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Apple products at manufacturing plants in China and at retail stores in the U.S.- low worker pay and lack of future prospects
05/29/2010
The high margins for Apple achieved through a combination of keeping costs low- even at the risk of providing poor wage and working conditions for the majority of employees employed in the retail stores in the U.S. and in supplier Foxconn plants in China- and by a grasp for innovation and technology. The paradox of a well deserved image for pioneering in technological innovation and the indifference to working conditions and prospects for employees who add value in manufacturing and customer interface. This model of growth is a recent development, put in place after 1997. In 1995-1997 Apple was nearing collapse under Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio, as documented by WSJ technology reporter Jim Carlton in his book- "Apple- The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders." Steve Jobs returned as CEO in 1997 and set the future course and this model in place emphasizing design, his ability to grasp technologies that would appeal to customers, and hired Tim Cook to set up the manufacturing which had high rate of defects and higher costs. The model was as full of paradoxes, of genius combined with mediocre behavioursas the man Steve Jobs. Tim Cook has responded to criticism in 2012 by having the Fair Labor association audit Foxconn plants in China. Foxconn increased wages in 2012, shifted plants to the interior of China, and increased use of robotics.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/29/2010
Apple Stores Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on PayNew York Times 06/23/2012
Shrinking news coverage and fewer journalists in the newspaper shift to digital online
11/25/2009
It says a lot about the changes underway in the newspaper industry when a paper like the Washington Post closes its bureaus in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and covers the news there with travelling reporters. As local newspapers such as the New Orleans Times- Picayune move to three editions a week and an online edition, the number of journalists overing the area around New Orleans will shrink by a third in 2012. Advance Publications which runs the New Orleans paper will do the same for its papers in Huntsville and Birmingham i in Alabama.
Linked Articles
New Orleans Times-Picayune to limit printing to three days per week - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/25/2012
Washington Post shutters last U.S. bureausWashington Post 11/25/2009
Failure of HARP refinance program of the Obama adminsitration and rising mortgage rates.
06/11/2009
Rising rates makes refinancing difficult for homeowners. Mortgage rates reached 5.79% on June 10, 2009.
Linked Articles
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2009
Rate Rise Clouds RecoveryWall Street Journal 06/12/2009
Treasury data show the 10 year Treasury bond yield went up to 3.78% in April from 3.0% 3 months ago.
06/11/2009
The effect of large Fed purchases of Treasury's may be the reverse of lowering rates, as creditors to the government see rising inflation from the Fed's unprecedented actions.
Linked Articles
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2009
Fed's Conundrum on Treasury PurchasesWall Street Journal 06/15/2009
How the Americans and Western Europeans are coping with joblessness in 2009.
05/04/2009
The experience in the USA conpared to the experience in Germany and Spain. How social and family safety nets play a part in Europe in helping Spain cope with close to 20% unemployment and Germany with close to 10% unemployment. Role of immigrtants in Spain and the public sector in France in mitigating effects on older workers with steady jobs who remain only slightly affected.
Linked Articles
Spain Largely Avoids Unrest Even as Economy Slumps
Wall Street Journal 05/04/2009
U.S., Europe Are an Ocean Apart on Human Toll of JoblessnessWall Street Journal 05/07/2009
Bogle at Vanguard Group says we live in an agency society where agents like pension fund managers and mutual fund managers make decisions for us.
04/12/2009
Its this agency society and not an ownership society that we have syas Bogle. Ownership society was 50 years ago. And what did these agents do, they did not ask the questions and exercize their civic obligations in the business sense, which means scrutiny for things like selection of board members, corporate governance, executive compensation and conflicts of interest, and dilution of responsibility where it has to be exercized. Here private equity firm Carlyle Group is shown to have given millions of dollars to get access to New York State pension fund investments in Carlyle Group. In the process pension fund managers made millions of dollars, and Bogle's agents have sold their obligations to fiduciary responsibility.
Linked Articles
He Doesn’t Let Money Managers Off the Hook
New York Times 04/12/2009
N.Y. Pension Deals Seen as Focus of Wide InquiryNew York Times 04/14/2009
The labor underutillizzation rate may hit 10% in 2010. This is the number to watch because of deepseated changes in the labor markets.
03/09/2009
This raises a number of questions about the economic recovery and calls for new initiatives in retraining and government assistance for companies to hire and retrain.
Linked Articles
Stuck at Unemployed: When A Layoff Becomes a Lifestyle
Washington Post 06/06/2009
Jobless Scars Will Outlast the RecessionWall Street Journal 03/09/2009
The efforts of banks in better shape but still weak to wish the crisis away.
