World Economy
The global jobs crisis
By Tom Eley, September 19, 2009
New reports on unemployment, poverty and hunger released this week demonstrate that the global economic crisis is being used to effect a restructuring of social relations characterized by long-term hi...
British Labour government declares for spending cuts at Trades Union Congress
By Julie Hyland, September 19, 2009
Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally revealed Labour’s plans for massive spending cuts at the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress this week.
UN reports 1 billion of the world’s people going hungry
By Jerry White, September 18, 2009
For the first time in history, more than one billion people, or nearly one in every 6 inhabitants of the planet, are going hungry this year.
US-China trade tensions sharply escalate
By John Chan, September 16, 2009
In a move that threatens to trigger a major trade conflict, US President Barack Obama last Friday signed an order to impose a 35 percent tariff on Chinese-made tyre imports over the next three years.
Michigan lawmakers prepare austerity budget
By Tom Eley, September 16, 2009
Michigan’s Democratic and Republican lawmakers are preparing to shift the burden of the state’s $2.8 billion budget deficit, which must be resolved by October 1, onto the working class through mas...
One year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers
By Nick Beams, September 15, 2009
The collapse one year ago today of the 158-year-old Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest US investment bank, set in motion an avalanche that threatened to engulf the entire global financial system.
Paltry GDP growth promoted as proof of Australian “recovery”
By Alex Messenger, September 15, 2009
Quarterly growth of 0.6 percent might mean that Australia has dodged a so-called ‘technical recession’, but a closer study of the figures reveals that Labor’s massive stimulus package is far fro...
One year after the financial crash
Obama goes cap in hand to Wall Street
By Barry Grey, September 15, 2009
On the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, President Barack Obama came to Wall Street Monday to plead with the bankers not to block his proposals for marginal changes in financial regulati...
Mexico: President Calderon calls for “doing more with less”
By Rafael Azul, September 14, 2009
Mexican President Felipe Calderon called for doing ‘more with less’ when he presented to Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies his 2010 budget.
France’s “national subscription” prepares massive handout to big business
By Pierre Mabut, September 14, 2009
On August 26, French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a commission to establish “strategic priorities” for the investment of money to be raised in a giant “national subscription” (i.e. gover...
Australian car parts maker goes into administration
By Terry Cook, September 8, 2009
The jobs of hundreds of workers at car parts manufacturer ACL are in jeopardy after it went into voluntary administration despite a government bailout.
G20 finance ministers: empty pledges in face of deepening antagonisms
By Chris Marsden, September 8, 2009
The G20 meeting of finance ministers in London last weekend came to no agreement on concrete proposals for reform of the banking system or regulating financial bonuses.
