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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.

European Leaders Clash in Summit

1 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 02.05.2011 Original article ›
Stephen Fidler, Stephen, Fidler, Charles Forelle, Charles, Forelle
LyrArc Article Gist
The prime minister of Belgium describes the summit meeting of EU leaders in early February 2011, as "surreal," with considerable disagreement. There was a feeling that other EU leaders should have been consulted in the early stages of preparation of the draft document that was prepared by Germany and France. Austria did not support a higher retirement age. Portugal, Spain and Belgium did not support an effort to delink indexation of wages for inflation. Further summits are planned with the intent of reaching agreement at a summit in March.
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Poll: Toyota loses favor with some Americans.

  
Detroit News - 02.02.2010 Original article ›
The Detroit News, The, Detroit, News
LyrArc Article Gist
According to an ABC News poll Toyota's recalls for faulty gas pedals has resulted in a 15 point drop in favorable opinions of Toyota. Now only 63% of Americans polled still rate Toyota favorably overall. 21% think the issue reflects broader problems with quality and 22% say it makes them less likely to buy a Toyota vehicle. In a PEW poll in 2007 Toyota had a 78% favorable rating. This is reflected in the surge of Ford sales by 24% in January and in GM sales up by 14% in January 2010 over January 2009.
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Credit Remains Scarce in Hurdle to Recovery

  
Wall Street Journal - 02.27.2010 Original article ›
Jon Hilsenrath, Jon, Hilsenrath
LyrArc Article Gist
Financial conditions- as measured by the quantity of money available and the availability of credit- tightened in the fourth quarter of 2009. Issuance of asset backed securities went down from $51 billon in the third quarter to $29 billion in the fourth quarter, and commercial paper outstanding declined to $1.1 trillion in January 2010 from $1.3 trillion in September 2009. A ""financial conditions index" produced by Columbia, NYU, Princeton and Deutsche bank, Goldman Sachs, shows the conditions tightening, revealing a financial sector that remains weak and impaired even with very low rates by the Fed.
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India Expands Its Global Role in Drug Production

2 Groups   
New York Times - 07.06.2010 Original article ›
Heather Timmons, Heather, Timmons
LyrArc Article Gist
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow by 13% to $24 billion in 2010. R&D is a special focus, as new drugs can be developed at much lower cost in India. Mr. Piramal, for instance, kept the R&D operation of Piramal when he sold the rest of the company to Abbott Labs of the USA. The Piramal lab in Mumbai has 300 researchers and scientists, and Mr Piramal says he can develop new drugs at a tenth of the $1.5- $2 billon cost it takes for this in the USA and Europe.
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Indonesia to Pare Foreign Investors' Mining Stakes

1 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 03.08.2012 Original article ›
Eric Bellman, Eric, Bellman, Deden Sudrajat, Deden, Sudrajat
LyrArc Article Gist
A presidential decree made in Feb. 2011 requires foreign companies to cut stakes in mining companies to less than 50%. Previously upto 80% ownership was allowed in mining companies by foreign companies. The regulations show that foreign investors with 100% of ownership of mines are required to reduce their stakes by 20% within 6 years, 30% by 7th year, 37% by 8th year, 44% by 9th year, 51% by 10th year, selling to domestic investors. The idea is to maintain a share in domestic ownership of assets. Mining contributes 12% of Indonesia's GDP.
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Questions as Banks Increase Dividends

1 Links 3 Groups   
New York Times - 03.14.2012 Original article ›
J. B. Silver Greenberg, J., B., Silver Greenberg
LyrArc Article Gist
Prof. Admati, of Stanford, says that with the March 2012 stress tests the Fed has prematurely announced the banks are healthy. Prof. Cole of DePaul University, questions some of the assumptions used by the Fed as too optimistic even though it used a 13% unemployment rate and decline in stock and real estate values by 21%. He says the loss of $56 billon on home equity lines of credit and second lien mortgages, 13% of the portfolio, is highly underestimated. He says the legal liabilities of banks are also underestimated.
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BOK’s No. 2 Retires With Parting Words For No. 1