03/06/2009
Chase and Goldman's efforts to rewrite history, and act as though they did not benefit from government help is wrong and dangerous says the Economist. Its dangerous because it sends the message that any resoultion of toxic assets on banks books is unnecessary, and these banks should be treated differently when it comes to setting new prudent bank regulations, including setting regulation for incentives that do not support excessive risk taking and leveraging. A change in the economic climate for the worse could make this a dangerous complaceny.
Linked Articles
New York Times 03/06/2009
Thanks, for nothingEconomist 06/11/2009
Te Capps and the Muirs in Boise, Idaho, and the national savings rate.
01/02/2009
How the Capps and the Muirs, two couples in their thirtes and forties and their families are scrimping and saving like older generations of Americans. The implications of this for the national savings rate which is forecast to reach 10% by Goldman Sachs in 2009. What this means for consumption spending according to Rodriguez, and why the economy may be setting up for a longer downturn approaching ten years.
Linked Articles
Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic Woes
Wall Street Journal 01/06/2009
The Doomsayers Who Got It RightWall Street Journal 01/02/2009
Detroit Automakers and the UAW vs the nonunionized plants- what went wrong?
12/09/2008
With job security gone at Detroit automakers amidst a series of bad decisions by unions and management unwilling to make a total break with the status quo to the point of reinventing themselves, and lacking the courage and the vision to do so, what good are these higher medical benefits? Isn't an employee who has his job and lesser medical benefits at anonunionized plant better off than one who has either lost his job or about to lose it at aDetroit automaker plant?
Linked Articles
Detroit Bailout: How It Can Work
BusinessWeek 12/09/2008
Toyota delays new Prius plantDetroit News 12/16/2008
The collapse of share price at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup as short sellers wreak havoc.
11/22/2008
What short sellers are doing to destroy value in large financial institutions and the failure of the government and the SEC to reinstate the uptick rule remains a glaring omission.
Linked Articles
Shares Falling, Citigroup Talks to Government
New York Times 11/22/2008
Anatomy of the Morgan Stanley PanicWall Street Journal 11/24/2008
GM and Ford spent $175 million lobbying in the last 10 years with focus on fighting fuel efficiency standards.
11/15/2008
A misstep that leads to falling behind the Europeans and the Japanese in innovating and investing early in the area of fuel efficiency.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 11/15/2008
Clout Has Plunged for Automakers and Union, TooNew York Times 11/18/2008
Nobel Prize winer Vernon Smith likes the direct injection of capital into undercapitalized banks.
10/09/2008
Vernon Smith thinks Treasury has little experience with reverse auctions and they will be awfully hard to do. Direct injection of capital into banks is something Treasury has experience and has done recently in some bank failures such as WaMu takeover by Chase organized by FDIC and Treasury. The British rescue plan of Gordon Brown is to provide capital to the banks in return for equity stakes.
Linked Articles
Britain Takes a Different Route to Rescue Its Banks
New York Times 10/09/2008
There's No Easy Way Out of the BubbleWall Street Journal 10/09/2008
Danone and P&G's (Procter & Gamble) innovative strategies for reaching low income customers in emerging markets.
12/12/2009
In 2004 Indonesian managers showed Franck Riboud, CEO of Danone, a pyramid of customers in Indonesia's population of 240 million people. It showed only 20 million customers at the top of the pyramid as the only ones who could afford Danone products. At that point Ribaud made up his mind to go after the large number of people at the lower end of the pyramid and come with strategies to do this profitably. By 2010 46% of Danone's sales were from emerging markets, up from 10% a decade earlier, showing the pace of the change. Unilever, P&G, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive and other companies are following similiar strategies. P&G has used Mexico as a lab for experimenting with new products at low price points and Danone has done this in Indonesia.
Linked Articles
Danone Expands Its Pantry to Woo the World's Poor
Wall Street Journal 06/25/2010
P.& G. Sees the World as Its ClientNew York Times 12/12/2009
Merkel's shaky hold on public opinion in Germany.
09/28/2009
Merkel's Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats now have only 34% support, compared to 47% for the Social Democrats and Greens, according to a poll for Stern magazine by polling institute Forsa.
Linked Articles
Merkel Looks to Recharge Her Ratings
New York Times 07/21/2010
Victory Brings Risk of Conflict With Merkel’s AlliesNew York Times 09/28/2009
The Economist cites IMF economist estimates that the public debt of the 10 largest industrialized countries will jump from 78% to 114% of GDP by 2014, leading to higher interest rates and inflation.
06/11/2009
The rising public debt and its unsustainability is what the future holds. For governments and decisionmakers there are very difficult choices, as fiscaly austerity and premature fiscal tightening or raising interest ratescan choke off a recovery. Raising taxes as happened earlier in Japan's lost decade also can choke off a recovery. Seriously tacklig health care costs and raising the retirement age, are much needed steps.
