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Harris supports some of the most far reaching efforts to help workers and families with cost of living action. Teachers would benefit with pay raises, workers earning less than $100,000 a year would benefit with special support of $500 a month to meet cost of living increases, $100 billion would be invested to support housing affordability using a estate tax on the wealthiest households. Harris proposed Rent Relief Act would provided refundable tax credits giving renters who earn less than $100,000 the ability to recoup housing costs in excess of 30 percent of their incomes. One of the more egregious situations today is shown in the WSJ where 25% of people renting apartments in the US- middle and lower income people- pay over 50% of their income on rent leaving less and less for food, transport, childcare. This would make a huge difference for these households. Affordable Housing is a big issue in many states including Nevad and Biden had proposed a 5% cap on rent increases after 20% increase in the last two years of the pandemic. Harris's proposal goes beyond this to help the hardest hit households. Harris supports emergency relief funding for homeless. And she supports spending $100 billion in communities hurt by discrimination in getting housing. ...

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Bayer AG CEO Marijn Dekkers talks to the Journal's Geoffrey Rogow about the company's pharmaceuticals business and job retention. Dekkers says profits are reduced by the tight budgets of European governments and the pressure on pricing. He cites the 16% mandatory rebate in Germany on prescriptions. For Bayer diversification through the chemicals business offers a way to handle the ups and downs in the pharmaceuical business with patent expiration. He is not interested in acquisitions because of the high premium involved and the difficulty of recovering this for investors. Bayer like other drug companies has extensive operations in China. Bayer is training salespersons in top and second tier Chinese cities. It has a program to train 10,000 physicians in rural areas of China working with the local government. Dekkers makes an interesting point about jobs and job retention in the U.S. He says a lot of jobs were outsourced in the 1990's and its difficult to bring them back. Germany has done a better job with job retention with "kurzarbeit" and other programs working in partnership with industry. In his view this could have been managed better in the U.S. with active programs such as this in the last two decades....

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The UN Refugee Agency says 7.6 million Syrians were displaced and refugees in their own country, 3.6 million Syrians are in other countries as refugees. Worldwide it says about 60 million are refugees. About half of the refugees are children. Of this about 14 million people were displaced in 2014, with 11 million of this displaced in their own country. Fighting in Iraq, Syria and Libya, appear to be the main cause of displacement in 2014. Never before in the agency's 50 year history are there so many displaced people in their own countries.

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US trade deficit of $46 billion with India and DJT call to buy oil and gas from the US, to shift away from purchases of $50 billion of oil from Russia, of 2 million barrels a day. India only imported $1 billion of oil from Russia in 2020 and this is a call from the US to India to stop financing Russia's increasing air attacks on Ukraine in August 2025. For India this oil came at $70 a barrel when prices were around $90-$100 a barrel in 2022-2024. In 2025 oil prices are at $60 a barrel, and even if prices increase to $70 a barrel India can make the shift. US and Germany, the EU, Britain which seek negotiated end to the war in Ukraine will continue to pressure India in 2025. Russia could shift some of the oil to other places but the huge demand from a country India's size will not then be seen as a factor in prolonging the war. India needs to think ahead for the next 20 years and its goal of modernization by 2047 like China has done in 2000-2020. And not get into a nationalistic mode that may not be in the best interests of the Indian people seeing that this may serve the interests of all nations including Russia to phase out this European war. ...

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Newly elected president Poroshenko's personal relations with Putin and his connections to Russia's business interests will help him improve relations with Putin. He wants to have substantive preparations for talks with Russia so that progress is made in relations and in other issues. Putin has said he will respect the results of the Ukraine election. Senators Portman and Cardin, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were in Kiev to monitor the elections, and found them to be fair and properly conducted. Turnout was high and voters rejected the old world politics of the main rival candidate Tymoshenko, who received only 13% of the vote compared to Poroshenko's 54%. Poroshenko is a businessman who started out in chocolate, but has business interests in automobiles and owns television station 5. He was Speaker of parliament, and Trade minister in previous governments. The election result and voter rejection of the old politics gives a fresh start, and a chance for Russia, Germany and the EU to move forward. Russian president Putin had serious problems with the old politicians and may find it easier to work with Poroshenko. American led sanctions provide Russia an incentive to resolve the situation to give Russia's economy a chance to recover from serious capital outflows. Poroshenko is pro-EU, with enough Russian connections to maintain confidence in Russian-Ukrainian relations, for the fresh start Ukrainians are looking for. His focus is on economic development, with jobs as a priority for the young people facing extremely high unemployment....

