ECONOMY-US: Poverty Safety Nets Fraying Nationwide

The global economy is barely showing a pulse, and the world's poor are especially at risk, the International Monetary Fund declared Wednesday.

SINGAPORE: Domestic Workers Profit From Financial Education

Filipina domestic worker Emily Alson spends her weekends cooking and selling snacks. This venture brings in additional income and also helps Alson learn the ropes of entrepreneurship.

ECONOMY: IMF Predicts 2009 Growth Lowest Since World War II

Growth in the world economy will fall to its lowest annual rate since World War II in 2009, according to the latest estimates by the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) which released the latest edition of its 'World Economic Outlook' (WEO) here Wednesday.

ECONOMY: ‘Privatise Profits, Socialise Losses’

The Davos delegate seems short of faith this year about anyone's ability to save the world from the financial tsunami that the bosses have unleashed.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: “Wake Up, World!” – SOS from the Amazon

A human banner made up of more than 1,000 people, seen and photographed from the air, sent the message "SOS Amazon" to the world, in the first action taken by indigenous people hours before the opening in northern Brazil on Tuesday of the 2009 World Social Forum (WSF).

Q&A: “The Crisis Has Proved Us Right”

Thanks to the deepening global financial crisis, capitalism will never be the same again, according to the director of the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analyses (IBase) and one of the main organisers of the World Social Forum (WSF), in an interview with Radio Tierra of Chile (a member of Amarc).

Q&A: ‘The WSF Should Privilege Alternative Media’

Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos argues that community radio and alternative media are the only platforms that can compete with corporate media. In an interview with TerraViva's Alejandro Kirk, de Sousa Santos stressed that the current crisis requires that participants at the World Social Forum (WSF) take a unified political stance.

Q&A: ‘It Is Time to Aim Beyond Capitalism’

The World Social Forum meeting this week in this city in Brazil’s Amazon jungle region has an urgent and crucial task: coming up with alternative solutions for the global crisis of capitalism now under way, and pushing for democratic control of the economy and state worldwide, Filipino academic, author and activist Walden Bello tells TerraViva editor Alejandro Kirk in this interview.

LABOUR: ‘Meltdown Leaves Migrant Workers Prone to Abuse’

The global recession is causing a heightened sense of job insecurity among millions of migrant workers making them more vulnerable to abuse, say migrant rights advocates.

CARIBBEAN: Regional Economy Plan Mired in Crisis

Even as Caribbean countries hope to present a more united front to confront the region's growing economic woes, the current global recession has made this complex transition much harder, experts warn ahead of a special summit here at month-end.

CUBA-US: Whose “Opportunity?”

The new U.S. administration headed by Democratic President Barack Obama is creating hope in Cuba for an easing of tensions in relations between the two countries, although there is scepticism in this regard in some academic circles.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Crisis as Opportunity for “Another World”

A World Social Forum (WSF) revitalised by a global crisis that has awakened new interest in the proposition that "another world is possible" - now perceived as either less utopian or more urgently needed - will take place from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1 in Belém, in northern Brazil.

CHINA/US: Obama Era May See More Trade Friction

China is entering the Obama era on a defensive note. Angered by U.S. charges that its glut of savings was the root cause for the global credit bubble, Beijing has chided Washington for being ungrateful and hinted at reviewing its long-standing policy of buying U.S. debt.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Gujarat’s Modi as Premier?

Two of India’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen have raised a political storm by jarring public endorsements of controversial leader Narendra Modi as the world’s largest democracy’s next prime minister.

FINANCE-US: Treasury Nominee Failed to Halt Bond Scam

U.S. senators at Timothy Geithner's confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary Wednesday may want to ask him about a failure to act that is costing the U.S. a lot more than the amount he evaded on taxes.

BRAZIL: Rise in Unemployment Revives Labour Movement

The global financial crisis has hit Brazil’s labour market and shaken the trade union movement from its slumber after several years of economic boom and employment growth.

RUSSIA: Migrant Workers Forced to Head Home

The worsening recession is hitting foreign workers from the ex-Soviet republics far harder than it is affecting Russians.

ECONOMY-CHINA: Growth or the Good Earth?

As China rushes to implement its four trillion yuan (585 billion US dollars) economic stimulus package, success is seen dependent on the ability of government officials to come up with free land for the hundreds of new infrastructure projects like airports and housing that Beijing hopes would lift growth and keep recession at bay.

ECONOMY-BRAZIL: Crisis Brings Slump in Industry, Agriculture

Forecasts that Brazil's grain harvest will be down by 5.9 percent this year and the announcement of an accumulated fall in industrial output of 7.9 percent in October-November 2008 have pricked the balloon of traditional new year optimism in this country.

HAITI: New Peasant Alliance Demands Action on Food Crisis

Haiti's peasant farmers are organising and taking action to try and bring an end to the country's dependence on food imports, and to avert the prospect of looming famine.

ECONOMY: More Than a Businessman’s Suicide

The suicide of Adolf Merckle, a leading German businessman over the last 30 years, is being seen by many as an allegorical story of the end of a brand of reckless capitalism.