LyrArc Article Gist
Orlik says higher inflation means China's gdp growth in 2012 was actually about 5.5%. Stephen Green of Standard Chartered Bank includes rising prices of health care and education in an alternative measure of inflation and based on this GDP growth is 5.5%. This is lower than the official estimate of 7.8% for 2012. Labor markets are tight suggesting China can still manage at this slower level of growth without risking the problems from high unemployment. The additional flexibility gives China's new leaders room to address problems of inequalty, rural-urban disparities, pollution, healthcare, education, and the need to refocus development away from state owned companies, for a balanced development approach.

LyrArc Article Gist
In 2015 the new government of Antonio Costa took a U turn from austerity policies followed in return for a bailout from the European Union. This has helped Portugal achieve the highest growth in a decade coming back from a severe slump. Unemployment is cut in half with growth in the tourist industry, and investment in agriculture, construction, aerospace.  Traditional industries such as paper mills and textiles have invested in new technology resulting in a boom in exports. German companies Bosch, Mercedes Benz, and others have also invested in the country. Portugal has a good relationship with Germany and the European Union which has also helped attract foreign investment. Prime minister Antonio Costa says "too much austerity deepens a recession and leads to a vicious circle." Antonio Costa came to power in 2015 on promises to reverse cuts in income made by the previous government to reduce the deficit in exchange for a 78 billion euro international bailout. The government backed by left parties left out of government since 1974 with the collapse of the dictatorship, was able to increase public sector salaries, the minimum wage and pensions, over objections of the IMF and the German government. Incentives were given to small business in the form of tax incentives, development subsidies and funding. Budget balancing was achieved by cutting expenditure on infrastructure and other spending, cutting the budget deficit from 4.4% when Costa took office to 1%. A surplus is planned for 2020, ending a quarter century of budget deficits. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The WSJ responds to president Biden ramping up renewable energy plans and linking Republicans with Senator Rick Scott's plan for sunset provisions on federal legislation every 5 years that Biden says would include Medicare and Social Security. WSJ is critical of Biden's renewable energy plans and calls for increasing production of oil and gas to meet energy shortages and price increases. It is also against a wealth tax, Biden's $2 trillion Workers and Families Plan, and Biden's plan for Medicare to negotiate drug prices. WSJ says real disposable personal income increased $4205 under the Trump presidency 2017-2020, and has since declined by $374 with high inflation depressing purchasing power. The impact of climate change requiring brave choices and strong action is missing in the Republican plan as Republicans focus on attacking Democrats controlling the presidency and Congress on the issue of inflation. The issue of remaking supply chains are on both the Republican and Democratic agendas with president Trump giving more rhetoric against China's role in dominance of supply chains and Mr. Biden taking stronger action in Theodore Roosevelt's style of carrying a big stick and quiet posture in restoring America as a manufacturing powerhouse. The impact of climate change is short term rather than long term as seen by the heat wave in South Asia today, the fires in North America and Europe. Republicans are losing sight of the importance of making the shift on renewable energy quickly with some short term pain, as they push for oil and gas solutions and a less effective program for renewable energy. Mr. Biden is taking on bigger risks in the short term in the midterms and beyond but following a sound policy of aggressively pushing renewable energy. This can also be seen in the importance renewable energy is being given even in countries with a need for coal and natural gas such as India. Modi's plans in India are to buildup renewable energy capacity with aggressive targets for 2030. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Nagourney and Dougherty of the NYT give this report on the housing crisis in California by 2017 with the median cost of a home skyrocketing to twice the figure for the U.S. This price is now $500,000. The result is longer commutes even for people with incomes over $150,000 a year, stretching to as much as 2 hours one way. It means people lacking housing stay in vans with improvised kitchens and other sleeping arrangements. Not enough homes are being built because of strict zoning and planning regulations that are kept in place by neighborhood groups, effectively excluding outsiders. Now its not just the coastal areas that are affected but the whole state. Governor Brown of California tried to pass a measure in 2016 that would push communities to build more affordable housing, and ran into opposition from local officials and environmentalists. Now the opinion in the state is changing with younger people denied a chance at decent housing at the forefront and some elected officials such as the Mayor of Los Angeles, Mr. Eric Garcetti. A new bill in the state legislature would make it harder for cities that are falling behind in building housing to lose the right for City Council to hold back on approval of new construction, effectively bypassing it. California's law capping property taxes after Proposition 13 was passed in 1978 has also held back construction. Other factors are the building of new offices for  companies in the tech boom around San Francisco without a corresponding effort to build new homes for these new office workers. California was slow to respond to housing needs for young people, with only 311,000 housing units built since 2006. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The maximum that can be paid out to executives in upfront cash for bonuses is 20% under the rules set by the European Union starting in 2011. And the amount of time that at least 40% of an EU banker's bonus must be deferred is 3-5 years. The US has not set up similiar rules restricting up front cash bonuses to prevent executives from taking excessive risks. During the 2008 financial many banking executives collected huge bonuses by taking excessive risks, even though the banks suffered huge losses after the departure of the executives. Now the SEC, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies in the US are reviewing the rules. Projected pace of Wall Street profits in 2010 are 28.7 billion for 2010, and the fear is for a repeat of the situation in 2008 as the US has no rules similiar to the EU. Britain's Financial Services Authority passed similar restrictions recently. The Dodd-Frank legislation for financial reforms requires the pay related regulations to be set by April 2011. That legislation specifically prohibits any bonus plan that "encourages inappropriate risks" at financial firms with more than $1 billion in assets. The view of the European Union's financial services commissioner, Michael Barnier, is that not enough has ben done in this area in the US, and doing nothing is to ignore the right lessons from the financial crisis....

