LyrArc Article Gist
Tim Cook is interviewed by Jenna McGregor of The Washington Post. He describes the problems he faces running Apple. He had expected Jobs to stay on as  chairman to continue leading the company even after the illness. Cook thought Jobs would "bounce" back. The death of Jobs was a big blow for Cook. Cook describes taking advice from Jobs's wife Lucerne at key moments. For tax issues before Congress he talked to Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, on political issues with Bill Clinton, and on personal issues with Anderson Cooper of CNN. The books he is reading include Mohandas Gandhi's "The Story of My Experiments with Truth," that he found at the Gandhi Ashram in Gujarat, India, on a recent visit. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Prof. Cusumano of MIT, says that with the loss of Apple's Steve Jobs, the company has lost a great visionary, and it will be difficult for Apple's new CEO Time Cook to make up for this loss. Cusumano has talked to many Apple employees in 2013-2014, and is writing a book on innovation. In this piece Chen and Richtel point out the ways Tim Cook is trying to fill the role Jobs filled, by assembling a group of people within the company who can play the pioneering role for new products, and making new acquisitions such as the Beats acquisition to bring in outside talent. Cook pushed for the introduction of the iPad Air, which now accounts for 60% of all iPad sales. The constant push for the magic in new products that Steve Jobs obsessed with down to details, will be missing. Jobs met daily with design chief Jonathan Ive for lunch at the Cupertino headquarters. Cook meets Ive 3 times a week. And Jobs pulled all the pieces of the new product together in a way that others will have difficulty doing. Cook has brought a different dimension to leadership at Apple by talking about Apple in terms of "advancing humanity," talking about his own personal experiences in the South, and seeing racial discrimination barriers for minorities. He was challenged recently to address issues of working conditions at Apple supplier factories in China. Cook is bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S. with building of new plants in Arizona and Texas. These are areas which were gaps in Jobs record, which Cook is filling gradually, and asking shareholders, customers, to be patient....

LyrArc Article Gist
After Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he hired Tim Cook in 1998 to help transform Apple's manufacturing organization which had become dysfunctional by that time. Tim Cook with a Masters degree in industrial engineering at Auburn University and MBA from Duke, worked in operations at Compaq Computer at the time. Cook trimmed big inventories and brought quality control and the supply chain to high standards. He will run Apple during Steve Jobs absence for health reasons.

LyrArc Article Gist
After the resignations of Browett and Forstall, other executives Eddy Cue, head of Internet software and services, Craig Federighi and Jonathan Ive, hardware design chief, assume more important roles inside Apple. Browett was hired recently from Dixon Retail in the UK to run Apple retail stores. Some of his scheduling changes at Apple were received badly at the stores. Mr Forstall ran the iOS software operations and was highly regarded by Jobs except that he failed to get along with other executives. He and design chief for hardware Jonathan Ive could not stay in the same room together because of personality conflicts. Jobs was seen as a decider in these situations, a role new CEO Cook did not choose to play preferring a smooth running team with fewer people conflicts.

LyrArc Article Gist
Apple CEO Cook and manufacturing base in China deference to China security laws to keep a foothold in China. Under Cook Apple held off on diversifying its manufacturing base in China, leaving a legacy sure to be questioned as concentration of supply chain in China has serious repercussions on the manufacturing base of US, EU and India. No participation from Apple in reversing the dangerous deindustrialization of the US, not even an open discussion at Apple and its partner companies, a legacy that will come more and more in the spotlight long after he is gone.

