LyrArc Article Gist
Kristof of the NYT says the narrative about Hillary Clinton being dishonest is clearly overdone and inaccurate. He says the gaffes about the use of personal email server have unfairly created a distorted narrative. On changing positions on trade and minimum wage- this happens frequently with all the candidates. Some are glib enough for not being noticed, Clinton not a natural politician drawing attention. On Libya, and on Syria, Clinton is blamed for the President's errors and not given credit for pushback in league with Panetta, Gen. Kean and Gen. Jones, that has influenced changes made in 2016, and the president accepting blame for errors. In this instance Clinton has been far from shifty by publicly allying herself with Leon Panetta's position in "Worthy Fights," and Gen. Jones's remarks. Far from having erred on Libya and Syria policy, Hillary Clinton, like Chuck Hagel and others in the administration including Joe Biden, showed exceptional patience in dealing with the president, national security advisor, and McDonough in policy matters- when they were right but the country was weary of what were seen as futile global engagements in remote areas setting too high a bar for any action. Clinton rightly described this as a pendulum swinging too far in the opposite direction after the Bush/Cheney years. On young women and being "progressive" Hillary Clinton is from a older generation that experienced the kind of discrimination that young women fail to grasp, according to a recent analysis of University of Massachusetts polling survey results cited in the Washingon Post. A PolitiFact Pulitzer winning fact checking site shows 50% of the Clinton statments are either true or mostly true, compared to 49% for Bernie Sanders, 9 percent for Trump, 22% for Ted Cruz, and 52% for John Kasich. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This exceptional account by Ginger Thompson and Sara Cohen shows the Obama administration's strategy of creating credibility for its immigration enforcement by setting a target of 400,000 deportations a year, and focussing on the border states such as California, Texas, Arizona. The deportations were kept away from the midwestern states and states in the interior of the country. Under the Bush administration raids were made on businesses hiring illegal immigrants and the policy implemented all over the country, not selectively targeting the border. Local police were given authority to check immigration status of suspected foreigners. Deportations reached a peak of 383,000 under Bush in 2008. In 2008 Congress supported the Bush administration by doubling the immigration agency budget to $5.5 billion and imposed a mandate requiring detaining a daily average of 34,000 immigrants. Under the Obama administration the pilot project for state and local police to check immigration status of people fingerprinted in an arrest was expanded. Under project Secure Communities police could hand over illegal immigrants to immigration authorites, and new implementation criteria in a June 2010 memo easily covered a third of the 11.5 million illegal immigrants, according to immigration officials cited by NYT. Removal process was expedited so that expedited removals doubled under the Obama administration. Under Bush about 75% of those deported were sent home with criminal charges if they had no criminal record. Under Obama this increased to 90%. The NYT analysis suggests the immigration enforcement and grasp of the immigrant story looking for a better life, was better for "good" immigrants under presidents from border states such as Reagan from California and the elder Bush from Texas, than under a midwesterner of minority background. It shakes up the image of Hispanic Americans as part of a political affiliation to a particular party. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Metro Detroit has 90% of the 17,000 cases in Michigan as the pandemic reaches its peak there this week.  The large Detroit airport renovated and enlarged is seen as a source of the coronavirus as Detroit is where all 3 auto U.S. auto companies are located. GM, and Ford have large manufacturing operations in China, and  Chrysler has plants in northern Italy, the locations where coronavirus has hit hard, and in the case of China where it originated. Health experts say the busy Detroit international airport connecting the Detroit hub to other auto hubs in northern Italy and China- both virus hotspots- may have contributed to the virus hitting Detroit early. This country to country transmission along some route is how the virus has traveled to over 150 countries. For instance German reports show Bavaria as the source of the early cases in Italy's Lombardy region. It could be that German auto companies located in Bavaria with large operations in China resulted in inadvertent transmission of the virus from China through airport in Munich from flights between Germany and China. A Shenyang municipal bureau report provides information on German  investment in Shenyang, Liaoning province. Munich based BMW makes 1.3 million cars here. There is also the newly built Chinese German Tiexi industrial park in Shenyang with 50 German companies BASF, Siemens, located there.  Once the virus arrives in one location its spread depends on the environment with densely packed areas and the health conditions prevailing in a particular area playing their part. Both in New York and Detroit metro area this helped its faster spread in lower income densely packed areas.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Nation is faced with another Supreme Court decision as in 1868 for the 14th Amendment, in 2025 on birthright citizenship.  