economy

The world's worsening food crisis has finally made the headlines and grim forecasts for the endemic problem are causing widespread panic. We asked our Observers in Cameroon, Indonesia, Haiti and the USA to tell us how they're affected by the crunch. Read more...

The contributors

Dian

Ibrahim

Lynn

Scott Bonnell

Trend in Google's share price from 2 April 08

Google's stock price has fallen 38% from its peak last year. And, for the first time ever, the number of clicks on the California-based company's cash cow, Google Ads, have stopped climbing in the US. For some financial analysts, alarm bells are ringing. Read more...

The contributors

Benoît Flamant

Hussein Sarhdaoui

Bang your pan at Evita!

"I banged my pan at Evita [reference to Eva Peron - allusion to Cristina Kirchner] ...and it felt good!"

Argentinean farmers are objecting to president Cristina Kirchner over tax increases on agricultural exports and her apparent intention to create a rift between the poor and the farmers. After three weeks of severe strikes, which have left the country paralysed, the workers have agreed to start negotiations. Read more...

The contributors

Cristina Civale

Musgrave

The Shanghai Composite Index has dropped by 40% in the past five months, with a massive 4% tumble occuring on Tuesday (March 19). The Chinese government promised its people immunity from the worldwide financial slump that grew out of the US subprime crisis, but the stark evidence suggests it has failed. Small shareholders fear the worst, and are expressing their worries online, including in songs. Read more...

The contributors

Han Zhiguo

Yahoo bought the photo sharing network Flickr in 2005. Now, Yahoo faces takeover from Microsoft, meaning that Flickr would also fall into the hands of the corporate giant. But the photo-sharers are not happy about the move and have created a group called ‘Microsoft: Keep your evil grubby hands off our Flickr' to prove it. Since its creation last month the group has already accumulated 3,615 members and 314 pictures dedicated to the cause. Read more...

The contributors

Michaël Uytt...

David Joyner

Martin Ringlein

With the presidential election well under way in the United States, the cost of war is a sensitive subject for the ruling Republicans. And every penny counts. The Center for Arms Control and NonProliferation tallies up every cent spent on the main U.S wars and publishes its findings online. We spoke to the creator of the project about why he feels it's important to publish the figure. Read more...

The contributors

Team Observers

Travis Sharp

Commentary on the fraud that has cost French bank Société Générale five billion euros from our Observer Pierre Hessler, a former member of the board of directors for Capgemini. Hessler, author of ‘Company scandals and the media', worries about the incapacity of big banks to adapt their risk management systems to increasingly more complex markets. Read more...

The contributors

Pierre Hessler

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received a letter from the revolutionary figurehead Ayatollah Khamenei on Monday, urging him to unblock resources that fund gas supplies to isolated villages in Iran. This public disavowal could add to Ahmadinejad's worsening reputation concerning economic policy, which has already come under criticism from the largely dissatisfied population. While Iranians battle through a particularly harsh winter, rising gas and oil prices are a hotter topic of conversation than nuclear power. One of our Iran Observers, Reza Moini, explains why the conflict between the two Islamic leaders flared up this week. Read more...

‘Iranian Economic Growth' (20.01.08) by the Iranian cartoonist Nikahang, currently exiled in Canada. His blog.

The contributors

Reza Moini

Mostafa Darv...

Grumbling about inflation is nothing new. But now it's time for the Chinese to make a song and dance about it. Despite the Beijing government insisting that rising inflation levels are ‘structural' and a sign of a healthy economy, ordinary people are finding it hard to see through the same looking-glass. Making their voices heard online, they're using the internet to vent their fumes. Sometimes light-heartedly, like in the video ‘The riddle of spending power' (which we've subtitled in English), but also more seriously. Read more...

The contributors

Zhang

Cai Shenkun