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As remittances fall and in some places disappear from workers in developed countries to their families in developing countries, Kristof says about 46 million people there will fall into poverty. Something Zoellick of the World Bank has been warning for some time. Everything from food, school lunches, tution for children to go to school, housing, will be affected.

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In 1933 Roosevelt helped set up the minimum wage but failed to index it to inflation. At $7.25 an hour in 2009 it still leaves people below the poverty line. "A self supporting and self respecting democracy sees no economic reason for chiselig workers' wages" FDR said at the time. It was set at 30 cents in 1933.

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Charley Grant of WSJ warns that Tesla is in for a difficult time ahead as it ramps up its production of Model 3 cars. He says overhead costs should lead to negative margins during the early rollout stage, and only when the production ramps up could this turn positive. Tesla needs $2 billion in the second half of 2017, and is now turning to debt markets for its capital needs. 

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Susie Wiles is a Florida native where she gained most of her experience running Republican campaigns from Bush/Qualyle, Romney, more recently Scott, De Santis and Trump. She also worked for lobbying firm Mercury, was an assistant to Congressman Jack Kemp. She has learned to brush away some of the boorish traits and rhetoric of the former president, says Politico.  As DJT's campaign manager of Florida in 2016 she told the Tampa Bay Times why-  "I don’t want this to continue. I think it seriously will damage our republic and who among that group can really have the fortitude to shift what I’ve seen happening over all these years?” "I will tell you this: The Donald Trump that I have come to know does not behave that way, and the lens that I look at him through, I don’t see any of that. I see strengths, I see smarts, I see a work ethic that is unparalleled,” she told the Tampa Bay Times in 2016. “I blanch sometimes. But, again, it’s not the Donald Trump that I have come to know.” During 2016 and in 2024 her disciplined attitude, humility, trying to be self effacing and focused have helped bring discipline out of the chaos in DJT's campaigns. She also has unique ability to get through at critical moments to restrain DJT from impulsive moments that create political liabilities.   ...

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The Labour Party in Britain pulls the plug on further talks with the ruling Conservative government of Theresa May. No agreement could be reached on whether a customs union should be forged with the EU after Brexit, or on whether there should be a second referendum on Brexit as most Labour Party members want. Mrs. May has struggled to get her agreement negotiated with the EU passed in British parliament after trying several times, leading to most observers calling it a huge mess.

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Parents feel that the UK system is failing the country by focusing too much on exams and not enough attention is paid to well being of students. Not enough investment is being made in education for Britain to increase productivity and generate growth. A false division is being created in the debate between knowledge and skills when both are needed. Business is not finding the well educated people it needs. If the Conservatives don't do it Labor will take it up at the next election. These are some of the conclusions from the Times Education Commission Report for the UK in this analysis that proposes a set of fundamental changes.

 

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The Times of London says that it has turned out the way the chief medical officer of England, Mr. Chris Witty,  has warned and predicted. That limited freedoms was as good as it could get, but there is hope for the future. With vaccinations starting by January the third wave can be prevented and more reopening can be done by then. The very fact that cases are beginning to fall shows that the lockdowns work where tiered restrictions did not work. 

The same situation can be seen in the U.S. where new lockdowns in midwestern states are beginning to cause a fall in daily cases.

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This report in WSJ cites the PM's office saying a tax cut just when tourism revenue slowed with the start of the pandemic reduced Sri Lankan government annual revenues by 800 billion rupees. The combined impact of the tax cut with the pandemic relief measures and drop in tourism revenues widened the budget deficit from 9.6% of GDP to 12.2% of GDP in 2020. PM Wickremasinghe has increased VAT from 8% to 12% to generate 65 billion rupees. And an additional 52 billion rupees from increasing corporate tax from 24% to 30%. The ill timed tax cuts and mismanagement of finances are at the roots of the economic crisis.

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Brexit had unintended consequences. Ads on buses showed waves of immigrants pouring into Britain, which was not the case as this was taking place in central Europe under Merkel only for a while till it was reversed.  Yet Brexit happened with support from anti-immigrant sentiment, and working class communities in the north of England left behind by Blair's Labor. This report in the Times of London shows a prime minister from an immigrant family who leads the same Tory party today which has also forgotten working class communities that were never its base, leaving Labor an opportunity to assert its claim to serve the whole British people.

