LyrArc Article Gist
The mismanagement of the economy under president Macri is leading to an economic crisis in the country. By embracing economic orthodoxy and slashing subsidies for fuel, electricity and transportation Mr. Macri who won the election 3 years ago has cause the prices of these basic goods to skyrocket. This has hurt the middle class and poor in Argentina. For most of this century Argentina has pursued populist policies, and in the last five decades periods of free market principle based economics were followed by severe crises, and subsequent restoration of populist policies to improve the economic conditions that had deteriorated.  The peso lost half of its value in 2018, leading to a IMF bailout of $57 billion. Inflation is at 50%, unemployment above 9%. To stem the fall in the peso the central bank increased interest rates to 60% stifling the economy and business. Under his predecessor Christine Kirchner the peso's value suffered and its currency reserves were low after fall in soyabean prices, yet the currency had not suffered the kind of decline that it has seen under Mr. Macri. The cutting of subsidies and the economic crisis has increased the number of poor to about a third of the population. Argentina now faces another of the repeated cycles of going from a populist Peronist administration to a free market orthodoxy supporting government, followed by an economic crisis and a shift back to Peronist populist administration policies. Part of the problem is that Argentina, and Brazil, and most of Latin America is still dependent on commodity exports, and the economy dependent on commodity prices. The manufacturing sector has not taken off as it has in Asian countries. This has led to repeated crises in times when the currency reserves declined and affected the currency, also leading to bouts of severe inflation.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The decision reached at the OPEC meeting on June 5, 2015, was to maintain production at current levels of an official level of 30 million barrels a day. This official level now acts as an indicator, as actual production is estimated at 31 million barrels a day.

LyrArc Article Gist
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer launched a series of acquisitions after becoming CEO in 2012. Tumblr was acquired for $1 billion. Yahoo has disclosed in a regulatory filing that it plans to write down the entire value of that acquisition. A number of other acquisitions have also failed to deliver value as Yahoo struggles in ad revenues- mobile ad revenues for Yahoo in the 1st quarter of 2016 were $250 million compared to $4.5 billion or 17 times that for Facebook. Yahoo has 200 million visitors each month, but its display ads are not strong on mobile and its mobile apps have not done well with users. As advertising shifted to mobile Yahoo stumbled badly. The failed acquisitions investment could have been better utilized in retaining talented mobile engineers, but Yahoo's CEO resorted to cost cutting when the strategy of looking at consumer trends for news content through digital magazine investments failed. As a result Yahoo suffered from slumping morale and a brain drain.

LyrArc Article Gist
Exercise at a relatively low effort for a long time is now called Zone 2. In it someone can carry a slightly strained conversation while exercising. This is becoming popular as the right way to exercise and is the best way to build a sustained and stable way to health. It stimulates our cell's powerhouses say experts and converts into better health and athletic fitness. It is the secret of great elites that helps them faster for longer, says an expert at UT Medical Center in Dallas. As we age we lose mitochondrial function so it is even more important to so this kind of exercise. Mitochrondrial refers to the mitochondria, the battery packs in our cells that convert fat and cars into energy. Zone 2 exercise stimulates mitochondria effectively. About 80% of training can be Zone 2, and 20% at higher intensity to achieve the right balance.

LyrArc Article Gist
A former cricketer who helped Pakistan win the World Cup, is elected prime minister of Pakistan, His party leads in the 2018 elections with 120 seats, the party of Mr. Sharif with its base in the Punjab wins 60 seats, and the party of the Bhuttos with its base in Sind province wins 40 seats. Imran Khan has the support of the military in Pakistan.

Mr. Sharif was ousted as prime minister before the election on corruption charges first revealed in the Panama Papers. 

Pakistan faces challenges of managing its economic relationship with China with debt repayments to China for infrastructure projects leading to a planned IMF bailout in 2019. The relationship with India remains strained over Kashmir, and leads to a situation in which the military runs external affairs of the country. The economic and political issues need to be untangled so that Pakistan and the rest of South Asia can divert resources from defense to economic development.

