LyrArc Article Gist
The Samaras government cuts some government perks including one that gave public sector civil servants 6 days of computer leave for spending more than 5 hours a day in front of a computer.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Republican tax cutting approach to jumpstart economic growth being implemented in Kansas by Governor Brownback and in Louisiana by Governor Jindal.

LyrArc Article Gist
President Obama has 63% job approval rating in a New York Times/CBS News poll. His backing is among Democrats and independents alike which is very useful for Obama.But the poll shows more American having faith in the President than in the handling of specific issues. He gets good approval on foreign policy initiatives at 59%, but in the handling of the Auto bankruptcy, or of health care his ratings are below his personal ratings as President. A majority of those polled were concerned about the rising budget deficits. BUt his ratings among Republicans has fallen from 44% in February to 23%. Republicans were viewed favorably by only 285 of those polled, the lowest ever.

LyrArc Article Gist
Sheila Barr is brining her innovative ideas to help homeowners at IndyMac Bank which is being run by the FDIC. It could be a blueprint for the entire industry and is formulated upon a simple idea that a homeowners mortgage payment should not exceed 38% of his or her income. FDIC says those taking part in the fastrack loan modification have seen their monthly loan payments lowered by $430 on average. It is a blueprint for solving the mortgage foreclosure crisis that economists from Martin Feldstein to Hubbard and Alan Blinder think is at the root of the problem in the worldwide financial crisis. Bovenzi, the senior FDIC executive who is serving as CEO of IndyMac is overseeing the effort. He is an FDIC veteran who worked at the agency durng the savings and loan crisis of the early 1980's and 1990's. And one the key lessons from that period Bovenzi and Sheila Barr believe is that debt workouts help lenders and borrowers. A key statistic Bair pointed out in a Sept 17 speech to Congress is that the FDIC's recovery rate on nonperforming loans or loans in foreclosure averages just 32% of a loan's value. If the loan is kept current by making payments affordable and preventing foreclosure the agency has recovered 87%. And Sheila Barr's efforts are the one or two bright spots in an otherwise bleak picture for troubled homeowners, in which the Republicans have ignored two of their last 3 Presidents' key economic advisers, head of the Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Reagan and Bush senior, Marty Feldstein and Hubbard, and not supported efforts for loan modification to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Shortsightedness, lack of foresight, or simply not able to grasp the true nature of the crisis....

LyrArc Article Gist
Sheila Bair is playing a larger and larger role in this crisis as the Bush administration and Paulson take a series of missteps. She had earlier proposed her own plan for addressing the roots of the crisis which she said are home prices, and preventing risisng foreclosures was the best way to address this. She has offered loan modifications through FDIC run IndyMac bank. Now she speaks up about her disagreement with how the crisis should be handled as little has been done to help homeowners considering the scale of the crisis. Alan Blinder of Princeton university, a former Fed vice chairman has called her the real hero in all this throughout this year as she has had the foresight to suggest action to help homeowners, and has acted vigorously in other areas related to the banks. "Why there has been such a political focus on making sure we are not unduly helping borrowers but then we are providing this massive assistance at the institutional level, I don't understand it." And Sheila Bair went on to say "This agency, with its genesis in the Great Depression, has a sense of purpose now perhaps more than any other agency." Her term as chairman of the FDIC lasts till mid 2011 and her term on the FDIC Board till 2013. With 2 weeks to go for the Presidential election and her term going into the next administration, her voice is increasingly the one that will be heard by policymakers coming to grips with the economy. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Slowdown in drug sales growth in USA and Europe. Top seven emerging markets will account for 34% of global sales growth upfrom 7% in 2000. And the USA accounted for 40 to50% of growth in global pharmaceutical sales each year early in this decade, in 2009 the sales in the USA will account for just 9%. Forecasts and figures are from IMS consulting firm. USA sales will rise only 1-2% if at all, while emerging markets will grow by 4.5% to 5.5%. With the economic troubles American consumers are less likely to fill prescriptions and insurers are not covering new drugs and favoring generics. Intense competition among generics drug makers is reducing prices. IMS predicts that the global generic market will grow by 5 to 7% in 2009 to $68 billion, slowing from double digit growth. This is from total sales forecast for pharmaceuticals globally of $830 billion.

