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 Her mother was a real pioneer and large influence on Kamala Harris. Michael Kruse tells this story of Kamala Harris and the influence of her mother Shyamala Gopalan, a biomedical researcher at Berkeley, Cal and other national laboratories.  Shyamala had the same sense of adventure of America's pioneers on the frontier since George Washington in the  Pennsylvania country around Pittsburgh. And her striking attitude raising Kamala, one of two daughters, living in a minority neighborhood in the Berkeley area, and moving twice including to Montreal's McGill University and to Cal as a researcher. “Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”  “Focus on what’s right in front of you, and the next thing, whatever that’s meant to be, will come."  "And … “don’t do anything half-assed.” Shyamala landed in Honolulu in 1958 when only 200 Indians were admitted each year, 1953 in all for the decade of the 1950's. America was 90 percent white and Berkeley was 98 percent white. America that we see today did not exist. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson opening America to immigrants from Asia happened years later in 1965 with the Immigration Act. She started classes at Berkeley in Nutrition on a $1600 scholarship.   ...

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Zelensky admits something that was evident for the last year that Ukraine could not take back Crimea and Donbas. Zelensky's own popularity is down to 20% in December 2024 and he is not seen as providing a solution to Ukraine's problems for securing a peaceful settlement. The Russian border regions in the east of Ukraine had voted for pro-Russian parties before the invasion by Russia. They share Russian language and culture. This makes this a situation that requires close understanding without generalizations that prolong the war. Crimea also has a different history till it was made part of Ukraine. Russia faced a military bloc such as NATO only during the Cold War with Eastern Europe under the influence of the Soviet Union 1950-1990. The shift of Eastern Europe to be part of the European Union and some parts in NATO put NATO forces close to the Russian borders. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia created a situation objected to by the EU and US, where a large power invades a neighbor. Yet the other facts above remain which presents the Russian view that NATO and the EU were too close to its borders given Russia's history of invasion from France in 1812, and from Germany in 1914 and 1940. A settlement can come only by both sides recognizing the overall facts in Europe so that all sides feel secure for peaceful coexistence under different forms of culture, government and economic structures. ...

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On the first day of the new vaccine policy on June 21, 2021, India has vaccinated 6.9 million people. India has now vaccinated 287 million people out of a population of 1.2 billion. This is a race against time as new variants caused the second wave of coronavirus in April and May of 2021 with cases peaking at over 300,000 a day.  The shortcoming of the old vaccine policy are being corrected. The entire vaccine supply process and the vaccination drive is now being handled by the federal government. Earlier during the second wave vaccine supply and the vaccination drives were under an arrangement with no clear overall responsibility. States shared responsibility with the federal government and target vaccination goals were missed, vaccine supplies were inadequate.  A similar arrangement in Germany failed and Germany's vaccination supplies were inadequate and vaccination drive stalled. This caused immense frustration in Germany in April-May 2021. Germany's troubled history before World War II led to a reliance on decentralized actions, and state governments imposed different rules in a relatively small country compared to India. This was corrected with the federal government taking on the entire responsibility for the vaccine supply and vaccination drive leading to good results today in vaccines. With India's huge population and political process of different state governments, some lacking experience in administration for a complex process, and others failing to coordinate well with the federal government, the lack of overall responsibility at the federal government posed serious risks of missing targets for vaccines and letting the coronavirus wreck the economy and public confidence. Complex negotiations with other governments in Europe and the US for vaccine manufacture in India could only be handled at the federal level. The resources and planning at the federal level were already in place in India for infrastructure and other projects, experience and setting targets in that area at the federal level could now be transferred to this task in vaccines. Somewhere in the range of 8 million vaccines a day need to be reached and sustained from August to December 2021 for India to reach the goal of vaccinated all 1.2 billion people ahead of any further attack from a third or fourth wave, say experts. This is not a choice for the federal government, it is simply something India has got to accomplish to be a healthy nation that can grow with neighbors in Europe, the US, Australia and Japan and build confidence in its Asia-Pacific region. The entire Asia-Pacific region has a lot resting on how well India achieve this goal and moves on to the next phase of assisting its neighbors in the region.  ...