The 14th Amendment was written in the 19th century it had no concept of the 20th century and absolutely no idea of the 21st century we live in, unable to even conceive of conditions today, or even think of  setting rules for immigration today. It rejected the Dredd Scott decision of 1857 denying black people rights as citizens, restating the law of the land, had nothing at all to do with stating the opinion of the Judiciary on whether a mother flying in from Asia could secure US citizenship for a new born child by merely visiting the US. As in 1857, in 2025 the law is based on assumed historical facts as Lincoln said on Dredd Scott decision, that are not really true. Lincoln said in 1857- "That burlesque upon judicial decisions, and slander and profanation upon the honored names, and sacred history of republican America must be overruled, and expunged from the books of authority." The 14th Amendment was written to give black people the rights of citizens of the US, in a complete repudiation of the Dred Scott decision of the US Supreme Court of 1857 that deprived black people of rights as citizens because Judge Tanney said the British Empire had set up the institution of slavery in the American colonies and the British were responsible for the institution, little we can do about it. When by 1807 slavery was being banned in Britain and in 1838 totally banned in the British Empire. It created the idea that Americans were not the master of their destinies after the departure of the British to choose which institutions they would keep and which they would reject including slavery. Abraham Lincoln citing President Andrew Jackson said each the executive, the judiciary, Congress, and the common man were entitled to their own view of the US Constitution as they understood it. Lincoln also said Judge Tanney's decision in Dred Scott case was based on assumed historical facts that were not really true- Judge Tanney making no mention of the fact that in 1857 the British Empire had already abolished the institution for 50 years. The DJT Executive Order banning birthright citizenship shown here on the White House site has the title- Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship. It is written in  simple language in 1 page -Purpose, Policy, Enforcement and Definitions, Provisions.  The purpose clearly states that the Dred Scott decision of the US Supreme Court in 1857 is what the framers of the 14th Amendment had in mind when they drafted the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. A reading of the 14th Amendment makes this abundantly clear. The wording comes out at the outset reversing the Dredd Scott Decision of 1857. It's repudiation was why the Northern and Southern States fought the Civil War. The National Archives say that with Dred Scott decision to allow the spread of slavery to American territories in the West,  America moved one step closer to civil war. With such  momentous events in the history of the US 1857-1868 the framers of the 14th Amendment were not sitting down to write rules about what was right for America a century and a half later.    ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The water situation on the Euphrates river. Three reporters for the NYT, Amir, Mohammed, and Abeer, join NYT's Campbell Robertson in talking to farmers along different stretches of theEuphrates river in Iraq, near Jubaish, Karbala and where it meets the Tigris. The causes of the problem are the water policies of TUrkey and Syria which are the upstrema countries and have built dams along the river which control its flow, a two year drought, and water mismanagement and neglect in Iraq. The river is significantly smaller now, and at this rate could be half of what it once was. It affects rice and wheat fields along the river which are turning into scorched dirt, canals becoming small streams, and water treatment plants sitting idle. The area for wheat and barley in the rainfed north is down 95%, and the date and citrus orchards in the east are dry. There are no treaties for water use with Turkey and Syria, so the situation is unpredictable. Recently Turkey doubled the waer flow into the Euphrates, a mover that increased water flow to ablut 60% to cover half the irrigation requirements for the rice growing season....

LyrArc Article Gist
Rep. Dave Camp, House Ways and Means Committee chairman, representing northern Michigan, says every deduction in the tax code is there because of a reason, and powerful lobbies will oppose any changes. The best he can do is work himself out of this job as he will have to tackle the Democrats on entitlements, the business lobbies on tax loopholes, and other lobbies protecting their preferences in the tax code. He plans to achieve a simpler tax code with lowered rates of 25% for business and earners above six figures, and 10% for everyone else. The approach he is taking is to be revenue neutral when tackling tax reform, in the belief that the economic growth generated from a simpler tax code and lower rates would generate revenues of 18 to 19% of GDP, up from about 16% today. He says the economc cost of not getting this done to get the economy rolling again is so high that he is upbeat that both sides can come together after the election no matter who wins. He is also looking at a repatriation tax of 5% on profits kept by American companies overseas, which would boost revenues for business which could be reinvested in stead of sitting idle. Today the much steeper tax rate on repatriation makes businesses reluctant to bring it back....

