LyrArc Article Gist
The caretaker government of prime minister Mark Rutte in the Netherlands will commit to following austerity plans in its Stability Program report to the European Union. Elections are now set for September 12, 2012. The government was able to get the support of two smaller left-leaning parties to austerity plans. Opposition parties have questioned the policies and said they will reverse them if elected. Rutte's Liberal party and Jaeger's Christian Democrats, with the help of the Christenunie, D66, and Groenlinks, now hold a slim 2 seat majority in the 150 seat Dutch parliament. The Freedom party that had previously supported Rutte withdrew support for austerity policies that it said would hurt pensioners. The moves help avert a credit ratings drop by the credit ratings agencies leading to a loss of the Dutch triple A credit rating. The measures will increase the sales tax from 19% to 21%, make health care spending cuts and impose a pay freeze on civil servants. Savings achieved will be 11 billion euros. Rutte described his actions as: "the government's respose to the acute crisis in confidence in the financial markets." Earlier in the week Fitch Ratings had threatened to lower the Netherlands credit rating. The measures will reduce the Dutch deficit to 3% in 2013 from 4.5% in 2012 to meet EU fiscal compact rules. The changes to the health system are part of changes advocated by the OECD and the IMF because of surging health care costs for an aging Dutch population. There is concern about the sales tax increase because of its effect on consumer spending, and recent comments by S&P managing directors and others in financial markets emphasize the need for economic growth, as austerity measures by itself are inadequate solutions....

LyrArc Article Gist
Results at Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas, show that a low cost conversion to electronic medical records by using the VA system's open software and having computer software companies adapt it to Midland's needs. This cost Midland $7 million and has resulted in many benefits. Senator Rockefeller is introducing legislation to promote the use of this open software for conversion to electronic medical records. Medsphere chairman Kenneth Kizer, former undersecretary ohealth care at the VA oversaw the development of VIstA software. He says its enhanced version called Open Vist A, "can be installed in one third the timeand for about one thrid the cost of the big-name proprietary systems." There is alot to be said for open software as this would enable hospitals and clinics acoross the country talk to each other and pull up records and sen them electronically, wich is hard to do when different systems of differnt commerical vendors interact. If Midland Memorial is any guide there are huge savings in the conversion. By enabling access instantly of patient records, lab results and Xray images, there are a huge array of benefits. It helped Midland catch up with a$16.7 million coding and billing backlog for 4,500 patient records in 4 weeks instead of 5-6 months. In the 18 months since the system was made hospital wideinfection rates dropped 88%, because of guidelines in the record system that prompted nurses to follow infection control procedures, such as changing dressing or following procedures when inserting a new IV. That is huge. Bed sores were reduced from electronic prompting to nurses to turn patients.And Midland increased by 77%in staff compliancewith guidelinesfor care for patientson ventilators, which if not followed could lead to pheumonia....

LyrArc Article Gist
Changes Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella is making in the pharmaceutical business. He has hired Joe Jimenez, who is running Novartis's consumer health care business to be the new pharmaceutical division chief. Jimenez previously worked at packaged goods companies including H.J. Heinz Company. Jimenez is cutting 25% of the jobs at pharmaceutical division's headquarters in Basel to reduce bureaucracy and costs. In March he promoted Trevor Mundel and Andrin Oswald, 2 young executives, to head the drug developmet group which puts drugs through human testing and submits them for regulatory approval. This group had become too bureaucratic and slow to move and take initiative. To improve its functioning Jimenez is organizing it into small teams with each team assigned an experimental drug in Novartis's pipeline. Each team of 8 people including physicians, experts in regulatory affairs and marketing and toxicologists work together to spot potential safety issues early and discuss them with regulators to determine whether to put the drug through expensive clinical trials. Each team takes the responsibility to take its drug to the market. The pharmaceutical unit is also being organized to be more nimble. It solicits health systems early on whether its willing to pay for drugs. And Jimenez has startd 4 pilot projects in tough markets to improve relationships with payers, including the Pacific Northwest where Novartis has offered to train an HMO's nurses in aspects of heart disease. Vasella supports the generics division of Sandoz because the growth is in generics, with generics commanding 60% of the prescription volume in Germany and USA, and sales for generics up 25% this year in the generics division. And Novartis paid $39 billion for Alcon, a eye care company. Its also working aggressively in the vaccines business, which like generics enjoys double digit growth. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
There is a difference between the two candidiates. Most of Obama's tax policies are vague or not clear. This risks having higher taxes costing more than $648 billion over 10 years according to the Tax Policy Center. Taxpayers would shrink from 62% to 50% of households and there would be a hodge podge of tax credits. On energy McCain is pushing for nuclear energy and Obama is not giving this option enough importance. Obama would probably give more importance to higher taxes and redistribution of income and building infrastructure but sweeping changes in taxes increasing taxes for the middle class and having many tax credits is something that needs careful thought not to reverse the positive benefits of lower taxes and simpler tax code improvements of recent years. With Obama fuzzy on how much the tax system would be changed and its impact on the middle class and working class it will be a question on voter's minds. Because some way has to be found to pay for increased spending on infrastructure and healthcare. And though its largely accepted that something effective has to be done for health care for middle and working classes in the country its important that it be well thought out and free of special interests on one hand and free of political bias so that creative and useful solutions can be be made to take advantage of the unique situation the United States is in. Its not clear that the junior Senator has the experience and the understanding of this vast subject that would be needed to come up with the right system of health care for this country as any hastily put together solutions would not be likely to be the best ones....

