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The health of the U.S. economy June 2011- banks still have large holdings of risky assets
06/04/2011
From the second quarter of 2009, to the first quarter of 2011, Cit Holdings had troubled assets come down from $582 billion to $337 billion. Like other large banks in its group Citi still has large amounts of troubled assets.
Linked Articles
AXA Arm to Buy Holdings From Citi
Wall Street Journal 06/08/2011
Banks May Need More CapitalWall Street Journal 06/04/2011
The safety failures that could have been prevented with stronger oversight and control for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster
03/21/2011
The independent parliamentary panel in Japan concuded in its July 2012 Report that the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant was "a profoundly man-made event." Here in its investigations after the accident the Wall Street Journal finds some of the safety flaws that could have been corrected but were not due to the compete lack of effectiveness of the safety agency and its failure to do its job. As a result licenses for forty year old nuclear reactor designs and installation designs were simply renewed without requiring changes or shutting down these reactors. It is these older designs that were also improperly installed that failed.
Linked Articles
Japan Plant Had Troubled History
Wall Street Journal 03/21/2011
Design Flaw Fueled Nuclear DisasterWall Street Journal 07/01/2011
Angela Merkel's experience with the reunification of East and West Germany and her views of the eurozone crisis
01/30/2011
The perceptions of the eurozone crisis of ordinary Germans and of former East German Angela Merkel are colored by the period of reunification of the two Germany's. This was paid for with a"solidarity surcharge" tax paid by Germans amounting to $1.7 trillion and led in its early stages to 4 million unemployed in the eastern part and 20% unemployment. It took over a decade for East Germany to build new modernized industries in the larger cities of the east, but still leaves the rural parts of former East Germany in a neglected state as young peoplemoved out. During this period industry in the west also regained lost global competitiveness, especially in industries such as automobiles and advanced machinery, using wage restraint agreements with unions and increases in productivity. Germans see the need for eurozone countries in the southern part of Europe needing to make similiar sacrifices and see the tax evasion in Italy and Greece as unacceptable. The real estate bubble, the lack of transparency for banks bad loans, and out of control regional spending in Spain is also seen in a similiar light. Greece is seen as the most egregious offendor because of the bad financial accounting that grossly understated the extent of the bad loans. Less publicized in Germany is the role played in the bad loans through poor lending practices of German and French banks and that as experts have pointed out Germany was to some extent bailing out German banks when it was bailing out Greece- till German banks reduced their exposure to Greece in 2011.
Linked Articles
In former East Germany, anxious residents resent paying for Europe’s problems - The Washington Post
Washington Post 06/21/2012
Merkel's Defense of Euro Forged in East GermanyNew York Times 01/30/2011
Long standing reputations for quality and safety damaged by failures in quality systems at J&J McNeil and Toyota.
02/02/2010
Both Toyota and J&J Mcneil unit responded poorly and with long time lags to federal agencies that supervise safety for their products. Both companies took along time to investigate the consumer complaints, one for faulty brake pedal and the other for musty odor from Tylenol Arthritis caplet bottles.
Linked Articles
Maker of Tylenol Explains Actions Taken to Alleviate Musty Smell of Pills
New York Times 03/17/2010
Obama Administration Says It Is 'Not Finished With Toyota'Wall Street Journal 02/02/2010
Edmund Phelps, Nobel winner 2006, on what capitalism really is, and Obama's speech at Georgetown on its current crisis.
04/15/2009
Phelps gives alucid and admirable description of what capitalism is and what it is not, and how best to understand it and employ it.
Linked Articles
Uncertainty bedevils the best system
Unknown 04/15/2009
From President Obama, Economic Clarity but Little CourageWashington Post 04/15/2009
The Martin Feldstein plan to address foreclosures and the plan of Glenn Hubbard.
