The world’s 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide four times over, Oxfam has revealed, adding that the global economic crisis is further enriching the super-rich. “The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,”... 

American health is in decline as new data finds that one in four US kids are on food stamps as of fiscal year 2011 and the younger generation is more prone to death and poorer health levels compared to their counterparts in other developed nations. Almost 20 million children out of 73.9 million under the age of 18 were in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, in 2011,... 

Spaniards protest against austerity measures in the capital Madrid, December 17, 2012. A jobless Spanish man has died at a hospital after setting himself on fire, only two days after another Spaniard self-immolated on social and economic grounds. The 63-year-old man, who suffered from financial problems, died in the Carlos Haya hospital in the southern city of Malaga on Friday. Police officials issued... 

London’s homeless rate has increaed by more than two-fifths over the past year. The number of rough sleepers on London’s streets has increased by more than two-fifths over the past year as many Britons are struggling to make ends meet within the country’s stagnate economy. The number of people classed as homeless and in need of emergency accommodation has soared 43 percent in the British... 

Demonstrators hold “No” signs while surrounding the Spanish parliament to protest against spending cuts in Madrid. The Spanish parliament has adopted a 39-billion-euro (52-billion-US dollar) austerity package as the debt-ridden eurozone country battles to reduce its budget deficit. On Thursday, the lawmakers voted for the cuts in the 2013 budget, which slashes spending for health care and education,... 

A general view of the Greek parliament during a vote on new austerity measures in Athens on November 7, 2012. The Greece parliament has adopted an 18.5-billion-euro (23.6-billion-US dollar) austerity package amid clashes between police and angry protesters in the capital Athens. On Wednesday, the Greek lawmakers voted for the bill that cuts pensions by up to 15%, reduces some wages by a third, and... 

We were recently given the news that over 30 retail shops close every day – suggesting that the demise of the High Street is gaining momentum. Many reasons are put forward for this demise but the reason we see so many empty shops is really very simple – and the reason incidentally, I got out of retailing many years ago. That reason being Value Added Tax. VAT is an accountant’s tax and as such,... 

When global freight transportation collapsed to record lows in July of this year most analysts wrote it off as an anomaly. In September, when one of the largest retail shipping companies in the world warned of weakening global economic conditions and announced they would slash thousands of jobs, financial markets barely even noticed. Last week, Google, the largest small business advertising platform... 

Provisional figures released by Greece’s national statistics authority have shown the country’s deficit and public debt for 2011 are worse than estimated. According to provisional data published by ELSTAT statistics agency on Monday, the 2011 deficit stood at 9.4 percent of gross domestic product and the public debt at 170.6 percent. “The revisions as regards the debt ratios are primarily... 

What would it be like to schedule a ‘no food’ day for your family, because food prices are too high? As men play with God-like powers such as weather modification, parts of the world suffer from drought and famine. Coincidence or Not? In some parts of the US and the world crop yields are at all time lows since the 1970′s. In fact parts of the US have sustained record drought levels in 2012. Thus... 

People wait in line with boxes to carry food from a food bank in northern New York in June. New official data show that the US government has failed to reduce the level of poverty in the country amid weak economic growth. The US Census Bureau said in an annual report on Wednesday that 46.2 million Americans are still living below the poverty line. The overall poverty rate stood at 15 percent in 2011,... 

David Frum, the American-Canadian journalist, editorialist and political writer makes a shocking prediction in his opinion column in CNN: that 2013 will be the stage of a worldwide catastrophe, a serious global crisis caused by a food shortage which will send dark clouds gathering over the world economy like never before. In his piece dated September 3 “Why 2013 will be a year of crisis”,... 

As the economic and financial systems of the world rapidly approach the real possibility of total collapse, signs of what we can expect on a mass scale in the near future are beginning to appear throughout Europe. In Spain, a country that just a few years ago was heralded as a shining example of real estate entrepreneurship, international tourism and a rising middle class, the situation is so bad... 

While economists, government officials, and mainstream media experts argue about whether a recovery is finally taking hold, the evidence on the ground provides a clear insight about where the country is headed. A nationwide Gallup survey involving 177,000 U.S. adults proves what many contrarians have been screaming for some time: For most Americans there is no recovery. After having lost 40% of their... 

Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups in the United States, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. Poverty in the United States is projected to climb to the highest level in nearly half a century as the recession threw millions of people out of work last year. According to a survey conducted by The Associated Press, US poverty could reach a 46-year...