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Putin's mother barely survived the siege of Leningrad in 1941. A plaque at the Piskaryovskoye Cemetry in St. Petersburg says 641,803 people died of starvation in the city from 1941 to 1944. She lost one child during the siege. Putin was born in 1952 and is the only surviving child.

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This Times editorial questions whether Mayor Bloomberg did the right thing in the manner in which he ousted protestors from Zucotti park in the financial district of New York city. Now that the protestors have been forcibly removed from the park, it is the responsibility of the Mayor to keep his promise to let the demonstrators continue their protest against income inequality, says the editorial. The concern is that the end of the protests at Zucotti park could end up quashing the entire protest movement, which serves to draw attention to serious issues in a democracy.

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JP Morgan Chase disclosed that traders in the Chief Investment Office may have tried to avoid showing the full extent of losses by placing inaccurate prices on their positions. A trader named the "London whale," may have been asked by his boss to mark positions more aggressively. CEO Dimon said this has "shaken our company to the core."

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Blackberry CEO Heins is interviewed by the WSJ's Will Connors in January 2013 during the launch of the Blackberry 10 touchscreen smartphone.

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Credit default swaps on the $70 billion in CDS on Greece for different parties were activated in March 2012, resulting in payouts of $3.2 billion. This editorial points out that this happened without causing any tremors. Jean Claude Trichet as president of the ECB insisted in 2010-2011 that a default in Greece would result in systemic risks caused by the swaps and derivatives issued and in the contagion effects. The result was a delay in cuttting Greece's debt to sustainable levels with a private bondholder haircut that would have come much earlier. The delay and the burden of correction falling on austerity measures alone means Greece's economy is in much worse shape and debt still is not sustainable with Greece's rapidly declining economy.

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The British parliament defeated a measure put forward by prime minister Cameron for military response to the chemical weapons attack in Syria in August 2013. The vote against British intervention was 285 to 272 with members of his own party and Liberals voting against the measure. The case put forward by Cameron was based on humanitarian grounds, and to prevent the use of chemical weapons in the future. Under pressure from politicians from all parties Cameron decided to put this to a vote in parliament following a debate on Aug. 29, 2013. In calling for the vote Cameron said he was deeply mindful of the deep concerns about Britain's intervention in Iraq in 2003.

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Michael Bromwich, a Washington lawyer and experienced investigator, will head the Minerals Management Service. He is from outside the oil and gas industry, and may have the benefit of looking at the industry from the angle of proper regulatory action.

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The first signs of a return to growth are seen in the European automobile market. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association reports a 1.7% increase in new passenger car registrations for May compared to April 2013.

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Bob Herbert calls Obama's attention to afew simple facts- the jobless rate for men 16 years and over is 11.4%, for blacks 15.7%. About 35% of black children live in poverty and the number could soon reach 50%. Hepoints to the mood of the country where a crowd cheering Yankee win in Manhattan erupted to rhythmic chants of "Wall Street sucks." And he reminds us that the full extent of the carnage and costs of the twin wars has been kept hidden from the public. Visit one of the military medical centers and one sees the costs. And he cites Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell saying in an interview that the people in the Pennsylvania National Guard have been in the wars two, three or four times, and are worn out. Where are we going to find more troops, he asks.

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A professor at the University of Texas, Yannis Varoufakis returned to Greece in 2014 to run for parliament at the request of Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras. He is the new minister of finance in 2015. Three professors lead the key enlarged economics ministry, foreign affairs, and finance.

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David Wessel, looks at the economic forecasts, and figures comparing this downturn to others in the 20th century, and looks at what experts like Eichengreen at Berkeley are saying. He puts the odds based on this information and comes up with 75% chance that this will be of the kind that produces a lost decade, a recovery that takes many years.

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Friedman describes the development of a tablet computer by a team led by Prof. Kalra and two professors of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, which costs less than $50 to produce. The new price point is needed to reach over 200 millon students in India who need such a device to escape poverty and poor teaching. The new tablet computer enables them to reach out to knowledge in language, sciences and math, and the humanities in the world outside them. This is an I-Pad like, internet enabled, wirlessly connected tablet. The average Indian family in rural areas saves $2.50 a month, and government support for its educational benefit could subsidize a portion of the cost. The tablet would bring distance learning, teach English, to students and help track commodity prices for farmers. The invented device uses the Android 2.2 operating system, a 7 inch touch screen, 3 hours battery life, and can download YouTube videos, PDFs and educational software. The governmment is expected to subsidize wireless connections to students. The name of the tablet is Aakash, Hindi for sky....

