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IKEA is raising the minimum hourly wage by 10% in 2016. From Jan 1, 2016 the minimum hourly wage at its existing U.S. stores will go up from $10.76 an hour to $11.87 an hour. IKEA is working to reduce staff turnover by raising the wages. In 2014 IKEA indicated that it would calculate the minimum wage taking into account local living costs in each market.. That action resulted in a 17% increase for half of IKEA's employees in 2014, according to IKEA.

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The safety defects involved in the recall led to reported 13 deaths and recall of 1.6 million vehicles in 2014. The faulty ignition switch could partially turn off the vehicles while driving, disabling airbags and making it hard to steer leading to accidents. GM employees were aware of this defect since 2004, this report shows, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was also aware of this after one of its officials pointed out this problem in a March 2007 meeting.

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House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan said in remarks at a breakfast hosted by the Wall Street Journal- he would submit a budget plan that would balance the budget in 10 years by cutting government spending and without raising tax revenues. This comes before the House vote to suspend the debt ceiling till May 18, 2013, giving more time for deficit negotiations. Ryan said: "Hopefully, people can come together to agree on getting a down payment on the debt crisis."

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Foreclosures are shifting to the top third of the local housing values, up to 30% in June 2009 from 16% in 2006 when the foreclosure crisis began, according to Web site Zillow.com. The bottom one third by home values now represent 35% of foreclosures down from 55% in 2006. This category of expensive homes includes exotic mortgages including interest only mortgages that allowed borrowers to defer principal payments for the initial period. Borrrowers are not able to refinance out of these mortgages.

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The Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats are both working to scrap alaw that says all 22 of Germany's nuclear plants must be shut down by 2022. The preliminary agreement reached between the two parties will allow th reactors to operate for longer till renewable energy cn fill the gap. According to the German Association of Energy 23% of energy comes from nuclear, 42% from coal plants, 15% from renewable energy,14% from naturual gas, and 6% from other sources.

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Government data show that the German GDP declined by 0.5% in the thrid quarter after declining 0.4% in the second quarter. IMF predicts GDP decline of 0.8% in 2009. Germany's recession look like the worst in Europe except for the UK which has many of the same problems as the US economy. Germany's housing market has seen prices grow by almost zero in the last 10 years and German consumers are not in debt so Germany felt fairly immune to the troubles facing the US and the UK and Spain. But Germany is a big exporter and it has become more dependent on exports in the last 10 years. Exports account for 41% of GDP and CHina sucked up alot of machinery exports from Germany and China is in the midst of a drastic slowdown. In fact for the first time China is seeing a decline in monthly electricity output. And China's GDP growth rate may go from 12% to the range of somewhere around 6% in 2009, considering that Chinese export factories are closing down as the USA its main export market is seeing a rapid slowdown. Its already reached 9% and the slowdown is just beginning as the US market is also at the beginning of its slowdown. As the US market declines further in 2009 China's export factories will face a further decline in orders. Comparing the US at 10%, Japan at 20% and Germany at 41% of GDP one can see how heavily dependent the Germans have become on exports, especially with Asia's booming economies sucking up German exports. New orders for German goods declined by 18% from their peak in November 2007. And this is just the beginnning. So German unemployment is expected to increase. Its true that German banks invested heavily in mortgage related securities and other risky assets abroad, and the international financial crisis has led to a bailout fund of 500 billion euros setup by the German government. But Bundesbank figures show that what is causing the drastic contraction is the drop in investment spending as loan demand has dropped. ...

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By settling for a 15% tariff Japan was protecting its other industries from the higher tariff of 24-25% proposed earlier. US industry has operated with no assistance from the US government and faces a financial markets structure in the US that is not helpful to American industry making long term investments that overseas makers with support from their governments are able to make. US workers suffered badly over three decades and the ineptitude of previous US presidents in protecting American workers from this situation. The Europeans and the Japanese, South Koreans know this and understand that the US plays the critical role in the free world and without it, without the workers and rural communities of the US, their way of life and freedom will suffer irreparable harm. Japanese PM Ishiba and its business organization Keidanren are focused on implementing the US Japan Trade Agreement mitigating any effects inside Japan. Japan was able to protect it's auto export model to the US from high tariffs settling for a moderate tariff of 15%. A similar agreement was accepted by Germany when Leyen accepted the 15% tariff on German car export model. For decades Germany and Japan have used their auto export model to take a large share of the US market, joined by Korean makers, putting American car makers and their workers at a disadvantage since the 1980's. This creates a level playing field in world trade and is in the interest of workers in the US. ...