LyrArc Article Gist
The new diesel Jetta from Volkswagen is gointo into all 50 states and meets the ultra strict standards for emissions of California. The same is true of the European diesel Honda Accord that is coming to the USA, and the BMW 335i and other models that all run on diesel. The economics is better than gasoline per mile its 15-20% cheaper and compared to hybrids diesels offer a better deal because the premium is less and the payback period for the extra cost is faster, in the case of the MercedesE320 Bluetec diesel $1400 and 2 year payback, vs the Camry hybrid premium of $3800 and with gas at $3 per gallon 3 to 8 years for payback. And hybrids only offer buel economy but diesel offers both fuel economy and performance like the BMW 335i with 265 hp and 33mpg on highway. Because of this new attractiveness of diesel its share of the market is expected to grow to 15% in 2015 in the USA from 6% now and hybrids are expected to go from 2.2% today to 6% by then.

LyrArc Article Gist
Across Africa the situation is worsening for food security following the pandemic. More people are likely to die from food insecurity than from the pandemic. A succession of crises including drought, a locust swarm moving over vast parts east Africa into South Asia, and tons of crops rotting in the field after the lockdowns, are making the situation worse. With the lockdowns many informal economy workers are not able to earn a living, with no safety net this means they are going without food and slipping deeper into poverty. Remittances from overseas supported many people in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and this has dropped by about 20-30%. As a result the World Food Program estimated in April that 265 million people, double that in 2019 will face world hunger- 3 in every 100 in the world. About 821 million will face food insecurity. The world food system is fragile with just none plant species accounting for two thirds the global crop, with threats of soil erosion, rising temperatures, extreme weather and disease. Wars, high inflation, political struggles, and conflicts make things worse. The hope comes from the fact that this time the largest countries China and India are emerging in 2020 very different from what they faced for most of the nineteenth century, with recurring famines and lack of access to food supplies. India now even allows farmers to export food to buyers in other countries directly. Getting money into the hands of farmers and people in food insecurity areas is one way for them to access existing food supplies all over the world. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
SDP candidate Olaf Scholz is seen as the most convincing of the candidates, and ahead of the Green's Baerbock and CDU's Laschet in a poll following the 90 minute television debate on German television. Scholz maintained an unperturbed demeanor as he responded to an attack from Laschet on a money laundering investigation being conducted on the finance ministry. He said Scholz was presenting a misleading picture because it was centered on the possibly illegal activities of a single employee in Cologne. He added that he had increased the financial oversight at the ministry since he took over in 2018. Looking at the problems facing German industry, and the challenges from climate change facing Germany,  Scholz had this to say on the scale of the effort needed in renewable energy- "We have 250 years of economic and industrial history behind us, based on coal, gas, and oil. And if we are to change that now that means we have to do an awful lot, for it to really work." The SPD goes into the election at this point with a six point lead over CDU. SPD at 26% vs CDU at 20%, Greens at 15%, in the INSA poll. The election debate on television continues to give SPD and Scholz the confidence needed to stay ahead. Unlike the period facing Merkel Germany after the pandemic faces challenges in social, safety net, child care, climate change, and foreign policy that require new thinking and ability to tackle new frontiers. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Tokyo has the reputation for being the city with the longest working hours. Overwork leading to death has a term for it in Japan- "karoshi." But this is changing. Recent studies show Mumbai as the city with the longest working hours per worker per year at 3315 hours. The Japanese government had a law passed this year limiting legal overtime work to 45 hours a month, with an extension in busy periods to 100 hours for a maximum of 6 months. Yet the culture is taking time to change, even though long hours often leads to low productivity. It does not mean productivity is high in Mumbai or Tokyo. Dublin, Ireland has one of the highest productivity scores, workers in Dublin worked 1856 hours a year and still created $84 in GDP every hour- compared to this in Mexico City the third hardest working city had only $18 in GDP per hour. This is calculated by dividing GDP by the hours worked. Occupational health psychologists say working longer hours can be less productive because of the drain on performance, resulting in poor concentration, memory and compromised problem solving and creativity. The lack of rest means resources are not replenished with rest, and can deteriorate physical and mental health. Singapore a fairly liveable city has the highest percentage of people working more than 48 hours per week, in a Kisi study. Suggestion for work life balance include taking holidays and short breaks, and switching off from work mentally, using mindfulness and meditation. Practicing self-compassion and prioritizing self-care is needed. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Analysts say the 11.7 billion in cash Chrysler has and the $6 billion in savings generated from merging both companies operations is what GM is interested in not Chrysler's models and plants. GM needs $10.3 billion in fresh cash till next year according to Barclays Capital analyst Brian Johnson, at which point savings from a union contract and sales boost from models like the Chevy Cruze and Volt extended electric car could kick in. Its Chrysler's cash that GM needs in the current dire circumstances.

