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New trends in the beer industry
03/07/2012
The introduction of iced tea beer and lime-a- rita.
Linked Articles
How to Build Buzz for Bud: More Alcohol, Lime-a-Rita
Wall Street Journal 03/29/2012
Introducing Iced-Tea BeerWall Street Journal 03/07/2012
The dire need for a free trade agreement between India and Pakistan
03/01/2012
Trade between India and Pakistan was only $2.7 billion. This is smaller than India's trade with Sri Lanka. Michael Boskin, who was instrumental in setting up the North American Free Trade Agreement says trade models suggest that this should be around $50 billion, or 20 times larger, and would bring benefits in wages and economic conditions in the two countries.
Linked Articles
A Passage to India-Pakistan Peace
Wall Street Journal 04/16/2012
Pakistan to Ease India Trade LimitsWall Street Journal 03/01/2012
Exit from the Eurozone and return to the drachma as the most likely and best outcome for Greece after April 2012 elections
02/22/2012
John Taylor and the Ifo Institue's Sinn say the recapitalization of Greece's banks and the lower interest rates negotiated after the March 2012 bailout make exiting the euro and achieving economic growth doable. The Papdemos government's need for time till 2015 to complete the program of changes, and the elections in April 2012 in which opposition parties outpolled Pasok and New Democrachy lays the political groundwork for the exit.
Linked Articles
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/08/2012
A Better Grecian BailoutWall Street Journal 02/22/2012
Larger impact on Eurozone countries of oil price increases in 2012
01/06/2012
The decline in the value of the euro increases the impact of higher oil prices in 2012. It also comes at a bad time.
Linked Articles
Fears of a 2008 Repeat for Oil
Wall Street Journal 03/18/2012
Beware Strait Talking on OilWall Street Journal 01/06/2012
Reagan-Bush and Obama on immigrants- A Reality Check
09/29/2011
A Better Way. The question of who was more humane in their response is one for the public in a nation of immigrants. Bush and Reagan stood up for the state paying for illegal immigrant children getting schooling in the straightforward honest way to a difficult question in the primary debates years ago. There is no empty rhetoric when Bush says he does not want 6-8 year old children to live in fear and deprived of an education thinking they were living outside the law. And Reagan points out that rather than talk of putting up a fence lets work out our mutual problems with Mexico. The elder Bush goes further and stands up for immigrants in a way that the country has not seen for a long, long time. "They are good, strong people," he says, and "part of my family is Mexican."
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/29/2011
More Deportations Follow Minor Crimes, Records ShowNew York Times 04/06/2014
The policy an solutions for the U.S. and Europe offered by Pearlstein (on the economy), Krauthammer (for deficit reduction), and Nye (for defense).
08/04/2011
The sensible solutions for attacking problems the U.S. and Europe face on the economy, debt and deficit reduction, and on defense needs. Nye uses ideas from U.S. President Eisenhower, Krauthammer uses efficiency anf fairness and ideas of the Bowles-Simpson Commission , and Pearlstein uses a grounded approach. Nye in the New York Times, Pearlstein and Krauthammer in the Washington Post, on August 5, 2011, in the midst of considerable uncertainty and anxiety about the future.
Linked Articles
The Right Way to Trim Military Spending
New York Times 08/04/2011
Steven Pearlstein: The global economy comes to the end of its string - The Washington PostWashington Post 08/05/2011
Risks in emerging markets in 2012-2013- Turkey (3)
07/01/2011
Growth in Turkey is fueled by surging credit growth and capital inflows. At the same time manufacturing competitiveness is falling.
Linked Articles
Turkey's Economy Surged 11% in Quarter
Wall Street Journal 07/01/2011
Turkish Trade Deficit WidensWall Street Journal 07/30/2011
The lack of any meaningful help to prevent foreclosures for homeowners who are unemployed.
06/04/2011
The adverse effects on housing, on banks holding second mortgages, and on the economic recovery in the U.S., of the lack of a plan and little effort by the Obama administration to help the unemployed facing foreclosure. Most of the programs to prevent foreclosure were designed at the time of the bailouts for subprime lending situations. Prof. Davis at the University of Wisconsin call it outrageous that less than $2 billion of the $45 billion allocated to help homeowners at the time of the bailouts had been spent by Treaury Department as of May 2011.
