LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ looks at how businesses are coping and how the government and the financial institutions are trying to make handling the stress of coronavirus easier and recovery easier. Bedrock is one of the financial firms that is forgiving rent for small bookshops, retailers, restaurants, gyms and other stores in Detroit, Michigan. Bedrock owns 50% of the leasable commercial real estate space in Detroit's 1.4 square mile downtown business district. In all it covers about 40% of downtown Detroit and retail. A similar program is underway in Seattle with help from Amazon. This story shows how Mr. Cullen who is Bedrock's CEO is doing this. He reports to Mr. Gilbert, a billionaire, who is also owner of Quicken Loans lender, Cleveland Cavaliers sports team. Mr. Gilbert is recovering from a severe stroke he had this year. This makes the job harder for Cullen as he has to seek approval from Mr. Gilbert and show this is something that will also benefit Mr. Gilbert. This will make recovery in Detroit easier. He says Detroit suffered badly in the 2008 economic crisis, and he does not want to see this happen again. Fortunately Mr. Gilbert, who is in therapy, has approved the action of Mr. Cullen. Cullen has to show that out of work local people in Detroit and empty storefronts hurts Mr. Gilbert as well as Detroit. So both come out winners from forgiveness for rent for a couple of months.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Ada Hegerberg of Norway is awarded the Ballon d'Or prize in 2018 recognizing her as the best women's soccer player. This is the first women's prize for Ballon d'Or. She plays for Olympique Lyon, the premier women's club team in Europe, which won the UEFA Women's League in 2018.

Keh tells the story of Hegerberg from her days playing for the Norwegian team, her development as a player, and days growing up in Norway.

