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The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 327,577 illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2011, ending Sept 30. This is a steep decline from the 1.6 million apprehended crossing the border in 2000. The numbers have been dropping since the 2009 financial crisis and high unemployment in construction and other trades employing migrants. The figures for 2011 suggest a drop of about 25% from 2010. Researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center, say the balance now is about zero for people entering the U.S. across the border from Mexico and people returning to Mexico. In fact there are stories of money being sent to migrant workers without jobs in the U.S. by families in Mexico, which has affected the flow of migrant workers.

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To increase the appeal of the Conservative party and help it stage a comeback, party leader and now prime minister Cameron, made a pledge not to reduce the budgets for health care and the National Health Service. By sticking to keeping this pledge Cameron is committing to much deeper cuts in government agencies, public sector jobs, and other areas. Carl Emmerson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says that because of this the cuts elsewhere will rise to a much deeper 25%. Phillip Cowley, a political scientist, says that the NHS is a totemic issue with the British people, and helped Cameron get the top job, as the Labor party could not hit the Conservatives on the issue of the National Health Service.

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Ford's North American operations reported a pretax profit of $1.6 billion for the 3rd quarter 2010. Revenue went up to $16.2 billion from $13.4 billion in the prior year. Ford sold 145,534 F-series pickup trucks, a 25% increase from the same quarter prior year. Worldwide Ford Motor reported a profit of $1.7 billion. Ford will pay down its revolving credit line by $2 billion and will make a cash payment of $3.6 billion this week to cover the last of its health-care trust obligations to Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (which covers 195,000 retirees and their spouses). The UAW controls the VEBA trust. These actions will reduce the company's overall debt to $22.8 billon, from $27.3 billion at the end of June 2010.

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Shigeru Ishiba was reappointed LDP party secretary-general in Japan. Ishiba served three terms as defence minister, is popular with the rank and file and the public. He has a good grasp of security issues. He will be the No. 2 person in the cabinet after prime minister Shinzo Abe. Ishiba was the first LDP official to give a specific trading range for the yen by publicly calling for a range of 85 to 90 yen to the dollar. The yen closed at about 85 yen to the dollar on Dec. 25, 2012. Two women join Ishiba and Abe in the leadership positions. Seiko Noda is now chairwoman of the party general council. And six term parliamentarian Sanae Takaichi is policy chief for the LDP.

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How a small Kansas town of Grinnell in America finds a way to deal with the rural-urban divide and covid anxiety generated in the tumultuous years of 2020-2021, is the subject with pictures of this report in the WSJ. Grinnell is heartland America and its residents find a way to set Kansas and America in the right direction. One one side some resident worried they would end up like Minneapolis or Portland with protesters. An incident of drivers along Highway 70 emptying shelves of toilet paper in neighborhood stores is seen negatively by some  Grinnell residents and leads to forming an Emergency Preparedness Group to prevent outside agitators from creating problems. Others like the Enlightened Ladies Group try to calm things down. Gene Tilton, 84, and his son 63 years, whose family arrived in Kansas in 1880's did'nt see the need for forming some sort of vigilante group. He raises cattle and crops on a 10,000 acre farm. Michael Machen who practiced medicine in Gove County for 35 years also felt the same way and believed law enforcement could tackle the problem if there was one. Sheriff Mesch attended the Gove County emergency Preparedness Group public meeting by invitation in January 2021. This about the time when the Capitol in Washington DC was stormed by protesters and the country was divided after the election. At that time after 19 months of coronavirus deaths, racial unrest and political violence America was on edge, communities all over America were struggling with the idea that the immediate threat they faced was from other Americans not foreign adversaries. The sheriff told everyone at the Emergency Preparedness Group's public meeting where he stood- law enforcement could handle any threat and he didn't anticpate anything his deputies could not handle. He told the Emergency Preparedness Group that he appreciated their sentiment though, if he needed help he would ask, yet concluded that is the only way. From that rebuff by the sheriff the Group paused its activity and shifted its message to offering to help anyone deal with the deep cold spell in February, to cope with snow, tornadoes, fires, rattlesnake bites and similar hazards. They sponsored first aid classes, and a "Homesteader Gardening Class." Soon their idea was "we're here to help people, the last thing we want is for people to be uncomfortable." "Gove County" says Don Tilton, "has moved on." So must America today. ...