LyrArc Article Gist
The new Apple iPhone 4S failed to impress analysts looking for further advances in design and capabilities. This is the fifth generation of the iPhone that was first introduced in 2007. It has a speedier processor, an improved camera, and voice-command services. The iPhone generated $13.3 billion out of total Apple revenue of $28.6 billion, in second quarter 2011. Analysts estimate Apple sold 22 millon iPhones in the third quarter 2011, and is expected to sell 25 million iPhones in the fourth quarter. The 4S iPhone uses the same Apple A5 processor chip that is found in the iPad 2 tablet, with twice the earlier speed for downloading data, and seven times faster speed for graphics enabling better videogame display. A personal assistant software Siri enables voice commands for checking weather and responses to text mesages. Prices start at $199 for 16 gigabyte models with a two year contract. Sprint, AT&T and Verizon will offer the phone.

LyrArc Article Gist
News literacy programs that teach young people to read critically and help develop skills that encourage critical thinking. The focus is on school programs for middle and high school students. The News Literacy Project (NLP) has staff that includes 22 news organizations and 200 journalists who donate time to work with students. The Center for News Literacy (CNL) is a project at Stony Brook University, which sees news as "the oxygen of democracy." The projects teach young people how to find the truth behind the hype, propaganda, entertainment, and exaggeration in the daily news inside the the U.S. and from around the world. Pulitzer's words can be seen at the entrance to Columbia University's School of Journalism and on a U.S. postage stamp: "Our Republic and its press will rise and fall together." A sophisticated reader is critical for developing an insightful coverage of news and Pulitzer reminds us that the future of democracy and America depends on this.

LyrArc Article Gist
The young people in Venezuela increasingly question continued support for president Chavez. About 7.5 million Venezuelans ages 18-30 make up 40% of the electorate. Chavez has won elections since 1998, and has setup a network of youth support. Yet there is now voter fatigue after Chavez's 14 years in power, and this election is being vigorously contested by opposition leader, Henrique Capriles. Voters are increasingly looking for an alternative, and an economy that creates jobs and new opportunities beyond the social welfare state supported by oil earnings offered by Chavez, especially the 42% of the working population in the informal sector. One voter puts it succintly saying what Chavez has to give has already been given, and Venezuela's future lies in a different direction. A new direction would better integrate Venezuela with the global economy bringing in new technology and foreign investment. In addition it would include efforts to enlarge the middle class and improve conditions for the working class, as Brazil has done....

LyrArc Article Gist
The Standing Committe of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist party will have seven members including Li Keqiang, the new prime minister and Xi Jinping, the new president. Most of the other members are close allies of former president, Jiang Zemin, who began the now three decade old the modernization effort after Deng Xiaoping initiated economic reforms. This leaves a clear imprint on the Standing Committee of 86 year old Jiang Zemin. The incoming president Jinping is supported by Jiang Zemin, and this should make it less difficult for him to make economic changes say experts. Hu Jintao, the current president could not get his way in making appointments to the Standing Committee, except for selecting his protege Li Keqiang. Hu was able to select members for the 25 member Politburo who are likely to become members of the Standing Committee in 2017, when many of the current members in their mid 60's retire as required by party rules.

LyrArc Article Gist
As Turkey's trade ties with the other countries in the Middle East and Asia increase there is less support for joining the European Union. In 2004 12.5% of Turkey's exports went to the Middle East, today this is up to 20%. This figure is expected to increase after the Arab Spring and new economic opportunities in the region, according to one business group leader. Turkey's exports to Europe in 2010 were about 56%. As Cyprus takes the rotating presidency of the European Union in July 2012, Turkey plans to boycott the presidency and freeze negotiations. In 1974 Turkey invaded Cyprus and set up a rival government in the Turkish part of Cyprus. The talks may be abandoned if no progress is made by 2014, according to Turkish officials. Turkish public opinion is also shifting away from favoring joining the EU. Surveys by the German Marshall Fund show 38% of Turks saw membership as a good thing in 2010, compared to 73% in 2004.

LyrArc Article Gist
HDFC Bank CEO, Aditya Puri, has succeeded with conservative practices in lending. It is now India's second biggest lender by market value, after the government owned State Bank of India. HDFC's lending to consumers has doubled since 2008 under Puri. He believes in prudent lending and keeps an autographed copy of Michael Lewis's The Big Short in his office. This has enabled Puri to avoid the losses experienced by other banks such ICICI, and with India's growing economy HDFC has profit increases of over 30% for the last decade. HDFC is adding 2 million customers a year, says Puri. The bad loan ratio is estimated to be 0.2% in the third quarter of 2011, one tenth of that at State Bank of India. India's largest mortgage lender, Housing Development Finance Corporation, is the largest shareholder with 23%. Puri says he will focus on growth in India, and will continue to avoid taking the kind of risks that would make depositor's lose sleep at night.

