LyrArc Article Gist
President Biden gets his $1.9 trillion aid package through the U.S. Congress with 220 votes for and 211 against. All Democrats except one voted in favor and all Republicans voted against. Earlier the $15 minimum wage was dropped from the bill to get it through the Senate. Also kept were income criteria to prevent the $1400 check to individuals in households going to the most affluent income earners. The Senate vote was close - 50 to 49 in a party line vote. The Biden aid package comes on top of earlier aid under president Trump in 2020. This aid is likely to provide enough stimulus to the US economy to restore growth to levels that were there before the pandemic hit.

LyrArc Article Gist
GE's decision to exit the banking business ends a period of aggressively reducing taxes using GE Capital operations. This ended in disaster in the 2008 global fianncial crisis with GE shares down to $6 and GE needing a government rescue. GE reported in its securities filing that its tax rate of 10.3% in 2014 would have been 17% without the use of GE Capital operations to reduce taxes. Experts say GE's tax rate is lower using GE Capital because of doing business in lower tax jurisdictions overseas and global funding base. In 2013 securities filing cited in the Washington Post show GE taxes were an astonishing 4.2%. GE will repatriate $36 billion in overseas earnings as the first step and pay taxes to the U.S. Treasury of $6 billion.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ editorial says despite his call for "hard-hitting sanctions" prime minister Cameron of Britain has not taken action to stop the flow of "dirty money" from Russia into the City of London. About $75 billion left Russia so far in 2014 in capital flight as the Russian elite shifts money overseas including to the City of London. France has a planned $1.6 billion sale of Mistral naval ships to Russia, and will need the British example to cancel this sale. Putin's strategy is to distance Europe from the U.S. In the EU countries opposing tougher sanctions are Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Greece. Netherlands suffered the most with 193 Dutch citizens killed in the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine.

LyrArc Article Gist
Lula and Milei clash at Mercosur. Lula of Brazil talks about a humanitarian crisis in US policy to pressure Venezuela's military installed government but fails to say that a third of Venezuela's population, about 10 million people have left the country as refugees to neighboring countries including Colombia and the US. Inflation at over 100% and mismanagement of the economy have destroyed a once relatively affluent oil producing country in Latin America. Hyperinflation in 2018, and 270% inflation in 2025, and lack of open free elections, lack of food and medicine. A story of socialist ideas that have led to military involvement in politics followed by economic disaster in the western hemisphere, in a country that had a educated middle class and a thriving oil industry. Not since the Spanish opening up Latin America to immigration from Europe by 1600 has the continent of Latin America seen such a mass migration which is not reflected in many media outlets including the NYT, Washington Post and BBC, Guardian. The blockade by the US of oil into and out of Venezuela is affecting Cuba and other countries which depend on this oil. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
G7 Finance Ministers plan to release 300 million barrels of oil (2 weeks worth of Straits of Hormuz lost oil production ) to keep oil prices in check. Oil Prices reach $101 a barrel after 1 week of the US Israel war with Iran. Oil going through Straits of Hormuz are 20 million barrels a day, if 300 million barrels are released that would cover another 15 days of the war. By that time safety has to be reestablished, and additional production brought from Venezuela, from Russia for use by India, so that maybe 50% of the 20 million barrels can be produced from other locations in the world to make up for the loss. Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency says-  "In addition to the challenges of transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a substantial amount of oil production has been curtailed. This is creating significant and growing risks for the market. "IEA member countries currently hold over 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation."       ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The new Social Studies, Civics and English Reading curriculum for K-12 in Texas Schools looks at a broader approach to reading of classics which have been largely bypassed in an erroneous approach to reading focused on whatever is in contemporary trends. The current approach is leading to a generation of children who do not know much about the Nation's history and culture and form of government, about the English language and its prominent American authors. One draft includes books like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle for kindergartners, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle for seventh graders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech for eighth graders. Frederick Douglas and Langston Hughes are also included. It also has passages from the Bible, including a meditation on Love from First Corinthians.  All this is happening as the Nation has a new Test alternative to ACT and SAT called the CLT Classical Learning Test which provides longer reading passages from English and American Literature and history, science, technology, world knowledge, far better than ACT or SAT. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Patrick Barta's exceptional reporing on Manek Chowk, a busy industrial and commercial centre of Ahmedabad. Manek Chowk, the public market in Ahmedabad, India, where street vendors find jobs in the informal economy. The informal economy provides most of the jobs in countries like India and Brazil. They could be street vendors, rickshaw drivers, workers doing textile stitching work and being paid by the piece, and so on. Ahmedabad has 55,000 richshaw drivers, 70,000 street vendors, 70,000 construction workers, and 45,000 rovish trash collectors and recyclers. Most of the city's once prominent textile mills have vanished or are rotting. If Ahmedabad makes it through this difficult period with job losses in India, its because of a thriving local informal economy. It may not provide what a regular job provides, but it helps people feed their families and they are happy to make it through the tough times. And even in the better times the jobs just do not exist in the proportion necessary in countries like India and Brazil. Consider this. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of formal jobs in India stayed flat at about 35 million, while informal jobs grew 17% to 423 million, according to the Indian government. These are the most recent years for which information is available. Economists say the creation of formal jobs may have picked up after 2005, but not by much. The situation is like this all over much of Africa, Asia and Latin America. And as companies layoff formal workers in favor of cheaper employees part-time and without benefits, the importance of the informal economy grows. In Ahmedabad the rights of these people are protected in the case of women by the Self Employed Women's Association of India, which numbers 1 million people across India....

