The August jobs report was dismal for plenty of reasons, but perhaps most striking was the picture it painted of racial inequality in the job market. Black unemployment surged to 16.7% in August, its highest level since 1984, while the unemployment rate for whites fell slightly to 8%, the Labor Department reported. “This month’s numbers continue to bear out that longstanding pattern that... 

In what can only be described in the most astounding of terms, the Kremlin is reporting this week that the world’s largest corporation, American-based Exxon Mobil, has signed a deal with Russia allowing it to flee the United States in exchange for trading its vast oil and gas reserves in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico and gaining for itself exclusive drilling rights in the vast untapped regions of... 

Silvio Berlusconi (R) and Nicolas Sarkozy (L) The race for Libya’s vast oil wealth is gathering momentum. States who worked together during the NATO airstrikes are now working against each other in the battle to secure lucrative energy contracts. ­Meanwhile, fears are rising that a new regime in Libya could easily slide into corruption. Half a billion dollars from Italy, and now a whopping $1.5... 

French President Nikolas Sarkozy, left and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, right. France is due to announce tighter fiscal measures, clamping down on tax breaks, as it seeks to restrain its deficit, amid concerns that the country could lose its AAA credit rating. French president, Nikolas Sarkozy ordered the budget and finance minister to pull together the measures earlier this month, after... 

Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. The euro is breaking down and the US economy is suffering because of Europe’s debt crisis, according to former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. “The euro is breaking down and the reason we’re so sluggish is the level of uncertainty,” Greenspan said at the Innovation Nation Forum in Washington DC on Tuesday, AFP reported. The... 

The Federal Reserved reached into public funds — about $1.2 trillion — to help bail out banks during the 2008 financial crisis, a new report reveals. A Freedom of Information Act request put together by Bloomberg has allowed for the hard numbers to finally be made available to the public about the loans the Fed dished out to keep financial firms afloat in the midst of an economic collapse. The... 

Venezuela’s Ministry of Finance and the country’s Central Bank plan to gradually pull the country’s gold reserves out of the US, Canada, and Europe. A member of the National Assembly of Venezuela Braulio Alvarez told a Press TV correspondent that, “Studies have been carried out and have resulted in the necessity of returning these assets. Why are we paying custody in other countries... 

Romanian Workers Spain has been given the green light by the EU executive to tighten restrictions on Romanian workers as it struggles with the highest unemployment in the 27-nation block. Spain will now require Romanians to have a work contract before settling in Spain and reverses a two and a half year moratorium that gave Romanian workers unrestricted access as fellow members of the European Union. The... 

After just a few days of calm, stock markets heaved again on Thursday, sending major American indexes down as much as 5 percent on persistent worries about the economy and Europe’s debt problems. The turmoil of last week returned with a vengeance as investors dumped stocks of companies that would suffer if worldwide growth slowed and the United States, in particular, broached another recession. But... 

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Rome has approved a new emergency 45.5-billion-euro austerity plan in response to demands by the European Central Bank (ECB) to balance Italy’s budget by 2013. The Italian government approved the emergency package in line with the ECB request on Friday, despite strong disagreement and resistance from local government officials who maintain that new austerity... 

The world’s most expensive city from the point of view of real estate prices is Hong Kong. The Asian city holds the leadership on this index since 2005. Prices on real estate in Hong Kong are 107% higher than the average prices in ten other largest cities of the world. Real estate prices in other major cities of the world are lowest in India’s Mumbai. They are 43% lower than average prices... 

How far does the stock market have to go down before we officially call it a crash? The Dow is now downmore than 2,000 points in just the last 14 trading days. So can we now call this “The Stock Market Crash of 2011″? Today the Dow was down 519 points. Yesterday, an announcement by the Federal Reserve indicating that the Fed would keep interest rates near zero until mid-2013 helped the Dow surge... 

Italian trade unionists have protested against the government’s planned austerity measures amid budget talks between Premier Silvio Berlusconi and trade union representatives. Trade unions in Italy expressed their worries that the government’s tougher economic measures might heavily cut down on pensions, salaries and social welfare services. “We don’t want to pay for this crisis.... 

European Central Bank's bond buying operation could re3ach €850bn according to analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Letter to Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi demanded detailed list of reforms to timetable set by the bank. The European Central Bank’s decision to start buying up Italian and Spanish bonds has controversially extended its operations into detailed demands for economic restructuring,... 

The number of people on food stamps in the United States exploded in May 2011. There were 312,240,000 people in the United States, mid May. 45,753,078 of them were on food stamps. That’s 14.7% of all Americans on food stamps. The average monthly amount? $133.80. This is the new economic metric, how many people are so poor, so broke, they qualify and use food stamps. The data is hard to find,...