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dw.com Original article ›
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All the extreme rhetoric on how Project 2025 is going to be adopted under a DJT administration has led to unease that there will be deterioration in the government and society.  Yet it simply may not work that way.   A second objective look at Project 2025 and how it's value to Republicans will be carefully evaluated piece by piece by DJT is needed. Keeping in mind 2026 House and Senate elections, winning broad support for the traditional Republican conservative line of thinking, and maintaining the support of all Republicans in the business, government, media and other sectors.  1. Replacing federal employees with party loyalists. This happens at the top of every agency of the government for every government in the US and Europe after an election for the last century. At today's unemployment level of 4 percent, adult males actually 3.9% and adult females 3.6%, and considering the higher salaries paid in the private sector, the tenuous nature of joining as a party loyalist as the national mood can shift at any time and things change again in 2027; where was the federal government going to find employees to be replaced at mid and lower levels? There is also the situation seen in 1928 when a Republican Hoover victory made Democrat NY Governor Al Smith compel a reluctant Franklin Roosevelt, who was just recovering from polio, to run for NY Governor. By 1931 over 3 years Franklin Roosevelt and Columbia University's Frances Perkins tested programs to stabilize employment in the US, introduce unemployment insurance as a new concept, and a 40 hour week also new, in the entire northeastern + midwestern states, all governors working together. By 1931 in just 3 years Franklin Roosevelt was on the clear path to sweeping victory in 1932 with a tested program to stabilize employment. 2.  The No. 1 goal is to restore the traditional family. It is clear in 2024 that the vast majority of Americans, whites, women as well as men, of all age groups, whites as well as Latinos and Asians, blacks, see that things like transgender "have somehow gone too far." 3. Cultural Literacy is needed for any nation to long survive. This is not even on any platform. Yet knowledge about America's history of settlement of the continent -correcting for treatment of American Indians, blacks, Chinese, Japanese without pointless race controversies- is being rapidly lost, and with it an understanding of America's civic institutions and Constitution, its founders and presidents, and evolution of the nation over the 20th century with the Industrial Revolution. The very terminology that has defined public knowledge about these United States is fast disappearing. It is a cause for unease in the minds of people in rural and urban, conservative and other parts of the political spectrum alike of what will happen to America as this is lost. 4. On immigration  a consensus was reached by president Biden that migrant flow was mishandled and the Lankford legislation offered by Republican leaders accepted by both parties to stop the flow. During his first term president Eisenhower conducted a program of returning illegal migrants to their home countries, Germany is doing this now and the UK's Labor party has made it No. 1 priority to stop migrant smuggling. 5. An effort to increase oil and gas production. This will help bring down the cost of living by reducing energy costs in the US and also helping Europe to do the same. Biden had already accepted the idea of the temporary need to do this to ease cost of living burden on the people of this Nation. The economic cost of wind and solar, are ultimate drivers for expanding renewable energy as major form of climate change action. In the first term of DJT 2016-2020 the lower cost of natural gas made it economical to switch from oil to gas. In the Biden term 2020-2024 all the effort to increase EV's on the road ran into the problem of lack of charging stations. It is possible that spread of charging stations could reverse this in the second term of DJT. It is the private sector and also the local governments that play a big part, climate change action will continue, and new R&D breakthroughs will happen to jump start it again.    ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Ms. Annegret Kramp-Krarrenbauer, elected leader of the CDU party in 2018 with the support of Angela Merkel, will not run for chancellor in next years election and will resign from her position by the end of the year. She will continue as Germany's defense minister. After losses for the CDU in recent elections and the embarrassment of local CDU leaders in Thuringia supporting the far right AfD, AKK as she is known decided to step down. Angela Merkel has decided not to run for chancellor again. Germany is set to chair the EU in the second half of 2020, and Merkel is no longer seen as a leader of influence. The Nationalist Alternative for Germany AfD has gained votes in recent elections following the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, with large numbers of refugees from North Africa and Arab world landing in Greece and Turkey and walking to Hungary, Austria and Germany. Merkel's handling of the crisis with acceptance of a million refugees in 2015-2016 unsettled European and German politics. Why? One way of looking at it is that in the same way that the U.S. took in Chinese imported goods ending in the Trump tariffs war, at some point it just becomes too big to handle. That ended up at $1 billion a day in imports from China when president Trump