LyrArc Article Gist
DJT Zelensky meeting August 18 2025-symbolic black suit instead of olive shirt as Ukraine seeks peace with Russia, an atmosphere of hope for peace settlement replacing the atmosphere of war.

LyrArc Article Gist
With poor sales for the Blackberry Z 10 in 2013, AT&T and Best Buy retailers are discounting the phone to $49 for a refurbished phone, and $99 for a new phone from the original price of $199. Such steep discounting soon after the March 2013 launch of the Z 10 suggests the phone is selling poorly.

LyrArc Article Gist
The $350 billon in proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid in the 2011 deficit reduction talks will do little to reduce the rapid rise in medical costs. Instead it shifts the costs to seniors, state governments and public hospitals. Gail Wilensky, former head of Medicare under the first President Bush and now a senior fellow at Project Hope, says this should not be confused with real reform to Medicare which reduces the rapid increase in costs. It does little in the way of fundamental changes that would reduce the growth in costs. About $53 billion comes from reductions to senior's ability to buy extra Medicare supplemental insurance or Medigap. Another $14-26 billion would have the government reduce payments to hospitals for unpaid debt. The few items to curtail fraud in the use of CT scans or purchase of power wheelchairs would provide savings of $2-3 billion over 10 years. $4 billion comes from lowering Medicaid payments to hospitals treating a high percentage of low income patients, hospitals such as Cook County Hospital in Chicago, San Francisco General Hospital, and Parkland Hospital in Dallas....

LyrArc Article Gist
Boeing's goal is to make 10 Dreamliners a month by late 2013. The current rate is 2 per month, which Boeing hopes to move up to 2.5 a month by November 2011, and 3.5 a month by early Spring. Boeing CEO, McInerney, says it will take a few years before each Dreamliner turns a profit. He expects this will happen before 2020. The large investment during this decade should see returns in terms of an annuity for 25-35 years, said McInerney. The Dreamliner is the first jetliner to be made largely of plastic-composite materials, in place of aluminium. To build the Dreamliner Boeing had to accomplish what McInerney calls "game-changing innovation," and at the same time achieve improvements in production techniques. Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division, says the next step is to take what takes an hour and half to assemble and bring this down to 15 minutes. This will help meet a long backlog of orders. Boeing has 820 orders for the Dreamliner as of Sept. 2011. The first Dreamliner was delivered on Sept. 26, 2011, to All Nippon Airways....

