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Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, that he wanted to see more power reside in the European Parliament, that democracy was consistent with integration. German chancellor Merkel says the European Commission should "act more like a government with all the powers," and the European Parliament should become more important than national parliaments. This is the vision of Europe that leaders are supporting in 2012. Monti gave as one major reason for a European governing entity- national governments with their own local interests had created the economic trouble Europe faces today, with Greece being a textbook example of how everything can go wrong. Germany and France, he says relaxed the fiscal discipline rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, and this could happen again.

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How inflation is affecting people who thought themselves to be in the middle class like postal workers and teachers and public sector emplyees. Wages are stagnant in many parts of the European economy as inflation picks up and the price of basic necessities like bread and fueling the family car cost more as the year progresses. A study by the German Institute of Economic Research in Berlin finds that the broad middle of the German workforce defined as workers earning 70 to 150% of the median income shrunk to 54% of the population in 2007 from 62% in 2000. Something is clearly going on with wages not keeping up with inflation and it does not look good just as a global slowdown that started in the USA is affecting the rest of the world. In Britain striking teachers closed schools as proposed wage raises of 2.5% were not enough to meet the rising cost of living, with food up 7% and oil up 20% since this time last year. German workers have already staged a series of strikes for a greater share in the increased wealth after years of making concessions and the mood in Germany is that a lot of the senior business people are making too much at the expense of workers who are being asked to sacrifice too much....

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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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Greece defaulted on a loan payment to the IMF for 1.55 billion euros ($1.73 billion) on June 30, 2015.

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E.J. Dionne, of Gerogetown University and the Brookings Institution, says the current situation in U.S. politics resembles the 1912 presidential election when a Princeton professor Democrat Woodrow Wilson called for stronger curbs on big financial institutions, and Republican Teddy Roosevelt, a former president, called for tighter regulation. During his presidency Roosevelt had helped pass legislation to curb monopolies, and represented the Progressive wing of the Republican party. Taft who was president was Teddy Roosevelt's protege and vice president before becoming president, and alienated Roosevelt by moving away from progressive actions taken during Roosevelt's administration. Dionne says Hillary Clinton's views are similiar to Teddy Roosevelt's views, and Bernie Sanders' views to Wilson's views. Wilson won 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 88, and Tafts 8. The big difference now is that on the Republican side the progressive wing that Teddy Roosevelt established is non existent, with Cruz's positions similiar to Reagan's, Kasich and Cruz at best close to Jack Kemp's views on broadening the Republican base with concern for working class issues, and Trump's views not clear because of lack of clear policy or programs beyond the personality based campaign. Dionne points to the problems facing the "progressives" of Sander's young supporters staying away from the polling booths with Hillary Clinton as the nominee, putting a Republican nominee into the White House. Overlooked here is the idea that much of the election campaign even in an advanced country like the U.S. is fought on slogans, leaving out some critical facts. The problems progressives face emerged during a period when a Democrat was president, and the influence of lobbyists had not diminished. Outsiders on the Republican side are focussed on diminishing the power of lobbyists, the political calculus of elections, and other interests that have affected policy in the last 8 years hurting the middle class and working class. ...

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The Indian public from retired businessmen, farmers, students, and the press are coming out in support of anti-corruption leader Anna Hazare's call for effective legislation to control corruption of public officials in India. This comes after a number of corruption scandals and lack of action from the Congress government. The government's bill in parliament - introduced after pressure from public opinion- sets up an ombudsman or Lokpal agency, which would exclude from its jurisdiction the very public officials over whom it was meant to exercize oversight. Under the government's bill the prime minister, the public officials in the bureaucracy and the judiciary would be excluded. This has set up a confrontation with an increasingly exasperated public, with Hazare's protest fast in central New Delhi as the catalyst for protest across the country. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament that he sees it as an issue of parliamentary sovereignty, as Hazare's protest is for a version of the bill that he has drafted to be adopted. But the public's sense is that Hazare is only responding with his own draft of the bill because of the government's effort to make only a token effort by not giving the anti-corruption body the powers it needs to function effectively. The response has brought thousands of demonstrators from around the country to Tihar jail where Hazare is being held by the government after his arrest. The situation is reminiscent of the protests against the British imperial government by Mohandas Gandhi, and in this sense has serious implicatons for how the country is governed. Corruption was prevalent in India during the days of the license Raj in the period 1950-1990 when business needed government permits in the closed economy of the Nehru period, and corruption existed in the bureaucracy in its delivery of public services. Since 1990 as the economy opened up and the growth rate increased corruption at all levels of government has in some ways increased and become embedded in the bureaucracy and government. This hurts the poor and the middle class the most, as corruption acts as a tax on the delivery of public services and infrastructure development, both badly needed in an emerging market country....

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The OPEC meeting in Doha in April 2016 fails to lead to an agreement to freeze oil production at Jan. 2016 levels, with Iran staying away from the meeting.

