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The British government is considering effectively preventing two households from meeting indoors by limiting the number of people meeting indoors to 6 from the 30 now in place. Experts believe a second wave of infections is a distinct possibility if nothing is done especially with higher infections among younger people in Europe after reopening. People are seen as relaxing too much. Young people in Spain and other European countries are a big part of the problem today. In Germany the incidence of cases for 15-24 years is fifteen times the number of cases for 70-79 years in the first week of September, showing how completely reversed the situation has become with young people acting as spreaders of the pandemic. The incidence of new cases is 30 per 100,000 in Germany for 15-24 years compared to just 2 for the 70-79 years. In Berlin it is as high as 43 for 15-24 years and the Health Minister is concerned because in contrast to local groups these individuals can spread it throughout Berlin.  School reopenings in Europe and in America are a distinct danger so that colleges in the U.S are switching back to remote learning because of improper behaviour of young people including parties and gatherings. Tougher restrictions are seen as necessary to get people to pay attention to social distancing that was practiced earlier in April. This is true of Europe, America, and Asia. Even curfews are now being considered. ...

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European Union and at its heart Germany cut oil and gas use by 25% over a short period. The WSJ looks at one company that makes agricultural machinery such as harvester combines in Germany, and how it did this. The lesson from this experience- long dependent on cheap oil and gas supplies from Russia Germany was not expected to bounce back and cut its use sharply, when prices of Russian gas increased 20 fold. Not only did this German company slash gas use by 30% by making technical changes in how the machinery operated, and by using oil pipes, storing LNG from other countries such as Britain and Norway.  A 6% decline in sales to eastern and central Europe was offset by a 35% growth in sales in the US. By pivoting to the US German manufacturers have increased sales. The US has also become a major supplier of LNG to Europe. This makes it possible for Germany to conduct its own policies free of the kind of influence Russia exerted on Europe. So what does the CEO of German company Claas say about this experience- he says the export model is robust but in a different form with the US Europe's and Germany's biggest partner. The lesson of the past few years says CEO Bock- "Don't be dependent on one country." Not Russia, and not China. ...

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New affordability and choice in EV's in US under $40000 in 2025. Even without incentives from the government EV's remain an attractive option now that new gasoline cars cost an average of $49,000 and affordable EV's come at price range uder $40,000. In Germany VW has EV models for about $30,000 and this pricing and choice of models can be expected in the US in 2026. Mims looks at how EV's are now a realistic option for car buyers in 2025. Americans drive an average of 33 miles a day- the 300 mile range of new EV's means charging once a week is good enough. New EV batteries are better and can outlast a vehice's life. Savings from low maintenance costs can make up for any shortfalls for EV's.

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Ukraine is running out of parts for its old Russian T-72 tanks and Ukraine is in need of new western tanks to defend itself, says this report in DW.com. German reporters give this report from a tank unit in the Bakhmut and Soledar area in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine withdrew from Soledar.

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Baker and Erlanger describe Russian president Putin's effort to finance parties on the right and the left to oppose western sanctions on Russia. The effort by Russian television RT to spread disinformation in the European Union. The goal is to create fractures in European unity and weaken the European Union and NATO. Other experts such as former national intelligence officer, Fiona Hill, and former assistant secretary of state, David Kramer, are skeptical about the effectiveness of these methods. These methods may also come from an old book of methods from the Cold War period because of president Putin's experience in Dresden during the Soviet days, which current European Union leaders would see as having little relevance to the global economy and global scene of today. The rise of the smaller parties in Europe in opposition to the traditional parties has more to do with the difficult economic conditions in Europe, and has little in common with Russia and its problems with its oil dependent economy and its interests in Eastern Europe. As the 2015 Pew Research survey on Europe shows, opinion is shifting towards greater support for the European Union as economic conditions improve, and is likely to move further in this direction with a return to economic growth. Favorable views of the EU which dropped from 60% in 2012 to 53% in 2014, was up to 61% in 2015, according to the survey. The Euroskeptic parties are viewed "as a good thing," as a way to shake up the complacency of the major ruling parties in tackling the economy, according to the Pew Europe Survey. In the percentage of people who see the Euroskeptic parties as a good thing for the country- Podemos left party in Spain gets 70% favorable rating, UK Independence Party 66% favorable, Five Star Movement in Italy 58%, AfD in Germany 50%, and much less so in France with 36% saying this for the National Front, and 36% for the New Right in Poland....

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This story in the WP on the anonymous source of the Panama Papers and his initial contacts with Bastian Obermayer of the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, complements a story in the NYT about the source.

