But climbing out will be difficult and painful.

But their nationality seems to have let them off the hook.

Comprehensive reform is the only way out.

At the same time, it is necessary to solve the Constitutional deadlock.

The US, now out of the quagmire, exercises limited influence from afar.

Three dates are central to understanding today s Afghan quagmire 1989, 2001, and 2003.

The current crisis of Islam might not be congenital, but Islam s predicament is acute.

Past policy missteps are responsible for the ECB s present predicament.

Americans should step back for a moment and ask who got them into this mess?

But the evolving slowdown is not the only reason the threat of a wage price spiral in Europe is overblown.

Will this relationship help Pakistan get off the economic rollercoaster it has been riding for the last half century?

That's why Siemens is now in the trouble they are in and that's why MIN is in the trouble they are in.

Last week s bruising battle over the medium term future of the Union s budget has confirmed that verdict with a vengeance.

Indeed, it is virtually impossible to resolve the current mess without some kind of compass pointing to where the future system lies.

The truth is that ECB would not be in its current predicament if the central bank had reached the 4.75 or even 5 level by now.

Hind, a Libyan blogger with more than 31K followers, says what Egypt needs to end the stalemate .. is a revolution.

Only intervention by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is widely revered, seems capable of saving the day.

In the absence of a credible and readily available political alternative, deadlock will likely continue, with the pace of change slower than the population demands.

Lack of transparency got the US financial system into this trouble. Lack of transparency will not get it out.

His predicament illustrates the common dictum in the politics of developing countries where rural electorates elect governments but urban elites get to throw them out.

Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, it is now recognized, deserves much blame for America s current economic mess.

Currently proposed agreements with India compound this quagmire and further undermine the global pact for peace represented by the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

It worked. China, with much less exposure than the West to toxic banking assets, is off to the races again as America struggles to its feet.

Now, for the first time, the US is providing large amounts of assistance to a democratic government. Will this relationship help Pakistan get off the economic rollercoaster it has been riding for the last half century?

It is not yet a hole of the type one finds in Greece, where restoring fiscal balance and reviving economic growth are probably impossible without a restructuring of public debt.

What they're doing there is that they're not I think the environmental movement has failed in that it's used the stick too much it's used the apocalyptic tone too much it hasn't sold the positive aspects of being environmentally concerned and trying to pull us out.

Part of the reason is that corruption remains high and administrative capacity to levy taxes remains woefully limited. Meanwhile, low income Greek households have borne the brunt of austerity.

First, Italy and Spain will have to come up with credible medium term plans that will not just restore their fiscal health, but also improve their ability to grow their way out of trouble.

Unfortunate because the real lesson to be taken from this crisis is that the abnegation of certain free market principles may in fact have led to the mess the US now finds itself in.

The truth that politicians (David Cameron s UK government excluded, at least for now) are reluctant to admit is that Western Europe s current morass is distinct from the global US made downturn.

In this quintessential failed state, this sort of elders wisdom may be the only option to start dealing with the quagmire created by the lawlessness that has gripped the country since the departure of the dictator Said Barre in 1991.

But if the euro is to survive and if other countries are to avoid sovereign debt crises of their own we still need politician proof rules.

So pessimism appears to be settling in, and the deadlock over Yasukuni appears to be deepening. But the past can bring us more than just troubles of this kind.

It is one thing for colonies to blow up on the other side of the world. It is quite another if the colony is just next door, and the colonial power is surrounded by countries with limited sympathy for a mess that is largely of its own making.

So is higher productivity the way out? Even assuming that governments could identify and implement structural reforms that yielded quick productivity gains, it is not clear that higher productivity leads to increased competitiveness.

The reaction of EU member states to this ongoing self inflicted impasse is unambiguous rather than trying to reenergize the process of further political and economic integration, they are primarily acting on their own to try to fill the vacuum that has emerged.