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Spain's effort to fix regional finances, austerity measures and risks of high unemployment
04/27/2012
Efforts to fix regional finances with spending cuts have pushed unemployment to about 27% in one of Spain's largest regions, Castilla-La Mancha. As banks consolidate and reduce lending this depresses small and medium sized businesses, the public sector layoff increase unemployment, part time unemployment and the growing underground economy depress tax revenues, creating risks of a downward spiral.
Linked Articles
A Spanish Leader Emerges as a Crusader for Austerity
Wall Street Journal 06/25/2012
Spain, Pursuing Austerity, Still Waits for the PayoffNew York Times 04/27/2012
The absence of solutions to the underlying problem of increasing U.S. health care costs in fiscal cliff deficit negotiations
04/03/2012
Without a new approach to increasing health care costs, especially considering the demographic changes in the U.S. with more people on Medicare in future years, the problems of defunding other areas such as education, R&D, and infrastructure, to fund these increases is likely to continue. Estimates show that the 50 million Americans enrolled in Medicare in 2012 will grow to 80 million by 2030, according to the Medicare program actuaries. Demographic changes as the baby boom generation ages mean more Americans relying on Medicare and Medicaid. With continually increasing health care costs from costly technologies, increasing of diabetes, asthma and other diseases, pricing in the medical industry, and some fraud costs, this is a toxic mix that will lead to to a situation where one of three dollars in spending get swallowed up here.
Linked Articles
Beneath Budget Battle, a Health-Spending Juggernaut
Wall Street Journal 12/17/2012
What to Do on the Day After ObamaCareWall Street Journal 04/03/2012
Public opinion polls in June 2012 on the Obama U.S. health care law and the expected ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court
03/29/2012
Linked Articles
44 Percent of Americans Approve of Supreme Court in New Poll
New York Times 06/07/2012
Justices Question Extent of Federal PowerWall Street Journal 03/29/2012
Eliminating all Bush tax cuts to generate the revenue base to support spending programs for the middle class down the road
03/29/2012
Jared Berstein of the Economic Policy Institute, Peter Orszag, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, and Mayor Bloomberg of New York, say eliminating all Bush tax cuts would provide the revenue base needed to support middle class programs for future years. Orszag says making the tax code more progressive is desirable especially considering the inequality but this does not do much good if the revenue base to support middle class programs down the road is insufficient.
Linked Articles
Middle Class Malaise Complicates Democratsâ Fiscal Stance
New York Times 12/12/2012
Federal Budgets and Class WarfareWall Street Journal 03/29/2012
John Cochrane on how to build a truly open competitive system of healthcare the day after Obama healthcare
03/05/2012
Cochrane points to regulations and laws that support high prices of medical carein the U.S., by reducing competition and restricting supply of doctors and suppliers of medical care. He says the mandate most likely would not even be necessary under such a system because the costs of healthcare in the U.S. would be so much lower.
Linked Articles
What to Do on the Day After ObamaCare
Wall Street Journal 04/03/2012
Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France - The Washington PostWashington Post 03/05/2012
The views of Condoleeza Rice and Vladimir Putin on Russia's evolution through democratic processes
02/09/2012
Rice points out that diversification of the economy away from oil utilizing Russian technological capabilities will help Russia move away from the corruption of a resource based economy and build a healthy democratic setup. Putin says he recognizes the need for democratic processes to keep pace with the development of civil society and the growing middle class, but emphasizes that democracy cannot be built overnight, and places a higher priority on what he calls the "sovereignty of the people," the right to work, the right to education and free medical care.
Linked Articles
How Russia’s urban middle class can bring an end to Putinism - The Washington Post
Washington Post 03/09/2012
Vladimir Putin: My vision for a better Russia - The Washington PostWashington Post 02/09/2012
Barnes & Noble's Nook and the Microsoft investment
01/06/2012
Barnes & Noble needed a strong partner for Nook because of heavy investments in the digital business.
