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Lawrence Summers, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, writes on August 2, the day the debt ceiling deal passed the U.S. Congress. His reaction to the deal is one of relief, cynicism and economic anxiety. Relief that the deal does no immediate damage to the economy, which he says is no small achievement. This comes from not denting the U.S. safety net of Medicaid, Social Security and other social programs in the midst of high unemployment. And raising the debt ceiling through 2012 avoids a repeat of the kind of tense negotiations that took place recently. Cynicism because with the revised information from the Commerce Department of 0.4% growth in the first quarter and 1.4% growth in the second quarter of 2011, the new forecast of U.S. budget deficits would be much higher in the years further out. A mere loss of one half percentage point in the annual rate of growth could add $1 trillion dollars to the national debt in 2021. Summers points out that Congress votes annually on discretionary spending and a current Congress cannot control what a future Congress does. Caps and sequester deals can be reformulated in 2013 by a new Congress. This deal says Summers has only confirmed the lower levels of spending already negotiated for 2011 and 2012, even though the estimates show $1 trillion in deficit reduction. For the remaining $1.2 trillion in reductions to be negotiated by the "super-committee" there is no baseline for these cuts- it is not stated whether this baseline is with the Bush high income tax cuts included or excluded. His economic anxiety comes from the low rate of growth in the first half of 2011 which suggest an economy at close to a standstill. He sees a one in three chance of a U.S. recession in the absence of any efforts to spur growth. Martin Feldstein was quoted on television business channels on August 2, saying he sees a 50% chance of the economy slipping back into a recession. Steps Summers advocates are a non-extension of the Bush high-income tax cuts which would add $1 trillion to deficit reduction, some entitlement reform, extension of the payroll tax cut, extension of unemployment insurance, and infrastructure maintenance....

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Morgenson cites Paul Diggle, property economist at Capital Economics in London, about why the $26 billion mortgage settlement between the state attorneys general, the U.S. government and the large U.S. banks is unlikely to make much difference to the foreclosure problems in the housing market. The agreement provides for reducing principal by $17 billion over 3 years for homeowners under water. Diggle points out that $17 billion is a drop compared to what is needed, because 11 million homeowners are now under water on their loans to the amount of $700 billion. The $17 billion is a mere 2.4% of the negative equity of $700 billion.

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Efforts to change labor laws by Italy's prime minister, Mario Monti.

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William Booth provides a must read insight into why poorly educated young people attempt to cross the border into the U.S. looking for work and opportunity, and why Mexico fails to provide the elementary and high school educational system it needs to increase growth to create opportunity. Mexico's education system is failing when compared with other countries in the Group of 20. Sixth graders get 562 hours of instructional learning compared to 1,195 in S. Korea, according to Mexicans First, a group working to change the way the educational system works. In recent international exams half of Mexican 15 year old students scores ranked them at lower levels in math and only a little better in reading and reasoning. "De Panzazo" is a popular documentary prepared by Mexicanos Primero on the dire situation in the school system. One of the most striking measures of this failure is that only a quarter of the children graduate from high school. This only pushes more poorly educated people to attempt to cross the border into the U.S. looking for work. It means the Mexican economy is deprived of a highly educated workforce to increase productivity and growth. The middle class tries to get their children educated in private academies. And the nation's employers use special training to improve skills for workers to be able to compete in a global economy. Part of the reason rests, say experts, on the ability of the powerful teachers union with 1.4 million members to block change for teacher selection based on merits and competency, and exams for teachers. Instead teacher positions are sold, with an elementary school position tenured for life selling for $20,000 in Cancun, and a rural village position for $2000, according to Mexicanos Primeros. Even president Calderon owed his election to the support of the teachers union. And the current PAN presidential candidate Vazquez Mota, who was Education Secretary for two and half years could only go part of the way. She got the union to agree to have new teachers selected by having them take exams, made public standardized test scores, and pushed state governors to show employment rolls and whether teachers actually taught in classrooms or worked at union offices. Calderon failed to make changes because he agreed with the union that the union would take the lead on changes not the education ministry, and had the union president's son-in-law, Fernando Gonzalez, as deputy secretary of education. Jorge Castenada, a former foreign minister, says Mota was fired because of union demands. In July 250,000 teachers are required to take competency exams, but the union has asked its members to ignore the exams, and the education ministry will not do much beyond using the exam for diagnostic purposes for teachers who take the exam. The problems at the elementary and high school levels are evident also in other countries such as India and Brazil leaving the real potential of the labor force untapped....

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Khairat el-Shatar, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He was the main voice for the Brotherhood for many years and guided its direction to a movement that supports moderation and modernization. He also guided the Brotherhood in its participation in electoral politics in the Mubarak days and recently in the elections for the new parliament. He is also a businessman and provides financial support to the Brotherhood.

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A detailed account of how the American airstrikes in Farah province look from the ground. CIvilians who may not have much to do with the Taliban get caught in these strikes, and burned bodies of women, girls, children are to be found along with destroyed homes. It only creates new volunteers among the young for the Taliban and legitimizes anti-American feelings after bombings of this kind. Its also exactly as the Taliban intended it, as they hid among the civilians with this in mind. US soldiers outnumbered in difficult terrain and vast spaces call in airstrikes after ambushes and difficult fights. The US has to do some serious problem solving on this one, or risk losing the support of ordinary Afghans , and with it the war. These are some of the tough choices in this war, with what kind of air support to fight this war. One that is pinpoint and based on accurate intelligence and in skirmishes in the open, but avoiding the kind that gets close to civilian areas. And finding other ways to tackle the problems. Having popular support is critical, and providing security is critical, which calls for more feet on the ground, more aid workers on the ground, and more to show for these efforts in reduced casualties and better lives of the people in each area. ...

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Battle at Wamat in 2008 where militants outnumbered an American outpost of 48 soldiers and overran the place in eastern Afghanistan. THe mistakes made and how its part of the new strategy for General McChrystal.

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Most Congressmen are skeptical of Obama's plan to give the Fed new powers to meet the kind of emergency created by the glovabal economic crisis. Their concern is that the Fed may let the property bubble develop wihtout taking any action, and that the Fed failed as abank regulator. Congressman Ron Paul is co-sponsoring abill that would require Congressional audits of the Fed, which has the support of two thirds of the House.