LyrArc Article Gist
Laffer says there is a big gap between the cost of health care and what people actually pay, which keeps cost escalating as there are no pressures from users of services to economize or bring reductions in the prices. But Laffer offers no effective solutions either his patient centred approach to health care reform does not address the problem that employers are paying for health care for the large part and these are not taxed as benefits leaving the employee free to load up on services and ignore the cost, which works just fine for the health care providers who increase revenues and profits- also called cost escalation upto the point now reached where the nation can no longer afford it.

LyrArc Article Gist
Nokia announced a loss of 929 million euros for the first quarter of 2012. Sales declined from 10.4 billon euros to 7.4 billion euros in the same quarter prior year. The only bright spot for the company is that the Lumia 900 sold throught AT&T has made a successful launch in the U.S. Nokia CEO Elop says the phone is sold out in stores in the U.S. Lumia sales were 2 million in the 1st quarter of 2012, at an average price of 220 euros ($290). Nokia's strategy now is to bring the Lumia line including the lower end Luma 610 phone to Asian markets by June- to China, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Nokia's biggest problem is the older Symbian phones, which consumers are passing by and which now have to be discounted rapidly or replaced quickly with the Lumia line. The other related problem is falling margins on basic phones as Chinese competitors discount heavily- basic Nokia phone prices fell 18% to 33 euros ($43) from 40 euros or($52) the prior year. The speed in the drop in business for mobile phones can be guaged from the sales decline of 40% in the 1st quarter from $9.3 billion to $5.6 billion. Things are made worse by the 772 million euro ($1 billion) charge taken for Nokia Siemens Networks, a network joint venture with Siemens. Sales for Nokia Siemens fell 7% in the first quarter to $3.8 billion. Nokia Siemens has 53 contracts to build new mobile networks with Long Term Evolution Technology more than competitors Ericsson and Huawei, according to Nokia Siemens. Everything now depends on the speed with which Nokia can move to its Lumia line across the board, especially in China....

LyrArc Article Gist
Plans to introduce its Luma line to China by June 2012 in cooperation with China Telecom. It is betting on Chinese demand for smartphones to recover. Sales of CDMA phones- China Telecom uses CDMA technology- are expected to double to 60 million in 2012 from 30 million in 2011. China provided 17% of Noka sales in 2011, mostly basic or older phones. The challenge is now to get the Lumia line up and running fast. Nokia's timing is right as smartphones are just beginning a surge in China- IHS forecasts an increase from 65 million in 2011 to 120 million in 2012. Nokia's advertising and marketing and close work with China Telecom has also to kick in for it to maximize on this opportunity.

LyrArc Article Gist
Strong competition from Samsung in emerging markets is another hurdle facing Nokia in its plans for recovery.

LyrArc Article Gist
Comparative effectiveness research will be conducted to evaluate what is the best treatment for any ailment or disease or health problem under the $1.1 billion allocated for this in the Stimulus Plan. What are the alternative methods of treatment, what is the effectiveness of each treatment, what are the comparative costs and so on. Is it better to treat neck pain with surgery or acombination ofphysical therapy, exercize and medications? If there is ablockage of arteries in the lower leg and leg pain, how does drugs and watchful waiting compare with surgery? For chronic heart failure how does home monitoring of blood pressure and weight and exercise in addition to medications provide an alternative route as opposed to just medications. Dr Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School cites these as examples of questions that can be asked in comparitive effectiveness research. The money will be available to the Health and Human Services Department and will be used over several years. About 15 federal employees will form a council to coordinate the research and advise President Obama and Congress on how to use the money. In 2007 the US spent $2.2 trillion, or 16% of GDP, on health care, and the Congressional Budget Office says it will grow to 25% of GDP at the rate its growing by 2025 if left to its own devices. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Of the people asked the question "what issue do you see as the most important for health care" 44% in a NBC/WSJ poll said they considered Cost as the biggest issue, and 37% said that they considered the Uninsured as the biggest issue, 11% said quality of care was the biggest issue. The President is focussing on cost as he develops the health care plan. He is also saying that to provide health care for all and cover the uninsured without controlling costs would break the bank. Another thing that the White House shows it has learned from previous failed attempts, is that it is doing this with an open Health Care Forum with participation of different sides in the health care discussion. Clinton's effort in 1993 ran into problems because it was developed secretively, and without much discussion, and little effort to get different people's views. The previous attempt also waited too long after the election, and this time the President is moving quickly when he enjoys large popular support. Its also true now that there is serious concern especially in this downturn of what a threat spiralling costs of health care are becoming to the future prosperity of the American people. This time the leaders in Congress are setting an aggressive schedule to get health care palns legislation on the floor by June and get a floor vote in August 2009....

