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Though it would appear that Poilievre is a new face in Canadian politics suddenly leading Justin Trudeau by 29% in some polls for prime minister, he is a young highly experienced Alberta politician since age 25. And is married to Anaida Galindo who immigrated at age 8 in 1995 from Caracas, Venezuela to Montreal. Pierre Poilievre is the adopted son of schoolteachers from Alberta. He was active in politics at the University of Calgary, Alberta, obtaining a BA in international relations and being part of  Reform party that considered the progressive Conservative Party unprincipled. He was elected to the Canadian parliament from Carleton-Nepean in 2004 for Conservative party and in subsequent elections won this seat by over 50% of the vote, becoming the youngest member of the Canadian parliament  at age 25. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to a ministry, to the prime minister, and Minister of state for Democratic Reform of the Canadian Senate, during the years  Stephen Harper of the Progressive Conservative Party was prime minister 2005-2015. Shadow Minister of Finance 2017-2022. Polievre has not hesitated to make his opinion felt and in 2022 he supported the truckers Freedom Convoy. Following that he was elected leader of the Opposition with Justin Trudeau as Liberal party prime minister.  He is married to Anaida Galindo in 2017 who worked for Canada's Senate in Ottawa. She had immigrated at age 8 years in 1995 with her parents from Caracas, Venezuela, where her father was a bank manager. ...

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The St. Louis Fed President, James Bullard, argues in a paper, that the keeping of target interest rates near zero as promised by Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve, sets up a situation similiar to Japan of a "deflation trap." He said that core annual inflation of only 0.9% in May 2010 suggests that there is a risk that the nominal inerest rate and inflation end up being at an unintended steady state which is dangerously low. He also said that the market's interpretation of the Fed's extended period of low interests language had a perverse effect of stretching out the period before things normalize. He suggests as an appropriate step "quantitative easing"- a policy of buying monetary debt with longer dates. But for this to be effective, the action has to be credible.

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Peter Altmaier is director of the chancellery in Berlin, and is the person closest to Angela Merkel. This report in the Economist points out that Altmaier has played a critical role in steps taken by Merkel- as chief whip in parliament for the CDU during the Greece financial crisis and bailouts, as environment minister implementing the program away from coal based electricity, and in negotiating deals such as the deal with Turkey on refugees, and now with Brexit negotiations. Merkel has asked Altmaier to write her manifesto for the September 2017 election. A member of the CDU's liberal wing, Altmaier is known for being a scholar on German history, especially Bismarck, and a workaholic. Here he is mentioned as a bridge maker for the CDU to the Greens Party and was part of a group of CDU and Green Party politicians who met at an Italian restaurant in Bonn. As the moderates are now dominant in the Greens Party, a CDU coalition with the Greens could be shaped by Altmaier if the election results move in that direction. ...

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Out of the rubble of failed policies, lack of far sighted leadership, and the failure of Middle Eastern elites and leaders, must arise the right way forward.

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At the current rate of reducing the 10% current account deficit by the central bank, it will be the end of 2013 when it could be brought down to 6%. This may not be fast enough as Turkey could face an external shock if sentiment of foreign investors changes before that. As Turkey partly depends on foreign investors for short term funding of the deficit, this is critical for Turkey's economy. Only one quarter of capital inflows are in the form of long term direct investment. As the situation in the eurozone worsens in 2012-2013, Turkey is in serious danger of a sharp downturn in the economy after years of growth. The IMF has cited Turkey in the list of countries where the credit growth to GDP has increased to the level of a warning light indicator. Other countries cited by the IMF are China, Vietnam, S. Africa and Brazil.

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Japan's new prime minister runs into difficulties in improving public finances by cutting some of the pork-barrel spending and making chages such as abolishing the gasoline tax to put more money in the hands of consumers. Cuts of wasteful spending came to less than a fourth of the target of $33 billion. The Finance Minister said that tax receipts for the year ending March 2010 would come in at $400 billion, about $100 billion less than estimated earlier, and this is less than the deficit for the current fiscal year of $590 billon.

