title: History of General Motors

text: By mainstream accounts, General Motors' German subsidiary (Adam Opel AG) was outside the control of the American parent corporation during World War II. Some historians posit that GM profiteered on both sides, but Alfred Sloan's memoir presents a description of lost control. However, GM found criticism for its tax avoidance around the Opel topic. During the war, GM declared it had abandoned its German subsidiary, and took a complete tax write-off worth "approximately $22.7 million", yet after the war, GM collected some $33 million in "war reparations" because the Allies had bombed its German facilities.


title: History of General Motors

text: At one point GM had become the largest corporation registered in the United States, in terms of its revenues as a percent of GDP. In 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by Eisenhower as Secretary of Defense. When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee if as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation "because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa". Later this statement was often misquoted, suggesting that Wilson had said simply, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country."


title: History of General Motors

text: At the time, GM was one of the largest employers in the world—only Soviet state industries employed more people. In 1955, General Motors became the first American corporation to pay taxes of over $1 billion.


title: History of General Motors

text: GM operated six divisions at this time, one of which (GMC) only sold trucks. The other five settled into a hierarchy, which consisted, from most- to least-prestigious, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Chevrolet.


title: History of General Motors

text: By 1958, the divisional distinctions within GM began to blur with the availability of high-performance engines in Chevrolets and Pontiacs. The introduction of higher trim models such as the Chevrolet Impala and Pontiac Bonneville priced in line with some Oldsmobile and Buick offerings was also confusing to consumers. By the time Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick introduced similarly styled and priced compact models in 1961, the old "step-up" structure between the divisions was nearly over. Earlier in the late 1920s, GM had introduced "junior" brands as a result of the General Motors companion make program as an attempt to bridge the pricing gap between the brands but the overlap and offering eight different brands had a similar confusing effect to consumers and was cancelled by 1930.


title: History of General Motors

text: The decade of the 1960s saw the creation of compact and intermediate classes. The Chevrolet Corvair was a flat 6-cylinder (air cooled) response to the Volkswagen Beetle, the Chevy II was created to match Ford's conventional Falcon, after sales of the Corvair failed to match its Ford rival, and the Chevrolet Camaro/Pontiac Firebird was GM's countermeasure to the Ford Mustang. Among intermediates, the Oldsmobile Cutlass nameplate became so popular during the 1970s that Oldsmobile applied the Cutlass name to most of its products in the 1980s. By the mid-1960s, most of GM's vehicles were built on a few common "platforms" and in the 1970s GM began to further unify body panel stampings.


title: History of General Motors

text: The 1971 Chevrolet Vega was GM's launch into the new subcompact class to compete against the import's increasing market share. Problems associated with its innovative aluminum engine led to the model's discontinuation after seven model years in 1977. During the late 1970s, GM would initiate a wave of downsizing starting with the Chevrolet Caprice which was reborn into what was the size of the Chevrolet Chevelle, the Malibu would be the size of the Nova, and the Nova was replaced by the troubled front-wheel drive Chevrolet Citation. In 1976, Chevrolet came out with the rear-wheel drive sub compact Chevette.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 1974, GM was the first major automobile company to offer airbags as optional equipment in a non-experimental, unlimited vehicle capacity. Called the "Air Cushion Restraint System", the safety feature was optional on specific full-size Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile vehicles. The occupant safety system proved an unpopular option and was discontinued after the 1976 model year not to return until the 1990s when federal mandates made the system a requirement.


title: History of General Motors

text: While GM maintained its world leadership in revenue and market share throughout the 1960s to 1980s, it was product controversy that plagued the company in this period. It seemed that, in every decade, a major mass-production product line was launched with defects of one type or another showing up early in their life cycle. And, in each case, improvements were eventually made to mitigate the problems, but the resulting improved product ended up failing in the marketplace as its negative reputation overshadowed its ultimate excellence.


title: History of General Motors

text: The first of these fiascos was the Chevrolet Corvair in the 1960s. Introduced in 1959 as a 1960 model, it was initially very popular. But before long its quirky handling eventually earned it the reputation for being unsafe, inspiring consumer advocate Ralph Nader to lambaste it in his book, "Unsafe at Any Speed", published in 1965. Coincidentally, by the same (1965) model year, suspension modifications and other improvements had already transformed the car into a perfectly acceptable vehicle, but its reputation had been sufficiently sullied in the public's perception that its sales declined over the next few years, and it was discontinued after the 1969 model year. During this period, it was also somewhat overwhelmed by the success of the Ford Mustang.


title: History of General Motors

text: The 1970s was the decade of the Vega. Launched as a 1971 model, it also began life as a very popular car in the marketplace. But within a few years, quality problems, exacerbated by labor unrest at its main production source in Lordstown, Ohio, gave the car a bad name. By 1977, its decline resulted in termination of the model name, while its siblings along with a Monza version and a move of production to Ste-Thérèse, Quebec, resulted in a thoroughly desirable vehicle and extended its life to the 1980 model year.


title: History of General Motors

text: Oldsmobile sales soared in the 1970s and 1980s (for an all-time high of 1,066,122 in 1985) based on popular designs, positive reviews from critics and the perceived quality and reliability of the Rocket V8 engine, with the Cutlass series becoming North America's top selling car by 1976. By this time, Olds had displaced Pontiac and Plymouth as the #3 best-selling brand in the U.S. behind Chevrolet and Ford. In the early 1980s, model-year production topped one million units on several occasions, something only Chevrolet and Ford had achieved. The soaring popularity of Oldsmobile vehicles resulted in a major issue in 1977, as demand exceeded production capacity for the Oldsmobile V8, and as a result Oldsmobile quietly began equipping some full size Delta 88 models and the very popular Cutlass/Cutlass Supreme with the Chevrolet 350 engine instead (each division of GM produced its own 350 V8 engine). Many customers were loyal Oldsmobile buyers who specifically wanted the Rocket V8, and did not discover that their vehicle had the Chevrolet engine until they performed maintenance and discovered that purchased parts did not fit. This led to a class-action lawsuit which became a public relations nightmare for GM. Following this debacle, disclaimers stating that "Oldsmobiles are equipped with engines produced by various GM divisions" were tacked onto advertisements and sales literature; all other GM divisions followed suit. In addition, GM quickly stopped associating engines with particular divisions, and to this day all GM engines are produced by "GM Powertrain" (GMPT) and are called GM "Corporate" engines instead of GM "Division" engines. Although it was the popularity of the Oldsmobile division vehicles that prompted this change, declining sales of V8 engines would have made this change inevitable as all but the Chevrolet (and, later, Cadillac's Northstar) versions were eventually dropped.


title: History of General Motors

text: In the 1980 model year, a full line of automobiles on the X-body platform, anchored by the Chevrolet Citation, was launched. Again, these cars were all quite popular in their respective segments for the first couple of years, but brake problems, and other defects, ended up giving them, known to the public as "X-Cars", such a bad reputation that the 1985 model year was their last. The J-body cars, namely the Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunbird, took their place, starting with the 1982 model year. Quality was better, but still not exemplary, although good enough to survive through three generations to the 2005 model year. They were produced in a much-improved Lordstown Assembly plant, as were their replacements, the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac Pursuit/G5.


title: History of General Motors

text: Roger B. Smith served as CEO throughout the 1980s. GM profits struggled from 1981 to 1983 following the late 1970s and early 1980s recession. In 1981, the UAW negotiated some concessions with the company in order to bridge the recession. GM profits rebounded during the 1980s. During the 1980s, GM had downsized its product line and invested heavily in automated manufacturing. It also created the Saturn brand to produce small cars. GM's customers still wanted larger vehicles and began to purchase greater numbers of SUVs. Roger Smith's reorganization of the company had been criticized for its consolidation of company divisions and its effect on the uniqueness of GM's brands and models. His attempts to streamline costs were not always popular with GM's customer base. In addition to forming Saturn, Smith also negotiated joint ventures with two Japanese companies (NUMMI in California with Toyota, and CAMI with Suzuki in Canada). Each of these agreements provided opportunities for the respective companies to experience different approaches.


title: History of General Motors

text: The 1980s also marked the dismantling of General Motors' medium and heavy trucks, with imported Isuzu trucks taking over at the lighter end and with the heavy-duty business being gradually sold off to Volvo through a joint venture.


title: History of General Motors

text: The decade of the 1990s began with an economic recession, taking its inevitable toll on the automotive industry, and throwing GM into some of its worst losses. As a result, "Jack" Smith (not related to Roger) became burdened with the task of overseeing a radical restructuring of General Motors. Sharing Roger's understanding of the need for serious change, Jack undertook many major revisions. Reorganizing the management structure to dismantle the legacy of Alfred P. Sloan, instituting deep cost-cutting and introducing significantly improved vehicles were the key approaches. These moves were met with much less resistance within GM than had Roger's similar initiatives as GM management ranks were stinging from their recent near-bankruptcy experience and were much more willing to accept the prospect of radical change.


title: History of General Motors

text: Following the first Persian Gulf War and a recession GM's profits again suffered from 1991 to 1993. For the remainder of the decade the company's profits rebounded and it made market share gains with the popularity of its SUVs and pick-up truck lines. Rick Wagoner had served as the company's Chief Financial Officer during this period in the early 1990s. GM's foreign rivals gained market share especially following U.S. recessionary periods while the company recovered. U.S. trade policy and foreign trade barriers became a point of contention for GM and other U.S. automakers who had complained that they were not given equal access to foreign markets. Trade issues had prompted the Reagan administration to seek import quotas on some foreign carmakers. Later, the Clinton administration engaged in trade negotiations to open foreign markets to U.S. automakers with the Clinton administration threatening trade sanctions in efforts to level the playing field for U.S. automakers.


