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The Gallois Report and reviving France's competitiveness
04/12/2012
Linked Articles
Departing EADS Chief Urges Europe to Recommit to Industry
New York Times 04/12/2012
France Looks to Halt Industrial DeclineWall Street Journal 11/06/2012
Wage hikes and excess demand for labor in China in 2012-2013 reduce the need for Stimulus
03/14/2012
The need for stimulus to keep jobs for migrant workers and maintain social stability does not exist in 2012 the way it appeared in 2008, when about 20% of migrant workers lost their jobs and wages for migrant workers fell by 10%, according to estimates by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Stanford University. In 2012 there is excess demand for labor and reports show the efforts to reduce the 60 hour work week in some factories is running into problems with a shortage of labor. This means less need for stimulus that would aggravate problems in the housing bubble and inflation.
Linked Articles
China's Workers in No Need of Stimulation
Wall Street Journal 06/04/2012
China's Wage Hikes Ripple Across AsiaWall Street Journal 03/14/2012
World Bank chief Zoellick on China's 2012-2013 Stimulus plan and the China Development Report of the World Bank/ DRC
02/23/2012
Zoellick calls for an approach from China that avoids the mistakes of the rampant credit expansion and investment of the 2008 Stimulus.
Linked Articles
World Bank Chief Urges Euro Bonds
Wall Street Journal 05/31/2012
New Push for Reform in ChinaWall Street Journal 02/23/2012
Reports by the Federal Reserve and Sentier Research on the decline in income and net worth, higher debt levels of American households
02/02/2012
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/02/2012
Americans saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, Federal Reserve says - The Washington PostWashington Post 06/12/2012
Delving into the causes of higher income inequality and finding solutions
12/06/2011
As the OECD report shows income inequality is a global trend over the last three decades. This is further exacerabated by austerity policies. Causes of this range from education to favored treatment of economic sectors with greater influence on government.
Linked Articles
Angry about inequality? Don’t blame the rich. - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/28/2012
OECD report cites rising income inequality - The Washington PostWashington Post 12/06/2011
Lawrence Lindsey says the Fed has got itself boxed in with little choice but to keep interest rates low
06/15/2011
Federal Flow of Funds Report for 2011 by the U.S. Federal Reserve shows 61% of net Treasury issuance was purchased by the Fed. Lindsey points out that the Fed has itself boxed in to keep rates low for years because for the U.S. government to borrow at more normal rates of 5.7% rather than the 2.5% at which it borrows today, would mean an addition $800 billion in interest costs by 2021.
Linked Articles
Demand for U.S. Debt Is Not Limitless
Wall Street Journal 03/28/2012
Notable & QuotableWall Street Journal 06/15/2011
The safety failures that could have been prevented with stronger oversight and control for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster
03/21/2011
The independent parliamentary panel in Japan concuded in its July 2012 Report that the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant was "a profoundly man-made event." Here in its investigations after the accident the Wall Street Journal finds some of the safety flaws that could have been corrected but were not due to the compete lack of effectiveness of the safety agency and its failure to do its job. As a result licenses for forty year old nuclear reactor designs and installation designs were simply renewed without requiring changes or shutting down these reactors. It is these older designs that were also improperly installed that failed.
Linked Articles
Japan Plant Had Troubled History
Wall Street Journal 03/21/2011
Design Flaw Fueled Nuclear DisasterWall Street Journal 07/01/2011
Andy Grove of Intel and a reminder about Silicon Valley's role now missing role as a serious innovator and job creator at home
07/01/2010
Andy Grove reminded Silicon Valley about the dangers of forgetting manufacturing's important role in the U.S. in 2010. This is even more true today with the working class lagging behind in this recovery. He asked at the time what kind of society are we creating with professionally employed workers and lots of unemployed. It reminded him of 1932 with troops holding bayonets facing unemployed people outside the White House, and of his days in Hungary in the 1956 uprising. Grove also called for serious innovation which he did not see happening at the time in Silicon Valley.