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This NYT report says there is scandal fatigue among Republicans and a sense about Mr. Trump that his time has passed. Much of the political gains made by Mr. Trump in 2017 were a result of the failures of president Bush within the Republican party wasting national resources on 2 remote wars while infrastructure was neglected, and the neglect of manufacturing communities in the US with jobs outsourced to China that presidents Bush and Obama failed to stop. With president Biden ending these wars period. And with Mr. Biden getting the legislation passed to put workers and families, American manufacturing, American infrastructure to the top of the agenda, the focus has shifted to China and Russia two countries that gained during the largely failed Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies. The Ukraine war and China's belligerence over Taiwan remain an ever present risk. President Biden has articulated American resolve in this situation in a way that matches another president Harry Truman when he addressed the Soviet expansion in Berlin, then Greece, then across Eastern Europe, not seeking conflict yet not shirking responsibility for the free world. It is this new context in which the sordid affairs of a political outsider are presented to the ordinary American struggling to make a living during a cost of living crisis in 2023. ...

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French president Macron fails to get president Xi of China to commit to changes in its policies towards Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Macron's visit as seen by the NYT only undermines the US policy and European Union policy that opposes the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. EU's Leyen also visits China at this time.  The relations between the US and European business with China expanded for two decades between 2000-2020. All three regions are heavily invested in each other. Decoupling is a gradual process and China sees the EU as an access point for technology and investment. The US has not decoupled from China even after moves in semiconductors and electric vehicles were made by president Biden. Apple and other American companies are heavily invested in China. The US and the EU are committed to building new supply chains. Their policies are intended to do this in a way that reduces the effect on their economies. The European Union depended on the US for its response to the Russian invasion and to protect freedom in Europe through NATO. By 2024 the European Union policies will be integrated with policy of the US. China is also trying to reduce the effect on its economy by decoupling in a way that maintains growth. ...

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No one in Northern Ireland wants to go back to the sectarian clashes of the twentieth century says one resident of the region. Most people recall the divided barricaded border with watchtowers and helicopters with extreme anguish. All that was dismantled long ago. But Northern Ireland still looks to the outside for help. Will president Biden bring new investment in the region? Can the Sinn Fein and DUP be persuaded to work together with US participation. A new generation has moved away from the sectarian to the economic issues of the cost of living and provision of public services in education and healthcare across the region. This was affirmed by Sinn Fein winning 27 seats the largest bloc in the 2022 election where focus was on economic issues and the quality of life. Because of Mr. Biden's very personal connection to Ireland there is much hope in Ireland for a new chapter to be written again. There is also a different sentiment in Britain with Keir Starmer's experience as human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. Starmer attributes his decision to go into politics to this experience seeing the changes he could make in Northern Ireland from the inside. The switch to a government by Labour could come at a good time for Northern Ireland and for Scotland.  ...

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Geetanjali Shree win the International Booker prize for the best fiction novel translated from other languages into English. Her book Reti Samadhi is about an older woman coping with the effects of the 1947 partition of India and has what Geetanjali Shree calls the meandering mind of women spanning 725 pages in Hindi. "Woman are stories in themselves, full of stirrings and whisperings that float in the wind, that bend with each blade of grass," says Shree in the opening pages of the novel. Shree writes about a teenager who goes through the traumatic experience of partition as a teenager and experiencing depression at an older age decides to confront the experience by going to the place where it happened a second time. Shree is from Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh (UP).  UP a Hindi speaking state is getting into the international field as the experiences of the region are being shared in other languages. It is now at the forefront of rapid development in India under the Modi administration and a state administration that sees India's largest state in an international context. Bringing Hindi, its tone and rhythm, and the style and exuberance of the author to a English reader, is a challenge that was handled well by Daisy Rockwell of the US. ...

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LNG prices have declined in 2024 to a fraction of what they were from $70 per mmBTU in 2022 with the Ukraine war to about $10 in Jan 2024. India's state owned Petronet signed a 7.5 million ton LNG deal for 20 years with Qatar at the reduced prices. For the world it is a good thing as India moves to natural gas from coal when about 60% of the increased pollution in 2013-2021 is coming from India by some estimates. This translates into climate change. The goal is to go from 6% for natural gas in energy mix in 2013 to 15% by 2030. Few people realize what this means outside India- that every additional dollar that was added to the nation's energy bill was a dollar not going to essential building of modern rail and transport infrastructure, into new colleges, into new health infrastructure hospitals, into logistics for manufacturing hubs, into digital and modernizing the economy. This during the pandemic has meant free rations of food for hundreds of millions in the rural areas which have been continued into 2024. It meant accessing at the lowest possible price, buying at the right time, and buying oil and gas from a wide range of suppliers. WSJ's Megha Mandavia looks at this effort.  ...

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Different styles of Elon Musk and Vice President Vance. One tempestuous and following instincts and moods for Musk, the other careful study to arrive at conclusions and an openness to bipartisan approaches for JD Vance. Vance brings his Yale Law School education and the discipline of his experience in the Marine Corps, in addition to a sounding board with Usha Vance who is also a Yale Law School graduate. This report shows a quiet demeanor of Vance and underestimates this compared to the noisy and difficult to control demeanor of Musk in the first 100 days of the DJT second term in 2025. Vance age 40 years brings an exceptional ability to understand and grasp the issues to dialogue with people of different perspectives including Democrats (seen live in television debate with Time Walz) that will be of great value in the second term of DJT as the Operation Wetback of Eisenhower of 1954 is carried out in 2025, new immigration laws are passed on bipartisan basis, and the trade tariffs are conducted on a selective basis after careful study with the president getting advice from the Vice President, and policies are carried out to help small factory towns across America recover from the Clinton-Bush-Obama years of shipping out American manufacturing. ...

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Michael Corkery catches up with the indefatigable Paul Volcker at the office he shares with Richard Ravitch on the fourth floor of Rockefeller Center. Ravitch reminisces about events in 1975 when he tried to get a loan for New York City from the head of the New York Federal Reserve, who at the time was Paul Volcker. Today both men are working on another municipal crisis- the financial crisis facing U.S. states. They have raised $2 million from foundations and other sources, and hired a staff. They plan to publish a report on the crisis in 2012. The idea is to throw light on the issues so that the public can understand this better. Volcker says work is more relaxing than fishing, even though both men have spent much time fishing. The conversation drifts to the Occupy Wall Street protests and Ravitch says people forget what Teddy Roosevelt said about the malefactors of great wealth. Volcker insists it was Franklin Rosevelt, Ravitch says its Teddy.

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Goldman founder, Marcus Goldman's son, Henry Goldman, helped create the concept of valuation of companies based on their earning power at the turn of the century. Around this time public finance was in its early stages and credit was based on balance sheet assets. Goldman took public companies like Studebaker, Sears Roebuck and May Department Stores, and formed a partnership with Henry Lehman of Lehman Brothers. He maintained close contacts with Germany during that time. The book by his grand daughter June Breton Fisher is titled- When Money Was in Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street. It an apt title about the Goldman style and culture. When Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman was asked during a college reunion what languages he had learned and all about his travels by a classmate, Henry replied that he had learned the language of money and that was the only language he would need.

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As car sales drop and Chrysler drops some models from its production line, it is running many plants on one shift, leaving the factories idle the rest of the time. This means higher costs per car, as the fixed costs do't change by that much with lower production. Chrysler may also have steeper sales decline than the other carmakers, because it has fewer small cars in its lineup. All this means losses that won't be disclosed as it is privately owned, through 2009, as the economy goes through what looks like a prolonged recession of at least a couple of years. As losses are not disclosed management does not have to worry about the effect on stock price, but the longer this situation lasts, the harder its going to get for Chrysler, for a long time the weakest player in the American car market compared to the others from the US, Germany and Japan.

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This article in DW.com says Russia's open intervention in Syria with bombing attacks on Aleppo comes with risks. It says the prevailing opinion is that Russia is trying to show its superpower  status in the Middle East and other areas. Other views are that it is showing that it will counter all civil society movements following the one that toppled Yakunovych in Ukraine, and sending a message to civil society movements in Russia. President Obama after meeting with Putin in Hangzhou in September 2016 for 90 minutes, said it appears that Russia is willing "to live with constant low grade conflict" for a long time. DW.com says this is risky for Russia, and it offers so little in return, with the loss of credibility with world public opinion. Compared to Georgia where ethnic Russian ties were involved, and Ukraine where Russia has historically had ties with the eastern part of Ukraine, Russia has no interests of this kind in the region of Syria-Iraq. In its ties with Iran Russia was historically one of the colonial powers like Britain and the U.S., with U.S. relations having worsened only after the 1950's, so no historic ties exist with Iran either.   ...

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On the surface Turkey's implementation of an IMF program to reduce its deficit in 2001 has lessons for Greece, but looked at closely the situation has some serious differences. Turkish tax collection was weak and this was corrected by the incoming Erdogan administration, salaries were capped and spending was reduced, taxes raised and state assets sold to improve the deficit. But as Tim Ash an economist at RBS bank points out, achieving GDP growth will be very difficult for Greece. For one thing Turkey's lira fell 54% against the dollar in 2001, spurring exports and increasing growth. Greece is part of the euro currency system and this won't be part of the solution. Also Turkey's debt approached 80% of GDP in 2001 (down to 46% of GDP now), compared to 115% for Greece in 2010, so Greece is in a much worse position than Turkey in 2001. Ash sees a restructuring of debt as the best way to restore growth in Greece.

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Macron as president of France does not agree to cohabitation appointing 4 prime ministers over 4 years who are replaced or lose public confidence. The last Bayrou is an experinced politician who tried to get austerity cuts including eliminating 2 public holidays. The Socialist bloc led by Melenchon and Le Pen's Marie Pen bring down Bayrou in a no confidence vote. Following the election of the National Assembly Macron had an opportunity he missed of cohabitation with the Socialists Party bloc and letting its leader Melenchon or someone else in the Socialist Bloc, a more acceptable face to the Macronists form a new government. Instead he has weakened France and it's economy by taking a rigid approach. This is a reversal of his posture during his entry into politics which depended on the Socialists leader president Hollande accepting Macron into his government as Minister for the economy. Macron formed his own party with deft moves to retire the Gaullist and Socialist parties that have ruled France since 1945. Winning the presidency once and barely winning the second time after protests by Yellow Vests on the cost of living and an imperial presidency, the very same problem that Nicholas Sarkozy had of not being close to the people and their concerns about migrants, cost of living and the deindustrialized parts of France, neglect of farmers and rural areas also seen in the US. With this France is in a bit of drift with younger voters looking elsewhere for the future. ...

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1.1 million EVs were sold in US in 2024, compared to 1.4 million hybrids. Hybrids have made a comeback as sales of electric cars are slowing in US in 2024. Constraints being lack of enough charging stations, price of electric cars still high, driving range limited before recharge. Hybrid car sales are surging helping Toyota after a too cautious entry into EV's. Now the Biden administration is looking at the targets and how to make the transition smoother. Toyota is pushing back on strict environmental rules that expect 67% of cars to be electric by 2032.  The 2021 executive order by president Biden was for 50% target by 2030 and this included hybrids.  The gradual shift would make it less costly for the public to replace the cars and help first time buyers wanting to try it out do this with hybrids as an option. As a quick guide 12000 pounds of carbon dioxide for global warming are given out by gasoline only cars, half or 6000 pounds by hybrids like Toyota's, and half again 3000 pounds of carbon dioxide by all electric like BYD China's or Tesla/GM/VW. The actual numbers are confirmed by Dept of Energy 2022, and MIT 2019 studies- 2727 pounds all electric, 6898 pounds hybrid, and 12594 pounds all gasoline. ...

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No case says Morgenthau was too big or too small for his office. He retired as District Attorney of Manhattan at the age of 90, and a bit of a legend. During his time there from 1975 when he took office homicides dropped from 648 to 58, a 90% drop in the murder rate.

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Eisinger says the Volcker Rule is voluminous and complex with 530 pages, because banks and lobbyists with complicit regulators wanted it that way. This is also what Volcker told Charlie Rose in an interview, that banks can't complain that it is complex and at the same time work to add complex language to the rule.

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How Pandit handled Citigroup through the crisis in the financial markets first with the collapse of Bear Stearns and then through recent weeks. How he tackled Citigroups problems and raised capital almost from the time he took over as CEO of Citigroup. The problems and challenges facing Citigroup and those facing Dimon at Chase Bank.