LyrArc Article Gist
Foreign born population after a series of restrictive Immigration Acts dropped from 15% in 1890 to 12% in 1930, to 5% in 1970. The effort of 1924 Act was to make the southern and eastern European immigration that jumped by 1924 to 41% of total to much lower numbers. A look at the Immigration Act of 1924 under the Coolidge administration sponsored by senators from Washington state and Pennsylvania, Albert Johnson and David Reed, by Chishti and Gelatt in MPI. It shows the prejudices of the early Europeans from one country to Europeans from other countries that followed, after the British, the Germans, the Irish, the Italians and Polish, as the immigration waves shifted to Eastern and southern Europe in the period between 1880 and 1920. During this period Southern and Eastern European immigrants that made up 16% of the population reached 41%. In 1882 Chinese immigration to the US came under the Chinese Exclusion Act restricting it. The Dillingham Commission of 1911 stated the merits of different racial types with northern European and western European preferred to southern and eastern European. Still only 1% of the immigrants entering America were turned back between 1880 and 1924.  The 1917 Immigration Act set up an "Asian Barred Zone" that included Japan, a head tax of $8 on immigrants, requiring proof of read and writing of all immigrants, vetoed by president Woodrow Wilson. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set the first quotas at 358,000. Under the Immigration Act of 1924 it was revised to 165,000. President Hoover asked for strict consular restrictions so that between 1929 and 1945 immigrant numbers fell below 100,000 a year.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
A health care practitioner says the real problem is the high cost of medical care in the U.S. when compared to other countries. She points out that the Obama bill in 2008 did not take effective steps to bring down the cost of health care before enacting legislation to cover the uninsured, leading to higher premiums for the middle class. The link between healthcare and profits is seen as the main problem. 

LyrArc Article Gist
CEO Norbert Reithofer who became head of BMW in September is pushing BMW in the direction of more collaborative work with other car companies. He has set as a goal collaborations in the areas of components, drive systems and modules. Daimler's new chief Dieter Zetsche s also rethinking how it approaches its business. One way to develop new technologies and purchase parts and components efficiently is to work with other companies who are striving to do the same things. Both CEO's see their companies as midsize manufacturers in a world of auto manufacturing where Toyota and VW, GM and Ford have the advantage of much larger sales over which to spread their research dollars, or to make efficient purchasing by using volume purchasing. Daimler is encourged by its participation in a combined effort in the area of hybrid technologies with BMW, GM and Chrysler, and the progress made in that area through collaborative effort. This is making both companies rethink their intense rivalry since the 1930's, one based in Stuutgart and the other in Munich. Both companies have good profits and as the environment gets harsher with steel prices rising, with demands from the public for tougher new auto emission and fuel efficiency stadards requiring allocating more dollars for R&D, a strong euro and a struggling US economy. The challenge they face is sustaining this profitability as it becomes more costly to operate in this environment. Both companies have appointed some of their talented executives to profitability teams which are working at developing more collaborative efforts....

LyrArc Article Gist
Krugman reflects on the discontent in Europe reflected in anti-EU opinion at the time of the elections to the European parliament in 2014.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ editorial says the recent agreement at the Caterpillar Joliet plant in llinois is not about leverage but about increasing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. As U.S. competitivness improves and the economy grows wages will increase. It does little service to management, labor and the U.S. economy for above market wage rates to lead to loss of manufacturing competitiveness as happened in the U.S. automobile industry, resulting in closing of plants.

