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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.

State Tests Limits of Spending Cuts

1 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 11.22.2010 Original article ›
Deborah Solomon, Deborah, Solomon
LyrArc Article Gist
More than 30 states in the USA are facing budget deficits totaling more than $127 billion over the next 2 fiscal years. A look at how Mississippi Governor Barbour has tackled this issue. Barbour has cut the state budget 5 times, including education, mental health and other areas being cut by 10%. Barbour has access to $2.6 billion in stimulus funds from the federal stimulus, which prevented deeper cuts, and he signed into law 2 tax increases. Now Barbour feels he has reached a limit to the effectiveness of budget cuts he can make across the board, and he will have to look at restructuring some things. 2012 is going to be another tough year, as state tax revenues continue to be hurt badly because of the economy.
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IMF Expects to Double Its Lending Capacity

2 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 12.01.2010 Original article ›
Bob Davis, Bob, Davis
LyrArc Article Gist
The IMF currently has $202 billion in basic resources and an additonal $41 billion it can tap in international financial crises, for a total $243 billion, according to IMF documents. Under a G-20 initiative a new lending pool will replace the $41 billion and add about $250 billion of new money. This money will be needed to address the new committments required in the current euro-zone crisis. Seven Europen countries are expected to ratify the lending program with parliamentary approval so that it can be put into place in 2011- Austria, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden. This will bring the IMF's lending capacity to over $450 billion. The US has approved the increase and is committing about $106 billion, larger than its 17% ownership stake in the IMF.
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Minivans Avoid That Name in Search of a Sporty Image

13 Groups   
New York Times - 01.03.2011 Original article ›
Nick Bunkley, Nick, Bunkley
LyrArc Article Gist
Marketing campaigns in 2011 for the Toyota Siena, Honda Odyssey, Chrysler Dodge Grand Caravan, Ford C-Max. Sales are up 42% for Honda Odyssey since October 2010, when 2011 models and campaign was introduced. The campaign has helped increase sales by 18.5% through November 2010, for Toyota's Siena. This is double the industry average for minivans and is a bright spot for Toyota, whose overall sales have been flat since the recalls. Toyota's Siena campaign shows rapping parents with kids in the back, making it cool to be seen in a minivan. Toyota's national marketing manager says the stories they heard were that people just did'nt want to be seen in a minivan, the soccer-mom joke or feeling playing a part in this. These ads hope to dispel that notion.
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To MasterCard’s Retiring Chief, the X Factor is Presence

1 Links 5 Groups   
New York Times - 06.25.2010 Original article ›
Adam Bryant, Adam, Bryant
LyrArc Article Gist
Robert Selander, retiring CEO of MasterCard, talks about the questions he asks and what he looks for when interviewing and hiring for jobs in the organization. His experience in multicultural and multilingual environments like Brazil has shown him the value of not judging by linguistic skills alone how knowledgeable and capable a person is. He asks about strengths and weaknesses, and asks how the interviewed person is going to work on his weaker side to be able to overcome these barriers. He looks for chemistry and initiative, the kinds of things that tell him that that person would be right in the infield with him. For leaders he look for how they have brought in talent and pulled the team together to get a real business together from scratch, if it is a new business.
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The Lisbon Irony

5 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 04.08.2011 Original article ›
Wsj Editorial, Wsj, Editorial
LyrArc Article Gist
This Journal editorial says Portugal's focus should be on making the Portuguese economy more competitive, and not merely the fiscal tightening and tax raising policies recommended by the IMF in the past. The focus should be on growth, a freer labor market, creating more efficient firms, and lower costs to compete in the European free trade zone. The euro currency reduced Portugal's borrowing costs in the past, but growth requires a more productive workforce. Only 28% of working age Portuguese have completed high school, showing an alarming lack of investment in education. (See the group on education in Portugal). The Journal also questions the lofty sounding agenda of the Lisbon agenda after the2000 EU summit in Lisbon, as it did not get down to addressing problems in individual countries.
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Obama Pledges NATO Backing for Baltic Allies

2 Links 11 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 09.03.2014 Original article ›
Colleen Mccain Nelson, Colleen, Mccain, Nelson
LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. president Obama reinforces German chancellor Merkel's call for "a persistent presence in the Baltics," with a visit to Tallinin, Estonia, in September 2014. Obama told people in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia that he would work with the U.S. Congress to place more U.S. equipment in the Baltics and increase U.S. troop presence there. He stated the Baltics are "not post-Soviet" territory. Obama said at a concert hall in Tallinin about Russian support to separatists in eastern Ukraine- "It challenges the most basic principles of our international system- that borders cannot be redrawn at the barrel of a gun, that nations have the right to determine their own future. It undermines an international order where the rights of peoples and nations are upheld and cannot simply be taken away by brute force."
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Sweden Bucks Trend on Immigrant Labor

