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The title says this but Biden has not blown it by conducting discussions on the debt ceiling with Kevin McCarthy, Republican leader in the House of Representatives. Krugman presents MAGA Republicans as controlling the House. The situation is a bit more complicated than that as the Republican margin is only 222-213 with moderates who could move in Biden's direction if a default is impending. Previous articles in the NYT and WSJ have shown how the president has his own set of options including  simply ignoring the ceiling or citing a part of the Constitution of the US that gives the president the authority to conduct the business of the country in such a situation. Mr. Biden is taking the situation as calmly as possible, as the midterms have also given the president a situation where he sees the country on his side with Democrats needing only a few moderates in the Republican party to support him. Mr. McCarthy has his own reasons to support Biden as he supports president Biden in the task of backing up NATO and Ukraine. Having discussions with McCarthy keeps the country together at a time when Ukraine has a planned counter offensive to defend the country. Biden was able to achieve legislative achievements that are comparable to FDR and Lyndon Johnson because of his calm and patient approach. ...

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Hugh Schofield of the BBC gives this analysis of the televised national debate between Macron and Le Pen on April 20. BBC also gives a video of the debate. On the economy and cost of living- Macron said actions he has taken to put a cap on fuel prices and tax exemption for pay bonuses were fairer and more effective than Madame Le Pen's ideas. Le Pen said she would cut the VAT on energy. Macron said a cap on fuel prices was "twice as effective as dropping the sales tax." Le Pen said she will cut taxes, and no tax for under 30's.  On Europe and Russia- Macron said Le Pen was one of the first leaders to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. "You are speaking to your banker when you speak to Russia," Macron said referring to a bank loan from Russia. He also said that the French did not look to Russia for finance, when Le Pen said she was turned down by French banks. On the European Union- Macron argued that Le Pen's idea of "a Europe of nations" would spell the end of the European Union and that "you are selling a lie." Schofield says Macron avoided the trap of coming across as too arrogant or technocratic, sometimes even holding back.  ...

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President Macron announces a curfew from 9.00 pm to 6.00 am in Paris and eight other metropolitan regions of France covering about a third of the population. The cities are in addition to Paris region, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Saint Etienne, Rouen, Toulouse.  Macron said "we have to act now." The president called for bringing the daily cases which have reached a high of 27,000 by October 14 to about 3000 or 5000. About 1600 of the 5000 ICU beds in France are now taken for coronavirus cases and the curfew is an effort to keep the numbers from jumping as they did in March  and April 2020. To do this he said: "we won't be leaving the restaurant after 9.00 pm and we won't be partying with friends because we know that that's where the contamination risk is greatest." Macron made it clear that scientists are all in agreement on the pandemic continuing till the summer of 2021. He urged people to limit gatherings at home to 6 people and wear masks.  Financial support will be given to people affected by the curfew in the hospitality industry.  Anyone found outdoors after 9.00 pm will be fined 135 euros and 10 times that for repeat offences.  ...

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India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who has decades of experience in foreign affairs and relations with China, says in his personal observation the border stand-off with China has "significantly impacted" public sentiment in India. Recalling the tense period after 1962 from memories as a child and a young person, he sees some of these memories coming back. This is a real danger for China says Jaishankar, as it will dissipate the carefully developed goodwill in India. Jaishankar was not only the longest serving Indian ambassador to China but also one who set up cultural contacts in 30 cities for Indian culture in China during the period 2010- 2013. Earlier during 1996-2000 he was Deputy Chief of Mission in Tokyo, Japan, and is married to Kyoko who is from Japan. His relationship with East Asian countries is a rare asset in India's foreign service. In Jaishankar's words- "We are being tested. I have every confidence that we will rise to the occasion and meet the national security challenge." This comes from experience tackling India China border disputes during his period as ambassador. One such situation can be mentioned. In 2013 the PLA encamped in India's Ladakh region in the Depsang Plains. A scheduled trip of premier Li Keqiang to India in 2013 was about to be cancelled before the PLA withdrew.  ...

