LyrArc Article Gist
As the coronavirus surges in India with over 300,000 cases a day on April 26, a clear picture on the vaccination drive in the country is critical. The following is the picture of the vaccination progress from Union Health Ministry in India as shown in The Hindustan Times. India has vaccinated 140 million people with at least one dose says this report in The Hindustan Times.  On Saturday 24th April 2.4 million doses were given for that day at 8 pm. This was done over 99 days. This means about 12% of the population of 1.2 billion has been vaccinated.  This compares with the vaccination in Germany for about 21% of people vaccinated with over 18 million getting the first dose in Germany by around April 25. Both Germany and India have suffered from vaccine shortages, some skepticism about vaccinations. Gradually sentiment is shifting in both countries so that once skeptical Germany now has about 75% of people willing to take vaccine on April 25, 2021. In India about 6 million healthcare workers have 2 doses of vaccine, and about 9 million have 1 dose. About 6 million frontline workers have 2 doses and 12 million frontline workers have 1 dose of vaccine.  There is a shortage of vaccine supplies and a bold decision was made by the Indian government on April 25th 2021, after the surge of cases to a world wide maximum of over 300,000 cases a day. The decision was to give immediate regulatory approval for the three major vaccines in the US to be brought and used in India. And delivery will be speeded up - no customs duties and fast processing of supplies access to speedy logistical supply routes. This is a huge step forward for the vaccination drive as this means Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines can now be used in India. The government is also urging the companies to make in India or export to India with prices that provide flexibility in pricing for the private market. The locally produced Covishield Astra Zeneca based vaccine produced by Serum Institute will be allowed to be sold to the private market at 600 rupees or close to about $10. Pfizer and Moderna, J&J can price in a way that would be somewhere around this price range. The access to more vaccines and the ability of the companies to make a reasonable profit in the Indian private market means that vaccine supplies should open up in May and June.  This could give a huge boost to vaccination numbers so that India's vaccination percentage of population vaccinated should keep up with that in countries like Germany and France that were slower to get started in Europe but are now catching up quickly. This is a massive achievement because the population numbers are huge compared to Europe. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The FDIC acknowledges that it has not been able to get banks interested in a pilot program called the Legacy Loans Program. That program was designed to give the banks an opportunity to sell off $1 billion of troubled mortgages. Since November with the efforts of the Troubled Asset Program under Secretary Paulson to have the banks sell off these assets in an auction or some other way, the whole issue of getting the toxic or troubled assets off the books of the banks has been effectively shelved. The Obama administration's version of this was the Geithner Public Private Partnership program, but this like Paulson's TARP never really got off the ground. Instead several things have happened that have enabled banks to show higher profits and improve stock prices. The period from March 2009 to June 2009, a period of several months has seen bank stock prices recover and banks are now able to raise capital on their own from investors. The government's "stress tests" gave the banks credibility with investors and they were designed not to be so stringent as to affect confidence. The mark to market rule has also been relaxed so that banks are no longer required to show these toxic assets at prices that reflect large losses. Bank executives also are wary of the new executive compensation rules of the government. All of these things have combined to create asituation where some confidence has been restored, but at the same time experts are pointing out that the underlying problems of an estimated $1 trillion in troubled assets remains. Banks are even less likely to want to part with these assets at lower prices now that some semblence of confidence is returning, as they would then have to show large losses. What this implies is that if the economy suffered a setback, these problems would return and be just as intractable as ever....