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Election expert Karl Rove from the Republican Party goes over the math for the nomination for upcoming Republican primaries in New York, followed by primaries in Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. He says the anti-Trump movement would still be in the lead at the end of these primaries. His figures are that Trump stands at 743 delegates on April 7, 2016, citing the Associated Press, and the non-Trump delegates at 897, ahead by 154 delegates. In New York primary of April 19 only 14 of the state's 95 delegates go to the winner, the rest are given three for each of 27 congressional districts. two to the winner and one for the second place finisher as long as the winner is less than 50% and the second place candidate has 20%. Delaware has 16 winner take all delegates, Connecticut and Maryland have 28 and 38 winner take all by congressional district, Rhode Island 19 proportionally. Interestingly Pennsylvania is cited by Rove as having only 14 statewide winner take all delegates, with 54 officially unbound congressional district delegates, contrary to popular impression that it is winner take all state wide. The elections in South and North Dakota, and Nebraska, give Cruz some of the delegate offset to control the gap in delegates between him and Trump created in the northeastern states. A factor in the race is also the change in the Cruz campaign made for Wisconsin where Cruz was able to win by 14 percentage points by expanding his message to Jobs, Opportunity and Growth from the social conservatism message that did not counter the Trump message to conservative and working class voters on the economy and trade. Another factor is women's vote trending away from Trump. ...

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Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, provides insights into the economc problems facing Brazil in 2016. He points out that 41% of Brazil's GDP goes into public spending by local, regional and national government, crowding out private investment. The tax burden is high at 35% of GDP. And under the Rousseff administration budget discipline has been lacking. Compared to the Lula government running consistent surplus Ms. Rousseff ran a deficit of 10% of GDP. With a large welfare state, the budget has rigidities, says Sharma, with public pensions increasing since 2000 from 3% to 7% of GDP, and heavy state spending tending to push interest rates up and increase borrowing costs. Retirement age is 54 and 52 for men and women respectively, and pensioners get 90% of salary, compared to 60% in advanced countries. The decline in commodity prices has hit Brazil hard because 67% of exports are from commodities such as soyabeans in 2016 compared to 46% in 2000. Manufacturing accounts for only 11% of the economy. As long as high commodity prices supported the lavish welfare and public spending Rousseff's popularity remained high at 60% as recently as 2013. The collapse of commodity prices has hurt the economy leading to growth of negative 3.5% in GDP. Rousseff's popularity hit a low of 11% as public protests over poor public services, were followed by a series of corruption scandals. Even if impeachment led to new leadership the problems are deep rooted, with neglect of education, healthcare, public services, and manufacturing industries, and heavy public spending no longer supported by high commodity prices. Some of the problems existed in the boom years of the Lula administration, only covered up by the commodities boom cycle, and becoming evident in the down cycle of the Rousseff years. ...

