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How the Sony-Ericsson mobile joint venture turned out to be a big mistake for Sony
10/06/2011
The CEO of Ericsson says Ericsson's strengths are not in the areas Sony needs for developing smartphones to compete with Apple and Samsung. The joint venture was made at a time when Nokia dominated the mobile phone market. This changed with the smartphone a decade later. Critical to Samsung's success in smartphones was speedy decision making and company wide manufacturing capabilities. Sony-Ericsson's glaring weaknesses were in these two areas. Sony acquired Ericsson's stake and now faces the challenge of tackling entrenched competitors starting with its home market.
Linked Articles
Sony Stakes Recovery on New Smartphone
Wall Street Journal 03/01/2013
Sony Nears Deal to Buy Out Ericsson From Joint VentureWall Street Journal 10/06/2011
After the collapse of Circuity City, Best Buy finds its own retail model at risk from online sellers
09/14/2011
Best Buy faces strong competition in electronics sales from online sellers such as Amazon.com, and sees its position erode. A shift toaller size smaller stores with more personal attention as Best Buy questions the logic of bigbox stores.
Linked Articles
Best Buy Swings to Loss on Heavy Charges; to Close 50 Stores
Wall Street Journal 03/29/2012
Best Buy Gets SqueezedWall Street Journal 09/14/2011
John Bogle of Vanguard Funds and the creation of index funds as a way to build a diversified investor portfolio - a seminal achievement
09/03/2011
An entire generation of Americans benefitted from the low cost index fund as away to build a diversified and less risky investment portfolio. Bogle created the first index fund tracking the S&P 500 in 1976, following the advice and encouragement of is economics professor at Princeton, Paul Samuelson.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/03/2011
John Bogle, Vanguard's Founder, Is Too Worried to RestNew York Times 08/11/2012
Alan Meltzer and Thomas Hoenig's criticism of Federal Reserve Bank chairman Bernake's failure to look at long term consequences of low rates
08/11/2011
Hoenig points to the Fed's lowered rates in 2003 after the burst of the dot com bubble and higher unemployment of 6.5% in 2003 and Meltzer which led to the mortgage meltdown of 2008. Meltzer points to QE II's $600 billion monetary easing in 2010 which failed to revive the economy or reduce unemployment in 2011. They emphasize the Fed's lack of attention to the long term consequences of their actions. Both question the role of the Fed in creating jobs and see the role of the Fed as a neutral player, as deeper structural changes such as ashift to export driven economy, lower consumption take time and are only delayed by a continuation of old policies.
Linked Articles
Kansas City Fed President Defies Conventional Wisdom
New York Times 08/13/2011
The Folly of Economic Short-TermismWall Street Journal 08/11/2011
EADS Airbus and manufacturing of the Airbus 320 and Neo at a new plant in Alabama
07/21/2011
Manufacturing in the U.S. will reduce the impact of currency fluctuations as planes are priced in U.S. dollars. It also improves the public perception of Airbus in the U.S. in its effort to secure orders from airlines in the U.S.
Linked Articles
Airbus's New Push: Made in the U.S.A.
Wall Street Journal 07/02/2012
AMR Adds Airbus as SupplierWall Street Journal 07/21/2011
Failure to stabilize the euro with the agreements reached by eurozone leaders including the July 2011 deal
07/13/2011
Experts suggest an approach that tackles the whole problem compared to the fragmented approach used so far based on dealing wiht the individual countries one at a time.The lack of agreement on shared sacrifice for bondholders, banks and eurozone governments.
Linked Articles
Greece Gets New Bailout as U.S. Nears Brink
Wall Street Journal 07/22/2011
How to Save the EuroWall Street Journal 07/13/2011
Greece, Europe and the Austerity Measures- "The French Deception" and "The Tragic Sideshow" (2)
06/30/2011
Two WSJ editorials tell the story for what it is in 2010-2012.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/22/2012
The French DeceptionWall Street Journal 06/30/2011
The yuan and China's competitiveness in international trade in 2012-2013
06/21/2011
Even with a gradual appreciation of the yuan China continues to maintain its competitive position in international trade with productivity gains offfsetting the small appreciation and a smaller increase in prices of Chinese products. This could mean the U.S. and Eurozone countries will continue to run trade deficits with China in 2012-2013.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 04/16/2012
No Appreciation for the Rising YuanWall Street Journal 06/21/2011
Impact of a slowdown in China and a global slowdown on different countries
06/08/2011
A slowdown in China will affect commodity exporting countries such as Australia, Brazil and Chile, and exporters of machinery such as Germany and Japan. A global economic slowdown will make it harder for troubled eurozone countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain to reduce their debt burden. It will affect U.S. exports which are increasing in 2011, and are the one bright spot for a economic recovery.