called it off and accused Obama Democrats, Bush Republicans, of betraying the country. Putting it into perspective Germany with one fourth of the population of the U.S. took in about twice the number of refugees in just one year 2015-2016 that the U.S. took in 10 years 2005-2015. The U.S. took in 675,000 immigrants between 2005-2015. This is as if the U.S. took in something like 20 million immigrants in a short period of 1 year on an equivalent basis- though the cultural impact is even greater in a nation like Germany that is like Japan an historically immigrant averse nation. All this happened too quickly for Germany to handle for its fragile cultural fabric. Much of the initial outpouring of support and positive sentiment came from the sense of having gone through World War II and the refugees in that and the early post war period, the need to return in the same spirit support Germany had received. Over time it eroded support for the Christian Democratic Union and Merkel. That Merkel could have done this is itself a small miracle. Now the rebuilding has to begin. Adenauer's CDU and the socialist SPD party of Willy Brandt now have less than 50% support, only with the Greens Party do they make up 50%. The question now is can the CDU, and the SPD which has fallen to 14% in elections, make it back and what kind of future makeup political parties will have in Germany, how the social fabric can be restored. AKK's achievement is to mend relations between the liberal Merkel wing of the CDU and conservatives from Bavaria (CSU) over immigration.  Candidates for CDU leadership are Armin Laschet, Jens Spahn, and Friedrich Merz. Laschet premier of North Rhine-Westphalia has Merkel's support. Looking back too much attention was taken up by the euro crisis, and too little was done in the areas of infrastructure, inequality gaps, education, child care, under Merkel's leadership and of the preceding SPD years, much like what happened under Bush and Obama administrations in the U.S. where wars, economic crises led to neglect on issues that affect lives of ordinary working families. ...
The New York Times Original article ›
WSJ Original article ›
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Greg Ip tells India's story, piped water for hundreds of millions of Indians, massive increases in road and rail, rapid development of infrastructure, aviation, ports logistics. WSJ graph shows country growth of economies for Japan, China, India, Germany in 2000 and 2020. By 2000 Japan had grown its economy to become about half the size of the US economy with two decades of rapid growth since 1980. China repeated this process with two decades of hyper growth since 2000 to become about 75% of the US economy by 2020. The graphs also show Japanese growth tailing off so rapidly after 2000 in relation to the US economy that it is now only about 25% of the US economy. China is likely to follow the same path as growth slows and with an aging population to become about 35-40% of the US economy by 2040 from 75%. India following the process that happened in Japan and in China is likely to become close to 35-40% of the US economy by 2040 from about 18% today, with the fastest growth over the next two decades for the most populous country in the world. Greg Ip points out what has been achieved since 2014 with the Modi government. Good governance without leakages of public funds dedicated to infrastructure, ease of living, GST one India one tax so that growing pool of funds from taxes fund rapid development with no leakages to corrupt officials,  Swacch Bharat or Clean India, clean water from taps, electricity and cooking gas for the whole population of India with dates for completion. All this Ip calls removal of the shackles that existed for far too long even past 2000 and 2010 when China had vastly surpassed India from its low point in 1980 after Mao and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. India today is in as much a pace of development as China in the 1990's and Japan in the 1960's, except that it now has the benefit of grasping how development can be done in a way that does not affect climate and health in adverse ways as happened with China's hyper growth -which also led to the tragic loss of manufacturing for workers and communities in the US and Europe due to the economic theories of laissez faire of the Reagan era. Reagan theory for governments not working with industry that were applied indiscriminately during the Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump presidencies for three decades led to shipping manufacturing overseas with no regard for the risks and dangers. What Greg Ip fails to mention is the uniqueness of India that is united by Vedanta, Hinduism and Buddhism for thousands of years, and which keeps the fabric of society together when it is divided by 13 language groups. These 13 language groups are: Hindi 43% of the population, Bengali 8%, Marathi 7%, Telugu 7%, Tamil 6%, Gujarati 5%, Urdu 4%, Kannada 4%, Odia 3%, Malayalam 3%, Punjabi 3%, Assamese 1%, English 1%. It was the vision of the early leaders Vivekananda, Gokhale, Mohandas Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, that united a diverse country with many languages and cultural variation. And it is this vision of Vivekananda that is creating the Good Governance under Sab ka Vikas, Sab ka Viswas, Sab ke Saath, Sab ka Prayas of today- development for all, with the confidence of all, with the support of all, the efforts of all. Without a disciplined direction based on hard work India could not make it this far or fulfill the aspirations of its youthful population by 2040. ...
