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 Links
Why Trump plan to end tax on Social Security benefits is a fatal mistake
08/17/2024
Senator Larson says it is a fatal mistake as lost revenue is not made up leading to a Medicare insolvency in 2031, and Social Security insolvency in 2033. Social security benefits will then by law will be cut in 2033 by 25%., a dangerous step tragic for many on Social Security who are pushed into poverty.
Linked Articles
CNBC 08/17/2024
Donald Trump's Suggestion to End Taxation of Social Security Benefits | Committee for a Responsible Federal BudgetCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget 08/17/2024
"Feierabend"- disconnecting from work the German way, the need of the times during a year of remote work 2021
04/23/2021
"Feierabend" simply means disconnecting in German so that one has time to renew and revive oneself. At 4.00 pm or 5.00 pm one simply disconnects from work and gets on the bike for a ride or does something else. Can British and American cultures learn from their German or European counterparts? Ireland has passed a law calling for this disconnect requiring it because of the huge negative impact on mental health of remote work that has no structures. Microsoft has recognized this issue in 2020. More needs to be done by companies than to simply shift this burden,shift this task on someone else, or to workers who have no idea what working from home requires. Associations and other groups also need to get involved.
Linked Articles
Right to disconnect is vital for future health of home workers
04/23/2021
How 'Feierabend' helps Germans disconnect from the workdayBBC News 07/12/2022
German failure in the Wirecard scandal
07/31/2020
Linked Articles
WSJ News Exclusive | SoftBank Saw Opportunity in Wirecard Before It Unraveled
WSJ 07/29/2020
Merkel Lobbied for Wirecard Despite German ProbeWSJ 07/22/2020
The advice of General Keane in May 2013, decisions for Syria and Iraq by president Obama ignoring this advice, and the situation in September 2014
05/22/2013
Gen. Keane's advice was to destroy the 50 airstrips used by the Assad regime and its air defense system with cruise missiles and American airpower, the alternative would be to establish a no fly zone such as the one used in Libya. Direct use of American airpower early in the conflict would make it possible to keep American involvement constructive, and effective.
Linked Articles
Jack Keane and Danielle Pletka: How to Stop Assad's Slaughter
Wall Street Journal 05/22/2013
A President Whose Assurances Have Come Back to Haunt HimNew York Times 09/08/2014
The slow process of reform for credit ratings agencies involved in the 2008 global financial crisis six years later in 2014
02/05/2013
Linked Articles
S. & P. E-Mails on Mortgage Crisis Show Alarm and Gallows Humor
New York Times 02/05/2013
The Stone Unturned: Credit RatingsNew York Times 03/22/2014
Mexico's failures in introducing competition in the economy and addressing problems in education that restrict its growth potential 2011-2015
08/27/2011
The need for competition and other private sector involvement in sectors such as oil, telecom, airlines and other sectors, and the reform of labor laws that reduce GDP growth by an estimated 2.5%. The Mexican educational system suffers from a lack of trained teachers and change is blocked by a powerful union leading to poorly educated workers from the public educational system.
Linked Articles
Mexico’s economy: Making the desert bloom
Economist 08/27/2011
Mexico’s failing schools spell defeat for ruling party - The Washington PostWashington Post 06/09/2012
In the two areas that government can make aserious difference, foreclosure prevention and bank lending it is failing.
04/15/2009
The government has only indirect influence over the other important variables in the equation for economic recovery, consumption and employment. Through foreclosure prevention and bank lending it can influence consumption and employment. Obama's program while admirable may simply fall short of what is required. Through asimple takeover of insolvent banks the administrationcan implement its own programs for goreclosure prevention and aggressive bank lending at attractive rates, but this has to be done early before business go into permanent retrenchment mode and consumers simply revert to a frugal lifestyle of an earlier generation.
Linked Articles
Lending By Bailout Recipients Falls Again
Washington Post 04/16/2009
Banks Ramp Up ForeclosuresWall Street Journal 04/15/2009
The gap between the admirable comments and clarity of Obama's Georgetown sppech and the growing foreclosures, dramatic drops in business and consumer lending.