LyrArc Article Gist
Areva will take a writedown of 1.46 billion euros on the value of its uranium mining business. It will take an additional writedown of 800 million euros for the nuclear business following the nuclear accident in Japan. Areva expects a 2011 full year operating loss of 1.4-1.6 billion euros. Areva's new CEO, Luc Oursel, says he plans to reduce the company's debt load. About 1.2 billion euros of assets will be put on sale. The French sovereign fund, SFI, says it will buy Areva's 26% stake in mining group Eramet. Areva faces losses on its acquisition for $2 billion of uranium mining company UraMin, which has declined in value by 80% as uranium prices dropped and uranium reserves in African mines turned out to be less than estimated. Areva's new plans show organic growth of 3-6% from 2012 to 2013, increasing to 5-8% in 2015. Areva's shares at 19.20 euros on Dec. 12, 2011, were down 45% since the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Britain and the Czech Republic in Europe, China and India in Asia, plan to invest in nuclear energy....

LyrArc Article Gist
Charlie Rose talks to Bowles and Simpson of the President's Deficit Commission. On health care and Paul Ryan's point that the Deficit Commission did not take on health care, Simpson says they did not do as much as Paul would like to see, but they have $500 billion in cuts for the next 10 years. Simpson says its garbage to say that they balanced the budget on the backs of Social Security, and Bowles says they took a very balanced approach. With the Social Security Trust fund running out in 2037, Bowles-Simpson raises a little bit of revenue, benefit cuts mostly on upper-end people. On the Bush tax cuts Bowles says, if you give more tax cuts you lose revenue. Their approach was to broaden the base, bring down rates. Bowles points to $1.1 trillion worth of tax expenditures, what he calls spending, in the tax code that benefit mostly upper-end people. Some of these are mortgage interest deductions, deductions for state and local taxes, charitable deductions, and he says their approach was to eliminate those and bring tax rates down to 8%, 14%, and 23%, and the corporate tax rate down to 26%....

LyrArc Article Gist
British budget cuts announced in Parliament by Britain's Finance Minister, George Osborne. About 83 billion pounds in cuts by 2015 were announced. But Joseph Stiglitz, writing in The Guardian, argued that the plan was a big gamble, as declining tax revenues with lower growth, would lead to smaller deficit reductions. The gamble is that the private sector will pick up, and make up for the reduction in public outlays. If this does not happen, this risks sending the economy into a tailspin. Osborne said that 490,000 jobs will be lost over the next 4 years, some from attrition. Payments to the long term unemployed will also be cut for those who fail to seek jobs, saving $11 billion a year. A new 12 month limit will be imposed on long term jobless benefits. Increase in the retirement age will start in 2020, from 65 to 66 years. At the same time free eye tests, prescription drugs and bus passes remain. Premier Cameron promised not to make cutbacks in health care in the period before the election. This was his way of helping the Conservatives make a comeback to power....

LyrArc Article Gist
The Pirate Party, a party of digital activists favoring more transparency and sharing of information online has about 10% of voter support according to recent polls. The Pirate party concept started first in Sweden, but it is in Germany where it has gained political support. This party was founded in 2006 in an underground Berlin nightspot C-Base, where many digital activists gathered. In Sept. 2011, the German Pirate Party gained 9% of the vote, 15 of 249 seats in the Berlin state elections. This was repeated in the Saarland state elections, and now is likely to happen in elections in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia. These votes are coming at the expense of the Free Democrats and the Greens. The Free Democrats are hurt badly, and may not make the 5% of votes needed to win seats in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Greens are seen as part of the establishment, giving the Pirate party support from people thinking outside of the establishment. The polls show the Christian Democrats having voter support of 35%, Social Democrats 27%, Left 7%, Greens 14%, Free Democrats 3%....