LyrArc Article Gist
The $787 million settlement is for defamation damages for Dominion Voting Systems and its owner State Street Capital. On the fundamental issue of free and fair elections and freely elected governments, the settlement does not ask for an explicit statement by Fox News of misconduct. To understand what happened one has to look at the origins of the FNN in the Melbourne Herald of 1920-1950 under Keith Murdoch and the political controversy pursued to increase readership in that period. NYT says it has an implicit plea of "no contest" to several pre trial findings by the presiding judge Eric Davis- "The evidence does not support that Fox News Network television carried good faith disinterested reporting." NYT explains this as the judge saying that spreading a conspiracy theory does not fall under legally protected "news gathering." The presiding judge also decided that - "Evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that it is CRYSTAL clear none of the statements related to Dominion (by Fox News) are true." As the case is not going to trial readers may ask what happened not just in this case but in Fox News and Trump over the last decade that caused risks to the framework of democracy, of elections and transfer of power setup by the founding fathers. Fox News Network has its origins in the Melbourne Herald of the 1920-1950 period when Keith Murdoch setup the business in Australia that was expanded a generation later by Rupert Murdoch. Keith Murdoch was heavily influenced in his newspaper career by Lord Northcliffe, and by Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian from New Brunswick, who both created a form of journalism that used political controversy to increase readership between the two world wars and in the period after that to 1957. The readership of these papers ran to 3-4 million which in that period in Britain or Australia was huge. Beaverbook took controversial positions that were built on his idea that the bloc Britain should represent was Canada, Australia and Britain with the British Empire, to have little to do with Europe or even the US. For this reason he did not support Britain's entry into the Second World War, or Britain joining in the Cold War against the Soviets till the Berlin Blockade. British prime minister Macmillan held back announcing Britain joining the European Economic Community (predecessor to the EU), because of the power of the Beaverbrook newspapers who were not interested in Europe. And British prime minister Clement Attlee faced the bitter opposition of Churchill and Beaverbrook/Northcliffe papers in sending Mountbatten to negotiate a transfer of power to India in 1947. The win of Labour's Clement Attlee in the 1951 election was opposed by Beaverbrook using the most sensational language. One can see the origins of what happened in the Trump period in the newspaper origins from the 1900-1957 period of Australian and British television networks. Of Keith Murdoch, National Biography of the Australian National University says- he supported the conservative stances of his time, was a remarkable entrepreneur and organizer of industry. Yet it also says his judgement was faulty. That he had "no real social philosophy"and lacked the originality to make useful contributions to public policy. Of Rupert Murdoch it can be said that he was also a remarkable entrepreneur and organizer of industry who built the newspaper business in Australia from one Adelaide paper left to him by Keith Murdoch. Yet his judgement proved faulty and there was no real concept of public policy or "real social philosophy." There is also the fact that like Beaverbrook from New Brunswick, Murdoch from western Australia was raised in the period of the British Empire and Commonwealth, had no real experience or grasp of the idea that is America set by the founding fathers and renewed by Lincoln, then FDR. An awareness of the origins of Murdoch's FNN is useful because it helps the American public close this chapter in the way democracies functioned in the past, and write better chapters for the future before us, keeping alive the idea that is America.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Comey sends another letter to Congressional committees on Nov. 6, just 2 days before the election, saying that "based on our review we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton." Just 9 days prior to the election Comey had written to Congress that the FBI was looking into emails found on the computer of Mr Weiner, estranged husband of Clinton aide Abedin. By doing this Comey had inserted himself and the FBI into the election in a way that was not proper said leaders of both parties. The heavy criticism continued with Vice presidential candidate Kaine, president Obama and Secretary Clinton, seeing this as a blatant political move by Comey, who is a Republican. It is likely to remain a subject of criticism long after the election, say experts.

