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Recent weak economic data in Asia, due in large part to the slowing European economy, has heightened concerns for a looming recession in the region (and the rest of the world).

Japan's economy grew much slower than expected in the second quarter, the Japanese government reported Monday. The country's GDP grew 1.4 percent last quarter versus expectations for a 2.5 percent increase. In the first quarter, Japan's economy grew at a much more rapid clip of 5.5 percent.

This news follows on the heels of China's depressed exports data last week. The Chinese government reported only a 1 percent increase in export growth for July, down 10 percent from a year ago.

Mark Dow, former policy economist for the IMF and the U.S. Treasury, doubts that Asia is headed toward a recession.

"Asia shouldn't fall into recession but the slowdown should be meaningful and China is the epicenter of that," says Dow, adding, "China's economy is the reverse of firing on all

"Game changer" is a fitting description of Mitt Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate. Saturday's announcement has been widely hailed as a bold political choice that's reinvigorated Romney's campaign and shown him to be an effective executive who shrewdly oversaw the decision and kept the process a secret — no small feat in the era of the 24/7 news cycle.

But good politics does not necessarily make for good policy. While Rep. Ryan gets credit for proposing solutions to the federal budget deficit — rather than just criticizing President Obama's handling of the nation's finances — he's offering the wrong prescription for what ails America, according to Mark Dow, a former policy economist at the IMF and Treasury Department and author of the Behavioral Macro blog.

"Just because rich guys will believe any economic theory that ends up in a tax cut doesn't make it the right policy for the time — even if it will get you their