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The proposed EU financial transactions tax of 0.1% on stock transactions and 0.01% on derivative transactions gains support. It would generate about 100 million euros for Estonia and about $10 billion for Germany. It is designed so that any small job loss would be more than made up by job gains through badly needed infrastructure investment, at a time when EU budgets are tight.

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Bihar  state assembly elections win for NDA led by Modi has one astonishing fact- the average age in Bihar for 128 million people is 22 years with 58% of population under 25 years. The win of 203 seats of 243 is the path to stable government for the industrialization of India into one of the advanced economies of the world similar to Japan and China in Asia. It is also about the aspirations of youth in one of the world's ancient civilizations. Buddhist civilization of Asia (China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia) had its birthplace in Bihar region of northeastern India. It is now likely to find its place on the world map from ancient universities to the Buddha's ancient sites and youth finding their place in the modern world. Women participation was 72% and overall participation 68% of voters in this election in Bihar state.

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What is the UNRWA? It stands for United Nations Refugee Works Agency, and it is mainly to assist giving aid to Palestinian refugees. The European Commission has committed to give $90 million to the agency, Sweden is adding $20 million and Canada is also going to add aid money to help the desperate refugees displaced from their homes in Gaza. Johann Forsell, Sweden's international development minister says "The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating and the needs are acute. We will monitor closely to ensure UNRWA follows through on what it has promised." Since the war began in Gaza 162 members of the UNRWA staff have been killed, the highest of any UN agency in any conflict. 

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The wounds left behind in S. Korea from the 1997 Asian financial crisis when the IMF imposed conditions for $21 billion in loans as part of a $60 billion loan package to prevent a sovereign debt default. The conditionality imposed for loans led to layoffs and economic hardship for the working class. S. Koreans remember the crisis as the "IMF crisis." It also has a particular stigma in S. Korea which the IMF is now trying hard to erase. One laid off employee from an automobile plant describes the period as a hard hitting IMF typhoon. So struck are S. Koreans with the term that it has become synonymous with financial hardship. In the 12 years since the crisis the IMF itself has changed. It is now trying to provide help to countries on better terms and is conscious of the problems of austerity policies. During the 2008 financial crisis Seoul stayed away from the IMF. Seoul is host to the G-20 in 2010 and now has a participatory role in international meetings. The IMF has created a emergency loan facility that could be useful for Asian countries and wants to change the perception of the IMF in Asia....

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Fisher and Taub in NYT give a brief history of Venezuelan politics and government since the 1950's to help readers understand today's economic and political crisis under president Maduro. How did a country with huge oil resources end up with depleted cash reserves to the point of creating shortages of basic goods on supermarket shelves, how did inflation reach over 700%, and how did the economy contract by over 10%, by some estimates close to 20%, in 2016? Venezuela's story is a reminder that populist movements do not hold the answer to political or economic problems, as they create corruption of their own as new groups of people try to perpetuate themselves in power, and new economic problems as they try to win favor with their own support base. Also through economic mismanagement worsened by economic changes such as oil prices or some other adverse development in the global economy. Internal divisions means the capacity of the country to respond is weakened. Brazil has shown the problems of corruption with new political groups and the weakening of government finances. Venezuela is the extreme example of how a lot can go wrong over time after the initial response to a new populist group is positive as it was in Venezuela in 1998, even with advantage of rich natural resources. Change that fragments a country and polarizes a country instead of pulling together the country's human talent around a program that all groups agree to support, is a signal of future problems. The rule of law is an essential component not just of democracy, but of economic development and progress of any country. These are the lessons of Venezuela for today. Economic crises in the eighties led to loss of public confidence in the two main political parties which alternated in power since the founding of democracy in 1958. In 1998 a military officer named Chavez won the election on the platform of returning power to the people and reducing corruption. Chavez reforms initially were popular. Popular protests in 2002 led to the military briefly taking power before returning power back to Chavez. This led to Chavez moving further towards consolidating power leading to a polarization of society. The oil company workers who went on strike were fired replaced by Chavez supporters and oil funds were diverted to popular programs. In the process Chavez isolated Venezuela from the world economy, leading to lack of foreign investment, and Venezuela falling behind other countries in Latin America, even though it had large oil resources. To retain control of the streets this report shows Chavez helped organize the colectivos or local supporters organized as vigilante groups, which has led to further polarization. Corruption in the military and with the colectivos has led to power being fragmented between different groups. The oil companies fund reserves were depleted by corruption depriving Venezuela of an essential cushion as oil prices dropped. Chavez died of health problems with Maduro winning the election in April 2013 by 50.6% of the vote. The parliamentary elections led to the opposition parties winning by a landslide in December 2015. The current problems with daily street protests stems from the economic crisis, with inflation as high as 700% and shortages of basic goods, the economy declining by over 10% in 2016. The uncontrolled printing of money has fueled rampant inflation.The efforts by president Maduro to nullify the powers of Congress in an effort to control the country and override Congress, has worsened the discontent with the government.   ...