Linked Articles
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2009
The biggest bill in historyEconomist 06/11/2009
With capacity utilization at 68%, too much slack in the economy for inflation to take root.
06/11/2009
Producer Price Index showed its steepest decline since 1949 for May 2009 over May 2008. And there are still 10 unsold homes for every one sold, with the typical being 6.
Linked Articles
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2009
Housing Starts Jump in May for Third MonthWall Street Journal 06/16/2009
Laffer says inflation and high interest rates are a sure thing with the $1 trillion increase in the monetary base since Sept 2008.
04/23/2009
This is the largest increase in the monetary base in the last 50 years by afactor of 10, and is unlike anything ever experienced before. He sees inflation and rising interest rates as a result surpassing anything seen in the 1970's. Bernanke he says faces a Hobson's choice between contracting the monetary base and putting the economy back in recession and letting things go the way they are resulting in steep inflation. He sees the Fed having the option of increasing the reserve requirements at banks, to restrain the increase in the monetary base.
Linked Articles
Economist 04/23/2009
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest RatesWall Street Journal 06/11/2009
Geithner's Paulsonlike plan for toxic assets and doubts whether it can work.
03/23/2009
Krugman and Eavis have doubts about the new Geithner plan as it looks so much like his predecessor Paulson's failed efforts to do much about toxic assets. Krugman sees things only getting worse as 600,000 jobs are being lost every month, as Geithner, Congress and the public fail to push for the tough solutions including government taking over failed banks to deal with tosic assets without having to sort out pricing in advance.
Linked Articles
Geithner's Gamble Needs Speculators
Wall Street Journal 03/23/2009
Financial Policy DespairNew York Times 03/23/2009
Krugman thinks no early action to takeover insolvent banks will prolong this crisis, the President wants to "do no harm" by undermining confidence.
03/06/2009
Krugman thinks that this crisis could go on for adecade if no actions are taken to takeover insolvent banks before the situation worsens. THe President in his speech at Georgetown, on April 13, says he has not acted preemptively, not out of coddling these banks and their management, but becuase he did not want to undermine confidence. It suggests the President has moved quickly on many fronts, and he may be taking a pause to take stock of the situation and how to improve public support, before thaking on this issue and a number of others in the next round.
Linked Articles
BusinessWeek 04/14/2009
The Big DitherNew York Times 03/06/2009
Cornell's Frank points out that savings may be good for America once they are chanelled into investment.
02/15/2009
For this to happen some of the excess household debt from the number 96% of GDP, that household debt in the USA has reached, has to be shaved off. This is happening as Americans are shifting to becoming debt free in their finances. This affects consumption through the paradox of thrift. But says Prof. Frank this is OK, as the government steps in in the meantime to give the boost to the economy, till consumers recover from debt. Future savings can then be channelled into new productive investment for modernization's next phase, just as China and India are doing.
Linked Articles
Imbalance in Nations' Savings Clouds Forecasts for Recovery
Wall Street Journal 03/23/2009
Go Ahead and Save. Let the Government Spend.New York Times 02/15/2009
The paradox of low U.S. productivity growth holding back wages in 2015-2016 (1) - Apple Google, Facebook and low productivity improvement since 2005
12/31/2008
Linked Articles
Whatever Happened to Silicon Valley Innovation?
BusinessWeek 12/31/2008
The Big MehNew York Times 05/25/2015
In the past decade China's consumption as percentage of GDP drops 10% to 37%, America's rise to 96%.
11/26/2008
This leads to the global imbalance in savings that London B-School's Prof. Portes complains about. Cross border flows fro, Asia to the West reach 3% of global GDP, pumping extra money into the US banking system, and the European banking system leading to bad lending and a consumption binge. The reluctance of China and the U.S. to change the staus quo till things simply collapsed.
Linked Articles
Imbalance in Nations' Savings Clouds Forecasts for Recovery
Wall Street Journal 03/23/2009
Global Economy: No Help from China's ConsumersBusinessWeek 11/26/2008
Warnings on energy by Stewart Udall, interior secretary under John Kennedy.
11/16/2008
Innovative public transportations systems that the automakers could do research and development to develop.
Linked Articles
Have You Driven a Bus or a Train Lately?
New York Times 11/16/2008
How High Gas Prices Can Save the Car IndustryNew York Times 11/16/2008
One of the Big Three may not survive.
10/14/2008
Talk of a possible merger between GM and Chrysler. Efforts by GM motivated by need for about $10 billion from external sources to make it through 2009. Chrysler has $11 billion in cash.
Linked Articles
Howes: One of Big 3 may not survive
Detroit News 10/14/2008
GM could use Chrysler's cashDetroit News 10/14/2008
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