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Women have one of three positions in senior management in the federal government compared to one of six in corporate management. Women make up 41% of management positions at the Government Accountability Office, a federal agency that has women friendly policies including family friendy culture, daycare site at the Washington headquarters, flexible relocation policy, telework policies, and advancing women to positions even as they balance their professional and personal lives such as needs of children. It is not necessary to work 70-80 hours a week to advance to senior positions as in law firms. Susan Poling is a senior executive supervising 156 lawyers, and says in the beginning she was able to work part time to spend more time with her son and still have great things to do and be given higher responsibilities.

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Charles Blow says blacks are suffering higher foreclosures, higher unemployment, and the quality of life for black people is collapsing, as President Obama is not listening or paying atttention to the pressing needs of black people. His point is that Obama needs white voters more than he needs black voters. He sees Obama more as a gamesman now than agamechanger for black people. And he talks about a backlash amng black people, as black people are getting disenchanted with Obama.

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President Trump plans to sign the trade deal with China for Phase 1 on January 15, 2020. Under the deal the U.S. will not go ahead with a new round of tariffs on $156 billion of Chinese goods- including smartphones and consumer electronics- set for December 15, 2019. Tariffs set in place on September 1 on $120 billion of Chinese goods will drop from 15% to 7.5%. The earlier tariffs in place on $250 billion in Chinese goods including machinery and electronics are still in place. In exchange the Chinese will increase purchases by $32 billion in U.S. agricultural goods over the previous levels in the next 2 years.

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The Nobel Prize Committee's views on free expression of opinion in China, and the selection of Liu Xiaobo for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, points out that it is not an interference in China's internal affairs, because international human rights law and standards are above the nation-state, and the world community has a duty to ensure that they are respected. Jagland says the issue is universal human rights and the check on arbitrary majorities around the world. Even if the country is not a constitutional democracy, it is a member of the United Nations, and it has amended its Constitution to comply with the Declaration of Human Rights. The Nobel Committee chairman points to two other selections for the Nobel Prize, that of Andrei Sakharov of Russia, and of Rev. Martin Luther King of the U.S., as evidence that the Nobel Committee has stood up for universal human rights for a long time.

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Steve Bannon, president Trump's former strategist in the first 6 months of his presidency and during the election campaign makes a rupture with Trump after astonishing revelations in a new book. Michael Wolff in his new book, "FIre and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," attributes statements to Mr. Bannon that say the president's son Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman at the time, had acted in a "treasonous" way by meeting with Russians during a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. According to Mr. Wolff's account in the book Bannon also predicted that the special counsel Mueller investigation would eventually focus on money laundering. This account of the Wolff book is from the New York Times, which released excerpts from the book after the Guardian first put out this story. It quotes from an email from an unnamed White House aide, describing the Trump operations in the White House as the worst possible- that the president refused to read much, not even one page memos, getting up often because he is bored through meetings. And using words that reflected it says Mr. Gary Cohn's view that much of the operation was "stupid," "dumb," or even idiotic. Wolff is a columnist and author not particularly known for meticulous reporting says the New York Times.    ...

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Fed's Jay Powell says about his interest rate increases of five percentage points at consecutive meetings since March 2022- "We've seen the beginnings of disinflation without any real costs in the labor market. That is really a good thing." Greg Ip of the WSJ looks at the 9 year period of most growth cycles in the US economy since 1980 and says a soft landing could be followed by growth till about 2030. Business investment led to 2.4% growth in the second quarter 2023. More investment is in the pipeline under the Biden economic plan. As inflation is going down to about 3% from 9% at its peak in 2022 the US is set for economic growth that would help it grow in a way that would enable America to meet the challenges of today in climate change, worker incomes and the cost of living, and in need to rebuild the nation's infrastructure in the way it was done in the years after 1945 under Truman and Eisenhower.

