LyrArc Article Gist
British budget cuts announced in Parliament by Britain's Finance Minister, George Osborne. About 83 billion pounds in cuts by 2015 were announced. But Joseph Stiglitz, writing in The Guardian, argued that the plan was a big gamble, as declining tax revenues with lower growth, would lead to smaller deficit reductions. The gamble is that the private sector will pick up, and make up for the reduction in public outlays. If this does not happen, this risks sending the economy into a tailspin. Osborne said that 490,000 jobs will be lost over the next 4 years, some from attrition. Payments to the long term unemployed will also be cut for those who fail to seek jobs, saving $11 billion a year. A new 12 month limit will be imposed on long term jobless benefits. Increase in the retirement age will start in 2020, from 65 to 66 years. At the same time free eye tests, prescription drugs and bus passes remain. Premier Cameron promised not to make cutbacks in health care in the period before the election. This was his way of helping the Conservatives make a comeback to power....

LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson calls Russia "incompetent" for letting Syria hold onto chemical weapons even after a deal to remove the weapons was made and implemented. Tillerson was also critical of Russian attempts to influence elections in France and Germany.

LyrArc Article Gist
The results of a Wall Street Journal analysis of 11 countries shows the risk of a stretched out period of stagnation in the economies of the USA, the UK and Japan. Jobs is a critical area in which this is apparent. In Japan employment is down 3.3% from December 2007, in the UK 2% lower, and in the USA 4.8% lower from December 2007. U.S. household debt is down from 131% in early 2008 to 122%, and poses a big burden. In the UK the household debt is larger than in the USA. And Japan's deficits are over 200% of GDP, creating an overhang that depresses jobs and growth. S. Korea, Taiwan and Australia have benefitted from the recovery since 2008 in China, India and the rest of Asia.

LyrArc Article Gist
For democracy to be effective people have to have a participatory role and have their voice heard. Mark Easton, Home Editor of the BBC, says this has not happened in the June parliamentary election. How is it that the result leaves Britain without an effective government, as Conservatives have only a 3 seat majority after joining with the DUP party in Ireland. The result a very fragile government. He asks how the election could be seen as providing people with a voice even though turnout had increased, when even after Labor increased its vote by 9.5% and Conservatives by 6% the Conservatives had to woo constantly the DUP party with a tiny fraction of 0.6% to form a government.

LyrArc Article Gist
Helena Morrissey of the 30% Club has helped increase the representation of women on Board of Directors in Britain to 23%. This is nearly double the figure in 2010. Helena Morrissey uses a non-confrontational approach, getting men to join the organization and having them act as advocates with other men in senior positions. She learned this after using other approaches which were less effective. She focusses on telling chairman of the boards that having women on the board provides different perspectives, and points to studies that show about 30% lets a minority voice be heard. Homogenous boards have been known to provide no new thinking or fresh perspective, a problem at many companies. The opportunity opened up with the finsncial crisis of 2008 and widespread opinion that the boards had failed to understand the crisis that was coming. She and 14 other women got the support of 2 prominent board chairmen in 2010 to start the 30's Club. A Commision by the new government led by Lord Davies provided additional impetus by recommending that 25% of a board be voluntarily set for women. Early in her career Helena was turned down for a promotion because she had a baby. She has nine children, which her husband a journalist helps take care of at home, making her situation even more unique. Helena Morissey is CEO of Newton Asset Management in London's financial district....

LyrArc Article Gist
Floyd Norris says the announcement by the ECB on Dec. 20, 2011, that 523 banks borrowed 489 billion euros under the newly created Long Term Financing Operation goes a long way towards giving Europe time to address the debt crisis. A major problem is recapitalization of European banks and the ECB's action helps address this problem. This is one of the achievements of the December summit of European leaders, though it was not the way markets had expected. Markets were focussed on large scale bond buying by the European Central Bank or issuance of euro bonds. ECB head, Mario Draghi, aware of widespread opposition in Germany to such proposals made it clear this was not going to happen. The Long Term Financing Operation of the ECB provides unlimited amounts of loans to European banks at 1% for 3 years, and accepts sovereign government debt as well as other types of securities as collateral. The result of this action was to lower the yield on a recent Spanish bond auction to 1.7% for three month bills from 5.1% the prior month. Spanish and Italian banks can now buy government debt of their countries and use the bonds as collateral at the ECB for three year loans at 1%. This Norris estimates will generate profits of about 37 billion euros for European banks from the difference between the ECB rate of 1% and the rate on two year bonds of Spain and Italy of 3.6% and 5.1% respectively for the bond purchases of 489 billion euros- calculated on a spread of 2.5 percentage points over three years. Another infusion of funds from the ECB will occur in February 2012. The new capital infusion gives European banks less reason to reduce lending in the eurozone as they work to meet the higher capital reserve requirements set under new Basel III rules. This is especially important given the austerity measures being implemented across the eurozone countries and Britain to reduce government deficits, and in light of the lower growth expected as a result....