  
Wall Street Journal - 12.16.2008 Original article ›
Joel Sherwood, Joel, Sherwood
LyrArc Article Gist
Sweden implements new rules that make it easier for companies to recruit foreigners for jobs in Sweden. The idea is to meet labor shortages in the short run and to support an aging population down the road. For the first 2 weeks the job postings have to be made with an employment registry that reaches all 27 EU member countries and then the position can be made open to foreigners outside the EU. THe Swedish Public Employment Agency is no longer required to examine each individual case for ability to fill it with someone inside Sweden. But employment is still required to meet working conditions and collective bargaining agreements with workers so that these areas are safeguarded. So as the UK moves to a points system, Sweden moves in another direction.
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U.K. Paints Glum Picture on Growth

6 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 03.21.2013 Original article ›
Cassell Bryan Low, Cassell, Bryan Low, Ainsley Thomson, Ainsley, Thomson
LyrArc Article Gist
Britain's 2013 budget provides some benefits to home buyers. Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne says the Bank of England will have more leeway with its inflation target to aid economic growth. Britain's Office of Budget Responsibility says growth will be down to 0.6% in 2013, and 1.8% in 2014. This is a result of weak exports to the eurozone and decline in consumer spending. The government now expects to borrow 240 billion pounds more than forecast for the 5 year period ending April 2016, as a result of the weaker economy. Debt as a percentage of GDP will not decline by 2015 as planned earlier, it will be 2018 before this happens. Osborne said: the plan "is taking longer than anyone hoped. But we must hold to the right track."
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In U.S., Steps Toward Industrial Policy in Autos

1 Groups   
New York Times - 05.20.2009 Original article ›
Steve Lohr, Steve, Lohr
LyrArc Article Gist
Steve Lohr of the NYT talks of industrial policy by the Obama administration that is behind the new mileage standards of 31.5 by 2016. But when one looks at the huge gap opening up between compettitors in Europe and Japan and the Detroit carmakers in technologies for fuel efficiency, and the fact that foreign car makers now control more than 50% of the car market in the USA, it may just be that the Detroit carmakers will now be doing what it takes to compete with the Japanese and the Europeans. And one looks at it carefully one sees a compromise here by the Obama administration, the Euopeans and the Japanese have standards that require closer to 50mpg in 2016, leaving Detroit carmakers behind even with the new standards.
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Auto outsider to lead GM board

1 Groups   
Detroit News - 06.10.2009 Original article ›
Robert Snell, Robert, Snell
LyrArc Article Gist
Comments about Edward Whitacre, who put AT&T together after becomng CEO of Southwestern Bell, and built the new business around cellular, wireless and internet services once the long distance market collapsed. Says board member and leader Kent Kresa, of Henderson and Whitacre, "they are both open to the ideas and opinions of others. I think there will be a good dialogue." Says a colleague Haskell Monroe, on the AT&T board, " he faces the facts, he looks for the truth and he is a person who takes responsibility for his decisions." Says Gerald Myers, a University of Michigan professor and former chairman of American Motors Corp, "he is'nt a loveableguy. He's not going to be your friend. He is blunt, but he is so often right that you accept the abuse."
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Time to Go

1 Links 1 Groups   
New York Times - 10.29.2009 Original article ›
Garrison Keillor, Garrison, Keillor
LyrArc Article Gist
Garrison Keillor asks the President to "lets start making our way out of Afghanistan," in his own inimitable style. He also quotes U.S. Marine Officer Matthew Hoh, who resigned his Foreign Service post- "American families must be reassured their dead have sascrificed for apurpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can be made any more." And Keillor summarizes Hoh's reasons and does it so well- that our presence among the Pastun people, the people in the villages, the rural religious people, is only wosening the conflict, the role of the Taliban and Al Quaeda is not the main thing here, the real issues are tribal and cultural. The last phrase deserves repetition- the real issues are tribal and cultural, which no foreign nation can overcome.
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Battle Lines Form Over Mortgage Plan

  
Wall Street Journal - 12.07.2007 Original article ›
Michael M. Phillips, Michael, M., Phillips, Serena Ng, Serena, Ng, John D. Mckinnon, John, D., Mckinnon
LyrArc Article Gist
The losses for investors from mortgage loans won't go down by much by Treasury's plan. Barclay's Capital Research estimates that losses could go down by 1% point from 13 to 15% losses that are expected on the subprime loans. And the economy would only be helped at the margins according to Roubini, a NYU economist who heads Roubini Global Economics, who doesn't see it doing much for the foeclosures and defaults leading to a housing recession for the next 3 years. Out of some 1.8 million borrowers, 600,000 not current on their payments will get no help, and of the remaining 1.2 million only 600,000 who are current on their mortgages but need help will qualify, those with better credit scores such as above 660 and having the means to pay will be excluded.
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Two Presidents Are Worse Than One

