Monday, February 14, 2011

CAIRO - The popular uprising in Egypt triumphed Friday as President Hosni Mubarak
surrendered to the will of a leaderless revolution and stepped down after 30 years of autocratic rule
over the Arab world's most populous nation. – WP
President Hosni Mubarak's decision to step down Friday after three decades in power presents
the Obama administration with a political vacuum where a stalwart ally once stood, shaking up the
Middle East in ways that present as much peril as promise for U.S. interests in the region. – WP
Egypt's military rulers are dissolving the parliament and suspending the constitution, meeting
two key demands of pro-democracy protesters. In their latest communique, the military leadership that
took power when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down Friday, said they will run the country for six
months, or until presidential and parliament elections can be held. – WP
The U.S. trade deficit widened to US$40.6 billion in December from US$38.3 billion in
November; the entire widening of the goods deficit was driven by petroleum imports, while stronger
exports caused the nonpetroleum deficit to narrow by 10.5%. – Roubini Global Economics
By 52% to 32%, Americans are more likely to name China than the United States as the world's
top economic power. This represents China's strongest lead on this Gallup measure, first asked in 2000,
and is a major change from 2009, when China and the U.S. were tied in Americans' perceptions of the
leading power. – Gallup

Obama will roll out a $3.7 trillion budget blueprint Monday that would trim or terminate more
than 200 federal programs next year and make key investments in education, transportation and
research in a bid to boost the nation's economy and reduce record budget deficits. – WP
Debt ceiling risk forces Treasury to consider options – with the Treasury due to bump up against
its debt ceiling sometime in Apr or May, the agency has been considering a wide range of actions to buy
it some more time (there are a variety of levers that can be pulled in order add as much as two months
to the date at which the ceiling would be hit). For now, the Treasury isn’t considering any asset sales. –
NYT