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European companies rushed to make new business investment in Iran after the lifting of Iran sanctions with the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2015. This report in the NYT shows companies in Europe were wary that the nuclear detente with Iran would not last. As a result the European exports to Iran up to $12.8 billion in 2017 were up 30% but still ranked Iran as the 33rd largest trading partner, behind Serbia. Other problems were bureaucratic hurdles and a lack of coordination in Iran for moving ahead with projects. After the deal was signed companies such as Peugeot, Airbus, Total, Daimler moved ahead to invest in Iran. Yet the investments were made carefully considering the opposition of the Trump administration. In one deal Airbus agreed to provide 100 new aircraft for Iran Air's aging fleet, yet only 3 were delivered by May 2018. Daimler had a deal with Iran's Khodro vehicle maker for Fuso brand trucks, yet Daimler officials say demand was weak. A deal made by Total to explore for offshore natural gas may require a waiver under a "grandfather clause" say Total officials, or the option to turn over the investment to its minority partner CNPC, a Chinese state owned company. The U.S. ambassador to Germany, Mr. Grennell, says European companies should stop operations in Iran immediately showing the U.S. plans to take stronger action.  ...

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The 3 week old government in Italy, led by former EU commissioner, Mario Monti, announced a three year plan of 30 billion euros in tax increases, spending cuts, reform of pension plans, and efforts to boost growth. Monti said at a news conference that "Italians are to blame for our public debt, and we risk compormising everything we've accomplished in the past 60 years." Under the new plan retirement age for women in the private sector would be increased from 60 to 66 years by 2018, bringing it in line with retirement ages for men. Italy's Labor minister, Elsa Fornero, broke down in tears as she described the change, saying it was necessary to avoid "collective impoverishment." Italy faces the difficult task of refinancing $400 billion in short term debt coming up for renewal in 2012, just as bond yields for Italy have spiked to over 7%. Because Italy lacks an extensive day care system, women helped raise grandchildren after early retirement at age 60. Other changes were to impose a 1.5% one time tax on money repatriated back to Italy under a tax amnesty scheme setup by former premier Berlusconi. Action was taken against widespread tax evasion by banning cash payments above 1000 euros. Stimulus measures of 10 billion euros are designed to boost small business and reduce high youth unemployment running at 29%. Companies get tax breaks of 2 billion euros if they hire young people....

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A test supply of 170 megawatts from the Kudankulam nuclear project in Tamilnadu state is added to India's southern grid. Full supply of 1000 megawatts is to be added by the Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. by end of 2013. India's Supreme COurt dismissed petitions questioning the project's safety in May 2013. India signed a preliminary contract for nuclear project in Gujarat with Westinghouse. The state owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India is in negotiations for a project planned in Maharashtra state. Over the next 20 years India plans to increase nuclear production capacity from 4700 megawatts to 63,000, a 12 fold increase. The first Kudankulam reactor going into operation in 2013 comes into operation after a delay of 7 years because of antinuclear and land protests as well as court cases. The slowing of growth in India, depreciation of the currency, and the acutely felt energy shortages as industrialization moves forward, are leading to a new perception of the importance of nuclear energy to supplement energy generated from coal and other sources. China is also moving forward aggressively with development of nuclear energy and working with Areva and other companies for safe nuclear energy development. The new planned reactor by Areva in the south of England is also likely to offset the perception of nuclear energy after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. For these reasons nuclear energy development in India is likely to accelerate without the long delays seen earlier....

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How crypto can touch small towns like Elkhart Kansas destroying financial assets. In this small farming town in Kansas crypto costs the town of 1900 people mostly farmers $30 million says this report in NYT. About $4.8 billion are lost in crypto scams every year (NYT).

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Ford may be preparing for a bigger loss in 2008 than the $2.7 billion loss in 2007. Sales of the Expedition and Explorer and the F-150 truck have dropped significantly. These sales have dropped nearly 30% through May of this year over last year for Expedition and Explorer, and dropped 19% on the F-150 truck. One anlayst says Ford has $7-9 billion after all its other obligations as a cushion so the automaker is on thin ice. GM faces similar problems.

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Joanna Stern in the WSJ says the iPhone X at $1000 is worth it. She details all the new things you can do with the iPhone X. Stern calls it a bridge between the older iPhones and a new type of iPhone. In a separate review in the Washington Post the value proposition of the iPhone X is questioned- the iPhone 7 at $550 and the iphone 8 at $800 are considered just as powerful and get most of what you want done without the fancy features. The iPhone X packs the features of larger phones like the Plus into a smaller phone, yet is it worth paying the price of about 2 iPhone 7s. If you want the excitement of trying something new like Stern then go ahead, for value and performance the iPhone 8 or the iPhone 7 are seen as sufficient.

