LyrArc Article Gist
The PBOC makes a 0.25% cut in interest rates and a 0.5% reduction in bank reserve requirement ratios in October 2015, designed to lower financing costs for business and put more liquidity into the economy.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Soviet threat actually receded after 1964 when Brezhnev became head of Soviet Union till 1982. During that period in the 1960's till today the face of NATO as today was from a series of heads of governments of Dutch Stikker in mid 1960's or other small European states such as Norway Stoltenberg and Rutte Netherlands again in 2025. It could be said that none of these leaders  of small EU countries represented US interests- or even European interests- a point the DJT administration is trying to make. First NATO head UK's Hastings Ismay's NATO for "keeping the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down" is more British Imperial policy of 1904 -1940's as the Indian Viceroy's Assistant, not US policy or in America's or even Europe's interest in 2025. It hurt the US in Venezuela as Russia propped up a regime which led to millions of refugees entering the US illegally. And it hurt Europe as Russia propped up the Syrian regime with millions of refugees entering Germany and destabilizing its political structure. Going back if a new defense institution was set up to replace NATO by the Europeans in 1970's this would have been the right step which would have not led to Russia propping up regimes in the Americas or the Middle East. A goal that is being discussed with Russia by the DJT administration to refocus American efforts in a new direction and pause not just the Ukraine war but also put the US  and Russia in a new direction with the new competition from 3 billion people in China and India changing everything we know about the world. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Acer President Gianfranco Lani says the company will ship between 10 million and 12 million netbooks in 2009, and 32 million to 35 million laptops including netbooks, which suggests that netbooks which sell for as low as $200 are almost half of its laptop/netbook sales. This shift and the pricing and sales pressures in the global economy resulted in a31% dropin profit, and operating margins dropping to 2.2% in the first quarter 2009, compared to 4th quarter 2008.

LyrArc Article Gist
Netbooks sales were half amillion in first quarter 2008, jumped to 4.4 million in 3rd quarter 2008, and are expected to double to 8.8 million in sales per quarter in 2009. Acer was the first to take advantage of this trend. It has moved to 3rd place in PC's after HP and Dell, and Apple is now in 4th place. A lot of new trends are changing the IT marketplace. These netbooks sell for $100 and may be the next big thing for developing countries, where a low cost computer would appeal to the millions of people in urban and rural areas.

LyrArc Article Gist
Frenchman Christophe Weber, 47, is head of Glaxo's vaccine business. He is the next CEO of Japanese pharmaceutical manufacturer Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. He will succeed President Yasuchika Hasegawa. Weber will join Takeda in April as chief operating officer and become president in June 2014. Hasegawa will continue as interim CEO for one year and Weber is expected to succeed Hasegawa, 67, at that point. Hasegawa has run the company for 10 years. During this period Takeda has expanded internationally. Takeda acquired Swiss drug company Nycomed in 2011. Executives were hired from western companies. Francois-Xavier Roger, of Luxembourg's Millicom International Cellular SA was made the chief financial officer, and Phillip Duncan of Novartis joined as chief procurement officer. Hasegawa sees new talent from western companies as useful in penetrating emerging markets. Weber also headed Glaxo's Asia/Pacific operations. Hasegawa told a news confernece: "We're no longer in an age where decisions are based on whether a person is Japanese or foreign." ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, reduces the capital reserve requirement ratio for the largest banks by 1% to 18.5%, on April 19, 2015. This move is expected to free up $200 billion for new lending by banks. China's securities regulator also acted to curb margin financing, the using of borrowed money to invest in the stock market which faces bubble conditions. China's economy is reported to be slowing making it uncertain whether the 7% annual growth target can be met.