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On one hand the issue of the $165 million in bonuses going out to employees in the 370 person Financial Products Group, and oth the other the need to wind up the complex derivative contracts that are causing these huge losses at AIG. But are such huge payouts needed for these employees to do their job? Isn't this aprofessional responsibility of these employees? And AIG's retention-payment program was disclosed a year ago and the amount of the bonuses $400 million, says the Washington Post, had been widely reported. The company is set to pay according to the WPost $600 million in retention awards to about 4700 people throughout the global insurance units. WHat happens to the $600 million, as no opinion has been voiced on these upcoming payments. The whole idea of retention payment raises another question. Will the skills of these employees be needed in a long drawn out economic downturn spread over several years or longer. And will thefailure of such things as derivatives, and the tighter regulation, mean that they will play amuch smaller role in the future. And even in the insurance units will these skills draw a premium in a market where the supply of new talent is larger than the job market ? One expert has sugggested that even if some of them left, there would be younger people to replace them who might bring an even better set of qualifications, with amix of skills, caution and prudence. So is there something self-interested and spurious in the retention argument itself and shouldn't this bluff be called? ...

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Financial Stability FOrum will be renamed the Financial Stability Board and include 10 additional members, These additional members are from developing countries or emerging markets, including Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, and China. This forum which currently brings together regulators, central bankers and finance ministers from a few wealthy nations, will now reflect the views of emerging countries. It previously only served as aforum for exchanging ideas. Now it will be given the task of drafting the detailsfor global standards for financial institutions, including benchmarks for executive pay and how much risk that financial firms can take on. But there is still some resistance to the idea of getting ideas from different sources and including the benefit of a diversity of experiences and backgrounds, even though some of these countries, have borne the brunt of these recurring economic crises in the past, as have Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics says that you have to hear out China but objects to taking advice from Argentina, a comment which reveals the insular nature of these forums and boards in the past, with little or no representation from places where a majority of the word's peoples live. As would be expected in the light of that comment, there is resistance to giving China, India, Brazil, Russia, and other large developing countries like Mexico, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia proper representation in the IMF's governing bodies, and having the rules changed so that the head of the IMF and other important staff members could be selected from emerging countries. Each of these countries can bring adifferent perspective to the decisions made at the IMF, as most of them have suffered from these recurring economic crises in the postwar period. South Korea's experience with the IMF is the most recent and is covered in the link to S. Korea and the IMF, and if reflected in the policy making at IMF could help it perform a more constructive role in this crisis. This is also the case with some of the other countries....

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The New York Times reports from the comments of current and former members of the Chase Chief Investment Office (CIO), that risk officers at Chase were ignored when they raised issues about the complex trades made by trader Iksil. Iksil's trades had the support of his manager Mr. Macris, and Ms. Drew who was in charge of CIO. The comments also indicate that at one point Mr. Macris brought in a Risk Officer with whom he had worked closely for many years. Risk Officers are supposed to be independent and their concerns seriously heard, with the authority to halt trades that pose excessive risks. Which made this kind of cozy behaviour in the CIO trading offices in London cause for alarm. These reports also say Mr. Braunstein, the new CFO at JP Morgan Chase, did not strengthen controls after he assumed office in 2010. Bank officials disputed this. The New York offices did not fully grasp the complex trades being made in the CIO London offices, and upper management let the CIO operate pretty much on its own, especially with CEO Jamie Dimon's confidence in Ms. Drew's management of the CIO. This led to another gap in the process of risk management. Dimon had other priorities and distractions, from problem mortgages coming with the acquisition of Washington Mutual, pushing back aginst financial regulation after the 2008 crisis, stress tests and others. At the same time the U.S. Federal Reserve, regulators, and Treasury's coordinated effort to merge failing banks with other larger banks- because of the lack of the process of unwinding failed banks provided later under Dodd-Frank legislation- created mega financial banks. Unlike what the U.S. under Treasury Secretary Rubin pushed for in the case of S. Korea during a banking crisis in 1997, Treasury under Geithner and Fed officials did not push for unwinding of failed financial institutions such as Countrywide and Washington Mutual in 2008-2009 Chase's own portfolio of assets under the CIO, increased by an astounding amount from $76 billion in 2007 to $356 billion in 2011. Even if Ms Drew had managed CIO well before, managing a portfolio of this size is most likely to have presented a whole set of new challenges and problems for which the CIO office was not prepared. Similiar concerns were raised by other Fed officials such as Fed governors, Hoenig and Fisher, who raised the issue that such mega-banks posed unacceptable risks and were too big to manage. Pressures to increase investing profits, growing complacency, relaxing risk management controls, led to the situation where a single trader Mr. Iksil, who had only joined the bank in 2007 according to other reports, could create large losses. This follows a situation at UBSin 2011, where a novice trader made bets that resulted in large losses....

