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Paul English favors teams of three people to get things done quickly. He gives employees freedom to test ideas, including one intern who was allowed to test an idea on the first day at work by writing the code. He says no innovation happens with too many people in a room, and its easier for two or three people to nurture an idea. A clicker hangs outside the door of the main conference room. It is meant to send the message that for things that one cares about you need about three people smart enough to move forward.

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Charles Scwab points out what is really hurting seniors. In Feb 2006 the yield on a 1 year CD was 5.4%, with the fed funds target rate at 4.5%. In 2010 the 1 year CD yields only 1.3%. The $7.5 trillion in these low interest accounts are earning so little hurting seniors.

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UCLA replaces a traditional requirement for English majors of one course in Chaucer, two in Shakespeare, and one in Milton. Shakespeare now joins the "Empire" and becomes part of Imperial studies even though the empire came long after Shakespeare. The new requirement is for a total of three courses in four areas: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability and Sexual Studies; Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial studies; genre studies, interdisciplinary studies, and critical theory; or creative writing. How do you get a degree in English without Shakespeare, is the question posed by critics of the change.

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Looking around Havana U.S. president Obama finds a country stuck in the 1950's. His observation: "You drive around Havana and you say, 'This economy is not working' ...It looks like it did in the 1950's." Obama's view on relations with Cuba was that things have changed, with younger Cubans especially looking to integrate with the world economy for a better life. This is the same in Venezuela, in Argentina. His view: "I know the history, but I refuse to be trapped by it."

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MSNBC viewer numbers have declined sharply with daytime viewers falling below 50,000 in certain morning periods. It is shifting to straight news after a period of very liberal slant to news coverage, with Brian Williams providing news coverage.

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Zara which started with one store in La Coruna aport town in a remote part of northern Spain is the second largest retail clothing chain after Gap Stores now has3691 stores in 68 countries, adding 560 stores in the last 12 months and entering new markets in places like Croatia, Columbia, Guatemala, and Oman. Its best known for fast fashion and updating fashion frequently with new fashion clothing coming in twice a week. Lower volumes mean they sell out fast and don't require writedowns and fashions that fly can be resupplied quickly because Zara does most of its manufacturing (two thirds) in Spain or in countries nearby like Portugal, Morocco and Turkey. The closeness of manufacture and the logistics are set up such that the orders can be made quickly with sales monitored constantly on computers at La Coruna HQ and at stores locations and the manufacture and shipping can be done speedily. Not requiring writedowns and selling lower cost fashion at higher prices especially outside Spain where prices are higher (40% higher in New York for instance) and having an efficient system with costs weeded out and focus on building the brand and pleasing customers to command good profit margins enables Zara to continue manufacturing in Spain where costs are not what they would be in China or Vietnam. As other stores are learning from Zara and doing this in their stores Zara is working on refocussing its formula and fine tuning it to stay ahead of competitors. For example its making sure costs do not rise faster than sales, for first half 2007 costs went up 16% and sales went up 19%. Staff is being scheduled using new software based on sales volume at differen times, so that more salespeople work at peak times such as lunchtime or early evening, which enable Zara to cut 2% of hours worked. Alarm tags are attached at the factory, and the newest collections get labelled NEWC and are rushed to the floor on plastic hangars and only later switched to wooden hangers, and store managers now use handheld computers to sho garments ranking by sales so reordering can be done quickly in less than an hour....

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Silbersweig of the Brigham and Women's Hospital makes a convincing case for the importance of liberal arts and philosophy studies for pursuing a career in medicine. His studies extend from philosophy at Dartmouth to interdisciplinary studies in psychiatry, neurosciences, at Cornell Medical College, to work in these fields and the physical sciences at Brigham. He says the study of philosophy helped him to ask questions, to work and think in unique ways. Interdisciplinary studies are important combined with interdisciplinary work between people from different but related fields, says Silbersweig. Students have to be willing to be explorers and have the broad and rigorous education to make this possible.

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How Nokia designs its phones. It uses teams of anthropologists, and psychologists in its design group to understand the ways people around the world behave and communicate. The designers go into the field and look for changes in behaviour new patterns , and look for new ideas , so new phones van be designed based on what they se anfd understand in the field. A research group looks atmacro societal trends and short term micro trends based on colors textures fashions. It looks for local country specific trends and at regional similiarities. Nokia is looking for something it did not realize before also, a learning process. Thats how it stumbled on the idea of a phone that would be shared by a group of people in poor rural areas. And this had to be designed differently to make it easy to use but also not look like a cheap phone. There would be a shared address book, protection from dust on the keypad, and a demo mode making it easy to use, and a call tracker to allow people to track cost. With this kinds of phones Nokia expects to sell to 2 billion of these phones to new customers in the next 10 years in China India Brazil and Africa. Nokia is also setting up a design studio with a design school Shrishti in Bangalore....

