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David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he is quite worried about the steadily declining participation of men 16-64 in the labor force from 85% in the decade after World War II to less than 65% today. This is a blow to the men, their families , government revenues and the economy.

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Peters and Wessel provide profiles of middle aged American men in 2014- as tech workers out of jobs as technology shifts and worker skills fall behind, younger men with masters degrees in fields such as public administration where it is hard to find jobs and workers lack retraining, and other men who lost jobs from globalization or the 2009 economic crisis. About one in 6 working age American men 25-54 are without jobs- about 10.4 million. Of this group two thirds are not looking for work either because they cannot find decent paying jobs or are too discouraged looking for work, and are not counted in the unemployment rate calculated by the Labor Department. About three quarters of the working age men not working have only a high school education compared to 55% with jobs. Wages for highschool dropouts have declined by 25% since the 1970's, and 15% for those without a college degree but having a high school diploma- some of these men are going back to school, others lacking retraining are too discouraged to look for work and depending on a spouse or government benefits. It is these people U.S. Fed chairpersons Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen have in mind as they shape Fed policies since 2009 to not leave them behind....

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The Dutch model for counterinsurgency which intertwines the civilian efforts with aid workers working inside the military, and military work focussing on security for the people so that economic development projects can go on, is an inspiration for the US effort. It has also reduced casualties for the Dutch. Only 19 deaths have occurred for the Dutch for 2000 personnel employed since they deployed in Uruzgan province in March 2006, where 350,000 Afghans live, according to icasualties.org. Sec of state Hillary Clinton describes this 3 D effort of defense, diplomacy, and development, as the model for her own efforts and that of the Obama administration. Dutch soldiers are ingrained in their training for this mission that their main work in Afghainstan will be economic development. The aid workers work closely with the soldiers and the commander Col. Gert-Jan Koolj says over time the focus has been on pure development. In fact diplomats from the Dutch foreigh ministry help to command the Dutch team in Uruzgan. One problem Clinton is facing is the shortage of civilian personnel to work in provincial reconstruction teams. About 500-600 more civilians are needed to complement the additional 21,000 troops that are to be added in 2009. ...

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The irony of the Afghan war is that the same pilots and planes that worked for the Soviet supported Afghan government, that the US under President Reagan supplied weapons and antiaircraft missiles to bring down, are now fighting the American war against insurgents. Antonov aircraft for transport and Mi-35 Hind helicopters, and Afghan crews that flew them are part of the airforce that the US is training and building up. The commander of Afghanistan's air corps is a formerMiG-21 pilot. By 2016 the 32 aircraft airforce is expected to grow to 120 aircraft at a total cost of $5 billion.

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BAE Systems has a $120 million contract to provide social anthropologists to the Defense Department of the USA. In December, L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. acquired International Resources Ltd, a Washington based economic-development firm which is different from its military advisory business. This is the way the Defense Department and the suppliers to the Defense department are changing in response to Defense Secretary Gates philosophy that economic development, rule of law programs and strategic communications and a whole host of soft power initiatives are essential needs, and to the new President's philosophy. Now US Defense suppliers Lockheed and Northrop are providing peacekeepers thorugh the State Department, and BAE SYstems is providing social anthropologists in addition to armored vehicles to go with US troops on village patrols. The State Department, Agency of International Development and a changing Defense Department are all getting the attention of suppliers who are building new relationships for new needs and new services tackle the issues of terrorism, poverty, drugs and crime that generate or exacerbate conflict in other countries. In the first budget presented recently Obama pledged $50 billion double the amount before for foreign assistance. A portion of the $130 billion requested for wartime operations in 2010 will be allocated to these new kinds of services which are more effective and generate better understanding and support for the US in other countries....

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A number of issues came up at the Women20 Summit in Berlin. Annette Niederfranke, Director of the International Labor Organization, brought up the issue of family reconciliation as "one of the toughest challenges for working women worldwide," that in order to meet obligations women tended to work in "non standard forms of employment and in part time work linked to lower wages, lower social security, lower benefits, and fewer training possibilities." Childcare was also an issue that was prominent considering the lack of adequate childcare in many countries including in the European Union. With responsibilities for the elderly, babies, and small children women tend to be in the workforce for shorter periods leading to men taking up many of the higher positions. Angela Merkel pointed out that Gemany tended to take a narrow view of professions available to girls, saying- "So it is very very important that we take a broader view of things while girls are still at school." Merkel also supports a Africa compact that would help women set up small and middle size businesses in poor countries. The "Digital" aspects of this and other efforts for women were a major topic being discussed. One idea that came up was that more cooperation from men was needed to make things happen. This is the third Women20 Summit after ones in Turkey and China, and a sense of momentum was felt by women. ...

