"The Purest Political Economist of Them All: Albert Hirschman's Legacy," by Dan Drezner. What the sharp rise in real interest rates means for the US economy. Should Japan default? Overt monetary financing and crisis management. The biggest economic mystery of 2013: What's up with inflation? Google offers some detail about how it transfers data to the US government. Yen's rise through Y95 hits Japanese shares hard: "Japanese stocks fell sharply after the yen rose to its strongest level against the US dollar since the first week of April. The Nikkei 225 sank 5.6 per cent in morning trading, while the Japanese currency broke through Y95 per dollar for the first time in two months. Fast Retailing, the largest weighted stock on the Japanese index, dropped 6.9 per cent, while Softbank lost 8.7 per cent. The broader Topix index fell 4.2 per cent UK MPs demand Google tax revamp: "MPs have demanded urgent changes to Google's "highly contrived" tax arrangements in a hard-hitting report that said the internet giant's tax avoidance had damaged its reputation and that of HM Revenue & Customs. It said Google's defence of its tax position by claiming that its sales of advertising space to UK clients take place in Ireland was "deeply unconvincing."" UK regulator investigates FX rates trade: "The UK markets watchdog has launched a preliminary investigation into the foreign exchange market after receiving complaints alleging that banks traded ahead of customer orders and attempted to manipulate benchmarks. The Financial Conduct Authority requested information from several banks with large London foreign exchange businesses about their trading, people familiar with the matter said.  Asian markets Nikkei 225 down -579.30 (-4.36%) at 12,710 Topix down -40.11 (-3.66%) at 1,056 Hang Seng down -572.49 (-2.68%) at 20,782 US markets S&P 500 down -13.61 (-0.84%) at 1,613 DJIA down -126.79 (-0.84%) at 14,995 Nasdaq down -36.52 (-1.06%) at 3,400 European markets Eurofirst 300 down -4.78 (-0.41%) at 1,175 FTSE100 down -40.63 (-0.64%) at 6,299 CAC 40 down -16.86 (-0.44%) at 3,794 Dax down -79.19 (-0.96%) at 8,143 Currencies €/$ 1.34 (1.33) $/¥ 94.77 (96.00) £/$ 1.57 (1.57) Commodities ($) Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.38 at 103.11 Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.50 at 95.38 100 Oz Gold (Comex) down -0.90 at 1,391 Copper (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 3.23 10-year government bond yields (%) US 2.20% UK 2.18% Germany 1.60% CDS (closing levels) Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe +0.33bps at 89.55bp Markit iTraxx Europe +1.31bps at 112.21bp Markit iTraxx Xover +7.95bps at 471.03bp Markit CDX IG +1.9bps at 87.36bp