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A difficult period for the monarchy in Spain after a number of scandals affected the reputation of King Juan Carlos. His son has a graduate degree in international relations from Georgetown University. He has distanced himself from the scandals, brings a youthful look at 46, aand was groomed by his parents for the job. Though Juan Carlos has seen his repuation tarnished in recent years, especially with the continuing economic hardships of high unemployment in Spain, he played a large part in Spain's transition to democracy after the Franco years. Even with such difficulties just over half of Spaniards respect the monarchy down from much higher numbers before the economic crisis, when Juan Carlos was seen as a modernizer for Spain. Because of Spain's history of Republicanism at odds with a conservative culture and the Franco years of division accompanied by great distress, the monarchy's role requires a special touch- a feeling for the needs of the people which Carlos showed in the early years, and for which Felipe was trained....

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Britian's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, on the economic recovery in Britain. He points to total public spending under control, with it dropping from 45% when the Tories entered government to 36.4% in 2015. He also points to the drop in the unemployment rate and the economic plan to cut the remaining budget deficit and show a surplus. This puts Britain in the best position to spend more on defense, says Osborne. Osborne makes a commitment to spend 2% of national income on defense, and raise Britain's defensive and offensive capabilities. This includes buying 138 F35 aircraft from the U.S. manufactured in the U.S. and Britain, and a fleet of maritime patrol aircraft, increasing cybercapabilities by over 75%. It would be backed up by spending 0.7% of national income on overseas development to back hard power with soft power.

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Obe and Pfanner provide insights into the business sentiment about Abenomics in Toyota City, by interviewing Kawahara, owner of a kimono shop, Okuda of auto parts supplier Okuda Industry Co., Arai, president of Hotel Toyota Castle. Sentiment for Abenomics is not strong here after two quarters of economic contraction in 2014, and business sees problems such as higher import costs of imported energy with a weaker yen. Yet business people say there are no alternatives and the opposition DPJ has less to offer for renewing growth. Sentiment is shifting towards support for the LDP in Toyota City. Unemployment has dropped to 2.4% here in Toyota City with the huge improvement in global sales and profits of Toyota Motor. Nationally an Asahi newspaper poll shows the LDP taking 300 of 475 parliamentary seats in the snap election of Dec. 2014.

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The G-20 statement for the meeting in Washington D.C. in April 2013, says: "Japan's recent policy actions are intended to stop deflation and support domestic demand." Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda's response was that this will help the BOJ implement its monetary expansion program in an orderly way. Kuroda said: "Now that we have obtained the support of the international community, we will be able to implement our program with confidence." These moves come with a call for Europe to proceed with banking union and giving more time for austerity programs to reduce the slowdown in Europe. This happens as fears emerged of a global slowdown in April 2013.

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This article by Horowitz in the NYT shows some of the criticism leveled against the Clintons and how they were out of touch with the white working class voters who have drifted to Mr. Trump.  It may be overdone in that not all white working class voters have drifted to Trump, and a Gallup survey has shown Trump supporters to be some white working class but also many from other groups in society, and many older less educated voters.  Trade Unions have played a large role in this election, and workers in manufacturing have voted Democratic in midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. Horowitz also ignores some points in this campaign such as when Bill Clinton was adept at openly stating that he agreed with people who said Obamacare had increased premiums, and that some of the Obamacare program needed to be fixed. This took some of the criticism of Republicans on Obamacare and turned this around. He also showed a better understanding at times of the plight of working class people just from his habit of listening and thinking about how this affects ordinary people, a skill he has even to this day. A 2014 NBC/WSJ poll showed Bill Clinton with a 56 percent favorability rating, which is higher than president Obama, and exceeded only by Michelle Obama at 64 percent. ...

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India's Foreign Investment Board clears investments by Vodafone and Tesco.

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Juleanna Glover points to the need for financing of the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq as the central government in Baghdad has failed to make payments to the KRG for its share of national oil income. The KRG would receive 17% of Iraq's national oil income under negotiated agreements, but only $2 billion of $12 billion owed to KRG has been transferred in 2015. The Kurds also have to support 1.8 million refugees from Syria and Iraq with the ongoing civil war. The World Bank predicts a shortfall in funding for KRG of $1.5 billion in 2015, and it needs a $2.4 billion bridge loan. Peshmarga forces it is reported have not been paid for 3 months even as the Kurds have borne a disproportionate share of the burden in the war.

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Michel Sapin faces the challenge of convincing the EU and Germany that France should get more leeway for tax cuts and other measures to boost the economy and lower unemployment. He has been through difficult situations before when following approval of the Maastricht Treaty the French Franc came under speculative attacks by investors betting France could not implement the Treaty. At the time he was finance minister in the Mitterand government. As labor minister since 2012, Sapin implemented Hollande promises in the elections- for government sponsored jobs for young people, creating contracts to bind young and older workers in the workplace, and reform of professional training schemes.