title: History of General Motors

text: José Ignacio López de Arriortúa, who worked under Jack Smith in both Europe (particularly the successful turnaround of Opel) and the United States, was poached by Volkswagen in 1993, just hours before Smith announced that López would be promoted to head of GM's North American operations. He was nicknamed Super López for his prowess in cutting costs and streamlining production at GM, although critics said that his tactics angered longtime suppliers. GM accused López of poaching staff and misappropriating trade secrets, in particular taking documents of future Opel vehicles, when he accepted a position with VW. German investigators began a probe of López and VW after prosecutors linked López to a cache of secret GM documents discovered by investigators in the apartment of two of López's VW associates.


title: History of General Motors

text: G.M. then filed suit in a United States District Court in Detroit, using part of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which left VW open to triple damages (billions of dollars) if the charges were proved in court. VW, faced with a plummeting stock price, eventually forced López to resign. GM and Volkswagen since reached a civil settlement, in which Volkswagen agreed to pay GM $100 million and to buy $1 billion worth of parts from GM.


title: History of General Motors

text: After GM's lay-offs in Flint, Michigan, a strike began at the General Motors parts factory in Flint on June 5, 1998, which quickly spread to five other assembly plants and lasted seven weeks. Because of the significant role GM plays in the United States, the strikes and temporary idling of many plants noticeably showed in national economic indicators.


title: History of General Motors

text: In the early 1990s, following the first Gulf War and a recession, GM had taken on more debt. By the late 1990s, GM had regained market share; its stock had soared to over $80 a share by 2000, peaking at $93.63 a share on April 28 and $50 billion capitalization. However, in 2001, the stock market drop following the September 11, 2001 attacks, combined with historic pension underfunding, caused a severe pension and benefit fund crisis at GM and many other American companies and the value of their pension funds plummeted.


title: History of General Motors

text: In the late 1990s, the U.S. economy was on the rise and GM and Ford gained market share producing enormous profits primarily from the sale of light trucks and sport-utility vehicles.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 2001, following the September 11th attacks, a severe stock market decline caused a pension and benefit fund underfunding crisis.


title: History of General Motors

text: GM began its "Keep America Rolling" campaign, which boosted sales, and other auto makers were forced to follow suit. The U.S. automakers saw sales increase to leverage costs as gross margins deteriorated.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 2004, GM redirected resources from the development of new sedans to an accelerated refurbishment of their light trucks and SUVs for introduction as 2007 models in early 2006. Shortly after this decision, fuel prices increased by over 50% and this in turn affected both the trade-in value of used vehicles and the perceived desirability of new offerings in these market segments. The current marketing plan is to tout these revised vehicles extensively as offering the best fuel economy "in their class" (of vehicle). GM claims its hybrid trucks will have fuel economy improvements of 25%.


title: History of General Motors

text: After gaining market share in the late 1990s and making enormous profits, General Motors stock soared to over $80 a share. From June 1999 to September 2000, the Federal Reserve, in a move to quell potential inflationary pressures created by, among other things, the stock market, made successive interest rate increases, credited in part for putting the country into a recession. The recession and the volatile stock market created a pension and benefit fund crisis at General Motors and many other American companies. General Motors' rising retiree health care costs and Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) fund deficit prompted the company to enact a broad restructuring plan. Although GM had already taken action to fully fund its pension plan, its OPEB fund became an issue for its corporate bond ratings. GM had expressed its disagreement with the bond ratings; moreover, GM's benefit funds were performing at higher than expected rates of return. In 2003, GM responded to the crisis by fully funding its pension fund with a $15 B payment; however, its Other Post Employment Benefits Fund (OPEB) became a serious issue resulting in downgrades to its bond rating in 2005. Then, following a $10.6 billion loss in 2005, GM acted quickly to implement its restructuring plan.


title: History of General Motors

text: GM began its "Keep America Rolling" campaign, which boosted sales, and other automakers were forced to follow suit. The U.S. automakers saw sales increase to leverage costs as gross margins deteriorated. For the first quarter of 2006, GM earned $400 million, signaling that a turnaround had already begun even though many aspects of the restructuring plan had not yet taken effect. Although retiree health care costs remain a significant issue, General Motors' investment strategy has generated a $17.1 billion surplus in 2007 in its $101 billion U.S. pension fund portfolio, a $35 billion reversal from its $17.8 billion of underfunding.


title: History of General Motors

text: In February 2005, GM successfully bought itself out of a put option with Fiat for $2 billion USD (€1.55 billion). In 2000, GM had sold a 6% stake to Fiat in return for a 20% share in the Italian automaker. As part of the deal, GM granted Fiat a put option, which, if the option had been exercised between January 2004 and July 2009, could have forced GM to buy Fiat. GM had agreed to the put option at the time, perhaps to keep it from being acquired by another automaker, such as DaimlerChrysler, competing with GM's German subsidiary Opel. The relationship suffered and Fiat had failed to improve. In 2003, Fiat recapitalized, reducing GM's stake to 10%.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 2006, GM had begun to apply the Mark of Excellence, which was actually the GM logo. GM had stopped putting their logo on the cars in 2009, but GM did apply the GM logo on some of the early 2010 GM models.


title: History of General Motors

text: In February 2006, GM slashed its annual dividend from $2.00 to $1.00 per share. The reduction saved $565 million a year. In March 2006, GM divested 92.36 million shares (reducing its stake from 20% to 3%) of Japanese manufacturer Suzuki, in order to raise $2.3 billion. GM originally invested in Suzuki in the early 1980s.


title: History of General Motors

text: On March 23, 2006, a private equity consortium including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Goldman Sachs, and Five Mile Capital purchased 78% of GMAC's (now Ally Financial) commercial mortgage arm, then called Capmark, for $8.8 billion.


title: History of General Motors

text: On April 3, 2006, GM announced that it would sell 51% of GMAC (now Ally Financial) as a whole to a consortium led by Cerberus Capital Management, raising $14 billion over three years. Investors also included Citigroup's private equity arm and Aozora Bank of Japan. The group will pay GM $7.4 billion in cash at closing. GM will retain approximately $20 billion in automobile financing worth an estimated $4 billion over three years.


title: History of General Motors

text: GM sold its remaining 8% stake in Isuzu, which had peaked at 49% just a few years earlier, on April 11, 2006, to raise an additional $300 million. 12,600 workers from Delphi, a key supplier to GM, agreed to buyouts and an early retirement plan offered by GM in order to avoid a strike, after a judge agreed to cancel Delphi's union contracts. 5,000 Delphi workers were allowed to flow to GM.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 2006, GM offered buyouts to hourly workers to reduce future liability; over 35,000 workers responded to the offer, well exceeding the company's goal. GM gained higher rates of return on its benefit funds as a part of the solution. Stock value began to rebound—as of October 30, 2006, GM's market capitalization was about $19.19 billion. GM stock began the year 2006 at $19 a share, near its lowest level since 1982, as many on Wall Street figured the ailing automaker was bound for bankruptcy court. But GM remained afloat and the company's stock in the Dow Jones industrial average posted the biggest percentage gain in 2006.


title: History of General Motors

text: In June 2007, GM sold its military and commercial subsidiary, Allison Transmission, for $5.6 billion. Having sold off the majority, it will, however, keep its heavy-duty transmissions for its trucks marketed as the Allison 1000 series.


title: History of General Motors

text: During negotiations for the renewal of its industry labor contracts in 2007, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union selected General Motors as the "lead company" or "strike target" for pattern bargaining. Late in September, sensing an impending impasse in the talks, the union called a strike, the first nationwide walkout since 1970 (individual plants had experienced local labor disruptions in the interim). Within two days, however, a tentative agreement was achieved and the strike ended.


title: History of General Motors

text: On June 28, 2007, GM agreed to sell its Allison Transmission division to private equity firms Carlyle Group and Onex for $5.1 billion. The deal will increase GM's liquidity and echoes previous moves to shift its focus towards its core automotive business. The two firms will control seven factories around Indianapolis but GM will retain management of a factory in Baltimore. Former Allison Transmission president Lawrence E. Dewey will be the new CEO of the standalone company.


title: History of General Motors

text: Kirk Kerkorian once owned 9.9 percent of GM. According to press accounts from June 30, 2006, Kerkorian suggested that Renault acquire a 20 percent stake in GM to rescue GM from itself. A letter from Tracinda (Kerkorian's investment vehicle) to Rick Wagoner was released to the public to pressure GM's executive hierarchy, but talks failed. On November 22, 2006, Kerkorian sold 14 million shares of his GM stake (it is speculated that this action was due to GM's rejection of Renault and Nissan's bids for stakes in the company as both of these bids were strongly supported by Kerkorian); the sale resulted in GM's share price falling 4.1% from its 20 November price, although it remained above $30/share. The sale lowered Kerkorian's holding to around 7% of GM. On November 30, 2006, Tracinda said it had agreed to sell another 14 million shares of GM, cutting Kerkorian's stake to half of what it had been earlier that year. By the end of November 2006, he had sold substantially all of his remaining GM shares. After Kerkorian sold, GM lost more than 90% of its value, falling as low as $1/share by May 2009.


title: History of General Motors

text: On February 12, 2008, GM announced its operating loss was $2 billion (with a GAAP loss of $39 billion including a one time accounting charge). GM offered buyouts to all its UAW members.


title: History of General Motors

text: On March 24, 2008, GM reported a cash position of $24 billion, or $6 billion less than what was on hand September 31, 2007, which is a loss of $1 billion a month. A further quarterly loss of $15.5 billion, the third-biggest in the company's history, was announced on August 1, 2008.


