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Bad loans in Spain's banking system reached a high of 8.16% of total loans by banks in Feb. 2012, according to the Bank of Spain. The total amount of bad loans was 144 billion euros.

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Risks that Bankia bank poses to Spain's banking system as more capital needs to be set aside for losses from the housing bubble.

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Gazprom's Chairman, Alexei Miller, says Ukraine owes $1.89 billion for gas deliveries after missing a March 7 payment deadline for Feb. deliveries. Transit shipments through Ukraine to Europe will continue. Russia provides 30% of Europe's gas needs and 15% of all Europe's gas demand goes through Ukraine, particularly Germany, Italy and Britain's utility companies. Europe's dependence on Russian supplies of natural gas gives a new twist to the crisis in Ukraine. Russia also needs the revenue from the natural gas exports to finance its own development as growth has slowed down sharply in 2013-2014, making this a situation where both sides in Europe need to resolve the standoff in Ukraine wihout escalation.

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Ms. Park Geun-hye of the conservative party was elected president of S. Korea on Dec. 19, 2012. She received 51.6% of the vote compared to 48.0% for liberal candidate Moon Jae-in with about 87% of votes counted. Issues in the election included the high amount of household debt, welfare payments, high cost of student tution, and lack of jobs for new college graduates. Both candidates favor moderate policies towards N. Korea and the communist neighbor was not a factor in the election. The focus is on uncertainties about the economy and regional disparities between the southeast and southwestern provinces.

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President Obama's call for boosting the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 in his 2013 State of the Union address designed to lift millions out of poverty.

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The NYT editorial says the summit came up short on both the Stimulus that Europe was asked by the US to commit to, and the global regulation that the Europeans asked the US to agree to. The regulatory reform is not what it needs to be to address the many issues raised by this crisis says the NYT. And Germany it says needs to see that deteriorating conditions will require a strong stimulus. By committing to $1 trillion in funds to backup international trade and to help emerging countries fight the crisis, the summit did achieve its other goal of helping the vast majority of people in the world in the emerging countries deal with this crisis, including countries in the EU.

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Problems with the July 2011 plan for Greece and other troubled eurozone economies include the lack of funding and powers for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). The contagion effects to Italy and Spain will require larger funding and powers for the EFSF for it to be able to deal with future crises. The bondholder debt haircut for Portuguese and Irish bondholders, and the sense that the crisis in Greece may have to be revisted yet again, are other issues that remain unresolved. Analysts sense that the EU's governance mechanisms are always a step behind in dealing with the repeated crises and EU leaders are doing only enough to get to the next crisis moment.

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Castilla-La Mancha includes the region around Toledo, Spain. It has an unemployment rate of 27% for the 1st quarter of 2012, up 5.4% from 2011, faster than the increase of 3.1% to 24.4% for Spain. Estimates from the University Carlos III in Madrid show economic growth contracting with GDP decline at 3.1% annual rate by the end of June 2012 for Castilla La Mancha. Part of the problem was the lack of credible accounts by the previous administration. Unpaid bills to suppliers were not included in the accounts for the region. When Maria Dolores de Cospedal of the Partido Popular became the president in May 2011, these unpaid bills were discovered and led to the doubling of the region's budget deficit to 7.3% for 2011. Cospedal sees the austerity cuts she is making as a long term approach to preserve education and healthcare. In an interview with Sara Schaeffer Munoz of the WSJ she says reducing debt is the first priority, so that interest rate premiums on borrowing can be brought down. Debt for Castilla was 17.2% of GDP in 2011, according to the Bank of Spain, it was 16.6% in the first quarter of 2012, among the highest of Spain's regions Ms. Cospedal says she wants growth too, but insists that Spain cannot get growth as long as it is sinking in debt. Moody's Investors Service says Ms. Cospedal is strict in executing the budget- a new second hospital slated to be built for 150 million euros in Cuenca with population 56,000 was cancelled and other cuts are proceeding- and Moody's did not include Castilla in the downgrades of 7 Spanish regions in June 2012. ...

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Imposing losses on senior bond holders is acceptable under EU law during a liquidation process, say experts. Having them take losses in a restructuring would require changes to European and national laws. The uncertainty this creates coud hurt Spain's larger banks such as Santander and BBVA, which have so far not been affected by the crisis. A new European banking supervisory authority could insist on losses for senior bond holders to reduce the amount needed from the EFSF or ESM rescue funds.