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Technology is reshaping the world of oil by 2018. The U.S. Permian Basin stretching from West Texas to New Mexico now produces more oil than the UAE and is likely to soon surpass Iran- production is at 3.1 million barrels a a day. There are as many rigs as in 2011 yet the production has tripled because of the use of high tech rigs that can move quickly to new locations over wide areas and with tech that can see hundreds of feet into the rock. By 2019 the U.S. will surpass Russia as the world's largest producer of oil. The drop in oil prices to about $40 a barrel in recent years is a result of Saudi efforts to block shale oil development by lowering prices. This has not worked. Initially some high cost producers exited the industry and the shale industry suffered. Over time the new technologies spurred by lower oil prices have led to the anticipated drop in cost. Shale oil can now be produced by core producers at $40 a barrel and still be profitable according to this WSJ report. All Middle Eastern countries cannot meet budget needs at $40 a barrel. In 2018 oil prices increased back up to $77 a barrel. In the next wave of declining prices the shale industry is better positioned than the OPEC countries.   ...

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Sources cited in The Times say that in seeking the resignation of chancellor Javid British prime minister Boris Johnson wanted to avoid early on the situation that existed between prime minister Cameron and Chancellor Osborne of differences in policy. There were differences between Mr. Johnson and Mr. Javid on balancing the budget and the appointment of the Governor of the Bank of England. Mr. Johnson and adviser Cummings wanted looser fiscal rules to achieve the levelling-up agenda, infrastructure spending, than Mr. Javid.  A decision on HS2 was to come from the prime minister alone not the chancellor. At one point 10 Downing Street communicated directly with the chief secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Sonak, who is now the new chancellor. Mr. Sonak 39, was only recently a junior minister.  Critical for Mr. Boris Johnson and advisor Mr. Cummings is the agenda of infrastructure and leveling up the country. It became apparent that finance would be critical for policy and investments to achieve this. It was then decided to set policy at No. 10 Downing Street and be sure that this was carried out by the chancellor and all ministers as the new way of operating. Mr. Johnson sees an opportunity to make changes for the long term through a long period in office and wanted a tight knit team right from the beginning.   ...

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Brad Stulberg reflects in this article on the idea of groundedness and how it creates internal strength and a sense of fulfillment in life. The pandemic has worsened mental health and created the need to reflect on living a better healthier life. Here he points out that one needs to accept the present, the mess of vulnerabilities he says we find ourselves in, as a natural part of life. To build on a good process that gets us there. This means clarity, simplicity, and concentration so that one does not end up wasting one's energies in different directions. Focus on one or two tasks, what he calls deep focus work, play and connection. Experts say it is not true that there are sudden leaps in performance. Most work is diligently done each step preparing ne for the next step which eventually with patience and persevering on tasks brings results. They only appear to be sudden achievements, but always build on work done before patiently and step by step. This can be seen in the work of recent Nobel prize winners in science who have worked on a new discovery for decades with failures that were overcome, and obstacles that were surmounted with patient work day after day. Stolberg quotes St. Augustine and the Buddha on the importance of close knit groups, companionship and being part of a deep community. When Buddha's disciple Ananda says this is half of the spiritual life, Buddha says in response -  not so, this deep community is the whole spiritual life. Stolberg's new book is "The Practice of Groundedness." Much of this is also seen as important in the Bhagavad Gita and in Christianity- the ideas of simplicity and concentration in life on just one or two tasks, the clarity of mind that comes from this free of tensions.  The Cistercian monasteries all over Europe in the Middle Ages attest to this. One such abbey the restored Abbey of Fontenay in France, embodies this idea. Written about the restored abbey are the words- "The sun brings life to the austere bareness of Cistercian architecture, the way God's light spreads grace through the simplicity loving souls of the monks." ...