LyrArc Article Gist
By March 2014 the U.S. stock market has seen 5 years of gains since the low reached in 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) increased 151% since March 9, 2009, when it hit a low with the global financial crisis. The Dow was at 16452 on March 7, 2014, the S&P 500 at 1878. This makes it the fifth longest running-comparable to the one after 1987- and the fifth in gains since 1900, according to Ned Davis Research. S&P 500 trades at 16 times component companies earnings for the past year, according to the FactSet, similiar to the level at which stocks peaked in 2007. Using a measure developed by Robert Shiller with a 10 year average of earnings gives a P/E ratio of 25 times earnings, compared to historical average of 16.5, and 27.5 in 2007. Shiller's measure reached its current level in 2003 before the bull market ended in 2007. The biggest support for the stock market has been Federal Reserve support by buying $3 trillion in bonds in the open market since 2008. This support is gradually being reduced as the economy recovers....

LyrArc Article Gist
The new oil law allowing foreign oil companies to compete with Pemex passes the Senate in Mexico and now goes to the lower house. The legislation removes the 4 oil worker union's representatives from the 15 person Board of Pemex. The oil law now leaves only a 10 member board- five appointed by the government and five independent members approved by the Senate. Because past opening of investment by the private sector in state owned railways and telecom sectors has led to wealth passing into the hands of a few business owners and worsening competitiveness, there is concern in Mexico about how this law will be implemented so that it benefits Mexico and Mexicans through foreign investment in the oil industry. Leftist parties are pushing a bill in the lower house to allow a referendum on the oil law by 2015 if 1.6 million signatures are collected. Oil experts point to foreign investment in the Mexican oil industry as further enhancing the prospects of North American oil production in comparison to the position of Middle East oil producers, because of Mexico's large shale oil and gas reserves and the prospects for new exploration in deep waters. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
How times change. A series of acquisitions in the 1990's in a buying spree accounts for a big part of the $4.5 billion in debt of Nortel. Now it is finding it difficult to sell some of these assets including a unit that makes internet related and fiber optic equipment. And the company is declaring bankruptcy to avoid an interest payment of $107 milllion. Even with $2.4 billion in cash that amount is rapidly depleting. Since 2000 the company has gone through several overhauls and 16 rounds of layoffs. Analysts do not expect it to survive and expect it to go into liquidation. Competitors like Cisco have prospered while Nortel declined. The year 2000 when the tech bubble burst was the beginning of the decline of Nortel. Before that Nortel was worth one third of the value of the Toronto Stock Exchange. It traded then at $124.50 Canadian dollars in July 2000, it now trades at 12 Canadian cents. Along the way the company was mired in a accounting scandal leading to criminal charges against 3 former executives. The economic downturn appears to have sealed Nortel's fate. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Home Prices have overshot income growth for some years , it would take another drop of 10-12 % in home prices given income growth in coming years to bring them into balance but as prices tend to overshoot in either direction Merrill thinks it would be more like another 20% to 30% decline and Goldman looks at another 15% decline home prices. The Goldman and Merrill estimates which see a strong downside have been borne out so far. For certain states like California, Florida and Arizona where the situation is worse in terms of the gap between incomes and home prices it may be higher. As home prices decline the Loan to Value Ratio rises and as Martin Feldstein fears in his article suggesting Loan Substitution with the Federal Government stepping in with a loan for 20% of the value of a loan, see link, when LTV is at 100% then it makes sense and is the rational thing to do to walk away from a house and default. This expected price decline would thus lead to losses on the mortgage securties and worsen the effect on the economy and on lending....

LyrArc Article Gist
Wow!!! While the rest of the industry was busy building large vehicles and trucks and SUV's Honda invested 16 million dollars and its time in developing a hydrogen cell capable of powering a car to get 60 miles per hour acceleration in 9 seconds, and speeds upto 100 miles per hour, cut the size of the fuel cell to 150 punds and the size of a box shaped desktop PC, and giving the fuel cell 280 miles on one fillup, almost similar to a gasoline car. What is different is the cleanness, no polluting exhaust and 74 miles per gallon. Only 200 will be built initially, but a production line and mass production is the goal Honda is working on. Already the fuel cells are built on a production line resembling a semiconducor factory, and Honda aims to bring the cost of production down to $100,000 in 10 years or sooner. The nice thing about hydrogen fuel cell cars is that there are no byproducts generated except water and heat. It works by the fuel cell combining hydrogen with oxygen from ordinary air to make electricity....