Washington Post Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Anthony Faiola provides this exceptional look at the thinking of Chancellor Merkel and German experts, about the refugees creating more opportunities than risks for Germany. Germany is an aging society, with low birth rates. How to reverse this, so that there will be more young workers to meet future needs long term ten or twenty years from now, is a problem facing Japan and Germany. Germany is also fortunate with the timing, with Germany's unemployment rate at a low of 6.2%, and years of growth ahead from a eurozone recovery. A fortunate circumstance in the nature of refugees from Syria, is that many of them are young, well educated, skilled workers, doctors, engineers and architects, from a relatively moderate Arab country. This is a better immigrant pool than the one Germany took in from Turkey in early postwar years, in terms of education, youthfulness and skills, and one in which the lessons learned from that pool's inadequate integration could be applied here. This is why Germany is not only willing to take in 800,000, but German leaders are saying they could take in 500,000 a year for several years. Just as Germany has taken a long term view, and has the strength to execute it in its shift to renewable energy, Germany's centre right Christian Democrats and centre left Social Democrats in the coalition government see the issue long term around which they can bring a cohesive understanding and consensus in their country. Merkel addressing parliament said on September 9, 2015- "The refugees need help to learn German, and they should find a job quickly. Many of them will become new citizens of our country. If we do it well, this will bring more opportunities than risks." The decision to shift to renewable required a whole new mindset and leadership, in the same way German leaders are articulating the position based on a careful understanding of the situation and Germany's long term interests in reversing Germany's population decline and lower working age people. There are about 3 million Turkish people in the country, adding about 1.8 million Syrian and other refugees would still bring the percentage of people of foreign origin to less than 6% of the 81 million population, just a little bit less Christian and just a little bit less German in origin, which is in keeping with changes in a globalized world and no different than its neigbor France. What looked like a problem, if handled and managed well could be an opportunity knocking at Germany's door. Merkel's genuine convictions about universal civil rights make the "wilkommen refugees" very real in other ways....
New York Times Original article ›
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The British Embassy in Tehran is stormed on Nov. 29, 2011, by protesters from the student wing of the Basij militia, a volunteer militia organized by the Islamic government to protect the governing party loyal to Ayatollah Khamanei. This comes after Britain joined the U.S. and Canada in sanctions against the Iran for nuclear weapons development. The sanctions will keep Iran's banking sector out of the U.K. financial system.