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Chrysler will have $1 billion in free cash flow each year in 2013 and 2014, down from an earlier estimate of $1 billion in 2013 and $3 billion in 2014. This is because Chrysler needs to increase spending to replace aging models. Even with the higher spending Chrysler will not be able to meet its original goal of 8 new or redesigned vehicles in 2013, including one midsize, one subcompact and two small Jeeps. Some will arrive in 2015-2016. Fiat will not give a dividend so that it can conserve cash to pay for buying the remaining 41% of Chrysler it does not own. Fiat's losses in Europe limit cash flow and under the agreement for the stake in Chrysler it does not not have access to Chrysler cash flow to finance increases in research and development of small car technologies used by Chrysler. Chrysler's margins are smaller than other automakers because of higher incentive costs. It increased market share in the U.S. market in 2012 from 10.7% to 11.4%. Ford and GM experienced declines in market share after a resurgence of Toyota and Honda and efforts to preserve margins....

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An intimate biographical account of new Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his connections with Muscatine Iowa, where he visited as a head of a Chinese farm delegation in 1985. Xi Jinping remembers the trip vivdly and plans to spend time with friends from that visit during a visit to the U.S. in 2012. He spent two nights during that visit in the bedroom of two college age boys of the Dvorchak family. This revealing account of Jinping's life shows that the actual story of his life is quite different from the title of "princelings" or privileged sons of former communist leaders that is suggested by this reference in the media. Because of the volatile nature of Chinese politics, his father Xi Zhongxun, who led communist partisans in the struggle of the pre World War II years, was rehabilitated twice after falling out of favor. The first period was in 1962 and it was not till 1979 when he was fully rehabilitated. During this period which coincides with the growing up period of Xi from 9-26 years of age, Xi experienced many hardships. During the years of the Cultural revoultion Xi was sent at age 15 to Shanxi province where his father had led partisans. He lived there for 7 years in a traditional cave dwelling in the village of Liangjahe doing farm work. He was denied admission to Tsinghua University twice before being accepted in 1974. There he graduated with a degree in organic chemistry. This was followed by three years working as an assistant to Geng Biao, defense minister and a partisan who was a colleague of his father. The next job was deputy Communist party chief of Zhengding county in Hebei province. Iowa Governor Branstad visited Hebei in 1984, and Branstad played host to a animal-feed delegation led by Jinping in 1985- the visit to Muscatine was part of this trip and which Jinping has told others he enjoyed more than his visits to Oregon or California that year. The second time Xinping's father went out of favor was after his criticism of the crackdown of protests at Tienanmen Square. These experiences have given Xinping a confidence and experience in different situations that other Chinese leaders including the current leaders lacked. If Jinping has inherited some characteristics from his father he may also have the courage to take China in a new direction, and make the kind of changes China needs as it shifts away from an export based economy. At the same time rule in China is by consensus of leaders on the communist party's standing committee. His father helped initiate the special economic zone in Guangdong province in 1978, and Xi Xinping held senior posts in the provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang and in Shanghai, giving him close ties with industry and local government in areas that led the export based economy. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore puts Jinping in the" class of Nelson Mandela type leaders, who has great emotional stability to not let his personal misfortunes and sufferings cloud his personal judgement." Of political positions Jinping has a certain wariness. He once responded to mention of him as the potential leader with the words: "Are you trying to give me a fright."...

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The corruption conviction in Bangalore of the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu state in southern India. Under a Supreme Court ruling she is barred from public office for 10 years and cannot serve as chief minister even if the case is on appeal. She is in jail in Bangalore serving her sentence.

