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Direct From the Editor / On Topics Vital to the Nation

How China's import cuts importing 8.5 million barrels a day down from 12.5 million and it's large oil reserve will keep oil prices low

07/15/2026

Not covered in the media for Hormuz is the combined response of US, China, India, Japan and the European Union to find alternatives to Hormuz making it less or not relevant to oil prices and oil supplies

07/10/2026

The Constructive Aspects of the situation in July 2026 from the Hormuz Crisis not covered in the Media

06/27/2026

Browse Articles or use Lyrarc's US patented "Groups" and "Links" for new insights. A Lyrarc Group of Articles on a topic gives insights into particular angles shown in the Group Title. A Lyrarc Link shows more specific insights for 2 articles.

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LyrArc brings in selected articles from many of the world's top publications.

Articles are selected by experts and you can see the gist of the important articles.

How Intel Fell From Global Chip Champion to Takeover Target

  
WSJ - 09.21.2024 Original article ›
Asa Fitch
LyrArc Article Gist
Pat Gelsinger is right about "fighting for every inch" at Intel for everyday manufacturing chips that make up our lives, to not let market forces swinging wildly in different directions one moment this way the other way the next, decimate American Manufacturing. Regulators have a job to do to protect America's vital interests and of its people. AI surge for Nvidia make it a one trillion company one day and briefly a two trillion dollar company for a day. In 1998 only a small $15 million loan from Iramijiri of Japanese videogame company Sega helped Nvidia founder Jensen Huang survive when it took a hard turn and a design failed. Huang even says in WSJ he would not start the company if he did this again as market forces can be crippling for personal lives as well. What does this all mean? The Biden Administration has a plan to revive America's chip making genius and innovation that has driven America from 40% of the manufacturing of chips to 5%. Intel is right at the heart of this plan. The Chips and Science law will do this including $8.5 billion for Intel manufacturing which Pat Gelsinger is pushing forward for Intel Corp.  Here comes a company that has outsourced Manufacturing entirely- Qualcomm to takeover Intel. It knows nothing about Manufacturing, it cares nothing about American Manufacturing and loss of leadership in Manufacturing, and for the millions of people who work in America in factories and research facilities related to manufacturing design.  ...
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Steve Ballmer, the Non-Investing Guru of Investing

  
WSJ - 12.22.2024 Original article ›
Juliet Chung, Ben Cohen
LyrArc Article Gist
About 80% of Ballmer's money ($150 billion -former Microsoft CEO) is in Microsoft stock and 20% in index funds. He tried investing in stocks, Colgate Palmolive at advice of Jim Cramer a college buddy. Then tried diversifying. Tried money managers and found it difficult to find ones that outperform. So he dumped them all. His approach was shaped by Warren Buffet who says put it in S&P shaped index fund. He says-  Keep it Simple. Keep it Simple. We are financially blessed. What I seek says Ballmer is not to have anxiety, not to have to spend a lot of time, where we are blessed enough if we make 7%, the standard S&P return in the long run. He had luck listening to the right people and his loyalty to the company.  When Balmer left office as CEO in 2014 Microsoft market capitalization was $300 million. Ten years later it is $3 trillion with work on cloud computing and AI. Microsoft gained 29%  each year in that period including dividends, the S&P 13% with dividends, endowments 8%. As investor non-investor Ballmer now exceeds $150 billion and is No. 9. Most investments are in one trick ponies Google for example or in two trick ponies Apple, Amazon or Microsoft. One trick pony means they milk it, and milk it, and milk it. Three trick ponies not many you can find. ...
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Greenspan image tarnished by newly released documents - The Washington Post