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In a two and half hour news conference prime minister Li Keqiang of China gives some insights into the new thinking of China's leadership on issues of trade with the U.S.,charges made against Huawei, and handling China's slowing economy. On Huawei or Chinese tech companies conducting spying for the Chinese government Li Keqiang stated: This is not consistent with Chinese law. This is not how China behaves, We do not do that and will not do that in the future." To tackle the slowing economy Li said the government is reducing taxes and cutting interest rates and the money banks are required to hold as reserves. By reducing expenditures the government will save 1 trillion yuan ($148 billion, collecting higher dividends from state firms, and retrieving unspent state funds allocated earlier. The purpose Li repeatedly emphasized is to free up credit to help private companies and prevent "layoff waves." On the trade issues with the U.S. Li believes it is not possible to uncouple the two countries economies, and said he expected the trade talks to lead to a positive outcome. China's national legislature he said passed a new foreign investment law as proof of its commitment to creating a fair environment for foreign companies, including complaint responding mechanisms, transparency in information disclosure and fast followup in issuing regulations that put the law in effect. ...

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Guardian's David Smith has short memories as he compares response at Obama's stops and visits in 2012 and compares that to Biden's as he visits Detroit and Atlanta in May 2024. In 2012 in the last weeks of the election Mitt Romney was much closer than is remembered today. Obama was at risk of being a one term president and depended on a strong turnout from Latino voters. Mariachi bands were called out in states where Hispanic vote was critical in these closing weeks. This is also just after the pandemic once in a century event that has affected younger people more than other groups, and after the dislocation and misinformation, the suppression of real information about the massive investment in the economy by president Biden for the first time in 50 years. Obama then lacked the kind of bipartisan support from all groups including Republicans and suburban voters that Biden now has that were never part of the Obama coalition. As shown by Nate Cohn in NYT what Biden is after are the disengaged younger voters and new voters in 2024 that have no awareness of the president's efforts to improve standards of living of the American people, who president Biden is working hard at campaign stop after campaign stop to reach about 6 months before the election. ...

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The Genbaku Dome shown here was the only structure left standing after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  It is shown here on the UNESCO Heritage site. We show this on the day of the Nolan movie "Oppenheimer" at Oscars that shows the life of the scientist who headed the Los Alamos laboratory that invented the first atomic bomb, yet does not show the effects on the people of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. As recently as May 2023 prime minister Kishida of Japan had the G7 meeting in Hiroshima Japan, where he is from. He wanted people to see the Peace Memorial in the city and its new exhibition. NHK television Japan showed a documentary of the exhibition of the people who survived the bombing on that day, their lives on that day of those who died and those who survived the bombing including children, what they were doing at that very moment. G7 leaders visited the exhibition. Having seen that NHK documentary of the black and white pictures of the exhibits only 8 months back, one could say the winning of awards by Nolan's "Oppenheimer" without showing the Genbaku Dome and some of the exhibits from the museum leaves the story incomplete in missing the consequences of the research in the desert in New Mexico in 1944. ...

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CBS'S Robert Costa:  What's your suggestion about how she (Kamal Harris) should handle that Republicans are saying she has fumbled the ball on immigration, on border policy? What's the answer for how to define her on herself on that issue? Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer:  The answer is very simple. And that is that Democrats, along with the Biden Harris administration, put together the toughest border policy that would have stopped the flow from the border that we've seen in a very long time. In fact, initially was supported by Republicans. So many of the leading Republicans said, "this is tough, we're all for it," (McConnell, Lankford, others). And then all of a sudden, President Trump says it, he said it explicitly. He said, "I don't want them to solve the problem, I want chaos at the border so I can run on it with the election." We're happy to bring that up. And case after case, when we bring that up, the voters side with us, not with their policies. We were willing to fix the border. Trump and his Republican minions said, don't fix it, we want chaos for political purposes. Who do you think's going to win the argument? ...

