LyrArc Article Gist
Khedery describes the complete collapse in Sunni- Shiite relations under the Maliki regime and the Iranian influence in Iraqi politics in stark terms. It will take a near miracle, tolerance for religious faiths and opinion, and an exceptional leader, to turn things around and put the decades of misrule of Hussein and Maliki behind. Without that there can be no Iraq. Khedery goes into the misrule in a manner that American political and military leaders only talk about in a sparing manner so as not to make the entire Middle East policy look disastrous.

LyrArc Article Gist
Hoover Institution scholar Fouad Ajami describes in this essay how a more active policy by the Obama administration could have prevented the chaotic situation in the Middle East, the sectarian conflict, the breakup of Syria and Iraq, the increase in terrorism eventually affecting France and the U.S., and the refugee crisis in Europe. This active policy he says would have included- keeping some presence in Iraq, and taking action to prevent the spread of the conflict by restraining regional and foreign powers and terrorism.

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT editorial on slowing growth in India is critical of the performance of prime minister Manmohan Singh's government.

LyrArc Article Gist
Bradley and Nabhan of the WSJ report from Quara Tepe in Iraq and the weak Iraqi military unable to control parts of the country from attacks by better armed and trained ISIS militants, some from the old Iraqi army before the U.S. invasion and others from the war in Syria. The failure of the Maliki government to bring together Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, as a new election apporaches and Maliki is likely to be elected for a third term. A divided parliament and the lack of U.S. presence after the withdrawal in 2011 at Malik's insistence. The U.S. has refrained from supplying the Iraqi military for fear of aggravating ethnic tensions, with the Sunnis saying Maliki is practicing ethnic cleansing under the guise of fighting terrorism. Under Maliki Iraqi airspace has been used to supply the Assad regime from Iran, according to some reports, making the U.S. wary of supplying the Iraqi military as it has little influence left.

LyrArc Article Gist
Greg Ip of the WSJ points to the economic changes in China's economy and the threat of deflation in 2016 with the large debt and slowing economy. For the last decade China was seen as a currency manipulator as it kept the value of its currency lower to increase imports. With the large changes in China's economic situation in 2015-2016 China may face a situation similiar to Japan with deflationary trends. China faces political pressures in 2016 with the U.S. presidential election in 2016 to not intervene with the currency. The goal of making the yuan a global currency adds to these pressures. Other factors are the need to service debt in dollars of Chinese property companies.

LyrArc Article Gist
The 2010 census reveals significant changes in the population mix in the U.S. The number of Hispanic people increased significantly, especially so in the under 18 age group. The Hispanic population went up by 43%, increasing to 50.5 million in 2010, compared to 35.3 million in 2000. Overall Hispanics make up 16% of the U.S. population of 308.7 million. One of the striking facts in the change is that children under age of 18 make up one third of the Hispanic population compared to one fifth for the white population. Texas by itself added 979,000 people under age 18, with 931,000 being Hispanic. 92% of the population growth since 2000-of 25.1 million- came from minorities of all kinds. And mixed race is another major category with nine million people. Asian American population also increased, especially in major cities such as San Francisco, San Jose and New York. Overall 63.7% of people identified as white, 16.3% as Hispanic, 12.2% as black, 4.7% as Asian, 0.7% as American Indian or Alaska natives. New York and Washington saw black populations decline. Detroit dropped out of the top ten cities replaced by San Jose. Chicago's population declined, New York's went up by 2% to 8.2 million people. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT editorial lists ways in which the NSA violated the law- the internal auditor's report showing NSA broke federal privacy laws, breaking into the communication links of Google, Apple and other data centers, James Clapper Jr., director of national intelligence testifying in March that the NSA was not collecing data on millions of Americans which was "a lie" says NYT, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court saying one of the practices violated the Constitution, and federal judge Leon's ruling saying the magnitude of phone records collection violated the U.S. Constitution calling it Orwellian. It calls on the Obama administration to end the vilification of Snowden and provide Snowden with incentive to return to the U.S.

LyrArc Article Gist
The educational system in Italy suffers from the same problems as the economy- a strong tendency to exclude young people who can bring new energy and new skills to the classroom or the workplace. New teachers are made temporary working at lower salaries with only 1 year contracts. The average age for teachers is 50. A teaching exam for new positions would normally be held every 3 years. The Education Ministry simply postponed this and the exam held in 2012 is the first since 1999. Upto now hiring freezes and budget cuts were common. The exam held in 2012 attracted 321,000 applicants for 11,500 job openings. Young people in other professions such as law who were stuck in temporary work also applied. This also reflects a high unemployment rate of 14% for people ages 24-35.

