World Crisis Online

The global financial crisis came to the forefront of the business world and world media in September 2008, with the failure and merging of a number of American financial companies. It was not a surprise — many business journals had been commenting on the stability of the leading American and European financial firms following the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis. Much of the American economy is built on credit with firms borrowing money from other firms and the general consumer borrowing money for homes and cars. Many people were taking advantage of the housing boom in the US when it ended, leaving both investors and mortgage companies in trouble. (continue reading…)

New Delhi, 30 Sep. It is often said that when the US sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. This three-part series looks at how India, China, and Russia have been affected by the US financial crisis.

Before we get into detail about how much this US problem is spreading globally, we should understand the severity of it and the possible consequences in the US. How sick is the US?

The Asian region had been largely insulated from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and would aggressively outperform other global economies in the medium term, financial experts at the inaugural In The Zone conference at The University of Western Australia said today.
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The U.S. financial meltdown has created a worldwide crisis. Ironically, worldwide scared money is still flowing into U.S. Treasury obligations as a safe haven. This permits more U.S. borrowing, but by drying up credit overseas creates financial crises in other countries.

I’ve been posting for several years on pieces of the origins of this financial crisis. Now Robert Weissman and others have attempted to put together an overall picture of what happened in Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America, produced by Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation. (continue reading…)

What is a an Economic Depression?

An economic depression is a severe downturn that lasts several years. Fortunately, the U.S. economy has not experienced an economic depression since The Great Depression of 1929, which lasted ten years. (continue reading…)

Dutch manufacturers are climbing out of the deepest recession of the post-war period. This will lead to more industrial production in 2010. However, growth will remain sluggish for some time as consumers and companies remain cautious.

Economy and industry emerge from recession
As a cyclical and highly export-oriented sector the manufacturing industry has suffered badly from the international recession. Industry sustained the largest increase in the number of bankruptcies and the greatest decline in the volume of production of all business sectors in 2009. A record number of industrial concerns went out of business in the first half of 2009. The global downturn has bottomed out however. Producers and consumers are less pessimistic and world trade is picking up again. A number of industrialised countries emerged from recession in the second quarter. After five quarters of contraction, the Dutch economy expanded again in the third quarter, albeit slightly. (continue reading…)