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Direct From the Editor / On Topics Vital to the Nation
06/23/2026
Browse Articles or use Lyrarc's US patented "Groups" and "Links" for new insights. A Lyrarc Group of Articles on a topic gives insights into particular angles shown in the Group Title. A Lyrarc Link shows more specific insights for 2 articles.
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The paradox of low U.S. productivity growth holding back wages in 2015-2016 (2)- Apple, Google, Facebook and low productivity improvement since 2005
07/01/2010
Linked Articles
Andy Grove: How America Can Create Jobs
BusinessWeek 07/01/2010
The Mystery of Declining Productivity GrowthWall Street Journal 05/15/2015
Apple and conditions at Foxconn factories in China that make the iPad, iPhone, the Mac and other electronic devices
05/29/2010
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/29/2010
A Night at the Electronics FactoryNew York Times 06/18/2010
Shrinking news coverage and fewer journalists in the newspaper shift to digital online
11/25/2009
It says a lot about the changes underway in the newspaper industry when a paper like the Washington Post closes its bureaus in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and covers the news there with travelling reporters. As local newspapers such as the New Orleans Times- Picayune move to three editions a week and an online edition, the number of journalists overing the area around New Orleans will shrink by a third in 2012. Advance Publications which runs the New Orleans paper will do the same for its papers in Huntsville and Birmingham i in Alabama.
Linked Articles
New Orleans Times-Picayune to limit printing to three days per week - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/25/2012
Washington Post shutters last U.S. bureausWashington Post 11/25/2009
Failure of HARP refinance program of the Obama adminsitration and rising mortgage rates.
06/11/2009
Rising rates makes refinancing difficult for homeowners. Mortgage rates reached 5.79% on June 10, 2009.
Linked Articles
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2009
Rate Rise Clouds RecoveryWall Street Journal 06/12/2009
Te Capps and the Muirs in Boise, Idaho, and the national savings rate.
01/02/2009
How the Capps and the Muirs, two couples in their thirtes and forties and their families are scrimping and saving like older generations of Americans. The implications of this for the national savings rate which is forecast to reach 10% by Goldman Sachs in 2009. What this means for consumption spending according to Rodriguez, and why the economy may be setting up for a longer downturn approaching ten years.
Linked Articles
Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic Woes
Wall Street Journal 01/06/2009
The Doomsayers Who Got It RightWall Street Journal 01/02/2009
The paradox of low U.S. productivity growth holding back wages in 2015-2016 (1) - Apple Google, Facebook and low productivity improvement since 2005
12/31/2008
Linked Articles
Whatever Happened to Silicon Valley Innovation?
BusinessWeek 12/31/2008
The Big MehNew York Times 05/25/2015
The Russian side of the story on Georgia, and the Europeans putting Europe including Russia first in their views.
08/20/2008
Rusia presents its views including Gorbachev and Lavrov in the American press and the British views putting Europeans including Russians first before the American views for old style cold war replay.
Linked Articles
New York Times 08/20/2008
America Must Choose Between Georgia and RussiaWall Street Journal 08/20/2008
Rising wages in China a definite trend as sentiment of workers and the government changes towards low wages and low wage jobs
06/30/2008
The government's efforts to shift China away from low wage sectors to more advanced technologies with higher wages. And the growting sentiment in China among workers with the rise of the internet and mobile phones to organize efforts for higher wages in industries that range from older textile plants to automobile factories of Japanese makers, and factories that make parts for western tech hardware companies such as Apple, Dell and H-P. This includes Honda plants and Foxconn factories. This sentiment is shifting to other emerging markets such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
Linked Articles
China's Export Machine Threatened by Rising Costs
Wall Street Journal 06/30/2008
The Rise of a Chinese Worker's MovementBusinessWeek 06/10/2010
Safety and affordability for motorcyclists who shift to the Nano and Ratan Tata's vision for the Nano
01/08/2008
About 1800 people die in traffic accidents in New Delhi each year and most of them are on motorcyles, whole families on a motorbike. This was the image in Ratan Tata's mind behind his vision of a 1 lakh rupee ($2000) car affordable to the motorcycle Indian. Is it safe, for the motorcycle rides and passengers its a lot safer being in a car.
Linked Articles
Economist 01/10/2008
Four Wheels for the Masses: The $2,500 CarNew York Times 01/08/2008
Southwest Airlines success at hedging against a rise in oil prices.
11/16/2006
Southwest hedged against rising oil prices which helped it cap fare prices and gain market share. Its competitors missed the boatcompletely on where oil prices were going and failed to hedge.
