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Etihad Airways is in talks to take a 49% stake in Alitalia. Air France-KLM SA did not pursue a 300 million euro fundraising rights issue and as a result its stake dropped from 25% to 7.1%. Etihad gets a presence in Europe with the stake and it is part of a strategy to take minority stakes in other airlines to feed passengers to the airline. Stakes in other airlines include Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, and Darwin Airline.

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A strong demand for U.S. corporate bonds in the 1st quarter 2014. Corporate borrowing on the bond market in the U.S. increased to $317 billion for the 1st quarter, according to Dealogic, the highest since 2009's 1st quarter figure of $347 billion. Combining price appreciation and interest payments high grade U.S. corporate bonds returned 2.94% for the 1st quarter of 2014, according to Barclays PLC. In comparison the S&P 500 total return was 1.81%.

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Lufthansa sees profit drop 599 million euros in 2008, compared to 1.66 billion euros in 2007. 2007 sales were inflated by 500 million euros in asset sales. 2008 sales also reflect awritedown on the stake in Jet Blue Airways of the USA. Sales rose 11% to 24.87 billion euros, boosted by consolidation of Swiss International. Lufthansa plans to takeover Austrian Airlines, increase its holding in BMI, and acquire astake in SN holding, the parent company of Brussels Airlines.

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Just as new ships to carry freight come on line after years of tight shippinf constraints the economy takes a dive and these ships will be used for what? Cruise ships? Now shipping rates reflect the economic crisis, the basic price of shipping a large container of goods from Asia to Europe was $2800, now its dropped to $700. Prices on the American routes where there is tighter harbor space has dropped to $1500 a container.

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Feldstein emphasizes the need to help homeowners with a plan he suggested back in June.. And suggests spending by the government to build infrastructure, other spending initiatives to stimulate demand, and rebuilding military capacity. Spending he suggests should be large enough to make an impact, as the loss of household wealth from falling home and stock prices could result in a loss in aggregate spending of $300 billion or more. He points to the need for urgent action.

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As drops in price of steel could lead to imports into the US with paying lower tariff Trump increases tariffs on steel to 50% on May 30, 2025. Nippon Steel says it will increase its investments in US steel mills at US Steel including older mills, $7.7 billion in modernization of plants, and $2.2 billion at Mon Valley plant. Ownership of US Steel based in Pittsburgh with 14,000 workers will stay in American hands. DJT intervened to make these investments possible. Investments will keep furnaces open 10 years and give every worker a $5000 bonus. It is this type of action that has helped DJT win in Pennsylvania and win worker support.

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Detail about Tata's $2500 car. What it looks like- a jelly bean small in front, larger in the back for aerodynamics, 30-35 horsepower, with bearings good for 45 mph, top speed 75 mph, trunk in front to hold a briefcase and battery, rear mounted engine with continuous variable transmission, a hollowed out steering wheel shaft, engine designed by Bosch 600 to 660 cubic centimetres 35 hp. Tata CEO, Ratan Tata, says in a interview the car will do far better on emissions than today's low end cars, and that the emissions standards were much easier to meet than the crash and safety tests, because of the lightness of the vehicle. Todays lower emissions standards in developing countries makes it easier by not having to use more expensive technologies. Electronic sourcing and internet auctions are used by Tata to a greater degree, 30-40 % of parts sourced this way compared to 10-15% by other larger carmakers. This helps meet the aggressive cost target. On the safety isssue its interesting to note that most of the people buying this car will be millions of motorcycle families and individuals (typically a couple of people can ride an Indian motorcycle). They may be safer in a light car than on a motorcycle. This has to be seen in the particular context of India. Renault-Nissan used the experience of lowcost car engineering techniques and secrets from its Logan car made in Romania and transferred it to its other models. Tata started with a clean sheet of paper, asked the quesion what they really had to have and was there some other way. It was Ratan Tata's dream to build a car in 1 lakh or 100,000 rupees or about $2500. The project had all out backing and tested Indian engineers ingenuity. The Tata effort will be studied by carmakers from around the world. Bosch does not underestimate the value of this business, as the car will target a market of hundreds of millions of people in India and China and developing countries. Ariba a supplier to Toyota, and BMW a supplier to Tata, helped Tata buy parts through electronic sourcing. China's Cherry Automobile company, another pioneer, had an Austrian firm help it design its engine for its small car. Tata worked with German company Bosch on the engine. And both must have used cutting edge technology but with a different goals and specifications to achieve unique tasks....

