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Bank of England governor Mervyn King's speech at the Economc Club of New York in Dec. 2012. About incoming governor Mark Carney, King says "I think he'll do a great job and they won't miss me at all." He says one way or another the U.S. will find a way to avoid the fiscal cliff. He sees a tension between short and long term policy goals such as recapitalizing banks and having governments reduce their debt.

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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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Skeptical reception of the Administration's plan as Senators on the Banking Committee question, Paulson, Bernanke, Cox and Lockhart. The plan is only a few pages long and has no details wich alarms Senators as letting Treasury act with absolute impunity. The Senators are concerned about accountability, transparency and strict oversight. They are also concerned about protecting taxpayers money and taking equity in return for funds as on way to ensure that the taxpayers benefit from the upside in this as with the Swedish example in 1992. And Senators are concerned about the high rate of foreclosures and the need to help homeowners avoid foreclosure about which this plan is silent leaving in the words of one senator " a gaping hole" in the plan as home prices will continue to deteriorate as long as nothing serious and comprehensive is done about the foreclosure rate. Neither Bernanke or Paulson had anything to say about addressing foreclosures with broad comprehensive steps. And reflecting the outrage across the country the Senators want to see a cap on executive compensation of CEO's or some way in which CEO's of these financial institutions benefit while the taxpayers bear the burden. Summing up for the committee the head of the Senate Banking committee said that the Administrations plan was "unacceptable." ...

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Governor Jerry Brown of California retires to an isolated family ranch in Colusa County, an hours drive northwest of Sacramento, the state capital. He is the longest tenured and oldest governor of the state, having held the office when he was younger and then coming back years later to be governor again after becoming Mayor of Oakland. His father was also a famous governor of the state. 

His values of embracing community almost to the point of being tribal were evident in his long years in office. His three years spent at a Jesuit seminary before going to law school also shaped his life. Brown was opposed to embellishment, living in a sort of ascetic way, and was also opposed to a cult of personality. Upto the point that he refused to sign autographs as governor.

Here Miriam Pawell who written a book on the Brown family and how it changed California for the better, looks at the life, times and character of Jerry Brown.

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Canada's Bombardier based in Montreal launched the C series in 2008 to develop aircraft to compete with Airbus 320neo and Boeing 737 MAX, narrow body commercial airplanes. After cost overruns and delays Bombardier has $9 billion of long term debt and its financial condition deteriorated to the point where it needed a $1 billion loan from Quebec government in 2015. About 40,000 workers in Quebec are in the aerospace industry. In 2018 Airbus acquired a 50.01% stake in the Cseries program to provide marketing muscle because sustainablility became a marketing issue in Bombardier's severely weakened financial condition resulting in weak sales. Quebec government holds 16%, Bombardier 34%. Now Bombardier is planning to sell its stake in the A220 jet program to Airbus to cut its debt. Airbus will cover $350 million in losses for 2020. It is also negotiating to sell its core jet division to Textron Inc. The ambitious strategy appears to have failed for Bombardier as Airbus takes control.     ...

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Using knowledge of molecular crystal formation with a degree in industrial chemistry, and a chocolate making apprenticeship in Antwerp, this is what brings Thierry Muret to the exciting work of making new truffles. He originally wanted to become a scientist inventing new things. Today he uses his science degree every single day, as its all about crystals, says Muret, who is the main chef at a large chocolate maker, Godiva. His view is that chefs are all the time decomposing food and recomposing it as they see fit using creative ways and ideas. He says chocolate is a very difficult material, and it takes sometimes as long as 12 months to get one product right. One deals with temperatures and time and half a degree Fahrenheit is what the fluctuation allowed is. Here he describes a typical day at a chocolate maker and days when he gets creative, passionate about a creation, putting everything aside. Other days at a satellite kitchen in New York, or in Brussels talking about new chocolates for Christmas 2020. ...

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China reports no new coronavirus infections for the first time on March 19. The outbreak in Italy now surpasses that in China.  The U.S. government is now shifting to social distancing as the most effective way to control the spread and away from focus on widespread testing as a containment tool. The experience in China shows social distancing works, quarantine works. Countries and regions that have neglected to do this early are the ones worst hit, including most of Europe.  The reintroduction of the infection after its containment is addressed by quarantine and social distancing and use of masks, government disinfecting hard surfaces in all public areas, a program implemented strictly in Asian countries such as Singapore, China, Taiwan, and other Asian countries. Use of masks was common in Asian countries in earlier episodes of SARS and other epidemics, making it widely used long before this crisis. This is making a significant impact in addition to social distancing and other quarantine measures taken in China.   ...

