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Friedman says Mandela's moral authority comes from the way he trusted the people with the truth, not just what they wantd to hear, and from his humility. Friedman cites a scene in the movie Invictus on the 1995 Springboks effort to win the world rugby championship. Mandela played by Morgan Freeman tells the sports committee he won't go along with the idea of changing the name and colors of the Springboks. By attending the final rugby game and cheering for the team, Botha, a white Afrikaaner minister in Mandela's government, says Mandela forever won the hearts of white South Africans.

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Women in senior management positions at GM include Mary Barra, Melissa Howell, Anne Larin, Victor McInnis, Grace Lieblein, Alicia Boler-Davis. Howell is senior vice president of global human resources. Leiblein, vice president for global purchasing. Boler-Davis, senior vice president for global customer experience and quality. Barra is the new CEO in 2014. Here Leiblein describes her decision as chief engineer for large crossover utility vehicles- to leave a gap at the bottom of the left foot rest making room for female drivers wearing a high-heel shoe. Barra says she concentrates on doing a good job and doesn't count the number of women in the room at meetings. Other female managers says women have to put in more than men to be recognized.

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Interview of Mary Barra, new CEO of U.S. auto company GM by editors and reporters of the NYT.

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Mary Barra, 51, head of global product development, is the new CEO of GM following Dan Akerson. Akerson will retire. She is a electrical engineer who started as a co-op student at GM in 1980. Her experience includes engineering positions, managing a assembly plant, and heading the human resources department in 2009. The president's position goes to CFO Dan Ammann, 41. Former Cummins CEO and chairman, Mr. Solso, will take up the chairman's position at GM. Mark Reuss will assume Mary Barra's position. This completes the transition planned by Akerson as the government sells its remaining shares in GM following the bailout. Akerson says he felt as if he was seeing a daughter graduate from college. It is a significant moment for the U.S. auto industry as a younger leadership looks to the future.

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U.S. president Obama's speech at the Mandela memorial included the words: "It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well, to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you. To teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth. He changed laws but he also changed hearts."

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Wealth for top 7% of U.S. households averaged $3.2 million in 2011, compared to $133,817 for the other 93% of the population. Third quarter 2013 household net worth is 615% of after tax income, up from 570% in 2012. The uneven distribution of household wealth and the gains from the stock market recovery going disproportionately to wealthier investors, does not provide strong enough underpinnings for robust consumer spending.

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The U.S. government sold its last remaining shares in auto company GM booking a loss of $10.5 billion- a recovery of $39 billion dollars of the $49.5 billon dollars given to GM. The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., points out that the cost of bailing out GM and Chrysler was about $13.7 billion. The benefits were 1.2 million jobs protected in 2009 during the depths of the financial crisis. It also preserved $39.4 billion in personal and social insurance tax collections in 2009 and 2010. The Treasury Department estimate of the cost is about $15 billon, including money invested in GM's former finance arm Ally Financial Inc. President Obama says the effort helped create 372,000 new jobs in five years. Treasury Secretary Lew summed it up by saying "it helped stabilize the auto industry and prevent another Great Depression." Other intangible but larger benefits in the long run were building up the companies anew with new pay structures the auto companies could support in a globalized economy, bringing in new management and discarding of old mindsets and culture, new relationships with unions and customers, committment to achieving fuel efficiency targets with new technologies in cooperation with the U.S. government guidelines, and renewed confidence of millions of employees in the U.S. auto sector. It is also the one area in which the Obama administration scores a clear win, and in which president Obama took the greatest interest as senator. That the public did not fully appreciate the significance of the step is more a reflecion of public frustration with how the companies were run by the old management, and a continual reminder of the importance of good management for the U.S. industry and economy....

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Italy's GDP stopped 8 consecutive quarters of decline in the third quarter of 2013, according to Istat. GDP did not change in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the prior quarter and declined 1.8% from the prior year quarter. This was a result of exports and inventory build up with increased confidence in industry to increase production. The industrial sector showed a 0.2% gain, and household spending declined by 0.2%

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Sorkin looks at Mandela's shifting views on nationalization after talking to the Communist leaders of China and Vietnam at a Davos meeting in 1992. They asked him why he was talking about nationalization when they were considering privatizing state enterprises. He looks at the foreign investment attracted by South Africa and where free markets have fallen short in the income gaps between whites and black people.

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The WTO negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, in Dec. 2013 with agreement on streamlining customs procedures worldwide.