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Danny Hakim's gives this indepth account on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's connections to the tobacco industry, with reporting from Ukraine, Nepal, the Philippines and other poorer nations struggling with the public health implications of widespread smoking. Since 1997 the Chamber of Commerce, which is viewed in foreign countries as an outpost of the U.S. government, has taken some controversial positions. In the U.S. the chamber has as it members the tech industry leaders such as Google and Microsoft. Yet it is increasingly at odds with these companies. In 2009 the chamber under Mr. Donahue opposed greenhouse gas emissions regulation by the EPA, leading to the departure of Apple from the group and Nike stepping down from the board. In 2013 the American subsidiary of Sweden's construction company Skanska left the group, in protest against the chamber's opposition to green building codes. Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates have set up an international fund to fight law suits challenging international anti-smoking laws by tobacco companies. The TPP's provision for companies being able to sue foreign governments for violation of trade agreements has no exception for tobacco companies. Similiar concerns are raised about pharmaceutical companies suiing foreign governments where the governments are working to increase access to medicine for poorer sections of the population....

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A recent book "The Spirit Level" has become popular in Britain. It says that countries with greater disparities in income also do worse in a number of social indicators, from higher murder rates to lower life expectancy. It also affects the consensus in society which is a necessary underpinning for sustained economic development and economic growth. Inequality when it affects the middle class and reduces the size of incomes in the middle, or creates stagnation in incomes, poses large risks for society and affects economic growth. In the US the home foreclosure crisis and the lack of bargaining power of wage earners in the middle class has created this problem. This is exacerbated by the banking crisis and bad loans in the banking system. Studies show that slow growth in college graduating rates in the USA after 1970 compared to the period 1900-1970, has increased inequality, especially with today's knowledge economy. Germany is also affected by this problem as wages for workers have remained stagnant with the labor reforms. Interestingly a combination of economic growth and payments to the poor have increased the size of the middle class and its incomes in Brazil. The austerity policies in Britain will affect incomes and income growth in Britain for the middle class. In China the gap is widening quickly between the urban areas and the rural areas. And the policy of residency permits- the hukou system-which limits internal mobility from rural areas to the cities and towns, makes the inequality all the more glaring. The lack of democratic election makes the situation worse in China compared to Brazil, because free elections in Brazil enabled leaders from the working classes such as Luiz Inacio Da Silva and Ms. Rousseff to emerge as heads of government. These leaders pursued policies that would explicitly bring a more shared prosperity in Brazil compared to the leadership in China. In China policies are determined by entrenched interests in its model of development- the state-owned companies and banks and their managers, local and government officials of the Communist party, and businesses with the networks and connections with the Communist party and local governments. This is why the ginni coefficient which measures inequality has dropped significantly in China, putting it in the rank of developing countries with poor records in equality. Inflation in China, India and Africa also affects the poor and lower middle classes to a greater extent. Current trends suggest that rebuilding the middle class in the developed countries and providing fairer distribution in developing countries will be of serious importance in coming years. Especially with the likelihood of more economic crises which tend to adversely affect the middle and lower classes disproportionately....

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Monica Langley provides an excellent account of how U.S. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, is using the $100 billion from the Stimulus funds in the 2009 Recovery Act to implement the Common Core education program in U.S. states and districts. Common Core is about raising student math and reading scores and standards, and implementing teacher evaluations based on test scores to make teachers accountable. This is the one significant area in which the Obama administraton in the U.S. is likely to leave a valuable legacy. Republicans in Tennessee, including Lamar Alexander, have embraced the program, showing how Duncan is using his persuasion skills to speed up the implementation across political party lines in a period of strong partisan feelings about programs. When governors have hesitated, Duncan has gone straight to the school districts using the funding. Teachers union say the program is moving too fast as evaluations would affect teacher careers, and Duncan agreed to a one year reprieve on the consequences of new teacher evaluations for states applying for an extension. This makes Duncan uncomfortable. He says he has only three and a half years left and he is going tooo slow. Business leaders such as P&G CEO, Robert McDonald, say the only political party they have is their educated workforce. Duncan has persuaded 40 states in the U.S. to sign up for higher standards in reading and math. Democrats see the Duncan initiative as helping poorer schools, which is also important to reduce the increasing inequality in the U.S. Since 2008 high school graduation rates increased by 3 percentage points, with a 5 point gain for black students and a 7 point gain for Hispanic students. After $4 billon in new funding to low performing schools, so called "dropout factories," the number of such schools has declined to 1424 from 1746. Teachers unions are only gradually adjusting to the need for accountability in math and reading scores. Duncan's father was a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, and Duncan grew up in Chicago neighborhoods before attending Harvard and playing for the basketball team. Duncan tutored younger school students in the afternoon at his mother's after school program in a black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. In 2001 he was made the head of the Chicago public school system by Mayor Daley, where he took action to shut down poorly performing schools and reopening them with new staff. All the time he pushed for greater parental choice, charter schools, new teacher talent and using data to track school and student performance. ...

