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Evan Newmark says the UAW's attitudes still go back to a different era. And without change at the UAW taxpayers who now own alarge part of GM have as a partner a union with old habits and old attitudes that contributed to GM's collapse.

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Q. and A. with Rohde and Keeler of the NYT on the Rohde account of being with the Taliban for 7 months.

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How Renault- Nissan execute plan to build low cost cars for markets in Eastern Europe, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, North Africa and India, China. A new plant with initial capacity of 200,000 Logan type small cars to open in Tangiers, Morocco. Plants already operate in Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and Russia for Logan type vehicles. The Logan small car at $7500 is still a middle class car in countries like India so Renault is talking to Bajaj Auto of India,a maker of motorbikes and scooters, about making a $3000 car. The scenario that large automakers are looking at is one in which makers of small cars in India like Tata and Cherry in China master the art of making small cars with lower cost components and good quality and then move upscale using this expertise to underprice them in their segments like Toyota and Honda have done. Renault moved into the low cost segment in Sept 2004 with the Logan made in Romania, so its moving quickly in this segment and it is becomin a key part of Renault-nissan's global strategy. Note that Logan sales are about 400,000 but only 50,000 of these sold in France and Germany relatively small sales in Western Europe. ...

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Clearly a company thats privately held like Chrysler now is under Cerberus and under Feinberg's direction can provide the incentives, compensation and equity that others can't match. Feinberg was talking to Jim Press since this summer, and leaves Toyota at a time when it doesn't have any respected American face. Its surprising that his new role at Toyota even as a Board member left him away from the day to day operations that he loved doing and was unhappy about his role as mainly a public affairs person. At the same time the events in the credit markets and the broader economy also point to the urgency of having the right leadership in place. This is reflected in the difficulty financing $10 billion of the remaining Chrysler debt in the credit markets with investors reluctant to invest in prevailing market conditions, thus Cerberus and Daimler each took $2 billion in debt to complete the buyout. Top priorities for Chrysler getting the same concessions that the UAW gave GM and Ford in 2005 for health benefits. Tom LaSorda will lead these negotiations as well as look after plant operations and purchasing. Jim Press will lead the effort for product strategy, marketing and shaping Chrysler's new dealer network from the oversized network of 3700 dealers that it has become over the years. As this was his passion at Toyota and he has a decent credibility with Dealers. He also brings knowledge of the Toyota way of constant improvement which he applied in marketing and at the customer level in addition to its well known application in manufacturing....

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IBM in addition to rapidly upscaling its operations in India, adding 10,000 employees in 2007 alone for a total of 53,000 in India. This compares with 25,000 for all its Indian competitors combined. With its Pune facility attracting employees from its rivals. With $2 billion invested in R&D centers and 3000 engineers engaged in R&D. IBM in addition to this has gone after the Indian market getting about 10% of the domestic market with names like Bharti Airtel, DLF a real estate developer, Canara Bank, the Indian tax department, and so on. And it has done this when companies like Infosys have overlooked the Indian market.

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Costco and Walmart Sams Club are selling more flat panel LCD televisions and bringing aggressive pricing to the industry. This is helping Sony, Sharp and other makers because it is making flat panel LCD television affordable. Sales of LCD will increase as people convert both for the high definition signal and clarity of viewing and for the decor sleek new looks. especially since broadcasters will only sendout digital signals in Feb 2009. This means that like tech spending some areas of consumer spending should do beter in this recession.

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Tata Consultancy Services acquired Citigroup's India based outsourcig unit Citigroup Global Services for $505 millon in an all cash deal. With that deal TCS alo got a $2.5 billion contract to provide process outsourcing services, application development and infrastructure support to Citigroup and its affiliates over 9 and half years. This is notable because the Citi contract is the biggest ever for an Indian company, as previously Indian companies have operated with smaller scale deals lasting 2-3 years and worth $50 to $200 million. In October 2007 TCS signed a 10 year $1.2 billion contract with Dutch group Nielsen. What this does is enhance TCS capabilities and expertise to go head to head with companies like IBM and EDS. The Citi acquisistion adds 12,000 employees and $280 million in revenues to TCS. TCS had 111,000 employees before the Citi Global Services acquisition and this expansion will enable it to compete more effectively with IBM and EDS/Hewlett Packard.

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Retailer Zara excels at questioning the rules the industry follows and seeing first hand what makes sense and writing its own rules for what will work better like letting customers decide what they want from designers. People on the retail floor see what is moving quickly and send this information to designers who go from there. Its expected to overtake Gap as the leading retailer in clothing.

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The proposed terms of the automakers rescue package, with the government taking stock ownership in the companies.

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The effect of an 80% drop in natural gas prices on incomes of farmers in rural areas in Pennsylvania is shown here. Farmers have leased rights to drill for natural gas under their farms for checks that are now smaller as pries have dropped. There are fewer jobs as a result of reduced drilling. Fracking is an issue in Pennsylvania and both candidates have supported fracking. Harris looks at it from a bigger perspective for cost of living action, and fossil as a transitional fuel as investments are made in renewable and solar. Farmers are not naive and question whether "drill baby drill" is the answer to their problems. Here in Pennsylvania there is also the need for transmission so that the natural gas can be transported to other regions to generate electricity. 

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A trip to Tugela Falls in the Drakensburg mountains from Johannesburg, South Africa. It ranks with Angel Falls, Venezuela, as the two highest waterfalls in the world.

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Efforts to make it possible for Princess Akiko, 19 years old, the only child of Emperor Naruhito 60 years, to succeed her father. Japan has never had a female as Queen, in the manner of Queen Elizabeth in England.

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The use of Zyprexa in nursing homes, and Lilly's marketing of the drug as "requiring fewer skilled nursing staff hours", and "reduced caregiver stress." The lawsuit alleged that this meant it was " an effective chemical restraint for demanding, vulnerable and needy patients." Zyprexa has the risk of life-threatening infections like pneumonia and of heart failure in elderly patients. Lilly also marketed the use of Zyprexa to treat disruptive children, even though there are side effects of severe weight gain and metabolic disorders. The case is being prosecuted by the US Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In the negotiations Lilly agreed to pay $1.2 billion to 31,000 Zyorexa plaintiffs. This is the biggest case and settlement of its kind.

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Inflation in Cairo and other parts of Egypt hit annual rate of 16.4% in April 2008. On April 30, Mubarak announced a 30% wage increase for public sector employees. The government has increased prices of diesel by 47% and of some grades of high octane gasoline used by affluent Egyptians by 57%. The central bank has raised interest rates three times in 2008 but with little impact on inflation. There have been riots in Egypt because of the increase in prices of bread and basic food.

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The home price decline is shifting from Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix to other U.S. cities in 2011. Seattle, Minneapolis and Atlanta are seeing large declines in home prices. Seattle is down 31% from the mid-2007 peak and still has 10 percent to fall, according to real estate site Zillow.