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Francois Fillon wins 44% of the vote to Alain Juppe at 28.6%.  Mr Sakozy suffers defeat in the election primary after 3 presidential debates in which Fillon's "statesmanlike" image came across better than the flamboyant style of Sarkozy. Another factor is that Juppe is seen as too close to former president Chirac and suffered from his effort to make changes and job cuts as prime minister under Chirac. Fillon is less well known which turned out to be an advantage. Fillon has the support of traditionalist Catholic groups. Fillon's platform is for 500,000 job cuts to reduce the large size of France's public sector, remove the wealth tax imposed by Hollande, reduce taxes, increase work week to 48 hours maximum and scrap 35 hour work week, gradually raise retirement age to 65, increase business incentives to improve economic growth. Fillon lives in Le Mans western France.

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Thucydides, Greek historian on the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens 431 BC, cited by Xi Jinping of China during DJT visit to China, May 2026. “Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?” "Thucydides Trap," is about one established power being threatened by another rising power, as Sparta felt threatened by a rising Athens in the Greek world around 431 BC, leading to a long over 30 years war.  “The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” Xi said, of Taiwan, an island near China's coast where ChiangKaishek set up his government after the fall of his government in Beijing in 1949 to Communist People's Army of Mao Zedong. “If mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into a highly perilous situation."  What China sees is a future of strong economic growth based on China having built its industrial strength and world trade to exceed 1.2 trillion dollars of trade surplus in 2026. Yet this is only the beginning. US and European Union, and India+Japan are three economic regions compared to the situation in Greek history. The combined three economic regions potential for scientific and industrial advances in the future till 2045 in a synergistic fashion one building on top of the other's advances, far exceed the potential of the Chinese economy and industry by itself. This is why any such conflict may over time fizzle away as three economic regions of EU, US and India advance, particularly the 1.4 billion people of India, which will see growth rates of 20% annually for 10 years to 2035 in Eastern Indian region of the size of the EU. That region extends from Lucknow and Patna to Vizag and Chennai. Another aspect of this concerns China itself which sees slowing growth of 5% in 2026. Growth could slow further as US, European Union and India/Japan push back on Chinese exports during a period of reindustrialization in US, EU, Japan and rapid industrial development in India to 2040. China's development is only midway in terms of per capita GNP which lags most of Europe and the US, Japan. Thus the main concern in China is that China will not be able top go beyond middle income country as its demographics and aging population look more like Japan's over the period 2026-2040. China needs the US EU trade and markets for it to meet the needs and aspirations of its 1.4 billon people as the other engines of development such as housing construction, infrastructure building, have lost momentum. ...

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Patrick Buisson, a key Sarkozy adviser, who helped him win the presidential election in 2007, says Marie LePen's chances in the 2017 election are dimmer than people realize. Her Front National is popular in the north of France with working class people who formerly voted in favor of the Communist or Left parties. In the south of France in areas like Nice her niece Marion is popular with people who have social views on the right on abortion, and gay marraige. The problem is reconciling these 2 blocs of voters and the way Le Pen appears to have moderated her views on social issues. The opposing candidate from the Right parties formerly led by Sarkozy is Francois Fillon, actually prime minister for the full term of 5 years under Sarkozy. Fillon's views are closer to the FN voters in the south and opposes gay marraige and abortion, and has a strong foothold with Catholic voters in traditionally Catholic France. It is this split that hurts LePen who had hoped to run against Bordeaux mayor LeJuppe. The left parties are in disarray and likely not to be a factor. Another difference is that the voters in the south of FN do not see it the same way as FN voters in the north on issues of increasing the size of the state. Voters in southern France do not favor increasing the size of the state as Le Pen has promised and opposed by Fillon. Fillon has plans to cut France's large state employees by 600,000. France has a large state owned sector of companies and increasing the work week to 48 hours, reducing the state sector size to help private companies with incentives is seen as a way to increase productivity and grow the economy, plans supported by Fillon. A major problem for Marie LePen is her family name of Le Pen which Buisson says people in France associate with her father Jean LePen, and extremist positions. Buisson thinks Marie LePen will never be able to shake off this image in the second round of the election as she loses some of her right wing Catholic support to Fillon, and fails to attract enough working class voters in the north of France because of the family name. ...

