LyrArc Article Gist
Comments in the report on the settlement with BP of the U.S Justice Department for pipe line leaks and a refinery fire as well as a violations by BP energy traders to manipulate the propane market. Interesting comments about the background of Tom Hayward and Sir Browne his predecessor, and about how one started out as a geologist on a oil rig in 1982, was exploration manager in Colombia and headed up th BP Venezuela, before becoming head of BP Exploration and Production. That Tony Hayward was known as the turtle, a term for managers being prepared for leadership, and Sir Browne as the sun king inside BP, is revealing, as it says much about the 2 leaders. Hayward having started out on an oil rig is more hands on and mixes easily with workers. Hayward has given himself 18 months to clear the redundant layers of management to bring him closer to operations at BP, and to fix the maintenance and other problems that led to the pipeline leaks and the refinery fire.

LyrArc Article Gist
On the competition in the Chinese car market. Its especially fierce in the small car market where prices and margins are falling. Microcars with engines smaller than 1 litre sales increased by only 7% through August.Subcompacts sales went up by only 4% according to JD Powers. With 80 brands in the market margins are falling from15% in 2006 to about 9% in first half 2007 according to JD Powers. The situation is better in the larger cars. Compacts sales are up 46% and midsize sedans up by 35% (JD Powers). VW saw sales in China up by 30% in first 9 months of 2007, and market share increased from 15% to 18% widening the lead over GM which is No.2 at 9.8%. Toyota's Camry ($26000 to $36000)and the Crown luxury( $43000) sales went up by 40%. Cherry, Honda and Toyota are all at about 8% market share for No. 3 position. Prices of compact and mid sized sedans have dropped so they are a better value now and are attracting many buyers in the better offpart of the middle class.

LyrArc Article Gist
How the Bush presidency started with hopes in domestic policy that were never to come to fruition. Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate, reflects on the promise of the Bush State of the Union address of Feb. 2001, and the compassionate conservatism it evoked- the Bush priorities of education, setting higher educaion standards, immigration reform, helping needy and at risk children, health care access. He recalls the words used by Bush in Spanish: "Juntos podemos," we can do it together. As governor of Texas Bush had focussed on racial disparities and gaps in education, winning 27% of black votes and a third of Hispanic votes. Then came 9/11 (2002), weapons of mass destruction (from 2003 onwards), which soon overshadowed the education efforts, grants to extend health insurance coverage, initiative to encourage mentring of at-risk children. The $10 billion program to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean is a part of the Bush legacy, other areas were overcome by the distraction of wars in the Middle East....

LyrArc Article Gist
Brazil suffers from a severe shortage of engineers as it expects to grow at 5% through 2010 and at 3-4% after that. Because Brazilian Universities do not turn out enough engineers Brazilan companies in oil, mining and aviation and other sectors are having their own training programs. Brazil's education system is not doing the job. The average Brazilian worker has 6 years of schooling compared to 10 years in S. Korea, 11 in Japan and 12 in the USA, according to the National Confederation of Industry study. Of the few that make it to the university only one in five take up engineering, science math or computing according to a recent World Bank study of links between education and economic growth. Most of the growth in university education is at private universities and these universities find it easier to provide programs in the social sciences and not enough engineering programs exist at these universities. Mexico has a large supply of engineering graduates that have helped it build its automotive and other industry, see the link to this. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Sales of small cars have dropped significantly, and sales of Cherry Automobile Company China's largest domestic carmaker dropped 40% in September 2008 over a year earlier and 6% in October 2008. Nationally car sales increased 11% in October 2008 over the previous year after declines of 6% in August and 2% in September. China levies a tax of roughly 8.6% on a car's taxable price which is calculated based on the car's retail price and the size of the engine, with larger engines taxed more. What the carmakers like Cherry want is for the government to lower this sales tax on small cars and cars with environmentally friendly technology. Another step is for the government to lower state set fuel prices as prices of world crude go down to below $50 a barrel and encourage more fuel efficient cars with a fuel tax. Chinese public policy as stated by the government, and Chen Bin, Director of the Industry division of the National Development and Reform Commission is to boost domestic demand.

LyrArc Article Gist
Berlin's most famous hospital. Half of Germany's Nobel prize winners for medicine and physiology worked at Berlin Charite Hospital. It was setup in 1710, by 1810 it was a medical university, and today a leading world medical centre. Mr. Navalny is being treated here. It is also a centre in the fight against the pandemic.

