The US economy shrank at a much faster pace in the first quarter of 2014 than previously estimated, marking its worst performances since 2009. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday gross domestic product fell at a 2.9 percent annual rate, instead of the 1.0 percent rate it had reported last month. Most economists had expected the revision to show the economy shrinking at a rate of only 1.7 percent.... 

Briton’s wealthiest people own a third of the country’s GDP, with a combined fortune of 874 billion dollars, which is an increase of 15.4 percent on last year’s total, according to an annual survey. The Sunday Times Rich List shows that the United Kingdom’s richest are richer than ever before, which is in sharp contrast with many ordinary Britons who are struggling after five years of austerity. “I’ve... 

Newly-released data show the industrial output in the UK and Italy, the second and the fourth largest European economies respectively, has fallen in March. The UK’s Office for National Statistics said on Friday that Britain’s industrial output declined by 0.1 percent for the month. The figure is considered a major drawback since the country saw a 0.8 percent growth in the previous month. This... 

A new study has found that China is rapidly moving ahead to overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy as soon as this year. The new finding by the International Comparison Program (ICP), which involves the World Bank and United Nations, said on Wednesday that China in 2011 closely followed the US that has been dominating the world economy for over a century. “The size of the Chinese... 

Italy’s enormous public debt continues to grow at an unrelenting pace. The Bank of Italy announced on Monday that the country’s debt hit a record 2.1072 trillion euros in February, over 17 billion euros up compared to January. Within the 18-nation eurozone, only Greece had accumulated a higher overall debt mountain. Italy’s 2014 budget has been criticized by the European Commission... 

The deregulation of the financial system during the Clinton and George W. Bush regimes had the predictable result: financial concentration and reckless behavior. A handful of banks grew so large that financial authorities declared them “too big to fail.” Removed from market discipline, the banks became wards of the government requiring massive creation of new money by the Federal Reserve in order... 

An Italian man reads job offers outside a recruitment agency in the city of Milan. Southern Italy has lost 600,000 jobs over the past six years and the area has lost some 43.7 billion euros of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the economic crisis, a report shows. The data was released on Friday by the country’s industrial employers’ association Confindustria. The association also said that... 

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne says the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 7.2 percent from 2008 to 2009, adding that the drop wiped £112 billion off the UK’s economy. Making his Autumn Statement before lawmakers at the House of Commons, Osborne stressed that the country could not stop fighting for its recovery as a reassessment by the Office for National Statistics... 

Italy’s economy has entered its third year of recession after its gross domestic product (GDP) continued to contract in the third quarter of this year, official data shows. The national statistics office, Istat, reported on Thursday that Italy’s GDP shrank by 0.1 percent in the July-to-September period, marking the ninth quarterly contraction in a row. Furthermore, the figures showed that on an... 

Newly-released figures show that Italy’s economy is expected to shrink more than expected in 2013, continuing the country’s longest recession since the World War II. A report by Italy’s National Institute for Statistics (Istat) said on Monday that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will contract by 1.8 percent compared to a previous estimate of 1.7 percent contraction. Istat... 

A stunning Ministry of Finance (MoF) report released today on the global impact of the recently implemented Affordable Care Act (ACA) [otherwise known as Obamacare] in the United States is warning that this new law is now in a “death spiral” which could, by February 2014, collapse the entire world’s economic system as the US Federal Reserve would not be able to bail out its European Union (EU)... 

North Korea, not exactly known as a vacation destination, has opened a water park to improve its seriously dismal image. The Munsu Water Park, located east of the capital of Pyongyang, recently hosted an ostentatious opening. See photos here. Of course, the average citizen will not be able to afford the fun of a water slide. “The standard of living has deteriorated to extreme levels of deprivation... 

A Siemens worker in Germany works on a turbine. Leading economic think tanks have slashed this year’s annual growth forecast for Germany by half, as uncertainty in the eurozone continues. On Thursday, the Munich-based Ifo together with Berlin-based DIW, Halle-based IW, and Essen-based RWI economic research institutes estimated that Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) would grow by 0.4... 

Spain public debt has climbed to record 92.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of this year amid deteriorating financial woes. The Bank of Spain announced on Friday that the Spanish debt for the period between April and June surpassed the government’s year-end target of 91.4 percent of GDP, reaching the unprecedented 92.2-percent level. This is while... 

From Mexico to Qatar, obesity rates are soaring to unprecedented levels. The alarming trend is damaging economic performance, as well as the health of millions of consumers worldwide. Take our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, mix in a generous portion of American fast-food and dubious agricultural practices, add a dash of corporate duplicity and you have a recipe for high obesity rates across the...