LyrArc Article Gist
The issue of how the deficit reduction will affect the middle class, the poor, and the elderly. Bernie Sanders says the Democrats Reid Plan and the Boehner plan both fail on this account. And he finds it incomprehensible that this is happening without similiar contributions from the higher income Americans, even though 72% of the American people- according to a July 14-17, 2011 Washington Post/ABC poll -want those earning more than $250,000 a year to pay more in taxes. And incomprehensible says Sanders that Congress is debating the Reid and Boehner plans that exempt higher income Americans from their fair share of the burden.

LyrArc Article Gist
The defeat of Eric Cantor in a Republican primary in 2014, by David Brat, a professor of economics at Randolph-Macon College of Ashland, Virgina. Brat did this with just $200,000 and the support of local talk show person Laura Ingraham, compared to $5.4 million raised by Cantor. Brat did this without national Tea party support, depending more on local activism in a conservative district, and the sentiment locally for Anybody but Cantor (ABC). This shows how quickly sentiment on the ground can change, as Cantor had previously won primaries with much as 79% of the vote in an area stretching from Richmond to the Washington suburbs.

LyrArc Article Gist
Lim Chow Kiat, chief investment officer of GIC Pte. Ltd, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, says he sees returns on financial assets in developed markets being much lower in future years, including possible negative returns, because of a sharp runup in recent years and changing monetary policy. He sees more opportunities in emerging markets because of younger populations and opportunities from overhauls to economic structures and behaviour. He says he will still look for opportunties in developed country companies that have significant international expansion. GIC invested $1 billion in Indian online retailer Flipkart recently, $680 million in Bank of the Philippine Island, and $1.3 billion in the Time Warner Center building in New York along with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

LyrArc Article Gist
Few economists predicted the third quarter 2014 GDP decline of 1.6%. The bright side to this is that much of the decline is due to falling inventories. Experts say excluding this effect growth would be about 0.6% for the 3rd quarter. Growth is expected to pick up as falling inventories are replenished in 2015. It also discredits officials at the Bank of Japan and the Finance Ministry who insisted the consumption tax should go ahead and would not be a drag on the economy, giving the government more room for stronger action in the future. Prime minister Abe is considering holding a snap election to run on a pro-growth platform to push ahead with his plans.

LyrArc Article Gist
With 3.7 million workers in the informal economy Italy is one of the worst hit European countries. Italy's south, including Naples and its capital Campania is one of the hardest hit. Italy's lockdown ended May 18, with some restrictions. Affected worst are small business owners such as shopkeepers, restaurant owners and market vendors, also hit are workers employed in tourism and entertainment. The Italian government has made a 600 euro emergency payment to self employed or part time workers, and 12 million workers have applied so far for these payments, about half of the workforce. A new payment by the government will cover workers in the informal economy with a55 million euro additional aid package by the government of prime minister Conte. Italy's economy will decline by 9.5% in 2020, exceeded in Europe only by Greece. The country is seeing a further erosion of the lower middle class after the difficult period following both the financial crisis of 2008, the eurozone crisis, austerity cuts which hurt people across southern European countries, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Italy. It is also true that Italians came together during this difficult period in a way not seen since World War II and prime minister Conte provided much needed leadership for Italy, with growing confidence in his leadership. This provides a new sense of hope that Italy can come to grips with many problems it has faced in the last 2 decades, similar to that in other parts of Europe where investment in  infrastructure and manufacturing has fallen behind. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Negotiations between Japan and China before the APEC summit in Beijing, Nov. 2014, lead to an agreement that does not explicitly state Japan's sovereignty over the Senkaku islands, but acknowledges the current position in which the islands have remained in Japanese control since 1880. It lets both sides agree to disagree so that trade and diplomatic ties can be improved. China's economy has taken a hit from a 50% decline in Japanese foreign investment in 2014, just as the economy is slowing for other reasons. Both leaders can show the international community they have moderated their positions. Prime minister Abe also can show his foreign and domestic policies are working as his high poll ratings have declined in recent months.

