The unfinished state of the union

President Obama’s State of the Union address was politically well judged but one has to ask about his sincerity in what he said about the need to curb public borrowing

• Record US budget deficit projected
• Parties draw lines in sand over spending

After Tunisia – the Egyptian challenge

Succession must be accompanied by a genuine opening-up of political competition before Egyptian society blows its lid

• ElBaradei return raises stakes in Egypt
• Video: On the ground in Cairo

Saving the cajas

The fact that the cajas struggle to access wholesale markets suggests that private investors doubt their solvency. Full disclosure of losses will reassure markets

UK’s frozen GDP

It is too soon to say whether the fourth-quarter GDP numbers constitute a trend or a blip – or are even accurate. Yet the government must listen to reasoned economic debate

Talking to Tehran

Iran’s denials that it has ambitions to build a nuclear weapon do not diminish the need for diplomacy and the utmost vigilance from the world’s leading powers

Paying bankers to be prudent

The debate about bankers’ pay often gets bogged down in the question of quantum. But no less important is that rules on pay should also make banks safer

Middle East peace hits a dead end

Any credibility the Middle East peace process retained has been dealt a crippling blow

Thinking ahead

Berlin is right to demand an insolvency procedure to match any extension of the EFSF beyond 2013. But how to separate illiquid from insolvent has not been explained. This cannot wait two more years

How to thwart cyberwarriors

Greeting Karimov

Irish meltdown

Maps to nowhere

No casualties from US-China summit

Coulson spins out of Number 10

Galileo plan lacks compelling logic

Let the jasmine flowers blossom

Call off the Hunt

Balls bounces on to centre stage