LyrArc Article Gist
This op-ed essay by the President of Toyota Motor Company, Akio Toyoda, talks frankly about the situation that led to the quality failures at Toyota and promises that Toyota will try to live up to the ideals that shaped its beginnings some 70 years ago. Toyota had humble beginnings in the thirties when the original founder of Toyoda was in the textile loom manufacturing business. Following a new venture in automobiles in the 1930's, for three decades Toyota was only trying to catchup with the U.S. in auto manufacturing. It started with the current chairman Shoichiro Toyoda's father -and Akio Toyoda's grandfather Kiichiro- visiting a Professor of Metallurgical Engineerig at a university in Tokyo to collect ideas and information for entering the automobile manufacturing business. Akio Toyoda seems quite cognizant of these beginnings in this essay. Action steps he mentions are a top down review of global operations, establishing an Automotive Center of Quality Excellence in the United States, and asking a blue-ribbon safety advisory group of outside experts in quality management to independently review Toyota's operations, with the findings made public. Akio Toyoda points to the lack of effective communication in quality matters in its global operations that led to the problem festering for so long. He says that in regard to sticking accelerator pedals, Toyota "failed to connect the dots between problems in Europe and problems in the United States because the European situation related primarily to right-hand-drive vehicles." Toyota also moved to address problems in its Prius and Lexus HS250h models for anti-lock braking systems....

LyrArc Article Gist
The Labor Department reports that there is no U.S. productivity growth in the 4th quarter of 2014 over the prior year. U.S. productivity growth is about 1.3% for the period since 2009, showing a weak expansion. Job gains of 295,000 in February 2015 show an improving jobs picture, yet wage gains are tepid. This is partly due to slack in the labor market not reflected in the official unemployment rate of 5.5% for Feb. 2015, with a large number of part time workers who do not have full time work. The low productivity growth is another reason for low wage gains in this economic recovery. Economic growth is also weak with economists estimating GDP growth for the 1st quarter 2015 at 1.5% annualized. GDP growth is in the 2-2.5% growth range since 2009. Hourly wages are up less than 2% since 2009, with hourly wage growth in Feb. 2015 at 2% over the prior year. Weak business investment is part of the reason for the sluggish economic growth. Macroeconomic Advisors estimates the capital investment for equipment software and buildings is seeing growth of only 0.3% in the last decade, much lower than in the last forty years. With most of the gains from the internet technology advances already made there is less prospect of a sudden increase in productivity....

LyrArc Article Gist
With more women getting higher education and pursuing careers, young Chinese women now prefer to be independent and postpone marraige. This has important consequences including smaller households and lower demand for some products. Women now make up more than half of all undergraduate students and half of graduate students in China. Beyond pursuing a career many women also see the importance of a loving relationship before marraige as opposed to being introduced to someone and finding a partner to go through life.

LyrArc Article Gist
European leaders meeting in Brussels set Sunday July 12, 2015, as the final day by which Greece is expected to submit proposals and reach an agreement with the EU. All EU leaders will be present at the Sunday meeting at which Greece's postion as a member in the eurozone will be settled, and measures for humanitarian aid to Greece can be discussed. EU chief Juncker called Sunday July 12, 2015 the deadline date. Greece's finance minister Tsakalotos surprised European leaders by not having any proposals to submit. German chancellor Merkel said at a news conference- "There are only a few days left for a discussion on what's going to happen in the future. What we need now is a multi-annual program tht goes far beyond the program that we discussed ony 10 days ago." Experts at Bruegel research organization in Brussels say the ECB providing emergency financing is dependent on Greece coming to an agreement with the EU, and if no agreement is reached Greece's exit from the eurozone is very likely....

LyrArc Article Gist
Attahiru Jega, Vice Chanellor of Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, is the new head of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission with responsibility for the first fair election in Nigeria's history. He has to come up with an entirely new list of voters for a country of 70 million, and very little time to do this. The task involves tens of thousands of computers with finger printing technology and video to be used in 12,000 polling stations, training 360,000 workers, and all this in a country where electricity is mostly generated by private gas powered generators and transport links are poor.

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT editorial describes the inaction of the UK, Canada and the U.S. as Europe faces a huge migrant crisis.

LyrArc Article Gist
Google's 2 for 1 stock split in March 2012, and special voting shares that give Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt more control over the company. The two founders and Schmidt now control about 68% of super-voting shares.