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Voters in France who in towns like Chartres, home of the famous cathedral, say France has lost its social cohesion based on old values. The old Catholic France appears to be awakened, in a nation of small churches and abbeys that dot the countryside. Voters in France say Francois Fillon is a candidate of this France of old forgotten values as France adopted a more cosmopolitan tone. The Christian church is a source of comfort for so many, says a church official in Lyon, home of the cathedral of St Jean, and more and more secular people are going back to church in the midst of increasing uncertainty.

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Three NBC reporters talk to people in areas in southern France, including Cogolin, which voted in a National Front mayor. This report describes the contrast between the National Front under Jean Le Pen and his daughter, Marie Le Pen. Marie took over the party leadership in 2011, and has downplayed her father's more racist ideology, even calling her self Marine dropping her last name. About 22% of French women are expected to vote for Marine, according to Elabe polling agency. In previous elections only 12% of French women had supported Marine's father because of overt racism. Yet recent remarks by Marine about Vichy regime shootings have revived some of the old memories of the National Front among some women. High unemployment and sense of neglect has led to a search for alternatives, and the terrorist incidents in Nice and Paris have added to the momentum for the National Front that calls for tougher measures. The Republican Party candidate Fillon, now has the support of Alain Juppe of Bordeaux, and former president Sarkozy. Fillon is also advocating tougher measures, and it is not clear how many votes would shift from Fillon on the right to Le Pen.  ...

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French voters turned to parties outside the mainstream left Socialist Party and the right Republican Party for the first time in a run off presidential election. The National Front's Jean Le Pen made it to the runoff in 2002, then lost to Chirac of the Republican Party who won 78% of the vote. This time the Republican Party candidate Fillon had about 20%, the Socialist Party candidate Hamon won just 6% of the vote with the rest of the socialist vote going to a far left candidate Jean Luc Melenchon who had 19.6%. The winners were Emmanuel Macron, a former Economy minister under president Hollande of the socialist Party, getting about 24% and Marine Le Pen, the daughter of Jean Le Pen of the National Front, getting 21.5%. Compared to the U.S. the situation is slightly different in France because of the very high unemployment rate for young people- younger voters supported the National Front, and people especially in rural areas in the north, north east, and the south of the country around Nice and Marseille supported the National Front. Macron's movement En Marche, centrist party drawing support from centre right and centre left without clear ideology except to renew France and pro-EU, was strong in urban areas, among more educated people, especially in Paris and the area around Bordeaux and Toulouse in the south east of the country. Fillon did not do well in some traditional Republican Party areas including Nice, with inroads from Le Pen, who defined the party around anti-immigration, closed borders, and withdrawal from the European Union. ...

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This essay in the Economist magazine points out the special nature of the 2017 presidential election in France with the rejection of establishment candidates- Manuel Valls, Sarkozy, Juppe, and now Fillon. Fillon and Valls were prime ministers under Sarkozy and Hollande, from the Republican and Socialist parties respectively. With unemployment high in the areas outside the major cities their is a surge in support in these areas for the National Front. Emmanuel Macron, former Economy minister in the Hollande government, is the only candidate leading Marie Le Pen at this time. In a second round of voting he has to bring in centre right supporters and centre left voters and moderate voters, and appeal enough to working class voters, young unemployed people, offering hope for a better future to win this election against Le Pen. Economist magazine research shows support highest for Le Pen outside major cities in outlying areas, and for Macron in the major cities. There is also an education divide as seen in the U.S. election and Brexit referendum with less educated voters preferring the nationalist sentiment, church support sentiment fostered by the National Front.  ...

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Fed chief Bernanke's childhood home in Dillon County, South Carolina, a home in which his grandparents lived after building it on purchased land in 1945. The home was transferred to his parents and remained in the family till 1996. The town with its tobacco and textile industries is suffering decline and unemployment is 14%. The dropout rate at Dillon High School where Bernanke studied, graduating in 1971, is 40% for the ninth grade. Bernanke's grandfather Jonas, a pharmacist, opened Jay Bee Drug Company on Main Street in 1941. Ben's father and uncle ran the drug store. Now the home has ended up in foreclosure and was bought recently from foreclosure for $83,000, by a 25 year old working in a bank who grew up in the neighborhood. Mohawk Industries closed a plant making yarn for carpeting, Wix Manufacturing cut hours and jobs at its automotive filter factory, and Smurift Stone Container making corrugated cardboard filed for bankruptcy in Dillon county. The house has an interesting mortgage history. The owner who could not make the payments had a 10.1% 30 year fixed mortgage, well above the rate for a prime loan, with their payments on the $123,000 home at $1088. When Mrs Rogers lost her job at a shoe store the couple could not make the payments. The couple broke up under the financial strain. Landmark Mortgage which made the original loan transferred the loan to Option One Mortgage Corporation, which packaged it with other mortgages into a $818 million security. ...