22 Groups   
Washington Post - 01.13.2012 Original article ›
Zachary Goldfarb, Zachary, Goldfarb
LyrArc Article Gist
Transcripts released for the U.S. Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) 2006 meetings show Fed chairman Bernanke and then New York Fed president Geithner ignored the risks of a hard landing from the mortgage and housing bubble. Geithner even went so far as to say about retiring chairman Greenspan, who also ignored the risks from the bubble and set the tone during his long period as chairman at the Fed: "I'd like the record to show that I think you're pretty terrific, too...And thinking about the probabilities, I think the risk that we decide in the future that you're even better than we think is higher than the alternative." In evaluating the risks facing the U.S. economy in December 2006, at the height of the bubble, Geithner stated: "The current weakness in the economy still seems principally to stem from the direct effects of the slowdown in housing on construction activity... The softer than expected recent numbers don't argue in our view, for a substantial reassessment of the risks in the outlook." The Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, said at the first meeting in March 2006: " Strong fundamentals support a relatively soft landing in housing... I think we are unlikely to see growth being derailed by the housing market." When a Fed economist gave a presentation in March 2006 on the risks in Iceland, Bernanke said- "We'd like a full report on the Icelandic," at which point the rest of the group erupted with laughter. Iceland defaulted on its debts in 2008. Warnings about housing by Fed Governor Susan Bies were ignored by Bernanke and Geithner. Two highly leveraged Wall Street investment banks collapsed in 2008- Bear Stearns in March and Lehman in September- from the impact of the bursting of the bubble in housing and mortgages. When they collapsed these banks were leveraged at about 30 to 1, as most of the warning signs had been ignored by regulators including the Federal Reserve....
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Original article 5 minutes, gist 1 minutes

China Premier Proposes Economic Adjustments

2 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 03.06.2008 Original article ›
Andrew Batson, Andrew, Batson
LyrArc Article Gist
Premier Wen announces new Chinese policy at state of the union address to improve the energy efficiency reduce pollution and increase worker incomes and boost education and health safety net expenditures. This is a slow to arrive but significant change in policy and will likely accelerate as the Chinese economy makes gains in this area. Wen wants to see more investment in agriculture and less in heavy industry. He is making primary school education fees in urban areas earlier rural school fees were ended and central government spending would be increased by 45% to make up for lost revenue to schools. He also wants to see more consumption spending so that living standards improve and for the first time since 2000 consumption contributed more to growth tan investment. With the new investment the government will only run a small deficit of 0.6% of GDP.
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Why the Covid-19 Pandemic Weakened Far-Right Groups in Europe

  
WSJ - 06.30.2021 Original article ›
Bojan Pancevski
LyrArc Article Gist
Marie Le Pen and the National Front performed very poorly in French elections. Perceptions of voters are changing. The efforts in tackling the coronavirus, effective vaccination drives, public health protection, and building access to vaccine supplies, have shown the need for good leadership that believes in a science driven direction. Immigration is no longer the issue it once was and in some polls it is seventh on the list after climate change, economy,  education, pensions. The National Front in France and AfD are losing regional elections and popularity is dropping to about 10%. The Greens party in Germany and the Gaullist Republicans in France are being revitalized. Other factors are also present. The search for authenticity and effectiveness. After dismissing a popular prime minister who tackled the health crisis in 2020 France's president Macron fared badly in recent regional elections. His party En Marche was hastily put together in the last year of the administration of Mr. Hollande, the predecessor from the Socialist party. Its initial popularity has not turned into grassroots support. Mr. Hollande, Mr. Macron, are now seen as one term presidents. It is not so much that the centrist parties are gaining as a search for parties that can provide effective alternatives in the face of the challenges placed on the world by the pandemic- renewal of supply chains. climate change, public services, infrastructure, health, education, lives of the elderly. In the US, Europe, and India, countries in Latin America, there is a growing awareness of the need to rebuild with the people in mind, the people who have suffered badly in this health crisis and the financial crisis that preceded it in 2009. ...
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Original article 5 minutes, gist 1 minutes

Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 - May 2025

  
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System - 11.17.2025 Original article ›
Us Federal Reserve Board Of Governors
LyrArc Article Gist
The US Federal Reserve Report on Economic Wellbeing of US Households 2024-May 2025 gives some insights into the well being of American households. It shows food insufficiency households the same in 2023-2025 at 7%. The situation for cost of living remains a concern in 2024 as well as 2025. Retirement savings have improved for many middle class Americans, as confirmed by reports from Fidelity and Vanguard. The people earning less than 25,000 are 19% and about the same in 2024 under Biden as under DJT in 2025. 39% make $100,000 or more and 26% make $50,000 -$100,000. Combining the 19% making less than $25,000 and the 16% making between $25,000 and $50,000 shows about one third of the population under $50,000 living paycheck to paycheck. It would appear that $2000 DJT rebate putting $160 billion out of $550 billion of tariff revenues for 2025-2026  in the hands of 79 million households that make less than $100,000 would go a long way to keep the situation stable with optimism and hope arising from the restructuring of world trade that would bring trillions of dollars of investment into the US from Europe and Asia. A this investment plus domestic investment should bring back jobs and higher incomes to US manufacturing in small towns across America. The rest of $550 billion tariff revenue of $390 billion would go to reducing the deficit which would improve prospects for the economy in 2027 and produce a more resilient economy in 2027-2028. As shown on this page the popular Democratic Governor of Michigan in her op-ed in Washington Post supports strategic tariffs, and supports using the revenue for a check to American workers of $2000 per worker or per worker household and offers to work with the opposite party to get a WIN-WIN for the American People.  In the whole process of trade tariffs it must be remembered when seeing the inconsistent cases of tariff use by this Republican administration that these were special reason situations not aberrations or whimsical. First, it should be borne in mind that behind the appearance of DJT making tariff decisions is a carefully thought out process that took ten years to form under Reagan era Trade Representative Lighthizer who negotiated with Japan, and his deputy Jamieson for 2016-2024, and the economic and capital markets experience of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. The two cases of inconsistent application of tariffs relate to the 50% tariff on India and the reduction of tariffs on China agreement on rare earths, and the imposition of a large tarif on Japan and the EU. In the first instance with India it was intended to give Ukraine breathing room from Russian attacks as Germany steps up its military preparedness and assistance to Ukraine. With both countries it was about saving face important in Asian or any societies and it has achieved it's purpose. Reports show both Indian and Chinese refiners have quietly cut purchases of oil from Russia leading to Russian oil selling at about $20 discount to Brent crude oil. In the case of Japan the quick action to raise tariffs was intended not to get into long drawn negotiations and show serious intent- Japan is known for dragging out negotiations for years if not decades. The same is true for the European Union. With the Swiss it was about a certain disrespect of the US coming from attitudes that Swiss products were somehow superior. Not just in the long run, in 2026-2028 history will show that the effort done right - and it takes effort to get this right- to restructure world trade so that other nations are not siphoning off the benefits and leaving the US to lose its manufacturing and factories is the right one. And taken with courage and sincere desire to create a fair distribution of the benefits of world trade for too long distorted by egregious practices of competitors. It has nothing to do with 2 senators from the 1930's who were from places like the Mountain West in the US, having no concept of world trade, Smoot and Hawley, who under a irresponsible president Hoover got everything wrong. This is a carefully set out plan to evenly balance the benefits of world trade to all nations.   ...
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Original article 1 minute, gist 3 minutes

Chaos in France after Macron refuses to name prime minister from leftwing coalition

  
The Guardian - 08.26.2024 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Macron refuses to appoint the nominee of the National Popular Front which has the most seats in the National Assembly as the prime minister of France. 

NFP has Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist and director of financial affairs at Paris City Hall, as its nominee for prime minister.  Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the LFI president, a key part of the NFP, said Macron was creating an “exceptionally serious situation”.

Marine Tondelier, secretary general of the Greens, says Macron's action was “a disgrace” and “dangerous democratic irresponsibility.” Melenchon calls for censure of any other candidate that is put forward.