LyrArc Article Gist
General Motors lost a third of its value in a single day as the Dow plunged 679 points on Thursday, October 9, 2008. Why? Citigroup Global Markets estimates that GM which needs between $11 billon and $14 billion in cash to run its business, would end next year with $998 million. Citigroup says "very thin even with a $5 billon asset sale execution." And car sales have not yet reflected the economic downturn's impact on unemployment and consumption, and the effect of foreclosures increasing at an accelerating rate on consumption, as well as the impact of loss of savings in a severe drop in value of shares of over 25% in 2008. As conditions depress the global auto market from Europe to China and India to Brazil, so the few bright spots for GM and Ford overseas are fading quickly. Gimme Credit, an independent ratings agency says Ford has "nine to 12 quarters of liquidity". Citigroup estimates Ford would end next year with an "adequate cash surplus of $5.7 billion". But from the standpoint of the deepening economic downturn these numbers could change as sales drop further in 2009 and increase the losses at Ford. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This editorial in the WSJ describes the sharp increase in premiums under the Affordable Care Act of president Obama. The average premium increase is about 24.2% according to a Barclay's analysis, and as high as 43.9% in states such as Illinois. Bill Clinton calls it the craziest thing with small business affected, and some premiums doubling. Of the 17 million people in the individual market eight million buy without subsidies. One in five enrollees cannot qualify for subsidies. Democrats say subsidies are too small. Hillary Clinton has proposed to have a Medicare "buy-in" for people ages 55-65, and a "public option" government run plan. Republicans want to rewrite the law. But this depends on which party wins the Senate, with the election in Missouri giving Democrats an opportunity to maintain a Senate majority.

LyrArc Article Gist
Krugman points out that about 13 million Americans without insurance gained health insurance under the Obama plan. He says if it is turned back 8 million whites without a college degree in that 13 million will lose health insurance. Of these eight million about two out of three voted for Trump, so that 5 million Trump supporters could now lose health insurance even though they are older and have more health conditions. Krugman says this aspect of the election campaign was not covered well in the misinformation and social media information of the 2016 campaign, and the lack of media focus on the important issues in the election. On manufacturing jobs he says most of the jobs lost are not returning, and only token jobs such as at a Carrier plant in the news will take their place.

LyrArc Article Gist
Steps taken by Secretary of State Tillerson are drawing criticism from Senator McCain and Democrats in Congress for weakening the diplomatic efforts of the U.S. Before taking office Tillerson, who believes the State Department has a bloated staff, announced a 31% cut in its budget. A year later  the cuts are leading to the departure of many senior diplomats. Some like Mr. Miller have received only a few minutes to talk to Tillerson, six top career diplomats were fired by Tillerson. Most hiring is stopped and a $25,000 buyout is being promoted to get 2000 career diplomats to leave by October 2018. This report describes a retirement class for diplomats with 26 senior employees, including two acting secretaries of statein early 50's who would normally wait many years before retiring. The top two position ranks at State are career ambassador and career minister. This is cut from 39 to 19. Political appointees are also missing to fill positions with only 10 of 44 political positions filled. Some experts see a loss also in diversity as this happens. Differences between the Nikki Haley, who is the next senior official in America's foreign service and a potential successor to Tillerson, and Mr Tillerson are also complicating the situation at the State Department. During the Obama and Bush administrations experts cited the weak role played by the institutions such as diplomatic services in promoting America's role in the world. This was not corrected in any significant way in the last decade. The position of the diplomatic service has weakened further, along with the abandonment of America's leadership role under the presidency of Mr. Trump. It will require a future president's concerted effort to restore the diplomatic service under new leadership and with a new generation of diplomats more in tune with the multipolar world of today.   ...