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Morello of the WP describes the situation in Afghanistan with about 10,000 U.S. troops remaining in the country and the Taliban refusing to continue negotiations started earlier. About one in five migrants to Europe are from Afghanistan as more educated people leave the country for better lives overseas. The Taliban is tapping into the discontent in the country with the large number of unemployed following the U.S. withdrawal. Morello says the poverty rate has increased to 49% by 2016.

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The treatment of migrants from Syria and North Africa as they reach the Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, and seek to catch trains to Austria and Germany. The Hungarian government shuts down the train service west and migrants walk along the highway to Austria. Only then did the Hungarian government arrange for buses to take the migrants to Vienna. From Vienna migrants made Germany their final destination, where they are warmly welcomed by ordinary people, and the government of chancellor Merkel offers asylum to people from the war torn regions of North Africa and the Middle East.

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The Wall Street Journal points out that about 3.92 million people in the U.S. reported income above 200,000 in 2009, and paid $434 billion in taxes. Of these people 90% are not millionaires. The overwhelming majority of the people affected by an increase in taxes on the middle class with incomes above $200,000 are not millionaires. The editorial asks a question about "fairness" for these Americans- who pay a large share of their income for higher university tution payments for kids- for whom the taxes can make a difference.

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The IPO is expected to bring $10 billion and reduce the government's stake to below 50%. The IPO plans for the shares to go for between $26 and $29. For the government to breakeven the shares have to rise to about $50. GM plans to sell 24% of its total shares for $10 billion at the midpoint of the estimated share price. Under the plan, Treasury would sell $7 billion of its shares cutting its stake to 35% from 61%. The UAW trust which pays for retiree health care, would sell $2 billion of its shares. Canada and Ontario would sell about $1 billion of their shares. The government will try to recoup some of the $49.5 billion given to GM.

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Keith Bradsher's NYT interview with Raghuram Rajan, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, comes when Rajan has come under criticism from the business sector and the small business support base of prime minister Modi's party. The criticism centers on the drop in oil prices since Nov. 2014, and Rajan's failure to drop interest rates at the Dec. 2, 2014 central bank meeting. Rajan says it was not clear whether oil prices would remain low for an extended period at the Dec. 2, 2014 meeting. Since then new inventory data, EIA estimates and OPEC policy guidance have confirmed low prices will remain for an extended period. Rajan lowered interest rates on Jan. 14, 2015, by one quarter of a percentage point. Under India's setup the central bank chief makes decisions on interest rates, compared to the decisions made by the Federal Open Market Committee at the U.S. Federal Reserve. Rajan says there is full understanding between the central bank and the Modi government economic team led by finance minister Arun Jaitley, Jayan Sinha, deputy minister of state for finance, and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanium. Modi and Jaitley prefer to rely on the advice and policy direction of economic policymakers with long experience in the U.S. and international circles. Both Subramanium and Rajan bring this level of experience and expertise. Subramanium brings experience from his years at the GATT which preceded the WTO, the IMF, and the Peterson Institute of International Economics, and Rajan brings experience at the University of Chicago, and as chief economist of the IMF. Modi is a dilgent listener and policymaker giving careful attention to the best advice, making it unlikely that Rajan would be seen as a holdover from the administration of Manmohan Singh. Other criticism that the business sector has made of Rajan are as financial regulator in asking state banks to increase collateral required from large business firms for large bank loans. Rajan points out the need for business to bear the costs as well as the benefits of taking risks. Under previous governments the state banks allowed large firms to keep their holdings at companies even when the risk taking resulted in losses. Rajan has also not tried to reverse the sharp decline in the rupee, which hurts business firms which took on dollar denominated loans. Rajan has instead followed policy of building up the reserves by buying dollars. The reserves were depleted in 2013 by a policy of currency interventions to reverse that decline. Inflation in India reached 9.9% in Dec. 2013, with policy of the central bank under Rajan set to bring it down to 8% in 2014, and below 6% in 2015, so that India could get out of the trap of persistently high inflation with slow growth. This is critical for a new Indian success story. A goal set by Rajan in Oct. 2012 when he was appointed as central bank chief, was to increase foreign investment and encourage new business so that India was no longer dependent on large companies for growth. This is also critical for a new Indian success story, as the Modi administration and the central bank are both keenly aware. Just as Bernanke and now Yellen at the U.S. Fed face criticism for quantitative easing monetary policy, focus on the high long term unemployed, and not focussing on inflation- with their focus on the long term economic recovery in an environment of low inflation below 2% in the U.S.- India's Reserve Bank faces a different kind of criticism for careful and prudent policies to ensure long term growth....

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This NYT editorial is critical of the election campaign run by the Likud and Netanyau for deepening tensions in Israeli society.