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PM Modi railway projects: Time not far for first bullet to run in India

  
The Hindu - 01.06.2025 Original article ›
Peerzada Ashiq
LyrArc Article Gist
PM Modi says Indian Rail is an important part of the vision for Vikshit Bharat or Developed India 2047 as he opens the new Jammu division of Indian Railways. PM Modi described the infrastructure laid for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link USBRL, the Anji Khad cable-stayed bridge, and the Chenab Rail Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir.

PM Modi says-

“I was watching a video of the new sleeper version of the Vande Bharat train running at the speed of 180 km per hour in trial. It makes me feel good. The introduction of high-speed Vande Bharat trains and the expansion of metro networks demonstrate India’s commitment to world class transport systems,” the PM said.

“This is just the beginning as the time is not far when the first bullet train will run in the country.” 

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Original article 3 minutes, gist 1 minute

Trump tariffs: The US firms welcoming the fight on trade

  
BBC News - 04.05.2025 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Rep Jodey Arrington of Texas on Liberation Day Tariffs-

"It just seems to me that it's un-American to not fight for our American manufacturers, producers and workers to simply have an even playing field." 

On the other side of the Atlantic the British press does not like America. Here is one report from the BBC News shown as Analysis by the BBC News.

It says Xi and the six other members of the Politburo Standing Committee were out planting trees to prevent deforestation while DJT was announcing big tariffs. And BBC News report Live goes on to say that the picture of Xi planting tress gives out the vibe that - go on America "this is China, we are not interested in your crap."  

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President Obama Left Fighting for His Own Relevance

2 Groups   
New York Times - 11.04.2014 Original article ›
Peter Baker, Peter, Baker

We're Laying the Groundwork for Recovery

1 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 10.14.2008 Original article ›
Ben S. Bernanke, Ben, S., Bernanke
LyrArc Article Gist
In his essay on the oped page of the WSJ Bernanke says: "history teaches us that government engagement in times of severe financial crisis often arrives very late, usually at a point at which most financial institutions are insolvent or nearly so, and in these conditions the consequences and costs of inertia and inaction can be staggering." Bernanke clearly is a student of the Great Depression and has learned the lessons from that catastrophic crisis. He pushed early for Paulson to take the case to the American Congress, and he had early on called for an injection of capital into the banks for ownership stakes, something the Bush administration ideologically resisted. Now that $250 billion is being injected into banks as part of the $700 billion rescue effort, and a global plan is being shaped after the Gordon Brown plan in the UK, it is possible for Bernanke to say that serious efforts are being taken that meet the severe challenges posed by a freezing up of credit markets wordwide. After some missteps and the help of Gordon Brown's initiative in the UK, there is reason for confidence even in the face of what Bernanke calls more " inevitable setbacks."...
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Obama overheard bluntly criticizing GOP and assessing federal workers - The Washington Post

2 Groups   
Washington Post - 04.15.2011 Original article ›
Ed O'keefe, Ed, O'keefe
LyrArc Article Gist
President Obama says he told House Speaker Boehner to pass a stand-alone bill for defunding Planned Parenthood, and not attach it to the budget bill. He said: "Put it in a separate bill, we'll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don't try to sneak this thing through." These comments were made while talking to campaign donors in Chicago on April 14, 2011. On the budget Obama said he told Republicans in the budget negotiations: "You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?"
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Original article 3 minutes, gist 1 minute

Your Co-Workers Might Be Killing You

1 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 08.20.2011 Original article ›
Jonah Lehrer, Jonah, Lehrer

Hollande’s move shakes up French politics | Europe | DW.COM | 02.12.2016

8 Groups   
DW.COM - 12.02.2016 Original article ›
Elizabeth Bryant (Paris)

The Idea Factory, by Jon Gertner

2 Groups   
New York Times - 03.19.2012 Original article ›
Michiko Kakutani, Michiko, Kakutani

Environmentalists Say Yes to Offshore Drilling

  
Wall Street Journal - 07.12.2008 Original article ›
Andrew Cline, Andrew, Cline
LyrArc Article Gist
The changing mood in the country and fewer risks of offshore spills as an environmental group GOO formed to oppose oil drilling offshore of Santa Barbara now supports drilling near Santa Barbara after a deal was negotiated with the oil company, Plains Exploration and Production Company, which met some of their concerns.
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U.S. Car Sales Set Record in 2015

