LyrArc Article Gist
Senator Warren says weak leadership at the S.E.C. is the reason for the lack of effective enforcement and lack of prosecution of individuals for financial wrongdoing.

LyrArc Article Gist
The resilience of U.S. large cap value stocks was shown in 2000-2002 and 2008-2009, and offered investors greater protection, according to research by Mark Hulbert of Hulbert Financial Digest.

LyrArc Article Gist
Vanguard Index funds attracted $233 billion in new investment in 2014, according to Morningstar. Of this $40 billion went into the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, $27.5 billion into the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund, and $9 billion into the Vanguard Total International Bond Market Index Fund. The poorer returns from actively managed funds with high fees and the PIMCO Total Return Fund led to this shift into index funds. For every $100 in investment with Vanguard index funds the cost in fees is about 18 cents compared to $1.24 in the average actively managed mutual fund, according to Morningstar.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Supreme Court of India cancelled the 122 telecom licenses issued by the government in 2008 at below market prices and called for a new auction in 4 months. It said the permits were given in a manner "arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest," and declared them "illegal and quashed."

LyrArc Article Gist
Raphael Minder points out one episode in the life of Emilio Botin that shows how intertwined Spain and Santander had become. During the period when Spain took EU help after the collapse of Bankia bank in 2012 there was pressure on Spain to take a full government bailout. Finance minister Guindos says it was Botin who called him at that time and told him: "You know what you have to do and I will back you up." Botin's advice to the Spanish government was to resist the pressure. Botin expanded what was a family bank based in Santander in Northern Spain, through a series of successful acquisitions. He had a rare intuitive sense for timing of acquisitions, going into Brazil around the time candidate Lula of the Workers Party was elected president, with considerable uncertainty about how financial markets would respond to the election. About a quarter of the bank's profit now comes from Brazil. Besides Brazil Santander has commercial banking presence in Britain and the U.S., taking a bank that had 20 billion euros in assets in 1998 to 1.1 trillion euros by 2013, which is about the value of Spain's GDP....

LyrArc Article Gist
The PBOC, China's central bank, injects $65 billion into China's banking system in Dec. 2014 to get banks to increase lending as the economy slows further. Experts say the growth rate is likely to drop below 7%. At the same time the central bank and economic policy makers are concerned about excesssive debt in the economy, shadow banking and local government debt risks. It cut benchmark interest rates by 0.25% in 2014. Other risks are developing as the property market cools off and investors shift investment to equity markets creating a surge of 50% in the Shanghai and Shenzen stock exchanges for 2014. As a result economic policy is not as effective in today's environment.

LyrArc Article Gist
RIM reports selling 6 million smartphones in the 1st quarter of 2013, including 1 million Z10 smartphones. RIM says its Blackberry subscriber base dropped to about 76 million from 79 million the prior quarter. RIM reports earnings of $98 million, revenue declined to $2.68 billion from $4.18 billion the prior year quarter. The company's cash position at $2.9 billion was the same as the prior quarter.

LyrArc Article Gist
Fuel efficiency standards were left way below the rest of the world, just look at the graph showing Japan and Europe way above the US in fuel efficiency standards, and the US lagging behind badly. Europe and Japan with standards close to 40mpg vs the US below 30 mpg. Any sharp business person can tell one that if there was too big a gap, it would be a cause for serious concern, because the Japanese for instance would also have developed the technologies and manufacturing facilities to support the fuel efficiency standards. There were some serious dangers in falling behind. That is what has happened as the Japanese carmakers have take market share from the US in the American car market.