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Lego bricks are wildly popular in many countries including the U.S. Lego has seen "supernatural" growth in the last 8 years, according to Soren Torp Laursen, who heads the North American operations. Growth is now slowing, just as the Lego movie has achieved box office record for 3 weeks at No. 1. Data from NPD Group show U.S. consumer sales up 1% to $1.35 billion in 2013, giving Lego 7.8% share of U.S. toy market. Total sales were $4 billion in 2012. New products led to a surge in U.S. sales in 2012 by 26%. German sales were up 4% in 2013 compared to 13% in 2012, Germany making up 10% of its total sales. Now Lego is bringing out Lego sets based on the movie. About half of the 40 billion bricks are made in a small town of Billund in Denmark.

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Credit Suisse research of loans at 3,550 nonfinancial services companies in India with total borrowing of $385 billion as of March 31, 2011, shows 30% had net debt more than six times current earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. This is an increase of 50% in 5 years. Goldman Sachs estimates gross nonperforming loans including restructured debt will climb up to 6% of total loans in the next financial year. This is an increase from the 5% in March 2011. The Reserve Bank of India's stress test report of Dec. 2011 forecasts 5.8% of non-performing assets in a worst case scenario. This is twice the current level. This is largely a result of Indian banks increasing lending after the 2008 global financial crisis, with the worst affected and leveraged sectors being private airlines, construction companies, utilities and real estate developers. At the same time prudent regulation has ensured a capital to risk-weighted assets ratio according to RBI of 13.5% at the end of March 2011. This compares with the same ratio at 14.5% as of March 2010. Additional risks come from declining economic growth. Industrial output in October 2011 was down 5.1% from the prior year. ...

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A new Nuclear Fuel Bank has private funding of $50 million from Warren Buffett, and additional funding from Kuwait, US, the EU, Norway, and the UAE. The total funding so far is $157 million. With this initial funding the International Atomic Agency has setup a global nuclear fuel bank that countries can turn to for developing nuclear power. At this time more countries are turning to nuclear power as a source of energy supplies. The development of nuclear supplies and purifying uranium also lends itself to the making of nuclear weapons. By providing an independent source the IAE agency provides a way to remove the ambiguity present in the development of nuclear energy. As the idea of atomic fuel banks is gaining hold Rusia also has set up a bank. When enriched at lower levels uranium can be used for nuclear energy. When enriched at higher levels this becomes a fuel for making atomic bombs. Which is why nuclear experts want to see the uranium turned into fuel rods as quickly as possible, because it is hard to turn the rods into weapons. This money will be enough to buy 80 tons of fuel- enough for refueling one reactor....

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Kraft is looking at its staple pantry products in a different light to give them new life. Kraft products like Bull's Eye barbecue sauce, Chips Ahoy, Oscar Mayer, Miracle Whip and Philadelphia Cream Cheese are all getting new marketing campaigns. This is similiar to what is happening across the food industry, as companies like Campbell, ConAgra, General Mills, Heinz, Hershey, Hormel, Kellogg and Smucker, all of which have staple pantry products, are trying to give new life to old staples. Kraft marketing executives say the idea is to work not just on the rational side as they have done in the past by emphasizing price. For Macaroni and Cheese, Kraft would say to cost conscious consumers in this recession, it costs about 1 dollar a box. One headline even described this as a small price for a big cheese eating grin. Now the advertsing budget has been increased by 30% to $50 million, and the focus has shifted to bringing out the emotional attachment to this product of young and old alike. Now the thing is to add fun aspects to the lives of parents and children who have used it in the past. ...

