LyrArc Article Gist
Liu He, the author of the 2013 DRC report on recommended changes to China's banking and financial system, is now the director of the Communist party's top financial policy committee and senior advisor to president Jinping. Changes he is pushing for relate to increasing focus on credit risk for China's banks, promoting competiion between banks, a mechanism for letting banks fail, and a deposit insurance program to protect the public against failing banks. To open up the sector dominated by state owned banks, opening private banks would be encouraged. Local governments would be allowed to issue bonds in an effort to reduce their dependence on land sales and opaque off-market borrowing. The urgency of this agenda comes from the realization in top Chinese policy circles and the Jinping-Keqiang administration of the risks to the banking sysem from the lack of attention to credit risks in bank lending.

LyrArc Article Gist
The problems of a growing underclass or unskilled workers in Britain, and people who dropped out of school early. This is is found not just in isolated places but in the Midland cities also. Britain has a higher rate of dropouts, and a less developed apprenticeship program to find good work for these young people, compared to countries such as Austria and Germany.

LyrArc Article Gist
400 million packets- that is how many packets Nestle is pulling off shelves in Indian stores as a result of regulators findings of high lead content in Maggi instant noodles.

LyrArc Article Gist
US president Biden proposes to reduce the US deficit by $2 trillion by increasing taxes on American households worth more than $100 million that would apply to their earned income, and their unrealized gains on liquid assets like stocks. Biden also plans quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks by companies, a tax approved in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2021. The deficit in 2023 will be about $1.4 trillion and rise to about $2 trillion, so that Biden's plan is to practically eliminate the  large deficit if the Republicans come on board. Republicans prefer cuts in spending. US companies have engaged in a dramatic increase in stock buybacks in recent years leading to calls for increasing the tax on stock buybacks. Biden says even high income households will not see an increase in their taxes, only the wealthiest households with over $100 million who have benefited vastly through the Reagan type policies of the last two decades. These households with over $100 million in assets will not be affected in the same way as students, workers, and middle income households are affected in shouldering a large part of the burden of these Reagan type policies that did not adequately fund education, healthcare, and manufacturing in communities across America. This was a period when Democrats in Congress awed by Reagan type policies failed to vigorously oppose policy that increased the US deficit and burden on households for health costs by not allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. A senior AARP official says that when we talk about the Biden Inflation Reduction Act of 2021 the key component is the Medicare price negotiation with companies that is now law. Why Republicans and Democrats before Mr. Biden allowed such a gross distortion for two decades since 2001 that burdened ordinary  working Americans while neglecting American manufacturing, till Mr. Biden assumed the presidency, says much about the policies of the last two decades and how it has affected ordinary working families. Shriveling factory towns and creating much distress in these communities with these distortions that are a legacy of Reagan type laissez faire policies that government should do little. The result of these policies is that manufacturing is concentrated in only one country for the whole supply chain something that would never have happened with a thoughtful policy planning process. India and Vietnam are only today seen as alternatives for the supply chain in 2023 when policies were in place in these countries since 2014 for the supply chain to be distributed in a way that would be a win-win situation for all countries, avoiding the national security threats of today with overconcentration of manufacturing in China. This has not benefited China or the US because of the rancor and tension it has created. It was the fall of the Berlin Wall that created some of this awe for Reagan, when looking at it objectively it was nothing more than a course correction in Europe after the Hungarian revolution suppressed in 1956, Czech in 1968. It had little to do with what policies the US should pursue for workers and families, just as the war in Ukraine today remains another course correction in a different direction in Europe, and does not affect domestic policy in the US to build a better society for workers and families that Mr. Biden is doing. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Changes to China's five year plan to include critical social goals, reduce income inequality, and provide a social safety net. The influence of local governments in distorting central government policy.

LyrArc Article Gist
Thomas Friedman sees the WikiLeaks information showing America paying the Pakistan army and intelligence services to be two-faced, to both fight with the Americans and at the same time support the insurgents fighting the Americans. He sees America being made the sucker in this game. And without the resources to change the region and transform it, America needs a better approach that does not waste its resources and energies.

LyrArc Article Gist
Everything Everywhere, is a joint venture between T-Mobile and France Telecom. It is the market leader in Britain in mobile phone services since it was formed in 2010. Now Telefonica's O2 UK and Britain's Vodafone will form a 50-50 joint venture to combine their wireless grid so that they can reduce costs, invest in innovation and setup a new broadband LTE (Long Term Evolution technology) network. This will help both companies compete more effectively in the British market. It is not a merger as both companies will continue to run competing services. This type of arrangement is becoming popular in Europe because of the high costs of building one's own LTE network, and makes sense, say analysts, because quality is perceived by customers in terms of speed and reliability of service than simply coverage. O2 sees the potential of reducing cell tower masts by 10% with the new venture.

