Economy & Labor
Brass Tax: Propositions N and Q Levy Businesses, Property
By Tim Kingston The Truthiness Report: No. 6 in a series on election advertising. Propositions N and Q, which would...Credit Crisis Doesn't Break Scandinavian Ice
The current financial crisis may be affecting economies around the industrialized world -- but there's one region that doesn't seem...Poking Holes in the Golden Parachute
The Wall Street bailout bill recently passed by Congress includes a provision that puts a $500,000 cap on the executive...Icelandic Economy Headed for Deep Freeze?
Iceland is selling off foreign-owned assets in an attempt to ward off national bankruptcy. An article in the Telegraph newspaper...Zimbabwe Currency Crisis Peaks
More than 600 shops and services are now licensed to trade using foreign currency in Zimbabwe, the southern African country...'Fair Trade' Cola Gains Ground in Europe
A British cola called Ubuntu is said to be the first of its kind to follow "fair trade" practices, including...Mind the (Wealth) Gap in the U.K.
A Cambridge University professor said economic disparity between London and the rest of Great Britain is at its widest since...India: Farms or Factories?
Tata Motors Ltd., which plans to build the world's cheapest car, said work on a new factory in India's West...San Francisco's 'Black Exodus' Gathers Steam
A new study has found that African Americans are abandoning San Francisco in droves, faster than any other U.S. city....Businesses Decry Paid Sick Leave Push in California, Ohio
A bill working its way through the state legislature would make California the first state to mandate paid sick leave...Will Mobile Phones Vault the Digital Divide?
Inexpensive mobile technology is opening doors in the developing world for communities that have previously been shut out of the...Timber Trumps Salmon in California
Coho salmon, whose numbers have dropped 73 percent in California coastal habitat in the past year, may face an uncertain...Dreaming of a Zero-Carbon Economy
Several nations around the world have launched national programs to increase energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions and build environmentally friendly...Argentina: Saving the Family Farm
A coalition of farm worker organizations, small farmers and native communities has rallied together in Argentina to focus attention on...Newspaper Guild Alleges Retaliatory Layoffs
Recent staff cuts at a group of San Francisco Bay Area newspapers are retaliatory against union organizers, critics allege. The...Immigration: Filipinos in EU Spotlight
A new European Union mandate to expel illegal Filipino immigrants does not mean a crackdown is imminent, an EU delegate...Canada In Heated Debate over Global Warming Tax
Environmentalists have long proposed taxing carbon emissions as a way of combating global warming -- but if a new Canadian...Australia's Billion-Dollar Land Grab
Never mind the aboriginal land battles that followed the colonial era -- turf wars in today's Australia are for billionaires....A Russian Bear is Bullish for Big Oil
Climbing energy prices are a natural reaction to limited oil supplies, and are in fact necessary to "choke off demand,"...Food Crisis Renews Biotech Farming Debate
As global food prices climb, the debate over genetically modified agriculture is once again heating up. The Christian Science Monitor...A Merrie Olde Credit Crisis
Aftershocks from the mortgage and credit crises are rattling nerves around the world -- particularly in England's banking and lending...Virtual water and real thirst
The recent hike in the price of food worldwide is usually blamed on the price of oil or the conversion...Ghana's Oil -- Blessing or Curse?
With the discovery that Ghana is sitting atop an estimated three billion barrels of oil, the impoverished West African nation...Cultivating Change in Lebanon
Caught between warring militias and Israeli reprisal, Lebanon's farmers have a hardscrabble life that is only exacerbated by the threat...King Tobacco, Balkan Crime Lord
Cigarette counterfeiting and smuggling in the Balkans is one of the primary drivers of crime and corruption in the region,...U.S. Guest Workers Kept Like "Pigs in a Cage"
Almost 100 Indian guest workers at a Mississippi shipyard stormed off from their jobs one day earlier this month, claiming...Debt Waived for India Farmers
Small and marginal farmers in India will get almost $15 billion in debt relief, thanks to legislation orchestrated by the...From Sweatshops to Cotton Fields: Child Labor Goes Rural
Far from the urban industrial sweatshops, child labor remains widespread in rural parts of the developing world. In the Philippines,...Much Puffery About Air-Powered Car
An automobile that runs on compressed air got a boost this week with an investment from India's Tata Motors. MDI...Wealth Gap Widens in Silicon Valley
The information economy may be firing on all cylinders, but in Silicon Valley more than 60,000 "midwage" jobs -- defined..."Dodgy Collateral" Fuels New Bank Borrowing
U.S. banks have borrowed almost $50 billion in the last month from the Federal Reserve, using an expanded government program...Housing Crash Takes Down Renters, Too
Among the 11,000 San Francisco Bay Area homes repossessed in 2007 are hidden statistics -- the number of renters quickly...Shoemakers Walking Away from South China
More than 1,000 shoe factories in southern China have closed in the past year -- half of them just in...Sea Cow Stymies Navy's Okinawa Plan
The endangered dugong, a type of "sea cow" similar to Florida's manatee, threatens to put the brakes on a huge...The Biodiesel Road Proves Bumpy in Southeast Asia
It's heralded as the clean-burning alternative to petroleum, but biodiesel's baggage has made a smooth roll-out seem unlikely. The challenges...Are Boycotts Cutting into Myanmar's Gem Trade?