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Peter Baker quotes Obama as saying "I am like a Rorschach test," even if people find me disappointing ultimately, they might gain something.?" So what does this mean someone may ask. By setting up people's hopes in so many places, and especially among long disenfranchised black Americans, and in so many other groups and constituencies, and the possibilities of human beings limited in what they can do, how will all this turn out?

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This photos essay in The Guardian can be seen for pictures of US presidents since John Adams, at pivotal moments or moments that captured some symbolism of the times. John Kennedy is simply bending to look at a newspaper on the Oval office desk just  moments before meeting the French ambassador, yet the pressures of office show such as Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.  On November 22, 1963, Freedland says Kennedy warned against extreme groups. Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 had warned of radicalist groups if needed action for sharing the wealth and opportunity of the Nation were not taken. Kennedy said- "America’s leadership must be guided by learning and reason, or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain popular ascendancy, with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.” Sometimes leaders are faced with difficult situations  “I want to tell you how grateful I am, and how worthy I’m going to try to be of all your hopes.”  a phone call to Martin Luther King Jr in 1963. Who was this US president? LBJ of Texas got it right for America, but lacked in international affairs knowledge of what John F. Kennedy had learned about aspirations in Asia and colonial rule during the war years in the Pacific. One president brought about 40 years experience in Congress to four major crises – the pandemic, crumbling infrastructure, loss of manufacturing in the US, and climate change– and passed the most far reaching legislation for trillions of dollars of investment since Franklin Roosevelt.  The most famous of these photos is the one showing Harry Truman holding the Chicago Tribune in 1948, which said "John Dewey Wins."   ...

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A movie marketing and distribution strategy developed by Focus Features -using the idea of a platform release-for a specialty film, based on a spy novel by Le Carre called "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." The idea behind it was to keep costs for marketing and advertising down by targeting groups that would like to see the film. This was done by opening on just 4 screens and obtaining information about the demographics and the groups attending. The next step was to expand this to just 55 screens because most of the theatres were booked with large budget movies like "The Iron Lady" and "The Descendents." The target was set at 800 theatres and Focus Features CEO, James Schamus, decided to wait a few weeks before making the move up to 800 screens.

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BT Group PLC acquired mobile company EE from Deutsche Telekom of Germany and Orange SA of France for 12.5 billion pounds in cash and stock. EE is the UK's largest mobile company and BT Group the largest fixed line telecom company. With this acquisition BT Group can now bundle fixed line, mobile lines, and television services, to increase subscriber revenue. Deutsche Telekom with a 12% stake is now the largest shareholder in BT Group. Orange will have a 4% stake. The acquisition provides BT Group with a faster 4G network and 30 million EE customers, 24.5 million direct mobile and 834,000 broadband.

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As many politicians and commentators deride programs by the government in the infrastructure area as " mere spending programs", Robert Frank, an economist at Cornell and NYU offers some much needed clarfication. High savings rates are not bad for the public, savings go into investment int he economy, and higher savings properly channelled can lead to higher productive investments that in turn generate a virtuous cycle of more investments. There is thus no conflict between private savings and economic growth. China's and India's higher savings rate leads to savings going into investments in the economy for higher economic growth. Only in sharp economic downturns does the paradox of thrift operate, here lower consumption leads to lower production and layoffs, and the economy goes into a tailspin as consumers hoard their cash and postpone purchases. There is an element of fear in that kind of downturn. So its aunique animal. With the government stepping in to provide investment, make up for jobs lost, and restoring confidence, the paradox of thrift does not operate. ANd its ok and desirable to have consumers save especially when they are so overstretched as they are today. A real world example is that much of the US credit card debt is at 20% interest rates or more. In just 5 years says Robert Frank each dollar invested in reducing debt would support more than $2.50 of additional consumption, in 10 years more than $6. Savings matter. The wastefulness of spending is not a given. It depends on where the government is spending. If there are productive investments like infrastructure that are waiting to be made, then with some due diligence and care the investments can be very efficient....