10/02/2008
Feldstein headed Reagan's economic policy team, and Hubbard headed the elder Bush's economic policy team. Its interesting that both lamented the lack of addressing the foreclosures as root of the problem. Feldstein and Hubbard gave their own proposals on the pages of the WSJ on the eve of the $700 billion bailout. The bailout plan had this gaping hole in it- with little for serious foreclosure prevention.
Linked Articles
The Problem Is Still Falling House Prices
Wall Street Journal 10/04/2008
First, Let's Stabilize Home PricesWall Street Journal 10/02/2008
Rapid cost increases for Canadian oil sands projects
09/12/2007
Petro -Canada faces risks in its oil sands project as project costs continue to rise as rapidly as oil prices, could end up 2-3 times the original estimate.
Linked Articles
Oil Sands Are Shifting in Alberta
Wall Street Journal 02/05/2008
Petro-Canada Faces ChallengeWall Street Journal 09/12/2007
Pfizer's focus on its core pharmaceutical business in 2011-2015
05/02/2011
Rockoff's interview with Pfizer CEO, Ian Read, in which Read describes his strategy of focussing on new drug development and locating closer to hubs with large universities and research centers such as La Jolla, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Cambridge, England. Pfizer sold its infant nutrition business to Nestle as part of this plan.
Linked Articles
Pfizer Profit Declines 19% After Loss of Lipitor Patent
New York Times 05/01/2012
Life Beyond Lipitor for Pfizer ChiefWall Street Journal 05/02/2011
The Fall of an American Icon- HP, Lee Apotheker and the Autonomy Acquisition Inc.
02/18/2011
The Autonomy acquisition charge of $8.8 billion announced by CEO Meg Whitman on Nov. 20, 2012, come at a time of declining sales and margins in its printer and PC businesses. The costly charges on bad acquisitions by H-P is likely to hurt investment in R&D for years.
Linked Articles
Hewlett's Loss: A Folly Unfolds By the Numbers
New York Times 11/20/2012
Chief Reboots H-P After ScandalWall Street Journal 02/18/2011
Research and Development (R&D) approaches of pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Glaxo with smaller budgets and smaller units
07/01/2010
Linked Articles
Pfizer Profit Declines 19% After Loss of Lipitor Patent
New York Times 05/01/2012
Glaxo Tries Biotech Model to Spur Drug InnovationsWall Street Journal 07/01/2010
The huge downsizing in the auto industry creates the need for big government supported initatives in retraining.
05/21/2009
Vicotr Brown and the 60,000 former workers at GM's BUick City have worked at GM all their lives, and can't imagine anything else. How does one get them from joining the ranks of the permanently unemployed, is a challenge for the government. THe labor underutilization rate expected to reach 20% for 2010, could threaten the economic recovery, and put everything at risk.
Linked Articles
Stuck at Unemployed: When A Layoff Becomes a Lifestyle
Washington Post 06/06/2009
The Last Holdouts Cast Their Lot With G.M.New York Times 05/21/2009
Economist Paul Krugman who just won the Nobel prize says Gordon does good.
10/13/2008
Paul Krugman says Gordon Brown has done much good with his initative and proper direction of the rescue effort giving all countries good leadership in a global crisis.
Linked Articles
New York Times 10/13/2008
British Prime Minister’s Stock Rises as His Bank Plan Lifts Stocks WorldwideNew York Times 10/15/2008
Daimler's solution to overheating in lithium ion car batteries and GM and Toyota's own efforts to solve this
01/11/2008
The overheating of lithium ion batteries is why it has taken so long to come up with mass market electric cars or hybrids using lithium ion batteries. Daimler's Zetsche says his company is the first to put a car on the market with litium ion battery in its S400 in late 2008 and it has developed a sophisticated cooling system in the car for this.
Linked Articles
At Daimler, Sales Follow the World’s Oil Riches
New York Times 05/10/2008
Race to Make Electric Cars Stalled by Battery ProblemsWall Street Journal 01/11/2008
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