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Arseniy Yatseniuk, resigns as prime minister of Ukraine in April 2016, as his popularity declines with falling living standards and corruption scandals. The new government is still from the old political elite. Prices have gone up by 50% in recent years and GDP has fallen in the three years of conflict with Russia.This article in the Economist magazine says young civil activists in Ukraine are working hard to set up institutions- sometimes parallel institutions such as the Reanimation Package of Reforms of 50 non-governmental civic organizations- that wil give Ukraine better governance after decades of corrupt governments. Online coverage on corruption is increasing creating an environment where the poor governance of the past is no longer the norm.The IMF which has a $17 billion loan package for Ukraine has ceased disbursements till Ukraine can take action against corruption and improve governance. The IMF insisted on the formation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. As the U.S., EU, and NATO, come closer to Ukraine, during a period of tense relations with Russia, the quality of Ukrainian governance is an important issue for formerly Communist Eastern European countries and for the rest of Europe. It all depends on civic society and young people with new aspirations to change the way things are done....

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The oldest professional soccer player and goal scorer is Kazuyoshi Miura who signed for the 35th season in Japan. He signed a one year contract extension with Japanese soccer team Yokohama FC. He is 52 years old. He started playing for Brazil's Santos in 1982 at the age of 18. He played for Genoa in Italy and Zagreb in Croatia, and is with Yokohama FC since 2005. He says he still has the same passion for soccer that he had at the age of 18 when playing for Santos in Brazil.

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This report in the Guardian says president Macron's party along with its small ally MoDem could win as many as three fourths of the 577 seats in parliament in the June 2017 election, or about 400-445 seats. The election showed a low turnout of 49%, with abstention highest among supporters of Marie Le Pen of the National Front on the extreme right and Le Melenchon on the extreme left.  A big loser is the Socialist Party which this report estimates losing about 200 seats. Les Republicains the other main party on the right is also a loser, as this report estimates it going from 199 seats to 70-130 seats. The National Front of Marie Le Pen could end up with one seat at worst or just below the threshold of 15 seats from 118 constituencies contested. This is because it faces competition from the right and the left parties for votes in every constitutency, and is kept out by the centre right and centre left coming together. Le Melenchon's France Unbowed is expected to win about 11-23 seats.  In this election young and working class voters stayed away, voters who supported the more extreme left and right wing parties. Chancellor Merkel called it "a vote for reforms." The big majority makes it possible for Macron to get laws to change the labor market to create more jobs, and to make changes to pension and unemployment benefits, so that France's economy can get moving again.  ...

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Germany records over 22,000 cases and 389 deaths on a single day, November 26, 2020, as Germany passes the 1 million mark in cases.

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Adani Group plans to invest $20 billion in renewable energy over 10 years. Modi has set a goal of 450 gigawatts for India. 

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Royal Dutch Shell will take  writedowns for impairment of assets as a result of low prices and the coronavirus for $15-$20 billion,

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The NYT editorial says the negative feedback loop of foreclosures begetting falling house prices, which beget more foreclosures, and further weaken banks, is well under way. One way to have broken this, was to enable good types of loan modifications, which reduce the principal for homeowners and reduce payments significantly. Sheila Bair at FDIC says 32% of prior payments is about the right amount. The bad types of loan modifications that lead to no reduction in principal, and put homeowners back in redefault because of large payments that homeowners "under water" or a lost job cannot afford, have so far been the dominant kind of loan modification. At present 14 million homeowners are "under water," in that their homes are worth less than what is owed on the mortgage. One of the crucial measures which would have enabled this, has not been pushed by the Obama administration through Congress. This was to pass an amendment that allowed bankruptcy judges to modify troubled mortgages. Banks which have taken billions of dollars in loans from the federal government were allowed to lobby aggressively to kill this amendment, and the Obama administration did little to push this amendment in Congress. 12 Senate Democrats joined 39 Senate Republicans to block a vote on the amendment. Says the NYT editorial "when the time came to stand up to the banking lobbies and cajole yes votes from reluctant senators-the White House did'nt. When the measure failed there wasn't even a statement of regret." This could turn out to be a major mistake, because as the NYT points out voluntary loan modifications have shown poor results. The administration's plan to provide incentives for loan modification is untried and tested, and may not produce significant results. With 14 million homeowners under water, and spiralling foreclosures, the situation may get out of control and seriously damage the economy. After the moratorium in home foreclosures ended there is expected to be a big surge in foreclosures, with estimates of 290,000 to 341,000 foreclosures in March, 2009. If this is allowed to continue it will undo all the good work in other areas, the stimulus spending, rebuilding the auto industry and other steps. It will also be more difficult to reverse as valuable time passes and the cost of the crisis escalates. A consensus among many experts was that stronger action in connection with the banks was required, and Martin Feldstein has warned about the danger posed by foreclosures since early 2008, see links....