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, says Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization in the summer of 2012 will be good for the global economy and for the U.S. It will increase U.S. exports to Russia from the low level of 1% of U.S. global exports. It will also set the right tone for improving U.S.-Russia relations and improving cooperation on global issues. She calls for Congress to change the Jackson-Vanik amendment and setting up normal trading relations between the U.S. and Russia. It is a smart investment in trade with Russia,and also a way to help Russia diversify its economy, setup an open political system and put its world trading relationships on a more transparent basis with clear tariff rates.

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Tom Friedman of the NYT talks with retiring Israeli defense minister, and former prime minister, Ehud Barak, in Tel Aviv. Barak makes the case for seizing opportunities as they arise in a difficult situation, which might be lost if Israel adopts a permanently pessimstic state of mind about the prospect of peace with Arab countries. Barak and Friedman suggest the approach of the Israeli government of prime minister Netanyahu has risks of highlighting the dangers to Israel at its borders, to the point where Israel could lose the ability to make wise and sensible judgements as these opportunities arise, and the Middle East itself changes. Because of the political struggles and conflict in the Middle East this may obscure the newly emerging Middle East, which needs economic advancement to support the aspirations of the overwhelmingly young populations in these countries. This has the potential for a new dynamic that could see the Middle East move beyond Israel to seizing the opportunities presented by economic and technical progress. Similiar to the other nations of Asia, including the Muslim nations of Turkey and Indonesia. ...

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A number of critical issues need to be resolved for nuclear energy to play a critical role in energy supply. One is how to dispose of the waste product and storage facilities for the waste product, the other is fuel reprocessing tfor reuse and the separation of plutonium which can then be subject to possible theft for use in nuclear bombs. The other is the rising cost of concrete, steel and other products as well as the labor to build new nuclear plants. So a plant may now cost $7 billion rather than $3 billion for a 1500 megawatt nuclear reactor. Government incentives thus become a necessary part of this to reduce risk to companies. NRG Energy Dominion and Duke Energy have filed applications to build plants based on the incentives put in pklace by Congress. The subsidies include a 1.8 cent tax credit for each kilowatt hour produced which could be worth $140 million per reactor per year, a $500 million payout for each of the first 2 plants built, and $250 million each for the next four. if there are delays for reasons outside the company's control, and a total of $18.5 billion in loan guarantees. The loan guarantees are crucial to get banks to loan the money. Tho other issues are the shortage of skilled workers and contractors with nuclear certification, lack of potential sites for new reactors, and only 2 companies Japan Steel Works and France's Creusot Forge, a unit of Areva, have the technology for building key reactor parts such as massive pressure vessels. Another issue is whether other alternatives can supplement nuclear energy such as solar and the incentives that can be provided to solar energy. So nuclear energy which provides 20% of the US energy needs wil go much higher it will be supplemented by other energy moves and nuclear plants will be built but not to the extent that McCanin would like to see of 45 plants by 2030. ...

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Sudhir Venkatesh, a Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, talks about how constructive expressions of anger that help us get out on the streets and talk to one another, to have stormy discussions in townhall meetings, and other constructive ways of expressing anger can help us overcome all those feelings bottled up inside us. Anger has a positive role to play in promoting catharsis and fostering real healing says Venkatesh. He even says we will recover our public life this way, by storming out onto the streets and then actually talking to one another. That is not so easy in a world of electronic devices and electronic communication like email and text messaging, and in a world where one tends to one's own little world with its daily frustrations and that credit card bill and the mortgage payment and the kid's tution payment. He actually invites the public to go out and do this rather than retreat each person into his own world of humiliation and struggles, or let the anger build up in an impersonal world of Internet, and with sporadic outbursts in small group protests. He doesn't see the Obama administration doing the broad and intensive campaign to shore up the housing, food and welfare safety nets which will be required, or the sustained committments from mayors, service providers and civic leaders. And he sees anger growing and its expression taking place only later on, as the public is patient for a long time, and then the anger just rushes out when it cannot be contained, as happened in the Great Depression. ...