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Brazil depends on private financing for agricultual production by farmers from companies like Cargill, ADM and Bunge. These companies finance about 40% of Brazilian farmers financial needs, though this year it may drop to 25% as credit tightens. They provide this money in advance cash payments and loans in exchange for future delivery of grain. This has led to a,rapid buildup of agricultural production and the infrastructure and roads needed, making Brazil the second biggest producer of soyabeans and accounting for 25% of world production. Now Bunge has cut advance cash payments by 70% since December 2007 according to company filings. ADM and Cargill have actually expanded the amount of credit available. But Soyabean and Corn Advisor, a consulting firm in Illinois estimates the cost of producing the 3 main crops in the state of Mato Grasso, the soyabeans, corn and cotton, will increase by 42% in 2008 over 2007. So farmers are faced with higher debt especially because this comes on top of accumulated debt from prior years when there were higher exchange rates in the early 2000's. Now Brazilian farmers are faced with falling crop prices, rising costs of farm supplies, unfavorable real-dollar exchange rates, and tighter credit, similiar to the situation playing out in the American farm belt. The plantings are smaller this year for soyabeans. And many farmers are forgoing debt payments and letting banks repossess farm machinery in Mato Grasso state. The overall impact of this will be lower global farm production and the impact will be felt in Brazilian GDP growth rates. ...

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A law that is in the Must Have category for Parents, School teachers and Educated Children in the US, Canada, Britain and India, finally gets passed in Australia. Of huge benefit to Australian Parents and School Teachers- after December 10 2025 social media Meta Tik Tok and You Tube are required to remove all under 16 accounts. Chinese children and school teachers, parents have the benefit of such laws regulating the use of social media which in the current climate of license, of leaving childrens, parents and school teachers to fend for themselves, leaving young girls to fend for themselves, has not happened in other nations.

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Automakers will have to ensure that 40 to 45% of a car's content is made by workers in the U.S. earning at least $16 per hour. If this is not met automakers pay a 2.5% tariff for cars brought in from Mexico. Mexico makes 2.3 million cars and Canada 1.8 million. Automakers invested tens of billions of dollars in Mexico turning it into a lower cost export hub. This has led to job loss in the U.S. Mr. Trump's efforts in the new trade deal with Mexico are designed to increase investment in the U.S. auto industry.

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Growing number of parttime workers and poverty levels in Japan. About 16% of the population in Japan lives on an income that is half the national median income, which is the way the government defines poverty. OECD studies in 2011 show Japan as sixth from the bottom of 34 members of the OECD. The poor quality of jobs is worsening the problem of the working poor, just as it is in the U.S. with lower wage manufacturing jobs and very low wage jobs in retail/ restaurant industries. Experts say the problem has worsened since 2012 when prime minister Abe was elected. Since 2012 the number of part time or irregular workers without permanent contracts has increased by 1.5 million, with parttime workers at 20 million, or 40% of the Japanese workforce. They point to the parental support with many young workers living at home, as is true also of Spain and Italy, that has mitigated their difficult situation. This piece in the Economist provides insights into the condition of parttime lower wage workers in Japan, a large number of whom are young people, a situation similiar to that in some European countries such as Spain and Italy. At the very low end as Japanese local and national governments- under pressure to cut spending with its high debt- reduce benefits, more people have been added to the welfare rolls with 2 million people now on welfare....

