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Standard & Poors downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. In its reasons for the downgrade the ratings agency said the "political brinksmanship" in debt ceiling and deficit reduction negotiations has made the process "less stable, less effective and less predictable." It said the $2.1 trillion savings under the August 2 Debt legislation falls short of what is needed to improve U.S. finances. David Beers, the head of the government debt ratings unit at S&P also said that "we don't think it's coming back any time soon." Countries that still have a AAA rating are Canada, France, Germany, and Britain. Countries with AA+ rating include New Zealand and Belgium.

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Chrysler reported second quarter 2012 income of $436 million, compared with a loss of $370 million in the prior year quarter. The prior year quarter included charges for repaying U.S. government loans. First quarter 2012 income was $473 million. Fiat reported a loss of 246 million euros for the second quarter 2012. The combined operations Fiat-Chrysler reported aloss of 103 million euros. This shows how the effort by Sergio Marchionne to takeover Chrysler and turn it around have proved to be a very successful move for Fiat. With a relatively small investment Fiat is now a majority owner of Chrysler having invested mainly its management knowhow and leadership.

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Tony Hall, who joined the BBC in 1973, worked there for 28 years, heading the News Section from 1996 to 2001, was selected to head the BBC. His selection comes after the recent ethics problems at the BBC. The BBC is a major British institution with a 90 year history of providing news on world affairs. It reaches an estimated 240 million people worldwide. His selection was well received in Britain, with the host of the TV show Question Time saying hearing the announcement felt similiar to what it would have sounded to men in the Royal Navy when they heard that Winston Churchill was back.

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This televised debate of Republican presidential candidates focussed on Iran's development of a nuclear weapon. Rick Perry said he would impose sanctions on Iran's central bank, something the Obama administration is reluctant to do because it might disrupt international oil markets. Romney and Gingrich said they would use military action if other measures failed. Huntsman called for a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, saying: "This nation's future is not in Afghanistan. this nation's future is not in Iraq." Ron Paul said hw opposed military interventions in conflicts overseas. Perry and Gingrich said U.S. aid to Pakistan should be suspended because Pakistan was not a reliable partner.

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The U.S. has 22 states that offer some form of work sharing programs to reduce layoffs by having workers work for shorter hours and receive partial unemployment insurance. This is a variation of the "kurzarbeit" programs that have helped Germany reduce layoffs during 2009 and during the period of high unemployment in Germany following the reunification of the country. Worksharing has major benefits in high tech and manufacturing industries where it is difficult to replace employees when the downturn is over and demand picks up. For the economy as a whole it reduces the stress of higher unemployment from cyclical swings in the economy.

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The local tour guides in Yan'an (Yenan) China, who know absolutely nothing of the history. An American visitor who lived there in the 1940's revisits Yenan. He is stunned by the changes. Th makeover by the tourism bureau has changed the place that was the centre of the Communist struggle with the Koumintang and the Japanese. Mao, Zhou-en-lai and others made this the central location for their struggle for China after their Long March and well into 1948. It says Rittenberg was a place of stark beauty, with its primitive cave city. He sees the commercial makeover as having destroyed this museum to Chinese revolutionary history.

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Sony and Panasonic will jointly develop mass production methods for organic light emitting diode display, or OLED, by 2013. The two companies are also cosidering an alliance to mass manufacture OLED television sets under their brand names. One option is to work with a low cost Asian manufacturers such as AU Optronics of Taiwan. Samsung and LG Electronics are planning to introduce 55 inch OLED television sets in 2012, with the sets costing about $9000. The challenge for the manufacturers is to bring down the cost of manufacturing. Sony is a leader in this technology, having developed the first 11 inch OLED set in 2007.

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According to analysts Yahoo's 24% stake in Alibaba and its stake in Yahoo Japan is what gives its share price momentum. U.S. Yahoo operations are estimated by Topeka Capital Markets to provide only about $10 of Yahoo's value per share. Alibaba's operations as a retailer in China account for $30 of the value per share, and Yahoo Japan $7 per share in value. Yahoo's current share price in Jan 214 is $40, having doubled in the past year. Analysts say there is not much CEO Marissa Mayer can do to reverse the slow decline in Yahoo revenues as it competes with Google, Facebook and other competitors for premium display advertising.

