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Boeing reaches a tentative agreement with the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers in Nov. 2011. Under the agreement Boeing will build the 737 MAX, a retooled version, at a union plant in Renton, Washington. In exchange the union will not oppose Boeing's use of a new nonunion plant in South Carolina for assembling some 787 Dreamliners. The agreement when approved by union vote would extend the contract for 4 years till 2016. Advantages to Boeing lie in labor peace during a period when Boeing plans to increase production by about one third, over 2012-2014, to meet aircraft orders of $332 billion. Existing 737 production has been moved up to 35 a month, going up to 42 a month, accelerating the pace significantly, making it important for both sides to avoid labor discord. The Max first delivery is planned for 2017. In the current unemployment crisis there was considerable incentive on both sides to resolve the issue quickly, after the union had raised the issue with the National Labor Relations Board. It provides Boeing with flexibility in assembling some of the 787's in S. Carolina along with assurance for union commitment to productivity, and gives the union assurances that Boeing will continue to maintain significant maufacturing presence in the Washington area, a win-win for both sides. The NLRB appeal will be dropped by the union....

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This report in WSJ says industry and Boeing officials now increasingly believe that workers at Boeing factory reinstalled a plug in 737 Max 9 jet but failed to put back the bolts. The door plug blew off 16000 feet over Oregon leading to an emergency landing. Boeing is affected by lack of good quality practices and worker training for quality standards for several years. The question remains why this sort of defect is not detected in the final inspection detail checklist, with a second final inspection and third for overall quality. And why the plane is not checked again for obvious defects by the airline when it receives the new plane.The cost of this is minimal compared to the cost of compensating airlines for losses in some way and loss of customer loyalty.

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Accident investigators for the Ethipian and Lions Air crashes say Boeing faile to inform FAA safety inspectors and Southwest safety specialists of the deactivation of a feature that warns pilots about malfunctioning sensors. The new models of the plane had this feature made optional in a new automated stall prevention system called MCAS. Southwest Airlines management and pilots did not know about this in 2017 a year after the planes went into service, and learned about this only after the Lions Air crash in October 2018. After the crash of Lions Air plane Southwest had asked Boeing to activate the alerts on its MAX planes.

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Apple appears to have peaked and it marks the end of an era. Americans have more to be concerned about than the latest incremental iPhone design with decline in reading skills among children, dropping mens college enrollments, cost of living crisis, and retiree poverty.  For the most part US prices are kept at last year's level as Apple is facing new competition and restrictions in China, with a new Huawei phone which matches the new iPhone. Apple has increased iPhone revenues by 44%, even though shipments have increased by 15%, with aggressive pricing, making iPhones generate $40 billion, 50% of total revenue. This aggressive pricing phase may now be ending as Huawei plans to increase global shipments by 20% even as the total smartphone market declined by 6% to 1.15 billion shipments. Apple has 55% of the US smartphone market and worldwide at 27%. This may be the peak and the end of an era in which Apple and other Tech companies not paying a fair share of taxes led to the defunding of infrastructure and public services. ...

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Intel and its shepherding of wireless technology that beats fixed line broadband. The effort at Intel is led by Sean Maloney. And Intel has signed up Nokia, Samsung, Sprint and other key players to its effort to develop and promote wi-max technology for wireless. Its a sure bet for emerging market countries where wireless makes sense. But its also making sense for the US and other developed countries. Still hurdles remain and 2009 will be a critical for Wi-Max.

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Ford gains market share in California, as Toyota and Honda's share of the market declines. Ford's market share is up 2 percentage points on the east and west coasts compared to 5 years ago, according to R.L. Polk data. The Ford Fusion sales for the first half of 2013 are up 18% over the prior year and exceed 300,000. Growth in the coastal U.S. markets comes from the 2013 Fusion, the C-Max, hybrids, and the redesigned Escape. Cars and crossovers are especially important in coastal markets. In the past Ford depended mostly on SUV sales in the midwestern markets with imports dominant in coastal markets. This is now changing with models like the Fusion and hyrids introduced by Ford. With it the image of Ford is also changing, as buyers in California are among the most affluent and culturally influential in setting trends.