1 Links 15 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 01.06.2016 Original article ›
Mike Spector, Mike, Spector, Jeff Bennett, Jeff, Bennett, John D. Stoll, John, D., Stoll
LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. auto sales including cars and light trucks reached 17.5 million in 2015, a 5.7% increase over 2014. Larger vehicles including pickup tucks and SUV's account for about half of all auto sales in 2015, with gas prices below $2.00 a gallon in Jan 2016 in most parts of the U.S. The average transaction price was up to $34,428, according to Kelley Blue Book. Auto incentives were up to $3063 per vehicle compared to $2809 ten years earlier, according to Kelley Blue Book. Analysts say automakers will reduce margins to subsidize zero interest loans in 2016 to increase sales. Lower sales are forecast after 2017 as the market will have caught up with much of the pent up demand by then. A plus for the automakers is the lower cost of steel and other material costs, and the better cost structures after bankruptcy, and renegotiated lower union pay scales. Additional plus is new management at U.S. automakers and at Toyota, and the technological advances this management is pushing, including fuel efficiency. Ride sharing, and other services developed by Google, are seen as disrupting the traditional car model to a limited extent. Countering this new development are millenials who are accounting for a quarter of Toyota sales in the last quarter of 2015, according to a Toyota executive....
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Obama Attacks on Economy and Seeks Billions for Community Colleges

1 Groups   
New York Times - 07.15.2009 Original article ›
Jim Rutenberg, Jim, Rutenberg
LyrArc Article Gist
Obama, speaking at Macomb Community College, talks about his plan to help community colleges, Community colleges are used by working adults for job retraining and learning new skills. Obama said that jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience. He said it would be difficult to fill those jobs without the training and education offered by community colleges. $12 billion in funds will be given to community colleges for ten years starting with the fiscal year beginning October 2009. The money will go toward programs that get community colleges to lift graduation rates and better train and educate students for jobs. Some of it will also go to modernizing of facilities, and some to the development of an internet curriculum available to students everywhere. Government officials say the plan would increase by 5 million the number of people who graduate from community colleges over the next 12 years. The new federal money will come from savings from the federal plan to end the role of private banks in the federal education lending system. Rep George Miller, the California Democrat who heads the House Education and Labor Committee, said that he would include the community college plan into the student loan bill, which he expects to introduce on July 15, 2009....
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The Health Insurers Have Already Won

7 Groups   
BusinessWeek - 08.06.2009 Original article ›
Chad Terhune, Chad, Terhune, Keith Epstein, Keith, Epstein
LyrArc Article Gist
How companies like United Health are lobbying aggressively to shape the new helathcare legislation to their benefit. BW says the health insurers like United Health, Aetna and Wellpoint are already winning through clever and effective lobbying of Congress. Former Senator Tom Daschle works as aconsultant for United Health. Senator Conrad who has led aeffort to replace the public plan with nonprofit medical cooperatives, which would be a weaker competitive threat to insurers, is also influened by the insurers. United Health's CEO Helmsley and its person working with Congress on healthcare Simon Stevens met with Conrad on June 4. When lawmakers in Congress cite consulting group Lewin Group, that 88 million or 56% of those with employer provided coverage would desert private insurance for a government run program, they are quoting acompany owned by United Health. The Congressional Budget Ofice says these numbers are too high. United Health has used savy presentations on how to cut costs, and help Blue Dog and other Democrats articulate their positions, to gain influence in shaping the plan to their interests. United Health thus counts a lot with Matheson, and Mike Ross of Arkansas, who are prominent with the 52 Blue Dog Democrats. and with Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. And United Health put together an effective lobbbying group, even hiring the chief of staff of House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer. ...
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Autonomy CEO: H-P Deal Marks Fundamental IT Shift