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"Escalation" is the word used which ignores that more American lives have been lost to fentanyl and drug trafficking in the US over the last 15 years than in the Korean, Vietnam and First World War combined. How could this have been allowed to happen is a question for all Americans.

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Chrysler will contribute about $10 billion into a VEBA type trust. By this Chrysler can pass on $16 billion in healthcare obligations to the trust to be run by the UAW. New hires will be paid less in a two tier wage system. Chrysler will not sell Mopar part division thus keepig 2600 union jobs.

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Questions about the true cost of the Obama health care legislation and the assumption that the legislation cuts the deficit by billions of dollars. This WSJ editorial says one has to look at this closely, and not merely look at CBO projections, which may be based in a certain context and not reflect the true costs, especially because many accounting gimmicks and use of numbers to present a particular picture is taking place. The information this editorial cites is that: it uses 10 years of taxes to fund six years of subsidies, Social Security and Medicare revenues are double-counted to the tune of $398 billion, a new program funding long-tem care frontloads taxes but backloads spending, and the assumption of an automatic 25% cut to physician payments that Congress is unwilling to authorize. Rep. Rand Paul has tried to present an alternative view which needs to be studied just as closely, because of the enormous impact of a jump in spending at a time when the public finances are fragile. WSJ also cites the work of Richard Foster, the chief Medicare actuary, as an alternate perspective of how things could turn out, Doug Holtz-Eakin, and Eugene Steuerle. It calls for common sense in evaluating programs, entitlements, defense or other government spending. They not only cost money, but costs escalate over time as history has shown over decades, till they eventually are discovered to be not affordable unless the middle class is willing to dig deeper into its finances to pay for them. Alternate perspectives from a range of informed opinion, Howard Dean, Martin Feldstein, and the head of Harvard's Medical School show that the issue needs to be looked at closely and carefully and cannot be something in which CBO numbers can be trusted to tell the whole story. Especially when common sense, history, and informed opinion across a spectrum of thought advises caution, and fragile public finances also suggest caution. Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, says the health care bill is not real reform, and may do more harm than good. He says in a Washington Post article, December 17, 2009, the Obama health care bill does not insert competition into insurance markets, does not significantly reduce costs, and does not improve the delivery and use of health services. It was he says done with a political calculus and crafted for votes not real reform. Jeffrey S. Flier, Dean of the Harvard Medical School, gave the Obama health reform bill an "F" grade, saying in a Nov 18, 2009, WSJ article, that it was disingenuous to call this reform, Congress and the White House were simply deceiving the public. He said the bill will accelerate US health care spending, postpone most of the major health care problems, expecially the ones that drive cost, including the "fee for service" system and delivery of health care. He says in his discussions with economists and other health care leaders the opinion was unanimous that the bill will accelerate health care spending. He cites Massachusetts as an example, where access to care was expanded under the same dysfunctional system, and spending went up, and it doesn't work. Feldstein, who in early 2008 suggested proactive solutions to the mortgage debt crisis which were never adopted, says that the Obama health care law means higher taxes in the long run to pay for the $1 trillion cost of health care for the uninsured group over 10 years. Feldstein says that the Obama plan is to cut Medicare to cut spending, and will reduce the amount of medical services, as reduced spending comes from fewer services, not reducing payments to providers. And he asks if the cost reductions are weighted too heavily towards reduced services and not reduced payments to providers ,would this result in large cuts to services to affect the quality of healthcare for the 85% of the American people who are accustomed to a different pattern of healthcare. ...

