The credit agency’s downgrade of Spain follows a similar cut by Fitch Ratings last week.
The U.S. job market remains a very challenging one -- with inadequate job growth so far in the current economic expansion. But there is some good news for job seekers this holiday season: retailers plan to add 480,000 to 500,000 season jobs during the next few months to prepare for the holiday shopping season, retail sector officials said.
The Fund said gross domestic product (GDP) growth across Asia will average 6.3 percent in 2011, and 6.7 percent in 2012 (in April, the IMF forecast nearly 7 percent growth for both years).
They lowered their 2012 GDP forecast to 0.8 percent from their previous estimate of 2 percent, partially due to the spiraling debt crisis in the Eurozone.
President Barack Obama has pledged to continue to fight for Congressional action on his $447 billion jobs bill, even if parts of it have to be eliminated to attract Congressional Republican votes.
Two years into the Greek sovereign debt crisis, Eurozone countries are still finger-pointing and not working toward a long-term solution based on mutual interest. Further, the most recent $11 billion band-aid for Greece will buy no peace for stakeholders, nor any resolution to the crisis.
Brazil remains a hotbed of opportunity for those interesting in doing business internationally -- finding growth beyond the slow-growth U.S. borders.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, leader of the center-right pro-market Civic Platform (PO) party, won re-election in Poland Sunday night. For the first time since the fall of communism in 1989, the major political party in Poland has maintained its grip on power. The fairly fought election in the formerly communist country establishes the country's democratic and economic stability.
HSBC cut its weighting on Egypt to "neutral" from "overweight," on increased political risks, and upgraded Poland to "overweight" from "underweight," on macroeconomic stability and valuation.
Canadian housing starts jumped much more than expected in September, helped by a surge in the condominium sector, suggesting Canada's property boom stayed intact last month and should help the economy avert recession.
There were fears that without the cash injection, the government wouldn’t be able to pay public servants and therefore default on its debt.
Herman Cain told CNN's Candy Crowley that under his 9-9-9 economic plan, food would be subject to a 9 percent national sales tax that he claims would not negatively impact low-income Americans.
Franco-Belgian bank Dexia agreed early on Monday to the nationalization of its Belgian banking division and secured 90 billion euros ($121 billion) in state guarantees in a rescue that could pressure other euro zone governments to strengthen their banks.
Poles are voting in a parliamentary election Sunday, likely to give the ruling center-right Civic Platform four more years in power to press on with gradual economic reforms and closer ties with the EU.
France and Belgium are set to finalize the breakup Sunday of Dexia, the first bank to fall victim to the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, with global credit risk exposure of 512 billion euros ($691 billion).
The U.S. government's budget deficit in the fiscal year that ended on September 30 was $1.3 trillion, equal to 8.6 percent of gross domestic product, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Friday.
Given progress to-date, U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, which in October began its 11th year, will probably have to increase substantially to win the Afghanistan War. Should the U.S. Congress re-start the military draft to provide the increase in troops needed?
Zimbabwe's economy will grow at a slower pace in 2012 than this year as politics puts a drag on full recovery and inflation should stay in single figures, partly due to prudent fiscal policy, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has predicted recessions in France and Germany as the European debt crisis persists. It believes that both AAA-rated countries have the potential for downgrades in the future.
The private sector added 91,000 jobs in September, ADP said -- a total above the consensus estimate of 90,000, but still not large enough to indicate that employers have started hiring en masse.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has taken the U.S.’s lack of jobs growth in to his own hands, of sorts. Starbucks and the Opportunity Finance Network have started a new fund to make loans to small businesses and other organizations to spur jobs growth. Every $5 donated will result in $35 in loan money made available.
European finance ministers are considering making banks take bigger losses on Greek debt and have postponed a vital aid payment to Athens until mid-November, setting up a crunch point in the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis
