LyrArc Article Gist
The U.S. unemployment rate drops from 5.8% in Nov. 2014 to 5.6% in Dec. 2014, according to the Labor Department. But hourly earnings failed to register growth. Average hourly earnings declined in Dec. 2014 from the prior month, and increased by only 1.7% over the prior year, just a little bit above the inflation rate of 1.3%. Overall 2.95 million jobs were created in 2014. Yet 8.7 million Americans looking for a job could not find one. The U.S. Federal Reserve officials see tepid wage growth as a sign of slack in the labor market. The Dec. 16-17 Fed meeting minutes show that "most participants saw no clear evidence of a broad based acceleration in wages." The labor force participation rate is also stuck at a low level- 62.7% in Dec. 2014. The U-unemployment rate that includes involuntary part time workers and workers marginally attached to the labor force was at 11.2% in Dec. 2014. This includes workers too discouraged to look for work and people working parttime because they could not get full time work. It is steadily dropping from 16.6% in 2010 to 14.4% by 2012, 13.1% by 2013, and now 11.2% in 2014, showing steady improvement but still high....

LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ was effective in calling to the attention of the US president that tactics of one Border Patrol officer were against the American tradition and appeared to be not what police, ICE and Border Patrol, DHS itself was doing in the past. Greg Bovino of Border Patrol led sweeps in LA, Chicago and other cities in what people inside ICE and DHS including Border Head Homan  considered  "unnecessarily aggressive"  and less effective tactics. By being provocative in tactics this attracted more protestors on streets, made law enforcement look worse than when it was using the normal approach of ICE, and by reducing the local authorites cooperation required more and more Border patrol and ICE agents till it became unworkable and attracted critics from within the government and Republicans in Congress. Even DJT said that the this agent was an "out there kind of guy." In Congress many Republicans including Kennedy of Louisiana went on the floor of the Senate asserting the right of peaceful protest enshrined in the US Constitution and called for soul searching to get effective but the right kind of law enforcement that was the tradition in America. Anotehr aspect of what happened in Minneapolis is the troubled history of the city as this is where George Floyd and unarmed man during Covid lost his life in a situation with Minneapolis police, which had already created a sense of unease in that city, compared to Chicago, and Los Angeles BP and ICE sweeps which did not end up like this. In Nashville, and Washington DC National Guard not ICE operated which has different training.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Russian negotiator was in Washington DC for 3 days of talks suggesting the US Peace Plan of 28 Points has substantial Russian support. Will it overcome German EU and Ukraine objections?

LyrArc Article Gist
Institute of Fiscal Studies, IFS, shows where the money is going in Labour's first Budget. See graphs of the household income over the 75 years under Conservative and Labour governments, which shows slower growth in household income over the next 5 years. Healthcsare and Education are growing at 4%. The growth of 6-10% is for local government spending, housing, communities and local government, work and pensions, Justice, HM Revenue. The slow rise in household incomes to 2030 is the result of trickle down economics which is sold vigorously by some groups as economic orthodoxy including the largest corporations paying little in taxes. This is true also of the US. FDR called it Tory policies and policies that say trickle down economics works when it doesn't. FDR said at DNC in 1932- "And we thought the Tories left in 1776." Today this is why UK household incomes show slight growth to 2030, and even this Labour Government is hesitant to boldly question this economic orthodoxy.  For Britain the debacle of Brexit turning some legitimate questions of immigration into isolation from economies of mainland Europe adds to the problem.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Questions and Answers about Islamic State on the BBC website give a short and simple look at Islamic State or ISIS in Syria and Iraq, its origins and how it developed upto the Iraqi government's efforts to retake Mosul in northern Iraq in Dec. 2016.

LyrArc Article Gist
Women executives at a panel discussion sponsored by Columbia Universiy in New York, in Dec. 2014, provide ideas for getting more women in Tech fields. Ideas include, mentoring, with early education exposure to technology careers- as early as middle school. One executive says she takes in 150 female high school students to Washington D.C. for leadership training. Other ideas are to turn maternity leave into a positive feature of women's lives by letting women who do well keep their duties by delegating them to others while they are away, and making a smooth pathway back to work full time. The suggestion is to allow a gradual transition to ramp back up to full time work, and allow flexible hours, working from home. In daily work women are encouraged to look for partnerships with other areas of the organization for getting results, and being sensitive to which areas of the organization they need to build support in.

LyrArc Article Gist
Spain sold 4.5 billion euros of debt, on Jan 17, 2013. The average interest rate on 2 year bonds was 2.71%, down from 3.36% in Dec. 2012. The interest rate on the 10 year Spanish bond was at 5.03%.

LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ Editorial Board on Shooting of 2 National Guardsmen in Washington DC November 25 2025 by Afghan national. WSJ says all Afghans including ones leaving peacefully in the US should not be held responsible for the actions of one person.

LyrArc Article Gist
The opening to Cuba in Dec. 2014 comes as a new generation of Cuban Americans have no memories of the embargo and Fidel Castro period. The increasing population of Puerto Ricans in the Orlando area also reduces the size of the Cuban American community as a proportion of the total Hispanic community in Florida.

LyrArc Article Gist
France's Macron introduces a three step plan for reopenings after lockdown, with dates of December 15 and January 20 for reopening the economy. Shops will be allowed to open under strict social distancing rules for Christmas sales. If cases per day drops below 5000 the government will lift the lockdown on Dec. 15 and replace it with a 9 pm curfew. " After saying that spirits can be low, debates get heated, Macron said "we need to do everything to prevent a third wave, a third lockdown."

LyrArc Article Gist
Pope Francis and Cardinal Parolin have an intimate knowledge of the situation in Latin America and Cuba. This made it possible for the Vatican to host the meeting of the U.S. and Cuban sides in October, to set the stage for the restoration of diplomatic relations in Dec. 2014.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ report says Chris Christie's role has been reduced in the transition. Mike Spence, the Vice President, is at the top of the organization, Vince Preibus, who led the Republican National Committee, will be chief of staff at the White House, and Steve Bannon will be the strategist. Trump is the only person to be elected president without holding a government or military position. This makes it imperative for Republicans to put in key people with experience into the adminsitration. Others who are playing a critical role are Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who supported Trump from the early days of his candidacy. Bannon is seen as strategist for his focus on midwestern industrial states and the working class, traditionally Democratic constituencies, which gave Trump the small margin of 110,000 votes to win in 2016. 

LyrArc Article Gist
DW.com looks at the elections in Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa and Namibia, with active civil society, and development efforts in Senegal, efforts to restore the popularity of the ANC in South Africa with new plans for land reform.  

LyrArc Article Gist
Russia's leading business paper Vedemosti summed up the situation on Dec. 17, 2014, in its editorial- "This is a very dangerous situation; we are separated from a fully fledged run on the banks by just a few days..If the currency market is not reassured right now, the banking system will require large external support." Warning signs were evident at a banking conference in Moscow in October 2014 when the Economy minister, the central bank head Nabiullina, and the head of the largest bank Sberbank, German Gref, expressed skepticism about the economic policies and the risks involved. Not until Dec. 17, was a decisive response evident and the risks of a collapsing ruble openly addressed with economic actions by the Putin administration. A collapsing ruble would have repercussions on the global financial markets and slowing global economy, increasing potential geopolitical risk, and adding to risk of contagion for other emerging markets, which was reflected in the nervousness of global financial markets on Dec 15-16, 2014....