Linked Articles
Unemployment Strains Foreclosure Aid
New York Times 06/04/2011
Second-Mortgage MiseryWall Street Journal 06/07/2011
Austerity measures and economic contraction in Portugal 2010-2013- the terms of the 2011 EU-IMF loan agreement with Portugal
05/05/2011
The forecasts of higher unemployment reaching 17% and economic contraction of 7% for 2011-2013 are widely diverging from the original estimates in 2011 by EU and IMF officials. This increases the urgency for reappraisal of the terms of the original agreement including borrowing rates, giving more time to achieve deficit targets, and other action to put Portugal back on the road to growth in 2014.
Linked Articles
Portugal to Seek New Bailout Terms
Wall Street Journal 03/04/2013
Government Sees Deep Recession Ahead for PortugalNew York Times 05/05/2011
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
The Fall of an American Icon- HP, Lee Apotheker and the Autonomy Acquisition Inc.
02/18/2011
The Autonomy acquisition charge of $8.8 billion announced by CEO Meg Whitman on Nov. 20, 2012, come at a time of declining sales and margins in its printer and PC businesses. The costly charges on bad acquisitions by H-P is likely to hurt investment in R&D for years.
Linked Articles
Hewlett's Loss: A Folly Unfolds By the Numbers
New York Times 11/20/2012
Chief Reboots H-P After ScandalWall Street Journal 02/18/2011
Stiglitz and Krugman point to the dangers in the Cameron-Osborne austerity measures in Britain
10/20/2010
Jospeh Stiglitz writing in the Guardian in 2010, at the time of the first Osborne Budget, said it was a huge gamble that the private secotr would pick up enough to make up for the impact of the budget cuts. Lower growth would mean lower tax revenues and deficit reduction targets would be missed. Krugman points out that the 490,000 job losses planned through attrition under the Osborne plan is similiar to 3 million in job losses in the U.S., a huge risk for the British economy.
Linked Articles
Britain Details Radical Spending Cuts, Citing Debt
New York Times 10/20/2010
British Fashion VictimsNew York Times 10/21/2010
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
China's Stimulus plan in 2012-2013 and the problem of "uncoordinated, unbalanced and unsustainable development"
03/06/2012
China's premier Wen Biao told the National People's Congress, China's parliament, in March 2012, that it was urgent to tackel the "problem of uncoordinated, unbalanced, and unsustainable development." He called for "an acceleration of the transformation" of the economic model towards consumption and away from exports and infrastructure spending. The accelerated approval of 254 investment projects in May 2012 puts off this task of rebalancing development for China and the world economy. With slowing growth in China and the last Stimulus of 2008 having propelled the housing bubble, the options were limited. A decrease in the reserve requirement by 0.5% in 2012 for China's banks was not expected to spur growth because lending was not expected to increase, as the demand for loans is low. A sharp falloff in growth below 7% was feared leading to the acceleration in investment.
Linked Articles
China’s stimulus policy means trouble down the road - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/31/2012
China Speeds Economic 'Transformation'Wall Street Journal 03/06/2012
Ford to double its manufacturing capacity in Chongqing, China by 2014, making it the largest outside of Michigan
02/27/2012
Ford plans to invest $600 million to more than double manufacturing capacity in Chongqing to 770,000 by 2014. This comes at a time of major slowdown in the market in China after years of hyper growth. Ford lags behing GM and VW in China and missed some of the spurt in growth.
Linked Articles
Ford Plans to Boost Production in China
Wall Street Journal 04/06/2012
Ford Faces China HurdlesWall Street Journal 02/27/2012
The Indian government's plan to bring the deficit down over 5 years to 3% in 2017
02/14/2012
In response to the policy of the Reseve Bank of India (RBI), India's central bank, to hold off on interest rate changes till the government takes action in reducing the deficit, the Indian government lays out a plan to bring the deficit down to 3% by 2017, and 5.3% in the fiscal year ending March 2013. The government is under pressure to come up with an economic strategy to deal with the slowing economy with growth forecasts lowered to 5-6.5% for 2012. The risk of India's credit rating being being lowered to junk status and drastic slowdown in foreign investment is creating a crisis atmosphere after a period of indecison.
Linked Articles
India Lays Out Deficit Targets
Wall Street Journal 10/30/2012
Indian Central Banker Hits His Government's SpendingWall Street Journal 02/14/2012
How the Sony-Ericsson mobile joint venture turned out to be a big mistake for Sony
10/06/2011
The CEO of Ericsson says Ericsson's strengths are not in the areas Sony needs for developing smartphones to compete with Apple and Samsung. The joint venture was made at a time when Nokia dominated the mobile phone market. This changed with the smartphone a decade later. Critical to Samsung's success in smartphones was speedy decision making and company wide manufacturing capabilities. Sony-Ericsson's glaring weaknesses were in these two areas. Sony acquired Ericsson's stake and now faces the challenge of tackling entrenched competitors starting with its home market.
