Monthly Archives: June 2012

Boeing’s 66th Dreamliner aircraft first to go to preflight from assembly

An article in the Wall Street Journal (June 8, 2012) describes a milestone reached by the 66th Dreamliner aircraft – the first to reach normalized production i.e., go from assembly to preflight testing. That milestone was reached by the Airbus … Continue reading

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Trading zero emission credits to comply with state regulations

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (June 7, 2012) describes California’s regulation requiring 2 % of cars sold by automakers selling 60,000 cars annually to be zero emission by 2014 and 15 % by 2025. But automakers can also buy credits from … Continue reading

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Barnes & Noble claims elimination of agency pricing will increase prices

An article in the New York Times (June 8, 2012) describes the Justice department’s settlement with publishers to eliminate “agency pricing” which was claimed to enable collusion among publishers for ebook prices. Under agency pricing, five publishers were allowed by … Continue reading

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India’s large grain stockpiles, yet 21% undernourished

An article in the New York Times (June 8, 2012), describes the 71 million tons of grain stockpiles in India, the world’s second largest invenory. But distribution to its poor citizens through ration shops is inefficient and corrupt, leaving 21% … Continue reading

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A shift from camel to colorful jeans

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes the shift in the color palette from camel, six months ago, to mango, neon pink, purple, red etc. The new trend has customers shifting to color and thus buying … Continue reading

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Nokia’s smartphone component costs vs Apple’s iphone component costs

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes an estimate by iSuppli that components for the Nokia Lumia 900 cost $ 209 while those for the 16GB iPhone cost $ 190. But the Lumia sells for $ … Continue reading

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Amazon requesting some of its sales tax back from California cities

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes a request by Amazon, which recently agreed to collect sales taxes for purchases soon, to get back some of the sales tax as an incentive. The company claims that … Continue reading

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Export US gas or keep it to reduce energy costs at home

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes a US decision to hold exports of natural gas, whose generation capacity has grown rapidly. Countries like Japan want to use liquified US gas in the future to replace … Continue reading

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Battery manufacturing capacity rampup and short and long term impact

An article in the Wall Street Journal (May 31, 2012) describes the US government’s $ 1.26 billion investment in battery capacity, and demands for rapid ramp up and hiring to create 6400 jobs. The slow growth rate implied only 2000 … Continue reading

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