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Motoko Rich provides this exceptional report from Seoul on what could happen if war breaks out on the Korean peninsula. Experts point to location as a major risk. About half of the South Korean people live within 50 miles of the Demilitarized Zone that separates North from South Korea. Seoul with its 10 million people is in this 50 mile range. North Korea has 8000 artillery canon and rocket launchers near the border. As a result Seoul would become a major casualty in a war even if it did not escalate to nuclear weapons. A bigger danger is that it would be very hard to stop such a war once it started. And the North Korean regime is seen by experts as likely to resort to nuclear weapons if it feels it is in danger of collapsing. Here Rich also shows that the people in the South have largely ignored preparing for such a situation even though the Seoul Metropolitan government says it can keep all ten million people in 3300 bomb shelters in the city, with another 3700 run by the provincial government. The chaos that would occur is another danger as most people are unprepared. ...

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Simon Nixon points out that most of the 490 billion in euros borrowed by European banks under the Long Term Refinancing Operation of the ECB in Dec. 2011 is for rolling over maturing debt, rather than buying of government bonds. European banks financing needs based on figures from Barclay's Capital are over 300 billion euros for the 1st quarter of 2012. This suggests huge demand for the Long Term Financing Operation in the next quarter. For Spain and Italy the newly created lending facility should lead to higher bond buying by small and midsized Spanish banks and Italian banks, as this will boost their profitability. Spanish bonds yield 5% and Italian bonds yield 6.5% and loans from the ECB using the bonds as collateral are available at 1% for three years, which makes this an opportunity for these banks to boost profitability. The proportion of government bonds of Spain of Spanish banks bank assets is 7% and the figure for Italian banks is 9%. Nixon says an increase of this ratio by three percentage points by Spanish banks would created additional demand for Spanish government bonds of 45 billion euros, which is a third of the issuance for 2012....

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The 2010 census reveals significant changes in the population mix in the U.S. The number of Hispanic people increased significantly, especially so in the under 18 age group. The Hispanic population went up by 43%, increasing to 50.5 million in 2010, compared to 35.3 million in 2000. Overall Hispanics make up 16% of the U.S. population of 308.7 million. One of the striking facts in the change is that children under age of 18 make up one third of the Hispanic population compared to one fifth for the white population. Texas by itself added 979,000 people under age 18, with 931,000 being Hispanic. 92% of the population growth since 2000-of 25.1 million- came from minorities of all kinds. And mixed race is another major category with nine million people. Asian American population also increased, especially in major cities such as San Francisco, San Jose and New York. Overall 63.7% of people identified as white, 16.3% as Hispanic, 12.2% as black, 4.7% as Asian, 0.7% as American Indian or Alaska natives. New York and Washington saw black populations decline. Detroit dropped out of the top ten cities replaced by San Jose. Chicago's population declined, New York's went up by 2% to 8.2 million people. ...

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Fears that nuclear facilities that are spread out thoughout the country of Pakistan could fall into Taliban hands. Especially one scenario in which the nuclear facility is moved and an insider tips off the Taliban, later it is taken by Taliban as it is being transported. Even as the terrorism increases in Pakistan, the country is continuing to produce more plutonium and more nuclear reactors. An estimated 70 to 100 nuclear weapons are located in Pakistan. Americans gave $100 million for securing these facilities and for security, but have no idea where that money went. And when it comes to the nuclear facilities the USA has no idea where they are, and is facing a dead end of "don't worry" from Pakistani military officials, increasing the concern from the Americans, as the same assurances were made about the sale of nuclear technology by Pakistani scientists in the black market. These claims turned out to be true. This time the US is not about to take any chances, and the Pakistani military is loath to disclose more information about the location of nuclear facilities, because the US may blow them up if the Taliban are seen as a threat to those facilities....