LyrArc Article Gist
The October 2012 meeting of EU leaders ends with agreement for setting up the EU banking supervisor in the course of 2013. German chancellor Merkel turned down Spain's push for direct aid to its troubled banks and not aid from the ESM bailout fund to Spain which would increase Spain's sovereign debt. The Spanish government has indicated that it might take 40 billion euros out of the 100 billion euros approved by the EU for Spain. Merkel's view is that any direct aid will only go for future recapitalization not to clean up the mess at Bankia and other banks that stems from the failure of Spain's banking regulators and the housing bubble. Merkel said at a news conference: "If recapitalization is possible, it will only be possible for the future." Merkel also said preparations to set up the single banking supervisor would probably go into 2014, and by then "we won't have any more problems with the Spanish banks- at least, I hope not." Germany sees the need to have a carefully developed banking supervision system setup rather than a hurried approach. Merkel is aware that this might be seen as action taken to avoid committing German taxpayer money before elections for chancellor in Sept 2013- "No matter what I'm going to say, it will probably not be the right answer by your standards." ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Systemic risks from "too big to fail" and the pushback on capital reserve requirements that leave banks with lower reserves. Ewing describes the role of the president of the Swiss Central Bank, Mr Hildebrand, in setting rules for higher capital reserves for Swiss banks than that of other countries and the pushback from the banks resisting the new regulations. "He will never find another job in Switzerland," a Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag quoted one banker saying this about Mr. Hildebrand. Losses at Swiss bank UBS during the financial crisis and the $2 billion loss at a UBS trading desk in 2011 have created a new awareness of systemic risk at banks. During the financial crisis banks used an optimistic estimate of "risk weighted assets" which led to insufficient capital reserves in a crisis even as the banks were shown to be well capitalized. A sense that banks in Europe and the U.S. will continue to have insufficient capital reserves at 3-4% of assets under new rules and with the longer phase in times for the new Basel III regulations of reserves at 7% of assets to after 2016....

LyrArc Article Gist
Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard School of Public Health says in Jan 2018 issue of Harvard Chan Institute of Public Health journal that an "accidental pandemic" could result from the lifting of the ban on a risky kind of research favored by some virologist professionals.  In "Three Questions, Three Answers" Lipsitch tells why. Most members of the broader scientific and medical community had serious questions and were fiercely against such research which had questionable value and great risk. At the beginning the interviewer Karen Feldscher writes:  "January 8, 2018- Last month the US government lifted a three year moratorium on funding risky research to genetically alter deadly viruses in ways that could make them even more lethal. Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch of Harvard Chan School thinks the move could create an accidental pandemic." Lipsitch says rejecting the virologists who supported this dangerous research: "Others, like myself, worry that the human error could lead to the accidental release of a virus that has been enhanced in the lab so that it is more deadly and contagious than it already is." He cites an accident in 2014 at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Lab where workers were exposed to anthrax that was improperly handled. "Another accident like that- if it involved a virus that was both newly created and highly contagious- has the potential to jeopardize millions of people."  Lipsitch points out that this kind of research has given us modest scientific knowledge, was not essential to tackling the virus epidemics, was only one type of many types of research, and a type of research whose aims could be achieved in other ways that were not deadly to humans. Lipsitch pointed this out in The Journal of Medical Ethics stating the ethical considerations at stake. The lifting of the ban led to research at labs that is seen as a possible scenario of what happened to cause an accidental pandemic. The people of the world, and not just in America but the people of the whole world, and the poorest countries with little resources- Asia, Africa, Latin America bearing the consequences of this decision that violated medical ethical considerations of setting up a potential accidental pandemic.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
US Senate lawmakers agreed to increase the FDIC deposit insurance limits to $250,000 from $100,000. These limits have not been permanently increased since 1980- the increase in late 2008 was a temporary measure to support the banking system. Credit rating agencies pushed hard to avoid the setting up of a credit ratings watchdog agency and succeeded. Under Senator Al Franken's provision a government overseen credit ratings agency board would be setup and it would assign new financial products to ratings agencies for rating. 63 Senators had supported this provision in a Senate debate. Intense lobbying from ratings agencies to avoid this government oversight resulted in shelving of this provision. The change is to ask the SEC to study the conflict of interests issue and how an independent agency might function, and give the SEC authority to setup such a system.

