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German chancellor Merkel and the EU plan for aid to Spain's banks in Oct. 2012
10/18/2012
Merkel turns down an effort pushed by France and Spain at the Oct. 2012 EU leaders meeting for direct aid to Spanish banks. Instead money has to go from the European Stability Mechanism fund to Spain after a request by Spain for aid. The aid request by Spain would be met under program of conditionality set by the IMF, EU and ECB. Spain is delaying a request for aid as borrowing rates on Spanish bonds declined to about 5% by late October 2012. The Rajoy government in Spain faces regional spending problems and separatis sentiment in addition to high unemployment and a worsening situation with its banks. Merkel faces elections for chancellor in Germany in Sept. 2013 and says more time is needed to setup the eurozone banking supervisory authority- to be set up in the course of 2013 with the legal setup completed by Jan 2013 as a concession to France. This would push banking supervision and financial architecture till after the election.
Linked Articles
German Refusal on Bank Aid Mars European Summit
New York Times 10/19/2012
Europe Seeks a Spain StrategyWall Street Journal 10/18/2012
ECB president Mario Draghi and the pragmatic and activist approach developed at the MIT Economics department
10/02/2012
Linked Articles
How ECB Chief Outflanked German Foe in Fight for Euro
Wall Street Journal 10/02/2012
MIT Forged Activist Views of Central Bank Role and Cinched Central Bankers' TiesWall Street Journal 12/12/2012
The Obama admnistration and the conflict in Syria
08/28/2012
A brief history shows the Alawite community constitutes about 13% of the population in Syria and live mainly in the coastal region near the Mediterranean. Under the French Alawites generally supported the colonial regime and the community was used by the French colonial regime to act as a buffer as they ruled a predominantly Sunni population. The Alawites joined the military and Hafez Assad, an Alawite general, seized control in 1971. His son now rules Syria. The Obama administration has largely missed the struggle of the people for freedom from dictatorships in Syria and Egypt under Mubarak.. With Turkey and Egypt supporting the young people in Syria, the U.S. investment is minor in military and other support compared to the cost of letting the war continue with unintended consequences for the entire region.
Linked Articles
New York Times 11/13/2012
Assad Draws Shock Troops From Elite Sect in SyriaWall Street Journal 08/28/2012
Canada's DBRS, a little known credit ratings firm that made a large difference for the credit ratings of Italy and Spain
08/09/2012
Canada's DBRS put less weight on the political shifts in Italy and more on the low growth rate. It rated Italy A (low) in November 2013, much higher than the ratings given by Moody's and S&P. This was important in the eurozone crisis because the European Central Bank uses the highest rating on a sovereign country's bonds to decide discounts on collateral pledged by banks to the ECB. DBRS has more faith in the lasting value of the euro and sees through the ups and downs of the crisis. It takes a similiar upbeat long term view of Spain. DBRS has credibility because it did not move ratings up as much before the 2008 financial crisis, and did not move the ratings down as much during the crisis, as the large credit ratings firms.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 08/09/2012
The Key to Italy's Rating Is Kept in CanadaWall Street Journal 11/02/2013
Kazuo Inamori's turnaround of Japan Airlines (JAL)
07/30/2012
Kazuo Inamori founded Kyocera and is considered one of Japan's leading corporate leaders along with such names as Sony's Akio Morita, and Honda's Soichiro Honda. At age 77, Inamori took up the task of revitalizing Japan Airlines and turning around the airline after huge losses. The story of how he managed to accomplish this using his unique management philosophy, cost management, JAL's strategies, and employee efforts.
Linked Articles
Japan Airlines Roars Back With an Eye on U.S. Market
Wall Street Journal 07/30/2012
‘Mikoshi’ Management: How Kazuo Inamori Lifted Japan AirlinesWall Street Journal 07/30/2012
EADS Airbus efforts to improve manufacturing efficiency and company culture to double operating margins by 2015
07/13/2012
Linked Articles
Airbus on Track to Double Profit Margin by 2015
Wall Street Journal 06/16/2013
Airbus Wants A380 Cost CutsWall Street Journal 07/13/2012
Tackling food insecurity in India and Pakistan- use of metal storage containers instead of jute bags or mud silos (2)
06/23/2012
Linked Articles
Hungering for a Solution to Food Losses
Wall Street Journal 12/25/2012
Indian Fiber Weaves a CrisisWall Street Journal 06/23/2012
Boeing and lessons learned from the $50 billion Dreamliner project- (1) a shift to incremental improvement for the path ahead
06/08/2012
No more moonshot projects, say CEO McInerney, and Ray Conner, head of the airplanes division. The cost of the Dreamliner exceeds $50 billion by 2015, according to Barclays Capital, including R&D and related costs. The focus is now on incremental change, on striving for simplicity, reducing complexity, and increasing reliability, after the experience of over 3 years of repeated delays, cost overruns, and reliability failures, high complexity, and overloaded manufacturing processes on the Dreamliner project.