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The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics spins out a startup Proxima that has received $70 millon in funding to produce the first serious fusion power nuclear energy concept. This is nuclear energy without radioactive waste- Proxima's Stellerator fusion power concept published in journal Fusion Engineering and Design.

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WSJ Podcast looks at the structural failure of a 737 Max 9 jetplane from Boeing on an Alaska Airlines flight last week. This is a rarely seen failure where one sees a hole in the plane itself requiring a quick landing to safely get all passengers out. The 737 Max 9 has been a problem plane for Boeing for some time. Last week a Japanese Coast Guard plane crashed into a Japanese airliner with both given the go ahead on the same runway requiring all passengers to be evacuated in 18 minutes. Haneda airport and other airports now have new protocol for flights from Japanese airline supervisory authorites. what it shows is that new technologies make the basics of quality control and strict governmental supervision even more important not less as protocols can fail, governmental supervision can be deficient, and quality control in manufacturing process can be defective.

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Researchers Rauh and Novy-Marx, estimate that states in the U.S. have pension shortfall of as much as $3.4 trillion, and the municipalities have pension shortfall of $574 billion. Seven states are expected to exhaust their pension assets by 2010, and half will run out of money by 2027. Several states have promised annual payments of 30% of tax revenues after their pension funds are exhausted.

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German national soccer team coach Joachim Low has used 7 different defenders in the last 3 games as he tries to find a winning formula after replacing Hummels and Boateng, says this report in DW.com. He also replaced Thomas Muller and it will take some time before the German national team coach can find the new younger players to replace the old ones. This approach is not unique to Joachim Low alone as other national teams are also looking for younger players. The Spanish national team and the Portuguese national team have many younger players in an effort to bring new faces to the game who excel at soccer. Younger German players being called to play on the national team include Philipp Max, Robin Gosens, Nico Schulz, Mahmoud Dahoud, Nadiem Amiri, Florian Neuhaus, Jonas Hofmann. The only way to play other national teams who are bringing in younger players is for Low to tap into younger talent in Germany and let the process bring results.

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Bread and bakeries have a special place in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and most of Europe. DW.com looks at one bakery in the city of Bonn, Kugel's Bakery with 13 employees and the concept slogan "Where there's only bread" (Da wo's nur Brot gibt) written on each and every white packaging bag. There are 10,000 bakeries in Germany many of them small family run bakeries that specialize in bread. Click on original article to see this report. Max Kugel takes over his parent's bakery, but first visits Vancouver, San Francisco and London, to learn new concepts and invests in new special equipment with a $200,000 loan. The new equipment lets him switch from one type of bread to another easily and keeps his costs down. He does not depend on Ukraine grain imports as he uses local organic grain grown in Germany. With 10,000 bakeries total sales in Germany are $15 billion for bread, and Germans take in 123 pounds of bread and baked goods in a year per person. ...

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The work of innovation teams that help reduce lost production time and make production more efficient on Boeing's 737 production lines in Renton, Washington. There are 1300 improvement teams at Boeing for commerical jet production. Examples range from conventional improvements such as remapping production arrangements to unconventional ones like the use of hay loaders to put seats on passenger planes. The work requires highly motivated production engineers and Boeing has a long tradition of this. Boeing has increased 737 jet production to 35 a month from 31.5 with the help of such improvements. The goal is to make 42 planes a month by 2014, and 60 by 2017 when the 737 MAX goes into production. Boeing has a large backlog of orders- 3,700 jets of which 2,300 are 737s.

