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Senator Lamar Alexander is a kind of misssionary for electric cars and for a major push with government assistance in this area. A bill sponsored by Alexander and Senator Byron Dorgan plans to designate 5 to15 urban areas as model locations for electric car use. These areas would get money for infrastructure such as recharging stations, and people in the areas would get an additional tax credit to take the tax credit from $7,500 to $10,000. The bill has important provisions for promoting research at companies and universities to improve electric car batteries. $1.5 billion would be allocated for research in electric car batteries, and a $10 million prize for the person or company able to build a battery with a 500 mile range. The total cost- $10 billion.

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Hyundai introduced its first electric car named the BlueOn. The South Korean government is pushing the timetable forward for development of an electric car industry in S. Korea. Production for small electric cars to begin in 2011, and medium sized electric cars to begin in 2014. By 2020 the government hopes to see 20% of the cars on the road in the electric car category, and it plans to offer tax and other incentives to buyers. Hyundai has invested $34 million in the last year for the development of a car with a lithium-ion battery. SK Energy Co is the initial supplier for the battery. The S. Korean government will do a study on exchange battery system for electric cars, where one battery can be charging while another is in use.

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Germany's largest utility plans to spin off its conventional power generation, exploration and production units to focus on renewable energy. The fossil fuel units are restricted by German regulation as Germany moves to increase use of alternative solar and wind energy. The German government sees this as a positive step for energy transformation. German government support for green energy, including large subsidies, is resulting in a power surplus and lower prices for wholesale power. This makes traditional power plants unprofitable. In addition the ruble is negatively affecting Russian operations, Brazilian operations are unprofitable- these assets will be part of the fossil fuels unit, a kind of "bad bank" of assets, say analysts. E.ON shares went up by 4.3% on the DAX exchange, Dec. 1, 2014, showing positive investor perceptions of the move.

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The situation for organic farmers in the U.S. and Canada where conversion is discouraged by the high costs incurred over 2-3 years for converting to regular farming. A period in which use of pesticides and other chemical products is reduced and new farming practices are introduced. During this period farmers still sell product at the regular price, even as high upfront costs are incurred. The result is tight organic supplies for corn, soyabeans and other food products, with organic prices as much as three times the regular price. In responding to the surging demand buyers are getting involved to support farmers by guaranteeing prices over several years, and in some cases buying farms. This trend should result in lower prices for organic foods as supplies catchup with demand.

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Difficulty attracting foreign investors to India's bond market. After adjusting for consumer inflation India's three month Treasury bill pays a negative 2.3%, according to Citi. Official foreign funds data for India shows as of Dec. 16, 2013, that foreigners used up only 32% of the quotas assigned to them in the bond market. If they were to use up the entire quota this would be $81 billion compared to the deficit for the year ending March of $50 billion. Foreign investors also have to deal with the risk that the currency could depreciate as in the summer of 2013, for which they need higher interest rates. The RBI increased interest rates twice since Rajan's taking office in September 2013. During 5 months of 2013 foreigners made a net withdrawal of $12.9 billion.

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The apparent call by the US Chamber of Commerce for a Scopes type monkey trial cited in a Los Angeles times article -like that of the 1920' for evolutionists and creationists- to test the science of climate change, has led to vigorous protest from Exelon, autility company that manages most of the nuclear plants in the country. PG&M and PNM are other companies that vigorously protested these theatrics as they call it. The US Chamber of Commerce has opposed environmental legislation and is vocally opposing the EPA's use of an existing law, the Clean Air Act, to set limits on greenhouse gases. Exelon, PG&E, and PNM have withdrawn from the US Chamber of Commerce to protest. Other companies opposing the chamber's statements on climate change are Nike, J&J, Duke Energy.

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How Colorado is doing alot better than other states. Home prices dropped only 4% in 2008. And Colorado has moved faster than other states to ensure fairness in dealing with homeowners facing foreclosure. Banks must now refer homeowners to anetwork of state funded foreclosure counselling agencies, which can suspend a foreclosure for upto 90 days to get renegotiation of payments. And the state sued Countrywide for deceptive lending practices. Unemployment in March was 7.5% compared with 4.6% a year ago, but lower than the national average of 8.5%. In asurvey by the Milken Institute, Colorado ranks third in its ability to use science and technology assets for national development. And its energy sector is developing quickly with the Governor, Mr Ritter, signing abill in 2007 requiring 20% of energy to be produced from renewable sources.

