• Cracks may be appearing in Brazil’s economy, but shopping remains the lifeblood of the economy: in the past decade Brazil has added 35m people to the consuming classes and families now spend a fifth of their monthly income paying off credit card bills and loans.
• The “flash mobs” in India have unnerved the government and are a turning point in India’s history of political protest — Amy Kazmin explains why in today’s Global Insight.
• Cambodia has benefited from the rise in wages in China as manufacturers have shifted production there, but the surge in investment is not without problems.
• A US-EU bilateral transatlantic trade deal has been a long-held dream of policy makers that seemed always out of reach, but Brussels and Washington are edging closer to formal negotiations.
• High land prices in the Punjab are forcing farmers to leave India for countries like Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
• The Obama administration spent more on immigration enforcement last year then on all the other major federal law enforcement agencies combined.
• David Graham at the Atlantic has given some thought to John Brennan, Obama’s nominee for CIA director and the questions he is likely to face.
• Despite reports from The Economist and Time Magazine about “Africa Rising”, Rick Rowden thinks Africa’s developmental prospects have been greatly exaggerated.

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