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Baked goods salty snacks and other ultraprocessed foods made up 55% of calories of all Americans in 2021-2023. 62% for children and adolescents, says CDC in 2025. It is an astonishing figure and shows the neglect of health nutrition by business and previous administrations in the US, in an alarming and dangerous way. RFK Jr. at Health and Human Services department, and Rollins at Agriculture department, have made it their life's mission to get America healthy again. And fight the battles, conduct the policy changes that have to be made to do this. Education of the public and making healthy choices available and affordable, are a big part of the challenge today. Individual states such as Iowa and West Virginia, Texas and Florida are already taking it up at the state level in a concerted effort.

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Jeremy Hunt, head of the Health Select Committee and Health Secretary 2012-2018, says Britain needs to take up mass contact tracing as its next national mission. Britain he says has passed 20,000 tests a day for coronavirus. America has passed 150,000 tests a day. Both more than South Korea. What is missing when compared to South Korea and Taiwan is mass contact tracing.  The app TraceTogether is not enough, as it was used by only 20% of Singapore's population. Only South Korea and Taiwan are able to open up the economy, have workplaces and life function close to normal through extensive testing and mass contact tracing, with feet on the ground. This is the only path that has worked with South Korea successfully out of the lockdown. This means "feet on the street." Making these calls requires skills, getting information, getting cooperation, offering guidance, and ensuring people isolate themselves after contact with an infected person. Sometimes it is by phone and sometimes in person wearing full PPE. They need to be sensitive enough in talking to someone feeling ill and to see how home isolation can be achieved, who else the coronavirus infected person or someone in the chain of contacts has been in contact with. Mr. Hunt says no effort should be spared in doing this as the millions of jobs in Britain, of people without work, the economy, and the need for light at the end of the tunnel of lockdowns, requires a way out. A huge task but a lot of impossible tasks are being tackled in the health services. The resources of Britain, every spare civil servant, every administrator not working, every one who can do this, needs to be enlisted to do this. The same task needs to be tackled in America, and in other countries as a national mission. ...

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900 million eligible voters in India means this is the largest election ever. The election will take place in 7 phases in April and May from April 11 to May 19. Votes will be counted on May 23. The election is for 543 seats in parliament, the Lok Sabha. Turnouts are high with 66% turning out in the last election that brought Mr. Modi and the BJP to power.  Unlike elections in Britain a lot is spent in each election, about $5 billion in the last election and double that this time. The U.S. elections in 2016 had spending of $6.5 billion as a comparison. Women vote at about the same rate as men and more women than men are expected to vote this time. Prime minister Modi won the last election with promises of development and infrastructure. He is delivering on infrastructure but building manufacturing and generating jobs in the formal sector remains a tougher task for any administration in 4 years. During the first term Mr. Modi made needed changes including introducing the GST tax to integrate India's fragmented market and get rid of a patchwork of regional state taxes. He introduced a whole range of projects and yojanas which are setting the stage for widening the middle class, and improving living conditions. Some of the problems such as the bad loans in the banking system date back to previous administrations and the government has taken steps to clean up this problem by refinancing banks and introducing a bankruptcy law. This has slowed GDP growth to about 7%. However this would have happened under any administration.  The brief war with Pakistan in February 2019 has added another dimension to this election with questions about whether this may help Mr. Modi because of his strong stand against terrorism camps in Pakistan.  In the end it all comes down to whether the public still believes the BJP party under Modi is best qualified to develop the infrastructure to modernize the country and improve services, and whether it can create enough of the manufacturing capabilities to generate jobs needed. It may not be that the BJP under Modi has  not made mistakes in the process of learning how best to tackle development, but whether a patchwork of regional parties led by the opposition Congress party is in a position to provide the strong decisive direction to make quick decisions on development. Getting the agreement of a number of regional parties such as the party in West Bengal state or the Uttar Pradesh state when it was under a previous administration of Mrs Mayawati means an even slower rate of decision making as it leads to lack of speedy decision making. Whether voters have short memories and forget the slow rate of infrastructure development under previous administrations or have a willingness to give the BJP a chance to show what it can do under Modi for development can eventually decide this election. An example of what this means is in how the Mumbai Metro is being pushed through to timely delivery- Metro Rail's head Mrs. Ashwini Bhide simply says she feels for the people of Mumbai who have suffered from delays in development of needed infrastructure for so long, with millions doing appalling rides in a creaky old rail system. In her view it should have been done yesterday. It is this attitude that can make or break the current administration, and whether it can get this message through to voters one more time. Most who have this attitude are aware that China is now laying enough concrete every two years than America did in the whole 20th century, as reported in the Guardian newspaper, and are equally passionate about delivery of services and rapid development of badly needed infrastructure.         ...

