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The impact in Spain of the increase in sales taxes in July 2012, salary cuts for public service employees in Spain, and other spending cuts.

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An average of major opinion polls compiled by Real Clear Politics website shows 50.5% of Americans opposed to the Obama U.S. health care law.

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Retirement and close to retirement planning for 2015 from Jonathan Clements of the WSJ.

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Pessimism about the pace of democratization in China with the continued dominance of the Communist party in the business and economc structures of the country. The interrelationships of the party with state owned companies and the role of its 80 million members in running all aspects of life in China. Experts in China say the 18th party Conress showed no signs of change in the party's control and no sign of experimentation to allow for change comng from within the system so that China could establish a constitutional democracy with the rule of law. Experts in China say the new leaders Jinping and Keqiang may not be able to make changes even if they wanted to, because of the party's control and the earlier presidents and prime ministers from the last two decades who still retain a strong influence on the direction of the country.

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Comparison of cost of components and margins for Nokia's Lumia smartphone and the Apple iPhone 4S in 2012. The Lumia 900 retail price is $450 vs. Apple iPhone 4S for $649. Total component cost for Lumia $209 vs. $190 for Apple. Margin of $241 for Lumia vs. $459 for Apple.

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Paul Volcker before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on May 9, 2012, before the announcement of the $2 billion trading losses by J.P. Morgan Chase. The following day Chase announced the losses from trades made by JP Morgan trader Bruno Iksil- nicknamed the "London Whale"- who made a complex hedge on a group of corporate bonds, betting $100 billion that the bonds would not default. The Volcker rule as it is currently written would not prevent such a transaction. The problem as Volcker pointed out before the Banking Committee is that under "too big to fail," "the losses would be socialized with the potential gains all private."

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Letter to the Editors of the Wall Street Journal by Terry Barr, President of Samson Oil and Gas. He says the the oil well spill is not about an equipment failure- the failure of a fail-safe blow-out preventor (BOP) failing. It really is about human failure, and BP should admit that it is a human failure. When the well failed its casing integrity test no action to correct this was taken. And the data collected about critical monitoring of hydrocarbon flows was left to sit there without any acton. He takes issue with BP CEO Tony Hayward's presentation of this disaster. In fact Terry Barr says, its a result of BP not following the industry's existing well-construction policies.

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A recent book "The Spirit Level" has become popular in Britain. It says that countries with greater disparities in income also do worse in a number of social indicators, from higher murder rates to lower life expectancy. It also affects the consensus in society which is a necessary underpinning for sustained economic development and economic growth. Inequality when it affects the middle class and reduces the size of incomes in the middle, or creates stagnation in incomes, poses large risks for society and affects economic growth. In the US the home foreclosure crisis and the lack of bargaining power of wage earners in the middle class has created this problem. This is exacerbated by the banking crisis and bad loans in the banking system. Studies show that slow growth in college graduating rates in the USA after 1970 compared to the period 1900-1970, has increased inequality, especially with today's knowledge economy. Germany is also affected by this problem as wages for workers have remained stagnant with the labor reforms. Interestingly a combination of economic growth and payments to the poor have increased the size of the middle class and its incomes in Brazil. The austerity policies in Britain will affect incomes and income growth in Britain for the middle class. In China the gap is widening quickly between the urban areas and the rural areas. And the policy of residency permits- the hukou system-which limits internal mobility from rural areas to the cities and towns, makes the inequality all the more glaring. The lack of democratic election makes the situation worse in China compared to Brazil, because free elections in Brazil enabled leaders from the working classes such as Luiz Inacio Da Silva and Ms. Rousseff to emerge as heads of government. These leaders pursued policies that would explicitly bring a more shared prosperity in Brazil compared to the leadership in China. In China policies are determined by entrenched interests in its model of development- the state-owned companies and banks and their managers, local and government officials of the Communist party, and businesses with the networks and connections with the Communist party and local governments. This is why the ginni coefficient which measures inequality has dropped significantly in China, putting it in the rank of developing countries with poor records in equality. Inflation in China, India and Africa also affects the poor and lower middle classes to a greater extent. Current trends suggest that rebuilding the middle class in the developed countries and providing fairer distribution in developing countries will be of serious importance in coming years. Especially with the likelihood of more economic crises which tend to adversely affect the middle and lower classes disproportionately....

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David Brooks of the NYT comments on the Hillary Clinton interview by Goldberg in the Atlantic magazine, where she criticized U.S. president Obama for a weak foreign policy and failure to act in Syria. Brooks says Obama's failure to act in the robust manner Clinton is advocating only leads Obama into situations where he is forced to act later as the situation deteriorates with more serious consequences for the U.S. By not acting in a timely manner the U.S. may be forced into greater involvement later, which makes Obama's "don't do stupid stuff" less of a sound idea than it appears. As Clinton points out not leading to better decisions in the same manner as the Bush-Cheney jingoistic policy making.

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Vladimir Putin presents his views on democracy in Russia, on prevalent corruption, and ways to introduce democratic processes through internet referendums on legislative initiatives, the election of governors and local officials. He says democracy cannot be built overnight, that sovereignty of the people of Russia is the true basis of democracy and this was achieved through the fight with the oligrachy and anarchy of the 1990's. Rights that Russians want to see democracy ensure are: right to work, free medical care and education for children. In addition with the development of civil society and the advance of the middle class in Russia democratic processes have to keep pace. But he doesn't see democratic processes working with what he calls " a circus of candidates making unrealistic promises" with "spin doctors and image makers controlling politicians." And he does not see modern democracy limited to casting votes, and calls for internet based democracy and referendum based democracy to be integrated into the overall development of institutions, particularly at municipal and regional levels. He calls for a change in the mindset of Russians away from corruption in public service, saying that as long as the mindset is there one set of thieves are unmasked only to be replaced by another set of thieves. And cites polls that show teenagers aspire to be public servants because of the easy money to be made in public service. To correct this he proposes salaries that are high enough and at the same time have absolute transparency, declaration of expenses and family purchases, residences, vacations etc. Other steps include separating executive power and property and separating executive power from the system of checks over it....

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Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke's writings as a professor at Princeton on the banking crisis in Japan after the real estate bubble, a crisis similiar to what the U.S. is experiencing.