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Rick Perry faces criticism from Republican candidates Romney, Bachmann, Huntsman and Paul at the Republican presidential candidate debate in Tampa on September 12, 2011. Perry defended his remarks on Social Security by telling viewers- "slam dunk guaranteed that program is going to be in place." Romney suggested Perry had been served four aces for his jobs record in Texas. And Santorum accused Perry of providing education assistance to illegal immigrants to attract the Latino vote. Perry defended his remarks on Fed chairman Bernanke printing money amounting to treasonous behaviour.

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The impact of the resignation of Alexei Kudrin, Russia's Finance Minister, on financial markets and the value of the ruble.

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Mexico's economy grew at 1.34% in the third quarter of 2011, according to the national statistics institute. Annual growth is estimated at 4% for 2011. The war against organized drug trafficking in Mexico cost the economy one percentage point of economic growth, according to estimates by BBVA Bancomer, Mexico's largest bank. Mexico received $20 billion in foreign investment in 2011, about the same as in 2010. Cars and aerospace have drawn large foreign investment. Mazda will invest $500 million on a new plant in central Mexico. Honda says it will spend $800 million on a second Mexican plant. In recent years with higher costs in China, higher transport costs, and a weaker peso with a stronger yuan, Mexico is becoming more competitive with China as a manufacturing investment location. The younger workforce, low inflation and technical education schooling, offer Mexico additional advantages. Mexico is the second largest manufacturer of flat screen television sets, and is now the fourth largest location for outsourced IT such as call centers. Axa CEO, Henri Castries, and Siemens CEO, Louise Goeser, have very favorable views of doing business in Mexico. Siemens sees sales increasing by double digits through 2015, and has located one of three global R&D centers in the state of Queretaro. Goeser says many parts of Mexico are safer than parts of the U.S. A large part of the violence is concentrated in a few states, and in border cities like Juarez, and affects smaller businesses more than the large manufacturing enterprises of overseas companies. As a result it is as if there were several economies in Mexico, with foreign enterprises largely insulated from the violence. ...

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The Swiss National Bank gives up on its effort to maintain Swiss competitiveness by dropping the 2011 peg of 1.2 euros to the franc. That effort was becoming costlier as the central bank piled up hundreds of millions of euros on its balance sheet buying up euros to keep the value of the franc down. Investors have put money into francs as a safe haven since the 2008 financial crisis. By offering negative yields of 0.75% the central bank hoped to limit the damage with a surging franc. The franc went up by 15% on January 15, 2015, with the surprise announcement, and stocks of exporters declined sharply. The immediate decision was taken as the ECB planned to weaken the euro with a large quantitative easing program in its Dec. 22, 2015 meeting. The central bank said - "Recently the divergences between the monetary policies of the major currency areas have increased significantly- a trend that is likely to become even more pronounced." A December Swiss initiative was intended to force the Swiss National Bank to convert much of its foreign exchange holdings into gold, as public criticism of the large euro holdings increased with each currency market intervention. The SNB justified its peg to the euro and currency interventions saying that this gave the country's exporters time to make the transition to a stronger Swiss franc....

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Revival of the old city of Diriyah in Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia, where Imam Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud, the original chief from the Saud family have their origins. With the help of Imam Wahhab, this tribal chief united the Arabian peninsula in 1744, till the fall to the Ottomans in 1818, lasting 74 years. U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt helped set up Ibn Saud of the original Saud family, as monarch of a new Saudi state in 1932, when it was possible for the French, British and Americans to setup states in the Middle East region to protect their interests. Ibn Saud's son is the current King Salman, who plans to set up a museum complex in Diriyah, and visits the place on weekends.

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A shift to a limited agenda based on increasing the minimum wage, immigration reform and use of executive orders to get things done.

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Political activism and grassroots efforts- other than street protests - are increasing in eurozone countries facing high unemployment and austerity cuts. The focus is on cleaning up the political system rife with cronyism, corruption and wasteful spending. Brat and Bjork describe one such effort in the town of Torrelodones, Spain, 18 miles from Madrid. Criminal investigations in many Spanish cities have increased public awareness and participation in local government. European Social Survey based in London, reports political activity of this kind in Spain jumped from 27% in 2008 to 39% in 2010. There is an increasing sense that the political elites of the two main parties, the Partido Popular and the Socialists have failed to bring clean government and transparency to Spain. As a result progressives are joining conservatives in an effort to clean up years of wasteful spending, cronyism and corruption in government. The Union for Progress and Democracy, representing an alliance of such groups would win 13% of the vote in a national election, and the ruling conservative Partido Popular would lose half of its support and get only 22.5%, according to independent Spanish polling firm Metroscopia. The new push for transparency is one of the welcome changes at a time of austerity cuts and 27% unemployment in Spain. Many of the perks of public officials such as chaeuffer driven cars and police escorts, contracts for favored few at higher prices, are out in many cities, and accounts made public for scrutiny and change. Transparency International's transparency index shows 33 out of 110 of Spain's biggest cities scoring top grades on the 2012 index, jumping from only one. Following the example of the regional government in Navarra, the central government is drafting the first open-records law. Castilla-La Mancha, the area around Toledo, run by a clean government advocate Maria Dolores de Cospedal from the Partido Popular has taken aggressive steps to clean up the local government and wasteful spending- see the link to Castilla La Mancha. Her long term approach is to clean up government spending and accounts with the idea of preserving spending where it is most needed, in education, healthcare and vital services hit by cuts, an approach being taken in other Spanish cities. ...

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Zaragoza a city of 700,000 is the capital of Spain's fastest growing region, and its halfway between Barcelona and Madrid. It has grown rapidly. The arrival of GM here was a big turning point in 1982. The GM plant here can turn out 2000 sub compacts, small minivans and delivery trucks a day, now it is one of 7 GM plants in Europe to suspend production for 2 weeks in October to work off inventories. About 600 of 7000 workers were laid off. Young people here who have never seen anything but good times see this as a big shock. And its a sign of how things across Europe are shaping up. Spain's economy contracted by 0.2% this summer. The European Commission expects the 15 nation eurozone to be flat next year with no growth, but this is an early estimate and may be revised to show a contraction as the economic downturn is just beginning.