LyrArc Article Gist
Some economists expect growth in China's GDP to slow down to 5.8% for the 4th quarter. China's export driven growth model based on factories with plentiful hardworking young labor including young women, and plentiful foreign investment, Chinese investment from HongKong and Taiwan, and plentiful capital generated from China's high savings rate, and supply of land from local government officials eager to participate in the boom, is finally slowing down, after 3 decades since Deng launched China on this path. However this slowdown is happening drastically, and the whole model is coming apart. The first signs came earlier this year as the government initated a shift in policies after seeing the costs of runaway growth on the environment and in pollution of air and water, and in the wages of labor. Laws protecting labor rights and wages, and stricter pollution laws and enforcement for the first time in years that suggested the government was serious, pulled the bottom off of marginal export industries and companies. Only the larger better run companies were able to operate in this environment. About 67,000 factories closed in coastal regions in the first half of this year. See the link to this. Now that process is hit by the global credit crisis and the demand decline in 2008, and possible demand collapse in 2009 in US export markets if some things like the auto industry take a bad turn and unemployment jumps, all are hitting hard at China's export sector. This is in turn hitting investment as in Germany as companies pull back, and nervous consumers with losses in the stock market and seeing a decline in housing prices pull back on purchases resulting in inventories building up for different industries including the important auto industry. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The rapidly changing demographics as the U.S. becomes more of a multicultural society. For the first time minority babies formed a majority in 2011 with 50.4% of new babies, according to the Census Bureau. The median age of the non-Hispanic White population is 42 compared to 28 for Hispanics. Hispanics are right at the child bearing age. This also raises the issue of how the U.S. will educate the minority population. Today 13% of Hispanics have college degrees, 18% of Blacks and 31% of Whites. High school graduation rates in places like New York City for Hispanics are lagging far behind other groups. The economic downturn after the 2008 financial crisis has worsened the educational prospects for Hispanics and other minorities. The education of minority children is essential to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. in a global economy, as the educational levels in emerging markets accelerates with more opportunities.

LyrArc Article Gist
The recent appointment of fast food executive Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary has caused great concern among union leaders. Puzder supports a $9 minimum wage compared to $15 supported by Democrats. Unions now represent 7% of the labor force, down from a high of 20% during Reagan's time when Reagan appointed a construction company executive as Labor Secretary and cut regulations.  Globalization has thinned the ranks of workers in unions. And the failure of Democratic administrations to stem the shift of factories overseas to China, Mexico and other places, as part of global supply chains focussed on cost, has weakened Democratic support among workers since the period of Bill Clinton. It eroded to the point where Obama won 65% of support among unions and Hillary Clinton won 56% in 2016. Interestingly the Republican Romney gained 33% versus 37% for Trump, showing voters were more inclined to move away from Democrats and only a smaller number willing to support Republicans, but the shift enough to give Republicans a win in 2016 for the presidency. The figures are from a Election Day survey of trade union AFL-CIO, and a larger proportion in midwestern states showed disaffection with policies from Clinton to Obama. In fact Obama spent years promoting another free trade agreement TPP that favored tech more than auto and older industries, just as Bill Clinton had promoted NAFTA, without giving thought to what this was doing to its worker base of support. A similar situation happened with Social Democrats in Germany as a SPD administration moved to the centre and handed Christian Democrats led by Merkel a win in parliamentary elections. As Democrats such as former Labor Secretary Reich, a professor at UC Berkeley who served under Bill Clinton, describe the problems of working class people their is less reflection on the impact of the changes from globalization and how Democrats handled or mishandled it, and more on the politics between the two parties.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Mr Mussa's forecast at the peterson Institute of Intenational Economics shows world economic growth moderating from 4.75% this year to 4.25% in 2008 and 5.25% in 2006 with continued global economic expansion. The IMF is expected to forecast USA economic growth slowing to 1.9% in 2008 from 2.8% in an earlier forecast. The IMF global forecast of 4.8% for 2008 is in line with Mr. Mussa's estimate. The IMF trimmed eurozone growth to 2.1% in 2008 from 2.5% . One reason given for the resilience in USA growth is the boost to US exports from the weakening dollar and the increase in worldwide demand, so by these estimates the housing crisis will be offset by general global economic growth and factors such as exports and its impact will be softened. Also eurozone growth will continue especially Germany, France and eastern europe whereas Britain and Spain may see some fallout from housing bubbles. Overall growth in India, China, Middle Eastern countries, and other parts of the world, including Germany, and export led growth in the USA will keep the global economy in decent shape. general increase in exports as world demand contimues to grow....

LyrArc Article Gist
Slower growth expected for VW in 2012-2013.

LyrArc Article Gist
A study by Sentier Research from Census data shows people in the U.S. age 55-64 years make 10% less in June 2012 compared to June 2009. Every demographic has suffered income losses in this period. Median household income declined by 4.8% in these three years. Using December 2007 as astarting point shows a decline of 7.2%- $50,964 vs. $54,916. Blacks, those with some education like a high school diploma but no degree, the older Americans, and younger Americans were hit hard. Long term unemployment was the cause of the decline among older Americans. Even college graduates suffered a decline of 5.9% from $88,570 to $83,378.