LyrArc Article Gist
This Washington Post editorial following the New York primary points out the misstatements, exaggerations, and extreme statements that have characterized the Trump campaign, about women, minorites, the media, and other candidates.

LyrArc Article Gist
Bordering Uganda and Kenya in the south Ethiopia is one of the populous countries in Africa struggling with a number of problems. There is very little industry or private enterprise and small businesses even by African standards, because the inept monarchy continued for too long and was followed by military rule which nationalized all enterprises. With few employment opportunities the unemployment rate for young people is as high as 70% according to the Economist. There is no democratic tradition and not enough time for it to take root, so that even after a promising start the government of Prime Minister Zenawi resorted to rigging the elections and violent suppression of dissent in 2005. About 2 million people are added to the population each year, with about 7 children for each mother, and the population is already at 75 million, one of the largest in Africa. The Economist says it could overtake Nigeria which has 140 million people, some time in the mid century. Improvements have been made is acknowledged here, with less corruption, investment in roads and schools and drinking water, significant by African standards. And in the light of the tribal divisions typical of Africa, holding the country together is also a challenging task in the midst of neighbors with different political regimes in Eritrea and Somalia. Chinese help is part of the improvement in infrastructure here, and bringing a new development oriented perspective to the thinking here, compared to purely European concerns. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Hedge funds betting against China's currency in Jan. 2016 puts Wall Street at odds with China's central bank's effort to manage the decline in the currency. Some hedge funds see a large drop in the value of the yuan in 2016-2017. China also faces the risk of large capital outflows. This is happening against the backdrop of China's effort to cut overcapacity in steel and other industries, manage large debt and the slowing economy, to shift towards a less export dependent and more domestic consumption oriented economy. Hedge funds are taking short positions against the yuan, as they expect China will need to recapitalize its banks considering the rapid acceleration in debt, leading to further depreciation in the currency.

LyrArc Article Gist
Democrats Reid and Schumer say Eric Cantor is a stumbling block to an agreement on the debt ceiling and deficit reduction. Plan B suggested by Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, and supported by Senate Majority leader Reid, includes setting up a debt reduction panel of 12 members from both parties to draft a long term framework for reducing the national debt. The new debt committee would have a deadline to make recommendations, probably by the end of 2011. The recommendations would then be fast tracked through the House and the Senate without amendments. The McConnell plan is to separate the task of raising the debt ceiling from talks on deficit reduction.

LyrArc Article Gist
China limits the activities of the Carter Center. Contacts for village democracy are discontinued. Xi Jinping, China's president tells former U.S. president Carter to limit activities to U.S.-China relations.

LyrArc Article Gist
A final U.S. State Dept. review of the XL Keystone pipeline shows there will be no negative environmental impact. The amount of oil from oil sands will not be increased by the building of the pipeline. The final decision will be made by president Obama.

LyrArc Article Gist
The problems facing U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, as a government shutdown occurs in October 2013. Republicans and Demorats fail to agree on raising the debt ceiling and financing of the government. Boehner faces a movement in the Republican party led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for defunding the Obamacare law.

LyrArc Article Gist
The business model where hedge funds take in short term money from investors for a 2% fee and a fifth of profits, and invest it in longer term bets and sometimes illiquid situations, is breaking down. This happened to the investment banks and ended with the collapse of Lehman and Bear Stearns. With losses approaching 20%, many illiquid investments, and investors asking for their money, this model may lead to a rapid shrinking of the hedge fund industry, which now has about $2 trillion of investor money.

