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Enrique Pena Nieto of the PRI party wins the presidential election in Mexico with 38% of the vote. Lopez Manuel Obrador came second with 31% of the vote, and the candidate of the ruling PAN party, Ms. Vazquez Mota came in third with 26% of the vote. Voters were eager for change afer 12 years of rule by the PAN party under Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon. Mexico averaged growth of 2% during these years, though growth has increased since the financial crisis. But the benefits of globalization, foreign investment, and trade reached the better educated and skilled workers leaving many behind. This period included negative growth during the 2008 financial crisis. .

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The IMF's Martin Cerisola, who headed a delegation to Iran on Jan. 25- Feb 8, 2014, has put out a report on the country's economy saying serious risks lie ahead. The inflation rate fell from 45% annualized rate in July 2013 to about 30% in Dec 2013, offering a short respite with a slight easing of the sanctions regime, but Cerisola says Iran remains in serious danger of "external shocks," that could affect Iran's currency, the rial. Cerisola says in his report that the reduced subsidies for fuel and food, poorly funded social programs, and the "marked deterioration in the external environment stemming from the intensification of trade and financial sanctions, have weakened the economy."

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Economic aid from Qatar enables the Morsi government in Egypt to defer agreement for an IMF loan of $4.8 billion which requires Egypt to cut social programs, further aggravating a difficult economic situation for the people of Egypt. It also comes as Egypt's economy has suffered a decline from two years of protest and its foreign exchange reserves have hit new lows. Qatar gave Egypt $3 billion in low interest loans at 3.5%. Earlier Qatar deposited $4 billion at the Egyptian central bank, and gave $1 billion in grant aid.

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A good sign that the Obama adminstration sees the importance of cutting civilan deaths from American airpower, is the effort by the American Ambassador to personally meet with the civilans affected and their families to express his pain at the tragedy. Without civilan support the Afghan war against the Taliban may well be lost in the vast mountainous country, a country and a people, like most countries and people, with an aversion for foreign troops.

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Greg Mortenson runs 78 schools in remote poor areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan on a budget of $2.8 millioon he raises through small donations to his foundation, the Central Asia Institute. The Pentagon is listening to Mortenson and he has met privately with Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. THe military has specially sought him out. And General Petraeus has read his book Three Cups of Tea and passed it on to his staff for reading. He also has been asked to speak with senior officers of the Special Operations Command. Greg Mortenson believes getting amoderate education for these children is the best way to prevent the spread of Islamic extremism. In addition to the 78 schools he also runs 48 other schools in refugee camps in the region and 28,000 children in the 2 countries attend Mortenson's schools. In atalk to the Pentagon uniformed officers in 2002 he told them that the $840,000 spent on each of the Tomahawk cruise missiles fired into Afghanistan could have been used to build dozens of schools. He asked them which would you think will make us more secure? ...

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The Muslim Brotherhood is thrust into a critical role as economic policymaker after winning the parliamentary elections in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood's foreign policy advisor, Essam El-Haddad, says it gave the IMF its tentative approval for a $3.2 billion loan to Egypt. Haddad says it was a very, very short time for the learning process to occur about the economic issues facing Egypt and the IMF. Foreign investment peaked in 2007 at $13.7 billion. It is now a small fraction of this and tourism earnings have declined to a third of what they were before. The Brotherhood cites the example of Turkey where the Islamist Justice and Development Party formed the government in 2002. At the time Turkish inflation was at 55%, the currency Turkish Lira had lost 51% of its value and GDP fell by 5.7%. Turkey has seen high economic growth in the last decade.

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BJP led by prime minister Narendra Modi wins a huge majority of 325 seats out of 405 in India's largest state Uttar Pradesh for the state assembly elections. The national opposition party Congress wins only 7 seats in what was once the main source of Congress support during the period of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. This will enable the BJP to push forward with the modernization program for infrastructure and roads, and other development. Opposition in the upper house Rajya Sabha and lack of support from states will not be a major hurdle in development now that BJP has won in states such as Orissa, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarkhand in recent state elections after its win in the 2014 national parliamentary election. This also gives credibility to the government's other efforts such as demonetisation to fight corruption in real estate and other areas. India's GDP is a fraction of China's and it is smaller than that of countries such as Indonesia, because of the poor administration and lack of development in India's 2 largest states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the northern Hindi speaking region. To double the GDP from its current level will require doubling the GDP of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Bihar's state government is run by a former BJP leader, who has also pushed for improving standards of living and economic growth.  ...

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Hard hitting article by an expert in the field of manufacturing and the automobile industry. Problems facing GM and Ford in his view- Note the following: 1) The engineering system with chief engineer in charge of product, concurrent and simultaneous engineering. Better development system for new products at Toyota. 2) How to work with suppliers by leaving room for suppliers to make a profit while attacking every kind of waste jointly. 3) Hardest hitting point on the culture. GM and Ford have cultures that turn competent people into Dilberts. And noting that if ordinary people -Dilberts even- are put in a great business process they become great team players. 4) Customer Service at Lexus. Customers cheerfully pay more because they love the treatment. 5) Labor relations- Union and management know what does not make sense yet no accomodation has been reached, because their conversation has broken down. Womack's comments leave a lot to think about and reflects a feeling that seems to run outside of the midwest- that if GM and Ford can't get a grip on their problems and fix them other companies like Toyota can replace them. A sense that Toyota as a global company is as much of an American company as GM or Ford. ...

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Report from the ground giving an unbiased account by a captain in the army who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He spent 7 months as aspecial advisor to the NATO director of communications. He avoide the official tours through the countryside and tried to see and hear what ordinatry Afghans were saying. He says the outbursts against the corruption in the Karzai government reveal a level of distrust that is so great that it greatly diminishes the credibility of the American effort in Afgahnistan, and increases the difficulties of the mission there. He suggests ombudsmens committees to handle complaints of corruption, and the withholding of funds to districts and government agencies that do not meet transpanrency and accountability goals.

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Dionne cites comments by Bowles and Simpson saying the Paul Ryan U.S. budget proposal falls short of a serious bipartisan effort for deficit reduction for a number of reasons. The reasons cited by Bowles and Simpson are: The proposal exempts defense spending from reductions, does not apply savings from tax expenditures to deficit reduction, relies on much larger reductions in domestic discretionary spending than the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan, and at the same time making reductions in safety-net programs that could in their words "place a disproportionately adverse effect on certain disadvantaged populations." This should give moderates in this debate time for pause and reflection says Dionne.

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George W. Bush, talks about his book on his father's presidency "41: A Portrait of My Father," at the Bush presidental library in College Station, Texas. This follows his book "Decision Points," on his own presidency. George W. says his father's accomplishments are overshadowed by the work of a transformative president (Reagan) who preceded him. The short period of four years in office also affects the assessment of the elder Bush. There is now greater appreciation of the work done in this period, especially the period when the Berlin Wall collapsed and the Soviet Union dissolved and the role played by the elder Bush in the transition. Bush describes the relationship with his father when he was president as one in which it was the comfort and help that counted for more than looking for any particular advice, especially as he admired his father. The elder Bush, 90, was in the audience. Remarkable for the longevity of the father-son pair compared to Adams and John Quincy, as Adams passed away 16 months after his son became U.S. president. And more so because his brother, Jeb Bush, is likely to run for president in 2016....