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Even after receiving 5000 complaints over ayear and half about aggressive short selling that amounted to market manipulation, the SEC did not bring any enforcement cases, according to areport by the SEC's inspector general. Of the 5000 complaints between Jan 2007 and Jne 2008 only 123 were investigated, and no cases were brought.12.5% of emails alleging insider trading prompted an investigation. About 1.38 million emails were handled by 4 staffers, showing horrendous understaffing. In a written response SEC enforcement staff played down the likelihood of naked short selling abuses. It noted that alarge number of cases settle over time. The SEC staff said that the agency needed to "intelligently leverage" its resources and alarge number of complaints provide "no support for the allegations". Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and other frims came under extreme pressure from short selling, and short selling has led to near collapse of many firms during the crisis since the middle of 2008, so its strange that the SEC takes this position. But it is not surprising as in recent years enfocement has been lax, regulation has been neglected almost by design, and resources and staffing are severely short of needs for the SEC's mission to be performed with some degree of confidence....

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Mayo Clinics 18 month long effort with 400 health policy experts working on the panel has a set of recommendations for the Presidential candidates. It suggests a private system with private insurance companies offering many options and nobody can be turned down. Those least able to afford it would get government help, individuals would pay for the insurance with some help from employers. Since once insured its not dependent on employer its permanent, changing a job would make no difference at all. Interestingly most of the panel experts cited here from Verizon, the Heritage Foundation and others all agree that the present system is coming to a close and a new one has to replace it with coverage for all Americans and a privately based system with contributions made by society and government, by all individuals, and also by employers. Mayo's study, the breadth of the number of experts participating (400 experts), the length of time to understand and come up recommendations (18 months), the respect the institution has among all sectors and groups, should give the consensus view of experts in the US, so that any future health plans do not simply get derailed by partisan opinion, controversy and lobbying....

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What is theaverage income of a Ohio plumber and how many have health insurance? Is he a working class man? Well it turns out that Joe the Plumber Republican candidate for President 2008 refers to could be an exception but the average plumber makes $47,930 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational earnings report for May 2007 for plumbers in Ohio. And the Ohio plumbers income was only 15% higher than in the 2000 report when the consumer prices in midwest rose by 17%. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2007 only 45% of companies with fewer than 10 employees offered health benefits, down from 57% in 2000. And 2007 was a good year, the statistics for 2008 and 2009 would look much worse as the downturn takes shape. As Chapman another Nobel prize winning economist wrote in the WSJ oped pages the stimulus checks were spent on more purchase of consumer goods merely continuing a high debt low savings spendthrift pattern of consumer behaviour and delayed the economic crisis for 6-12 months. Underlying incomepatterns like the one above where working class Americans were actually more and more worse off in an accelerating pattern may have become glossed over in consumer debt and housing boom behaviour....

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India is building roads and facilities to match China's in the border between Ladakh and China particularly in the finger area. This is resulting in increased clashes between Indian and Chinese patrols. India's view of the territory on its side does not coincide with China's. India has seen borders such as the McMahon Line set during the British period as the border, China has a different perception since its takeover of Tibet of what constitutes Tibetan territory.  As a result any true border line depends on the strength of bases of each side on the high altitude border at over 4000 or 5000 meters. China had built infrastructure in the region much earlier and India is merely catching up to keep the current line of control as the border. The Indian perception is that China sees as a way to change the status quo building bases and capabilities in the region, making it necessary for India to match these capabilities by roads and bases of its own.   ...

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The EU with its $15.4 trillion economy is a bloc comparable in size to the U.S. $19.4 trillion economy. The French State Secretary for Europe, Mr. Lemoyne, says EU does not need to be worried about the way the USMCA, new version of NAFTA was negotiated with pressure from president Trump, as the Europeans are the largest trading power in the world. The EU exports to the U.S. are $252 billion, and up 5% in the seven months of 2018 over the preceding period. The U.S. by comparison exports $153 billion which has remained at the same level with a $600 million decline in the same period in 2018.  President Trump has put pressure on the EU to help improve the trade imbalance. Soya bean exports are pointed to by the EU as this has doubled in 2018, after China responded to U.S. sanctions by limiting soyabean imports. President Trump has stated his intention to impose tariffs on European car imports - trade worth $60 billion- to get the EU to offer concessions.  ...