4 Groups   
New York Times - 01.26.2008 Original article ›
Garry Wills, Garry, Wills
LyrArc Article Gist
Garry Wills doesn't like what he saw in the Bush Presidency with the elder Bush's advisor Dick Cheney having an influential role and almost independent powers within the Bush Presidency. What happens if the executive power has a former President and a newly elected President in the White House. He says that question was resolved in favor of not having this kind of plural Presidency when James Wilson of Pennsylvania's argument that executive power could best be checked with accountability in one individual as President was accepted by the framers of the Constitution. There appears to be a alienation from having a repeat of the Bushes Presidency in a Clintons Presidency among older white male voters, is this a trend that will hold true for the rest of the year?
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An Inadequate Case for the Bailout

  
New York Times - 09.24.2008 Original article ›
Anonymous
LyrArc Article Gist
Should private equity taking stakes in distressed companies benefit while the government and taxpayers get no ownership stakes for the $700 billion they put out- thats the issue for the New York Times in an editorial on Wednesday, September 23, during the days of Congressional hearings and Paulson Bernanke and company failing to budge on this and on help for those facing foreclosure. Those two days saw Paulson and Bernanke facing angry and distraught members of Congress who in question after question brought up these points relentlessly for both days and got simply the same response that something needed to be done quickly and these points could wait. Late Tuesday September 23, Obama and McCain joined the Congressman by urging action but requiring these points be put in.
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Eurozone Sets Sunday Deadline for Greece Financing Deal

1 Links 3 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 07.07.2015 Original article ›
Gabriele Steinhauser, Gabriele, Steinhauser
LyrArc Article Gist
Greece's new finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos meets finance ministers of the EU in Brussels following the referendum. Chancellor Merkel opens the possibility of renegotiating the debt at a later stage. Merkel says: "Ofcourse, at the very end, one will have to discuss how debt sustainability can be recreated but not by saying first 'How do we close the gap?' but 'What can Greece do?' " Merkel added that "this program is, according to the now-withdrawn Greek request, meant to be two years long, so it is a multiyear program." This means that in addition to the pension cuts and tax increases rejected earlier, it would now have to include changes to labor laws to make it easier to fire workers, changes to product markets and the privatization of state assets.
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Coronavirus lockdown to last three more weeks

  
The Times - 05.07.2020 Original article ›
Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor | Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor
LyrArc Article Gist
Prime minister Boris Johnson says he will proceed with "maximum caution" as he plans reopening of the economy. The reproduction R ratio for the virus is just below 1.0 and may have gone up recently, say public health officials. Britain faces a problem of deaths in care homes that is not under control.

Prime minister Johnson will announce Sunday new moves which will be limited- allowing people to go out to take as much outdoor exercize as they like, and restart activities such as tennis, golf and fishing. Businesses will get guidance to prepare places for social distancing when people return to work. Restrictions on limiting people contact to those within their household will remain.

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Original article 1 minute, gist 1 minute

Opinion: Modi's Dislike For Nehru Cannot Obliterate The Facts

1 Groups   
NDTV.com - 02.09.2018 Original article ›
Sudheendra Kulkarni
LyrArc Article Gist
Indian prime minister Modi appeared to suggest that Sardar Patel would have achieved a different outcome in Kashmir than what happened under Nehru is seen as going beyond what the facts support according to an aide to former BJP prime minister Vajpayee. The media coverage of the speech showed it to be Modi's way of setting the tone for the coming national election by focussing attention on the Nehru family succession scheme more than it did on Jawaharlal Nehru. Sardar Patel was deputy prime minister under prime minister Nehru and the post partition India situation required the talent of both men in tackling what must have been a nightmare after partition bloodshed, millions of refugees.

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France to Hugo Lloris: Get Back in Goal

3 Groups   
WSJ - 07.13.2018 Original article ›
Joshua Robinson
LyrArc Article Gist
Germany's goalie Neuer would stay outside his goal box so much of the time that it has become the norm for goalies to move out of their box to tackle incoming balls. In this World Cup Soccer the winning team goalies have stayed inside their box to make saves. Particularly true for France, Croatia's Subasic and goalies for Belgium and France. Most of the game depended on goalie saves for Croatia and France. Subasic and Lloris stayed inside the goalie's six yard box and made sensational saves. France's coach also wanted his goalie inside the box and to play the game the way it used to be played 20 years ago.