2 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 04.09.2012 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Bank of Korea's senior deputy governor, Lee Ju-yeol, says he feels "heavy resposibility" for the policies pursued by S. Korea's central bank in the years following the financial crisis of 2008, when inflation fighting efforts of the bank were set aside to focus on growth. Inflation has increased in S. Korea in recent years. He said our "hard won reputation was turned away under the current of globalization and reform... values and rules that have been built up over 60 years were denied in just a single day."
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Foreign Investment Jumps in Indonesia

1 Links 7 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 04.23.2012 Original article ›
Eric Bellman, Eric, Bellman, I Made Sentana, I, Made, Sentana
LyrArc Article Gist
Foreign direct investment in Indonesia surged 30% to 51.5 trillion rupiah ($5.6 billion) for the first quarter of 2012. Indonesia's Investment Board says the mining sector gained $1.1 billion of FDI, telecom $800 million and plantations $500 millon. Singapore invested $1.2 billion, Japan $600 million, and S. Korea $500 million. Meanwhile S&P retained the BB+ credit rating for Indonesia because of concern about the government's decision not to raise subsidized fuel prices by 33% to cut a fuel subsidy bill of $15 billion, and other "policy slippages."
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Hillary Clinton's Last Tour as a Rock-Star Diplomat

1 Links 1 Groups   
New York Times - 06.27.2012 Original article ›
Steven Lee Myers, Steven, Lee, Myers
LyrArc Article Gist
Hillary Clinton's championing of softer issues such as promoting the use of new safer clean cookstoves by hundreds of millions of women in the developing world. She persuaded top Chinese foreign policy official Dai Bingguo to put the cookstoves on the agenda for this years meeting in Beijing. In September 2010 Clinton helped setup a partnership led by the UN Foundation to give 100 million of these cookstoves to women by 2020. Smoke from poorly ventilated stoves kills about 2 million people each year, with about a quarter of the deaths in China.
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U.S. added 80K jobs in June as economy struggles - The Washington Post

3 Groups   
Washington Post - 07.06.2012 Original article ›
Michael Fletcher, Michael, Fletcher
LyrArc Article Gist
June's employment numbers in the U.S. from the Labor Department show only 80,000 jobs were added. Job creation dropped in the second quarter to about 75,000 a month from the average of 226,000 in the first quarter 2012. Part of the reason for the higher figures in the first quarter was unseasonably warm weather during that period. Manufacturing added fewer jobs in June, down to 11,000. Healthcare added 13,000 jobs. Of 12.7 million people unemployed, the number of people unemployed for more than 6 months is 42% of the total or 5.4 million.
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Original article 5 minutes, gist 1 minute

Rethinking nuclear energy in Japan: Japan unplugged

1 Groups   
Economist - 05.14.2011 Original article ›
Economist.Com
LyrArc Article Gist
On May 10, 2011, prime minister Naoto Kan of Japan says the plan for nuclear energy to account for half of Japan's energy needs will be rewritten from scratch. This will mean Japan will have to look at renewable energy and other sources seriously to complement a tightly regulated nuclear power energy source. In the past Japan has not given the emphasis to renewable energy that it has received in countries like Germany. The pro-nuclear lobby has also worked against the development of other renewable energy sources.
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Original article 2 minutes, gist 1 minute

Volkswagen Vote Loss Signals Difficulty Ahead for Union Organizers

2 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 02.15.2014 Original article ›
Melanie Trottman, Melanie, Trottman, Kris Maher, Kris, Maher
LyrArc Article Gist
Workers at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted 712 to 626 in Feb. 2014 to reject membership in the UAW union. This makes it more difficult for the union to make inroads in the Southern states. In an unusual step VW- cooperating with the IG Metalls union in Germany- let union organizers into the plant for over a week and cooperated with the UAW to setup the election. VW wanted to setup a works council, a committee of employees which gives management feedback for running of the plant, similiar to ones operating in Germany.
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A Different Take on Reality TV: 18 Hours of Swimming Salmon