LyrArc Article Gist
Its clear from the task force's rejection of the plan GM submitted in March 2009, that the restructuring at GM was moving too slowly, too many brands, too many dealerships, no clear idea of what the new GM should look like. And a wistful look back to the past that clouded every decision. Wagoner and his team could not leave the old GM behind and clung onto too many brands, plants, dealerships, and sales numbers that were too optimistic at every turn of the economy, even as they were lowered. The task force said GM was "far too slow" to adapt and that "a substantially mmore aggressive restructuring plan" was required. That GM was just a year ago 2008 about this time still thinking in terms of sales numbers that would match Toyota's, as the largest carmaker in the world, shows how this wistful looking back at the past may have blinded GM to all the potentially dangerous bets that it was making, wihtout realizing it. Bets that the huge gap between the US carmakers and the Japanese and the Europeans in fuel efficiency and the technologies that went with it, would not someday come to hurt GM. Bets that the numbers game could be played without huge risks, that incentives related sales couild simply be inflating the market now with bigger risks ahead. That simply relying on sales revenue to support unsustainable retiree and union costs would be another dangerous bet on unsustainable sales numbers of a16 million market. The other large industrialized societies were seeing shrinking car sales, Japan, Germany, are prime examples, where sales are nowhere what they were at the peak in the postwar recovery of these industrialized countries. See the links/groups to these two countries car markets. Had GM considered the prospect of similiar declines in the US? Even if the car sales had remained at levels much lower than 16 million without the consumer buying spree and incentives, the market would be shrinking, the sales inflation simply made the sales fall that much steeper, hitting the 40% range. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Toyota seeing the American market in sharp decline has finally realized the need to build up manufacturing capacity in India. Today it ranks seventh in sales in India behind Suzuki and Honda. Its market share actuallly slipped in 2003 to 3.5% from 4.7% partly because it neglected having a lowpriced small car in its lineup. Toyota sees the Indian market growing in the long term even though it is slowing down this year with effects of the global credit and economic crisis. In 2007 Toyota sold 54,000 vehicles in India. It now plans to increase sales to 400,000 vehicles by 2015 or about 10% of the projected passenger car market of 4 million vehicles by 2015. To do this it plans to add new models, including a lower cost car and open a plant with capacity of 100,000 vehicles a year. It is also opening a Technical Training Institute. In September Honda plans to open a technical college. And other carmakers have formed partnerships with India's technical institutes for training. What it hopes to do is instill lessons of discipline, for instance exercizes are part of the routine and inspections are made at morning exercizes to ensure that hair, uniform and other details conform to Toyota standards. It teaches subjects like math, English and Japanese as well as teaching skills in welding auto assembly and maintenance. And it teaches lessons in company principles of eliminating waste, continuous improvement and consensus building. And it teaches hard work and resilience with one sign on the campus reading "small drops of water make a mighty ocean", reminding one of the power of small individual efforts combined and organized over long periods of time to build great things, like Toyota's own efforts from its humble beginnings from scratch in the thirties. To get the right kind of person for training Toyota looks for about 180 junior high school graduates from poor farming families from a large pool of applicants, who would be open to new ideas and training, and have the right kind of temperament and discipline and intelligence to make good factory employees in a Toyota type production system of continuous improvement and cooperative effort....

