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De Anza College in Cupertino, California where a Apple co-founder got his start and the implications of tax avoidance strategies
04/28/2012
A U.S. Senate Report in May 2013 points to tax avoidance strategies by Apple, and Apple CEO Tim Cook appears before a Senate hearing. EU leaders meet in Brussels to address the problems of tax avoidance by digital companies which aggravate the budget deficits of EU countries, especially at a time of cutbacks in infrastructure spending and education that supports the digital companies access to to human resources. De Anza College in Cupertino is where on of the Apple cofounders went to school. The head of the college describes the effects of cutbacks in funding on the college. On the other side of the Atlantic Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden's prime minister makes a similiar case saying the digital companies need access to infrastructure and educational centres which makes the payment of taxes used to fund this necessary for the whole system not to fall into dysfunction.
Linked Articles
Apple's Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations
New York Times 04/28/2012
Europe Tackles Tax EvasionWall Street Journal 05/22/2013
Changes at Apple under new CEO, Timothy Cook
04/01/2012
Linked Articles
Apple Shake-Up Signals Tim Cook Era
Wall Street Journal 10/31/2012
Apple's Suppliers Pressed to Improve Worker's LotNew York Times 04/01/2012
The Justice Department antitrust lawsuit in 2012 on price collusion for e-books by Apple and five publishers
03/11/2012
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 04/12/2012
Pick your monopoly: Apple or Amazon - The Washington PostWashington Post 03/11/2012
A more outward looking Chinese leadership of Li Keqiang and Xi Jinping in 2012-2020
08/22/2011
Linked Articles
Heartland Return for Chinese Leader
Wall Street Journal 01/31/2012
China Previews Rising LeadershipWall Street Journal 08/22/2011
Turkey's prime minister Erdogan and the need to build a bridge between the two Turkeys- the secular and the one looking to its Muslim roots
06/13/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 06/13/2011
Identity Shift Giving Rise to 2 TurkeysNew York Times 11/30/2012
Inequality, the middle class and economic growth
01/15/2011
Studies show a growing middle class and lower middle class as one of the conditions underpinning steady economic growth. Adam Smith also points this out in his book The Wealth of Nations, written in the 18th century as England began its transformaton with the Industrial Revolution. Growing wages created a middle class and demand for goods and services that enable England to prosper. A similiar process took place in the U.S. with Henry Ford's effort to provide higher wages in his automobile plants in the 1920's that led to a growing middle class able to afford automobiles.
Linked Articles
Inequality: The rich and the rest
Economist 01/15/2011
The 1 Percent Clubâs Misguided ProtectorsNew York Times 12/10/2011
The Project on Government Oversight Report in 2013 and the revolving door at the S.E.C. in the U.S.
04/24/2010
Robert Khuzami was enforcement chief at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the critical period following the 2008 financial crisis. He was also a lawyer at Deutsche Bank during the period when the problems at Deutsche Bank happened which resulted in legal settlements. The revolving door has affected the way the S.E.C. carried out its enforcement responsibilities.
Linked Articles
S.E.C.'s Revolving Door Hurts Its Effectiveness
New York Times 02/11/2013
SEC's Top Cop Oversaw Deutsche CDOsWall Street Journal 04/24/2010
Aspects of the Reform proposal that were influenced by the work of Prof Sunstein and Prof Thaler at the University of Chicago.
06/17/2009
Sunstein and Thaler's book "Nudge" talks about the role psychology plays, and behavoural aspects play in human behaviour. The President is a friend of Sunstein from their days at the University of Chicago law school. The onsumer Financial Protection Agency and its role, says Zweig, takes some ideas from Prof. Sunstein's work to protect consumers.
Linked Articles
Obama’s Financial Reform Plan: The Condensed Version
Wall Street Journal 06/17/2009
About Time: Regulation Based On Human NatureWall Street Journal 06/20/2009
Looking at it from Benjamin Graham's perspective this sure is overoptimism, prices of share overestended and overpriced.
05/23/2009
A reminder to take Benjamin Graham's perspective and view things from the "the standpoint of eternity rather than day to day."
Linked Articles
If You Think Worst Is Over, Take Benjamin Graham's Advice
Wall Street Journal 05/23/2009
Rising Interest on Nations’ Debts May Sap World GrowthNew York Times 06/04/2009
FT's Martin Wolf looks at Simon Johnson's argument that Obama is avoiding the tough choices because he has succumbed to pressure from financial elites.