LyrArc Article Gist
A big factor in U.S. car sales, which reached 7.5 million in 2015, exceeding the 7.3 million in 2000, is that a large portion of cars on the road were about 11 years old following the recession in 2008-2009. As Dexter Ford pointed out in a article in 2012 many car owners on the road had replaced the earlier 100,000 mile mark before buying a new car, with 200,000. This pent up demand, and the better technological features including gasoline conserving technology, gave new impetus to demand in 2013-2015. Lower gasoline prices at the pump of about $2.00 a gallon in Jan. 2016 across parts of the country made it economical to own SUV's and pickup trucks. The U.S. car companies Ford, GM and Chrysler-Fiat had sales of 2 million full size pickup in 2015, with the Ford F-150 leading. Car companies have come through a severe crisis and are taking steps to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the past on fuel efficiency- Ford has introduced a lighter aluminium based version of the F-150 for example. Gasoline prices also provide buyers with extra money to meet car payments which now have been stretched to longer periods and lower rates by auto companies to reduce the cost burden per month. AAA says the average price in 2013 for a gallon of gas was $3.49, in 2014 at $3.34, in 2015 at $2.40. AAA says that 71% of gasoline stations sell gas at less than $2.00 in January 2016, and gas prices are likely to remain low for an extended period with lower demand from China, higher fuel efficiency going forward with stricter standards, new technology for shale oil production, and the replacement of cartel pricing by competing production from Saudis, Iran and Russia. On average Americans saved $115 billion on gasoline, or $550 per licensed driver, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report of January 6, 2016. In addition to the $550 saved the higher fuel efficiency with new technology adds a corresponding amount to savings per driver. Add to this the lower payment at low rates over longer periods and the car payment per month has been reduced significantly in a improving job market, to support car sales....

LyrArc Article Gist
Liu He, the author of the 2013 DRC report on recommended changes to China's banking and financial system, is now the director of the Communist party's top financial policy committee and senior advisor to president Jinping. Changes he is pushing for relate to increasing focus on credit risk for China's banks, promoting competiion between banks, a mechanism for letting banks fail, and a deposit insurance program to protect the public against failing banks. To open up the sector dominated by state owned banks, opening private banks would be encouraged. Local governments would be allowed to issue bonds in an effort to reduce their dependence on land sales and opaque off-market borrowing. The urgency of this agenda comes from the realization in top Chinese policy circles and the Jinping-Keqiang administration of the risks to the banking sysem from the lack of attention to credit risks in bank lending.

LyrArc Article Gist
Harvard professor Robert Lawrence tells Tom Keene, the Obama administration has'nt paid that much attention to trade and trade agreements. He says this is unfortunate because it is important to lower barriers to trade, create fair trade, and increase U.S. exports.

LyrArc Article Gist
Krueger and Posner, eminent economists, say the reason wages have stagnated in the U.S. with wages not having budged much over a decade 2008-2018, is not only because of globalization and automation as long term trends. They attribute this stagnation in wages to "monopsony power," or power American corporations have over workers because of their stronger bargaining position and because workers have few alternatives.  For most of this period 2008-2018 high unemployment as reflected by the people out of work and taking part time jobs or having stopped looking for work, shifted bargaining power to companies. The Economist magazine pointed out that workers have not shared in the profit and gains corporations made during this period. Here Krueger and Posner show additional factors such as non compete clauses in worker agreements that have depressed wages. Half of franchise agreements prohibit competition for labor. Outsourcing work to other companies that hire workers means these outsourcing companies have more power over workers than the original companies using the labor. Unions represent only 7 percent of private sector workers by 2017, compared to 35 percent in the 1950's, so that there are no mechanisms to counteract the greater bargaining power gained by companies vs. workers. The way workers have roots in the communities they live and the consolidation of employers into a few companies in a particular area, mean fewer options exist for workers.  Senators Warren and Booker and the anti-trust division of the U.S. Justice Department are in agreement on this issue of widespread use of noncompete agreements that is considered unlawful, says this report in the NYT, offering hope for a solution to bring a better balance between the rights of workers to fair wages and companies seeking profit for stakeholders. Issues about workers, lack of gains for workers, prevalent outsourcing, and the frustrations of labor with parties that had lost touch with their worker base- such as Labor in Britain, SPD in Germany, Socialist Party in France and the Democratic Party in the U.S. - have led to political upsets with support shifting to other parties. This has not led to significant change to improve bargaining power of workers to correct the imbalance that now exists between labor and companies, leading to calls for change. Eric Posner is a law professor at the University of Chicago law school and co-author of a new book "Radical Markets: uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society." This book turns the popular notion on its head that free markets have produced the imbalances that hurt social cohesion and democracy, by saying it is precisely the suppression of free competition such as for labor that have created this unhealthy situation. This is true in other areas where monopoly power has developed in other parts of the U.S and European economies in 2008-2018, as also for distortions in capital allocation that hurt infrastructure and other public investment. Krueger is a professor of public affairs at Princeton University and former head of the President's Council of Economic Advisors in 2011 under Obama, showing that Democrats themselves failed to correct this imbalance leading to a shift to other parties and Mr. Trump, who also appear to lack ideas or solutions to this problem that affects social cohesion and democracy. This is contrary to the vision of American or European society of better opportunity for all shared by all Americans and Europeans for most of the twentieth century. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China's consumer price index went up by 2.1% in March 2013, slower inflation than the 3.2% for February 2013. Food prices are growing at a slower rate, increasing by 2.7% in March over the prior year month, compared to a 6% increase over the prior year month in February.