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NITI Aayog does much of the development planning for India. It's CEO Parmeswaran Iyer, says about one third of the population of 1.2 billion people has reached the middle class. The poverty level has dropped to about 16% of the population. He describes the steps taken to achieve this. First inflation control by keeping inflation below 6%- it was 5.7% in December 2022. The decline of loan rates for education, buying home and appliances to about 8%. Second the pioneering action of One Nation One Tax under GST that has saved Rs 18,000 lakh crore or Rs 12000 per household annual saving. To create small micro business in a country the size of India with a large informal economy action was taken. 120 million of 380 million beneficiaries are from the  middle class for PM Mudra Yojana who received Rs 7 trillion in collateral free loans. This is designed to provide non farm small loans of 10 lakh rupees (about $8000) to micro unit enterprises at the bottom of the development pyramid to encourage an entrepreneurial culture and micro enterprises. Non Performing assets (bad loans) or NPA were reduced from 11.1% of the banking system to 5.8% in 2022. This is critical to support future growth as banks that well capitalized can make the loans needed to support growth. In health and education  a large network of new universities and medical colleges, hospitals is being built. The Ayushman Yojana provides health screening to millions of people and aid is channeled to people for low cost generic medicines. It is the size of these efforts that is making the difference in the lives of ordinary people. For technological advancement the government has moved quickly on digitalization, and 5G implementation to be done by 2024. ...

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Omicron cases are up in an almost vertical line on a graph with cases doubling every 2-3 days in the UK, similar to the pattern in South Africa during the beginning of the spread in South Africa. Since then early data in South Africa show the trend in the province of Gauteng, center of the omicron outbreak in South Africa in the Johannesburg area, has reached its peak. On Dec. 16 it recorded 27% of national infections compared to 70% the week before. Head of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in South Africa, Michael Groome, says "we had areally dramatic increase in Gauteng, which has now leveled off."  Hospital admissions in South Africa show a different pattern than earlier hospital admission rates in previous waves, with only 1.7% of cases being hospitalized in this Omicron wave compared to 19% for the Delta variant wave at a similar point in the wave, says Health Minister Joe Phaahla. In UK as of Dec. 14, this WSJ report cites health authorites saying 73% of cases in London are omicron variant, doubling every 1-2 days, with omicron making up 41% of all cases in England. In the US the Centers for Disease Control show Omicron variant making up 2.9% of all cases in US as of Dec. 11, with highest concentration in New York, New Jersey of 13.1%. Proportion of positive tests went up from 3.3% to 5% in New York City. A convention in New York City, Anime convention at Javits Center, November 23, 2021, shown in a recent NYT report, could potentially have acted as a super spreader event in New York according to NYT though not confirmed, similar to football stadiums events in Italy in March 2020. Dense atmosphere and large crowds increase the risk of a super spreader event happening, say experts. ...

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David Smith, Economics Editor of The Times, says history is repeating itself now that the Labour Party thinks it should not have abolished Clause 4 of its constitution under Tony Blair ( the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange). Now that Labour's policies for renationalisation of water, transport and other basic services are popular, it appears that we are seeing a response from people fed up with market failure and greed in the way the private companies in these services are run.  Profits should go to taxpayers for basic public services and that salaries of management should be moderate, services efficient, and borrowing of capital done at lower rates, is the idea behind this. The Times You.Gov poll on renationalisation for rail shows 56% supporting, only 22% opposing, renationalisation of energy companies supported by 45%, 29% opposed, water companies 50% supporting and 25% opposed. In addition to this other Labour policies of 45% tax rate for incomes above 80,000 pounds, and 50% at 123,000 pounds, as well as wealth tax are also popular. Workers on company boards with ownership of a portion of company equity are also popular. This adds to the mystery about Labour's lack of strong support going into the election. Support for renationalisation comes from the thirst for change, says The Times. Market failures, greed, inequality and poor delivery of essential public services, severe cuts in the last decade, all play a role in the thirst for change. There is also the idea that when it comes to essential services there is no room for profit or owners and managers with huge pay running into millions. When trains are overcrowded or unreliable run by private companies economic arguments remain for the textbooks, its daily experience that counts. Going back to a time in the past when it worked, where economic structures were based on fairness, and people cared, is seen as an alternative to a dysfunctional period.     ...