LyrArc Article Gist
In a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted June 2-5, Republican presidential candidate Romney receives more support than President Obama. Among all Americans Romney and Obama receive 47% each, among registered voters Romney leads 49% to 46%. Independent voters gave Romney 50% to 43% for Obama. The poll shows Obama is being viewed with increasing skepticism because of the economy. By 2 to 1, Americans say the U.S. economy is on the wrong track, and 9 in 10 see the economy as doing poorly. The poll also show a significant shift to Republicans being seen favorably for running the economy, 45% now see Republicans as being better able to tackle the economy, a 11 point increase from a March poll.

LyrArc Article Gist
Navdeep Puri, India's former ambassador to Egypt, discusses the importance of India's relationship with the United Arab Emirates and particularly its relationship with the leaders of Abu Dhabi. Indian prime minister Modi has visited UAE 3 times and has built a close relationship with Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ). Interviews with MBZ in the NYT and indepth articles show that MBZ is a different leader in this part of the Arab world who has inbuilt in his nature both old Arab values and tradition that he respects with the modern world that he saw in Britain, and is simply striking out for a different path that sees modernity in the British way as a way forward for the entire region. MBZ is also seen as a mentor for Mohamad bin Salman of the Saudi country. MBS is also striking out  for a different path for the region. Saudis are financing development agenda for Egypt by helping rescue the Egyptian economy with investment and assistance at a critical time of the pandemic. This also extends to aid and assistance to Turkey. For MBZ and MBS the British approach to modernity and the American approach to modernity, with science, technology and both respecting and modernizing traditional ways, offer a way forward for the entire Gulf region. When these countries look around them they see India as also striking out in the same or similar direction. Both Arab and Indian traditions are being seen in a respectful way, without ever losing sight of the development goals and fully accepting the modernity that Britain has brought not just to Asia but long before that to Europe and the US. This may be the true foundation of the new relationship of the Gulf region with India - seeking a common path to modernity and development for all the people of their countries after the failures of the last 75 years. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Japan has accomplished a remarkable transformation of its workforce and its economy even as the working age population is declining. For years Japan was seen as a stagnant economy with a rapidly aging population. In recent years Japan has shown how a change in policy can work. Since 2012 working age population declined by 4.7 million, yet the number of people working increased by 4.4 million. The proportion of the population in the workforce rose sharply since 2012. To do this Japan turned to three underutilized parts of its workforce and population- the elderly, women and new immigrants. Japan has pursued an active policy of reviving the economy by bringing women into the workforce and breaking taboos on new immigrants. In 2004 Japan raised retirement age from 60 to 65, and then made it mandatory for companies to raise or abolish the retirement age, or introduce a system for re-employing workers who retire. This has changed Japan a lot with Japanese men working well into their 60's and 70's. In the west coast city of Kanagawa which now has a bullet train to Tokyo, out migration was a big problem that added to a declining workforce. The head of Ohara, a family owned company that makes desserts tried a novel method of advertising to seniors in apartment blocks and starting attracting seniors to fill worker shortages. It found that seniors came to work on time, performed even tedious tasks, and brought a great deal of experience. Since then the regional government has started programs to get more retirees and women into the workforce. The special programs teach small companies to adapt to the needs of retiree workers who can work in shorter shifts of few hours and do less physical jobs. Women need predictable hours to pickup children from school and shorter work weeks, for which the regional government program helps companies adapt by sending in specialists to guide the companies. As a result female participation in the workforce, for very long a big handicap is no longer so. Female participation has jumped to 63%, higher even than that in the OECD where the average is 62 years.  Japanese women had a M curve that meant they worked most in their 20's. less in the 30's with children, and more in the 50's. First the government tried to correct this with extended parental leave, increased childcare, and rewarding companies with good work-life balance. Then in 2009 the effort accelerated with employers required to offer 6 hour days if a worker asked for this. Under prime minister Abe's "womenomics" effort child care was significantly expanded- by 2015 Tokyo went from 28 to 38 spots open for every 100 two year olds. Alongside these efforts the Abe government tried to get companies to rethink their assumptions about quantity of work and overtime as productive effort. One could work shorter hours and be productive, and the old notions were seen as resulting in lower productivity. As fathers with parental leave took on more responsibility the changes transformed the attitudes for women at work. Most remarkable is the quiet change in immigration policy. The government allowed foreign construction workers to address shortages for work on the 2020 Olympics. It introduced a 3-5 year visas program for nursing care workers. Two new categories of visas will add 340,000 additional blue collar workers over next 5 years. The total foreign born workers in Japan doubled from 2012 to 2017 to 1.3 million. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The move by Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler to merge is seen as an effort to use consolidation as a way to tackle depressed demand. Ford and GM are struggling in foreign markets, as Toyota and VW have expanded in foreign markets, and Geely has expanded in China with stakes in Daimler and Volvo AB. Added costs for the shift to electric cars, higher emissions standards,  are also hurting car makers. Global new car sales of 96 million in 2018 are expected to decline by 4% in 2019, and remain sluggish, with the U.S. China trade war and Brexit taking its toll. Some car companies are particularly affected. Chrysler's European car factories ran at about 52% in 2018, well below European industry average of 73%.