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According to the Center for American Progress enrollment in the food stamp program would drop by 9.2% if the minimum wage is raised to $10.10 per hour. The savings- $4.6 billion a year. This CAP report is by UC Berkeley researchers Rachel West and Michael Reich. Earlier research done at UC Berkeley and University of Illinois showed raising the minimum wage would save taxpayers $7 billion a year. Food stamps known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program supports one in seven Americans at a cost of $78 billion in 2011, with eligibility set at 130% of poverty threshold or $19,530 for 3 member family.

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Prince Felipe uses Catalan in a visit to Girona. He praised the Catalan language saying Catalan "is in a permanent, sincere and enriching dialogue and co-existence with Spanish." Under the Spanish constitution following the Franco period divisions, the king is thrust into the role of "arbitrating and moderating" between institutions. The Partido Popular of former premier Anzar and current premier Rajoy, is seen as performing poorly in interaction with regions such as Basque and Catalonia. Spanish public opinion, as reflected in a 2014 poll of the newspaper El Pais, show 75% of Spaniards supporting the king playing a role in creating a dialogue and facilitating agreements between politicians.

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Lally Weymouth interviews Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong in March 2013. He says the leadership in China is experienced and have received preparation in different roles before their current positions. Their purpose he sees as taking China to the next level for the economy and making economic reforms, as well as adapting to a society that is changing fast with the growing middle class. He sees China's younger generation as being more nationalistic because of not having grown up and seen the war period in the thirties and forties and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970's. He sees less immigration and slower growth in Singapore.

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The Bank of Japan's plans to buy 100 trillion yen of Japanese government debt in 2 years to fight deflation is having a positive effect on the eurozone economies. Japanese investors are buying eurozone sovereign debt. J.P. Morgan estimates the increase in investments for overseas bonds by Japanese investors in 2013 at 45 billion euros. This is lowering the yields on the sovereign bonds of France, Netherlands and Austria to record lows and lowering the yields of sovereign bonds of Italy and Spain. The 10 year yields on Italy's government bonds declined to 4.326%. Yields on 10 year Japanese government bonds was 0.514% on April 8, 2013.

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The Congressional Budget Office's Elmendorf says without spending cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals and other providers, providing coverage to the unisured will put the nation deeper into debt. Popular measures such as increasing preventative care, expanding medical records and rewarding doctors for choosing treatments that improve cost and quality have potential but its not proven how much the savings from this would be. The administration and the White House Budget Director, Peter Orszag, say they are in agreement with the CBO that something needs to be done to seriously reduce costs, reducing payments for Medicare and Medicaid to doctors and hospitals, and making other changes.

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Richard Barrett, former head of overseas counter terrorism operations of Britain and now head of the UN AlQuaeda and Taliban monitoring group, in aspeech to the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, says Al Quaeda is a diminishing threat because a new generation of Muslims who have little recollection of the events and are less interested in religion. And CIA officials say they are having greater success penetrating Al Quaeda, because of vastly improved intelligence capabilities. In terms of intelligence and capabilities, the technical colllection, intercepts are much better, and overhead surveillance is much better. The human intelligence is much better and they have fewer competent people.

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Banco Santander, Brazil, sold 600 million units at a price of 23.5 reais each, according to a filing with Brazil's regulator. With each unit representing 55 common shares and 50 preferred shares. The offering was increased from a planned 525 million to 600 million units so that investor demand could be met. Santander's US traded stock was priced at $13.50 each. Santander following a series of acquisitions is Brazil's third largest bank after Itau Unibanco and Bradesco, having a 10.2% market share. It is also the largest IPO for Brazil. The growing demand for emerging market securities is evident in the rate at which the Bovespa Brazil Index jumped in 2009.

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How the promise of free or low cost transportation for the 584,000 students who have a free or a half-fare card has helped bring a diverse group of students to New York city schools as students can commte distances to reach their desired school without having to worry about the cost. This can be $700 for a school year for a typical student. Now with budget cuts at New York city's MTA starting in Sept 2011 these students will lose this benefit. Its asymptom of cuts going on across the nation, from fee raises in the University of California system to student fares on the New York City MTA.