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The last days of the pro-Russian Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, as Ukrainian government forces under the government of prime minister Poroshenko defeat separatists by July 2014. Russia decides not to intervene further. Opinion polls show a majority of Ukrainians in Donetsk do not favor separatism, and opposition is based on alienation from the poor quality of governance in Kiev. With the Poroshenko government committed to respecting the rights of Russian speaking Ukrainians, Tymoshenko soundly defeated in elections, and Russia's economy at risk in the adverse impact on foreign investor sentiment, Russia's sees little to be gained from supporting the separatists.

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Merkel prods Russia to follow Germany's example as she lands in Kiev on the 75th anniversary of the nonaggression pact signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Merkel said: "That today a German chancellor can be here shows what has happened... We want countries to be able to freely decide their political direction. We no longer participate, as the Federal Republic of Germany, in stirring up historical misery, and that is a good development of history." Russia badly needs to find a new place in a new world rather than stir up memories from the Soviet or Tsarist period, just as Germany has done in the period since 1945 with chancellors Adenauer, Brandt, down to Merkel and president Gauck today. The world today is very different from the period when Merkel grew up in the German Democratic Republic and Putin lived as a KGB officer in Dresden, Germany. Even more so as the manner of living in urban areas in different parts of the world, business, industry, the arts, culture, products is increasingly converging, with higher expectations. ...

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Pearlstein touches on the main issues raised by Obama's regulatory reform proposals. A thorough and independent analysis by a panel of seasoned regulators and independent experts would have done better, Pearlstein says. It would take more time, but the regulatory reforms need to be thorough, considering the damage that has been done to the financial system, and considering the opportunity to do something serious about this. It would have also shielded the administration from criticism if tough action was needed in some areas. Hearing all sides of the matters at hand, and weighing the pros and the cons on each issue is helpful, but there are gaps in this approach when some of the key actors like Geithner and Summers have worked too closely in the past with the financial firms that are being regulated, and may have a tendency and bias in that direction. The President's lack of expertise in these areas, and a desire to keep the regulatory hand as light as possible, and intense obying by financial firms, can tilt things away from serious regulatory reform. The danger is that the opportunity to fix things with major structural changes where necessary, and some tough actions where needed may be lost. Some of the obvious gaps are mentioned by Pearlstein. There is no measure to tackle the situation with the ratings agencies. There will be more transparency than before but complex derivative trading can take place prettty much like before. Credit default swaps will continue as before. If you set up acouncil of regulators, then why not bite the bullet and consolidate them into a single agency, asks Pearlstein? Banks will continue to have their proprietary trading desks, from where they ran up huge losses, these act like in-house hedge funds. Ultimately a lot depends on who is running these agencies, or the Fed, and what is the prevailing opinion about markets in the country. The prevailing opinion that the less regulation the better for free markets, and the lack of independent regulators, and poor appointments, had a lot to do with the capture of the regulatory agencies by the the firms they were supposed to regulate. And on this point the President is on safer ground, as he can ensure that he appoints tough regulators and create a new culture that puts regulation right where it should be, as a necessary ingredient for free markets, just like rules of the road. And in one area the President has created a new structure, a new agency with powers- this is where consumer protections are at stake- so that the abuses that took place with mortgages do not take place....

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Conditions that a Netanyahu government would accept for the creation of a new Palestinian state are a military presence on the Jordan river, and sovereignty over Jerusalem and the settlement blocs. He would be willing to negotiate the giving up of the rest of the West Bank. Another condition is that the Palestinian government cannot include Hamas. This was outlined in a speech he made to Parliament on May 16, 2011. In a speech outlining his government's policy in the Middle East President Obama called for a return to pre-1967 borders for Israel.

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The high risk of failure as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan in 2012-2013. The U.S. is handing over to an Afghan Army that faces a high desertion rate, high turnover, and uncertain loyalties. The turnover is so high that the Afghan Army has to replace a third of the 195,000 army every year. The problems from the corruption in the Karzai government, the flawed elections, and other issues have not been resolved, leaving a fragile government and a fragile army and police force as the U.S. withdraws. A decade of sacrifices in resources, lives and wounded, is at risk. A negotiated settlement in talks with the Taliban has not moved forward to create a post U.S. withdrawal Afghan government that brings in all parties. The untimely death of American diplomat Holbrooke who set up the accord that made peace in the Balkans, and the failure to get results at the talks only leaves the whole U.S. project at risk.