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Austin, Texas and growth in "middle skill" jobs which offers ways to increase jobs growth in the U.S. in 2012-2015.

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Hagel did exactly what the White House expected him to do, say experts, including not coming up with any large ideas on the defense forces, tackling the budget cuts, working with the rank and file in the military, and implementing the administration's policy of reducing involvement in foreign military conflicts. Hagel's role was limited by micromanagement by NSC officials and Hagel was seen as deferential to the military chiefs and generals who had different views of the conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan- some generals seeing the administration's response as hamstrung by keeping resource committment to the minimum in Syria and others saying not enough resources were there to extend involvement to places such as Aleppo in Syria. Hagel resigned after pressure from White House officials who realized the inadequate nature of the very things that the White House expected of Hagel- following what the public sees as failures in the Middle East.

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Economic growth in India has slowed to 6.9% for the June to September period 2011, compared with the prior year, according to a government report. The sequence of rate increases by India's central bank have failed to slow inflation, and foreign investment is declining. Economists now forecast growth at 6% for 2012, a low rate of growth for India, which has a growing population approaching 1.2 billion people and serious infrastructure problems. This creates a scenario of stagflation- high inflation and low growth. The fears are now for a combination of high government debt, infrastructure issues, and lack of foreign investment. This is leading to moves by the Indian government to bring up long delayed efforts in the area of opening the retail industry to foreign investment. And lifting quotas on foreign ownership of Indian bonds, allowing foreign pension managers into India. The value of the Indian currency has declined 15%, in 3 months since August 2011. The eurozone crisis and the combination of slowgrowth and high unemployment in the U.S. are leading to foreign investors withdrawing from emerging markets, with a sharp impact on India. A combination of domestic and international factors are hitting India after two decades of high growth. ...

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This editorial in the WSJ says Puerto Rico is a failed welfare state and has similiarities to the problem in Greece with a bloated public sector (25% of the workforce in the public sector). It points out that the benefits are generous even though the employment is shrinking by 14% since 2005, as 300,000 young people have left for the U.S. since 2005. Welfare benefits it points out are $1743 a month compared to $1159 for minimum wage work. Puerto Rico's Governor Alejandro Padilla says the $72 billion debt "is not payable." Debt is 100% of GNP. Three public pension funds and the Electric Power Authority face serious problems. To manage its finances Puerto Rico has taxed ever higher, increasing sales taxes to 11.5%. The editorial says Puerto Rico is ready for a Detroit style restructuring of the debt, and rewriting of labor and other contracts following the U.S. giving access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy to Puerto Rico, doing this with orderly restructuring.

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Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post cites the Pew poll of September 3-7, 2015, on the Iran nuclear deal of July 2015, showing increase in skepticism about the deal's provisions by people who are informed to some extent (a little or a lot) about its details- 57% opposing to 27% supporting. The strongly partisan opinion on the issue, and the lobbying on both sides, including bringing Iraq WMD into the picture as noted by Dana Milbank in another column in the Washington Post, overstates each case. This draws attention away from the actual provisions. About 30% have no opinion it appears because the issue of this magnitude involving nuclear weapons proliferation has become politicized when it should be examined only on its merits, where public opinion would be shaped by the details of the deal itself, not who has negotiated it. The Pew Research Center poll shows 21% support the agreement negotiated with Iran, 49% disapprove, 30% offer no opinion. This compares with a poll taken 6 weeks before in July 2015 showing 33% supporting it and 45% opposing it. ...

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Workers ended a 3 month strike at Caterpillar's Joliet, Illinois plant, essentially giving in to reduced healthcare and pension benefits and wage freezes for older workers. Under the deal workers hired before May 2005 receive no hourly pay increase, workers hired after that date get a one time 3% pay increase with future pay increases decided by Caterpillar management. Hourly pay at the plant ranges from $13 to $28. About 25% of the older workers are eligible to retire. A $7.8 million fund to supplement incomes of laid off workers will now be used for retirement bonuses. Caterpillar persuaded workers to ratify the contract by increasing the bonus for ratifying to $3100 per worker from $1000. During the strike Caterpillar continued operations by using managers and temporary workers and using 100 workers who crossed picket lines.

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Ford Motor's reliance on the redesigned F-150 and other large pickup trucks for its higher profits in 2015. The price tag on these vehicles keeps rising, with some pickups sold at about $50,000 and having interior leather seating, amenities resembling luxury cars in 2015. Higher fuel efficiency engines, body redesigned with lighter materials including aluminium, other innovations, combined with the lower price of gas, lower interest rates for financing, have led to a resurgence in these larger vehicles.

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Simon Nixon says the main problem with the E.U. bank stress tests of 2011 is that it did not test for sovereign defaults. For example Greek debt that is trading at 50 cents on the euro, was marked down 15%. And the lack of urgency to raise fresh capital is another problem. He says the real value of the tests comes from the asset disclosures that accompanied the tests.