Here DW.com gives pictures of the hospital over the 300 years of history. It was part of the controversial period in Germany in the thirties and was part of the GDR after 1945. It was part of the fight against the Ebola virus in 2005 and now leads the fight in Germany against the coronavirus, showing how Germans can play a international role that brings dignity to the German people.

LyrArc Article Gist
About 110,000 workers, or about 20% of the number of people retiring each year in France, will be able to retire at the age of 60 in 2013 under a new presidential decree. These are workers who started to work at the age of 18-19 and put in 41 years of contributions into the state run pension fund. The decree by French president Hollande leaves the Sarkozy reform of increasing the retirement age to 62 from 60 in place, but creates an exception for these workers, at a cost of 1 billion euros in 2013, and 3 billion euros in 2017. This could also be a way to get labor union support for public spending cuts to reduce the deficit which are expected.

LyrArc Article Gist
After 16 years of GDP growth the British economy is now facing big headwinds as the housing market falters badly. GDP grew at an annual rate of 1.1% in the 1st quarter 2008.The highly inbebted British consumer and the faltering financial markets which propelled the British economy and the area around London cause further problems for 2008 and 2009. And Gordon Brown does not have much room in the national budget to stimulate the economy with additional spending. Consumer price inflation is at 3.3% and expected to reach 45 so there is not much room to cut interest rates.

LyrArc Article Gist
BP makes a final settlement with the states and the U.S. government for the Gulf oil spill. Of the $18.7 billion settlement in July 2015, the Clean Air Water Act penalty is $5.5 billion, the Natural Resource Damages are $7.3 billion, the 400 local government claims are $1 billion, the economic claims to 5 states are $4.9 billion, according to BP. Most of the money goes to the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Florida, for environmental improvement and economic development. Louisiana gets $6.8 billion. The settlement comes after court rulings went against BP. BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, says it provides -" A path to closure for BP and the Gulf. It resolves the last remaining legal exposures, provides clarity on costs." BP shares were up 5.1%, and Fitch Ratings say this strengthens its ratings. For BP this adds $10 billion in cost to $44 billion already incurred for legal and cleanup costs.

LyrArc Article Gist
Proposed capital injections into Peugeot from the French government and Dongfeng Motor.

