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The skills to navigate different personalities and work patiently on the issues surrounding changes to the U.S. tax system of Rep. Dave Camp (MI), chairman of the U.S House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, will be immensely useful in the effort to make changes to the U.S. tax system. Camp works well with fellow House Republican leaders Boehner, Ryan, Cantor, and his Democratic counterpart in the U.S. Senate Max Baucus. Camp is a good listener, refuses to engage in partisan criticism, and has the patience to work through difficult issues of achieving savings and keeping fairness in the the tax changes. Earlier efforts to achieve consensus in late 2011 failed, making it even more important to have leadership which can create productive debate and bridge the differences. The tax changes are part of the overall effort for U.S. economic recovery by reducing the deficit.

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Since 2004 consumer spending's share of the economy in China has fallen from 40% to 35%.

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The U.S. Agriculture Department cuts its estimate of corn crop yield per acre in the U.S. by 15.5%, as a result of the severe drought in 2012. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, says the situation for farmers is better this time than during the last drought in 1988. Now 85% of farmers have crop insurance compared to 25% in 1988. The Agriculture Department estimate is for a 3-4% increase in prices in 2013. Capital Economics says the impact on GDP in the U.S. will be about 0.1%. Because 40% of the corn crop goes into ethanol production there is renewed debate about the 2005/2007 Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires 13.2 billion gallons of corn based biofuel be made in 2012. Worldwide the bad weather conditions in Brazil, India and Russia are worsening the outlook for food supplies. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says global food prices increased by 6% in July 2012, with corn prices up 23%.

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Analysts say the odds are now three in four that Greece will exit the euro. The young leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left, which came in second with 16.78% of the vote after New Democracy party's 18.8%, says: "We believe that the path of salvation doesn't pass through the barbarity of austerity measures." A new election is expected as talks to form a new government are expected to fail, with the likelihood that more votes would go to parties other than New Democracy and the Socialist Pasok party, the two parties that have governed Greece. This would mean a smaller vote for the two parties, smaller than the 18.8% New Democracy and 13% Pasok received in this election, relegating them to insignificance in the Greek political landscape. And opening a new chapter for Greece outside the euro.

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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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The Home Affordable Refinance Program's (HARP) gradual success in 2012-2013 in reducing foreclosures, after struggling in 2010-2011. From about cumulative 1 million who refinanced loans under HARP for relief in home payments the numbers went up to close to 3 million by the end of 2013, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Of this a major proportion were people who owed less than 105% of their home's value. The performance of the program improved with a revamp of HARP at the end of 2011.

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The Census Bureau reports that 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010. This is an increase of 2.6 million over 2009. This is the highest number of Americans living in poverty since 1958, when this statistic was first measured. Poverty is defined for 2010 as income at or below $22,314 for family of four. Also relevant is the median household income which went down to $49,445 in 2010, a decline of 2.3% from 2009. The typical household earned less in 2010 than in 1997, in inflation adjusted terms. The Census Bureau reports 16.3% of Americans had no health insurance coverage in 2010, the same as 2009.

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Taylor on the Bernanke Federal Reserve's quandary over its exit strategy from a loose monetary policy. He points to the consensus among leading economists, Rajan, Meltzer, Feldstein, who share his view that the costs of a loose monetary policy outweigh its benefits, that the Fed's policies are not working, and the need for a more rules based monetary policy.

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Monica Hesse gives this exceptional story of Gladys Ament, which is the story of American women as they voted in election after election after the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920. In 2016 she is 96 years old and used an absentee ballot to vote for a first women president for the U.S.. Ament gives this touching and graceful account of a woman who lived through many presidents, and never failed to exercize her vote in every election held since the day she was born on Aug. 26, 1920. That day Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment giving it the majority needed to become the law of the land. This was the year Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was in office. Her story starts in a two room schoolhouse in Lonaconing, Maryland, population 2054, when America was largely rural and rapidly urbanizing. The girls did the housework and the boys worked in the coal country, and women were not considered to be the ones in the home to go to a college or university. She dated a man who worked for the phone company, and later was drafted in the war. She joined Montgomery Ward filling catalogue orders. Her first vote was for FDR in 1944, in reality for Eleanor Roosevelt. And then she voted for Harry Truman, who she liked for his plain talk manner. Then Eisenhower, Nixon, Humphrey, McGovern, Carter, as she fulfilled the role of a mother and teachers aide at a school for special needs children. Her husband was not sure her daughter Mary needed to follow the two sons to college, but she made sure Mary did even though tution money was tight. She loved the self-respect which came with working, she was patient. The opportunities came and it was Mary who pursued her education and became an administrator who also supervised men. Things had changed, nobody thought of it twice, what Gladys had struggled with was now the accepted way of things. Then came a granddaughter and by this time young women had more opportunities, and there were as many women in universities as men. Gladys voted for the first black president and then for a first woman president at 96, 96 years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the vote in America. After that election in which she really voted for Eleanor Roosevelt- who was all over the country making speeches and talking to people to bring hope during the Depression years- she could see the potential in a next woman as president. She had seen some of the 18 presidents who had led the country as good leaders and some not so good, some who were seen as good in their years in office but later seen as having done poorly, she could see that women could do just as well or better after all these years of her voting and learning. ...