LyrArc Article Gist
An exceptional journalism story of what happened on Sept 16 and September 17, 2008, and the aftermath, by Pulliam, Rappaport, Lucchetti, Strasburg and McGinty, when Morgan Stanley stock lost more than half its value and was at risk of collapsing. What caused the collapse in price? This article shows how the biggest names in financial institutions were buying protection with credit default swaps, and as the price of these swaps skyrocketed on Sept 16 and Sept 17, the shortselling in Morgan Stanley's shares also skyrocketed. Shortselling on Sept 17 reaching nine times the normal, with 39 million shares sold short adding to the 31 million shares sold short in the prior two days, according to trading records examined by WSJ. It was at this point, on the pleas of John Mack CEO of Morgan Stanley, the SEC stepped in to temporarily suspend short selling. It is hard to clearly isolate the shortselling that went on for protection, from the shortselling for speculation, but hedge funds were involved and some of the shortselling was done to make a quick profit. Citigroup has faced the problem of losing half the share's value in a couple of days in the week of November 17, and shortselling in Citigroup's shares contributed to the collapsing stock. See the 3 graphs setup to show the influence of credit default swaps on short selling, and the on share price for Morgan Stanley. On Monday November 24, the government announced a rescue plan for Citigroup. That the uptick rule has not been reinstated as yet, means that when one looks back at this period a few years from now it will show errors in handling this economic and financial markets crisis were made, different from that in the 1930's, but with serious consequences. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The challenges facing Nokia as it has to come up with a full range of Lumia model smartphones at different price points to appeal to customers in the U.S. and emerging markets. Increasing price competition at the low end in emerging markets and competition with the Apple iPhone and Android based phones at the upper end.

LyrArc Article Gist
Very important interview with the Vice Chairman of Chevron, Peter Robertson. He gives a very thoughtful view of the answers to the most important questions about oil, what will the price be like, what will it depend on happening, are some of the numbers being put out for 2030 realistic, and what can materially change the scenarios. He is frank about not knowing how this will come out, who knows the production numbers some years from now, it depends on a number of things happening, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, can potentially increase production if they make the necessary investments. In the case of Iraq having a stable government and peaceful transition. What happens in efficiency will define the picture on the demand side as we are already seeing new fuel economy standards and conservation across the board in all uses of energy. Robertson sees a lower price, but over time as new production comes on stream and bottlenecks in investment such as shortage of technical resources pool are overcome, and at the same time as conservation really kicks in including fuel economy and other methods. He sees production of 125 million barrels per day as a stretch, a twice stretch as the 80 million barrels per day now produced will become a low number so that will have to be pulled up too to reach the 125 number....

LyrArc Article Gist
Feldstein's thoughts in April 2009, on Treasury's Public-Private Investment Plan. First, he says this plan will only remove $500 billion of impaired assets. The banks he says now own $3 billion of residential mortgages, $1.5 trillion of corporate real-estate loans, and $1 trillion of consumer debt. Not all of this is impaired but the banks will have to sell much more than $500 billion to regain confidence in their solvency. And with one third of all residential mortgages exceeding the value of the houses, and thie many homeowners under water, likely to default, the negative feedback loop of foreclosures begetting falling prices begetting foreclosures, threatens the whole effort to shore up the defences. If no workable solution is executed quickly to prevent this then even larger pools of mortgage debt will be impaired irretrievably. Feldstein suggests that the Obama administration seriously look at his plan suggested in March 2008 to provide government loans at low rates of interest like 1- 2% for 20% of the principal amount of the mortgage and then reduce the mortgage principal by 20%, thus keeping millions of homeowners above water. But this needs to be done quickly. All voluntary efforts have failed and have become asmokescreen for banks and lobbying groups with support from Congress to make it appear that this problem is being addressed. Thirdly Feldstein says that if banks sell these impaired mortgage assets at a loss- say 40-60 cents on the dollar on the upside with government and the FDIC picking up alot of the risk and financing for private investors under the new plan- they will now have to show the loss whereas they could have previously shown these assets at unrealistic price levels but still not taking losses. This might push banks into insolvency, so banks will need more injection of capital by the government to make this possible. What are the risks in this situation? Without an effective plan to prevent the negative feedback loop of foreclosure waves and falling houseprices, the quantity of impaired assets will simply grow larger. In effect even if some private investors take out some of the impaired assets from the banking system, it is possible that a new set of assets equal to or larger than these assets that are taken out are added to impaired assets in the banking system as house prices fall steeply from new foreclosures. That only means the economy is in the same hole as before, or in a slightly larger one, even with all the well intentioned steps. At some point the private enterprise argument has to be seen in the correct light. It is not that there is any argument that private enterprise can function better or far superior, it is only that the banks as private enterprises are in such an enormously stressed situation that the bank executive's cannot execute a way out of this mess. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Saudi Arabia continued to follow a policy of high oil production in 2016, and reported that it produced 10.67 million barrels a day in July 2016. Iran is producing at a pre-sanction level of 4 million barrels a day. 2017 oil demand prediction by OPEC is at growth of 1.15 million barrels a day. Experts says that the interests of Iran and the Saudis may be converging to reduce production as they face low oil prices. Iran needs to make large investments and Saudis face budget cuts with low oil prices. They point to this cooperation being temporary as there are issues of competing politics in the region, and beyond that both countries seek to expand their market share.

