LyrArc Article Gist
How the similiar cars can have different effects the Pontiac Solstice and the Saturn Sky. The Pontiac sports car sold well for 12-18 months and is now losing sales and has to be sold with incentives whereas the Saturn Sky is in big demand and is helping the whole Saturn lineup by boosting its image- Saturn sales are up 15% this year whereas Pontiac sales are down 17% this year, and GM has 5 months of Solstice inventory compared to 1 month of Sky inventory. Ofcourse GM also spends moreon marketing Saturn but its also because of years of neglect of the Pontiac brand. When was Solstice introduced and when was the Sky, what are the chances that after 12-18 months the Sky will also cool off if the Sky cam in much later. But in creating buzz for the brand the Saturn Sky has definitely worked. Ofcourse the Saturn brand has other things going for it to have increased sales.

LyrArc Article Gist
The pandemic brings together companies in three countries U.S, Italy and France with the merger of Fiat Chrysler with PSA. Fiat Chrysler is owned by the company Exor owned by the Agnelli family in Italy. PSA is owned by the Peugeot family in France. In addition the government of France and Dongfeng Motors in China have stakes in PSA.  During the 2008-2009 crisis Chrysler merged with Fiat with the help of the Obama administration which pursued a policy of promoting small cars. Instead the merger saved jobs but led to the PR effort for small Fiat cars and the focus on the Jeep Cherokee and SUV's like the Dodge Ram. Today one hardly ever hears about small Fiats from Fiat Chrysler that was the basis for government help on the merger. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler Group, is known to take personal responsibility for getting it right for the small details of quality of Chrysler cars. When one test showed a defective door handle for a revamped Dodge Charger engineers reported on the status of the fix every couple of hours to Marchionne. He believes that if one wants to run the business right one has to get involved at this level. Marchionne has 23 people reporting to him at Chrysler and 25 more at Fiat in Italy. For Marchionne this has helped the two companies to work closely. Chrysler under Marchionne has spent $1.1 billion on revampig 14 models which are now in production. This was the only way to boost sales, as customers did not want the old models. His way to judge the performance of the revamped 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee was to drive it 3,500 miles through Quebec, New Brunswick and New England.

LyrArc Article Gist
Goll describes the human condition in his descriptions of Weimar Germany, Nazi Germany, and the Cold War. He lived through it all and was a prolific writer. His diaries describe the conditions of the times, of the German condition through two wars and a divided Germany. He lived through the hard times of Weimar, and records this scene of a couple pushing a cart through the snow, working hard, getting stuck, the man raging, the woman enduring it all. He reflects about the human condition, going from one mistake to another, struggling and groping in the darkness, looking for a way out, for the good path.

LyrArc Article Gist
GMAC under Cerberus 51% ownership is actually restricting credit for purchases of GM cars by insisting on credit scores over 700. To the point that GM is encouraging dealers to look for financing outside GMAC. Not a good state of affairs. Cerberus motivation may be that it wants the rest of GMAC instead of Chrysler and wants GM to give its 49% of GMAC in exchange for Chrysler's merging operations with GM. But anywhere upt half of Chrysler employees could lose their jobs in such a merger because there is no time for long term integration and the costcutting would be immediate. Again a bad state of affairs. And merging a money losing company with another money losing company at the beginning of a deep recession is not the kind of merger that has the chances of some success.