LyrArc Article Gist
The memo to U.S. president Reagan written by his economic advisors in November 1980 before his first inauguration. Inflation was running at 13% and the economic problems looked as intractable as they do today. Advisors included Milton Friedman and George Shultz. The memo called for setting steady policies for the long run to encourage investment and growth, and at the same time steady monetary policy. This is different from the repeated quantitative easing efforts by the Federal Reserve responding to financial markets, and the Obama administration's stimulus efforts that have not led to long term growth. On the long term perspective the memo said: "The need for a long-term point of view is essential to allow for the time, the coherence, and the predictability so necessary for success." The memo was released by George Shultz.

LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. president Obama at the G-7 Summit in Korn in the Bavarian Alps. He talks about the Islamic State having replenished its fighters with a flow of foreign fighters to Iraq continuing unimpeded, and resulting in tactical successes in Anbar province for ISIS. He also firms up the G-7's stand against the Putin government's actions and intervention in Ukraine. This takes time from the other issues of climate change and trade that were part of the discussions. One aspect of the summit was close interaction in the unique setting of the Bavarian Alps between president Obama and German chancellor Merkel. This was shown in unique photo settings, designed to convey the partnership between Germany and the U.S., as the G-7 confront problems in the Middle East and Eastern Europe that require joint leadership.

LyrArc Article Gist
Ram Ramadorai of Tata Consultancy Services talks about his cross cultural experiences setting up the American offices of TCS in New York, his interest in western classical music, his love of reading, and taking long walks by the ocean in Mumbai with his wife who is a vocalist. His years at UCLA getting a Masters degree in Computer Science, making his first trip to Los Angeles from India in 1969. How he joined NCR as a programmer testing codes for computers. Being a fan of the UCLA Bruins. His return to India in 1972 and joining TCS as a programmer in Mumbai. How he found amentor in TCS founder Faqir Chand Kolhi. He has helped the company grow to where it now has 130,000 employees. He travels 6 months of the year and he says his wife often travels with him.

LyrArc Article Gist
In the interests of a stable government and for rapid development in the state on an unprecedented scale the position of Chief Minister was given to a smaller party with 51 members in the Assembly of Maharashtra. The BJP party the larger party in the new coalition has 106 members in the State Assembly. Mr. Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Chief minister and Mr. Fadnavis of the BJP was made Deputy chief minister based on the understanding of leaders in the federal government in New Delhi on the best way to move Maharashtra forward as a leader in economic and infrastructure development in India. Maharashtra and the capital city of Bombay once the commercial capital of British India has a difficult history of post independence politics. With Nehru's Congress party giving way to George Fernandes trade unionism after 1967 and after 1986 a movement led by Bal Thackeray that sought to give local Marathi youth jobs preference in Mumbai. Lacking the capital, technology and the industrial expertise for development on an American scale, much of this political arrangement has failed to meet the growing aspirations of the young people of Maharashtra and of India. These reasons motivated the federal government to put more emphasis on the "karya karta" or "good worker" principle itself than on the position of chief minister. Much of the rapid development will take place under the leadership of the most competent IAS Indian civil service officers selected for the largest infrastructure projects and the leaders of Indian industry, making the old conception of chief minister redundant. The focus shifts to who can get things done to meet aspirations for Maharashtra 2030 and how it will compare with Uttar Pradesh 2030, or Tamilnadu 2030. How will Metro rail, Bullet trains and Semiconductor Parks, Logistics networks and Exports in the new supply chain the US and EU is setting up in Asia, how will all this look in the 3 states in 2030? This will become clear in 2023 as development accelerates to what India needs. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The effects of drought on the Colorado river and the dams in the arid west of the US which support 40 million people. This is also part of the fastest growing region in the US. The seven states along the river must negotiate major cuts in water use by mid-August or the federal government has to step in an make the cuts, says this NYT report. Years of overuse of water and climate change have led to this situation.  