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Frank Rich says the bankruptcy trustee in the Madoff case may do what the Financial Inquiry Commission failed to do, and what the Pecora Senate investigation of 1933 accomplished. Michael Lewis, author of "The Big Short," said of the efforts to prevent a future crisis on MSNBC: "I feel like we're living in a house built on sand because we did'nt reform the system." By not holding people accountable their is risk of the same behaviours recurring. By saying everything went wrong in general Shakespearean terms the Financial Inquiry Commission report did not accomplish the purpose of its investigation.

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US Senate lawmakers agreed to increase the FDIC deposit insurance limits to $250,000 from $100,000. These limits have not been permanently increased since 1980- the increase in late 2008 was a temporary measure to support the banking system. Credit rating agencies pushed hard to avoid the setting up of a credit ratings watchdog agency and succeeded. Under Senator Al Franken's provision a government overseen credit ratings agency board would be setup and it would assign new financial products to ratings agencies for rating. 63 Senators had supported this provision in a Senate debate. Intense lobbying from ratings agencies to avoid this government oversight resulted in shelving of this provision. The change is to ask the SEC to study the conflict of interests issue and how an independent agency might function, and give the SEC authority to setup such a system.

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Shipments of farm products to China will reach $15 billion in 2011, compared to China's $16.8 billion and Mexico's $14.6 billion. In the first 8 months of 2010, U.S. agricultural exports increased 14% to $69.8 billion, from same period year earlier.

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Brazil shifts stance on the appreciation of its currency, the Real, as it approaches $1.60 to the dollar in April 2011. With inflation at 6.3% in March 2011, Finance Minister Mantega is seeing the benefits of a stronger currency in reducing the cost of imported goods. Brazil's currency, the Real, is appreciating as foreign money pours into Brazil because of growth prospects and because of the overnight interest rates of 11.75%. This will limit the use of capital controls that Mantega has used in the past. Since October Brazil triple taxes on foreign investment in local bonds.

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The trial of Turkey's military officers, politicians and journalists, for an attempted military coup in Turkey under the elected Erdogan government.

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GDP of the USA contracted by 3.8% in the 4th quarter of 2008. Excluding the inventory adjustment which is the inventory of products made but sitting on inventory shelfs, the GDP contracted by 5.1%. In the last week of January 2009 there were 70,000 layoffs in the U.S. in all sectors from trucks to technology. 2009 is going to get a lot worse which does not bode well for Detroit automakers and other industries, and for economies overseas like China and South Korea which are heavily dependent on exports, and in turn for Germany which is dependent on the Chinese market.

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Plans the Detroit automakers are presenting to Congress for financial help.

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A question about perceptions of the  of Indian Muslim communities is asked at the Peterson Institute in Washington D.C. Nirmala Sitharaman, India's Finance Minister, responds by comparing the situation where India's Muslim communities have grown from about 10% of the population in 1947 to 15% today compared to Pakistan where Muslim communities were not protected and dwindled from 15% of the population to about 3% today. She did not mention the inclusivity in policy where sab ka vikas sab ke sath is national policy, development for all with the participation of all. And that Muslims benefit equally with other communities in the rapid growth of the economy and GDP in India. This positive story for Muslims and for all communities also stems from the ideals of Vedanta, respect for all religions in Vivekananda's idea including Buddhism, Christianity and Islamic faiths. It also comes from India being rooted in Gandhi's and Vivekananda's ideas since independence. ...

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For National Governance Day- Praveen Siddharth, private secretary to the president, writes about the way Atal Bihari Vajpayee handled the difficult situations he faced in parliament after his government faced no confidence motions and his government collapsed for lack of one vote, leading to a government that lasted 13 days, before finally winning the 1999 elections for a first full term in office. This opened the way for a post independence modernizing India based on good governance, "sab ka vikas sab ke sath, sab ka prayas." National governance day is observed on the day of the birth of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 

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The TOI looks at welfare schemes under CM Gehlot of the Rajasthan state government and their impact. The problems of lack of industrialization of the state, problems for the middle class, and the continued lack of job opportunities without industrial development and modernization.

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Early warning about the danger of a small group of individuals deciding the future of an important technology that has dangerous potential if placed in a few hands. With the dangers ever present that the pace of development is outpacing regulatory effort, and the profit enabling a few corporations to stifle regulatory effort in America's flawed democracy. Sam Altman is seen by the board of OpenAI as "hindering the efforts of the board to carry out its responsibilities." The tension of the board with Sam Altman comes from the thinking at the board that the rapid expansion of commercial offerings was not giving time to consider the safety implications of the products rolled out. Watching Joanna Stern of WSJ interview Sam Altman and Murali Murthi gives the impression that Altman was  moving too quickly and Murthi was saying the right things but lacked the experience and capacity to tackle AI's vast responsibilities. This also stems from the fact that what young Stanford and other tech graduates in their early thirties have done in the last 2 decades ends a chapter in America's tech history. AI is an entirely different technology which requires the involvement of major parts of America's whole technological and scientific community and its society, not just a few individuals. This is also the lesson from the pandemic for virus research where not just the Cambridge, Massachusetts community needed to be involved, but vast parts of America'a health and medicine scientific community and the American public. A million lives were lost in the pandemic in the US alone, and millions all over the world. It is a lesson that should never be forgotten- that technology can get out of control. ...