1 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 06.17.2013 Original article ›
Ellen Emmerentze Jervell, Ellen, Emmerentze, Jervell
LyrArc Article Gist
A camera placed on a train records the trip from Oslo to the coastal city of Bergen in Norway and Norway's NRK television shows the slowly unfolding scenery for hours. A coastal ferry makes its way up the Norwegian coastline in 2011 in slow moving television. Salmon swimming upriver for 18 hours and live streaming on television This is all part of slow moving television shows in Norway and a way to break away from the endless craziness of daily television and take a long pause from everyday pressures and the hectic pace of life.
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Voices of Pakistanis on the elections in 2013 and the issues of Security, Energy, Economy and Corruption

  
New York Times - 05.11.2013 Original article ›
Shreeya Sinha, Shreeya, Sinha
LyrArc Article Gist
Voices of ordinary Pakistanis from Lahore and Karachi to New York city on the issues facing Pakistan and the elections of 2013. A sense that Pakistan is about to change and hope that efforts will be made by the new government to tackle the issues of security, electricity shortages, the economy and corruption, putting all children in schools, and creating a large middle class similar to Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia. About 40% of Pakistani children do not attend schools according to some estimates, in a country where two thirds of the population is young.
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Panasonic President Sees Short-Term Pain in Restructuring

8 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 07.13.2012 Original article ›
Daisuke Wakabayashi, Daisuke, Wakabayashi
LyrArc Article Gist
Panasonic CEO, Kazuhiro Tsuga, says the company is conducting a strategic review of 90 business areas in July 2012. He said Panasonic still has businesses that are losing money and about half of its businesses are providing less than 5% profit on revenues. He said the charges for the restructuring process could exceed the 41 billion yen target, because the company "will take the action we need to take." He said the company will look for partnerships in the TV set business in China, especially if partnerships mean the businesses will do better.
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Bank of England Flexes Further on Inflation

6 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 02.13.2013 Original article ›
Simon Nixon, Simon, Nixon
LyrArc Article Gist
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King says the Monetary Policy Committee expects inflation to be above the 2% target till the end of 2015. King is aware of the slack in the British economy and low levels of wage inflation. He has indicated his approach to be flexible about inflation. The new Governor Mark Carney also favors flexibility in inflation targeting. The tradeoffs between inflation and growth are very much the focus of their attention. To support growth King supports a longer time period to bring inflation back to 2%.
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Glaxo Warns of a Charge, Hints at Pact

2 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 01.30.2009 Original article ›
Jeanne Whalen, Jeanne, Whalen
LyrArc Article Gist
Glaxo's 2008 earnings take a hit of $400 million from a settlement of a five year investigation by the US attorney's office in Colorado and the US Attorney's office in Massachusetts. The investigation was about the manner in which Glaxo marketed its antidepressant drug Paxil and the drug Wellbutrin SR. Glaxo is said to have promoted the depressants for off-label uses. This follows settlements of $2.3 billion by Pfizer for off-label promotion of painkiller Bextra. Eli Lilly settled with $1.4 billon for similiar charges on antipsychotic medicine Zyprexa.
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The big owe

6 Groups   
Economist - 02.02.2009 Original article ›
Economist.Com
LyrArc Article Gist
Rio Tinto took on large debt of some $40 billion during the boom times, including debt taken on for the purchase of Canadian aluminium company Alcan. About $9 billion is due for refinancing this year and $10 billion in 2010. Now it is making a firesale of assets such as mines it owns. Its also turning to Chinalco, stateowned Chinese aluminium maker. For some $15 billion Chinalco would increase its ownership in Rio above 11%, and may get the 30% stake Rio has in Chile's Escondida copper mine. It will also layoff 14,000 workers.
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Original article 3 minutes, gist 1 minute