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An internal IMF document that estimates Europe's banks are short of capital by $273 billion. IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, tries to downplay the report by saying this is not from a stress test that the IMF conducts. In August, Lagarde, called for an "urgent recapitalization" of European banks. As France's finance minister, Lagarde, steadfastly insisted French banks were well capitalized. France worked hard to prevent requirements for significant capital reserves under the Basel III rules. The higher capital requirements were supported by the U.S.. Simon Johnson said in his blog, that as long as European banks had inadequate capital to act as a buffer against losses, European countries had no safe route for restructuring their debts.

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The nominee for the position of FBI Director in the U.S. in July 2017, Christopher Wray, is a former defense lawyer, prosecutor and Justice Department official. He responded to questions from Senator Graham on his views on Russia, and from Senator Leahy. He told the Senators that this was not a job for the faint of heart, and that "I am not faint of heart." He said he respects Mr. Mueller and Mr Comey's long service. Answering persistent questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee Wray said: "I believe to my core that there's only one right way to do this job, and that is with strict independence, by the book, playing it straight." Wray's background is Yale Law School 1992, Assistant U.S. Attorney in Georgia 1997, and with the Justice Department since 2001 becoming Assistant Attorney General for the criminal division. 

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A study of the economies of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. by the Brookings Institution suggests that states in the South may be facing a harder time recovering from high unemployment than the northeast and midwestern states. Of the ten states with the highest unemployment six are in the West and the South, including Nevada, California, and S. Carolina. Unemployment in S. Carolina is 11.1%. A researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, says the better performance of the South in earlier years was driven by development and in-migration. This has abruptly ended. A Brookings Fellow, Howard Wial, suggests the possibility of California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida being depressed for a long time, while states in the Great Lakes region see a rebound. States and regions that are dependent on education, healthcare and energy, are doing better than others. In Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh region with its emphasis on education and healthcare is doing better than Philadelphia. In New York, Buffalo and Rochester in the upstate region are doing better than the New York City metropolitan area. Areas around Akron and Youngstown in the rustbelt part of Ohio are recovering better than Tucson and Colorado Springs....

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Bond investors are looking to Japan for clues after the U.S. credit downgrade and two years of zero interest rates. William O'Donnell, chief Treasurys strategist at RBS Securities sees similiarities with what happened in Japan- short term rates near zero and long term rates headed down. strategists see the U.S. 10 year Treasury note dropping to less than 2%, from 2.23% today. Japan's 10 year Treasury note yields 1.05%. O'Donnell's forecast is for 10 year rates to be at 1.70% by mid-2012.

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Analysts are forecasting an average oil price of $106 for 2011, according to FactSet Research Systems. Brent crude is $110 a barrel in the third week of August 2011. This implies Brent crude has to be at an average of $95 for the remainder of 2011- suggesting a decline of 14% from todays levels. Share prices of European oil companies Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Eni and Total are priced for long term crude oil prices at $75 per barrel, according to Citi.

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This Reagon Memo from 1980 was written by his advisors George Shultz, Milton Friedman, Paul McCracken and others before his first inauguration in 1980. It provides the new president with prudent advice on policy and methods to deal with soaring inflation and a stagnant economy. Its relevance today lies in the emphasis on charting out a long term plan for growth by encouraging private investment in the economy and providing a sure framework for the private sector to generate expansion.

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Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the Consumer Price Index fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in December, after falling 1.7% in November. The so called core rate that excludes volatile food and energy costs was flat. For all of 2008 consumer prices went up by only 0.1%, while the core rate rose 1.8%. This creates the possibility of deflation taking place as the economy worsens in 2009 and deflation hanging over the American economy for a long time after that.

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Helene Cooper and Worth point to the vacillating response to the Arab Spring and movement for democracy and freedom in the Middle East of the Obama administration and President Obama. The dangerous overtones of this lack of U.S. leadership in the region as the U.S. completes a withdrawal from Iraq without an agreement for a residual presence, sees diplomacy reaching an impasse with Iran's development of nuclear weapons, and the Syrian civil war drawing in Turkey with its long border with Syria, and drawing in Saudi Arabia as a defendor of Sunnis in Syria. The stakes for Russia in Syria were minimal compared to that of people in the Middle East and the U.S., yet it had an outsized influence with its early military assistance to the Assad regime and the lack of U.S. leadership to resolve the situation in Syria in favor of the democracy movement.

