LyrArc Article Gist
Investors compare Goldman Sachs which has retained its trading commodities business with Morgan Stanley which has shifted focus to wealth management and other less risky business. Morgan Stanley's share price has increased more than Goldman Sachs since the 2008 financial crisis, showing the different approaches taken by financial institutions that were battered during the financial crisis of 2008. Morgan Stanley had a change in management after the crisis, Goldman is still being run by CEO Blankfein, showing a key difference between the two banks. Morgan Stanley was battered during the crisis as its share price plunged on rumors in a way and extent that Goldman was not. Goldman was relatively better managed and avoided the frequent egregious errors made by other banks such as Deutsche Bank, UBS, Citigroup, taking fewer risks, leading upto the financial crisis of 2008, though it faced increased public scrutiny in the Abacus case for mortgage securities. It also helped with regulators that Goldman has a tradition of public service with executives working in government- Treasury Secretary Rubin worked in fixed income trading at Goldman, Treasury Secretary Paulson was former CEO at Goldman with strong China connections, and Gary Gensler at the CFTC. Now Goldman gets a larger share of its revenue from trading than competitors and was affected by the sharp commodities price swings in the 4th quarter of 2014. Revenue from fixed income, currencies and commodities trading declined by 29% in 2014 to $1.22 billion. Since the low reached in share price during the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman is up 267%, Morgan Stanley is up 291%. Even as tighter regulation is squeezing returns and banks are required to set aside more capital as buffer for riskier assets, Goldman continues to maintain its focus on commmodities business and trading. Mr. Blankfein and another senior executive Cohen, both got their start in commodities trading which generated about 8.2% of revenues in 2006 when Blankfein became the new CEO. Blankfein and president Gary Cohn worked at J.Aron & Co., a coffee importer, when it was acquired in 1981 and the location moved to Goldman's former headquarters in New York. The commodities business took off with China's surge in demand for metals and other commodities. Goldman's traders buy and sell aluminium, crude oil, natural gas, soyabeans, sugar, and derivatives. Goldman's revenue of $34.53 billion in 2014 has declined from $45.17 billion in 2009, and Goldman has reduced its balance sheet by a quarter. Net income increased in 2014 by 5% to $8.1 billion. But other than these changes Goldman unlike Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Barclays, has not let its commodities trading business shrink. Goldman's commodities division is headed by Gregory Agran and co-chief Guy Saidenberg in London. Goldman says CEO Blankfein, "remains unabashedly an investment bank," and is waiting for economic conditions to improve....

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT report looks at age 65+ years and the death toll from coronavirus. Recently the deaths among people over 65 and older in US have accelerated. The last 100,000 deaths since September happened over a 11 week period, and is similar to surge last winter. About 87% of people over 65 are vaccinated in the US, yet the deaths among unvaccinated and the breakthrough cases are still happening. Overall about 75% of the 800,000 deaths in the US from the coronavirus have happened for age 65 and over, almost one in a hundred.