LyrArc Article Gist
William Dudley who spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs and was its Chief Economist, before his position as executive vice president of the Fed's markets group, will now head the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

LyrArc Article Gist
Gen. Keane and Pletka say action by the U.S. is needed in 2013 to render ineffective the airdefense system and runways used by warplanes of the Assad regime. They emphasize that the U.S. has the technology and capacity to do this even with the Russian systems added in Syria. The lack of a U.S. response in the face of the Assad regime's attacks on civilian populations and use of chemical weapons, the support to the U.S. from the Arab world and Turkey, and the huge refugee problems in Jordan and Turkey, say Keane and Pletka, will lead to creating a worse situation than the relatively small risks of destroying the runways for Assad's warplanes and the airdefense system.

LyrArc Article Gist
The faltering approach on Syria of the Obama administration and the events that lead to the decision on June 13, 2013, to provide arms to the opposition forces.

LyrArc Article Gist
The effort by Prince Bandar, a senior advisor to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, to send arms to Syrian rebels through a command center in Jordan, after differences with Turkey and Qatar on how to arm rebels. WSJ reporters Entous, Malas and Coker provide a detailed account of the Saudi effort under Prince Bandar. The Saudis are determined to bring down the Assad regime especially now that chemical weapons are involved.

LyrArc Article Gist
Gao points to the huge gap between the opportunities available for urban students compared to that of the sixty million rural students, who are "left behind" by their parents and cared for by grandparents. The rural students have much fewer opportunities and fewer resources for learning.

LyrArc Article Gist
Millenials are moving away from political parties to look at individual candidates in 2014. Attitudes are changing moving away from gender politics. A Pew Research Center survey of March 2014 shows 50% of millenials consider themselves political independents. And 31% believe there is not much difference between Democrats and Republicans.

LyrArc Article Gist
To get an idea of the scale of paralysis in the Congress party administration of Manmohan Singh in India in 2011-2014 consider this- more than $100 billion in critical infrastructure projects were held up by slow growth and red tape, according to estimates of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy. The Congress party was too preoccupied with fighting charges of corruption adding to the lack of leadership from Singh and Gandhi, and focussed on programs of subsidies for voters to prepare for the 2014 elections. In the last 12 months alone ending in March 2014, manufacturing projects of about $54 billion were shelved, according to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy. The climate of uncertainty led to Indian companies investing overseas, or simply holding back instead of investing in the Indian economy. Industrial production declined for the first time since the 1990's during the 12 months ending in March 2014. It is in this vaccum in leadership since 2012, and a seriously troubled economy, that the 2014 parliamentary elections were held. Impatient young voters- with about 100 million new young voters added to voting lists- gave Modi and the BJP party an absolute majority and mandate for coming up with new solutions to India's problems in jobs and infrastructure....

LyrArc Article Gist
The new J.D. Powers Quality Survey put out in Feb 2013 showed the Lexus, Toyota, Mercedes, Buick, Chevrolet, Lincoln and Dodge Ram brands performing at the top level in number of problems reported by owners of 3 year old vehicles. Land Rover, Jeep and VW brands did poorly. Most of the Chrysler Dodge cars performed poorly. The redesign of vehicles initiated by Fiat Chrysler CEO Marchionne does not show up in this study. The redesigned Jeep and other vehicles will show in next years study. The study also showed buyers of economy vehicles were likely to switch easily when buying another car. New models are showing fewer problems and are more dependable compared to previous years, with the average number of problems declining from 170 per 100 vehicles in 2009, to 132 in 2011, and 126 in 2012.

LyrArc Article Gist
Athenahealth, a provider of software for physicians, is intervewed by Jon Kamp about the efforts to promote digitization in physician's offices.

LyrArc Article Gist
Government GDP figures show the GDP shrank by 1.8% in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, the first such contraction in the economy since 2009. Household consumption was down 3.2%. The sharp decline in the value of the lira by 20% in 2016 makes imports costlier, in an economy dependent on consumption spending and tourism for higher GDP growth. Political uncertainty with instability in Turkey following a crackdown on opposition and media also leads to decline in foreign investment and investment by domestic firms.