LyrArc Article Gist
Key recommendations of a parliamentary inquiry in France into the Paris terrorist attacks are- the creation of a new intelligence agency, pulling together three elite forces GIGN, Raid, and BRI, more security measures for airports, and improvements to the judicial and prison system where potential terrorists are further radicalized. The extensive investigation concluded that France was not prepared for the attacks.

LyrArc Article Gist
Chrysler reported second quarter 2012 income of $436 million, compared with a loss of $370 million in the prior year quarter. The prior year quarter included charges for repaying U.S. government loans. First quarter 2012 income was $473 million. Fiat reported a loss of 246 million euros for the second quarter 2012. The combined operations Fiat-Chrysler reported aloss of 103 million euros. This shows how the effort by Sergio Marchionne to takeover Chrysler and turn it around have proved to be a very successful move for Fiat. With a relatively small investment Fiat is now a majority owner of Chrysler having invested mainly its management knowhow and leadership.

LyrArc Article Gist
Erich Scwartzel's exceptional account of Dreamworks going astray as its CEO went in a hundred different directions- a smaller studio trying to get into multiple platforms and industries, and trying to compete with much larger Disney in China- provides a unique insight into what happens when a CEO, especially one with creative talent, loses his primary focus. Extensive interviews by Schwartzel with insiders shows the creative people at the studio struggling to get Katzenberg's attention as he made many of his frequent trips to China. DreamWorks Animation CEO's effort to get into several related businesses, television, publishing, theme parks, children's toys, and enter the Chinese market in a big way to compete with Disney, has led to a loss of focus in its main business of feature films. The result is large impairment charges and several films from the "Rise of the Guardians" in 2012 to "Penguins of Madagascar" recently, that did not cover rising production costs at the box office. Four of six films since 2012, before the recent film "Home," failed at the box office since 2012. Katzenberg now says he realizes pursuing different directions led to spreading resources too thin, and he intends to make producing 2 or 3 good feature films every year his No. 1 priority. Restructuring underway and some box office flops led to 4th quarter loss of $263 million from $17 million profit the prior year. About 20% of the workforce or 500 workers will be laid off, a Northern California operation will be closed, and the Glendale headquarters sold and leased back to improve cash flow. DreamWorks shares were at $22.68, March 27, 2015, down from $44 Feb 2010, and IPO day close of $38.75. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
A black supporter of Obama, Ms. Hart, tells him- " I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration. I've been told that I voted for a man who was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class." This encounter happened at an hour long town hall meeting on CNBC, which John Harwood moderated. Harwood asked Obama whether he was having difficulty connecting with average Americans because of attending Ivy League schools and spending part of his youth overseas. The incident reflects the frustration and disappointment felt by average Americans with the Obama administration and with Obama.

LyrArc Article Gist
Russian president Medvedev offers his view of the protests in Russia, that Russia is entering a new stage in the development of its political system. Medvedev told his United Russia party: "We are entering a new stage in the development of our political system and we should not close our eyes to that. It has already begun... It began because the old model- which faithfully and truly served our state in recent years, and did'nt serve it badly, and which we all defended- it has exhausted itself." He wanted to see United Russia take a leading role in reform. He warned that "it is categorically inadmissible that the political system be delegitimized." And warned Russians that the consequences of this were disastrous after the last time this happened in 1917. He was also critical of the U.S. government for its criticism of the elections.

LyrArc Article Gist
Porter cites a report by Kai Daniel Schmid and Ulrike Stein of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute in Dusseldorf. The report shows the top 10% of Germans having 26% of the country's income before taxes and transfers in 1991. This increased to 31% by 2010. For the same period of about 20 years the bottom half of the population took in 17% in 2010 dropping by 5% from 22%. The growing income inequality in Germany is comparable to what has happened in the U.S. over this period.

LyrArc Article Gist
French parliamentary elections on June 11 and June 18 for 577 seats follow the May 7, 2017 presidential election. The Republican Party plans to contest all the seats, and its representatives say that its ideas are well accepted in France, that only the candidacy of Fillon was not successful. The Socialist Party also plans to contest the election. Analyst Krumbmuller of OpenCitiz consultancy says local connections matter, that the two mainstream parties have established local connections and should do better than candidates put up by Macron's En Marche movement. Macron has little time to prepare effectively for the parliamentary election, making it likely that in the end a cohabitation agreement between a prime minister from the Republican or Socialist parties and a president from outside these parties would take place. 