LyrArc Article Gist
Dow's 679 point drop on Thursday October 9, 2008, investors lose $8.4 trillion of wealth, which is sure to impact consumption spending coming after a steep drop in house prices and loss of trillions in home values. This will affect countries dependent on exports like emerging markets from Russia, China, Brazil and India to other countries around the world as the US imports less energy, less soyabeans, less from the manufacturing locations in China. This means cutting growth in Brazil, India and China as well as in the US and Europe.

LyrArc Article Gist
Baden-Powell was founder of the Boy Scouts which has given millions of boy scouts throughout Asia, Australia, Africa, Latin America and North America a sense of purpose when they were attending elementary and secondary school throughout the twentieth century. For girl scouts it added confidence to girls and enabled them to grow in many ways.  So it comes as a surprise that Baden-Powell is seen in this way. Gandhi never questioned British rule directly during the period when he fought for human rights in South Africa during the period 1893-1915. During the Boer War in 1900 Gandhi volunteered to form the Natal Ambulance Corps that as stretcher bearers helped treat British soldiers in the Boer War. He was given the Queens South Africa medal. In the Zulu war he repeated this by being part of the ambulance corps supporting British troops, but also treated Zulu wounded. Gandhi acted as a loyal part of the British Empire and throughout most of the period into the 1920's acted with loyalty to the British Empire. Few questioned British rule at the time, and Gandhi followed Gokhale's advice in 1915 as he returned to India at the age of 45. Gokhale was a moderate who accepted the British rule in India and sought provincial assemblies and self-rule under the British Empire. Gandhi's whole thinking was shaped by British traditions, British laws, British democracy, having attended a British school in Rajkot, Saurashtra province of Gujarat state. The letter helping him make his move for education as a barrister in England came through the British political agent in Rajkot, who was a friend of his father, the Diwan of the princely state of Porbander, Gujarat. Even Swami Vivekananda was helped by leaders of princely states in Saurashtra who pledged loyalty to the British Empire in India, one of whom was a close friend who helped Vivekananda come to America. It may be too easy to look back and make everything look good, when in reality it is complex, but yet ordinary human beings are in search for the right path. As Vivekananda's guru said you will still get there but "it is good to travel by a clean path." I visited the Gandhi home and museum in Porbander in September 2019. Driving in along the Saurashtra, Gujarat coastline we hit a rainstorm and when we reached the home it was in heavy rain. After visiting the home I went to a small bookshop in the museum and came across a copy of a small book Gandhi wrote in 1910 on a steamship back to South Africa from London, with the title- "Hind Swaraj or Home Rule." That little book written in the form of a dialogue between the reader and the editor by Gandhi amazes me as it was the basis of the movement after 1915 all the way into the 1930's. His clarity of thinking and his sincerity and steadfast purpose was such that it stood the test of time. Gandhi even goes as far as to say the English did not take India, India was given to them, given to English traders as Indian princes vied with each other for the favor of Company Bahadur, British forces designed to protect the East India Company's warehouses. That they remained in India for the purpose of trade and Indians helped them to do so. To blame them was for Gandhi to perpetuate their power. For him British arms and ammuniton were perfectly useless.  Gandhi writes this dialogue about Gokhale in the book which is worth reading at this time, as it was in 1910. Reader: Gokhale has constituted himself a great friend of the English, he says we have to learn a great deal from them, that we have to learn their political wisdom before we can talk of Home Rule. I am tired of reading his speeches. Editor: If you are tired it only betrays your impatience. We believe that those who are discontented with the slowness of their parents and are angry because the parents would not run with their children, are considered disrespectful to their parents. Professor Gokhale occupies the place of a parent. What does it matter if he cannot run with us? A nation that is desirous of home rule cannot afford to despise its ancestors. We shall become useless if we lack respect for our elders. only men with mature thoughts are capable of ruling themselves and not the hasty-tempered. Moreover how many Indian were there like Professor Gokhale, when he gave himself to Indian education? I verily believe that whatever Professor Gokhale does, he does with pure motives, and with a view of serving India... our chief purpose is not to decry his work , but to believe that he is infinitely greater than we are, and to feel assured that with his work for India, ours is infinitesmial."   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China's EV market is very competitive and price cuts by Tesla have led to falling prices. BYD sold 900,000 electric vehicles in the first 5 months of 2023, Tesla 200,000, and Li Motors 100,000. NIO is struggling and some companies have closed operations. Ford failed in this market and VW is still to make a dent in the market. Most of the top ten companies are local. With the slowing economy, consumers resisting purchases, price drops are needed to keep up sales of EV's.