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The snap elections called by Macron after National Rally party of Marine Le Pen wins 32 percent of the vote to Macron En Marche at 15% in the EU elections. Marine Le Pen has put Jordan Bardella, 28 years, of St Dennis suburb in Paris as the candidate for prime minister if NR wins the National Assembly election. Macron earlier made Gabriel Attal, 35 years, the En Marche candidate. This is the youngest in a major country for prime minister. This report in WSJ shows how Macron by reducing diesel subsidies for farmers has alienated rural voters at a time when farmers are protesting difficult conditions. Macron also faced union opposition over pension age changes, and before his reelection protests from Yellow Vest protesters on cost of living issues. Macron has survived each challenge, the last in reelection by getting support of voters on the left and right choosing stability over changes that National Rally might bring. The snap election was also intended to take Le Pen and NR by surprise. This has created new uncertainty with elections on June 30, 2024, soon after Biden and Macron met in Normandy for D- Day anniversary, and the upcoming G7 meeting in Italy June 13-15. ...

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The major provisions of the Republican House healthcare bill that passed by a vote of 217-213 are- 1. To help people buy insurance coverage the bill offers $2000 to $4000 a year, upto $14,000 a year in credits based mainly on age, reducing them for families making $150,000, individuals making $75,000. 2.  Under the Affordable Care Act insurers cannot charge older Americans more than 3 times for same coverage they offer to younger people, the new bill makes this 5 times. This would increase premiums for older Americans and reduce it for younger Americans. This is the most controversial part of the bill. Older Americans supported the Republican party in the presidential election. 3. The new bill ends Medicaid as an open ended entitlement and places this on a budget with cuts of $880 billion over 10 years. 4. To mollify conservative Republicans a provision allows state to opt out some provisions of the ACA that requires minimum benefits such as maternity care and emergency services. It retains coverage for pre-existing conditions to mollify moderate Republicans. The bill provides states with $138 billion over 10 years to subsidize premiums, provide coverage for pre-existing conditions, mental healthcare and drug addiction. 5. The bill removes the taxes imposed under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on high income people of about $300 billion over 10 years by repealing a payroll tax increase and tax on investment income. This bill and the ACA offer 2 competing visions on healthcare, both bills passed only by a margin of 4-5 votes in the House. The ACA overlooked the impact on premiums causing discontent among middle income Americans. The new bill lets premiums rise for older Americans in order to keep premiums down for other Americans. This shows the many tradeoffs involved and choices being made, and the lack of a consensus on the issue of healthcare in the U.S., becoming a highly politicized issue instead of the way it is treated in western Europe.     ...

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The Guangzhou to Wuhan train high speed line covers the 664 mile trip in 3 hours. 42 such high speed rail lines are set to open by 2012. These trains run at 215 miles per hour. Original plans were to build these lines by 2020 but the global economic crisis led to state planners moving the date up to 2012 and allocating $100 billion for this purpose. Moving passenger traffic to high speed rail lines also frees up the existing lines for more freight. Plans are to build an additional 3000 miles of track for passenger and fast freight trains at 155 miles per hour. Practically every seat on the Guangzhou- Wuhan 14 car train was full on a typical day last week, filled with migrant workers going home. What makes building these lines affordable is construction workers who earn less than $100 a month, a national savings rate of 40%, and rising tax revenues.This particular line cost $17 billion to build because of the many tunnels needed for the line. The three hour train actually makes the journey faster than the 2 hour flight to Wuhan from Guangzhou because of faster check-in times. Train stations are built in industrial districts away from the city, in the case of Guangzhou, a 40 minute bus ride from the city....

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India's crude oil imports were sharply higher in 2011 and 2012. India's imports of crude oil for the first 11 months of the 2012 fiscal year ending March 31, show a 40% increase over the same period in 2011 fiscal year. India's import bill was $128 billion for crude oil imports for the 11 months of fiscal year 2012. Indian subsidies to lower prices for fuel are $30 billion annually. The higher prices for crude create inflationary presssures in India and restrict economic growth.

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Calpers, California's pension fund is setting down the conditions under which it will work with hedge funds, including separately managing its money, reduce hedge fund fees so that they cover operating expenses and are not a windfall for hedge fund managers. Calpers has only made 3.5% annual returns since 2002 far from the big returns promised by hedge fund managers. In 2005 just 13% of all public pension funds invested inhedge funds. By 2008, 40% invested in hedge funds, with acombined $78 billion invested in hedge funds.