LyrArc Article Gist
In extended diplomacy Carney visits Beijing, China and says middle powers are seeking ways to interact and trade in a world of big power rivalry. His visit is followed by visits by UK's Starmer and Germany's Merz, and preceded by Macron. At the same time Merz visits Ahmedabad for a kite festival and signs a new trade agreement with India, followed by Leyen and Costa of the EU who sign a EU-India trade agreement for 27 countries of the European Union. All this suggests carefully planned effort in Europe to create new channels of trade and reorient existing trade relationships that will be more resilient with the US shifting to focus on Monroe Doctrine idea of the Western hemisphere as its region of influence and security. This report shows pictures of Starmer and Xi meeting at the Plough Pub in UK in 2015 and reflects on how this has changed 11 years later with China now  a dominant power with the world's 3rd largest economy and a third of world's manufacturing and logistics. How does this change the relationship with China in 2026 for UK and Canada, and the EU? At the same time Germany-India and EU-India relationship creates a 2 billion people market with capital, technology and labor potential to create the largest potential driven economic group in the world, combining EU's 20 trillion to India's $4 trillion economy and mutually complementing, which has potential to rival the US at $30 trillion by 2030 as India grows rapidly in the new EU/Germany/India market and the EU gets a new boost with the complementarity of the two regions by 2035. This suggests that something new is happening and Germany after a lot of soul searching have hit on something we should see blossom by 2030 in the way China has grown since that picture with Cameron of Xi at the Plough Pub in UK. A problem China faces as it continues to push exports is that EU/ India and US will take in less exports and there is only so much it can put in Latin American and African market, UK/Canada market leading to industries with massive oversupply. Major economic redirection may result from the Merz/Leyen/Costa visit and firming up trade agreements with India if the EU, Germany and India have the determination to seize this opportunity in the 21st Century. As Leyen said it has the potential to create a stable world with values of the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and Mahajima Nikaya of the Buddha supporting the industrial states that emerged from the Industrial Revolutions. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Interview with Levinson of Genentech and answers to a wide range of questions about ther drug discovery process at Genentech, the cost of Avastin to treat cancer, the long years taken to develop the drug, the development and pricing of Lucentis for macular degeneration from the basic process of blocking the VEGF protein that helps the macular degeneration develop. The reasons for the pricing of Avastin- $55,000 for one year. And of Lucentis $2000 for one shot and the possible equivalence of Avastin and Lucentis so that doctors can take a small fractional dose of Avastin and use it in a tiny opthalmic syringe for cost of $50. The research budget of $1.86 billion. And the philosophy of Levinson about attracting the best scientists to Genentech by giving them opportunities as he puts it for "doing great science." And his emphasis on making Genentech a great place to work. Genentech was on Fortune's top twenty list 4 years in a row and No 1 in 2007 and No 2 in 2008 behind Google. Can Roche keep this up without Levinson and his team and the culture they have fostered, and the way they have created a great place to work ? ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Poor administration and failure in public services, turning over public services to private operators as the system nears collapse is the situation presented here of Johannesburg in 2025. It is hosting the G-20 Summit this year in South Africa. It is also the major commercial capital of South Africa. There is much that could be learned from good administration from other countries in Asia.

LyrArc Article Gist
What has to give in government oversight and reshaping the debt and costs at General Motors? The auto workers and retirees inspite of all the givebacks still pay only 5% of theirhealthcare costs vs an average of 30% for the rest of Americans with healthcare coverage. With a sharing that reflects the national average GM wouldn't have to shoulder the size of the health care obligations for union workers and retirees of the sum of $47 billion. And the debt holders of GM debt, the bondholders would take a cut of something approaching Senator Corker's proposal to trade debt for equity at a 70% discount. That would reduce the GM debt from $63 billion to less than half that.

LyrArc Article Gist
The "negative Tier 1 capital" at Deutsche Bank's U.S. bank holding company Taunus Corp. of negative 7.58% cited by FDIC chairman Sheila Bair. Parent Deutsche Bank has total equity lower than U.S. banks Citicorp, Chase and Bank of America, with total equity equivalent to 4.4% of assets using a U.S. style approach says Eavis, making the Bair criticism relevant and timely in 2010.

LyrArc Article Gist
Buick and Lexus tied in first place with 145 problems per 100 vehicles, in a Powers study that looks at 3 years old vehicles for number of problems reported by 53,000 original owners. The Buick vehicles though do not represent the current Buick line as the Buicks looked at in the study are the Regal, the Century, and the Park Avenue, all phased out for new design and model names. The current line should reflect even better results on one hand because of continued improvement and even better warranties to support the cars. Is Buick going up against the Lexus brand though because Lexus would definitely be very upscale. How does the new Korean makes stack up against everybody else? Earlier reports based on the first 90 days or Initial Quality Survey by Powers showed Hyundai doing much better in 2004. With the same 2004 models tracked over 3 years Hyundai slipped quite a bit showing 228 problems per 100 vehicles, worse than the industry average of 216. But since 2004 the picture is changing because Hyundai is making significant improvements and setting high long term goals for quality, something that suggests that just as the Japanese moved ahead in 2007, the Koreans could move ahead if they sustain this pace for the long run....

LyrArc Article Gist
Medtronic has gained about two thirds of the market share lost by Boston Scientific during its withdrawal of products from the market.