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Facebook has invested heavily in proving that digital ads on Facebook are effective. Some of the research was done with Datalogix and other firms. About 60 ad campaigns were carefully tracked to show how consumers seeing ads on Facebook spend their dollars on products in brick and mortar stores. One ad with cuddly bears for Coca-Cola was more effective than ads on television, says CEO Sandberg. In addition to targeting users based on what users share in their Facebook profiles advertisers can now see the effects on sales. Facebook's vice president of measurements and insights, Brad Smallwood, says advertisers were given the first big report on how consumers acted after seeing ads in the real world. The results are most evident in digital advertising for mobile phones. Facebook has 6% of the $118 billion digital advertising global ad market compared to Google's 31%. The share in mobile is 18% in 2013, up from 5% in 2012. Facebook shares were up 14% or $7.55 to $61.08 on Jan. 30, 2014. Facebook's share price increased by 20% in July 2013 after a similiar announcement of improvement in mobile ad revenues. Facebook's IPO price was $38 in 2013....

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China's new urbanization plan is for 60% of the population to be urban residents by 2020, up from 52% at the end of 2012. The plan will relax "hukou" residency restrictions, and about 45% of the population will qualify for benefits and services such as pensions and education that are given to qualifying urban residents. Premier Li Keqiang says this will boost growth as domestic consumption is seen as the main growth driver for the future. The cabinet said on a government website that "domestic demand is the fundamental driver of our nation's economic development, and urbanization has the greatest potential to expand domestic demand." Fast rail will be provided to urban areas with population over 500,000 and rail to urban areas with population over 200,000 by 2020. About 90% of the population will be within reach of a nearby airport. Relaxation of "hukou" restrictions will be made for mainly smaller cities. Two decades of industrialization has led to concentration of wealth, with much smaller disposable incomes left for the majority of the population to create a sudden surge in consumer spending, as pointed out by Orlik....

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How ethanol plants create opportunities for the local economy but also problems as production of ethanol requires scarce water resources in states like nebrask the No. 3 state after Iowa and Illinois in corn production. A 50 million gallon ethanol plant could use up 150 million gallons of water to make fuel, thats 3 gallons of water for 1 gallon of ethanol fuel. In the Lower Republican river Natural Resources District of Nebraska farmers which is a dry drought prone area dependent on underground water formations for irrigation, farmers pumped out 62.6 billion gallons of water from underground. Now that a court ruled that Kansas should get its fair share of water from the Republican River which is sees its levels affected by the underground pumping near the river, this water district is having to put irrigation meters that are checked after each harvest to limit use to 11 inches on average over 5 years. This article shows how scarce resources like water can be used up in the production of ethanol, and how that can complicate life for farmers even though the extra income from ethanol plants can boost incomes in depressed farm communities....

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Wow!!! While the rest of the industry was busy building large vehicles and trucks and SUV's Honda invested 16 million dollars and its time in developing a hydrogen cell capable of powering a car to get 60 miles per hour acceleration in 9 seconds, and speeds upto 100 miles per hour, cut the size of the fuel cell to 150 punds and the size of a box shaped desktop PC, and giving the fuel cell 280 miles on one fillup, almost similar to a gasoline car. What is different is the cleanness, no polluting exhaust and 74 miles per gallon. Only 200 will be built initially, but a production line and mass production is the goal Honda is working on. Already the fuel cells are built on a production line resembling a semiconducor factory, and Honda aims to bring the cost of production down to $100,000 in 10 years or sooner. The nice thing about hydrogen fuel cell cars is that there are no byproducts generated except water and heat. It works by the fuel cell combining hydrogen with oxygen from ordinary air to make electricity....

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California Governor Schwarznegger points out that about 80 cents on every government dollar in California goes to public employees compensation and benefits. He says spending on state employees went up three times as fast as state revenues during the last decade. The result is crowding out of other programs such as higher education, parks and recreation. Because of large unfunded pension and retirement health-care benefit committments, California faces $550 billion of retirement debt. Costs of servicing that debt have grown at the rate of 15% for the last decade. The result is that California will spend more on retirement benefits than on higher education in 2010. Schwarznegger points to the fact that most employees in the private sector do not have $1 million in savings, but are in effect guaranteeing a retirement account of $1 million to state employees who retire at 55 years age- with a $3000 inflation protected check for the rest of their lives- as evidence that politicians in the State Assembly have made committments for the future that they cannot keep. And if they are kept they will leave little money for essential programs in education and public services....

