For several years, the World Bank has been announcing its plans to find solutions to solve the world food crisis, whereby vast swathes of the world’s population find it increasingly difficult to put food on the family table, while the banks bail each other out and fat cat bankers get fatter. The morality of the issue is staggeringly incomprehensible.
Today there is a horrific derivatives bubble that threatens to destroy not only the U.S. economy but the entire world financial system as well, but unfortunately the vast majority of people do not understand it. When you say the word “derivatives” to most Americans, they have no idea what you are talking about. In fact, even most members of the U.S. Congress don’t really seem to understand them. But you don’t have to get into all the technicalities to understand the bigger picture.
In 2010, the Russian economy will grow by 4.25%, after falling 7.9% last year. This forecast was made yesterday by the International Monetary Fund. (more…)
*Survey reveals urban Chinese households maintain high saving rates and are unwilling to utilize credit*
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Chinese government has made several reforms to its economic policies in recent years. Despite these reforms, a new study shows that Chinese households are not utilizing their credit market to its fullest extent. Rui Yao, a researcher in the department of Personal Financial Planning in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, says a recent survey of urban Chinese households shows that the Chinese credit market remains underdeveloped.
*Using a flood simulator, MU researchers reveal cottonwood trees as a profitable crop in devastated flood areas*
Most people have no idea what rare earth elements are, but a wide array of the technologies that we use every single day are dependent on them.
Without rare earth elements, we would have no hybrid car batteries, flat screen televisions, cell phones or iPods. Without rare earth elements, the entire “green economy” would not be able to function, because almost all emerging green technologies use them.
During the second quarter of the year, Britain’s BP that suffered an accident on its oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico has lost $17.15 billion. Analysts predict that the company will be in the red for at least another two quarters, and this is despite the resignation of Tony Hayward, BP’s executive director and “the most hated person in the USA.”
Unless the U.S. Congress acts, there is going to be a massive wave of tax increases in 2011. In fact, some are already calling 2011 the year of the tax increase. A whole host of tax cuts that Congress established between 2001 and 2003 are set to expire in January unless Congress chooses to renew them. But with Democrats firmly in control of both houses that appears to be extremely unlikely.
