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At the conclusion of the summit of the G-8 the Obama administration had to drag along other countries to get to the $12 billion goal for 3 years of food aid to the rural poor and farmers, which is well short of the $15 billion discussed a few days earlier at the summit. Of this $4 billion a year, the USA will provide $500 million a year. THe $15 billion is itself a floor for such assistance in prior years. says Gawain Kripke, policy director for Oxfam International, "at this point the money is not looking all that good." See the link to food aid for this summit in NYT, Baker and Dugger, July 9, 2009, where the Food and Agriculture Organization says 100 million more people will be pushed into hunger by the global economic crisis of 2008-2009.

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China's total public debt was 95% of GDP in 2022, Japan's was 62% in 1991. It's population aging faster than Japan's with population declining in 2022, Japan's declining in 2008 twenty years after its bubble burst. China's per capita income at $12,850 in 2022, compared to Japan's at $29,000 in 1991. China is facing more difficult headwinds than Japan in many ways. There is also higher tension in trade relations with US and EU limiting export growth. There is also the policy stance of the Communist Party that sees rural areas left behind with about 35% people in rural areas and Xi is slowing growth to reduce disparities and housing construction led speculative growth. In Japan urbanization was 77% in 1991, compared to 65% in China today. 

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China's Producer prices declined by 3%, Consumer prices flatlined, and imports and exports are both down 6.2% in September 2023. Growth is expected not to exceed 5% in forecasts by IMF and others.

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Under new lending facilities the U.S. Federal Reserve will buy $500 billion of short term debt of U.S. states, counties with more than 2 million residents and cities with more than 1 million residents. This is intended to ease funding strains for cities, counties and states in the U.S. that are seeing large revenue drops and rising expenses from simultaneous economic and health crises. Two other changes from the Fed. New classes of debt are included under the Term Asset Backed Securities Lending Facility or TALF. The Fed will now accept triple A rated tranches of existing commercial mortgage backed securities, and newly issued collateralized loan obligations. $100 billion is available under that program. To help business with less than 10,000 employees or revenues of less than $2.5 billion loans will be made through the Main Street Lending Program. This will initially fund up to $600 billion in loans, with restrictions on stock buybacks, dividends, and executive compensation. The emphasis is on helping businesses that were doing well before the crisis hit. Some that were carrying A ratings and were investment grade but downgraded to B after the health pandemic hit are considered "fallen angels." The Fed will also support new debt issuance by these firms in its corporate program.   ...

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With the decline of about 40% in Ford Motor's share price under Mark Fields, a new CEO Jim Hackett takes over in 2017. He has a history of implementing turnaround strategies, and headed the Mobility unit at Ford. His turnaround stories were at the University of Michigan football program and at furniture maker Steelcase. Hackett spent 17 years at Steelcase and admired Jo Schembechler, football coach at the University of Michigan. Quotes from the coach were used at Steelcase, and Hackett was hired to get the University of Michigan's football program back on track. His main trait is persistence and perseverance from his football days, when he was too small and too slow for the position in the team, but labored on making others work harder. He landed Jim Harbaugh by calling him every week, which made him popular with Michigan team fans and with the chairman of Ford Motor, Bill Ford. He was seen as having originality by Silicon Valley companies, which impressed Bill Ford. Hackett, 62 years, has to tackle the job of running a large company, something he has not done before. Facing the challenge of driverless cars Ford is turning to an outsider from a different industry, but unlike Alan Mulally of Boeing in an earlier turnaround, Hackett comes from a small company. ...

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Mark Sanford, Republican Governor of South Carolina, cites Donald Trump in May 2014 on releasing tax returns. At the time Trump is quoted as saying: "If I run for office, I will release my tax returns, absolutely, I would love that." Sanford says he released his tax returns, and Mike Spence, the Republican vice presidential candidate has released his tax returns, and calls on Trump to release his returns as promised. Hillary Clinton has released her tax returns, which show she paid 34% of income in taxes. Sanford says it is important information both for transparency in the political process and in giving voters an opportunity to evaluate those who want to govern the country. He also says that this is the reason a banker asks for tax returns before making a loan, that talking is'nt enough tax returns tell the real story,  and the reason why this is a precedent too important to be broken in 2016. This has become increasingly important in this election year with the public expecting corporations and wealthy individuals to pay their fair share of taxes, so that programs to aid workers left behind during the recession, provide job retraining, finance the infrastructure that will create new jobs, provide access to college for working class and poor, require adequate government revenues. ...

