World News Insights
1-3 Minute Gist
Search, personalize, or simply browse. Follow the world around you from gist and context to insights.
Who we are | Our Credo | Ways of using Lyrarc | FAQ | Send Feedback | First Letter From the Editor
Sign up. It's free and easy to use
Create an account
to personalize your feed of articles and topics.
Browse Articles or use Lyrarc's US patented "Groups" and "Links" for new insights. A Lyrarc Group of Articles on a topic gives insights into particular angles shown in the Group Title. A Lyrarc Link shows more specific insights for 2 articles.
All Topics Links
How JP Morgan Chase let its London trading desk operate without risk management controls leading to large losses
05/18/2012
CEO Dimon is described as distracted by other issues. Ina Drew, the seasoned head of the Chief Investment that manages a $300 billionplus portfolio after the merger of other failed banks into JP Morgan Chase in 2008-2009, contracts Lyme disease in 2010 and is no longer the hands on person when she returns in 2011. Ms. Duersten, in charge of the North American trading desk at the New York office leaves in 2011 after 16 years at Chase. The controls over the London trading desk from New York are slipping away and Mr. Iksil and Mr. Macris of the London trading desk take massive trading positions to expose Chase to large losses. CEO Dimon learns about the Chase trading positions and the London Whale (Mr Iksil) from the Wall Street Journal on April 6, 2012, for the first time, astounding the business community and the financial world.
Linked Articles
Discord at JPMorgan Investment Office Blamed in Huge Loss
New York Times 05/19/2012
Inside J.P. Morgan's BlunderWall Street Journal 05/18/2012
Problems India faces in increasing power growth as its national power grid fails in 2012
04/19/2012
Problems include shortage of funds to finance imports of coal and energy and the failure to increase production at Coal India.
Linked Articles
India Mulls $10 Billion for Fund on Energy
Wall Street Journal 04/25/2012
India Struggles to Dig Up Enough Fuel to Power GrowthNew York Times 04/19/2012
Risk management at Chase, UBS, other large banks, and "too big to fail"
04/05/2012
Linked Articles
Red Flags said to Go Unheeded at Chase
New York Times 05/14/2012
How Huge Banks Threaten the EconomyWall Street Journal 04/05/2012
Research In Motion's Blackberry 10 and the effort to put together a patchwork of technologies
03/30/2012
Research in Motion failed to come up with a smartphone in time to match the iPhone and Android based smartphones. The Blackberry 10 was put together in crisis mode by June 2012. This is a classic example of the chaos created for established players by new entrants and new technologies.
Linked Articles
RIM's New BlackBerry 10: The Patchwork Smartphone
Wall Street Journal 06/07/2012
BlackBerry Maker in TurmoilWall Street Journal 03/30/2012
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
The IMF's view on austerity measures, the "German hypothesis," and the British economy
02/17/2012
The IMF's view is that it could take 5 years before the breakeven point on the effects of austerity measures is reached and it turns positive. The "German hypothesis" based on German experience as an exporting nation is that the benefits come sooner in the short term. For Britain, which is not an exporting nation like Germany, the benefits from exports are likely to be limited when the rest of Europe is'seeing declining or stagnant growth. The IMF view means Britain may be faced with the costs of the Cameron-Osborne austerity measures till 2016.
Linked Articles
Britain's Economy Contracts More Than Predicted
New York Times 03/28/2012
Austerity Debate a Matter of DegreeWall Street Journal 02/17/2012
"Hiroshima" 1945 and the Siege of Leningrad 1941-1942 - What a post war Russian, American and Japanese generation could understand and what is lacking in the Middle East
01/27/2012
Noonan asks the question about what a post war generation of Americans, Russians and Japanese could understand about the horrors of nuclear war and of the Second World War, and how this is lacking in the Middle East as each nation strives for nuclear weapons from Iran to Saudi Arabia. Separately in another link Kaname Harada asks a different question- has a new generation in Japan born after 1945, both leaders and the public, forgotten about that period including "Hiroshima."
Linked Articles
Vladimir Putin Describes Loss of a Brother at Ceremony
New York Times 01/27/2012
Misplaying America’s Hand With IranWall Street Journal 04/04/2015
Britain, the eurozone crisis and a mood shifting towards Britain's exit from the European Union
12/07/2011
A British mood moving away from the positive engagement its economy needs with its largest trading partner, the other nations of the European Union. A Opinion/Observer poll in Nov. 2012 shows a majority of people in Britain would vote yes on a referendum to leave the European Union.
Linked Articles
New York Times 11/22/2012
Britain Suffers as a Bystander to Europe's CrisisNew York Times 12/07/2011
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
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 health of the U.S. economy June 2011- overleveraging of financial sector, "too big to fail," and Fed's new capital reserve requirements
06/04/2011
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 06/04/2011
Dimon in Rough Patch With the FedWall Street Journal 06/09/2011
The Volcker Rule and the actions taken by the Independent Commission on Banking in Britain
04/07/2011
Britain has a much larger financial sector as aproportion of its economy than the U.S. For this reason the U.K.'s Independent Commission on banking takes a serious view of systemic risks- separating investment banking from deposit taking.
Linked Articles
Volcker to Push Back on Banks' Trading
Wall Street Journal 02/13/2012
British Bank Proposal Expected to Include Stiff RulesNew York Times 04/07/2011
The safety failures that could have been prevented with stronger oversight and control for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster
03/21/2011
The independent parliamentary panel in Japan concuded in its July 2012 Report that the nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant was "a profoundly man-made event." Here in its investigations after the accident the Wall Street Journal finds some of the safety flaws that could have been corrected but were not due to the compete lack of effectiveness of the safety agency and its failure to do its job. As a result licenses for forty year old nuclear reactor designs and installation designs were simply renewed without requiring changes or shutting down these reactors. It is these older designs that were also improperly installed that failed.