LyrArc Article Gist
No less than a report by Harry Truman's Commission on Migratory Labor in 1951 says-  Migratory labor caused low wages in the Southwest and traced social ills to illegal immigration: “The magnitude … has reached entirely new levels in the past 7 years.… In its newly achieved proportions, it is virtually an invasion,” the report says. What one sees from this archive of the US Congress is that there ebbs and flows back and forth on migration across the southern border. The trade unions and even Harry Truman's Commission come out for restricting migration depending on this ebb and flow. Remember that Asian immigration is flatly opposed from 1910 to 1950. twenties - open to meet farm labor needs, 40% of US vegetables grown in the southwest. thirties - with the Great Depression a Hoover deportation effort forties- welcoming immigrants to meet war needs under Franklin Roosevelt fifties- under both Truman and EIsenhower the welcome ends and apart from the bracero program for agriculture, the Eisenhower administration conducts Operation Wetback. The House of Representatives Archives show the history of Hispanics in the southwest and immigration from Mexico in the period of the 1930's to the 1950's. One sees the effects of the Depression and Labor's AFL CIO and trade unions favoring limits on immigration from Mexico because of the difficulties American citizens were having finding jobs during the 1929-1934 period. Herbert Hoover moved illegal immigrants back to Mexico in the first program at a time when there were strict limits to Asians emigrating to the US. For much of the twenties the border was left open to meet the needs of the southwest farms for Mexican labor. Then came the war when Mexican Americans joined the war effort in great numbers. After the war the difficulty of finding jobs for troops returning to the US created new pressures to limit immigration. Ike setup Operation wetback to deport about 1 million migrants.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
President Obama in his speech at Georgetown, April 13, 2009, describes the thinking behind the decisions made in the first 12 weeks of his administration- why the actions are not aggressive and overreaching as some critics say, and why they are not timid as other critics have said. This was not a typical downturn of the business cycle, but a perfect storm arising from irresponsibility and poor decisionmaking in Washington, Wall Street and Main Street- in effect several crises colliding for something like an explosion, if not dealt with at once, and with strong action. He says "the key to dealing with our deficit and debt is to get a handle on out-of-control health care costs, not to stand idly by as the economy goes into free fall." The recognition that the crisis itself brings with it new possibilities, the opportunity for coming to grips with and forging a good solution to health care, energy and education issues that were neglected while Wall Street directed investments to areas other than investment in building for the future. To the critics like Krugman, Rosenfeld and others who say that the takeover of insolvent banks should be done quickly before the situation worsens, he says it is not because of any ideological or political judgement he has made about government involvement in banks, but because it is more likely to undermine than create confidence at this point. He goes on step by step, through the process of decisionmaking, first to step in and boost spending vigorously, second to get lending flowing again to businesses and families, strengthening the non-bank credit market for consumer purchases and loans, the housing plan, the auto plan, and the work at the G-20. Then President Obama goes on to project his vision and the road to getting there. The five pillars he sees for the future are: redirecting Wall Street and banking to constructive investments for the future, investments in education, investments in renewable energy and technology to create new industries and new jobs, investments in health care to cut costs for businesses and families, and new savings in the federal budget to bring down the deficit. Obama says he will look for savings line by line in every corner of the budget, and has already identified two trillion dollars in deficit reductions over the next decade. And the goal is to reduce discretionary spending for domestic programs as share of the economy by more than 10% over the next decade. Procurement reform will greatly reduce no-bid contracts and save $40 billion. Secretary Gates is attacking th problem of hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and cost overruns that have bloated the defense budget, without adding to the nation's safety. And education programs that don't work will be removed, and waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare program will be controlled. Finally, Mr Obama points to the nation's political system as one more reason we are in this perfect storm- "a fundamental weakness in our political system." He cites the putting off hard decisions for another day, scoring political points instead of rolling up up sleeves to solve real problems, an impatience that is only worsened by the 24 hour news cycle, and a short attention span that focusses on the immediate results and on poll numbers. And there is too much responding to the "tempest of the moment until the furor has died away and the media coverage has moved on, instead of confronting the major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focussed way." After these 12 weeks President Obama says, for the first time there are glimmers of hope, and way off in the distance can be seen a vision of America's future that is far different than its troubled past. And citing the parable in the Sermon on the Mount about that "house built on a rock", he sees America's house built on a rock, a house for which we use this moment to lay a new foundation, come together and begin the hard work of rebuilding, persisting and persevering in the face of disappointments and setbacks that surely lie ahead. Then he has no doubt "that this house will stand and the dreams of our founders will live on in our time." Its a remarkable speech in its directness, its simplicity in approaching the subject, and its borrowing from the Bible for that story of that house built on a rock, and its Lincolnesque reference to the house that will stand. And more than a speech, it describes a vision, and the set of actions and steps taken and to be taken to get there. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
It looks likely that after ignoring the chances of the former Iraqi army disappearing in the war and becoming insurgents the Bush administration military has now embraced them in the form of Awakening groups in Anbar province, initially with tribal groups with ageold traditions predating even Islam but now more dangerously in Baghdad itself with former members of the Baathist military. The tribal groups have limited loyalties but are not friendly to the Shiite led government and fight among themselves. But the Baghdad Sunnis who have already suffered from the Shiite led national police and militas are hostile to the Shiite led government. This is why the movement is growing so quickly as the war against the Americans is turning into an effort by Sunnis of all kinds of politics to turn their attention to the eventual conflict that they see with the Shiites. These Awakening Groups are numbering some 65000 and could quickly reach 100,000 and are watched suspiciously by the SHiite led army and police who refuse to integrate them into the army and police making them more likely to look to money from elsewhere once the Americans stop paying them. The Americans for their part are paying them $300 per month which will cost the US military budget some 234 million dollars and save a lot of American lives and give the US already convinced that this is quite possibly a civil war situation not entirely of its own making , an opportunity to have cover for a withdrawal that shows honorable intentions to Sunni and Shiite alike. The American officers clearly say that once they withdraw there won't be anybody to administer the contracts. Would other Sunni countries like the Saudis step in with economic aid. This is a