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This report in FR24 cites the director of research at France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Inserm, about the damaging effects of an insecticide used in the French West Indies. The result is that there are violent protests against the vaccine mandate being implemented in the French West Indies. 

The FR24 report says that about a third of the marine coastline, and a third of agricultural land and land for breeding, in the West Indies islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique is polluted by the insecticide chlordecone. The insecticide was first used in banana plantations in the French West Indies against banana insects. The insecticide has now contaminated the soil and groundwater. 

 

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Kaname Harada, 98 years, was a Japanese fighter pilot during World War II. Here NYT's Martin Fackler provides this exceptional account of Harada's effort to remind each new generation since 1965 of the horrors of war, and why Japan should not forget the lessons of World War II. In 1965 Harada started teaching kindergarden children at a school he opened to help give a new Japanese generation the right values of peace. Since he retired he gives frequent public speeches on the values of peace, and how Japan has benefitted from the post war peacetime period. He reminds listeners about the horrors of war from his own experience shooting down 19 Allied aircraft from his Zero fighter plane, and being close enough to see the horror stricken faces of Americans in the other planes. Even at the age of 98, Harada's voice has vigor though he suffers from throat cancer. His message is that the best way for Japan to protect its children, and its children's children from war, is never to forget. He says the current generation of leaders were born after the war and have no idea what it is....

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Li Keqiang, China's new premier, entered Peking University in 1978 by excelling in merit exams. Li and a fellow student, Yang Baikui, translated the English book "The Due Process of Law" by British jurist Lord Denning. Professor Gong Xiangrui, brought the book to China and educated his students in the ideas of constitutional law and western liberalism. Yang says Li learned English on his own and meticulously carried a stack of notecards with English on one side and Chinese translation on the other. Li would study the cards while waiting for a bus or in the line at the school cafeteria. Li has political discusions with students from that time, some of whom joined the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989. He is the son of a mid level county official from Anhui province and moved in the party ranks through diligent effort. Li's doctoral thesis is in economcs and he is expected to focus on economic changes, with Xi Jinping, the new president, taking the lead in making changes to the political system. Fellow students from Li's days at Peking University say the difference between them and Li is the pace of democratization, with Li looking at it as a longer process. Recent articles by Li Keqiang on economic change show his emphasis on urbanization as a way to improve agricultural conditions with a smaller number of farmers improving producitvity in agriculture, and the importance of creating a better social safety net for people in China....

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Instead of going through layers of executives before speaking to the CEO, quality chiefs at Toyota now speak directly with the CEO. Mr. St. Angelo who heads the Quality group at Toyota for the American region met directly recently with Mr Akio Toyoda. There are in all 6 Quality chiefs for six regions worldwide. Akio's questioning during a Congressional investigation appears to be a turning point and he is determined to shake things up. He choked up at the National Press Club in Washington while thanking employees and dealers for their support. See the links to Akio Toyoda for Akio's education and experience in the U.S., which may have better prepared him for this challenge than his more parochial mindset predecessors who lacked this type of background.

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Sorkin looks at the period when Carly Fiorina was an executive at Lucent Technologies. He cites Donald Trump's comment in the presidential debate about Fiorina's time at Lucent, that "it was not a good picture." Questions relate to how Lucent at the time used financing of customers to buy its products to improve results. Vendor financed transactions and sales were an issue raised in Fortune magazine during Fiorina's unsuccessful 2010 Senate campaign. Several books on Fiorina also raise this issue. In one of the books by Peter Burrows, Prof. Khurana at Harvard points out that the creative accounting and ample credit offered to customers had a lot to do with Lucent's results, and Fiorina's appointment as HP CEO would not have happened had this been known. Lucent's later downfall came with layoffs of 50,000 employees in 2001.