title: History of General Motors

text: On November 17, 2008, GM announced it would sell its stake in Suzuki Motor Corp. (3.02%) for 22.37 billion yen ($230 million) in order to raise much needed cash to get through the 2008 economic crisis.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 2008, 8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the brands Vauxhall, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Saturn, Wuling and Opel of Germany.


title: History of General Motors

text: In late 2008 GM, along with Chrysler, received loans from the American, Canadian, and Ontarian governments to bridge the late-2000s recession, record oil prices, and a severe global automotive sales decline (see also automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009) due to the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. On February 20, 2009, GM's Saab division filed for reorganization in a Swedish court after being denied loans from the Swedish government.


title: History of General Motors

text: On April 27, 2009, GM announced that it would phase out the Pontiac brand by the end of 2010 and focus on four core brands in North America: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC. It announced that the resolution (sale) of its Hummer, Saab, and Saturn brands would take place by the end of 2009. (By November, however, proposed deals to sell Saturn to Penske and Saab to Koenigsegg had failed to materialize.) The company had closed its Oldsmobile division in 2004.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 2009, GM had renamed itself as General Motors Company, creating its former appellation: General Motors Corporation.


title: History of General Motors

text: On May 30, 2009, it was announced that a deal had been reached to transfer GM's Opel assets to a separate company, majority-owned by a consortium led by Sberbank of Russia (35%), Magna International (20%), and Opel employees (10%). GM was expected to keep a 35% minority stake in the new company. However, GM delayed acceptance of the deal pending other bids, notably a proposed 51% stake by Beijing Automotive. By early July, a decision had not been made, but Magna remained confident and scheduled a meeting for July 14 to announce its acceptance. After months of deliberation, however, GM decided on November 3, 2009, to retain full ownership of the German carmaker Opel, thus voiding the tentative deal with the Magna consortium.


title: History of General Motors

text: In June 2010, the company established General Motors Ventures, a subsidiary designed to help the company identify and develop new technologies in the automotive and transportation sectors.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 2012, PSA Peugeot Citroën and General Motors formed an alliance, which involved General Motors acquiring seven percent of the PSA Group. The ownership was soon divested on December 13, 2013, generating "gross proceeds of €0.25 billion". By 2017, Groupe PSA considered taking over Opel from GM, after GM reported a loss of $257 million from its European operations in 2016, the sixteenth consecutive loss-making year for GM in Europe, bringing its total losses in Europe since 2000 to more than US$15 billion. On March 6, 2017, the sale of Opel and Vauxhall to the PSA Group for $2.3 billion was confirmed.


title: History of General Motors

text: General Motors was criticized for its presence in apartheid South Africa. The company withdrew after pressure from consumers, stockholders and Leon H. Sullivan.


title: History of General Motors

text: It retained a commercial presence, however, in the form of its Opel subsidiary. Right Hand Drive Opel & Vauxhall production took place in GM's Uitenhage plants outside Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province, and does so to this day.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 1925 General Motors settled down in Argentina and started producing the Double Phaeton standard and the Double Phaeton called "Especial Argentino". The production was completed with a sedan model, a roadster and a truck chassis also adaptable to transporting of passengers. Sales increased and soon the Oldsmobile, Oakland and Pontiac brands were incorporated into the assembly line; the capacity of the facility was not enough to supply the increasing demand and the building of a new plant was required. A new 48,000 m2 plant with a covered area was opened in 1929, and since then the Buick, Marquette, La Salle, Cadillac, Vauxhaul and Opel marques also started to be produced.


title: History of General Motors

text: When the Second World War broke out the operations were complicated. In 1941, 250,000 Chevrolets were made, but shortage of parts made car production impossible. The last Chevrolet left the plant in August, 1942. though in order to avoid total stoppage, the company made electrical and portable refrigerators and car accessories in addition to other items. After the war, GM started producing the Oldsmobile and Pontiac lines and later Chevrolet was added.


title: History of General Motors

text: Production resumed in 1960 with Chevrolet pickups and shortly thereafter in 1962 it started assembling the first/second generation Chevy II until 1974 as Chevrolet 400, and the early third-generation (1968 model) Nova as the Chevrolet Chevy from late 1969 through 1978, both models overlapping for several years, the Chevy II marketed as a family sedan while the Nova as a sporty alternative. Thenceforth several Opel models and Chevrolet pickups are being manufactured.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 1984, GM acquired Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS), a leading data processing and telecommunications company, to be the sole provider of information technology (IT) services for the company. EDS became independent again in 1996, signing a 10-year agreement to continue providing IT services to General Motors.


title: History of General Motors

text: Delco Electronics Corporation was the automotive electronics design and manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors.


title: History of General Motors

text: The name Delco came from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., founded in Dayton, Ohio by Charles Kettering and Edward A. Deeds.


title: History of General Motors

text: Delco was responsible for several innovations in automobile electric systems, including the first reliable battery ignition system and the first practical automobile self starter.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 1936 Delco began producing the first dashboard-installed car radios. By the early 1970s Delco had become a major supplier of automotive electronics equipment. Based in Kokomo, Indiana, Delco Electronics employed more than 30,000 at its peak.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 1962 GM created the General Motors Research Laboratories, based in Santa Barbara, California, to conduct research and development activities on defense systems. This organization was eventually merged into Delco Electronics and renamed Delco Systems Operations.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 1985 General Motors purchased Hughes Aircraft and merged it with Delco Electronics to form Hughes Electronics Corporation, an independent subsidiary. In 1997 all of the defense businesses of Hughes Electronics (including Delco Systems Operations) were merged with Raytheon, and the commercial portion of Delco Electronics was transferred to GM's Delphi Automotive Systems business. Delphi became a separate publicly traded company in May 1999, and continued to use the Delco Electronics name for several of its subsidiaries through approximately 2004.


title: History of General Motors

text: Although Delco Electronics no longer exists as an operating company, GM still retains rights to the Delco name and uses it for some of its subsidiaries including the AC Delco parts division.


title: History of General Motors

text: Hughes Electronics Corporation was formed on December 31, 1985, when Hughes Aircraft Company was sold by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to General Motors for $5.2 billion. General Motors merged Hughes Aircraft with its Delco Electronics unit to form Hughes Electronics Corporation, an independent subsidiary. This division was a major aerospace and defense contractor, civilian space systems manufacturer and communications company. The aerospace and defense business was sold to Raytheon in 1997 and the Space and Communications division was sold to Boeing in 2000. Hughes Research Laboratories became jointly owned by GM, Raytheon, and Boeing. In 2003, the remaining parts of Hughes Electronics were sold to News Corporation and renamed The DirecTV Group.


title: History of General Motors

text: Delphi was spun off from General Motors on May 28, 1999. Delphi is one of the largest automotive parts manufacturers and has approximately 185,000 employees (50,000 in the United States). With offices worldwide, the company operates 167 wholly owned manufacturing sites, 41 joint ventures, 53 customer centers and sales offices, and 33 technical centers in 38 countries. Delphi makes the Monsoon premium audio systems found in some GM and other manufacturer automobiles.


title: History of General Motors

text: On October 8, 2005, Delphi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On March 31, 2006, Delphi announced it would sell off or close 21 of its 29 plants in the United States.


title: History of General Motors

text: Detroit Diesel was originally the GM Diesel Division then Detroit Diesel Allison Division until 1988. It made diesel engines for truck, generating set and marine use.


title: History of General Motors

text: Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) was originally the Electro-Motive Division of GM, until 2005. It made diesel engines and locomotives.


title: History of General Motors

text: By the end of 2006, GM had completed the divestiture of 51% of its financing unit, GMAC. Currently GM is a 10% owner in GMAC.


title: History of General Motors

text: In August 1938, before World War Two, a senior executive for General Motors, James D. Mooney, received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle for his distinguished service to the Reich. "Nazi armaments chief Albert Speer told a congressional investigator that Germany could not have attempted its September 1939 Blitzkrieg of Poland without the performance-boosting additive technology provided by Alfred P. Sloan and General Motors". During the war, GM's Opel Brandenburg plant produced trucks, parts for Ju 88 aircraft, land mines and torpedo detonators for Nazi Germany. Charles Levinson, formerly deputy director of the European office of the CIO, alleged in his book, "Vodka-Cola" extensive collaboration and information sharing between US and German divisions of General Motors during the war.


title: History of General Motors

text: Sloan's memoir presents a different picture of Opel's wartime existence. According to Sloan, Opel was nationalized (along with most other industrial activity owned or co-owned by foreign interests) by the German state soon after the outbreak of war. Sloan presents Opel at the end of the war as a black box to GM's American management—an organization that the Americans had had no contact with for five years. According to Sloan, GM in Detroit debated whether to even try to run Opel in the postwar era, or to leave to the interim West German government the question of who would pick up the pieces. But Opel was never factually nationalized and the GM-appointed directors and management remained unchanged throughout the war, dealing with other GM companies in Axis and Allied countries including the United States.


title: History of General Motors

text: In April 1939, defending the German investment strategy as "highly profitable", Alfred P. Sloan had told shareholders that GM's continued industrial production for the Nazi government was merely sound business practice. In a letter to a concerned shareholder, Sloan said that the manner in which the Nazi government ran Germany "should not be considered the business of the management of General Motors...We must conduct ourselves as a German organization.… We have no right to shut down the plant." “In other words, to put the proposition rather bluntly,” Sloan said in the letter, “such matters should not be considered the business of the management of General Motors.”