LyrArc Article Gist
JD Powers survey has lowered its annual sales rate to less than 15 million vehicles going down to 14.8 millon annual sales rate in ths spring 2008. GM and Ford are still looking at sales rate much above 15 million. What if the credit squeeze, oil prices and the recession lower sales to below Powers surveys? GM and Ford now have more flexibility to cut production with their new UAW agreements and this should helpreduce production volume. Also the auto companies have offered buyouts to every unionized employee. Expect further production cuts, as the auto companies are now going in the direction of cutting production rather than flooding the market with incentives. Also the pace of restructuring is likely to accelerate as the economy deriorates in 2008 and beyond. Carefully considering all the information available upto this point in Glinfo it does not appear that things will improve by yearend 2008 as some are expecting, hoping against hope.

LyrArc Article Gist
Wagoner says GM can get 37mpg on average by 2012 for its cars in response to Congressional demand for higher fuel efficiency and energy conservation. Congress is looking for European mandated levels of 50mpg by 2015, which were initially opposed by European automakers also. It becomes the condition for loans. The awfully bad unemployment numbers for November of 533,000 layoffs led to some compromise from Speaker Pelosi, so that $15 billion could come as a bridge loan to the Detroit automakers from the $25 billion allocated for the specific purpose of fuel efficiency technologies. The only way this compromise could be reached is by a complete shift by the auto executives on the issue of fuel efficiency, which is a sore point with Congress especially the way automakers in Detroit have dragged their feet on this issue over 2 decades, contributing to the jump in oil prices in 2007 and early 2008.