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Did U.S. Treaury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, ignore a key request by President Obama to present plans for the restructuring of Citigroup after the government bailout of Citigroup? Ron Suskind says this is what happened in his book on the Obama administration and how the White House operated to make key decisions. Ron Suskind, intervewed key members of the Obama White House economic policy team, Lawrence Summers, Christina Romer, Peter Orszag. In all Suskind conducted 700 hours of interviews for his new book in Sept 2011: "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President." According to the book, in early 2009 after Obama authorized a series of stress tests for banks he told Geithner to develop a plan for restructuring Citigroup. A month later at a meeting not attended by Geithner Obama raised a question about the status of the plan. He was told by Romer that no restructuring plan had been developed for Citi. Suskind says Geithner disagreed about a plan to restructure Citi and decided to ignore the request. Geithner and the Treasury Department say Obama asked Geithner to develop a backup plan to overhaul banks if the government was forced to keep a big ownership stake in the companies, and "there was fortunately never a need to put them in place." Geithner told Suskind that he doesn't slow-walk the President on any matter. Other aspects of the operation of the economic policy team that Suskind covers are a series of memos from top aide Pete Rouse raising questions that ongoing communication between some members of the economic team and Summers was giving Summers power to shape policy. Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, is shown as trying to keep out the views of Romer and budget director Orszag from reaching the President without going through him. When Orszag gives a private report to the president on the deficit, Summers objects saying that this was immoral. Obama lacked the fresh ideas needed to tackle the problems created by the mortgage and banking crisis of 2008, when he used the Clinton administration economic policy team of the 1990's- Rubin, Bernanke, Summers and Geithner. Fresh approaches were needed two decades after Clinton's election in 1992, and the Bush administration that followed, as many of the problems developed during this period. The similiar embedded thinking was shared during the Clinton and Bush administrations and the economic advisors about dealings with the banking sector, but the situation for deficits, unemployment, housing, and the economy had completely changed requiring fresh approaches. ...

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David Leonhardt on the policy errors of the Obama administration in managing the economy. Why he asks did the Obama administration not take the risks it took for "undeserving" recipients in the auto industry to provide significant help to GM and Chrysler and at the same not provide large scale and situation changing help to millions of mortgage holders who were under water? The housing crisis with millons of foreclosures depressing home prices has played a significant part in the lagging economic recovery. He points out that Obama economic advisors had read Rogoff and Reinhart's book "This Time Its Different," about the longer times it takes for a economic recovery after a housing bubble, and still made the mistake of believing economists who suggested that the stimulus by itself would be sufficient and that recovery was underway in 2010. Others in the Democratic party had pointed to the lack of focus on unemployment by the Obama administration. Why were such voices not heard?

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President Trump uses particularly blunt language as he says the U.S. will take strong action against North Korea. In an address to the UN General Assembly he says the only option is "denuclearization" for North Korea. Trump called the nuclear deal with Iran an "embarrassment to the United States." In this speech and in other speeches he has called it the worst one-sided transaction that the U.S. has negotiated. Secretary of State Tillerson separately has called for its modification.

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If you love soccer or football you should see this interview by Frank Lampard of 2024 Ballon d'Or winner, Spanish player Rodri Fernandez. Rodri plays for Manchester City. The interesting thing about this Premier League You Tube video of Oct 29, 2024 is that British player Frank Lampard, and now coach, is he shows Rodri moments in each game on an iPad and asks him how he does it- the moves he makes as a midfielder on the field, including the picture in his head about the field in those moments.

Lampard does an excellent job showing Rodri at his best, the skills, the instinct, the preparation and the hard work, the discipline, and the extraordinary humility of Spanish footballers.

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Top 5 Things emails from junior and senior employees, from 30,000 employees of Nvidia, is how Jensen Huang stays on top of strategic direction for the AI company. Sunday night he gets such emails which tell about what is important to junior emplopyees that can geve Huang a feel for what is happening outside. He does not pay much attention to strategy meetings, tries to work in conference rooms with his ever present favorite marker. Jensen Huang is unlike anything seen in America's tech companies. 

Amazon's Jeff Bezos does not like tech presentations, he prefers a one page writeup that requires writing skills. Huang prefers emails that say briefly what junior employees are thinking.