title: History of General Motors

text: After 20 years of researching General Motors, Bradford Snell alleged that, "General Motors was far more important to the Nazi war machine than Switzerland ... Switzerland was just a repository of looted funds. GM's Opel division was an integral part of the German war effort. The Nazis could have invaded Poland and Russia without Switzerland. They could not have done so without GM." The day before the German invasion of Poland, which was aided by Nazi soldiers who drove in GM Blitz vehicles, Sloan reportedly told shareholders that GM was “too big” to be impeded by “petty international squabbles.” However, a letter which Mooney wrote to shareholders in June 1940 confirmed that Nazi Germany had nationalized the Opel plant by this point in time.


title: History of General Motors

text: In the summer of 1940, a senior GM executive wrote that “the management of Adam Opel A.G. is in the hands of German nationals,” while also noting that it was still “actively represented by two American executives on the Board of Directors.” In April 1941, Walter Carpenter, a GM board member and vice president of DuPont, advised Sloan, who used South America as a way of keeping business relations with Nazi Germany following U.S. sanctions against the country, to end the business relations, stating "If we don’t listen to the urgings of the State Department in this connection, it seems to me just a question of time ... The effect of this will be to associate the General Motors with Nazi or Fascist propaganda against the interests of the United States ... The effect on the General Motors Corporation might be a very serious matter and the feeling might last for years.” Around this time, Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle would successfully urge the FBI to investigate GM. The investigation would find no evidence of disloyalty to American policy, but would also name both Sloan and Mooney in the final report and detail Mooney's ties to Nazi Germany. Mooney, who was in charge of GM's multinational operations, had resigned from the company in 1940.


title: History of General Motors

text: The Great American Streetcar Scandal is an unproven theory developed by Robert Eldridge Hicks in 1970 and published by Grossman Publishers in 1973 in the book "Politics of Land, Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Land Use in California" at pp. 410–412, compiled by Robert C. Fellmeth, Center for Study of Responsive Law, and put forth by Bradford Snell again in 1974, in which GM, along with road-builders, is alleged to have engaged in a policy that triggered the shift from the mass transportation of the previous century to the 'one-person-one-car' trip of today. The theory states that in order to expand auto sales and maximize profits GM bought local mass transit systems and privately owned railways, following which it would proceed to eliminate them and replace them all with GM-built buses. Alternative versions of the events have been put forth by scholars in the field. Slater, Cosgrove and Span all put forth evidence that counters Snell's theory.


title: History of General Motors

text: Consumer advocate Ralph Nader issued a series of attacks on vehicle safety issues from GM—particularly the Chevrolet Corvair—in his book "Unsafe at Any Speed", written in 1965. This first major work undertaken by Nader established his reputation as a crusader for safety. GM was accused of sending spies after him. The company was questioned at a Senate hearing in March 1966 about its attempted intimidation of Nader. Senators Robert Kennedy and Abe Ribicoff questioned CEO James Roche. In the end, the CEO apologized to Nader. The hearings led to legislation which created the United States Department of Transportation and predecessor agencies of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration later that year. Nader sued GM in November 1966 for invasion of privacy, winning the case on appeal in January, 1970.


title: History of General Motors

text: In 1980, J. Patrick Wright wrote a book named "On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors". This book, which critics acclaimed "blows the lid off the king of carmakers" was about the allegations of corruption, "mismanagement and total irresponsibility" at the top level of the company, as seen by John Z. DeLorean, the Vice-President, who, in 1973, resigned from his position in spite of a brilliant and meteoric rise. He was earning $650,000 per year and was expected to be the next President of GM.


title: Culture Club discography

text: Culture Club's discography consists of 6 studio albums, 9 compilation albums, 3 box sets, 3 extended plays, 20 regular commercial singles and 5 promotional singles largely released during the 1980s and 1990s. Culture Club sold more than 50 million records worldwide, including 7 million records in the United States.


title: Seo Hye-won

text: Seo Hye-won is a South Korean actress. She is known for her roles in dramas such as "True Beauty", "Cheongdam-dong Alice" ,"Welcome 2 Life" and "Nevertheless".


title: J. August Richards

text: Jaime Augusto Richards III (born August 28, 1973), commonly known as J. August Richards, is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Charles Gunn on The WB television series "Angel" and Mike Peterson on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."


title: J. August Richards

text: Richards is of Afro-Panamanian descent. He grew up in Bladensburg, Maryland. Richards attended the Visual and Performing Arts program at Suitland High School in Suitland, Maryland and graduated in 1991. He attended the USC School of Dramatic Arts on a scholarship.


title: J. August Richards

text: Richards's acting career began when he was spotted by a casting director. This resulted in him getting a guest star role on "The Cosby Show" as Vanessa's boyfriend Roy in the season 5 episode "Out of Brooklyn". Other guest appearances would come later on shows such as "The Practice", "Chicago Hope", "Any Day Now", and "Nash Bridges". Playing a rapping bike messenger who believes he is an alien abductee, it was the role of Taj Mahal in the Mark Taper Forum production of Tina Landau's play "Space" that first brought recognition.


title: J. August Richards

text: Richards has appeared in feature films "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and "Good Burger". He starred in the television movies "Critical Assembly" and "Mutiny", and appeared as singer Richard Street in the NBC miniseries "The Temptations". Richards has also guest-starred on "The West Wing" and "The 4400".


title: J. August Richards

text: Richards gained a recurring role beginning in the first season of "Angel" as Charles Gunn, a street-wise vampire hunter. He was promoted to a regular at the start of the second season, and remained a member of the cast throughout the rest of the show's run.


title: J. August Richards

text: Richards has so far been featured in four series as an attorney: Beginning in the first episode of season five of "Angel", "Conviction," Gunn becomes a lawyer after having his brain upgraded with a comprehensive knowledge of the law (both human and dæmonic) by the international and interdimensional law firm Wolfram & Hart. In 2006, Richards joined the cast of NBC's "Law & Order" spin-off "Conviction" as Billy Desmond, an undefeated New York City Assistant District Attorney with political aspirations. He has also been featured in CBS's "" as the Floridian attorney Bob Villa, and portrayed attorney Marcus McGrath in the TNT series "Raising the Bar" until its cancellation.


title: J. August Richards

text: Richards portrayed a young Richard Webber in two "Grey's Anatomy" episodes: "The Time Warp" in season six, and "Only Mama Knows" in season eleven. He also appeared in an episode of "The Mentalist". Richards had played the part of Damon in "Just Say Yes", a 1998 episode of the science fiction television series "Sliders". Richards also guest-starred in an episode of Syfy's "Warehouse 13".


title: J. August Richards

text: On April 5, 2013, TVLine confirmed that Richards had been given an unspecified role in ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  The character was later revealed to be a character named Mike Peterson, a human being with implants for injections of super-serum (similar to those of Captain America) known as Deathlok.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: Kid vs. Kat (stylized KiD vs KaT) is a Canadian animated television series that originally aired on YTV in Canada from October 25, 2008, until June 4, 2011. The series was created and co-directed by Rob Boutilier, developed and produced at Studio B Productions (owned by WildBrain), in association with YTV and Jetix Europe for its first season and Disney XD for its second season. 52 episodes were produced.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: When Coop Burtonburger's younger sister Millie brings home a strange stray cat, his idyllic life shatters as he discovers that the cat is actually a conniving, evil alien mastermind with a fanatical hate for mankind and an unassumingly sinister goal. The two battle daily as Coop tries to warn others of Kat's evil, only to find his evidence destroyed by him and deemed a fool. The series is set in the fictional town of Bootsville, British Columbia, Canada.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: Rob Boutilier first came up with the concept of the series in 2003 after he was inspired by how people thought his hairless cat was an alien. He was also influenced by a small tale of how a cat would use a child's sandbox as a litterbox.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: The series' pilot was first shown off at MIPCOM Jr. in 2006, and the series was officially revealed under the title "Look What My Sister Dragged In" in February 2007, where Studio B signed a development deal with YTV for the series. The series' production was started in January 2008.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: On February 12, 2008, after purchasing Studio B Productions, their new owner DHX Media announced they had licensed out the TV, home video, and consumer product rights for the series to Jetix Europe in areas where the company operated Jetix channels, while Disney-ABC International Television would handle TV distribution in these territories. DHX's then-TV distributor Decode Enterprises would handle television, home entertainment, and merchandising and licensing rights for the rest of the world.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: On April 15, 2008, the series was pre-sold by Decode to air on Toon Disney's Jetix block in the United States.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: On October 19, 2009, DHX announced that the series had been renewed for a second season. By then, the series had been airing on over 10 Disney XD channels around the world. It was also announced that the series had been pre-sold to additional broadcasters including Vrak in Canada, ABC in Australia, Disney XD Latin America, Disney XD India, Disney XD Japan, Cartoon Network South Korea and Nickelodeon Southeast Asia. On August 10, 2010, DHX announced that TV Azteca in Mexico and ECTV in Ecuador had pre-sold the series for free TV in Latin America.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: The series is animated in Flash. The character designs were influenced by many Warner Bros. style cartoons.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: On August 19, 2011, Rob Boutilier announced via Facebook the series would not be returning for a third season and he lacked the right to make further episodes.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: "Kid vs. Kat" premiered on YTV on October 25, 2008, in Canada. It aired on Saturdays at 8:30 AM as part of YTV's Crunch block (with repeats until mid-2010s). In the U.S., the show first aired on Disney XD on February 21, 2009, at 9:00 AM (with repeats until early 2010s). There is no official DVD release. As of 2022, the show is now streaming on Pluto TV.


title: Kid vs. Kat

text: Emily Ashby of "Common Sense Media" gave the series a 3 out of 5 stating; "Feline's evil schemes are outrageous - but fun for kids". Another Common Sense Media reviewer panned it, saying that the characters are bland and unlikable and that the series is a ripoff of "Invader Zim."