DW.COM Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Germany faces the possibility of a pandemic surge of the unvaccinated, something that is happening today in the southern United States.  For days the percentage of people that are fully vaccinated remains at 62%. Some vaccination centers are closed. A vaccination center outside the train station in Cologne offers passersby free vaccinations. Berlin's Social Democrat mayor Michael Muller is very frustrated. He says "I am now coming to a point where I think we have exhausted what we can do in politics."  At 62% the rate of fully vaccinated people in Germany is too low to prevent a surge of the Delta variant in the way that it has hit the southern US, and California. Vaccination rates of close to 85% are needed to tackle the risk of another surge in highly contagious delta variant. Not everyone remaining is die hard opposed to vaccines. The Robert Koch Institute estimate is that 5 to 10% of people are in that die hard category. The remaining 20-30 % are people who have various other concerns and fears, hesitancy, that may be changed.  The chairman of the World Medical Association Frank Ulrich Montgomery favors a vaccine mandate, what he calls a 2G rule, that should be introduced in Germany requiring vaccination to attend events, sports, restaurant visits, adopted nationwide. German government has rejected idea of mandatory vaccination of health personnel, that was adopted in France. Vaccination drives are regionally based. Some are ineffective such as the Deutsche Bahn train system vaccination drive for commuters that only had a few hundred doses of J&J vaccine and ran out quickly in Berlin. One prick J&J some say is better for vaccine skeptics. Vaccine skeptics think they may get away without getting covid infection. How does one get over this misconception? Others including members of the Greens party say vaccine needs to be delivered where people are- transit points, bus stops, doses offered in evening and early morning hours, trying new ways to reach people and inspire confidence. Germany now ranks behind France but ahead of Bulgaria in terms of vaccination percentage in September 2021, not a good situation. ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The U.S. initial jobless claims for unemployment estimate for March 21 is about 3 million. How to keep layoffs of workers to a minimum and keep businesses from closing. These are the questions lawmakers and governments are addressing today. The British, Dutch and Denmark governments have plans to pick up most of the wage bill for businesses, that do not layoff employees, for as long as 3 months, and if needed longer. The U.S. government has a similar plan. Of the $1.6 trillion aid package being discussed in the U.S. Congress, $350 billion is allocated as loans to businesses which may be forgiven if used for payroll for workers.  The idea is to build a safety net quickly for workers. The U.S. plan is to give families direct aid of $1200 per person and $500 per child with checks sent to each home. A separate allocation in the package increases unemployment insurance from 26 weeks to 39 weeks. The direct aid to large industries and business is a way for these companies to avoid layoffs. Direct aid should be based on how much companies do to retain employees, a move that is in the interest of large companies which will need to have experienced employees once the situation returns to normal by the third or fourth quarters of 2020. This will also help companies return to normal activity quickly. ...
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The coronavirus pandemic and the disaster in nursing homes, the chaotic conditions in the first wave, the lack of staff and poor attention to residents during the pandemic, has exposed the major weakness of nursing home care in western countries. Much of this sector is in the hands of private operators seeking a profit.  The staff is paid low wages and lacks the experience and empathy needed for care of older people. During a virus all these factors turn deadly. With some staff sick the other staff is overburdened. If the sick turn up for work they are likely to risk the safety of other staff and the residents. With the incubation period lack of testing there is no way to know. When deaths occur and the nursing homes are sealed from the outside world the deaths happen with no goodbyes as happened in U.S., Britain and Sweden. This has exposed the scandalous and shocking way in which the elderly are treated in today's environment where ridiculous amounts of money are being spent on other things and the the most basic "one's parents" are neglected and allowed to die in horrific manner in a pandemic. The new trend for home care for the elderly is a welcome trend and long overdue as one of the worst aspects of the system in the west is the treatment of elderly parents in nursing homes run for profit. The new technology tools available for monitoring a elderly person at home, and the help of stores such as Best Buy which are serving elderly at home, is making this more and more a choice for the elderly. Even older patients and ones needing significant care can recover and spend time at home in a better environment, a less costly one, as hospital managers and families have learned in 2020. Some hospitals in the U.S. say they never want to go back. That the drive to get every patient home who can be home is the right one for patients and families and for the government paying for the care so that dollars are well spent in quality of care. Home health care companies are working on providing new services for sicker patients recovering at home. Technology helps do better monitoring. Medicare now pays for digital doctor visits and intense hospital type care at home after coronavirus showed this as vitally needed.  Both the Biden and Trump administrations are firmly focused on this issue. Seema Verma as head of Medicare is clear about the need for a national conversation on how we take care of the elderly, of our parents. And Mr. Biden wants to spend $450 billon to make certain that people who need long term care can get the support they need in the home and the community. This report looks at the home health care companies and how they are improving their services. This and telemedicine are two of the major constructive changes coming out of the pandemic, clearing out some of the worst aspects of the old system of living the older years in the western world.  Nothing speaks more about humanity and a human world than the story here of Savanna Hollar, 90 years old and almost blind. She broke her shoulder in August, Her sons decided not to send her to a the rehab facility she went to after a broken hip 3 years earlier. The sons brought her home to recover in the farmhouse near Yadkinville, N.C., where she has lived since 1951. One of her sons himself 63 years says that at a nursing home she would be lonely, scared and afraid to move. The sons hired two people to help her during the day and a rotating system was used for having people help her. At home Mrs. Hollar could enjoy her gray cat, Buddy, her favorite recliner and tomato sandwiches made with produce from her garden. Really, if we can't do this much what good is the U.S.A.? or Britain? or Sweden? or India? ...
