The youngest sister of Thailand’s ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is poised to become the country’s sixth leader in under five years. Introducing herself to our partner the BBC as "just a simple lady, and a lady that will be willing and sincere to help the country," Yingluck Shinawatra is Thailand's president-elect following Sunday's elections, which gave a resounding win to the Puea Thai political party. 

The unemployment rate hovers at 9.1 percent. This means that nearly 14 millions  are out of work and 2.2 have stopped looking for work, taking themselves out of the market. There is little indication that American companies will begin hiring in significant numbers anytime soon, despite the fact that the economy is producing as much as it was before the recession hit. In fact, many American companies have shifted their focus on growth in emerging markets overseas. Should businesses be doing more to get Americans back to work?

The government is on the verge of a shutdown Friday, as Democrats and Republicans try and come up with some kind of resolution on the budget. Chrystia Freeland, global editor-at-large of Reuters, and Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio, will look into their chrystal balls and see if any resolution is in sight. While Washington makes attempts at a budget resolution, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is heading to Switzherland to come up with a resolution on dealing with Col. Moammar el-Gadhafi and Libya. Are Gadhafi's days numbered? 

Last week, Egypt and President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal held our attention. This week, ongoing upheaval in the Arab World, public sector unions and what Reuters Global Editor-at-Large Chrystia Freeland calls “the Groupon effect” promise to be on our monitors and TV screens.

Bahrain’s capital city Manama is under military control as the nation tries to clamp down on the popular demonstrations that have swept across Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. The country's protestors may or may not be successful in building a democratic government, but one thing is for sure: civil unrest is not good for business. Just two weeks before Formula One teams are scheduled to arrive for winter testing on the Bahrain International Circuit, the 2011 Gulf Air Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix is in doubt. Sports are in many ways the least of the region's worries, but will bad business play a role in the unrest? 

If President Obama’s weekly YouTube address is any indication, America’s ability to compete globally will be an issue very much on the table during his State of the Union speech tonight. So what are the areas where we’re out-competing other countries? And are jobs and economic growth the most important indications of success in the competitive global market?

Later this week, world leaders will gather at the G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea. The meeting comes just days after the Federal Reserve's decision to buy $600 billion worth of Treasury bonds through a process known as "quantitative easing." In response to the announcement, American stock markets reacted positively. World leaders abroad did not.

Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers has resigned. She is the second member this summer to leave the president's economic team. Romer, an expert on the Great Depression, was instrumental in crafting the $862 billion economic stimulus package. She will return to U.C. Berkeley, where she is an economics professor. Chrystia Freeland, global editor in chief of Reuter says that it is fairly common to see big moves when there is a midterm election on the horizon.

We look ahead this week to birthdays, oil in the Gulf and unemployment numbers. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama turns 49; former White House correspondent Helen Thomas turns 90 on the same day. Besides birthdays, there will hopefully be another cause for celebration down on the Gulf coast: BP may have found a way to permanently seal the well that has gushed roughly 184 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP continues damage control on its wounded brand, just as it begins to look like the oil has stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. At the upcoming Kabul Conference, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and delegates from all over the world will meet to try and figure out ways to hand more responsibility for Afghanistan back to the Afghan government.

We look ahead at the news driving the next seven days.

Members of Congress are heading back to their districts for a summer recess with little to stand on as unemployment numbers remain high. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich looks at the week's news agenda, along with Chrystia Freeland, global editor-in-chief of Reuters.