title: Kastro (rapper)

text: Katari Terrance Cox (born December 30, 1976) better known by his stage name Kastro, is an American rapper. A cousin of Tupac Shakur, Kastro would perform alongside him in the former's rap group, the Outlawz, and is featured on many of the late rapper's songs such as "Made Niggaz", & "Hail Mary". When he was in elementary school, he introduced his friend, and future Outlawz rapper, Malcolm Greenridge, later named E.D.I. Mean, to his cousin.


title: Kastro (rapper)

text: Kastro started rapping with the name "K-Dog". He was in a rap group with Big Malcolm (E.D.I. Mean), and Young Hollywood (Yaki Kadafi) in the beginning and began rapping in some of 2Pac's songs during the "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z." sessions. They then added Mutah (Napoleon) to the group and became known as Dramacydal.


title: Kastro (rapper)

text: On March 14, 1995, K-Dog was featured on 2Pac's 3× Platinum album "Me Against The World", on the song "Outlaw".


title: Kastro (rapper)

text: The next year, on February 13, 1996, he was featured on Tupac's 10× Platinum Double LP "All Eyez On Me" on the songs "Tradin War Stories", "When We Ride", & "Thug Passion". It was around the time of this album's recording sessions when Tupac gave K-Dog his name "Kastro". He was named after Fidel Castro for the Outlawz anti-American leader theme


title: Kastro (rapper)

text: On June 4, 1996, Kastro was featured in 2Pac's "Hit 'Em Up" music video, along with the rest of the Outlawz. The song was the B-side to Shakur's "How Do U Want It" single and was a vicious diss song aimed at Bad Boy Entertainment, Mobb Deep, & Chino XL. The song is widely considered the most aggressive hip-hop diss tracks ever recorded.


title: Kastro (rapper)

text: The same year Kastro was featured on Shakur's 4× Platinum album , on the songs "Hail Mary" & "Life of An Outlaw"


title: Kastro (rapper)

text: On September 7, 1996, Tupac was fatally wounded by gunshots on the Las Vegas Strip and was rushed to a hospital at the University of Las Vegas. He died six days later on September 13, 1996, at the age of 25. Kastro was present when the shooting took place. He was in the car directly behind Tupac but could not identify the shooters.


title: Substitute good

text: In microeconomics, two goods are substitutes if the products could be used for the same purpose by the consumers. That is, a consumer perceives both goods as similar or comparable, so that having more of one good causes the consumer to desire less of the other good. Contrary to complementary goods and independent goods, substitute goods may replace each other in use due to changing economic conditions. An example of substitute goods is Coca-Cola and Pepsi; the interchangeable aspect of these goods is due to the similarity of the purpose they serve, i.e fulfilling customers' desire for a soft drink. These types of substitutes can be referred to as close substitutes.


title: Substitute good

text: Performance characteristics describe what the product does for the customer; a solution to customers' needs or wants. For example, a beverage would quench a customer's thirst.


title: Substitute good

text: A product's occasion for use describes when, where and how it is used. For example, orange juice and soft drinks are both beverages but are used by consumers in different occasions (i.e. breakfast vs during the day).


title: Substitute good

text: Two products are in different geographic market if they are sold in different locations, it is costly to transport the goods or it is costly for consumers to travel to buy the goods.


title: Substitute good

text: Only if the two products satisfy the three conditions, will they be classified as close substitutes according to economic theory. The opposite of a substitute good is a complementary good, these are goods that are dependent on another. An example of complementary goods are cereal and milk.


title: Substitute good

text: An example of substitute goods are tea and coffee. These two goods satisfy the three conditions: tea and coffee have similar performance characteristics (they quench a thirst), they both have similar occasions for use (in the morning) and both are usually sold in the same geographic area (consumers can buy both at their local supermarket). Some other common examples include margarine and butter, and McDonald's and Burger King.


title: Substitute good

text: Formally, good formula_1 is a substitute for good formula_2 if when the price of formula_2 rises the demand for formula_1 rises, see figure 1.


title: Substitute good

text: Let formula_5 be the price of good formula_2. Then, formula_1 is a substitute for formula_2 if: formula_9.


title: Substitute good

text: The fact that one good is substitutable for another has immediate economic consequences: insofar as one good can be substituted for another, the demands for the two goods will be interrelated by the fact that customers can trade off one good for the other if it becomes advantageous to do so. Cross-price elasticity helps us understand the degree of substitutability of the two products. An increase in the price of a good will ("ceteris paribus") increase demand for its substitutes, while a decrease in the price of a good will decrease demand for its substitutes, see Figure 2.


title: Substitute good

text: The relationship between demand schedules determines whether goods are classified as substitutes or complements. The cross-price elasticity of demand shows the relationship between two goods, it captures the responsiveness of the quantity demanded of one good to a change in price of another good.


title: Substitute good

text: The cross-price elasticity may be positive or negative, depending on whether the goods are complements or substitutes. A substitute good is a good with a positive cross elasticity of demand. This means that, if good formula_1 is a substitute for good formula_2, an increase in the price of formula_2 will result in a leftward movement along the demand curve of formula_2 and cause the demand curve for formula_1 to shift out. A decrease in the price of formula_2 will result in a rightward movement along the demand curve of formula_2 and cause the demand curve for formula_1 to shift in. Furthermore, perfect substitutes have a higher cross elasticity of demand than imperfect substitutes do.


title: Substitute good

text: Perfect substitutes refer to a pair of goods with uses identical to one another. In that case, the utility of a combination of the two goods is an increasing function of the sum of the quantity of each good. That is, the more the consumer can consume (in total quantity), the higher level of utility will be achieved, see figure 3.


title: Substitute good

text: Perfect substitutes have a linear utility function and a constant marginal rate of substitution, see figure 3. If goods X and Y are perfect substitutes, any different consumption bundle will result in the consumer obtaining the same utility level for all the points on the indifference curve (utility function). Let a consumption bundle be represented by (X,Y), then, a consumer of perfect substitutes would receive the same level of utility from (20,10) or (30,0).


title: Substitute good

text: Consumers of perfect substitutes base their rational decision making process on prices only. Evidently, the consumer will choose the cheapest bundle to maximise their profits. If the prices of the goods differed, there would be no demand for the more expensive good. Producers and sellers of perfect substitute goods directly compete with each other, that is, they are known to be in direct price competition.


title: Substitute good

text: An example of perfect substitutes is butter from two different producers; the producer may be different but their purpose and usage are the same.


title: Substitute good

text: Perfect substitutes have a high cross-elasticity of demand. For example, if Country Crock and Imperial margarine have the same price listed for the same amount of spread, but one brand increases its price, its sales will fall by a certain amount. In response, the other brand's sales will increase by the same amount.


title: Substitute good

text: Imperfect substitutes, also known as close substitutes, have a lesser level of substitutability, and therefore exhibit variable marginal rates of substitution along the consumer indifference curve. The consumption points on the curve offer the same level of utility as before, but compensation depends on the starting point of the substitution. Unlike perfect substitutes (see figure 4), the indifference curves of imperfect substitutes are not linear and the marginal rate of substitution is different for different set of combinations on the curve. Close substitute goods are similar products that target the same customer groups and satisfy the same needs, but have slight differences in characteristics. Sellers of close substitute goods are therefore in indirect competition with each other.


title: Substitute good

text: Beverages are a great example of imperfect substitutes. As the price of Coca-Cola rises, consumers could be expected to substitute to Pepsi. However, many consumers prefer one brand over the other. Consumers who prefer one brand over the other will not trade between them one-to-one. Rather, a consumer who prefers Coca-Cola (for example) will be willing to exchange more Pepsi for less Coca-Cola, in other words, consumers who prefer Coca-Cola would be willing to pay more.


title: Substitute good

text: The degree to which a good has a perfect substitute depends on how specifically the good is defined. The broader the definition of a good, the easier it is for the good to have a substitute good. On the other hand, a good narrowly defined will be likely to not have a substitute good. For example, different types of cereal generally are substitutes for each other, but Rice Krispies cereal, which is a very narrowly defined good as compared to cereal generally, has few, if any substitutes. To illustrate this further, we can imagine that while both Rice Krispies and Froot Loops are types of cereal, they are imperfect substitutes, as the two are very different types of cereal. However, generic brands of Rice Krispies, such as Malt-o-Meal's Crispy Rice would be a perfect substitute for Kellogg's Rice Krispies.


title: Substitute good

text: Imperfect substitutes have a low cross-elasticity of demand. If two brands of cereal have the same prices before one's price is raised, we can expect sales to fall for that brand. However, sales will not raise by the same amount for the other brand, as there are many types of cereal that are equally substitutable for the brand which has raised its price; consumer preferences determine which brands pick up their losses.


title: Substitute good

text: If two goods are imperfect substitutes, economists can distinguish them as gross substitutes or net substitutes. Good formula_1 is a gross substitute for good formula_2 if, when the price of good formula_2 increases, spending on good formula_1 increases, as described above. Gross substitutability is not a symmetric relationship. Even if formula_1 is a gross substitute for formula_2, it may not be true that formula_2 is a gross substitute for formula_1.


title: Substitute good

text: Two goods are net substitutes when the demand for good X increases when the price of good Y increases and the utility derived from the substitute remains constant.


title: Substitute good

text: That is, goods are net substitutes if they are substitutes for each other under a constant utility function. Net substitutability has the desirable property that, unlike gross substitutability, it is symmetric:


title: Substitute good

text: That is, if good formula_1 is a net substitute for good formula_2, then good formula_2 is also a net substitute for good formula_1. The symmetry of net substitution is both intuitively appealing and theoretically useful.