LyrArc Article Gist
The media fails to give a clear complete picture of effects, context, concept behind tariffs and AI won't know. Effects on inflation- June inflation is 2.7% compared to May inflation of 2.4%. The central bank head, Fed chairman Powell has not cut rates to gauge the effect on inflation with new data. Powell says the US economy is strong and inflation remains low. US Market access fee-The US and overseas media including WSJ has not pointed out that the tariffs agreed to by Japan, European Union and South Korea of 15% are really not tariffs but a fee these countries and their business sectors in major industries such as autos and machinery, pay to access the US market. DJT, USTR Greer, Treasury's Bessent expect these companies to not increase prices. Fairness: US had 2.8% tariff on cars EU had 10% since 1980's. Rebates will go to some income groups. Rebates- In the one third of products in clothing, shoes etc of the $50 billion in tariffs for first half 2024 where about 5% price increase is passed on to consumers as shown in WSJ report this is likely offset by rebates to certain income groups. DJT says- “The big thing we want to do is pay down debt, but we’re thinking about a rebate. We have so much money coming in from tariffs that a little rebate for people of a certain income level might be really nice.”     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The trade deficit with China has led to loss of 3.8 million jobs, 75% of them or 2.9 million in manufacturing. Go back to 1990 and Beijing was a city of bicycles not cars. If Beijing shifted to a open economy and simply imported products from the US and Europe as it had done since 1700 it would have remained a backward agricultural economy. It took 20 years of focused effort after 2000 for China with US technological assistance to excel in manufacturing, as the US had done after 1920. Can or cannot the US excel in Manufacturing with its own focused effort and restore jobs and decent wages to the American people, that is the question. That a $1 trillion deficit that has already destroyed the US manufacturing and its capacity to defend itself by rapidly building up the US Navy, is that not an emergency, then what is, is also the question, and the role, the duty, of the president of the US in such a situation. The federal appeals court has allowed the DJT Tariffs to remain in place till it goes to the US Supreme Court. Today May 30 the WSJ in a front page article shown here says the one California shipyard could assemble a supply ship in 5 days in 1942. China's independence in the fight against Imperial Japan and the Kwantung Army's adventures, and the independence of Europe in the 1940's depended on this vital US capacity. Is this forgotten? FDR acted step by step by 1938 to restore the US lost capacity at that time, what is the role of the president today? ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Guardian's Greenhouse says the UAW sees the tariff action with 25% tariff on cars imported into the US starting April 2 2025, as a positive step.  Shawn Fain of the UAW who had the support of president Biden during his term 2020-2024 says DJT's actions match those taken by Biden to help working class Americans and the middle class. Supporting the president “for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working-class communities for decades”. “Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions.” Greenhouse is concerned that the way it is being implemented can create problems with tariffs on one day and off the next. The reason for the on again off again action was to give Mexico, Canada, and China time to respond with action they have not taken on fentanyl flows into the US, and Mexico time to address migrant trafficking across its borders. The US International Trade Commission study in 2024 on the 25% tariff on US auto imports cited by BBC shows it would reduce imports by 75%, increase prices by a modest 5%, and increase revenues of auto makers in the US by 5%. Figures such as prices going up by $6000 may apply to BMW's that are imported from Germany and carry high price tags for a very small very affluent customer group unrepresentative of the US automobile market. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Speaking on national television in the U.S., President Obama outlined his plans for action relating to the BP Gulf Oil Spill. He is appointing former Mississippi governor Ray Mabus, as head of a Gulf Resoration program to work in cooperation with communities, conservationists, fishermen, and local residents. Obama also said he will tell the chairman of BP's board, Carl Henric-Svanberg, that he will have to set aside resources for compensating workers and business owners who have suffered through this Oil Spill. The White House wants to see an escrow account for this purpose and is negotiating this- the amount varies from an estimate of $20 billion by Senate Democrats to other estimates. Other action was appointment of Michael Bromwich, as head of the Minerals Management Service.

