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LyrArc brings in selected articles from many of the world's top publications.

Articles are selected by experts and you can see the gist of the important articles.


Wall Street Journal Original article ›
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
Economist Original article ›
BusinessWeek Original article ›
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See the related article in WSJ May 26, 2006 by Norihiko Shirouzu- In Chinese Market Toyota's Strategy is Made in USA. That article described the efforts of Northwestern Kellogg School graduate Yoshimi Inaba's efforts since June 2005 to effect a turnaround for Toyota in China. Toyota lags badly behind GM in China. Here Bremner puts together research findings of a collaborative effort between Business Week China and JD Power to develop a picture of what drives the Chinese buyer in the fastest growing auto market in the world. McGraw Hill owns JD Power and Business Week.
Washington Post Original article ›
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Anne Applebaum of the WP describes the effect of a Dutch referendum on a 2014 European Union trade and cooperation treaty with Ukraine which taps into Dutch anti-immigrant sentiment of right wing parties and anti-corruption sentiment of left wing parties. It passed with a two thirds majority and 32 % of people voting. Applebaum says the centre right government in the Netherlands has not commented on the referendum which is "consultative." She says officials in the Dutch government told her they did not want to become the focus of anti-government sentiment in the media, because of the small majority in parliament.
Washington Post Original article ›
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China adopts a two child policy nationwide in October 2015, abandoning a one child policy adopted in 1980. Experts had warned for years of a policy that would lead to fewer young people, and a rapidly aging society. UN forecasts show China will have about 400 million people over the age of 60 in 2030, 25% of the population in 2030, compared to 14% today if current trends continued. Growth of elderly people would burden the pension and health care systems. The birth rate of 1.4 children per woman is lower than in the U.S. today.