title: Substitute good

text: The common misconception is that competitive equilibrium is non-existent when it comes to products that are net substitutes. Like most times when products are gross substitutes, they will also likely be net substitutes, hence most gross substitute preferences supporting a competitive equilibrium also serve as examples of net substitutes doing the same. This misconception can be further clarified by looking at the nature of net substitutes which exists in a purely hypothetical situation where a fictitious entity interferes to shut down the income effect and maintain a constant utility function. This defeats the point of a competitive equilibrium, where no such intervention takes place. The equilibrium is decentralized and left to the producers and consumers to determine and arrive at an equilibrium price.


title: Substitute good

text: Within-category substitutes are goods that are members of the same taxonomic category such as goods sharing common attributes (e.g., chocolate, chairs, station wagons).


title: Substitute good

text: Cross-category substitutes are goods that are members of different taxonomic categories but can satisfy the same goal. A person who wants chocolate but cannot acquire it, for example, might instead buy ice cream to satisfy the goal of having a dessert.


title: Substitute good

text: Whether goods are cross-category or within-category substitutes influences the utility derived by consumers. People exhibit a strong preference for within-category substitutes over cross-category substitutes, despite cross-category substitutes being more effective at satisfying customers' needs. Across ten sets of different foods, 79.7% of research participants believed that a within-category substitute would better satisfy their craving for a food they could not have than a cross-category substitute. Unable to acquire a desired Godiva chocolate, for instance, a majority reported that they would prefer to eat a store-brand chocolate (a within-category substitute) than a chocolate-chip granola bar (a cross-category substitute). This preference for within-category substitutes appears, however, to be misguided. Because within-category substitutes are more similar to the missing good, their inferiority to it is more noticeable. This creates a negative contrast effect, and leads within-category substitutes to be less satisfying substitutes than cross-category substitutes.


title: Substitute good

text: Unit-demand goods are categories of goods from which consumer wants only a single item. If the consumer has two unit-demand items, then his utility is the "maximum" of the utilities he gains from each of these items. For example, consider a consumer that wants a means of transportation, which may be either a car or a bicycle. The consumer prefers a car to a bicycle. If the consumer has both a car and a bicycle, then the consumer uses only the car. The economic theory of unit elastic demand illustrates the inverse relationship between price and quantity. Unit-demand goods are always substitutes.


title: Substitute good

text: Perfect competition is solely based on firms having equal conditions and the continuous pursuit of these conditions, regardless of the market size One of the requirements for perfect competition is that the goods of competing firms should be perfect substitutes. Products sold by different firms have minimal differences in capabilities, features, and pricing. Thus, buyers cannot distinguish between products based on physical attributes or intangible value. When this condition is not satisfied, the market is characterized by product differentiation. A perfectly competitive market is a theoretical benchmark and does not exist in reality. However, perfect substitutability is significant in the era of deregulation because there are usually several competing providers (e.g., electricity suppliers) selling the same good which result in aggressive price competition.


title: Substitute good

text: Monopolistic competition characterizes an industry in which many firms offer products or services that are close, but not perfect substitutes. Monopolistic firms have little power to set curtail supply or raise prices to increase profits. Thus, the firms will try to differentiate their product through branding and marketing to capture above market returns. Some common examples of monopolistic industries include gasoline, milk, Internet connectivity (ISP services), electricity, telephony, and airline tickets. Since firms offer similar products, demand is highly elastic in monopolistic competition. As a result of demand being very responsive to price changes, consumers will switch to the cheapest alternative as a result of price increases. This is known as switching costs, or essentially what the consumers are willing to give up.


title: Substitute good

text: The Michael Porter invented "Porter's Five Forces" to analyse an industry's attractiveness and likely profitability. Alongside competitive rivalry, buyer power, supplier power and threat of new entry, Porter identifies the threat of substitution as one of the five important industry forces. The threat of substitution refers to the likelihood of customers finding alternative products to purchase. When close substitutes are available, customers can easily and quickly forgo buying a company's product by finding other alternatives. This can weaken a company's power which threatens long-term profitability. The risk of substitution can be considered high when:


title: Substitute good

text: Additionally substitute goods have a large impact on markets, consumer and sellers through the following factors:


title: Alaknanda River

text: The Alaknanda is a Himalayan river in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and one of the two headstreams of the Ganges, the major river of Northern India and the holy river of Hinduism. In hydrology, the Alaknanda is considered the source stream of the Ganges on account of its greater length and discharge; however, in Hindu tradition and culture, the other headstream, the Bhagirathi, is considered the source stream.


title: Alaknanda River

text: The Alaknanda rises at the confluence and foot of the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers in Uttarakhand. From its origin, it travels to the village of Mana, meets with the Saraswati River, a right bank tributary, and continues downstream through narrow valleys. It reaches the Badrinath valley, arrives at Hanumanchatti, and meets with the Ghrit Ganga, a right bank tributary. From Hanumanchatti, the river goes to Pandukeshwar and flows through wide valleys and steep terrains. At Vishnuprayag it meets Dhauliganga, a left bank tributary, and travels west to the town of Joshimath. From Joshimath, the Alaknanda crosses the Main Central Thrust near Helang. It then meets with Birahi Ganga, a left bank tributary at Birahi. The river reaches the town of Nandprayag and joins with the Nandakini River, a left bank tributary. At Karanprayag, the Pindar River, a left bank tributary, meets with the Alaknanda River. At Rudraprayag, it meets with the Mandakini River, a right bank tributary. As the Alaknanda flows past Rudraprayag, it enters a wide valley near Srinagar, Garhwal. At Devprayag the Alaknanda River converges with the Bhagirathi River and travels onward as the Ganges River.


title: Alaknanda River

text: The Alaknanda contributes a significantly larger portion to the flow of the Ganges than the Bhagirathi. The Alaknanda system drains parts of Chamoli, Tehri, and Pauri districts.


title: Alaknanda River

text: The Alaknanda River is of special interest to the pilgrims who visit the important pilgrimage places in Uttarakhand. The Ganges as Alaknanda rises in the southern Himalayas on the Indian side of the Tibet border. On the Satopanth Glacier up from Alaknanda's origin at its snout, the triangular Lake Satopanth is found at a height of . It is named after the Hindu trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.


title: Alaknanda River

text: Badrinath, one of the holy destinations for Hindus in India is located near to the bank of the Alaknanda River. This place is surrounded by two mountain ranges of Nar and Narayan on either sides and Neelkanth peak located at the back of Narayan range.


title: Alaknanda River

text: Several rivers in the Garhwal region merge with the Alaknanda at places called prayag or 'holy confluence of rivers'. These are:


title: Alaknanda River

text: There are 37 hydroelectric dams in operation, under construction or planned to harness the energy of the Alaknanda river and its tributaries and generate electricity.


title: Alaknanda River

text: There are 23 other proposed projects in the Alaknanda river basin through which the power-potential of the Alaknanda and its tributaries can be harnessed. The proposed 23 hydel-projects are as follows -


title: Alaknanda River

text: As the river flows, the towns along its banks are Badrinath, Vishnuprayag, Joshimath, Chamoli, Nandaprayag, Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag, Srinagar and Devprayag. At each town with suffix prayag, Alaknanda meets another river.


title: Hershey bar

text: The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar (commonly called the Hershey's Bar, or more simply the Hershey Bar) is a flagship chocolate bar manufactured by The Hershey Company. Hershey refers to it as "The Great American Chocolate Bar". The Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar was first sold in 1900.


title: Hershey bar

text: Hershey chocolate bars had their origin in Milton Hershey's first successful confectionery business, Lancaster Caramel Company, which was founded in 1886. After seeing German chocolate manufacturing machinery at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, Hershey decided to go into the chocolate making business. After purchasing the chocolate processing machinery, Hershey began by applying chocolate coatings to the caramels. The next year, 1894, Hershey founded the Hershey Chocolate Company and incorporated it as a subsidiary of the Lancaster Caramel Company. The Hershey Chocolate Company developed its own line of chocolate products, marketed as "sweet chocolate novelties" to distinguish them from unsweetened baking chocolate. After developing the Hershey process to mass-produce chocolate in 1899, Hershey sold the Lancaster Caramel Company in August of the year 1900, and kept the chocolate manufacturing business. In November of that same year, Hershey began to produce and sell the Hershey chocolate bar.


title: Hershey bar

text: The Hershey Process milk chocolate in these bars uses fresh milk delivered directly from local farms. The process was developed by Milton Hershey and produced the first mass-produced chocolate in the United States. As a result, the Hershey flavor is widely recognized in the United States, the Philippines, and to a minor extent in Canada, where British-produced chocolates were commonly sold, but less so internationally, especially in areas where European chocolates are more widely available. The process is a company and trade secret, but experts speculate that the milk is partially lipolyzed. This produces butyric acid (a compound found in substances such as Parmesan cheese and vomit) which stabilizes the milk from further fermentation. This flavor gives the product a "tangy" taste that the US public has come to associate with the taste of chocolate, to the point that other US manufacturers often add butyric acid to their milk chocolates. In Canada this led to Hershey introducing a reformulated Canadian bar in 1983.


title: Hershey bar

text: Starting in 2006, Hershey has added polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) to their chocolate, except for the traditional plain milk chocolate Hershey's Kisses. In 2015, Hershey announced they would begin removing PGPR from the rest of their chocolate. Artificial vanillin was also removed in 2015. Hershey did remove PGPR from some of their chocolate bars, but in April 2019 started putting it back in Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds full size bar, and plain milk chocolate bars, and never removed it from Symphony milk chocolate and other products. Hershey does not claim to use vanilla in their chocolate, only natural flavor, which may be the same chemical as the artificial one it replaces, except created from a natural source through several processes.


title: Hershey bar

text: In addition to the standard Milk Chocolate and Milk Chocolate with Almonds varieties, Hershey's produces several other chocolate bars in various flavors: Special Dark chocolate, Cookies 'N' Creme, Symphony (both Milk Chocolate and Almond Toffee), Mr. Goodbar (with peanuts), and Krackel (with crisped rice). Nine flavors were available for limited periods: Double Chocolate, Nut Lovers, Twosomes Reese's Pieces, Cookies 'N' Chocolate, Cookies 'N' Mint, Strawberries 'n' Creme, Raspberries 'n' Creme, Twosomes Heath, and Twosomes Whoppers. All flavors have between 210 and 230 calories per standard-sized bar.


title: Hershey bar

text: The Kashruth Division of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America approves all flavors for consumption by observant Jews, with OU Kosher status.


