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Pernambuco and other states in Brazil's northeastern region- lack of investment in public health, education and transportation services infrastructure
05/21/2011
During the boom years much of the investment, about three fourths of the growth rate of over 4%, came from infrastructure investments that supported exports of soyabeans, iron ore and other commodities to China. Under the Worker's party socialist governments that get much of their support from the northeast, this disguised the low investments in public infrastructure services for drinking water, health sanitation, public schools and transportation services. This is a problem in developing countries of Latin America, South Asia, and Africa, with some regions lagging behind in essential infrastructure services, even with high growth rates.
Linked Articles
The Brazilian Doctors Who Sounded the Alarm on Zika and Microcephaly
Wall Street Journal 01/30/2016
Brazil's north-east: Catching up in a hurryEconomist 05/21/2011
Pfizer and Merck organize R&D using international innovation hubs- 2011-2015
05/02/2011
Efforts to tap into the latest external science at universities and research centers outside company labs is leading pharmaceutical companies to try a different approach to R&D. Pfizer closed its R&D facility in Sandwich, England and opened one in Cambridge. It opened hubs in Boston, La Jolla. Merck has followed this approach with a decision to setup innovaton hubs in Boston, San Francisco, London and Shanghai.
Linked Articles
Merck Plans Radical Overhaul of Drug R&D Unit
Wall Street Journal 12/28/2013
Life Beyond Lipitor for Pfizer ChiefWall Street Journal 05/02/2011
Hope and reality in Nigeria (3)- President Jonathan Goodluck 2011-2015, and President Muhammadu Buhari 2015-2019
02/24/2011
Too many young people in Africa are seeing their hopes dashed, and their dreams vanish. After 4 years of the Jonathan administration, young people in Kano and other cities place their hopes on Muhammadu Buhari. The demographic dividend is in danger of being wasted in Africa's most populous country.
Linked Articles
Nigerian Central Bank Governor Ousted
Wall Street Journal 02/21/2014
Nigeria Details Oil Windfall SpendingWall Street Journal 02/24/2011
Saudi expert Karen Elliott House's thirty years of experience covering the Middle East tell us that the U.S. policy is sorely out of touch in the Middle East
02/15/2011
Elliott House is a former publisher of the Wall Street Journal and a Pulitzer prize winner for covering the Middle East. She sees the Saudi Arabian princes sorely out of touch with the ordinary Saudis and the young people and U.S. policy at an impasse. Rice says the policy of supporting autocracy only brings a false kind of stability. She sees Egypt, Tunisia and the rest of the Arab world and thinks it did not have to be this way.
Linked Articles
Condoleezza Rice - The future of a democratic Egypt
Washington Post 02/16/2011
From Tunis to Cairo to Riyadh?Wall Street Journal 02/15/2011
Sobhi Saleh, member of parliament from Alexandria, Egypt, and Egypt's path to democratic processes.
02/04/2011
Sobhi Saleh represented Alexandria in parliament from 2005 to 2010, for the Muslim Brotherhood. Nicholas Kulish provides an heart rending account of how Saleh makes his way out of a prison set on fire after his arrest during the Egyptian protests. He was selected by the Egyptian military as a member of the eight member panel asked to rewrite key articles of the constitution.
Linked Articles
Egypt's Military Names Constitutional Panel
Wall Street Journal 02/15/2011
Why a Member of the Muslim Brotherhood Was Late to the RevolutionNew York Times 02/04/2011
Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton- Early warnings and the failure of the Obama administration to respond in Egypt
02/01/2011
Condy Rice and Madeleine Albright raised red flags about the situation in Egypt- Rice in 2005, and Albright as part of the Egypt Working Group in 2010 when Mubarak conducted another fradulent election. Hillary Clinton and president Obama acted as if taken by surprise and were hesitant in their response.
Linked Articles
U.S. Had Year of Warnings Over Egypt
Wall Street Journal 02/16/2011
Michael Gerson - Arabs' urge for self-government shouldn't be a surpriseWashington Post 02/01/2011
Closer Japan-U.S. ties in 2012-2015
01/10/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/23/2012
Fred Hiatt - Patching up our alliance with JapanWashington Post 01/10/2011
The 61 million children of migrant workers left behind in China- 75% visited only once a year and 70% under the age of 11
08/27/2010
The price of rapid industrialization in China being paid by children of migrant workers and their parents- about 200 million people or close to 20% of the population. Government policy requires migrant workers leaving rural areas to work in factories to leave behind their children.