LyrArc Article Gist
There appears to be a conscious deliberate decision by the Chinese government and policymakers to shift the economy from low-end technologically unsophisticated and polluting industry, that pays low wages with little worker protections, towards technologically sophisticated, environment respecting, and higher wage industry. This does not mean textiles are out, but textile companies that are larger better managed, able to introduce newer technologies and produce higher quality product- that command higher prices in the world market and therefore also able to sustain decent wages and worker protection- are in. Phasing out the smaller shops and the poorly run or deliberately polluting and labor exploiting companies run from Hong Kong or elsewhere. The general shift is to be a leader in products which are value added either by technology or human capital, such as better trained more knowledgeable workers. This is similiar to the shift Japan made after the sixties, as it moved from a rural to a urbanized society and textile companies like Kanebo became technologically sophisticated, while small shops withered out, and Japan gradually shifted into automobiles, electronics and chip making. The noticeable difference is that Japan with a prewar industrial base and a smaller market protected its home market for Japanese companies, whereas China lacking this prewar industrial base let foreign investment and companies overseas bring in equipment and use low cost Chinese labor to supply western markets. And it turned a blind eye to labor protections, at least till it had built up its own industrial base and knowhow with policy requiring Chinese partners in industry and technology transfer. Economic winds are also doing the job. Inflation, Chinese goods prices increased by 4.6% in May according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This is a result of the Chinese government requiring worker protections and decent wages and stricter pollution enforcement resulting in increased energy costs. For years the U.S. and other countries depended on China for low cost goods and the demand for low cost goods depressed margins which resulted in legitmate costs such as pollution control technology, worker protection and decent wages, being ignored. China is now left with heavy environmental cleanup costs, and a bad image internationally as a heavy polluter. The huge external trade surpluses China has built up exceeding a trillion dollars have pushed up the value of the yuan making Chinese goods costlier in world markets, and apparel and shoe makers in developed countries seeing Vietnam as a better lowcost alternative. The story of this phase of Chinese industrial development can be seen in a town like Honghe, a 90 minute drive from Shanghai, which has half of its 100,000 residents working in 100 factories and 8000 shops that knit, dye, package and ship some 200 million sweaters a year, bringing in according to local government estimates $650 million a year. Now many of these shops are idle and mirant workers are returning home. To see the subtler signs of the Chinese policymakers hand note that even visa policies have been tightened to make it harder for foreign buyers to visit Chineses factories and trade shows. Also the Chinese government has raised the minimum age for workers in these factories from 16 to age 18 and so on. And the impact is being felt in places like Honghe near Shanghai, Shengzhou another city near Shanghai which makes one third of the world's neckties, and in Dongguan in Guangdong where its toy, shoes shops close. The change also shows how quickly things can change in the world economy. Only 3 years earlier in 2005, Jiaxing Yishangmei Fashion Company, a family owned company was booming and had just landed Walmart Stores as a customer. Now Walmart no longer sources from this company. Analysts say that the Chinese sweater industry was probably overbuilt, with about 6 cities in China claiming to produce more than 100 million sweaters annually. A wave of consolidation could boost efficiency, and bring pressures to innovate rater than compete only on price. And many Chinese economists, and policymakers think China has relied too much on cost-cutting and simple production models to increase exports. A researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences thinks such a high dependence on foreign trade is not good for China. For the US and Japan this researcher says that trade is equivalent to 20% of gross national product and by contrast for China trade is equivalent to an extreme of 75% of GNP. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Nickel cadmium batteries - this year 2008 the European Union is banning the sale of all nickel cadmium batteries. Question is why is the US not banning them. And why are companies like Energizer, Duracell, P&G, Mattel, Toys R Us and Walmart still buying them? Why is Panasonic making them? A toy costs $1.50 less to make using nickel cadmium batteries. Are parents aware of what it does to workers making them? Are plants safe in developing countries especially in corruption prone coercive environments like the one in factories in China? Some of the owners of such factories are in Hong Kong, Hong Kong based companies, are they aware enough of the risks and the ethics of doing is? This story is of an engineer who was exposed to factory conditions in a company GP that was supposed to be a good company to work for, and few knew about the effects of cadmium in the year 1995 when she joined. The Panasonic factory is in Wuxi which is not in some remote part of China. And note this about 10% of China's arable land is contaminated with heavy metals such as cadmium according to China's own State Environmental Protection Agency, and the metals are entering China's food supply. 12 studies have shown unsafe level of cadmium in fruits and vegetables. Is this a necessary price of industrialization or is it possible to find a way thats better- a challenge for countries like India. Can there be better protection of workers and still have industrialization? Wouldn't it make sense that a motivated well treated work force will perform better in better working conditions. Aren't there costs involved for workers and owners of such plants. Owners also bear costs, bad press, medical payments, workers leave and good workers are hard to find in the wave of bad publicity and health risks, customers in the west refuse to buy the product, the company's brand name is tarnished forever, as would happen for GP in this case. The coercive patterns of using police to suppress publicity for a Hong Kong Company shows owners in Hong Kong have the same disregard for worker rights, even when living in an area that one hears talk about democratic rights. See the link to chemical spills contaminating a river in China also by a Hong Kong based company. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This story in the WSJ on the Biden White House says it always operated with a tight inner circle. During the Covid pandemic it limited contacts for the president, yet after the pandemic eased this protective layer was not taken down says WSJ. As the president's age advanced the tight inner circe remained sheltering the president form the outside. The debate with DJT was one point that this became evident. Biden in his last year in office is 82 years- the oldest president. He had accomplished much in passing the series of bills that funded infrastructure, chips, science and protecting workers using his skills with Congress acquired over span of 50 years. Limiting Biden's one on one's and to certain parts of the day had an unexpected result. The head of Armed Services Democrat Rep. Adam Smith says this happened during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. He could not reach Biden so he could caution him about an overly optimistic view of the withdrawal. As the withdrawal led to loss of 13 armed forces men the disarray was a topic for Republicans. Only after the withdrawal issues Biden called Smith. In 4 years Smith says he had this one call with the president when he had spoken to Obama several times. Simtih's view is that Biden White House was "more insulated than most." Senator Manchin says he had less contact with Biden than his closest advisers.  This WSJ report also says the contacts of cabinet members with Biden were limited and tightly controlled. This report says Yellen at Treasury had few one one's with the president and dealt with adviers. Austin at Defense in the last 2 years during the Ukraine and Gaza crisis had only rare direct contact with Biden. During the campaign this story says close adviser Donilon kept access limited for polling experts to the president to the point where Senator Schumer and others felt Biden was falling behind but the president was not aware of this. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
As in the US with Harris investment in America vs Trump cuts there is a distinct difference between the Tory spending plans that allowed capital spending investment in the economic future of Britain to decline from 2.5% to 1.7% of GDP over 5 years to 2030. Rachel Reeves, Britain's finance minister, says the government will adopt a new rule that changes the way it measures debt- public sector net liabilities as a percentage of GDP is the new fiscal rule. What it does is free up 50 billion pounds Britain badly needs to invest in things like climate change action, education, and other needs of the economy that will brighten Britain's prospects in the future.  “If we continued on that path, we would be embracing a path of decline. The real debate now in British politics is whether you are on the side of investment or on the side of decline. I don’t want to see public sector net investment as a share of our economy decline in a way that is currently set out. Under our current fiscal rules, we would not be able to reverse that path.” The stability rule goes with this that says strictly this money will not be used for tax giveaways, and not for public sector pay deals or the day to day functioning of government. In addition th government will borrow 25 billion pounds to  keep 30 billion pounds of headroom so that debt will keep falling over the first term of this Labour government.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Mario Monti takes office as prime minister of Italy as Italian bond yields reach 7.4%. Italy faces the task of refinancing 200 billion euros of maturing bonds by April 2012. Bond yields exceeding 7% make the task of refinancing Italian debt even more difficult. Monti said he would try to restore Italy to financial health without giving up "social equity," and added that "we owe it to our children to give them a dignified and hopeful future."