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California's economy is going through tough times during the coronavirus. Unemployment is up to over 20% which compares to 14.7% for the U.S., closer to that of New York. The state depends on the tourism industry, agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, and entertainment industry around Los Angeles for jobs. Tech in the San Jose area does not account for as many jobs. The state also has a public university system and foreign students mostly from China bringing in $7 billion.   Its port system around Long Beach and Los Angeles connects with the Asian economies and China, for goods mainly transported to the rest of the U.S.  All these sectors are the ones most badly hit during the coronavirus.  California now has a deficit of $54 billion and was the first state to borrow from the federal government to pay $13 billion in unemployment claims. Undocumented Californians are not able to collect unemployment because of their immigration status, creating an American version of the informal economy that is found in India and Italy or Spain. California has 83 million people taking plane trips to the state for a tourism industry that normally brings in $145 billion. 600,000 travel industry jobs were lost in the state. Taxes related to travel are a significant source of revenue for cities in California bringing in $12 billion. The only sector that is less affected is the tech industry, yet this makes up only about 10% of the jobs or 1.7 million higher paid but fewer jobs. This tech sector at about just 15% of the California economy GDP, is of a precarious nature with a boom bust pattern, the last boom one that happened since the 2009 financial crisis. It in no way forms a significant support for employment or income for people in California or the U.S., and may even be responsible for distortions in the allocation of capital away from infrastructure and public services, through its disproportionate influence on how the nation's capital is allocated. The broader changes underway during coronavirus are likely to affect the state over many years, as supply chains shift away from China, and as infrastructure and public services investment assume their rightful role again in the nation rebuilding effort, agriculture and rural America become a part of the American renewal story.   ...

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Most people would not guess or recognize that this place where elderly people in society were treated shabbily is a country in northern Europe, and a country where citizens pay high taxes for precisely better healthcare across different age groups. Sweden is where about half of the 6000 people dead from coronavirus were elderly people.  Over the last two decades Sweden has cut hospital capacity and discouraged elderly people from entering hospitals during the early period of the pandemic, says this report in the NYT. The for profit nursing homes in the centre of Stockholm were unable to cope. Having turned the work in these homes to low wage workers, it put these workers and the elderly at risk with lack of staff, lack of adequate PPE oreven  basic masks, says this report in NYT.  One of the lessons of this pandemic is the failure not just in turning over manufacturing of health care equipment and pharmaceuticals to China, but also turning over the basic care of elderly to for profit institutions that were totally unprepared and could not give elderly the dignity and care they deserve. Year of cuts to public services and health services now showed in a glaring way what can happen when this is done. It has lessons for countries from Europe to North America, and to Latin America, India and other Asian countries as they redesign policy and allocate resources to public services in the next 10-20 years. ...