LyrArc Article Gist
The possibilities of gradual restructuring of France's nuclear engineering company Areva SA. A new CEO, Luc Oursel, the current Deputy Chief Executive, succeeds Anne Lauvergeon. Restructuring the company could mean sale of assets, including the sale of its uranium mining business. The French government plans to make Electricite de France take the leading role for exporting France's nuclear technology. The failure of a French consortium to get a $20 billion contract in Abu Dhabi in 2009, has highlighted the need for changing the way France markets its nuclear technology overseas. The French government owns an 87% stake in Areva. Areva has 3.7 billion euros of debt and needs to raise cash for future needs. In 2011 Areva sold its transmission and distribution unit for about $3 billion to a French consortium.

LyrArc Article Gist
A big change for the presidential election in 2012 is the lopsided way in which white voters who are struggling with job losses or seeing economic difficulties are alienated from President Obama. By 58% to 32% these voters favor Romney over Obama in a May 2012 Wahington Post-ABC News poll, a 26% margin. Of those struggling financially about 7 in 10 lack a college degree. This is happening even though 31% of these voters in this poll say they are Republicans and 27% Democrats. It is true that Obama could still win in 2008 losing this group 58% to 40%, an 18% losing margin, similiar to Kerry in 2004, and Al Gore in 2000. A wider margin of 26% poses more risks if the unemployment situation and the economy looks weaker by November 2012.

LyrArc Article Gist
Katsuya Okada is elected leader of the Democratic Party of Japan in Jan 2015. He is from a prominent business family. His brother is CEO of Aeon, a supermarket chain in Japan, which was founded in 1758. Okada says he supports Abenomics, saying: "I have no intention of completely rejecting Abenomics. On the contrary, there are many areas where I'd like to tell him, 'Go for it. Step up the pace.' " Policies he backs are deregulation to improve productivity, and Abe's policies to increase worker wages. He also supports being better prepared for regional conflicts, and said the DPJ would study Abe plans for legislation to strengthen the role of Japan's defense forces. Okada's comments reflects the changing sentiment in Japan about Abenomics since Abe's win in the snap election, and winning credibility for his economic policies.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Tokyo National Stadium design approved by a 2012 panel headed by architect Tadao Ando, is scrapped by prime minister Abe of Japan. The design was by the firm Hadid Architects in Britain. Public criticism over the cost of the project for the Tokyo Olympics led to its cancellation. The original project cost estimate was 130 billion yen, with the new cost almost double that of 252 billion yen. Surprisingly Tadao Ando says it was not the panel's job to figure out the cost and he did not have any idea what the cost would be when the design was selected. The debt problems in Greece began with the Athens Olympics. And it is widely thought that president Putin spent too much ($47 billion) on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, especially now that Russia's economy is contracting and there is a need for stimulus spending on useful infrastructure.