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Legislation advanced by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois would allow bankruptcy judges to lower principal and interest rates on mortgages and extend the loan period. Of 10 million homeowners who are having trouble making payments new bankruptcy law changes would help 800,000 troubled borrowers keep their homes, according to Mark Zandi, chief economst at Moody's Economy.com. With the government's loans of $45 billion to Citigroup it has more leverage on key banks in the banking industry. As a result Citigroup which had earlier opposed the change in bankruptcy laws to make this possible has now changed its stance. Vikram Pandit Citi's CEO stated yesterday that "we support its swift passage."

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MacKinnon argues that (while correcting the trade imbalance by American consumers increasing savings over time and becoming frugal), the stable exchange rate for the yuan and the dollar helps global economic growth by making it possible for China to engage in fiscal stimulus beyond the half trillion dollars it plans for 2009. From the Chinese point of view anchoring the yuan to the dollar at a stable exchange rate help China's internal price level. After the inflation rate exploded to 20% in 1993-95, the fixed rate anchor helped China regain price stability. The China stimulus in his words is most effective with a stable exchange rate.

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After carbon dioxide at 40%, black carbon at 18% is the No 2 cause of global warming on the planet earth. This black carbon is generated from thousands of villages in the develooping world and from countries like India, where village women cook food over stoves that burn twigs and dung, not having stoves to cook on. If they are provided with stoves that use fuel these black carbon emissions can easily and quickly be cut. This is also cuasing dense smoke to fill their homes and black grime to stick to the thatched huts and thatched roofs, and it puts ablack cloud over stretches of landscape in these villages.

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Mishkin a Columbia University Prof. who is a Fed Governor close to Ben Bernanke presented a paper at the Jackson Hole conference saying that the best strategy was for the Fed to act quickly as house prices fall and cut rates. Under this strategy the Fed would hit bottom in rate cuts a little over 2 years compared to about 4 years if the Fed waited to see what happens to the housing market and the housing market was in steep decline by the time the Fed acted decisively. This would mean less lost economic output. This makes sense as the housing market is going to see a serious impact.

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There is considerable opposition among analysts, Congressmen, and experts to continuing with the current management at GM if help is provided to automakers. And GM's management is insisting on staying on which may complicate things. There is a strong perception throughout the country that management has failed the company, and now the economy of the midwest and the country. And some are arguing that bankruptcy or government receivership will be necessary to effect a complete restructuring of the industry after years of failure both by management and unions, the credit crisis having come as the last blow after a long series of mistakes and inability to get things right.

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The Conservatives get a big boost from the 2021 budget. This budget increased the corporate tax to 25% by 2023 from 20% under previous Conservative governments of Cameron, and 19% under May. A survey by YouGov shows 55% of the British public thinks this budget is "fair," only 16% saying it is "unfair." This is the highest rating for any British budget since 2009. For Boris Johnson's Conservatives this means a 4% increase in popularity just in the last week up to 45% and Labour under Keith Starmer dropping 4% to 32%. This has opened a 13 point lead for the Conservatives likely to show up in the local elections coming up. This Conservative lead is higher than the 44% vote share for Boris Johnson's Conservatives in the general election.

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What this tennis report is not saying is that only a generation ago the drop shot was standard and a key part of the game. The base line hitters era is now gone as player after player from Europe is shifting to the way tennis was always played with a great mix of shots. This drop shot or the related shot the lob was normal when Ile Nastase, Newcombe, Rosewall and Laver played in the 1970's and 1980's, games this reviewer watched late into the night at tennis tournaments in the US and Canada. It was because of the range of strokes that tennis was fun to watch and became popular at the time. The reason is that drop shots, lobs, take skills, timing, mixing shots with speed and with touches, and requiring a keen sense of the flow.

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U.S. Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, has balanced the rhetoric of president Trump on trade in the NAFTA debate by saying the U.S. is looking for win-win solutions in trade relations with Mexico. At the WSJ CFO network Ross says the trade regime from the post war years is now an anachronism and does not work well especially for the U.S. Many experts agree that the trade framework from that period is problematic. It does not take into account, for instance say experts, the situation where a command economy such as China could help manufacturing industries with state policies, including currency policies. The rapid growth in China was different from the rapid growth in an earlier period of Japan, in terms of its impact say experts. The U.S was the dominant economy during the sixties, and the growth in Japan was not at the accelerated pace and of the magnitude that happened in China. As a result the impact on  some communities in the U.S. was much more intense in the last two decades, as documented by prominent trade studies, leading to the sense that trade did not work for these communities. ...