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The Labor Department reports jobs increased by a seasonally adjusted 203,000 in November 2013, and the unemployment rate dropped to 7% from 7.3%. In the past a decrease in the unemployment rate was partly a result of people leaving the labor force. Job gains have come from lower wage jobs in retail and restaurants, which raises new doubts about the quality of job gains. About one third of the job gains in November were in lower paid jobs- retailers added 22,000 jobs, restaurants and hotels 17,000, Temp help services 16,000. In November 2013 27,000 jobs were added in manufacturing. Overall 11 million American are unemployed and about 4 million are unemployed for more than 6 months.

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Google's operating profit margin on the Moto G smartphone is about 5%, according to analyst Newman at Sanford Bernstein & Co. By comparison Samsung gets a 28% operating profit margin on the Galaxy S4, and Apple gets a 30-35% margin on the iPhone 5S and 5C. Apple and Samsung have a little over $200 in parts and components in the iPhone 5S and the the Galaxy S4, and price their smartphones at about $640, according to TechInsights. Moto X premium smartphone from Google sells for $350 without a contract. Moto G for price sensitive customers has $123 in parts and components and is priced starting at $199. For about $90 in additional circuitry Apple and Samsung are able to command an additional $440 in price level, say experts. Google's Motorola Mobility head, Dennis Woodside, says Apple and Samsung premium smartphone and lower end smartphone prices are too high, without starting a price war Google is lowering prices gradually.

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About 38% of Gen Y (18-34 years) prefer to locate in mid or large sized cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. Companies are following this trend especially in the tech and internet field to attract young employees. Many professionals marry later with both partners working and prefer living in a close environment with many opportunities for interaction and activities. Commercial vacancy rates in central business districts are down faster than in the suburbs- 13.9% of urban space is empty in the 3rd quarter of 2013 compared to 18.5% in the suburbs, according to Reis Inc. The recession had reduced downtown rents and cities offered additional incentives. After the merger of Continental with United, the corporate offices were moved to the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago. Google's Motorola Mobility is moving into the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago from the suburbs. Twitter moved to a location in downtown San Francisco attracted by the space and lower rents.

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Aaron Back says Sony is paying serious attention to the profitability of its Playstation business. He cites IHS estimates of Playstation 4 costing $381 to make and the retail price set for $399, in contrast to the Playstation 3 which cost Sony $100 more to make than the retail price. Sony's Playstation business is expected to post operating loss of 27 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2014, with profits of 37 billion yen the following year, and 65 billion in the year following that.

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That former Fed chairman Volcker considered CEO attestation a critical part of the Volcker Rule is reflected in his advice about its implementation- to keep broad and let the responsibility for seeing that the proper activity takes place on bank management. CEO attestation is now part of the final form of the Volcker Rule requiring CEO's to sign off that the financial firm is in compliance. It may lead to a sequence of attestations or sub-certifications from business heads to upper management in actual practice, says Joseph Grundfest at Stanford University. The Financial Stability Oversight Council, created under the Dodd-Frank legislation, proposed this requirement saying that the rule require" public attestation by the CEO that compliance standards are continually being met." The WSJ points out that 5 of the FSOC's members are also top officials at government agencies writing the Volcker Rule. Jacob Lew, Treasury Secretary, leads the council. Lew says about the individual accountability of the top executive- "it puts in place strong compliance requirements that require those in charge of financial institutions to make sure that the 'tone at the top' sends the right signals to the whole firm."...

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The case brought against Bank of America's Countrywide unit under the Firrea Act of 1989 for the "Hustle" mortgage program and misrepresenting the loans sold to Fannie and Freddie mortgage agencies. The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and is being handled by Manhattan District Court Judge Jed Rakoff.

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Juan Williams describes the time he spent with Nelson Mandela in his home at 8115 Vilakazi Street in 1990, discussing race and politics in the U.S. in which Mandela was deeply interested. Mandela was keen to know about American blacks and was fascinated by the nonviolent protests that succeeded in ending racial segregation in America.

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South African youth interviewed in this report by Devon Maylie and Patrick McGroarty following the death of Nelson Mandela, say the African National Congress and its current leaders have failed to live up to the ideals set by Mandela.

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Losses and layoff at Qantas Airways as it faces increasing competition. On domestic routes price competition from Virgin Australia has reduced prices by 20% for business class compared to 2003 adjusted for inflation, according to Australia's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. The mining boom had provided Qantas with higher margins in domestic flights to distant locations within Australia. Qantas also faces competition from Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand, all airlines with state backing.

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Higher prices for food supplies to franchisees from Quiznos has led to losses at chain stores and store closings.

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Former Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino joins the Board of Directors of Twitter as its first female director. Scardino was the first woman to become CEO of a FTSE 100 company in the UK when she was appointed head of Pearson in 1997. Her reflection on the progress since then is one of disappointment. She told the Telegraph newspaper when she left Pearson that not much had changed in the 16 years since 1997, with few women on the board of directors, chairmen or CEO positions in the corporate world. Yoree Koh points out in this report that only 8.4% of Silicon Valley companies have women directors, according to an annual study put out in Dec. 2012 by the Universiy of California, Davis. About 40% of the tech companies in the S&P Composite 1500 index have no women on their boards, according to an Ernst & Young report.

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Zakes Mda, a South African describes the Nelson Mandela of 1944 in the living room of his father Ashby Peter Mda, and Mandela's protest agianst the African National Congress of that period. He compares it with the African National Congress of Jacob Zuma in 2013. Maylie and McGroarty of the WSJ and other journalists interviewing young black South Africans in Johannesberg in Dec. 2013 also finds them saying they would not vote again for Zuma and the ANC. Mda describes the disillusionment on South African university campuses with the corruption of the Zuma administration.

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John Mahama, president of Ghana describes his work in the African Youth Command, efforts to free Mandela, and a late night encounter.