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Adam Davidson of the NYT's interview with American economist Posen, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Posen says austerity measures have a negative effect on the British economy with high unemployment and lack of economic growth.

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Ms Constantini is one of the executives who followed Mr. Macri as he became president of Argentina. She is a former CEO of GM Argentina. She was appointed CEO of Argentina's national airline Aerolineas Argentinas. The state owned airline has lost about $5 billion, and loses about $1 billion a year. There is no culture of budgets or revenue at the airline, say people familiar with the airline. Ms. Constantini has set the goal of cutting losses to $260 million in 2016. The goal is to increase revenues and improve earnings to the point where the airline is profitable in 4 years. The new CEO is taking an approach that she sees has a better approach of succeeding. She is getting employees involved in the company's decisions and progress. She carefully tells labor leaders of her plans and seeks feedback. Because it was run more like a government ministry than a performance based airline, says Constantini, the transformation requires a patient and employee involved approach. In 2008 the government of Mrs. Kirchner nationalized the airline previously owned by Spain's Marsans Group. Because Argentines see the airline with national pride, its like the country's soccer team. Sales are up 10% in 2016 and the airline flew one million passengers in July, up 13% from the prior year.  ...

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During the primaries Trump appealed to blue collar voters of a white working class that felt neglected by leaders and policies of both parties that did not seem to work for ordinary people. Having caught onto this early long before Republican candidates, Trump registered a series of wins in the Republican primaries. He continued this theme in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016, saying- "The forgotten men and women of our country- people who work but no longer have a voice: I am your voice." The idea was to couple this with the theme of law and order and put perception of Hillary Clinton as part of the rigged system of the past that Trump would change, with Clinton's legacy described in terms of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness." As a change agent Trump described his entering the political arena in terms of coming into this election only to help blue collar people "so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves." The two themes for the rest of the election season- law and order, and blue collar lives- and who can best defend them a traditional Democratic politician with a fighting spirit for traditional Democratic values, or a blustery newcomer adept with slogans and the public mood and ironically representing the Democratic values of representing the working class to become the  Republican nominee, with the law and order theme thrown in. The voter or independent listening in to all this will hopefully ask what all this means. As the WSJ, July 19, 2016, pointed out in a recent look at economc policies under the two candidates- on Glass Steagall Act being reinstated to increase safety of the banking system that caused many of today's problems through the 2008 financial crisis both Trump and Clinton are similiar, on opposing trade agreements similiar except that Trump's bluster is a riskier approach, on infrastructure building similiar with Clinton's $275 billion plan spelled out out for source of financing and Trump's unclear as to source of financing. On immigration the candidates are different, on the minimum wage which impacts low income people Clinton supports $15 minimum wage and Trump has not taken a stand. On ISIS and the Middle East Clinton is in reality a hawk and not much difference in the candidates, on law and order more chance of divisions in the country with Trump than Clinton. Overall for the working class and blue collar voter his life will take a decade or more to rebuild, with both candidates commiting to go in that direction. And the bluster and ads to come- just that.  ...

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The Congressional Budget Office says the U.S. is likely to experience "a significant recession" if Congress does not prevent tax increases and spending cuts setup for January 2013. If the Bush era tax cuts expire as scheduled at the end of 2012, these tax increases and spending cuts of $100 billion on military and other programs would reduce the deficit in the fiscal year ending Sept 30, 2013 to $641 billion from the $1.13 trillion level at fiscal year end Sept 30, 2012. The impact would be to reduce the budget deficit from 7.3% of GDP to about 4%. The result- a contraction in GDP by 2.9% in the first half of 2013, and 0.5% for the full year, and unemployment would rise to 9.1% at the end of 2013 from about 8% today. If Congress postpones the tax increases and spending cuts the deficit would be at $1.04 trillion or 6.5% of GDP and unemployment would remain at about 8% at the end of 2013. A 9% unemployment rate with the "fiscal cliff' means 2 million fewer jobs. Romney's plan is to extend all the Bush era tax cuts for 1 more year and no spending cuts till he has a chance to make hs own review on spending cuts in 2013. Obama's plan is for extending all Bush era tax cuts except for those earning more than $250,000- resulting in savings of $2 billion in 2013 and $824 billion in 10 years- and making smaller spending cuts than Romney....

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Britain's Serious Fraud Office takes up the investigation into improper rate fixing for LIBOR, which could lead to criminal charges.

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The ongoing investigation into the manipulation of LIBOR interest rates could affect the likelihood of Paul Tucker becoming the next head of the Bank of England, and raise questions about the responsibility of other bank chiefs involved in the manipulation. Guerrera says regulators should shoulder some of the responsibility.

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IBM is one of the companies that have stated publicly its intention of investing in its people while other companies are cutting back, but a reality check shows that IBM is quietly conducting its own layoffs. IBM reported strong quarterly profits in January, but announced layoffs of 1400 people in its sales and distribution division the day after CEO Palmisano reassured employees in an email message. In many of these smaller scattered layoffs there is very little notice to employees. IBM has cut back employment in the US which is at 115,000 employees and expanded overseas which is closer to 300,000 employees, see the graph.

