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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 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
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
India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India's efforts to control inflation in 2010-2011
05/04/2011
The RBI made a a series of rate increases to control inflation.
Linked Articles
India's Inflation Is a Lesson for Fast-Growing Economies
Wall Street Journal 09/12/2011
India Lifts Benchmark Rates as Prices ClimbWall Street Journal 05/04/2011
The Volcker Rule and the actions taken by the Independent Commission on Banking in Britain
04/07/2011
Britain has a much larger financial sector as aproportion of its economy than the U.S. For this reason the U.K.'s Independent Commission on banking takes a serious view of systemic risks- separating investment banking from deposit taking.
Linked Articles
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' Trading
Wall Street Journal 02/13/2012
British Bank Proposal Expected to Include Stiff RulesNew York Times 04/07/2011
The remarkable composition and growth of the largest immigrant filled city in the world- New York City
03/25/2011
With 47% of the employed population being immigrants, the presence of immigrants has shaped the city and contributed to its economic vitality. Without immigrants the population would be declining as happened in a prior decade, and economic vitality would be affected. Many of the immigrants are from Mexico, China, India and the Caribbean.
Linked Articles
Immigration Remakes and Sustains New York, Report Finds
New York Times 12/18/2013
Blacks Leave City as Asians Propel GrowthWall Street Journal 03/25/2011
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
Bill Gates and U.S. Fed chairman Bernanke call for investment in education
03/02/2011
The message to lawmakers at a time of spending cuts: don't shortchange education, because it is critical to America's future.
Linked Articles
Bill Gates Seeks Formula for Better Teachers
Wall Street Journal 03/22/2011
Bernanke to budget-cutting state and local governments: Don't shortchange educationWashington Post 03/02/2011
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
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
Egypt's economic crisis and falling behind the modern world- how it happened
02/03/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/03/2011
In Egypt’s bread, signs of economic weakness - The Washington PostWashington Post 02/11/2012
Egypt's economic development and falling behind the modern world- IMF guidance and the road back to growth and opportunity
02/03/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/03/2011
Egypt and IMF Reach Tentative Loan DealWall Street Journal 11/21/2012
Condoleeza Rice and Elliott Abrams question the whole policy of supporting autocracy to preserve a false kind of stability in Egypt and the Arab world
01/28/2011
This stability that comes at the expense of liberty and basic freedoms does not serve America well. This only helps give rise to malignant forces that grow when democratic voices are suppressed. This is especially true in Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world where a false stability has been created.
Linked Articles
Condoleezza Rice - The future of a democratic Egypt
Washington Post 02/16/2011
Egypt protests show George W. Bush was right about freedom in the Arab worldWashington Post 01/28/2011
BRICS countries call for change in IMF, World Bank quotas to better represent emerging market countries
05/31/2011
Linked Articles
Brics Wants World Bank, IMF Reforms
Wall Street Journal 03/30/2012
Lagarde, on Visit to Brazil, Vows Speedy IMF ReformsWall Street Journal 05/31/2011
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
Austerity measures and economic contraction in Portugal 2010-2013- the terms of the 2011 EU-IMF loan agreement with Portugal
05/05/2011
The forecasts of higher unemployment reaching 17% and economic contraction of 7% for 2011-2013 are widely diverging from the original estimates in 2011 by EU and IMF officials. This increases the urgency for reappraisal of the terms of the original agreement including borrowing rates, giving more time to achieve deficit targets, and other action to put Portugal back on the road to growth in 2014.
Linked Articles
Portugal to Seek New Bailout Terms
Wall Street Journal 03/04/2013
Government Sees Deep Recession Ahead for PortugalNew York Times 05/05/2011
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
Comparing approaches of Britain and U.S. to ring-fencing investment banking activities of banks from retail banking operations
04/07/2011
Linked Articles
British Bank Proposal Expected to Include Stiff Rules
New York Times 04/07/2011
British Commission Says Bank Reforms Don't Go Far EnoughNew York Times 12/21/2012
Apple's low tax rate of 9.4% on global profits
03/24/2011
Companies ranging from Apple and Google to GE pay low tax rates. The New York Times reports that corporate share of U.S. tax receipts dropped from 30% in the 1950's to 6.6% in 2009. This has a serious impact on states and local governments and the federal government as they cut essential services and education to balance their budgets or lower deficits.