LyrArc Article Gist
Delayed FDA approval of diabetes drug Tresiba in the U.S. market. The FDA requested additional testing data which Novo Nordisk says it cannot provide in 2013. Novo Nordisk has 27% market share in the diabetes market with its fast acting NovoLog insulin. Sanofi has 19% market share with its long acting Lantus insulin. Tresiba was approved for use in Europe. About 44% of Novo Nordisk drug sales in 2012 were in the U.S. market.

LyrArc Article Gist
Starting in 2009 Samsung's investment in R&D exceeded the same investment by competitors Sony and Panasonic. By 2011 this gap had widened, as Samsung spent $8.7 billion on R&D in 2011, Panasonic $6.6 billion and Sony $5.5 billion for their fiscal years. This is a result of Samsung's having captured a larger portion of the market and profits in recent years. In the U.S. Samsung has 50% of the market for LCD television sets. Now Sony and Panasonic have reached an agreement to join together their efforts for production technologies to produce OLED television sets, the next generation technology for television. Sony and Panasonic are also working on changing their mindset that focussed on technological advancement and less on delivering consumer friendly technology at attractive price points. Sony developed the first e-reader in 2004, and developed the first OLED set in 2007. But the e-reader lacked the software capabilities of the e-readers developed later by Amazon and Apple. For OLED the production technology was lacking for Sony to produce it at commercially viable prices for mass production. Now Sony prefers to let S. Korean competitors take the lead, and hopes to come from behind by combining critical areas of technological development with Panasonic. Samsung and LG Electronics will bring new 55 inch OLED sets to the market in late 2012. Panasonic and Sony have new CEO's who are faced with developing strategies for a rebound. Panasonic CEO, Kazuhiro Tsuga, is keen on changing the mindset of the company back to the consumer. He told a news conference recently: "Japanese firms are too confident about our technology and manufacturing prowess. We lost sight of the products from the consumer's point of view."...

LyrArc Article Gist
James Q. Wilson points to the link between educational levels and inequality. He says the poor face too few skills and too few opportunities. The link with education is critical. He cites information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which show that between 1979 and 2010, hourly wages for those with a college degree went up 33% for men and 20% for women. For those without a high school diploma wages declined 31% for men and 9% for women. It appears that men have been more adversely affected than women. Minorities have done poorly especially Hispanics and Blacks. Social factors such as unwed mothers aggravate conditions for the bottom fifth in incomes. As the demographics of America shift to higher population of Hispanic immigrants, the situation worsens. High schools in Hispanic areas of New York city with high dropout rates, to take one example, can affect income inequality as more immigrants take jobs at the minimum wage level. The 2008 financial crisis has also taken a higher toll on minorities and people with modest incomes by reducing their savings and through the large number of home foreclosures....

LyrArc Article Gist
PC shipments in China of 18.5 million units in the second quarter of 2011 exceed U.S. shipments of 17.7 million, according to research firm IDC. IDC estimates China's PC shipments in 2012 at 85.1 million units, and U.S. PC shipments at 76.6 million. Lenovo has grown rapidly in China and now has 12.2% of the global PC market. Lenovo has a larger market share in China than H-P or Dell.

LyrArc Article Gist
GM and Chrysler will face a tough market in the years ahead. The last year as seen GM's image with the American customer erode even further. Reputation Institute surveyed 70,000 people worldwide, and found only Mitsubishi and AvtoVAZ have a worse image. This inspite of improvements in quality at GM, which shows that management errors and its image matters a lot in buyer behaviour. Worse still GM and Chrysler, both are not favored by the younger generation of customers. The new demographics show that 73 million 21-33 year olds will be customers in the next few years, and they have shown little interest in Detroit brands. These people says one expert on atitudes towards automotive brands at AutoStrategem, can't see heir friends in these brands, and so can't see themselves in them. Perception matters a lot to these young people who are better educated. Studies have shown that college graduates and better educated Americans favor overseas brands by a wide margin. Chrysler is pervceived as having poor quality according to JD Powers and Consumer Reports. With $21 billion in debt Chrysler is more burdened with costs, needed improvements are less likely without investment. Chrysler may shrink to 6% of the market says BW, and GM will probably go down from 19% in 2008 to 14% in the next 3-4 years, as competing with Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, VW and new competitors from China and India makes for a very tough environment. Worse still there is about 90 million car production capacity worldwide, and the worldwide market has shrunk to 55 million cars and is still shrinking. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Philip Clarke has spent his whole working life at Tesco from stocking shelves when in school to other assignments. He takes over as CEO from Terry Leahy. He was store manager, product buyer, marketer and then joined the upper management ranks. Tesco is now one of the top retail chains worldwide, with 472,000 employees, and revenues of 56.9 billon pounds. As head of international operations he started Tesco in S. Korea by acquiring the 38 discount stores under the Homever name. And also made the move into India.