LyrArc Article Gist
The Wall Street Journal in a recent editorial called the European Union's June 2011 plan for Greece "the French Deception," because it favored French and German banks but made Greece's debt burden even less manageable. The Economist views the European Union actions with disdain and says they are sure to fail. It is skeptical whether the spending cuts will work because Greece's politicians are not likely to address the problems of poor tax and other payments collection, and is too interconnected with favored groups and lobbies to be able to take the needed actions. And spending cuts will fall hard on ordinary Greeks. Even with job cuts the sense is that it will fall not on full time civil servants with permanent contracts but people with temporary contracts. The Economist cites the example of items such as the overgenerous markup allowed for pharmacists that adds another 1.5 billion euros to the budget which will remain untouched as an example of many such items where the cuts will not fall because of strong lobbies and favored interests. The privatization scheme is deemed unrealistic because it expects to raise 51 billion euros in a crash sale of assets, which only makes it more likely that assets could fall into the hands of cronies with the right connections. The current efforts only make ordinary Greeks worse off with spending cuts and new taxes. The negative impact on economic growth of the austerity cuts creates the prospect for a deeper recession, political turmoil, and a debt default....

LyrArc Article Gist
The German government under Chancellor Merkel and the German public's preference for continuity and continuing the course Germany is in at this time. This is to continue the export emphasis for as long as possible to countries like China and India, which neede the machinery Germany makes. Exports makeup 47% of German GDP, the highest of large industrialized countries. German industries are being assisted by the government to keep employees and tide over the transition period as markets in Aisa and emerging countries stuggle to recover form the economic crisis. GErman industries in chemicals, automobiles, and machinery are feeling the change and are scaling down and moving to other countries where its advantageous to manufacture. The alternative of promoting entrpreneurial sectors such as software and computers has not met the same degree of success as building a large solar energy industry, in which Germany is taking a leadership role.

LyrArc Article Gist
With the strong jobs growth report in September the US Federal Reserve, America's central bank, is expected to increase interest rates by 0.75% at its meeting on Nov. 1-2. That will be the fourth interest rate increase in 4 consecutive meetings of the Fed. It is designed to tackle inflation yet it also reverses the period of low interest rates for savers that extended from 2000 to 2020. This period covered two crises one created by irresponsible behaviour of banks in the financial crisis of 2000 and the second a natural health disaster from the pandemic when interest rates were brought down to zero as a policy response. During that period savers who suffered decline in savings with little interest income and lower income groups were hit by both the financial crises, employment gaps that hurt income and savings, and the shift of jobs overseas as jobs were shifted to China and American manufacturing declined. Economic policy was determined in that period by economists who failed to grasp the dangers to American manufacturing, to American communities with loss of jobs from offshoring, rising inequality that fragmented society.   This has changed under the Fed run by Mr. Powell first appointed by Mr. Trump and now renominated by Mr. Trump, who is not an economist and brings a very different mindset to central banking, going with common sense about what works for average Americans. a sense of humility, and down to earth about American workers and American manufacturing and its place in America. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
With interest rates at 22% and inflation of over 20% Turkey's foreign investment and consumer driven economy continues to struggle. In Istanbul's markets fruit vendors say buyers buy half the quantity they normally used to buy. Prices are high with the loss of value of the Turkish currency the lira, that lost about 40% of its value in the space of about 1 year. Turkish president Erdogan has in the past increased support with the economic boom in Turkey, which is now fading. High interest rates need to be brought down for the economy to recover. Erdogan fires the central bank chief for not cutting interest rates. In the past foreign investors continued investments in Turkey, yet today the confidence of foreign investors is declining, affecting the value of the Lira currency. High interest rates are a central bank policy response to keep the value of the Lira from declining further, but at a cost for ordinary Turkish people who pay high prices, reducing the standard of living. High interest rates to attract foreign capital to support the Lira also reduce investment and employment with the higher cost of borrowing.  The high prices because imports cost more with a weak Lira mean less can be purchased reducing what can be purchased with existing incomes. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Former finance minister, Rodrigo Rato, resigns as executive chairman of Spain's Bankia bank. Spain's Bankia bank is believed to be one of the banks mentioned by the IMF that will need government help to address 32 billion euros in bad loans. Bankia bank is the result of consolidation in 2010 of seven of Spain's Cajas savings banks in a government led restructuring. Bankia is expected to get 7-10 billion euros from the government in the form of convertible bonds. The government gave $4.5 billion to Bankia to absorb some of the losses in 2010. Bankia made an IPO offering in 2011 in 3.3 billion euro listing. Since then the shares have lost one third of the value. Experts are uncertain about the extent to which this will restore confidence.