possibility. This may be why some Iraqis are actually now going back home from overseas, adefacto partition is already taking place, And the Awakening groups only provide the safety to Sunnis in their Baghdad neighborhoods. from the Shiite led police and army. Why would'nt the US simply recognize the defacto situation call it partition or anything else, its the defacto situation. Is it because that leaves most of the oil in Shiite or Kurdish areas, Basra and Kirkuk? But in effect thats what the defacto situation is because most of the oil production as figures show is from the South Oil Company in the Shiite south. See the link to the recent article WSJ Dec 13, 2007, on oil production numbers from the South Oil Company and in the north. Of 2.5 million barrels 2 million barrels came from South Oil and 500,000 from the north. Not much of the oil money is going to the Sunni areas anyway and the national government members are not willing to even meet with the Sunni representatives in some areas. From the larger standpoint of oil supply in world markets and oil prices this means that the current increase supply into world markets will see two new phases. For a while there will be good supply as the insurgency settles down to prepare for a sunni led government in sunni areas under cover of US protection and withdrawal because violence against pipelines ect will diminish. The when the US withdraws this production will decline for a period as the sunnis and shiites form their own separate governments. After that as peace settles down on the region in a kind of coexistence of sunni and shiite governments oil production in Iraq will see a modernization and significant increase. As the new Shhite government will need a lot of money to fund reconstruction of its areas Iraq may hav an incentive to really bump up production like the Russians did afterthe Yeltsin chaotic years. Note that of the $2.4 billion oil investment budget for 2007, only 30% of this was spent in 2007 according to the link WSJ Dec 13, 2007, even though the industry is using dilapidated and old equipment and facilities and badly needs investment, so the impact of a real modernization and investment once the country's Shiiites and Sunnis have their own governments and coexist and peace settles in the region would be huge increase in oil supply. In this sense this is why its been so difficult to understand oil prices and supplies. Twisters have been thrown into the works for the Iraq area because of the civil war situaton and for Iran the nuclear situation and the rhetoric simply complicated matters even as Iranian production was declining and its internal demand growing. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Modernizing India's construction industry may be one of the keys to keeping global growth from slowing down significantly. Here's why. If China slows down significantly after almost two decades of breakneck growth since the 1990's, as nothing like that goes on forever and China is facing significant environmental challenges, skilled workers and managerial talent constraints, and demands for fair treatment and compensation for workers, that stem from this uncontrolled and haphazard growth and export drive. This would leave India as a potentially large engine for world growth if properly managed, a role China has played alongside the USA for so long. India's infrastructure is one of the critical hurdles to achieving this potential. And neither India or the world can afford not to overhaul India's construction industry which is a roadblock to accomplishing what needs to be done in infrastructure. As described here more than 80% of the people in the construction industry are unskilled workers, usually working as day laborers or migrant workers in tiny crews. The other 20% - the carpenters, welders, painters, tile layers, pipe fitters, brick layers, and other skilled trade workers, are becoming harder to recruit and those unskilled workers that receive basic training by companies like Reliance are keen on looking for better opportunities in the Gulf region. The unskilled workers work at construction sites with little training are mainly workers coming from agricultural areas and villages for better wages and living conditions. One of the striking things about Indian construction sites is the use of few machines with most of the unskilled workers, men and women, carrying loads of bricks on their heads, digging holes with shovels and cutting steel bars with mallets and moving sand with spades. There is a huge opportunity for foreign and Indian manufacturers of construction equipment and rapidly increasing production within India of all types of construction equipment should be one of the first things to be tackled. Special incentives by the government and efforts should be made to bring new foreign and domestic investment and plants for construction equipment. Big construction firms that handle large projects, construction equipment manufacturers worldwide and domestic firms interested in investing, and firms involved in large construction projects throughout the country should be brought together in executing the plans for modernization of the construction industry. Training of unskilled workers chosen and recruited for aptitude, discipline and interest in learning new skills from villages as opposed to just working with "nakas" should be initiated in large numbers. A new vocational training system should be initiated borrowing from ideas of systems in countries that have excelled in this in Europe such as Germany so that workers can go straight from villages or urban areas to vocational schools for training in a craft or trade in the construction industry or in the manufacturing industry. And living conditions have to be improved for workers so that skilled workers see advantages in remaining in India rather than leave their families behind for work in the Gulf, and unskilled workers have the basic but good living conditions, access to clean water, basic but decent housing, and clean toilets and showers, and kitchen facilities. One thing is clear one cannot reach organized and well though out development goals on the back of such a haphazard and ineffective sytem of using the human and machine resources in the best possible manner, and free markets and capitalism may not be the best guide in this matter. China's example may not be a good guide in this matter either. There has to be a better way where treating people right and using the most intelligent use of resources brings better results than haphazard approach as with week by week recruiting through "nakas" and minimal use of machines, and recycling of agricultural labor through free markets in labor. The haphazard approach rejects the idea that the training, the discipline and the well thought out approach on recruiting training and best use of human resources without losing sight of costs can lead to superior and continually improving results. The continual improvement and better methods in the construction industry would free up the infrastructure bottleneck and hurdle to growth. Then it would be best to take an original path to development which would be true to the Indian character and spirit and emphasis on education and thoughtful way of doing things, which means that India should make an efficient use of its human and machine resources, and take advantage of all its human resources and intelligent approaches to develop industry and agriculture and avoid the waste in human resources. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Union leaders at plants more receptive to the VEBA, Voluntary Employees Benefit trust.Trust funding at discounted rate an issue. The VEBA could work both ways if its short on funds GM could step in, if it has more funds due a national health care plan being passed then GM could have access to liquidity from the VEBA. Meanwhile Clinton speech in Des Moines, Iowa on new Health Plan addresses the burden on GM to fund retirees health and other costs in the range of 1600 dollars vs Toyota's 200 some dollars. Senator Clinton offers for Governnment to take up the burden of catastrophic coverage for the large companies like GM in her Plan. She also cites the Mayo Clinic study as example of a consensus on the need for action on health care.