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The Fed reduced rates to 1% from 1.5% on October 29, 2008. If the Fed were to reduce rates down to zero that would put the USA in the situation that Japan found itself when Japan's central bank reduced rates to zero in the 1990's, and where it remained for years as its economy struggled. For the USA these low rates were last reached in 2003 and 2004 after the bursting of the internet bubbbe. The only surprise element in this is that this comes so early in the deep and prolonged recession that is expected. What if the rate is down to zero, then the Fed could use unconventional tools like buying longterm Treasury securities that would help to push down the terms for consumer credit that tracks those Treasury securities.

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The failure of Basel 1 and 2 and the effects of the Asian market crisis in 1997 in creating a situation of current account surpluses in Asia and other countries that ended up in extra liquidity in the western countries where debt went out of control. The concerns about negotiations to enhance the role of emerging economies in the IMF, the Financial Stability Forum and other organizations, as these organizations play a larger role and need larger access to funds. The chance that with such a large agenda especially in the area of regulation and enlarged representation of emerging economies in international organizations like the IMF, the leaders of G20 may simply use this meeting and meetings in coming months to forward their own leader and country agendas, leaving these issues unresolved for now.

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Freddie Mac shows a profit of $48.7 billion in 2014.

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Kristof of the NYT says the narrative about Hillary Clinton being dishonest is clearly overdone and inaccurate. He says the gaffes about the use of personal email server have unfairly created a distorted narrative. On changing positions on trade and minimum wage- this happens frequently with all the candidates. Some are glib enough for not being noticed, Clinton not a natural politician drawing attention. On Libya, and on Syria, Clinton is blamed for the President's errors and not given credit for pushback in league with Panetta, Gen. Kean and Gen. Jones, that has influenced changes made in 2016, and the president accepting blame for errors. In this instance Clinton has been far from shifty by publicly allying herself with Leon Panetta's position in "Worthy Fights," and Gen. Jones's remarks. Far from having erred on Libya and Syria policy, Hillary Clinton, like Chuck Hagel and others in the administration including Joe Biden, showed exceptional patience in dealing with the president, national security advisor, and McDonough in policy matters- when they were right but the country was weary of what were seen as futile global engagements in remote areas setting too high a bar for any action. Clinton rightly described this as a pendulum swinging too far in the opposite direction after the Bush/Cheney years. On young women and being "progressive" Hillary Clinton is from a older generation that experienced the kind of discrimination that young women fail to grasp, according to a recent analysis of University of Massachusetts polling survey results cited in the Washingon Post. A PolitiFact Pulitzer winning fact checking site shows 50% of the Clinton statments are either true or mostly true, compared to 49% for Bernie Sanders, 9 percent for Trump, 22% for Ted Cruz, and 52% for John Kasich. ...

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A team of 45 designers, sculptors, design engineers and scientists are working in the EFlex Systems Design studio to continue work on the Chevy Volt. It will be dedicated to designing a variety of vehicles that will use the electric plug in concept for cars.

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India needs more dams to collect, store and channel water to where it is needed. The rainy season is becoming shorter, with alot of the rain as much as 50% falling in about 15 days. This means some areas are flood prone and the water if not collected in dams would be lost. THe other problem is that a lot of water is wasted without proper maintenance of the existing dams and storage areas. Much of the state governments investment in this is ineffective so water is lost for lack of maintenance. The state irrigation departments are underfunded, overmanned and corrupt and are not upto the task of maintaining the existing irrigation systems. This presents ahuge problem because India is estimated to lose the equivalent of two thirds of the new storage it builds to siltation. Between 1992-2004 India built 200 medium size irrigation projects but the area irrigated by these projects actually shrank by 3.2 million hectares. New dams are not coming on fast enough and India has 200 cubic metres of water per person, compared with 1000 cubic metres in China. Groundwater -with the governments providing free electricity to farmers for pumps- is used widely but this is becoming unsustainable. The WOrld Bank estimates that 15% of India's food production comes from "mining" which is the use of unrenewable groundwater supplies. Many of these wells are drying out. Also free electricity is causing electricity boards to have insufficient funds for expanding supply causing chronic shortages. One quarter of India's electricity is given free or cut rate to farmers. And politicians trying to reform this system are often booted out of office. All this as 400 million Indians have no electricity. The answer is not merely to raise prices in places like Haryana state- where according to aWorld Bank study farmers with electricity spend 25% of their incomes for it and to repair engine pumps- but also for the utilities to improve supply. Farmers also need to learn to use water more efficiently. ...