04/14/2009
Failure to stem foreclosures and to ramp up business and consumer lending, by taking over insolvent banks and offering loans at attractive rates, is hurting the economy and will lead to further job losses.
Linked Articles
Lending By Bailout Recipients Falls Again
Washington Post 04/16/2009
Text of Obama Economic SpeechBusinessWeek 04/14/2009
Krugman thinks no early action to takeover insolvent banks will prolong this crisis, the President wants to "do no harm" by undermining confidence.
03/06/2009
Krugman thinks that this crisis could go on for adecade if no actions are taken to takeover insolvent banks before the situation worsens. THe President in his speech at Georgetown, on April 13, says he has not acted preemptively, not out of coddling these banks and their management, but becuase he did not want to undermine confidence. It suggests the President has moved quickly on many fronts, and he may be taking a pause to take stock of the situation and how to improve public support, before thaking on this issue and a number of others in the next round.
Linked Articles
BusinessWeek 04/14/2009
The Big DitherNew York Times 03/06/2009
Cable by British Ambassador in Kabul on the loss of trust in Karzai government
10/04/2008
Cable by a career foreign service officer, the British ambassador in kabul on the loss of trust in Karzai government. The head of the provincial council in Kandahar is Karzai's brother who is said to be involved in the heroin trade.
Linked Articles
Reports Link Karzai’s Brother to Heroin Trade
New York Times 10/05/2008
‘Dictator’ Proposed for Afghanistan in Leaked CableNew York Times 10/04/2008
Private trading, the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission and oil price spikes in 2006
04/29/2006
Firms from Goldman Sachs to Bill Gates' investing firm were involved according to information revealed by the CFTC. It accounted for about 20% of the price spike in 2006, according to some analysts, and involved $85 billion in investing.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 08/18/2011
Trading Frenzy Adding to Rise in Price of OilNew York Times 04/29/2006
De Klerk, Desmond Tutu, Mandela and the New South Africa
12/27/2021
South Africa's amazing transformation into a racially harmonious society, with people of black, white, Afrikaans, English Afrikaans, Indian, building a new South Africa owes a lot to the leadership, humility, and vision of De Klerk and Desmond Tutu, as well as Nelson Mandela. South Africa's experience offers a new sense of hope that no matter what the difficulties involved one can pull together people of different backgrounds and cultures into a united country. It is in keeping with the best ideals of Britain and of India's Mohandas Gandhi who started his work in Cape Town, South Africa.
Linked Articles
Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Who Helped End Apartheid, Dies
WSJ 12/26/2021
Legacy of FW de Klerk, South Africa's last leader under apartheid | DW | 11.11.2021DW.COM 11/11/2021
To age well and stay fit take the Yoga Way
11/30/2020
Strengthen the knees with the bridge and other yoga poses that involve weight bearing. This is very important for anti-inflammation say experts, particularly as one grows older. This along with eating right for gut health with more fibre in the diet and daily exercize provides the basic components for ageing well into ones eighties, say experts.
Linked Articles
New to yoga? Do these 5 things to protect your back, shoulders and wrists
NBC News 07/23/2019
5 exercises that target and tone the inner thighsNBC News 07/23/2019
Flagrant waste of people's money and misallocation of capital in the Wirecard scandal
07/31/2020
Linked Articles
WSJ News Exclusive | SoftBank Saw Opportunity in Wirecard Before It Unraveled
WSJ 07/29/2020
Wirecard and the Curious Case of the Missing $2 BillionWSJ 06/26/2020
Ari Shavit of Haaretz and Ami Ayalon of Israel Security Agency see a new way forward for peace in the Middle East and reduction of tensions
03/12/2013
The opportunities presented by a rapidly changing Middle East are being observed by perceptive Israeli observers after decades of conflict. By defusing tensions and involving public opinion in the Middle East it provides a more lasting agreement han can be reached with individual leaders in the Middle East. It also returns to the focus to widely shared benefits of economic development of the people in the region and improvements in education, infrastructure and economic opportunity. Old ideas of secuirty are supplemented by new ideas of security.