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Climate policy changes lead to $1.3 trillion savings according to analysis from DJT administration and EPA's Zeldin, with $1.1 trillion in savings from lower vehicle prices which addresses unaffordability of cars. Using the average price of a new basic Toyota Corolla the price in 2020 was $19,000 which has gone up to $23,000 a price increase of 21% by 2025 over a 5 year period. The cost in 2026 of operating a Gas powered vehicle is on average about $2500, for EV car about $1000 with $1500 in savings per year for EV's that need to be figured into the equation at gas prices that prevailed in 2024 of $4-$5 per gallon . At prices of $3 per gallon the gas costs come down to $1200 when driven 12,000 miles at 30 mpg for 400 gallons of gasoline consumed. This makes the difference between gas and EV yearly savings on gasoline costs down to about $200 from $1500. This makes gasoline powered cars attractive as car companies can reduce EV investments and pass on some of these savings in lower car prices in 2027 in exchange for favorable rules on emissions and EV transition dates.  Are there losses through the emissions and climate change? The DJT/Zeldin EPA analysis points to global climate emissions from China and India (the coal powered plants) continuing at a pace that would determine the overall change in climate for 2026-2027. In this kind of approach the goal is to make cars affordable over a 2-3 year period for US and European carmakers who would be expected to cut prices. It is about flexibility in fighting the Cost of Cars a big component in the Cost of living with housing as the next large component. It is not a long term strategy, simply one that offers a flexible approach. Will the US, Europe and Japan fall behind in EV's technology? Hybrids a focus of Japanese cars will continue to advance that technology which is becoming a preference where it is affordable for customers. Toyota for instance will have a wide lead in hybrids technology by 2030. Much of the Chinese market will have EV's and the EV's technology will advance in China in 2026-2027, and tariffs will be needed to protect European and American carmakers for 2026-2028. It is a strategy tradeoff to deal with the cost of living crisis in US, Europe and Japan answering call for a flexible approach that was also heeded by the Biden administration in relaxing carbon emissions rule changes. It will require automakers to step up and cut prices for gasoline models for buyers at the entry and lower range for affordability by 2026-2027. What about climate action? The strategy is based on the idea that climate action requires India and China (coal powered plants) on board to make a real difference so that over 2-3 years to 2027 the US, Europe and Japan need to address affordability for the lower end entry cars. There is an element of denial of climate change in parts of the DJT administration in the US but not in Europe and Japan. It is also true that leading DJT administration officials Secretary Bessent see the problem of climate as real and one that needs to be addressed yet leaving room for flexibility to tackle affordability crisis for ordinary workers with low incomes struggling to make a living. Bessent and others in the DJT administration are calling for using all of the resources to address needs of people struggling to make a living, and for a strategy for the US to get back its manufacturing capacity from China and for rebuilding the US economy after deindustrialization (caused by Clinton's huge US economy shattering failure to provide safeguards for abuse of the trading system by China in signing a poorly drafted agreement for China's entry into WTO at the end of his term in 1999-2000 just when he had fought impeachment.  ...

