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Al Maktoum is prime minister of Dubai. He points out some important facts about the Arab world. About half of the 300 million people in the Arab world are under the age of 25. Unemploment is very high among these 150 million Arab youth. About 50% of the jobless are youth, according to the prime minister. About 65 million of the Arabs are illiterate, and 10 million children under the age of 25 are not enrolled in any school. He points out that with so little education, the Arab youth are especially vulnerable to propaganda that creates extremism and is hostile to the west and the USA. One of his key points is that the Arab world is the most militarized place in the world, and spending on conflicts in the Middle East in the last 60 years is about $3 trillion. And in the last 15 years he says the spending on education which is 20% of what the world's 30 wealthiest countries spend, has dropped to 10% of that amount. And very little is being done to educate girls and give them opportunities. As a result of these convictions, Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai and from the royal family, has committed about $3 billion to various initiatives to provide schooling to children, especially girls, and education for young people. This makes him one of the more enlightened leaders in the region pushing for new directions. This also reveals the critical weakness among the Arab peoples and why they tend to be so radicalized. Improvements in education and more opportunities for jobless youth, and creating a peaceful region -with the US and the EU countries committing to policies that lead to much diminished military sales to Mideast countries and reducing hostilities in the region -would do more to reduce anti-American sentiment in the region and improve US security than any other policy actions. As Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the Muslims of India share the same characteristics as the Arab peoples, and the same cultures, the same is true of this region, actually more so. Education has been even worse neglected in the South Asian Muslim region than among the Arabs. It is the key to peace, does more than troops to ensure the peace. The need is for more schools to be built and run in the region, for essential services like healthcare and development, and financing of job creating industries. ...

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A transcript of remarks by Ben Benrnake as Fed Governor on Dec. 9, 2003, at meeting of the Federal Open Market Comittee which makes monetary policy in the USA. Bernanke is teling his colleagues here that it would be amistake to choke off growth unnecessarily by raising rates, that critics who say inflation is a threat are not well informed, and that the Open Market Comittee should remain patient. Here he points out that the large decline in the share of the population that is working -with one survey showing household employment at 2.9 million jobs below normal at that time- suggesting that employment could rise significantly before seeing pressure on wages and unit labor costs. With the underutilization of labor, the withdrawal of people from the full time labor force, and increase in parttime employment, there are todfay anumber of changes ocurring in the labor markets that build additional slack into the system from what the unemployment rate of 9% today would suggest. A similiar case could be made today with factory capacity utilization at 68% and dropping, and manufacturing hard hit and seeing a permanent downsizing in industries like automobiles. What about raw materials prices? Bernanke shows agraph of historical data, that suggest convincingly he says, even very large movements of raw materials prices appear to have muted effects on intermediate goods prices and no discernible effects on final goods inflation. The reason for this is that raw materials prices are only asmall portion oftotal costs, and unit labor costs are a far larger factor in inflation determination that raw materials prices. And at that time as is happening today wage growth is slow or negative. What about the dollar falling in value making imports more expensive, which we face today? Here Bernanke says that asimilar anlysis applies to the dollar. Large movements of the dollar he says, translate into smaller movements against the U.S. trade-weighted basket of currencies, and into smaller effects on import prices because of imperfect pass-throughs. And he goes on to say that the nonoil import prices, in turn, are are a relatively modest part of the overall price index, making the ultimate effects quite small. This analysis by Bernanke of the impact of rising raw materials prices and falling dollar having a muted effect, and the important role slack and underutilization of labor in the labor markets play in inflation, helps respond to critics like Laffer and others who say inflation is a threat and call for changes in the policy course the Fed has set....

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There is overwhelming evidence of atrend to lower cost value oriented purchansing habits, and emphasis on essential purchases, that companies should pay attention to. Out of 46 economists surveyed by WSJ 43 agree that a fundamental change is underway, that will last for years, into the next decade and beyond, in the way consumers in the USA save and spend. And a couple of fundamental facts which won't just go away, are shaping things this way. American households doubled their outstanding debt between 2000 and 2007, to $13.8 trillion. In 2008 total debt went down for the first time since World War II. $13 trillion in wealth has been lost since the recession began. And this number will grow as the economy goes deeper into this downturn. The confidence in the capitalist system has been shaken. People want to get debt free. AlixPartners, found in asurvey, that Americans plan to save 14% of total earnings once this downturn ends. Two thirds of those surveyed say they plan to buy less in the future, and more than halfplan to buy less expensive things. There is a fundamental mood change from those who have been interviewed like Mr Bailey here in Boise, Idaho, a small business owner stuck with a lot of debt and no income. His goal: to get rid of debt and concentrate on making just enough money to enjoy myself and my family, and not trying to get rich anymore. So he goes out and sells his SUV to eliminate a $800 monthly payment and replaces it with a used minivan paid for in cash, he sells off a vacation home he built, sells another home to renters, cuts his staff to a handful. Many like Mr Bailey remember how their parents lived and heard the stories passed down from parents who lived through frugal times in the 40's and 50's, when America was still largely rural and peopled by families with modest incomes especially in most of the south and west. Its this change and shift in attitude and mindset from wanting to be rich to just wanting to be happy for themselves and their families, valuing the really important things, not piling up material acquisitions that the latest advertising is getting them to buy, in taking pride like their fathers and mothers before them in thrifty behaviours and saving, that may lead to a very different economy than seen before. Something like this is happening in Germany and Japan where consumers tend to save. ...