AstraZeneca Drug's Effectiveness Questioned

2 Links 1 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 02.28.2009 Original article ›
Avery Johnson, Avery, Johnson, Shirley S. Wang, Shirley, S., Wang, Jeanne Whalen, Jeanne, Whalen
LyrArc Article Gist
Astra Zeneca faces over 9000 lawsuits from people who developed diabetes after taking it. Its a drug for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia that has sales of $20 billion over the years, with $4 billion in 2008. Now it is revealed that Astra Zeneca conducted studies on the effectiveness of Seroquel from 2000, and these studies show that Seroquel was less effective than a generic medicine haloperidol, that has been around for 50 years. Seroquel was only more effective than a placebo,the analysis says from hundreds of pages of unsealed documents.
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The New Financial Heavyweights

1 Links 1 Groups   
BusinessWeek - 11.12.2007 Original article ›
Jack Ewing, Jack, Ewing
LyrArc Article Gist
Sovereign funds should reach $8 trillion by 2011. China Investment Corporation has $200 billion. Much larger are Singapore $438 billion and Norway $367 billion, Abu Dhabi $875 billion, Australia has $50 billion and Alaska has $40 billion. And they are in a majority of the cases professionally run, can stabilize markets because they invest in the long term, often as in Norway's case push for better corporate governance, and invest in emerging markets. It could affect the dollar as their holdings of a declining currency may decrease and as they show preference for emerging markets.
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Gazprom, Nigeria Discuss Gas Deal

2 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 01.05.2008 Original article ›
Spencer Swartz, Spencer, Swartz
LyrArc Article Gist
Russia and Nigeria are two of the largest gas flaring countries. Because of the lack of infrastructure most of the gas is burned off. Now Nigeria has a no flare deadline for 2008. Already Shell and Chevron have built gas export facilities to export some of this gas to Europe and the USA. The entry of Gazprom will take this one step further. Gazprom is interested in Nigeria and would help develop the gas and build the infrastructure faculities needed for Nigeria to become a major gas exporter.
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Europe Slashes Growth Forecasts for 2008

2 Groups   
New York Times - 09.11.2008 Original article ›
Carter Dougherty, Carter, Dougherty
LyrArc Article Gist
The European Commission cuts 15 nation euro area growth forecast for 2008 from 2% to 1.4%. For the 27 nation European Union the forecast is dropping from 1.7% to 1.3%. Link this to discussions at OPEC in Vienna and one can see why the Saudis use the argument that high oil prices can lead to a collapse in demand and a collapse in oil prices not helping consumers or producers, when a stable price that reflects the fragile financial markets in the west would better accomodate both sides.
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Estonia’s Let-It-Be Economy Is Rattled by Worldwide Distress

1 Groups   
New York Times - 10.10.2008 Original article ›
Carter Dougherty, Carter, Dougherty
LyrArc Article Gist
For 2 decades now Estonia has followed the principles of Milton Friedman in freeing up its economy to be completely open. Now the economic downturn has to lead to a shft in policy. The infusion of $3.4 billion euros from the EU from 2007 to 2013 as cohesion funds to even out disparities between rich and poor countries in EU should help and some business people say Estonia could emulate Luxembourg or Swizerland by looking for its own niche say in high end technologies and knowledge intensive production and in design.
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Market's 7-Day Rout Leaves U.S. Reeling

  
Wall Street Journal - 10.10.2008 Original article ›
E.S. Browning, E.S., Browning, Annelena Lobb, Annelena, Lobb
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.
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Bad bets

2 Links 1 Groups   
Economist - 10.16.2008 Original article ›
Economist.Com
LyrArc Article Gist
On October 6, 2008 the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso plunged. Mexico had to spend 10% of its foreign reserves in a few hours to prop upthe peso. It started with some foreign investors selling latin american assets to cover losses at home. The peso's slide increased with theunwinding of derivative contracts of Mexican companies. For Brazil the fall in commodity prices led to weakening of the real and derivative contracts unwinding worsened things. Forecasters expected to see growth of 4.5% in Brazil and 3% in Mexico, now this will be lowered by 1.5%.
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Original article 3 minutes, gist 1 minute

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