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Morning Star Firstlinks on AI investing which says that AI is not generating cash flow, it is burning it. It looks at the huge depreciation of data center technology over 5 years and that 25% returns on the AI center investments would not recover the cost of depreciation, let alone the whole investment. The depreciation for 2025 year is shown at $40 billion with $15-$20 billon in revenue in this hypothetical case. Revenue has to grow ten fold from what it is now to support the $40 billion in depreciation each year for these data chips.

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Boeing reports a third annual loss in a row. As production problems and delivery delays for the Dreamliner 787 Boeing cost an additional $4.5 billon in the final quarter of 2021. Of this $3.5 billion is to compensate customers for the delays, and abnormal production costs forecast to be double than earlier estimated. Boeing expects deliveries to start in April and sees losses as behind it once deliveries start.

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Sunbelt manufacturing is taking off. TMC of Taiwan is spending $65 billon in Phoenix plant in one project alone. Biden's infrastruture spending is as active in red states, even more in red states than in blue states. Throughout America a "rising tide is lifting all boats," when it comes to manufacturing in America, an expression once used by JFK in then backward Arkansas in the South.

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Walmart new CEO John Furner from the University of Arkansas with deep connections to Bentonville similar to retiring CEO McMillon. Mcmillon made a decision not to buckle under pressures of Wall Street/CNBC and NYSE in the fall of 2015 as he invested $2.7 billion to build cleaner better stores and to raise wages from $7.25 an hour to $9.00 an hour that year, even though share price dropped 10% and continued to drop. Wages are now $18 an hour in 2025 and parental leave, free college and technical education, planned promotions, other benefits made Walmart a good place to work. Walmart has grown every year since. Its sheer size with 2.1 millon employees means that it is a bellweather for the US economy. Other companies copied Walmart and this has raised wages across the board for lower income workers. With cost of living concerns in 2025 imagine where we would be as a nation without courage of the men who run the companies that run America's economy if wages had stagnated at levels below this for people who still live paycheck to paycheck. ...

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The selection of Tim Walz as VP was simply from the heart for Kamala Harris- She liked the way Walz called the former president's campaign "weird" saying we are not afraid of "weird" even if it is "creepy." Kamala Harris liked him- "he is so open" "I like him." And you could see it on the stage in Philadelphia.  “Governor. Veteran. Coach. Teacher,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign chair, wrote on X. “Winner.” Being a teacher mattered to Jill and Joe Biden and to Jen O'Malley Dillon. Jill teaches community college and did not miss class even in the days of the Inauguration. Harris really respects teachers. It helped that he was a veteran and the most senior army reserve man in the House. And his record showed for climate, for fairness for workers and families, achieving in Minnesota through legislation what Biden has done for the Nation. ...

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Jean Francois-Cope, a protege of former president Sarkozy is declared a winner in the party election for the Union for Popular Movement (UMP) in France. Centrist candidate Francois Fillon continues to contest the vote and this decision. Fears of a fracturing of the centre right parties in France. Sarkozy moved to the right in the presidential election in an effort to draw votes from the right wing party of Marie Le Pen. Fillon stands for a more centrist nationalistic Gaullist position. The vote was so tight that Fillon contends he won by 26 votes and will challenge the decision in civil court. The Socialist party of prime minister Hollande faces problems of its own with the sharp decline in popularity of Hollande over his handling of economic issues.

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This exceptional report from rural areas in France by Roger Cohen shows why the support is growing for the far right and the far left in rural areas and smaller towns outside the large cities which have suffered from high unemployment and neglected as technology and capital moved to other areas. Cohen talks to Nicholas Bay, secretary general of the National Front, who says this election is about patriotism, the nation state vs globalization, as the National Front tries to portray its opposition as being less pro-France, and less pro French culture. The centrist candidate Macron stands in front of a statue of Alexandre Dumas in Picardy, an hour northeast of Paris, and says he is for an "open patriotism" that embraces people of different origins and embraces refugees. Cohen attends a Le Pen rally in Metz, Lorraine, talks to a National Front mayor in Picardy and left party supporters in the town, talks to foreigners in the banlieu of Sevran. Cohen says a National Front victory is possible if enough voters who support the far left party of Melenchon do not vote for centrist candidate Macron, and enough voters of centre right Fillon supporting French culture and nationalism drift to Le Pen. As in the Dutch election with Moroccans derided by the far right the immigrant issue is a factor. Against this background is how events play out in the last weeks of the election. In March and April the events in the U.S. show a Trump administration moving to the centre, adopting a quieter and more constructive tone towards Mexico and immigrants. Relations with Russia have worsened after the U.S. response to the chemical attack in Syria, and the French public may now see this as a common threat to NATO and the European Union. As in the Dutch election a lot depends on the last weeks of the election and how well the centrist parties, the centre right and the centre left get their message across about what is to be gained by building anew on the foundations of the past without risking a lot on an uncertain path of referendums and exit from the European Union.   ...