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Walgreens is changing its growth model to add the business of Health and Wellness buying two companies I-trax Inc. and Whole Health Management which run 350 health centres at corporate offices. Pharmacies will be added to these centres. Its targeting 7600 office sites with 1000 or more employees that could use a health-care center. Its competitors CVS and Walmart are going into managing employer drug benefit programs, with Walmart's selling point being reducing costs of paying for prescriptions for employers.

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Moody's Ratings company downgraded banks in the U.S. and Europe on June 21, 2012. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup were downgraded two notches. Morgan Stanley managed to stave off a three notch downgrade. Credit Suisse was downgraded three notches. Bank of America was down one notch, and Wells Fargo which has only a small trading operation was not reviewed. This is the first time since 2007 that Moody's has conducted a sweeping downgrade of banks. About 100 banks were reviewed by Moody's. Banks being downgraded have large trading operations or investment banking business that is subject to higher risks. Greg Bauer, a managing director of global banking at Moody's said in his statement: All of the banks affected by today's actions have significant exposure to the volatility and risk of outsized losses inherent to capital-markets activities." For Moody's the main issue was that the capital bases of banks are maintained, considering that government support is less likely than before, according to Mr. Wassenberg, Moody's managing director for European banks. The impact on banks will be fewer opportunities for trading revenues for some banks, and will raise borrowing costs for banks. Moody's also cut the ratings of large European banks with significant trading operations. This includes Deutsche Bank, Barclays, HSBC, RBS, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Societe Generale, UBS, and Royal Bank of Canada....

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523 European banks borrowed 489 billion euros from the European Central Bank on Dec. 21, 2011, under the newly created Long Term Financing Operation of the ECB. This is designed to meet the financing needs of European banks which are shutoff from normal financing of selling unsecured bonds to private investors because of market anxiety. Much of this is for replacing other outstanding ECB loans, with analysts estimating about 190 billion euros of new liquidity being injected into the banking system. This also has the effect of reducing the borrowing rates for government bonds. In Spain the government sold 5.6 billion euros of government bonds at an auction on Dec. 20, 2011, with the interest rates dropping from 5.7% a month earlier to 1.7%. Small and midsize banks in Spain helped surging demand by buying the bonds to use as collateral for three year loans from the ECB at 1%.

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Portugal leads the world in developing soccer players, no country has hundreds of soccer professional players all over the world. A country of just 10.3 million, the defending European champion, it has 292 professional players in 45 countries. Even Italy, another soccer crazy nation has only 105 pros abroad. Much of the development of soccer players from a very young age happens at sporting clubs Benefica, Porto, and Sporting. They act as scouts, finishing schools after rigorous practice, and places that transfer players to other clubs, all put together in one place with large soccer academies. The uniformity of coaching, and the primacy of soccer as a sport helps Portugal dominate soccer in a way that is not reflected in its size. Soccer fields in all directions is what you see at Benefica's training facilities in Portugal. 10 soccer pitches are not enough for the director of Benefica's youth academy. 10 different teams of exciting preteens to Portuguese pros need to practice every day.  Christiano Ronaldo was found at Sporting, Ricardo Carvalho at Porto. One boarding school at Benefica has 89 students who do their academic studies at the club and play soccer, attend classes in the morning and play in the afternoon. There are 3 different teams under 14. A pathway puts some of them into the senior squads or for them to become attractive enough to draw a large transfer fee outside Portugal. Five different talent centers and 200 people search for talent by watching under 10's or 12's play soccer games. Once they are chosen they move to Seixal, outside of Lisbon for training. The clubs essentially create value through selection and training for years in soccer academies within the clubs. The clubs support their activities by having a lower cost way to access talent at home, and by generating the hefty transfer fees. Since 2014-2015 season the surplus for Benefica is about 540 million euros. Costs are in the eight figures making it possible to generate a profit by having a sale of a few good players to lower profile teams such as Israel, even if they are not at the level of the top players in the Champions League.  ...

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The Waldorf was built in 1931 by Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton. After a century of use it was outdated and needed major repairs. In 2014 Hilton decided to sell it and hired Blackstone advisors who said it would get about $1 billion. China had just allowed Chinese to buy foreign assets in 2014, and a Chinese founder of a regional insurance company Anbang Group offered $1.9 billion when Hilton knowing that China was keen in acquiring foreign assets priced it at $2 billion. In 2017 only three years later China decided to pull back from allowing private investments of this kind, Anbang's Wu was arrested for business practices. 2017 was the time when Xi at the 19th  Communist CCP Party Congress put forward his ideas for "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" and made it part of China's Constitution, and launched anti-corruption drive against corrupt business practices. The Waldorf was taken over in this drive by Chinese government. For 10 years China held onto the property and built 375 900 square feet condos in the Waldorf for $6 billion and 375 hotel rooms by the time it reopened in 2025. Was it worth it? Even if China could get $3.2 million for each of 375  900 square foot condos this would generate $1.1 billion. It would take 8 years to generate the remaining $900 million of the $2 billion paid for the Waldorf by Anbang's founder Wu if the Waldorf's 375 rooms were rented out for $1000 a night for 300 days. China would still be at a loss for $6 billion. This type of extravagant business investments characterized Japan in the 1980's and 1990's leading to the gradual stagnation in Japan's economy as other countries caught up in quality control and other production efficiency practices using new IT technologies. China looks to be following the Japanese example with infrastructure overbuilding. The US and EU will catch up in the next wave of investment in America and Europe by 2030 and other Asian economies such as India will also catch up with China. Investment productivity will play a part, new technologies will play a part, and a return of manufacturing to the US and EU, a build of India's manufacturing and logistics will play a part. ...