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Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, says at the World Economic Forum in Davos, on Jan. 26, 2016- "If prices continue to be low, we will be able to withstand it for a long, long time." With $630 billion in foreign currency reserves the Saudis are following a long term policy of full production. Gasoline subsidies are being reduced, IPO of Saudi Aramco being discussed to raise additional capital, and other steps being taken to plan for long term oil prices. Flexibility for a change in policy is diminished with the addition of Iranian oil production to supplies following the lifting of sanctions. The events in 2015-2016 of Russian bombing campaign in Syria, and the cutoff of diplomatic relations with Iran, have worsened the standoff with Iran and Russia in the Middle East conflict. As a result it appears that the Saudis are settling down for a long term policy of full production which would keep oil prices low for the long term. India, Japan, China, the U.S. and the European Union, Turkey and other countries benefit from low oil prices when their economies need a boost in 2016-2017....

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In this interview of very personal remarks made to business groups and revealed by Reuters, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, says she would be relieved greatly if she quit. She called her actions unforgivable given the mood of most of Hong Kong people today in 13th week of protests. "What I did was unforgivable," she said.  Carrie Lam had a good reputation in Hong Kong as a dedicated civil servant when she assumed the office. She had not anticipated the turn of events from the push into Hong Kong sovereignty by Beijing since the umbrella movement leading up to the extradition bill. In her words- "For a Chief Executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable. It's just unforgivable." In this rare conversation remarks, Lam comes across as someone who was caught in the middle between protestors and Beijing. "The political room for the chief executive, who unfortunately has two masters, the Central People's Government of China and the people of Hong Kong, that political room for maneuvering is very, very, very limited." What is her ideal situation. "The first thing I would do if I had a choice, is to quit, with a deep apology. I make a plea to you for forgiveness." For Hong Kong people, especially the young it was about the rule of law, for Beijing a sense of the Hong Kong region as being a part of the neighboring area of Shenzen and of China. She says she sees no intention of China to send in the People's Liberation Army from her own feeling the pulse, from her discussions. She says China is playing "a long game." There is just too much at stake for China. "They care about China's international profile. It has taken a long time to build up that sort of international profile, and having a say as a big economy, as a responsible big economy, so to forsake all those international developments is clearly not on their agenda." For her personal life this has been very difficult as she can rarely go out in the middle of these protests, not even for a haircut or shopping. Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under formula of "one country, two systems." With the Hong Kong system, rule of law, free speech guaranteed under that agreement for 50 years transition period.  ...

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Xi Jinping's childhood years were spent during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. He studied for a degree in chemical engineering after the end of the Cultural Revolution. He belongs to the group of leaders who worked to form the consensus around the current leadership and the leadership of Jiang Zemin. Little is known of his views on many issues.

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"No amount of misrepresentation or statistical contortion can conceal or blur or smear that record. Neither the attacks of unscrupulous enemies nor the exaggerations of over-zealous friends will serve to mislead the American people." FDR said this  on October 31, 1936, it could also be president Biden.The current Media and Hollywood efforts to choose presidential candidates of their choice runs contrary to "We the People," contrary to views of ordinary Americans, of voters, workers and families. President Kennedy was told he should not take the nomination because he was too young. Kennedys' response was that it was he not Humphrey that went to state after state and won the votes in the primaries, no one else made the effort to run in the primaries in each state. President Biden has the support of 14 million in the primaries. George Chidi from Atlanta reports that undecided voters number about 1 million in the swing states and most are much older than the average. Most may feel insulted by talk about age when they are in the same category.  A 102 years old Lockheed engineer in Atlanta suburbs says he is a Republican but will not vote for Trump. There is also the women's vote in Georgia and Atlanta suburbs with abortion ban as the issue as it was in Kentucky and Kansas. How many vote will also be a factor, making energizing the base a key factor. The idea that one party is doing better than the other is refuted clearly by some of the people in Georgia shown here, and the age factor does not get the prominence the Media have given it, as long as the government is functioning well. Media has failed to look at the policy details of each candidate in a colossal failure that calls for alternatives. Older voters who are the major part of the 1 million or so voters in swing states that are undecided also say that the fact is that with both the candidates- as it is with administrations that are led by young presidents seen as too young to lead (JFK) the opposite of today- many of the decisions are made with an experienced group of advisers around the president. Many if not all also realize that the vast experience of an older president is also an asset. Much of Biden's legislation for chips science, infrastructure, the Inflation Reduction Act have not happened in Germany, France or the UK, and would not have happened in the US without the ability of president Biden to get the bipartisan support from being the one with the most experience in Congress in a long time. The result is the hundreds of thousands of jobs created each month and a growing economy, inflation down from 9 to 3% as the first step to further cost of living action to support ordinary workers and families. Only LBJ comes close and he signed landmark legislation for Medicare and Medicaid, and for civil rights into law 60 years back. By removing America from the wars that Reagan and Bush started and Obama and Trump failed to end president Biden has given the US an opportunity to inspire and lead the free world in a way that has not happened in many decades and build a growing economy, a bright future for the Nation. ...

