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Jack Ewng's interview with Norbert Reithofer, CEO of BMW, in Nov. 2012. Reithofer tells Ewing about the time in 1997- 2000 when he was in charge of the BMW Spartanburg plant in the U.S. Reithofer made a list of problems and presented this to managers. Managers at the plant told Reithofer that in the U.S. the company did not have problems, it had challenges and every challenge was an opportunity. This made a deep impression on him and he sees the current problems in the European auto market in that light. BMW has an agreement with unions to cut production quickly as it did in 2008, if there is a sharp decline in the market. It will continue to invest in R&D, bring out a light weight battery powered car in 2013, and build a new factory in Brazil.

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MccConnell, a former director of the National Security Agency (1992-1996) and director of national intelligence (2007-2009), Chertoff, a former secretary of homeland security (2005-2009), and Lynn, a former deputy security of defense (1997-2001), cite a declassified report to Congress by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive showing China's policy of acquiring American technology in cyberspace. The authors point to the risks of Chinese espionage in cyberspace.

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Myers documents how Russian policy changed drastically in only a few days after the Olympic games closed in Sochi, Russia, from working with the EU to military takeover of Crimea. It happened with Putin's preference for secrecy and having only a few inner circle of advisors, mostly from his KGB days, leaving the rest of the Putin administration unaware of what was happening and the risks being taken with a G-8 summit in Sochi approaching.

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Nasdaq OMX Group CEO, Robert Greifeld, says Janet Yellen and the U.S. Fed Open Market Committee should exercize caution in increasing interest rates in 2014. He cites the heavy risk for long term investor outlook and psychology of the Fed moving too quickly in increasing interest rates, because of the steep drop in oil prices, the crash of the ruble, slowdown in Europe, deflationary trends in the eurozone and Japan, and slow growth in China. The Fed now has more room for taking a cautious approach says Greifeld, as wage growth is tepid, the dollar is strong, and oil prices are down significantly.

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Proof from American soldiers, who captured Taliban arms in an ambush in the Korangal Valley of Afghanistan, shows American arms sent to Afghanistan find their way through corrupt police or officials to the Taliban. This would keep the Taliban well supplied and increase the intensity of the fighting.

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Ahmed Karzai is described as a malevolent force, that he is acting in a Mafialike way, that he lords over southern Afghanistan, and has benefitted from the opium trade. Reporters of the NYT say that according to current and former American officials he gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency and has been for much of the past 8 years.

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How the global supplier system, while it spreads some of the financial risk, also creates a number of problems Boeing has to resolve. The advanced nature of the plane using composite materials instead of aluminium, and many other new aspects, all make it necessary for careful attention to details and coordination of different partners roles. Things like training of workers who do the work at new plants put up by suppliers like Vought Aircraft of Dallas and Alenia Aeronautica of Italy, in this case in Charleston, S.C., were inadequate. This had the effect of compounding problems Boeing already has in shortage of aluminium and titanium fasteners to assemble the different parts. Based on this report the unveiling of the Dreamliner on July 8, before 15,000 invited guests, was probably a bad idea, as much of the plane under the shiny covers was a mess. idea

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The government criteria for injecting funds into banks discourage lending to banks that are not healthy and unlikely to survive, considering this a poor use of taxpayer funds. This will lead to fewer and healthier banks.

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Penelope Fitzgerald in her book Human Voices  says about BBC Calling- During the second World War the BBC was about "scattering human voices in the darkness of Europe." The BBC gets 137 million pounds from the Foreign Office.There is no provision for 2026, the BBC is entirely dependent onthe license fee. How will it be financed for its role in bringing Britain to the world as it did since its founding in 1932. Many parts of the world depend on radio, and on BBC broadcasts for information, more so as propaganda and disinformation fill the airwaves and print as the BBC and VOA make program cuts and management changes. In March 2025 most of VOA's staff was placed on administrative leave and $153 million was allocated for shutting down VOA. The US Congress opposed the idea and allocated $200 million a reduction from about $260 million in 2024 for VOA, and $644 million for USAGM US Agency for Global Media. BBC World Service operates in 134 countries with budget of $400 million pounds of which 221 million pounds comes from the UK Foreign Office. ...