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Nossiter of the NYT describes the growing popularity of Nicolas Sarkozy in France as he tries to regain the presidency. Sarkozy's book, which has placed the importance of preserving France's identity as the main question in the upcoming general election, has climbed to the top of a popular best seller list. With weakness on the right in local elections, Mayor Juppe of Bordeaux and Francois Hollande appearing content with the status quo, Sarkozy hopes to gain the support of voters dissatisfied with the way France is tackling terrorism and its sense of identity as a predominantly Catholic and Christian country. France's political scene which makes it harder for outsiders to break into politics is likely to help Sarkozy, says Nossiter. The other factor is the campaigning style of Sarkozy and projection of strong leadership- which may be more attuned to the present voter sentiment shaken by terrorism than it was in the last election when he was seen as arrogant and self-centred. Sarkozy also lost the last election because of the economy, something that has not improved under Hollande, more likely because the economy takes many years to change to a pattern of growth following a crisis and beyond the control of any particular party. ...

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The changes needed in 2008 for money market funds to provide stability in a crisis situation were not made resulting in the Federal Reserve having to step in again to support money market funds. The Fed setup a new lending facility to support these funds that are offered to retail investors at $1 a share without price fluctuations, and are used as an alternative to savings accounts by individual investors. Former FDIC head Sheila Bair says it is frustrating that we never really fixed this stuff and industry lobbyists did'nt let this happen. These funds are a key short term financing source for many companies including banks. The funds buy the short term commercial paper that company issuers use to finance day to day needs.  One of the changes made in 2008 was that money market funds could charge a redemption fee if there was a huge surge in withdrawals in a market panic leading to their holdings of cash or market equivalents falling below 30% of their portfolio. The SEC also let the funds suspend redemptions in that situation. The result of this is that there were large withdrawals from prime money market funds this week after the coronavirus impact on the economy increased, resulting in 11% drop in assets of prime funds to $546 billion. ...

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Matina Stevis provides this exceptional account of 3 Greek leaders who fought hard for reforms to put Greece in the right direction for euro currency membership responsibilities, and lost. They tell Stevis they were savagely attacked in the media, by labor unions, and in their own party, so that the fight came at a high personal cost. The 3 politicians now mentioned inside Greece as having done the most to ensure euro currency responsibilities were taken seriously are- Alekos Papadopoulos, who as finance minister fought with Pasok party premier Simitis in 2002 about the dangers of cheap credit coming with the euro currency, Tassos Giannitsis who as labor minister was driven out of Pasok for proposing pension reforms in 2001, and Stefanos Manos who was driven out of New Democracy Party in 1998 after warning of risks in the economy from wasteful spending, including mismanagement of railways, and proposing changes. As Greece commits to a new program under the Syriza left government as a matter of "national responsibility," with reforms to pensions, fixing tax evasion to ensure the tax burden is evenly distributed, reduced military spending, and changes in other areas, the questions in the EU about Greece are about the degree of commitment to changes. In an intervew with WSJ's Bret Stephens Tsipras is candid about the situation when he says the country on its current course would build up the debt all over again, if the debt were to be written off. Problems Tsipras cited in that interview- bribery in health care, tax evasion, burden of taxes on the middle class and honest citizens, large inefficient bureaucracy. Yet 2 years after that intervew in the WSJ, Jan. 28, 2013, Tsipras headed a Syriza government that had no proposals on tackling tax evasion, aggravating the problem of moral hazard seen by the Europeans and the IMF under Lagarde. Stefanos Manos writes in the foreword to his book that its incomprehensible how the public good is ignored by so many people who seek only individual gain. ...

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Profit outlook for global airlines dims with the sluggish global economy and high fuel prices. This is affecting most airlines including Etihad and Emirates airlines in the Middle East. Qantas forecast a 91% drop in pretax profits for the fiscal year ending June 2012 falling to A$50 million.