LyrArc Article Gist
The first Democratic debate for the presidential election of 2016 gives Hillary Clinton a huge boost. Democratic voters find her to be more convincing in the debate than Sanders. Without Biden in the race a Oct 2015 ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Clinton draws 64 percent support among Democrats, and Sanders 25 percent, with O'Malley, Webb and Chafee less than 2%. Even on questions such as who "is closer to you" on the issues, who "understands the problems of people like you," Clinton beats Sanders by 53-36 percent and 51-37 percent in the poll. On honesty she is about even with Sanders. The careful low key approach getting a feel for the voters and their concerns appears to be paying off for Hillary Clinton where it really counts. The picture of Clinton in the media accounts is not affecting Democratic voters.

LyrArc Article Gist
Andrew Browne points out that the poll on Japanese premier Abe's visit to the Yasukuni shrine showed 46% of Japanese against and 41% for. Some of the people who were for simply were registering their opinion that a elected Japanese prime minister should not be dictated to in where he goes or cannot go. Browne delves into Abe's purpose and motivation. Abe, he says, has an expression for what he is after which translates into "leaving the post-war behind," the idea being to put Japan's image as a "good loser" behind. The larger purpose is to create a new role for Japan in Asia, and for Japanese to take pride in their achievements. This is not viewed the same way in the region because of the hypersensitivity in Korea to the colonial occupation by Japan, and the hypersensitivity of China to events during the Japanese occupation of parts of China.

LyrArc Article Gist
With the Swiss economy experiencing falling wages and prices, fears of a deflationary spiral have led the Swiss central bank to take strong action to preserve export competitiveness. The Swiss National Bank is doing this by buying euros and keeping the Swiss Franc from appreciating above 1.20 euros to the franc, a peg set in Sept 2011. Since 2010 the central bank has printed Swiss Francs to buy euros and other currencies resulting in a quadrupling of the foreign assets it holds to about the size of its GDP- about 500 billion Swiss francs or $541 billion. Action of this size is unprecedented and comes as the eurozone economies contract in 2013. It has worked for 16 months and Switzerland has managed to increase exports to the eurozone and keep the Swiss franc below 1.20 euros. Japan's new prime minister Shinzo Abe is pushing a similiar policy to bring the yen down to 90 yen to the dollar to improve export competitiveness.

LyrArc Article Gist
Saudi Arabia which was seeing GDP growth of 4% a year is slowing and should see GDP growth at 2% in 2009. Overall Saudis are in much better shape than their cousins in the United Arab Emirates like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. THis is because the Saudi banking system followed conservative practices and parked its $500 billion in foreign assets in US and European government bonds. Saudis can use these funds to increase infrastructure, education and healthcare spending by an estimated 10% this year to about $150 billion. At the samt time the Saudis will have to pull back from the $600 billion of megaprojects that were planned and will have to put more government money in projects that do go ahead. There is likely to be a hold on the projects to build a number of new cities in remote parts of the country. Some like the King Abdullah Economic City planned for the Red Sea coast may get the go ahead.

LyrArc Article Gist
International Petroleum Company, an Abu Dhabi investment company, sold its 11.8% stake in Barclays for $5.8 billion to exit at a 70% profit.