LyrArc Article Gist
The breakup fee of $4 billion and the $1 billion in "book value" of spectrum AT&T is giving to T-Mobile as part of the fee are part of the cost of the failed acquisition of T-Mobile. Other costs are that this puts AT&T at a significant disadvantage in relation to competitor Verizon, because Verizon is at least one year ahead in bringing out its next generation LTE network. By the end of 2011 Verizon's LTE network will reach 200 million Americans compared to AT&T LTE coverage of 70 million. Apple's next iPhone in 2012 will be an LTE model. AT&T's network congestion will mean it will have to do more capital spending than Verizon in the years ahead. Verizon has early mover advantages from its early investments in LTE network. From 2008 through the first 3 quarters of 2011, Verizon invested $29.3 billion in its wireless network compared to AT&T's $28.1 billion.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Journal's interview with Weight Watchers International CEO, David Kirchhoff. Weight Watcher's strategies focus on increasing its online business and getting males to join Weight Watchers. According to Kirchhoff it has 1.4 million people, 90% of whom are women, attending meetings each week all over the world. Online business is surging, with an average of 1.8 million additional subscribers for the first 3 quarters of 2011. In the first 3 quarters of 2011 the online business showed gains of 70%. Estimates are for the online business to generate $400 million in revenues and $200 million in operating income in 2011. Today 65% of the business is in the U.S. and a large part of the rest is in Europe. Kirchhoff sees new opportunities in China, where poor lifestyles- the use of the internet instead of being outdoors, and the increased access to all kinds of food- is creating a surge in obesity.

LyrArc Article Gist
Analysts say the second phase of building China's strategic petroleum reserve will begin in the first half of 2011. This addition is expected to be for 168 million barrels, adding to the 100 million barrels in the reserve. China International Capital Corporation, a Beijing investment bank, says this stocking up and the rising inventories at Chinese oil companies could increase oil prices by $6.50 a barrel in 2011 and 2012. Existing Chinese reserves cover only 12 days of demand, compared to the 103 million barrels or 40 days for the US strategic petroleum reserve. This increases the uncertainty in world oil markets. A daily addition of 150,000 barrels a day would meet one third of the expected second phase in 2011, and this amounts to about 10% of the International Energy Agency's forecast increase in global demand for 2011. At the same time if oil gets too expensive, China could decide to wait for a more opportune time to build stocks.

LyrArc Article Gist
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler Group, is known to take personal responsibility for getting it right for the small details of quality of Chrysler cars. When one test showed a defective door handle for a revamped Dodge Charger engineers reported on the status of the fix every couple of hours to Marchionne. He believes that if one wants to run the business right one has to get involved at this level. Marchionne has 23 people reporting to him at Chrysler and 25 more at Fiat in Italy. For Marchionne this has helped the two companies to work closely. Chrysler under Marchionne has spent $1.1 billion on revampig 14 models which are now in production. This was the only way to boost sales, as customers did not want the old models. His way to judge the performance of the revamped 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee was to drive it 3,500 miles through Quebec, New Brunswick and New England.

LyrArc Article Gist
Niederauer brings a straightforward style to his efforts to bring together NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Bourse in a new combination. He joined Goldman in 1985, after studying business at Emory University in Atlanta. In his 22 year career at Goldman he worked his way up as a stock trader. He worked in Tokyo where he supervised efforts for electronic trading. He was brought to NYSE in 2007 by Mr Thain, a former Goldman executive. The NYSE has seen its dominance erode since 2000, as investors shifted to fast trading. In the U.S. the NYSE traded 34% of NYSE listed shares bought or sold in January 2011, a significant drop from the 54% in late 2007, and more than 80% when the NYSE was the dominant exchange. This is reflected in the stock price, which is down 56% for NYSE shares since the end of 2007. With a merger Niederauer will be the leading executive of the merged company.

