LyrArc Article Gist
The credit lending boom in Brazil is leading to rising levels of household indebtedness and credit card abuses. In Brazil and Chile consumer lending regulations are lax. Credit card interest rates in Brazil can be as shockingly high as 220% annually. The household debt to income levels were 70% at the end of 2010 in Chile, according to the Central Bank. In Brazil this ratio is 40%, according to LCA Consultores. Consumer appliance and electronics stores such as La Polar and Casa Bahias are lightly regulated and offer lower priced products to a new class of consumers in lower classes that have no experience with consumer credit. La Polar is under investigation in Chile for increasing rates and changing the terms on loans unilaterally for 418,000 customers. In Brazil the federal prosecutors office is charging banks such as Itau, HSBC, and Santander with $300 million of illegal bank charges on clients from 2008 to 2010.

LyrArc Article Gist
John Malone offers some frank comments on the economy, on the dollar and the Obama administration. He has little confidence in America's future. The dollar is strengthening he says only because of the situation in Europe in the Mediterranean countries. He says the Obama administration consists mainly of lawyers and advisers, people who are better at dividing the pie, not enlarging the pie, the kind of thing we need so much now. He sees the risks to his company Liberty coming mainly from the economy. He has big concern about the retail side, consumers and the larger economic conditions, the macroeconomic picture. He draws attention to the fact that nobody will make it if America doesn't, and that for the next year or two things will be tough.

LyrArc Article Gist
Airbus and Boeing learned a lot from the cost overruns, manufacturing delays, outsourcing issues and other problems in the development and manufacturing of the Dreamliner and the Airbus 350. This is changing the way the two companies approach manufacturing processes for newer complex models of planes.