Economy Losing Its Cushion

Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Hilsenrath cites Robert Hall, a Stanford University professor whose research shows three fourths of American households do not have two months worth of income put away as cash or other liquid assets. The Federal Reserve researcher Karen Pence says 41% of households can borrow less than $3000 on their credit cards and 23% have been turned down or discouraged from applying for credit. This shows the general financial weakness of overly indebted American households and the overlayed effects of the housing crisis, and higher unemployment. It suggests the margin for consumers to weather difficulties and increase spending is thin.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Brazil's infrastructure needs include port and road facilities for its agricultural exports and mining industry. Road and rail transport networks for passengers are small considering Brazil's size. The rail network is smaller than that of France and only 12% of the one million mile road network is paved. Brazilian petroleum fund Petrosal will invest in infrastructure needs. Investments are being made to upgrade port facilities by Santos Brazil, and investment in toll roads by CCR, a private-highways company. The government is planning investments in infrastructure to prepare for the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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U.S. District Court verdict on August 24, 2012 that finds Samsung infringed 6 Apple patents and awards Apple $1.05 billion. Apple's legal campaign was intended to slow the increasing shipment of Android phones and device makers such as Samsung that make Android phones. In the second quarter of 2012 Android smartphones were 68% of smartphone shipments, and Apple iPhones about 17%, according to IDC research firm. The jury decision gave as patents infringed- three covering the shape of the iPhone and on-screen icons. The ony patent not infringed according to the jury decision was the one on the design of the tablet.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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The departure of Steven Sinofsky, who headed the development efforts for Windows 7 introduction in 2009 and Windows 8 in 2012. His departure after 23 years at Microsoft comes after hardware companies working with Microsoft and other teams inside Microsoft described difficulties in working with Sinofsky. Microsoft CEO Ballmer referred to this lack of collaboration with other senior executives and polarizing nature, when he called for more "alignment across all Microsoft teams." Sinofsky was made a techncal assistant by Bill Gates in the early years and helped Gates recognize the importance of the world wide web in internet software development.
New York Times Original article ›
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Puerto Rico's main pension fund for 250,000 government workers is only 6% fundeed and is expected to run out of money by 2014. Another pension fund for 80,000 teachers is only 20% funded. Puerto Rico faces problems with lack of economic growth, widespread tax evasion. The economy has gone through a five year recession. A new government was elected in 2012 which promised not to layoff government workers and teachers and find ways to fund pensions. Electronic receipts are now made a requirement for financial transactions to ensure sales taxes are collected. There are risks of a downgrade in credit ratings.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Plans by the Scottish National Party to hold a referendum in 2014 on the issue of independence from Britain. Polls by ComRes, Ipsos Mori and YouGov have generally shown the range of support of 29-36%. A more recent poll in Oct 2011 by ComRes showed 49% of Scots support independence. The other option to independence is a greater transfer of powers from Britain to Scotland. The Cameron government wants such a referendum held earlier when the sentiment for independence is not as strong. The Scottish National party won a majority of seats in the Scottish parliament in the last elections.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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France signed a framework agreement with India to build 2 nuclear reactors in the state of Maharashtra, along with supply of nuclear fuel for 25 years. The reactors would be sold by state owned company Areva SA. France plans to sell 6 nuclear reactors to India in future years. India has 4,560 megawatts of nuclear power and plans to increase this 14 fold by 2032. The French project will provide 10,000 megawatts. US suppliers are trying to get a change to liability laws in India that will transfer liability to plant operators, before concluding nuclear deals.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Test drive of a Nissan Leaf in a Michigan winter. The cold weather significantly cuts into the car battery's capacity. The heater alone can take up 25% of the energy. This Leaf had 91 miles of driving range on its readout. Nissan says the car has a 100 mile range. The EPA required Nissan to state the range as 73 miles. In wintry weather in cold weather states the range can be much less. For this reason Nissan is first introducing the Leaf in warm weather states such as California and states in the southern US.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Government agencies such as the Export Import Bank charge airlines for their guarantees. The new agreement reached through the OECD in Paris, replaces the fixed fees with charges that follow prevailing interest rates. The previous subsidy deal in 2007 has been updated in this way. Airlines use the export credit financing to lower their cost of borrowing and increase their access to loans. Participating governments, including the US, the EU, Japan, Canada and Brazil, aim to approve the deal by Jan 20, 2011. Russia's Sukhoi Superjet 100 and the ARJ21 regional jetliner in China, will be exempt from the new rules.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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High unemployment and sluggish growth in hiring-only 1.1 milllion jobs added in 2010 and only 103,000 in December 2010, according to the Labor Department- will restrict profit growth. Industries such as airlines, food, construction and telecom that lagged the recovery, will continue to face difficulties. Airlines face higher fuel prices and labor wage pressures. Standard and Poor's expects profits for the S&P 500 Index companies to reach a 3 year peak in the ist quarter 2011, then move lower for the next 5 quarters. Earnings reached $22.62 a share for these companies, up 29% from one year ago.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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The longer the recession, the lower the wages on the next job and the quality of work in the next job, says Columbia University labor economist, Till von Wachter. It may take years for the wages of these workers to catch up to what they were before the recession. From 2007 to 2009, more than half the full time workers who lost jobs they had held for more than 3 years, and then found full time work by early 2010 reported wage declines, according to the Labor Department. About 36% reported the new job paid at least 20% less than the earlier job.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Spain's finance minister, Elena Salgado, says the state backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, will acquire direct equity stakes in the Cajas, Spain's regional banks, for upto 5 years. The Bank of Spain's preliminary estimates of the capital needs of the banking sector are below 20 billion euros, according to Salgado. The Spanish government will raise the Tier 1 capital requirements for all banks to 8% and will inject capital into lenders that do not meet the new requirements. The moves are designed to reassure investors who lack information about the true financial condition of the cajas.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms was a record $135 billion in 2010, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal. This is up 5.7% from the $128 billion in 2009 for the same firms. The 25 largest financial firms saw revenues increase to $417 billion. Things are going back to where they were before the financial crisis with total compensation and benefits now exceeding the levels in 2007. In 2010 deferred compensation made up half of the total pay compared to being one third of total pay in prior years.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Most of the $180 billion in infrastructure spending in the stimulus plan will be spent in 2010 and 2011. Only $20 billion was spent in 2009. This includes money for rail lines and water projects. But this will not make adent in the jobless numbers because much of that work is mechanized, and the unemployment rate is expected to continue moving upwards. In all only one third of the $787 billion for the Stimulus that was approved has been spent in 2009. According to IHS Global Insight the ramped up stimulus spending could contribute 1.4 percentage points to GDP in 2010.
BusinessWeek Original article ›
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Fabrice Tourre joined Goldman Sachs in 2001 right out of Stanford University. He worked in the mortgage securitization trading operation. Emails written by him are helping the SEC investigate whether Goldman knew but did not share with investors the way in which hedge fund John Paulson & Co. helped select the underlying mortgage backed assets he was going to bet against. One former SEC lawyer says, the SEC may be hoping that Fabrice Tourre, the 27 year old Frenchman who joined Goldman right out of Stanford University, would be easier to put pressure on to reveal what he knows and other fradulent transactions.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Since 2007 Applle has sold 50 million units of the Apple iPhone, making it Apple's largest business. With the New iPhone 4 analysts expect Apple to sell about 37 million phones in the fiscal year to September 2010. This would be a 79% increase over the 20.7 million sets sold in the prior year. And of global sales analysts say about 55% of sales for the iPhone are from outside the US, compared to 25% 2 years ago. There is a lot of excitement among iPhone fans waiting in line at Apple stores in Europe and Japan, long before the stores opened.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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The difficulties of acquiring land for industrial development or infrastructure building in India. India's Congress party increasingly supporting farmers who are protesting the acquisition of their land. India's highway commisssioner committed in 2009 to building 12 miles of highways each day, but highway officials say only 5 miles of highways have been built. The Congress party plans to propose legislation that requires farmers to be properly compensated- one proposal is to pay farmers the average recorded price plus 50%, as the recorded price used to compensate farmers does not correctly reflect the entire market price including cash paid unofficially.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
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Global Foundries was created in 2009 when AMD spunoff its manufacturing operations, including its chip making operation in Dresden, Germany. It is now owned by Abu Dhabi based Advanced Technology Investment Company, after AMD gave up its 8.8% stake in the company and paid $425 million to Global Foundries to be able to source from other companies. The agreement waives a requirement that AMD source wafers based on the new production processes and technology from Global Foundries and allows negotiation of prices. Global Foundries had difficulties in making circuitry that measures 32 nanometres on silicon wafers.
Wall Street Journal Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Intel expects to rebound in its chip sales with its new products- the Ivy Bridge line for ultra thin notebooks called Ultrabooks (about 100 designs of Ultrabooks expected in 2012-2013), and the new Xeon chip for servers to handle the surge in internet data. The new Windows 8 for tablet type devices may also boost sales of new convertible devices expected on the market that have features of both tablets and notebooks. Intel gross margin declined slightly from 64% to 62% in the first quarter 2012. CEO Otellini says demand is strong in emerging markets, and for tablet devices using Intel chips.

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