this could wipe out the 37% increase in public sector jobs gained in the 13 years before 2008.

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This WSJ editorial says the Indian government will have to do more to increase the growth rate. Rising inflationary pressures at 5% for core inflation are still present, with inflation in food prices running higher at 10%. Which may be the reason after a cut of 0.5%, Reserve Bank of India Governor Subbarao stated this would be all the country should expect for some time.

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In hearings before Congress in the USA, the leaders of Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil said that they would not drill the well the way BP did (Tillerson-ExxonMobil), that the standards that should have been implemented were not in place (Watson-Chevron), and that its not a well that they would have drilled in that mechanical setup (Odum-Shell). On one issue all the companies came under criticism. All 5 oil major oil companies presented virtually the same plans to government regulators and the Congressional committee on their response plans for a major spill. As the oil spill has dragged on unresolved there is increasing frustration with BP's response and the other oil company leaders are moving away from presenting a common front in this crisis, which they had done upto now.

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The Indian public from retired businessmen, farmers, students, and the press are coming out in support of anti-corruption leader Anna Hazare's call for effective legislation to control corruption of public officials in India. This comes after a number of corruption scandals and lack of action from the Congress government. The government's bill in parliament - introduced after pressure from public opinion- sets up an ombudsman or Lokpal agency, which would exclude from its jurisdiction the very public officials over whom it was meant to exercize oversight. Under the government's bill the prime minister, the public officials in the bureaucracy and the judiciary would be excluded. This has set up a confrontation with an increasingly exasperated public, with Hazare's protest fast in central New Delhi as the catalyst for protest across the country. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament that he sees it as an issue of parliamentary sovereignty, as Hazare's protest is for a version of the bill that he has drafted to be adopted. But the public's sense is that Hazare is only responding with his own draft of the bill because of the government's effort to make only a token effort by not giving the anti-corruption body the powers it needs to function effectively. The response has brought thousands of demonstrators from around the country to Tihar jail where Hazare is being held by the government after his arrest. The situation is reminiscent of the protests against the British imperial government by Mohandas Gandhi, and in this sense has serious implicatons for how the country is governed. Corruption was prevalent in India during the days of the license Raj in the period 1950-1990 when business needed government permits in the closed economy of the Nehru period, and corruption existed in the bureaucracy in its delivery of public services. Since 1990 as the economy opened up and the growth rate increased corruption at all levels of government has in some ways increased and become embedded in the bureaucracy and government. This hurts the poor and the middle class the most, as corruption acts as a tax on the delivery of public services and infrastructure development, both badly needed in an emerging market country....

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This editorial in the WSJ says one of the mysteries of the Republican campaign primaries of 2016 is why each candidate, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Christie, and Carson, all took on each other and not Trump- in the process leaving Trump to be "winning, winning, winning."

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News from all over the world comes into the New York Times Foreign Desk. Decisions have to be made which stories to run, and which stories go on the front page. Computer screens in the newsroom show the latest reporting from reporters around the world.

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House Democrats in the USA want to require all steel to be used in stimulus infrastructure projects come from the USA. Some of these moves may result in moves by other countries to require that their stimulus spending use made at home only provisions.

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Solomon and Lee of the WSJ describe the role played by Ayatollah Ali Khamanei in the talks, down to the final days- as late as July 14, U.S. Secretary of State Kerry is described as asking his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, "do you have the mandate of the Supreme Leader?" Zarif replying that he was confident that he did. The media announcement of a deal came that same day July 14, 2015. The last weeks of the negotiations were conducted under the tension that if a deal was not reached quickly the Iranian military or some other factions could upset the deal. Even after the announcement of the deal in the media, Kerry was not certain, saying he never indicated he was confident, and it would all depend on its implementation. U.S. president Obama who initiated the contacts with Khamanei and his close advisors early in his presidency, said that the deal offered the U.S. and the world an opportunity to move in a new direction.