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Recent polls suggest that 4 out of 5 Germans say they are not benefitting from the rebound. Germany has experienced growth with the recovery in export markets in Asia, but the benefits are not being seen at home. Experts at the OECD, and at Duisburg-Essen University's employment institute, say that there has been a downside to the unemployment rate having reached 7.6%; much of this gain has been achieved by expanding the low wage sector. Something like this has not happened in other European countries. The OECD employment outlook report 2010, reveals that 21.5% of Germans were employed in the low-wage sector in 2008, compared to 16% in 1998. The Duisburg-Essen University estimate is that 2.3 million workers were added in this sector from 1998 to 2008, with a total of 6.55 million workers in this sector in 2008. What is happening according to experts is that the Hartz IV labor-market reform is subsidizing the low wages paid by the private sector. And the German government has spent $50 billion in subsidies for people in this sector since 2005. The concern relates to consumer spending which is tight in Germany, even as exports have done well in the recovery from 2008. Average net income has actually fallen since 2004 in Germany, reaching 15,815 euros in 2009 from the figure of 16,471 euros in 2004. Germay has no minimum wage across all sectors. To have a minimum wage comparable to other European countries, hourly pay would have to be between 5.93 euros and 9.18 euros. The DGB group of unions have called for a 8.50 euro minimum wage. ...

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Proof that this is not an ordinary deep recession like those in the post war period comes in the way foreign trade is reacting in this downturn. Already evidence of this has been seen in the way Germany has been affected because of slowing exports from China to the US. German exports to China have declined as the Chinese export model comes under severe stress. A similiar situation is playing out for Japan. Now new proof of the drop in foreign trade is emerging in Commerce Department figures. Combined exports and imports of the USA dropped 18% in 4 months July to November, to $326 billion from $398 billion. Two thirds of this drop was in imports. So China and Japan's exports to the USA are severely affected. Japan showed a 27% decline in exports in November, according to the Japanese Ministry of Finance, and imports dived 14%. According to calculations by the WSJ, Germany had 11.8% decline in foreign trade in November, and similiar numbers for France and Britain. Chief US Economist at IHS Global Insight, Nigel Gault, says this is going to be the worst global recession since World War II. Combined with what is happening to inventories, (see links) and what is happening in housing, banking, the auto industry, and other industries, the complications of non-transparent packaged financial products clogging the American financial system, the hugely indebted consumer (see links), and the $2.1 trillion and rising cost of the stimulus and bailouts needed by one estimate, suggest that the recovery forecast for 2009-2010 does not take into account all these simultaneously occurring patterns and developments working together. ...

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China faces three main challenges and how well it handles them will determine if China does well in the future because the things that helped China in the last 30 years of development are now gradually coming to a close. The three main challenges are a changing work force and the gradual phasing out of the demographic dividend thats responsible according to some experts for a third of the progress this far, the gap between the rich and the poor, and severely constrained resources and supplies of energy and environmental resources. On the first its not something China can do to much about, on the second its going to have to have a more balanced development and repair the network of social services and redirect resources to the poorer sections (see the link to the conference at Lindau, Germany and Nobel Prize Winning economists opinions on this issue). This will bring more discussion and challenges about how to proceed as a lot of actions to build new infrastructure and new construction has been done by taking over land where needed. And on the third challenge has not been done so well so far as the amount of energy required to each yuan of economic output has not changed much, seeing a 3.7% improvement over 2006 in 2007 and only a 2.9% improvement in the first half of 2008 over 2007. All this is why Secretary Paulson cautions that many American might be worrying about the wrong thing, China overtaking the USA, what really is the worry he says is whether serious troubles in China will affect the stability of the USA and global economies....

