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Yannis Palaiologos of Katherimini newspaper in Greece gives a failing grade to Pasok and the New Democratic party in Greece for letting Greece get into the debt crisis and not taking the action needed in tax collection to protect the interests of the upper classes. Palaiologos says the burden of servicing the huge debt has fallen disproportionately on the lower and working classes, which is the reason for the rapid rise of Syriza in Greece and its decisive win of the popular vote.

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Bob Davis and Amy Chozick's interview with Barrack Obama, June 17, 2008, for the Wall Street Journal. The first question, you use Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy in interesting ways ,maybe you can talk to me a little bit about your view of government's role in economic growth is how this interview started. It goes over a lot of ground about Obama's view on the economic issues, taxes, government spending, distribution of incomes and economic growth and energy policy and infrastructure.

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Hitachi's conversion to a leaner, more profit conscious company, learning from rivals, GE, Siemens, IBM and large Korean companies. CEO, Nakanishi, graduated from Stanford with a computer science degree in 1979, during a break from Hitachi. He takes a hands on approach to management and brings this approach to tough assignments to learn what is going wrong. He moved to San Jose, to figure out why the hard disk drive business Hitachi bought from IBM for $2.05 billion was losing money. There he found quality problems were causing 60% of the hard drives coming off the production line with defects. After fixing the problems and achieving 10% profit margins Nakanishi put the company up for sale. Western Digital bought the company for $4.8 billion. His hands on approach includes meeting directly with public officials and ministers in governments around the world that buy its nuclear plants, high speed trains and large machinery. To maintain its preferred bidder status Nakanishi met with Britain's transport minister during the switch in government to the Conservative party in 2010. In his approach he is part of a new breed of Japanese executives, some with education in the U.S., such as Toyota's new CEO, Akio Toyoda, and others such as Toshiba's CEO, Norio Sasaki, who are eager to break away from the mold. Like Toshiba, Hitachi has shifted away from its consumer product lines. Hitachi consumer products are expected to make up only 10% of sales in the coming fiscal year. Emphasis is on the industrial products from nuclear plants to power plant equipment and high speed trains that powered Hitachi from its early beginnings as a maker of mining equipment in the 1920's. These executives are vigilant about a "Not Invented Here Syndrome" typical of large Japanese companies. Nakanishi says there is a lot Japanese companies can learn from rivals about cost and strategies. The experience came with hard knocks. In March 2009, Hitachi announced the biggest loss for a Japanese company upto that time of $9.9 billion. As head of the power and industrial business Nakanishi lost a contract to build a power plant in the Unted Arab Emirates to Korean companies. Compared to Hitachi, Toshiba's strategy is to emphasize industrial products such as nuclear reactors but also keep a presence in consumer products because Sasaki's view is that consumer products require smaller investments and generate cash flow. Jurio Osawa, WSJ, April 9, 2012, Toshiba's Chief Takes Stock....

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Caterpillar is asking workers at its Canadian plant to accept a large cut in wages and benefits. Wages and benefits at Caterpillar's rail equipment plant in LaGrange, Illinois, are less than 50% of the costs at the Caterpillar locomotive assembly plant in London, Ontario. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. manufacturing labor costs per unit of output were 13% lower in 2010 than in 2000. This compares with an increase of 2.3% in Germany, increase of 18% in Canada, and increase of 15% in South Korea. Caterpillar is also asking for more flexible work rules at the Canadian plant. The flip side of this is that U.S. workers are earning significantly less in manufacturing, especially considering inflation, and the middle class is shrinking in the U.S. At the same time wages in the U.S. that are more competitive with wages in Mexico and China with flexible work rules and use of automation and technology, is helping to reverse the shrinking of the manufacturing sector in the U.S....

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Sony takes up a big recycling initiative to offset pound for pound every new product of Sony sold with a recycled Sony product.