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Under a landmark ruling by a federal court in Leipzig, German cities can now ban older diesel engine vehicles. The cities of Stuttgart and Dusseldorf are allowed to legally ban older higher polluting diesel cars from zones that are badly affected by air pollution. Environmental group DUH brought the lawsuit after 70 German cities exceeded European Union limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx) in 2017. NOx emissions can cause respiratory disease and difficulty breathing. Diesel engines produce high levels of nitrogen oxide, and low levels of carbon dioxide. EU air quality standards are not being met in cities across Europe, so that this could set a precedent for Europe, says the BBC. Of the 15 million diesel cars on German roads only 2.7 million meet the latest Euro-6 standards, according to German automotive watchdog agency. Diesel car market share is dropping- falling to 39% in 2017 from 48% in 2015. The VW diesel emissions scandal in 2015 further eroded public confidence. The German government already has suggested alternatives such as offering free public transport in cities with poor air quality. The government opposed the ruling because it did not want the car industry to bear the additional cost of retrofitting older vehicles at a time when German carmakers were investing in electric vehicles.  Yet the trend is clear. Paris, Madrid, Mexico City, Athens have pledged to ban diesel vehicles from the centre of cities by 2025, with Copenhagen doing this in 2019. ...

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As Washington Post writer points out from personal experience- he is one of those who put up 15% to buy ahome inDenver at the top of the market and now has negative equity as prices drop- negative equity is one of the most serious problems facing the US economy. It has the potential to undo many of the encouraging things from the stimulus, as rising foreclosures continue to act as adrag on the overall economy. As he says about one fourth of Americans with home mortgages, or about 11-15 million people, owe more money on their homes than the market value of their homes. As Hoffman says the administration's approach has been a Band-Aid at best for a serious injury. The Obama administration set aside only $75 billion to get banks to modify loans and also made this voluntary for banks to modify loans. Treasury Secretary Geithner testified in Congress: "This is a conscious choice we made, not to start with principal reduction. We thought it would be dramatically more expensive for the American taxpayer, harder to justify, create much greater risk of unfairness." But making it voluntary means very little of this $75 billion has gone to help achieve modifications- banks had no incentives to do this. Only 31,000 permanent loan modifications have been made. Of the 750,000 temporary loan modifications made as of Dec 2009 only 4% of homeowners signing up have qualified for permanent federal relief. See the links to Martin Feldstein's proposals for this on the pages of the Wall Street Journal in 2008 and 2009 which called for aggressive program of relief for the sake of the economy. With 2.4 million Americans likely to lose their homes in 2009 according to Moody's Economy.com estimates, following the 2 million in 2009 and 1.7 million in 2008, this may be a serious mistake of the Obama administration and drag out this recovery....

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The marketing of the iPhone 6 in the U.S., China and global markets helps Apple widen its lead over competitors in 2015. Apple sales were 47.5 million iPhones in the 2nd quarter 2015, increasing by 35% over the prior year quarter. Apple is also gaining sales from buyers switching from Android phones. Apple's iPhone sales now make up 63% of its sales, compared with 53% in the same quarter in 2014. Sales of iPhones increased 59% to $31.37 billion as the average selling price went up by $100 to $662.42. Apple remained above the fray, and actually increased average selling price to $662, as Xiaomi sold quality Android phones at near cost in China hitting Samsung sales and margins hard, and leaving unsold inventory for Samsung in China. Rarely has a company dominated its business in this manner from the standpoint of profits with only about 20% of the market in smartphones. Apple profits in the 2nd quarter were $10.7 billion, increasing from $7.74 billion in the prior year quarter. The iPad unit sales declined by 18% for the 2nd quarter 2015, the sixth quarter of such declines and fewer customers upgrading. The iPad has also not taken off in the workplace. Mac unit sales were up 9%, even though the PC market declined in units by 9.5% globally for the quarter. Apple shares up 39% in 2015, fell by 6.7% over concerns about slowing China sales....