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Spain's global retail chain Zara will close 1200 stores or 16% of its outlets worldwide, as it shifts to selling more online. Zara says it will close smaller stores or stores where sales can be shifted to online. Spain says it will spend 1 billion euros on digital investments over 3 years. Inditex the company running Zara stores is known for its quick design and sourcing process which is done close to its Spanish headquarters.

About 78% of Inditex stores are now open, and sales which were down by 51% in May are now down 34%. For Inditex  online has done well, up 50% for the quarter and up 95% in May over April.

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Indian finance minister Sitharaman announces Rs. 60 billion ($857 million) in equity for the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund to provide Rs. 1000 billion  ($14.2 billion) debt financing for infrastructure to 2025. This is part of a wide ranging stimulus 3.0 package for creating jobs, providing aid to borrowers during the pandemic, aid to farmers, and aid for the informal economy including street vendors and small retail. With the largest population in the world the Indian Ocean region of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burma, and Indonesia from the former British and Dutch empires, requires a resilient response to the coronavirus pandemic. This is crucial for the future revival of the world economy. 

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The Japanese Consulate in Lithuania is about to close in 1940. Jewish people from Poland have moved to Lithuania. As the Germans move across Europe the vice consul in Kaunas, Lithuania says he has to do something to help Jewish people to get to safety. Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan had authorized issue of visas to applicants. He uses this authority to issue 2100 visas, one visa sufficient for each family. 

It will be an extraordinary journey. From Lithuania to Vladivostock, Russia., and from there by boat to Japan. In Kobe the Jewish community there gets the 10 day transit visa extended so that a final destination can be planned. The journey then begins to to other parts of the world.

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India's second moon mission will land a rover on the lunar surface near the South pole on September 7. The mission includes an orbiter, a lander named Vikram, and a six wheeled rover named Pragyaan. The orbiter was launched on July 22, entering the moon's orbit a month later in tricky manoeuvres, followed by the lander being set off on September 2. The last 15 minutes of the mission, the landing itself on the lunar surface is critical to the mission. During this operation the speed has to be brought down quickly for a soft landing. 

India has accomplished this with low budget. Chandrayan 2 mission cost is about $150 million. 

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The tariffs dispute with China escalates as China increases the tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods from 5-10% to 25% starting June 1st. The U.S. put its tariff increase on $200 billion of Chinese goods in effect on May 9, increasing it from 10% to 25%. The U.S. exports less to China than China does to the States by a wide margin making it possible for Mr. Trump to up the ante. Mr. Lighhizer's office says it is looking at tariffs on all remaining goods from China imported to the U.S. if China does not agree not to renege on its commitments and assurances to the U.S. in the talks on improper technology transfers and other matters. 

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Apple's sales in India are insignificant because of the lack of 3G networks. RIM's Blackberry and apps work well on the existing 2G networks. Prices are higher with the cheapest iPhone costing $705 at a Reliance iStore. The cheapest iPad 2 goes for $603. Blackberry phones cost less than $200. As a result Apple's iPhone sales are only 2.6% of India's smartphone shipments for the 2nd quarter 2011. RIM's is 15%, Samsung Electronic's is 21%, and Nokia's 46%, according to IDC. RIM is extending its distribution in India from 15 cities in 2010 to 80 cities in 2011. IDC estimates that smartphone shipments in India will grow by 68% a year, reaching 81.5 million units by 2015.

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Under the McConnell-Biden fiscal cliff deal of Jan. 1, 2013, $620 billion is raised for deficit reduction over 10 years. This is made up of $395 billion from raising the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 35% for the top 1% of filers who make $450,000 for couples or 400,000 for singles. Raising the top rate on capital gains and dividends to 20% from 15% raises $55 billion. Limiting the personal exemption and itemized deductions on incomes over $250,000 is a key component as it raises $150 billion. This reduction of tax expenditures was recommended by Simpson-Bowles deficit commission and Republican advisor Martin Feldstein, with more money raised under their proposals than the current proposal which follows the Pease format. Under the Pease limits named after a Congressman who proposed this in the 1990's, 3% of the amount above the threshhold income is deducted from the total deductions. Feldstein's proposal limited deductions to 2% of adjusted gross income. Romney offered a plan to limit deductions to $25,000. Finally, increasing the estate tax to 40% from 35% raises $20 billion....