LyrArc Article Gist
Behind the deal Apple made to buy 100 million chips from TSMC's $165 billion plant near Phoenix is, yes, DJT Tariff exemptions. Yes, it took tariffs to get Apple and TSMC to invest in the US after much if not all of chip manufacturing was sent by Apple to China and Taiwan's TSMC. Was the Biden administration successful in getting Apple to invest in the US on a the scale that was needed? The answer is no. Even when TSMC agreed to invest in plants in the US under Biden it's management described the US as a difficult place to attract talent and build plants as reported in the WSJ at that time. There is a real element of truth in saying that it took a real effort such as the DJT tariffs move to change a situation in which most manufacturing was shipped out by US business to China. The Taiwanese had a condescending attitude that the US could not build advanced technology plants as evidenced in statements by head of TSMC, who was himself educated in the US technology institutions in the 1960's and 1970's. The US business shipped out its industrial and technological knowhow to Asia in a mistaken theory only found in textbooks that this was not going to affect US leadership and US dominance in the world. And with it the dominance of the scientific and industrial revolution culture of Europe and the US that enabled its free institutions of government and ideas of liberty of man. It is an astounding story of our times that this has actually been allowed to happen under previous administrations, technology elites, by economists, and governing elites, with some still clinging on to these ideas found only in textbook economic theory, when something entirely different has happened to neighborhoods, communities and factories now abandoned in the US. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Apple, Caterpillar, and Microsoft, Amex pushed the Dow higher to get to 50,000 from 25,000 in 2018 in just 9 years when it took decades to get to 25,000. Sales Force, because of AI threat, Boeing because of its engineering and quality issues acted as laggard. Exxon was removed, Chevron stayed on. Intel was taken out and Nvidia took its place. The PE ratio in 2026 for Dow is 22 times earnings. Companies with higher stock price Goldman $929 a share as an example have a bigger impact in moves of the Dow just because of the higher price per share. Compared to Apple at $249 a share. The calculation is to take the price s of 30 stocks add them together and divide by a factor that adds effect of stock splits and new index entrants. That factor was 0.162 in 2025. Note that it took 76 years to 1972 to get to 1000 for the Dow Jones Average in 1972.

LyrArc Article Gist
Thirty years of neglect it all began in 1998 with Tim Cook from Alabama was hired to ship manufacturing to China- Apple now takes WSJ reporters to its "nascent effort" in building new supply chain for chips manufacturing in 2026. Steve Jobs was hired in 1998 when Steve Jobs returned to run Apple a second time. By this time the company was failing and manufacturing plants had huge quality control issues, morale was low. Instead of fixing these problems at US factories, Jobs and Cook came up with a new strategy- Make in China, invent and price at a premium in PC's for large margins with low cost Chinese manufacturing using tightly controlled US design, reinvest the profits in a virtuous cycle, invent and design to compete with Microsoft. It succeeded for Apple share owners, and it failed for American workers and people- succeeded by creating a $3 trillion valuation, it failed for the American people by leaving American workers to go unemployed and setting the trend to destroy the manufacturing capabilities and structures that had led to the US following Britain with 300 years of dominance in standards of living for its people and its industrial stength since 1750. (1750-1900 Britain's dominance 1900-2000 US dominance). It also created Asian competitors in China/Taiwan, and South Korea to whom the US business had in reckless manner based on textbook theory of economists for four administrations (Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama) had shipped American manufacturing and knowhow to China. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Apple innovations in design and software include new laptops, a version of iOS to be used in automobiles, a new Mac operating system called Mavericks, and a music service iTunes Radio.

LyrArc Article Gist
Corporate CEO's including Appple CEO Tim Cook, and Target CEO, talk about de-escalation in Minneapolis and call for talking to each other. DJT also says he wants to see that there is "de-escalate a bit." Most do not mention ICE or immigration law enforcement. The situation in Minneapolis turned out to be counterproductive for immigration law enforcement particularly to reduce crime and increase safety in streets and neighborhoods which is one of the main ultimate goals. In such situations law enforcement acts as a role model in the tradition earlier Americans have set even while enforcing the law.

