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Berlin's Neues Museum destroyed during the war, is painstakingly built using the bricks and stone from the ruins, by the London architect David Chipperfield. As for many public buildings in Germany the past is opportunity, and the scraps of the old building were used, with "millions of decisions" technical, aesthetic and political in a vast jigsaw puzzle handed down by Stuler the original architect of the building- which opened in 1855 to promote "the elevated interests of the people." Chipperfield built a new building using the remains of the old. And based on the long lines in Berlin, waiting for hours in the cold March weekend and stretching for half amile, the building works for the people of Berlin. Of the grand central stairway that edges on upward through the old brick and into the new structure, upward to more light, the NYT writer Kimmelman says that this space is a metaphor for Germany today. In their response to its history Berliners are keeping the history as part of the large jigsaw puzzle of human experience and response....

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Germany's deputy finance minister, Jorg Asmussen, was nominated by the German government to the executive board of the ECB. This follows the resignation of Jurgen Stark. Asmussen was originally appointed by the previous finance minister, Peer Steinbruck, and is from the SPD party. He was retained by Finance Minister Schaeuble because he had experience with the global financial crisis of 2008. Both Asmussen and the new Bundesbank president, Jens Weidmann, are students of Axel Weber, who was a professor before becoming central banker.

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Chrysler is beginnning the effort to cut dealership that aren't sellin enough cars. Note the figures for dealerships, GM 6900, Ford 4200, and Chrysler 3700, Toyota 1400 for market share, GM 23%, Ford 16%, Chrysler 14%, Toyota 16%, This comes to 300 delaers per market share point for GM 280 for Ford, 270 Chrysler, 90 for Toyota. Lower producing dealers and surplus dealers undercut prices of stronger dealers and everyone in general.

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There is this wonderful story from Kempley Gloucestershire, England, where a retired physicist 75 years old suffers from loneliness five months after losing his wife to pancreatic cancer. He lives close to his wife's family to whom he is not close, and he is not close to 3 siblings. He was very close to his wife with whom he did cooking and worked in the garden and an orchard he had.  Two adverts in the paper, putting out cards and giving them out while out shopping failed. FInally after putting the fact of his loneliness on a page on his window in large letters he gets a response from locals and from all over the world from Germany, Netherlands, U.S., Japan, India and Australia.  It said "I find the unremitting silence 24 hours a day unbearable can no one help me?" He says he was not having pity on himself. All he wanted was someone he could have a pleasant conversation with which is now happening. This period of hectic life of the last three decades we have transitioned to without realizing it is made worse by tech driven pace.  More and more people are feeling this loneliness with children far apart and busy with their own lives, and the loss of a spouse or loved one can make loneliness worse.    ...

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The Moderna vaccine can be more easily shipped and handled than the Pfizer vaccine making it easier to use at smaller hospitals and in rural areas. Moderna would add 20 million doses in December to that of Pfizer's 25 million doses for the U.S. Moderna vaccine is developed in Cambridge Massachusetts Labs and is manufactured in the U.S. and Switzerland.  Moderna vaccine can be stored in freezers does not require ultra low temperatures as Pfizer vaccine. Once thawed it can be stay refrigerated for 30 days compared to 5 days for Pfizer vaccine. Moderna ships in containers of 100 vaccine doses or larger, Pfizer minimum container size is for 975 doses. Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are in th 94-95% effectiveness range. Moderna can be injected as is, Pfizer's requires to be diluted in a separate solution. On Dec. 11 the U.S. ito double its purchase of Moderna vaccine to 200 million doses by end of June, Pfizer 's is still at 100 million doses. Moderna may get its approval from FDA in U.S. by Dec. 18. Both Moderna and Pfizer would require a second dose in 3 weeks, both use the same MrnA technology. J&J is developing a vaccine that requires only one dose. J&J finishes its trials in January and expects approval in February.  ...

