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As U.S. coronavirus cases reached 2 million, a new virus hotspot emerges in Arizona. With the economy reopening attention has shifted to how the economic damage can be reduced and businesses remaining open. Many retail businesses relied on online orders,or in the case of restaurants on takeout orders, now these stores and businesses are gradually reopening with social distancing and other rules.

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Najib Razak of the UMNO United Malay National Organization who succeeded post independence leader Mahathir Mohamed of Malaysia is implicated in the1MDB scandal that also involved Goldman Sachs. $4.3 billion is estimated to be stolen from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. Razak is given a15 year jail sentence in a scandal that has rocked Malaysian politics and reduced confidence in Malaysia's investment for modernization. irreparable harm is done to the nation's British inherited institutions for law and order, responsible parliamentary government, following the long premiership of Mahathir, ethnic nationalist "putra" movement of the UMNO, and the governments that followed Mahathir including Razak. Similar problems have affected other countries with ethnic nationalist movements in Sri Lanka where corruption and mismanagement of the state finances and treasury led to lack of funds for essential imports, and in other countries in Asia. Corrupt practices and misuse of state funds intended for development became a feature of government in Indian states following the rule of the Indian Congress party under Jawaharlal Nehru, with ethnic nationalism creating ethnic states in India, and causing irreparable harm to development and modernization with lack of capital and policy decisions. This has led to the lag of modernization in India with China of about 10-15 years that also affects defense at the Himalayan border with China as China's hybrid state capitalist economy surpassed India and matched the US in 2 decades 2000-2025. Only now is India under responsible governance pushing to close the gap and modernize rapidly under a new government in it's third term. Much of the thinking that accompanied post independence decolonization is now under question with it's assumptions that decolonization alone would lead to development is debunked. Modernization as China and India has learned comes from the good and responsible use of abundant capital, abundant labor, and abundant management resources, abundant technological access, good policy and plans at the federal and state levels, and good sustained leadership from the top. ...

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Indian exports to US drop from $8.8 to $5.5 billion May to September drop of 37%. A trade agreement is likely and should be similar to Japan's or EU where with Japan it is now 15% and with EU it is 10%, both key allies of the US. India is also a key ally in Asia requiring the DJT administration -once it gets over Modi-DJT differences on the nuclear aspect of the India-Pakistan 48 hour conflict in 2025, and India reverts to getting oil and energy from non Russian sources as it did in 2019, and issues of agricultural exports to India- to drop this tariff of additional 25% for Russian oil and drop the basic tariff of 25% to 15% as the US did with Japan. At 15% Japan and India will still be able to compete with China's 47% (dropped from 57%) to export to the US.  The result can be positive for India as it improves it's cost effectiveness to export to the US and EU, with rapid investment to improve logistics, and streamlining import of technologies and machinery to rapidly cut costs of production. ...

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Corporate customers now make up about 20% of RIM Blackberry customers, down from 71% in 2007 when the Apple iPhone was introduced. This means competing with Apple and Samsung in the consumer phone market. Business users bring more revenue per customer. A looming threat to RIM is the BYOD trend with companies allowing employees to bring their own phones and giving access to corporate data networks. Some companies are giving the new Blackberry 10 a try. Blackberry shares are up 41% in the last 3 months. Yet the challenge of keeping business customers and building a customer base in the consumer market against established competitors in 2013-2014 is a daunting one. RIM's global market share is 4.6%, according to IDC.

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Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will provide $250 million to New York Times in return for warrants that can be converted into 15.9 million common shares at a strike price of $6.36, close to where the price was last week. The notes carry a interest rate of 14% and are due in 2015. The Sulzbergers control 19% of the company's equity and control the company through super-voting shares. If Slim exercizes the warrants he would control 18% of the company's equity. Times faces a liquidity crisis and the $250 million may not be enough for it to survive as an independent company. The New York Times borrowed heavily in the boom years and it had $1.1 billion of debt at the end of September 2008, and only $46 million in cash. Much of that debt is coming due in the next couple of years. It has a $400 million credit facility that expires in May 2009, $250 million in notes due in 2010, and a $400 million credit facility expiring in 2011. Its stock has fallen 50% already and its debt is rated "junk" by S&P....

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Asset reports of Fed governors and candidates for Fed chairman show Ben Bernanke and Daniel Tarullo at the low end of $1-$3 million, Stein, Duke and Yellen at $5-$12 million in the middle, and at the high end are Summers $8-$31 million, and Powell between $17-$40 million.