8 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 08.30.2011 Original article ›
Ben Rooney, Ben, Rooney
LyrArc Article Gist
Ben Rooney of the Wall Street Journal interviews Mike Lynch of Autonomy. He tells Rooney that the main reason he sold his company to H-P was that H-P had no legacy database business, and this made it possible for H-P to take a new look at how to make data human friendly and to do new things with data that haven't been done before. He describes this as the 85% of what data is about that none of the legacy database companies have shown interest in doing. H-P's size means that it can bring more resources to this effort. He calls this an alignment of values that was the main attraction of H-P to Autonomy. The canny Lynch also says H-P's price, an 80% premium over the share price, was not a blow-out or over-paying by H-P. The London listed technology firms are about 25% undervalued. The acquisition by H-P of Vertica, an advanced database company, also converged in the same direction, says Lynch. And the potential for H-P is to use these resources as a major advatage in developing new products. On the UK technology scene, Lynch says the access to high quality graduates from Cambridge, Imperial, Herriot Watt, and Warwick is an advantage. He worries more about problems lower down with standards of math failing in high schools. ...
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Sony Nears Deal to Buy Out Ericsson From Joint Venture

1 Links 9 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 10.06.2011 Original article ›
Daisuke Wakabayashi, Daisuke, Wakabayashi
LyrArc Article Gist
Sony's efforts to buy out Ericsson's 50% share of Sony-Ericsson joint venture in cell phone devices. Analysts estimate the value of Ericsson's stake at 1-1.25 billion euros. For Sony it is critical to become a major player in the smartphone business. Smartphones are carried by consumers everywhere and offer the opportunity to link smartphones to its online music, games and videos. The Sony-Ericsson venture failed to catch the smartphone trend early. After the launch of the Sony iPad, Sony sees significant opportunities in coming up with newer smartphone models and leveraging its technological strengths. This can only be done by having complete control over the smartphone business and having it in-house. Ericsson also sees it this way. Sony Ericsson Chief Bert Nordberg stated recently that the smartphone business has more in common with Sony than Ericsson. Ericsson's strengths are in heavy engineering and telecommunications, business to business, which are in contrast to the consumer emphasis at Sony. The Sony-Ericsson venture is barely profitable, with net profits of 90 millon euros for sales revenue of 6.3 billion euros in 2010. The strength of the Japanese yen, and the firmer valuation after the venture turned profitable in 2010- after two years of losses in 2008 and 2009- make a buyout of Ericsson's stake a good move for Sony....
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Concession Smooths Way Toward a Greek Debt Deal

9 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 02.08.2012 Original article ›
Stephen Fidler, Stephen, Fidler, Matthew Dalton, Matthew, Dalton, Alkman Granitsas, Alkman, Granitsas
LyrArc Article Gist
During the Greek debt crisis in 2011 the ECB bought Greek bonds at a discount to face value to support the price of Greek bonds. It did so under the agreement that the bonds would be worth the full amount. Now as part of the negotiations between Greece and private bondholders (mostly French and German banks) about how much losses private bondholders will take- to make Greek debt serviceable as its economy shrinks and tax revenues decline- the ECB says it will take $11 billion in losses on these bonds as its contribution. The ECB will do this on the condition that Greece comes up with an agreement with private bondholders that makes debt serviceable. This could mean increasing private bondholder losses to 70%. from 50%. The central banks of EU countries hold $12 billion of Greek bonds. The ECB says this will not apply to these bonds. Negotiations are also underway between the EU and Greece for a 20% reduction in Greece's minimum wage and an additional 3 billion euros in government spending cuts, and pension cuts for retirees. The EU is asking for a written committment from the Greek government and from Antonio Samaras of the New Democracy party to the austerity program, as the measures are highly unpopular in Greece and are leading to continued street protests in Athens. ...
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U.S. Considers New Push on Bank Pay