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 A member of the WSJ Editorial Board, says the Republican National Convention was more consequential in the way it continued the theme of getting non- white people to see how the president is taking action on issues that affect them. Mr. Trump cited his work on prison reform legislation, on funding for black colleges and universities, rebuilding broken families, and bringing back jobs in Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee. 69% of registered voters are white in 2019 compared to 73% in 2012, according to the Pew Research Center. Getting it right now means he says not merely the defending American workers to prevent "offshoring of jobs, opening the borders, and sending sons and daughters to fight in endless foreign wars," but also how to defend the rights of minorities in America and of working class non-white people. In 2016 the Republican party got 8% of the black vote nationally, which was the lowest in 4 decades excluding the years Mr. Obama ran for election. The effort to highlight the work on behalf of Black people and Hispanic people was to take this number back up as far up as Republicans can to the level reached under Eisenhower. This he says will be good for Republicans and good for the country. Under Eisenhower in 1956 the Republican party gained 36% of the Black vote, the highest ever.  ...

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Many of Cerberus executives and advisers are former GE employees and Nardelli was part of the group looking at Chrysler for Cerberus. He is being hired mainly for the work he did at GE, for his work promoting Six Sigma and quality control which would come in useful at Chrysler, and his work in doubling the power generation business at GE with large earnings increase. His experience at Home Depot has been discounted, probably seen as a bad fit for Nardelli. Moreover even as CEO he will have to work closely with the owners and theadvisers and with La Sorda who has experience running Chrysler, and he won't be involved with a retail market or with shareholders in the way it happened at Home Depot. As far as huge compensation which could alienate the unions Nardelli will be compensated on the basis of ownership in the new Chrysler if it meets its goals. So it could be a way to take advantage of experience at GE, carefully limiting the downside of Nardelli because of the nature of the position in the Cerberus owned Chrysler. And Cerberus may be thinking also that Nardelli would have learned from his recent experience and also that he is motivated to do his best to rebuild his reputation....

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50% of European CFO's surveyed by CFO magazine and 60% of Asian CFO's think the dollar decline is permanent devaluation compared to a third of US CFO's. The Commerce Dept figures show January exports 16.6% higher than a year earlier, and the trade deficit down by 7% in 2007 vs 2006 which will accelerae in 2008 with the larger dollar decline. As long as European and Asian economies continue to grow a bit slowly but not in a recession like the US the positive effect of growing exports should continue. So far for the last 6 quarters according to the WSJ exports have contributed 1 percentage point on average to economic growth measured at annual rate while the housing slump has subtracted just over one percentage point on average. So this is no small feat for exports and it has helped make the economy more resilient to the shocks of housing and oil price. As long as the growth overseas is not affected to a great extent by the economic slowdown in the US exports can continue to play this role. As the housing crisis is primarily a US and UK phenomenon this should not seruiously damage the economies of Asia and Europe and their ability to take in US exports....