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At the end of the 2012 Communist Party Congress in Beijing, Xi Jinping assumes the post of chief of the Communist Party of China. He also assumes the post of head of the Central Military Commission, which makes him head of the armed forces of China. Li Keqiang, the incoming prime minister, is the only member of the party Politburo Standing Committee selected by current president Hu Jintao. Jinping is supported by Jiang Zemin, former president. Four of the other five members are older party leaders placed in these positions by former president Jiang Zemin, who succeeded Deng Xiaoping and started China's three decade long modernization. The seven member Standing Committee governs China by consensus. This will limit the room for change, especially as the other five members are in their mid 60-s and favor the status quo. Xi Jinping is 59, Li Keqiang is 57. Xi becomes president in the spring of 2013, and Li becomes prime minister to run the government ministries. The optimism for Li who is the best educated of China's leaders, holding a doctorate in economics from Peking University, and an early interest in constitutional law, is restrained by the institutional arrrangements that favor the status quo. Some experts in China see the new leaders likely to make major changes only if confronted by a crisis. In his live television acceptance speech Xi focussed on China's "rejuvenation," with improvements in the party bureaucracy, tackling corruption, and improving the lives of ordinary people, for better schooling, jobs, incomes, health care, better housing conditions, social security and the environment. From the rush to modernize and build infrastructure attention is now shifting to creating better conditions for the Chinese people....

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Nokia announced a loss of 929 million euros for the first quarter of 2012. Sales declined from 10.4 billon euros to 7.4 billion euros in the same quarter prior year. The only bright spot for the company is that the Lumia 900 sold throught AT&T has made a successful launch in the U.S. Nokia CEO Elop says the phone is sold out in stores in the U.S. Lumia sales were 2 million in the 1st quarter of 2012, at an average price of 220 euros ($290). Nokia's strategy now is to bring the Lumia line including the lower end Luma 610 phone to Asian markets by June- to China, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Nokia's biggest problem is the older Symbian phones, which consumers are passing by and which now have to be discounted rapidly or replaced quickly with the Lumia line. The other related problem is falling margins on basic phones as Chinese competitors discount heavily- basic Nokia phone prices fell 18% to 33 euros ($43) from 40 euros or($52) the prior year. The speed in the drop in business for mobile phones can be guaged from the sales decline of 40% in the 1st quarter from $9.3 billion to $5.6 billion. Things are made worse by the 772 million euro ($1 billion) charge taken for Nokia Siemens Networks, a network joint venture with Siemens. Sales for Nokia Siemens fell 7% in the first quarter to $3.8 billion. Nokia Siemens has 53 contracts to build new mobile networks with Long Term Evolution Technology more than competitors Ericsson and Huawei, according to Nokia Siemens. Everything now depends on the speed with which Nokia can move to its Lumia line across the board, especially in China....

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Smaller biotech firms typically have products in the development stage and are not making money. Now they are facing increasing financial hardship. Even in good times except for a few names like Genentech and Amgen, the others are struggling. They have a hard time raising money, and its coming at a higher price, 90% of equity instead of 50% like before for 5 or 10 or 20 million dollars. Older shareholders are diluted with new capital raised. And some are selling out. Others are going into bankruptcy liquidation, after wrenching periods of firing most of the staff. Even blue chip firms like Helicos of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which went public in 2007, and has backing of advisors like Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize laureate, are in trouble; with its DNA reader designed to produce custom tailored cancer treatments at $1 million a piece. It has not booked a sale, faces competition from a reader developed by two companies, Roche and Illumina of San Diego. It almost ran out of cash last year. Helicos shares $18 last year, are at 54 cents. According to Burrill and Company, a venture capital concern, 100 of the publicly traded biotechs this year may be lost as companies fail or get taken over. 120 of the 360 publicly traded biotechs have less than 6 months cash left, compared with 12 a year ago, says Burrill. Already 10 have declared bankruptcy according to Biotechnology Industry Organization. BIO is asking Congress to step in and for the government through the National Institutes of Health to provide matches for private investment in small startups with promising treatments. All this is happening as companies are spending large sums for mergers like the Pfizer Wyeth merger. ...

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The IMF loans of $18 billion approved in March 2014 are conditional on structural reforms in Ukraine which will be painful. This includes a 50% increase in the price of natural gas on May 1, tax increases and spending cuts, flexible exchange rates. About 10% of the state officals will be cut and decreases in pensions for judges. Higher taxes will be placed on alcohol and tobacco products. Prime minister Yatsenuyk, says without the reforms and IMF-EU loans the economy woud contract by 10%, with the package GDP would decline by 3%. Ukraine's 10 year dollar denominated government bonds had a yield of 8.94%. Years of large state subsidies for natural gas, mismanagement and corruption have left Ukraine's finances in bad shape. Ukraine now faces austerity measures similiar to that in other Eastern European countries and Greece, leading to continued political unrest.

