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 Good morning! Here's what you need to know: 1. The economic news is bad. The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday fell sharply. Stocks in Asia and Europe followed suit. US manufacturing output slowed considerably. Private sector job growth was anemic, according to ADP. A housing glut and weak demand keeps pushing home prices lower. 2. No president since Franklin Roosevelt has won re-election when the unemployment rate was over 7.2 percent. It seems certain that President Obama will run for re-election with an unemployment rate over 7.2 percent. 3. House Republicans ventured over to the White House yesterday to meet with President Obama about budget matters and raising the debt ceiling. The meeting was unproductive. 4. The end of federal stimulus money is requiring states to cut expenditures, even though tax revenues have improved markedly. Rising Medicaid costs are eating state budgets alive. 5. The Wall Street Journal reports: "The White House said Wednesday that taxpayers could lose roughly $14 billion of the money spent on auto industry bailouts, despite the industry's recent recovery." The White House believes the "resurgence" of the US auto industry will be helpful to President Obama's re-election campaign. 6. "The global war on drugs has failed," says a new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy due to be released today. The report encourages governments to experiment with the regulation of drugs, especially marijuana. 7. Paul Krugman wrote yesterday that the eurozone had entered economic meltdown territory. The FT reports today: "The pressure mounted on Greece on Wednesday night when Moody’s cut its credit rating by three notches to Caa1 from B1 and maintained its negative outlook." 8. The New York Times reports: "An unusually lethal strain of E. coli bacteria has infected more than 1,500 people in Germany, mystifying public health officials, ravaging Spain’s agricultural heartland, and touching off panic in Europe as people weighed whether it was safe to eat raw vegetables." In response, Russia banned European food imports. 9. Yemen continues its downward spiral toward civil war and societal implosion. Fighting raged in the capitol and in southern Yemen. 10. Syrian activists met in Turkey to try to form a unified front of opposition to the Assad regime. They have a ways to go. 11. The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the dominant constituency in Egyptian politics. The FT has an excellent and lengthy analysis. 12. Mitt Romney launches his candidacy for president today. He plans to criss-cross the country, raising money. The GOP front-runner is making New Hampshire his "must-win" state. 13. Tim Pawlenty's reputation as a fiscal manager is under attack in his home state of Minnesota. Critics assert that Mr. Pawlenty achieved "balanced budgets" with gimmicks and accounting tricks and as a result left his successor with multi-billion dollar deficits. For the latest in politics, visit Politics. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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