Linked Articles
Sony Stakes Recovery on New Smartphone
Wall Street Journal 03/01/2013
Sony Nears Deal to Buy Out Ericsson From Joint VentureWall Street Journal 10/06/2011
Alan Meltzer and Thomas Hoenig's criticism of Federal Reserve Bank chairman Bernake's failure to look at long term consequences of low rates
08/11/2011
Hoenig points to the Fed's lowered rates in 2003 after the burst of the dot com bubble and higher unemployment of 6.5% in 2003 and Meltzer which led to the mortgage meltdown of 2008. Meltzer points to QE II's $600 billion monetary easing in 2010 which failed to revive the economy or reduce unemployment in 2011. They emphasize the Fed's lack of attention to the long term consequences of their actions. Both question the role of the Fed in creating jobs and see the role of the Fed as a neutral player, as deeper structural changes such as ashift to export driven economy, lower consumption take time and are only delayed by a continuation of old policies.
Linked Articles
Kansas City Fed President Defies Conventional Wisdom
New York Times 08/13/2011
The Folly of Economic Short-TermismWall Street Journal 08/11/2011
The cost of the electric battery in electric cars and building a viable electric car industry
07/02/2011
Major advances in battery technology and cost are needed for electric cars to take off. Gasoline needs to be higher than $4.50 a gallon in the U.S. for electric cars to be economically attractive. This includes a rebate of $7500 towards the higher cost of the electric cars. Battery cost is a major component of the extra cost.
Linked Articles
Ford CEO: Battery Is Third of Electric Car Cost
Wall Street Journal 04/18/2012
Long and Winding Road for Electric VehiclesWall Street Journal 07/02/2011
Microsoft officially embraces open-source software for the first time to keep its influence in the software community
06/27/2011
Linked Articles
Microsoft Dips Further Into Open-Source Software
Wall Street Journal 04/16/2012
Microsoft Challenges Itself in the CloudsWall Street Journal 06/27/2011
Problems with China's statistics that understate the extent of the bubble in housing and other sectors
05/24/2011
The lack of reliable statistics in China and the tendency to understate the extent of the bubble effects in the economy will make it harder to to achieve a soft landing for the economy when the time comes.
Linked Articles
For Global Steel Industry, China Poses Guessing Game
Wall Street Journal 05/24/2011
The Great Property Bubble of China May Be PoppingWall Street Journal 06/09/2011
BP's steady focus on safety under CEO Bob Dudley
04/20/2011
Dudley says BP is not going to get off the path of focus on safety, and "stepping up the accelerator of performance, thats not going to happen." BP's second quarter 2012 performance reflected lower levels of production to permit maintenance and improvements in infrastructure at its deep water oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Similiar maintenance will be undertaken at North Sea fields in the rest of 2012. Cost cutting on maintenance and infrastructure improvements to improve profit performance created an environment that led to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and created huge legal liabilities.
Linked Articles
BP Posts Unexpectedly Large Loss
New York Times 07/31/2012
The Lessons of Deepwater HorizonWall Street Journal 04/20/2011
Bill Gates and U.S. Fed chairman Bernanke call for investment in education
03/02/2011
The message to lawmakers at a time of spending cuts: don't shortchange education, because it is critical to America's future.
Linked Articles
Bill Gates Seeks Formula for Better Teachers
Wall Street Journal 03/22/2011
Bernanke to budget-cutting state and local governments: Don't shortchange educationWashington Post 03/02/2011
Closer Japan-U.S. ties in 2012-2015
01/10/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/23/2012
Fred Hiatt - Patching up our alliance with JapanWashington Post 01/10/2011
Who is the sucker in this war? Mohamed Hanif and Thomas Friedman offer two perspectives on the Afghan war.
07/31/2010
Mohamed Hanif of the BBC's Urdu Service gives the view of ordinary Pakistanis outside of the small military and civilian elite that runs Pakistan. They are just looking in and are more interested in the electricity that can illuminate a village, than with an obsession for India. Pakistan has lagged in economic development and has no emerging middle class like India. Friedman of the New York times sees America a the sucker in this game, but is oblivious to the feeling of ordinary Pakistanis who were never part of this.
Linked Articles
In Pakistan, Echoes of American Betrayal
New York Times 07/31/2010
The Great (Double) GameNew York Times 07/31/2010
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