Bloomberg BusinessWeek, June 24, 2013

choi

(1) Dexter Roberts, China's Policy Factory: The NDRC
(the National Development and Reform Commission, the biggest, most powerful Chinese bureaucracy, with responsibility over broad swaths of China's $8.5 trillion economy, and day-to-day authority that sometimes rivals that of Premier Li Keqiang's State Council, its putative boss. Now, the commission may get its wings clipped")   

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read it.
(b) summary underneath the title in print: The National Development and Reform Commission 国家发展和改革委员会 is a giant under attack
(c) quotation underneath the title in print: 'Its origins are very much in China's command-and-control economic past'


(2) Andrew MacAskill, Pushing Indian Women Toward Sterilization.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... sterilization-camps

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Cash [$10] and other incentives are used to meet state government quotas
(b) Bihar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bihar
(divided into two parts by the river Ganges which flows through the middle from west to east; section 1 Etymology)
(c) Ganges. Wiktionary, undated
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ganges
(from Sanskrit gáṅgā, literally “swift-goer”)

恆河

choi

(3) Bruce Einhorn, Companies in China Seek Ways to Cut Costs.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... k-ways-to-cut-costs
("There are 250,000 to 300,000 workers at a Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan, according to the company and Bloomberg Industries. Hiring in the interior has helped the manufacturer boost its workforce in China by 50 percent in two years, to 1.2 million")

Note: summary underneath the title in print: Flextronics economizes in its high-wage coastal city [Zhuhai, Guangdong] rather than leave


(4) Matthew Philips, Immigrants Fall Behind.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... s-are-losing-ground

My comment: In the graphic, there are five cohorts (immigrants who arrived 1965-1969, 1975-1979, 1985-1989, 1995-1999, and 2005-2009, respectively). The fortune of last cohort is too early to tell. Earnings of the first four cohorts were tracked over time. For those who arrived 1965-1969, their earnings increased, reached a plateau (or stagnated) and then rose again. the first two phases are understandable; as for the third )phase), I assume they improved themselves (such as better educated or skilled, career change). Apparently the arrivals includes both documented and undocumented, as the pie chart shows.

choi

(5) Juan Pablo Spinetto and Christiana Sciaudone, In Brazil, Highway Robbery Is Just That.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... tch-to-sea-shipping
("Companies such as Paranapanema are braving port bottlenecks and longer shipping times to avoid Brazil’s highway network, where gangs armed with machine guns and rifles regularly steal goods, from copper to food, either by bribing drivers, using force, or even kidnapping family members of trucking staff. Almost 1 billion reais ($468 million) of cargo was stolen last year on Brazil’s roads, 37 percent more than in 2006, according to São Paulo’s cargo transport industry association, known as Setcesp")

Note: summary underneath the title in print: The country's No 1 copper refiner ships by sea to avoid road bandits

(6) Joshua Green, Running From Romney's Ghost.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... -from-romneys-ghost

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: A private equity executive campaigning for the Senate in Massachusetts tries to show he's different
(b) Today is the election day (for a by-election) to fill John Kerry's senate seat, which he vacated upon being confirmed as US secretary of state. The candidates are Republican Gabriel Gomez (Hispanic born to Columbian parents, a naval aviator who flew E-2C Hawkeye, became a Navy Seal, earned Harvard MBA, beat two white politicians in a primary months ago; an underdog in the blue state) and Democrat Ed Markey (currently a representative of US House).
(c) There is no need to read the article.
(d) What is intriguing is the graphic, which including a photo of a drawer, showing the etches whose last lines are as follows:

Kennedy  Mass 51-61
-SMITH, MASS [illegible]
- Kennedy  Mass [illegible]
KIRK-MA-'09-'10
KERRY  Mass, '85-'13"
(i) The first Kennedy was JFK, and the second his younger brother Edward M Kennedy.
(ii) Benjamin A Smith II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_A._Smith_II
and Paul G Kirk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_G._Kirk
were seat warmers.
(iii) What I do not understand is how come Kerry comes to this picture. Edward M died, Kirk came, Scott Brown won a special election to take the seat for two years (the remainder of the six-year term), Elizabeth Warren defeated Brown. Kerry should have been seated in the other desk, so Kerry's name should have been in the drawer there, too.