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The G-20 summit in April had as its achievement the $1 trillion that would go to aid for emerging countries and other countries in need. But this number may not be what it appears to be and should be seen with care. Prof. Eswar Prasad, former division chief for China at the IMF, and now Professor at Cornell University, says there is double counting in the numbers, and a lot of the money has not yet been committed. With trade financing only a quarter of the $250 billion is fresh cash, the rest is trade financing that is rolled over every 6 months. For the Special Drawing Rights issuance of $250 billion, a kind of virutal currency that is set by a basket of real currencies like the dollar and the euro, the IMF will issue SDR's to all 185 of its members. This is not cash but a form of credit, against which a country can borrow. The Obama administration that came up with this idea thinks it will create $15 to $20 billion in additional credit for the poorest countries. For this to happen the US has to lend out its special drawing rights to poor countries, and this requires congressional approval. Of the $500 billion in direct commitments, Dr Prasad says less than half has been commited by Japan, the EU, Canada and Norway. China says it will put in $40 billion probably by buying bonds issued by the IMF. The US contribution of $100 billion has to be authorized by Congress. Even with the US contribution Prasad sees a shortfall of $145 billion of the $500 billion in donations. And the Saudis, the Indians will require a bigger say in the IMF to contribute some of this. ...

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It is important to remember that Republicans Wendell Wilkie who ran in 1940 and Dewey in 1944 and 1948, Eisenhower in 1952, 1956, all adopted the worker protections for safety, hours and wages, and the employment stabilization programs set up by Perkins for the two Roosevelts- Republican Teddy Roosevelt who gave her her start 1911 and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt 1924-1944. Basically it setup what we call the Modern World where America was the model of modern industrialization for the whole World. Important to remember as Labor and Capital go through a reaffirmation of the principles guiding same issues that dogged America before. The Frances Perkins Exhibit at Columbia University in 2010 showed the most influential woman for the lives of ordinary American citizens and workers, workers families and children, for three decades 1920's to the 1950's. The first woman to serve as a key member of the cabinet. One who guided the legislation that set up the structure in which labor and capital each participated equally in the economic structure of modern America. Perkins was educated at Mount Holyoke College which had Corinthians 1 15  as motto "Be ye steadfast." She got her Masters degree in Economics and Sociology from Columbia University. She studied economics at University of Pennsylvania before going to Columbia University.  She is the only member of the cabinet who served not just all 12 years from1932 to 1944 under Franklin Roosevelt, but also before that from 1924 to 1932 for NY Governors Al Smith and Roosevelt, and before that for Teddy Roosevelt as head of the Committee on Public Safety in 1911. When Harry Truman followed FDR Perkins asked to run the Social Security administration, was made Civil Service Commissioner in 1944. She lectured at Cornell University during the Eisenhower administration.  ...

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This report in WSJ takes a detailed look at how the shift to digital payments, and digital badges for covid free designation on smartphones are affecting a part of the population of 60+ years that is notinternet or smartphone savy.  60+ years make up only 10% of the users of internet on age based graph, even though they are a large part of China's rapidly aging population, estimated to be closer to 20% of the population or about 250 million. Elderly people in China are having a hard time with scanning of health codes to access transport and other services. To tackle the covid pandemic China has health codes assigned to citizens which link user national ID and Covid status. These need to be scanned in for access to train and transport facilities and other services, color coded digital badges on smartphones that show one is covid free.  Most elderly cannot handle these smartphone tasks because they lack the skills of young people with smartphones or lack the digital payments having used cash all their life. Other problems are poor eyesight, health problems, but the most severe is a big skills handicap in downloading apps, in typing quickly, and in navigating the internet. The government is taking steps to provide relief for the elderly by prohibiting places of services from refusing to accept cash, and finding ways to make the health codes system work for seniors. ...

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The median net worth of Hispanic and Black families has been severely affected by the recession. Because minorities hold a much larger part of their assets in household equity the foreclosure crisis and the recession have had a devastaing impact on both minority groups. The median net worth of Hispanic families dropped by two thirds and black families by half after the 2008 recession from the 2005 figures, and was around $6000 for 2009 for both groups, according to data from the Pew Research Center. The Pew report shows median net worth of a white family is 20 times that of a black family, and 18 times that of a Hispanic family, with the gap between these minorities and whites twice as large in 2009 compared to the period before the recession in 2005. This was even true for Asian American families, whose median net worth dropped by half from 2005 to 2009, to $78,000. The figure for whites dropped much less from $135,000 to $113,000 during the same period. Another significant finding is that within each group the share of the wealthiest 10% of the people increased between 2005 and 2009, for all households this went up from 49% to 56%, for Hispanics from 56% to 72%, for Blacks from 59% to 67%....

