By Catherine Contiguglia ♦ Emerging market currencies are sliding as the beginning of the end looms for the US Federal Reserve’s ultra-loose monetary policy, and economic growth continues to stagnate while current account deficits grow. India's rupee is leading the drop after a clumsy policy response spooked investors. Though policy makers are now focused on reducing the current account deficit and foreign currency reserves are much stronger than they were before the 1991 balance of payments crisis, the size of India's economy means any downturn could have a significant impact on the global economy. ♦ Saudi Arabia is backing Egypt’s military rulers with oil money and diplomatic might and that could well undercut US and European efforts to apply pressure by cutting aid to Cairo following the bloody crackdown by Egyptian security forces on Islamist supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi. ♦ "It may not be long before it will be impossible for journalists to have confidential sources," writes the Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, reflecting on the recent detainment of a reporter's partner in connection with the paper’s publication of information from US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. ♦ A detail not often noted about Turkey’s Gezi protests is that many of the frontline protesters have been women, whose situation has lagged far behind international standards on almost every measure in the ten years Prime Minister Recep Tayppid Erdogan has been in office. ♦ The economic gap between blacks and whites in the United States has not budged for 50 years, the Washington Post points out in a set of charts that show how "yawning” disparities have persisted since 1963." Continue reading » | 