Linked Articles
At Boeing, Innovation Means Small Steps, Not Giant Leaps
Wall Street Journal 04/03/2015
Boeing Hits a MilestoneWall Street Journal 06/08/2012
Paul Volcker, the traders at JP Morgan's London office, and "losses that would be socialized with the potential gains all private"
05/12/2012
Volcker described the situation to the U.S. Senate Banking committee the day before the story came out about the massive trades made by JP Morgan's trader, known as the "London whale." Losses would be socialized under "too big to fail" for the largest U.S. banks.
Linked Articles
Paul Volcker vs. JPMorgan’s London Whale - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/12/2012
'London Whale' Rattles Debt MarketWall Street Journal 05/13/2012
Criticism of Japan's central bank on the lack of an activist monetary policy to support economic growth 2010-2012
05/07/2012
Shinzo Abe of the LDP, the leading candidate for prime minister after general elections in Dec. 2012, says he will appoint a new central bank chief who supports an activist monetary policy. Abe supports the BOJ setting an inflation target of 2% compared to the 1% under current Bank of Japan chief Shirakawa. Both the governing DPJ and the LDP parties are strongly critical of Shirakawa and prefer to see an activist stance against deflation similiar to the one Ben Bernanke is taking against unemployment in the U.S. Abe returns to power after becoming LDP prime minister following the government of Junichiro Koizumi.
Linked Articles
Vote Challenges Japan's Central Bank
Wall Street Journal 12/13/2012
Pressure Rises on BOJ to Reach Inflation TargetWall Street Journal 05/07/2012
De Anza College in Cupertino, California where a Apple co-founder got his start and the implications of tax avoidance strategies
04/28/2012
A U.S. Senate Report in May 2013 points to tax avoidance strategies by Apple, and Apple CEO Tim Cook appears before a Senate hearing. EU leaders meet in Brussels to address the problems of tax avoidance by digital companies which aggravate the budget deficits of EU countries, especially at a time of cutbacks in infrastructure spending and education that supports the digital companies access to to human resources. De Anza College in Cupertino is where on of the Apple cofounders went to school. The head of the college describes the effects of cutbacks in funding on the college. On the other side of the Atlantic Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden's prime minister makes a similiar case saying the digital companies need access to infrastructure and educational centres which makes the payment of taxes used to fund this necessary for the whole system not to fall into dysfunction.
Linked Articles
Apple's Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations
New York Times 04/28/2012
Europe Tackles Tax EvasionWall Street Journal 05/22/2013
How a law from the 1980's requiring use of jute bags for storage creates problems for food storage in India (1)
04/13/2012
Linked Articles
India's Grain Storage Comes Up Short
Wall Street Journal 04/13/2012
Indian Fiber Weaves a CrisisWall Street Journal 06/23/2012
India's surging crude oil imports with a depreciating rupee reducing the impact of cuts in fuel subsidies- 2011-2015
04/11/2012
Cuts in fuel subsidies to reduce the current account deficit has less impact with a depreciating rupee. The emerging markets crisis in 2014 focusses attention on the current account deficits of emerging market countries. A decline in foreign investment adds to India's difficulties.
Linked Articles
India Grapples With Soaring Energy Costs
Wall Street Journal 04/11/2012
Rupee Throws Oil on India's Subsidy ProblemWall Street Journal 08/21/2013
Mo Yan and Wang Xiaofang exposing corruption and arrogant government officials in China through fictional characters and humor
10/11/2012
Both writers use fictional characters to vent people's anger at arrogant officials from the government and party- this predates the communist regime and goes back to the days from the earlier part of the twentieth century down to the present day.
Linked Articles
The Deeply Odd Lives of Chinese Bureaucrats
Wall Street Journal 03/14/2013
Mo Yan Mines a Deep Well of Material in ChinaNew York Times 10/11/2012
President Obama's second term- (3) failure to lead on the domestic front and how it relates to Syria-Iraq, the careful observations of Panetta and Woodward
09/07/2012
Leon Panetta, U.S. Defense Secretary under Obama, who was also U.S. president Clinton's chief of staff, and Bob Woodward, renown Washington Post journalist, say Obama failed to lead on domestic policy issues and his own agenda during the first term.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/07/2012
Former Defense Chief Panetta Criticizes Obama in New MemoirWall Street Journal 10/07/2014
How keeping seniors as a protected class in current Social Security proposals impacts the young and leads to shrinking investments in defense, social programs, research, education and infrastructure
08/16/2012
This includes the Republican Paul Ryan proposal which also stays away from touching Social Security for today's seniors and passes on the costs to the young. Democrats are using demagoguery and intimidation on this issue. Samuelson cites CBO estimates which show that even with shrinking defense and nondiscretionary spending by a third the U.S. deficit would still be 6.75% of GDP in 2023.
