Tag Archives: Survival

Lost opportunity for Pakistan’s textile mills ?

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (April 30,2012) describes Pakistan’s textile industry as one of the world’s largest,employing 20% of the country’s labor and $14 billion in exports. But in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad, that produces 50% of the output, power … Continue reading

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An alternate plan to rescue the US Postal Service

An article in the Wall Street Journal (April 17,2012) provides an alternative to the current plan to shut post offices and decase delivery days. The Pistal workers union suggests increasing stamp prices, providing delivery services for pharmaceutical delivery etc as … Continue reading

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Did Apple’s agency model for ebooks enable collusion ?

An article in the New York Times (April 12, 2012) describes a Justice department lawsuit accusing Apple and five publishers of e-books price fixing. Given declining e-book prices, five large publishers agreed to an “agency model” of pricing whereby Apple … Continue reading

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“Good African Coffee” – its supply chain and sustainability

An article in the New York Times (April 8,2012) describes the efforts by Good African Coffee – a company that roasts coffee grown in Uganda, and brands the coffee rather than sell commodity coffee beans. Going up the value chain … Continue reading

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What are GM’s choices for the Opel plant in Bochum, Germany ?

An article in the New York Times (April 2,2012) describes worker frustration at GM’s Opel plant in Bochum, Germany, with worries that it will be shut down in 2014. Wages at the plant are six times the wage rate in … Continue reading

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Is fiber optic cable capacity too much ?

An article in the Wall Street Journal (April 3, 2012) suggests that fiber optic capacity expansion is too optimistic, pointing to 3% utilization of cable in big cities and new laser technology that expanded capacity in the past. But capacity … Continue reading

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What are GM’s choices for the Opel plant in Bochum, Germany ?

An article in the New York Times (April 2,2012) describes worker frustration at GM’s Opel plant in Bochum, Germany, with worries that it will be shut down in 2014. Wages at the plant are six times the wage rate in … Continue reading

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The risk in Apple’s IP protection and litigation strategy

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (April 2, 2012) describes Apple’s jihad against Google, Samsung, Motorola and their Andrioid powered hardware devices. But each specific IP case dredges up prior art – work by other several years ahead of Apple, thus casuing … Continue reading

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The impact of post office cost and rule changes

An article in the New York Times (March 26,2012) describes how different industry sectors might be impacted by decisions made by the post office. Greeting card manufacturers and drug distributors claim that increased post office rates will decrease their demand … Continue reading

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Mexico auto exports to Brazil capped to settle a trade spat

An article in the Wall Street Journal (March 16,2012) describes Mexican auto exports growing to 20% of all imports into Brazil. Recent agreements between the countries have planned an auto import limit of $1.6 billion, down from the current $2.1 … Continue reading

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