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New GI Bill taking effect August 2009, has not received much attention but it will help bring more equity into the system and provide better opportunities for university education to those who serve in the armed forces and thus help increase mobility in the USA, with those previously unable to afford an education or restricted to small community colleges able to take advantage of the best opportunties they can work hard for and use their potential and abilities. It makes for a more educated and effective military as young people with high school diplomas are more likely to take advantage of military service for 3 years to get a good university education. So its quite probable that more people and better and more intelligent and able recruits would join the military service at the same time that some of the military recruits who have already served three years go to colleges to take advantage of the new GI Bill. It costs the military $5.7 billion in incentives and other recruitment costs to meet the demand for service personnel over the next 5 years, but this can now be used towards the cost of the GI Bill. Also there is some fairness and equity in the idea of the GI Bill, and something that would appeal to candidates like Obama who believes that the income gaps in the country and the educational gaps in the country between the affluent and the those struggling at the lower end of the class structure has widened considerably in the last two decades. See Obama's interview with the WSJ on June 17, 2008, during his visit to Flint, Michigan, for an economic theme speech. Previously the educational assistance went upto only $39,000 and could not be passed onto a spouse or child, something that candidate MCain added to the bill. It also includes a monthly stipend for living expenses in addition to the tution, so its fair and generous program for GI's, and may bring some of the benefits in bringing mobility between the classes and new infusion of energy through a more equitable system for young people who may otherwise be left out of opportunities for a better education and better job opportunities even after risking their lives for service. Getting in the brighter more motivated for education people who otherwise might not opt for the military who then pursue higher education will help the miltary improve quality of personnel and help bring more dynamism into society with their energy and enthusuasm and hard work and discipline....

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Interesting and quite useful from a sociological and psychological point of view, that people believe what they want to believe. Even today writes Slackman, the Arabs and Muslims from Dubai malls to people one meets in a park in Algiers, cafes in Riyadh, and in shops and places all over Cairo, say the USA organized 9/11 so that they could attack 2 Muslim states, Iraq and Afghanistan. If we changed it a bit and said Rumsfeld and Cheney got the perfect excuse to attack Afghanistan's Taliban government from 9/11. It created the kind of fears in the US public about terrorists, individual, or state sponsored terrorism like Iraq's against the Marsh Shiites after the Kuwait war (which was a personal affront to both Rumsfeld and Cheney as they let it happen right under their eyes), then one can extend that to say Rumsfeld and Cheney felt they now had the opportunity to get Saddam out. So once you have the US even for good moral reason eager to intervene, this eagerness may not require too much of a stretch to be seen as the US administration engineering this atmosphere by organizing 9/11, or by letting it happen. This is true for an Arab public that feels humiliated and sees a loss of respect from all the setbacks they have suffered, including in Egypt where a President has maintained himself in power for thirty long years and has American support. And most of these people haven't left their surroundings, so they haven't seen the world outside. What they beleieve is only what is possible from what they can see possible from their immediate surroundings. From a -sociological and psychological perspective this is certainly possible and even realistic. When Friedman in the New York Times says its shameless that the 2 Republican candidates can speak of being change agents when Republicans have been in power for 8 years, and still the Republican faithful and some independents believe this, they have not lost their wits but may see this in terms of their gut feel and in terms of their own personal experiences and surroundings. Even when Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal sees little hope from either candidate when it comes to lobbyists influencing them and proof of this from lobbyists for Fannie and Freddie as their senior advisors. Then its still possible for Republican faithful, however weird it may appear to an informed observer,to see McCain and Palin as agents of change. Same is true for Obama. ...