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Jack Horton of BBC Verify screens the former president Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention. “Our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down".  Fact: FBI data shows crime down 6% and a drop in the murder rate by 13% in 2023. For the First Quarter of 2024 crime down by 15% and recorded murder rate down 26%. "We've had the worst inflation we've ever had under this person [Biden]. I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy . We will drill, baby, drill."  Fact: Inflation went up to 9.1% from 1.4% at the end of the Trump term in the first 2 years of of the Biden Administration by June 2022. Biden and Federal Reserves Powell brought this down to 3%. Explained: This inflation jump to 9% would have happened from supply chain in China for Trump administration as well. Trump's last year was 2019 the Covid pandemic started in January the lockdown by midyear meant sharp drop in demand and little room for inflation. The concentration of supply chain in China was the cause of the surge in inflation as China shut down and restarted late into 2022 causing shortages in factory parts and supplies. Biden focused on vaccination in 2020-2021. This inflation would have happened under Trump- this concentration of supply chain started with Reagan economic philosophy to ship production (and jobs) overseas, Clinton Bush Obama and Trump did little about it. Biden invested heavily in Make in America manufacturing and jobs at home. Biden and Powell did a good job of bringing this inflation down by 2023 to 3% before the European Union and UK. Younger voters don't know this they get their news from the internet and show little interest, see only that the low inflation under Trump and the higher inflation during the pandemic recovery under Biden and blame Biden. will Trump do better on inflation in 2024-2028. The WSJ does not think so its analysis shows inflation higher under Trump than Biden because of a planned 60% tax on imports from China. Trump follows Reagan/Friedman theory of the old Republican party of higher tax cuts for the wealthy, so no money is left for investing in American manufacturing and jobs as Biden free of this theory is able to do, leading to slowing growth with inflation under Trump.        ...

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Prime minister Renzi of Italy resigns after defeat in a referendum to change the constitution. Renzi had said he would resign if there was a "no" vote on constitutional changes to make it possible to pass further reforms. The results show the "yes" vote with about 41% of the vote, and 59% saying "no." About 65% of 47 million registered voters voted. The referendum called for cutting the size of the upper house Senate eliminating some constitutional bodies, and increasing powers at the federal level. Renzi may have made the mistake of making the vote for or against constitutional change a vote for his democratic left party, and not understanding the depth of public skepticism of established parties. Parties such as 5 Star M5S  have appealed to a public skeptical of how economic reforms would help bring more prosperity to the middle class, and a desire to try out new options. Virginia Raggi of M5S was elected mayor of Rome recently and Renzi's referendum move similar to the way prime minister Cameron moved for a referendum on an old issue of euroskeptisim, may have failed to grasp grassroots changes. The irony is that in 2014 elections to the European parliament Renzi's democratic left party won 40% of the vote and was seen at the time as a success, and the same size vote in the referendum is seen as a failure. In a referendum all other parties votes are added together from right to left parties and new parties. In the Brexit vote the Labor party "no" vote including Labor voters who never voted added to the votes of Brexit supporters and the newer UKIP party giving Brexit the slight edge needed. The singular feature of the trend is that working class voters are combining with right leaning voters to upset established parties, in the midwestern U.S., in the north of England, and in the north of France. In the medium to long run this means the left parties are likely to move to realign themselves with their base of support. ...

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Attorney General Sessions says the driver of the car who drove into protesters could be prosecuted in a number of ways including for a hate crime. The protest was against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. A car driven by 20 year old James Alex Fields drove into protesters injuring 19 and killing one woman. The local charges being made are for hit and run, malicious wounding, and the Justice Department is conducting its own probe. The comments by Sessions contrasted with the statement blaming both sides by president Trump, which led to strong criticism in the media and by the business community.