LyrArc Article Gist
How ethanol picture as a useful alternative fuel has changed completely in the past year. The economics of ethanol also have changed completedly in the past year, as corn prices have risen to above $3 abushel and stayed there, even with the biggest corn crop since 1945, and prices of ethanol have dropped with huge oversupply of ethanol from $5 a gallon in June 2006 to about $1.85 a gallon today. Global ethanol production has grown from 10.9 billion gallons in 2006 to 13.4 billion gallons in 2007 according to IEA. US's ethanol production is about half of this or 7 billion gallons and is up 80% in 2 years. The production capacity of ethanol with new plants is expected to jump to about 12 billion gallons in 2008 even as demand for ethanol is about 7 billion gallons.This huge oversupply accounts for the drop in prices of ethanol with margins dropping from $2.30 in 2006 to 25 cents in late 2007. Its become less and less attractive as an alternative fuel as more studies appear and more groups cite the different ways in which ethanol has destructive effects on the environment. Corn is in demand by food companies and by livestock companies in the USA and generally across the developing world so raising corn prices is seen very unfavorably around the world. Nation Academy of Sciences study and a National Research Council study says corn based ethanol could strain water supplies and impair water quality. American Lung Assocation worries about the the air pollution from burning ethanol in gasoline. And a EPA Spring 2007 report says ozone levels increase with increased use of ethanol. A study coauthored by Nobel prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen says it might exacerbate climate change because of the added fertilizer used to produce corn raised emissions of nitrous oxide. All this has made people wary of ethanol and much of the early enthusiasm for ethanol has vanished. The lobbying struggle pits the ethanol producers and the farm lobby in the midwest against oil companies which don't like being forced to use a non-petroleum fuel even with a subsidy of 54 cents of gallon for blending ethanol into gasoline, and food and livestock companies which need corn at lower prices. Add to this the weight of environmental organizations and countries across the developing world which simply don't like the idea of using scarce food resources in this manner and find this to be just not a right thing to do for the world's poor which need corn as a basic food source. Consider Mexico where this affects the price of a staple food corn tortillas and China which bans the use of corn for making biofuels, both countries seek to keep food prices low for the country's large numbers of rural and urban poor people and could see the stability of these countries disturbed by huge rise in food or fuel prices. As a result of all this the ethanol lobby is looking to Congress to mandate a certain usage figure of ethanol in gasoline production in the new energy law. This legislation now could become controversial in the future as better ways of solving the energy crisis such as automobile fuel efficiency reducing demand and conservation, as well as other alternative sources that have fewer adverse environmental impact come into play. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Brazil's Senate passes a 20 year spending cap to be reviewed every 10 years put forward by interim president Michel Temer. After years of increased spending and higher deficits, the action is intended to control government spending. It also means reversing some of the spending on healthcare and social programs of the Workers Party of Rousseff and Da Silva. After a long period of Workers party rule with higher spending, the drop in commodity prices and declining growth in China led to stalling growth in a commodities (metals and grain) dependent Brazilian economy. The spending cap passed the Senate 53 to 16. President Temer is  unpopular and seen as part of the same government and elite as Rousseff that led to the corruption scandals- recent polls show 63% of Brazilian people want him to resign and only 10% saying he is doing a good job. A Datafolha poll shows 60% oppose the spending cap. After the impeachment of president Rousseff in the corruption scandal, vice president Temer assumed the presidency till 2018. Brazil's Workers Party was popular during the da Silva years as it expanded spending on social programs- supported by a growing economy with commodities exports to China and high prices- only to see a slumping economy and falling popularity under successor Rousseff as the boom ended. In Argentina a similar process unfolded with higher spending on social programs and growing popularity during the Kirchner presidency- with commodities exports of grains to China- followed by declining popularity as the economy entered a difficult phase with a fall in the value of the peso, and the election of a new president Mauricio Macri.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Abrams and De Acosta, Bellman of the WSJ look at growth and modernization in India in comparison with China and other countries. GDP per capita would take 10 years to reach the stage at which spending power of the people equals that in China today. At one point in 1980 China and South Korea were closer in GDP per capita than India. It is only now that India is accelerating towards the scale and depth of modernization done in China.  India's growth rate of over 7% is likely to surge after some of the problems in bad loans in the banking sector are cleared up. A wave of technological advances would help accelerate growth. Ease of doing business and foreign investment are on upward trend, for absorbing new technology from advanced countries. A shift to very low prices for data use with rapid development of 4G services is one of the recent achievements. Manufacturing growth remains a challenge to be tackled to create the jobs needed.  Revamping tax structures such as GST and shifting the economy towards use of electronic cash has increased revenues needed to invest in infrastructure, health and education.  As much of the potential for future growth comes from people at the lower income levels, improving social indicators such as sanitation, cleanliness, farmer incomes, universal bank accounts, universal access to health care, are steps that lay the foundation for the future. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Sallie Krawcheck and Joe Price will be leaving Bank of America. David Darnell and Tom Montag were appointed co-chief operating officers of Bank of America. Bank of America stock declined by 50% by September 2011. Montag will oversee the bank's banking and marketing activities including Merrill Lynch. Darnell will run the consumer business including wealth management and home loans.