Linked Articles
What a China Slowdown Means for the World
Wall Street Journal 06/09/2011
Euro-Zone Cuts Face World of PainWall Street Journal 06/08/2011
The health of the U.S. economy June 2011- banks still have large holdings of risky assets
06/04/2011
From the second quarter of 2009, to the first quarter of 2011, Cit Holdings had troubled assets come down from $582 billion to $337 billion. Like other large banks in its group Citi still has large amounts of troubled assets.
Linked Articles
AXA Arm to Buy Holdings From Citi
Wall Street Journal 06/08/2011
Banks May Need More CapitalWall Street Journal 06/04/2011
The risks to the Chinese economy of accumulated problems in the financial system
05/25/2011
A Wall Street Journal editorial that draws attention to the opaqueness of the financial system and its accummulated problems. It raises questions about how this will come out. Other expert observers have raised these questions.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/25/2011
Beijing's Financial Day of Reckoning Is NearWall Street Journal 06/21/2011
Brazil's uneven economic development with growth focussed on export based mining and agriculture
05/21/2011
As the commodities boom fades Brazil's growth slows to 1% in 2012 after the rapid growth in the years under president Lula. Stiglitz and Sen pointed to this kind of uneven development with the neglect of education, healthcare and other public services. This is true also of economic development in China focussed on export industries, with the added cost of environmental degradation. Street protests in June 2013 in many Brazilian cities from Porto Alegre and Curitiba to Rio and Sao Paulo showed popular discontnet with the situation under president Rouseff.
Linked Articles
Brazil's north-east: Catching up in a hurry
Economist 05/21/2011
Anger Spills Onto Brazil's StreetsWall Street Journal 06/18/2013
Alex Weber and his successor Jens Weidmann at the Bundesbank
05/03/2011
Weber was Weidmann's tutor at the University of Bonn economics department.
Linked Articles
Ex-German Central Banker's Unconventional Career Path
Wall Street Journal 06/27/2011
Germany's Bundesbank Gets a New Inflation-FighterWall Street Journal 05/03/2011
Germany's Pirate party of digital activists and anti-establishment sentiment
09/19/2011
The Pirate party won about 9% of the vote in the Berlin election. It is likely to win a similiar share of the vote in other state elections.
Linked Articles
'Pirates' Deal a Blow to Germany's Political Status Quo
Wall Street Journal 04/10/2012
Berlin Poll Hits Merkel CoalitionWall Street Journal 09/19/2011
America's middle class falling behind with typical household income at the same level after 25 years
09/14/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/14/2011
Americaâs Sinking Middle ClassNew York Times 09/18/2013
Missteps by H-P's Board and the risk-averse nature of the Board at Microsoft- two tech companies and the transition to new information technologies
08/28/2011
Linked Articles
Microsoft Board Shows Little Taste for Bold Choice in CEO
Wall Street Journal 09/02/2013
H-P's One-Year PlanWall Street Journal 08/28/2011
Short termism of an interventionist U.S. Federal Reserve and the advantages of a rule based monetary policy at the Fed
08/11/2011
John Taylor and Allan Meltzer point to the risks of short termism and discretionary policies at the Fed. Taylor says a single mandate for inflation should replace the current dual mandate for both inflation and unemployment so that monetary policy can be rule based avoiding the boom and bust periods hitting the U.S. economy in the last decade, when interest rates were set too low using discretionary policy.
Linked Articles
The Dangers of an Interventionist Fed
Wall Street Journal 03/29/2012
The Folly of Economic Short-TermismWall Street Journal 08/11/2011
The politicizing of the 2011 budget process- Obama, Cantor and McConnell (1)
07/14/2011
The negotiations taking place for the U.S. budget behind closed doors is against the spirit of the Budget Act of 1974, says a former CBO assistant general counsel and Stanford professor of constitutional law. The law requires transparency and accountability and sets forth a process for public scrutiny of the budget in Congressional hearings. This has not happened and in its place both political parties are seeing this as a start to the 2012 presidential election, with the public sorely left out of the process.