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Merkel tells a Davos meeting in January 2011, that "the euro is much more than a currency, it is the embodiment of Europe today." The idea of the euro as needed for the political and economic integration of Europe is accepted. Merkel also says "that "solidarity and competitiveness are two sides of the same coin." Suggesting that the slower economies in Europe will have to remake their economies, just as East Germany did when it joined a reunified Germany. Mathias Dopfner, CEO of Axel Springer, says Merkel knows from personal experience the traumas faced by a bankrupt economy. At the time of reunification the deutsche mark would become the national currency, even though the value of the mark reflected productivity levels and the strength of the economy of the western part. East German businesses were priced out of the job market. About 14,000 businesses were shut down and 4 million jobs were lost in the first five years after formal reunification in 1990. Unemployment jumped to 20% in East Germany in 2005. After the fall of the Berlin Wall two million people of the 16 million living in the East moved west, most of them younger people. For West Germans there was a price also. Germany has raised 1.7 trillion euros through an income tax "solidarity surcharge" for modernizing East Germany. Volker Perthes, director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, says Merkel knows what resistance and what dangers come with structural adjustment programs. And she has to sell the programs and insist on strict conditions for German aid to Portugal, Spain and Greece. After many years the project has paid off. The unemployment rate in the east is 11.7%, much closer to the 6.4% in the west than before, and the growth rate in the east is 2.7% compared to the 3.6% in the west. The antiquated industrial base in the east has been replaced with a solar power sector and new chemical engineering and microelectronics industries....

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Nouriel Roubini has proven correct on global financial issues. He said in an interview on the sidelines of a symposium in Malaysia, that China needs to revalue its currency for its own sake. China will see a growth collapse in the next 2-3 years if it fails to do so. His point is that China can still maintain growth by shifting to domestic consumption and less infrastructure spending and exports. In his view growth should not be affected if China exports less and consumes more. He points to the decrease in consumption as a share of GDP from 45% to 36% in the last ten years- this ratio is 70% in the USA. A cheap yuan keeps foreign goods unaffordable and protects state owned companies which also get cheap credit, as keeping the yuan low requires China to keep interest rates artificially low. What this does is make a massive transfer of income from the household sector to the state owned companies, just at the time when China needs to do the very opposite of this. And compounding the problem is that the 25% of China's GDP that is made up of retained earnings of mostly state owned companies, goes into real estate and production facilities. See the link to David Barboza in the New York Times who points to the wasteful spending and real estate speculation by state owned companies. Roubini cites the automobile sector where capacity has doubled in the last year to 20 million, when the domestic market increased by 50% to 10 million vehicles. The stimulus only increased the effect of surplus capacity and misallocation of investment, with highways to nowhere and brand new airports that are three quarters empty. The Chinese leadership is beginning to grasp this, but the state owned companies and other interests who benefit fromm the old model, may make it difficult to reverse the trends. A lot is at stake in this, as it affects the U.S., as well as countries dependent on China's imports such as Australia, Canada, Brazil and Germany. ...

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This report confirms in a fact check that 15% of the global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from livestock farming. This includes dairy and meat.

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The increased availability of car loans and eased standards for auto loans has played a large part in rising auto sales in the U.S. Annual sales of cars and light trucks maintained a pace of 14.1 million vehicles in July 2012, and could reach 15 million for 2012. Lenders see the car loan market as more profitable and less risky than mortgage lending because of the shorter periods of the loans- 3 to 5 years and the low default rate. Currently only about 2.52% of auto loans are 30 days past due for second quarter 2012, according to Experian. Auto loans outstanding at the end of the 2nd quarter 2012, are $725 billion, according to the automotive division of Experian, up 5.7% from a year ago. The market for securities backed by auto loans has rebounded since the 2008 financial crisis. About $50 billion in bonds backed by auto loans were issued in the Jan-July 2012 period, according to Dealogic, compared to $53 billion in 2011. To get a picture of how this compares with mortgage securities- auto loan backed securities are up 33% above pre 2006 levels, and mortgage backed securities are about 70% below 2006 levels. A recent Fed survey of bank lending officials shows easing lending standards reported by 20% of respondents for the last 3 months for auto loans, compared to 3% for prime residential mortgages and 11% for credit cards....

