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Summer tourism is helping support a second wave of the pandemic. This report says Croatia is a case study on how the opening of tourism can trigger a second wave. Because Croatia depends on tourism and Croatia had controlled coronavirus cases in May, the government decided to open its coastline areas to tourists from Europe. These tourists returned home with the infection and spread the virus. Clubs and bars were allowed to reopen for the summer season after the lockdown in April along the Adriatic coast attracting visitors. With 500 miles of coastline and Mediterranean climate, ancient towns and affordable stay, Croatia is crowded with tourists. In 2019 21 million visitors came here according to the Croatia Tourist Board. On Italian visitor from Parma cited here says she found crowded parties and bustling bars and restaurants where hardly anybody kept social distancing and wore masks. People in shops and bars she says told people they did not need to wear masks. The governments in Europe were keen on making up for the economic costs of the pandemic and opened the internal borders of the European Union in June. The opening of resorts in the sunbelt of Europe in Spain and Portugal has led to the spike in cases in Madrid and other cities in Spain. The same is happening in France. But vigilance dropped especially in Croatia where little or no restrictions were visible. Not only were bars allowed to open but the social distancing rules and mask rules were never practiced. Some Croatians call it incomprehensible. It has led to the spike in Germany, Czech Republic and Austria. The Koch Institute says 12% of all new German cases are traceable to Croatia. It is now a fact that international travel is a way the coronavirus accelerates. Governments in France, Germany, and the UK which are not especially dependent on tourism have the option to encourage people to stay in their home countries and remove this cause of acceleration while keeping shops and offices open so that business and jobs are preserved. For people hurt by lack of employment in the hospitality industry and others with lost wages from being in an occupation that acts to accelerate the virus it is a better option to offer financial assistance than to end up closing offices and shops in another partial lockdown. Opening bars helped accelerate the pandemic in California after the lockdown with steeply rising numbers of new cases. Educating the public to the extent that it should be about the dangers is also missing.    ...

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The situation in California on December 12 is dire as its daily cases for coronavirus increase to over 25,000. For Los Angeles county the figure is over 10,000. California coped well with the first wave. As the summer arrived fatigue with lockdown restrictions had increased, social distancing and mask wearing were not followed. When bars and restaurants opened in Los Angeles county huge numbers of people gathered in close proximity. Beaches were crowded.  A further spike in cases is expected from the Thanksgiving period. LA officials are saying one person is dying every 20 minutes. ICU capacity is shrinking. In southern California it has dwindled to less than 10%.  In Santa Clara county in Bay area only 31 ICU beds remain for 2 million residents. San Francisco is expected to run out of ICU beds on December 27, 2020. A patchwork of restrictions varying by county means there is no uniform effort. Fatigue with restrictions means compliance is patchy with social distancing and mask wearing even at the height of this pandemic. Public officials have failed to convince the public to do their part including the governor of the state and the mayor of San Francisco, because of inconsistent messages. ...

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Emily Glazer of the WSJ interviews Clorox CEO, Don Knauss. Knauss talks about his strategy to focus on the U.S. and Latin American markets and not make a costly effort to enter markets in Asia. He sees competition intensity in Asia and Brazil as much higher today with P&G and Lever focussing on these markets. Clorox is concentrating on brands known for being environmentally friendly such as its Green Works line of cleaners, Brita water filters, and products of acquired companies such as Burt's Bees. Knauss describes the Hispanic consumers preference for Clorox and Pine Sol for cleaning and the use of bleach 70% for cleaning. Hispanics use 25% more bleach than other consumers and prefer fragrances such as lavender for Pine Sol. These are some of the insights the company is using to maintain its penetration in this market.

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With a new corporate board in place the government is planning to sell a 51% stake in Satyam to a private bidder. Satyam's capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange is now $600 million down from $7 billion in May 2008. Spice, a tech firm, Larsen and Toubro, Mahindra and others have expressed interest. One estimate of cost to settle lawsuits is $440 to $840 million.

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Cactus to Clouds ascent near Palm Springs, California. From cactus on the floor of the area to manzanita and oak, and up to pine forest near the top at 10,000 feet, the trail hike can be done in sections or a full hike to the top.

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The Bank of International Settlements warns that China's "credit to GDP gap" is 30.1. A figure of 10 normally is considered to be high and needs watching. The People's Daily carried an article presumably by president Xi Jinping warning about the consequences of the debt that had been growing "like a tree in the air." The debt to GDP ratio was at 255% at the end of 2015, and is up 107% since 2008 when the financial crisis led to a huge stimulus that has accelerated debt growth. The corporate debt is at 171% of GDP. The article in the People's Daily warned about reflexive stimulus every time growth slows and said that China cannot any longer "force economic growth by levering up." Cross border liabilities is one area of progress falling by a third to $698 billion, as companies cut debt quickly before the U.S. Federal Reserve raises rates. In the future China is more likely to roll over debt as Japan had done following its debt surge and bad debt with zombie companies, which would in turn lead to lower growth. In the past the government was able to absorb the growing debt because it was not as high as it is today, and the economy was growing rapidly. This is no longer the situation, the reason for alarm at the situation facing China. A spike in interest rates of 250 basis points is cited as one situation which could affect China adversely. ...

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The Ministry of Commerce in China conducts anti-monopoly reviews and sets rules for which divestments need to occur in merger arrangements. In the Pfizer merger with Wyeth, the Ministry required Pfizer to sell a Chinese swine vaccine business to Harbin Pharmaceutical Group.. The concern- Pfizer could control 50% of the swine vaccine business in China with some 500 million pigs. Five other merger and acquisition transactions have come under review. Coca-Cola's $2.4 billon acquisition for a Chinese juice maker is stalled. Novartis and Eli Lilly showed interest but the Ministry of Commerce preferred to steer things to a Chinese player. In future it is expected that rules will favor up and comig local companies over large foreign companies.

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India records over 141,000 cases of Covid-19 with a positivity rate of 9.28% on January 8, 2022, according to the Union Health Ministry.