LyrArc Article Gist
Concern about slowing growth in China with rising inflation. The problem of opaqueness of the financial system and of banks that are both listed companies and run by the government, and how this could accelerate a slowdown at some point with accumulated problems in the financial system. A sense that China's growth model has reached a limit, and whether there will be a soft landing.

LyrArc Article Gist
Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. and Britain, has edited a collection of essays in a new book titled- Pakistan: Beyond the "Crisis State." It tries to form a new construct to move the debate on Pakistan into a future in which Pakistan can exist as a "normal country" free of a paranoia about India that affects its outlook, and free from the military connections that have shifted the focus from development that a friendly neighborly coexistence with India would provide. Intriguing essays include one by Saadat Hasa Manto who goes back to 1951, when the Cold War was at its peak and the U.S. formed a relationship with Pakistan based on military assistance, with only small fraction of aid going into development programs. Syed Rifaat Hussain, professor of strategic studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad puts it directly: Pakistan needs to become a normal state and the only way to to do this is for the rivalry and obsession with India to be resolved and put behind it. As it now stands the U.S., India and Pakistan all stand to gain tremendously in such an outcome- the U.S. disengagement from Afghanistan and the Taliban because at its core the Taliban issue goes back to the Pakistan rivalry with India, Pakistan and India because it puts the focus on development, infrastructure building, and economic gains....

LyrArc Article Gist
Geeta Anand and Jaeyeon Woo of the WSJ give this heartwarming story of how South Korea achieved a remarkable transformation in attitudes towards women in society after 1990, and reversed a dangerous imbalance in the ratio of females to males. This was done by the release of extraordinary energy of woman activists after the end of dictatorship in 1990 made this possible, and the efforts of media, courts, government and society. Women won the right to be heirs in the family lineage, and perceptions of women as well as the opportunities open to women changed in this period. Today the Korean government provides $177 a month for the first 5 years for child care at home. The story of one mother and daughter and their experiences, of Ms. Lim and Ms. Ko, both teaching at the university and having daughters only, shows how South Korea has changed by 2016. Moving further South Korea's government now offers incentives to companies to make paternity leave policies generous, with municipal governments adding cooking classes and housekeeping courses for fathers. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Fact checking Apple CEO Tim Cook's statements on the EU Commission ruling for $13 billion in back taxes, shows that CEO Tim Cook's statement that "we never asked for, nor did we receive any special deals," is not true. Ireland let Apple determine what it would pay in tax, and Apple had the benefit of loopholes in Irish tax laws, the fact check by experts shows here. Apple's Cook also says it would hurt investment and jobs in Ireland. Another NYT article showed that the entire healthcare budget of Ireland would be covered by the $13 billion, and 66% of its budget for social support services to the public. Apple has 22,000 employees in Europe and 6000 in Ireland in 2016. Based on the $13 billion owed in taxes, for every job in Ireland the cost to Ireland is 2.17 million euros, and for every job in the EU the cost is 590,000 euros. Apple could turn around and locate in some other place, other than Ireland, in which case Ireland does not get the 6000 jobs. This is Ireland's incentive to give Apple tax benefits. Only if all EU countries had common tax laws would it be possible to avoid this situation, and generate much needed tax revenues at a time of cuts in public spending in healthcare, education, and social services, and invest in infrastructure, worker retraining. The alternative is for the EU to look at other remedies. This is what the EU Commissioner Vestager did when she announced that this was a state subsidy and illegal under EU rules. Because the appeal by Apple goes to the EU Courts the appeal is difficult say legal experts. The EU courts look at the legal aspects of the ruling, was it justified, not at the overall aspect of the ruling by Vestager, as EU Competition Commissioner. This may be why there is so much outcry from Apple, and other digital companies.  ...