Linked Articles
Microsoft to Invest in Barnes & Noble's Nook
Wall Street Journal 04/30/2012
Barnes & Noble Seeks Next ChapterWall Street Journal 01/06/2012
Convergence of ideas on deficit reduction around Simpson-Bowles and limiting tax expenditures and deductions
11/17/2011
Limiting tax deductions, loopholes to say $35,000 for high income earners goes further than earlier proposals from Obama advisors to limit tax deductions to 28% in distributing the tax burden more equitably. Obama advisor, Christina Romer, and Romney advisor Feldstein, support limiting tax deductions in this way to help reduce the deficit, creating the basis for an agreement between Republicans and Democrats.
Linked Articles
Budget Showdown Offers an Opportunity for Progress
New York Times 11/10/2012
GOP supercommittee members’ tax plan gives party an identity crisis - The Washington PostWashington Post 11/17/2011
The new government of Mario Monti, former EU commissioner, in Italy
11/13/2011
A government of technocrats formed from respected figures in academia, business and the civil service in Italy. It replaces the government of Silvio Berlusconi which had lost credibility inside Italy and with leaders of the European Union.
Linked Articles
Mario Monti, Italyâs New Leader, Faces Uphill Fight
New York Times 11/13/2011
Italyâs Monti Forms New GovernmentNew York Times 11/16/2011
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
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
Small spurts in U.S. real estate markets from foreign or out of state buyers that fizzle out- S. Florida and Phoenix, Arizona
07/26/2011
Sporadic bursts of activity in real estate markets first in Miami in 2011 and then in Phoenix. The surge in activity is from buyers from Brazil for S. Florida, and buyers from Canada for Phoenix, as well as out of state buyers looking for speculative or rental properties to rent out to homeowners who go into foreclosure. The buyers from Canada and Brazil are in these markets because of a real estate bubble of their own in their home countries and is hardly the basis for a dependable recovery on housing prices, as the IMF has signalled a warning light for economies such as Brazil.
Linked Articles
Rise in Phoenix Housing Shows Path for Other Cities
Wall Street Journal 03/13/2012
Affluent Buyers Reviving Market for Miami HomesNew York Times 07/26/2011
Pfizer's focus on its core pharmaceutical business in 2011-2015
05/02/2011
Rockoff's interview with Pfizer CEO, Ian Read, in which Read describes his strategy of focussing on new drug development and locating closer to hubs with large universities and research centers such as La Jolla, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Cambridge, England. Pfizer sold its infant nutrition business to Nestle as part of this plan.
Linked Articles
Pfizer Profit Declines 19% After Loss of Lipitor Patent
New York Times 05/01/2012
Life Beyond Lipitor for Pfizer ChiefWall Street Journal 05/02/2011
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the Arizona immigration law
04/26/2012
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 06/26/2012
Justices Weigh Arizona LawWall Street Journal 04/26/2012
Something for nothing- the political class vs. renewal of the U.S. economy
03/29/2012
New York Mayor Bloomberg, and an editorial in the Washington Post after the Supreme Court hearings on the health care mandate and Medicaid expansion, describe the challenge facing America. The political class in the U.S. is quite content with promising something for nothing, which Bloomberg calls delusional.
Linked Articles
The Supreme Court’s civics lesson - The Washington Post
Washington Post 03/30/2012
Federal Budgets and Class WarfareWall Street Journal 03/29/2012
The U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the Obama 2010 U.S. health care law and the Medicaid issue
03/29/2012
Linked Articles
Justices Question Extent of Federal Power
Wall Street Journal 03/29/2012
A Constitutional AwakeningWall Street Journal 03/29/2012
Greece's long delayed bond swap with European banks of March 9, 2012
03/09/2012
The bond swap of new bonds with long maturities reflecting a writedown of 53.5% for the old bonds with short maturities was finally achieved on March 9, 2012. By this time Greece's economy was shrinking badly and the new bonds were trading at levels that reflected the need for further writedowns only days after the deal. Prof. Cochrane at the University of Chicago and Prof. John Taylor at Stanford say French and German banks exaggerated the effects of contagion from the beginning to delay writedowns for as long as possible. The effects on the eurozone of the delays in tackling the problem early and decisively are negative or slowing growth and is likely to hurt the banks operating in that environment, raising questions about the wisdom of that strategy.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 03/09/2012
Greece Passes Key Debt TestWall Street Journal 03/09/2012
Italy's labor laws and competitiveness- the views and actions of Mario Draghi and Elsa Fornero
02/24/2012
Draghi tells WSJ interviewers what economist Dornbusch once told him- the Europeans were so rich they did not have to work anymore. Draghi and Fornero emphasize the large culture change needed in Italy. Fornero says too often labor, business, and govenment tweaked the rules to benefit one special group, and Italy lost its sense of being a rule bound society.
