By Joshua Partlow and Mariana Zuñiga 28 June 2016 CARACAS, Venezuela (Washington Post) – In the darkness the warehouse looks like any other, a metal-roofed hangar next to a clattering overpass, with homeless people sleeping nearby in the shadows. But inside, workers quietly unload black plastic crates filled with merchandise so valuable that mobs have […]
By Javier E. David26 Jun 2016 (CNBC) – The U.K.’s referendum to leave the European Union was a costly decision in more ways than one. Worldwide markets hemorrhaged more than $2 trillion in paper wealth on Friday, according to data from S&P Global, the worst on record. For context, that figure eclipsed the whipsaw trading […]
By Ben Raderstorf and Michael Shifter26 June 2016 (Slate) – Venezuela faces a disaster. Over the past month, food riots have broken out across the country as mostly empty supermarkets are looted. Its capital, Caracas, is now the most violent city in the world. The economy is in a tailspin, set to contract 10 percent […]
By Jeff Cox23 May 2016 (CNBC) – That American companies have been wadding up huge amounts of cash is no secret. What may be less well-known is that they’re also accumulating debt at a much faster pace. Total debt among more than 2,000 nonfinancial companies swelled to $6.6 trillion in 2015, dwarfing the $1.84 trillion […]
21 June 2016 (CBC) – The outlook for Venezuela appears to be dimming every day, and it’s not just because of the country’s daily four-hour mandatory blackouts. The oil-exporting South American country is caught in a perfect storm of droughts, food and power shortages, and devastating inflation and recession caused by plummeting crude prices. “We’re […]
By Dom Phillips 17 June 2016 RIO DE JANEIRO (Washington Post) — Just weeks before it stages the 2016 Olympic Games, the state government of Rio de Janeiro has declared a “state of public calamity in financial administration” and warned that the situation is so dire it impedes the locale’s ability to meet Games commitments. […]
By Richard Eisenberg16 June 2016 (MarketWatch) – Uh-oh. American workers aged 50 or older think there’s nearly a 1 in 2 chance they’ll still be working at 70 but many employees who expect to work longer are exactly the ones who’ll likely be least able to do so. That’s the upshot of the new, frightening […]
11 May 2016 (Pew Research Center) – The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee. From 2000 to 2014 the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas examined in a […]
By Anne Amnesia 10 May 2016 (More Crows Than Eagles) – […] See any overlap? I do. AIDS generated a response. Groups like GMHC and ACT-UP screamed against the dying of the light, almost before it was clear how much darkness was descending, but the gay men’s community in the 1970’s and 80’s was an […]
By Aimee Picchi24 May 2016 (CBS News) – The kids may not be alright, at least when it comes to one traditional mark of growing up: moving out of their childhood homes. More young adults are now living with their parents than with a spouse or partner, marking a tipping point for the first time […]
