In the past week there have been further signs of Khamenei lining up support for a deal: an orchestrated nationwide push from Friday prayer leaders and even senior military officers – voices that have often been critical of negotiations – to support the talks and a possible compromise with foreign powers led by a long-standing arch-enemy, the United States.

US And Iran Close In On Deal - Business Insider

The final installment of my series on the empirical institutions literature. Quick summary of the prior posts: Part 1: cross-country studies of institutions are inherently flawed by lack of identification and ordinal institutional indexes treated as cardinal Part 2: instrumental variable approaches – settler mortality included – are flawed due to bad data and questions and more identification problems. Part 3: historical studies show that there is path dependence or a poverty trap, but not that institutions themselves are central to underdevelopment

The Skeptics Guide to Institutions – Part 4 | The Growth Economics Blog

The apparent tsunami of stimulus from central banks in Asia and Europe is a mirage. The world's monetary authorities are on balance tightening.

Tightening by superpower Fed trumps mini-stimulus in Europe and Asia - Telegraph

For the last few years it seemed like the competition was simply ceding this part of the market to Sony's RX100, with the Ricoh GR and Fujifilm X100 duking it out for the true enthusiasts. Why even try to match the Sony RX100, especially with the new RX100 III that practically warped time and space to cram in a pop-up EVF? It's next to impossible to fit a sensor larger than the RX100's 1-incher into a compact body, let alone an EVF, along with a battery and processor. How can you even compete with The Best Point-and-Shoot Ever Made™? Simple: You make a better one.

Panasonic Lumix LX100 Digital Camera Review - Reviewed.com Cameras

The utilities’ objections have added to doubts about Japan’s plan to increase renewables’ share of electricity output to 20% by 2030, almost double its pre-Fukushima share. If all the projects for which METI has had applications went ahead, Japan could leave most of its nuclear stations switched off, notes Mika Ohbayashi of the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation, a think-tank. But so far just 12% of them have been installed, and much of the rest may prove uneconomic, she says, given that in less-sunny parts, solar panels’ output will be more sporadic.

Electricity firms in Japan: Solar shambles | The Economist

Saudi Arabia set the stage for more blood-letting on oil markets after blocking on Thursday calls from poorer members of the OPEC oil exporter group for output cuts to arrest a slide in crude prices.

Saudis block OPEC output cut, oil price sinks further - Yahoo Finance

Yet look more closely into Mr Juncker’s golden package and the contents seem rather leaden. Just €21 billion of the €315 billion is public money, none of it genuinely new: €16 billion of it will come from existing EU funds, the rest from the European Investment Bank.

Charlemagne: Europe’s great alchemist | The Economist

THERE is a spring in America’s step these days. A revision released this week raised annualised economic growth in the third quarter to 3.9%; it has averaged more than 4% in the past two quarters.

America’s economy: The lonely locomotive | The Economist

The Circret Smart Bracelet, which appeared on Indiegogo not long ago, has now finished its campaign for funding. The result should be a bracelet wearable that can project a touch-controlled screen onto your arm.

The Cicret Smart Bracelet puts a touch-controlled projector on your arm. Move over Google Glass - Pocket-lint

Only about 2 percent of crimes in Mexico result in convictions, and despite several indictments in U.S. courts against senior Mexican officials, very few of them have had to face investigations at home, let alone trial.

Mexican President: 'Mexico Cannot Continue Like This' After Murder Of 43 Students - Business Insider