Linked Articles
Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
Wall Street Journal 07/14/2011
Top Democrats laud GOP debt-ceiling move - The Washington PostWashington Post 07/14/2011
Risks in emerging markets in 2012-2013- Turkey (3)
07/01/2011
Growth in Turkey is fueled by surging credit growth and capital inflows. At the same time manufacturing competitiveness is falling.
Linked Articles
Turkey's Economy Surged 11% in Quarter
Wall Street Journal 07/01/2011
Turkish Trade Deficit WidensWall Street Journal 07/30/2011
Increasing domestic consumption in Saudi Arabia will diminish reserve supplies and put pressure on oil prices in 2012-2013
06/23/2011
Saudi domestic consumption increasing at 10% a year will diminsh the Saudi role as a reserve supplier. Estimates are for zero reserve supplies by 2020 and oil imports by 2038, so large is the effect of growing use of oil at home. The Arab Spring means subsidies and social spending will increase, supporting continuing use of oil at current levels for a rapidly growing population.
Linked Articles
The End of the Saudi Oil Reserve Margin
Wall Street Journal 04/03/2012
Rising Saudi Thirst for Oil Drives Plans to Go NuclearWall Street Journal 06/23/2011
Lawrence Lindsey says the Fed has got itself boxed in with little choice but to keep interest rates low
06/15/2011
Federal Flow of Funds Report for 2011 by the U.S. Federal Reserve shows 61% of net Treasury issuance was purchased by the Fed. Lindsey points out that the Fed has itself boxed in to keep rates low for years because for the U.S. government to borrow at more normal rates of 5.7% rather than the 2.5% at which it borrows today, would mean an addition $800 billion in interest costs by 2021.
Linked Articles
Demand for U.S. Debt Is Not Limitless
Wall Street Journal 03/28/2012
Notable & QuotableWall Street Journal 06/15/2011
The lack of any meaningful help to prevent foreclosures for homeowners who are unemployed.
06/04/2011
The adverse effects on housing, on banks holding second mortgages, and on the economic recovery in the U.S., of the lack of a plan and little effort by the Obama administration to help the unemployed facing foreclosure. Most of the programs to prevent foreclosure were designed at the time of the bailouts for subprime lending situations. Prof. Davis at the University of Wisconsin call it outrageous that less than $2 billion of the $45 billion allocated to help homeowners at the time of the bailouts had been spent by Treaury Department as of May 2011.
Linked Articles
Unemployment Strains Foreclosure Aid
New York Times 06/04/2011
Second-Mortgage MiseryWall Street Journal 06/07/2011
The health of China's economy June 2011- the opaqueness of the financial system and the risk of China not making a soft landing
05/25/2011
Asset price bubbles, loose monetary policy and inflation in China. Slowing growth and risks of a hard landing. The opaqueness of the financial system with the state, banking, industrial and real estate sectors intertwined making it difficult to get a true measure of risks building up.
Linked Articles
The Great Property Bubble of China May Be Popping
Wall Street Journal 06/09/2011
China's Growth RisksWall Street Journal 05/25/2011
Problems with China's statistics that understate the extent of the bubble in housing and other sectors
05/24/2011
The lack of reliable statistics in China and the tendency to understate the extent of the bubble effects in the economy will make it harder to to achieve a soft landing for the economy when the time comes.
Linked Articles
For Global Steel Industry, China Poses Guessing Game
Wall Street Journal 05/24/2011
The Great Property Bubble of China May Be PoppingWall Street Journal 06/09/2011
Basic misunderstanding- (2) one point in the Israel-U.S. relationship on May 20, 2011, with president Obama's call for a return to pre-1967 borders
05/20/2011
When Ambassador Oren says Obama abandoned Israel he refers to moments such as the one on May 20, 2011, when Obama called for Israel to return to pre-1067 borders. At its shortest point the distance to Tel Aviv from the West Bank then was 9 miles, leading Israel says to "repeated wars," and not really a border for peace.
Linked Articles
In meeting with Obama, Netanyahu rules out Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/20/2011
The 1967 Line of FireWall Street Journal 05/21/2011
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