Linked Articles
Andy Grove’s Warning to Silicon Valley
New York Times 03/25/2016
Andy Grove: How America Can Create JobsBusinessWeek 07/01/2010
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
The Project on Government Oversight Report in 2013 and the revolving door at the S.E.C. in the U.S.
04/24/2010
Robert Khuzami was enforcement chief at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the critical period following the 2008 financial crisis. He was also a lawyer at Deutsche Bank during the period when the problems at Deutsche Bank happened which resulted in legal settlements. The revolving door has affected the way the S.E.C. carried out its enforcement responsibilities.
Linked Articles
S.E.C.'s Revolving Door Hurts Its Effectiveness
New York Times 02/11/2013
SEC's Top Cop Oversaw Deutsche CDOsWall Street Journal 04/24/2010
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
Ted Truman, a seasoned veteran, helps Geithner with the G20 meeting and calls for bigger stimulus spending.
03/13/2009
Ted Truman is aforceful advocate for bigger stimulus spending at the upcoming G20 meeting. In a memo to Geithner he has toughened up the US position on this in advance of the G20 meeting in the UK on April 2, 2009.
Linked Articles
Split on a Cure for Recession, Leaders Try Three Efforts
New York Times 03/15/2009
Geithner Hires a Seasoned 'Temp'Wall Street Journal 03/13/2009
Bonuses, executive compensation and performance in the UK, public outcry.
01/20/2009
The executive compensation and bonus situation in the UK. RBS and othe banks and the public outcry. As RBS shares drop to 12 pence or less than the price of a candy bar, loss for 2008 is 28 billion pounds, and the British government comes up with $20 billion pounds of government money for RBS and takes 70% ownership, reports in the Sunday Telegraph suggest executives plant to handout $1 billion in bonuses. How?
Linked Articles
U.K. Boosts Its Bailout As Bank Losses Rise
Wall Street Journal 01/20/2009
British Official Plans a Review of Bonuses After OutcryNew York Times 02/09/2009
The U.S. Labor Department jobs and unemployment report for March 2012 and U.S. Federal Reserve policy
04/05/2012
Linked Articles
An Easier Jobs Report for the Fed
Wall Street Journal 04/07/2012
Not Enough InflationNew York Times 04/05/2012
Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, as the leaders of China after 2012, and the future direction of the economy.
02/23/2012
A gradual change away from the dominance of state owned companies as China shifts direction. The World Bank-DRC Report as the first step in this direction, marking the beginning of the beginning.
Linked Articles
Xi Appeals for 'Purity' Amid Party Scandal
Wall Street Journal 03/16/2012
New Push for Reform in ChinaWall Street Journal 02/23/2012
Li Keqiang, China's new prime minister, the World Bank's Zoellick, and the World Bank-DRC Report "China: 2030"
02/23/2012
Linked Articles
Next Premier Came of Age in Era of Openness
Wall Street Journal 11/16/2012
New Push for Reform in ChinaWall Street Journal 02/23/2012
"Hiroshima" 1945 and the Siege of Leningrad 1941-1942 - What a post war Russian, American and Japanese generation could understand and what is lacking in the Middle East
01/27/2012
Noonan asks the question about what a post war generation of Americans, Russians and Japanese could understand about the horrors of nuclear war and of the Second World War, and how this is lacking in the Middle East as each nation strives for nuclear weapons from Iran to Saudi Arabia. Separately in another link Kaname Harada asks a different question- has a new generation in Japan born after 1945, both leaders and the public, forgotten about that period including "Hiroshima."