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India European Union Trade Deal - huge potential for EU and India for 2 billion people size markets, new manufacturing hubs, and advanced scientific + technological cooperation. Timing is critical. From the first term of DJT 2016-2020 it became clear that the supply chain concentration in China was a serious error for America and Europe. Modi came into manage the federal government in India in 2014- that first phase was to tackle the basic problems in health care sanitation and road infrastructure, agriculture. By the second term of DJT Europe had realized something had to be done to reduce concentration of trade  supply chains in China. Two things had to happen to bring India and EU together. The Ukraine War and China's indirect participation on the side of Russia, the change in administration from Merkel to SPD's Schulz,  and in 2026 to Merz and the CDU created a new awareness of the need for EU and India to come together. Yet Scholz SPD hung onto the special trade relationship even in the face of the Ukraine war and China's shift when it allowed the port of Hamburg stake taken by China to be retained. Something had to happen to jerk Germany and with it the EU out of its inability to shift towards India. Merz took this step in 2026 as the relationship with China soured over Ukraine war and the grasp of the dangers of overconcentration of the China relationship with Germany that Merkel had created. On the other side Modi had to get India's logistics, road and rail networks, ports ready for such a trade relationship where goods could be quickly shipped into and out of India. Modi worked on these investments on a rapid basis in his second and third terms. India had to offer stability in the relationship. This meant winning elections to set up state governments in key states such as Maharashtra for Bombay (Mumbai) region, Delhi capital region, and Bihar/ Orissa (Patna region northeast), Rajasthan (Jaipur northwest region), local city governments in Bombay (Mumbai) region and in the south in Andhra (Vizag region) + Trivandrum (Kerala). The combination of federal and state and city governments working in unison plus logistics and transportation, put India in contention for the role of a size and magnitude that would make a difference for Europe in its relations with China and Russia. That necessity was now fulfilled and in place. Merz and Modi, seized the chance at the kite festival in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, with a vist to the Sabarmati Ashram of modern India's founder Mohandas Gandhiji. Von Der Leyen also from CDU now joins the former premier of Portugal Antonio de Costa as heads of EU to attend the Republic Day parade celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. Nothing happened by chance. It took the hard work that in Robert Frost's words in Mowing ( "the fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows my long scythe whispered, for the earnest love that laid the swale in rows"). Japan plunged headlong into imperial ambitions after its modernization, China has ambitions under its Communist/ Markets system, India as the homeland of the Buddha and the Buddhist civilization of China, Japan and Indochina, and with its special place for Mohandas Gandhiji brings the European civilization in connection with a civilization that is just as old and advanced as the European in its philosophical and religious foundations with practice in real life, and not likely to flounder on the rocks as the Japanese and Chinese expansionist ambition based ideas. And once again with Robert Frost in- Putting in the Seed in Springtime, for Merz, Leyen, Da Costa, and for Gandhi and Modi - "On through the watching for that early birth when just as the soil tarnishes with weed, The sturdy seedling with arched body comes shouldering its way and shedding the earth crumbs."     ...

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EIA says half of the benefit of higher fuel efficiency standards for Automobiles 2010-2020 in US was lost because of SUV's and the incentivizing of SUV's in the 2006 CAFE standards have made things worse. The first SUV's came in the 1980's. By 2004 SUV's made up half of car sales and by 2025 outsold cars 2 to 1. What if we took all SUV's and large cars off the roads, or even some of these SUV's by deincentivizing of SUV's in the US CAFE corporate fuel efficiency standards? What would be the savings in crude oil and in carbon footprint? Would it be about the same as releasing an additional 400 million barrels of oil into the markets in addition to the 400 million barrels that are now released through EIA and member countries? This New Yorker essay touches on this idea. During the Iran war the volatile Middle East as a source of oil supplies is a major problem for countries. Some are rationing supplies and in one country 40 million children are not going to school for 2 weeks starting this week because of the sources of oil are so precarious, government offices will only have half of the employees, the rest working from home (almost like Covid pandemic). Many other countries face that situation. The International Energy Agency recently reported that, if “SUVs were an individual country, they would rank sixth in the world for absolute emissions in 2021, emitting over 900 million tonnes of CO2.” The agency says governments must redesign their CAFE standards and their policies so that it would reduce S.U.V. sales, tax gas guzzling vehicles. EIA cites governments in the EU doing this- “Some governments have already started introducing relevant measures, such as France and Germany, which have put a tax on large and high-emissions cars.” Within SUV's also there is an opportunity to reduce the size and make more efficient space utilization designs. Small savings also add up. One has to realize that the current freedom to use energy freely in places like the US with self sufficiency in oil comes with a sense of responsibility for using it wisely so that it can be exported to cut the trade deficit, precisely what the president is doing with India, to cut a trade deficit of $58 billion before it gets to $100 billion. Section 301 is already in place for investigations by the US of 18 countries for a new basis to use tariffs after the Supreme Court decision. A similar approach is taken with EU for hundreds of billions of reductions in trade deficit that will only strengthen the US dollar and the US economy in the long run , and be good for stock markets and jobs as it reduces oil prices and increases the manufacturing capacity/cost for the Nation. Europe, India and China can do the same. Remember that in 2010 SUV's made up 17% of total world sales, and by 2025 SUV's made up 46% of world vehicle sales. This would create another 400 million barrels for the oil markets, which would triple what was released through EIA  this week to 1.2 billion barrels and this would create 120 days of supply replacement for the 10 million b/d lost from Straits of Hormuz, and effectively end the Iran War as it would be clear that prices can be kept low even in the $50's. Essentially buying time till the SU can get more production in Venezuela and other parts of the world to replace much of the Middle Eastern oil that is ending up in a quagmire. This is the best way for the US and Europe, India, China to ensure jobs growth, economic growth with low cost crude oil in the $50 range and ensure much of the poorer countries like Egypt and Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, have access to oil at prices they can afford and eliminate poverty. ...