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The ECB reduced a short term lending rate to 0.75%. The People's Bank of China reduced its one year yuan lending rate by 0.31% percentage point to 6%. The Bank of England increased its bond buying program by 50 billion pounds to 375 billion pounds.

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The service at Reims cathedral in France commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Mass at Reims cathedral for a reconciliation between Germany and France. The service 50 years ago was attended by Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle. This service was attended by Hollande and Merkel.

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The U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average passes 15,000 in May 2013. The DJIA average has increased by 130% after reaching a low in March 2009. The DJIA peaked at 14000 in July 2007 before falling 54% and recovering to the 14000 level in Feb 2013.

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State and local governments in the US with private industry can cut US carbon emissions by about 60% in 10 years by 2035. This goal will formally be submitted by the US to the United Nations to cut emissions by 59% by 2035. It means the federal government is not the deciding factor when it comes to cutting emissions as the new DJT administration does not support active effort on climate change till 2028.

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A lead researcher at Stanford and UC Berkeley says he hasn't seen anything like it, the opposition intensify so quickly. 70% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans oppose overinvestment in AI  and increasing in sentiment- not about stopping progress but  about stopping hyperlevel investment of trillions of dollars and diverting from reindustrialization/infrastructure for US that creates jobs and a better qualityof life. In today's world neither China or the US can afford hyper investment, most Asian countries would prefer to let the US do it and later get that technology for free one way or the other. Therefore this means the American people are being hoodwinked- they pay the price when their bridges and roads, airports are in disrepair, when even a national network of data charging stations could not get funded under Biden which would have addressed the biggest problem for transition from fossil through EV's to fight climate change.  The investment community is being hoodwinked. Investors are being hoodwinked as the returns are uncertain and cannot be justified on financial grounds- only by hype.  Polls only ask about AI not the hyperinvestment in AI. If the truth is known that these trillions of dollars diverted by using flaws in capital markets in the US, avoiding financial scrutiny and hyping up AI when returns are by a long shot uncertain compared to rebuilding America's infrastructure and industries to compete with China and the EU- that is desperately needed- then these numbers would show the vast majority of Americans oppose this diversion of funds from the infrastructure and reindustrialization that create jobs that support working families. Take for example Texas, a Republican state, where the Agriculture Commissioner is calling for a moratorium on new hyperscale data center development in the state, citing higher costs for farmers, and strains on the power grid. It is not about stopping progress. Fon transition to renewable energy or example the adjustments made by Biden and Democrats allowed some fossil fuels use to make the transition, the same policy being pursued under different political slogans and labels under DJT. It is not about stopping progress as progress continues even under DJT Republican administration - natural gas prices and coal use prices are making natural gas a choice for power plants, the cost of oil at $100 making EV's hybrids cost less than gasoline cars. AI technologies will advance, and the wherewithal, the framework in which AI should operate can be built alongside without throwing everything out of balance. Throwing the whole economy out of balance, destroying the chance to create jobs and bring about the 1st priority of America and EU- reindustrialization and infrastructure renewal alongside India's modernization. That requires these trillions of dollars being pushed into AI by a few self-interested individuals without returns, and trillions of dollars more. If that is accomplished any challenges from China will fade in comparison with the scale of the effort in the EU, the US, and India with the largest industrial bloc in the world far bigger than China. This is not mere words. It is a plan of action that is being put into place right now at Oslo, Norway at the Nordic+EU Summit with India on the next phase of this effort, put into place piece by piece through hard work and a clear vision for the future. ...

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Sony's new Xperia Ion Android 4G smartphones and the Xperia Ion ad campaign.