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Jaishankar was asked at the 2021 GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava in 2021 why he thinks anyone will help India in case of a problem with China after it did not help others for Ukraine. Chancellor Scholz of Germany cites Indian Foreign Minister Jasihankar's remarks in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2021. Jaishankar said- "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems, but the world's problems are not Europe's problems. That is if it is you it's yours, if it is me it is ours. I see reflections of that. There is a linkage today which is being made. A linkage betwen China and India and what's happening in Ukraine. Chia and India happened way before anything happened in Ukraine. The Chinese do not need a precedent somewhere else on how to engage us or not to engage us or be difficult with us or not to be difficult with us." These are Scholz's remarks at the Munich Security Conference. Scholz says Jaishankar has "a point."  "This quote from the Indian Foreign Minister is included in this year's Munich Security Report and he has a point it would't be Europe's problem alone if the law of the strong were to assert itself in international relations." To be credible European or North American in New Delhi or Jakarta, it is not enough to emphasize shared values. "We generally have to address the interests and concerns of these countries as a basic prerequisite for joint action. And that's why it was so important to me to not merely have representatives of Asia, Africa and Latin America at the negotiating table during the G-7 Summit last June. I really wanted to work with these regions to find solutions to the main challenges they face growing poverty and hunger, partly as a consequence of Rusia's war, as well as the impact of climate change or COVID-19. There is another side to this -Scholz and Germany's president Frank Walter-Steinmeier are from the social Democrats party which has sought closer cooperation with Russia, and also carry a great deal of ambivalence for the war. America is not fighting this indirect war in its neighborhood, Germany is. And some of the roots of this conflict go back to the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in the 1800's period and the German invasion in the 1940's. Macron is even more ambivalent in his position and he has remained this way from the beginning- not committed to humiliating Russia. In a way it is the position of the Social Democrats from the historical context of Germany's invasion of Russia, and Christian Democrats eagerness to create a German recovery with low cost Russian energy that created the dependence that Russia sought to use. In what it sees as the unfairness of NATO being allowed to expand right next to its borders. Because of a sense of righteousness on both sides- Russia of the Soviet period failing to see the feelings of a Budapest in 1956, East Berlin in 1953, and Prague in 1968, sees little wrong in an invasion of Kviv. And with it all the biography of Brezhnev the last leader of the Soviet Union, describes that very struggle in the Great Patriotic War the soviets fought against Nazi Germany which was fought by Ukrainians including Leonid Brezhnev with great will and purpose against all odds.  Cambridge historian has written the history of Europe that Scholz is cited to be reading in 2021- Europe The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present.  It shows Europe since 1453 engaging in balance of power of European powers, Sweden Denmark, Russia, Austria, Germany, France, Britain, Turkey, continually for 500 years. Europe simply forgot its own history. Asia including Japan, China, Indonesia and India, simply emerging from the situation of falling behind in science, technology, and the industrial revolution and building their economies with the help of the US since the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868. The Balance of Power Simms says was maintained for 500 years is simply based on no country allowed to act with impunity, no country allowed to do whatever it wanted because of its position of strength at that moment or period of time. In that situation all other powers regrouped to keep the balance from being upset. The war in Ukraine is also likely to end in a way that is consistent with that which Brendan Simms writes about because this has not changed now for over 500 years. Biden knows this and it has fallen on America to shoulder the burden for this in the last 150 years, Scholz is aware of this, Modi in India sees this, and Jinping in China realizes this even with its concerns about Taiwan.   ...

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Alexis Tsipras and the Syriza government in Greece call for a referendum on July 5, 2015 on the spending cuts and policy changes proposed by the European Union and the IMF.

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Eduardo Porter describes the choices facing Germany as EU leaders of most EU countries call for deposit insurance, European banking regulation, and eurobonds.

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The election of the Metropolitan Krill to head the Russian Orthodox Church marks a new beginning for Russia. His father and grandfather before him, were dissidents who spent time in soviet prison camps and were priests. He talked about the need for the church to rely on its own inner spiritual strength to carry on the dialogue with society and the state, and the need to find ways to restore the moral values now in decline in Russian society. He believes in the outreach to secular society. Greater involvement of the church to bring Russian society improvements in values and moral fabric can be expected.