World News Insights
1-3 Minute Gist
Search, personalize, or simply browse. Follow the world around you from gist and context to insights.
Who we are | Our Credo | Ways of using Lyrarc | FAQ | Send Feedback | First Letter From the Editor
Sign up. It's free and easy to use
Create an account
to personalize your feed of articles and topics.
Browse Articles or use Lyrarc's US patented "Groups" and "Links" for new insights. A Lyrarc Group of Articles on a topic gives insights into particular angles shown in the Group Title. A Lyrarc Link shows more specific insights for 2 articles.
All Topics Groups
Action to cut single use plastic bags and packaging 2025
11/27/2024
Efforts to end the use of single use plastics that are a threat to health and the environment, land, rivers and oceans. The use of plastic water bottles has worsened the crisis. Supermarkets are slow in the US to ban plastic bags showing need for prudent regulation. Talks in Busan, South Korea, in Nov 2024 to find a solution to the plastics proliferation crisis. The plastics industry including plastics makers and recycling companies say things are under control with recycling goals, yet reports show only 30% of plastics is being recycled each year in 2024, and going back to the beginning of plastics 2 decades back only about 10% has been recycled.
Grouped Articles
Inside the Plastic Industry’s Battle to Win Over Hearts and Minds
NYTimes.com 11/27/2024
Washington Post 06/10/2024
China Tries to Stem the Flow of Its Plastic Waste
WSJ 01/20/2020
Plastic Water Bottles, Which Enabled a Drinks Boom, Now Threaten a Crisis
WSJ 12/12/2018
New York Businesses Anticipate Plastic-Bag Ban
WSJ 02/27/2020
Supermarkets in France forced to ditch plastic and set up ‘refill stations’ selling unpackaged goods
The Times 04/01/2021
Abysmal tax collection in Pakistan and the lack of economic development.
07/18/2010
Tax collection in Pakistan is one of the poorest in the world. This widens the quality of life for the vast majority of people and an afffluent few who run business interests and have agricultural holdings. Infrastructure and essential services such as power and water, roads and health care, all suffer, as a result.
Grouped Articles
Power Outages Hobble Pakistan's Biggest Exporters
Wall Street Journal 12/01/2013
Pakistani Taxes Widen Divide Between Rich and Poor
New York Times 07/18/2010
Key Party Rejoins Pakistan's Coalition
New York Times 01/07/2011
Pakistan's troubled finances: Economic blasphemy
Economist 01/15/2011
General Kayani Is Said to Cling to Job in Pakistan
New York Times 06/15/2011
Pakistan's Central Banker Resigns
Wall Street Journal 07/15/2011
India- Water and how its is managed.
05/20/2010
The crucial role of water and its proper management critical to the quality of life in the poorest countries.
Grouped Articles
China's peasants look to the skies.
Economist 05/20/2010
Small projects often give better returns.
Economist 05/20/2010
It won't fill up withot lots of changes on the ground.
Economist 05/20/2010
Economist 05/20/2010
Economist 05/20/2010
Economist 05/20/2010
Africa- Water and how it is managed.
05/20/2010
Water and its proper management is crucial to the quality of life in the poorest countries.
Grouped Articles
China's peasants look to the skies.
Economist 05/20/2010
Small projects often give better returns.
Economist 05/20/2010
It won't fill up withot lots of changes on the ground.
Economist 05/20/2010
Economist 05/20/2010
Economist 05/20/2010
Economist 05/20/2010
The state attorneys general in the U.S. and the subprime lending and foreclosure crises and mortgage settlements.
12/08/2009
Federal regulators and the Bush and Obama administrations failed miserably to help homeowners achieve loan modifications. This with the false belief that putting homeowners out of their homes would actually speed up a recovery, considering the huge scale of foreclosures in the USA , the high unemployment and other problems hitting the economy. Feldstein's consistent arguments for homeowner relief throughout 2008 and 2009- considering the large number of homeowners under water- as the mortgage crisis unfolded, were ignored by the Bush and Obama administrations. See the comparisons to Japan's lost decade, as the lack of recovery in housing adds to problems with job losses. The lawsuits, legal action and mortgage settlements facing banks as they make their way through the mortgage mess.
Grouped Articles
A Toxic Subprime Mortgage Bond's Legacy Lives On
Wall Street Journal 09/13/2013
Wall Street Journal 12/31/2013
Fannieâs and Freddieâs Foreclosure Oversight Questioned
New York Times 10/19/2010
Banks Keep their Mortgage Litigation Reserves a Secret
New York Times 01/16/2014
The Case Against the Bernanke-Obama Financial Rescue
New York Times 05/16/2014
BP’s Cuts May Wound Portfolio Recovery
Wall Street Journal 02/04/2015
China and pollution of air and water.