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In Europe, France, Spain, Germany and other countries are giving cash subsidies to customers to buy cars when they turn in older cars. These refunds range from 1000 to 2500 euros, and reward the purchase of smaller more fuel efficient vehicles. It has boosted sales in Europe where sales are running at an annual rate of more than 13 million because of the subsidies, according to Credit Suisse analyst, which is well above the 11 million level of last year. The average American car says the analyst has been on the road for 9 years similar to that in Germany, so it makes sense for the USA. He says it could increase sales in the USA to 12 million cars, down from the 16 million sold in 2007 or the 13.4 million rate of 2008, but far higher than the 9.5 million rate in the first few months of 2009. In Europe small cars are dominant and it plays to the markets of large carmakers like Peugeot, VW, FIat, and Renault. But in the US Japanese carmakers are dominant in the small car market. Detroit carmakers make too many large cars and pickup trucks so the impact would be less. But the program could be fashioned in the US on a drop down in size and increase in fuel efficency, so that the clear direction is towards smaller cars. Turning in a pickup truck for a family car like a Malibu or a LaCrosse might promote fuel efficiency, and move things in the right direction. Its useful to note that even in Germany more expensive cars or brands have barely benefitted German car sales jumped 21.5% in February, but mass market manufacturers recorded a 37% surge, while sales of premium cars fell 19%. In Italy which started its program Feb. 6, buyers receive 1500 euros for trading in acar at least 10 years old. Fiat Punto sales have shown a strong increase. Fiat's facory in Melfi, southern Italy, is now running at full capacity after running on areduced scale from October 2008 to February 2009. It makes the Punto. In France 30-40% of car sales are coming from the scrapping deal, according to French Auto Manufacturers Association. Overall sales are running at about 6% below last year's rate, but in the absence of the scrapping deal sales might be off 10-15%. One concern for the French is that sales not drop off after the scrapping deal stops.France saw this happen in 1997and 1998 after ascrapping deal in 1994-1996. However considering that the cost to the German government for scrapping deal was $2 billion, the solution to this would be continue this program till the economy recovers and car sales are strong. Considering the benefits for an important industry and the societal benefit in lower pollution, it would be worth the cost....

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The Socialist party is likely to win the most seats in the Dutch parliament in the Sept 12, 2012 elections. Research firms TNS NIPO and Peil.nl polls show the Socialist Party winning 37 seats up from 15 currently, in a 150 member Dutch parliament. The Liberal party in the ruling coalition is expected to win 30 seats down from 31 currently. The right wing Freedom party that withdrew from the ruling coalition is shown as winning 18 seats down from 24 seats currently. The Socialist party will need to form a coalition with the Labor party which is expected to win 17 seats down from 30 seats currently. Because of the fragmentation of seats between parties, a Socialist-Labor coalition will still need the support of other parties. The current coalition government's austerity drive is not popular with voters leading to a shift. The EC estimate is for a 0.9% decline in GDP in 2012, with 0.7% growth in 2013, but with the global slowdown underway this recovery is in doubt. Offical government estimates show a slowing economy for years, and the need for 20 billion in euros in budget savings for 2013-2017. The Socialist party leader Emile Roemer, wants more time to reduce the budget deficit to 3% of GDP, to do this by 2015 instead of the 2013 target set by Mr. Rutte in the current ruling coalition. Roemer also supports a broadening of the ECB's mandate from price stability to stimulating the economy for creating jobs....