LyrArc Article Gist
The story of all the important characters in what seems almost like a play, how they acted and how the events unfolded, how they reacted to the events, and how things went a certain way. Characters like Christopher Bancroft who liked to stay aloof from the family in an almost patriarchal way and in the end finding himself undone by dissenting younger family members who he had ignored perhaps insulted. Characters like Lipton and Elefante. How did Elefante bring in Lipton when Lipton had represented Murdoch in transferring his corporte base to the US from Australia, one wonders. In the end despite his show of support for the family he is the one who votes key trusts of the family Murdoch's way. He also hired Merrill who recommended looking at Murdoch's offer because of Thomson's interest in Reuter's plc, and Dow Jones need for scale. In a global news gathering process and need for a global mindset already Zannino's plan not to invest in the Asian and European editions because of shortage of funds shows how the Journal was declining. The lack of clear direction and leadership would have lead to something like this happening sooner or later but the way it finally brought an end to a century of the Bancroft family's control and the manner in which Murdoch patiently waited for Dow Jones to be brought under News Corporation, for all the family's talk about ideals ending with asking for Dow Jones to assume lawyer and investment banking advisory fees in exchange for agreement, is a story about corporate dynasties rise and fall just like the royal dynasties of previous centuries. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Moritz Schuller of Tassspiegel writes a moving story in BBC News about Helmut Kohl, former chancellor of Germany, who died at the age of 87. Kohl helped bring chancellor Merkel to prominence by appointing her to positions in his government, first as Minister of Women and Youth in 1991, and then as Minister for the Environment in 1994. The two developed a bond that lasted. Merkel said on Kohl's 85th birthday -"Germany has much to thank him for."  Schuller presents a different side of Kohl in this article. There is this Kohl who had this tactical grasp of events as the Berlin Wall fell and German reunification was within reach. Who had this warm touch with other leaders, including a special relationship with French president Mitterand that advanced relations between the two countries. Yet he also describes the Kohl who was forgotten after being pushed out of office in a donations scandal. The rush to setup the eurozone currency and expanding it without the needed financial arrangements were seen by Germans as a weakness coming from the Kohl years in office. By 2008 Kohl had a debilitating fall and by this time was forgotten by Germans. Close to the end in 2014 at the Frankfurt Book Fair to present a book on his own view of the events of 1989-90, Kohl was seen as a frail figure, in a wheelchair and unable to speak much. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The story of Zhang Yiming of TikTok. He founded the App in 2012 in Beijing. His first app was Jinri Toutiao, translates to Today's Headlines. And came up with the idea of feeding people more of what they have read. This is the beginning of how today's echo effects of the news people read and opinions that are shaped in the process being one sided without any dialogue or mixing with others. This is not good for demcoracy and the dumbing down in social media adds to the lack of literacy. In the case of this China based app it means 170 million Americans are spending time in ways that deplete not add to cultural literacy. Some of the same arguments operate for social media as X and other social media divide rather than bring people to exchange views and thinking for better understanding and education.

LyrArc Article Gist
Are parts of US society including business and the finance community in big urban centers not aware or conscious enough of the way fentanyl flows are destroying America both rural and urban, communities already devastated by the shipping out of jobs and factories.

For example the WSJ says on the front page story on Feb 4, 2025

"to make his point about what he sees as unfair trade practices and other issues such as fentanyl smuggling and illegal border crossings, both the stated motivations for this round of tariffs." DJT is not making a point- there are no points to make- simply stated Fentanyl is destroying American communities for a very long time.