Lake Mead the US's largest water reservoir is two thirds empty. It is fed by the Colorado river. The upstream states or Upper basin states are Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah. The downstream states or Lower Basin states are Nevada, California, and Arizona. Downstream and upstream states have to figure out how the water cuts will be made. Agriculture use makes up 70-80% of the water use. Then there are the sprawling cities such as Los Angeles and Denver and Salt Lake City. Affected are the Imperial Irrigation District in Southern California, a major agricultural area. Las Vegas has come up with solutions for its 1.6 miillion metro area population by conserving water and staying under its 1.8% of the river allocation even as the population grows. Converting lawns and turf to desert and growing only arid zone vegetation to conserve water is being applied. This is a reality check for climate change and a reversal from the earlier effort in the 1930's to impose brute will on the landscape to build huge sprawling cities and agriculture zones. Now all that has to go into adapting to the landscape and fitting into it, limiting the use of water, recycling it, and conserving water in every way possible. It means adapting in every way, not acting in crisis solution mode but shifting to a whole new way of adapting to the environment that should have been there in the first place with some respect for Nature. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Politico magazine says wealth inequality is a worse situation than a country's income inequality. By this measure the situation has deteriorated badly in the U.S. It cites a study by Thomas Piketty of France with Saez and Zucman, showing that a shocking 75% of household wealth, and 97% of capital income-income generated from dividends, interest and capital gains- is concentrated in the top 10% of households in America. More shocking it says is another study showing that nearly 50% of American households could not come up with $400 in an emergency to meet and unexpected expense, while a tiny fraction controls trillions of dollars in assets. Why is this important? Beyond the obvious short term immediate needs there is the need to build a plan for the future, to be resilient in the face of a job loss or major illness, to seek higher education for job retraining,  to save for a home to retire.  In America the history shows that for most of its history since the founding fathers, in the 1750's the situation was that of a rising tide for all sections of society interrupted by the breakdown during post tech boom failures in the 1890's and 1930's. This is embodied in the Declaration of Independence itself the perception of this as something to be taken for granted- "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights ..." One proposal is for a universal income. Others are for employees to have ownership in the business that they work for and contribute their skills. Setting up Permanent Funds that pay dividends to all citizens of a state. Some of these proposals are being considered in Britain by the Labour Party, and Democrats in the U.S. as they forge ways to tackle the rising inequality in Britain after a decade of austerity cuts, and in the U.S. after the tech boom and regional inequality.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Garlic, ginger, turmeric and similar products are vital for healthy living and healthy food. So it is surprising that so little has been done before the Trump tariffs on Chinese food dumped in the U.S. This BBC report by Pamela Parker says 1994 was when the U.S. confirmed dumping by China of garlic yet the tariff that was placed was of an ineffective type that could be circumvented. As a result the U.S. producers such as Vessey in California that produced garlic for 100 years and 5 generations decided to not produce it beside cauliflower and cabbage. Of the surviving producers one producer today in California produces 100 million pounds of this product that has value way beyond the actual dollars as vital for healthy food supplies in the U.S. In fact after reports of contaminated water supplies in China imports of ginger and other such food products have been shifted away from China.  It is well known that the industrial revolution in China came too quickly and at a large cost to the environment after 1990 including contamination of the water, rivers. For this reason it is stunning that the people setting trade policy in Washington could have ignored the vital need of U.S. meeting food needs for healthy living out of its own soil and trusted farming community. To not have done so and let producers of garlic or ginger or other such vital food products to sustain health to go out of business is nothing less than a part of the growing calamity of self inflicted wounds that have happened so far. At no time more compelling an issue as today in the pandemic. The truth is that when it comes to healthy food supplies it is vitally important, as important as national security. And local supplies grown in one's own state or country particularly for vegetables, herbs, and fruit, are very critical. There is no way to even compare product grown locally to product grown in any country where water supplies may be contaminated by rapid industrial growth. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in the WSJ on the Indian economy says the impact of growth in India's largest state of Uttar Pradesh with 240 million people will play a big part in the growth rate of the Indian economy. It fails to say why. The answer is good governance, investment in infrastructure, logistics and manufacturing, a huge pool of tens of millions of engineers and hundreds of millions of factory workers. The lack of a large enough investment pool of investment funds and  failure to eliminate leakages from corruption, the lack of a plan such as the current Master Plan Gati Shakti for the whole Indian economy, lack of governments at the state and federal level combining setting targets and delivery dates for infrastructure roads, bridges, airports, logistical hubs, factory for advanced industry, lack of governance entirely focussed on delivery and timelines, were the missing pieces in development in India for 5 decades since the 1960's, a period in which as Mr. Modi says repeatedly Japan, Korea, China moved ahead and India fell behind. Does this potential exist only for Uttar Pradesh? India's industrialization model started in Gujarat, population of 72 million under Modi as head of the state government from 2001-2014. It now covers the western region of Gujarat, Maharashtra population 128 million and Rajasthan population 82 million  the region around Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Jaipur of about 282 million people. This will be the fastest growing region and the engine that will propel the Indian economy in the years ahead. Uttar Pradesh in the north is integrated into this development. So is another region Bihar population 104 million and Orissa 46 million, Assam 35 million states in the northeast of the country with a total of 185 million people. What do all 3 regions of over 700 million people have in common? The answer is state and federal government working using the Gujarat tested and proven model for development, rapid delivery, good governance, government working with industry, large investments in infrastructure and modernization, Make in India hubs for manufacturing, digitization. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Modi's visit to Moscow and Vienna could be symbolic in setting the stage for a Ukraine peace settlement. Here is why- Austria was occupied by the western powers and the Soviets in 1945. By 1955 Austria sought to become a free country free of occupation zones. It offered its neutrality and asked Indian prime minister Nehru to convey this to the Soviets. Nehru was seen by Austrians as the only person in international affairs who could talk to the Soviets about Austrian neutrality to end occupation. Nehru and his ambassador to Moscow Menon met with Austrian officials. When Russian foreign minister Molotov was approached on the Austrian neutrality proposal by Menon in Moscow Molotov said such neturality could be revoked, Russia needed better assurances. It was the death of Stalin in 1953 that led to the Russian position changing and relaxing its occupation of Austria. Bruno Kreisky, Austrian prime minister, says in his memoirs that the name of Nehru will forever be connected to Austrian neutrality and independence. This led to an independent Austria being formed in July 1955. As Austria accepted entry into the European Union in 1995 and identified with US and EU this part of its history is now forgotten. So it is again that Indira Gandhi in 1983 and Narendra Modi in 2024 visit Vienna. In 2024 Modi can be seen as the only person in international affairs who could take the message of a peace settlement in Ukraine to Russia. For this reason and because of India's call that the war cannot be settled on the battlefield that Modi is stepping into the role that Nehru played in 1955, even though this role is in its early stages. This shows the relationship with Russia has meaning for Europe even as India sees itself as a partner of the US and Europe and Japan. As in 1953 the results are not there, yet as in 1953 this and a changing world situation could finally lead toa breakthrough in this war in Ukraine.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
American companies on the Standard and Poors 500 stock index are sitting on a pile of cash-estimated at $960 billion. This includes undistributed foreign earnings that would incur 35% taxes if brought into the U.S. At the same time companies are hoarding this cash, using some of it for acquisitions, and only gradually increasing dividends. The dividend payout ratio- the percentage of earnings paid out as dividends- is at 28.9% for the past 4 quarters according to Standard & Poors. The dividend payout ratio was 46% for three decades since 1936, and 52% for the last two decades, according to Standard & Poors. Zweig cites Benjamin Graham who stated that companies should pay two thirds of dividends to shareholders. Why? Because shareholders can make better use of the money. With too much money companies tend not to make the best productive use of capital. One example is Microsofts's purchase of Skype at $8.5 billion, considered inflated by many analysts. Graham stated that when the companies are not making productive use of the capital it is appropriate to expect that it be returned to shareholders in the form of dividends. At the 50% ratio one dividend fund manager says companies could return $207 billion to investors. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Mastercard estimates that sales of electronics goods fell by 26% year over year from the beggining of November to December 24, 2008. Inventories of televisions, personal computers, cell phones, and other products are pilig up. Market research firm iSuppli estimates industrywide chip inventories to jump to $10.2 billion at December 2008 end from $3.8 billion in September 2008. Sandisk will half production at 2 Japanese plants for 2 weeks, and this affects Micron and Hynix as well. iSuppli estimates that the television industry has about 8 weeks of inventory. although 4-5 weeks is more normal, and sales of popular LCD sets will decline in 2009. In personal computers desktops and noteboks sales are slowing as consumers are buying the new netbooks which are smaller and cheaper selling for $300. One analyst says anything with a ticket price over $250 is slowing down in sales. What this does is create situation for price cuts and lower profits for manufacturers. And in electronics products sitting in inventory can get obsolete quickly leading to large writedowns. Generally manufacturers would prefer to stop production rather than put clearance prices for unsold inventory. Hewlett Packard shut down production for an extended period over the holidays. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Bob Knoll of the NY Times reviews the Buick Lucerne at the time of New York Auto Show 2006. He says the Buick Lucerne has gone a long way in giving GM a fresh modern look. It is based on the upscale architecture of the Cadillac DTS. Quality ratings by J.D. Powers and Consumer Reports are a strong point for Buick. 1. What did GM fix that Toyota had? Precision down to the little details, with manufacturing clearances of just 0.5 millimeters between adjacent surfaces, and tightly fitting body panels. 2. Sportier contemporary look to appeal to younger demographics. 3. Bringing in new technology thats handy. Wipers that come on automatically when it rains, heated washer fluid, remote-start feature for winter mornings, and so on. 4. Compared to its main competitor, the Toyota Avalon, it stands up well, though with a slightly lower fuel economy.

LyrArc Article Gist
Softbank, Japan's leading search engine company, has a 34% stake in Alibaba. It also persuaded Alibaba's founder Jack Ma to start e-commerce site Taobao. Softbank will start a service in 2010 which connects Taobao to its Tahoo portal in Japan. Softbank owns a 35% stake in Oak Pacific Interactive which owns the popular social networking and game playing sites RenRen and Kaixin.com. Softbank's strategy in China is to concentrate on e-commerce, local social networking sites and online games. This avoids hitting a wall of government censorship which has hampered progres in China for Google and a number of other sites. Other steps taken by Softbank's founder are to work with respected local partners. Jack Ma sits on Softbank's board and Son sits on Alibaba's board. Softbank sees its mobile business connected to internet growth because mobile users are increasingly using the internet, and Softbank is a mobile carrier.

LyrArc Article Gist
The serious problem of the large number of long term unemployed in the U.S. in 2012, strikingly different from any previous recession the U.S. has experienced. This means that if the problem is not addressed or solved these unemployed people will simply fall by the wayside, say experts. U.S. Federal chairman Bernanke, says this is a priority to be taken into account in setting interest rate policy. His fears are that this will be a permanent loss to the productive capacity of the U.S. Evidence of the extent of this problem is that the share of the population that is working has barely budged since late 2009 when the global financial crisis hit. It dropped from above 62% to about 58% in late 2009. It was 58.6% in ealry 2012, based on Labor Department data, even though the unemployment rate edged down to 8.3% by Feb. 2012.

LyrArc Article Gist
This editorial in the Economist says Scots should get fiscal autonomy, and manage their own affairs including setting minimum wage, and tax rates. It says England should not subsidize Scotland as it currently does, and this will lead to Scotland bearing additional cost of about 8 billion pounds. It reminds readers that only about 50% of Scottish voters voted for the Scottish National party in the 2015 general election, and once Scotland has to balance its own books voters would have a chance to rethink the level to which they want a welfare state. As in Quebec the nationalist party may not have the same voter support when it has to tackle the difficult tasks involved in self government. This also means Scots would not be voting on how to manage affairs in England, leading to a federation for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.