LyrArc Article Gist
The NYT editorial says the negative feedback loop of foreclosures begetting falling house prices, which beget more foreclosures, and further weaken banks, is well under way. One way to have broken this, was to enable good types of loan modifications, which reduce the principal for homeowners and reduce payments significantly. Sheila Bair at FDIC says 32% of prior payments is about the right amount. The bad types of loan modifications that lead to no reduction in principal, and put homeowners back in redefault because of large payments that homeowners "under water" or a lost job cannot afford, have so far been the dominant kind of loan modification. At present 14 million homeowners are "under water," in that their homes are worth less than what is owed on the mortgage. One of the crucial measures which would have enabled this, has not been pushed by the Obama administration through Congress. This was to pass an amendment that allowed bankruptcy judges to modify troubled mortgages. Banks which have taken billions of dollars in loans from the federal government were allowed to lobby aggressively to kill this amendment, and the Obama administration did little to push this amendment in Congress. 12 Senate Democrats joined 39 Senate Republicans to block a vote on the amendment. Says the NYT editorial "when the time came to stand up to the banking lobbies and cajole yes votes from reluctant senators-the White House did'nt. When the measure failed there wasn't even a statement of regret." This could turn out to be a major mistake, because as the NYT points out voluntary loan modifications have shown poor results. The administration's plan to provide incentives for loan modification is untried and tested, and may not produce significant results. With 14 million homeowners under water, and spiralling foreclosures, the situation may get out of control and seriously damage the economy. After the moratorium in home foreclosures ended there is expected to be a big surge in foreclosures, with estimates of 290,000 to 341,000 foreclosures in March, 2009. If this is allowed to continue it will undo all the good work in other areas, the stimulus spending, rebuilding the auto industry and other steps. It will also be more difficult to reverse as valuable time passes and the cost of the crisis escalates. A consensus among many experts was that stronger action in connection with the banks was required, and Martin Feldstein has warned about the danger posed by foreclosures since early 2008, see links....

LyrArc Article Gist
The best that can be said about all the efforts to stabilize the housing markets is that they help in the context of the credit crisis that hit the economy hard with the Bear Stearns crisis and help to provide an orderly retreat for housing prices and ways to soften the blow to homeowners and lenders caught up in the wave of foreclosures. But housing prices themselves have not declined anywhere near what one would expect. In fact BW, p17, April 7, 2008 shws percentage changes for existing homes from Feb 2007 to Feb 2008 with data from the National Association of Realtors. And they are surprising when you consider sales for the northeast down 26% and prices up slightly 0.4%. Elsewhere the sales are down 29% in the Western states for a 13% price decline, sales down 20% for a 7% price decline in the Midwestern states, and sales are down 22% for a 9% decline in the Southern states. Jobless rates are 3.9% in Austin, Texas and Birmingham, Alabama and only Detroit, St Louis and Cleveland have jobless rates above 6%. What this suggests is that the unemployment situation has not seen the brunt of this credit tightening and drop in capital investment. As house prices have not declined much declines over 10% mostly in the western states and places like Detroit but not in the northeast and across the south, and unemployment still low across many regional communities, consumption spending has not seen the brunt of this credit tightening. Once tightened credit conditions hit payrolls as companies cut their workforce and unemployment moves up then expect to see greater housing price declines as more houses go into foreclosures, and then expect consumption spending to feel the impact which would reduce sales and further trim payrolls as companies run their factories at less and less production capacity. This sequence would continue and bring the economic crisis to more and more parts of the country in a manner that we have hardly see upto this point. What we have seen is the unfolding of a collapse of mortgage securities firms and of mortgage securites insurance providers like ACA, and with it the huge writedowns about $150 billion taken by the investment houses and the banks. And this has happened as a wave of foreclosures took place in 2006. And the collapse of Bear Stearns with the effects felt in global stock markets. In the communities themselves in the areas of consumption spending and in jobs the conditions will only now begin to be felt and the real impact not felt till the end of 2008 and into 2009 with the Fed action to shore up confidence adding several months in slowing the process. See the link to BW, Bernanke the Reluctant Revolutionary, where the BW estimate is that Americans took on about $3 trillion in additional debt between 2000 and 2006 from what they would have taken if they had followed the trajectory of spending patterns that had prevailed upto that point, with their recent free spending ways. It would take abot 3 to 4 years conservatively for Americans to work down all that debt. Another way of saying this is that consumption spending is going to take a big hit and with it sales of companies and consequently higher unemployment and more part time labor force with less benefits, which would tend to depress consumption even more. The winds of housing, credit, consumption and unemployment would all hit the economy in about 12 months time. Credit will further tighten as BW estimates about $130 billion of additional writedowns still expected....