05/10/2006
Use of coal-fired plants and more automobiles on Chinese streets and highways are worsening air quality in Chinese cities. Industrialization is taking its toll on air and water quality. 25% of lakes, rivers and streams have water too contaminated to be used for drinking water, according to areport by the China Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Grouped Articles
Pollution Is Radically Changing Childhood in Chinaâs Cities
New York Times 04/22/2013
China Seeks to Calm Anxiety Over Rice
Wall Street Journal 05/22/2013
Cadmium-Tainted Rice Discovered in Southern China
New York Times 05/21/2013
Wall Street Journal 06/06/2013
Air Pollution From Coal Use Cuts Lifespans in China, Study Shows
Wall Street Journal 07/09/2013
Paying Auditors for Honest Appraisals
Wall Street Journal 07/18/2013
The need for haircuts for private debt to make an effort to solve the problem of the fifth of US homeowners under water.
09/30/2010
Carmen Reinhart points out that the government can only assume private debt at a realistic price. Without principal reductions there appears to be no solution to the problem of the fifth of homeowners in the US who are under water. This keeps acting as a drag on the economy.
Grouped Articles
BusinessWeek 09/30/10
State Attorneys General Take Helm in Mortgage Mess
New York Times 10/29/10
To Fix the Housing Crisis, Read the Data
New York Times 11/04/11
Deepening Crisis Over Euro Pits Leader Against Leader
Wall Street Journal 12/30/11
Forgiveness of Debt Could Yield Savings
Wall Street Journal 07/30/12
The failure of the Obama administration to respond adequately to the BP Oil Spill in Gulf waters.
05/27/2010
Slow, indecisive action by government agencies and relying too much on a failed BP approach.
Grouped Articles
Obama and the Dreaded Katrina Comparison
BusinessWeek 05/27/10
In Gulf, It Was Unclear Who Was in Charge of Rig
New York Times 06/05/10
A Disaster Reaches Beyond the Gulf Coast
New York Times 06/04/10
Another Torrent BP Works to Stem: Its C.E.O.
New York Times 06/03/10
Obama and BP at Risk Over Oil Spill
BusinessWeek 06/03/10
Charlie Rose Talks to Vice-President Joe Biden
BusinessWeek 06/03/10
China- Water and how it is managed.
05/20/2010
The crucial role of water in the poorest countries for the quality of life. Close to a billon people in the poorest countries have no latrines and have no access to clean water.
Grouped Articles
If You Think Chinaâs Air Is Bad ...
New York Times 11/07/13
Pollution in China's Tai Lake worse despite national push for environmentalism
Washington Post 10/29/10
New York Times 04/04/14
Rural Water, Not City Smog, May Be China’s Pollution Nightmare
New York Times 04/11/16
China's peasants look to the skies.
Economist 05/20/10
Small projects often give better returns.
Economist 05/20/10
Assessment of Financial reforms bills in Congress- June 2010.
04/16/2010
Christopher Whalen of the Institutional Ris Anlayst sees the reform bills as inadequate to meet a future crisis. And watered down in Congressional negotiation, responding more to symptoms than the root causes of the last crisis.
Grouped Articles
Trench Warfare: Send In the Deputies
New York Times 04/16/10
New York Times 04/18/10
A Dubious Way to Prevent Fiscal Crisis
New York Times 06/04/10
The Fates and Faces of the Affected
Wall Street Journal 06/07/10
Financial Bill Would Create World Model, Volcker Says
New York Times 06/09/10
Giving In on Trading, Banks Focus on Other Losses
New York Times 06/14/10
Martin Feldstein on the risks for the American Economy after failures in the Obama Economic plan.
09/12/2007
Failures to address problems on the housing front, especialy the problems for 15 million homeowners under water- see the links to opeds by Feldstein suggesting focus on these issues throughout 2008-2009. And the focus on health care which diverted attention from this problem and the problem facing bad loans in commercial real estate. Other problems are failure to get bank lending up for businesses. And the failure of Obama health care plans to control the increase in the nation's surging health care spending, instead increasing the deficit to unsustainable levels. Public sentiment as shown in WSJ/NBC polls confirm Feldstein's sense of the situation.
Grouped Articles
New York Times 12/08/13
From President Obama, Economic Clarity but Little Courage
Washington Post 04/15/09
Wall Street Journal 09/12/07
How to Stop the Mortgage Crisis
Wall Street Journal 03/07/08
Wall Street Journal 02/20/08
Enough With the Interest Rate Cuts
Wall Street Journal 04/15/08
We took a different way to help millions around the world build educated informed mindsets that affects and shapes their lives. For a future that is open, global and digital, with everyone having access to high quality information. We believe in the renewal of America, renewal of Europe, the renewal of India, the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The renewal of our supply chains, health, education, infrastructure, as we rebuild our countries after the pandemic. Literacy and knowledge we believe cannot thrive and grow in a world of web bots, web crawlers, or AI. This requires human curiosity, human learning, and human imagination. We take as inspiration the saying- “One has to be free, and as broad as sky. One has to have a mind that is crystal clear, only then can truth shine in it.” Every contribution whether big or small is precious- in this crisis and ahead.
Support Lyrarc from as small as $1
Terms and Conditions | Copyright Policy | Privacy Policy | Contact Us