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Amol Sharma and Paul Beckett of the WSJ interview Finance Minister Chidambaram about the Indian government's decisions to open up the insurance, retail and airline sectors to foreign investment, and bring the deficit down to close to 5.3% in 2013. Faced with slowing growth and the risk of credit ratings agencies lowering India's credit ratings the government of prime minister Manmohan Singh has decided to take some decisive steps, including a shift in coalition partners to maintain parliamentary support for these steps. When asked about what influenced the government's resolve to take these decisions, Chidambaram says credit ratings was one factor, another was the difficulty Indian companies were having raising capital inside the Indian market and overseas. In addition he says growth could not be sustained at earlier levels without new capital, and new foreign investment was needed for sustained growth. The Kelkar committee report provided a sense of urgency to the government by providing an independent view and showing the worst case scenario if the government maintained the status quo. Chidambaram says subsidies will now be transferred in the form of cash directly to beneficiaries and reduce costs by cutting leakage in the system.The government will use the list of LPG cooking gas households to transfer the subsidy for 6 gas cylinders directly to beneficiary accounts. The plan is to do the same for the Rural Employment Guarantee Program and subsidized foodgrains to cut the leakage that stems from duplication and falsification. The Indian government's ongoing program to use information technology to have computerized records of the the entire population and linking to the financial system, incuding a large rural population, now makes it possible to take these steps. On the Kelkar committee's recommendation to increase prices of basic commodities cooking gas, kerosene and food to reduce government subsidies, Chidambaram says this is ambitious and the government has to consider the political context even though it agrees that this has to be done over time....

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Epic Systems of Verona, Wisconsin, is one of the companies engaged in digitizing health records. It has helped develop records for 40 million patients in hospital systems such as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Kaiser Permanente, the Cleveland Clinic, and John Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore and the Weill Cornell Physicians Organization of New York. Epic provides the software, the IT systems, the training and support. Epic is one of the pioneers in this, having been in the business for 30 years. About 40% of primary care doctors in the U.S. and 25% of hospitals use electronic patient records. The Federal government has provided $2.7 billion in funding from $27 billion of Stimulus funds assigned for the purpose of conversion to electronic medical records. This is likely to speed up the conversion. Other providers are Cerner, Allscripts, Meditech, Siemens Healthcare, G.E. Healthcare, and IBM. Epic Systems is considered the defacto standard in the industry for medical schools and some of the major hospital systems in the country. New contracts are leading to a major expansion of Epic Systems which employs 5100 people. Epic plans to hire an additional 1000 people. Revenue for the privately owned company are estimated at $1.2 billion, a 45% increase over the prior year. Epic is expected to have 127 million patients under medical records by mid 2013. To get the feedback essential for such a large conversion, CEO Faulkner relies on feedback from 250,000 doctors who use the Epic systems software, and on nurses and doctors from Epic who visit customer's sites to see first hand how it works and what needs improvement. Judith Faulkner started Epic more than 30 years ago. A project for the Psychiatry department led to other projects after she graduated in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. Epic continues to attract programmers to Wisconsin by making the Epic campus a fun environment and a great place to work. ...