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 Donald trumps economic plan would worsen the country's economy through extravagant borrowing and lower economic growth in the long run. Because it lowers taxes by 15 percent without any paired cuts Trump's plan would worsen the deficit, so that large debt would hurt the economy in the long run. Clinton's plan would increase taxes by 4  percent largely on high incomes so as not to hurt consumer spending, with paired spending to help lower income households. Because Trump's tax cuts benefits go disproportionately to higher incomes the benefits in terms of consumer spending are slight or insignificant. In the current state of weak income gains of the last ten years it would take some time for the middle and working class to recover. Clinton's plan carefully nudges that recovery forward without aggravating the debt, so that as incomes and net worth recovers across broad parts of the population, the U.S. is poised to go forward with strong growth as in the postwar years. Trump's plan frontloads tax benefits to higher incomes at the expense of worsening debt and enlarging future debt. In the process it worsens income disparities already aggravated by the 2008 financial crisis. Reducing the chances of a broad based recovery for all parts of the population, necessary for a strong recovery.                       ...

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Unacceptable is that American men in their 20's and 30's are falling behind women in their 20's and 30's, in education and in economic prospects, says this report in WSJ. More young men are living with their parents than young women. As this report shows men are more dependent on manufacturing, women are more dependent on remote work, one more reason manufacturing is so important for our economy. In ways economists with specialized macroeconomic knowledge and statistical approach don't get what requires an overall knowledge and understanding of how the economy works when it works well for the People and the Nation. As a result what is not true for young women is true for young men, that this generation of young men see fewer opportunities than their parents did. This is a central task of a Harris administration- to address this, one of the unacceptables including fentanyl and for orderly immigration, loss of manufacturing. For building US manufacturing that also plays right into opportunities for young people, and getting more young people into apprenticeships, one of the key pieces of Harris's economic platform. Simply lowering taxes won't do it- this generation is all about investing and doing this well and with the full power of America's resources. ...

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Economists from Mankiw, Eichengreen, Kashyap, Harrison Hong, Brad Long and others all agree that capital is front and centre, capital injection into the banks has to be the centrepiece of any action plan, and that a coordinated plan by all countries is necessary for it to work effectively. The remarkable consensus is registernig among policy planners and central bankers and finance ministers, as this is the direction that Paulson and the rest of the G8 are following, taking the cue from Gordon Brown's announced plan for the UK that made capital injection a key feature for recapitalizing the banks and getting credit flowing. Governments also need to guarantee the interbank markets as banks are shy of lendig to each other because of fear of what may be on the other party's balance sheet, something the US has still to do.

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This behind the scenes account  shows how the NATO communique with policy declaration was prepared by July 6 before European leaders and Mr. Trump set foot in Brussels on July 11. It shows to what lengths key members in the Trump administration will go to achieve American objectives in preserving the NATO alliance. Particularly now that Russia is taking an aggressive stance to NATO near its borders.  General Mattis at Defense Department pushed for the 4 30's initiative which is about preparing a rapid deployment force to be ready by 2020. This is in the communique. Also in the communique is the setup of a command post in Norfolk, Virginia, ready to act to deploy forces in Europe. U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kailey Hutchinson, received the demand from National Security Adviser Bolton to have ambassadors from all countries work overtime to get the declaration done by July 6. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General supported this effort. All were concerned that there should be no repeat of the mess that happened for the G-7 communique when at the last minute president Trump refused to sign on, leading to derisive comments about Canada's Justin Trudeau. It was seen as critical to preserve the sense of unity in the U.S. alliance with Europe. This time there was no disruption even though Mr. Trump acted unpredictably in Brussels. ...