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Feldstein's thoughts in April 2009, on Treasury's Public-Private Investment Plan. First, he says this plan will only remove $500 billion of impaired assets. The banks he says now own $3 billion of residential mortgages, $1.5 trillion of corporate real-estate loans, and $1 trillion of consumer debt. Not all of this is impaired but the banks will have to sell much more than $500 billion to regain confidence in their solvency. And with one third of all residential mortgages exceeding the value of the houses, and thie many homeowners under water, likely to default, the negative feedback loop of foreclosures begetting falling prices begetting foreclosures, threatens the whole effort to shore up the defences. If no workable solution is executed quickly to prevent this then even larger pools of mortgage debt will be impaired irretrievably. Feldstein suggests that the Obama administration seriously look at his plan suggested in March 2008 to provide government loans at low rates of interest like 1- 2% for 20% of the principal amount of the mortgage and then reduce the mortgage principal by 20%, thus keeping millions of homeowners above water. But this needs to be done quickly. All voluntary efforts have failed and have become asmokescreen for banks and lobbying groups with support from Congress to make it appear that this problem is being addressed. Thirdly Feldstein says that if banks sell these impaired mortgage assets at a loss- say 40-60 cents on the dollar on the upside with government and the FDIC picking up alot of the risk and financing for private investors under the new plan- they will now have to show the loss whereas they could have previously shown these assets at unrealistic price levels but still not taking losses. This might push banks into insolvency, so banks will need more injection of capital by the government to make this possible. What are the risks in this situation? Without an effective plan to prevent the negative feedback loop of foreclosure waves and falling houseprices, the quantity of impaired assets will simply grow larger. In effect even if some private investors take out some of the impaired assets from the banking system, it is possible that a new set of assets equal to or larger than these assets that are taken out are added to impaired assets in the banking system as house prices fall steeply from new foreclosures. That only means the economy is in the same hole as before, or in a slightly larger one, even with all the well intentioned steps. At some point the private enterprise argument has to be seen in the correct light. It is not that there is any argument that private enterprise can function better or far superior, it is only that the banks as private enterprises are in such an enormously stressed situation that the bank executive's cannot execute a way out of this mess. ...

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1. PETROBRAS KNOWHOW IN DEEP-WATER DRILLING HONED IN DEEPWATERS 100 MILES FROM RIO. In the 1970's Petrobras discovered oil in the coastal area near Maca. Later geological tests showed large deposits more than 100 miles offshore and more than a mile deep underwater. Senior Petrobras engineers worked with manufacturers to develop pressure resistant instruments and the hardware needed to drill deeper. This technology was developed over the years and Petrobras has now honed its skills in deepwater drilling. Since then Petrobras has become the leader in deepwater drilling.. The fact that Brazilian oil was offshore made Brazil focus on offshore oil exploration and use the Atlantic ocean near Brazil for one big R&D project. Petrobras uses floating platforms, of which many are converted oil tankers. These platforms are more agile in deep and remote waters and better weater waves and storms. Petrobras gets 90% of its oil from the waters over 100 miles north east of Rio de Janeiro from a cluster of 38 such platforms. The floating platforms are like large ships that can be connected to hoses to pumping points on the seabed. 2. PETROBRAS INVESTMENTS IN OVERSEAS OFFSHORE DEEPWATER OIL PRODUCTION. Petrobras has the size and profits to have global reach and make the large investments and bring deepwater expertise to other regions. It is 55.7% state owned. Production was 1.9 million barrels a day in 2006. Sales of $45 billion and profits of $10 billion for 2005. The 2005 profit was a 50% increase from 2004. Countries where Petrobras is working include Angola, Tanzania, Turkey and India. Petrobras has stated that it will increase overall investments by 66% in the next 4 years investing $87 billion, mostly on exploration and production from 2007 to 2011. Of that $12.1 billion will be invested overseas for new platforms off the Gulf of Mexico and new fields off the coast of Nigeria and Angola. Petrobras plans to invest $2 billion in the Gulf of Mexico for deepwater drilling. ...