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About half of foreign investment in poor developing countries is sent through tax havens resulting in tax revenues lost to poor countries. Here Max Bearak of the Washington Post points to a offshore to offshore transaction when Vodafone bought a company Hutchison Essar in India- Vodafone based in Netherlands and Hutchison in the Cayman and British Virgin Islands both tax havens- the result being a loss of $2.2 billion in tax revenues to India. This is about what it costs to provide subsidized meals to schoolchildren in India, says Bearak. The Tax Justice Network says the figure of Angel Gurria of the OECD that 3 times the foreign aid is lost through such tax evasion is a bit low, its estimate is as high as ten times foreign aid lost through tax evasion of this type.

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Egypt plans to tackle the financial crisis after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine by increasing natural gas exports by one third. It has the LNG terminals to do this which are underutilized. The LNG could be exported to Asia or Europe at ten times the price buyers in Egypt pay for it. The way this additional natural gas is to be exported is to impose 15% cut in use of natural gas in Egypt similar to what the European Union has done with its 15% mandated reduction. This will then be diverted to LNG terminals. The max temperature for air conditioning is 25 degrees under the new plan and lights are dimmed or shut off after 11 pm in streets, shops and malls.  The war in Ukraine has doubled the price of wheat and other basic food necessities imported from Ukraine and Russia. This put a heavy burden on state finances in Egypt with subsidies on bread and other food for 70 million people out of 102 million people. Investment needs are also affected. Saudi Arabia has stepped in with help as no IMF program has been set. A 14% devaluation of the currency took place in 2022 and another devaluation of the currency is expected. ...

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Canada's Bombardier based in Montreal launched the C series in 2008 to develop aircraft to compete with Airbus 320neo and Boeing 737 MAX, narrow body commercial airplanes. After cost overruns and delays Bombardier has $9 billion of long term debt and its financial condition deteriorated to the point where it needed a $1 billion loan from Quebec government in 2015. About 40,000 workers in Quebec are in the aerospace industry. In 2018 Airbus acquired a 50.01% stake in the Cseries program to provide marketing muscle because sustainablility became a marketing issue in Bombardier's severely weakened financial condition resulting in weak sales. Quebec government holds 16%, Bombardier 34%. Now Bombardier is planning to sell its stake in the A220 jet program to Airbus to cut its debt. Airbus will cover $350 million in losses for 2020. It is also negotiating to sell its core jet division to Textron Inc. The ambitious strategy appears to have failed for Bombardier as Airbus takes control.     ...

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An argument for more troops, as Max Boot of the Council of Foreign Relations vists Afghanistan at the request of General Petraeus. This is a local account, what is the larger picture. And can the problems of a failed Afghan government and the way American boots are seen as foreign occupiers be wished away? See the link to Kristof who says even the Punjabis in the Pakistan army are not welcomed in Pashtun land on both sides of the border, and there are 40 million Pashtuns.

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Max Fisher of the NYT points out the unique approach taken by Canada in the U.S.-Canada relationship - to cultivate a grassroots network of Americans in legislatures, business, and at different levels of government. This has enabled the Trudeau government to build a relationship with president Trump, and at the same time have relationships at different levels of government and with business in the U.S. to tackle issues where the Trump administration has acted in ways unfavorable for Canada. Provincial governments in Ontario and Quebec lobbied against a New York state government provision for Buying American on state contracts worth over $100,000. By emphasizing the $10 billion in exports from New York to Ontario this lobbying persuaded the New York legislature to cancel the provision. Premier Trudeau's popularity helps and the proximity to the U.S. means Canadians can visit quickly and understand the U.S. as a close neighbor. Still Premier Kathleen Wynne of Ontario says Canadian businesses are nervous about the uncertainty from the Trump administration.   ...

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Blue Dog or corporate shills, who are they, asks Thomas Frank. He reminds readers that Illinois Senator Paul Douglas advised people in 1932 not to expect much from the Democratic party. Douglas said the Democratic party was more like alifeboat for business interests, when the going got tough with the Republicans, business interests simmply used this lifeboat to get away. So he says call these Blue Dogs caucus the Lifeboat caucus, and you get closer to the mark. He points out that the Blue Dogs are some of the leading fundraisers in Congress. See the link to Max Baucus in the Senate, who the NYT describes as a leading fundraiser from Montana.