economy

Shrugging off some lingering reminders of the credit crisis and recession, investors last week marked the one-year anniversary of the bear market low by pushing many benchmark equity indices to cycle highs.

A year ago this week the stock market hit its nefarious 666 level on the S&P 500. Since that historic day, we have enjoyed a 68% appreciation in equities from their depressionary low. Not only has the bounce caused a chorus of perma-bulls to claim the worst of the recession is behind us, but also to declare that the bull market is here to stay.

As East Africa recovers from the worst drought in decades, an innovative program just
launched will use a low-cost, mobile phone payment and data system, and automated, solar
powered weather stations, to offer thousands of farmers in parts of Western and Central
Kenya affordable, "pay as you plant" insurance to protect their investments in desperately

He said benefits of a growing economy - expected to expand by 8% this year - should be distributed more fairly.

Michael Pento talks about the false perception of safety in the USD.

Signs of improvement in the U.S. economy helped the March E-mini S&P 500 push through recent resistance at 1112.75 to turn the main trend to up. The strong close in the Dow has this average in a position to challenge the last main top at 10434. Strong demand for technology stocks helped drive the March NASDAQ through the recent main top at 1833.00.

As investors vacillated about the impact of developments in Greece, together with the uncertainty of strong fourth-quarter economic data possibly not carrying over to the first quarter, stock markets experienced two sharp sell-offs and two rebound rallies, limping to small gains on Friday but ending the week modestly down.

The Year of the Metal Tiger is upon us. Traditionally, the Lunar New Year is a festive period where the Chinese celebrate by giving angpows, buy new stuff after doing a thorough spring cleaning, clear outstanding debts and look forward to bountiful rewards. However, given that the tiger is a ferocious animal, this year is generally not good for risky ventures.

Last month, I explained in an article how and why the world is approaching a worldwide peak in oil production sometime in the next decade. Although there are large implications throughout the economy, I want to say upfront that I do not think this will bring on Armageddon.

Stock futures fell Friday after China said for the second time in a month it would force banks to increase their reserve levels.

India has said its economy is set to grow by 7.2% in the year to the end of March, raising the chance that state support could soon be withdrawn.Government stimulus measures helped to maintain strong growth during the global downturn, but attention is now turning towards cooling rising prices.Some now expect the government to raise interest rates earlier than expected.

Concerns about the US economy and the potential spread of debt problems in Europe led to large stock market falls.On Wall Street, shares suffered their worst losses in nine months.

During the decade after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, China was generally seen throughout East Asia as a friendly alternative power-center to the American-led Washington-consensus that told countries in trouble they had to force their banks to declare their bad loans and clean up the political influence of big finance – commands which, of course, the US completely ignored when its own banking

Stocks rose in early trading Friday after a new report shows the nation's economy grew at its fastest pace in six years.