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This report in the Washington Post says the cancellation of the Trump meeting with Kim Jong-un of North Korea was the result of a lack of detailed planning and lower level meetings before a top level meeting. The more that Trump mentioned "Libya" the more North Korea turned hostile leading to the cancellation by president Trump. North Korea has long seen the Libyan route where Moammar Khaddafi of Libya closed all nuclear facilities as leading to the fall of the dictator and his government.  Experts say the Trump unconventional way of diplomacy is not entirely disproven, yet this shows it has its limits in what can be accomplished. It is also one of highs and lows, moving in one direction and then in the opposite direction in a short period.

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WSJ Analysis of government data shows on Feb 22, the actual savings from cutting fraud and waste, misspent funds of $2.6 billion less than the $7 billion shown on the DOGE website. Of this 2% of savings are attributed to DEI closures. What it shows is that generating savings is a long term effort requiring weeks, months and years of hard work with patience and perseverance, as shown by the Truman Committee of 1941-1948 of the US Congress during the War and the early part of the rebuilding of Europe. DJT corruption, fraud and waste cutting efforts owe it to the American public to take a long term view similar to the Truman Committee of 1941. That Committee was setup with unanimous support in Congress for Resolution 41 of Senator Harry Truman of Missouri in Feb 1941. This type of unanimous support remains a hope, yet just as the efforts of president Biden were needed for investment in crumbling infrastructure, there is also today the need to see that $4 trillion in the US budget is wisely and prudently spent, even if this effort is led by the opposite party. As the articles alongside show the Truman Committee lasted till 1948 for the better part of the decade. It helped Harry Truman replace Wallace for the Vice Presidency in 1944 under FDR, and within months to the White House till 1952. A period of spending for the Greece-Turkey and Marshall Plan for Germany aid efforts similar to aid to Europe today, on top of the wartime spending comparable to the 5 year effort against the pandemic starting in 2019.     ...

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DJT tariffs are selective and reciprocality makes them fair. This also cushions the impact on consumers and countries. Countries who have blatantly unfair tariffs for decades can then decide as in EU, China, India, Japan, S. Korea, Mexico and Canada, can decide how they will respond by looking at what they need to do for fair trade. Some tariffs are intended also as domestic policy for failure to control of fentanyl into the US as with CMC countries Canada, Mexico and China. US producers will make goods sourced from these countries at home and as DJT says about autos from Mexico this will lead to American producers in Detroit picking up production and bringing manufacturing back home to USA. Most goods Americans use were made in the US in the postwar period from 1950-1980, American manufacturing will get the boost it so badly needs after unfair trade practices from other countries in the EU, Japan, Taiwan and China. By April this policy will be in place, by June in 6 months the policies will be fully operational at entry ports in the US including Los Angeles and Long Beach. All tariffs are selective, carefully evaluated for individual countries and products and regions based on reciprocality a principle that is fair to all countries and the principle on which the world trading system is founded. Individual companies and industries that gain this or that benefit may present it differently saying is good or bad based on their interest and profits- for the US and American people the principle of reciprocality provides a yardstick that is both fair and in the long term interest of bringing jobs and higher wages to the US. ...

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Europe responds with platitudes and vague references to "benefits for everyone" and "detrimental" without facing up to the facts. How many American cars do you see on the streets of Germany? in Berlin or Frankfurt?- or Japan? in Tokyo or Osaka?-or South Korea? in Seoul? And how long has this been going on - since the 1980's. Europe's answer to the Marshall Plan and Japan's and China's to post war American help for recovery, was to exclude American cars and other products. GM and Ford have pulled out of China and so has VW. China's plan is to flood the world with electric cars, and Japan's to flood the world with hybrids. For far too long America has relied on capitalism that has no state involvement. In this kind of competition with hidden subsidies and national planning at the core of industrial growth in Asia. The US government has to have state involvement in it's auto, steel, aluminium, and chip industries, not to create trade disturbances but to create an even playing field for all, and rebuild a middle class destroyed by unfair trading practices of Asian nations and the EU, including Canada and Mexico which are simply used as bases to ship to the US. Ford makes 80% of its cars in the USA and GM can make the investments in new plants to raise its production from 60% in the USA to 80%. South Korea's Hyundai and Kia are investing $21 billion to make in the USA. Toyota and Nissan, VW, BMW and Mercedes can do the same.   ...