LyrArc Article Gist
Analysis by the Wall Street Journal shows companies in the S&P 500 stock index earned second quarter profits of $189 billion. This was up 38% from 2009, without the inflation adjustment. For all American companies, Commerce Department estimates second quarter after tax profits rose to an annual rate of $1.208 trillion, up 3.9% from the first quarter, and up 26.5% from year earlier. Companies are doing this with layoffs of workers, closing less profitable units, and shifting work to cheaper locations, and introducing more efficient processes. Texas Instruments shut down a unit making cellphones, Electronic Arts pruned its videogames by about 50%. These profit increases were achieved by reducing costs on flat or declining sales compared to 2008, just prior to the financial crisis. Companies are not expected to increase spending through new hiring or adding equipment in the current economic environment. From the Journal's analysis of the 500 S&P companies, it shows sales were 6% less than 2008, with second quarter profits 10% higher....

LyrArc Article Gist
From the 1950's to the 1980''s profits earned by financial firms excluding insurance and real estate accounted for 10% of total US profits. This grew to 22% by the 1990's and jumped to 34% from 2001 to 2005. A financial sector of this size becomes a danger for the US economy, especially with overleveraging, high-frequency trading, excessive risk-taking and other practices common before the crisis of 2008. It also does not add to the productive strength of the US economy, and diverts human and capital resources that can be productively used elsewhere in the US economy. A large sector also creates its own self-perpetuation mechanisms such as efforts to dilute or reduce the regulation needed for it to function safely and productively. By diminishing the power of the legislative and executive branches of the US government to regulate this sector, it also reduces public confidence in government.

LyrArc Article Gist
After taking the recent writedowns Bankia should have setu provisions for losses on real estate bad loans equal to 48.9% of its real estate portfolio. The Spanish government said on May 25, 2012 that it would inject 19 billion euros to recapitalize Bankia. Yet this raises more questions about the rest of the banking system and the need to set aside adequate reserves for bad real estate loans. Extrapolating from the writedowns at Bankia for real estate losses, about 45 billion euros would be needed for the other Spanish banks, according to UBS. And this raises the question of how the government would raise the money to recapitalize the banking system, as Spain's borrowing rate on its 10 year bonds has increased to 6.45% in May 2012. If Spain provides government bonds to banks the markdown on the bonds would still need to be shown separately, and a large figure would be a sign of increasing riskiness to bond investors.

LyrArc Article Gist
Airbus's plan to invest $600 million for a manufacturing plant in the U.S. state of Alabama. Airbus plans are to assemble the A320 models of single aisle planes at a new plant in the Mobile area in 2015. By 2018 the plant would make 50 planes annually including the planned shift to the "Neo" version of the A320 with new engines. Because the planes are priced in U.S. dollars manufacturing in the U.S. helps reduce the effects of currency fluctuations on Airbus's financial performance. Costs of manufacturing are similiar to that in Europe, according to Airbus executives, as final assembly is only 5% of the cost and about 40% of Airbus equipment for planes is manufactured in the U.S. But Airbus management has realized the importance that final assembly plays in perceptions about where the plane is made, with these perceptions playing a part in getting a bigger share of the market.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Dec. 2013 CBS/NYT poll showed only 39% overall support the Obama health care law, a majority say it increases their health care costs. 57% of the uninsured without health coverage say it increases their costs and only 20% say it decreases their costs, for the very group it was designed to help. For the uninsured a third say they will not sign up for the law and pay the penalty. Annie Lowrey of the NYT looks at these numbers and says part of the reason for the lack of enthusiasm for the law is the sharp increase in deductible costs of insurance coverage- the percentage of Americans in health insurance plans with deductibles over $1000 has jumped to 38% in 2013 from 18% in 2008, according to a survey by the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation. During these 5 years the average deductible has increased to $1097 from $735. This is happening as incomes are stagnant or declining in inflation adjusted terms for many working Americans.

LyrArc Article Gist
The value of the gold holdings of the Swiss central bank, the Swiss National Bank, declined by 15 billion Swiss Francs ($16.6 billion) in 2013, as the price of gold declined by 28% in 2013. The loss was much more than gains of 3 billion francs in foreign currency positions and 3 billion francs in profit from sales from a fund holding troubled assets. As a result the bank will not pay dividends fro the first time since its founding in 1907. Prices declined as the Fed announced a policy of reversing its bond buying in 2013. In 2008-2012 the U.S. Fed's bond buying efforts pushed up prices of gold holdings as a hedge against inflationary risks. Signs of economic recovery in the U.S. are likely to lead to further price declines. Purchases of gold made after 2010 are now showing losses. The Russian central bank made 30% of all gold purchases since 2010 made by central banks and reported to the IMF.