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US energy policy in cars showed the Detroit automakers falling way behind the Europeans and the Japanese in this chart.
07/06/2008
Detroit automakers sticking with the status quo let a wide gap build up in fuel efficiency and smaller cars with the Europeans and the Japanese. Upto the point that it became difficult for them to make a profitable small car because they had less expertise in that area.
Linked Articles
American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot
New York Times 07/06/2008
GM plans $500M for 45-mpg small carDetroit News 08/22/2008
American driving habits and preferences are finally beginning to change in 2008 as oil prices reach $4.00 to $4.70 per gallon.
06/19/2008
Americans miles driven reached 3 trillion miles by 2007 and now are headed downward for the first time in 10 years. its affecting car prteferences in favor of smaller cars and changing driver habits.
Linked Articles
The Smaller the Better, Automakers Are Finding
New York Times 06/20/2008
Driving Less, Americans Finally React to Sting of Gas Prices, a Study SaysNew York Times 06/19/2008
Differing timelines for Bill Ford and Mullaly at Ford and Wagoner at GM in their shift to smaller cars.
06/04/2008
GM was late in the shift to smaller cars than Ford even as the shift was taking place. Both companies though remained mired in a decades long stagnation in fuel efficency even as companies like Honda moved forward, and as the gap with the Europeans and the Japanese in the technology and skills of making small cars widened.
Linked Articles
G.M. Closing 4 Plants in Shift From Trucks Toward Cars
New York Times 06/04/2008
Bill Ford on Tipping Points and Thinking SmallBusinessWeek 07/31/2008
Imbalances in the global economy that will take time to correct- the situation in the U.S., Europe and emerging markets in 2012-2013
05/05/2008
The perception that "this time is different" is a typical behavioural reaction in history to to financial crises studied by Rogoff and Reinhart. Economic weakness is part of the mechanism for correcting global imbalances which happens over a number of years.
Linked Articles
Economy May Face Prolonged Pain, History Suggests
Wall Street Journal 05/05/2008
Boom, Bust. Repeat.Wall Street Journal 10/09/2009
BMW, Benz and luxury retailers Saks, Nordstrom face declining luxury consumption.
04/30/2008
Sales at luxury retailers full priced stores are flat or declining while their factory outlets are seeing increased sales. BMW and Mercedes are taking writedowns for the drop in the value of their secondhand leased cars in the USA. This reflects declining economic conditions in April 2008.
Linked Articles
Profit Hurt, BMW Diverts Cars From U.S.
Wall Street Journal 04/30/2008
Luxury Retailers Pin Hopes on OutletsWall Street Journal 04/30/2008
ACA- Insuring the CDO's
04/03/2008
The insurance itself was not insurance but a chance to use different accounting rules to take the issuance of collateralized debt obligations to new heights. ACA was an outfit by the river issuing flood insurance. It had an A rating and was supposed to insure AAA securities.
Linked Articles
BusinessWeek 04/03/2008
Building WonderlandNew York Times 04/06/2008
Sheila Bair at FDIC has proposal to help homeowners similiar to Feldstein's
03/07/2008
Sheila Bair 's proposal to help homeowners is similar to what Martin Feldstein proposed on the pages of WSJ on March 7, 2008. About 2 months later FDIC proposes to take action to help homeowners by offering homeowners with debt to income ratios above 40%, a loan from the government for 20% of their loan amount with no interest charged for the first 5 years, and loan payments required to be lowered to affordable numbers.
Linked Articles
How to Stop the Mortgage Crisis
Wall Street Journal 03/07/2008
Bair Proposal Seeks Government Loans To Aid HomeownersWall Street Journal 04/30/2008
Nokia in Emerging Markets.
01/25/2008
How Nokia stayed ahead of the market and with new competitors like Apple's Iphone and stayed ahead of the rapid changes in the cell phone market, customers needs, new ways of using the phones, and new technologies and software changing the way cellphones are used every 1-2 years.
Linked Articles
Motorola to Spin Off Handset Unit, As Icahn Waits
Wall Street Journal 02/01/2008
Nokia Earnings Jump on Emerging MarketsWall Street Journal 01/25/2008
IBM's aggressive internationalization.
01/15/2008
The aggressive internationalization plan of IBM. How its being executed and the financial results that show this in 4th quarter 2008 with 10% gain in revenues and 24% in profits.
