LyrArc Article Gist
Readers comments in the NYT to Tom Friedman's piece "Don't Build Up," October 28, 2009. Overwhelmingly readers expressed opposition to digging in deeper into the conflict, with one passionate comment by Cdr. John Newlin of Vista, California, drawing 410 reader recommend. He pointed to problems at home with military active duty suicides and domestic violence rates soaring, the economic misery from the recession, and the damage done by bankers and to the economy and lobbyists to a properly functioning democracy. Readers related to Friedman's idea that only the locals are best equiped to solve their problems, and that the day after the day after the Afghan warlords and the Taliban will still be fighting and the region never under anybody's control.

LyrArc Article Gist
How much is the drop in sales of light trucks, including truck based SUV's? Acttually not much so far, title is misleading! 2004- 55.7% of total vehicle sales 2005- 54.9% of total vehicle sales 2006 1st quarter- 53.8 % of total vehicle sales source: Autodata, NYT cite For GM in April 2006 situation according to GM figures Overall Light Truck sales up 1.5% Escalade up 127% Tahoe up 30% Overall GM down 7.3% in all vehicle sales in April source Ward's AutoInfo Bank But the mix weighted toward the Escalade, Tahoe, and new SUV's which are non-incentive and priced to meet demand, which mean higher profits to make up for lost volume in cars. This is occurring in the middle of bigger changes, and as GM moves to introduction of more fuel efficient cars with better quality and appeal to younger demographics. GM is restructuring to transform itself into a global company with growing Asian sales and shifting volumes overseas. It is shifting employee and capital base to more countries overseas to create new opportunities and make GM a new and different company, a global company. Incentives pay part of the gas price for buyers, and more fuel efficient SUV's also chip in to pay gas costs. Americans are not out to get off the SUV's just yet, as fuel effficiency standards go up.The investments oil companies are making are expected to provide a payoff in increased production by 2008-2009, and the new oil policy of Saudi Arabia kicks in (see Naimi at CSIS 2006 meeting). The situation eases up for families accustomed to carrying kids around or hauling stuff around. See also links to Tradin Frenzy (Mouawad, NYT, 4/29/06) speculators in oil markets cause 10-20% of price rise, could lead to drops later after ethanol part of spike eases, and if global demand drops with economies cooling off a bit. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
US president DJT State of the Union Address to Congress Feb 24, 2026. BBC Analysis shows the president going on the offense to take up the issue of illegal migrants, cost of living, and business investment to get the economy to grow. DJT compared the $1 trillion in business investment under Biden over 4 years with the $18 trillion that he had secured in his first year. He said the tariffs were here to stay whatever the Supreme Court decision stated because all the agreements with EU, UK, China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, other countries will remain in place as all countries want it that way. The president stated that through tariffs he had secured benefits for getting manufacturing back to the US to create jobs and raise incomes. The Big Beautiful Bill also added to business investment through its writeoff in one time for equipment and plant. The oil price per gallon had gone down to $1.85 a gallon at the pump lowering the cost of living and inflation. He pointed out that the economy was strong with low inflation lower than 3%, unemployment at 4% and ecponomic growth in 2025 close to 3% with some quarters exceeding 4-5%. The US ice hockey team attended the event and the Congressional medal of honor was given to soldiers in the Venezuelan helicopter dangerous mission, and to a World War II pilot who was 100 years old. Transgender was shown as an issue with parents shown with their daughter who had suffered from transgender laws that he asked Congress to change. Calling some of this crazy as parents and families were suffering as a result. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Steve Lohr of the NYT talks of industrial policy by the Obama administration that is behind the new mileage standards of 31.5 by 2016. But when one looks at the huge gap opening up between compettitors in Europe and Japan and the Detroit carmakers in technologies for fuel efficiency, and the fact that foreign car makers now control more than 50% of the car market in the USA, it may just be that the Detroit carmakers will now be doing what it takes to compete with the Japanese and the Europeans. And one looks at it carefully one sees a compromise here by the Obama administration, the Euopeans and the Japanese have standards that require closer to 50mpg in 2016, leaving Detroit carmakers behind even with the new standards.

LyrArc Article Gist
For's research shows ads are working with favorable opinion of the Ford brand up 17% in the second quarter 2009 from the low point last year. Fourth quarter ad budget is up 10% from ayear ago. The theme is to show that FOrd is different. TOyota is boosting ad budgets 30-40% to $1 billion in the 4th quarter 2009. See Toyota.

LyrArc Article Gist
As moratoriums on foreclosures that were put in place earlier expire at Chase, Wells Fargo, Fannie and Freddie, and other mortgage companies, foreclosure activity has increased. Foreclosure related filings increased by nearly 6%in February from month earlier, and were up nearly 30% from February 2008, according to RealtyTrac. In California notices of trustee sales, which are a precursor to foreclosure sales, climbed more than 80% to 33,178 in March from February, according to ForeclosureRada.com and the Field Check Group. The increase reflects both the expiration of foreclosure moratoriums and a California law made late last year that temporarily delayed default and foreclosure notices. As aresult Ronald Temple, co-director of research at Lazard Asset Management, expects that home prices will decline by 22% to 27% from their January levels. Over 2.1 million homes will be lost in 2009 in foreclosure according to Moody's Economy.com, up from 1.7 million in 2008.

LyrArc Article Gist
Yale University's Robert Shiller quotes Thomas Jefferson from a letter written in 1820, where he said about the passions in the North and South about extending of slavery to the Missouri territory: "this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror." He says there are serious consequences of letting longterm unemployment continue. He cites a proposal by Edmund Phelps, Nobel prize winner in economics from Columbia University, which would have the government give a subsidy of $4.50 an hour for the lowest paid workers, with declining amounts till they earn $15 an hour. This proposal would cost about $150 billion and be aimed at reducing income inequality and making these lower paid jobs attractive. Other proposals for reducing unemployment are to use work-sharing on a national basis with government help.

LyrArc Article Gist
The International Energy Agency says China used 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2009 compared to the 2.170 billion tons of oil equivalent used by the USA. This oil equivalent measure covers crude oil, nuclear energy, coal, natural gas and renewable energy like hydropower. To give an idea of the scale of the increase- China's total energy use was only half of that of the USA in 1999 ten years ago. China plans to reduce emissions by cutting the carbon dioxide per unit of GDP by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. But China looks at higher energy use in the years ahead. Much of the energy use is propelled by infrastructure building and energy intensive use in industries.

LyrArc Article Gist
The UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith- and the highest American official there who was also an advisor to Richard Holbrooke, the US representative for South Asia- resigned over differences with his Norwegian boss the Un Representative over the Afghan elections. The issue was whether to take a softer stand on the elections or to confront the Karzai government with evidence of fraud in the elections.

LyrArc Article Gist
Christopher Lawton's interview with Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia Corporation, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Nokia will introduce a high end smart phone, the Lumia 900, at the C.E.S. gathering. Nokia has very little presence in the smartphone part of the business. In the third quarter of 2011, Nokia lost 39% of its global smartphone sales to the Apple iPhone and other competitors using the Android software. Elop says the Lumia offers a smoother experience and has social media integrated better in this product than rival smartphones. Asked about potential failure, Elop says Nokia will continue to learn from its experience and improve the product. He says Nokia is a 147 year old company and has reinvented itself in the past. He sees the competitive struggle in this business as similiar to a long marathon rather than a sprint.