News
US jobless rate hits highest level since 1983
November 06, 2009By Jim Randle The U.S. unemployment rate rose sharply in October, hitting 10.2 percent, the highest level since 1983. Friday's report from the Labor Department says U.S. employers cut fewer workers in October than the prior month, but the overall...
Russian labor market: Why unemployment is lower than expected
November 04, 2009By Paul Goble In the early 1990s and especially over the last year, many Russian commentators and politicians have competed among themselves in predicting extraordinary increases in unemployment, in both cases to figures comparable to those which...
Young gain job advantage in post- communist societies
November 04, 2009By Peter Fedynsky The symbol of Communism - the hammer and sickle - represents the main tools of physical labor used by industrial and agricultural workers. But the collapse of the Iron Curtain 20 years ago coincided with a decline in heavy industry...
Gazprom dominates Russian political power making
October 08, 2009By Roman Kupchinsky In 2003 a team of Russian foreign policy and energy experts wrote a 70 page memo about the role of Gazprom, the state-owned gas monopoly, in Russia’s domestic politics and the country’s foreign policy strategy. The document...
Gulf Oil Producers, Others Ready To Dump Dollar
October 07, 2009Britain's daily "The Independent" has reported that Gulf Arab oil producers held secret talks with oil buying states on moving away from using the dollar as the sole currency for transactions. Just hours after the story was published, Saudi...
G-20 Ministers Promise to Preserve Economic Recovery
September 06, 2009Finance ministers from both rich and developing countries are promising they will not let a global fragile economic recovery collapse. The ministers from the Group of 20 nations, known as the G-20, concluded a critical meeting in London Saturday, agreeing...
U.S. Economy: Stable Housing Seen as Key to Recovery
August 08, 2009By Mil Arcega Economists agree the worst recession in decades was the result of the housing crisis. Using that logic, many believe the end of the housing crisis could also signal the start of an economic recovery. With the housing market starting to...
China, EU Wait In The Wings For Access To Central Asia
August 03, 2009By Bruce Pannier Although Russia and the United States are most often mentioned as the contestants of the "new Great Game" that began after the fall of the Soviet Union, other players have also entered the arena. Central Asia, possessing...
Job Losses Weigh on US Consumers; Concerns Mount in Britain
July 24, 2009Many Americans appear to be too worried about earning money and keeping their jobs to feel good about the world's largest economy. A widely watched index of U.S. consumer sentiment, the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, declined in...
Nabucco Intergovernmental Agreement Signed in Ankara
July 14, 2009By Saban Kardas On July 13 the Nabucco transit countries removed an important obstacle for the strategic pipeline project. Attending a high profile meeting hosted by Turkey, the prime ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey inked...