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Several experts point to a dangerous change in the nature of unemployment in this downturn. Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute, says people are more likely to get stuck with unemployment now than at any time in the post war period. Andrew Stettner, deputy Director of the National Employment Law Project, says a larger share of the unemployed are not going to be able to go to the same line of work. They will need new skills, just like an auto worker in a permanently downsized industry would have to find new skills to make a product in the renewable energy field or health care. And the law as it currently stands does not help either. Because if an unmeployed worker looks for training or goes back to school he loses his unemployment benefits, something the Obama administration proposes to change. What this means is that many of the unemployed will end up as permanent job losers. Rob Valetta, an economist at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank says that throughout the the last 3 decades including good times, the unemployment pool is shifting towards permanent job losers. Lawrence Katz, a Harvard University economist, points out that once workers exhaust their unemployment benefits and don't get new training, they become disconnected to the labor market, and bascially end up on disability or become permanently unemployed. The statistics bear this out. In April 2009, 47.1% of the people collecting state unemployment insurance exhausted the usual 26 weeks of benefits without finding work, according to the Bureau of Laor Statistics, that is the highest rate on record. In December 2007, there were about 2 unemployed workers for every job opening, according to Labor Department data. In March 2009 there were five unemployed workers for every opening. Mark Beaupre, 49, of Providence, R.I. lost his $8 an hour manufacturing job an year ago, one of many manufacturing jobs he has held since the 1980's. His wife Cathy lost her customer service job a year ago. This couple who together made $50,000 a year, are now behind on their mortgage payments and have applied for food assistance. At a recent job fair in Providence he says three thousand people turned up and he could not even get into the parking lot. ...

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German chancellor Merz makes his frist trip to Asia starting with India. He sees India and Germany as natural partners and shifts the focus to India from China. Under Merkel Germany remained focused on China. This is changing now that Merz is chancellor. The winds of change are also blowing and the war in Ukraine, the distancing of the US under DJT, US and Chinese restrictions, require this change and Modi, Merkel step up to create anew strategic partnership. The EU and German trade is now set to increase significantly as India modernizes its economy. Merz and Modi see less dependence on Russia for oil and gas and defense needs. India seeks German technologies and capital to industrialize its economy. The scope is immense and both sides are at an historic opportunity. Merz is afar cry from the Merkel years when Germany never grasped India's potential and failed to invest in the German economy. Merz has put forward a $1 trillion plan to invest in modernization of Germany and India is the partner Germany has chosen as central to its plans. This brings the entire EU close to India and its aspirations to be a modern economy like the EU. This is a long term project that began today in Ahmedabad with the two leaders at ease at a Kite Festival in Ahmedabad after Merz visited Gandhiji's Sabarmati Ashram. And Merz showed he understood India-"We are in complete agreement in our assessment of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," Merz said. At the same time, he understood how India's dependence on Russian oil and gas had happened only recently. "Obviously, it is not that simple in India, and I am the last person to visit other countries wagging my finger at them." The patience is there as there is a meeting of minds for what is the largest project of its kind to 2037 and 2047 for 2 billion people pooling technologies, capital and talented engineers. ...

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How do you rebuild the country Ukraine after so much bombing and continuing missiles in droves hitting the country? Most of the $300 billion in Russian assets are frozen in Europe and Europe does not want to violate international law to take over the assets. Instead it chose to give Ukraine $3 billon loan based on the interest coming from the $300 billion frozen assets. This is not going to do much as over $100 billion will be needed. The US Biden administration has a different plan. It is to use the interest to finance a loan of $50 billion from the EU and the US.

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DW.com looks at the elections in Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa and Namibia, with active civil society, and development efforts in Senegal, efforts to restore the popularity of the ANC in South Africa with new plans for land reform.  

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A great transformation is taking place for 172 million people -after the grueling experience of pandemic followed by effects of Ukraine war, and climate change- in building external resilience. The quick IMF action in Bangladesh in contrast to Sri Lanka. After taking in the shock of pandemic and the war in Ukraine Bangladesh faced large drops in remittances and in export revenues. Added to that problems in foreign exchange reserve management and exchange rate management. By getting immediate access of aid from IMF $4.7 billion and additional assistance from India Bangladesh is now in a position where in less than a year it has rebounded with current account surplus reaching $2 billion in the first half of the 2023-2024 fiscal year, as reported by Xinhua. Increasing productivity, education of labor force, increasing female participation in the workforce, social investment in economy, will give Bangladesh a chance to reach from LDC to lower middle income status by 2031.   ...