Linked Articles
Robert Samuelson: Ryan’s budget asks nothing of the elderly -; unfortunately - The Washington Post
Washington Post 08/16/2012
Mr. Biden falls flat - The Washington PostWashington Post 08/16/2012
The risks to Chrysler in 2013-2015 with delayed new and redesigned models, and higher incentive costs reducing margins
07/31/2012
Lower cash flow from the demands for new and redesigned models in a very competitive market, the higher incentives costs reducing margins, combined with losses in the Fiat European operations, will pose challenges for Marchionne in 2013-2014.
Linked Articles
Chrysler Profit Up, Cautions on Spending
Wall Street Journal 01/31/2013
In Turnabout, Chrysler Profit Offsets Fiat LossWall Street Journal 07/31/2012
Kazuo Inamori of Japan Air Lines and Akio Toyoda of Toyota Motor- Renewal of Japanese management style 2010-2015
07/30/2012
Linked Articles
‘Mikoshi’ Management: How Kazuo Inamori Lifted Japan Airlines
Wall Street Journal 07/30/2012
To Whom Do Japan’s Most Powerful Turn for Advice? The Sensei of SeaweedWall Street Journal 09/01/2015
The failure of Barclays bank management under CEO Diamond in setting artificially low LIBOR rates
06/28/2012
Linked Articles
Barclays Executives Are Said To Know of Low Rates
New York Times 07/02/2012
Lie Bores Into Credibility of Barclays and the CityWall Street Journal 06/28/2012
The drop in commodity prices with slowing growth in China balanced by higher absolute levels of demand 2014-2015
06/11/2012
Linked Articles
China Slowdown Is Rocking Raw Materials
Wall Street Journal 03/12/2014
Commodity prices drop on economic woes in Europe, China, U.S. - The Washington PostWashington Post 06/11/2012
Hype, deep pocketed investors and soaring valuations in Silicon Valley- 2012-2015
05/17/2012
The makings of a new bubble in Silicon Valley.
Linked Articles
The $1 Billion Club Gets Crowded
Wall Street Journal 05/17/2012
Search for the 'Next Big Thing' leads to Soaring ValuationsNew York Times 01/21/2014
Living wills of major banks in the U.S. under Dodd-Frank legislation
05/10/2012
The "orderly liquidation authority" of the FDIC and the U.S. Federal Reserve under the Dodd-Frank legislation provides a framework for bank resolution in the event of a crisis- something lacking in the 2008 financial crisis when Lehman Brothers collapsed. The largest finanial firms are required to write living wills so that orderly resolution can take place. Nine of the largest finacnial firms in the U.S. including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and UBS, have submitted the wills to the Fed and the FDIC.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/10/2012
Banks' 'Living Wills' UnveiledWall Street Journal 07/03/2012
Iran's young people under 35 who make up about 70% of the population of 74 million, and the future of Iran in 2015
05/07/2012
Linked Articles
Iran’s Legions of Weary Young People Push Against the Old Ways
Wall Street Journal 07/08/2015
Young Iranians Confront a Constricted FutureNew York Times 05/07/2012
The Way Out for the U.S,. Europe, India and Pakistan- Boskin and Shaikh push for expanding trade and a free trade agreement
04/16/2012
A way out of conflict, wasted resources, and misshaped priorities, through a strong push for expanded trade and a free trade agreement between India and Pakistan. After several generations of conflict a way out. An opportunity to do in South Asia what happened between France and Germany under Adenauer, Monnet and De Gaulle. The Shaikh-Boskin proposal calls for expanded trade between India and Pakistan, and a free trade agreement between the two neighbors similiar to NAFTA in North America, and the European Common Market in Europe. This would generate a surge in growth in South Asia similiar to what happened in China in the last two decades and create new opportunities for hundreds of millions of people in South Asia.
Linked Articles
Pakistan's Untold Economic Story
Wall Street Journal 04/24/2012
A Passage to India-Pakistan PeaceWall Street Journal 04/16/2012
How the U.S. Justice Department antitrust lawsuit for pricing collusion against publishers is hurting Barnes & Noble and other book publishers
04/12/2012
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 04/13/2012
U.S. Alleges E-Book SchemeWall Street Journal 04/12/2012
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