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“Getting gas from America is always a good thing.” Alaska's governor Dunleavy tells Japanese and South Korean, Taiwanese investors. Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba says the LNG from Alaska is "wonderful for us." It takes just 7 days to get this LNG to South Korea or Japan.  Mike Dunleavy's plan, called Alaska LNG, is for a 800-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay that would feed gas to a to be built liquefied natural gas terminal at Nikiski near Anchorage. What was once just a hope as investors pulled out is now a reality with DJT telling Dunleavy, "lets get it done, let's not just talk about it." Note that something similar is likely to happen for car investments by Japanese and South Korean companies. Already Hyundia Kia has announced a $21 billion investment. For Alaska LNG pipeline South Korea has said this has "infinite possibilities for growth." US Navy is rebuilding for protecting the Asia-Pacific, Japan and South Korea know the importance of the actions of the new Republican administration for Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region, and tariffs can be a time to invest more in American manufacturing and show restraint in pricing. ...

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U.S. companies have decided to wait out the conflict in Libya till a clear picture emerges. Mufson gives a good account of the history of Libya's tumultuous relationships with western oil companies over 3 decades. Nason Saleri, former head of reservoir management at Saudi Aramco, now head of Houston based Quantum Reservoir Impact, says oil companies have decided not to get involved until the situation stabilizes. Oil companies such as ConocoPhillips attended a meeting of the U.S.-Libya Business Council where representatives of the Benghazi based coalition presented. Ali Tarhouni, leading economic policymaker for the Benghazi coalition says oil contracts will be honored. Saleri says western oil companies are preparing for the time when a new government takes charge in Libya after the end of the Ghadafi regime. His view is that once things settle down and a new government is in charge he sees the potential of enhancing the percentage of oil from known reservoirs. The reserves are there in Libya to stabilize production to earlier levels and to increase it says Saleri....

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The new generation of Communist party leaders that takes over from Hu Jintao and Wen Biao. Chongqing region's party chief, Bo Xilai is one of the leaders expected to be part of the senior communist leadership, along with Li Keqiang as prime minister and Xi Jinping as president. Xi and Bo are sons of communist party veterans from the Long March. Chongqing was the main base of the Communist party in the 1930's and 1940's, as Mao and the communists fought the Nationalists and then the Japanese. Bo has suppressed the influence of Mafia elements in the region, and is campaigning for a place on the Politburo's Standing Committee with a call for a return to Maoist values of "conscientiousness." Chongqing's state companies are supporting a project launched by Bo in 2010 to build 800,0000 subsidized apartments in 3 years, with an investment of $18.5 billion. This comes as income and wealth gaps in the country are widening and housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable for ordinary wage earners....

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Rumelt argues that efforts to induce aconsumption led recovery won't work in 2011-2012 because of the high debt to income ratio of American households, reminiscent of the situtation in the 1930's as America went into World War II. It took a long period of over a decade to bring debt to income ratios down during the 1940's to 20% for America to once again stage a consumption based recovery. Since the solution of war time engagment and lower consumer spending due to wartime rationing is not a feasible solution today, a lot depends on stimulating investment. Rumelt does not say how this would happen in practice as corporations invest to increase production in a consumer based economy. Corporations can invest on increasing production for growing emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil, and this is happening today. But this does not increase growth in the U.S. economy, except in the limited sense that some of the high end development work takes place in the U.S. Policies that stimulate investment would set the stage for a future recovery. ...

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Greek unemployment is up to 11% and this does not reflect the women who are not registering as unemployed. About 100,000 public sector workers will be let go by 2013 as the austeity plan takes effect. The three year reform programme from the IMF, the European Commission and the ECB tries to cut the budget deficit from 13.6% to 2.7% of GDP in a quick three years even as the econmy is shrinking. The criticism of Germany is relatively less, but there is strong resentment in Greece for the IMF program with 60% of Greeks opposing it. And in Germany Merkel faces voter resentment of having to pay for other EU member countries mistakes in the election in North Rhine-Westphalia, where her CDU and FDP coalition faces a tough challenge. Intenationally Merkel is facing tough criticism for waffling as the euro currency faced a serious threat. The whole European Union plan was being put to the test resulting in the size of the bailout growing from $60 billon to $160 billion in a few weeks, many experts calling it ineptitude....