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New laws passed by decree by Chavez that wwould send food company managers to jail if they violated government imposed price controls and power to nationalize companies in the food industry without National Assembly approval. This is because Chavez faces growing unpopularity with food price increases. Also by decree Chavez has established a National Bolivarian militia. And an anticorruption official has banned some popular opposition politicians from running in the November regional elections including Leopoldo Lopez from runnung for mayor of Caracas.

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The severe impact of sanctions on availability of car parts in Russia is shown here in this Guardian report. Few industries are impacted by Russia's total isolation as the car industry says this report. Car sales in Russia have dropped by 84% according to the Association for European Business and car prices are up 50%. Import substitution is not working for the car industry say experts. The owner of a car repair firm in Moscow says speculation for car parts is rampant with parts cost up by 800% and original oil up 1000%. Reports show counterfeit or stolen parts flooding the market. The airline industry is also impacted by the severe shortage of aircraft parts. One Russian pilot says there are enough aircraft wheels and pads for one month maximum. A manager of Sukhoi Superjet says he gives the Russian airline industry one year if nothing changes. Safety concerns of pilots are being ignored says one pilot. Parts are being cannibalized from older planes for new ones to keep them running. With the nation's automobile and airline industries affected in this way the quality of living is affected in Russia only 3 months into this war. Having a large inflow of revenues from oil and gas for the 6-12 month period that it takes Europe to respond, and a large reserve fund of about $610 billion is not a real reflection of the strength of a country. In today's interconnected system of supply chain no degree of industrial strength would allow a nation to wage war through invasion with impunity without finding itself in severe difficulties for the quality of life in the country as the world community responds. The response is to prevent the wrong lessons being drawn by one nation using full scale war to occupy another nation and getting away with it.    ...

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Laura Marshall-Andrews is a GP, a General Practitioner doctor, in Brighton, England, with a different approach to patients and health care. She takes into account the whole patient, the patient's mental condition, putting back some of the things that reduce isolation, increasing feelings of self-worth, bringing more community and nature interactions of a positive nature that can affect the patient's health. In some situations having a doctor who listens and is willing to take the time to talk to and know the patient, and being aware of the patient's whole condition as opposed to fragmented areas based on fields of medicine can make a huge difference. Don't look for a diagnosis, treat the whole person,  says Laura Marshall Andrews in her new book- What Seems To Be The Problem? She believes social prescribing takes a whole load off the National Health Service in Britain. This includes art, photography classes, dance classes, singing classes. A study by the University of Westminster shows the GP visits go down by 30% and emergency A&E visits by 25% with social activity prescribing. Yoga, meditation, gardening, nature walks, are also part of the same activities that can help people improve how they feel and think and bring the sense of peace in their lives that brings better health with it. In the loneliness and isolation, community dislocations and pressures of life in today's cities, all these activities are immensely important to the idea of whole health of the whole person. Dr Andrews says that if you keep a community happy and creative, then you are not going to need a lot of expensive hospital treatments." "Cum Scientia Caritas" the motto of the Royal College of General Practitioners means Science with Caring. ...

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With some aspects of Marie Le Pen's programme possibly violating the French Constitution and some parts of the programme leading to France being forced to leave the European Union, what was not looked at carefully in the first round vote is now happening for the second round. The Le Pen draft law on "immigration, identity and citizenship," is seen by multiple analyses cited by The Guradian, as violating the principles of equality enshrined in the French Constitution. Constitutional experts say this would also violate European law and lead to a progressive or indirect exit from the European Union. Le Pen's proposal to lower the retirement age to 60 was coming under scathing scrutiny, with Jean Tirole, the 2014 Nobel prize winner in Economics saying it would cost 68 billion euros and "permanently impoverish the country." Countries such as Brazil that lowered the retirement age in this manner have found that it seriously affects public finances, leading to the deep economic crisis in Brazil following the commodity price collapse a few years ago. Macron has moved in the opposite direction to raise the retirement age gradually and now with a proposed national consensus, at the cost of losing some support, simply to shore up public finances. So that needed investments in infrastructure and climate change can be made. For this reason it may become evident to undecided voters that Le Pen's proposals have some serious flaws if implemented, weakening the French economy and yet not tackling the deeper problems of younger people. These problems The Guardian says in a separate report are the precarious and low pay jobs, asset based inequality, and rural urban regional differences developing as a result of the offshoring of manufacturing to China, and are common to Britain, France, Germany, and the US. These problems are beginning to be addressed after the lessons learned from the pandemic by western nations.   ...

