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Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, says when you consider that London gets 7 times the infrastructure spending per person than West Midlands, "its not bloody surprising" that his region is not growing fast. West Midlands covers a large part of central England, including Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry. Even life expectancy is lower by 8 years in Blackpool, and disposable income can be quarter in Camden compared to North London. Labor's Corbyn and Conservative's Thatcher in the British general election are both campaigning for reviving the regions outside London, that have seen investment in people and technology lag substantially behind London. Regional revival is the big issue in this election. Consider that London which accounted for about 15% of economic output in the 1980's now accounts for nearly 25% of economic output of Britain. Berlin is about 4% of Germany's economy, and Paris 10% of France's economy. A word of caution on Brexit is sounded by experts at the University of Birmingham, who say the whole process of Brexit is so complicated that it may detract from the task of reviving this region. Even though the political upheaval had origins in this discontent, was it more about shifting government attention to the gap between London and the rest of the country, and less about a complex process of withdrawal from the European Union. ...

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Stephen Bosworth was appointed by Hillary Clinton as U.S. Representative for North Korea Policy. He is one of America's best diplomats who served in several postings overseas before becoming Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. Prof. Drezner points to the work done by Bosworth in keeping dialogue with North Korea alive, till a solution can be found. He also cites Chinese analysts who say pressuring China comes from a worn playbook, that China would not agree to reunification on the Korean peninsula, to bring U.S. influence right up to its borders. South Koreans have been wary of reunification because of the decade long experience of integrating East Germany. As a result new solutions need to be found and the valuable work of diplomats like Bosworth is badly needed to keep dialogue alive for a solution to be found.

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World leaders meet at the UN for action on climate change, especially Obama and Hu Jintao of China who represent countries that generate 40% of carbon emissions worldwide. Hu set the target for nuclear power at 15% of energy for 2020 from 8% now, and India set atarget of 20% for renewable sources of energy for 2020. President Obama said he saw the need for the developing industrial nations, by which he meant China, India and Brazil, to adopt targets for curbing emissions in any agreement, but Hu Jintao was vague about any specific targets. So the gap remains as the US goes to the Copenhagen talks on climate change in late 2009.

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Sweden's prime minister, Reinfeldt, says he will cut corporate tax rates to 22% from 26.3% in the next budget for 2013.

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The view from Qureshi, Foreign Minister ofr Pakistan at the Journal's offices in New York of a sudden withdrawal when the Pakistani Taliban are threatening Pakistan and so close to Islamabad. He fears "more misery, more suicide bombings, and adramatic loss of confidence in the economy as investors fear that an emboldened Taliban , no longer pressed by coalition forces in Afghanistan, would soon turn its sights on Islamabad. Pakistan faced with a withdrawal would lessen cooperation against AlQuaeda and the intelligence that made drone attacks so precise in targeting Taliban leaders may be withdrawn. Pakistan may then strike adeal with the jihadists.

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The graph of forecasts as they proceed into the recession of economists in the WSJ survey. With each month into the downturn the further into it one goes the more the forecasts get gloomier.

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Compared to previous downturns, this one is differnt in that migration is slowing everywhere. This means economic recvery will be slower, because there won't be new migrants to depressed housing cities like Phoenix and others to reduce the stock of unsold homes.

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The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. It's worsening compared to Iraq. More deaths in roadside bombings than Iraq in recent months, and rural areas in the south and east no longer in the control of the Karzai government. And opium crops not under any control and growing substantially in 2007. The US Defense department is conducting a thorough review of the situation in Afghanistan. The ceasefire between militants in Pakistan's border areas and the Pakistan army also has led to increased activity along the Pakistan border as Pakistan militants cross the border into Afghanistan, and the Pakistan tribal border areas acting as sanctuary for the Taliban militants. Meanwhile Obama and McCain see the situation differently. McCain sees Iraq as important and Obama would withdraw from Iraq and concentrate on Afghanistan and send 8000 more troops to Afghanistan, something that may happen if he is elected and the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates further.

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The Bailout Plan that failed to pass the House on Monday September 29, 2008 with the Dow Jones Average dropping over 700 points on that day. A copy of that plan in appended resources.

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ad hoc rapid fire policymaking in this crisis in the USA.

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The shocks to the UK banking system resumed Monday with the announcement on January 19 that RBS faced losses of a huge magnitude, of 28 billion pounds for 2008 with fresh losses in 2009. RBS shares went down 66%, and at closing on on January 21, 2009, were at 12.5 pence. Lloyds Banking Group shares are at 45.1 pence, at 66 pence. Barclays which has avoided taking government money saw its shares drop 25% on January 16. The government is hoping that its plan to provide insurance that would limit bank's losses on bad loans and investments will work, but uncertainty on how the insurance will be priced is raising doubts about the plan's effectiveness to restore confidence. Especially when RBS is collapsing. The government owns 70% of RBS and 43% of Lloyds. The next step would be nationalization of the banks. According to WSJ nationalization would mean that taxpayers have new liabilities of about $3 trillion or $4 trillion, an amount far exceeding the UK's entire annual economic output.

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Britain's Office of National Statistics said that GDP declined by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012 from the prior quarter. GDP declined by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2011. This means Britain is officially in a recession, with two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The ONS said GDP was 4.3% below its precrisis peak in the first quarter of 2008. The UK registered growth of a mere 0.4% since the coalition government of David Cameron took over in May 2010. This presents problems for prime minister Cameron in tackling the UK deficit. It also shows how difficult it will be for EU countries to address their deficits without economic growth. This has come into increasing focus with recent events in the Netherlands with the collapse of the government and upcoming elections on the issue of austerity cuts, and in France with the presidential elections and the swing to parties questioning austerity measures without economic growth.

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The title is misleading as the US president DJT has said on Air Force One on Tuesday -"I don't care what she (Tulsi Gabbard) said, I think they were very close to having them." Most administration officials including the head of Central Command see the risks growing by the week. Here is what Gen. Erik Kurilla told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week- Iran is merely "steps away" from uranium enriched to weapons grade level of 90%. He said if Iran decided to build a nuclear weapon it could have the first 55 pounds of weapons-grade material “in roughly one week and enough for up to 10 nuclear weapons in three weeks.”