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The appointments to key economic positions in the Jinping-Keqiang administration in 2013 reflect continuity and importance given to experience. Zhou Xiaochuan continues as head of the central bank PBOC, to keep an experienced person in the the event of a financial crisis. Lou Jiwei, chairman of the sovereign wealth fund, is now the new finance minister. Xu Shaoshi, minister of land and resources, is the new head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the economic planning agency. Xiao Gang, chairman of the Bank of China, one of four state owned banks, will be the new head of the securities regulator, China Securities Regulatory Commission. Zhang Gaoli, a member of the Political Standing Committee of the Communist party, and Wang Yang, party chief of southern Guangdong province, also join the economic team. Li Keqiang, the new prime minister emphasized the agenda for the next decade telling a press conference: "Talking the talk is not as good as walking the walk. We need to pursue market oriented reforms." This means giving the private sector and consumers a signficant role in the Chinese economy....

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The failure of the 117th Congress to pass key parts of president Biden's agenda for hard hit families and workers in America is now taking place. The 50-50 standoff in the US Senate and failure of two Democrat senators Sinema of Arizona, Manchin of West Virgina to support Biden's Families and Workers Plan leaves key parts of the safety net being left out. This leaves out the education, and paid leave part of the agenda and provisions for utilities to accelerate shift away from coal out of the bill. It fails to implement a new national agenda for upward mobility, child care and paid leave to help stressed out mothers and families. The failure to include even a modest community college 2 years of support at a time when men's college enrollment is dropping to disastrous levels for America's economic competitiveness is a failure of the 117th Congress to grasp the needs of families and workers in America today. Only a new Congress in 2022 can take up the needed action for families and workers in education, health care, child care and help for families. The passage of the infrastructure bill and the current version of the social spending bill can only be seen as a first step in the right direction, after three decades of different administrations neglecting infrastructure, education, healthcare, childcare, elderly care, upward mobility, and climate change. On the plus side as the first step to restore dignity and health of families and workers in America it includes- $150 billion for rental assistance, home buying help, public housing repairs, and building 1 million affordable housing units. $150 billion for federal programs for home health care and community care for older Americans and people with disabilities $165 billion to reduce premiums for people under Affordable Health Care Act, cover additional 4 million through Medicaid, adding hearing coverage but not dental or vision to Medicare. $200 billion for child care tax credit to parents. $400 billion to reduce health care costs and give universal pre-kindergarden for 3-4 year old children. $40 billion for worker training $555 billion for fighting climate change including through tax incentives for sources of energy that are low emission and low carbon. It will be paid for by additional taxes on incomes of very high income earners in annual $1 million plus range, and by having a corporate minimum tax of 15% for large corporations, including on profits overseas, that previously did not pay this tax. A wealth tax on unrealized capital gains of billionaires or other wealth of the richest Americans is left for a future Congress to consider for financing the key parts of climate change provisions, education and health care that were left out. The education and healthcare provisions need to be expanded to restore America's historic mission of upward mobility for all. A provision for Medicare to comprehensively negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies that would be taken for granted in any advanced country as in Europe, is also left for a future Congress that understands and responds to the dire needs of families and workers in America for affordable healthcare medicine neglected by administration after administration for the last three decades.   ...

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The Fed's efforts so far to revive lending have done little to create confidence even though the rate cuts have lowered the federal funds rate to 1.5%. Bernanke's efforts to randomly spread liquidity across the economy is not helping frozen credit markets and jumpstarting lending. Business Week's Coy and Reed call it "helicopter money" that is spread all over the landscape and remin readers that Bernanke was referred to "Helicopter Ben" after one of his speeches citing Milton Friedman in 2002. Friedman coined that metaphor. Paul Welfens, president of the European Institute of International Economic Relations in Wuppertal, Germany says "its very dangerous not to have a strategy, as the situation is worsening because no one is doing a program to restore confidence." Gordon Brown's plan in the UK to jumpstart lending by injecting capital into the banks for equity stakes is supported by Business Week's Coy and Reed. Coy and Reed suggest a targeted approach including not wasting money on weak banks that may be consolidated or allowed to disappear. They cite Robert Diamond, President of Barclays bank who says that "as the tide goes out the weak models and the weak managements are revealed, we are goiing to see significant consolidation in banking across Europe."...