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Original article 6 minutes, gist 1 minute

U.S. Looks to Protect Domestic Car Makers From Foreign Competition

  
WSJ - 04.06.2018 Original article ›
Timothy Puko
LyrArc Article Gist
The Trump administration is looking at ways to protect U.S. automobile manufacturing by enforcing stricter environmental rules for automobile imports. The EPA is looking at whether VW which has 3.5% of the American market can be asked to meet stricter standards because the diesel emissions scandal gives the U.S. legal justification to set stricter emissions rules. VW has accepted that it used illegal software to evade government emissions tests. Such non tariff barriers are faced by the U.S. companies in Japanese, South Korean, Chinese markets. It is not clear how this would affect the 17.1 million cars made in NAFTA factories with parts made in one country and shipped for assembly in another country, between Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

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Original article 5 minutes, gist 1 minute

Automakers Sought Looser Rules but May Get More Than They Bargained for

1 Links   
- 03.31.2018 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Automakers in the U.S. may be getting more than they expected from the Trump administration's effort to  loosen pollution control laws for automobiles. The Trump administration's effort to change automobile fuel efficiency and pollution laws will run into challenges from the state of California which is allowed to set its own rules under the Clean Air Act.

This would create two different markets inside the U.S. one following California type stricter rules for fuel efficiency and mileage, and for pollution, and a different market with looser laws for the rest of the country. This is something the automakers face as unintended consequences of their actions to loosen the fuel efficiency legislation.

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Wake Up, Mr. President

  
Wall Street Journal - 11.16.2015 Original article ›
Editorial
LyrArc Article Gist
This editorial in the Wall Street Journal says the U.S. presidential election in 2016 now looks like a referendum on safety after the Paris attacks. Rand Paul's chances are seen as nill because his policies, says the Journal, most resemble U.S. president Obama's. Hillary Clinton's comments about the need to defeat not just contain terrorism are seen as distancing herself from Mr. Obama, but the situation in Libya is seen as happening under her watch. The WSJ editorial lists a long list of the situations it has warned against in 2012-2015 since the Arab Spring led to the current situation in Syria, Iraq and Libya, the millions of refugees in camps in Jordan and Turkey, and the refugee movement to Europe.
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Study Offers a Look at New York's Retail Workers

1 Groups   
New York Times - 01.16.2012 Original article ›
Steven Greenhouse, Steven, Greenhouse
LyrArc Article Gist
A new study by the City University of New York of the largest retailers in New York city shows retail workers earn $9.50 an hour. Ony 40% of workers were full time, and over 50% were part-time, and the others being temporary workers. Lower work hours worsen the impact of low pay per hour, according to professor Stephanie Luce of the Murphy Institute of the City University of New York, the main author of the study. Only 3 of 10 workers receive health insurance with their jobs. The study is based on interviews of 436 nonunion employees at department stores, electronic stores, clothing stores, bookstores, and other retail stores, and includes stores ranging from Fifth Avenue to the Bronx.
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China Tops U.S. in Energy Use

17 Groups   
Wall Street Journal - 07.18.2010 Original article ›
Spencer Swartz, Spencer, Swartz, Shai Oster, Shai, Oster
LyrArc Article Gist
The International Energy Agency says China used 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2009 compared to the 2.170 billion tons of oil equivalent used by the USA. This oil equivalent measure covers crude oil, nuclear energy, coal, natural gas and renewable energy like hydropower. To give an idea of the scale of the increase- China's total energy use was only half of that of the USA in 1999 ten years ago. China plans to reduce emissions by cutting the carbon dioxide per unit of GDP by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. But China looks at higher energy use in the years ahead. Much of the energy use is propelled by infrastructure building and energy intensive use in industries.
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Japan's New Green Car Push

  
BusinessWeek - 07.02.2008 Original article ›
Ian Rowley, Ian, Rowley
LyrArc Article Gist
Development of new fuel efficient cars, electric cars, new hybrid cars, costs money, and manufacturing facilities to build these cars in large numbers also takes large investments. Not only do the Japanese carmakers have a huge leg up over American carmakers in having development on these technologies started early because of the conservation ethic in Japan's use of energy, but now because of being in much better financial shape than their competitors in te USA they can make the huge investments going forward in the next 10 years. Note the huge costs of development. Honda spends an estimated $1 million on every FCX Clarity, Honda's new hydrogen fuel-cell car, that it makes today. It hopes to get the production costs below $100,000 per car.
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Sotomayor Nomination Unites Hispanics

1 Groups   
Washington Post - 05.27.2009 Original article ›
Eli Saslow, Eli, Saslow
LyrArc Article Gist
The 45 million Latinos in the USA react with pride, and some parents talk to their daughters to see her as a role model. From Salvadoran immigrants, and Cuban immigrants to Mexican immigrants, to people in the Bronz and Puerto Rico. Demographic research by the Pew Hispanic Center shows that Hispanics are from many countries and have a diversity of opinions and attitudes. Two thirds voted for Obama, one third for McCain, 60% are native-born and 40% foreign born, 64% are of Mexican AMerican heritage, and the other 36% are from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America, and other places. They make up 15% of the USA population, and account for half of the country's population growth in the last decade.
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