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What the US wanted in the initial hours- use of Diego Garcia base and RAF base in Haverford Gloucestershire. UK's Keir Starmer first denied use of the bases and till he could verify US attacks were within international law. When Iran responded with a a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles 840 drones and 340 ballistic missiles and attacked the British base RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, suddenly Starmer saw the opportunity to justify US use of British bases on defensive grounds. DJT called the British response "very disappointing." Starmer told parliament-  "To be clear, the use of British bases is limited to the agreed defensive purposes; we are not joining the US and Israeli offensive strikes. The lessons of history have taught us that it is important when we make decisions like this, that we establish there is a lawful basis for what the United Kingdom is doing. That is one of the lessons from Iraq, and that there's a viable thought-through plan with an objective that can be achieved or has a viable prospect of being achieved.That is the principle that I applied to the decisions that I made over the weekend. This government does not believe in regime change from the skies." The situation Starmer faces domestically is that voters for Reform UK and Conservatives support full use of the airbases. Voters who vote for Liberals, Greens and Labour do not support use of the British airbases. Local elections in which Labour is seen losing a large share of its 2024 vote to Greens and Liberals is one factor the premier had in mind, in addition to issues in the war in Iraq.  Another is the consideration that Britain has a large presence in the Gulf from the days of the Empire when they were British colonies.Already in 24 hours 100,000 Britons have registered for help in the Gulf region. Britishers run much of the tourism, airlines and other business in the Gulf region as the Gulf states are small in area, with small populations and a large population from South Asia for certified migrant labor, and British managers at the higher levels. When Iran attacked UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia with drones and ballistic missiles it was clear that Britain was also being attacked though the attack on the RAF base in Cyprus was cited. ...

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After denying clearances for development projects for three decades, the Indian Supreme Court green bench of Justices Gavai and Vikram Nath clears 118 development projects already delayed for 5 years for pending litigation. 118 projects were cleared, including 15 held up for 10 years, based on the "sustainable development" idea that takes a look at the bigger picture, the aspirations of youth, and the bigger possibilities for renewables and environment with a bigger economy. It shows how India which at one time in 1990 had about the same GDP as China, has today one fifth the GDP of China, and with it lacks the same scale of investment for renewable energy and climate change action that China has because of China's larger economy. In this sense the whole country of 1.2 billion Indians, including hundreds of millions of farmers and urban residents, the Supreme Court and India's institutions, have suffered more than the one lost decade the prime minister referred to in the Budget session of parliament. It is more like three decades since China pushed ahead after 1990. China having suffered from the Japanese invasion and civil war for three decades in the 1920-49 period and three decades of drift in economic direction following 1949. India faced its own period of failed governance that matches the failures in China by 1990. The SC bench stated- "The Supreme Court is flooded with applications after applications, seeking permissions to construct primary schools, public health centers, anganwadi centers, an other public utility buildings in remote areas. Himachal Pradesh is constrained to approach the Supreme Court even for seeking permission to connect villages in remote areas by roads. Needless to state, the citizens residing in the remote areas cannot be deprived of the developmental activities that are being done in other parts of the country."  The Supreme Court called it ridiculous that the states were required to rush to the Supreme Court to do the minimal developmental activities.  That the Supreme Court and other institutions have taken so long to say and do this is itself one of the reasons India has fallen behind China. It will need to accelerate its efforts, in the way that the rest of the country and the world is doing to create an environment in which development can meet the aspirations of the Indian people. Efforts for climate change action can take place at the same time with bigger investment capabilities from the larger economy and advanced technological capabilities. The two can and do go together, a point missed for far too long.  An approach even the US has grasped and is doing under president Biden. The US has gone through its own period of failed governance for four decades of neglect of manufacturing and infrastructure that president Biden talked about in his State of the Union address to the US Congress last week.  Biden now sees the problem itself as an opportunity to get it right. So can India.   ...