Linked Articles
Apple's Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations
New York Times 04/28/2012
G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes AltogetherNew York Times 03/24/2011
The mismatch in skills that will make it harder to bring down the unemployment rate in the U.S. in 2012-2013
03/15/2011
Labor Department and other information points to a serious skills crisis in the U.S. that will make it harder to tackle unemployment.The lack of emphasis on jobs training by the Obama administration is also making the situation harder to tackle.
Linked Articles
On Jobs, No Time for a Celebratory Beveridge
Wall Street Journal 04/11/2012
Many Workers Seen Lacking Skills for New JobsWall Street Journal 03/15/2011
Bill Gates calls for targeted investment in education
02/28/2011
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will invest $290 million in a program to be launched at selected school districts. The programs are designed around improving teacher effectiveness and new personnel systems.
Linked Articles
Bill Gates Seeks Formula for Better Teachers
Wall Street Journal 03/22/2011
Bill Gates - How teacher development could revolutionize our schoolsWashington Post 02/28/2011
Statistical problems with China's government statistics which understate the housing bubble and overstate the rate of growth in 2011-2013
02/17/2011
Problems with data from China's Bureau of Statistics which do not accurately reflect the economic conditions in China.
Linked Articles
Chinese Data Said to Be Manipulated, Understating Slowdown
New York Times 06/22/2012
China Scraps Property Data, Clouding ViewWall Street Journal 02/17/2011
The Elop memo in 2011 and the sale of Nokia's mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2013- the startling change of fortunes for Nokia
02/09/2011
Nokia was a pioneer in the development of mobile phones in an earlier era when fixed lines were the norm. It dominated the mobile phone business in the period before 2009 for 2 decades before the coming of smartphones. The change in Nokia's market came quickly and suddenly with the advent of the iPhone and Nokia was unprepared for this development. This is a classic case of obsolesence and disruptions caused by innovation and new technologies. Other companies from the previous era before cloud computing and the internet, H-P, Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft, face the continuing challenge to adapt or lose to new competitors.
Linked Articles
Microsoft in $7 Billion Deal for Nokia Cellphone Business
Wall Street Journal 09/03/2013
Full Text: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s ‘Burning Platform’ MemoWall Street Journal 02/09/2011
Egypt's economic crisis and falling behind the modern world- the future and the road back to growth and opportunity
02/03/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/03/2011
Muslim Brotherhood Looks West in Bid to Revive Egyptian EconomyWall Street Journal 02/17/2012
Angela Merkel's experience with the reunification of East and West Germany and her views of the eurozone crisis
01/30/2011
The perceptions of the eurozone crisis of ordinary Germans and of former East German Angela Merkel are colored by the period of reunification of the two Germany's. This was paid for with a"solidarity surcharge" tax paid by Germans amounting to $1.7 trillion and led in its early stages to 4 million unemployed in the eastern part and 20% unemployment. It took over a decade for East Germany to build new modernized industries in the larger cities of the east, but still leaves the rural parts of former East Germany in a neglected state as young peoplemoved out. During this period industry in the west also regained lost global competitiveness, especially in industries such as automobiles and advanced machinery, using wage restraint agreements with unions and increases in productivity. Germans see the need for eurozone countries in the southern part of Europe needing to make similiar sacrifices and see the tax evasion in Italy and Greece as unacceptable. The real estate bubble, the lack of transparency for banks bad loans, and out of control regional spending in Spain is also seen in a similiar light. Greece is seen as the most egregious offendor because of the bad financial accounting that grossly understated the extent of the bad loans. Less publicized in Germany is the role played in the bad loans through poor lending practices of German and French banks and that as experts have pointed out Germany was to some extent bailing out German banks when it was bailing out Greece- till German banks reduced their exposure to Greece in 2011.
Linked Articles
In former East Germany, anxious residents resent paying for Europe’s problems - The Washington Post
Washington Post 06/21/2012
Merkel's Defense of Euro Forged in East GermanyNew York Times 01/30/2011
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