LyrArc Article Gist
Inflation in countries like Turkey and Romania. In Turkey inflation reaches 9.2% in March and looking to be worsening. Both countries have high foreign debt and export prospects worsening so their situation is getting difficult. Turkey's interest rate is at 15.25% and the central Bank is not about to reduce rates because of inflation even as growth is flat. Complicating Turkey's problem even further the Turkish lira lost 30% of its value in May 2006 requiring higher interest rates to support the currency and aslo because a further weakening of currency would mean higher price for imports and higher inflation. The corporate sector in Turkey has been on a hard currency borrowing binge so devt servicing costs would rise with further weakening of the currency. meanwhile growth is sputtering in Turkey.

LyrArc Article Gist
How the southern states Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero are more like northern Guatemala and Monterey in the north resembles southern Texas creating two different looking countries within one country. The south is heavily indigenous with native peoples and votes for Lopez obrador who won 40% of the vote there compared to 27% for Calderon. Its the reverse in the north where Calderon won 43% of the vote and only 24% went to Obrador. So with this kind of a divide it makes it very difficult to make any progress on policy formulationa and execution and on reaching some agreement in the common interest. The practice of divisive politics is common throughout the Mexican political system so that much needed infrastructure and other development and investment remains unrealized.

LyrArc Article Gist
The problems in consumer spending, housing prices remain aeven after the crisis in the credit markets appears to have calmed down. And corporate bankruptcies and bond defaults remain a problem as well as the billions of the $945 billion IMF estimated losses that have not yet been taken. According to Standard and Poors some 122 issuers with debt around $102 billion are vulnerable to default. Even if like Rip Van Winkle one slept through the Bear Stearns crisis and the financial crisis one would things largely similiar to that before the current settling of the credit markets and the dangers to consumer spending and from housing price declines and foreclosures, corporate bankruptcies and corporate bond defaults and more losses not previously revealed, much the same as before and just as dangerous as before.