LyrArc Article Gist
This Economist magazine editorial says the Republican plan for health care with its roll back of Medicaid expansion by limiting funding to states after 2020, and by scaling back subsidies especially for older Americans and not basing them on income levels, is likely to have its own problems just as the Affordable Care Act. One concern is that keeping healthy people in the market with a mandate that everyone have insurance is present but in a milder form with premiums going up by 30% in one year if they change their mind. There is concern that this may not work among insurers leading to an increase in premiums, pricing people out of the market in "a death spiral." This could lead to more people being priced out of the market as premiums rise. About 12 million people were added to Medicaid by increasing eligibility level to $16400, or 138% of poverty line- this reduced the uninsured from 16% in 2010 to 8.8% today. The Economist concludes that the Republican health care bill has its own problems, and that this bill does not clear up the problems in Obamacare by substituting Ryancare as the Republican bill is called. Peggy Noonan writing in the WSJ says this may have negative consequences for the new Republican base shift to populist support. Critics on the right like Rand Paul see even the reduced subsidies as an entitlement program, yet the Republicans can only change parts of the Affordable Care Act as they need 60 votes in the Senate where they only have a small majority.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
With better control over the coronavirus than U.S. and Europe, South Korea is not rushing to buy the vaccines developed by Pfizer or Moderna. It is waiting to see how the vaccine rollouts work in other countries before buying the vaccine. South Korea is also looking at getting better price from manufacturers after the rollouts in the U.S. and Europe. South Korea is moving cautiously and has said it wants to get 10 million doses through the Covax initiative the main global effort to provide broad access to vaccines. Another 20 million doses would be secured from private companies. This is in contrast to the approach in Japan where the government has signed deals for purchase of 290 million doses for 145 million people for its population of 126 million. The money allocated is $6.5 billion and the goal is to vaccinate everyone by first half of 2021.  If it works this would prepare Japan for the Tokyo Summer Olympics to open in July, after 1 year delay. South Korea has the freedom to do this and wait to see what vaccine works best with least long term effects because their are relatively fewer cases there. A total of 313 new daily cases on November 18, lower than daily cases in a single county in the state of Michigan in the U.S. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use anew kind of gene based technology that has never been approved to prevent infectious diseases. Other competition is the vaccine from Oxford and Astra Zeneca which uses an existing technology that is used in existing vaccines modified for use in coronavirus. The Oxford vaccine and a vaccine from Johnson and Johnson are expected to have a lower price. Because life is functioning very close to normal South Korea is in the unusual position of saying that its people have no reason to be anxious for vaccine procurement, as indicated by its deputy director of Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Only three fifths of the population is the target for vaccination by fall of 2021. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Christina Zander provides an exceptionally good report on what holds women back in work and managing positions in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Even in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, with a more enlightened outlook in gender relations, the number of women who are CEO's for 145 Nordic companies is only 3%. For the U.S. Fortune 500 this is about 5%. Good child care benefits and parental leave laws that promote a fair distribution of child raising responsibilities between men and women are part of the enlightened outlook in Nordic countries. Yet the number of women being promoted to senior positions is limited. Interestingly rules requiring quota for women on Boards of Directors have led to a different situation on Boards- in 2013 41% of the boards at Norway's public companies were women compared to 18% at private limited companies. About 5.8% of general managers at publicly listed companies were women in 2013, 15.1% in private companies. Sandvik's Ms. Einarsson was promoted to a senior position recently. She says the opposite is true, one needs to start not at the top but at the entry level to ensure women are fairly represented. Culture is part of the problem as even in companies with equal male and female employees, the managers are mostly men. Men are seen as more eager to take responsibilities and risks, and are more integrated into networks. Even childcare and paid parental leave can be deceptive. One researcher shows that Swedish women still take the major part of responsibility for children, with 75% of the 480 available days. Women managers and researchers point to the difficulties women face with a full time career or working over 60 hours a week in a management position, and combining this with picking up children from daycare. Sofia Falk is the founder of Wiminvest, which helps companies invest in geting talented women. Her suggestions are that companies offer other incentives instead of more money- an assistant, private child care, grocery shopping, shared management positions, technical solutions to be able to work at home. The CEO of Sandvik, Olof Faxander, is persistent in changing company attitudes- he has raised the proportion of women in management positions to 21% from 9% in 3 years, eventually hoping to reach 33%....

LyrArc Article Gist
Pemex (Petroleos Mexicanos) CEO Emilio Lozoya is fired and replaced by Gonzalez Anaya, a close friend of finance minister Videgaray, as the company experiences a liquidity crisis by Jan. 2016. Anaya is known for cost cutting as head of Mexico's government healthcare institute. This report in the WSJ cites a Pemex official who says at one point in Jan 2016 Pemex was down to $8 million in cash. Under Lozoya Pemex failed to introduce financial discipline ahead of collapsing oil prices. Anaya is expected to cut spending by 19% or $5.8 billion. Mexico's governemt made a capital injection into Pemex of $4.2 billion to pay debts to suppliers, and offered tax relief of $2.8 billion. Pemex output is down to 2.2 million barrels a day in March 2016, decline of 4.5%. Pemex cuts will come in putting off exploraion spending of $800 million in one field in the Gulf of Mexico and paying less to rent oil platforms.

LyrArc Article Gist
Pierre Beaudoin will step down as CEO as Bombardier announces a $1.59 billion loss for the 4th quarter of 2014. The loss for 2014 was $2.2 billion, compared to a profit of $1.4 billion in 2013. Revenues increased in 2014 from $18 billion to $20 billion. Beaudoin will remain as executive chairman. The new CEO is Alain Bellemare, former president and CEO of the United Technologies propulsion and aerospace systems group, which includes aircraft engine maker Pratt and Whitney.