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Peter Coy, Economics editor of Business Week, agrees with Paul Krugman's point made in a recent NYT op-ed column favoring staying on the course the Bernanke Fed has set, which is to continue its policy of monetary expansion as long as credit is tight and the economy is weak. The Fed has expanded monetary reserves Coy says by 114% over this year through May. The biggest increase since 1960 has been 16%. Coy says there is good reason for this. As other experts have pointed out, see links, most of the extra money the Fed has introduced into the economy has piled up in the reserves of banks. Consumers who who have debt at about 100% of USA GDP are not borrowing, businesses are not borrowing to invest, banks are not lending as before, and consumers are in a long period of debt reduction that will take years. This is why it is not inflationary. Consumer frugality, see links, is another factor that makes this situation a long term change in consumer behaviour, and a force for deflation. All this is happening in the background of a huge slack in the system as manufacturing capacity utilization is low at 68% and unemployment is increasing. Which is why informed experts looking at the situation on the ground see staying the course as the right action plan....

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A wind farm out at sea to start in 3 years, small renovation projects across France and Germany, a couple of billion dollars from the French government for home renovations- this kind of approach is considered completely unrealistic say EU legislators. One Danish legislator asks what is more unrealistic? Setting serious targets for conversion to renewable energy or depending on Putin's gas and oil?  These EU legislators are calling for aggressive action now. The European Commission set a 9% goal for energy savings by 2030, this has now been moved up to 13%. EU legislators are calling for 23% in savings by 2030. And even this may not be enough to meet the goals for climate change to prevent the disaster from climate change with fires and floods and heat waves that hurt agriculture and food supplies. A savings target of 19% is about the gas that runs 40% of the cars and trucks on American roads in 2021 or 214 million metric tons of oil. The French government has set aside 3 billion euros for comprehensive renovations of homes to save energy with a target of 300,000 homes in 2022. This is completely inadequate as it will cost 23 billion euros say experts on the Paris city council. Renovations are only running at 60,000 a year. A big part of the conversion in Europe is converting from gas heating to electric heating. France is boosting subsidies for new electric heat pump installations.   ...

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The support of 10 Republican senators now makes it possible to pass a legislation that covers the basics of controlling use of assault weapons in the US. This includes raising the minimum age for use from 18 years to 21 years. Senators Cornyn of Texas and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina are some of the Republican senators supporting this legislation. It also has the backing of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky who is the Minority Republican Leader in the Senate. A broader ban on all assault weapons does not have much support from Republicans.  For years a spate of shooting each year in schools and other places would lead to cries of outrage from Democrats and sympathy from Republicans and yet nothing got done to control the use of assault weapons. Now a more prudent approach is taking the place of a call for a complete ban. Small incremental steps are now seen as OK. President Biden also sees this as the right approach to move in the right direction till more agreement or a breakthrough can be achieved. This is not just on gun control but also on a number of social issues. This may also reduce the tensions in American society that were exacerbated with no controls on behaviour of social media companies. Corrective incremental steps may create the right environment where useful dialogue and discussion absent today can be brought back for making larger decisions in the interest of the American people in the future.  ...

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The Indian prime minister has ordered that a million job vacancies be filled in the next 18 months. About 21% of job openings in the Central government have not been filled says this report in The Indian Express. According to the Annual Report of the Department of Expenditure 21.75% of the 4.1 million sanctioned posts were vacant as of March 1, 2020. It is these and other additional jobs that will be filled in mission mode. Jobs are vacant at all levels of the different departments and ministries and regions.  About 92% of the positions are in the departments of Railways with 40%, Home Affairs with 30%, Civil Defense 11%, Postal 6% and Revenue 3%. Of the employees Indian Railways had 1.25 million on March 1, 2020, and 1.20 employees on March 1, 2022. The pandemic had the effect of restricting hiring of people needed. With the expansion of the economy the hiring for government has not kept pace. In the Armed Forces, for the Army no hiring took place in 2020 and 2021 recruitment years says this report in Indian Express.  There are calls at public meetings including at Defense Minister Rajnath Singh's rallies for "sena bharti chalu karo" to start recruitment drives for the army, navy and air force. The government is responding to the public's demand for recruitment to begin as the needs of the government grow and the economy grows, to keep pace with it. ...