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Hardeep Puri writes in the Indian Express that one of the biggest problems in development in India was that government programs for development just kept getting delayed, and there were leakages of funds that could never be tracked. It is the sign of a developing country that it remain perpetually a developing country when it does not find a way to overcome this situation. Most of Asia, Japan, South Korea, China has found a way out, and it is a sign of character in a country and its administration that real implementation takes place to transform a developing country into a modern country organizing and combining the inputs of land, capital, technology and human resources. Just one example is the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to build housing in India's cities to promote quality of living. In the last 7 years Puri writes in the Indian Express that 11.2 million houses were sanctioned, 4.9 million built and the rest to be built by March 2022. Compared to 1.2 million in the prior 10 years. To do this investment jumped by about 10 times. In the US infrastructure was neglected in the last 2 decades. In India urban infrastructure was delayed by never ending delays and leakages of funds. Across a range of projects from Metro urban transport to rail, bridges and road, infrastructure was slow and wobbly in India for most of the decades since 1947. The Smart Cities Mission is being financed with an investment planned of Rupees 2 trillion or over $200 billion to change the urban landscape with people centred priorities. As Puri writes silently, non performers are being weeded out, loopholes plugged, targets set, in scrutiny and monitoring of projects all the way to the prime minister in a way that has never happened before. There is relentless focus on monitoring the missions, problems to overcome, targets and dates of completion. Bringing to life a new national character and spirit for India during the pandemic. ...

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Henri Specht, Director of the Olympic Village, walks along newly installed boardwalk along the river Seine and sees how the Olympics will turn an industrial bank into a pedestrian walk area.This approach  has not been taken before and shows the French have taken the courage to try something new. The French government and organizers have built the Olympic Village in one of France's poorest suburbs along the river Seine in northeast of Paris to give it a jolt and revitalize the area. Carbon emissions will be cut in half using new technologies and it will be kept cool without airconditioning. Each of the 40 low rise tower blocks will provide housing for 14,000 people for Olympics and another 9000 for Paralympics. This a 52 acre project with housing for athletes to provide housing for residents, a new Aquatic Center, and other facilities to increase its potential for regeneration. Training facilities for employment are added in with high unemployment of about 20%.   Will it work? It was home to car and steel factories that have now closed as manufacturing went overseas. In 1998 the Stade de France stadium was built here to revive the area. Institut Montaigne says poverty will not disappear. The mayor says new housing is being delivered to change our image and improve the social balance in the city. In the neighboring town of St Oen the mayor has attracted $400 million euro investment for new housing. Tesla is putting its French headquarters in St. Oen. For the village about two thirds of the budget of 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) comes from private real estate companies and one third from the French  government 646 million euros. After the games a third of the 2800 apartments in the Olympic Village will be sold to private owners, one third to go to public housing, and one third for rentals to students and others. ...

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Chile, Mexico and the U.S. rank high in the diabetes rate for top soda consuming countries. In the U.S. the diabetes rate is at 7.7% of the population, in Chile 9.6% and Mexico 9%. Soda consumption per capita was at 165 litres in the U.S., 146 litres in Mexico and 134 litres in Chile, and 145 litres in Argentina where the diabetes rate is at 3.9%, for 2012. A new public service ad in Mexico City subway stations says it all, showing an ad with a soda bottle and the words- "Would you take 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar? Soda is sweet, diabetes isn't." The new Pacto de Mexico agreed to by all major political parties includes the soaring diabetes rate in Mexico as a problem to be tackled, including lunches at public schools and the consumption of coke and sodas by children. A particular acute problem in Mexico is the lack of clean drinking water in many areas and the dependence on coke and sodas for liquids. But bottled water could be used in its place if available at lower prices. One proposal is for a soda tax which could generate $2 billion and be used for setting up clean drinking water fountains in schools and other places. Elected officals in Mexico are firm about the need for action, as Mexico recently became the first country over 100 million inhabitants with the highest obesity rates at 7 adults out of 10 over the age of 20 obese or overweight, and the consequently high diabetes rate. Diabetes is the No. 2 killer in Mexico, and a serious health danger. Coca Cola gets its second highest revenues from Mexico after Europe, and the situation has evolved after years of heavy coke advertising to the point where Coca Cola is taken at every meal by some Mexican families, and is a sign of prestige. The company's response is to fight the public service ads with ads showing people burning off 149 calories by walking. The country now faces a long and uphill fight. Russia is one of the countries which is also conducting a similiar fight against soda drinks. The Bloomberg Philanthropy is financing efforts against soda drinks in Mexico, as part of its campaign against smoking and sodas as health hazards, and this maybe Bloomberg's bigger contribution to society than his service to New York City. Developing middle income countries such as Mexico, Chile, India, China, Brazil, are the hardest hit by soaring diabetes. And the costs to their health systems in 10-20 years from uncontrolled obesity and diabetes will be enormous. The U.S. is a developed country with similiar high rates of obesity and diabetes, with soaring medical costs, and serious problems that strangely have not received the public awareness and efforts that one should expect. ...

