LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. president Obama's speech at the Mandela memorial included the words: "It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well, to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you. To teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth. He changed laws but he also changed hearts."

LyrArc Article Gist
A.I.C.F., America-Israel Cultural FOundation was set up in 1939, to foster culture in what was to become the state of Israel, with about $2 million given out each year. It tries to portray Israel in abetter light. It supports dane and visual arts, music, and gives out about 800 scholarships ayear. This year it will go down to 350 scholarhsips, and that too with emergency funds of $1 million coming in from donors. A.I.C.F.'s entire endowment of $14 million was lost in the Madoff financial Ponzi scheme. About two thirds of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra benefitted from the foundation including musicisans like Itzhak Perlman and Pincas Zukerman. It has great influence in developing classical musicians and is renown worldwide.

LyrArc Article Gist
Bob King , an electrician with alaw degree, who has worked since 1970 at Ford Motor, will be the next head of the United Automobile Workers

LyrArc Article Gist
The icons of American business brought to new lows by the global financial crisis of 2008.

LyrArc Article Gist
Some useful ideas from Ram Charan about improving the sales function and adapting sales to succeed in the new environment of the internet. Customer problem solving needed to win longterm customer/partners, solving all sorts of customer problems perceived or hidden not just cost problems, win-win relationships and trust building.

LyrArc Article Gist
A report of the Transportation Department shows that over the past 8 months Americans have reduced their driving by more than 40 billion miles. Higer gasoline prices led to Americans driving less. In April 2008 Americans drove 1.8% less miles than the year earlier April, and in May this increased to 3.7% fewer miles than a year earlier. And this trend is not going to change or go back as as happened previously. So its a permanent feature of the new landscape according to experts. Everythng the kinds of cars people drive (smaller and fuel efficient), where people live (closer to work, and in closer proximity), the way they drive (less and use bicycles and small Smart vehicles also), and the way they use alternative transport ( frequent use of mass transit and better quality of mass transit with new investment), all tis is about to change permanently. The way the USA funds road and bridge repair and maintenance and new road and bridge construction is through gasoline taxes at the federal level (18.4 cents a gallon) and state taxes. With reduced driving there is less money available to fund these road projects. But this happens at a bad time because existing road and bridge infrastructure is crumbling. About 25% of the country's bridges are in bad shape or obsolete or structurally deficient and one in seven miles of roads are in bad shape according to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, and most people can see this when they drive around intheir cities. And big increases in the cost of asphalt and other construction materials are only compounding the problem. The Commission says it will cost $225 billion a year to tackle national transportation infrastructure needs. Worse still only 40% of this is getting funded. So a huge gap in funding looms and Congress is being pushed to come up with funding solutions as states struggle to deal with the problem....

LyrArc Article Gist
Ahtisaari helped mediate peace in Namibia where he was the UN envoy in charge of 8000 UN peacekeepers, in Aceh, Indonesia, and in Kosovo. He also worked on Sunni-Shiite peace efforts. He was a school teacher who joined the Finnish Foreign Ministry, served in the UN as Finnish envoy, and was President of Finland from 1994 to 2000.

LyrArc Article Gist
Mr. Kovacevich's background, his style, and his success in mergin Norwest with Wells Fargo, and the challenge he faces merging Wachovia with Wells Fargo which may delay his retirement.

LyrArc Article Gist
Where did the government's$123 billion in bailout funds go is the question as AIG quickly runs through that amount.Suggesting that AIG's accounting concealed losses on derivative contracts and other losses which when the bailout funds became available were quickly absorved by these losses on the books. Months before the bailout there were conflicts and disagreements betwen the company and its auditors about the accounting.

LyrArc Article Gist
Lending activity at banks shows decline even with infusion of government funds.