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Compromise reached at the October 2010 G-20 meeting in S. Korea to reduce trade imbalances, and for countries with current account surplus exceeding 4% of GDP (China 4.7% and Germany 6.1%) to bring these balances down by 2015. Countries with large current account deficits, Turkey 5.2% and South Africa 4.3%, were expected to bring their deficits down and increase national savings. The US is at 3.2%. The US proposal for a target was accepted by Japan as long as it was not a fixed target but a reference point. Germany was opposed, saying it was a return to planned economy thinking. China did not comment on the issue. Canada, Australia and the UK supported the US position. The compromise was an effort to continue pressure on China to redirect its policies away from exports to increasing domestic consumption, while still refraining from a fixed target. It also takes some of the pressure off a fast track currency rebalancing, with China expected to increase the value of the yuan, but given more flexibility than the rhetoric would suggest....

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Akio Toyoda of Toyota Motor praises prime minister Abe's "tremendous leadership," as Abe takes a drive in the hydrogen fuel cell Toyota Mirai in the front lawn of the premier's residence in Tokyo, Japan. Toyota benefits from the yen at 110 to the dollar as this generates higher profits from exports. Sales in 2014 were $230 billion, and net profit $18 billion. Prime minister Abe's economic program depends on companies and their suppliers increasing wages, especially companies with a supplier base as large as Toyota with estimated 1.35 million employees at suppliers in Japan. Toyoda says "both the government and the private sector are of one mind in fighting deflation." Toyota's wage increases in 2014 were only 0.8%. In 2015 hope are high that Toyota will take stronger action. Toyota has refrained from asking suppliers for price cuts in fall 2014, and is likely to do so in spring 2015, so that its suppliers can raise wages. Toyota's 65,000 employees are pushing for a 1.7% monthly base salary increase in April, with bonuses and seniority adjustments bringing the wage increase up to 4%....

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The anti-corruption bill for creation of a Lokpal agency passed the lower and upper house of the Indian parliament in December 2013. It was stalled for two years after the efforts of political activist Anna Hazare's protest movement for passage of the bill. With national elections approaching in 2014 and the ruling Congress party's image bruised badly in state elections of Dec. 2013, party leaders decided to support the bill. In the elections in the capital Delhi a anti-corruption party, Aaam Aadmi (for the common man), created only recently, won a major part of the seats. In India corruption hurts not only at the national and local level as in China, but affects the daily life of the common man as bribes are required from ordinary people for anything to get done that requires approval from the huge government bureaucracy. In that sense it takes a toll on economic development and affects the quality of services received by the vast majority of people, which is why the party calls itself "common man."...

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Mark Hulbert lists the quality stocks with low P/E ratios, little debt, high return on equity, and long records of earnings growth spanning long periods that limit volatility after the emerging markets crisis of 2014. He adds a cautionary note on the idea of quality stocks by saying P/E ratios matter, that quality stocks at a high price are a bad investment and at extraordinary prices are a extraodinarily bad investment, citing the Nifty Fifty stocks of quality in 1972 that lost value in the stock market slide in 1973. He takes quality stocks Disney, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson off the list of quality stocks because of high P/E ratios, a critical criteria. Hulbert's list for financial quality companies and their P/E ratios in Jan. 2014: AT&T telecom 9.4, Aflac insurance 9.1, Allstate insurance 10.9, Apple computer and telecom 12.7, Bank of Nova Scotia 11.0, Chevron oil 10.0, Cisco computer hardware 12.2, IBM technology 11.7, Royal Bank of Canada 11.5, Wells Fargo banking 11.5. These P/E ratios compare with the S&P 500 P/E of 17.3....