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"China's Superbank," by Henry Sanderson and Michael Forsythe looks at the rise of China Development Bank to provide insights into the two decade real estate boom in China, and the trillions of dollars in loans made by state owned banks to finance China's state owned industries and infrastructure development. The authors say these loans based on land owned by the state, improved with roads and other infrastructure and then sold to industry, have helped finance China's urbanization and industrial development. But it has also created problems including eviction of farmers from the land by local government authorites increasing inequality, led to misallocation of capital on bad projects, and an unsustainable model of development focussed on state owned companies. A major side effect of this is not covered in the book. This is the impact of crowding out of credit for private industry in China, with privately owned business having to pay higher rates in the underground loan market or lacking financing. A major focus of the report "China: 2030" by the World Bank and China's official think tank Development Research Center is on reversing this development to come up with a sustainable development model. The report was supported by World Bank chief Zoellick and China's new prime minister Li Keqiang. "The Great Rebalancing," by Pettis, a finance professor at Beijing University, looks at the other side of the financing of China's boom- the low interest rates on savings for China's consumer. This reduces household incomes and reduces purchasing power as the interest rates are lower than the rate of inflation. Lower value of China's currency also reduces the purchasing power for China's consumers. Estimates show the low interest rates cost China's workers and consumers somewhere in the range of 3 to 8% of GDP annually in bank deposit income. This money is funnelled through the banking system to make more loans for infrastructure and growth at the state owned companies, concentrating exraordinary level of financing in one direction. As a result the consumption share of GDP in China has actually fallen in the two decades of hyper development. This is about 34% compared to 50-55% for other Asian economies....

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Al-Naimi Saudi Oil Minister talks about OPEC and the current oil supply situation while taking a walk in Vienna, where OPEC headquarters are located. Naimi says OPEC is a business organization, not a political organization. He says OPEC operates more like a de-politicized business organization. Yasser ElGuindi of Global Medley Advisors says OPEC's goal is to get the maximum price it can to meet the budgetary needs and investment plans of the countries and keep their economies growing, while at the same time making certain that demand is growing in the rest of the world. The Saudis believe that price is between $50-60. The Saudis play a critical role in keeping price in the $50-60 range, with less chance of a price decline as demand is steady and not likely to drop.

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With huge losses at RBS, Prime Minister Brown says he is angry at RBS for the excessive risks taken by the bank. A big chunk of losses of 28 billion pounds for 2008 relate to the deal to acquire ABN-Amro. ABN Amro had on its portfolio a loan to chemical maker LyondellBasell, owned by Len Blavatnik a Russian-American industrialist, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009. Says RBS CEO Stephhen Hester, "we doubled up at the wrong time". Now RBS shares have fallen to 11.6 pence or less than the price of a candy bar. And Brown's administration faces growing criticism that the earlier bank rcapitalization and lending plan has not worked, even as new elections are due by May 2010. With the new deal with RBS government ownership goes up from 58% to 70%, and the next step may be nationalization of RBS. In an effort to limit banks losses and help capital needs of banks, the UK government will insure a majority of losses after the banks assume a first portion of the losses.

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Sprint Nextel reaches agreement to buy the remaining 50% of Clearwire for $2.2 billion.

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Between 2008 and 2009 September the price of polysilicon for solar energy products dropped from $400 per kilogram to $50 per kilogram. This doomed any chances that Solyndra could succeed, yet in 2010 and into 2011 Solyndra executives maintained that the company was in good shape financially.

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Senator Edward Kennedy turned a close election around with an ad in 1994 attacking Romney for job cuts. The result was a 58% to 41% defeat for Romney. In Iowa a Perry ad presses this issue saying "Mr Romney made millions buying companies and laying off workers."

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One senior real estate economst at Property and Portfolio Research says the value of New York metropolitan area office buildings will decline by 58% from its late 2007 peak. Losses of 40 % have already ocurred, bu there is a ways to go for commercial real estate losses.

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The costly premium offered by AB InBev for the remaining 50% stake in Mexico's Modelo.