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Stevis and Steinhauser talk to ordinary Greeks as they face pharmacies running out of imported medicines and the prospect of returning to the drachma.

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In a shift from statements at earlier summits which focussed on fiscal restraint, the Camp David summit continued the "firm committment to fiscal consolidation," yet emphasized jobs and economic growth as "imperative." There is new flexibility to address needs for economic growth and no specific timetables for fiscal balance as in previous summits. Obama had many one to one encounters with the other leaders. He discussed the euro crisis with Cameron while working out on a treadmill, and watched the Champions League soccer final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich with Merkel and Cameron. Each leader of the G-8, Harper of Canada, Monti of Italy, Hollande of France, Medvedev of Russia, Cameron of Britain, Noda of Japan, Merkel of Germany, was assigned a cabin in the rustic wooded setting of Camp David's mountains. A special effort was made to see that Germany's Merkel did not feel isolated in the setting because of the growing sentiment that austerity policies pushed by Germany are not working. On Iran, Obama stated that he was "hopeful that we can resolve this issue in a peaceful fashion that recognizes their sovereignty, but also recognizes their responsibilities."...

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The figures tell the story. One area where Mexico is having success is policy decisions for technical education in the past 10 years and building up enrollment in technical and engineering colleges. This will have a lasting impact on Mexico's future and the attraction of staying in Mexico vs crosssing the border for millions of Mexicans trying to build a better future from humble beginings. BW says 451,000 students are enrolled in fulltime engineering and technical undergraduate programs vs 370,000 in the USA. With the cost being one-third or less than that in the US, the proximity to the U.S., the dedicated hardworking eager workforce and the keen willingness of local authorites to help foreign companies, the future looks bright for Mexican engineers.

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The EU statistics agency Eurostat reported that the eurozone countries GDP declined by 0.3% in the 4th quarter compared to the third quarter of 2011. The decline for Germany was 0.2%. For Italy the decline was 0.7% over the prior quarter according to Istat, the Italian statistics agency. Spain 0.3% decline over the prior quarter. France experienced 0.2% growth over the prior quarter with larger exports by Airbus and more business investment. Italy plans cuts to military spending reducing aircraft purchases, buying 90 instead of 131 Lockheed F-35 fighter jets. Only France and Slovakia showed quarterly growth.

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Jeremy Grantham says he sees a 75% chance of another bubble and bust for the third time since 2000, with the stock market up 80% and speculative stocks up 140%. And he says artificially low interest rates will be responsible for this one, as it was for the other two. See Shiller, Roubini and Roach for their comments on the economic situation mid 2010.

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Pearlstein says American Airlines (AMR) management had hoped to reduce employees count by 13,000, reduce benefits for employees and retirees and reform work rules by going through bankruptcy in the manner of other airlines such as Delta and Northwest. As it turns out AMR's unions and US Airways have made their own deal and come up with labor agreements that are likely to result in a merger deal with AMR with 1.2 billion in savings from synergies, instead of relying on labor savings for $800 million as AMR management had planned. This is because US Airways CEO, Doug Parker, sees increased savings and revenue from a new combined airline and a better hands on management team. Part of the reason is also the the way the combined airline provides additional feeder traffic from smaller cities to hubs in the east coast and midwest markets and in the Miami routes to South America. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation also tacitly sees the benefit of a stronger airline so that its funds are not depleted further by having to support AMR's underfunded pension plan. The creditors have also realized what all this means by increasing the value of AMR bonds to 50 cents on the dollar from 30 cents on the dollar....

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Hard liners in the Iranian parliament include Hamid Rasaee and Ali Taheri, and other members from the days of president Ahamdinejad. In the media this includes Hosssein Shariatmadari, editor of newspaper Kayhan. They oppose any concessions in nuclear negotiations by Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, and any cooperation with the U.S. on issues related to Syria and Iraq. As negotiations face another deadline of March 25, 2015, Israel and the U.S. Congress are pushing for a ratcheting up of sanctions, while the Obama administration seeks more time to complete negotiations. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamanei has urged conservative critics to avoid discussion of negotiations, also setting low expectations for settlement.

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Friedman describes the poor choices remaining in the Middle East with Iran, Iraq, Islamic State, Egypt, and the conflict in Libya. The last days of the election campaign in Israel have also worsened tensions in Israel with deep differences between the Likud and the Zionist Union.

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This condensed adaptation of the book by McNish and Silcoff on the collapse of Blackberry with the launch of the iPhone, tells a story of complacency at Research in Motion. Supreme Court Justice Brandeis once said that complacency was like all the seven sins rolled into one. In the smartphone industry the results were lethal. RIM founders Lazaridis and Balsillie responded to the iPhone launch believing this would not affect Blackberry. The founders rationalized that what would determine success in the business was security, battery life, ability to type, and using less capacity so as not to strain networks, areas in which RIM was strong and on which it had built its market presence. Design, using mobile to offer broad access to internet content, and the touch screen, were not seen as changing the very nature of the phone market. During the summer of 2007 many users shifted to the iPhone, and it cultivated a cult following using strategies Apple had honed on earlier product launches, reaching 1 million in sales. RIM was completely unprepared and could offer Verizon Communications a prototype called the Storm, which was launched hastily with product glitches still remaining. This happened in November 2008 and turned out to be complete disaster- initial sales were great selling 1 million units in 2 months of 2008, but reversed when almost all of the units were returned because the browser was slow and the clickable screen did not respond well. Nokia, another competitor, is also caught unawares sticking to its formula of success, when all the rules were being rewritten by Apple by showing what the new possiblilities were with the right technology in what one could do with a smartphone. Blackberry introduced a smartphone in 2012 by putting together a patchwork of licensed technologies. By this time Apple, Samsung and other competitors had captured significant market share, and the smartphone flopped. The successor Z10 also flopped in 2013. Nokia faced another problem- the inability to convert R&D, at times larger than Google and Apple, into new products, and the failure of management to grasp the potential of new technologies. According to a former employee, Nokia management turned down a internet ready phone with touch screen developed by its engineers in 2004....

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Changes to Mexico's political system with the setup of a new national election agency and allowing re-election of legislators and mayors. This is an effort pushed by the PAN party to have elected officials at the local level and in the legislature work for the long term. The election agency is designed to bring a level playing field and fairness in elections, including implementation of spending limits.

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Jeremy Grantham and Jason Zweig share the view that this market has gone up too fast too quickly. Stocks that went down the fastest of companies in industries like finance and banking, insurance and autos, went back up with government support. And many of these companies that have poor earnings prospects are issuing more shares to raise capital now that the credit markets are working, so that they have some cushion if credit markets tighten again. Grantham thinks this dilution of shares spreads future earnings thin over a larger number of shares. Zweig says whatever was garbage has done good, which suggests that what is seen as a recovery in the stock markets is not perceived as a healthy recovery. Grantham's comment that "the junky companies may be diluted to hell just to keep them alive," and Zweig's comment that these "garbage" stocks are hot, but can be expected to sink for precisely that reason, do not offer a reassuring view of this kind of fragile recovery. Companies with stable businesses and stable earnigs prospects haven't done as well as these so called "garbage" businesses to use Zweig's term. Companies like Microsoft, Procter and Gamble and Johnson, and Wal-Mart which have low debt and stable returns. Grantham sees them as offering value in today's market. ...