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Apple's sales in India are insignificant because of the lack of 3G networks. RIM's Blackberry and apps work well on the existing 2G networks. Prices are higher with the cheapest iPhone costing $705 at a Reliance iStore. The cheapest iPad 2 goes for $603. Blackberry phones cost less than $200. As a result Apple's iPhone sales are only 2.6% of India's smartphone shipments for the 2nd quarter 2011. RIM's is 15%, Samsung Electronic's is 21%, and Nokia's 46%, according to IDC. RIM is extending its distribution in India from 15 cities in 2010 to 80 cities in 2011. IDC estimates that smartphone shipments in India will grow by 68% a year, reaching 81.5 million units by 2015.

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With 40% of the unemployment shown as longterm unemployed, U.S. Federal Reserve policies are focussed on bringing down these levels, which pose a risk to the productive capacity in the U.S.

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The LDP Party led by prime minister Abe wins 290 seats in the lower house of parliament in the Dec. 2014 elections. Its ally the Komeito Party gets 34 seats giving the government a two thirds majority in parliament. The LDP previously had 295 seats from the 2012 elections. Of the total 475 seats in parliament, 73 seats went to the opposition DPJ Party and 21 seats to the Communist Party. This gives Abe a 4 year mandate reducing the uncertainty from having a regular change in prime ministers in recent history, making Abe the 17th prime minister in 25 years. The stable government and clear economic policy will help the economy. Abe says he will focus on prodding companies to raise wages, as many people say they have not personally seen any benefit from Abenomics. As a result turnout hit a new low of 52% compared to 59% in 2012 parliamentary elections, with prospective voters showing their dissatisfaction by staying away. Severe winter weather and public confusion about why the snap election was being held may have added to low voter turnout. Other parts of the Abe agenda include restarting some of the 48 nuclear reactors offline since the Fukushima disaster. Abenomics faces hard work ahead as it grapples with two quarters of declining growth in 2014, consumers feeling the effects of the increase in the consumption tax from 5% to 8%, and small businesses feeling the effects of higher cost for imports with the weaker yen. ...

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The entire administrative setup in India through 700 district collectors will participate in the Good Governance campaign in India. Every district collector will present one good governance practice and one successfully addressed public grievance on www.pgportal.gov.in/ggw. All administrative heads at the chief secretary level are involved, including central ministries and departments, state governments, departments of personnel and training, in an effort to create a new culture of good governance practice in India.

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Take notice my countrymen. There is a deep division in education where about two thirds of the people of America in the bottom of the income and wealth pyramid are excluded from the opportunities for education and the surroundings that build educational opportunity. As a result their test scores lag behind the upper 30%. About two thirds of American children in grade 4 cannot pass reading comprehension ACT tests.

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UK's Guardian shows Hope Not Hate detailed analysis of 11342 Reform UK 2025 voters split into 5 categories- Working Right 26% Squeezed Stewards 29% Reluctant Reformers 19% Contrarian youth 9% hardline Conservatives 18%. Squeezed Stewards are middle income voters who have lost patience with illegal migration and UK Conservatives and Labour slow to wake up to how it is having a corrosive effect on UK society. They are a crucial swing vote that could decide the next election in UK if a Labour government falters. These voters care about nature, fairness and local control. It also shows how as Lyrarc shows patience is wearing thin in UK on illegal migration when Denmark's Mette Frederiksen of a socialist Nordic party called for an end to illegal migration 10 years back- Wilders in Netherlands 5 years back. The Working Right and Hard line Conservatives form the core 44% of the vote- the part of workers who are conservative and religion conscious, and the part of the Conservative party's core base shifting to Reform UK. ...

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Mistakes to avoid in retirement, says Statman, are that after a lifetime of frugal habits to save for retirement, when one gets there he or she will spend so much less that they cannot enjoy life fully. He suggests taking a payout of 3%-4% from retirement accounts and dividends combined. Another mistake is to think one has more time to manage retirement accounts, and he warns that this is a bad idea as one cannot beat the market, and it is important not to take risks in retirement. Other mistakes are to ignore how important healthy living is at this point.