LyrArc Article Gist
Clearing the land by burning dense forest vegetation is a long standing practice in the Amazon rain forest. In an effort to open up the Amazon for settlement and agricultural use the Brazilian government has encouraged people to settle there. Squatters can get title to the land at a discount if they clear the land and use it for economic activity. In 2017 pressure from the agricultural lobby resulted in a law for privatization of large portions of land. 90,000 titles were issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2018. Deforested land that has been converted to pasture can be very profitable. It can be sold at upto 6 times what the settler pays for the land to the government. The fines imposed by Brazil's environment agency Ibama are small in comparison to what farmers can make by deforestation.  During the election campaign Mr. Bolsonaro said he would rein in Inama and "not let it issue fines left and right." As a result about 30% fewer fines for violations, illegal burning and deforestation were issued since Bolsonaro became president in January 2019. During this period upto July 2019  deforestation is up 40%, according to Brazil's Institute for Space Research. Ibama employees  say the agency's budget was cut by 45% from 2010 to 2019. Bolsonaro's statements were used by rural leaders in the Amazon state of Para, allegedly organizing the fires along a highway across the rainforest to show support. Brazilian farmers say the problem is not with them because they realize it is hard to control fires once they are started. That it is the work of inexperienced settlers who do not understand the risks. The skies over Sao Paulo were darkened one day at noon as a result of the smoke from the fires moving south from the Amazon, causing the whole nation to take notice. International outcry has also caused alarm. Europeans are planning boycott of agricultural products from Brazil, with Finland calling for action banning beef imports. Fashion labels Vans, Kipling, Timberland, say they will not import Brazilian leather.  Now the agricultural lobby is waking up to a bigger problem that of international pressure in Brazil's export markets for agricultural products.  Even though Bolsonaro is taking action, and has said farmers and loggers would no longer be allowed to use fires to clear land, its hard to make the changes. Ibama and Brazilian authorites are unable to effectively patrol a rainforest this large covering 60% of Brazil's territory. Governors of Amazon states are saying land ownership laws have to be rewritten so that people can be held accountable for breaking the law. Experts at the Federal University of Minas Gerais say that the underlying problem is the government incentives to settlers, loggers and farmers to clear more land, and the environmental management agencies working to limit the damage from illegally set fires.  By setting a Wild West logic without realizing what he was doing the Brazilian president is now facing a problem controlling the fires. Bolsonaro is now calling for a 60 day halt to all fires in the Amazon. Long standing traditions, laws, practices, his own rhetoric are now in the way. Few people in Brazil realized that the fires out of control would eventually darken the skies over Sao Paulo one day at noon, causing an international outcry.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor talks with Joseph Rago of the Wall Street Journal. There is a fundamentally different world view between Obama and Cantor. Cantor does not hesitate to present his view and says President Obama did not like to be challenged on policy grounds in debt negotiations, leading to the famous "I'll call your bluff Eric" remark by Obama. Cantor sees no chance of reaching an agreement with Obama that would go towards solving the fiscal crisis and feels it would be best to focus on incremental wins. He says of the Obama-Boehner deal that it did not address the problems with Social Security and Medicare. Without the transformational changes that are needed in those programs he did not think it was worth the cost. Cantor is mainly responsible for the Republicans not agreeing to include revenue increases in the negotiations or the final deal. Cantor says the super-committee part of the deal which has to come up with savings, will only lead to incremental progress- considering the huge divide that separates their world view and that of President Obama. The real fight says Cantor is to prevent President Obama from getting re-elected....

LyrArc Article Gist
The IMF's estimate of extra aid needed for Greece to meet the damage done in the first 6 months of 2015 is $60 billion euros ($66.6 billion). The additional aid required is because of the worsening of the economy under the Tsipras Syriza party administration in the first half of 2015, the collapse in the negotiations, loss of trust, the imposition of capital controls, closing of the banks, and the growing uncertainty created by the referendum of July 5, 2015 on the debt talks and membership in the European Union. This may leave Greece worse off than before, as the cost of the cuts at issue in the talks were significantly smaller, and the small gradual improvement in the economy under the Samaras administration in 2013-2014 has suffered a serious setback. This is an unfortunate setback as Greece was allowed the needed flexibility on the most important points of the percentage of surplus and dateline, and cuts in the public sector employees.

LyrArc Article Gist
A German reporter questions the value of the G20 meetings following the violence on streets at the last Hamburg meeting. He says the first G20 during the global financial crisis was useful but later meetings have not lived up to the hope for discussion and search for solutions to world problems. Global trade is at the top of the agenda following the tariffs dispute between China and the U.S. Divergent interests of participants are a problem. Would going back to G-7 in private meetings be a solution asks this reporter.