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During 2012 and 2013 the U.S. put pressure on China and India to cut oil imports from Iran to increase the effectiveness of sanctions. As negotiations eased the sanctions, China increased oil imports in 2014 by 30% in 2014 over the prior year. China's Foreign Ministry sees a "win-win spirit" in the nuclear deal that opens up economic relations with Iran. Analysts say China has setup three new storage facilities on its eastern coast with about 45 million barrels of new capacity, which could be filled with new supplies as its growth slows and demand decreases. China's imports were about 7 million barrels a day in June 2015.

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A key driver of the economic recovery is how India tackles a legacy of bad loans that have piled up in the banking system. Here Nirmala Sitharaman talks to Hindustan Times about the government's plan to remove 2 lakh crore rupees of bad loans from the books of banks, and a new framework that makes more people eligible for bank loans. Clearing bad loans from the banking system will increase lending to small, large business and expand the economy and employment. The government announced that it will provide 30,600 crore in guarantees to the National Asset Construction Company Limited to buy 2 lakh crore of bad loans from banks. This is in a 15-85% split with NACCL offering cash for 15% of the assets and issuing security receipts for the rest which banks can sell in the market.  Sitharaman says the bad laons have value particularly the way this is structured. India Debt Resolution Company is a company that will help make this happen with panels of experts for each of the debt categories. The specialized application of expertise will make sure that the assets are valued in a way that the market will be interested. IDRCL is 49% owned by the banks and the banks through the Indian Banking Association will have to take the initiative. NARCL will pay a fee to the government the longer an asset is not properly resolved. Sitharaman also says in this interview that climate change and India' response will not have an impact on the economy. She says- "Coal dependence will stay to some extent. But we are committed to closing down legacy thermal units that are inefficient, coal guzzlers with low productivity levels. Our economy has different regions at different levels of development. Completely removing thermal is impossible. PM Modi has invested and is committed to renewable energy." She said India had done its work to achieve COP21 with its own funds. None of the funds by developed nations of $100 billion has materialized.     ...

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David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he is quite worried about the steadily declining participation of men 16-64 in the labor force from 85% in the decade after World War II to less than 65% today. This is a blow to the men, their families , government revenues and the economy.

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Krugman points out that the U.S. Federal Reserve's forecasts in March 2012 show the U.S. will experience low inflation and high unemployment for many years. These forecasts are in sharp contrast to the expectations in the equity markets based on an uptick for a couple of months of unemployment numbers. The Fed's own statements suggest the improvement in hiring may be temporary and a response to the overreaction in hiring in 2009-2010 to the financial crisis, and not a lasting improvement. The Fed pointed out that the long term unemployed are at about 40% of the total unemployed and the share of the population that is working in March 2012 has barely budged from 58% in 2009.