Linked Articles
Left-Behind Children of China's Migrant Workers Bear Grown-Up Burdens
Wall Street Journal 01/17/2014
Lixin Fan, Trailing Chinese Migrant WorkersNew York Times 08/27/2010
David Stockman says Republicans have given up their role in doing financially responsible budgeting for decades.
07/11/2010
The budget deficits, Reagan's Budget director says, developed to this point after decades of irresponsivble budget behaviour that has lasted gone on for four decades. He says the Greece style deficit of 120% of GDP for the USA by 2015 calls for austerity.
Linked Articles
Four Deformations of the Apocalypse
New York Times 07/31/2010
Crisis Awaits Worldâs Banks as Trillions Come DueNew York Times 07/11/2010
The paradox of low U.S. productivity growth holding back wages in 2015-2016 (2)- Apple, Google, Facebook and low productivity improvement since 2005
07/01/2010
Linked Articles
Andy Grove: How America Can Create Jobs
BusinessWeek 07/01/2010
The Mystery of Declining Productivity GrowthWall Street Journal 05/15/2015
Apple products at manufacturing plants in China and at retail stores in the U.S.- low worker pay and lack of future prospects
05/29/2010
The high margins for Apple achieved through a combination of keeping costs low- even at the risk of providing poor wage and working conditions for the majority of employees employed in the retail stores in the U.S. and in supplier Foxconn plants in China- and by a grasp for innovation and technology. The paradox of a well deserved image for pioneering in technological innovation and the indifference to working conditions and prospects for employees who add value in manufacturing and customer interface. This model of growth is a recent development, put in place after 1997. In 1995-1997 Apple was nearing collapse under Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio, as documented by WSJ technology reporter Jim Carlton in his book- "Apple- The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders." Steve Jobs returned as CEO in 1997 and set the future course and this model in place emphasizing design, his ability to grasp technologies that would appeal to customers, and hired Tim Cook to set up the manufacturing which had high rate of defects and higher costs. The model was as full of paradoxes, of genius combined with mediocre behavioursas the man Steve Jobs. Tim Cook has responded to criticism in 2012 by having the Fair Labor association audit Foxconn plants in China. Foxconn increased wages in 2012, shifted plants to the interior of China, and increased use of robotics.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/29/2010
Apple Stores Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on PayNew York Times 06/23/2012
Hope and reality in Nigeria (2)- President Goodluck Jonathan 2011-2015, and President Muhammadu Buhari 2015-2019
02/20/2010
The hope of so many young Nigerians rest on Buhari getting things right and restoring confidence in government and the management of the economy after four years of the Jonathan adminsitration.
Linked Articles
Muhammadu Buhari Defeats Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria Election
Wall Street Journal 04/01/2015
An Accidental Leader Stirs Hopes in NigeriaNew York Times 02/20/2010
The growing middle class in Mexico and Brazil 2000-2015
01/03/2010
Linked Articles
Booming economy, government programs help Brazil expand its middle class
Washington Post 01/03/2010
Mexico’s middle class is becoming its majority - The Washington PostWashington Post 03/18/2012
Pfizer's focus on its core pharmaceutical business in 2011-2015
05/02/2011
Rockoff's interview with Pfizer CEO, Ian Read, in which Read describes his strategy of focussing on new drug development and locating closer to hubs with large universities and research centers such as La Jolla, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Cambridge, England. Pfizer sold its infant nutrition business to Nestle as part of this plan.
Linked Articles
Pfizer Profit Declines 19% After Loss of Lipitor Patent
New York Times 05/01/2012
Life Beyond Lipitor for Pfizer ChiefWall Street Journal 05/02/2011
The safety failures that could have been prevented with stronger oversight and control for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster
03/21/2011
The independent parliamentary panel in Japan concuded in its July 2012 Report that the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant was "a profoundly man-made event." Here in its investigations after the accident the Wall Street Journal finds some of the safety flaws that could have been corrected but were not due to the compete lack of effectiveness of the safety agency and its failure to do its job. As a result licenses for forty year old nuclear reactor designs and installation designs were simply renewed without requiring changes or shutting down these reactors. It is these older designs that were also improperly installed that failed.
Linked Articles
Japan Plant Had Troubled History
Wall Street Journal 03/21/2011
Design Flaw Fueled Nuclear DisasterWall Street Journal 07/01/2011
The Fall of an American Icon- HP, Lee Apotheker and the Autonomy Acquisition Inc.
02/18/2011
The Autonomy acquisition charge of $8.8 billion announced by CEO Meg Whitman on Nov. 20, 2012, come at a time of declining sales and margins in its printer and PC businesses. The costly charges on bad acquisitions by H-P is likely to hurt investment in R&D for years.