LyrArc Article Gist
President Macron of France puts forward the basic building blocks for an agreement to reduce tensions with Iran. In a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations he says that there should be negotiations between Iran, its regional neighbors, the U.S. , European countries and China. The Obama period nuclear deal of 2015 failed because of a lack of a comprehensive settlement and including Iran's neighbors in the region. Macron pointed out that the U.S. approach under president Trump of "maximum pressure" with tighter economic sanctions has produced a response from Iran of maximum pressure on its neighbors, including the attack on Saudi oil facilities with drones that took out half of the Saudi oil supplies. Macron put forward five issues for negpotiations to focus on: certaity that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, solution to the Yemen civil war, a regional security plan that addresses other conflicts, ensuring security of maritime navigation especially in Straits of Hormuz, lifting of economic sanctions. He pointed out that "today we have a risk of serious conflict based on miscalculation and disproportionate responses." Mr. Trump even alluded to this when he told reporters after the dismissal of John Bolton as National Security Adviser, saying Bolton made Trump look like a voice of moderation. A lot depends on who are the advisers and whether moderation is exercised on all sides.  Macron, Merkel and Britain's prime minister Johnson met with Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN meetings to encourage dialogue. Countries likely to be severely affected by oil shutoff through the Straits of Hormuz are Japan, South Korea, India and China, and are quietly pushing for an easing of tensions.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
France's Finance Minister Michael Sapin introduces a no-austerity budget in September 2014 as France's growth is forecast at 0.4% in 204 and not reaching 2% till 2017. Sapin says "we have taken the decision to adapt the pace of deficit reduction to the situation in the country." The government will put off large parts of the 50 billion euros in cuts in spending towards the latter part of the period to 2017. Critics on the left say the cuts are undermining the social welfae model of France. President Hollande's popularity has declined to very low levels in 2014. Prime minister Valls wins support in the National Assembly for the government's strategy to tackle the economy and growth- increase business confidence and postpone cuts till the economy recovers by 2016.

LyrArc Article Gist
 Mayor Reiter of Munich, Christian Kern, head of Austrian railway OBB, say here that the actions of Viktor Orban of Hungary gave the German government very little time, only a few hours, to act. The first motivation was to act in a humanitarian way, which is what happened. The German government had asked Orban to register and handle immigrants in an orderly way. In the end with the failure of Orban to do this, the immigrants who would have come north anyway, streamed into Germany and Austria in buses and trains. Clearly Hungary and Germany could have handled this better. The German public provided support with a large number of volunteers helping. One German minister is cited here as saying that if Orban wanted to build a fence he should have done it in a quiet way, as there are fences between Bulgaria and Turkey, and Turkey and Greece and it has not bothered anyone.

LyrArc Article Gist
The director of Vote Leave on Brexit referendum Dominic Cummings says Brexit could be a mistake for Britain. Asked if he thinks differently now, he says in a Twitter exchange cited in Britain's Guardian newspaper- "Lots. I said before REF was a dumb idea, other things shdve been tried 1st." Others are having second thoughts about the referendum, as shown here.

LyrArc Article Gist
This opinion piece in DW.com says India's prime minister should not isolate prime minister Sharif of Pakistan, as he had no part in the escalation of tensions in Kashmir. Foreign and military affairs are now run by the Pakistan Army, and isolating Sharif only entrenches the Army it says, which has kept up tensions similar to the situation in 1999 with the Kargil crisis when the Pakistan Army initiated a conflict in Kargil region. At that time Indian premier Vajpayee and Pakistan premier Sharif were improving relations. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Under VW ownership and management, after 16 years of cooperation and $14 billion in investment, Skoda based in the Czech Republic has become a solid competitor. In 2007 Skoda plans to sell 630,000 cars worldwide and its aiming at sales of 1 million cars by 2010. In 2006 sales increased by about 10% in the European market which has been stagnant and beat Toyota as one of the fastest growing brands. Its a leader in quality surveys in Europe, and was tied with Honda for second place in quality in Britain, according to JD Power ansd Associates. Skoda has huge potential in developing country markets as a quality car at lower prices- prices lower than VW cars. VW bought 30% of Skoda in 1991 and by 2000 gained ownership of the whole company. Skoda has also done well in the design of its cars, the Roomster, the Octavia wagon, and the midsize sedan Superb have all received acclaim for their design. VW is considering making a low cost Skoda car to match Renault's Logan which sells for $7000 as a base model....

LyrArc Article Gist
A new poll from YouGov shows the Conservative Party getting 310 seats and Labor Party at 257 seats. Labor would gain 30 seats and Conservatives lose 20 seats under this prediction. Conservatives would fall short of the majority of 326 seats needed. Support for Theresa May is slipping especially after announcing older people would have to take on more burden for care, dubbed the dementia tax by media. A coalition of Labor party with the Scottish National party (SNP) with 50 seats and the Liberal Democrats with 10 seats is now a possibility.