LyrArc Article Gist
Ollie Pope's sensational 196 run batting helped England even the Test series against India. It happened even after Pope was recovering from injury and batted 11 nervous balls before he was out in the first innings against India. The Independent looks at Ollie Pope and his batting.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Trump administration released its framework for NAFTA negotiations. The framework is designed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit and promote "Buy America" provisions. It will challenge Mexico on labor and environmental matters, which is likely to win the support of Democrats. A mechanism for preventing countries from getting unfair advantage through currency manipulation is part of the framework, yet less of an issue with Mexico and Canada. It will also work to protect U.S. trade interests in an effort to appeal to workers who supported Trump in the 2016 election. Overall it does not deviate much from established U.S. trade policy, according to the WSJ. For this reason the new guidelines were welcomed by the Mexican and Canadian governments. Mexico and Canada also see this as an effort to modernize the agreement to reflect changes in technology and commerce since NAFTA was signed. Under fast track trade promotion authority the president's Trade Representative Mr. Lighthizer can start negotiations in 30 days. One of the matters up for change is the Chapter 19 dispute settlement mechanism which makes it easier for Canada and Mexico to avert trade sanctions. Mexico's economic prospects have improved as the NAFTA renegotiation avoids the sharp rhetoric of the election campaign. The Mexican peso which traded at 22 to the dollar in January 2017 following the U.S. election, is now trading in July 2017 at 18 to the dollar.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Volvo sales reached about 135,000-140,000 units in North America in 2003-2004 and is dropping since then down to about 100,000 units. Now Volvo worldwide which had a loss in the 2008 first quarter of $151 million on a decline in sales by $400 million and selling 22,000 fewer cars, compared to same quarter 2007, is cutting production. Volvo is affected by its mix in sales with larger cars and its larger SUV not selling as well as its smaller cars. This even though sales are expanding in Russia and China. The exchange rate between the Swedish kronor and the dollar is hurting Ford as the adverse exchange rate has cost Ford $1.7 billion in losses in the last 2 years. About 3000 workers buyouts in the last 2-3 years from a global workforce of 25,000. And 100 positions were cut through consolidation at a single North American headquarters in New Jersey. North American dealerships will be reduced from 350 to 300 by 2009. Production cuts are at plants making the larger models. Production has been cut at the Torslanda plant in western Sweden, where the pace of production will be cut by one third from 60 an hour to 44 an hour cars produced. The plant shift redction will lead to about 700 layoffs by January2009. No cutbacks are planned at the plant in Belgium which makes smaller cars and the S60 crossover SUV. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Social Democrats leader Sigmar Gabriel is Economics Minister in the coalition government of Angela Merkel in Germany. He is sympathetic to French premier Manuel Valls effort to reduce austerity in the 2015 French budget now being reviewed by Brussels. Here he takes the initiative to call for discussion on the issue of growth and austerity facing the European Union, by joining French Economics minister Emmanuel Macron in asking two economists Pisani-Ferry and Enderlein at the Berlin Institute of Governance for advice on generating growth. The process started in late summer with the defeat of the centre right government in Sweden which supported Merkel's strict austerity policies for balanced budgets. The elections to the European parliament showed the dire situation facing Cameron in Britain and Hollande in France with the unpopularity of austerity policies, higher taxes and cutbacks. The Socialist Hollande government has the lowest public opinion ratings of any postwar government in France, at 18%, and it is unwilling to go further down the road with austerity. At the same time Valls has found a partner in Italy with the growing popularity of Matteo Renzi in Italy who won 40% of the vote in Italy for the EU parliamentary elections of 2014. ECB president Mario Draghi, has generated the debate by saying at a October 2014 Brookings Institution conference in Washington D.C. that countries that have fiscal space (referring to Germany) should use it. He added that governments that did not take action in the economic crisis facing the eurozone of no growth will be swept away by public opinion. IMF president Lagarde, a former French Finance Minister under Sarkozy, has also questioned policy of strict austerity. For the first time since the start of the eurozone crisis in 2010 there is an opportunity for open discussion on future policies for renewal in the eurozone....

LyrArc Article Gist
The LDP gets only 191 seats, down from 247, in the 465 seat Japanese parliament, losing its majority in parliament. This means leader Shigeru Ishiba may have to resign and the LDP look for caolition partners. The Democratic Party of Japan won 148 seats up from 98 seats in the last parliament. Voter say they were against the one party monopoly politics, others called for change.

It also appears that the resignation of Fumio Kishida,the selection of Shigeru Ishiba only a couple of months back followed by the election have led to a loss of confidence in the LDP. Part of the reason is that Ishiba is an older politician and does not represent the new younger generation in Japan's conservative stagnant political scene with fragmentation of the opposition.