LyrArc Article Gist
Mullaly's experience at Ford, its culture, changes he has made and the gradual improvements that are taking place and showing up in better quality cars, cars for a global market with all global product capabilities focussed on developing top rated cars and all energies focussed on fewer car brands, the Ford and Lincoln brands. But as results improve the test will be how well Ford can withstand the difficult conditions ahead as consumption is sure to decline, and sales of cars drop with it as carmakers go through 2008 and 2009. The decision to focus on profitability was a critical choice made by Mulally and shows his instincts are right to let Ford's market share drop to its natural level and cut production to cut inventories and let ford scale down into a smaller but profitable and reilient company. The other was to focus on global cars and global product capabilities under Dennis Kuzak. And the third move to get marketing right with Jim Farley taken by Mullaly from Toyota's marketing organization. And the focus would be only on the Ford brand and logo, so Mulally will close Mercury models and sell the premium luxury brands except Volvo with the sale to Tata Motors. The market and stock price is responding and Ford has already shown a profit of $750 million in the second quarter of 2007 by being able to sustain higher prices with fewer cars to sell. The Fiesta compact goes on sale in the US in 2010 and this with the redesigned Focus and other models will show how far Ford can go. The risk is now more in the economy as BW estiimates show a $3 trillion overhang of overspending that occurred over the last decade that will have to be worked down by US consumers and so one can expect a continued and protracted decline in sales not just for Ford but for all manufacturers in the USA market....

LyrArc Article Gist
Panoramic windshields on the Jeep Liberty, the Lincoln MKX and the Ford Edge, Cadillac SRX crossover and 2008 CTS, and on the Opel Astra GTC in Europe, are a new selling point for vehicles. This option can run from $1200 on the Jeep and $1400 on the Ford Edge. For some reason the Opel Astra when brought to the US as the Astra will not have panoramic windshield, one wonders if this is not a mistake by GM when it can use all the buzz and excitement that these kinds of features can bring to get Americans into dealer showrooms. Would Americans pay for these features on a lower priced car. There appears to be a noticeable shift towards buying smaller but more expensive and loaded with features cars among the car buying middle to upper classes which use this as an additional third or fourth car.

