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David Reilly points out that using the regulatory figures JP Morgan had exposure to Italy of $87.5 billion, to Spain of $57.5 billion, and an exposure of $390 billion for France, Germany and the Netherlands. This is as of Dec. 2011. This is higher than the netted figures given out by the bank. In his chairman's letter Dimon showed bank exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain of about $15 billion with potential loss in a bad situation of $3 billion. This is if portfolio hedges work. If for some reason they did not work as anticipated, the losses could be much higher.

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A behind the scenes account of what happened at JP Morgan Chase after CEO Jamie Dimon discovered the trading losses of the London Whale through the pages of the Wall Street Journal, on April 6, 2012.

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Many of the companies from the dot com tech bubble of 1999-2000 which were given $1 billion valuations went out of business, including names like Webvan and eToys. The same buble behaviour is evident in 2012 as many companies such as Facebook, Pinterest, Evernote, have $1 billion valuations, similiar to 2000. This is asignal that valuations may have spun out of control. It takes a few deep pocketed investors to raise the valuation of startup internet companies to these untested companies.

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Internet company valuations and IPO's in mid- 2012 reach the frenzied levels before the the tech bubble burst in 2000-2001.

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Efforts made by Texas governor Rick Perry and the board of regents to control tution costs for colleges and universities in the state of Texas. The idea that a college degree should cost about $10,000 in total pushed by governor Perry, and early efforts to achieve this.

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Former U.S. president Bush says the U.S. has an important role as a beacon of freedom, human rights and democracy in the world. The U.S. should not shrink from the challenges in the name of a false and temporary stability, and flexibility should not mean ambiguity, difficulties should not mean shrugging away from America's role. Patience, creativity and active American leadership are needed. The Bush administration supported the struggles of people in central Europe and in other countries. This is from a speech Bush gave at the Bush Institute, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, a year into the Arab Spring. A speech that was giving voice to the aspirations of people in the Arab world.

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The exit of Greece from the eurozone would cost Germany $127 billion or 3% of GDP, according to economists at a German bank. Francois Baroin, departing finance minister of France, estimated the cost for France to be $50 billion, or 3% of GDP. The costs in terms of disorderly exit in how it impacts Spain and Italy in financial markets is less certain.

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The poor decisions made by former CEO, Mark Hurd, leading to underinvestment in research and development and lack of funding for H-P Labs, leave H-P in a weaker position. The cuts were lauded at the time by the financial media but left the company with weaker technological capabilities. The distractions since 2005, with changing CEO's and lack of proper direction in the company, a weak board of directors, a large bureaucracy and inefficient sales force, and the emergence of low cost competitors from Taiwan, are hurting H-P's performance and capabilities. Meg Whitman, the current CEO, plans another round of layoffs, following the layoffs under Hurd. About 30,000 of 324,000 existing employees will be retired or laid off. H-P generated only $1.7 billion in net earnign on sales of $127 billion in fiscal 2011. In smartphones, cloud computing services and tablet computers, H-P has either stumbled or still struggles to develop clear winners.

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AP Moller-Maersk, the Danish energy and shipping company, says profits will decline in 2012 from 2011 profit of 18.08 billion kroner ($3.1 billion). Maersk expects global demand for seaborne containers to go up by 4-6% in 2012, but sees lower traffic in the Europe-Asia trade lanes. Maersk has 16% of the container shipping market worldwide. The Maersk Line had losses of 3.4 billion kroner in the 1st quarter of 2012.

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Looking beyond Facebook and social media to innovation in areas that will materially affect the lives of the American people and people in other countries- in transportation, manufacturing, education, healthcare and other fields.

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The Journal points to the lack of changes to "too-big-to-fail" financial institutions after the global financial crisis of 2008, as the same large banks are likely to be put on the Federal Reserve's list of banks that are considered to be "systemically important" four years later in 2012.

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Japan's showed GDP growth of 4.1% in the first quarter of 2012, as it rebounded strongly from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami with higher public investment.

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The new administration of Francois Hollande in France includes Pierre Moscovici, as Finance Minister. Moscovici was European Affairs minister in 1997-2002 during the formative period of the European Union, served in the European parliament and wrote a book on economics with Hollande. This brings someone with deep EU experience in a critical role of shaping EU policies. Laurent Fabius, is Foreign Minister. Fabius was prime minister in the 1980's. Michel Sapin, a former finance minister is minister for Employment, Labor, and Social Dialogue. The credibility, talent and experience of this team will be critical as the EU enters a difficult phase in 2012-2013.

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The percentage of borrowers with loans overdue 30-90 days is at 7.4% at the end of the 1st quarter 2012, down from 8.3% for the prior year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. About 4.4% of mortgages were in foreclosure at the end of the 1st quarter of 2012, close to the 4.5% the prior year. Florida had foreclosure rate of 14.3%, New Jersey 8.4%, and Illinois 7.5%, at the end of March 2012. The inventory of loans in foreclosure is at 4.39%.