Deaths from Fentanyl                  490,000

Deaths from Covid pandemic.    1212,000

Deaths from Vietnam War              58,210

LyrArc Article Gist
 WSJ looks at the story of one Indian engineer 39 years from Bangalore, India on a extraordinary category visa. 79000 H1-B engineers and others keep California's population growing in 2024. The state loses population everyyear from domestic migration WSJ charts show, yet it makes up for this through international migration. Also helpful is the fact that California has more births than deaths by about 110,000. California has the largest percentage of its population as foreign born, about 25%. About half of the international migration of 2.7 million since 2010 is Asian, and one third is Latin American. Pew Research shows only about 17% of California's immigrants in 2023 were undocumented. During the pandemic California lost 400,000 people, the population of Oakland. Net immigration dropped to 44,000 a year in the worst year of pandemic, then rebounded to 300,000 in 2024, but remains uncertain with tighter immigration controls under DJT. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
At a time when ideas are held with passionate conviction, Andy Kohut kept a remarkable self-discipline in phrasing his questions for polls so as to hear clearly what people were thinking. He followed and loved a robust debate and saw his job as presenting the facts. The Pew Research Center's credibility has been enhanced by Andy Kohut's leadership. He led the Gallup polling organization for many years before becoming founding director of the Pew Research Center. At a time when more than ever we need to hear what is on people's minds, and provide a glimpse of this that goes beyond the passion and political spin in the news story, the work of Kohut is sorely missed.

LyrArc Article Gist
David Brooks looks at the traits and skills of national leaders Washington, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, F.D.R., Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Reagan, and compares that with the skills needed in a business environment. He does not find much relevance for the traits and skills learned in business by Corzine, Rumsfeld, Regan, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in leading a state or a country. He finds traits in political leaders in government to be emotional security, political judgement, a sense of humility as being part of a larger purpose in God's world, and the ability to overcome major setbacks. He sees today's claims of candidates to being outsiders or having business experience as a spurious and false story line.

LyrArc Article Gist
The revival of the Mid-Market part of the downtown area in San Francisco after Twitter sets up headquarters here in April 2011. Twitter signed a lease till 2021 with Shorenstein Properties for a 11 story building built in 1937, for 295,000 square feet. Other developers are moving into San Francisco. Tishman Speyer is constructing two office buildings in the area called South of Market in San Francisco. Rents are now at $53.84 per square foot in San Francisco in the fourth quarter 2013 compared to $46.12 in the third quarter, according to C.B.R.E. Vacancy levels have dropped from 9.7% in 2012 to 8.2% in October 2013, and down from 15% in 2010.

LyrArc Article Gist
Incredible story of a Denmark software company run by a 41 year old bodybuilder Stein Bagger, who called it IT Factory. The company, its software deals, everything about it including Stein Bagger's PhD was phony, and in the end outrageously unbelievable that something like this could be allowed to happen. How gullible can people get? This fellow was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year with a Danish minister present at an event in Copenhagen, just when he was surrendering to police in Los Angeles. Banks and IBM and other firms lost $182 in total as this fellow borrowed from banks to record fake deals of purchases by phony customers from his company.

LyrArc Article Gist
Gisele Freund's photographic account of how a world changes, the world of her childhood at the turn of the century Berlin (she was born in 1908) and then after her return to Berlin in 1957 before the wall went up. This was an unfamiliar world to her. Her pictures are at the Willy Brandt Haus exhibition in Berlin, and at the Ephraim Palais for the pictures from 1957 and 1962. In the subsequent 50 years the Berlin Wall was to go up and come down, bringing more change and a new Berlin different from that in the late fifties, and a even more different Germany. A story of change told in photographs of Berlin.

LyrArc Article Gist
The changes that have come over president Obama include a wearing off of the enthusiasm and sense of new beginnings of 2008. From many possibilities to a a sense of limited possibilities during the second term. From the excitement of a new and novel candidate as Ivy law school "community activist" and able story teller of mixed race upbringings originating in Kenya, to the billion dollar fundraising candidate and mixed record of the second term.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Financial Stability Oversight Council puts out a study and recommendations on the Volcker Rule that will serve as a guide to drafting the rules for implementing it. The overall tone of the report is that regulators must be vigilant for ways in which banks may try to evade the rule. Mr Volcker said after reading the report that it is clear and straightforward in its effort to let banks know that you cannot hide proprietary trading in other activities.