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Alan Blinder points out that the political partisanship that has emerged in 2010 has not served America well, as it has deprived the government of the fiscal policy tools, which would be more effective than the Fed's only mildly effective tool of buying $100 billion a month of medium and long term Treasury debt. The country he says is tied up in partisan knots that prevents the use of the fiscal policy tools, and leaves the Fed with the choice of doing something only nudging the rates on government and private securites a bit (by 30 basis points for Treasury debt and 15 basis points for private securities as an example, not enough for more than a mild impact on corporate spending). The fiscal policy tools are he says of a wide variety and pack a lot more power, and he cites three as examples: offering significant lasting tax breaks for job creation, large enough to produce results (larger and long term than the HIRE program), government hiring directly onto public payrolls and government paying local and state governments for hiring at the local levels, the government offering to compensate states for a cut in the sales tax for a year to stimulate consumer spending. Would'nt this raise the deficit though? Blinder points out that the deficit problem lies in the future. Right now there is so much slack in the economy, that public spending will not crowd out private spending. And with Treasury rates at an all time low, Treasury can finance the larger deficit in the short term. A depreciation of the dollar or inflation, he says, is not a worry, because now there is worry about deflation, and the USA needs a lower dollar to push exports up and rebalance its economy. This does not slight the deficit issue and the culture of poor budgeting among both parties, as Reagan Budget Director David Stockman pointed out in an op-ed piece, but accomodates the real dangers and opportunities of difficult policy choices. This is why he laments the advertising campaign and public relations campaign against the 2009 stimulus bill, and the expected paralysis of fiscal policy from the extremely partisan 2010 midterm elections, and public opinion consumed by fear of deficits. Leaving the Fed with the unenviable choice of using only mildly effective tools. Other experts and columnists mention the risks associated with the Fed's large scale purchase of securities, if this leads to another asset bubble and subsequent collapse, and another bailout needed for financial institutions. Peter Eavis in one column in the WSJ points to the lack of effectiveness of the first round of quantitative easing of $1.7 trillion. And Kelly Evans, in the WSJ, points to the risks of "bad" inflation, if another round of quantitative easing by the Fed leads to increases in the price of commodities such as oil and food (such inflation falling heaviest on lower income households).The US Financial Regulatory Reform bill has received low grades, and recent standards for reserve capital in worldwide banking reforms are stretched out over a long period, leaving fragility in the economic system, if something were to go wrong....

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Analysts point to the problems with thin film solar technology- lower energy conversion rates of 15%, and quality issues. As a result its market share has remained at 10%. Analysts say Hanergy global market share in thin film is insignificant. Yet its share price soared before declining by 46%, on the basis of its claims for thin film technology. It is a sign of the nature of the Chinese stock market with share prices having a tendency to jump and decline with reports of new technology.

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On the back of 18% growth in deliveries in Eastern Europe and 28% in Asia, VW increased operating profits for its core VW passenger car brand. This increased to 461 million euros even when sales declined in the US and Western Europe. Shows that German manufacturers can do well as long as the Asian, South American markets and Eastern European markets hold up well, as the US is entering a recession and exchange rates are unfavorable for manufacture in the euro region and export to the USA.

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Inflation in Cairo and other parts of Egypt hit annual rate of 16.4% in April 2008. On April 30, Mubarak announced a 30% wage increase for public sector employees. The government has increased prices of diesel by 47% and of some grades of high octane gasoline used by affluent Egyptians by 57%. The central bank has raised interest rates three times in 2008 but with little impact on inflation. There have been riots in Egypt because of the increase in prices of bread and basic food.