The New York Times Original article ›
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
David Autor at MIT authored some of the first detailed studies about the severe disruption in U.S. communities from the trade with China following China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. The sheer size of the impact now appears to have been underestimated by economists and other experts. It was believed says Hilsenrath and Davis, that the U.S. having absorbed the impact of trade with Japan in the seventies and eighties, and with Mexico following NAFTA, could do the same with China. That turns out to be false. Much of 2016 election season has been spent seeing the rise of anti-trade movements led by Trump and Sanders, and reveals a deep discontent with job shifting overseas, and disruption of communities across America by trade patterns. What happened? In 2015 China's exports to the U.S. reached 2.7% of U.S. GDP. Hilsenrath and Davis say it was about 1% less with Japan and Mexico when their exports surged. The rapidity of the impact is another problem. It took 12 years following Japan's emergence as a major supplier, to reach the same level of impact that China had only 4 years after China's entry into the WTO in 2001. A similiar situation of 12 years happened with Mexico after NAFTA. Another problem is that Japan's exports impacted mostly steel and autos, China's exports impacted a whole range of industries. The speed with which China's planners sought to change and modernize their manufacturing  base is unprecedented in history, and has an impact not only on the U.S. as a recipient of low cost exports, but also on China as it struggles with bad debts and job losses today, that are a legacy of that too rapid move. This was part of the drive to urbanize China rapidly by shifting agricultural workers to factories in the cities, at a pace unprecedented in history. Another factor not mentioned is the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 that hurt U.S. manufacturing in the auto and other industries, and the wide impact this had in loss of jobs and decline in wages. By 2010 the tide of public opinion had shifted. The WSJ/NBC poll of September 2010, cited in detail in WSJ 10/2/2010 under "Americans Sour on Foreign Trade" shows over 80% consistently for all levels of income, over $75,000 and under $75,000, Republicans and Democrats, working class Americans or well educated Americans, saying that Americans were struggling and there was less hiring, because of how trade had impacted their communities. Lyrarc covered this in considerable detail since 2006. All political parties, business leaders, ignored the implications of this huge change, the media covered it but assumed it would take care of itself as trade with Japan had done previously, and it was left to Trump and Sanders as outsiders to call it like they saw it 5 years later.  Economic inequality has widened in China to the point of it becoming unrecognizable as a former socialist economy. Now both countries are faced with the job of picking up, chastened by the experience, and hoping to limit the political fallout to achieve economic recovery. The very open trading system that had generated prosperity since World War II was being put at risk by a lack of awareness that trade brings with it changes, winners and losers, and manufacturing jobs moving overseas on a scale and speed unprecedented in history, was something that no one could cope with. ...
POLITICO Magazine Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The auto industry has only itself to blame for shaping and sustaining the retrograde world it finds itself in, says Politico magazine. GM supported the Trump administration's efforts to push back the fuel efficiency rules setup earlier. With Chrysler and Ford it went a step further in getting out of cars altogether and having a line of SUV's and other vehicles. This step is seen as retrograde and a result of several possible lines of thought among the car executives in Detroit. One is that the SUV higher profits would provide a cushion as this cycle in the industry's revival comes to a close. Another is that in a situation where GM's shares are depressed while Tesla with no profits is seeing a higher valuation, this could increase its share price. This has not happened and President Trump is as critical of the layoffs of 15% and closure of plants in GM's announcement, as Democratic senator Bernie Sanders is. Still another is that GM needs to prepare for all the tech changes happening in driverless cars, new tech advances, that a move like this would better prepare itself for the new world of transportation. This remains nebulous however and GM has failed to take account of the fact that only a short time ago about half of all car buyers were still not buying SUV's. Gas prices are volatile and will continue to be so that strategy cannot be based on cheap gas prices and SUV profits.    ...