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US president Biden authorizes $350 million in immediate military assistance to Ukraine. Western leaders now believe that NATO countries are at risk if they do not help stop the invasion, as it now appears that Russia seeks to restore a sphere of influence across Eastern Europe that existed under the Soviet Union. In 1956 Soviet tanks entered Budapest, Hungary. A situation reminiscent of that in Hungary is now taking place in Ukraine in 2022. Earlier the Russian view of Ukraine neutrality was accepted by western leaders- the situation has changed during the last week, as it is now perceived that Russia seeks to change the situation in Eastern Europe. This completely alters western Europe's and America's view of the situation in Ukraine. All this has happened in a matter of days, and in a few weeks. On the Russian side the invasion is not popular with street protests in Moscow and people on the street skeptical about the invasion and its objectives. The view is beginning to emerge that this invasion only breaks the fraternal ties between the Belarus, Ukrainian and Russian peoples that have existed for centuries. In this sense the politics and governments of the present are not relevant as much as the shared history. Ironically it is this shared history that Mr. Putin seemed to want to assert. Yet it ignored the fact that Ukraine also has a shared history with Poland and the Baltic countries and the desire for a different system of government is common to all the people's of the world. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India; UK and Scotland or Ireland; Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Canada, Britain and the US; Hungary, Austria and Germany; all have a shared history yet the people in each country at different periods of history have made their own choices and decided what they would do as independent countries.  ...

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At this rate China and India will through the time young people are being encouraged to pursue reading and education- and through strictly regulated social media and videogames in China and TikTok banned in India- move in the direction of developed nations and the US with 150 million users of TikTok be moving in the other direction where Brazil 126 million users and Indonesia 99 million users are. This report in MIT Technology Review says in 2022 the children and teenagers in America spent 103 minutes on TikTok. Tiktok and Facebook split the social media market with about 5 billion minutes each. If users are on both this could give an average of 206 minutes or over 3 hours a day. Consider that there is a Chinese version Douyin. In China its version of TikToK is strictly regulated for a long time now and nowhere poses the kind of threat to education, reading and building a better educated population in China than in the US. Is that a conspiracy. No, says MIT Technology Review, it is because how quickly and forcefully the Chinese governments regulates digital platforms.  It a clear failure of the US Congress and the federal government that has led to this situation where this may be the first generation of young people that are less prepared for civic responsibilities and are from the amount of time dedicated to social media spending less time on reading to to be knowledgeable, and reading in general for education.  In China action is swift. Take for example video games and addiction. In 2021 the rule was put in that children under 18 could only play video games between 8.00 pm and 9.00 pm on weekends and holidays. They are blocked from using outside of these hours. China is looking for new measures that require creators to obtain a license, and for ways for the government to regulate the social media algorithms themselves.  ...

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Not much will change in Italy's place in the European Union, says Maria Ferraresi, editor of Italy's Domani newspaper. Italy expects 200 billion euros of solidarity aid from the European Union that is dependent on following EU rules. And coalition partner Berlusconi says he will drop his support if Meloni adopts any anti EU rules positions. Meloni's Brothers of Italy party with 26% of the vote has roots going back to the Social Movement in Italy in the 1930's. To attract support she has remained in opposition even when Matteo Salvini of the League and Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia parties joined Mario Draghi's unity government during the pandemic. She has turned to a pro EU stand from a EU skeptical stand. Meloni is also forming one of seventy Italian governments since 1945 such is the pace of government change in Italy making every government dependent on fickle political sentiments that shift quickly. The Italian economy has fallen into a stagnant situation with growth less than 1% in 2022, and the main concern of voters and the elected governments is the economy and standards of living, so that EU aid acts as a critical part of rejuvenating the economy. The Eu solidarity aid of $200 billion in coming years is critical for Italy's economic revival. It also shows the European Union in action after the years following World War II when it was realized that some sort of sound European economic framework was needed for the common good. Ferraresi also points out that Italy has also gone through an EU led effort to make the judiciary fully independent and able to function similar to the judiciary in France and other EU nations. Italy also has a very de.centralized government with state and local governments playing a major role in administration. This reduces the impact of changes in the capital Rome.  ...