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Concurs with Brian Wesbury op ed article in the Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2007, on the housing and subprime mortgage crisis, that the Bernanke Fed's move to prevent the system from seizing up but at the same time to let market discipline operate so that mispricing of risks does not continue, is the right calibrated action in the current situation. Whats at the heart of this crisis? Its that nobody knows where the risks lie hidden and how big these risks are, because the mortgage securities were so widely and efficiently distributed throught the global financial system. See the related article wsj, Aug 20, 2007, on the German stateowned smaller banks with large conduit operations, offbalance sheet affiliates, that invested in US mortgage securities. This has made fear so potent that banks simply do not trust each other or the financial system and do not want to lend to each other, and it all happened once a sequence of events documented in the wsj August 20, 2007 took place in the USA and Europe, that threatened the whole system with seizing up. ...

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The Council of Mortgage Lenders forecast seems to quite optimistic considering the problems the US housing market is facing in November 2007, "prices will rise only slightly", with foreclosures rising to 45,000 from the current 30,000 in 2007, and house sales dropping by 15% in 2008. The buy-to-let market would be affected and the home buyer's budgets strained with British mortgage debt at 150% of household disposable income would affect new sales. The Economist forecast is more to the point predicting GDP growth in the UK will slowdown to 1.9% from 3.1% estimated this year, with allowance for serious downward risk from a big housing jolt to the economy in 2008. US economic growth was recently estimated by the US government reporting agency at 4.9% revised for the third quarter and the expectation was for flat or no growth in the last quarter. This suggests a dramatic drop. And this may not be fully digested by the markets as there is more bad news to come in the housing market in the USA in 2008....

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This guy is amazing. Believes in team work and gives credit where its certainly due to team workers and team spirit for achievements. He's head of Virgin Mobile USA, Richard Branson's cellphone company with 5 million subscribers. But forget the teamwork he's amazing for another reason. He is willing to act on a thought like spending 24 hours on the streets of New York City as a homeless kid sort of tosee what its like for the homeless kids who are helped by a charity he supports Stand Up for Kids. Did this with Rick Koca who heads that nonprofit. For a week he wore dirty jeans, a ragged shirt and a blanket around his shoulders, had to beg for money to get something to eat, walked 2 miles for a 25 cent cup of coffee an slept on concrete in an abandoned skate park. Wow, it takes the courage to act on your convictions and then you learn a lot about life itself, whats important and whats not.

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Krugman on the dangers that the sharp cuts in spending proposed by the Republicans in Congress- as a solution to the budget impasse- could abort the nascent and fragile recovery in 2011. The impact of higher food and oil prices also affects consumers in 2011-2012.

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Hamdi Ulukaya on how he started the Chobani brand of yogurt and the company from an idea and a postcard about a Kraft yogurt plant put up for sale in Columbus, New York. Here Hamdi is interviewed by the WSJ's Sarah Needleman. He describes how he developed the recipe with a master yogurt maker from his home country of Turkey, knowing that he had only one shot to get it right. That included pricing because Greek yogurt is costlier to make. The idea came from the postcard which made Hamdi think about the fact that always astonished him- that there was no quality yogurt in the U.S. He hired five people in the plant, had the walls painted, and the master yogurt maker as the sixth employee. The yogurt was introduced in 2007. The pricing had to be right- costing betwen $1.00 and $1.30, not too high. He decided on giving out free samples to get people introduced to the product and had a sampling truck go around the country, similiar to what Ben & Jerry's did with their ice cream in the early days. To avoid costly ad campaigns Chobani was introduced using bloggers, Facebook and Twitter to reach consumers directly....

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Patricia Kowsmann provides this picture of life in a town on Portugal's northern coast, Viana do Castelo, with a population of 87,000, as Portugal struggles to make a recovery. Viana do Castelo has shipyards and companies making metal bridges for highways. The money losing state owned shipyard was privatized and sold to Martifer SGPS SA to run till 2031. 600 workers at the shipyard were laid off. The new company plans to rehire 400 workers by 2016 but jobs will not be permanent. Companies making the bridges now sell to former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique, Brazil. 200,000 people have left the country to look for jobs or higer education, including the mayor's daughter in London. Exports are up and now make up 40% of Portugal's GDP, up from 27% in 2009. The economic growth is 0.9% in 2014, after declining 6% 2011-2013. Portugal accepted the last instalment of the bailout loan of 78 billion euros in 2014. It will auction 1.25 billion euros of bonds on July 22, 2015. Unemployment is now declining dropping to 14% from a high of 17%, and higher than the pre crisis level of 11%. Here in this coastal town the mayor Jose Maria Costa cut public employee salaries 15%, and also cut sports and cultural programs. Two food centers provide free lunch and dinner, and half of the 4000 children in school get subsidies for food and transport. A shipyard worker Antonio Gomes Barbosa 64, is one of the laid off workers. His son's architecture company closed and he left Portugal for Angola. Some of his co-workers now work at a shipyard in neighboring Spain....

