LyrArc Article Gist
Bank of America's 40,000 layoffs planned under "Project New BAC" reduces positions mostly in the consumer business, which employs 160,000 people. Bank of America employed 288,000 workers as of June 30, 2011.

LyrArc Article Gist
Indifference on the Republican side, and a sense that not much is going to get done on the Democratic side, as President Obama pitches a $447 billion second stimulus plan in a speech to both houses of the U.S. Congress on September 8, 2011. Dana Milbank documents the attitudes and skepticism with which members of Congress received the proposals- a general sense that President Obama was too weak and ineffective to get things done and has lost credibility. John Taylor, senior economic advisor on the Republican side pointed out in a Wall Street Journal column a few days before the speech, that the jobs proposals Obama and economic advisor Alan Krueger were presenting were similiar to old plans that have not produced results. Taylor viewed them as placing too much reliance on government and not enough on the private sector to generate economic growth and jobs.

LyrArc Article Gist
The main part of the $447 billion jobs plan proposed by President Obama in a speech to Congress on Sept. 8, 2011, is to reduce social security taxes. At a cost of $240 billion in government revenues in 2012, the Obama jobs plan proposes cutting the 6.2% social secuirty tax -on worker income up to $106,800- down to 3.1%. The current tax cut which expires in December 2011 cut the tax down to 4.2%. Analysts estimate this could generate over 500,000 jobs in 2012.

LyrArc Article Gist
Because of the proliferation of information and content on the internet, it is the services that help users navigate the content that do well not the content producers. This is one of the big reasons for the continuing failure of AOL and Yahoo. U.S. onine advertising went up to $31.3 billion in 2011 from 2010, according to eMarketer. Yahoo's share of U.S. online advertising will decline to 11% in 2011 from 16.1% in 2009. And AOL's dropped to 2.7% from 4.4%, according to eMarketer. The average cost to reach one thousand views on Yahoo in July 1998 was $25 per thousand, it is $6.50 in July 2011, and was $7.65 in July 2010, according to SQUAD Webcosts. Rob Norman, CEO of WPP PLC's GroupM North America, says he is really skeptical about the value Yahoo brings. He sees it as mostly commoditized inventory, and little that has a unique value to users. Analysts say that over time this problem of falling ad rates with commoditizing of content and proliferation of inventories could be faced Facebook by also....

LyrArc Article Gist
Reasons why the U.S. Stimulus spending failed to give the economy the boost it needed.

LyrArc Article Gist
Libya's Oil and Finance Minister bridges the gap between the tribal factions, regional loyalties, and other divisions within the Transitional Council of Libya and within Libya. He brings a unique background of being expelled in the early 1970's because of his prodemocracy activism at Libyan universities. He studied at Michigan State University for a doctorate and taught at the University of Washington for 26 years. All the time he helped organize the Libyan opposition. His background makes it possible for him to talk to western officials with ease, and his activist attitude and manner has put him quickly at the centre of things in Misrata and Tripoli. He went by fishing boat to Misrata at the height of the siege and was the first of the Transitional Council members to be in Tripoli. He was recently appointed deputy chairman of the Executive Council and chairman of the Supreme Military Council for Tripoli because of earning the confidence of the Council leaders and the ability to be at the centre of the struggles in Libya. He is a direct and plain spoken person and talked to the Journal's Charles Levinson about oil fields and restoring oil supplies. He talks about plans to keep Tripoli as the capital and keep the Transitional National Council in Benghazi so that both regions of the country could play a role. ...