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Kotter on how projecting a sense of urgency to others and getting people motivated and eager to get something done comes not from putting up a lot of intellectual stuff and power point slides but by talking to people on a level where one relates to them, with stories they can relate to, with humor that relaxes them, with human behaviour that makes one feel comfortable with the speaker and make it easy to relate to what he is saying. Anything new? It may be just that we have been told for so long about the merits of a lot of organized powerpoints in doing things and it may be that middle and higherups in the organization have been trained to expect them so that you better have them or you'd be considered unprepared and frowned on. But in reality it seems perfectly natural that people can relate to a speaker who can talk to you rather than have you look at a screen for a long time, its how we as humans were trained to receive information until this new wave of slides and powerpoints came along. Not that they are not useful when used in the appropriate manner or situation to convey information for instance. But in persuading people, in motivating them as well as getting them to take action in a particular direction a few organized and purposely summarized powerpoints suffice if used at all, and then the rest of the time the speaker can simply talk to the best inall of us to reach and bring out that best and turn on our inner powers for some good cause....

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Muhammad Azhar Ali, factory manager for National Foods plant near Karanchi, Pakistan, describes what it is like running a manufacturing operation in Pakistan. National Foods is the largest manufacturer of pickles and other spice products in Pakistan. A big problem is the lack of security and terrorism. This remains a constant cause of anxiety for business people in Pakistan. Its like being in a war zone says the National Foods chairman Abdul Majeed. Another major problem is lack of reliable electricity supplies. Supply of electricity is only one third of national demand in Pakistan. Larger companies such as Lucky Cement generate their own electricity, with Lucky Cement producing 150 megawatts from its plants. Smaller companies like National Foods rely on diesel generators. To conserve electricity many factory, floor office and bathroom lights are turned off. For workers the lack of electric supplies and high inflation affect lives in many ways. National Foods has a weighing department and assesses workers picked up from many parts of Karanchi to see if they are fit for work or are unduly stressed from poor living conditions. This is a side of Pakistani life that is rarely touched on-the daily lives of workers and managers. Ali works harder than other production managers in other countries because of the power shortages and lack of security. He would like to devote time to increase productivity and be more like other production managers. The war with the Taliban has cost Pakistan $68 billion in destroyed infrastructure, security costs, lost foreign investment according to one estimate. ...

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The expansion plans of VW will add more competition into the US market which is declining. Martin Winterkorn ran VW's Audi business. He became VW's new CEO this year and brings a new leadership perspective to his job. He has several new strategies. In the area of pricing he wants to reduce unneeded features such as external mirrors that fold inward for narrow European streets, and bring down the price of VW Jetta and Passat models to be competitive with Toyota's Corolla and Camry models. Currently a Jetta is $17,000, a Corolla is $ 15,200 and a Passat is $23900 compared to a Camry at $20,000. VW's plans are to set a sales target of 1 million cars by 2018, tripling sales in ten years from the current 330,000 vehicles. In the next 3 years to 2010 sales world wide are expected to increase by 12 to 15%, VW wants to capture a bigger share by seeing its sales increase by 30% from the six million units today to 8 million units by 2010. Winterkorn sees this as possible given that VW has a more centralized management structure now which makes for quicker decisions. VW is also working on a new family of small fuel efficient cars on a common platform to be sold in China, India and other markets where a small car will be popular. Winterkorn referred to its new concept car as an example of the direction this would take. As importing cars from Europe is becoming costlier with the strong euro and the Japanese in contrast have the advantage of a weaker yen, the expansion plans will require lower pricing. VW looks to build a plant in the USA. Another strategy is to add 12 new models to its global product line and to launch more new vehicles in new product segments. This is what Winterkorn thinks has given Toyota its increased sales. A new compact SUV caled the Tiguan will be introduced. What all this means is that VW is seeking to move buyers of Japanese and American cars to try German cars, make German cars cost less and make a strong showing in the American and global markets. ...