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The Public-Private Investment Program of the U.S. Treasury Department has not had a good start. With most banks passing the U.S.government's stress tests and raising $50 billion in the markets, PPIP which was intended to to help resolve the situation of all the toxic securites siting on the bank's books, has gone the way of all the prior efforts to solve this problem. Simply postponed this time hoping that the housing market recovers. With the Rogoff-Reinhardt study showing that it takes about 6 years or longer before housing recovers from such aserious crisis as this one, it would be 2012, before one sees an improvement. See the link to the Business Week analysis that shows housing markets in the USA having some aspect of normalcy in 2012. Yet even this analysis is using an optimistic scenario, because it assumes Moodys Economy.com estimates of economic growth for GDP of 4-5% in 2011- 2012. This assumes the consumer debt that has reached over 100% of GDP will be reversed quickly in 2010, and the the factory capacity utilization currently at 68% and expected to drop further in 2009- with more automobile manufacturing capacity remaining to be scrapped -will recover quickly in 2010-2011. This is unrealistic considering the combination of factors at work. Here Devin Leonard talks to PIMCO chief Bill Gross, who with Warren Buffett and PIMCO CEO Mohammed El-Erian, are key proponents of the PPIP program. Both El-Erian and Warren Buffett say they conceived independently of such a program, in which toxic securties are taken off bank's books with government help. As PIMCO is one of the largest traders of mortgage bonds in the country and has years of successful experience in dealing with mortgage bonds, the New York Fed under Geithner turned to PIMCO for advice in 2008. By this time PIMCO was under ownership of Allianz, a German insurer, which bought PIMCO for $3.3 billion in 2000, with $233 million and a $40 million retention bonus going to Bill Gross. Bill Gross describes how the program would function. PIMCO puts up $500 million, and Treasury matches this with $500 million. Analysts estimate that this partnership would be able to attract as much as $ 4 billion in low interest financing from Treasury and the Fed. Gross says that some of these securities pay as much as 14% interest, and even with a 70% default rate, this partnership could make $250 million a year on the $5 billion partnership, or a 5% return, with PIMCO making a 25% return on its original investment. This isn't exactly pro bono work as Buffett had originally suggested to Bill Gross in the midst of the crisis. But a more fundamental concern is that no one really knows exactly how much of toxic securties the banks have on their books, even though estimates have been made. If this is closer to $1 trillion, PIMCO's expertise and efforts will simply fall short of dealing with a problem of this size, and the window dressing of a problem of this magnitude could only hurt efforts for the eventual resolution of this problem. If housing does not recover as is expected till 2012 at the earliest, and the economy continues to deteriorate in unemployment and factory utilization, then the toxic securities on the bank's balance sheets may pose a bigger problem that will require serious action....

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Christina Zander provides an exceptionally good report on what holds women back in work and managing positions in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Even in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, with a more enlightened outlook in gender relations, the number of women who are CEO's for 145 Nordic companies is only 3%. For the U.S. Fortune 500 this is about 5%. Good child care benefits and parental leave laws that promote a fair distribution of child raising responsibilities between men and women are part of the enlightened outlook in Nordic countries. Yet the number of women being promoted to senior positions is limited. Interestingly rules requiring quota for women on Boards of Directors have led to a different situation on Boards- in 2013 41% of the boards at Norway's public companies were women compared to 18% at private limited companies. About 5.8% of general managers at publicly listed companies were women in 2013, 15.1% in private companies. Sandvik's Ms. Einarsson was promoted to a senior position recently. She says the opposite is true, one needs to start not at the top but at the entry level to ensure women are fairly represented. Culture is part of the problem as even in companies with equal male and female employees, the managers are mostly men. Men are seen as more eager to take responsibilities and risks, and are more integrated into networks. Even childcare and paid parental leave can be deceptive. One researcher shows that Swedish women still take the major part of responsibility for children, with 75% of the 480 available days. Women managers and researchers point to the difficulties women face with a full time career or working over 60 hours a week in a management position, and combining this with picking up children from daycare. Sofia Falk is the founder of Wiminvest, which helps companies invest in geting talented women. Her suggestions are that companies offer other incentives instead of more money- an assistant, private child care, grocery shopping, shared management positions, technical solutions to be able to work at home. The CEO of Sandvik, Olof Faxander, is persistent in changing company attitudes- he has raised the proportion of women in management positions to 21% from 9% in 3 years, eventually hoping to reach 33%....

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The 45 million Latinos in the USA react with pride, and some parents talk to their daughters to see her as a role model. From Salvadoran immigrants, and Cuban immigrants to Mexican immigrants, to people in the Bronz and Puerto Rico. Demographic research by the Pew Hispanic Center shows that Hispanics are from many countries and have a diversity of opinions and attitudes. Two thirds voted for Obama, one third for McCain, 60% are native-born and 40% foreign born, 64% are of Mexican AMerican heritage, and the other 36% are from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America, and other places. They make up 15% of the USA population, and account for half of the country's population growth in the last decade.