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Baden-Powell was founder of the Boy Scouts which has given millions of boy scouts throughout Asia, Australia, Africa, Latin America and North America a sense of purpose when they were attending elementary and secondary school throughout the twentieth century. For girl scouts it added confidence to girls and enabled them to grow in many ways.  So it comes as a surprise that Baden-Powell is seen in this way. Gandhi never questioned British rule directly during the period when he fought for human rights in South Africa during the period 1893-1915. During the Boer War in 1900 Gandhi volunteered to form the Natal Ambulance Corps that as stretcher bearers helped treat British soldiers in the Boer War. He was given the Queens South Africa medal. In the Zulu war he repeated this by being part of the ambulance corps supporting British troops, but also treated Zulu wounded. Gandhi acted as a loyal part of the British Empire and throughout most of the period into the 1920's acted with loyalty to the British Empire. Few questioned British rule at the time, and Gandhi followed Gokhale's advice in 1915 as he returned to India at the age of 45. Gokhale was a moderate who accepted the British rule in India and sought provincial assemblies and self-rule under the British Empire. Gandhi's whole thinking was shaped by British traditions, British laws, British democracy, having attended a British school in Rajkot, Saurashtra province of Gujarat state. The letter helping him make his move for education as a barrister in England came through the British political agent in Rajkot, who was a friend of his father, the Diwan of the princely state of Porbander, Gujarat. Even Swami Vivekananda was helped by leaders of princely states in Saurashtra who pledged loyalty to the British Empire in India, one of whom was a close friend who helped Vivekananda come to America. It may be too easy to look back and make everything look good, when in reality it is complex, but yet ordinary human beings are in search for the right path. As Vivekananda's guru said you will still get there but "it is good to travel by a clean path." I visited the Gandhi home and museum in Porbander in September 2019. Driving in along the Saurashtra, Gujarat coastline we hit a rainstorm and when we reached the home it was in heavy rain. After visiting the home I went to a small bookshop in the museum and came across a copy of a small book Gandhi wrote in 1910 on a steamship back to South Africa from London, with the title- "Hind Swaraj or Home Rule." That little book written in the form of a dialogue between the reader and the editor by Gandhi amazes me as it was the basis of the movement after 1915 all the way into the 1930's. His clarity of thinking and his sincerity and steadfast purpose was such that it stood the test of time. Gandhi even goes as far as to say the English did not take India, India was given to them, given to English traders as Indian princes vied with each other for the favor of Company Bahadur, British forces designed to protect the East India Company's warehouses. That they remained in India for the purpose of trade and Indians helped them to do so. To blame them was for Gandhi to perpetuate their power. For him British arms and ammuniton were perfectly useless.  Gandhi writes this dialogue about Gokhale in the book which is worth reading at this time, as it was in 1910. Reader: Gokhale has constituted himself a great friend of the English, he says we have to learn a great deal from them, that we have to learn their political wisdom before we can talk of Home Rule. I am tired of reading his speeches. Editor: If you are tired it only betrays your impatience. We believe that those who are discontented with the slowness of their parents and are angry because the parents would not run with their children, are considered disrespectful to their parents. Professor Gokhale occupies the place of a parent. What does it matter if he cannot run with us? A nation that is desirous of home rule cannot afford to despise its ancestors. We shall become useless if we lack respect for our elders. only men with mature thoughts are capable of ruling themselves and not the hasty-tempered. Moreover how many Indian were there like Professor Gokhale, when he gave himself to Indian education? I verily believe that whatever Professor Gokhale does, he does with pure motives, and with a view of serving India... our chief purpose is not to decry his work , but to believe that he is infinitely greater than we are, and to feel assured that with his work for India, ours is infinitesmial."   ...

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New code of marketing for the Drug Industry.

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By offering the prospect of higher returns in a low return environment venture capital firms are raising new funds at the highest rate in 15 years in 2016. Venture Capital firms have raised about $13 billion in the first quarter of 2016 from pension funds, endowment funds, and other sources, with about 50% of the funds going to about 7% of the total number of firms, according to Venture Source- including $2 billion to Accel Partners, other firms are Andreeson, Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins. The returns for ten years from venture capital are about 11% compared to 6.8% for S&P 500 index, according to Cambridge Associates. Usually the fund capital raising lags behind market downturns. Much of the returns for some of the startups are not reflected in cash inflows with returns being large on paper, and startup financing has increased for firms, resulting in capital shortages and more fund raising in the industry.

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Criticism of the European Central Bank policies and Mr Trichet's role.

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CEO Shigetaka Komori of Fujifilm Holdings Corp. describes how Fuji responded to the technological changes that made photographic film obsolete. Kodak recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Fuji made the transition to other products to cope with the change. Komori became president in 2000. He says one of the responses was to reduce costs. In 2005 and 2006 Fujifilm reduced costs by $2.5 billion mostly in photographic film. Fuji's management asked the question what technologies the company possessed and how they could be applied in new business areas. This led to new businesses in making the films used for making LCD panels used on PC's, televisions and other devices. These materials generate 10% of sales. The other areas are in medical equipment, drugs and cosmetics. Fujifilm acquired health care companies Toyama Chemical for $1.4 billion in 2008 and agreed to buy SonoSite for $995 in Jan. 2012. Health care now makes up 12% of sales.

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A recent poll by Forsa, independent polling institute, shows the governing parties in German chancellor Merkel's coalition have only 34% support. Forsa does surveys for German magazine Stern. By contrast the Social Democrats and the Greens have 47% support. Merkel lost an election in May 2010 in North Rhine-Westphalia. Merkel has three years remaining in her term.