Linked Articles
Foreign Sales Help I.B.M. to a Strong Quarter
New York Times 01/15/2008
IBM Sales, Profit Give Tech a Healthier LookWall Street Journal 01/15/2008
Two pioneers in the car industry, one Tata Motors in very small economical cars from India and the other BYD in economical electric cars fro China.
01/08/2008
BYD and Tata Motors are pioneers in economical small cars and electric cars. Both have a good shot at accomplishing their goals and taking leadership position in their field because of the low cost high quality technical manpower they have, the vision of the head of the company, and the early start.
Linked Articles
Technology Levels Playing Field in Race to Market Electric Car
Wall Street Journal 01/12/2009
Four Wheels for the Masses: The $2,500 CarNew York Times 01/08/2008
The military and civilian leadership in Pakistan for six decades since independence and the U.S. involvement in S. Asia
01/06/2008
Militancy shifts to a younger generation of leaders in the border provinces of Pakistan, Baluchistan, Northwest Frontier province and Waziristan. Taliban was a creation of the Pakistan army to create strategic depth for Pakistan by getting a Islami militant run organization take over Afghanistan after the Russians left. It has turned into a complete mess as that militancy has spread to Pakistan's border provinces.
Linked Articles
New York Times 01/06/2008
Next-Gen TalibanNew York Times 01/06/2008
The Class of 1977 in China -with the first competitive university entrance exams in 12 years- and Li Keqiang
01/06/2008
China's new prime minister in 2013 is from the Class of 1977, when there was a huge burst of energy as students looked with great excitement to gaining knowledge after a decade when learning and books were suppressed.
Linked Articles
1977 Exam Opened Escape Route Into China’s Elite
New York Times 01/06/2008
Next Premier Came of Age in Era of OpennessWall Street Journal 11/16/2012
Reform at Pemex and opening up Mexico's oil industry to foreign investment held up for a decade and the cost to the Mexican economy
12/19/2007
Reforms at Pemex and opening up the oil industry to foreign investment were held up in the Calderon administration after repeated efforts by the PAN party government to get the PRI and PRD's support. The final changes to the bill to make it more attractive for foreign oil companies to compete with Pemex were pushed by PAN in alliance with the PRI Nieto administration in 2013. The cost to Mexico is a lost decade in oil exploration in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and a steep decline in oil revenues as Mexico turned into a net energy importer in March 2013, according to the WSJ.
Linked Articles
Economist 12/19/2007
How Shale Helped Frack Mexico's Energy ImpasseWall Street Journal 12/12/2013
CarMax used SUV and truck prices for early months of 2008 show stunning declines prompting GM rethinking its entire product lineup.
06/19/2008
CarMax, a used car retailer says price declines for SUV's and pickup trucks were severe in early months of 2008 with a 25% decline. The declines were sharpest in May and early June suggesting that things could get very bad for carmakers which don't make an abrupt and dramatic shift away from these types of vehicles.
Linked Articles
GM Puts Off Truck, SUV Redesigns In New Focus
Wall Street Journal 06/19/2008
Grim CarMax News Hits Auto MakersWall Street Journal 06/19/2008
The Honda Civic becomes the best selling brand marking the shift to smaller cars.
06/04/2008
The Japanese carmakers pass the Detroit carmakers in sales with smaller models like the Honda Civic leading the way. Bill Ford talks about his and Mullaly's committment to a shift to smaller cars.
Linked Articles
In a First, Asian Autos Outsold Detroit’s in May
New York Times 06/04/2008
Bill Ford on Tipping Points and Thinking SmallBusinessWeek 07/31/2008
The race to emission free or low emissions vehicles
05/10/2008
Daimler and Renault-Nissan are comitted to setting emission free or low emissions as critical goals and setting up the execution and plan to achieve this.
Linked Articles
Nissan Plans Electric Car in U.S. by ’10
New York Times 05/13/2008
At Daimler, Sales Follow the World’s Oil RichesNew York Times 05/10/2008
The agreement won by Jerry Brown for 11 states against Countrywide/Bank of America to address foreclosures.
04/30/2008
The agreement won by 11 states from bank of America to devote $8 billion for mortgage relief and help homeowners facing foreclosures was a landmark agreement as little had happened in the way of relief for homeowners except for efforts by Sheila Barr at IndyMac in the way of comprehensive relief proposals for homeowners.