LyrArc Article Gist
A big factor in U.S. car sales, which reached 7.5 million in 2015, exceeding the 7.3 million in 2000, is that a large portion of cars on the road were about 11 years old following the recession in 2008-2009. As Dexter Ford pointed out in a article in 2012 many car owners on the road had replaced the earlier 100,000 mile mark before buying a new car, with 200,000. This pent up demand, and the better technological features including gasoline conserving technology, gave new impetus to demand in 2013-2015. Lower gasoline prices at the pump of about $2.00 a gallon in Jan. 2016 across parts of the country made it economical to own SUV's and pickup trucks. The U.S. car companies Ford, GM and Chrysler-Fiat had sales of 2 million full size pickup in 2015, with the Ford F-150 leading. Car companies have come through a severe crisis and are taking steps to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the past on fuel efficiency- Ford has introduced a lighter aluminium based version of the F-150 for example. Gasoline prices also provide buyers with extra money to meet car payments which now have been stretched to longer periods and lower rates by auto companies to reduce the cost burden per month. AAA says the average price in 2013 for a gallon of gas was $3.49, in 2014 at $3.34, in 2015 at $2.40. AAA says that 71% of gasoline stations sell gas at less than $2.00 in January 2016, and gas prices are likely to remain low for an extended period with lower demand from China, higher fuel efficiency going forward with stricter standards, new technology for shale oil production, and the replacement of cartel pricing by competing production from Saudis, Iran and Russia. On average Americans saved $115 billion on gasoline, or $550 per licensed driver, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report of January 6, 2016. In addition to the $550 saved the higher fuel efficiency with new technology adds a corresponding amount to savings per driver. Add to this the lower payment at low rates over longer periods and the car payment per month has been reduced significantly in a improving job market, to support car sales....

