LyrArc Article Gist
Mary Walsh documents the bizarre instances of waste in Prepa, Puerto Rico's power company. It provides free electricity to 78 municipalities, a system setup in 1941 under FDR appointed Governor Tugwell, in lieu of property taxes to be paid to municipalities. This includes such projects as a ice skating rink on a tropical island, wasteful use of power by locating businesses in municipal buildings, and a system which incentivizes waste of power.

LyrArc Article Gist
Looking around Havana U.S. president Obama finds a country stuck in the 1950's. His observation: "You drive around Havana and you say, 'This economy is not working' ...It looks like it did in the 1950's." Obama's view on relations with Cuba was that things have changed, with younger Cubans especially looking to integrate with the world economy for a better life. This is the same in Venezuela, in Argentina. His view: "I know the history, but I refuse to be trapped by it."

LyrArc Article Gist
The effort by a community bank, Talmer Bank, to fill in for the lack of mortgage lending for certain neighborhoods in Detroit with abandoned or ransacked homes. Talmer Bank provides $25,000 loans so that these homes can be repaired and restored. Another agency helping in this work of renewal of these neighborhoods is the Detroit Land Bank Authority which auctions abandoned homes with bids starting at $1000. That agency was started in 2007 and is now making fresh efforts under Mayor Mike Duggan. This agency had in 2015 about 22,351 residential structures and 54,660 vacant lots in its inventory, one fifth of the land in the city. Between 1900-1950 Detroit's population grew to 1.85 million. Then by 2010 as the auto industry hit a downturn and residents departed from a declining city the population declined to 700,000. Other approaches taken by DLBA are to fix up abandoned homes and sell these properties sometimes at a loss, and to demolish homes that cannot be restored to raise property values in the neighborhood. Even here with scarce resources the DLBA has to pick and choose which neighborhoods have the best chance of recovery to invest resources....

LyrArc Article Gist
Chancellor Merkel of Germany proposed bilateral or trilateral deals between smaller groups of countries as a temporary solution till some agreement can be reached on immigration. She said "The European Council will not yet provide an overall solution to the migration problem." Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic which have opposed a quota system for asylum seekers did not attend.  Austria, Denmark, and Italy with the new government openly opposing immigration, attended the summit. Merkel said  a "lot of goodwill" was created, and leaders agreed that borders need to be better protected to prevent people from entering illegally, and reducing immigration at its source points in Africa. The migration problem has persisted as an issue long after the huge surge in immigration in 2015 has diminished to a trickle, and after chancellor Merkel has accomodated critics with new policies strictly limiting new immigration. New governments in Denmark, Austria and Italy, and the government in Hungary under Viktor Orban, have kept the issue alive by running on anti-immigration platforms. The European summit in 2018 was used by Merkel to reduce disagreement on this issue by allowing different countries to express their views and working in smaller groups for mutual benefit. It also reduces tension inside her CDP-CSU coalition after Bavaria based CSU decided to run in 2018 state elections on a platform calling for securing borders. ...