Linked Articles
Bair Proposal Seeks Government Loans To Aid Homeowners
Wall Street Journal 04/30/2008
Countrywide to Set Aside $8.4 Billion in Loan AidNew York Times 10/06/2008
Greenspan and his philosophy that let him take such an ambitious experiment in unrestrained markets.
04/08/2008
Grennspan took huge risks in his ambitious experiment with the American economy of a philosophy that simply said allow markets to operate unrestrained and trust in humans benevolent intentions and enlightened self interest. Goodman and Ip document the details. Did he believe that there was something miraculous that would prevent things from imploding, something inherently sacred about an idea of markets, when plain common sense like Buffets said that the arithmetic did not add up and in the end thats all that counts common sense.
Linked Articles
Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy
New York Times 10/09/2008
His Legacy Tarnished, Greenspan Goes on DefensiveWall Street Journal 04/08/2008
How parttime workers are shaping the unemployment picture in the US.
03/08/2008
Just as happened in Japan and continues to this day parttime workers are shaping the USA unemployment picture as employers increasingly resort to parttime workers to cut costs. With underutilized workers the USA unemployment rate reached 12% in October 2008.
Linked Articles
Labor Data Show Pain Across Economy
Wall Street Journal 11/08/2008
More People Pushed Into Part-Time Work ForceWall Street Journal 03/08/2008
Rising price of products Made in China on American retail shelves.
01/31/2008
China's demand for energy is not going to go down that much so expect continued pressure on oil prices and on inflation from China in addition to the increase of about 10% in prices of Chinese goods on retail shelves in the USA in 2008 as wages and raw material costs rise.
Linked Articles
China’s Inflation Hits American Price Tags
New York Times 02/01/2008
China's Impact On Oil Prices: Not So MuchWall Street Journal 01/31/2008
The decline of Motorola's mobile phone business.
01/24/2008
Nokia and Motorola how one followed up and came up with a viable strategy and the other just let things slip after the Razr a one time hit with no followup and no clear direction. Nokia set the direction and tone in the emerging markets and took the lead.
Linked Articles
Nokia Earnings Jump on Emerging Markets
Wall Street Journal 01/25/2008
Without a Hit Razr Sequel, Profit Drops for MotorolaNew York Times 01/24/2008
Starbucks losing its upscale appeal with rapid expansion
01/08/2008
Among the changes in the mass market downscaling of Starbucks was the introduction of hot breakfast sandwiches. Schultz did not like the smell of the sanwiches taking away the aroma of coffees that was a key part of the Starbucks experience.
Linked Articles
Schultz Takes Over to Try to Perk Up Starbucks
Wall Street Journal 01/08/2008
Starbucks Shares Rise as CEO ReturnsWall Street Journal 01/09/2008
How McDonalds has changed by borrowing ideas from Starbucks and from the next generation of franchisees
01/07/2008
McDonald's takes the ideas of baristas from Starbucks and gets ideas for picture based ordering, credit card payment and community event participation from younger franchisees. Along the way it is trying to change perception of the chain as not being healthy eating. A lot remains to be done to move away from the super size obsesson.
Linked Articles
McDonald's Takes On A Weakened Starbucks
Wall Street Journal 01/07/2008
'Super Size Me' Generation Takes Over at McDonald'sWall Street Journal 03/08/2012
Pakistan, Jinnah and the dominant role of the military in the state
01/06/2008
It takes a deep knowledge of a place to know why things are turning out the way they are. Part knowledge of history, sidelining of Muslims after the British drove out the Mughals, knowledge of choices, choice of a separate state on religious lines, the creation of Pakistan, and knowledge of the cast of characters, Mohammed Ali Jinnah of the Muslim League whose picture here and his manners show a person aloof and more fitted to the British era,and the generals Ayub,Yahya, Zia and Musharraf.
Linked Articles
New York Times 01/06/2008
In Musharraf’s Shadow, a New Hope for Pakistan RisesNew York Times 01/07/2008
Pakistan, Islamist politicians and expectations for better lives in the modern world
01/04/2008
The older politicians who are sobering up to the realities even in the border provinces are not for militancy, and badly want better health care, and hospitals. No one will turn down better infrastructure and standards of living and employment.
Linked Articles
New York Times 01/06/2008
Islamist Politicians Emerge As Pakistan's Power BrokersWall Street Journal 01/04/2008
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