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After years of negotiations Russia and China reached agreement on a memorandum that provides deliveries by Gazprom of 38 billion cubic metres of natural gas to China by 2018, under a 30 year supply deal. The pipeline to deliver gas to China is part of a $50 billion project for a pipeline that takes gas to Vladivostock for liquefaction. A spur from that pipeline would take gas to China. This would make China the largest importer of natural gas from Russia. In 2012 Germany imported 33 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia, followed by other large importers Ukraine, Turkey, Belarus and Italy. A new agreement between China and Russia's state owned oil company, Rosneft, doubles the oil imports to 31 million metric tons a year under a 25 year deal. The current level of imports is 15 million tons set by a deal in 2009. The lower price of natural gas going to Europe helped the two countries bridge differences over price. China's National Petroleum Corporation will partner with Rosneft for exploration in new oil fields in the Russian Arctic region....

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Richard Posner, who teaches at the University of Chicago, and is federal appellate judge, takes an incisive look at the economic crisis. Posner says this was not a failure in the sense of irresponsibility alone of people involved, but a failure of capitalism, and that capitalism is prone to failure unless properly governed. Markets left to their own devices can fail, monetary policy is not enough to counteract other deep seated problems. Under capitalist system people can make individually rational decisions like continuing to invest in mortgage securtite if they were financial institutions, or losing the profits to be made, and collectively make irrational and in time enormously costly decisions, with no less consequences on an individual basis when things collapse. "We are learning," he says "that we need a more active and intelligent government to keep our model of a capitalist economy from running off the rails." But that may be nothing more than returning to common sense, or a healthy dose of skepticism for overblown claims for any system or form of economics or politics. ...

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Barrack Obama's speech on closing Guantanomo, on the constitution and its abiding values and principles by which he would like to live by and be guided by, in making the decisions on various issues related to national security. " I stand here today as someone whose own life was made possible by these documents. My father came to these shores in search of the promise that they offered. My mother made me rise before dawn to learn their thruths when I lived as achild in aforeign land. My own American journey was paved by gernerations of citizens who gave meaning to those simple words-- "to form a more perfect union." WIth that Obama in his characteristic style addressed the fears, the passions, and dangers presented by the response America makes to global terrorism. And tries to find in the founding documents,- to which he refers again and again- and inside his own inner sense of what it takes to honor those documents and the principles enshrined in them, the guidance of how he should lead the country....

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Mercedes sales have seen asharp decline. May 2009 sales were down 33.4%% from May 2008 for the US region. Steve Cannon who heads Mercedes' marketing effort continues to believe that its performance, innovation and technology that will bring buyers back to Mercedes. The company's $75 million ad campaign in the USA for its updated E-Class Series cars, show tv ad spots with scenes of families admiring classic Mercedes cars at the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart, Germany, and scenes of the car down a forested road. The car then bursts through the wall of the museum, and takes its place alongside other Mercedes cars. In contrast other manufacturers, GM, Hyundai, Honda and others are taking account of the economic downturn and lower consumer spending. Hyundai offers to help customers pay for the cars if they lose their jobs, which GM and Ford has matched. Honda is also keeping pricing emphasis. Mercedes only brings up the price at the end of its ad with the number $48,600 shown, a 9% drop in price for the updated E Class Series....

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Grove's take on what is going on in Silicon Valley, and interviews at startups and Labs like the Almaden Research Center by Steve Hamm. Grove is especially infuriated by the concept of an"exit strategy". Intel never had an exit strategy he says. It takes time to build important companies over along period and a different kind of attitude, and resilience. Steve Hamm visits all parts of the Silicon Valley to understand what is going on. Big companies won't come up with the next big development and startups aren't measuring up to the task. Yes things are happening in the area of electric vehicles, solar energy and green energy. HP sees more productive effort coming from software development than hardware advances. Overall short term thinking and risk aversion dominates, and Grove and Hamm do not see the kind of paranoid attitude and worrying nature and resilience, that got Intel to go back and develop new products and look for new opportunities after taking a beating from the Japanese, who at one time took over Intel's existing markets. ...