Economist Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Economist view on how things are changing in Russia, a view on the eve of the G-8 Summit. It is useful in that it presents the view of Russia that Russians are reacting to. Note how this links to Guy Chazan's article on July 13, WSJ, Russian Pundit Sours on the West. It talks about how the Radio Sation Echo Moskvy, part of liberal news media in Russia is airing increasingly critical opinion of the USA. The Economist acknowledges that even the liberal media in Russia which had been favoring the USA and Britain is now critical of these countries. It cautions Western leaders that they should avoid conveying to Russians that what they really dislike to is not a liberal and undemocratic Russia but a prosperous and strong Russia. And liberals in Russia feel the just as strongly as national leaders do about this.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
BUSH AND E85- ITS UPTO MARKET ECONOMICS, NO DIRECT ACTION AS IN BRAZIL. U.S. oil companies are skeptical about E85 and are not investing in pumps and filling stations. Only 800 of 17,000 gasoline filling stations in the U.S. have ethanol. Unless required to do so station owners are not likely to invest thousands of dollars in ethanol pumps. In Brazil the government took direct action to promote ethanol use, giving sugar cane companies cut rate loans and guaranteed prices for the product, and it required state run Petrobras to make ethanol available at filling stations. The cost auto companies say in this article is only about $100 extra per vehicle for extra anticorrosive materials and computer sensors for ethanol capable cars. With market economics and no direct government action the picture is fuzzy how the whole E85 project is going to come out.
New York Times Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Paul Tough's detailed and vivid account of the problems in Chicago's South Side in 1987 when Obama worked there as acommunity activist, in 2007 when Obama visited the area and expressed his vision about what was needed for the Roseland section, and in 2012 when Tough visits Roseland to document life today in this part of Chicago. He sees the same problems and a need for an all round approach to help kids of parents without work living below the poverty line to provide not just financial help but the kind of support and institutional help that would help them overcome the disabling effects of growing up in broken homes and counteract the destructive effects of a poor environment surrounding them. He left Roseland with a feeling that the President has not pushed hard to accomplish much of what he started out to do and let opportunities slip by.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
India's Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai says India will only give recognition to multilateral sanctions imposed by the United Nations. He said: We have accepted sanctions which are made by the United Nations. Other sanctions do not apply to individual countries. We don't accept that position." He was referring to the sanctions program of the U.S. government, under which countries would be granted exceptions and waivers from U.S. sanctions. Iran is the second largest source for India's oil purchases after Saudi Arabia. A multi-ministerial delegation from India is visiting Iran, and the delegation says Mathai will "work out a mechanism for uninterrupted purchase of oil from Iran and to work out a financing mechanism." South Korea which gets 10% of its oil from Iran plans to get an exception to U.S. sanctions under which it would reduce Iranian imports in 6 months from the date of a U.S. sanctions law.
New York Times Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism of the Pew Research center, looked at six major story lines that progressed for one week in July. What it found is that 83% of the reports in the local news media were basically repetitive and had no new information. Of the stories that contained new information, 95% came from old media, which then set the tone for narratives done by other media outlets. The study covered the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, their websites, several smaller papers in the area, and new online news sites. Another finding was that on one story of budget cuts, the reporting done in 2009 was less than one third of that which was done for the budget cuts in 1991. This confirms the point made by traditional media that new online news outlets do little more than repetition and commentary.