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Argentina president Mauricio Macri wins 40% of the vote, losing to the Peronist candidate Alberto Fernandez with 48% of the vote. The Peronists, a socialist party, also won in Buenos Aires province elections for governor.. The shift from centre right to the socialist party occurs as the country is in deep financial crisis with about 50% inflation. The Argentine currency, the peso falling in a few years since 2015 from 10 to the dollar to 60 to the dollar, leading to high inflation and hurting Argentines with rapidly falling purchasing power of income. Argentines rejected austerity policies of Macri and the free market policies pursued under Macri failed. This was aggravated with lack of prudent management of finances and overborrowing using dollar denominated bonds reaching $115 billion in bonds debt by 2019. Me. Macri inherited a budget deficit from Ms. Kirchner in 2015. The economy was overly dependent on a temporary boom in commodity prices for soyabeans as a result of demand from China. A weather related crisis led to a decline in agricultural exports in 2017-2018. Yet the budget deficit was allowed to grow and the foreign debt was financed with foreign currency denominated bonds to the point where Argentina could now default on $115 billion in foreign currency denominated  bonds. Overly dependent on uncertain foreign interest in Argentine bonds, Argentine agricultural commodities exports at high prices, uncertain foreign investment, hurt Argentina. Drought conditions in 2018 hurt export revenues. This required very prudent and careful management of finances which Mr. Macri failed to provide. Turning to the IMF for a $57 billion loan in May 2018, in just 3 years of his administration, and after Argentina took years following the crisis of 2003 to settle foreign debts, showed a failure and mismanagement of huge proportions. ...

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Steps taken by Secretary of State Tillerson are drawing criticism from Senator McCain and Democrats in Congress for weakening the diplomatic efforts of the U.S. Before taking office Tillerson, who believes the State Department has a bloated staff, announced a 31% cut in its budget. A year later  the cuts are leading to the departure of many senior diplomats. Some like Mr. Miller have received only a few minutes to talk to Tillerson, six top career diplomats were fired by Tillerson. Most hiring is stopped and a $25,000 buyout is being promoted to get 2000 career diplomats to leave by October 2018. This report describes a retirement class for diplomats with 26 senior employees, including two acting secretaries of statein early 50's who would normally wait many years before retiring. The top two position ranks at State are career ambassador and career minister. This is cut from 39 to 19. Political appointees are also missing to fill positions with only 10 of 44 political positions filled. Some experts see a loss also in diversity as this happens. Differences between the Nikki Haley, who is the next senior official in America's foreign service and a potential successor to Tillerson, and Mr Tillerson are also complicating the situation at the State Department. During the Obama and Bush administrations experts cited the weak role played by the institutions such as diplomatic services in promoting America's role in the world. This was not corrected in any significant way in the last decade. The position of the diplomatic service has weakened further, along with the abandonment of America's leadership role under the presidency of Mr. Trump. It will require a future president's concerted effort to restore the diplomatic service under new leadership and with a new generation of diplomats more in tune with the multipolar world of today.   ...

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Kyle Wingfield meets up with Robert Mundell, Nobel winner in 1999. What does he have to say now? He thinks the oil prices are on track and would reach $130 by 2020 with 3.5% inflation, starting with $34 a barrel in 1980 doubling to $68 in 2000 and doubling again to $136 in 2020. Today its already at $136 but he thinks it will settle down lower to about $100, so hethinks were not so far off track. On inflation he looks at the price of gold at$850 an ounce , and now its still about the same, with high inflation gold should be at $1500, so he does not see the public thinking high inflation is coming. He was in favor of the Reagan tax cuts and set the groundwork for this and aslo supported the euro. He believes the Bush tax cuts should be kept as it would be disastrous for the world economy. Mundell has always believed that there is a link between economic growth and lower tax rates. He advocates corporate tax rates of 25%. Tax rates went down to 28% under Reagan back up to 40% under Clinton and down to 35% under Bush. Hewould like to see a ceiling on marginal rates of 30%. He would like to see a fixed exchange rate so that there are not these large currency rate swings, the euro should be valued somehwehere between 90 cents to the euro to $1.30. The US has a growing population and better adoption of innovation with a younger population than Europe so he sees the USA as a leader in innovation and growth and the dollar or some new global currency should be formed for a global economy. Just as he supported the euro he supports a currency for Asia. He does not see overvaluing the Chinese currency as doing much good as he sees the Japanese economy hurt by the overvaluing of its currency after a period of Japoan bashing. He is an advisor to China on currency issues....