Linked Articles
Vladimir Putin Describes Loss of a Brother at Ceremony
New York Times 01/27/2012
Misplaying America’s Hand With IranWall Street Journal 04/04/2015
Need for balanced development, less inequality, and a policy shift in China to promote consumption based growth (1)- 2013-2018
11/20/2011
With a change in leadership to Xinping there comes the need for a change in economic policy. The DRC/World Bank Report outlined a new approach. Xuetong, dean at Tsinghua University in Beijing, calls on the leadership to make a shift that would be a first major shift since the opening to free markets in the 1980's
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 10/03/2012
How China Can Defeat AmericaNew York Times 11/20/2011
Apple's low tax rate of 9.4% on global profits
03/24/2011
Companies ranging from Apple and Google to GE pay low tax rates. The New York Times reports that corporate share of U.S. tax receipts dropped from 30% in the 1950's to 6.6% in 2009. This has a serious impact on states and local governments and the federal government as they cut essential services and education to balance their budgets or lower deficits.
Linked Articles
Apple's Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations
New York Times 04/28/2012
G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes AltogetherNew York Times 03/24/2011
Winding down U.S. housing agencies Fannie and Freddie- the U.S. Treasury report of 2011 (2)
02/12/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 02/14/2011
Number of the Week: Government’s Overwhelming Role in MortgagesWall Street Journal 02/12/2011
The Volcker Rule and the report of the Squam Lake group of 15 prominent American economists
06/15/2010
Linked Articles
15 Economists Issue Crisis-Prevention Manual
New York Times 06/15/2010
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' TradingWall Street Journal 02/13/2012
Lack of credible progress in Afghanistan in 2010.
04/29/2010
A Defense Department biennial report and an independent report by Ann Marlowe after her sixth embed with American forces on the ground both confirm the lack of credible progress and attribute it to the lack of credible governance in Afghnistan. Failure of the current US administration to take good governance seriously.
Linked Articles
Strategy vs. Tactics in Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal 06/02/2010
U.S. Report on Afghan War Finds Few Gains in 6 MonthsNew York Times 04/29/2010
The inaction at GM 2009-2013 for the defective ignition switch recall and the inaction at Toyota for unintended acceleration recall
02/10/2010
GM's management lost track of quality issues that were buried at lower levels during the bankruptcy period. Toyota's management in the U.S. referred the NHTSA to quality managers in Japan who did not make the necessary effort to look into and address the problem. This shows that quality is not just a technical issue for the engineers and requires management atention at the highest levels, direct reporting to top managers. It also shows that quality problems never go away, will always be present, no matter how good you think you get. Small mistakes can be very costly as BP, TEPCO in the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Toyota, have shown in the recent past.
Linked Articles
General Motors Misled Grieving Families on a Lethal Flaw
New York Times 03/24/2014
Safety Agency Scrutinized as Toyota Recall GrowsNew York Times 02/10/2010
Peter Coy, Economics editor of Business Week, on the risks of inflation.
06/11/2009
Krugman responded to Laffer's oped in WSJ with an op-ed of his own in the NYT suggesting that Bernanke's Fed should stay the course. In this article Peter Coy, aveteran reporter and analyst of BW, looks at the situation and the facts. Demand is so weak in the economy, that the Fed's expansion of the money supply only helps make up for this and still falls short. The economy will be fragile for some time to come so reversing course is simply dangerous. In the video that goes with this he tells Mandel that Bernanke is right and should stay the course.
Linked Articles
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2009
Why the Fed Isn't Igniting InflationBusinessWeek 06/18/2009
Child hunger in India and India's Food Security legislation in August 2013
03/13/2009
Food expert Rieff cites figures showing child malnutrition at over 40% in India for children under the age of 5 in 2009. A World Food Program report says 230 million people in India are hungry each year. India's Food Security legilation has to be seen in this context. Rieff says India is in danger of losing its demographic dividend as a result of child malnutrition. All developing countries can learn from each other and their programs to reduce child malnutrition, improve health care and vaccinations, and introduce healthy food and sanitary practices. Programs are in place in Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, India, and China.
Linked Articles
As Indian Growth Soars, Child Hunger Persists
New York Times 03/13/2009
India's Lower House Passes Food Bill to Help PoorWall Street Journal 08/26/2013
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