LyrArc Article Gist
The nuclear deal reached in the 2013 Geneva negotiations between Iran and the EU, U.S., Russia, France, Germany, UK and China, a diplomatic bloc named the P5+1. Iran gets sanctions relief that would bring in an additional $6-7 billion dollars. In return Iran agrees to increased International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of the heavy water reactor in Arak, to not start the facility or lead it with nuclear fuel. Earlier France had pushed for a complete dismantling of that reactor. Iran will cap its uranium enrichment to levels needed only for fuel in a reactor, of 3.5%-5%, and maintain its total low enriched nuclear fuel at the current level of about 6 tons for the six month period in which further negotiations will take place. As the EU representative put it, this provides the time and space to reach a serious deal. It does not ship out and destroy the estimated 19,000 centrifuge machines in Iran to produce nuclear fuel. A sticking point was Iran's insistence that it has a right to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, which Iran says is part of the UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty....

LyrArc Article Gist
France's unemployment rate for youth 15-24 is over 25%. France's president Hollande has a plan to get companies to hire young workers on a permanent contract. The "generation contract" gives small business 4000 euros a year for three years to hire a young person on a permanent contract a the same time committing to keep an employee over 57 years in age. Companies with over 300 employees are required to set targets for hiring younger workers and keeping older workers or face sanctions. The program would cost France $1 billion a year and the government estimate is to generate 500,000 jobs in 5 years. A think tank OFCE sees this as generating about 100,000 jobs, because many companies would have hired anyway. The German approach is focussed on state sponsored apprenticeships and vocational training, which some French companies says is the right direction for France. German youth unemployment is 8.1%, with 2.6 million students at vocational schools, and 1.46 million apprentices. Beginning Jan 2013, Germany will support youth from other eurozone countries with language courses and travel costs to work in these programs in areas of Germany with shortages of workers....