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A back of the envelope kind of analysis by Robert Cyran shows that GM may not reach positive net present value even with all its efforts. The rescue package from the governmet required GM to come up with aplan to achieve positive net present value. Treasury wants GM to wipe out two thirds of its unsecured debt by swapping it for equity. Even if this succeeded it would leave GM with $12 billion of unsecured debt and $6 billion in secured debt. With the government money of $13.4 billion the debt goes up to $31.4 billion. GM has to pay $10 billion in cash into the independent fund for UAW members benefits. And net unfinanced health care liabilities for non UAW workers is $8 billion. Prof. Roth at the University of Chicago estimates GM's pension plan may be underfinanced by $23 billion after the market downturn. Cyran uses a conservative number of $10 billion Adding it to the rest gives $60 billion in liabilities. With analyst estimates of $135 billion in sales in 2008 and about 3% margin this implies $4 billion in operating earnings. This seen as a steady ten year income stream would make GM's car business worth $28 billion. These ballpark estimates by Cyran show that GM will have a tough time proving to the government that it can achieve positive net present value and that it should not be drastically reorganized under bankruptcy, which would be redefining the business from the ground up, and discarding old models and behaviours completely by bringing in new managers with no preconceived notions about the business. Actually Cyran's $4 billion in operating earnings based on a 3% margin and $135 billion in sales may be optimistic considering that its based on 2008 performance. 2009 and 2010 performance will likely turn out to be worse than 2008 as both unemployment and consumption spending deteriorate. ...

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About 41% of Unilever's $53 billion in sales come from developing countries, up from 22% in 1990. In 2006 developing world sales increased by 8%, sales in Europe only 1%, and sales in the USA only 2.4%. This shows the growing significance of developing countries sales to Unilever. With head offices in Rotterdam and London, Unilever was formed from a 1930 merger of a Dutch food company and a British soap company. Unilever has been selling its bar soaps and cooking oils in the Dutch and British Empires, in countries like India, Indonesia, and South Africa since the 1880's. CEO Patrick Cescau is focussed on promoting products in fast growing regions of the world. The management structure is being changed to recruit new and nurture promising managers in countries like India and South Africa. These managers are being trained in western countries to learn new marketing methods, and are being asked to come up with their own new ideas for products from scratch for developing countries with low price points. Its not about adapting existing western products, but dreaming up new ones for low income shoppers. Its introducing a product called Cubitos- miniature bouillion cubes - tailored to low income shoppers in 25 developing markets and their tastes, for as little as 2 cents. The stakes are huge. Its competitors like P&G are doing this in Mexico. Nestle is expanding in Brazil with a new plant dedicated to shoppers making less than $10 a day, and setting up a distribution network to sell to small stores in shantytowns in Latin America. Unilever estimates are that 1.2 billion consumers will buy packaged goods for the first time in 2010, mostly all in the developing world. Detergent sales are soaring in places like India, as shoppers use powders to clean their clothes, moving up from bar soaps. Estimates are that each week 40,000 people in Asia use a washing machine for the first time. ...

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Elvira Nabiullina, head of Russia's central bank, is a think tank economist who was Economy minister before becoming chief economic advisor to Russian president Putin in 2012. She is one of the liberal economists in Russia who see the years of economic growth following ruble devaluation in 1998 as an example of how devaluation can actually help the economy. The devaluation lowers costs for manufacturing and agriculture, and is seen by some economists as having done more than oil price increases to help the Russian economy grow during president Putin's first term from 1999 to 2004. Nabiullina's position to support a free float after the sharp decline in the value of the ruble following the plunge in oil prices, is based on the need she sees to use the crisis to reduce Russian overdependence on imports. This policy had other advantages by reducing the need to tap Russia's foreign currency reserves to defend the ruble. Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves are at $385 billion. In Jan 2015 the central bank cut interest rates. A policy of increasing rates would trigger a sharper recesssion. Russia faces a unique situation in that the oil price decline and the decline in the value of the ruble occurred at about the same time of about 50%, so that the budget continues to be balanced. The number of rubles coming in from oil exports remains the same after the crisis. Nabiullina told Russia 24 television- "We have to live in a different zone, Russians should orient ourselves more toward our own sources of financing projects, and to give a chance to import substitution."...

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Jonathan Cheng of the WSJ reports from Seoul that the sense of alarm at the escalating rhetoric between the U.S. president and North Korea seen elsewhere is missing in the South Korean capital. A city of 10 million only 45 minutes from the border with North Korea is within artillery range from the North. There is a sense that North Korea would not attack the South because of long ties of culture and ethnicity. The new government of Mr. Moon was elected with its plan to improve relations with North Korea that had deteriorated under the previous government of Mrs. Park. An effort is made by Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State to tamp down tensions from the rhetoric. South Korean officials say recent experience shows the Trump administration is capable of making sound policy even with Mr. Trump's tendency to tweet strong comments. The South Korean government urged the media to present the situation without aggravating tensions. In fact the popular online news portal Naver in South Korea did not show the escalation in its top ten trending topics. An earlier report in the NYT shows the use of underground bomb shelters in drills is ignored by many South Koreans. ...

