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Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, is critical of the British government's cuts in annual rent subsidies by 8%, or $3.2 billon, by 2014-15. London Councils, the umbrella group for London's 33 local authorites, says that 82,000 households in London will become homeless as a result of these cuts. Johnson told the BBC that the cuts will push renters to the suburbs- as has happened in Paris- and he will not tolerate a Kosovo-style cleansing of London. A labor party lawmaker in Leeds says that 15,000 families in Leeds will be affected by rising rents.

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The Wall Street Journal interviews Amr Moussa, leading candidate for the presidential elections in Egypt. He sees a change in policy towards Israel, and a parliament that has many Islamic legislators.

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The Liberal Democrats lost badly in the May 2011 local elections in Britain. Voters also overwhelmingly rejected the alternative voting system that the Liberal Democrats supported. The vote on an alternative voting system was one of the key conditions put up by the Liberals when they joined the Conservatives in a coalition government. About 69% voted to keep the current voting system supported by the Conservative party. In local races Labor and the Scottish National Party made gains at the expense of the Liberals. The Liberals lost 695 of their 1,751 seats in local councils, 12 of 17 seats in the Scottish parliament, and one of six seats in the Welsh assembly. Tory support remained steady, but voters turned away from the Liberals to show they do not support the austerity cuts of the Cameron led government. This will pose problems for Liberal leader Nick Clegg's continued participation in the coalition.

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The decision reached at the OPEC meeting on June 5, 2015, was to maintain production at current levels of an official level of 30 million barrels a day. This official level now acts as an indicator, as actual production is estimated at 31 million barrels a day.

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William Broeksmit built Merrill Lynch's business of trading financial derivatives with Anshu Jain in the early 1990's, and was later hired by Deutsche Bank with Jain for the investment bank of Deutsche Bank. He is found to have committed suicide by hanging, with multiple suicide notes including one to Jain. Coroners say the notes show Broeksmit felt he was being investigated in connection with probes into Deutsche Bank and was being abandoned by colleagues.

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Population experts including Liang Zhongtang a demographer at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, are not convinced the change in the one-child policy in 2013 will have come in time to reverse the trend in increase of elderly population relative to the younger population. Zhongtang says the whole policy should have been removed. According to UN projections China's labor force will lose 67 million workers from 2010 to 2030. During this period the elderly population is expected to increase from 110 million in 2010 to 210 million in 2030. Wang Feng, a demographer at Fudan University in Shanghai, is skeptical about how much difference the new policy will make. He says the figures by population experts showing a maximum of 2 million additional childbirths over the next 3 years, starting about 10 months from now won't make much difference, and these additions will not enter the labor force for another 20 years.

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A shocking fact about oversupply in one crucial industry. Automakers worldwide have the industry capacity to make 94 million vehicles. According to researcher CSM Worldwide the current sales in late 2008 reflects demand for 60 million vehicles worldwide. This is about 34 million extra vehicles and represents about 100 plants. Toyota has already cut production in Japan by 27% in November, the biggest cuts seen at Toyota in 30 years. The numbers for 2009 will reflect a deepening downturn from higher unemployment and lower spending. Not all of this capacity wil be cut as automakers will look for a rebound as customers replace aging vehicles, but as sales decline in Russia, China and emerging markets and in the USA and Europe, some consolidation will take place and many plants will have to close in the US, China, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

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Krugman says that the Democratic party will have to look elsewhere for its leadership needs than the Obama administration. He faults the administration for its pay freeze for federal workers, when the issue of the extension of the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes is the much larger issue in terms of savings for deficit reduction.

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Marchionne's major achievement is the genuine integration of Fiat's operations with Chrysler's operations using the strengths of both parts of the operation. Daimler showed little interest in doing this and the result was a failure of the merger between Daimler and Chrysler. Another aspect is the use of Fiat's Alfa Romeo and Maserati models to build new Chrysler vehicles. The new Dodge Dart which gives 40 miles per gallon and which gives Chrysler entry into the small car market, is based on the chassis and technology of Fiat's Alfa Romeo brand. Another vehicle of this type is the Maserati Kubang, an affluent buyer SUV based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee.