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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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Emma Soames says its OK that the picture of Winston Churchill is being replaced on 5 pound banknote by the Bank of England. After all nothing is forever. She should know as she is the granddaughter of Winston Churchill. In this BBC video she tells the interviewer from BBC that if replaced by an animal it should be one that is "a brave animal, a courageous animal ,and  a lovable animal, the Winston Churchill I knew. Don't you?" Churchill ended up on the banknote in 2016 using a 1941 Karsh photograph. It is part of an update that removes Jane Austin the novelist, and Alan Turing the scientist and puts in Birtish wildlife to change themes. We asked who makes the decision to choose wildlife compared to say British gardens which are more famous around the world and a suitable theme that Britons can point to with pride?

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Mayor Johnson on the city, its new buses, and how he got introduced to politics in the city of Wolverhampton, England. He prefers the hop-on, hop-off, classic London buses, that use British technology which he reintroduced. His point about how he got started in politics is an eye-opener- the time time as a reporter in Wolverhampton, when he got fed up with the stuff about the damp and mold and needing ventilation in people's homes, which Labor politicians made it appear that it was the state's responsibility, making people dependent just for the votes.

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Pearlstein says American Airlines (AMR) management had hoped to reduce employees count by 13,000, reduce benefits for employees and retirees and reform work rules by going through bankruptcy in the manner of other airlines such as Delta and Northwest. As it turns out AMR's unions and US Airways have made their own deal and come up with labor agreements that are likely to result in a merger deal with AMR with 1.2 billion in savings from synergies, instead of relying on labor savings for $800 million as AMR management had planned. This is because US Airways CEO, Doug Parker, sees increased savings and revenue from a new combined airline and a better hands on management team. Part of the reason is also the the way the combined airline provides additional feeder traffic from smaller cities to hubs in the east coast and midwest markets and in the Miami routes to South America. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation also tacitly sees the benefit of a stronger airline so that its funds are not depleted further by having to support AMR's underfunded pension plan. The creditors have also realized what all this means by increasing the value of AMR bonds to 50 cents on the dollar from 30 cents on the dollar....

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China's Defense Minister Gen. Wei and Mr. Austin, US Defense Secretary are to meet on the sidelines of a conference in Singapore in 2022. Mr. Wei last met Defense Secretary Mark Esper in 2019 in Bagkok. No meetings have taken place since then. Gen. Wei is seen as an outspoken leader who told a conference in 2019 that the use of the military to stop the Tiananmen protests in Beijing in 1989 was the right step as this gave Chine three decades of peaceful development.

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Lecornu and Macron operate differently now with Lecornu making the decisions for negotiating with Socialists and putting aside pension reform. After his ouster Lecornu set conditions for his return - to have latitude to make decisions if he was to take the job of PM and to consult with Macron but make decisions to negotiate with socialists, to set aside pension reform, to use Article 49.3 when he thought it would be wise, on and on. Macron to be useful in his last year has agreed. Macron has dropped his Jupiterian presidency says Le Monde in favor of consultation and discussion and letting others make decisions to govern. One should not misread Macron's new style of opposing DJT- it is a way for him to bring all French parties, the movement of Melenchon, the Socialists, and the Le Pen National party, to agree on something, when even passing the Budget was difficult in a frayed political environment. Macron having lost trust and with low popularity, Le Pen and the Melenchon movement at odds every step of the way- an inability to govern. ...

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This report in the WSJ points out that president Trump's much hyped infrastructure plan is not the $1.5 trillion federal spending plan as reported, but more in the range of $200 billion over a decade. This means fixing the crumbling infrastructure in transport, energy and water systems remains uncertain under the Trump administration, and will leave this problem to a future administration to tackle. Jakab cites the basket of 10 infrastructure stocks that lag behind the broader market in Feb. 2018. Further evidence cited is the ratio of four to one of nonfederal money to federal money under the Trump infrastructure plan, and that much of the nonfederal  money has to come from state and local governments than private entities.  Additional problem is that with the tax cut leading to a growing federal budget deficit, rising bond yields would make borrowing more costly for state and local governments.  About $100 billion will be needed for the Highway Trust Fund over the next decade to keep it solvent. Jakab of the WSJ sees overall spending stagnant, with the $100 billion Trump Incentives program for infrastructure offset by cuts elsewhere. Bottom line the revenue side is absent making this more hype than substance for much needed infrastructure spending, that is once again being postponed in America. ...

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WSJ on Intel CEO Lip Bu-Tan and ties to Chinese chip making since 2001 and as an investor through investment firm Walden. Senator Tom Cotton, chair of Intelligence Committee in Senate, questions ties of the new Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to China. DJT calls for a new CEO, saying there is no other solution that Tan should resign immediately. Under the Biden Administration and the previous CEO Pat Gelsinger the US government offered $8 billion in aid to Intel to maintain it's leadership in chip making technologies. Gelsinger was ousted by the Board last year after Intel's recovery effort was taking time and replaced with Lip-Bu Tan who was an early investor in Chinese chip makers. There are questions why the acting CEO Yeary is cited in WSJ reports to have considered offering Intel's chip making manufacturing for sale to TSMC to exit manufacturing, after the help Intel had gained of $8 billion from Biden to become the dominant maker of advanced chips in the US- recovering a position lost to TSMC when the US had invented the computer chip. Under DJT that is still the American goal under MAGA.   ...

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Medical experts say the pressure on the neck doubles for every inch that a person bends over to look at a smartphone, PC or tablet screen from a vertical posture. This reaches 60 pounds of presssure on the neck at a 60% degree angle. This is one of the serious hazards to health of the neck and spine by the commonly used postures of young people and adults for smartphones, tablets and laptops.

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This essay in WSJ is from Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida, and now Secretary of State in the second term DJT administration. Here Rubio points to his first visit as a return to focus on the American continent, on Central America and South America, which was neglected since the Kennedy administration in 1961 when JFK launched the Alliance for Progress (Allianza para Progreso). Like JFK Rubio visited Central American countries the source in the last decade in addition to Venezuela of much of the illegal migration north to the US. After support for failed dictatorships under the Eisenhower administration, JFK made Latin America a priority. This can be seen in the JFK Nixon debates. 64 Years after the conference in Uruguay's Punta del Este in 1961, America is back to square one with the failed Central American countries from gangs plus crime and from Venezuela's economy collapsing from inflation plus mismanagement with a socialist experiment. Kennedy said-"To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge – to convert our good words into good deeds – in a new alliance for progress – to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty." -- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961 Kennedy said of the Alliance for Progress "a vast cooperative effort, unparalleled in magnitude and nobility of purpose to satisfy the basic needs of the [Latin] American people for homes, work and land, health and schools – techo, trabajo y tierra, salud y escuela." Speaking in the White House on March 13, 1961, JFK said to more than two hundred Latin American diplomats,  "Let me be the first to admit that we North Americans have not always grasped the significance of this common mission." Yet at the same time, "many in your own countries have not fully understood the urgency of the need to lift people from poverty and ignorance and despair." ...

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This NYT editorial is critical of the election campaign run by the Likud and Netanyau for deepening tensions in Israeli society.

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Portugal's constitutional court rules against a government action to reduce public sector worker's traditional extra 2 months salary for each year in 2013-2014. Portugal is required to meet a deficit target of 3% in 2013. The EC and the IMF provided 78 billion euros in loans to Portugal and have indicated flexibility in adjusting the economic program.