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The global economic map is rapidly redrawing bringing US and Europe closer. The US has imported more goods from Europe this year than from China. In September alone says WSJ Germany exported 50% more goods to the US year over year with the weaker euro increasing the momentum. European FDI foreign direct investment in the US increased by 13.5% in 2021 to $3.2 trillion. US FDI to Europe increased by 10% to $4 trillion. There is a push on both sides of the Atlantic to increase local manufacturing, and to increase trade, and shift supply chains away from the overdependence on China.  

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Reports from Europe that a V shaped recovery is happening in the economy. Andy Haldane the chief economist of the Bank of England says roughly half of the 25% lost output in the economy in the lockdown in April and May has been gained back in UK. This is good news for Europe after the bad hit it took from the pandemic since March. The reopening of the economy in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Britain is taking place with greater reassurance as the curve is flattening out at low levels of cases in July and people are generally following rules for prevention.

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This WSj editorial says the meeting of president Trump and president Putin in Helsinki on July 16, 2018, projected weakness and was "a personal and national embarrassment." It say Mr Trump could not even support his own intelligence adviser Dan Coats over Mr. Putin. This will bring Democrats and Republicans together and offers ammunition for the president's opponents, says the Journal. 

It also says that on the Nordstream pipeline Mr. Trump was right about Germany having it own favorable dealings with Russia. On NATO the lack of strategy and Mr. Trump's swagger, saying what comes to his head for Mr. Trump, only weakens support for the alliance in the U.S. The NATO alliance with spending above 2% by Germany and France after calls by Mr. Trump for spending 4% strengthens NATO, yet weakens it by weakening the alliance with America's European partners. 

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A sports minister from Zimbabwe, twice Olympic gold medal winner follows German fencing champion Thomas Bach to the top job of International Olympic Committee president. She had Bach's backing for this job over Coe of UK and Samaranch of Spain whose father held the job from 1980-2000.

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There are questions whether the Black Rock Germany "Dare Capitalism" (his book) model of CDU's Merz with a debt brake support limiting investments needed in the economy are right for Germany's future. Wash. Post says people close to him say he is direct and pragmatic but also arrogant and thin skinned. Friedrich Merz is 69 years, Konrad Adenauer was 73 years when he took office. 

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With the government goal of a $5 trillion economy in the next five years, India is expected to be the fourth largest economy in the world by 2026 after the U.S., China and Japan. India moved past France and Britain and will move past Germany by 2026, making the U.S. the only non-Asian economy in the top four. Britain is holding its own and its economy is expected to be larger than France's in five years.

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With Brexit some of the banking community in London is expected to move to Frankfurt, the financial capital of Germany, and the location of the ECB. This article describes the attractions of Frankfurt, as compared to Cologne and Munich, other cities which attract more visitors. It is lower cost, with shorter distances within the city, a large community of foreigners of about one in three people that gives it international appeal, and easy access to the mountains for biking and hiking.

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Google will give 60 million euros to a fund that will support France's newspapers to better navigate a transition to the internet. A dispute between French newspapers and magazines and Google, with the demand that Google pay for every click on online versions of their stories, has been settled. Google says it would have removed French newspapers from its index if the demands were not withdrawn. It took 3 months of tense negotiations with a government appointed mediator to reach the settlement. For Google this means it can get a bigger part of the French online advertising market. A setlement has not been reached in Germany. In Belgium it took 6 years of litigation before it was settled. The Google fund will be used to aid the transition of newspapers with projects for digital media and new ways of generating revenue online. Google will also help French newspapers with its online advertising services. Google CEO Schmidt says the agreement is a win for the citizens of France giving them fast access to media articles....

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As car sales drop and Chrysler drops some models from its production line, it is running many plants on one shift, leaving the factories idle the rest of the time. This means higher costs per car, as the fixed costs do't change by that much with lower production. Chrysler may also have steeper sales decline than the other carmakers, because it has fewer small cars in its lineup. All this means losses that won't be disclosed as it is privately owned, through 2009, as the economy goes through what looks like a prolonged recession of at least a couple of years. As losses are not disclosed management does not have to worry about the effect on stock price, but the longer this situation lasts, the harder its going to get for Chrysler, for a long time the weakest player in the American car market compared to the others from the US, Germany and Japan.