LyrArc Article Gist
When it comes to the wars in the Middle East Biden showed courage in "doing the right thing," even if it would cost him. Biden pulled America from wars in the Middle East that DJT had laid the ground work for by setting up that goal and taking action. Obama by contrast lacked the courage, and would not take any risks to his reelection effort. Biden in one term proved to be a transformative president in ways that Obama never even comes close, by building on the wave of support for rebuilding infrastructure that DJT had created in his first term. In ways that were unpredictable but real it could be said that DJT anticipated Biden and Biden anticipated DJT's efforts to get America out of wars that were never really in America's interest and started under the Reagan and Bush administrations continued through the Obama years. In the same way DJT anticipated Biden on rebuilding infrastructure and Biden anticipated DJT in action on the US Border and shutting down fentanyl flows from Mexico and China by getting Republican Senator Lankford to write up the legislation on the Border. This is also why president Biden can welcome DJT at the White House on the day of the Inauguration Jan 20 knowing both worked for the best interests of the Nation, and in the end listened to each other. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China's government is taking up stakes in private companies with large debt and needing financing. Private enterprises have less access to cheap bank loans and other types of financing than state owned firms, and are squeezed by China's efforts to reduce pollution and overcapacity. The tariffs war with the U.S. has also hurt the economy and taking stakes in private companies is way to ensure business stability for China. Its an effort to keep employment stable in the private sector that has 60% of the jobs. Zhejiang Great Southeast Company is a plastics packaging company with founder Huang selling his entire 29.5% stake in the company to state owned Zhuji Water Group Co for $168 million. He did this to repay holding company loans for which he pledged two thirds of Zhejiang Company shares. Beijing stepped in to ensure there is no sharp rise in unemployment. In the first 6 months of 2019 Beijing took 47 such stakes, according to Fitch Ratings, with 52 stakes taken for all of 2018.  The purchase of stakes includes state run companies and investment vehicles of local governments. Even this does not reflect the whole effort of China to ensure no sharp increase in unemployment. From October 2018 local authorities and state linked entities put together about $100 billion of "relief funds" very quickly, estimates from TF Securities. These funds are for passive investments, state owned enterprises normally take on a hands-on role in running the companies. Oxford Economics estimate is that China's private sector provides about 60% of all urban jobs in 2017, increasing from 36% in 2010. Researchers say China stepped in in this way after failing to get banks to lend more to the private sector. The tight supervision to reduce risk of supervisory agencies has made it harder for private companies to get loans. Shadow banking and trust loans was an early target, and stock market selloff hurt entrepreneurs who used shares as collateral for loans. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Kansans come out at a town hall meeting in rural Palco, Kansas, setup by Senator Moran, to say they have serious problems with the healthcare bill in a Republican Congress. Kaplan of the NYT says few Republicans in Congress have setup town hall meetings to hear the views of people in their constituency because of the strong criticism from older Americans hurt by the bill's provisions. Rural Kansas is affected by the bill. Senator Moran says of the bill that he is from rural Kansas and wants to hear what people think. Senator Moran is one of the few Republican Senators who have come out against the bill. Kansans are realizing that policy matters after the experience with actions taken by Governor Brownback to cut taxes and spending. Now Kansans are also realizing that there is a cost to being ideologically driven in coming up with solutions whether from the right or the left of the spectrum. Senator Moran after all is in the mainstream and led the 2014 effort to give Republicans control of Congress. It is also the state of Dwight Eisenhower, whose hometown was Abilene, Kansas, known for being moderate on issues, a descendent of down to earth Pennsylvania Dutch families, and for saying- "a people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." Here Moran does exactly that, listening to how the Republican healthcare bill affects rural Kansas, without getting muddled up with the politics on the issue. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. president Obama invited NYT's columnist Thomas Friedman to the White House for an interview on Saturday afternoon April 4, 2015. Here Friedman gives president Obama's response to his questions, and Obama's concerns about the heated rhetoric in the U.S. and Israel on the negotiations with Iran detracting and distracting from his key goals of protecting U.S. interests and Israel. On the Sunni states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Obama points out that there are some tough conversations needed about changes inside their societies which pose a greater threat to the governments than Iran. Obama says he understands perfectly that Israel and the Jewish people after their experience of the last hundred years are determined to not let Iran develop a nuclear weapon, and their right to be concerned that the agreement could let Iran clandestinely develop one. Obama says the verification is extensive and covers any facility in Iran, any suspicion about secret facilities, yet it leaves the subsequent decisions if Iran created difficulties, to a international body over which the U.S., UK, France, have no control. This is a principal issue for critics of the negotiated agreement. No mention is made of why Iran simply discarded the option of sending the atomic material to Russia to be processed into nuclear rods for the Bushehr nuclear plant built by Russia only a few days before the final outline was developed. And why the U.S., with allies Germany, France, UK and Japan, did not offer the Iranians an economic aid package if needed in return for the billions Iranians invested for that atomic material, to ensure that the atomic materials are shipped out of the country- to create a nuclear agreement that would be credible to all parties. The economic aid would benefit Iran modernize its oil industry, including refining operations, meet basic import needs, and provide tangible proof to the Iranian people of our best intentions for the future, that president Obama strongly espouses in the interview. The interview does show the quandary president Obama faces in Iran for strong action, that is a result of failed policies with Iran since the Eisenhower administration's intervention 1953 during the Cold War that displaced the elected government of Mosaddegh in Iran and setup the Shah's regime in 1956, the support of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the war against Iran, which Obama mentions in this intervew. In the light of the repeated failures of the U.S. policies a Democratic party leader faces increasing reservations for taking strong action against Iran's development of nuclear weapons capabilities, preferring to exhaust every diplomatic channel, and take risks in the hope that time will give the Iranian people an opportunity to to reintegrate in the global community and pursue the peaceful development of nuclear energy. This strain in president Obama's thinking is evident throughout the interview with Friedman. Other aspects of president Obama's policy in the Middle East shared in the interview are about supporting the Sunni states in some areas, and Iran in some areas, at the same time as the nuclear issue is "put in a box" and separated from the regional conflicts. Friedman presents this as the Obama doctrine, yet it appears to be coming after a series of improvisations in foreign policy following a failure to act in 2011-2013, when the "once in a lifetime" opportunities presented by the Arab Spring were not taken up by the Obama administration, leading to the region's current disintegration....