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BW's report says Housing will go back to normal by 2012. This is a better case scenario. But there are serious downside risks and unknowns. A study done by Rogoff and Reinhart shows that it takes about 6 years or longer before things return to normal after a serious crisis. This could mean 2012 is the earliest things could return to normal. And this assumes that housing demand remains at about 1.5 million homes a year as in the past, and with only about half a million homes being built now as developers scale back the difference of 1 million homes would cut into the inventory to bring demand and supply back into balance. But changing demographics with an aging population and different needs, new frugality with buyers renting for longer, and the perception that homes are not a investment, slowing immigration, all factors that could change the nature of the market and demand in housing, could lead to things dragging out for longer. BW has assumed a more optimistic level of GDP numbers from Moody's Economy.com estimates made in May 2009, with GDP declining 3% in 2009, growing 1.4% in 2010, 4.7% in 2011, and 5.8% in 2012. These estimates are on soft ground because no one really knows for sure what will happen in anumber of areas in the years ahead. In terms of deflation and inflation in the years ahead, capacity utilization is at 68% but a look at the declines in manufacturing show that some of it will be a permanent loss as in the auto manufacturing base, export markets depend on how economies in Asia and other countries are performing, a new frugality and different consumer behaviour because of debt levels at 100% of GDP could permanently lower demand to levels different from that in the past. The regional nature of the recovery in housing will still be very much present, as areas with surging population growth and areas where housing price rises were modest, from Nashville to Austin, do a lot better than California and Florida....

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The Modi administration's plans for clean solar energy and renewable energy production to reach 220 gigawatts by 2022, nearly doubling the capacity in 2 years from 135 gigawatts today. The message was conveyed at the inaugural address for the recent World Solar Technology Summit by the prime minister. The premier said that ISA is part of the "One World, One Sun, One Grid" project, which would be transformational for humanity.

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Ken Adelman, who headed arms control negotiations under Reagan with Russia under Gorbachev, says the Reykjavik summit in October 1986 between Reagan and Gorbachev was a failure because Reagan refused to give up the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative. Months later Russia restarted arms control talks that led to 80% reduction in nuclear missiles and weapons. He says like Reykjavik the failed Trump Kim Jong-Un summit could lead to new talks with important results in denuclearization and normalization in the Korean peninsula. Both leaders Trump and Kim adore being in the spotlight and could return to continue talks he says. Failed talks are not always dead ends is the view expressed by Adelman.

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The cost to France of Greece's exit from the euro would be 66 billion euros, and for Germany 90 billion euros, according to the director of research at the IESEG School of Management in Lille, France. Greece would pay back some of its debt with the devalued currency, so the actual cost might be lower. This is closer to the estimate of 50 billion euros for France by the departing French finance minister, and the estimate of 125 billion euros for Germany by a German bank. IIF estimates are much higher but the IIF and Mr. Dallara will find the bonds issued by Greece under the restructuring of little value in the event of exit from the euro, which is why it would not favor an exit and present it in a different light.

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U.S. president Trump says former FBI director lied under oath in testimony before Congress, and disputes Comey's comments that he was fired because of the FBI investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.That investigation is now in the hands of Special Counsel Mueller. Trump called Comey "a leaker."

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Paris RATP transport chief says she will have 70% of the transport system operational on May 11 when the lockdown will be lifted in phases. Only 30% is operating at this time. Social distancing will not be possible on subways so that wearing masks will be required.

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By influential business leaders from Brazil, India, Sweden, the US, France and Japan. A strong case for completing the Doha Round even if this takes difficult and decisive choices. The concern is about preserving and building on all the gains in free trade made in earlier Rounds. Not one of the earlier Rounds failed so this would be a first. Differences in areas like agriculture which are politically sensitive in countries like France and Brazil stand in the way. See the article by Scott Miller, French Resistance to Trade Accord has Cultural Roots, in the Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2006.