LyrArc Article Gist
About 1 million people in the U.S. need treatment for opioid addiction but cannot get it. President Obama added $1.1 billion in new funding in 2016 for treatment, calling it "grossly underfunded."

LyrArc Article Gist
Yuka Hayashi describes the remarkable comeback of prime minister Shinzo Abe in Japan, his "Japan is Back," strategy and its personal overtones. He describes a visit- by Japanese known for taking that second or third chance and making it work through difficulties- to the prime ministers residence for discussion on the theme of "the second chance." The premier tells the visitors that Walt Disney would never have been heard of if he had not tried the sixth time after five failures, and not succeeded in Japan, which has a risk and failure averse business environment. Encouraging risk taking to setup new ventures and open up new frontiers and markets is part of the growth strategy for Japan. His personal struggle with ulcerative colitis during the period of his first term as prime minister, and the new drug discoveries that made it possible for him to recover, give Abe a fresh burst of energy this time. His story and Japan's story now coincide. Abe says the mission of the new LDP is to make sure that talent now flows from mature industries to the industries of the future....

LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ's Leubsdorf looks at the job market in 2015, and the March 2015 employment figures from the Labor Department. March 2015 figures shows seasonally adjusted 126,000 jobs added for the month. The average for each month in the 1st quarter of 2015 based on revised figures is 197,000 jobs added. This is down from the average of 324,000 jobs added each month for the 4th quarter of 2014, and similiar to the 1st quarter of 2014 when economic activity contracted. Economic growth has slowed from the 5% pace in the 3rd quarter of 2014, 2.2% in the 4th quarter, to a projected 1.2% by Macroeconomic Advisers for 1st quarter 2015. Economists see the gains from lower oil prices already having taken place for consumers, but layoffs still taking place in the oil and mining industries. The mining sector lost 30,000 jobs in the 1st quarter 2015, with 11,000 in March 2015. Manufacturing job losses as a result of the strong dollar and lower exports also lie ahead in the next 3 quarters of 2015, suggesting a weaker job picture than earlier anticipated based on 4th quarter 2014 job creation. The unemployment rate remains at 5.5% for March, but the true picture of the labor market is reflected in the unemployment rate that includes people working parttime who want full time jobs, which is at 10.9% for March. The labor force participation rate remains at its low level, going down slightly to 67.8%, and Americans out of work for over 6 months remains high at 29.8% of 8.6 million unemployed for March 2015....

LyrArc Article Gist
Al-Naimi Saudi Oil Minister talks about OPEC and the current oil supply situation while taking a walk in Vienna, where OPEC headquarters are located. Naimi says OPEC is a business organization, not a political organization. He says OPEC operates more like a de-politicized business organization. Yasser ElGuindi of Global Medley Advisors says OPEC's goal is to get the maximum price it can to meet the budgetary needs and investment plans of the countries and keep their economies growing, while at the same time making certain that demand is growing in the rest of the world. The Saudis believe that price is between $50-60. The Saudis play a critical role in keeping price in the $50-60 range, with less chance of a price decline as demand is steady and not likely to drop.

LyrArc Article Gist
Michel Barnier is approved by 52% of French people in an Ifop poll, yet 74% think he will not last long. The NFP will call a no confidence motion when its candidate 37 year old Lucie Castets of the Finance Ministry was turned down by Macron. The RN of Marie Le Pen will support Barnier for now and Marie Le Pen says she expects new elections within 1 year. Barnier supports halting migration to France for 4 years, a position RN of Le Pen supports. Denmark with a socialist government has taken similar position. By taking strong action on migration as northern and southern Europe both shift to this policy including Socialist parties, the EU as is happening in the US can address fundamental issues of cost of living action, infrastructure investment and investment in education, healthcare, science and technology competitiveness, renewable energy. Removing the migration issue can put a clear focus on the action needed to address these problems.