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Experts say Kuroda of the Bank of Japan still has some Finance Ministry DNA, as he is from Japan's Finance Ministry which has pushed for the consumption tax to be increased to 10% in 2015. Even though Kuroda favors aggressive monetary stimulus compared to others in the Finance Ministry, he shares the views of Ministry colleagues on the tax changes. LDP leaders in the Abe cabinet and Abe see the recession with 2 consecutive quarters of declining GDP for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2014, as good reason for delaying the next tax increase from the 8% already implemented in 2014 to 10% in 2015. Under Abe's revised plan the tax increase would be postponed till 2017. Abe referred to the different views on the tax increase in his announcement for a snap election in Dec. 2014 for a new mandate to pursue his Abenomics economic policies of Three Arrows. Kuroda for his part downplayed their differences saying fiscal policy was the mandate of the elected government.

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Ramon Fernandez is the head of the Treasury in France's Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry. He manages the work done behind the scenes in the eurozone crisis- helping France's finance minister Baroin, French president Sarkozy, Xavier Musca, the presidents chief of staff, and working with his German counterpart Jorg Asmussen. He is self-effacing and says he does what he has to do. His view on the euro is that it will be there ten years from now and stronger.

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Keir Starmeir, a human rights lawyer for 20 years, heads the Labour Party negotiating team in negotiations with Theresa May for a cross-party Brexit deal. He says about 150 Labour MP's would reject a Brexit deal that is lacking a confirmatory second referendum on Brexit. He also said Labour risks losing Remain voters tempted to vote for the Liberal Democrats or Change UK. Starmier said it is time to call time on the cross party talks in a few days.

Recalling his days as a human rights lawyers Starmier says he never thought he would be defending those values of society which were considered part of British society. Starmier says this battle for values is much bigger than one political party.

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David Super, a professor at Georgetown University Law School, says letting the fiscal cliff cuts in spending go into effect is fairer to the poor and middle class than the $1.2 trillion in spending cuts proposed by president Obama and the Democrats. He says the pressure of public opinion would lead to some minideals for the Bush tax cuts to go to lower incomes and for restoring some funds to defense after the fiscal cliff agreement goes into effect, leading to a fairer outcome.

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Hollande served as mayor of the town of Tulle in central France for 7 years. During these years he worked hard to modernize schools, provide home care for the elderly and improve finances in a relatively poor town. He is remembered for his hands on style, freely talking to people about their problems. Hollande moved to this region from his birthplace in Rouen, so that he could contest the seat here in elections back in 1981, over thirty years ago. He lost that election but won in 1983 as a local councillor for Ussel, which is close to Tulle. In 1988 he is elected to France's parliament from Correze, loses in 1993, and comes back to win in 1997.

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Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana and chancellor emeritus of Purdue University, reminds Americans of the uses of humor and poking fun at leaders and government to lighten things up and bring a sense of humility to those in power- good for them and good for America. Even a serious fighter for independence for 300 million people (1.4 billion today) as Mohandas Gandhi always kept some room for humor in that fight against the British Empire. Never losing sight of the fact that all are human beings with their vices and foolishness, prone to error. He quotes PJ Rourke of National Lampoon from the 1970's- “It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.” And “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.” After Adlai Stevenson's loss in 1952 and again in 1956 to Ike Eisenhower in the presidential elections he told this story about a boy who stubbed his toe in the dark- “They asked him how he felt once after an unsuccessful election. He said that he was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh.” ...

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Maureen Dowd's conversation with Donald Trump in Jan 2016 just after the seventh Republican presidential debate in which Trump opted out. She describes him as a person who can be sensitive himself, and yet not be sensitive to what he says about others and how that is seen by the public, especially for his comments on women. He feels that Fox News is pushing him around, not that he made comments about Megyn Kelly such as "bimbo," and "lightweight." Couldn't Trump just withdraw these words, asks Maureen. Trump says he doesn't have to make up because he is enormously successful. Yet when Maureen tells him about Newt Gingrich's statement to Fox News that Trump was acting with petulance in his response to what Gingrich saw as a poorly worded newsrelease from Fox News, and that it would "shrink" Trump, Donald sounds like he feels offended.