LyrArc Article Gist
Public perceptions in the USA of China are changing. Today 42% have unfavorable views of China vs. 39% tha have favorable views of China from survey results released in August by the Pew Research Center. This is a change from 2007 when 42% polled had a positive view of China and 39% a negative view. Things that have changed since then are the Tibet riots and China's strong reaction, the issues of contaminated Chinese products entering the USA market and the nationalism in China on the eve of the Olympics. The last touches McCain and his senior advisor on China, Michael Green of Georgetown University, who finds the Chinese reaction on issues like trade to be cocky but cocky to the point of being arrogant. His comment "the combination of arrogance and insecurity can be dangerous." Green was on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush. McCain and Green want to bolster trade relations with other Asian countries like India to help the USA strengthen its bargaining power with China. McCain wants to strictly enforce trade agreements with China including blocking unsafe products from China. The shift in opinion in the USA at a time when there is a shift in opinion in China to a nationalistic tone sensitive to criticism of China even when it concerns issues like Tibet which do not affect any vital interests of China should be seen as significant. This is happening at the same time as a candidate like McCain who has less tolerance for Russia and a similar position for China is running strongly for President and has the experience and support of most Americans on foreign policy issues. Its useful also to see that the figures given here show 60% of Russians seeing China in a favorable light and only 30% in an unfavorable light. And when you look at France and Germany, 72% in France and 68% in Germany see China in an unfavorable light, only 28 and 26% respectively having a favorable opinion. Britain is an exception because 47% of the British public has a favorable opinion of China, only 36% having an unfavorable view. The figures are from Pew Research Center polls of 4,257 adults in he five countries conducted in March and April (international views)....

LyrArc Article Gist
Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft effort to cancel all AI regulation by states, effectively leaving AI unregulated. What was Senator Ted Cruz doing sponsoring a 10 year rule of this kind that required protections to be put in place for child online safety so that the dangerous AI law for unregulation, no supervision, would not intrude into other areas such as child online safety. What was Senator Blackburn of Tennessee thinking when she joined that effort and had second thoughts pulling back to 5 years from 10 years of unregulated AI. Everyone from the entire Democratic caucus, Steve Bannon and advocacy groups fighting for citizen control over AI, and many Republican Senators who were not clear why such a law was being proposed by AI interests and Cruz's willingness to take the Tech monopolies interests in a dangerous direction of no regulation. “The way these provisions are written, they’re very sweeping, and they would trip up almost any attempt to regulate the harmful use of AI.”  -Ed Wytkind, interim director of the AFL-CIO’s technology institute. “Google and Meta had AI amnesty in the bag yesterday at 10 a.m. Then the Article III Project and Steve Bannon’s War Room sprang into action. Sometimes feeling the heat makes people see the light. We are pleased 99 senators finally decided to side with kids and content creators over AI amnesty and Big Tech profits.”-Mike Davis founder Article III Project ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Attorneys for homeowners describe the foreclosure process as a mass production line, and efforts to avoid foreclosure as a fight against a machine. In most cases a person would be needed to read what they file, but in many mortgage firms no such person existed. They describe the problem as industry wide and pervasive- and involving loan servicers, law firms, docment processing companies and others. The big mortgage companies, including government bailed out Fannies Mae and Freddie Mac, were eager to get bad loans off their books so they imposed penalties if the process was not speeded up.

LyrArc Article Gist
President Obama told a press conference after the Supreme Court hearings on the healthcare law: "For years, what we've heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or the lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law." In doing so Obama was framing the argument he might use should the Court rule against the law, putting the Supreme Court in the role of villain placing its judgement ahead of elected representatives, as the U.S. moves into the presidential election in November 2012.