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Ann Lee a former investment banker and now adjunct Professor at New York University, gives us facts that show the smaller banks that lend to small and medium sized businesses in the country are being closed by the FDIC. According to ADP small business that employs between 1 to 49 people, accounts for 48 million jobs, those between 50 and 499 employees account for 42 million jobs, and large business for only 17 million jobs. Without access to capital these small and medium sized businesses will continue to layoff employees, creating a vicious cycle of falling credit and demand. According to Automatic Data Processing's August employment report large business shed 60,000 jobs, medium sized business 116,000 jobs and small businesses shed 122,000 jobs. These smaller banks says Lee have done most of the lending to small and medium sized businesses. And overall lending has dropped from pre-crisis levels. Treasury's Capital Purchase Monthly Lending Report shows that banks that received government money actually reduced loan balance by $54 billion. According to reports issued by major credit rating agencies $700 billion of asset backed securities were underwitten in 2007. In 2009 only $10 billion was issued. This has a significant impact in every area. Banks have no incentive to lend with all the bad nonperforming loans on their books. They only hope that over time renegotiated loan terms would enable to recover these loans. But this might take a decade says Lee, if this is similiar to other crises like the one in Japan. She says what the banks do to make money is to borrow virtually unlimited amounts from the Fed at near zero rates and earn money from the spread when they lend to the Treasury. Does our current banking system make sense she asks. Banks are not investing in economic activity, in real products and services,but engaged in agovernment backed shell game that enriches bankers at the expense of everyone else. She says that the banking lobby may prevail in preventing the nationalization of the banking system, but this will not prevent questions about the status quo and its assumptions from arising if the recovery and regulatory reforms fail. ...

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The smaller iPads like the Apple Mini 5S iPad are gaining in popularity. Apple has 32% of the iPad market. Samsung is gaining market share moving up to 18% in 2013 second quarter, up from 7.6% the prior year quarter, according to IDC. Apple is making the new iPad Air thinner and lighter from 1.4 pounds to 1 pound. The iPad Mini gets the high-resolution Retina display and goes for $400, $70 higher than the previous mini ipad which will now go for $300. Both iPads get faster processing chips, the A7 and the M7, and better antenna wifi connections. The new products will go on sale in Nov. 2013. Gartner estimates smartphone shipments at 1 billion and tablet shipments at 184 million for 2013. Tablets are expected to outsell PC's in 2015, according to IDC. The growth is rapid paced, with 2012 sales at 120 million tablets, increasing from about 17 million in 2010 when the iPad was first introduced.

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Mitt Romney carried Georgia over president Obama 53% to 44%, and Georgia by 53% to 45%. Now these 2 states are seeing a close race between Clinton and Trump, with Democrats putting more resources into the 2 states in the hope of an upset win.

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The European Commission hits Google with a $4.3 billion fine for antitrust violations on the Android operating system used in smartphones.

The company that created Android was founded by Andy Rubin and Rich Milner in 2003, and acquired by Google in 2005 for $50 million. This article gives a timeline for Android's development. The original Android went through modifications after Apple developed a keyboardless smartphone and introduced it in Jan. 2007. The original Android was a keyboard system like that of Blackberry. Google modified the system to come up with its own smartphone in September 2008 made by HTC in China called HTC Dream. Within 2 years in 2010 Android was used in 33 million smartphones surpassing Nokia at 31 million devices. From Jan. 2007 to 2010 in the space of 3 years the Android system changed the world of mobile phones. 

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E-book sales reached 20% of total U.S. book sales in 2011- a total of $970 million. Book sales in paper copies were a bit lower than $5 billion in 2011, close to where they were in 2011, showing that book sales have not fallen as e-book sales have increased. This is based on figures from the monthly industry reports of the Association of American Publishers. The Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five publishers for price collusion is having a serious impact on Barnes & Noble, as Barnes & Noble's made a profit of about 30% or $3.90 under the pricing model Apple helped establish, where the e book title sold for $12.99. In a lower pricing arrangement Amazon establishes Barnes & Noble's profits would decline substantially or even lead to a loss. Barnes & Noble's stock lost 17% in April, 2012.