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After denying clearances for development projects for three decades, the Indian Supreme Court green bench of Justices Gavai and Vikram Nath clears 118 development projects already delayed for 5 years for pending litigation. 118 projects were cleared, including 15 held up for 10 years, based on the "sustainable development" idea that takes a look at the bigger picture, the aspirations of youth, and the bigger possibilities for renewables and environment with a bigger economy. It shows how India which at one time in 1990 had about the same GDP as China, has today one fifth the GDP of China, and with it lacks the same scale of investment for renewable energy and climate change action that China has because of China's larger economy. In this sense the whole country of 1.2 billion Indians, including hundreds of millions of farmers and urban residents, the Supreme Court and India's institutions, have suffered more than the one lost decade the prime minister referred to in the Budget session of parliament. It is more like three decades since China pushed ahead after 1990. China having suffered from the Japanese invasion and civil war for three decades in the 1920-49 period and three decades of drift in economic direction following 1949. India faced its own period of failed governance that matches the failures in China by 1990. The SC bench stated- "The Supreme Court is flooded with applications after applications, seeking permissions to construct primary schools, public health centers, anganwadi centers, an other public utility buildings in remote areas. Himachal Pradesh is constrained to approach the Supreme Court even for seeking permission to connect villages in remote areas by roads. Needless to state, the citizens residing in the remote areas cannot be deprived of the developmental activities that are being done in other parts of the country."  The Supreme Court called it ridiculous that the states were required to rush to the Supreme Court to do the minimal developmental activities.  That the Supreme Court and other institutions have taken so long to say and do this is itself one of the reasons India has fallen behind China. It will need to accelerate its efforts, in the way that the rest of the country and the world is doing to create an environment in which development can meet the aspirations of the Indian people. Efforts for climate change action can take place at the same time with bigger investment capabilities from the larger economy and advanced technological capabilities. The two can and do go together, a point missed for far too long.  An approach even the US has grasped and is doing under president Biden. The US has gone through its own period of failed governance for four decades of neglect of manufacturing and infrastructure that president Biden talked about in his State of the Union address to the US Congress last week.  Biden now sees the problem itself as an opportunity to get it right. So can India.   ...

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Who is Nandalal Weerasinghe? This report in The Daily News gives some idea about the man chosen to help Sri Lanka negotiate a deal with the IMF.  Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe was an alternate executive director at the International Monetary Fund before being appointed deputy governor of the Ceylon Central Bank in 2012. Before this he managed several macroeconomic departments at the central bank and was assistant governor of the central bank from 2007 to 2009, He has spent the large part of his career in economic positions at the Central Bank of Ceylon after getting his PhD in economics from the Australian National University. Weerasinghe is the leading expert in macroeconomics from Sri Lanka who has IMF experience. He says "things will get worse before they get better." He retired early from the central bank with a change in government in 2019. He was reappointed as Sri Lanka faced a debt crisis in March 2022 following the two year long pandemic, and the Ukraine war in 2022 that was bad for emerging market economies. Weerasinghe says about the crisis facing Sri Lanka- Recent decisons followed Modern Monetary Theory. This has dire consequences. In recent times the savings brought about by the low tax and interest rate regime passed savings on to the corporate sector and took away spending power from savers and pensioners. Surging inflation made things even worse for the lower income middle class and older parts of society. Years of accumulated debt have brought Ceylon to this point. In Ceylon one is seeing the effects of savings being passed on to the corporate sector in an economy dependent on tourism and remittances from overseas workers, both hit by the two year long pandemic. This is part of  a trend that has hurt emerging market economies from Argentina and Pakistan which also turned to the IMF to Turkey.  In other countries in the European Union savings also passed on to the corporate sector with low tax and low interest rate regime. With high inflation resulting in the cost of living crisis seen today in France and Germany. This type of policy that Weerasinghe calls 'Modern Monetary Theory' is not healthy for the European Union and the US, as these policies led to the neglect of much needed and vital investments in infrastructure, health and education. Only now are these effects being corrected by new administrations of Biden in the US and Scholz in Germany, with Biden's 2 trillion plan for workers and families, and a similar plan from chancellor Scholz. With this come needed investments to tackle climate change, all of which was neglected before. India has taken a different approach. By following good governance, managing vaccination effectively during the pandemic, social emphasis for food, water, electricity, cooking gas, medicine for the vast population of 1.2 billion, and a Master plan for building Made in India manufacturing,  India has avoided such crises and maintained strong economic growth. In this sense it is a model for South Asian, South East Asian, African, and Latin American emerging market economies that face a difficult situation today. Good governance is critical.   ...