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The impact on ASEAN countries of the monetary expansion policy of the Bank of Japan, Japan's central bank, and the policies of the Abe administration. Infusion of new liquidity into Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

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The sixth round of the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, China, July 9, 2014, between the U.S. and China at the Diaoyutai State Guest House. Jack Lew of Treasury, and John Kerry of the State Department meet their Chinese counterparts and other officials to promote peaceful cooperation. The background for the meeting of increasing tension in the Pacific region between China and its neighbors, the Philippines,Vietnam, and Japan, is acknowledged by president Jinping- "Confrontation between China and the United States would definitely spell disaster for the two countries and for the wider world... The immense sea allows fish to leap at liberty, the vast sky lets birds fly freely. The broad Pacific Ocean has ample space to accomodate our two great nations."

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Krugman is critical of ECB president Trichet's decision to raise interest rates in 2010, because of the way it affects Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Increase in interest rates by the ECB affect the entire eurozone and this means, he points out, that inflation in Germany would be extremely low -about 1% for the next five years- and the result being that inflation would be much lower in debtor countries like Spain. A decrease in interest rates with inflation at 3-4 % in Germany would be better for the debtor countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland) as this would enable them to cut prices and costs relative to Germany and other creditor countries. The first step taken by the new ECB president, Mario Draghi, was a small increase in interest rates. Krugman asks if the private demand is affected negatively by the end of a debt financed boom in the debtor countries, and austerity programs reduce any growth in the public sector, then where are the new jobs supposed to come from? A policy that reduces the prices of the products of debtor countries relative to creditor countries like Germany- so that exports can generate necessary growth- is needed says Krugman. ...

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Critics of the Obama administration's so-called "light footprint strategy" for the Middle East say it is more about keeping distance from problems in that region. This is a reaction to the extensive involvement of the U.S. in two wars in that region and intuitively makes sense, as well as being in line with American public opinion to focus on problems at home. The shift or pivot to Asia of president Obama also comes in that context. The problem with this approach is that this ignores the fact that most of the momentum and effort for the freedom struggles throughout the Middle East from Tunisia first, then Libya, Egypt, and now Syria, comes from within. The lead role is now being taken by France and Britain, with German public opinion also lined up in support. The U.S. in forfeiting its role as a facilitator with strategies such as "no-fly-zones" is losing the opportunity to gain the goodwill in the Middle East with cost that is negligible in comparison to the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan, and comes after the huge U.S. effort to remove one dictator in Iraq. A minor followup effort is all that is required from an administration that pushed for the "surge" in Afghanistan. When history is written the investment of the Obama administration in Afghanistan may show little results, if what is considered by the media and experts as an unpopular and undemocratic government of Karzai falls in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. There is little doubt in public opinion in the U.S. and worldwide that the movement for freedom and democracy in the Middle East and democratically elected governments will become a lasting facet of the new Middle East. It also provides huge opportunties for trade and investment as is shown by the gains made by Turkey in just 2 years. This is why the Obama adminstration policies in the Middle East show a lack of grasp of the facts showing the Middle East as opportunity more than threat for the next decade, especially in its overreaction to the Bush era policies. This happens as there is a demographic explosion of young people in the Middle East. An administration that was keen to sense the demographic changes in North America, has failed to grasp this fact and why the struggle in the Middle East flashes daily on television screens young people carrying on the struggle. A pivot to Asia means a pivot to the Far East more than Asia because India is part of the South Asian-Middle Eastern region, which presents another paradox because as China is slowing the entire South Asian-Middle Eastern region of Asia is where future growth is expected to accelerate in the next decade. ...

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Prof. Calomiris of Columbia University, says the U.S. Federal Reserve should increase the cash reserve requirement for U.S. banks to prevent a surge in inflation. He points out that excesss reserves at banks stand at about $1.5 trillion. He suggests the Fed should take early action to prevent a jump in lending and credit creation- a pattern seen in the past after several years of dampened credit and lending.

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A look at the views of Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia and Strobe Talbott, a State Department advisor, on how the Obama administration missed signals of a more assertive policy from Russia during the period Medvedev was president. At the time Medvedev offered a softer tone from Russia and the U.S. extended cooperation. With the return of Putin as president for a second term, his more strident views on the role of Russia in the world following the collapse of the Soviet Union have emerged, especially in tems of policies in Syria and Ukraine.