Linked Articles
Hewlett's Loss: A Folly Unfolds By the Numbers
New York Times 11/20/2012
Chief Reboots H-P After ScandalWall Street Journal 02/18/2011
Muni-Bond Default Estimates of $100 Billion
02/09/2011
Estimates on muni-bonds default range from the high side presented by Meredith Whitney to the more moderate estimate of $100 billion over several years by Roubini.
Linked Articles
Muni Default Estimate: $100 Billion
Wall Street Journal 03/02/2011
In Muni-Bond Ills, Danger and HopeWall Street Journal 02/09/2011
Michael Gerson was with Condoleeza Rice in a rare meeting in Cairo, Egypt, in June 2005, to support democratic voices.
02/01/2011
The meeting set up in a conference room in Cairo, Egypt, had 9 opposition figures, including Ayman Nour, a presidential candidate.
Linked Articles
Condoleezza Rice - The future of a democratic Egypt
Washington Post 02/16/2011
Michael Gerson - Arabs' urge for self-government shouldn't be a surpriseWashington Post 02/01/2011
The slow shift to healthy choices at grocery chains and restaurants in the U.S. even as the healthcare costs reach alarming proportions
01/20/2011
U.S. companies, workers, and the U.S. economy is squeezed between the growth in obesity related diabetes and other obesity related diseases and the growth in health care costs to treat these diseases. Yet no coordinated action plan exists to tackle the problem between companies, government, universities, public interest groups, and other groups. And the progress charted out by grocery chains, restaurants and other organizations in the food business to provide and encourage healthy choices is incredibly slow.
Linked Articles
Wal-Mart Plans to Make Its House Brand Healthier
New York Times 01/20/2011
Low-Cal Items Fuel Restaurant SalesWall Street Journal 02/07/2013
Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany- (1) in 2010 20 years after reunification of Germany, and Erfurt in 2015 as it copes with a wave of refugees in 2015
09/30/2010
Linked Articles
Empathy and Angst in a German City Transformed by Refugees
New York Times 09/11/2015
For Some Germans, Unity Is Still Work in ProgressNew York Times 09/30/2010
The shift to digital for newspapers in the U.S. with shrinking number of journalists to cover local and national news- 2010-2015
07/29/2010
Linked Articles
New Orleans Times-Picayune to limit printing to three days per week - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/25/2012
Mixed Ad Message From NewspapersWall Street Journal 07/29/2010
Greece's referendum and the 3 year bailout of July 12, 2015- military spending, shipowners taxes, and cuts to pensions
07/10/2010
Greece's left Syriza government almost pulled the country out of the eurozone over pension cuts, even as military spending in Greece remained at 2.4% of GNP compared to close 1.4% for the EU average. Greece did not propose further cuts to military spending to bring the Greece ratio closer to that of Germany and other countries in Europe, raising questions about prudent spending. Which is why Greece sometimes has aspects of the surreal to people not just in Germany and Holland, but other parts of Europe, and outsiders. Under the reform proposal and bailout of July 12, 2015 following the "no" referendum, Greece's parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the similiar cuts in pensions from an earlier EU proposal, with cuts of $300 million to the military spending by 2016. Greek shipowners will also pay taxes under the new bailout, negotiated by Greece with France's help when the referendum had damaged relations with the rest of the EU, particularly Germany with only 10% in polls willing to support any further concessions.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 07/11/2015
The Submarine Deals That Helped Sink GreeceWall Street Journal 07/10/2010
strikes and wage increases in Chinese factories and the effects on inflation..
05/29/2010
Inflation reached a high of 3.1% increase in May 2010 over the previous year according to government data. The wage increases are still to be reflected in eventual inflation. The need for stronger measures such as increasing interest rates and revaluing the currency.
Linked Articles
China Inflation Rises to a 19-Month High
New York Times 06/11/2010
Unrest May Signal New Phase in China EconomyNew York Times 05/29/2010
Greece and EU in 2015 - (5) What went wrong? What errors were made by Greece 2003-2009?
03/03/2010
Linked Articles
Europeâs Two Years of Denials Trapped Greece
New York Times 11/05/2011
Europe's Original SinWall Street Journal 03/03/2010
Shiller sees risks of a double dip recession from sudden events that further damage confidence.
01/31/2010
Shillers definition of adoubel dip recession is one in which unemployment stays stubbornly high for some years and a second recession occurs before a recovery is achieved from the first one. Statistical models and confidence indexes are poor at grasping and presenting this.
Linked Articles
Fear of a Double Dip Could Cause One
New York Times 05/14/2010
Stuck in Neutral? Reset the MoodNew York Times 01/31/2010
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