ECONOMY: Global Crisis Should Spell End of Laissez-Faire Doctrine

The real question to ask about the global financial crisis is whether ‘‘it will go deep enough for the big economies to realise that the market should be controlled more. The philosophy of laissez-faire simply does not work’’.

FINANCE: Revolt Against “Elite Clubs” Grows at U.N.

U.N. member states and economists challenged the neo-liberal policies of market deregulation that have long been promoted by powerful global financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and called Thursday for a new, more inclusive global financial architecture.

Q&A: "We Must Rethink the International Economic System"

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is South Africa's first black Anglican bishop. An elder statesman whose moral voice and advocacy against the racist apartheid regime in South Africa first brought him to the world stage in the 1980s, Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Financial Meltdown Prompts Return to Agriculture

As South-east Asia feels the heal of the global financial meltdown leaders are turning to the informal sector, particularly agriculture, as a potential provider of employment.

FINANCE: NGOs Call for Radical Reforms as IMF Offers New Loans

Two weeks before U.S. President George W. Bush hosts an economic summit to address the six-week-old financial crisis that has wreaked havoc on the world's capital and stock markets, a coalition of nearly 600 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 88 countries is calling for a "fundamental and far-reaching transformation on the international financial and economic system."

ECONOMY-SOUTH AMERICA: Eyes Wide Open

The reaction by South America’s Mercosur trade bloc to the current global financial crisis is limited for the time being to observing "possible impacts" on stock markets, production and unemployment, and "maintaining fluid and agile communications" regarding any measures taken by each member country.

ECONOMY-US: Millions Lose Homes, As Families Plead for Help

Bank crashes in Iceland, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout of Ukraine and volatile stock markets the world over - it all links back to the U.S. communities where hundreds of thousands of families are losing their homes with no let up in sight, those on the frontlines say.

LABOUR-MALAYSIA: Recession to Hit Migrant Workers Hard

As recession looms large on the horizon, migrant workers like 27-year-old Kumar Palanisamy from Chennai in India are the first on the chopping block.

ECONOMY: Spain Fights Exclusion from Crisis Summit

The Spanish government is taking strong diplomatic actions, calling on its fellow members of the European Union, Latin American leaders, Asian nations and even the United States presidential candidates, with the aim of not being left out of the financial anti-crisis summit scheduled for Nov. 15 in Washington.

U.S.: A Week Out, Obama and Democrats Poised for Victory

With only one week before the Nov. 4 elections, Democrats are increasingly hopeful that they will emerge next Wednesday with control of the White House and substantially increased majorities in both houses of Congress.

ECONOMY: Civil Society Has Something to Say

Governments cannot deal with the current financial crisis on their own, and need the support of the people they govern, which is "best translated by the opinions of the civil society movement," said Werner H. Schleiffer, executive coordinator of CONGO, the global umbrella of NGOs with consultative status with the United Nations.

ECONOMY: Asia, EU Leaders Moot Deep Global Reforms

A two-day meeting of European and Asian leaders in Beijing has produced a joint statement pledging a coordinated response to the global financial crisis, but concrete action is seen dependant on the entry of Asia’s emerging economies into global policy-setting institutions.

AFRICA: Financial Crisis May Increase Pressure for Debt Repayment

The collapse of the financial markets may force the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to come down hard on African countries to repay their debts because the huge rescue packages for collapsing banks will need to be recuperated.

RIGHTS: A Home Shouldn't Be a Luxury

Increased reliance on private banks to provide housing will cause more homelessness in cities across the world, warns a top U.N. expert on rights.

EDUCATION-US: Credit Crunch Hits College Students

The credit crunch is limiting college access for some students in the United States by making it more difficult for them or their parents to obtain student loans to finance the steep cost of a four-year education.

DEVELOPMENT: Now Sit Up and Listen

For every one in 50 people around the world to make a point of standing up somewhere on the planet to say the same kind of thing adds up to a lot of people. More than any mass mobilisation on any issue ever before.

ECONOMY-US: It’s Not the “Greedy Poor People”

A 31-year-old law designed to put an end to "redlining" and other restrictive practices that effectively shut poor and minority families out of home-ownership and neighbourhood development is being attacked by conservative commentators as a major cause of today's sub-prime mortgage mess.

ECONOMY-US: From the Guys Who Brought You Enron…

The global credit agencies Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch propelled the financial meltdown by giving high marks to failing financial companies and their risky, sub-prime investments, lawmakers said Wednesday.

EGYPT: Tall Claims Only Lower Confidence

Following the volatile reaction of international markets to the U.S. financial meltdown, Egyptian officialdom has hastened to reassure a skittish public that the local economy would be spared the worst effects of the global crisis. Many independent commentators, however, are not so sure.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Window of Opportunity Closing Rapidly

The global financial crisis has pushed climate change off the front pages despite new evidence that it is happening faster and with stronger impacts than previous projections, a new report warns.

ECONOMY-CUBA: “Impossible to Escape Impact” of Crisis – Experts

After three years of high growth, uncertainty is hovering over the Cuban economy once again, although experts are not yet ready to predict exactly what impact the current global financial turmoil will have on the island.