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As the price of oil hits $40 a barrel, and with the lack of investor confidence in China's economic policies in relation to the stock market and currency devaluation, global stock markets decline sharply in August 2015.

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Dilma Rousseff's experiences as a student under the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1970. The years of the military dictatorship span 1964 to 1985. Other leaders who suffered detention and torture include Bachelet of Chile and Mujica of Uruguay. These leaders rarely talk about their experiences as they have changed from their years as students and Latin America has been transformed in the last two decades by democratic governments. The economic goals have now been achieved in a peaceful way.

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The "negative Tier 1 capital" at Deutsche Bank's U.S. bank holding company Taunus Corp. of negative 7.58% cited by FDIC chairman Sheila Bair. Parent Deutsche Bank has total equity lower than U.S. banks Citicorp, Chase and Bank of America, with total equity equivalent to 4.4% of assets using a U.S. style approach says Eavis, making the Bair criticism relevant and timely in 2010.

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British budget cuts announced in Parliament by Britain's Finance Minister, George Osborne. About 83 billion pounds in cuts by 2015 were announced. But Joseph Stiglitz, writing in The Guardian, argued that the plan was a big gamble, as declining tax revenues with lower growth, would lead to smaller deficit reductions. The gamble is that the private sector will pick up, and make up for the reduction in public outlays. If this does not happen, this risks sending the economy into a tailspin. Osborne said that 490,000 jobs will be lost over the next 4 years, some from attrition. Payments to the long term unemployed will also be cut for those who fail to seek jobs, saving $11 billion a year. A new 12 month limit will be imposed on long term jobless benefits. Increase in the retirement age will start in 2020, from 65 to 66 years. At the same time free eye tests, prescription drugs and bus passes remain. Premier Cameron promised not to make cutbacks in health care in the period before the election. This was his way of helping the Conservatives make a comeback to power....

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The situation in small towns in East Germany such as Loecknitz on the Polish border. The economy is depressed with unemployment twice the level in West Germany, and young people moving away. The economy on the Polish side is much healthier and Poles are moving to the German side from the Polish city of Szczecin, a 30 minute drive. Poles are also buying depressed German real estate and starting businesses. This is adding to the local economy as young Germans have moved to the larger cities but there is the sense of being left behind among some Germans. It comes from the period of reunification when after investing $2 trillion to integrate the two economies the best that could be done was making cities like Leipzig and Dresden in the east prosper but leaving the coutnryside in East Germany in an abandoned state as young people sought opportunities elsewhere. This may be why Angela Merkel who grew up and studied in the former East Germany told the German parliament in June 2012, "Germany's strength is not infinite. Germany's powers, too, are not unlimited."...

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Howes gives Marchionne high marks for doing what Daimler failed to do. He says Fiat took the best of what Chrysler had and melded it with the best parts of Fiat to create an integrated company. Both Chrysler and Fiat benefit in the process. There is a lot to be done especially with paying off government debt, building the fuel efficient vehicles essential to do well in a time of high gasoline prices, and operating in a highly uncertain economic environment. But the steps taken so far show Marchionne has put Chrysler on the right path. The new version of the Jeep Cherokee has done well- with a sales increase of 34% in first quarter 2011 over the prior year.

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GM's handling of the recall for 114,000 Chevrolet Tavera sports utility vehicles in India in July 2013. 10 employees including GM's vice president for global engine engineering were fired by CEO Dan Akerson because of misleading Indian government officials about the result of emissions tests on the Tavera. The Tavera is a $15,000 sports utility vehicle designed for the Indian market.

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The yen is 34% stronger than the Korean won since mid 2008, hurting Japan's competitive edge. This affects exporters like Toyota which sees annual profit reduced by $390 million or 35 billion yen for every one yen appreciation against the dollar. The dollar now trades at 88 yen over 30% stronger than the precrisis level in 2008. So how does the new Japanese government see this. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the Bank of Japan have made comments suggesting that they favor a stronger yen, making imports cheaper to help spark a rebound in consumer spending missing in Japan since the 1980's. This would reduce the dependence on exports for growth, something that severely hurt Japan and Germany when the world economy took a dive late last year in the global financial crisis.