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Rockwell Collins CEO, Clay Jones, talks to the Journal's David Kesmodel, about Rockwell's strategy as the U.S. Defense Department faces large cutbacks. Rockwell supplies the cockpit electronics on military aircraft. With the growth in sales of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and Airbus's jumbo jet, Jones is shifting resources, capital investments and engineers to the commercial aircraft business. He tells Kesmodel that his No.1 problem is to position Rockwell in the international area to benefit from sales to India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Turkey, South Korea, Australia, countries which he says will have to build their own aircraft capabilities as the U.S. pulls back from overseas bases. He sees international sales going up from 33% to 40%. Only small acquisitions are planned, of between $50-100 million, as Rockwell prefers organic growth.

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The growing middle class in Mexico is to be seen in cities like Queretaro, far from the drug violence seen in cities on the Texas border. Even though growth has averaged only 2-3%, the number of Mexicans who see themselves as middle class in a country of over 100 million is 65%, according to a survey by pollster Jorge Buendia. The definition of middle class is a new refrigerator, a car and a couple of cellphones. Sometimes this is also aspiring to be or thinking you are middle class. A big change is the shift to small families. Astonishing as this may sound, Mexico's fertility rate has declined from 7.3 children per woman in 1960 to 2.3 today, according to the World Bank. The U.S. fertility rate is 2.1 children per woman.

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The U.S. Senate's Commerce Committee report on Takata airbags failures says the company stopped safety audits between 2009-2011 for financial reasons. At least 8 deaths and 100 injuries have been reported from faulty airbags which rupture and spray shrapnel when they fail in vehicles as a result of propellants degrading over time. The report cites problems on the manufacturing lines revealed in emails inside the company. This has led automobile companies to fix the problem in 34 million automobiles, in the largest ever recall in the U.S. The Senate report also says the regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) were slow to respond. The Transportation Department inspector general's report is critical of regulators at the NHTSA. Takata and 10 automakers are conducting separate investigations for root causes.

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Whirlpool shifts 80-100 jobs from its Monterrey plant to an Ohio factory producing machines for laundromats. The Monterrey plant will not lose jobs because it is making more washing machines for the expanding Mexican market. Electricity is cheaper in the U.S. than in Mexico which provides some of the savings. Transportation from Mexico also offsets the higher wage costs in the U.S. of $18-19 at Whirlpool plants. According to Reshoring Initiative- which supports shift back of offshored jobs, the loss of jobs to offshore locations continues but is now being offset by job inflows to the U.S. Some of these inflows that receive less attention are manufacuring facilities being setup by foreign corporations in the U.S. as costs of energy decline and labor become more competitive.

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A Brookings Institution study of hiring trends and unemployment in the 100 largest metropolitan areas of the U.S. at the end of 2012, shows 78 metropolitan areas adding jobs in the 4th quarter 2012. 14 of these areas had more jobs at the end of 2012 compared to before the 2008-2009 recession. Six of these cities were in Texas. This included Knoxville, which gained from jobs added at a nearby VW plant. Other cities were Oklahoma City, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Charleston. Only three cities in the East and West are on the list- Pittsburgh, Washington and San Jose, and none in the midwest, showing the geographical divide in job gains. And Washington D.C. will lose government jobs after job cuts in the government. Charleston will lose jobs from cuts in military spending.

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If you bought a Hyundai you had peace of mind that if youwere laid off Hyundai would buy the car back, and it would not affect your credit rating. Hyunda has bought back less than 100 cars under its Asssurance program which started in January 2009 according to a Hyundai spokesman. Yet it has done wonders for Hyundai's image in uncertain times. It put Hyundai in afavorable way on people's minds. Hyundai market share went up from 3.1% in November 2008 to 4.3% today according to Autodata Corp. And so Hyundai is the only car company that increased sales in 2008. Only two years back Hyundai was struggling to get respect in the American market. See "Hyundai gets No Respect," by David Kiley in Business Week in 2007.

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Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF, says Britain may have to turn to the IMF for assistance if those holding British assets lose confidence in the government's ability to pay its debts, and start abandoning the pound. This happened in 1976. In Johnson's view the bottom line is that there is abudget problem and a banking problem, and adjustments will need to be made - and these adjustments are easier to make with an IMF loan than without one. Britain's budget deficit is 11%of its GDP compared with 13% forecast for the USA for 2009. And government debt which is 40% now is expected to go up to 80% of the overall economy in coming years, even 100%. The ratio approaches 80% in troubled economies like Italy and Greece.