LyrArc Article Gist
President Mauricio Macri of Argentina loses badly in a nationwide primary in Argentina. Peso and stocks dropped after the defeat and a sense that Macri's policies have not worked. The economy declined 5.8% in the first quarter of 2019 from a year earlier, with some recovery in recent months.  Following the defeat by Peronist party candidate Alberto Hernandez, Macri announced measures to help Argentine workers and middle class. He raised the minimum wage, increased public sector salaries, and put a freeze on fuel prices.  The Peronist party's Alberto Hernandez now looks likely to succeed Macri. Inflation is at 56% in June. Hernandez is a former cabinet chief under Christina Kirchner and Nestor Kirchner, former presidents. Christina Kirchner is running as Hernadez's running mate for vice president.  Under Christina Kirchner the government ran large deficits and defaulted on the national debt. Drop in commodities prices hurt Argentina and it also hurt Brazil during that period, worsening state finances. Macri provided an alternative but his market friendly policies have failed to help ordinary Argentines through errors in policy making and much of the early enthusiasm is lost. High inflation hurt ordinary Argentines the most. In the past week the Argentina stock market has lost about a third of its value and the peso has dropped by about 22% to 59 pesos to the dollar. Argentina is unique in the way it has swung back and forth for four decades.between market friendly administrations that did well initially and then failed dismally, and socialist Peronist party administrations with the same pattern. High inflation and dropping currency reserves were typical in downturns.  Brazil has suffered from crumbling state finances and collapse in essential services such as sanitation and health. Showing a deterioration of finances across Latin America. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ's Monica Langley provides an exceptional report with a close look at the first woman CEO at a large corporation in the cusp of great change. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is remaking IBM by moving out of existing businesses and shifting to new growth areas such as analytics, cloud computing, new R&D advances. She sees her job as building the IBM of the future, and this includes divestments and phasing out of some businesses, acquisitions, and building some businesses such as the Watson Heath Care business from scratch. In some fast growing areas such as cloud computing this means competing with other established competitors, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Rometty's job is tough because of the size of IBM with 380,000 people in 170 countries, a culture that lacks the agilityof younger companies, and the older businesses which continue to slow IBM's progress, and where divestments reduce revenues. IBM sales are down for 12 consecutive quarters from the year earlier quarter. IBM's share price is down about 10% since Rometty became CEO in Jan. 2012, resulting in investor dissatisfaction with results. Rometty's goal is for 40% of IBM's revenues to come from corporate markets in analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, social networking, and mobile technologies, increasing it from 27% of about $93 billion in sales in 2014, and 15% of $105 billion in sales in 2013. Sold off and divested are low end servers, IBM's chip maker, and other hardware businesses. It is so extensive that whats left of the mainframe business is focussed on new technologies for mobile. Rometty setup a partnership with Apple for the corporate mobile market, and started Watson Health as a new venture in analytics for healthcare using its Watson Computer technology. Rometty grew up in Chicago, one of 3 daughters raised by a single mom, who says she was taught to be "fearless" by her mother. She graduated from Northwestern University with majors in electrical engineering and computer science, joining IBM as a systems engineer in 1981. She carries a backpack, school size notebooks, on her frequent trips to see customers in person and is constantly prodding employees at IBM to go faster. Rometty has a passion for scuba diving in her spare time and always carries the gear with her. Christine Lagarde at the IMF is one of the few women heading large organizations that have the same level of energy. Lagarde's passion is swimming having competed in sychronized swimming, and both Rometty and Lagarde describe the loss of a parent in different ways as a significant impact in their life. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Jaffe and Eilperin provide this exceptional account describing the huge struggle of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to come to grips with the opioid crisis in rural America. Vilsack is from rural Iowa, where he was a small town Mayor. The opioid epidemic has personal overtones for Vilsack because of his parents addiction and growing up seeing the lack of helping hands. Vilsack. a two term governor of Iowa has witnesses these struggles in Iowa, as the state rural areas faced high poverty rates, more likelihood of being obese, less likely to go to college, and more likely to be pregnant in the teen years, than the rest of America. Vilsack is frustrated not just with the Obama administration but also with Congress, the media, the private sector with high pharmaceutical prices, for not giving enough attention to rural America. He sees rural America as providing the food grown and a disproportionate share of the military. The opioid epidemic comes at a bad time for rural America. This report provides a story that is typical where a dose of painkillers for a Navy employee leads to addiction and use of opioids. The whole experience has made Vilsack sound cranky to people in the White House. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ editorial says the Indian government will have to do more to increase the growth rate. Rising inflationary pressures at 5% for core inflation are still present, with inflation in food prices running higher at 10%. Which may be the reason after a cut of 0.5%, Reserve Bank of India Governor Subbarao stated this would be all the country should expect for some time.

LyrArc Article Gist
What happened at BP-TNK appears to be a misjudgement on the part of Hayward, Dudley, Dupree and other BP managers about who counted and to what extent in the Russian government and state run oil companies. Its still clear that Putin and his appointed head of the energy sector Igor Sechin are in charge here. As head of Rosneft the state run oil company and in his role as head of the energy sector Sechin had more influence on the eventual outcome than the lowere ranking Gazprom officials after Medvedev left Gazprom to be President. And Putin may simply have respected Sechin's judgement on the need to keep Rosneft as a significant player in the oil business as Gazprom itself may be becoming too large, to maintain some competitive forces in the state run oil industry as opposed to concentrating everything into one large bureaucratic enterprise. And Sechin, Putin and Medvedev could let AAR do the work of ridding BP of its notions of a large role in controlling Russian oil resources in a combination with Gazprom. At some other point the oligarchs of AAR could be bought out by the state run companies, especially when oil prices were expected to come down, for a much lower cost....

LyrArc Article Gist
In Nevada sell federal land to cut housing costs in 2025. Some estimates show that 1.5 million homes can be built on Bureau of Land Management land within 2 miles of Las Vegas city limits. In Nevada 80% of the land is owned by federal government. After the Mexican American War in 1846 Nevada was transferred to control of US government from Mexico to end the war and it stayed that way.

Us president DJT supports using federal land and so does his Interior Secretary Don Borghum.

DJT says he will “open up new tracts of federal land for large-scale housing construction, and you’ll get it for a much lower price.” He would “create special new zones with ultralow taxes and ultralow regulations,” to create jobs.

“We’re going to open it up. We’ll start with a small portion. You’ll get it going, and then we’re going to open up large portions of land.”