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Geopolitical problems and installation of US air defense systems in South Korea led to Chinese restrictions on South Korea. This led Samsung to reduce its labor force in China from 60,000 to 18,000 in 2023. It shifted operations to India and Vietnam. It is Vietnam's largest exporter and makes 20-30% of its global smartphones in India. Apple is only now beginning to shift to India. This is called decoupling or de-risking after an excessive concentration of manufacturing by companies like Apple in China.

Xiaomi took a large share of the local market in China from Samsung, another reason Samsung reduced presence in China. It still gets advanced components from China. In India Samsung has a dominant market presence. Because India is a price conscious market Apple has only a small market share in India.

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A Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile attack on Kviv is repelled with all missiles shot down on May 16, 2023. For the first time in the war the missile attacks are causing far less damage than in the early days of the war. A DW.com German reporter in Kviv on German television says the whole attack lasted only 15 minutes before things were back to quiet over Kviv with missiles exploding in the sky not on the ground.

This week Mr. Zelensky visited Berlin, then Aachen for the Charlemagne Prize as a symbolic acceptance of the Ukrainian people into the European community of nations with Zelensky speaking in Aachen in Ukrainian. He then went to Paris and London. Next week the G7 meet in Hiroshima, Japan. The war that followed a pandemic enters its 64th week in 2023.

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The European Union is drafting a ban on oil imports from Russia, says this report in the NYT. The European Union now pays Russia about $1 billion every day for oil imports from Russia. Under chancellor Merkel Germany actually increased its dependence on Russian natural gas from 36% during Russian annexation of the Crimea to 55% today. In this way creating some of the conditions that emboldened Russia into its invasion of Ukraine, creating over 4 million refugees and immense destruction. Oil revenues of this magnitude of about $1 billion a day from the European Union help finance and prolong the invasion with enormous cost of human life. The longer the war lasts it affects a grain producing region in Ukraine that would lead to world food scarcity and famine.

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Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announces the details of the $280 billion (20 lakh crore) economic package and action being taken to help (MSME) small and medium size enterprises in India. About 3 lakh crore or about $40 billion will be for support of the MSME enterprises. The MSME sector in India cover millions of micro, small and medium size businesses that support the economy. By increasing the size of the market by 2000 crores rupees through avoiding foreign tenders the government wants to give more scope for growth and investment to this sector. Some imports from China and other countries could now be manufactured in India as part of the push to be local and self reliant, as well as provide room for robust growth in the future after the blow from coronavirus.

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The pandemic is bringing new hope to smaller towns and rural areas in Europe. For decades the migration from smaller towns to cities led to depopulation and decline. With the pandemic the situation is changing and offers new hope. In rural parts of Galicia, Spain, small towns are seeing some revival with enough children now in schools to keep them running. People from cities are moving to smaller towns and rural areas during the pandemic. The housing transactions in smaller towns and rural areas are up by 15% in Spain in 2020. 

In the small town municipalities in Galicia, Spain, town officials are trying to build a new sense of attachment for younger families, in a long term strategy. This WSJ report looks at this trend in Spain and in Europe.

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The WSJ provides an excellent summary of the positions of the candidates in the U.S. presidential election of 2016 on key issues, education, healthcare, immigration, taxes, national debt, infrastructure spending, and economic growth. Clinton is clear on specifics, Trump has not made clear the details of policies and talks in general terms. On immigration the 2 candidates are far apart, on issues of infrastructure Clinton plans a $275 billion effort to repair the country's infrastructure and Trump says he would make a big effort. On taxes Clinton plans to pay for spending with higher taxes on the rich. Trump says he would provide huge tax cuts, yet make large infrastructure spending without clarifying how this would be done with sharply lower taxes. Both candidates oppose the TPP and oppose trade agreements that lead to loss of U.S. jobs.