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Philippe Varin faces some tough decisions when he takes over Peugeot-Citroen. Unlike the turnaroungd he achieved at Corus steel group where the booming demand from China for steel helped, this time the auto market in Europe is declining by about 30%. He has to navigate betwen the interests of the Peugeot family which has 45% of the voting rights, employees who are affected by the cost cutting, the French government which has required no closing of factories for as long as the company receives governement aid. Peugeot-Citroen received a low interest loan of 3 billion euros from the French government. Questions he will have to address, as do all auto manufacturers in the USA and Europe relate to overcapacity as demand declines. And for Peugeot this has to be tackled without factory closures. And the other major issue facing auto manufacturers worldwide is how much to focus on the fuel efficient small car segment. Peugeot has key strengths in this segment and Varin may decide on refocussing on this segment....

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Capital spending by oil companies after you take out the 10% inflation in the cost of most drilling epuipment and people isn't growing by much. In 2007 spending on exploration and production totaled $270 billion, increasing by 10% over 2006 with most of the increase in cost coming from higher costs of everything from rigs to labor and oil field services. And oil companies are pasing back huge earnings to shareholders in the form of buybacks and share purchases, the top 5 western oil companies will have spent an estimated $179 billion in share buybacks in the last 4 years. And the the companies are not able to replace reserves that are used up each year in production. As aresult they are basically shrinking and becoming smaller in the whole oil picture. Only in 2008 is the spending picking up a bit but only by a small amount after one takes out inflation, and that because there may be more confidence that oil prices will hold up better in the long run to justify the higher costs of finding oil....

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A number of factors hitting at the same time Chinese factories in the south, in Guangdong province and the Pearl River delta. Currency exchange rates, stricter labor laws, eliminated government tax benefits and incentives, stricter pollution laws, high oilprices, and higher wages, all have combined to make the apparel and footwear factories in the south less profitable and harder to run. In recent years about 10% of the footwear makers in the province have closed operations. Manuy are smaller operations. About 10% of the 60,000 to 70,000 HongKong owned factories in the delta region will close in 2008. Not just apparel companies making products for HP and Apple have longer term plans to shift production to othcountries. Hon Hai Precision Manufacturing Company has said it will quintuple its planned investment in Vietnam to $5 billion. Apparel makers VF corporation which owns labels like North Face and Nautica says it takes 30 days from Cambodia compared to 20-25 days from China to get product on retail shlves so the advantage of China in this respect is also diminishing...

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Ethanol stocks are trading for what they were went they went public in 2006 or early 2007 way down from the highs they reached. When the IPO's were done corn was $1.80 a bushe and ethaol was $4.50 a gallon, since then things have changed and corn is now $5.64 a bushel and ethanol is $2.60 a gallon, corn prices tripling and ethanol prices almost half of what they were. So things look very different now. It takes refiners one bushel of corn to produce 2.8 gallons of ethanol. Ethanol sudden surge was because of its use as a replacement to methyl tertiary-butyl ether, a gasoline additive that has been proved to be a carcinogenic groundwater pollutant. But there are many uncertainties surrounding ethanol, the price of gasoline, corn, and ethanol and the future government mandates, subsidies to refiners and a possibility that tariffs on imported ethanol may be reduced or eliminated, and the effects on food prices of dedicating so much corn production to ethanol creates other concerns. So the inital excitement as faded....

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Sales of small cars have dropped significantly, and sales of Cherry Automobile Company China's largest domestic carmaker dropped 40% in September 2008 over a year earlier and 6% in October 2008. Nationally car sales increased 11% in October 2008 over the previous year after declines of 6% in August and 2% in September. China levies a tax of roughly 8.6% on a car's taxable price which is calculated based on the car's retail price and the size of the engine, with larger engines taxed more. What the carmakers like Cherry want is for the government to lower this sales tax on small cars and cars with environmentally friendly technology. Another step is for the government to lower state set fuel prices as prices of world crude go down to below $50 a barrel and encourage more fuel efficient cars with a fuel tax. Chinese public policy as stated by the government, and Chen Bin, Director of the Industry division of the National Development and Reform Commission is to boost domestic demand.