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: The Painted Desert is a United States desert of badlands in the Four Corners area, running from near the east end of Grand Canyon National Park and southeast into Petrified Forest National Park. It is most easily accessed from the north portion of Petrified Forest National Park. The Painted Desert is known for its brilliant and varied colors: these include the more common red rock, but also shades of lavender.


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: The Painted Desert was named by a Spanish expedition under Francisco Vázquez de Coronado during his 1540 quest to find the Seven Cities of Cibola. He located these some east of Petrified Forest National Park. Finding the cities were not made of gold, Coronado sent an expedition to find the Colorado River to gain supplies. Passing through the wonderland of colors, they named the area "El Desierto Pintado" ("The Painted Desert").


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: Much of the Painted Desert within Petrified Forest National Park is protected as Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area, where motorized travel is limited. The park offers both easy and longer hikes into the colored hills. The Painted Desert continues north into the Navajo Nation, where off-road travel is allowed only by permit and he took some of the Painted Deserts with him back to Mexico.


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: The desert is composed of stratified layers of siltstone, mudstone, and shale of the Triassic Chinle Formation, which erode easily. These fine-grained rock layers contain abundant iron and manganese compounds, which provide the pigments for the various colors of the region. Thin, resistant lacustrine limestone layers and volcanic flows cap the mesas. Numerous layers of silicic volcanic ash occur in the Chinle and provide the silica for the petrified logs of the area. The erosion of these layers has resulted in the formation of the badlands topography.


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: In the southern portions of the desert, the remains of a Triassic period coniferous forest have fossilized over millions of years. Wind, water, and soil erosion continue to change the face of the landscape by shifting sediment and exposing layers of the Chinle Formation. An assortment of fossilized prehistoric plants and animals are found in the region, as well as ancient dinosaur tracks and evidence of early human habitation. We are aloud to see the Painted Desert but we have to hike to see them.


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: The Painted Desert extends roughly from Cameron–Tuba City southeast to past Holbrook and the Petrified Forest National Park. The desert is about long by about wide, making it roughly in area. Bordering southwest and south is the Mogollon Plateau, and on the plateau's south border the Mogollon Rim, the north border of the Arizona transition zone.


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: Owing to the strong rain shadow of the Mogollon Rim, the Painted Desert has a cold desert climate (Köppen "BWk"), with hot, dry summers and chilly (though virtually snow-free) winters. The annual precipitation is the lowest in northern Arizona and in many places is lower even than Phoenix.


title: Painted Desert (Arizona)

text: Much of the region is accessible only by foot or unpaved road though major highways and paved roads cut across the area. The towns of Cameron and Tuba City, both on the Navajo Nation, are two major settlements. A permit is required for all backroad travel on the Navajo Nation.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president of Iceland () is the head of state of Iceland. The incumbent is Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, who is now in his second term as president, elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020.


title: President of Iceland

text: Vigdís Finnbogadóttir assumed Iceland's presidency on 1 August 1980, she made history as the first elected female head of state in the world.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president is elected to a four-year term by popular vote, is not term-limited, and has limited powers. The presidential residence is situated in Bessastaðir in Garðabær, near the capital city Reykjavík.


title: President of Iceland

text: When Iceland became a republic in 1944 by the passing of a new constitution the position of King of Iceland was simply replaced by the president of Iceland. A transitional provision of the new constitution stipulated that the first president be elected by the Parliament.


title: President of Iceland

text: The term for "president" in Icelandic is "forseti". The word "forseti" means "one who sits foremost" ("sá sem fremst situr") in Old Norse/Icelandic or literally "fore-sitter". It is the name of one of the Æsir, the god of justice and reconciliation in Norse mythology. He is generally identified with Fosite, a god of the Frisians.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president appoints ministers to the Cabinet of Iceland, determines their number and division of assignments. Ministers are not able to resign and must be discharged by the president. The ministers are delegated the president's executive powers and are solely responsible for their actions.


title: President of Iceland

text: In the aftermath of general elections, the president has the role to designate a party leader (the one that the president considers most likely to be able to form a majority coalition government) to formally start negotiations to form a government. Sveinn Björnsson and Ásgeir Ásgeirsson played highly active roles in the formation of governments, attempting to set up governments that suited their political preferences, whereas Kristján Eldjárn and Vigdís Finnbogadóttir were passive and neutral as to individuals and parties comprising the government.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president and the Cabinet meet in the State Council. The Cabinet must inform the president of important matters of the state and drafted bills. During meetings the Cabinet may also suggest convening, adjourning or dissolving the Parliament.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president can decide that the prosecution for an offense be discontinued and can also grant pardon and amnesty.


title: President of Iceland

text: Article 2 of the constitution states that the president and the Parliament jointly exercise the legislative power. The president signs bills passed by the Parliament into law and can choose not to sign them, thus in effect vetoing them. Bills vetoed by the president still take effect, should the Parliament not withdraw them, but they must be confirmed in a referendum. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (who served 1996–2016) is the only president to have vetoed legislation from Parliament, having done so only on three occasions (2004, 2010, 2011). This power was originally intended to be used only in extremely extenuating circumstances.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president has the power to submit bills and resolutions to the Parliament which it must take under consideration. Should the Parliament not be in session the president can issue provisional laws which must conform with the constitution. Provisional laws become void if the Parliament does not confirm them when it convenes. No president has ever submitted bills nor resolutions, nor issued provisional laws.


title: President of Iceland

text: Article 30 of the constitution states that the president can grant exceptions from laws. No president has yet exercised this authority.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president convenes the Parliament after general elections and formally dissolves it. He can temporarily adjourn its sessions and move them if he deems so necessary. Furthermore, the president opens all regular sessions of the Parliament each year.


title: President of Iceland

text: The president receives a monthly salary of 2,480,341 ISK. Article 9 of the constitution states the salary cannot be lowered for an incumbent president.


title: President of Iceland

text: Article 12 of the constitution states that the president shall reside in or near Reykjavík. Since inception the official residence of the president has been Bessastaðir which is in Álftanes.


title: President of Iceland

text: Articles 7 and 8 of the constitution state that when the president dies or is otherwise unable to perform his duties, such as when he is abroad or sick, the prime minister, the president of the Parliament and the president of the Supreme Court shall collectively assume the power of the office until the president can resume their duties or a new president has been elected. Their meetings are led by the president of the Parliament where they vote on any presidential decision.


title: President of Iceland

text: If the office of the president becomes vacant because of death or resignation, a new president shall be elected by the general public to a four-year term ending on 1 August in the fourth year after the elections. Sveinn Björnsson remains the only president to die in office in 1952, triggering a presidential election one year ahead of schedule.


title: President of Iceland

text: Article 11 of the constitution lays out the process by which the president can be removed from office. It states that the president does not bear responsibility for the actions of his government and that he can not be prosecuted without consent of the Parliament. A referendum instigated by the Parliament with 3/4 support must approve of his removal. Once the Parliament has approved of the referendum, the president must temporarily step aside until the results of the referendum are known. The referendum must be held within two months of the vote, and, should the removal be rejected by the people, then the Parliament must immediately be dissolved and a new general election held.


title: Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union

text: The accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union is the stated aim of the present relations between the two entities. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been recognised by the EU as a "candidate country" for accession since the decision of the European Council in 2022 and is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU. Bosnia and Herzegovina takes part in the Stabilisation and Association Process and trade relations are regulated by an Interim Agreement.


text: Bosnia and Herzegovina formally applied for EU membership on 15 February 2016, following years of constitutional reforms and engagements with the Dayton Peace Agreement. The failure of Bosnia to meet the conditions for the closure of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including addressing state and military property ownership issues and implementing constitutional reforms, had prevented the country from submitting an application until 2016.


text: On 9 December 2016, Bosnia and Herzegovina received the accession questionnaire from the European Commission and the responses to the questionnaire were submitted in February 2018. On 20 June 2018, the European Commission sent 655 follow-up questions to the Questionnaire. Presidency Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time, Milorad Dodik, handed over the answers to the additional questions on 5 March 2019. An opinion on Bosnia's application was published by the European Commission in May 2019. Twenty-two policy and political criteria questions were still unanswered when Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted its latest response on 5 March 2019. It remains a potential candidate country until it can successfully answer all of the questions on the European Commission's questionnaire sheet as well as "ensure the functioning of the Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee and develop a national programme for the adoption of the EU acquis".


text: On 12 October 2022, the European Commission recommended that candidate status be granted to Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Council, on the understanding that a number of steps are taken. These include the fulfillment of 14 key concepts proposed by the EU that seek progress in the strengthening of democracy and human rights, as well as 8 further objectives that must be met: "judicial reform, prevention of conflicts of interests, fight against corruption and organised crime, border and migration management, media freedom, protection of journalists and the creation of preventive mechanisms against torture and ill-treatment." On 15 December 2022, the European Council officially granted candidacy status to Bosnia and Herzegovina.