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UK prime minister Boris Johnson suggests that vaccine pass may become mandatory at airports, sports events and other settings.

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An enthusiastic reception for Santorum at the Republican Political Action Conference (CPAC).

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The stories of Dylan Roberts, 32 years, in Rockford, Illinois and Alfred Butt, 42 years,in Hohenlockenstedt, Germany. Roberts lost his job at aChrysler plant in Belvidere, near Rockford, Illinois, and Butt lost his job a German auto parts maker. Roberts gets a $64,000 severance package, and 59 weeks of unemployment insurance, with apossible additional 13 weeks, with monthly check of $1426 that is 27% of his income of $64,000 a year when employed. attribute 33 weeks of the 59 weeks to the stimulus measures of President Obama. Butt has 4 months as atransfer worker at full pay, which can be as long as 1 year, then he has till May 2010 at 80% of his pay when employed full time of 2700 euros amonth. The transfer company gives job training and job hunting advice. He continues getting his medical insurance benefits which are provided by the state. Roberts loses his health insurance with his job, and hopes to pay his expenses for a2 bedroom apartment with his girlfriend who makes close to $1500 as an elementary school teacher. He will take a2 year electronic engineering course with a local college using $6000 from Obama's Dislocated Worker's Program. But he isn't sure if he can do his studies after one year when his unemployment benefits expire. Butt can afford to take a vacation to Cyprus and his lifestyle is not much affected he says. His wife works as a nurse at a rheumatism clinic. Butt is like the 64% of Germans who say the crisis is not affecting them personally. Roberts is like the 87% of Americans who say this crisis id hurting them in their persdonal lives. To pay for the state funded benefits the total wage tax burdenas a percentage of labor costs for Butt is 52% in Germany. FOr Roberts it is 30% in the USA. France is at 49% Spain at 39% and the UK at 34%. Germany's public expenditures for these labor benefits are 2.97% of GDP in 2006, the USA's are 0.38%. Spain and France are at 2.32% and the UK at 0.61%. This also explains why the impact in countries like Germany and Spain is not felt so badly as in the USA. In SPain there is also the lower mobility and the safety net of family support helping people cope making it possible to cope with 20% unemployment without serious distress and hardships. See the link to Spain's unemployed....

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In inflationary times in the world's largest populated country- that Rs 40 or about 50 cents US still gets you a South Indian vegetarian meal at Sangeethas restaurant chain in Chennai, India is the result of the efforts of many people. On its 40th anniversary the 34 branches in Chennai (and 23 overseas) has struggled with inflation to offer the 40 Rupee meal in India. Partly from the dedication of P Suresh and Sanjana Suresh, the founders.

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As Mr. Maliki resigns from the premiership in Iraq, a former aide says of his eight years as prime minister that Maliki never battled to preserve the state, only to preserve his own premiership. And other colleagues says he thrived on demonizing the Sunnis and the regular crises under his leadership. The new prime minister Mr. Abadi is also from the same Shiite Dawa party that Maliki belonged to, and it is not clear how is leadership will turn out. The final push for Maliki's ouster came from Ayatollah Sistani of Iran. The U.S. and western allies also pushed for a new leader. The use of sectarian Shiite militias by Maliki to fight the Sunni insurgents from ISIS in 2014 further aggravated Iraq's religious divide.

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Two women Khayat and Effantin with diplomas in bakeries and pastry making get enough experience and learn techniques to open a woman's bakery in the 9th Arrondissement Le Condorcet called Neighborhood Bakery, Boulangerie de Quartier. 100% home made products at a bakery shown in this report in Le Monde.fr.

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Jodi Kantor provides insights into U.S. president Obama's thinking about the law, how it affects society, and the areas in which it falls short of what is intended. Obama is looking at a number of possible candidates to replace Judge Souter on the Supreme Court, including Elena Kagan at Harvard Law School. He is described by professors and students who know him as a minimalist who does not want to see the Court appointees to go ahead of their times. Minimalist refers to a view which is skeptical of court led change far out ahead of where society is. He is also described as a structuralist, referring to a view that seeks to learn how the law affects people in their real lives, aside from abstractions and theory.