LyrArc Article Gist
Schmemann ponders over the situation in Spain with Catalonia and Scotland with Britain, where national identity arouses pride and there is a strong sentiment for autonomy or independence. He says the situation in Slovakia which sought its own identity and separated from Czechoslovakia, but sought an otherwise peaceful status in the EU, should not be confused with the nationalism that has aroused conflicts in other regions and periods. He puts Scots interest in autonomy or independence in this light, as simply seeking its own future in the EU, with closer attention being paid to the local interests in Scotland.

LyrArc Article Gist
Loretta Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is likely to become the next Attorney General of the U.S. This is the first time since President Monroe in 1817 that a top prosecutor was directly appointed as Attorney General. She was first nominated in 1999 as U.S. attorney in the Clinton administration, and returned to this office in 2010. She does not have any ties to president Obama. This should help speed up the nomination. Her long experience as a prosecutor, her experience with civil rights and terrorism related cases, and her openness, are cited as key qualifications.

LyrArc Article Gist
A 50 foot marble statue was placed at the canopy near India Gate of King George V in 1936, by Edwin Lutyens, in an irony of history only 11 years before independent India emerged out of the British Empire in India. It was not removed till 1968 and no decision was made on what should replace it until 2022. Today the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose now stands at that place, Bose led the Indian Army's fight for independence from territory freed by the Japanese after Gandhi adopted Quit India in 1942 and most of the Indian leaders were arrested and Netaji escaped to East Asia. Part of the reason Netaji and patriots who fought to free India through means other than non violent protest were not seen as having made significant contribution was the sense that the Japanese invasion of China had shown it was another colonial power. However without the Japanese weakening British rule in Asian countries the British may have continued their rule in India. After the Japanese had proved the British, Dutch and French empires could be removed from Asia, the process that began with Naoroji, Tilak and Gokhale, and continued by Gandhi, Bose, Nehru and  Patel working together  seemed inevitably headed for success. Seen in this way a genuine understanding of Hind Swaraj can be gained. Mohandas Gandhi points this out in Hind Swaraj by saying that Gokhale was the true leader of independent India. In the true sense of genuine struggle the leaders and unknown soldiers who were jailed in the Andaman islands made significant contributions including Tilak. The struggle for Hind Swaraj was done by people who took the largest risks, and who weighed the future carefully. And this includes Gandhi and Bose,Tilak and Gokhale, and most of all the unknown people who were at the Salt March and Quit India movements.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Libyans in the Benghazi region in the east and in the rest of the country went to vote for the first time in Libya's history. A historic moment even as the eastern region, which has 60 of 200 seats, is calling for higher representation. Under the present arrangement 100 seats go to the west, 60 to the east, and 40 to the south. The transitional government announced a change that a new election will take place for a smaller constituent assembly to write the constitution, with half the seats going to the east. This is an effort to get the support of people in the Benghazi region, which led the fight against the Gaddafi regime.

LyrArc Article Gist
Gordon Brown outlines Scotland's shared interests with the rest of Britain at the time of a referendum on Scotland's independence. He describes Scotland's key role in the shipping industry and the industrialization of Britain, the period since the loss of the shipping industry, and the search for alternative sources of employment and development in a period of globalization. A key figure for Brown is the average income of people in Scotland, which is similar to that of its neighbors in England, showing that development has kept pace with the rest of Britain. For Brown it is these social and economic rights that underpin the union of different ethnic peoples and heritage of Irish, Scottish and English origins.

LyrArc Article Gist
BP Russia is the only large joint venture in which a foreign company has a 50% ownership and it is highly profitable with net profit of $5.7 billion on annual revenue of $24.9 billion. The Russian government is consolidating the oil industry to make it largely a state owned industry and renegotiating old contracts for a majority position in all oil joint ventures. In the light of that policy and its implementation for several years it would appear that the BP joint venture also would be seen as part of the same scheme of things. The minority partners and BP would negotiate their way for the best possible situation in this scheme of things.