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Olivier Blanchard, chief economist of the IMF says that as government borrowing around the world surges, interest rates will go up. Governments borrow by selling bonds to investors, and to attract investors the government competes with stock and corporate bond markets for investor's money, leading to rising yields for investors. As the confidence has returned to corporate bond markets this is already happening. From the end of 2008. the yield on the benchmark 10 year Treasury note has increased by one and ahalf percentage points, rising to 3.54% from 2%, the sharpest upward movement in 15 years. In Germany the yield on German 10 year bonds has also risen, rising to 3.57% from 2.93%. Similiarly British bond yields have risen to 3.78% from 3.41%. Congressional Budget Office estimates are that net government debt for the USA will rise to 65% of GDP at the end of fiscal 2010, from 41% at the end of fiscal 2008. In 2009 and 2010 the US government will sell $5 trillion in new debt, according to Citigroup. A decade from now the government's outstanding debt could equal 82% of GDP, or about $17 trillion. Every one point rise in interest rates costs the Treasury $50 billion annually over a few years, and Kenneth Rogoff estimates that this could reach $170 billion annually if the average yield on 10 year Treasury note goes up to 4.7%, as the Congressional Budget Office estimates. This will dampen the effects of stimulus spending. It is a big issue says Rogoff. A year ago under old policy and assumptions before the financial crisis the Congressional Budget Office projected outstanding debt at $5.3 trillion in 10 years. Now the estimate is $17 trillion, which is triple the old number and an increase of $11 trillion. A recovering economy would make these numbers less relevant. But with struggling industries like autos and banks needing more help from the government, and with consumers having to reduce a mountain of debt, a weak economy for a long time and small growth for a decade would make this a story that won't go away. Rogoff says its like what happened to the subprime borrowers, people assuming that the funding is always going to be there. In 2009 and 2010 Citigroup says, the Euro zone countries will sell nearly 1.6 trillion euros or $2.6 trillion in new debt, and Britain will offer 490 billion pounds or $799 billion in new debt. Over the next decade this would slow Europe's recovery and prolong the downturn. Britain faces a bigger problem in the near term as Britain's governmetn debt equals 55% of GDP, and Standard and Poors estimates it could approach 100% by 2013. South America and Eastern Europe will also face the situation of rising rates. Asian countries like China with lower levels of debt are in a better situation, IMF's Blanchard says....

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VW bonds take a big hit following the emissions scandal. The annual cost of insuring 10 million euros of VW debt against default for five years is 214,000 euros. VW's cash flow after dividends is estimated at 5 billion euros by Fitch in 2016-2017. What is happening to VW goes beyond the emissions scandal. The overly easy environment for corporate borrowing with the loose monetary policy in Europe and the U.S. has made it easy for corporate borrowers to raise money at really low rates. This environment is about to change with VW being the beginning of a shift. In January 2015 VW raised 1 billion euros, with a 15 year bond and interest rate of 1.625%. This bond has dropped in price to 85.6% of face value.

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Analysts point out that there is not much room for austerity cuts in Italy and Spain without cutting into muscle. This is because these countries have moved to make austerity cuts much earlier. Their budget deficits are actually less than what they were when they joined the euro currency zone. In the case of Italy the budget is actually in surplus, to the amount of 2% of GDP, when the financial position excludes interest on debt. And Italy has now moved to reduce the deficit to 3.9% of GDP in 2011. Under pressure from the ECB Italy has announced its aim of balancing the budget by 2013. Because both Italy and Spain have growth rates estimated at below 1% for 2011, analysts believe it is important to emphasize growth.

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Karabell points out that Egypt ranks 137 in the world in per capita income (behind Tonga) and a population in the top 20. Two thirds of the population is under 30 years of age. The young in Egypt have no future with high rates of unemployment and little of the industrial development that you see in other large developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil. The 30 year rule of Mubarak also stifled any opportunity for public participation in the political process. During that rule Mubarak consciously decided to not pursue rapid economic development, something China has done even though it has a lack of public participation in the political process. As a result Egypt simply fell behind while the rest of the developing world improved opportunities in education, incomes and job opportunities.

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The percentage of Americans snacking more than 3 times a day increased to 56% by 2010, according to government data. This was at 20% in the 1990's and 10% in the 1970's. And with this comes higher rates of obesity, as this has made for unhealthy eating and reduced the number of healthy meals. 48% of Americans skip meals 3 times a week and 53% decide what to eat for a meal less than an hour before eating, according to a Hartman Group survey. Not all snacks are unhealthy as food companies are introducing healthier snacks than before. The discipline of earlier generations for having a healthy meal at meal times has eroded with single person households, two career families, and the generally hectic pace of life.