LyrArc Article Gist
The efforts of Syrian fighters to prevent the Assad regime from using the Abu ad Duhur base for airstrikes around Aleppo. At least 3 MIG aircraft were destroyed. The Syria Free Army fighters are young, lack training, and poorly armed compared to the artillery, tanks and aircraft used by the Assad regime. With sheer determination and using groundcover Jamal Marouf and other men of the Free Syria Army have cut the road from Aleppo to Damascus. Before the war Marouf, 37, from the village of Deir Sonbul, near Jebel al Zawiya, was a construction contractor in Lebanon. The Assad regime responds with artillery attacks on the civilian population in neighboring towns. The Lakhdar Brahimi UN-Arab League mission seems remote to these people on the ground and has made no difference to the scale and violence on civilian populations in Syria. Without the leadership provided by France and Britain in a similar struggle in Libya, and the Obama administration on the sidelines, the young people of Syria are left to fight on their own....

LyrArc Article Gist
The reorganization underway at NBCUniversal under CEO Steve Burke. Burke is quick to end the practice of different fiefdoms operating at NBCUniversal incuding NBC Sports, and expects all divisions to work together to produce synergy. He uses the example of a Symphony orchestra. Of 20 senior executives at NBCUniversal from the GE days only 5 remain, and the rest of the management structure is streamlined. Dick Ebersol who ran NBC Sports as his own sports empire, including the Olympics, with little oversight is out. About $12 billion has gone into sports because of the potential for advertising. Burke, 55, is from a family with a history in the television business- his dad was CEO of Capital Cities/ABC. He was in corporate strategy at Walt Disney Co. before he joined Comcast in 1998 to develop corporate strategy and acquisitions under Mr. Roberts. The opportunity at NBC gives Comcast a shot at building a business that spans its cable business and a content development company. Operating cash flow for NBCU is up 21% for the second quarter of 2013....

LyrArc Article Gist
Dealerships have taken enthusuastically to the new Penske ownership of Saturn. But its not clear whether the Penske name will help boost sales. Saturn sales were down 58% through May 2009 over a year earlier, down to 35,256 vehicles. Kia sold 4 times as many cars in the USA over the same period. Saturn sales improved in June, with a35% year over year increase in June. But its not clear if this will last and what the effects of the penske name will be over the long term. Autodata estimates that there is a105 day supply of Saturn cars, or 32,647 cars for 350 dealers. By comparison Buick has a74 day backlog. Customer loyalty says J.D. Power is down from 45% in 2007 to 37% today. This compares to retention rates of about 65% for Toyota. And the failure of the Astra to genrate customer interest and its being discontinued will leave Saturn without acompact car in its lineup. Its important for Saturn to have an affordable small car to hang onto loyal customers.

LyrArc Article Gist
In the Senate Obama backed bills favoring importation of drugs,of cheaper prescription medicine from Canada and other countries. But with the pharmaceutical industry and its lobbying groups contributing heavily in federal elections and its clout with the administration Obama turned his back on the bill. This happens as Americans are paying as much as ten times the prices Canadians and Europeans are paying for drugs and prescription medicne for identical medicine often produced in similiar facilities aby the same manufacturers. On this issue an impressive coaltition was assembled among bothe Democrats from Bernie Sanders of Vermont to Senator McCain of Arizona, but the bill introduced by Senaor Dorgan was defeated with the help of the Obama administration. Senators from states with big presence of drug manufacturers like New Jersey (Menendez), New Jersey (Lautenberg), Delaware (Carper), North Carolina (Kay Hagan) all argued to defeat the bill to allow importation of drugs to help the heavily burdened American public. The Obama adminsitration's FDA Commisssioner Margaret Hamburg issued a statement expressing concern about the "safety" of imported drugs....

LyrArc Article Gist
The movie "Wolf of Wall Street" with Leonardo Di Caprio was made by Red Granite Pictures which has connections with 1MDB Fund in Malaysia and provided $100 million, according to this story in the WSJ. This story says $1.2 billion was sent by MDB to a Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund investment arm Aabar Investments PJS which setup an identically named company in the British Virgin Islands where the money actually went. The money for the film came from this company in the British Virgin Islands. Najib Razak, Malaysian prime minister's stepson is described to be the head of the Red Granite Pictures Company. The film was never shown in Malaysia for morality reasons and its depiction of a penny stock swindler.