Elections in Egypt. Facebook backlash. Euro fear. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Not before or since the pharaohs have Egyptians voted for a leader in free elections, we’re told. But they did this week. Democracy on the Nile. Outcome, still to come. At home, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama battle over who’s better to guide the economy. Whether Bain Capital is an ace in the hole or a black mark. We’ve got high-profile commercial space flight.

A backlash over Facebook’s IPO. Pakistan locking up the doctor who helped the U.S. get Bin Laden. China’s economy cooling. Europe, still a mess.

This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-Tom Ashbrook

Christopher Dickey, Paris bureau chief and Middle East editor for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Diane Brady, senior editor for Bloomberg/Businessweek.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst

Foreign Policy "The night before, Moussa had taken part in Egypt's first-ever presidential debate, which concluded after 2 a.m. His campaign bus left Cairo at 9 a.m., and he was still shaking hands and kissing babies 12 hours later. "He's like the Energizer Bunny," said Ahmed Kamel, his exhausted media advisor, at the end of the day."

Project Syndicate "When the architects of the euro started drawing up plans for its creation in the late 1980’s, economists warned them that a viable monetary union required more than an independent central bank and a framework for budgetary discipline. Study after study emphasized asymmetries within the future common-currency area, the possible inadequacy of a one-size-fits-all monetary policy, the weakness of adjustment channels in the absence of cross-border labor mobility, and the need for some sort of fiscal union involving insurance-type mechanisms to assist countries in trouble."

Wall Street Journal "Negotiations between global powers and Iran stretched into a second day, with Tehran demanding greater relief from economic sanctions in order to push forward with another round of diplomacy aimed at curbing its nuclear program, according to officials involved in the talks."