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President Biden is moving forward a plan to setup a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza and a pier where commercial ships can drop off humnitarian aid and food. The trip would take 28 hours from Cyprus and would be able to get in 200 trucks of aid supplies each day. The Qataris and UAE will also help with this plan and Israelis will cooperate. On the diplomatic front both the European nations, Britain and the US are working together to get Israeli cooperation. British Foreign Secretary Cameron met Benny Gantz. Earlier Gantz met with Kamala Harris in Washington D.C. Gantz is part of the wartime cabinet in Israel. The US and EU, Britain all now have serious differences with Mr. Netanyahu on putting the humanitarian situation first and foremost considering the situation in Gaza.

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Britain turns to Labour as the lead for Labour party increases to 27 points after Sunak announces the general election will be held on July 4, 2024. What would a Starmer administration look like and how will it meet the expectations of Britain for generational change after the failure of Brexit, and 14 years of austerity policies that failed to invest in Britain and failed to deliver on infrastructure and housing? These are questions not easily answered as Britain's finances are left in a bad state by the Tories for Labour. Starmer is taking the right approach to first get a grasp of the tremendous challenges facing Labour in this situation. It was easy for Boris Johnson and the Tories to make the promises that were never kept and left the British people in the lurch.

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Helena Morrissey of the 30% Club has helped increase the representation of women on Board of Directors in Britain to 23%. This is nearly double the figure in 2010. Helena Morrissey uses a non-confrontational approach, getting men to join the organization and having them act as advocates with other men in senior positions. She learned this after using other approaches which were less effective. She focusses on telling chairman of the boards that having women on the board provides different perspectives, and points to studies that show about 30% lets a minority voice be heard. Homogenous boards have been known to provide no new thinking or fresh perspective, a problem at many companies. The opportunity opened up with the finsncial crisis of 2008 and widespread opinion that the boards had failed to understand the crisis that was coming. She and 14 other women got the support of 2 prominent board chairmen in 2010 to start the 30's Club. A Commision by the new government led by Lord Davies provided additional impetus by recommending that 25% of a board be voluntarily set for women. Early in her career Helena was turned down for a promotion because she had a baby. She has nine children, which her husband a journalist helps take care of at home, making her situation even more unique. Helena Morissey is CEO of Newton Asset Management in London's financial district....

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Are bubble type incentives inflating the size of the U.S. auto market in 2012-2013 as happened in the past decade. This could hurt future sales. Japanese automakers have sharply increased incentives to make a come back after the tsunami and earhtquake restricted supplies. U.S. automakers are reluctant to go further down the incentives route that hurt them in the past decade. The result is higher inventories for Detroit automakers, another undesirable result. General Motors had 5 months of Malibu supply at dealers in Nov. 2012 at the current sales rate, Ford 4 months of Fiesta subcompact inventory and 73 days of total inventory overall, Chrysler 6 months of 2013 Dodge Dart inventory. GM has 3 months of Chevy Cruze inventory, and 138 days of Chevy Silverado pickup truck inventory. GM decided to idle one of two plants making the Cruze. In contrast Toyota has 2 months inventory for the Camry and Corolla. The largest incentives in the U.S. market are from Nissan, a 55% jump to average $4,273 in Nov. 2012 from $2,764 in Jan 2012. Honda increased incentives to average $2,428 from $1,978 in Feb. 2012, a 23% increase. Toyota up to average $2,075 in Nov 2012 from $1717 in Jan. 2012, a 21% increase, according to TrueCar.com, with zero percent interest rates not counted in these numbers. Ford offers $2895 off its 2013 Focus sedan, which has 2 months inventory. General Motors offers between $2900 and $3500 in average incentives , according to TrueCar.com....