LyrArc Article Gist
Seib comments on the rising nationalism in Europe, with a quarter of the votes in France going to the National Front of Marie La Pen, and a large share of votes to the Independence Party in the UK. This is partly a result of the austerity policies in Europe and declining confidence in the leading parties in the UK and France. Nationalism is increasing in Russia. Parties such as Putin's party in Russia are also appealing to nationalist sentiments to reduce the pressures from urban activists and anti-corruption movements in Moscow and other cities, such as the one led by Mr Navalny. The loss of confidence in ruling governments and in political parties in the age of mobile phones and internet communication- after austerity policies in Europe, and slowing growth and corruption in Russia- is leading to a protest vote in Europe, and a effort to deflect criticism in Russia by turning to nationalist issues. Nationalist issues in Asia stem from the more assertive stance taken by China and Japan, following the election of the LDP's Abe government in Japan, with a mandate to revive the economy....

LyrArc Article Gist
Krugman says China's inflation is raising labor costs in China, and in this way gradually reducing the undervaluation of the yuan vs the dollar. But he cautions this would take a long time, 4-5 years. The U.S. faces the costs of high unemployment close to 10% today, and this requires serious efforts now to reduce the undervaluation. It alone will not solve America's problems. It is one of a number of actions that need to be taken and not put off again.

LyrArc Article Gist
After lifting of a decade long ban on the console Sony plans to build sales volume for the Playstation 4 in China.

LyrArc Article Gist
This Times editorial questions whether Mayor Bloomberg did the right thing in the manner in which he ousted protestors from Zucotti park in the financial district of New York city. Now that the protestors have been forcibly removed from the park, it is the responsibility of the Mayor to keep his promise to let the demonstrators continue their protest against income inequality, says the editorial. The concern is that the end of the protests at Zucotti park could end up quashing the entire protest movement, which serves to draw attention to serious issues in a democracy.

LyrArc Article Gist
The change means sensitive technologies could no longer be accessed through Hong Kong says the WSJ. From China's perspective the $1.14 trillion held in Chinese banks in Hong Kong dollars is only about 3% of China's total $40 trillion in bank assets, and the effect on Chinese banks would take some time.

In fact the unequal trading relationship which left the American manufacturing base so widely exposed and sent outside the country has taken place for decades till this pandemic  showed its basic weakness, so much so that both sides may have a sense that this was about to end at some time anyway.

LyrArc Article Gist
Turkmenistan with a new leader tries to diversify its export routes to as many countries as possible promising a share to Europe, Russia, India and China.

LyrArc Article Gist
Myanmar's economy shows slower growth in the early period of the Suu Kyi administration. Experts say part of the reason is that the administration has slowed investment in petroleum and mining and pushed it in favor of other areas to diversify the economy. The inexperience of the government is also an issue, as Myanmar needs workplace reforms. The IMF says growth should improve to 7.5% after 6.3% growth in 2016. The government is in office for only about 2 years, and this comes after decades of mismanagement and cronyism under military rule. Another problem is that Suu Kyi is considered a micromanager and is only now delegating matters to experts, some from Australia. In a sign of the sluggish foreign investment the two American companies investing in Burma are Coca Cola and a can making company. The initial enthusiasm for investment has waned.