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The Magna Carta setting out the rights of the people in relation to the king was written in Latin in June 1215 and signed at Runnymede, England. For 800 years it has served as an inspiration for people to define their rights in relation to kings and arbitrary rule.

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Markit's monthly purchasing managers index showed an increase in October 2013 to 51.6 from 51.3 in the prior month. Readings above 50 show an increase in manufacturing orders. German and Italian manufacturing activity shows increasing strength. The Markit survey is based on polling for 3000 manufacturing companies in the eurozone countries.

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Michelin has come up with a tire that improves braking distance and reduces rolling resistance on the tire. This "green" tire is now on the Peugeot 308 model car. It brakes 10 feet shorter than the previous generation tire and cuts carbondioxide emissions by 4 grams per kilometer, equal to a reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide during the life of the car. Michelin charges 10% more for this tire. All this is happening while tiremakers in the US which hasn't signed the Kyoto Protocol like the Europeans have, are trying to dissuade Congress and the states from passing new legislation or adding to the current energy legislation to mandate fuel efficiency standards for tires. One of the US tiremakers arguments is that it would create safety problems by increasing braking distance. Which can't be very convincing if Michelin already has the technology. The Japanese tiremakers like Bridgestone also are trying to develop new technologies to come up with better more fuel efficient tires. As this happens will this put US tiremakers behind and give a competitive advantage to the European and Japanese tiremakers? Note that a study in 2006 by the National Academy of Sciences in the USA estimated that about 2 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel could be saved each year in the US by reducing rolling resistance of the tires by 10%. This was estimated to be the equivalent of taking 4 million cars and light trucks off the road. Other studies on the cost side show that the increase in production costs in Europe for reducing rolling resistance of tires comes to about 20 to 30 euros. Add to the 2 billion gallons of gasoline saved in the US the amount saved in Europe and Asia and you have a substantial saving. Add increases in air conditioning efficiency, increases in fuel efficiency of automobiles, and you have significant reductions in demand over the next 5 years and even more over next 10 years. How will this affect gasoline demand and prices? ...

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With a loss of $8.7 billion in the second quarter of 2008 Ford now moves to transform its production operations to make small carslike the Focus, and the Fiesta and to smaller cars in general converting existing truck and SUV plants to make cars. It will not be till early 2010 that therse new cars some of them from Europe where Ford has success with making a decent profit on smaller cars and has a number of models that are popular there.

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MSNBC viewer numbers have declined sharply with daytime viewers falling below 50,000 in certain morning periods. It is shifting to straight news after a period of very liberal slant to news coverage, with Brian Williams providing news coverage.

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The U.S. financial sector is facing a future in which there will be lower revenues and a smaller number of jobs. A low interest rate environment does not help the banks. According to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, net revenue for the six largest U.S. banks will decline by 3.7% in the second quarter of 2011. As a result financial stocks in the U.S. have trailed the broader market in the last 9 of 11 months. The ratio of the price of the S&P 500 financials index to the S&P 500 stock index is less than 0.16. The only time it was less than 0.16 in the last two decades is during the January-April 2009 period when banks were facing a major financial crisis. Bank of America's stock was at a two year low on June 6. Tighter regulation, state and federal investigations, and higher capital requirements from the Fed, will affect revenues and jobs.

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Ford's new 2013 Fusion model was radically redesigned to compete with the redesigned midsize Camry, and expected redesigns of the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, the VW Passat and the Chevy Malibu. Ford hopes to gain market share with the Fusion after making only a small gain in market share of one tenth of a point in 2011, compared to half a percentage point for GM and 1.3 percentage points for Chrysler. VW Passat sales doubled in the last quarter of 2011 compared to all of 2010, showing increased competition in this segment. The new Fusion was designed at Ford's design center in Cologne, Germany, where the Focus was designed. Ford is shifting responsibility for car design to Europe and keeping pickup truck and SUV design in the U.S.