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Poorly capitalized Indian banks and financial institutions with large percentage of bad loans contiues to hurt the Indian economy. Shortage of credit is leading to problems in retail and auto sectors. The government is using $21 billon from the central bank, the RBI, for stimulus and to recapitalize banks. Higher infrastructure spending is needed to make up for a drop in consumer demand.

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About two thirds of American 4th graders lack Reading Proficiency in English as shown in this report in NAEP. Resources are needed in this work when $346 billon went into investments in new ventures with much capital wasted in 2021. And a negative return of -7% for venture firms in 3rd quarter 2022, as reported in WSJ. The entire capital allocation system is flawed and not doing what it is supposed to do, to invest in America and the potential of its people.

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The $3 billon repayment brings Ford debt down to $32 billon and reduces interest expense.

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FR24 points out that it is not that unusual to see prosecution of French former presidents and prime ministers for campaign financing irregularities or putting political party officials on public payrolls. It shows that this happened to president Chirac, president Sarkozy, and prime minister Fillon. In fact former prime minister Fillon was doing well in the elections after the presidency of Socialist president Hollande. The revelation that he had put his wife on public payroll as parliamentary assistant with little work led to Mr. Macron taking his place as the leading candidate. No jail terms were served for these charges under French law. Here it is important to note that French law limits spending on election campaigns to 22 million euros and Sarkozy exceeded that number. In the US and India there are no such strict limits. So are France's leaders that much worse than the American leaders who spend and collect money lavishly? Or in India where the campaign financing has the result of making it hard to build the infrastructure desperately needed by a young aspiring population. Framers of the Indian constitution including Gandhi and Nehru intent on getting the British out never realized that political parties would look to public funds as ways to finance their campaigns, leaving less for the intended purpose of building roads and bridges making the country a poor place to invest in and entrenching underdevelopment and poverty.  In the US tech companies in Silicon Valley or banks in New York and Silicon Valley, pharmaceutical companies and companies in other sectors, are able to gain monopoly positions or favored regulatory setups for their industries by funding election campaigns for Congress. When this results in egregious behaviour such as the 2009 financial crisis or the current banking crisis this behaviour causes severe damage to ordinary Americans much worse than what Mr Chirac or Sarkozy were prosecuted for.  South Korea has a long history of prosecuting former presidents. Three presidents have been prosecuted so far. One president served as much as five years for a jail term. ...

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How do you rebuild the country Ukraine after so much bombing and continuing missiles in droves hitting the country? Most of the $300 billion in Russian assets are frozen in Europe and Europe does not want to violate international law to take over the assets. Instead it chose to give Ukraine $3 billon loan based on the interest coming from the $300 billion frozen assets. This is not going to do much as over $100 billion will be needed. The US Biden administration has a different plan. It is to use the interest to finance a loan of $50 billion from the EU and the US.

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French parliamentary elections on June 11 and June 18 for 577 seats follow the May 7, 2017 presidential election. The Republican Party plans to contest all the seats, and its representatives say that its ideas are well accepted in France, that only the candidacy of Fillon was not successful. The Socialist Party also plans to contest the election. Analyst Krumbmuller of OpenCitiz consultancy says local connections matter, that the two mainstream parties have established local connections and should do better than candidates put up by Macron's En Marche movement. Macron has little time to prepare effectively for the parliamentary election, making it likely that in the end a cohabitation agreement between a prime minister from the Republican or Socialist parties and a president from outside these parties would take place. 

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Philips Electronics NV showed a net loss of 162 millon euros for the 4th quarter of 2012. Philips took a loss on discontinuing its television business of 270 millon euros in the 4th quarter, in addition to an earlier provision of 110 million euros for this purpose.