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Neal Wolin, Michael Barr and Diana Farrell who had roles in the Clinton administration are now key figures in the effort to get financial reform legislation through Congress against resistance from well funded lobbying groups. Farrell is one of two deputies to Lawrence Summers, Obama's senior economic advisor. Michael Barr is Assistant Treasury Secretary for financial institutions. Both Wolin and Barr worked at Treasury during the Clinton administration. After Clinton left office Wolin went to work for Hartford Financial Group and Barr went to teach at the University of Michigan. Barr has helped formulate much of the policy-making.

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Global Foundries was created in 2009 when AMD spunoff its manufacturing operations, including its chip making operation in Dresden, Germany. It is now owned by Abu Dhabi based Advanced Technology Investment Company, after AMD gave up its 8.8% stake in the company and paid $425 million to Global Foundries to be able to source from other companies. The agreement waives a requirement that AMD source wafers based on the new production processes and technology from Global Foundries and allows negotiation of prices. Global Foundries had difficulties in making circuitry that measures 32 nanometres on silicon wafers.

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United with subsidiaries United Airlines and Continental Airlines had $6.8 billion in liquidity as of June 30, 2014. American Airlines after the merger with US Airways has $9.4 billion unrestricted cash by July 2014. Mr. Parker, the CEO of American, plans to prepay $2.8 billion in debt and aircraft lease payments, place $600 million more than required into pension contributions, and start a dividend and share buyback. Airline consolidation into 4 major carriers, cutting unpofitable hubs and routes, filling planes to capacity, and charging for better seating, snacks and other amenities, are leading to record profits for the U.S. airline industry.

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In this interview just before Mario Draghi of the ECB announced a 1 trillion euro program of monetary easing in the eurozone, Renzi calls on European leaders to carefully balance austerity with growth efforts. He says flexibility is essential and a part of the history of Europe. Now is the time to change direction, to invest in growth, says Renzi. On calls to change the Schengen Agreement which removed border controls among some European countries, Renzi says this is not needed after the terrorist attacks in France, pointing out that the terrorists in the attack had lived in France for many years.

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A March 4, 2014 conference call by Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen preceded the March 18-19, 2014 Fed meeting minutes show. The conference call and minutes show Yellen and Fed governors concerned that the Fed's plans about interest rates had been misunderstood by financial markets at Yellen's first talk with media and from the minutes of the previous meeting. The miscommunication relates to how impatient the governors are about raising rates. The conference call by Yellen shows her working style of lots of preparation before meetings. The Fed's position remains to be supportive of financial markets and careful to support the economic recovery.

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Jakab's discusses the difference betwen the ADP estimate for jobs added and the Labor Department's figures. ADP numbers had a wide divergence with Labor Department figures for 2011-2013. ADP now uses a different methodology to more closely track the government numbers. For the last five months ADP numbers came out lower than government figures by an average of 32,000, says Jakab. ADP estimate of private non-farm jobs growth is 281,000 for June 2014. A WSJ survey of economists shows nonfarm payroll jobs growth for June at 215,000. In 2010-2011 ADP numbers vastly overestimated the number of jobs created.

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Russia's deputy prime minister Vladislav Surkov resigns in May 2013. Putin reprimanded Surkov for not implementing presidential orders and decrees. For about 13 years Surkov has guided policies for a tightly managed political system which he called "sovereign democracy." He was deputy chief of staff to Putin and Medvedev for the last decade, and headed the Kremlin Department of Domestic Politics. After street protests following the 2011 parliamentary elections, Surkov had second thoughts about this, and called the protestors "our best people." He was transferred to his current job as deputy prime minister at that time, and sidelined by Putin in Dec. 2011.

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The analyst is a Ms Chiesii who was arrested with her boss Mr Kurland. Mr Kurland was chief executive of New Castle Partners, which was part of Bear Stearns before it was spun off by JP Morgan Chase. Ms Chiesi was particularly aggressive about getting tips about Akamai Technologies and AMD and loves to use four letter words. In one conversation with Kurland she says- "Unless you were on the phone with the AMD executive and had an IBM executive at your house last night, who the f- would be buying it honestly?" Kurland started at Bear Stearns in 1991, Chiesi in 1997.