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Mark Hulbert lists the quality stocks with low P/E ratios, little debt, high return on equity, and long records of earnings growth spanning long periods that limit volatility after the emerging markets crisis of 2014. He adds a cautionary note on the idea of quality stocks by saying P/E ratios matter, that quality stocks at a high price are a bad investment and at extraordinary prices are a extraodinarily bad investment, citing the Nifty Fifty stocks of quality in 1972 that lost value in the stock market slide in 1973. He takes quality stocks Disney, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson off the list of quality stocks because of high P/E ratios, a critical criteria. Hulbert's list for financial quality companies and their P/E ratios in Jan. 2014: AT&T telecom 9.4, Aflac insurance 9.1, Allstate insurance 10.9, Apple computer and telecom 12.7, Bank of Nova Scotia 11.0, Chevron oil 10.0, Cisco computer hardware 12.2, IBM technology 11.7, Royal Bank of Canada 11.5, Wells Fargo banking 11.5. These P/E ratios compare with the S&P 500 P/E of 17.3....

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Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission, provides a five point proposal to strengthen the European Union and take the steps to a closer political union. She says the Maastricht Treaty does not provide the strong foundation the European Union needs and the steps are already underway to change this. The fiscal compact for financial discipline in the eurozone that all members of the eurozone agreed to is one such step. Other steps remain for a closer union and she suggests the time is now for an open debate inside the EU countries about what people want to see the EU become by 2020. As a timetable a treaty on political union could be ratified between 2016 and 2019, with it going into effect once two thirds of the countries have approved it with referendums. Countries would have the opton of political union or staying in a close form of association but not union.

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Robert Reilly, an assistant to President Reagan, former director of Voice of America, says don't underestimate the importance of what the younger Bush as president called "the vision thing." Efficiency experts like Hoover, and Republican candidates who had business and other professional experience but could not grasp the moral imperative in politics such as Alf Landon (1936), Wendell Wilkie (1940), Thomas Dewey (1944 and 1948) failed to convince voters. Democrats presented ideas like the Fair Deal, New Deal (FDR), New Frontier (Kennedy), Great Society (Johnson) and captured this "vision thing" to win. This is why he is skeptical about Romney as business and management consultant coming in and bringing change with a number of management consultants. Reagan also presented the choice in moral terms which were then translated into how the government would function to fulfill the moral imperative, says Reilly.

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Instead of "ring fencing" bad loans one bank at a time, which is what is being done for Bank of America and Citigroup by the government , Bair, Bernanke and others favor something like the Resolution Trust Corporation, which would contain all bad assets of banks. Bair in an interview said she would like to see them priced at what they would get in today's market, meaning that the steep discounts issue would be faced squarely. What this will need is a lot of government money to restore confidence so that investors are willing to put their private money in the banks. And Senator Schumer says he is hearing the number of $1 trillion or more. This would let banks take these bad assets off their balance sheets, like they did with the Brady bonds for bad Latin American assets and with the Resolution Trust Corporation for bad assets in the savings and loan crisis. It was the original intent of TARP but two things happened, first the pricing of these assets was in limbo, with nobody willing to say how steep the discount should be. The auction process proposed was a vague and shaky one. Second, things deteriorated so quickly that it became urgent to instead do bank recapitalizations for $250 billion. Now the same issue has to be addressed directly by another administration with control of Congress, so that the big bucks funding of $1 trillion can be possible to do. Something like a separate institution that holds all bad bank assets. And the government taking on a big part of the burden, and with it some ownership of the banks that hopefully could payback some of this $ 1 trillion....

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As the U.S. population ages and grows at a slower pace the demand for automobiles is likely to peak in 2013-2014, and moderate in subsequent years. Automakers need to be vigilant about adding manufacturing capacity to avoid the problems faced in the last decade when sales and profits declined.