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In a television debate Jan 18, 2017, Benoit Hamon, a 39 year old former Education minister is seen as the most effective of the French Socialist presidential candidates. He proposes a universal income that particularly supports and creates work for young people ages 18-25 years.

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In his Bastille day interview French president Macron says Russia could cutoff all gas supplies to France at any time. He says "we will do without Russian gas completely." France gets about 20% of its total gas imports from Russia. Norway, Qatar, Algeria and the US are adding to gas supplies to France. France expects to have gas reserves filled to "near 100 percent by the autumn." In the event of a protracted war France will continue western sanctions against Russia and help Kviv defend its country, said Macron.

France gets 70% of its energy needs from nuclear energy. France will continue to invest in nuclear energy.

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Southern Indian state of Madras in 1952 and the administration of Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) in 1952 following elections. Madras state at the time consisted of most of what is now southern India, as the Madras Presidency of the British Empire. The first governor general of India Rajaji was brought in to run the state after the Nehru Congress party failed to win an outright majority and the Communist Party and opposition made major gains. Rajaji's administration led to the successful administration of Congress leader Kamaraj still known for its school lunch programs and advancement of education and healthcare in Tamilnadu. Today Tamilnadu faces anew challenge as the upset win by the TVK party under Vijay seeks to take the state in a new direction after mismanagement of the economy  and lack of state-federal coordination under the previous administration of the DMK party. The messy period in India from the 1950's is similar to the messy period in China in the 1950's to the 1970's with the upheavals under Mao. Still China found its way by 1990 as India does today with a commitment to rapid industrialization and modernization,  federal-state coordination on industrial and infrastructure projects at scale and speed. ...

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The graph tell the story, in early 2007 there were close to 4 million homes under water, in early 2008 closer to 8 million homes and in early 2009 closer to 16 million homes under water, close to doubling the number of homes under water. This is why more of the morgage securities become bad assets with each passing year, as their underlying assets the mortgages become high risk for default. During the third quarter the number of homeowners under water, or owing more than their homes were worth, were 11.8 million, and by the end of 2008, 13.6 million, according to Moody's Economy.com They are growing at close to 1.8 million every quarter, or at the rate of over 7 million a year. Which at this rate would reach 21 million homes under water by early 2010, if one assumed that government help only worked to offset the impact of further deterioration of housing prices, by lowering payments for some homeowners. A new housing rescue plan was announced March 4, 2009. This will supplement the $75 billion announced earlier. This plan announced March 4, 2009, is expected by the Obama administration to cover 9 million homeowners. Borrowers who face severe financial hardship that may cause them to lose their homes, are required under this plan to sign affidavits attesting to this. They will in then see their loans modified, payment periods lengthened, and interest rates dropped to as low as 2%, to bring the monthly payment down to 31% of income, the number that experts say is appropriate for sustainable payments. Only first lien mortgages, and homeowners who live in these homes and not homeowners who use them as investments, will qualify. The outstanding principal balance cannot be over $729,750. As incentives loan-servicing companies will get upto $3500 from the government, and the government will also match a portion of the ender's costs dollar for dollar. Homeowners get $5000 in government money to reduce their outstanding balances, as an incentive to them to stay current on these modified mortgages. The administration plans to announce plans to those holding second mortgages on their homes, who have difficulty modifying them. The other component of the plan is for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance loans for borrowers who are under water, owing more than their homes are worth, even if they are wealthy enough to afford current payments. There is no income ceiling for this part of the plan. And these mortgages have to be held or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, with homeowners not owing more than 105% of the current value of their homes. ...

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Randall Quarles, a Republican Treasury official in both Bush administrations, is the choice for Fed Governor and Fed vice chair for supervision. He will be when nominated the senior person in charge of supervision of banks, a role played by Fed's Daniel Tarullo during the Obama administration. He has supported the view in favor of postcrisis regulations, yet warned against raising the cost of bank credit by requiring a big increase in bank capital. Quarles has worked at the Carlyle group private equity firm, graduated from Yale law school and is a partner at Davis Polk Wardwell law firm.