04/14/2009
Wolf looks at Simon Johnson's argument about Obama's dithering on the tough issues like that of insolvent banks, and says America is not like Russia where financial elites controlled the government's way of responding into and out of a crisis.
Linked Articles
Unknown 04/15/2009
Text of Obama Economic SpeechBusinessWeek 04/14/2009
How Pearson compares with New York Times Company.
01/20/2009
Pearson has shifted out of dependence on adspending for revenues by reducing ads as apercentage of revenues at Financial Times to 30% from 50%. Its textbook and Penguin books cushions it further from big declines in ad spending. The New York TImes has no such businesses and ad spending dominates. Its burdened by overborrowing and debt coming due and not enough controls on spending.
Linked Articles
Pearson Expects Strong 2008 Earnings
Wall Street Journal 01/20/2009
Billionaire Reaches Deal On Funding For Times Co.Wall Street Journal 01/20/2009
Obama looks for a stimulus spending plan that packs the greatest punch for the middle class and unemployment.
01/05/2009
About $300 billion of an estimated $800 billion stimulus spending plan by the Obama administration will be for tax cuts to individuals and businesses. There will be incentives for businesses to make net new hires and make new investments. The idea is to avoid wasteful spending if there is only spending on infrastructure and other spending.
Linked Articles
Obama Eyes $300 Billion Tax Cut
Wall Street Journal 01/05/2009
Government Spending Is No Free LunchWall Street Journal 01/22/2009
Obama strategy for Hispanic voters and for Catholic voters.
11/06/2008
Obama carried the Hispanic vote by large numbers and the Catholic vote by a 9 point margin.
Linked Articles
Democrats Gain With Religious Voters
Wall Street Journal 11/06/2008
Big Turnout of Latino Voters Boosted ObamaWall Street Journal 11/06/2008
How the U.S. Justice Department antitrust lawsuit for pricing collusion against publishers is hurting Barnes & Noble and other book publishers
04/12/2012
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 04/13/2012
U.S. Alleges E-Book SchemeWall Street Journal 04/12/2012
Tim Cook of Apple and Joe Hinrichs at Ford Motor- hands on manufacturing experience and building new products
04/01/2012
Linked Articles
Can Ford Boss Avoid Production Hiccups?
Wall Street Journal 02/15/2014
Apple's Suppliers Pressed to Improve Worker's LotNew York Times 04/01/2012
Looking behind the unemployment numbers to better guage unemployment levels in the U.S. in 2011-2013
12/12/2011
Including the long term unemployed who quit working after months of furitless searching gives a better sense of the real level of unemployment in the U.S. Reconciling the Establishment Survey with the Household Survey using the third measure developed by the Labor Department which adjusts for multiple jobs held by one person and self employed farm workers, and adjusting for weather conditions, also helps give a better picture.
Linked Articles
Number of the Week: Did U.S. Actually Shed 195,000 Jobs in July?
Wall Street Journal 08/04/2012
Wonkbook: The real unemployment rate is 11 percent - The Washington PostWashington Post 12/12/2011
Alan Meltzer and Thomas Hoenig's criticism of Federal Reserve Bank chairman Bernake's failure to look at long term consequences of low rates
08/11/2011
Hoenig points to the Fed's lowered rates in 2003 after the burst of the dot com bubble and higher unemployment of 6.5% in 2003 and Meltzer which led to the mortgage meltdown of 2008. Meltzer points to QE II's $600 billion monetary easing in 2010 which failed to revive the economy or reduce unemployment in 2011. They emphasize the Fed's lack of attention to the long term consequences of their actions. Both question the role of the Fed in creating jobs and see the role of the Fed as a neutral player, as deeper structural changes such as ashift to export driven economy, lower consumption take time and are only delayed by a continuation of old policies.
Linked Articles
Kansas City Fed President Defies Conventional Wisdom
New York Times 08/13/2011
The Folly of Economic Short-TermismWall Street Journal 08/11/2011
Saudi expert Karen Elliott House's thirty years of experience covering the Middle East tell us that the U.S. policy is sorely out of touch in the Middle East
02/15/2011
Elliott House is a former publisher of the Wall Street Journal and a Pulitzer prize winner for covering the Middle East. She sees the Saudi Arabian princes sorely out of touch with the ordinary Saudis and the young people and U.S. policy at an impasse. Rice says the policy of supporting autocracy only brings a false kind of stability. She sees Egypt, Tunisia and the rest of the Arab world and thinks it did not have to be this way.
