economic crisis

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Woman With Toy Gun Takes Her Own Money From Bank

Sali Hafez said Beirut bank had $20K of her money, she needed to pay for sister's treatment

(Newser) - A woman accompanied by activists and brandishing what she said was a toy pistol broke into a Beirut bank branch on Wednesday, taking $13,000 from her trapped savings. Sali Hafez told Al-Jadeed TV that she needed the money to fund her 23-year-old sister’s cancer treatment, reports the AP...

Series of Actions by Leaders Exacerbated Sri Lanka's Crisis

Protests drove president, prime minister out

(Newser) - As Sri Lanka's crisis reached its climax this weekend, two men in the center of the turmoil brought about by the country's economic collapse promised they would heed the call of tens of thousands of angry protesters and resign. One is President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the last of six...

Sri Lanka Desperate for Tourists, Russian Oil

President says he has asked Putin help

(Newser) - With Sri Lanka facing a severe economic crisis , the country's leaders have apparently decided they can't afford to shun Russia. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said Wednesday that he had asked Vladimir Putin for help in a "very productive" phone call, reports Reuters . The country has almost exhausted its...

Less Tea, More Cash in Bank, Government Tells Pakistanis

Plea is greeted with skepticism that cutting back a cup will help economy

(Newser) - A government plea to Pakistanis to drink less tea to help the nation out of its economic crisis has been met with skepticism. Pakistan is the largest importer of tea in the world, with a tab of more than $600 million last year, the BBC reports. The nation's foreign...

Prime Minister Resigns With Sri Lanka in Crisis

Nationwide curfew takes effect in response to violent protests

(Newser) - Update: With Sri Lanka's economic crisis worsening and protests becoming violent, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned Monday. He told President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his younger brother, in his resignation letter that he was stepping down in hopes of ending the crisis, the BBC reports. Confrontations between pro- and anti-government demonstrators...

Sri Lankans Mock Ruling Brothers as Thieving 'Crows'

Popular chant goes after Rajapaksa clan amid nation's economic spiral

(Newser) - Sri Lanka's government touted Basil Rajapaksa as the one to save the country from economic crisis. The former finance minister instead led the island nation into its worst economic crisis in decades —at least that's the take of thousands of protesters, who are fed up with his...

Things Are Getting Desperate in Venezuela
 Things Are Getting 
 Desperate in Venezuela 
THE RUNDOWN

Things Are Getting Desperate in Venezuela

As hunger deepens, looting increases

(Newser) - A shortage of beer and Coke is the least of concerns in Venezuela, where residents are facing hunger, drought, power shortages, and the world's highest inflation rate at 480% amid a worsening economic crisis brought about by plummeting oil prices. The latest:
  • The New York Times explains 87% of
...

First Venezuela Lost Its Beer, Now It's Losing Its Coke

Sugar shortage has forced Coca-Cola to halt production there

(Newser) - Forget about buying the world a Coke —Venezuela can't even buy itself one now. Barely a month after the country's main brewery stopped beer production due to Venezuela's ongoing economic crisis , Coca-Cola has announced that it's also halting production of sugary beverages there because of...

There's a Bunker Hiding $10M Somewhere in Utah

Overstock CEO says it will help company survive a financial meltdown

(Newser) - In 2013, the CEO of retail website Overstock.com revealed the company owned "some precious metals and maybe some Bitcoin" that could prove helpful in case of a shutdown of the banking system. That was a bit of an understatement. CEO Patrick Byrne tells Buzzfeed the Utah company actually...

Geithner: Obama Won't Ask Me to Stay

Treasury secretary says he's done after election

(Newser) - Tim Geithner is pretty sure he's going to be joining the ranks of the jobless after the election: The Treasury secretary—the longest serving member of President Obama's economic team—tells Bloomberg that Obama is "not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident....