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DJT on Canada "lives because of the US," and Carney's referencing the relationship and saying "Canada does not live because of the US." Rupture in relations started earlier but was mended. This time Carney takes the first step after visiting Beijing to clearly distance Canada from the US in speeches at Davos, by being openly critical of US policies. This does not bode well for negotiations onthe USMCA agreement that is being rewritten. Disputes with Mexico continues over US preference to strike on land against drug cartels in Mexico that are trafficking drugs to the US with loss of hundreds of thousands of lives more than the Korean and Vietnam wars, and World War 1 combined over the last decade. The USMCA involves negotiations with Mexico and Canada. The Border has been secured but like Eisenhower in 1954 DJT faces the problem of how to send back the surge in migrants that entered the border illegally through Mexico with the Mexican government not intervening and the Biden/Harris/Mayorkas government failing to secure it -asking for legislation as late as 2024 when most of the illegal entry had already happened. In 1954 Eisenhower organized Operation Wetback to do this, which is now underway in the US in a different way by DJT in 2026 with the clear focus on getting criminal activity out. ...

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Riots in Belfast UK after migrant knife attack June 8 2026. Assailant was able to get asylum by flying from Sudan to Paris, Paris to Dublin and taking a bus to Belfast to seek asylum in the UK, says this report in the BBC. Starmer government in UK fails to stop asylum in the UK now that public opinion is clearly opposed to earlier lax immigration policies. Including asylum hotels that led to public disapproval and protests across small towns in the UK that had never experienced anything like this obvious intrusion into their lives and communities.

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WSJ reporters Corkery and Yoon give a remarkable account of the individual homeowners and investors inside one toxic subprime mortgage security from Countrywide Financial Corp. named CWABS- 2006-2007. There is Amanda Gavini of Fort Myers who continued making mortgage payments against the odds after a illness and death in the family. And a couple Donald Mudd- Patricia Starr who were approved by Countrywide for a $171,000 adjustable rate mortgage loan at 8% with a $10,000 down payment for a home in Port Charlotte, Florida. The approval came only 3 months after the couple emerged from personal bankruptcy in 2006, and by 2009 Mudd was missing payments. Other borrowers such as Mrs. Gavini in Florida took out two loans at 7% and 11% in 2006, have continued making payments and are still unable to refinance under the HAMP or HARP government programs. It is because of these homeowners who continue to make payments helping the security price recover, that one of PIMCO's funds which owns a stake in this security has made good returns. Hedge fund Marathon Asset has also made good returns on this security because of the U.S. government's Public Private Investment Program to help banks recover by providing government incentives for purchase of these securities from banks. This was a way to get banks holding these subprime securities to resume normal lending in financial markets....

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What happens in the minds of captains of cricket teams from Australia and England as they engaged in the Ashes cricket Test series under captains such as Vaughan and Cook going back to 1932-33 series is the subject of this essay in The Times. The secrets, the tactics and strategy, the mind setting, for what is a major event in the lives of the players and the people of the two countries. Everything from the role of the fast bowling, the wives and distractions for players, the mood in each country, the stress of losing 5-0 and maintaining a calm look are all part of this story of the amazing Ashes series.

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Theresa May, the new British prime minister, announces her choice for cabinet positions- Liam Fox is new minister for International Trade, David Hammond is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer replacing Osborne. Hammond was Foreign Secretary under Cameron and helped negotiate the Iran nuclear accords. David Davis, a former minister for Europe, is in charge of a new ministry created to arrange Britain's exit from the EU. Boris Johnson replaces Hammond as Foreign Secretary. Johnson was Mayor of London and was a key figure in the Leave campaign. Michael Gove is out. David Davis and Johnson were in the Leave campaign and are now given responsibility for working on Brexit, a move that puts to rest any doubts about steps to be taken for Brexit, and is an effort to reunite the Conservative Party. With Osborne out, a principal architect of the austerity budgets of the 6 years of Cameron's government is now replaced by Hammond, who will now reflect the desire of Theresa May to come up with policies that "benefit everyone" and fight "burning injustice" to use May's first words as she assumed office at 10 Downing Street.  ...