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Netherlands is becoming a much more crowded country with housing scarcity and high rents with increasing immigration. At this pace the population which was only 10 million in 1950 and 14 million in 1980 is now 17.2 million and expected to hit 22 million. By 1950 Queen Juliana in her parliament speech was calling for migration to ease congestion, says The Times. 620,000 people migrated to Canada, Australia. and 450,000 returned from Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. Most parties now oppose the high level of immigration into the urban sprawl of Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amsterdam home to about 9 million people.

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Founded in 1880, Carl Welcker's company has seen the changing fortunes of manufacturing for over a century, during depression and after the wars. Still the 50% drop in orders for this company, which makes the machines that make 80% of the spark plugs in the world, is like nothing Carl Welcker has experienced. Its a tragedy he says. Its the speed of the manufacturing decline that is causing concern. In Europe where a fifth of GDP comes from manufacturing industrial production is down 12% from ayear ago. In Brazil it is down 15%, in Taiwan 43%. In China exports are down 25%. In the USA, industrial output went down by 11% in February 2009, according to the Federal Reserve. The pattern of this decline recalls the pattern of 1929, as tightening creedit and consumer fear reduces demand for manufactured goods in one country after another, creating a downward spirtal that reduces global trade. And of concern is that trade is declining even faster than manufacturing.German exports are down 20% from ayear ago, Japan's have plunged 46%, and in the USA exports fell at an annualized rate of 23.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008. A company like Schutte in Cologne, Germany, expanded rapidly as globalization opened new markets in Eastern Europe and Asia. Sales more than doubled in 5 years from 58 million euros to 100 million euros. Which suggests that the extraordinarily rapid expansion of the last few years may have its reverse effect heightened in a slowdown, as those additional sales to China and Eastern Europe disappear. For the USA manufacturing accounts for 14% of GDP, for the world 18%, and for China 33%. But this creates a misperception about the importance of American manufacturing exports. First, manufacturing contributed more to GDP growth than any other sector of the US economy, and accounts for two thirds of American exports, says the chief economist for the National Association for Mnaufacturers in Washington. America's share of global manufacturing output, he says, has remained steady at 20 to 23% for the past decade. This covers jet engines, locomotives, pharmaceuticals, and high tech products. For countries like India where manufacturing accounts for 16% of GDP, the last quarter of 2008 saw the first quarterly production decline in over a decade. And industries like handicrafts exports have fallen by 55% to $1.35 billion, and textile makers have cut half a million jobs. ...

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Tariff revenues from import duties on imports from China on apparel, electronics, tools, consumer goods added up to $7 billion in September 2019. A 15% duty on consumer goods was effective September 1, 2019, with $111 billion of this item imported in 2018. 

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Biden approves 31 Abrams tanks for Ukraine. This will take months. Germany has also approved 14 Leopard tanks to Ukraine and this allows Poland and Spain to also send Leopard tanks to Ukraine. The German Leopards are more mobile and easier to deploy in Ukraine than the Abrams US tanks, which is why there was extraordinary effort to get German approval to start their deployment in Ukraine.

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In a sign of the severity of climate change impact in China 86 cities in southern and eastern China are shown to have heat alerts as of July 12. Temperatures over 40 degrees were only recorded for 15 days since 1873 in Shanghai says this report in The Guardian. Shanghai expects hot weather of 40 degrees. Cities Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing are experiencing extreme weather.

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The economies of Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt dependent on 12-26% of earnings from abroad on tourism are hit by the war in Gaza. Israeli tourism is also affected with only half of the flights going in. Egypt was a bright spot after the pandemic faded with a strong recovery above that of pre pandemic levels. In 2023 Egypt expected to see 15 million tourists.

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Evergrande is asked to demolish in 10 days 39 buildings on an artificial man made island off Hainan on China's southern coast. The island was supposed to resemble man made islands in Dubai. Authorites stated the permits were improperly obtained and cited damage to coral reefs on the southern coast. Apartment sales for Evergrande are down to $113 million in the last quarter of 2021.

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Alluvial soil near a mountain range, dry soil that does not soak up water, led to the quick flash flooding in Libya from climate change induced sudden rainfall that dumped 15 inches of rain on September 10, 2023, in area around Derna, Libya. Normal rain is about one tenth of an inch during the month of September. Dams burst sweeping Derna and its residents into the sea.