Linked Articles
Condoleezza Rice - The future of a democratic Egypt
Washington Post 02/16/2011
From Tunis to Cairo to Riyadh?Wall Street Journal 02/15/2011
Apple products at manufacturing plants in China and at retail stores in the U.S.- low worker pay and lack of future prospects
05/29/2010
The high margins for Apple achieved through a combination of keeping costs low- even at the risk of providing poor wage and working conditions for the majority of employees employed in the retail stores in the U.S. and in supplier Foxconn plants in China- and by a grasp for innovation and technology. The paradox of a well deserved image for pioneering in technological innovation and the indifference to working conditions and prospects for employees who add value in manufacturing and customer interface. This model of growth is a recent development, put in place after 1997. In 1995-1997 Apple was nearing collapse under Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio, as documented by WSJ technology reporter Jim Carlton in his book- "Apple- The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders." Steve Jobs returned as CEO in 1997 and set the future course and this model in place emphasizing design, his ability to grasp technologies that would appeal to customers, and hired Tim Cook to set up the manufacturing which had high rate of defects and higher costs. The model was as full of paradoxes, of genius combined with mediocre behavioursas the man Steve Jobs. Tim Cook has responded to criticism in 2012 by having the Fair Labor association audit Foxconn plants in China. Foxconn increased wages in 2012, shifted plants to the interior of China, and increased use of robotics.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/29/2010
Apple Stores Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on PayNew York Times 06/23/2012
As U.S. shoppers become frugal China looks to its own domestic market.
09/29/2009
Linked Articles
Unrest May Signal New Phase in China Economy
New York Times 05/29/2010
China Inc. Looks Homeward as U.S. Shoppers Turn FrugalWall Street Journal 09/29/2009
As the government sells $5 trillion in new debt by one estimate, the problem of an estimated $ 1 trillion in troubled assets on the banks books is being put off for another day.
06/04/2009
The FDIC's Legacy Loans Program's $1 billion pilot program attracts no interest. The Public Private Partnership Program of Secretary Geithner, like Secretary Paulson's TARP program before Geithner, is also unlikely to attract much interest as banks are not willing to take the prices that would require them to show large losses on their books. But this means that these problems are postponed for another day.
Linked Articles
Plan to Help Banks Clear Their Books Is Halted
New York Times 06/04/2009
Rising Interest on Nations’ Debts May Sap World GrowthNew York Times 06/04/2009
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 efforts of banks in better shape but still weak to wish the crisis away.
03/06/2009
Chase and Goldman's efforts to rewrite history, and act as though they did not benefit from government help is wrong and dangerous says the Economist. Its dangerous because it sends the message that any resoultion of toxic assets on banks books is unnecessary, and these banks should be treated differently when it comes to setting new prudent bank regulations, including setting regulation for incentives that do not support excessive risk taking and leveraging. A change in the economic climate for the worse could make this a dangerous complaceny.
Linked Articles
New York Times 03/06/2009
Thanks, for nothingEconomist 06/11/2009
Bonuses, executive compensation and performance in the UK, public outcry.
01/20/2009
The executive compensation and bonus situation in the UK. RBS and othe banks and the public outcry. As RBS shares drop to 12 pence or less than the price of a candy bar, loss for 2008 is 28 billion pounds, and the British government comes up with $20 billion pounds of government money for RBS and takes 70% ownership, reports in the Sunday Telegraph suggest executives plant to handout $1 billion in bonuses. How?
Linked Articles
U.K. Boosts Its Bailout As Bank Losses Rise
Wall Street Journal 01/20/2009
British Official Plans a Review of Bonuses After OutcryNew York Times 02/09/2009
The Obama Stimulus: Looking for ways to get the most punch for the middle class and unemployment.
12/24/2008
Avoiding wasteful spending, including tax cuts, evaluating projects carefully are ways the Obama stimulus is trying to calibrate the plan for ways to help the middle class an unemployment without risks of overborrowing and overspending in wasteful ways.
Linked Articles
Government Spending Is No Free Lunch
Wall Street Journal 01/22/2009
For Stimulus Plan, Obama Team Weighing 'Green' Jobs vs. Traditional ProjectsWashington Post 12/24/2008
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