President Obama‘s budget, released Monday, was conceived as a blueprint for future spending, but it also paints the bleakest picture yet of the current fiscal year, which is on track for a record federal deficit and will see the government’s overall debt surpass the size of the total U.S. economy. Mr. Obama‘s budget projects that 2011 will see the biggest one-year debt jump in history, or nearly... 

China's economic success began in the 1980s. At the start of the decade the household responsibility system was changed to allow families to keep their surplus grain. In 1994, the pricing system was changed to allow freer price movements. These steps and others started opening up China's economy. China has overtaken Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy. Japan’s economy was... 

North Korea is reportedly importing animal feed grain from China to distribute on the market for human consumption as the regime struggles with food shortages. According to Radio Free Asia, Pyongyang gave the animal feed to its military as well as to merchants, bringing down the surging cost of rice. A source in North Korea said the feed is commonly darker in color than normal rice and is often mixed... 

The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help stabilize the global financial system. SDRs represent potential claims on the currencies of IMF members. They were created by the IMF in 1969 and can be converted into whatever currency a borrower requires... 

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011, before the House Budget Committee. Members of Congress sharply questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Wednesday over whether the Fed’s policies are raising the risk of higher inflation in the months ahead. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he is concerned that... 

In 2010, China mined the record amount of gold in the world. The production volume of nonferrous metals in China amounted to 340.88 tons, which is 8.57% higher than a year earlier, and continues to grow. In recent years, China has consistently increased the amount of its gold reserves. Nevertheless, experts believe that China has a long way to go to reach the level of the world leading economies. According... 

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has called for new strategies to help secure a stable supply of food amid growing concerns about a global food crisis. South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak called Monday for new strategies to help secure a stable supply of food amid growing concerns about a global food crisis. “The likelihood of a global food crisis is rising due to climate change. We need... 

A grim report prepared by Russia’s Agricultural Ministry for Prime Minister Putin warns that our world’s ability to feed itself in 2011 has been ‘doomed’ due the latest Superstorms that slammed into the United States and Australia this past week. A Superstorm is an extremely large and powerful storm that forms when conditions of the atmosphere are right to support a storm of its magnitude.... 

Donors: Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and rock star Bono are among some of the Global Fund's high profile supporters. A multi billion dollar global health fund backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is being probed for widespread fraud after it emerged grant money to developing countries had been ‘eaten up by corruption.’ The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria... 

'Well-known cloud over his head': Jailed financier Bernie Madoff. It has emerged that JPMorgan Chase were suspicious of his activities... but continued doing business with him anyway. A top Wall Street bank is said to have suspected Bernie Madoff was a crook more than 18 months before he was exposed as the world’s biggest swindler. But JPMorgan Chase executives continued to do business with... 

Billions of dollars are being made by investors in a speculative “food bubble” that’s created record food prices, starving millions and destabilising countries, experts now conclude. Wall Street investment firms and banks, along with their kin in London and Europe, were responsible for the technology dot-com bubble, the stock market bubble, and the recent U.S. and UK housing bubbles.... 

Pointed: The Prime Minister said 'unsustainable levels of public spending and immigration' were among the problems inherited by the Coalition. David Cameron today identified immigration as being partly responsible for the economic crisis gripping the country. The Prime Minister said ‘unsustainable levels of public spending and immigration’ were among the problems inherited by the... 

Dick Armey, former House Majority Leader and Tea Party activist, attends the National Republican Committee's winter meeting in Honolulu. Armey and Matt Kibbe, leaders of the group FreedomWorks, recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that 'defense spending should not be exempt from scrutiny.' On Gates' proposed savings of $145 billion over five years, they said only, 'That's... 

A group of immigrant day laborers stand near a street corner waiting for work in the Staten Island borough of New York August 3, 2010. Over the past two years, as U.S. unemployment remained near double-digit levels and the economy shed jobs in the wake of the financial crisis, over a million foreign-born arrivals to America found work, many illegally. Those are among the findings of a review of U.S.... 

Venezuela says its oil reserves surpass Saudi Arabia's. Venezuela has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world leader in oil reserves with certified deposits leaping to 297 billion barrels at the end of 2010, President Hugo Chavez’s government said Saturday. Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told Reuters that the new reserves, which pushed the total 41 percent higher than the previous year, were...