8 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 12.19.2010 Original article ›
Aaron Lucchetti, Aaron, Lucchetti, Sara Schaefer Muñoz, Sara, Schaefer, Muñoz
LyrArc Article Gist
The maximum that can be paid out to executives in upfront cash for bonuses is 20% under the rules set by the European Union starting in 2011. And the amount of time that at least 40% of an EU banker's bonus must be deferred is 3-5 years. The US has not set up similiar rules restricting up front cash bonuses to prevent executives from taking excessive risks. During the 2008 financial many banking executives collected huge bonuses by taking excessive risks, even though the banks suffered huge losses after the departure of the executives. Now the SEC, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies in the US are reviewing the rules. Projected pace of Wall Street profits in 2010 are 28.7 billion for 2010, and the fear is for a repeat of the situation in 2008 as the US has no rules similiar to the EU. Britain's Financial Services Authority passed similar restrictions recently. The Dodd-Frank legislation for financial reforms requires the pay related regulations to be set by April 2011. That legislation specifically prohibits any bonus plan that "encourages inappropriate risks" at financial firms with more than $1 billion in assets. The view of the European Union's financial services commissioner, Michael Barnier, is that not enough has ben done in this area in the US, and doing nothing is to ignore the right lessons from the financial crisis....
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The American economy: Proceed with caution

6 Groups   
Economist - 01.01.2011 Original article ›
Economist.Com
LyrArc Article Gist
What changed asks the Economist between the summer when the stimulus was petering out and analysts sniffed deflation for 2011, and today with the euphoria for stock markets and estimates of 4% growth for 2011? Much of the reason for the change is a second round of quantitiative easing for $600 billon announced by the Fed- buying bonds with newly created money to push down rates and stimulate lending. And the December 2010 compromise for across the board extension of the Bush tax cuts. But even though this improves the prospects for 2011, the situation after that is still in the medium term as treacherous as ever, even more so, says the Economist. High interest rates and shaky business confidence can be fixed with strong stimulus, but households and banks have to work off the excessive debt taken on in the last decade. And this deveraging has years to go. So expect more difficult patches where investor euphoria quickly turns to gloom. One other aspect of the current situation is worrisome. The bipartisan deal for the Bush tax cuts was not real bipartisanship, as each side agreed to the others huge giveaways. Real bipartisanship must mean more painful decisions in spending and taxes. The US government's failure to sort out its finances will continue to cast a shadow over the future of the economy....
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Original article 4 minutes, gist 1 minute

New estimates put Pakistan's nuclear arsenal at more than 100

4 Groups   
Washington Post - 01.31.2011 Original article ›
Karen Deyoung, Karen, Deyoung
LyrArc Article Gist
Pakistan has moved ahead in developing its nuclear arsenal. The production of uranium and plutonium for bombs and developing new weapons to deliver them has actually been accelerated during the recent period of unrest in Pakistan. Four years ago Pakistan had an estimated 30 to 60 weapons. Hans Kristensen, is the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists and author of the annual global nuclear weapons inventory published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Kristensen says it is not unreasonable to say that Pakistan has produced at least 100 weapons. Simon Gregory, Director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Britain's University of Bradford, puts the number at between 100 and 110. India is estimated to have 60 to 100 nuclear weapons. A 2008 agreement that lets India purchase nuclear fuel for civilian purposes was a motivation for accelerating nuclear weapons development in Pakistan. In December 2008, Peter Lavoie, the US intelligence officer for South Asia, told NATO officials that despite impending economic catastrophe, Pakistan is producing nuclear weapons at a faster rate than any other country in the world," according to classified State Department cables released late last year by the Intenet site WikiLeaks. This leak angered the Pakistan army chief Gen. Kayani who said "the real aim of US war strategy is to denuclearize Pakistan."...
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