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Goldman is no longer aprivate partnership. It is apublicly traded firm. Which publicky traded firm pays 50% of its profits as bonuses, asks Joe Nocera of the NYT. And which publicly traded firm can do so with the knowledge that the government would never let it fail. And he asks wasn't it the cheap money that Goldman had access to that was abig source of its large profits. And at the point when Goldman was allowed to become abank holding company along with Morgan Stanley were there no trepidations at Goldman that the firm might fail?

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About a 60% turnout of voters in Kashmir with 80% of the state's districts reporting, is higher than in the last election which had a turnout of 44% in 2002. This shows declining support for militants in Kashmir. The two parties with the largest seats in the 87 member legislative assembly are the National Conference Party with 28 seats, and the People's Democratic Party with 18 seats projected to reach 21 seats. The National Conference Party is expected to form a coalition with the Congresss Party which heads the ruling coalition for the federal government in New Delhi.

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Circuit City the second largest retail chain in America is going into liquidation. It means the closing of 567 stores and the loss of jobs for 30,000 employees. Circuit City had problems for many years, from buying cheap real estate leases in inferior locations to laying off its most experienced sales staff which resulted in loss of customers and poor employee morale. The company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November with its shares losing 90% of their value since the beginning of 2008. It has failed to find any buyers and is now going into liquidation.

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Bank of America CEO loses confidence in Thain after a brief meeting on January 22, 2009, in which Thain was asked about mounting losses at Merrill, which Lewis had learned of from other Merrill executives and not from Thain. Lewis says he could not get agood explanation of what was happening or why. Thain was head of Merrill when Bank of America made the $50 billion acquisition of Merrill on Sept 15, the same week that Lehman Brothers collapsed. Merrill was in a perilous situation with the government intervening to arrange the acquisition on short notice.

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Global imbalances in savings had alot to do with the current economic crisis, says Prof. Richard Portes of the London Business School, and president of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. See graph that shows net cross border flows doubled from 1997 the year ogf the Asian financial crisis to 2008. By 2008 these cross border flows from Asia to the West reached 3% of global GDP. This says Portes was what was ultimately the cause of the crisis, as it enabled bankers to be reckless and mortgage lenders to be reckless with all the extra money in the American banking system.

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Private equity firms like Apollo and Blackstone and others may find themselves in trouble further down the road in the leveraged loan market where these private equity firms took on leveraged funding to purchase loans from banks at 85 cents on the dollar when they are down now to 65 cents on the dollar. This funding was obtained for 18 months so no immediate margin calls but if there is a long recession then further down the road both the private equity firms and the banks who thought they had unloaded these loans may have trouble with this.

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The European Union's failure to come up with an action plan for EU countries faltered at first as each country decided it had to follow is own circumstances and then only as the global financial crisis intensified during the first week of October 2008 that the countries came up with a coordinated action plan. Global coordination wascritical so that one country's action did not run counter to another country's actions. And gradually around the world countries took the lead from Gordon Brown's action plan in Britian to inject capital into their banking system as well as other steps to get credit flowing again.

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Organic food industry growth which had seen 20% growth in recent years is now growing at 4% for the month ending October 4 compared with tha month last year according to Nielsen Company. Consumers are much less committed to organics in a deep economic downturn and the customers that are are looking for the best deals and making fewer purchases and purchases for children. And there is competition from grocery store brands like Kroger brands for organic milk. As stores like Kroger offer their own organics at better prices the organic foods industry willl become competitiive market where price is a factor.

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The experience of Pintung county in Taiwan with a coronvirus outbreak is shown in The Guardian. Home quarantining of a couple from Peru leads to an outbreak. Community cooperation, a speedy response from local health authorities, testing and quarantining help to limit and control the outbreak. When it started this county on the coast, one of the poorest in the country, had limited health resources and no one was vaccinated. Most of the control response was through testing and quarantine, with vaccination assistance from the Taiwan government. Local people say strict quarantine is essential as the source of infections was from a couple who visited Peru and were allowed to home isolate. Taiwan government is now enforcing quarantine at hotels for all persons returning from overseas. WHO Emergencies program head, Dr Michael Ryan, says it is important to act quickly. He says "Be fast, have no regrets. You must be the first mover. The virus will always get you if you don't move quickly."  This happened in this Taiwan county as the local health authorites setup a soft lockdown of the two affected villages within 3 days of detecting the first case of Delta variant. This was announced over loudspeaker and food plus daily necessities were delivered to each household. A command centre was setup to take and coordinate the action daily. Taiwan authorites have enforced repeat testing and extended testing. ...

