Increasing numbers of New Yorkers need help getting enough to eat. A fifth of children (397,000) rely on soup kitchens. Food programmes are struggling to meet demand. It’s no 1929. It’s not Africa. It’s the richest country in the world and it’s today. The Big Apple is hungry by The Economist
Category:Economy
It’s not just about money – it’s about jobs.
There is a desperate dearth of jobs in developed economies. The economies have cratered because of profligacy by banks and consumers. Credit has collapsed. And with this businesses have folded. As the tide of money has gne out it has revealed a long term employment probkem that has been created over decades. As technology has …
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The recession has not slowed humanity’s consumption of the planet.
You would have thought that an economic recession, which has slowed spending, raised unemployment and impacted trade, would have had a beneficial effect on humanity’s ecological footprint. But it has not. The Consumption Explosion continues. Humanity’s footprint is still as large as ever. Today is “ecological debt day”, the day that humanity has used the …
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Dirty politics costs you millions.
Transparency International’s 2009 corruption survey is out. There is no improvement in the swathe of corruption that stifles the work of everyone. It is a dirty scum of waste that feeds the rich, all over the world. The report notes that in the US corporations spent an average of $200,000 a year on lobbying every …
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Zero Growth: The Future of Business – Ethical Corp/Jonathan Porritt
The big interview: Jonathan Porritt – When real progress means standing still Business must see that zero growth is the future for developed economies, according to Jonathan Porritt Interview by Eric Marx As he prepared to step down in July as chief environmental adviser to the UK prime minister, Jonathan Porritt headed out for one …
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Recession waning: France, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan …
The last few days have seen data which suggest that the economies of France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan have bottomed out; that is they showed positive GDP changes in the second quarter (April – June) 2009. Some of the numbers are a bit extraordinary – Singapore’s data shows growth of 20% in 2Q. …
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Is the trillion dollar deficit an issue?
It was going to happen sooner or later. Maybe the meltdown in the world of finance hastened the trillion dollar deficit, though US governments have been trying hard to breach that milestone. Three months before the end of this financial year it’s happened. Maybe it’s not such a frightening number in the context of the …
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US economy recession or recovery
Fortune’s gauge: 7 metrics that indicate the trend in the US economy. Data in pretty pictures. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/storysupplement/recovery_index/index.html
Stabilisation is uneven and recovery will likely be sluggish.
The IMF’s World Economic Outlook Update is subtitled Contractionary Forces Receding But Weak Recovery Ahead. Their Global Financial Stability Report Market Update is subtitled Policies Have Reduced Systemic Risks But Vulnerabilities Remain. While capital injections have helped staunch the bloodletting, financial systems remain impaired and will remain a drag on economic recovery. More than that, …
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Meagre market, massive munchies …
A report on the widening girth of America hit headlines today. The expanding waistline of America (and elsewhere no doubt) continues despite economic constraints. We continue the unnecessary and excessive calorie consumption even if we can’t afford it financially or even for the good of our health. For a very few people, obesity is physiologically …
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