Linked Articles
Italy Official Seeks Culture Shift in New Law
Wall Street Journal 06/27/2012
Europe's Banker Talks ToughWall Street Journal 02/24/2012
Xi Jinping, China's history of political convusions in the leadership and society, and the desire for consensus and careful thinking.
01/31/2012
Xi' s life story, his family, and the Communist party under Mao and Deng. What it says about the desire for consensus and careful thinking about the future direction of China.
Linked Articles
Xi Appeals for 'Purity' Amid Party Scandal
Wall Street Journal 03/16/2012
Heartland Return for Chinese LeaderWall Street Journal 01/31/2012
The cost to Bank of America of the $2.5 billion acquisition of Angelo Mozilo's Countrywide is estimated at $40 billion in 2012
12/27/2011
In many ways the business practices at Countrywide were at the heart of the mortgage and real estate crisis of 2008. The cost of this for Bank of America is estimated at $40 billion.
Linked Articles
BofA's Blunder: $40 Billion-Plus
Wall Street Journal 06/29/2012
OverheardWall Street Journal 12/27/2011
The U.S. Supreme Court's review of the health care law in 2012 and the Wickard-Filburn decision of 1940
11/15/2011
In the Wickard-Filburn decision the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled against an Ohio farmer, Mr. Filburn, who questioned a federal law that imposed a penalty for every extra bushel of wheat grown beyond a stipulated amount. The briefs presented by both parties present arguments about what are the limits of federal power under its powers to regulate interstate commerce and in what circumstances- with the Obama administration arguing that it imposes larger costs on people in all states if some people refuse to buy insurance.
Linked Articles
At Center of Health Care Fight, Roscoe Filburn's 1942 Case
New York Times 03/19/2012
Health Insurance and the Broccoli TestNew York Times 11/15/2011
Abbott Lab's medical products company and its focus on emerging markets in China and India
10/20/2011
Abbott see the huge potential for infant nutrition and other businesses related to medical products as millons of people join the middle class in China, India, Vietnam and other emerging markets. Nestle is pursuing a similar idea with its acquisition of Pfizer's infant nutrition business which has a large presence in China. With its strong brand name presence, marketing and distribution, and the growing need for better nutrition in these countries Nestle sees huge potential for growth.
Linked Articles
Abbott to Split Into Two Companies
Wall Street Journal 10/20/2011
Abbott Looks to Consumer for GrowthWall Street Journal 05/03/2012
The views of U.S. presidents Reagan, Bush, and providing an education for Latino children that ensures America's future
09/29/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/29/2011
For First Time, Largest Group of Poor Children in U.S. Are Latino, Report FindsWall Street Journal 09/29/2011
The problems with Google's strategy in its acquisition of Motorola Mobility
08/15/2011
Will Google attempt to run a manufacturing business with low margins?
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 04/11/2012
Google to Buy Motorola in Patents PlayWall Street Journal 08/15/2011
The emphasis on broader education, broader perspective and culture in business education- 2010-2015
07/07/2011
Interdisciplinary learning and intercultural capabilities will be needed to prepare managers to take on responsibilities in the business world for the next decade.
Linked Articles
Columbia's Business Dean on Disclosure, Leading, Ethics
Wall Street Journal 07/07/2011
IE's Entrepreneurial Focus Shields It From a ShakeoutWall Street Journal 12/01/2011
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