LyrArc Article Gist
In the end only concerted pressure from the U.S. including the personal intervention of president Trump, calls from Republican senators to Prince Abdulaziz, Saudi energy minister, salvaged a deal for OPEC+ oil cuts. The Saudis insisted Mexico cut production by 300,000 barrels a day, Mexico stood firm at 100,000 barrels a day. As the Mexican energy negotiator Ms Nahle withdrew to call Mexican president Lopez Obrador, the Saudi energy minister called this "disrespectful." Then president Trump intervened with calls and offered to make up with additional 300,000 barrels a day of cuts from the U.S. North Dakota senator called Prince Abdulaziz and stated that it could affect the U.S.-Saudi relationship if the Saudis did not come to an agreement. The agreement is for 23 countries to in total withdraw 9.7 billion barrels a day from the market, or 13% of world production. Oil production is expected to fall by as much as 30 million barrels a day in April 2020 as a result of the pandemic so it is not clear how much this will raise oil prices, yet it averts a complete collapse of oil prices from the $22 today when markets open on Monday April 13, 2020.  The U.S. Canada, Brazil and G20 countries outside OPEC will make a combined 3.7 million barrels a day in cuts. Saudis, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates combined will cut 2 million barrels a day above their quota.  In addition to warning both sides Saudis and Russia to come to an agreement, president Trump threatened to retaliate to protect U.S. producers from very low oil prices sending many into bankruptcy. Prince Abdulaziz took a tough stand with Mexico and other OPEC countries to present a unified stand. He is the son of the Saudi king and took the energy ministry in fall 2019. He has had difficulty in managing OPEC plus Russia called OPEC+ as its new chief with divergent views from small producers such as Angola and large producers such as Russia. At a conference in February he continued the standoff with Russia saying Russia would regret not making the production cuts he was calling for. The split with Russia after a 3 year collaboration for cuts ended in an all out price war right in the middle of a pandemic.  The Russians underestimated the size and impact of the pandemic. The Saudis took a firm position. Only president Trump's swift and active intervention and offering to make up Mexico's share of cuts saved the day for all oil producing countries, who would all be severely hurt by sinking oil prices below $20 a barrel.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Pearlstein touches on the main issues raised by Obama's regulatory reform proposals. A thorough and independent analysis by a panel of seasoned regulators and independent experts would have done better, Pearlstein says. It would take more time, but the regulatory reforms need to be thorough, considering the damage that has been done to the financial system, and considering the opportunity to do something serious about this. It would have also shielded the administration from criticism if tough action was needed in some areas. Hearing all sides of the matters at hand, and weighing the pros and the cons on each issue is helpful, but there are gaps in this approach when some of the key actors like Geithner and Summers have worked too closely in the past with the financial firms that are being regulated, and may have a tendency and bias in that direction. The President's lack of expertise in these areas, and a desire to keep the regulatory hand as light as possible, and intense obying by financial firms, can tilt things away from serious regulatory reform. The danger is that the opportunity to fix things with major structural changes where necessary, and some tough actions where needed may be lost. Some of the obvious gaps are mentioned by Pearlstein. There is no measure to tackle the situation with the ratings agencies. There will be more transparency than before but complex derivative trading can take place prettty much like before. Credit default swaps will continue as before. If you set up acouncil of regulators, then why not bite the bullet and consolidate them into a single agency, asks Pearlstein? Banks will continue to have their proprietary trading desks, from where they ran up huge losses, these act like in-house hedge funds. Ultimately a lot depends on who is running these agencies, or the Fed, and what is the prevailing opinion about markets in the country. The prevailing opinion that the less regulation the better for free markets, and the lack of independent regulators, and poor appointments, had a lot to do with the capture of the regulatory agencies by the the firms they were supposed to regulate. And on this point the President is on safer ground, as he can ensure that he appoints tough regulators and create a new culture that puts regulation right where it should be, as a necessary ingredient for free markets, just like rules of the road. And in one area the President has created a new structure, a new agency with powers- this is where consumer protections are at stake- so that the abuses that took place with mortgages do not take place....

LyrArc Article Gist
 Frustration has grown with the poor early management response from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, says WSJ.  The president responded at one point with a tweet that "he told me nothing until later." The WSJ looked into Mr. Azar's missteps in a report recently. The president is considering replacing Mr. Azar says WSJ. Ms. Verma the head of Medicaid and Medicare Services is being considered. She has worked closely with vice president Mike Pence throughout this crisis. Mr. Azar served as HHS general counsel and later deputy secretary under president George W. Bush. He then worked as lobbyist for Eli Lilly.  This WSJ report says Mr. Trump called Mr. Azar on his flight from India to Washington, and the next day replaced Mr. Azar as head of the White House coronavirus task force with Mr. Pence. The president says repeatedly that vice president Mike Pence, as head of the White House task force has worked night and day round the clock to guide the effort- including talking to 51 state governors, coordinating the entire effort, and providing the president with reliable advice. In the depths of this crisis never has so much depended on so few- on vice president Pence, a former governor of Indiana, Admiral Polowczyk, Dr. Birx, Dr. Fauci, and the governors of states worst affected by the coronavirus. ...