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Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan says he has requested the suspension of operations of all reactors a the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka prefecture. This plant is operated by Chubu Electric. Another plant on the Japan sea coast has been shut temporarily to investigate above normal radiation levels. With the government moving away from its policy of cooperating with the industry, there are questions whether other nuclear plants that are on earthquake fault locations may face similiar restrictions. This move will further restrict electricity supplies to companies in the local areas supplied by the plant. The Hamaoka plant has been described as "the world's most dangerous" by Japanese media because it lies near an active fault zone. Government estimates are for an 87% likelihood of a magnitude 8 earthquake in the next 30 years. Pressure is growing on premier Kan to take action to show he is listening to public opinion and not following old practices of collusion between bureaucrats, politicians and the nuclear power companies....

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U.S. House Speaker Boehner adopts the Feldstein proposal to put a cap on deductions. Feldstein proposed a 2% cap on itemized deductions and says this will generate sufficient revenues to tackle the deficit.

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Increasing cooperation in fast rail, clean energy, semiconductors and defense manufacturing between India and Japan following the visit of prime minister Kishida of Japan to India. The plans for Japanese investment in India will be accelerated with this visit. PM Modi will visit Hiroshima for the G-7 summit. As India's development accelerates it is likely to make the G-7 the G-8 summit in coming years. The unity of purpose shown by Biden and Trudeau in Canada is seen today between Kishida and Modi in India. This follows the close relationship Modi had with prime minister Abe of Japan. Kishida was foreign minister in Abe's government.

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Western nations agreed to reduce their deficits by half by the year 2013. This was the consensus reached at the Toronto G-20 meeting. Germany pushed hard for cutting debt loads before they become unsustainable with higher interest rates and defaulting nations. China continued to emphasize a gradual withdrawal of stimulus.

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DJT considers De Santis for Defense to replace Hegseth. Lori Chavez-Deremer Republican Congresswoman from Oregon is considered to be pro-worker as Labor Secretary.

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The tense atmosphere in the talks between the Obama White House and Congressional leaders to achieve deficit reduction and raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

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Japan's energy efficient industry is a role model for the western world and for India and China. For years Japan has had a national consensus on consuming less energy an industry has focused on developing energy efficent technologies and investing in it even when oil prices were low. Japan wants to now contribute to the world in this area at the G8 summit on the island of Hokkaido. According to the International Energy Agency in Paris, Japan consumes half as much energy per dollar worth of economic activity as the European Union or the United States, and one-eighth as much as India or China in 2005. According to the Japanese Economic Ministry data corporate Japan has kept its energy consumption annually at a billion barrels of oil since the early 1970's even as the country's economy doubled in size during the 1970's and 1980's. The Japanese steel industry invested $45 billion dollars between 1972 to 2006 in developing energy saving technologies, according to the Japan Iron and Steel Federation. By capturing heat and gases that go into waste JFE Steel at its Keihin mill on Tokyo Bay uses it to power generators that produce 90% of the plant's electricity. The Japanese government is now pushing an initiative that sets Japan's level of energy conservation as targets of global industries. For instance the group leader of JFE's climate change policy group says that by adopting Japanese conservation technologies the global steel industry could reduce carbon emissions by 300 million tons a year. The sector approach advocated by Japan means setting the same numerical goals for all companies in an industry, regardless of location. At next week's summit meeting Japan willl back an initiative that sets its conservation induced energy levels as the new standards for global industries. This will also promote the sale and use of Japanese energy saving technologies around the world....

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India produces 60% of the world's vaccines. India's contribution in vaccines is significant as it brings low cost vaccines to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. India itself has children that in total equal the children in 20 to 30 smaller countries. Prime minister Modi is working actively with GAVI the Global Vaccines Alliance for vaccination of India's children. Mission Indradhanush was one of the first programmes of his administration, intended to vaccinate all of India's children even in the remote areas. A new program was agreed to between India and GAVI for the next five years at the Global Vaccine Summit in the UK opened by prime minister Boris Johnson of the UK on June 4.

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The expectations from the G20 summit in London which ends April 2, 2009, have been toned down both by the Obama administration and by Gordon Brown's government. It has proved quite difficult to get agreement on expanding the stimulus. With Germany and France and some other European governments not going along with President Obama. Also difficult is the task of getting action from these G20 summits, as a lot of meetings have to be held, and agreement has to be reached between many nations, compared to the old G7 which could meet in the White House library. And the local situation in each country is different, with different pressing priorities at home. The long term structural changes, and global regulatory reform, are changes that require more time, more consensus. And some issues such as larger developing country role in governance is not a priority for the large European countries and the USA, which raises questions about the role of the IMF, and the manner in which assistance is adminstered through the IMF. That role exacerbated the crisis in S. Korea during the Asian banking crisis. See the link. As a result there is considerable apprehension about seeking IMF assistance among developing countries. This covers Eastern Europe and other developing countries....

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The British government's sale of 7.5% of the shares in Lloyd's Bank to institutional investors in March 2014 for $7 billion. This reduces its stake in Lloyds bank to 25%.

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How the supply and demand for oil is changing according to updated forecasts by the International Energy Agency. Demand is expected to be 500,000 barrels a day less than originally forecast for the fourth quarter by IEA. Also Iraq's northern fields produced 600,000 barrels a day and Angolan production also went up to increase supply by 1.4 million barrels a day. This provides some slack in the supply-demand situation to ease price pressures. Examples of energy conservation are given one of a refrigerated truck firm, Willis Shaw Express in Arkansas which runs a fleet of 725 refrigerated trucks and has installed "governors" on its truck engines to max speed at 65 miles per hour and thus get more fuel economy per gallon used. The full impact of recent price increases has not been felt at the pumps till noand this should also encourage further conservation. The slowing down of the U.S. economy should help reduce demand in 2008 as the full impact of the mortgage crisis is felt (see the OECD report of further losses ahead estimated at $300 billion by 2008-2009) this should lead to slowing demand. At this time demand in the US is rising by 1% down from 3-4% in the 1990's. This could be be part of a trend that could lead to actual decline in consumption in the industrialized countries. The impact of a US slowdown could impact less industrialized countries and moderate demand there. Slower growth is reported for Eastern European countries. Meantime Saudi Arabia states its on schedule to increase production from 11.3 million barrels a day to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009. ...