Linked Articles
Economist 11/16/2006
An Airline Shrugs at Oil PricesNew York Times 11/29/2007
The rise in wages in China in 2011-2013
05/29/2010
Linked Articles
China's Wage Hikes Ripple Across Asia
Wall Street Journal 03/14/2012
Hon Hai to Raise Workers' PayWall Street Journal 05/29/2010
Apple products at manufacturing plants in China and at retail stores in the U.S.- low worker pay and lack of future prospects
05/29/2010
The high margins for Apple achieved through a combination of keeping costs low- even at the risk of providing poor wage and working conditions for the majority of employees employed in the retail stores in the U.S. and in supplier Foxconn plants in China- and by a grasp for innovation and technology. The paradox of a well deserved image for pioneering in technological innovation and the indifference to working conditions and prospects for employees who add value in manufacturing and customer interface. This model of growth is a recent development, put in place after 1997. In 1995-1997 Apple was nearing collapse under Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio, as documented by WSJ technology reporter Jim Carlton in his book- "Apple- The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders." Steve Jobs returned as CEO in 1997 and set the future course and this model in place emphasizing design, his ability to grasp technologies that would appeal to customers, and hired Tim Cook to set up the manufacturing which had high rate of defects and higher costs. The model was as full of paradoxes, of genius combined with mediocre behavioursas the man Steve Jobs. Tim Cook has responded to criticism in 2012 by having the Fair Labor association audit Foxconn plants in China. Foxconn increased wages in 2012, shifted plants to the interior of China, and increased use of robotics.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/29/2010
Apple Stores Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on PayNew York Times 06/23/2012
Why the Obama health care law gets an "F" grade from the Dean of Harvard Medical School
11/18/2009
The failure to replace the "fee-for-service" system in favor of capitated payments is cited as one of the main reasons. The other reasons are it does not resolve the issues of introducing competition in quality of care and cost, and continues the practices that disguise the true cost of care with a highly fragmented system of care. In a op-ed, Jeffrey Flier, Dean of the Harvard Medical School, gives a detailed account for the reason for his grading. A poorly drafted or incomplete law says Flier can make things worse, citing the example of the health care law in Massachusetts which is driving up costs, as it does not change the old dysfunctional system's key features such as "fee-for service," and instead tries to build a new system on broken foundations. Pearlstein in the Washington Post says the Obama health care law has addressed the "fee-for-service" problem, but this is really not the case, and Flier's reasoning may be the clue to the deeper problem for the Obama health care law.
Linked Articles
Steven Pearlstein: Eat your broccoli, Justice Scalia - The Washington Post
Washington Post 04/01/2012
Health 'Debate' Deserves a Failing GradeWall Street Journal 11/18/2009
The $5 trillion in new debt expected for 2009-2010, will become harder to reverse if the rising foreclosures weaken any recovery.
06/02/2009
With 15.4 million homeowners under water and rising unemployment exacerbating the foreclosure rate, and no governement solution in sight, any recovery will be weak. This makes the debt reduction less likely, and weakens prospects for economic growth.
Linked Articles
Rising Interest on Nations’ Debts May Sap World Growth
New York Times 06/04/2009
Foreclosures: No End in SightNew York Times 06/02/2009
Sales slowing, inventories piling up of electronics goods, and the Capps and Muirs of Boise, Idaho.
12/31/2008
The dramatic shift to a savings oriented and thrifty lifestyle reminiscent of the thirties and forties in some ways, is seen in the new lifestyles and spending habits of the Capps and Muirs in Boise, Idaho. With its high tech factories Boise has held up well in previous recessions. If things are changing this much in a place like Boise then its aserious sign of changes in the whole country. This is leading to buidup of inventories of cars, electronics goods, and other goods in retail stores. It has a serious global aspect as products made in China are affected, and products made elsewhere that go into these products are affected, and the equipment manufacturers in Germany for these products made in China are also affected.
Linked Articles
BusinessWeek 12/31/2008
Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic WoesWall Street Journal 01/06/2009
In the past decade China's consumption as percentage of GDP drops 10% to 37%, America's rise to 96%.
11/26/2008
This leads to the global imbalance in savings that London B-School's Prof. Portes complains about. Cross border flows fro, Asia to the West reach 3% of global GDP, pumping extra money into the US banking system, and the European banking system leading to bad lending and a consumption binge. The reluctance of China and the U.S. to change the staus quo till things simply collapsed.
Linked Articles
Imbalance in Nations' Savings Clouds Forecasts for Recovery
Wall Street Journal 03/23/2009
Global Economy: No Help from China's ConsumersBusinessWeek 11/26/2008
India and Pakistan negotiations and rising tension in Kashmir.
08/12/2008
The Kashmir issue complicates India-Pakistan peaceful relations, as does the situation in Afghanistan with Taliban opposing Indian reconstruction efforts.
Linked Articles
India Frustrated by a Rudderless Pakistan
New York Times 08/12/2008
Deadly Force Used to Halt March in KashmirNew York Times 08/12/2008
Rising price of products Made in China on American retail shelves.
01/31/2008
China's demand for energy is not going to go down that much so expect continued pressure on oil prices and on inflation from China in addition to the increase of about 10% in prices of Chinese goods on retail shelves in the USA in 2008 as wages and raw material costs rise.
Linked Articles
China’s Inflation Hits American Price Tags
New York Times 02/01/2008
China's Impact On Oil Prices: Not So MuchWall Street Journal 01/31/2008
Ford's aggressive effort at marketing safety.
09/04/2007
How the display of a crashed Taurus at the 2008 New York Auto Show is an ongoing effort like the Swap My Ride Campaign to get car buyers who defected to foreign makes to take a look at Ford.
Linked Articles
Drivers Size Up Fords (Unknowingly) in New Campaign
New York Times 09/04/2007
Ford Displays a Wreck to Score Safety PointsNew York Times 03/18/2008
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