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The impact of the bank losses will be felt in a process of deleveraging that will exagerate and worsen the credit crunch for years. As banks on the way up in a positive profits cycle can make more money only by leveraging with the leveraging factor may be about 10 times, for an investment bank much higher about 30 times, and on the way down as profits shrink the deleveraging cycle works just as sharply. For every dollar lost as the deleveraging cycle moves into reverse a bank has to contract lending by $10, and for every dollar lost an investment bank has to contract lending by $20-$30 depending on how leveraged it was. A recent study with Anil Kashyap, University of Chicago as one of the authors says the lending contraction frm the mortgage related losses alone would lead to a $1 trillion credit contraction for the USA economy and expects a big shrinking of banks. As all banks contract and some banks go under private equity and hedge funds are likely to take on some of the role of investment banks but they are not regulated so the situation in terms of regulatory oversight would be just as risky as before. Treasury has a list of 100 banks in danger and FDIC has a list of 90 such banks. Merrill Lynch's $48 billion in collateralized debt obligations underwritten in 2007 are almost all on the verge of default or already in default and it will sell off assets like Bloomberg and Black Rock to raise capital....

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This opinion piece in DW.com says India's prime minister should not isolate prime minister Sharif of Pakistan, as he had no part in the escalation of tensions in Kashmir. Foreign and military affairs are now run by the Pakistan Army, and isolating Sharif only entrenches the Army it says, which has kept up tensions similar to the situation in 1999 with the Kargil crisis when the Pakistan Army initiated a conflict in Kargil region. At that time Indian premier Vajpayee and Pakistan premier Sharif were improving relations. 

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Finance Minister Merz says if the Swiss changed their secrecy laws all the $2 trillion in foreign money in Swiss banks would fly away. The Swiss don't consider tax evasion a criminal offense. The same is true of Austria and Luxembourg. It is only under intense international pressure from the US and the OECD including listing the Swiss in a list of uncooperative tax havens for presentation to the G20 countries April 2, summit, with the view to possible sanctions, that progress can be made.

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Ford may be preparing for a bigger loss in 2008 than the $2.7 billion loss in 2007. Sales of the Expedition and Explorer and the F-150 truck have dropped significantly. These sales have dropped nearly 30% through May of this year over last year for Expedition and Explorer, and dropped 19% on the F-150 truck. One anlayst says Ford has $7-9 billion after all its other obligations as a cushion so the automaker is on thin ice. GM faces similar problems.

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Michael Barnier leads the negotiating team for the EU as it begins negotiations with Britain on Brexit. He is a former foreign minister of France and former EU commissioner, giving him the necessary skills and experience. Yet as he meets with the Affairs of the European Committee in the German parliament, even Barnier is not clear how the negotiations will be conducted. Only that the issues relating to disentangling the closely interwoven economies of the EU and Britain relate to nationals of the EU and Britain in each others region, the common 20,000 legally binding regulations, and the price tag for Britain to pay of 60 billion euros. The leading German in the negotiating team is Gunther Oettinger, a former EU budget commissioner, and he tells Der Spiegel that the bill may be even higher than that number. The figure will be arrived at by taking into account the obligations of Britain and applying this to assets. The obligations include the money owed to the EU budget, share of medium term budget planning to 2020, share of pension payments to EU civil servants. The British take a different view and do not understand why they have to pay this amount when they are exiting. The British want to see their future relationship on trade and access to the EU markets discussed early, but the EU position is just the opposite, first exit negotiations to be completed by September 2018, then other discussions on trade. March 29, 2019 is the date set for Britain to be no longer a member of the EU. Yet even the sequence of issues has not been set and the sides could not be further apart than they are now. Each side looking at its situation domestically with elections in the EU in 2017, and May facing the added challenge of Scotland threatening to leave the UK. ...

