From the World Bank blog, a post about the Zero Rupee bank note, printed in India and distributed by an anti-corruption organization called 5th Pillar. Imagine that you are an old lady from a poor household in a town in the outskirts of Chennai city, India. All you have wanted desperately for the last year [...]

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This article from the Denver Post a couple of weeks ago about the dire financial straits the city of Colorado Springs finds itself in has touched off quite a debate on the Web. The city, a Republican stronghold and bastion of anti-tax ideology, voted against an amendment last year to increase its extremely low property [...]

Let’s visit our cartoon friend Odd Todd again, in Vacation Day. More Odd Todd here, here, and here.

At first glance, this post from the blog Fired For Now might seem rather banal, as it simply asks its unemployed and other Great Recession-affected readers:What have you had to give up? In reading through the answers, though, you may be hit with the reality of just what a profound effect this economic dislocation has [...]

Speaking of the U.S. debt, as we did in our last post — Keith Hennessy, who was a senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush, wrote a lengthy post on his blog a couple of weeks ago criticizing President Obama’s description of the Bush years as a “decade of profligacy.” One argument, [...]

“Recent trends in credit default swap markets show a clearly discernable uptick in the perceived likelihood of default on 5-year U.S. senior Treasury debt, a notion that was virtually unthinkable in the past.” Cited in today’s front page New York Times article on the inability of government to address the mounting national debt is research [...]

An interesting debate on the discussion web site Plastic about the viability of worker cooperatives (a business model that Michael Moore touted in Capitalism: A Love Story) encompasses economics, philosophy, and business ethics. The initial post… Not a Mere Factor of Production There is this bookshop on 57th Street, South Side. Finding your way through [...]

Despite all the unemployment, bankruptcy, and business failure out there, commerce continues all over America. It’s not easy for the little guy, but a company called MicroBilt, which sells data services to small businesses, is offering help. In a somewhat brilliant promotion, MicroBilt has hired a local North Carolina comedy duo, Rhett & Link, to [...]

“…my one suggestion would be to apply if you think you will need it, not when you need it.” About 12% of the U.S. population now uses food stamps. But how easy is it to apply? Here’s a post from someone who tried to enroll in the program, from the blog On Food Stamps, which [...]