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Fiat acquires a 35% stake in Chrysler with the option to take a 55% stake and majority ownership at later date. The way Marchionne puts it offers clues to Fiat's thinking and strategy. He said this will offer Fiat the opportunity to gain access to a relevant automotive market. Fiat exited the American market in 1983 after years of poor quality. Under new leadership Fiat has come up with bestselling small and fuel eficient cars in Europe. So it is now in a position to bring these cars to the US, where even though the market is declining there may be room for the small cars Fiat is famous for like the Fiat 500. Chrysler received a $4 billion loan from the US government, and this government assistance under an administration keen on keeping a loss of jobs to a minimum must also have helped Fiat make its investment. It may also have been seen as an opportunity with a low cost for Fiat, as Cerberus Capital which owns Chrysler is eager to get out of its failed Chrysler investment. The US government would also be keen on seeing Fiat becoming an eventual owner of Chrysler, because of its innovative, evironment friendly, fuel efficient small car development and its offerings in Europe that might find appeal in the US....

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How Petraeus won support in Congress and with public opinion, while at the same time changing the nature of the effort in Iraq. His struggles with General Fallon even though he reported directly to President Bush, who wished to disengage too quickly to make adifference in the failing effort to bring security. The first effort was to bring security with the surge in troops, then to build the Iraqi forces. To keep public opinion informed about tangible achievements of modest goals such as security for ordinary Iraqis, and fewer American casualties, rather than some beacon of democracy goal for the Middle East. A detailed account by the Washington Post of how this played out in the words of key players like Petraeus, Fallon, Ambassador Crocker and others, and what it may tell one about the lessons for another very different effort in a rural mountainous backward country like Afghanistan. One that emerges is to set modest goals like security, try new approaches but with a clear eye on the field, put in younger leaders who can bing flexibility and imagination and intellect, but disengage on favorable terms that achieves these modest objectives....

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Financial Stability FOrum will be renamed the Financial Stability Board and include 10 additional members, These additional members are from developing countries or emerging markets, including Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, and China. This forum which currently brings together regulators, central bankers and finance ministers from a few wealthy nations, will now reflect the views of emerging countries. It previously only served as aforum for exchanging ideas. Now it will be given the task of drafting the detailsfor global standards for financial institutions, including benchmarks for executive pay and how much risk that financial firms can take on. But there is still some resistance to the idea of getting ideas from different sources and including the benefit of a diversity of experiences and backgrounds, even though some of these countries, have borne the brunt of these recurring economic crises in the past, as have Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics says that you have to hear out China but objects to taking advice from Argentina, a comment which reveals the insular nature of these forums and boards in the past, with little or no representation from places where a majority of the word's peoples live. As would be expected in the light of that comment, there is resistance to giving China, India, Brazil, Russia, and other large developing countries like Mexico, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia proper representation in the IMF's governing bodies, and having the rules changed so that the head of the IMF and other important staff members could be selected from emerging countries. Each of these countries can bring adifferent perspective to the decisions made at the IMF, as most of them have suffered from these recurring economic crises in the postwar period. South Korea's experience with the IMF is the most recent and is covered in the link to S. Korea and the IMF, and if reflected in the policy making at IMF could help it perform a more constructive role in this crisis. This is also the case with some of the other countries....

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With 816 Democrats losing office in state legislatures during the Obama years, more than under any president since Dwight Eisenhower, some Democrats say the Democratic bench is much weaker today.

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On February 11, 2011, the day Mubarak leaves office, Mohamed ElBaradei, has this to say in the New York Times. ElBaradei won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, and headed the International Atomic Energy Agency. He says the only thing to fear for Egyptians and the international community is the shadow of a repressive past. He sees the rebirth of Egypt as representing the hope of a new era in which Arab society, Muslim culture and the Middle East, are no longer seen through the lens of war and radicalism, but as contributors to the forward march of humanity, modernized by advanced science and technology, enriching society by its diversity of art and culture. To get this process started he calls for a three member presidential council with one member from the military, and a transitional government of national unity to run the country. Its first tasks would be to dissolve the Parliament, abolish the old constitution, replace it with a provisional constitution. The primary job of the new interim governmet and presidential council would be to set in motion the process to turn Egypt into a free and democratic society. The first step for that process would be drafting a democratic constitution to be put to a referendum, and preparing for free and fair presidential elections within one year....