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Agatha Sangma, at 28, is the youngest member of Parliament in India. Se was reelected from the Tura constituency in Meghalaya,, in India's northeast. She is minister of state for rural development in the newly elected Congress coalition government. Her father PA Sangma was a speaker in the Lok Sabha, India's Parliament. In India's system the cabinet minister has the biggest chunk of work and under him comes the minister of state. But considering how big the rural economy is in India, at over 40% of GDP and growing fast from a low base, its aposition of great responsibility for ayoung woman. Here she talks to Jyoti Malhotra of the WSJ. She is responsible for drinking water and sanitation. Access to drinking water, contamination of water, and water supplies for agriculture are a huge challenge for India. Agatha has studied environmental management in the UK, so she can bring knowledge of modern methods for managing water to her job. She likes to be responsible for implementing work in the rural areas, and has the youth and energy to travel and see things first hand for implementation. She says accountability is important for implementation and out in the field she can observe and ask questions. One of the problems she shees in implementation is properly using the funds allocated. This fund alone is 62,000 crores. And seeing that these funds are properly allocated and spent to generate the best use of the resources is critical for improving lives and meeting the needs for rural development. She sees room for experimenting, for innovation and bringing fresh ideas to this job. She seems to handle the interview questions quite well....

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James Q. Wilson points to the link between educational levels and inequality. He says the poor face too few skills and too few opportunities. The link with education is critical. He cites information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which show that between 1979 and 2010, hourly wages for those with a college degree went up 33% for men and 20% for women. For those without a high school diploma wages declined 31% for men and 9% for women. It appears that men have been more adversely affected than women. Minorities have done poorly especially Hispanics and Blacks. Social factors such as unwed mothers aggravate conditions for the bottom fifth in incomes. As the demographics of America shift to higher population of Hispanic immigrants, the situation worsens. High schools in Hispanic areas of New York city with high dropout rates, to take one example, can affect income inequality as more immigrants take jobs at the minimum wage level. The 2008 financial crisis has also taken a higher toll on minorities and people with modest incomes by reducing their savings and through the large number of home foreclosures....

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Krugman has some legitimate concerns. Noting that 600,000 jobs were lost in February, 2007, which would mean several million jobs lost, anywhere from 5 to 7 million jobs lost in 2009. In the face of this generating 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 as Obama plans to do, looks like not having done enough, and letting the worst effects of the downturn go on. And the lack of a plan to resolve the situation of failing banks, which are only drawing more of the government's capital, leaves continued weakness in credit markets and the economy that will hurt the unemployment picture through 2009. So in spite of all the rhetoric and good intentions, the lack of experience in dealing with a crisis of this magnitude, political deadlock, and an element of trial and error, learning and observing, as the President and his advisors deal with the evolving crisis, leaves the American economy exposed to many risks.

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Fibonacci's "Liber Abacci," or "Book of Calculations," that brought the Hindu-Arabic system of numbers 0-9 to Europe. Upto that time Europe used the less efficient system of Roman numerals.

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Tony Hayward, current CEO of BP, was head of production during the fire and explosion incident at its Texas City, Texas, refinery. BP failed to contain the damage to its reputation during that incident, when it was disclosed that there was neglect of plant maintenance and quality at the refinery by government safety agencies, and by former engineers and directors of Amoco who had operated the plant before BP. The CEO at the time Mr Browne bought Amoco in 1998. To cut costs he did not replace hundreds of engineers who had left, and BP became more dependent on subcontractors. In July 2005 after Hurricane Dennis, Thunder Horse, BP's $1 billon development in the Gulf of Mexico had design and engineering problems and listed 20 degrees. In March 2006, 267,000 gallons of crude oil leaked out of a 34 inch pipe connected to the TranAlaska pipeline, maintained by BP. On August 8, 2006, the U.S. government ordered closure of the entire oil production of Alaska because of what it cited as "severe corrosion," because BP had not done the proper maintenance for the pipeline and its quality systems had failed. By this time Mr Browne's reputation had suffered and he was forced to retire. Tony Hayward is now being criticized for not moving quickly enough in establishing good quality, maintenance and safety systems at BP. The problem of BP not taking responsibility to properly oversee contractors down to the details and make sure all safety steps are taken is evident from the comment by Robert Wine a BP spokesman in London. He said that the responsibility was Transocean's (the company operating the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon), saying something that would not be accepted in the public mind or in oil circles in Houston, that "it's not BP's role to second guess Transocean or to oversee the safety of the rig." Exxon for example imposes detailed requirements on its subcontractors and second guesses its subcontractors on the details. BP did not require Transocean to install acoustic back-ups used in the North Sea to trigger the blow-out preventer in the Gulf drilling area....

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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.