LyrArc Article Gist
Ford's North American operations reported a pretax profit of $1.6 billion for the 3rd quarter 2010. Revenue went up to $16.2 billion from $13.4 billion in the prior year. Ford sold 145,534 F-series pickup trucks, a 25% increase from the same quarter prior year. Worldwide Ford Motor reported a profit of $1.7 billion. Ford will pay down its revolving credit line by $2 billion and will make a cash payment of $3.6 billion this week to cover the last of its health-care trust obligations to Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (which covers 195,000 retirees and their spouses). The UAW controls the VEBA trust. These actions will reduce the company's overall debt to $22.8 billon, from $27.3 billion at the end of June 2010.

LyrArc Article Gist
The IPO is expected to bring $10 billion and reduce the government's stake to below 50%. The IPO plans for the shares to go for between $26 and $29. For the government to breakeven the shares have to rise to about $50. GM plans to sell 24% of its total shares for $10 billion at the midpoint of the estimated share price. Under the plan, Treasury would sell $7 billion of its shares cutting its stake to 35% from 61%. The UAW trust which pays for retiree health care, would sell $2 billion of its shares. Canada and Ontario would sell about $1 billion of their shares. The government will try to recoup some of the $49.5 billion given to GM.

LyrArc Article Gist
A proposal to transfer debt in excess of 60% of GDP of all eurozone countries into a single fund to be paid off in 25 years is gaining attention in Germany. It is seen as finding acceptance with Germany's Constitutional Court. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, says eurobonds are unconstitutional in Germany. Germany calls instead for greater European integration and transfer of powers from sovereign governments to a European banking supervisory authority. In early June 2012 discussions continued in Berlin between Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission and Angela Merkel of Germany. The German position is summarized in the words of German finance minister Schauble, when he said that Germany could not hand over its credit card to other countries.

LyrArc Article Gist
The breakdown of railways in Iraq. A major contribution of the European powers was the rail systems built throughout the Middle East and Asia. Iraqi Railways which once connected farflung provinces in the Middle East in Syria, Iraq and Turkey, is now in a dilapidated state after years of wars and conflict. Tim Arango visits the Baghdad Central Railway Station as a new Chinese built train leaves Baghdad for Basra. Most of the rest of the country is now not reachable by train. Mosul and the north is in a war zone with the ISIS and Kurdish army engaged in battles. A project manager at the station shows plans for a $60 billion new rail system that connects all of Iraq's cities.

LyrArc Article Gist
Taghreed's account in the NYT of a wounded surgeon caught in the crossfire in a Gaza City neighborhood, with his wife and child cut to pieces in an exchange of fire between suicidal fighters and an overpowering army on the other side. A reminder that the civilian side of the story in every war that goes on way beyond its time, the 60th year for Palestine, the 61st year for Kashmir, the 30th year in Afghanistan, is the story that is told less often and takes less print and television space than coverage of the hostilities and the war rhetoric. This continues to be the case even after fatigue sets in among the people from many years of conflict, casualties and the poverty that wars cause.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Fed over the past year has assumed, backstopped, or committed to take on about $2 trillion in assets from shaky financial institutions including Bear Stearns, AIG, Citigroup and Bank of America. In some cases the banks will assume some of the losses, or Treasury will accept some of the losses before the Fed comes into the picture. Another $1 trillion in lending could occur in 2009 as liquidity programs are tapped further by borrowers and the Fed purchases more bonds such as the ones sold by Fannie and Freddie, and securites backed by student loans, auto loans, credit card receivables and small business loans. This would result in a balance sheet for the Fed over 3 times what it was 18 months ago in mid 2007.