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A news story about French president Francois Hollande saying he wanted to see tough negotiations sends the British pound plummeting on October 7, 2016. It fell to $1.18 before recovering to $1.24 to the dollar. Experts say algorithms overreacted to the news story about Hollande's remarks. Further declines are expected as Brexit negotiations happen in 2017 closer to elections in Germany and France, with issues such as movement within the EU likely to be obstacles. Other factors influencing the pound are the that the pound is no longer a safe haven following Brexit, and the uncertainties generated by the Brexit "yes" vote. This would mean higher prices in Britain's retail stores for imported products, costlier vacations overseas, and higher inflation. It could boost British exports with a devalued currency making them more competitive. 

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Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, in meetings with bankers and business leaders says Britain should remain in the single market 2 years after exit from the European Union, according to the Sunday Times. Theresa May plans for Britain to exit the EU in 2019. The reason is that this would protect business as it adjusts to leaving the single market, a kind of transition or Brexit buffer period. This period "really informs what businesses need to do because you transition and restructure during that window," Carney told a House of Commons Treasury Committee. About the changes in the politics in the U.S. and Europe Carney has said about basic fairness in bankers language- "market fundamentalism can devour the social capital needed for capitalism" to work, referring to the moral failures in operations of the banks by 2009 and how it hit the middle and working class incomes and wealth.

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This article in the Economist points out that 84% of Britons want the 3.5 million existing immigrants to stay in Britain, even though the government of Theresa May has not given a clear commitment. May wants a reciprocal commitment for 1.2 million Britons living abroad in the EU. In 2015 330,000 immigrants came to Britain, with close to half from the EU. The Conservative government has not been able to reduce the number- a result for the most part from 10 Eastern European countries entering the EU in 2004 and 2007, says the Economist. Brexit negotiations are not likely to lead to results in migration partly because of the long negotiations with the European Union needed for changes. Other issues are that the food processing, farming and hospitality industries need low cost labor from Eastern Europe.

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In 2017 Facebook noticed a drop in user engagement- fewer comments, fewer posts, and less sharing. To address this Facebook made a change in its algorithm, which is a bunch of mathematical equations which determine what you see in the newsfeed. The result says this WSJ Facebook Investigation was to make Facebook an angrier place, a place where divisive comments were being posted, and sensational or exaggerated comments were being shared. This increased the level of divisiveness in the US during the early period of the Trump administration. As America looks back on this time- the issues related to migration across its southern border that are still alive today and on which there is now a consensus across Democrats and Republicans on returning migrants. The issues related to the urban-rural divide that many presidents preceding Trump and Biden had chosen to ignore, and which the Tech community showed little interest in. The divide also across educational lines with college educated splitting away from people lacking college education just as costs of college had soared. All these issues were out in the open and instead of having an educated debate these algorithms never intended for solving social problems actually made them worse.  It is now in the interest of both Republicans and Democrats to take a hard look at what went wrong and restore the civility and dialogue that marked American experience across all ages and income groups, and remove the overstated influence of such algorithm based apps. The WSJ Facebook Investigation is a way to restore the traditional media's true place in the national dialogue and push back against the insidious and dangerous influence of algorithm based news feeds such as this one.  Outrage Algortihms may be good for a few people and a few in tech  business in California and in capital markets in New York, yet they are bad for America and the American people as a whole, bad for the vast landscape of America and the vast majority of the American people. Mindless infatuation with pictures of young adults leads to a mindless and dangerous result in mental health, bad effects on women, illusions about what is right living, and increasing divisiveness in America.  ...