Linked Articles
New York Times 01/01/2014
The Old Peace Is Dead, but a New Peace Is PossibleNew York Times 03/12/2013
Span's Cajas Savings bank, problems with managment and culture, lack of financial controls, and the large losses from the real estate bubble
05/24/2012
Bankia was the new name for seven troubled cajas savings banks that were merged. The failure of the government's handling of the bad real estate debt, the collapse of the IPO price for bankia's IPO, and the insovency followed by takeover of Bankia by the government, is what led to the $125 recapitalization request by Spain to the EU. The cajas in Galicia give an insight into the operation of these savings banks, in many cases run by leaders who became influential in the political system and expanded healvily int real estate during the bubble years. Management remained in place for decades with authoritarian leaders and there were no financial controls.
Linked Articles
Clash of Cultures Upends Spain's Cajas
New York Times 08/20/2012
Spain to Recapitalize Bankia in Latest BailoutWall Street Journal 05/24/2012
Views of experts from Raghuram Rajan, Paul Krugman and Simon Johnson are at odds with the Obama administration's recycling of prior Paulson's bank rescue plans
04/21/2009
Rajan and Johnson call for smaller, more transparent financial institutions through the government takeover of insolvent banks and breaking them up into smaller financial institutions that pose less risk to the country's economy and are easier to manage, and less prone to excessive risk taking. And they propose crafting policy and antitrust laws to make this work. Questions raised about the administration having too many people on its economic team who are deferential to Wall Street and not with a mindset that questions key assumptions -some call them sacred cows- that are put forward by Wall Street.
Linked Articles
Economists Seek Breakup of Big Banks
Wall Street Journal 04/21/2009
Time for Bank Creditors to Share the Pain?New York Times 04/29/2009
FT's Martin Wolf looks at Simon Johnson's argument that Obama is avoiding the tough choices because he has succumbed to pressure from financial elites.
04/14/2009
Wolf looks at Simon Johnson's argument about Obama's dithering on the tough issues like that of insolvent banks, and says America is not like Russia where financial elites controlled the government's way of responding into and out of a crisis.
Linked Articles
Unknown 04/15/2009
Text of Obama Economic SpeechBusinessWeek 04/14/2009
The Rosenfeld-Krugman solution for clean banks and new lending in the economy.
03/23/2009
Krugman and Rosenfeld, in no uncertain terms, say the only solution is for government to seize insolvent banks and create clean banks, using its existing authority and government money. Rosenfeld outlines his solution which puts banks back in private hands quickly or at the earliest possible moment.
Linked Articles
New York Times 04/06/2009
Financial Policy DespairNew York Times 03/23/2009
A rescue plan would involve dbtholders, unions, and management all taking a haircut.
11/21/2008
How the automakers failed to convince Congress and end up in a three way battle in Congress between the Democrats, Republicans and the midwestern Congressmen with things like automakers private jets drawing scrutiny over how this industry was diffeerent in the way it did things including the higher medical benefits of union workers that burdened the companies.
Linked Articles
Detroit’s Bid for Aid Fails For Now
New York Times 11/21/2008
Terms of a Rescue PlanBusinessWeek 12/11/2008
The military and civilian leadership in Pakistan for six decades since independence and the U.S. involvement in S. Asia
01/06/2008
Militancy shifts to a younger generation of leaders in the border provinces of Pakistan, Baluchistan, Northwest Frontier province and Waziristan. Taliban was a creation of the Pakistan army to create strategic depth for Pakistan by getting a Islami militant run organization take over Afghanistan after the Russians left. It has turned into a complete mess as that militancy has spread to Pakistan's border provinces.
Linked Articles
New York Times 01/06/2008
Next-Gen TalibanNew York Times 01/06/2008
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