LyrArc Article Gist
Rakuten CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani, lived in Connecticut, completed graduate studies in the U.S. and speaks fluent English. It is now two years since his announcement that all business in the company will be conducted in English. July 1, 2012 was set as a target date after which all employee communication, including internal emails and memos would take place in English. All employees were required to take English language classes and employee tests in the language. Mikitani planned to expand Rakuten's operations overseas, and in these two years it has expanded to 12 countries from two countries, and plans to take this to 27 countries with 70% of sales generated overseas. Mikitani runs an e-commerce competitor to Amazon and he sees opportunities for the company worldwide and the need for employees to come out of their shell. He has long been a critic of Japanese elementary and secondary schooling in English. Most of the 3000 hours studying English after the seventh grade are wasted he says because most Japanese have trouble speaking English. A similiar effort to get employees to learn English has been launched at Uniqlo, a clothing retailer, and there is much discussion about this issue of improving the country's language proficiency as Japan's population ages and companies have to focus on overseas markets....

LyrArc Article Gist
The cost of fixing the nation's financial system could be around $2.5 trillion with an additional $350 of the second TARP funding and the rest of the money coming from the Federal Reserve through the Fed's ability to print money and from private investors. About $1 trillion of this is to compensate for the lack of issuance of securities backed by consumer loans of $1.2 trillion between 2006 and 2008, so that credit markets can function again like they used to. Another component of the plan is to give banks more government money which they will now be expected to lend to consumers and businesses. But a key feature of the plan much awaited by markets was the bad bank or aggregator bank solution which would enable banks to transfer bad assets to this bank. And on this one Geithner said very little so it was adisappointment for financial markets. Also the plan lacked details and was more broad brush and small on specifics. Another area on which Geithner said little is how the government will tackle rising forecolosures and keep people in their homes, which in turn would help stabilize housing prices. But by building up expectations and offering little of specifics on the bad bank solution Geithner earned withering criticism from Senators Kerry, Shelby, Frank, and others. A former managing director at Morgan Stanley Frank Pallotta, now aconsultant to buyers and sellers of distressed mortgages, says the fundamental problem still is the pricing and the gap between what abank like Chase thinks its mortgage is worth of 75 cents to the dollar and aprospective buyer who thinks its worth 45 cents or 25 cents. This is a huge gap and would be expensive to fill in. A bad bank one analyst says could be very expensive and this is why Geithner acknowledges the goal of setting up a fund of some $1 trillion. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Peter Eavis discusses ways in which regulators are conducting ongoing supervision of large banks under the Dodd-Frank legislation- with stress tests, and the review of living wills of banks in 2016

LyrArc Article Gist
A call from German chancellor Angela Merkel to the Greek president to hold a referendum on Greece's participation in the eurozone. Political parties in Greece denounced it as considering Greece a "protectorate" coming from the Syriza party, to calling it "unacceptable from the New Democracy party. Karel De Gucht, trade commissioner of the EU, and Olli Rehn commissioner of economic affairs, issue conflicting statements. Gucht says the EU and ECB are working on preparations for Greece's exit, and Rehn says that this in not the case, that Greece is staying in.

LyrArc Article Gist
The gradual collapse of pro-Russian separatists as most of the Russians in the separatist effort withdraw and leave for Russia. The Ukraine forces move into separatist held areas near Donetsk in August 2014. German chancellor Merkel accepts an invitation to visit Kiev and visits Latvia, taking a larger role in resolving the crisis. Merkel speaks Russian and Putin speaks German, in ongoing discussions between the two leaders.

LyrArc Article Gist
Maggie Smith was known by people who knew her as a person of great wit and humor. This is how she described herself-

"My career is chequered. I think I got pigeonholed in humour … If you do comedy, you kind of don’t count. Comedy is never considered the real thing.” 

There was much humor, laughter, and yet there was the way this also brought out in her performances the anguish of the human condition as in "The Prime of Jean Brodie," about an Edinburgh teacher with a misguided admiration for Mussolini and the event that led to realizing her moral blindness when she says "Mary McGregor", hearing that one of her impressionable girl students had died in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's.

LyrArc Article Gist
Hotels in New York City can cost a fortune- $1100 a night in December near Christmas, $300 in September, $150 lower in January. Here dawn Gilbertson shares a small condo with an Airbnb host for $155 in December in Brooklyn about an hour subway+walk  to Manhattan.

LyrArc Article Gist
President Xi Jinping's Made in China 2025 plan has spurred startups in electric car technologies, and raises concern about overcapacity. Electric cars is one of 10 sectors in the Made in China 2025 plan to promote global competitiveness for Chinese companies and domestic dominance. China Construction Bank and National Development and Reform Commission announced a $47 billion plan. Direct government subsidies of $15 billion over last 5 years have also increased the number of startups.

All automakers in China are required to produce electric cars. The electric cars sold in China at 777,000 make up half of the electric cars sold in the world. 

Local governments in places such as Anhui province have invested in electric car companies. One such company Singulato in Tongling, Anhui, is profiled here, with its first electric car expected by the end of the year priced at $43,000.

LyrArc Article Gist
Glenn Hubbard describes how the difference in approach between Romney and Obama matters, as it did between Carter and Reagan. The basic difference being the importance of getting long term policy on the right track. See the Reagan memo in Groups for the importance of setting the right tone and emphasis on a consistent long term direction, which was advice given in the memo by Shultz and other advisors to Ronald Reagan. The belief in growth from private sector investment and job creation and putting the right policies in place is a distinct difference between the Romney and Obama plans.

LyrArc Article Gist
Hikmet Ersek with family connections to Austria, Turkey and India describes his experience of living and managing in a multicultural and multilingual environment. He is the CEO of Western Union. Ersek has made the successful transition between the cultures of Europe, Asia and North America, a truly unique profile in managment and life.

LyrArc Article Gist
Milbank describes Jon Kyl's role in the U.S. Congress Supercommittee negotiations on deficit reduction.