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This columnist opinion in Le Monde reflects the view in Europe that the US is in retreat, and in some quarters such as NYT that the new US foreign policy that sets the Monroe Doctrine as key aspect of foreign policy is a retreat- US setting the rules in the Western Hemisphere around democracy and governance. It says the US has set aside the ambition first proclaimed in 1945 and revived in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. US administrations under Clinton and Bush took this posture after 1991 of dominant position but it did not reflect reality. US like Russia was dragged into many remote conflicts that had little to do with the standard of living, and economic advancement of the US. The US has a dilapidated infrastructure, broken healthcare system, and operates in a world trading system that has deindustrialized the nation and shipped out jobs and factories for 20 years, and worse is exposed to drug and people trafficking gangs in Mexico and Venezuela. The Monroe Doctrine 1823 asserted the US right to keep European colonial powers out of America, and it was possible only because the British also supported it in the 19th century till the US built up its Navy under TR and FDR. With Russia recognized as a European power the US is able to get its support for the US to tackle the situation in the Western hemisphere presented by drug and people trafficking gangs in Mexico and Venezuela. Tariffs are intended to get a new world trading system with new rules. Infrastructure building is underway on a scale that will far surpass China by 2030. This is not a retreat but an advancement for the Nation and the American people after three decades of failed policy. It lets the European powers Germany, France and Britain deal with Russia's requirement that NATO withdraw from its borders and recognition of Russia as a Northern European power. European history has shown that since 1700 that when faced with a majority of nations in Europe any dominant power in Europe is forced to negotiate a peaceful resolution of conflict because of it's limited resources to carry on a conflict. This should lead to a peaceful resolution in Ukraine, that allows rebuilding, and also gives the US an opportunity to rebuild its economy and standard of living for the American people. This will be a win-win for both the Russians and the Western Europeans, and both Latin America and the US, China and the US, India/Japan/Brazil and the US. ...

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The retirement age in France is much lower than other European countries. As people live longer and pension system finances are strained retirement ages are being increased. In France the retirement age is 60, and dates back to the Socialist president Francois Mitterand in the 1980's when the Socialists and the unions strongly supported a retirement age of 60 and a 35 hour work week. Socialist party former general secretary, Francois Hollande, calls changes "unjust reform." The Sarkozy government is treading softly by making a gradual change with the legal retirement age increasing by 4 months per year starting in July 2011, till it reaches 62 by 2018. The pension deficit is forecast at $40 billion a year for 2010. People in taxing jobs or in difficult occupations are exempted. By contrast Germany as plans to change the retirement age from 65 o 67. Britain and Italy have set this at 65.

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Parents and teachers in Germany are skeptical of school reopening because of the lax rules for mostly unvaccinated children. Teachers are not required to be vaccinated and show digital certificate of vaccination as is the case in Italy. Teachers and parents see the return to normalcy not lasting long  with the relaxed rules. Britain is also following school reopening with relaxed rules going so far as to not require social distancing or masks. Health experts question this policy.

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The language and tone of the leaders says something about what is likely to be the outcome of the G20 summit. Its a first for significant participation, as countries as diverse as Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands are represented. The credible positions of both sides, the US, UK and Japan, and the European side of France, Germany and the Czech Republic, well presented, provide for some serious discussion and negotiations. France's Sarkozy and Germany's Merkel want to see a global regulator that would reach inside the borders of the US with stricter regulation. Sarkozy calls this "nonnegotiable." And he said that he would reject an agreement that puts off stringent new regulations on banks, tax havens, and hedge funds. He said "the compromise has to come from all countries around the world." US President Obama said that if there is going to be renewed growth it can't just be the US as the engine, everybody is going to have to pick up the pace," at the same time saying that the US had to be concerned about its own deficits. The fact is that the US stimulus will mostly help a severely impacted domestic economy recover with social safey net payments to local and state governments and unemployment insurance, as well as targeted investments in infrastructure, education, energy and health care. It will not mean anywhere near the kinds of imports the US made from other countries, especially China. And Obama made that clear when he said the US will never return to that situation, where the US had become a "voracious consumer market." For the Germans the major market for their middle companies is China, and China has its own stimulus spending on infrastructure spending, which should provide for continued imports of machinery from Germany at a much lower level. Thus Germany and France see a strong tendency to call the source of the crisis and repeat that call till the US listens, and refer to the failure of free market capitalism in its unregulated form. And to insist on fixing it through a global regulator with strict and systemwide rules. So you hear this in Merkel's words, "the foundation for this finacial architecture must be laid now, that is why we seem to be so tough." While the vivacious Sarkozy talks of compromise, and a US gesture in regulation in return for Franc's gesture of joining NATO, the mild mannered Merkel is clear and focussed about her concern. She rejects the idea of linking stimulus spending demands of the Anglo-Americans with the Franco-German demands for global systemwide regulation. "This is not a bargaining chip," she says. The media may mistakenly report lack of consensus as a failure of the summit. But in the long run in the presence of good positions on both sides, it could lead to some tough negotiations even if continued at another meeting. And result in something serious, credible and lasting in its impact, rather than something that was easy and did not in Andy Grove's useful words involve "constructive confrontation." ...

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Lower prices of European stocks makes them more attractive. Cuts in interest rates by European central banks are another factor in pushing the French stocks CAC index and the German stocks DAX index by 8% and 9% respectively. This compares to the S&P 500 Index for US up by 2.45% by February 7, 2025.