Linked Articles
Japan Plant Had Troubled History
Wall Street Journal 03/21/2011
Design Flaw Fueled Nuclear DisasterWall Street Journal 07/01/2011
Paul Volcker, the traders at JP Morgan's London office, and "losses that would be socialized with the potential gains all private"
05/12/2012
Volcker described the situation to the U.S. Senate Banking committee the day before the story came out about the massive trades made by JP Morgan's trader, known as the "London whale." Losses would be socialized under "too big to fail" for the largest U.S. banks.
Linked Articles
Paul Volcker vs. JPMorgan’s London Whale - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/12/2012
'London Whale' Rattles Debt MarketWall Street Journal 05/13/2012
The IMF's signal of caution for austerity measures in Spain in April 2012, saying a gradual approach to deficits is best considering the risks
04/18/2012
The IMF's words of caution also apply to austerity measures being undertaken in Great Britain.
Linked Articles
IMF Says Recovery Remains Fragile
Wall Street Journal 04/18/2012
Spain Dips Back Into Recession, Banker CautionsWall Street Journal 04/18/2012
The case for increasing the minimum wage (3) Apple stores and "Why Nations Fail"
03/31/2012
Linked Articles
Apple Stores Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay
New York Times 06/23/2012
Why Nations FailNew York Times 03/31/2012
Increasing risks of the Cameron-Osborne austerity measures in Britain as growth shrinks in 2012-2013
03/28/2012
Linked Articles
Britain's Economy Contracts More Than Predicted
New York Times 03/28/2012
Britain's Economy Contracts More Than PredictedNew York Times 03/28/2012
Failure to tackle tax evasion in Greece estimated at one third of the deficit for 2009
02/19/2012
The implementation of austerity measures in Greece including cuts to the minimum wage hit people with lower wages the hardest. This takes place even as Greece fails to tackle tax evasion by higher income groups such as doctors and engineers. This is estimated by a group of economists who looked at Greek bank records at 11.2 billion euros in 2009.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 07/09/2012
Greek leaders’ priorities questioned - The Washington PostWashington Post 02/19/2012
Britain's role in forging a peace settlement for Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan in 2013
02/16/2012
Linked Articles
Afghan Peace Deal Sought in 6 Months
Wall Street Journal 02/04/2013
U.S., Afghans in Taliban TalksWall Street Journal 02/16/2012
Honda's struggle to recover after the tsunami in Japan with lower margins
12/21/2011
Honda is seeing lower margins as it struggles to recover in the U.S. and other markets. Honda had to use more incentives than Toyota in the U.S. market leading to deteriorating profit margins in 2012. Sales of newer models failed to catch on making Honda dependent on the Civic and the Accord in the U.S. market. The appreciating yen added to the impact on margins with a further shift to manufacturing overseas planned as a response.
Linked Articles
Honda Pins Revival on U.S. Auto Sales
Wall Street Journal 06/01/2012
Honda Revs Up Outside JapanWall Street Journal 12/21/2011
Efforts by Republicans in the House of Representatives to develop bipartisan solutions to the U.S. deficit crisis
11/17/2011
Efforts of Super Committee members Hensarling, Toomey and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp to negotiate a bipartisan solution. This follows the failed efforts of Republicans Boehner, Cantor and McConnell in 2011 to reach a negotiated deal with the Democrats in Congress. Camp is taking a patient approach and has shown the ability to navigate different personalities in the U.S. Congress as he works on a solution to the deficit.
Linked Articles
Rep. Dave Camp patiently pursues tax reform - The Washington Post
Washington Post 07/29/2012
GOP supercommittee members’ tax plan gives party an identity crisis - The Washington PostWashington Post 11/17/2011
Rising energy and food costs and India's failure to control inflation
09/12/2011
Repeated increases in interest rates in 201-2011 by India's central bank, the RBI, has failed to control inflation. This is slowing the growth rate.
Linked Articles
India Grapples With Soaring Energy Costs
Wall Street Journal 04/11/2012
India's Inflation Is a Lesson for Fast-Growing EconomiesWall Street Journal 09/12/2011
Rising trade deficit with China in 2011
06/09/2011
A small appreciation in the yuan fails to reduce the trade deficit with China.
Linked Articles
No Appreciation for the Rising Yuan
Wall Street Journal 06/21/2011
U.S. Growth Could Trip on Wider Trade GapWall Street Journal 06/09/2011
Holbrooke and the failed American approach in Afghanistan
05/14/2011
Linked Articles
India and Pakistan: The world's most dangerous border
Economist 05/21/2011
What Holbrooke KnewNew York Times 05/14/2011
Comparing approaches of Britain and U.S. to ring-fencing investment banking activities of banks from retail banking operations
04/07/2011
Linked Articles
British Bank Proposal Expected to Include Stiff Rules
New York Times 04/07/2011
British Commission Says Bank Reforms Don't Go Far EnoughNew York Times 12/21/2012
We took a different way to help millions around the world build educated informed mindsets that affects and shapes their lives. For a future that is open, global and digital, with everyone having access to high quality information. We believe in the renewal of America, renewal of Europe, the renewal of India, the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The renewal of our supply chains, health, education, infrastructure, as we rebuild our countries after the pandemic. Literacy and knowledge we believe cannot thrive and grow in a world of web bots, web crawlers, or AI. This requires human curiosity, human learning, and human imagination. We take as inspiration the saying- “One has to be free, and as broad as sky. One has to have a mind that is crystal clear, only then can truth shine in it.” Every contribution whether big or small is precious- in this crisis and ahead.
Support Lyrarc from as small as $1
Terms and Conditions | Copyright Policy | Privacy Policy | Contact Us