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Jeb Bush sees many who come to the U.S. looking for a better life as similiar to people who arrived here in earlier waves of immigrants all the way back to 1800. He described the actions of many who come to the U.S. illegally as an "act of love," and "act of committment to family," in a talk at College Station Texas, on the 25th anniversary celebration of the presidency of his father, George H.W. Bush. Its breaking the law, he says, but different, not a felony. Benjamin Franklin describes German immigrants to Pennsylvania in his writings at a time when immigrants were what made this country. They were different in some ways then but long since became part of the fabric of America, as have new immigrants in the different periods of the 19th and 20th century. Here is what Benjamin Franklin says about the German immigrants whom he praises for habitual "Industry and Frugality they bring with them," in a letter to Peter Collinson, May 19th 1753, addressing the fears as well as what they could bring to the new country, which throws light on todays immigration debates in a new light. "In short unless the stream of their importation could be turned from this to other colonies, as you very judiciously propose, they will soon so out number us, that all the advantages we have will not in My Opinion be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious." And then saying in the same letter-"Yet I am not for refusing entirely to admit them into our Colonies: all that seems to be necessary, is, to distribute them more equally, mix them with the English, establish English Schools where they are now too thick settled, and take some care to prevent the practice lately fallen into by some of the Ship Owners, of sweeping the German Goals to make up the number of their passengers. I say I am not against the Admission of Germans in general, for they have their Virtues, their industry and frugality is exemplary; They are excellent husbandmen and contribute greatly to the improvement of a Country." ...

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China's economy is feeling the effects of a sharp slowdown of the economy with covid lockdowns in 2022 and the Ukraine crisis undermining confidence in China. Internal divisions on president Xi's policies of allying with Russia on Ukraine are shown in this report by the WSJ. China faces a collapse of its relationship with the US and Europe says the WSJ. With it China's economic growth faces a sharp slowdown.  From 18% at the beginning of 2021 economic growth has slowed down to 4% in fourth quarter of 2021. The current situation in Ukraine and Mr. Xi's response create risks of collateral damage for Chinese manufacturers with weakening global demand, says the WSJ. Deng Xiaoping's policy of opening China which happened for the last 40 years is being reversed with Mr. Xi's policies and the stance taken by the Biden administration is supported by the US Congress by both Republicans and Democrats.  This WSJ report points out that premier Li Keqiang has pointed to the risks China is facing in somber tones calling the external environment for China in 2022 "more complex and severe." At the same time Hu Wei a senior adviser to the State Council stirred up discussion online with an article about Mr. Xi's pro-Russian policy, saying "China can't be tied to Putin and the ties need to be cut off as soon as possible."  ...

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Daniel Howes of the Detroit News thinks there are cultural clashes inherent in a threeway Fiat-Opel-Chrysler combination. His view is that Fiat may be biting into more than it can handle, considering the failure of the GM-Fiat alliance, and the Daimler- Chrysler combination. And the Germans at Opel are not happy with the way they see GM has treated them, so how would it help for Fiat to come into the picture? The Germans love the Italians, says one German Howe talked to, but don't respect them. And the Italians he says, respect the Germans but don't love them. Howe refers to the Renault-Nissan combination as successful, but one that took years to build to deliver commonly engineered cars. But the car industry has been poorly run, without vision and with complacent management, unwilling to try new things and recreate and renew. In other industries efforts are made to build transnational combinations with differing degrees of success. Take the work of the French, Germans and the Spanish in Airbus, in overcoming different cultural factors and pulling together to learn from each other, when given good leaders, on the Airbus 380 project. See the link to this. On Fiat's Marchionne's behalf it could be said that this is a new Fiat, run by a younger generation of Italians, who have a lot of youthful energies and freedom to innovate and improvise. Marchionne himself is more Canadian and European, places where he has spent most of his life, than Italian. And he has take a decidedly different view of things from what the old view holds as being Italian, in building the new Fiat he has done things very differently. In fact there may be less of a country view here, than a management culture view. All nationalities aspire to a good management culture of innovation, and freedom to improvise and respect for one's ideas and thinking, good places to work in. People of all nationalities, Italian, German and American, for the first time, especially the younger people, may see that the one thing they value most and share is the desire to start fresh and take initiative, improvise and work together to do the impossible. The common enemy of Germans, Italians, Americans,French, and other nationalities, may be simply the artheroschelorisis of complacent management, that freezes initiative, does not delegate more responsibility to the young and give the freedom to try new things, bureacratizes the corporation into rigid hierarchies that lack speed, and take no risks to achieve the impossible. See the link to Marchionne and Fiat's transformation. Which is why old prejudices like the one Howe states from one German he talks to, that the Italians "will steal the milk out of the coffee," may be just that - prejudice from another period, that is best left behind to build something new that has no nationality to it. ...