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A message for Mr. Modi, Nirmala Sitharaman and all who see Indian exports as a key driver in the economic recovery. Indian logistics costs are at 14-16% compared to 8-9% in nations of Europe and the US. This Economic Times report shows 20 Government of India ministries and agencies are involved in logistics for exports. A recent shipment of mahua flowers from Chhatisgarh to Le Havre port in France was held up for 2 weeks at Mumbai's Nava Shheva port, as cited here in the The Economic Times. Logistics help from Maersk helped China build its industrial capabilities. The port capabilities in logistics grew year after year from small beginnings in the 1990 period. Mr. Modi is starting this process in India as it is a key driver for foreign investment in the country. As China's logistics capabilities grew companies had the confidence that products manufactured in the country could be delivered to US and Europe efficiently and at low cost. This process takes a decade and the time to start building this capability is now with plans, stretch goals, investment and timely delivery. Maersk, a Danish company, has a big role to play in this effort in India. Government incentives could play a role, as well as negotiations with Maersk and with the assistance of the government of Denmark for technological collaboration at Indian ports. ...

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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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The Alternative for Germany AfD party's increasing popularity in the former communist eastern part of Germany based in Dresden, is hurting its popularity in the west. It is expected to do well in elections in Saxony where city of Dresden is located, and in Thuringia and in Brandenburg in election in the fall of 2019. Much of its support has come from being the only opposition to the open door refugee policy followed by chancellor Merkel, seen as goning too far.  Merkel herself and the new CDU leader Ann Margaret Kampbrauer have decided it was not the right policy considering that many or most are economic refugees. This policy is now reversed and migrants are down to a trickle, with a new policy of foreign aid and selective intervention to troubled countries to keep economic refugees in their home countries. This report says any gains in the east could come with loss of many more votes in the west as the party loses its popularity in the west. This is because far right parties always had done better in the east with its older population, higher unemployment and loss of population. This is a legacy from the communist period in eastern part of Germany, and the merging of the two Germanys that led to westward migration and loss of economic potential in the east.  ...

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After three years o rock star popularity prime minister Trudeau's popularity has dropped so far that his party could lose the October general elections. This is after Canada's Attorney General resisted efforts by Trudeau and senior officials to let a Canadian company SNC-Lavalin avoid trial. Since then recording of a iphone call taken by the Attorney General with a top government official Mr. Wernick has created an uproar on this matter. Ms. Wilson-Raybould, the Attorney General saying in that conversation that this was going to look like nothing but political interference by the prime minister and everybody else involved in this. Nearly two thirds of Canadians now disapprove of the job Trudeau is doing according to a poll by Ipsos Public Affairs and Agnus Reid Institute.  Rock star popularity can fade quickly. In Brazil Ignacio Da Silva was popular till a crisis with state finances and the Car Wash scandal involving illegal payments led to the loss of his Workers Party in the recent elections. Mr. Trudeau had won support by supporting clean governance and giving women a say in governing. Ms. Raybould was transferred to a lower position after her unwillingness to follow government officials on the CNC Lavalin issue. Now the Liberals Party of Trudeau is trailing the rival Conservatives and Ms. Raybauld is a highly respected figure in Canada. ...

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WHy did NHS Test and Trace fail to contact no more than 50% of the persons who tested positive. Why was it not able to followup with the people who needed to be visited in their homes to ensure isolation. Why was NHS associated in the name when the NHS had not been consulted and involved in the design of this service. In fact it ignored lessons from Germany where the contact tracing was entirely from local, started very quickly with the key being local or state employees who were diverted to this task and were skilled and motivated to do it. Why was this critical task simply handed out to outsource it to private companies.  Germany's example was there very early in March-April and it was working. Why reinvent the wheel. Setup quickly and entirely local it required only a desk, a desktop PC, and a national database to which PC was connected, the skilled caller being the key to getting people to talk to and cooperate. About 80% of those testing positive needed to be contacted. NHS Test and Trace was reaching about 50% and many that needed to be visited at home could not be followed up quickly. The shift is only now being made to go local. It worked in Leicester and other places but the learning came the hard way, as with many things during this pandemic. ...

