LyrArc Article Gist
German chancellor Merkel and France's president Hollande meet in Notre-Dame de Reims cathderal for a service that commemorates the 50th anniversary of a mass held at Reims cathedral. That Mass was held at Reims in May 1962 with the hope for a lasting reconciliation between Germany and France in a region affected by recurring wars, and was attended by Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle. The service in July 2012 brings together two leaders after tense discussions at eurozone summit meetings on the future of the eurozone and austerity measures. It is also a reminder of the deeper ties that bring the two countries together after a century of conflict, and the resilience in the face of difficulties shown by a previous generation of leaders in building these ties. It needs to be remembered that it was German chancellor Kohl, Angela Merkel's mentor, one of the postwar leaders who promoted European unity during the period of German reunificaton, who speeded up the agenda for the creating the eurozone and euro currency without the necessary underpinnings of deposit insurance and a eurozone financial regulator with powers to examine the books of European banks and exercize financial supervision. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Mims raises questions about how productive current investments in Silicon Valley are in tackling real problems we face. He points out that advertising represents about $100 billion in an economy of $16 trillion, yet most startups focus on advertising revenues. Is $1.2 billion invested in Uber ride sharing service too much when other startups tackling bigger problems could be funded with some of that money, is a question raised by some in Silicon Valley.

LyrArc Article Gist
Russia's central bank revises the initial figure of $500 million for rescue of Trust Bank to $2 billion, and an additional six year loan of about $550 million to go to an "investor" bank to take control of Trust Bank. State controlled VTB Bank will receive $2 billion and Gazprombank $1.4 billion in government help, according to Mr. Siluanov, Russia's Finance Minister. So far the Russian government has approved $20 billion for rescue in the banking system. Foreign currency reserves have declined by $16 billion to $398.9 billion, according to figures released by the central bank on Dec. 26, 2014. The Russian government plans to use the foreign currency holdings of Rosneft, Gazprom and other large state controlled exporting companies in 2015 to support the ruble. Mr. Siluanov says the government will need to look at its budget again to reduce spending, including military spending. His predecessor Alexei Kudrin called for reducing military spending to ensure stable finances long before this crisis....

LyrArc Article Gist
Israel outlined its own proposals for a nuclear agreement on April 6, 2014. Israel's Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, says any deal must include Iran cease all nuclear research and development activity, remove its enriched uranium stockpile from the country, reduce the number of centrifuges to below what was agreed to in the outline that emerged from talks with Iran in April 2015, closing of the underground facility at Fordow that was built clandestinely in the early 2000's. Steinitz said- "The deal has to be made on the assumption that Iran might violate it."

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT editorial says the Democrats achieved much of what they wanted in the Ryan-Murray U.S. Budget deal by taking out 61.5% of the sequester cuts in domestic programs and adding back $31.5 billion for programs in transportation, health, education and other programs.

LyrArc Article Gist
Speaker Boehner and Republican's backup Plan B is for Bush tax cuts to be given to taxpayers with incomes below $1 million. President Obama and Democrats have proposed a revised figure of $400,000 from the earlier figure of $250,000.

LyrArc Article Gist
Stiglitz wants to put money in places where it will be spent immediately, unemployment compensation, in state and local governments hands to build critical infrastructure, state education budgets and environment spending for benefits in the long run, only limited help in the mortgage mess to the deserving and to reduce foreclosures, and no money to upperclass Americans who won't be spending much of it anyway.

LyrArc Article Gist
How does the National Rural Employment guarantee Scheme compare with what Brazil has done under President Lula with the Bolsas Familias program to help rural people with income below the poverty rate? India its reported is looking at the Brazilian program. There the focus is on cash payments with cards like debit cards issued on each individual's name that only that person can use so that the funds cannot be stolen by corrupt intermediaries with the person receiving it having to make sure that his children are in school and vaccinated. The focus there is on nutrition, education and health care especially of the family unit and in this way it has been a success according to the World bank and other experts.

LyrArc Article Gist
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Yukiya Amano, answers questions in a closed door 90 minute meeting with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The IAEA chief says he cannot disclose details of his investigation into Iran's earlier weapons activities, or the agency's agreement with Iran for the inspection of nuclear facilities. Senator Corker who heads the committee said most senators left the meeting with greater concerns about the inspection process. The IAEA chief cited as reasons for the secrecy, independence of the agency, and what he called "a legal obligation" to protect confidential information. Senator Barroso described the process as one in which an NFL player or athlete is asked to mail in his own urine sample. Of particular concern to senators is the Parchin site where testing ocurred in the early 2000's, which Amano has said Iran is trying to sanitize, and which is not part of this agreement. Iran has not agreed to IAEA requests to interview a Iranian scientist Mr. Fakhrizadeh or other top Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists as part of its probe into past Iranian nuclear activities, Yukiya Amano told the WSJ in an intervew. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT editorial describes the inaction of the UK, Canada and the U.S. as Europe faces a huge migrant crisis.

LyrArc Article Gist
Italy's bond auction of three year debt showed lower borrowing costs and strong demand from domestic investors, even as Moody's downgraded Italy by two notches on July 12, 2012. Italy's Treasury sold 3.5 billion euros of July 2015 BTP, having 6.06 billion euros worth of bids. The interest rate of 4.65% was below the 5.3% paid in mid June. Interest rates were overall slightly higher on 1.75 billion euros of longer dated benchmark bonds. Barclay's described the Moody's move as "somewhat perplexing," conisdering the steps taken at the June 2012 summit of EU leaders, at least moving in the right direction. Italy's Treasury cancelled the Aug. 14 BTP auction, because of improvements in the budget situation.