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Michael Boskin, Professor of Economics at Stanford University, and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Presidenc of George H.W. Bush writes about Obama's economic policies, what looks good and what might fail. He thinks the paln for toxic assets is one that might expose the USA to the risks of a Japanese style lost decade. He doesn't like the idea of the Fed as asystemic risk regulator. He thinks the health care bill should level the tax subsidy playing field so individuals can purchase low-cost, high deductible, catastrophic insurance. And he sees abetter alternative to the climate change bill in a broad based transparent carbon tax, and energy efficiency intitiatives. He sees the tax hikes proposed by Democrats in California driving marginal rates on earnings to among the world's highest at 57%. He calls for a rethinking of many aspects of Obama's economic plan.

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Antonio Horta-Osorio of Banco Santander, is a Portuguese native who took up the task of turnaround of Lloyds Bank after the British government took a 39% stake in the bank during the financial crisis. He is credited with a major turnaround, making it possible for the government to sell 6% of its stake earlier than anticipated. He reduced the dependence on short term funding sources and sold off assets overseas. He has also strengthened its retail banking operations in Britain. He took on the task with a micromanaging approach and had to be admitted to a rehab clinic after 5 sleepless nights. Following this period of two months of recovery the Board rehired him in Jan 2012 and he delegated tasks to other managers. Osorio was a senior manager at Banco Santander when he took up the Lloyds job. The stock price of Lloyds has soared in 2013.

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The people like Stephen Dixon who day in day out do the work that keep New York functioning and the streets clean. Stephen Dixon. He did the hard work hauling trash on a route that did this manually, and helped clean up the snow also. He joins the sanitation department at the age of 41 but works just like the younger people on the job, and does this for 20 years. He walks with a limp, talks about getting his knees fixed at retirement once he finished 20 years and qualified for a pension. With 4 daughters he needs the steady job with the Sanitation Department. One day on the Queens route he collapses with aheart attack. Mayor Bloomberg calls the family. An immigrant from Panama at the age of 9, Stephen Dixon's story is a different one from the ones that make the headlines these days.

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The president of Ohio Christian University, Mark Smith, says there are six different faith groups out there in Ohio supporting Romney, and there remains a high level of intensity driven by a desire to protect religious liberty from an enroaching expansion of the state. He says the public fight of the Obama administration with Catholic hospitals and charities was seen as a threat by evangelical Christians. The evangelical vote makes up 30% of the vote in Ohio, 31% in Iowa, and 26% in Wisconsin.

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Boudreaux and Bjork of the WSJ interview Mariano Rajoy, prime minister of Spain, in September 2013. Rajoy says he used to look at an app on the iPad hourly for changes in Spain's borrowing rates at the height of the banking crisis and found it a bit stressful. He hopes the current improvements in the economy will not stall the progress towards a closer union and setting up the financial architecture for the euro which puts the financial strength of the EU countries behind EU banks. Rajoy would like to see a banking union. He sees Spain's banking system not needing a bailout in 2014 and the changes having improved transparency, and capitalization of Spain's banking system. Other signs of improvement are increase in exports, a historic high in tourism revenues as a record is being set for the number of tourists visiting Spain in 2014, lower labor costs, and a current account deficit that reached 10% of GDP now in surplus.The 3rd quarter of 2013 brought an increase of 0.1% to 0.2% increase in GDP. If maintained this represents an annualized growth of 0.4% to 0.8% in GDP. GDP has declined 7.5% in the last 3 years. Rajoy expects GDP to go up 0.5% to 1% in 2014 and jobs being created but the progress only gradual. The government will consider further improvements for a flexible labor market. Increases in pension payments will not automatically be indexed to inflation for Spain's 9 million pensioners in 2014 as part of expected changes. Electricity rates will also not be indexed to inflation. Rajoy's main worry now is that there is a shortage of credit to increase household spending and the dire need for job creation....