New York Times Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Microsoft is making management changes in the unit which makes the Xbox, Zune music player, phone software. There have been some successes with the Xbox gaming console, but the Zune music player and phone software have done poorly. Robbie Bach, the head of this group is leaving. Microsoft has also cancelled a project to make a tablet computer to compete with Apples's iPad. After years of working on the tablet computer Microsoft found itself falling completely behind when Apple's iPad became a sensational seller, and HP's acquisition of Palm also sent signals to Microsoft. Analysts say the departure of Bach who was with Microsoft for 22 years, and of other executives in the revamping, will do little to change things. They question that Ballmer has the same touch and feel for the customer, which is something rare, and which Apple has at this time.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The Liberal Democrats lost badly in the May 2011 local elections in Britain. Voters also overwhelmingly rejected the alternative voting system that the Liberal Democrats supported. The vote on an alternative voting system was one of the key conditions put up by the Liberals when they joined the Conservatives in a coalition government. About 69% voted to keep the current voting system supported by the Conservative party. In local races Labor and the Scottish National Party made gains at the expense of the Liberals. The Liberals lost 695 of their 1,751 seats in local councils, 12 of 17 seats in the Scottish parliament, and one of six seats in the Welsh assembly. Tory support remained steady, but voters turned away from the Liberals to show they do not support the austerity cuts of the Cameron led government. This will pose problems for Liberal leader Nick Clegg's continued participation in the coalition.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
How the global supplier system, while it spreads some of the financial risk, also creates a number of problems Boeing has to resolve. The advanced nature of the plane using composite materials instead of aluminium, and many other new aspects, all make it necessary for careful attention to details and coordination of different partners roles. Things like training of workers who do the work at new plants put up by suppliers like Vought Aircraft of Dallas and Alenia Aeronautica of Italy, in this case in Charleston, S.C., were inadequate. This had the effect of compounding problems Boeing already has in shortage of aluminium and titanium fasteners to assemble the different parts. Based on this report the unveiling of the Dreamliner on July 8, before 15,000 invited guests, was probably a bad idea, as much of the plane under the shiny covers was a mess. idea
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
How the outmoded computer systems at China's brokerages are the weak link in China's stock markets. Even though the Shanghai stock exchange computer systems are modernized the brokerages computer systems are falling behind and have not seen the level of investment and attention as the major exchanges. this could be a real problem in a downturn without access to terminals in crowded facilities investors not able to get out of the market may create panic. And overloaded computer systems have crashed in the past and could do so again. In China investors are responsible for executing their own trades rather than leaving orders with a broker so having access to a terminal and for it and computer systems to function properly are really important to investors in the market. This could be a aggravating factor if there is a severe loss of confidence in the market.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The Fed cuts rates by three quarters of a percentage point to 2.25%, but cautions about inflation expectations. The increasing inflation and the fears of a steep fall in the value of the dollar, and the knowledge that liquidity is hardly the root of the problem considering that opaqueness of mortgage securities and not knowing who owns the bad ones is the source of the confusion in markets, will limit what the Fed can do from now on. The focus should be shifting to reduce the loan burden on homeowners at risk of foreclosures so that they can make payments on smaller principal for longer periods with better terms with Government backing the softer terms and the Bush administration is gradually coming around to the view that its announced voluntary loan improvements are not enough to meet this crisis which is just beginning to heat up.
Economist Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
The early efforts by EU countries were each on his own thinking it would cost more and not be tailored to their individual countries if coordinated and done together. This failed as events of the crisis worsened and finance ministers fell behind in their actions. At that point coordinated action was critical and the countries came togeter with big initiative by Gordon Brown and the EU countries following suit. How much capital is needed to recapitalize the banks in Europe and the USA. In Europe about $400 billion and in the USA about $275 billion and private capital alongside government capital can do this. The capital exists because of the huge size of western stock and capital markets which can absorb these costs along with the government over time. But only the government could take the first urgent steps and inject capital in large amounts to get things moving again.
WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
With cases from foreigners exceeding cases locally, outside of Hubei province for the last 6 days, China is now restricting entry of foreigners. All foreigners entering the country from South Korea, Italy, Iran or Japan are subject to a 14 day quarantine. A voluntary quarantine for 14 days is required for other visitors. 

Germany has relied on state and local governments to take action, with the federal government not intervening. 


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