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United Russia gets about 50% of the vote, with the Communist Party at 19%, Just Russia at 13%, and the Liberal Democrats at 12%, according to the Central Election Commission. President Medvedev says the results in Parliament will mean the formation of "coalition bloc agreements." He said "the result is real democracy."

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The WSJ Dollar Index tracks the U.S. dollar's performance against 16 other currencies. It surged by 12% in 2014 with a strengthening U.S. dollar. The rise in the dollar is likely to adversely affect the 15% of U.S. GNP that comes from exports and the $200 billion plus tourism industry in the U.S.

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H-P's financial performance for fiscal 1st quarter of 2012 ending Jan 31, shows a decline in sales revenue of 7% and profit decline of 44%. Revenue in the PC division declined 15%, printing business 7% and server business 10%. Harddrive shortages from the flooding in Thailand hurt PC division and server sales.

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Focus on billionaires and remote parts of the world distract from the vital issues of infrastructure renewal, cost of living and incomes growth that affect everyday lives of Americans. In an economy the size of the US the $5 trillion of billionaires out of a $31 trillion US GDP, is about 15% of the nation's wealth. Many of the billionaires such as at Amazon lead product and service companies that generated new products and services. Five of the top 25 in the US are from Walmart a large retailer in the US, 2 from Amazon, three from Microsoft in personal computers, 3 from chemical industries.This accounts for 13 of 25 or half. Removing these billionaires would take out $2.5 trillion leaving the billionaires controlling 7-8% of the country's wealth. The focus by Bernie Sanders in the US and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK on remote spots in the world and on billionaires distracts from the real issues of cost of living, of incomes of ordinary families, of everyday issues of health and quality of life faced by all. It also does not help in the discussion because of the need to move away from the poor leadership of the Blair-Brown, Cameron- Johnson years and the Bush-Obama years in the UK and the US. Here no ideologies are needed just common sense solutions to common problems that affect lives of all the people, with the cooperation of all the people. ...

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Risks in AMR's financial situation include net debt of $12 billion and a market capitalization of $1.1 billion. The stock is down 60% so far in 2011 and is now at $3.13 on Sept 30, 2011. Analysts at J.P. Morgan Chase say AMR should have $3.5 billion in liquidity by the end of 2011, or 15% of annual revenue. About $1.8 billion of debt matures in 2012. The demand for airline debt is still healthy. The airline industry is also better able to handle another recession because of cuts in capacity, and the effect of the merger between United and Delta, keeping flights full and prices up. A recession would also cut fuel costs, with fuel taking up 35% of revenue dollars, according to analysts. The problem is low margins and high labor costs, as a result of not filing for bankruptcy and cutting legacy costs. Credit Sights estimates AMR's margin as 6% before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, and aircraft leasing costs, with the estimate for Delta at 12% and United at 18%.

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In the UK, Spain and Italy the impact of Covid 19 was largest with GDP falling 10%, less in France at 7.5% and smaller in Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark at 5%. Countries that tended to implement social restrictions when hospital admissions were low had smaller GDP losses, says this study from Insitut Pasteur. 

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Diesel prices are regulated and subsidized by the Indian government, but gasoline prices are deregulated since 2010, resulting in gasoline costing 64% more than diesel in India. As a result buyers are staying away from gasoline cars and shifting to diesel creating distortions in demand. The government is considering a tax on diesel cars and SUV's of between $3000 to $4600 to correct the distortion. Because lower income people woud be hurt by increasing the price of diesel it continues to be subsidized. Because of the uncertainty car manufacturers are shutting down production to reduce growing inventory of gasoline vehicles. High interest rates of 12% on car loans also reduces demand. Suzuki Maruti sales declined 6% in May 2012, Ford and GM showed sales declines of 14% and 20%. The year ending March 2012 shows Indian car sales growing only slightly by 2.2% to 2 million cars. Sales were rising at 29% only about a year ago. Gasoline costs 68 rupees a liter in New Delhi after a 11.5% increase in May 2012, compared to 41 rupees per liter for diesel. The increase in gasoline prices is a result of the government having difficulty paying the rising imports of oil, costing $141 billion for the year ending March 31, 2012. The sharp slowdown in the car industry and the problems in the energy sector have affected India's growth rate....