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Large parts of Germany are lacking in fast connectivity, particularly in rural areas. Germany lags behind the U.S. and South Korea in 5G network infrastructure development.  Germany does badly in international broadband rankings.The agency in charge of Germany's telecom grid is holding an auction March 19 for 5G licenses for 41 frequency blocks with Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonia among the bidders.  In Germany 5G networks offer a substitute for landlines in rural areas. A big problem in Germany is that access to LTE with large data volumes is costly in Germany. Many customers go without faster connections considering the cost. According to industry association Bitkom about 40% of respondents say they are not willing to pay more for 5G. This is not counting the cost of the 5G smartphone that could run upto $2000. German automakers interested in 5G's potential for autonomous driving are able to set up their own campus type networks leaving out middlemen. Large companies such as Siemens and Airbus are planning their own networks. ...

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David Malpass is the choice of the Trump administration to head the World Bank. He has worked with Latin American countries at the State Department, was the Treasury official responsible for the World Bank in the Reagan administration, and worked on Argentine currency, China trade matters in the Trump administration.

Malpass negotiated a $13 billion replenishment for the World Bank in 2017, with U.S. share of $1.2 billion. This capped the bank's lending at $25 billion.

Last year the World Bank provided China with $60.5 billion in loans for 400 projects, which this WSJ editorial says is loans China does not need with its $3.07 trillion in foreign reserves. This editorial is critical of the current World Bank head Dr. Kim for taking a job with a World Bank partner the private equity fund GIP.

The World Bank has played a significant role in development for South Asia and China in the early years after World War II.

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Price of Basmati rice used widely by India's growing middle class and also by Iran and mideast countries has gone up by 200%. In markets in Delhi it goes for Rs 90 a kilorgram up from Rs 35 a kilogram in Jan 2006.

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The dire drought situation in East Africa from Ethiopia and Somalia to Kenya, where millions of people face hunger and thirst. Shortages of food aid as only $24 million is available in the UN World Food Programme for Kenya when $300 million is needed for the next 6 months. The price of maize, a staple has doubled, and as most of the electricity in Kenya and Ethiopia is from hydroelectric dams the electricity supply has been interrupted lowering growth rates in both countries.

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The risks of coming up with a higher share price for Chinese social networking site Renren based on Facebook's IPO. Price to sales ratio for Renren was high at 22 before a rally, its even higher at 33, and increasingly risky. Larger operating costs and a less developed online advertising market mean Renren will barely breakeven in 2012. Sina's Weibo microblog has 200 million registered users, larger than the 137 million users for Renren at the end of third quarter 2011.

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Twitter, Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn, Pandora and other names command large valuations. Twitter's curent valuation is estimated at between 8-10 billion dollars. Twitter has sales revenue for 2010 of $45 million, and it had a loss as it invested heavily in data centers and hiring. Estimates of revenue for 2011 are between $100 million and $110 million. Twitter is trying to build its ad revenue with a 20 person sales team headed by Mr Bain, a former Fox Interactive Media president.

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Plans announced by Railways minister Mamta Banerjee for Indian Railways. 1000 kilometres of new lines and 54 new trains will be added in the next year. A fast track panel will be set up for clearance of investment proposals. The Indian Railways budget for 2011 shows new investment will be $9 billion for modernizing and expanding the rail network, up 2.8% from the $8.7 billion for 2010. Indian Railways plays a vital role in India's economy. The company employs 1.39 million people.

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Stefan Jacoby, a former head of VW USA, will be the new CEO of Volvo, after its acquisition with 100% ownership by Geely of China. Geely paid $1.3 billion cash for Volvo to Ford Motor, the original price was $1.8 billion but adjustments were made for retirement funds and working capital. Ford originally acquired Volvo for $6 billion. Ford has debt of $27 billion and will be able to reduce some of this debt wit cash from the Volvo sale.