Financial crisis
If you thought inflation was bad...
At a time when the economic news sounds like a keening wail of catastrophic stats, you might think falling prices in the US are a rare spot of good news. But that would be ignoring another threat: deflation.
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If you thought inflation was bad... Douglas Herbert
At a time when the economic news sounds like a keening wail of catastrophic stats, you might think falling prices in the US are a rare spot of good news. But that would be ignoring another threat: deflation. -
Germany hits recession skids FRANCE 24 Business Editor Douglas Herbert
Europe's largest economy, Germany, has proven no match for the worst global economic crisis in generations. Slowing demand across the world economy has hurt German exports, dragging the EU juggernaut into recession. -
A New World Ulysse Gosset
The fervor unleashed by the American presidential election is of such a grand scale, we should really be talking about a “global election”! -
Bailing out the Oligarchs Douglas Herbert
Imagine having to save your sworn enemies from ruin. That's the paradoxical situation facing the Kremlin as it scrambles to bail out the country's beleaguered business tycoons, the "oligarchs". History has come full circle. -
Socialism and Virginia's military vote Owen Fairclough
Latest polls suggest Barack Obama enjoys a healthy lead in the crucial swing state of Viginia. Yet, in a state that has voted Republican for the past fifty years, fears "socialists" may be taking hold of Washington are rampant. -
Sarkozy's economic axis of evil Douglas Herbert
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president and potentate, has identified an economic axis of evil behind the current financial turmoil. Along with the usual gang of suspects (speculators and hedge funds) is the foreign Sovereign Wealth Fund. -
The man who's losing a million dollars a minute Douglas Herbert
Among the biggest losers in Russia's financial crisis are the billionaire oligarchs who once helped to bankroll the Kremlin rulers. Now the tables are suddenly turned. -
Illegal immigration slides under the election radar Owen Fairclough
John McCain and Barack Obama are too busy telling voters who will champion the economy and healthcare during their third and final debate to tackle the estimated 11.9 million undocumented residents of the US. -
The Nobel and the Crash Ulysse Gosset
The Rimbaud of the digital age, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio didn’t wait for the failure of financial capitalism to distance himself from this world now spiralling out of control, where “virtual money reigns supreme”. -
Eyeing the old Wild West Owen Fairclough
New Mexico has flip-flopped in the past eight years, voting for Al Gore in 2000 and Bush four years later. Yet with polls suggesting it may flip again come November, the next four years may hinge on this picturesque corner of the old Wild West. -
Russia: Iceland’s new best friend? Armen Georgian
Iceland’s request for a Russian loan is making the West jittery, says our International Affairs editor Armen Georgian. -
The moment the US election campaign got deeply dirty
After the furore over Barack Obama's links with a controversial pastor and his "terrorist" friends, will historians define this week as the moment the US election campaign got deeply dirty? -
At the foreclosure auction at Miami-Dade Court Owen Fairclough
In the run-up to the US election, FRANCE 24 reporters visit battleground states to take the temperature of people living through unprecedented economic and political times. Their first stop, Florida, has suffered hugely from the subprime disaster. -
Commodities' return to Earth Douglas Herbert
While we've been distracted by bank failures and bailouts, oil prices have been tumbling back to earth from recent record peaks. Easing demand in a slowing world economy is weighing on other commodities as well. -
Main Street against Wall Street, while waiting for Roosevelt Ulysse Gosset
As taxpayers began to show signs of rebellion amid the financial crisis gripping the US, their representatives in Congress refused to vote in favour of a rescue package so as not to be defeated come the elections in November. -
What if there's no bailout? Douglas Herbert
So what now? Now that the US Congress has consigned the Big Bailout to the Big Trash Bin, the warp-speed speculation has begun as to what might come next and whether it will be effective. -
Chinese take-away Douglas Herbert
Washington's $700 billion plan to salvage what remains of the US financial system is as much about Main Street, Beijing as Main Street, USA. China holds over $1 trillion in US debt and is bound to play a major role in any bailout effort. -
The presidential debate: a view from small-town Mississippi Armen Georgian
If Pontotoc, Mississippi is anything to go by, small-town America will have been bored stiff by the first thirty minutes of the presidential debate on Friday night. In the end though, people want the candidates to be totally relevant to their lives. -
With McCain and Obama, who needs Bush? Ulysse Gosset
The turmoil in world financial markets has allowed John McCain and Barack Obama to move beyond the realm of the presidential campaign. Indeed, one could be mistaken for thinking McCain, a man of action, has taken office. -
Palin steps onto world stage Armen Georgian
Republican vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin may have asked world leaders the right questions at the UN General Assembly, but she will still have to provide the answers when she faces "Mr foreign policy" Joe Biden next week.