text: Many observers estimate that Bosnia and Herzegovina is at the bottom in terms of EU integration among the Western Balkans states seeking EU membership.


text: The EU established a "regional approach" to the Western Balkans in 1997, with political and economic conditionality criteria for the development of bilateral relations. The following year, an "EU/Bosnia and Herzegovina Consultative Task Force" was put in place to start the process. Since 2006, the task force has been replaced by the Reform Process Monitoring (RPM).


text: An "Interim Agreement on Trade and Trade-related issues" was signed and entered into force on 1 July 2008. The Interim Agreement was the legal framework for trade between Bosnia and the EU between 2008 and 2015.


text: Unilateral trade preferences (""Autonomous Trade Measures"", ATM) were introduced by the EU for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the year 2000. Trade has increased since 2008 and EU products have been granted reciprocal preference in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The EU is the main trading partner of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 73.5% of exports from the country went to the EU in 2014, following Croatia's accession.


text: In the 2007–2013 budgetary period, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a beneficiary of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) funds. As a "potential candidate country", Bosnia is allowed to finance projects under the first two IPA components, "Transition Assistance and Institution Building" and "Cross-Border Cooperation". The eligibility for the three advanced IPA components will be conditional on Bosnia's acquisition of EU candidacy status and its implementation of a Decentralised Implementation System, streamlining administrative capacities in order to autonomously manage projects and disburse funds with only ex post Commission controls.


text: Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently receiving EUR 822 million of developmental aid until 2020 from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, a funding mechanism for EU candidate countries.


text: On 1 January 2008, a visa facilitation and readmission agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the EU entered into force.


text: Bosnia and Herzegovina took part in the dialogue for visa liberalisation with Schengen countries, launched by the European Commission on 26 May 2008.


text: On November 8, 2010 the Council of the European Union approved visa-free travel to the EU for citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decision entered into force on 15 December 2010.


text: Peter Sørensen took over the position of EUSR in Bosnia and Herzegovina from September 2011 until October 2014. His post was decoupled from the one of High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (which will remain in the hands of Valentin Inzko), and merged with the one of Head of the EU Delegation to BiH, aiming at strengthening the EU pre-accession strategy for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was replaced by Lars-Gunnar Wigemark.


text: In 2004, the European Union Police Mission (EUPM) launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina constitutes the first European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) mission. The same year, EUFOR Althea replaced NATO's SFOR mission.


text: A Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) for the five countries of the region, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, was proposed in 1999. In June 2000, the European Council in Feira recognised that all the SAP countries are "potential candidates" for EU membership. In November of the same year, the regional SAP process was launched at the Zagreb summit.


text: The process towards the signature of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) began in 2003 with a feasibility study by the Commission on Bosnia and Herzegovina's capacity to implement the SAA. The same year, in June, the European Council in Thessaloniki confirmed the SAP as the main framework of the relations between the EU and the Western Balkans, recalling the perspective of accession for all the countries of the region.


text: The EU Council adopted a new European Partnership with Bosnia and Herzegovina on 18 February 2008, setting the short-term and mid-term priorities for EU assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina through IPA funds.


text: Negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) – required before applying for membership – started in 2005 and were originally expected to be finalised in late 2007. but negotiations stalled due to a disagreement over police reform.


text: The SAA was initialled on 4 December 2007 by caretaker Prime Minister Nikola Špirić. The initialing came in the wake of successful negotiations by Miroslav Lajčák in regards to passing his new quorum rules laws and also the commitment of Bosnian and Herzegovinian politicians to implementing police reform. Following the adoption of the police reforms in April 2008, the agreement was signed on 16 June 2008. Reforms promised by the Prud Agreement would "build the ability of the State to meet the requirements of the EU integration process".


text: The final EU state to ratify the SAA, France, did so in February 2011. The SAA should have entered into effect within 40 days but was frozen since Bosnia had not complied with its previous obligations, which would have led to the immediate suspension of the SAA. The obligations to be met by Bosnia before the SAA can come into force include the adoption of a law on state aids and a national census, and implementation of the "Finci and Sejdic" ruling of the ECHR requiring an amendment to the Constitution to allow members of minorities to be elected to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to gain seats in the House of Peoples. The EU has also required that the country create a single unified body to manage their relations with the EU. The adoption of state laws on the issues above are prevented by the opposition of the government of the Republika Srpska, which considers such issues a matter of exclusive competence of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.


text: In March 2014 Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusić at a session of the Council of the European Union proposed to other EU countries to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the status of a Special EU Candidate Country in an aide-mémoire submitted during the meeting. Minister Pusić pointed out that Croatia does not suggest lowering the membership criteria but rather that member states should take a proactive stance in cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina and not just to put high criteria and then just wait for something to happen. Croatia has also proposed that implementation of the judgment in the case of Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina should not anymore be a prerequisite for Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress towards the EU, but that this issue, together with the issue of a new constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina, should be resolved after Bosnia and Herzegovina gets the status of Special EU Candidate country in negotiating chapters 23 and 24.


text: An initiative of the foreign ministers of Germany and the United Kingdom, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Philip Hammond, respectively, for the acceleration of the Accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union was announced at the so-called Aspen Initiative Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in late 2014.


text: The two proposed that the SAA enter into force without first implementing the constitutional amendments required by "Finci and Sejdic", provided that Bosnian authorities approve a declaration pledging their commitment to making the reforms required for European integration. The foreign ministers called on local Bosnian politicians to begin with necessary reforms as soon as possible after a new government is formed after the 2014 Bosnian general election.


text: The declaration was jointly signed by the tripartite presidency on 29 January, and approved by parliament on 23 February. The Council of the EU approved the SAA's entry into force on 16 March 2015. The SAA entered into force on 1 June 2015.


text: A 2019 poll sponsored by the National Democratic Institute found that there was overall support of accession to the EU of 75%. There was somewhat of a split over ethnic lines:


text: On 2 March 2022, two former High Representatives for Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentin Inzko and Christian Schwarz Schilling appealed to the EU for a faster accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to it: "February 24, 2022 represents a dark day in the history of Europe, because there is a danger that this kind of aggression against a sovereign state could encourage other dictators to take similar steps". With these words, two former high representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, addressed the President of the European Commission, reacting to the dramatic development of the situation in Ukraine and the Russian army's attacks on civilian targets.


text: On 12 June 2022, several political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina were called to Brussels on the request of Charles Michel, the president of the European Council. Most of the participants of the meeting in Brussels, which lasted more than eight hours, accepted the document: "Political Agreement on Principles for Ensuring a Functional BiH". The document, whose goals are ensuring a functional Bosnia and Herzegovina that advances on the European path, defines the commitment to preserve and build a peaceful, stable, sovereign and independent functional European Bosnia and Herzegovina. While also being committed to respecting the rule of law and conducting free and democratic elections. The importance of implementing reforms, which improve the European integration of BiH, is emphasized.


text: On 3 September 2022, the president of Slovenia Borut Pahor expressed his views "The first thing is for Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania to speed up the negotiations for joining the EU, for Bosnia and Herzegovina to receive candidate status by the end of Sunday, and for the EU to fulfill its obligation on visa liberalization". This caused confusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina since there was no previous mention from the Slovenian President regarding the candidate status of Bosnia and Herzegovina.


text: On 6 September 2022, Bosnia and Herzegovina signed an agreement with the European Union regarding it joining the European Civil Protection Mechanism. This agreement allowed Bosnia and Herzegovina to use all the benefits of EU members, to receive support and assistance in terms of education, equipment, schooling, but also to eliminate the consequences of natural disasters.


text: On 12 October 2022, the European Commission recommended that candidate status be granted to Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Council, on the understanding that a number of steps are taken:


text: On 15 December 2022, the European Council officially granted candidacy status to Bosnia and Herzegovina.


text: Negotiation talks have not yet started. However, the European Commission has given an opinion on the status of various reforms since 2019.


title: Mongolic peoples

text: The Mongolic peoples are a collection of East Asian originated ethnic groups in East, North, South Asia and Eastern Europe, who speak Mongolic languages. Their ancestors are referred to as Proto-Mongols. The largest contemporary Mongolic ethnic group is the Mongols. Mongolic-speaking people, although distributed in a wide geographical area, show a high genetic affinity to each other, and display continuity with ancient Northeast Asians.


title: Mongolic peoples

text: In addition, Mongolized Soyots live in Buryatia. Their population is 3600 people. A number of orientalists (Nanzatov, Baldaev and others) traditionally consider modern Soyots as a sub-ethnos within the Buryat people.


title: Mongolic peoples

text: A large Mongolian component took part in the ethnic formation of the Hazaras, also called the Hazara Mongols. Even in the 16th century, according to Babur, the Mongolian language was widespread among the Hazaras, and a small part of them, apparently, spoke a language close to Mongolian as early as the 19th century. The high frequency of haplogroup C2-M217 is consistent with the purported Mongolian origin of many of the Hazaras. Modern Hazaras speak the Hazaragi, one of the dialects of the Dari/Persian language.


title: Mongolic peoples

text: Languages of the Mongolic peoples belong to the Mongolic language family. The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken in Eastern Europe (Kalmykia), Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongol residents of Inner Mongolia and Buryatia, with an estimated 5.7+ million speakers.


title: Mongolic peoples

text: The Mongolic ethnicities possibly related to the Turkic and Tungusic peoples, whom languages together would include into the hypothetical Altaic language family.