How Iceland Got Its Groove Back

Letting its banks perish worked out for island nation

(Newser) - Don't look now, but Iceland's economy is growing. Tourism is up, the standard of living remains high, and unemployment is down to 7%. "For a country whose entire financial system collapsed, Iceland is doing remarkably well," the IMF's mission chief there tells the Washington Post...

Tourism Spikes Worldwide
 Tourism Spikes Worldwide 

Tourism Spikes Worldwide

Europe sees boost as Middle East, North Africa lose travelers

(Newser) - The economic crisis, Japanese disasters, and the Arab Spring couldn't stop tourists from globetrotting last year, AFP reports. European tourism surged the most—6% higher than in 2010—helping to fuel an international rise of 4.4% that clocked 980 million travelers, according to a UN report. But tourists...

Audience Loudly Cheers Cain's 'Blame the Jobless'

Crowd startles again in GOP debate

(Newser) - It's becoming common in this wave of GOP debates that audience members are also newsmakers: At last night's debate, the crowd cheered lustily when Herman Cain proudly stood by an earlier statement that the unemployed are to blame for their unemployment. "If you don't have a...

Paul Krugman: Deficit Hawks Used the Economic Crisis to their Benefit
Don't Just Be Afraid Amid Market Chaos—Be Angry
paul krugman

Don't Just Be Afraid Amid Market Chaos—Be Angry

Deficit hawks exploited this crisis and made it worse: Krugman

(Newser) - All this stock market turbulence should make you not only afraid but mad, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . That's because deficit hawks have worsened the mess by "hijacking" the crisis to focus on their “favorite hobbyhorse," he writes. "What the market was...

Moore to Obama: 'Show Some Guts,' Arrest S&P CEO

At least President Matt Damon might stand up for his beliefs

(Newser) - Michael Moore wants President Obama to arrest the head of Standard & Poor's, blaming the company for the 2008 financial crisis and saying their downgrading of US government debt is threatening to create another one, reports the Washington Times . “Pres Obama, show some guts & arrest the CEO...

It's the Busted Consumer Bubble, Stupid
 It's the Busted 
 Consumer Bubble, Stupid 
DAVID LEONHARDT

It's the Busted Consumer Bubble, Stupid

With no consumer spending, economy keeps dragging

(Newser) - There are plenty of theories and explanations for the economic crisis that has afflicted the United States for years now, but they all miss the element of the continuing malaise—it's really about the bursting of the decades-long consumer spending bubble, writes David Leonhardt in the New York Times...

Banks Profited by Loaning Fed Money Back to ... Feds

They charged bigger interest rates on cheap money from Uncle Sam

(Newser) - Crisis-walloped banks aided with federal loans likely made a fortune by lending the same money back to the federal government at substantially higher interest rates, a new report indicates. The study by the Congressional Research Service supports complaints that the largest banks essentially engaged in taxpayer-financed arbitrage by cashing in...

Americans Can Afford to Get Divorced Again

Rate is going back up as economy improves, say lawyers

(Newser) - Divorce is financially prudent again. Lawyers and marriage experts say that the American divorce rate, which slackened during the recession, is rebounding as the economy improves, the Financial Times reports. Essentially, fewer people are staying together just to save the cost of a breakup. "There is huge pent-up demand,...

Did Bankers Go to Jail for Causing Great Depression?

No, although a couple were charged and some were embarrassed

(Newser) - The government could soon prosecute a few Wall Streeters who allegedly played a role in the financial crisis, and the commission that uncovered those at fault was modeled on a similar probe after the Great Depression. So did anyone who precipitated that collapse ever go to jail? Nope, writes Brian...

10 Companies That'll Be Dead by 2012

Even household names like Sara Lee unlikely to survive

(Newser) - The economic crisis can be blamed for the death of quite a few large companies already—think Circuit City, Northwest Airlines, and Countrywide—so which ones can we expect to go bye-bye this year? Here are 10 American companies that seem unlikely to survive, from 24/7 Wall St. via Daily...

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