LyrArc Article Gist
Fact checking Apple CEO Tim Cook's statements on the EU Commission ruling for $13 billion in back taxes, shows that CEO Tim Cook's statement that "we never asked for, nor did we receive any special deals," is not true. Ireland let Apple determine what it would pay in tax, and Apple had the benefit of loopholes in Irish tax laws, the fact check by experts shows here. Apple's Cook also says it would hurt investment and jobs in Ireland. Another NYT article showed that the entire healthcare budget of Ireland would be covered by the $13 billion, and 66% of its budget for social support services to the public. Apple has 22,000 employees in Europe and 6000 in Ireland in 2016. Based on the $13 billion owed in taxes, for every job in Ireland the cost to Ireland is 2.17 million euros, and for every job in the EU the cost is 590,000 euros. Apple could turn around and locate in some other place, other than Ireland, in which case Ireland does not get the 6000 jobs. This is Ireland's incentive to give Apple tax benefits. Only if all EU countries had common tax laws would it be possible to avoid this situation, and generate much needed tax revenues at a time of cuts in public spending in healthcare, education, and social services, and invest in infrastructure, worker retraining. The alternative is for the EU to look at other remedies. This is what the EU Commissioner Vestager did when she announced that this was a state subsidy and illegal under EU rules. Because the appeal by Apple goes to the EU Courts the appeal is difficult say legal experts. The EU courts look at the legal aspects of the ruling, was it justified, not at the overall aspect of the ruling by Vestager, as EU Competition Commissioner. This may be why there is so much outcry from Apple, and other digital companies.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Senators in the US Congress, Rubio and Schumer, have asked the US government to look into Apple's plans to work with Chinese semiconductor company YMTC. As a result the Commerce Department has placed export restrictions on YMTC. This NYT report looks at the two decade long rise of China and of Apple after Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and shifted manufacturing to China. When Jobs returned to Apple he found major quality issues at Apple's manufacturing facilities, a demoralized workforce, and financial losses, with CEO Michael Spindler running the company into the ground. Jobs had to start with afresh model for Apple and decided to shift manufacturing to China under the engineering leadership of Tim Cook. Alabama native Cook went to Auburn University for his engineering degree and Duke for his business degree. Cook joined Jobs in 1998 at Apple and for ten years till 2007 the two cut costs, shifted to contract manufacturers and rebuilt Apple with new products, iPod, iPad and the iphone. By not manufacturing Apple avoided quality control issues, and the costs of maintaining inventory. It was Tim Cook who ran operations worldwide, and he gradually built up the manufacturing relationships in China with Foxconn, which makes most of Apple's products in sprawling Chinese factories that employ 20 years later about 3 million Chinese workers. Foxconn was chosen by Apple in 2000 to manufacture the Apple Mac laptop. Before that it was a parts supplier to Apple. Increasingly Apple relied on Foxconn to make its new products including the iPhone. Both companies growth relied on the manufacturing of Foxconn to the point where Apple was dependent on Foxconn and had intertwined its operations with Foxconn in China. Today the whole relationship is being called into question after two decades in which American workers suffered the effects of the outshoring of manufacturing jobs. It should be noted that though Mr. Trump raised the issue of manufacturing exclusively in China with Apple, the Trump administration did little to change the practices of the company that pioneered this type of massive manufacturing role for China. That surrendered the entire supply chain to foreign suppliers in the interest of cutting costs and maintaining huge profit margins, with which it financed an array of new products and reached $1 trillion in sales from $10 billion, hundredfold increase over 2 decades. American workers and families for the first time in American history got very little from this Cook-Jobs project. American infrastructure in communities that would have been supported by American factories including the services and infrastructure in communities financed through local taxes, a practice throughout the Industrial Revolution in the US, was sharply disrupted over 2 decades. It caused a rupture in social relations and increased inequality in the US, and defunded infrastructure that comes with manufacturing.  It is the task of the Biden administration to now correct what Mr. Trump simply talked about but never induced or required Apple to do- lead the resurgence of American manufacturing, and make its major investments in the US, invest in its workers and families, invest in America. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
David Barboza of NYT describes the hidden subsidies China gives to Foxconn for its plant in Zhengzhou, in a poor region of China. The factory there makes about half a million iPhones a day. These subsidies include incentive packages, infrastructure building, local government help of about $1.5 billion. As a result Apple has high margins. For a 32 gigabyte iPhone 7 that costs $400 to make, the retail price is about $649 in the U.S.  The hidden subsidies is why Apple can maintain dominance as profits are reinvested. And the result is that with only 12% of the smartphone market Apple can take in 90% of the profit, according to Strategy Analytics. Barboza looks back at Apple before co-founder Steve Jobs left in 1985 as focussing on manufacturing at plants in Colorado and California. By 2001 with iPod sales soaring the move to China under Cook, who previously worked for Compaq, was underway. With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the move to China for manufacturing accelerated. The reason: only China offered the kind of subsidies, the speed of approval and building of infrastructure facilities, the local government support, the hundreds of thousands of workers, and the best tooling engineers, to produce in huge volumes with speed, and maintaining quality levels. Earlier plants including one in Colorado Springs that this Lyrarc editor was invited to visit just prior to Jobs rejoining Apple had many quality problems, so much so that Apple had a large part of the manufactured personal computers set aside for rework. The quality levels were dismal, defects were unbelievably high. This is the Apple manufacturing process and plant that Jobs must have seen when he returned, and which he hired Cook to fix. Not only were costs higher in the U.S., (subsidies in China came later) when Jobs looked at the manufacturing quality and the inability to get the quality he needed from American workers and engineers at that time in the 1990's, only then did he turn to China- and the more he saw what was possible to accomplish there he sensed an unusual opportunity to finally put the ghosts of memories from competition with Microsoft at rest, and to surpass everything that had been done in Silicon Valley. The result one of the most ingenious and large manufacturing networks in the world, huge profits for an American company, except for one thing- it would not do much for American workers. ...