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In central Switzerland the Trift  Glacier is nowhere to be seen. In its place is the Trift bridge, a valley and a lake that is a popular destination for hikers. Like thousands of glaciers elsewhere it has melted away with climate change. Switzerland's 1500 glaciers and melting ice generates hydropower that powers 60 percent of the country's electricity. More melting ice means an increase in hydropower generation by 4 percent. Yet this is temporary. Eventually the melting glaciers from climate change mean fewer glaciers and less hydropower. The Alps have the most glaciers in Europe and provide the bulk of Europe's hydropower. Multimedia reporter Ben Solomon provides an exciting look at awesome pictures and media showing the glaciers, mountain generating plants and hydropower in the Alps. A rare look inside the hydropower that produces 16% of the world's electricity, that is now endangered. Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have a solution- to use the topography created by the melting glaciers including new lakes and areas that can be made into reservoirs that would be used to generate electricity. The glaciers in the Aletsch part of the Alps are one such region being studied. ...

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Sadanand Dhume points out the change in women's fertility rate that will add one more factor to improvement in the quality of life and access to resources in India. This comes as development projects, infrastructure, logistics, is being built in the north at a pace unprecedented in history. Women's fertility rate has dropped below the replacement rate of 2.1 in India. Because of the youthful population with median age of 28 in India population will peak at 1.6 billion in 2050 making India the largest country by population in the world- with one in 6 people on the planet in India. From a fertility rate of 6 in 1960 in India, with each woman having 6 babies, it is down to 3 by 2005 and 2 in 2021. This shows the effect of sustained development over time, which is also evident in agricultural production where India is now self sufficient in food. For many years the Hindi speaking heartland suffered from poor governance and mismanagement of the economy- the region that covers Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh has a population of 250 million, Bihar 131 million and Madhya Pradesh 86 million, for a total of 467 million about the size of North America or the European Union. It is this region that is now pushing a development agenda today more than any other region in India with the joint effort of both the federal and state, local, governments in a way that is unprecedented in Indian history. Because of the Gati Shakti Master Plan, Atman Nirbhar Make in India Plan, and push for local is vocal, the infrastructure efforts in building roads, highways, airports and logistics, the advances in digitization and use of new technologies, there is an added boost with new synergies in this development effort. A new airport and logistics setup at Noida in Uttar Pradesh will be the largest in Asia, a new Ganga Expressway is planned, and many development projects are being launched in Varanasi, Prayagraj and other cities in UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh. Leaders at the federal level Mr. Modi, Mr. Piyush Goyal, and at the state level Mr. Adityanath, are pushing the development projects at a pace that will make these areas the fastest developing in India, and quite possibly the world, in a the next 3-5 years. ...

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Over $30 billion in loans and investments from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates helps Pakistan delay borrowing from the IMF. The IMF loan was needed with arapidly depleting foreign exchange reserves and trade deficit. Saudis and UAE will provide Pakistan immediate loans of $12 billion. Pakistan attended the recent Saudi investment summit setup by Prince Salman. Pakistan's reserves are just $6.9 billion, enough for 2 months of imports. 

China is expected to provide $2 billion to $3 billion in loans. Pakistan's Imran Khan government says China needs to build more factories than infrastructure to create jobs. China is developing the port of wadar, and Saudis plan to build a refinery near the port. The refinery would help cut the trade deficit by reducing oil imports.

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About 6% of textbook sales are forecast to be digital in 2012, up from 3% in 2011, according to MBS Direct Digital. The $14.99 price for a digital copy of a textbook for 1 year announced by Apple is designed to increase sales. Apple's Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, says there are 1.5 million iPads in use at schools and colleges. Future price reductions on the iPad below the current $499 level would make the device more accessible and affordable for students. Apple iBooks are designed to work only on the iPad. Other device manufacturers are Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and Apple is in third place for digital books according to Forrester Research. Over time digital copies digital textbooks will dominate the market. MJB Direct Digital sees 50% of textbooks being digital by 2020.