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See the important link to Keith Johnson, 7/9/2007, WSJ, on the economics of wind energy, suppliers, and the industry in the US and Europe, and the shortage of turbines because of some 800 parts that go into the turbines and blades making it a complicated supplier issue to get more turbines. We can make only more turbines as fast as we can access the last of some 8000 components says a Vestas executive. Windmill generated electricity was only 0.4% of the electricity generated in the US compared to 0.1% for solar and 0.4% for geothermal but of the new energy added in the US in 2007 it was 30% of the new energy generating capacity added. So it has a disproportionate share of the increase in generating capacity starting from an insignificant base. Its a new industry but with many companies the largest being Vestas of Denmark, GE Energy, Nordex of Germany and Accoiona of Spain. Germany, the US, Spain India, and China are countries at the forefron of the wind energy business. Because the business is relatively new manufacturers were not providing the installation and maintenance required in emerging market countries in 1995 when Suzlon which had powered its yarn business in Surat, Gujarat with 2 wind energy turbines from Vestas entered the business seeing an opportunity. Mr Tanti of Rajkot, Gujarat, Suzlon's founder saw the opportunity and used European firms to design his turbines and blades and provided energy to Bajaj Auto and large Indian companies that have an erratic supply of electricity because of chronic electricity shortages. Starting with a tax break which allowed Suzlon to deduct windmill costs against its sales tax bill enacted in 1999 and retracted in 2002 Suzlon took advantage of lower manufacturing costs in India. Its main plant is in Pondicherry, India. By 2002 sales had increased to $131 million in India from $32 million in 2000. The company entered the US market in 2003 and in 2004 with the boomin stock market in India Citigroup took a 9% stake in Suzlon for $22 million. By 2005 Suzlon because of lower manufacturing costs had margns of20% compared to 8% for European companies and Suzlon raised $340 million in an IPO. With loans from Barclays and Deutsche Bank Suzlon bought European parts makers Hansen Transmission in 2006 and set up a factory in Tianjin, India. Early on in the 1990's it had set up an R&D center using engineers in Germany of a supplier company in wind energy Sudwind that had exited the business, this R&D center now designed its largest turbine for US and European markets of 2.1 megawatts and blades 50 yards in length. Today Tanti and Suzlon are faced with problems accessing the world class technology of the western companies as its technology has not kept up with the technological advances especially in addressing the needs of western markets. It has about 8% of the US market and about $1.8 billion in global sales. Its pricing to Edison Energy in 2006 for 1.2 megawatt turbines was 20% below European and American manufacturers. Its latest designs have flaws because Edison Energy of Irvine , California, has seen cracks in the blades at 3 windmill sites in the midwest USA and Suzlon has withdrawn 1251 blades, the majority of the ones sold in the US. Deere and Company another customer has experienced the same problem. And even though it has moved to acquire technology by taking over 33.6% of REpower which has advanced technology and makes 5 megawatt turbines. its mired in its efforts to get the blueprints of advanced designs from REpower because German law considers minority shareholders like Suzlon as competitors, other shareholders Areva of France and Martifer of Portugal have to be bought out and minority shareholders also bought out before Suzlon can access the designs. Speed, funding, tax breaks, and timing to attract capital, and most of all insight and courage to see a growing opportunity from its own experience of using two 2.1 megawatt turbines from Denmark's Vestas, and looking deeper into problems with maintenance and support in Asia and lack of technology for homegrown development that hamstrung development of energy alternatives in dire and chronic electricity short Indian companies, this has helped bring windpower to India and a new company in a new industry from scratch. ...

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The original memo from OMB was an executive order for freezing spending. It said $3 trillion of $10 trillion allocated for 2024 federal spending went to federal assistance in grants and loans calling for this to be freezed till agencies had achance to lok at spending priorities.

A federal judge blocked this order. Days later the Acting OMB head Matthew Vaeth stated the previous memo is rescinded, withdrawn.

Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said that the previous memo order “is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the president’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency’s General Counsel.”

In the current year the federal spending is expected to be $7 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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DJT pulling back student lending as a way to get universities and colleges to reduce prices. This is the first time any administration has done this. Universities have increased prices to the point where costs for tution are no longer affordable by a majority of the American people, and are now beyond the reach of the middle class or the working class of the Nation. Universities through management not sensitive to the Nation's needs and the needs of the American people, have kept raising tution to the point that it can cost more than the average salary in the US of $66,000 and more than 1.5 times the after tax income of $50,000 just to pay tution for an undergraduate degree- simply outrageous that educational institutions had forgotten their mission.