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Anne- Marie Slaughter's new book Unfinished Business is reviewed by Laura Vanderkam. Ms. Slaughter says in her new book that part of the unfinished business for women in the workplace is to give women time for child care duties in a way that does not hurt their careers. Anne Marie makes the case on the grounds that this is a social bias. Yet there are many reasons beyond simple fairness, and the value of parental work. Women can contribute to society in different ways than men. For example reports show women are more interested in using technical skills in ways that will benefit developing countries. Women bring a different perspective than men. Women are also prominent in scientific fields. For this contribution to grow and enrich society it can be enlarged by giving women proper benefit for maternity leave, and preserving the ability to come back and contribute in the same way after the maternity leave period is over. Toshiba did this for a female engineer who had made significant contributions in the technical field. Doing this would also help in other ways. It could make it more attractive for women to have kids knowing it will not hurt their careers or the careers of their partners. This is needed in western societies with falling birthrates and declining number of young people to support larger numbers of older people....

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Nicola Clark and Hubert Lebrun meet in a small town in Lorraine, France, where Clark's grandfather was a soldier in the invading German army and Lebrun's grandparents were residents of the small town of Mercy-le-Haut. This brings back stories of the execution of 17 year old Leon Mandy by the Germans, and the "monuments aux morts" in the town, one of 40,000 such memorials in France to war victims. An opportunity for both Germans and Frenchmen to reflect on the memories of that war.

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A new mom discusses maternity leave in her native Germany compared to maternity leave in the U.S.

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Hilsenrath goes over some of the troubling signs behind the postive job numbers for April 2014. Part time workers looking for full time work actually increased in April 2014 to 7.5 million. More individuals in prime working years of 25-54 dropped out of the work force discouraged and stopped looking for work, with the percentage for this group who are working dropping to 80.8% in April 2014. Wage growth and worker productivity was stagnant. Donald Kohn, a former vice chairman of the Fed, joins other economists who are puzzled by the lack of wage growth and the large number of long term unemployed behind the positive job numbers of 288,000 for April 2014.

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Janet Yellen Fed chairwoman, says many obstacles still exist for women in the workforce. Bringing more women into the workforce will increase the productive capacity of the American economy. The increasing participation of women in the workforce was factor in the growth and prosperity of America by the middle of the 20th century. In a speech sharing her personal narrative at Brown University, her alma mater, she described how other nations had passed the U.S. in women's participation in the workforce, and how it remains stalled at 75% for women either working or looking for work. Her speech was at a conference "125 Years of Women at Brown." The U.S. is now 17th among 22 developed nations in participation of women in workforce, mostly because of government and business policies that relate to paid maternity leave, affordable child care, and flexible work schedules.

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Members of the U.S. Congress lead a lousy life with life split between the capital and their home state location, most are weekend dads or moms. This makes them less likely to grasp the issues of work-life balance and the issues of parenting faced by average working families or couples with both parents working, says this essay in Politico magazine. This is true also of understanding issues facing women and mothers. Hard to believe but this report points out that Congress in the U.S. does not have a family friendly leave policy and no restroom for women till 2011 on the floor of the House. Similar issues face women in Japan and other countries for women in parliament. Former Speaker Ryan says he is tired of being a "weekend Dad." Senator Biden, former vice president says of his commute from Delaware to Washington D.C., he realized that "a child has a thought he wants to share and 12-18 hours later its gone, gone, gone." ...

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How currency exchange rates are creating shifts in production from Europe into the US and further accelerating the changes in the automotive landscape. Now more German factories are planned by the likes of VW and BMW and their suppliers, and near their production bases in southern states which are non-unionized labor. BMW figures currency swings cost it about $900 million in earnings in 2006 due to the stronger euro. Both BMW and Mercedes see the stronger euro as a long term thing and are planning investments in the US based on this. BMW is expanding its Spartanburg , NC facility. In addition to the X3 SUV it will make the X5 and X6 SUVs there. And product from here will be exported back to Europe and other countries in addition to the US market. Mercedes had already expanded in Vance, Alabama before the pronounced currency swing for the euro. The Korean car makers Hyundai and Kia are facing similiar situation because of the stronger won. The weaker yen is creating a revert back to production in Japan in the case of Toyota and a halt to expansion in the USA, see the article on this recently. ...

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The Conservative Party led government has taken credit for raising the level of income on which workers start paying taxes to 10,000 British pounds. The Liberal Democrats are pushing to raise this to 10,500 British pounds in 2014. This would remove an additional half a million people from the total taxpayers. The Liberal Democrats, a junior partner in the current coalition government, favor a mansion tax on houses valued above 2 million pounds which would generate an additional 2 billion pounds a year. The Conservative Party opposes this tax.