Peter DeLorenzo on the state of the SUV, long a profit engine for many auto makers, including Toyota and Nissan, who both have large volume truck businesses. GM Janesville, will, I hope continue in the face of these changes.
Monthly Archives: September 2005
Lee Kuan Yew Interview on the Rise of China & India
Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew speaks with Der Spiegel on Asia’s rise to economic power, China’s ambitions and the West’s chances of staying competitive:
Mr. Lee: Right. In 50 years I see China, Korea and Japan at the high-tech end of the value chain. Look at the numbers and quality of the engineers and scientists they produce and you know that this is where the R&D will be done. The Chinese have a space programme, they’re going to put a man on the Moon and nobody sold them that technology. We have to face that. But you should not be afraid of that. You are leading in many fields which they cannot catch up with for many years, many decades. In pharmaceuticals, I don’t see them catching up with the Germans for a long time.
Tax Shelter Proceedings Begin in NY
Judge Kaplan also showed a hint of testiness about the pace of the government’s case, commenting that if prosecutors could spend a year and a half investigating before bringing one criminal charge, they should not need another three months to add any new charges or new defendants. He also warned prosecutors against lengthy proceedings. Prosecutors said they anticipated a three-month trial.
A complex case would confuse jurors and make it harder for them to convict, Judge Kaplan said. “The idea of a three- or four-month tax trial, well, it’s a daunting prospect” for potential jurors, he added.
Yahoo Helps Put a Chinese Journalist in Jail
According to Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), Information supplied by Yahoo! helped Chinese journalist Shi Tao get 10 years in prison
The text of the verdict in the case of journalist Shi Tao – sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for “divulging state secrets abroad” – shows that Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. provided China’s state security authorities with details that helped to identify and convict him. It reveals that the company provided the Chinese investigating organs with detailed information that apparently enabled them to link Shi’s personal e-mail account (on the Chinese Yahoo! service at yahoo.com.cn) and the specific message containing information treated as a “state secret” to the IP address of his computer. More details from RSF here.
Shi Tao was jailed because he e-mailed sensitive political information to be posted on dissident websites hosted outside China. His case is a cautionary tale to bloggers around the world: If you are publicizing information and views that your government doesn’t want exposed – even if you believe you have the right to do so under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – companies like Yahoo! will not shield you from your government.
Click here for the full text in both Chinese and English of the Shi Tao verdict (PDF document) courtesy of the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-governmental organization.
Menu Costs
“Occasionally menu costs kick in…Dylan Alexander sends me the following:
Gas at the pump in downtown Birmingham: $3.99/g.
Gas from Hertz when you return it: $3.05/g.
We bid adieu to the Summer of 2005
Road Salt Blamed for Stream Salinity Increases
“We’re basically hardening the watersheds and feeding them a high-salt diet. There is a direct connection between the number of driveways and parking lots we have and the quality of our water,” said Sujay Kaushal of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in Frostburg, Md.
Cost of Government Secrecy Continues to Grow
www.opengovernment.org (PDF):
The government is withholding more information than ever from the public and expanding ways of shrouding data. Last year, federal agencies spent a record $148 creating and storing new secrets for each $1 spent declassifying old secrets, a coalition of watchdog groups reported Saturday. That’s a $28 jump from 2003 when $120 was spent to keep secrets for every $1 spent revealing them.
Slashdot discussion
Another Glorious Wisconsin Weekend
S & P 500 Following Gasoline Price Surges
Chart of the Day looks at how the stock market has responded to significant increases in gasoline prices over the past 25 years.