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The apparent call by the US Chamber of Commerce for a Scopes type monkey trial cited in a Los Angeles times article -like that of the 1920' for evolutionists and creationists- to test the science of climate change, has led to vigorous protest from Exelon, autility company that manages most of the nuclear plants in the country. PG&M and PNM are other companies that vigorously protested these theatrics as they call it. The US Chamber of Commerce has opposed environmental legislation and is vocally opposing the EPA's use of an existing law, the Clean Air Act, to set limits on greenhouse gases. Exelon, PG&E, and PNM have withdrawn from the US Chamber of Commerce to protest. Other companies opposing the chamber's statements on climate change are Nike, J&J, Duke Energy.

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France and Germany remained far apart on approach to banking regulation in Dec. 2012. Germany does not support regulatory powers of the ECB over Germany's small and midsized savings banks which lend to small businesses and consumers. France supports regulation of all 6000 banks in the eurozone by the ECB. Germany also raises concerns about how the regulatory powers of the ECB can affect its powers in setting interest rates. Germany does not support the British position for regulatory powers over London based banks to remain in Britain. Coming up with a new banking supervisor for European banks with regulatory powers of supervision is needed for Spain to get access to additional EU financing. This is also part of the new financial architecture for the eurozone, including deposit guarantees, which needs to be set up.

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The collapse of the zloty, losing half its value against the Swiss franc is proving to be traumatic for Polish consumers who took out loans in Swiss francs for property, cars, consumer goods. In the past the zloty had soared in value and it was cheaper to pay off the loans in Swiss francs which had lower interest rates. Now with the zloty losing so much value it is proving very difficult to pay off these loans. What was once seen as a win-win game, says a economic advisor to Poland's President, now is turning into a risky currency gamble. He says that people were taking risks without knowing the consequences and what they were getting into, much like homeowners in the US getting into risky subprime loans.

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The Fed's purchase of government bonds was supposed to drive down long term rates. But rates were up six weeks after the Fed's November 3, 2010 decision. So far the effect has not been what the Fed envisaged and the impact on the economy modest.

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Krauthammer says there is reason for optimism that the super committee of the August 2 Debt Ceiling and Deficit bill can achieve major results. The reason he says is that much of the work in key areas has already been worked out by the Simpson-Bowles Commission. This has also received extensive public scrutiny and discussion. Its now upto the committe to make some choices for tax reform. For the sake of efficiency and fairness this needs to be done. Efficiency is gained by closing the loopholes and the tax exemptions for mortgage interest deductions, health-care exclusion, and subsidies such as the one for ethanol. And in its place moving to lower tax rates, the 23% envisaged by Simpson-Bowles, or the 28% from the Reagan days, down from the 35% today. Fairness is gained by removing tax breaks for special interest groups that do much of the lobbying. The mortgage interest deduction can be phased out starting at $500,000 in the inital phase or using the plan for tax expenditures proposed by Martin Feldstein. Feldstein's proposal outlined in the New York Times on May 4, 2011, (see group for Feldstein) was to limit the reduction in taxes from deductions and exclusions to 2% of the person's AGI or adjusted gross income. The other part of the Committee's focus would be the structural changes to Social Security and Medicare- raising the Social Security and Medicare ages and changing the inflation formula, and means testing Social Security. Obama has already considered the raising of the age for Social Security and changing the cost of living formula....

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With the change in U.S. position on climate change, carbon emissions, and the move to raise tariffs on China's exports to the U.S. China faces a new dimension in its global relationships. Against this background China is shifting to a long term view of its relationship with India. China's new foreign policy leaders after the recent party Congress, vice president Wang Qishan and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, now see the need for new partners in a multipolar global world for the long term as China and India countries with large populations and a need for stable world trade share common interests. Wang steers the Central Foreign Affairs Commission with Yang Jiechi as director. China now sees " a lot of shared interests, concerns and positions," in the words of China's Representative Lu, in the long term issues of globalisation, urbanization, pollution, and concern for achieving stable development with high growth rates.  China now takes the long view looking back at the unprecedented change of the last 100 years, as it maps out its plans for the future. The U.S. has challenged the ideas in the blueprint for development of "Made in China 2025," particularly as it relates to western transfer of technology to China. This has created a new situation for which China is still looking for answers, and ways to come up with new strategies for development without the nearly unrestricted access to western technology of the last 2 decades.  Shared positions on world trade with India and India's close relations with the U.S. add credibility in China's  negotiating positions with the U.S.                  ...