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Zweig, Light and Pleven reflect on the experience of the last 5 years in the stock market. Investors who went through severe anxiety for higher investment allocation in stocks in 2009 now feel the opposite for low investment allocation in stocks. What does one make of this, and what have we learned, is the question posed. One lesson is that investors should be wary of relying too much on predictions. At one point predictions of Goldman Sachs and other bank economists was for the S&P at 1250 at the end of 2012, when it was 1421 in April 2012. The eurozone crisis and the sluggish U.S. job growth, debt overhang, were major factors in their assessment. The eurozone recovered faster than expected and the Iranian nuclear crisis risks were reduced through negotiations. QE 1, QE 2, QE 3 by the U.S. Fed under Bernanke provided support to the market. Banks recovered faster than expected with help from the Fed. Another lesson is that this can happen with higher volatility, 900 point drops occured in May 2010 and there were drops in April 2012 and other dates. Zweig gives April 2011 as a date for the start of a 5 month bear market, citing Oct 4, 2011 as another date with the market dropping 21% from the April 2011 peak. Another lesson is that performance statistics can play tricks, a month or a year can make a big difference. If 2013 is not included the statistics look very different, if 5 years go back to Feb 2009 when there was a 11% decline instead of March 2009 when there was a 9% improvement the numbers change quite a bit. Another lesson is that macroeconomic news played a major part in the story of the stock market in 2009-2014 and continues today, with continuing support and vigilance from the U.S. Fed and the ECB. The bad news from the eurozone throughout 2011 and into 2012, and sluggish job markets in the U.S., took a positive turn in 2013. The U.S economy is improving and the eurozone is returning to growth gradually in 2014. Because of different timing in their recovery P/E ratios are higher in the U.S., than in Europe....

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Carl Richards, a certified financial planner in Park City, Utah, says the most important question about an investment is how it fits into our plan, and how it fits into our lives, but investors today focus too much on the latest IPO, or specific stocks. He says it is important to set a limit of 5% of the portfolio on any individual stock or investment.

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How inflation is affecting people who thought themselves to be in the middle class like postal workers and teachers and public sector emplyees. Wages are stagnant in many parts of the European economy as inflation picks up and the price of basic necessities like bread and fueling the family car cost more as the year progresses. A study by the German Institute of Economic Research in Berlin finds that the broad middle of the German workforce defined as workers earning 70 to 150% of the median income shrunk to 54% of the population in 2007 from 62% in 2000. Something is clearly going on with wages not keeping up with inflation and it does not look good just as a global slowdown that started in the USA is affecting the rest of the world. In Britain striking teachers closed schools as proposed wage raises of 2.5% were not enough to meet the rising cost of living, with food up 7% and oil up 20% since this time last year. German workers have already staged a series of strikes for a greater share in the increased wealth after years of making concessions and the mood in Germany is that a lot of the senior business people are making too much at the expense of workers who are being asked to sacrifice too much....

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Problems with the old 4% rule for withdrawal from savings for retirees in 2013 include- the decreasing income from bonds, the high P/E 10 ratio of 23 for the stock market in the U.S. in 2013, the timing of entry into retirement and the economic conditions, inflation and unforeseen expenses. The 4% rule needs to be modified in today's conditions.

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Phased retirement is becoming a popular option for many Americans nearing retirement. An example is a employee taking 25% less income for 13 weeks of additional time off to spend more time with a reitred spouse, for vacation, and for trying out new locations for retirement. It gives working Americans an opportunity to gradually adopt a more relaxed lifestyle, to better understand what it would be like in retirement. This option also has the advantage of using good health to add some working years and improve the retirement portfolio, with less demands of work.

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PM Modi visits Gandhiji's Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and inaugurates the $145 million Sabarmati Ashram renovation project. In June 1917 Mohandas Gandhi bought land on the banks of the Sabarmati river to build the Ashram. It was the central location for Gandhiji's struggle with the British for Hind Swaraj, independence from Britain. The ideas in Gandhi's Hind Swaraj written in 1910 during the struggle for South African workers was implemented from here including the Satyagraha struggles, negotiations with the British Raj, Dandi march to the sea in April 1930 to protest the tax on salt. It was originally on 120 acres which by 2020 were reduced to 5 acres. The new project will expand the Ashram to 57 acres into a major worldwide center for learning about Gandhi's life and ideas and the role for gaining Bharat Swaraj or freedom and its role in Bharat's future for a new generation of youth. Leaders including Sardar Vallahbhai Patel and Narendra Modi look to Gandhiji's ideas for inspiration and guidance in the everyday administration of the country. Gandhi's ideas anticipate not just the aspirations for freedom with taking responsibility for one's own actions, but also the movements for respecting nature through climate change action, uplifting of rural areas, and the improvement of the living conditions of working people and families everywhere in the world. The Ashram exhibition shows documents including letters to the Viceroy in the 1920's showing the budget for the Empire in India and asking why so much went to defense and military and so little to uplifting the lives of the people, in education, health and infrastructure. Having seen it at the Ashram one could say such a direct letter to the head of a large nation, as the Viceroy in India was then is unimaginable today. In some ways emails and electronic communication have made contact with officials and government less not more and created a seemingly insurmountable gap today. ...

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The maximum that can be paid out to executives in upfront cash for bonuses is 20% under the rules set by the European Union starting in 2011. And the amount of time that at least 40% of an EU banker's bonus must be deferred is 3-5 years. The US has not set up similiar rules restricting up front cash bonuses to prevent executives from taking excessive risks. During the 2008 financial many banking executives collected huge bonuses by taking excessive risks, even though the banks suffered huge losses after the departure of the executives. Now the SEC, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies in the US are reviewing the rules. Projected pace of Wall Street profits in 2010 are 28.7 billion for 2010, and the fear is for a repeat of the situation in 2008 as the US has no rules similiar to the EU. Britain's Financial Services Authority passed similar restrictions recently. The Dodd-Frank legislation for financial reforms requires the pay related regulations to be set by April 2011. That legislation specifically prohibits any bonus plan that "encourages inappropriate risks" at financial firms with more than $1 billion in assets. The view of the European Union's financial services commissioner, Michael Barnier, is that not enough has ben done in this area in the US, and doing nothing is to ignore the right lessons from the financial crisis....