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Athens is far from being her normal self with high unemployment, shuttered shops and periodic violence. Unemployment at about 23% and the worsening economic crisis is leading to dwindling support for the main parties Pasok and New Democracy. Support is growing for fringe parties, including neo-nazi type parties. The mood is shifting in Europe, with the presidential elections in France and the likely election of Socialist candidate Hollande, who has described the EU's handling of Greece as deplorable. New elections will take place later in 2012 in the Netherlands.

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Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, says the Obama plan for ratings of colleges in the U.S. will not add much value because much of the information is already available. More important she says is to tackle the bad actors in education leading to high student debt. She says she will cut costs by a couple of hundred million dollars in the next few years, and will keep pushing on costs as there is a natural tendency to revert back. With less state support the UC system is admitting a larger number of students from out of state who pay higher tution.

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Brazil's GDP increased by 0.34% for the 4th quarter of 2011 from the prior quarter. For the full year GDP increased by 2.7%, with an actual decline in GDP for the third quarter of 0.1%. The GDP growth for 2010 was 7.5%. The slowing economic growth reflects an overvalued currency, weak manufacturing competitiveness, and inflation. Brazil's growth will be lower than potential say analysts, and it will be tough to get to even 3.5% growth in 2012-2013. A similiar process is seen in other emerging markets. China's premier Wen Biao announced lower growth targets of 7.5% and a shift in priorities recently. And India's growth rate for 4th quarter, 2011, was 6.1%.

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Shiller points out that statistical models used by economists can't quantify the risk of a double-dip recession. Confidence indexes show gradual trends so they too are poor at picking up the dangers inherent in the increasing levels of uncertainty and the increasing vulnerability of confidence in the economy. The potential of sudden events in derailing confidence is great. He cites the 10 percent drop in the U.S. stock market on May 6, as one example. And the potential of the BP oil spill creating havoc for the Gulf economy is another such event. Shiller says his definition of a douple dip recession looks at the long term, and doesn't see the short term as a way to correctly read the economic situation. He sees a douple dip recession as a rise in unemployment to high levels, and becomes sticky after that, only nudged down insignificantly. Before unemployment can be brought down a second recession occurs, and there could be years in between. Shiller's Buy-on-Dips stock Market Confidence Index prepared since 1989 shows a steady decline in individual investor confidence since 2009....

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Concern about slowing growth in China with rising inflation. The problem of opaqueness of the financial system and of banks that are both listed companies and run by the government, and how this could accelerate a slowdown at some point with accumulated problems in the financial system. A sense that China's growth model has reached a limit, and whether there will be a soft landing.

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The Economist cites estimates from the Bank of England showing Britain's national output peaking at 1.5 trillion pounds in 2007 and not likely to return to that level till 2015. It points to fears of a lost decade. Meanwhile debt is rising from 600 billion pounds in 2008 to 1.1 trillion in 2012, making reducing the debt to GDP ratio by 2017 even more difficult. Lower growth affects tax revenues even as social benefit costs increase. Part of the problem is that from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 public sector net investment declined from 48.5 billion pounds to 28 billion pounds. The Economist suggests Chancellor Osborne take up an additional investment in infrastructure of 28 billion pounds, even borrowing 14 billion pounds in the bond markets if needed, as a prudent step to revive growth. Small improvements in rail, roads and bridges could make up for a lack of large projects. Other suggestions include expanding the "funding for lending" scheme with banks to get capital to small business, finding more savings in the National Health Service, and changing the way Britain taxes development land that remains undeveloped. Britain, now joins, Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, in the failure of austerity measures alone creating a return to economic growth and lower deficits. In 2013 improving competitiveness and boosting economic growth become critical following years of austerity measures....