LyrArc Article Gist
Iran's (IRGC's not the people of Iran who are protesting) strategy in talks is to stall peace talks, to use the help of global media which is creating perception for Iran, and see if the strategy of no nuclear materials turned over to Russia or some other country, see if that strategy works. This is  what German Foreign Minister Wadephul is saying on Day 16 of the Naval Blockade. Earlier this week German chancellor Merz called it unfortunate that the Iran War is continuing in explaining to ordinary Germans why the German economy is slowing down, yet he understands the danger posed by nuclear weapons in Iran or for that matter anywhere inthe volatile and explosive Middle East. Almost like the volatile and explosive Balkans that ignited World War I in 1914. This strategy of IRGC Iran does much irreparable damage to the Iranian economy in weeks to come. Iranian protests were intended to put the economy on a new path in which not just students, the middle class in the bazaars, the younger generation of Iranians who had the most to lose participated. Why is this happening? It is happening because of the complicated politics of the Middle East and centuries old differences within the Islamic world between different sectarian beliefs and cultures. It is not happening because of the US. The US cannot be responsible for what colonial empires of the British and French did in this region in the 1920's by creating artificial states of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, out of the Arab portion of the collapsed Ottoman Empire defeated in World War I with Shia, Sunni populations in these states mixed up into unmanageable states. Five decades of wars in the Middle East are the result of these unmanageable artificial states of French and British Empires by 1921. The British Empire also controlled Iran in the 1900's and its oil resources. There was no involvement of America as the British and French did what they wanted to do even in the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI.  The fall of the pro-Soviet Mossadegh regime in 1956 was the only fragmentary situation which is an anti Soviet Cold War move by the US in 1952, and was done by a group that had British connections deep inside the Eisenhower administration led by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that took this unfortunate step for America (looking back over  5 decades of wars). A British oriented group was active inside the Republican party that continued to operate in the Reagan administration's involvement in support for Iraq in its war with Iran. And which no longer exists in the Republican party led by DJT which puts America First, grasps the fact of unmanageable states of British and French Empires and seeks to distance the US from the Middle East. Gandhi and Patel (and Jinnah) avoided the creation of such a state in British India's partition into India and Pakistan. Afghanistan is simply an extension of this Middle Eastern complicated setup, including 9/11. Why is all this important? Arab Middle East is a dangerous place for nuclear weapons- this is all the US is trying to accomplish, thankfully without the cooperation of the British and French whose Empires are responsible for the creation of a hodge podge mix of peoples in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq which (check this out) never existed before British and French Mandates of 1921. The global and American media that sees DJT Republicans as too conservative on cultural issues and the political establishment intending to return to power have completely obscured or not presented this side of the Middle East, yet is key to devising a policy that keeps America out of Middle East wars but keeps the goal of no nuclear weapons in this powderkeg of a region. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This podcast in WSJ tells the amazing story of the development of a vaccine for malaria by a British scientist that took forty years. In a world of short run startups this tells the story of medical and indirectly other research include research on renewable energy to tackle climate change that takes years to develop and makes a lasting change in our lives. This is also true of the mRNA vaccine developed by two German scientists of Turkish descent who developed the Pfizer vaccine. The Novavax vaccine in the US also has a story of resilience in the face of many challenges. Mr Scholz of the SDP, currently vice chancellor of Germany and winner of the German election said recently he wanted to expose the myth that was created of the self-made man that has penetrated our culture over the last 2 decades. One cannot even conceive of self made people at a time when the whole world depends on vaccines developed such as mRNA vaccine by these 2 German scientists at university labs that are the first line of defense against the coronavirus. Both scientists took only half a day off when they got married. Both are children of immigrants to Germany from Turkey. They both cycle to work. Mr. Shin says "I don't have a car. I am not going to get a plane. What's life changing is to be able to impact something in the medical field." The electric batteries used in today's electric cars use technology developed by a Japanese scientist and professor who also worked at Toshiba in the face of many challenges. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Under Project 2025, a blueprint for the first 100 days of a Trump second term-A middle class family with 100,000 in income a year and two children would pay extra $2600 additional federal income tax, whereas it gives a $325,000 tax cut for a married couple with 2 children making more than $5 million a year in income. On project 2025, the blueprint for the first 100 days in office of a Trump second term, the action items are ones that would jeopardize the safety of American institutions that were set up with so much care by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and nurtured by the first president George Washington with little attention to himself, and protected by president after president through civil war under Abraham Lincoln, through 2 World Wars and The Great Depression under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, through recovery under Harry Truman and Ike, only to falter under a series of mediocre presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama and be endangered by a NBC television show and construction business person with support from new social media networks that were unknown throughout America history till 2010 and television networks that had degenerated into recklessly divisive behaviours to win silo audiences.    ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Tappan Zee bridge with 140,000 cars crossing each day. The number is expected to go up to 200,000. The bridge is structurally deficient. The cost for a new bridge is up to $16 billion. The needs throughout the New York area are shown.

LyrArc Article Gist
Patricia Kowsmann provides this picture of life in a town on Portugal's northern coast, Viana do Castelo, with a population of 87,000, as Portugal struggles to make a recovery. Viana do Castelo has shipyards and companies making metal bridges for highways. The money losing state owned shipyard was privatized and sold to Martifer SGPS SA to run till 2031. 600 workers at the shipyard were laid off. The new company plans to rehire 400 workers by 2016 but jobs will not be permanent. Companies making the bridges now sell to former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique, Brazil. 200,000 people have left the country to look for jobs or higer education, including the mayor's daughter in London. Exports are up and now make up 40% of Portugal's GDP, up from 27% in 2009. The economic growth is 0.9% in 2014, after declining 6% 2011-2013. Portugal accepted the last instalment of the bailout loan of 78 billion euros in 2014. It will auction 1.25 billion euros of bonds on July 22, 2015. Unemployment is now declining dropping to 14% from a high of 17%, and higher than the pre crisis level of 11%. Here in this coastal town the mayor Jose Maria Costa cut public employee salaries 15%, and also cut sports and cultural programs. Two food centers provide free lunch and dinner, and half of the 4000 children in school get subsidies for food and transport. A shipyard worker Antonio Gomes Barbosa 64, is one of the laid off workers. His son's architecture company closed and he left Portugal for Angola. Some of his co-workers now work at a shipyard in neighboring Spain....