[Updated Jan. 17, 2008] The Myanmar junta's repression of democracy protests last summer have calmed the streets, but its harsh...Afghan Reconstruction Faces U.S. Budget Cuts
An innovative reconstruction program in Afghanistan has been praised for giving decision-making power to small villages and communities, but may...Things Looking Up for the Poor Down Under
When Australia's conservative government was voted out of office last month, much of the world's media emphasized the possible ramifications...Oil Industry's Amazon Frontier
Economic development and ecological conservation are once again at odds in the Amazon, where a remote region thick with rare...Dollar's Drop a Drag for Americans Abroad
The good fortune of the Euro -- not to mention the Czech Crown -- makes for dismal tidings for American...Whither Cuba's Green Thumb?
Floods, storms, drought and heat, plus an array of economic concerns, are taking their toll on Cuban agriculture. Inter Press...Sex on the Beach and Birds in Hand? Kenya's Tourist Trap
Miles of shoreline, coastal forests, mountains, plains and the continent-spanning Great Rift Valley all make Kenya a world-class tourist destination....Outsourcing Motherhood
Scores of impoverished Indian women are selling their services as childbearers to foreign couples who either cannot, or don't want...Land Struggles Sour India Economic Zones
Controversy follows the violent deaths of 21 protesters who opposed the creation of a "special economic zone" in India's West...Iran's Other Little Problem -- Inflation
Nary a word about Iranian President Ahmadinejad's nuclear ambitions or headline-grabbing trip to the United States appeared in a recent...Offshoring Meets "Onshoring" in the Quest for Cheap Labor
Some major American companies like Northrop Grumman and IBM are finding they can save money by keeping their IT and...UPDATED: Egypt Gripped by Textile Strike
While the world focuses on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's repression of journalists and the Muslim Brotherhood party, a different sort...Day Labor Camp Divides in Texas
A Christian church in Houston is part of an interfaith coalition that has drawn the ire of anti-immigration activists by...Agribusiness Gets Another Record Harvest -- of Subsidies
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the latest federal farm bill would spend $280 billion on traditional subsidies for corn,...The Burma Backstory: How Fossil Fuels Keep the Junta in Business
Although most of the world's political powers, including the United States, have condemned the Myanmar junta's crackdown on reformist protesters,...Smuggler's Paradise for Iraqi Oil Runners
After a revenue-sharing bill that would have opened Iraq's oil fields to foreign investment failed in parliament, Iraq's domestic oil...Labor Day Highlights Immigrant Dilemma
This Labor Day, different corners of America were confronted with fallout from the debate over illegal immigration and the jobs...Slavery (and Emancipation) for the New Millennium
Children and adults alike throughout the world are kidnapped and trafficked out of their home countries, or leave home in...Biodiesel's Mixed Blessings
Biodiesel shows promise as an alternative fuel, but it presents substantial challenges to produce locally, efficiently, and in quantities to...Domestic Workers Abused Worldwide
Hundreds of domestic workers commit suicide in Bahrain every year rather than return to their families in debt, according to...Zimbabwe: Crises In Climax
With inflation at over 4,500 percent and hospitals, water, power and food access close to collapse, Zimbabwe faces its worst...Minimum Wage An Elusive Promise
South Africa introduced its first-ever minimum wage July 1 in a bid to improve the state of its hospitality industry,...The Slums: A Boom in Urban Poor Defies Solutions
Experts predict that by 2030 two billion people will live in urban squatter and slum communities with no services, sanitation...Newspapers Sell the Farm, Give up the Goat
Across the country, falling newspaper circulation and the flight of ad dollars to the Web have caused publishers to fire...Unions, Schools Tackle Outsourcing Boom
Enrollment is down at computer engineering schools because of a perception that IT jobs can all be outsourced to India....Cost-Cutting Hits Fund for Nuclear and Chemical Workers
Two federal programs for nuclear workers with cancer and other diseases are under fire for cutting costs without regard for...Labor Groups Tackle Child Exploitation
Cheap labor from children working in slavelike conditions is booming worldwide. But in India, Africa and Turkey, activists are taking...Mining in South Africa: Apartheid's Legacy
Two Italian companies are suing South Africa over a law that requires firms to sell to black investors to redress...On Poverty's Coattails, Slavery Thrives
Impoverished girls from Eastern Europe and Africa are prime targets for pimps and smugglers. As many as 5,000 youth have...Immigrant Labor: California's Undocumented Economy
The coastside town of Pescadero worries that new immigrant restrictions will stifle the economy, and cost its schools as much...The Labor Movement
By Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org Even as income and union membership declines for America's working class, problems of forced labor and...FOCUS: Peak Oil
Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org Are the days of cheap oil over? With prices soaring above $50 a barrel, the world is...Unions Hedge Their Democratic Bets
New focus is on party building, primaries
By Daniel KreissThe union vote has been reliably Democratic. But what happens when organized labor tries to shake up the party?
Farmers Neglected at Home and Abroad
Critics trade blame over subsidies, WTO
By Michael StandaertAgricultural subsidies -- intended to save rural communities and feed the world's billions -- are blamed for poverty, hunger and environmental destruction.