LyrArc Article Gist
As the trade problems with the U.S. escalate in tit for tat tariffs, China looks back at its history for parallels. The period of the "unequal treaties" imposed by the Western powers on China in the period 1850-1900, the Korean War of the 1950's, and other analogies that come up to people. Yet China's planners and leaders are looking at another situation the Plaza Accord of 1985 in which the western nations pressured Japan into accepting a significantly higher exchange rate to reduce its trade surplus and the Japanese yen appreciated by 50%. Japan cut interest rates from 5% to 2.5%, and introduced huge fiscal stimulus, banks opened up to lend vigorously. The result was a boom by 1990's followed by a bust that led to another decade of lending to loss making firms called "zombie" businesses, that led to a stagnant economy. This has persisted for three decades. This China sees as an unacceptable situation when China has still not achieved developed economy status in terms of per capita incomes. It fears getting into a middle income trap as the economic growth slows and the aging population makes a recovery more difficult.  The difference with Japan in the 1985-1990 period is that Mr. Trump lacks the kind of five nation economic coordination that put pressure on Japan. Today there are differing views on China in Europe and the U.S. and different policies. Mr. Trump is known for his style of deal making and could settle early, as feared by some Republican leaders in Congress who see in China a challenge to America's technological dominance. There are no calls to appreciate China's currency. Only calls for China to change its state subsidies model and put in writing and through laws that change the way of doing business that does not require American companies to hand over advanced technology. This is also a concern for Japan and the European Union countries such as Germany, and is something all nations try to protect in global competition. Japan is still facing the consequences in creating a new competitor in high speed train technology after building the first high speed trains in China and transfer of the high speed train technology by Kawasaki. The Household Survey by the Federal Reserve showing the financial fragility of 40% of American families shown on this page today shows how this situation is likely to evolve as working class families in the U.S. support a trade stance that protects American jobs and technology. Job losses over three decades and a $891 billion trade deficit in 2018 are seen as unacceptable to the U.S. in 2019. A stronger U.S. dollar helped increase the U.S. trade deficit by 10% in 2018, nullifying some benefits of Mr. Trump's trade actions. Mr. Robert Lighthizer was a negotiator in the trade dispute with Japan in 1985, and runs the negotiations with China with support from president Trump. This alone has kept the Japanese situation in 1985 uppermost in the minds of China's leaders as they try to come up with a way to settle the trade dispute with Mr. Trump.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in The Times take a look at the work Liz Truss has done as International Trade Secretary and now Foreign Secretary. Truss does not want Britain to become economically dependent on China. More than Johnson Truss is a UK Atlanticist who wants the UK to work with the US and the EU to build a western world that is entirely independent of China. Looking at her work and experience it would appear that Truss is the most underestimated of the candidates for prime minister, much more so than Sunak. She can be strident and aggressive but she has gone through a process of thinking and studying before that with a willingness to try new ideas. She come from an intellectual  family and one that was active in left wing activism. She studied at a comprehensive school in Leeds before going to Merton College Oxford  to study philosophy, economics and politics, and was willing to change her thinking when persuaded about a different course of action to get better results. She also gained the knowledge she needs to do her own thinking with experience first hand as Chief Secretary at Treasury, Secretary of International Trade, and as Foreign Secretary, getting trade deals with Australia and negotiating with other countries. Cameron, May, Johnson lacked this kind of knowledge and experience. And Sunak also falls way short of this kind of knowledge acquired and experience handling international assignments key to Britain's advancement after Brexit. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers some advice to young people- In a marraige she says it helps sometimes to be a bit tone deaf. To ignore that remark someone made or comment which if reacted to would only make one feel worse. Who knows it was not meant that way, and maybe did not reflect the whole way that person felt, or even was transitory, This advice she got from her mother in law. Another piece of advice was from her father in law, to stop worrying and find a way to manage, find a way to do it, for something you want to do but are not sure you can. Something she learned from her colleagues in the court including Justice Scalia, was to get over it, not to spend time thinking about comments that are made or some things that happen in the course of one's daily life that one thinks shouldn't have happened.

LyrArc Article Gist
Chrysler under Cerberus looks likely to throw out old ideas about how the company should be run. For example whats the right size for Chrysler and how many models and sales levels and the domestic focus. a lot of these ideas may go out the window to try to get the company to operate successfully. Expect a smaller company fewer but better models, and an international focus, at sales levels way below that in the past. Profitability matters old conceptions will be tossed out.