Profits of corporate America have been rising at an impressive clip.
But sales have not risen nearly as rapidly.
As a result, profit margins for companies in the Standard & Poor’s index of 500 stocks are now higher than they were before the recession began.
When second-quarter earnings results began to be reported in early July, the higher numbers seemed to reassure investors,
Not long ago, China and the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto seemed to be locked in battle, as we documented here in Economy Watch.
First, Rio rebuffed a proposed $19.5 billion investment deal with the Aluminum Corporation of China, or Chinalco, one of the biggest state-run companies.
Welcome to to the REAL world of the US tax system, aka trickle-up economics:
the idea that tax cuts for the middle class and poorer also help the rich.
This is a point that has gotten somewhat overlooked in the debate about the Bush tax cuts,
which are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
President Obama has proposed that the tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans expire as planned,
but that the tax cuts for all other American households be extended.
Twenty years after the last Russian soldier walked out of Afghanistan,
Moscow is gingerly pushing its way back into the country with business deals and diplomacy, and promises of closer ties to come.
Russia is eager to cooperate on economic matters in part by reviving Soviet-era public works,
its president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said during a recent summit meeting with the leaders of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan,
President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea has proposed a special tax to finance the enormous cost of reuniting with North Korea,
as concerns have deepened here over the North’s future after the eventual death of its ailing leader.
The proposal broached a delicate issue, and analysts said it could provoke an angry response from the North, which may see it as an aggressive move by the South.
Although all previous South Korean leaders have advocated rejoining the North,
In an apparent bid to extend its control over the Internet and cash in on the rapid growth of mobile devices,
China plans to create its own government-controlled search engine.
The new venture would be fresh competition for Baidu.com, a private company that runs China’s dominant search engine.
Baidu has seen its market share grow since Google retreated from the mainland earlier this year.
For Raimunda Gomes da Silva, the impending construction of a huge hydroelectric dam here in the Amazon is painful déjà vu.
About 25 years ago, the building of another dam more than 200 miles east of Altamira flooded her property,
driving a plague of poisonous snakes, insects and jaguars onto her land, she said, before submerging it completely.
Now, after starting a new life here, the government is telling her she needs to leave again,
Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food,
Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation.
His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight.
Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children have staggered into the hospital ward
after falling through India’s social safety net.
The furloughs that popped up during the recession are being replaced by a highly unusual tactic: actual cuts in pay.
Local and state governments, as well as several private companies, are squeezing their employees to work the same amount for less money.
Though average hourly pay is still higher than when the recession began,
the new wage rollbacks feed worries that the economy has weakened and could even be at risk of deflation.
UK firms earn millions advising regimes whose sleazy, often murderous, activities
have stained their countries’ international images.
It has a strong claim to be the world capital of everything from finance to design,
but now London can add a new, more dubious distinction:
it has become the reputation laundering destination of choice for foreign heads of state
whose controversial activities may have stained their countries’ public images.