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A hard fought election in Brazil between Mr. Bolsanaro and an ex-president Lula da Silva. Voting is compulsory in Brazil for all those who are literate and between age of 18 and 70 years. There are 156 million registered voters. President and members of Chamber of Deputies are elected for a four year term. Elections also take place for 27 governors for 26 states and one federal district. If no candidate in elections for president or governors gets 50% of the vote the vote heads to a runoff on October 30 between the top two candidates. Bolsanaro is supported by evangelical Christians in a Catholic country, rural landowners, and business people. He was a deputy or member of parliament for the state of Rio de Janeiro for 27 years, who won on a law and order and anti-corruption platform in 2018. Lula da Silva is a former trade union leader who was president from 2003 to 2010. He was popular during a commodity boom in Brazil's soyabean and iron ore export boom to China that financed social support programs. A corruption scandal affected his successor from the Worker's Party leading to the change in government after the collapse of the commodities boom. After he was given a jail sentence under the Bolsanaro government he was released by the Supreme court decision in 2019 that declared there was a lack of due process in his conviction. Mr. Bolsanaro also as a program to benefit poor families that is called Auxilio Brazil to replacve Lula's Bolsa Familia. Payments to 18 million recipients were increased in August and a monthly stipend was added for taxi and truck drivers by Bolsanaro. The competing interests and the pandemic with the high toll of around 685,000 deaths have created a highly contested election. ...

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By drawing a comparison of China's aggressive flights close to Taiwan to the invasion of Ukraine, president Biden brings clarity to the US position on Taiwan. He says in Tokyo during his Asian trip that China "was flirting with danger" through its aggressive posture on Taiwan. President Biden made his remarks during a press conference with prime minister Fumio Kishida of Japan in Tokyo. This is what the BBC says about his remarks-  The US president began the press conference by directly linking the China-Taiwan situation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that the Russian president was "attempting to eliminate the identity of Ukraine." If there was rapprochement eventually between Ukraine and Russia and sanctions were not sustained, "then what does this signal to China about the costs of attempting to take Taiwan by force?" "They are flirting with danger already by flying so close and all the manoeuvres they are undertaking," Biden said, referring to increasing reports of Chinese warplane incursions into Taiwanese airspace. This suggests that the Asian trip of president Biden is bringing with it America's new Asia policy of building strong economic and defense partnerships in Asia. The US president also looks beyond today's conflict in Ukraine to an eventual rapprochement and end of sanctions as a possible scenario in Europe, and sees Asia as the region for America to build new supply chains that strengthen America and its partners, with a new partnership being formed with India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and with other ASEAN nations. In a way Biden and Republicans see the challenge from emerging powers in Asia as similar to the one from Japan in the thirties and the eighties, to be met with the combined economic strength of the US and Europe.  ...

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President Biden's action to protect consumers when there is a run on the banks such as SVB bank, Signature, Republic bank in the US. And the coordinated action with European central banks and European governments that protect the international banking system because of the interconnections between US and European banks and risks of contagion from one region to another. Janet Yellen at Treasury and the FDIC, Federal Reserve, Swiss central banks worked together on Credit Suisse and other banks affected by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature bank. The Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco supervised SVB bank and flagged the problems of it not being able to sustain itself in a crisis with enough cash on hand. Congress under president Trump removed banks under $250 billion in assets from supervision which made it difficult for the San Francisco Fed to take the problem of SVB to the next level or to be able under the law passed during the 2009 financial crisis to regulate SVB and impose the Fed's requirements. A problem exists  of lobbying by banks for less regulation and the influence exerted on the US government and even the Fed. Spreading of ideas that a culture of laissez fairre or little regulation works well for the banking system contrary to evidence from the 2009 financial crisis and the mismanagement of banks such as Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, with frequent or egregious behaviour leading to settlements with the government. All it takes is the failure of one significant bank even if it is not a large bank, and the spiralling effects on banks with weakness of some kind for a crisis of confidence in the banking system. The role of lobbying by SVB bank and its CEO's appointment to the board of San Francisco Fed is seen as part of this self serving culture. ...