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The unnerving and distracting effect of a long IPO process and investor demands on two co-founders of Box Inc., as competiton and market perceptions change for a once promising tech startup in cloud computing.

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How Target and Best Buy are fighting back against "showrooming" by setting up ministores for Apple and Samsung.

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In his second part of the series on Capitalism and Globalization Schieritz says Trump's arguments have backing, and goes back to the studies done by David Autor of MIT on the adverse impact of free trade on communities across the U.S.. Lyrarc has covered this issue since 2006, and the reality is that this issue was brought up long before the Autor study gained prominence. On Nov. 12, 2010 Robert Lighthizer, Deputy Trade Representative under U.S. president Reagan wrote an op-ed in the NYT titled "Throwing Free Trade Overboard," that made a strident and strong case for what Trump says 5 years later, and from no less than a top trade official under Repubican Reagan.Trump comes late to this in 2015 when it was already amply clear what was happening. It is not so much Trump having discerned this, than others who should have paid attention, including Lew and leaders in both parties, and the business community,  who for too long ignored it. Or as Hilsenrath in a recent WSJ report says, simply said we have seen this before with Japan's entry into the American market, not realizing the speed and widespread impact of the changes in trade with China, that are unprecedented in history- evident just from the great speed of urbanization and manufacturing work force growth in China, policy rapidly impacting vulnerable communities across the U.S. The corrective course has to be credible which is why it has to come from a a reawakening among leaders such as May, Merkel and Clinton, who are keen students of change, and capable of designing and executing a corrective course of action, and winning the popular support and patience needed to stay the course which could run for most of the next decade. It would also provide leadership and show the way for societies in Brazil, China, India and other countries facing similar problems.     ...

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Shear of the NYT says president Trump is taking risks of losing support from low income people who supported him in the presidential election by making aggressive cuts in programs that help low income people. In his first budget plan deep cuts to social programs and increase of 10% in defense spending of $54 billion is planned. The new health care plan of the Republicans House and Speaker Ryan is seen by the Congressional Budget Office as increasing uninsured people by 14 million. Trump has left Social Security intact, but he sees other cuts as cuts to the "administrative state' and overreach on entitlements. The budget plan is titled "America First," and shrinks foreign aid, cuts state department budget by about a third, and cuts funding to PBS, other agencies, and cuts social program spending.

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The Trump administration proposes a zero policy for Iranian oil imports which says the U.S. will grant zero exemptions to countries importing Iranian oil.  Big importers China and India are likely to resist this policy.

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McInerney takes personal responsibility and puts top priority on the Dreamliner. He says we will be defined by the 787, though not at this moment. This means he is personally walking through Boeing's and Boeing supplier's plants to see things first hand, and have the daily progress reports coming directly to him. This means closer supervision and taking steps to get things right. One step was to get some managers from its Defense unit into the 787 program management to correct things, buying Dallas based Vought Aircraft out of a joint venture with Italy's Alenia Aeronautica in South Carolina where sections ofthe 787 are being joined. He also stepped in taking control of key parts of the 787 program, and insisted on Boeing mangers closely monitoring and getting involved with first hand knowledge on supplier's sites and getting action where needed, and stationing Boeing people at each supplier's plant. His earlier style was a bit hands off in comparison. The 15 month delay in the 787 launch and the rather ill timed gala in Seattle for a plane that was hollow inside, and with managers having no idea that supplier's were already behind in their part of the program or not doing anything about it, may have suggested to investors that Boeing's McInerney and his key people were really not at grips with what was going on in their own company. From its July high of $107 Boeing stock has dropped 27% to $78 and recovered only slightly to $83 still 23% below the highs. Experts feel that McInerney will either lose big or win big. He wasn't there when the 787 program was started. Now he has to show he can get things right. His initial moves look like the right ones, taking personal responsibility, making decisions to fix things, and not hesitant to take corrective action in the midst of difficulties such as getting into suppliers factories first hand to see things on the inside. And gettiing his best people from other parts of the company into a team and putting them on the 787, and so on. See the link to the Airbus experience with their jumbo jet A380 which ran into similiar problems in the WSJ. There the French teams who were the better able to solve the problems were brought into the German plants to help get things right, even though there were cultural issues to be overcome. McInerney has process based experience at GE where quality and manufacturing were important, and he has delivered good results with an 84% increase in income to $4.07 billion, on an 8% increase in revenue to $66.4 billion in 2007. This comes just 2 to 3 years since joining Boeing in July 2005. Boeing may have to pay $4 billion in concessions and penalty payments for late deliveries, and Boeing is going to set aside this cost by booking the first 25 delieveries at zero-profit margin....