financial crisis

is associated with 29 posts

financial crisis


Greeks warned of austerity measures

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Greek Prime Minister Papandreou has warned the country to be prepared for a new round of austerity measures. The European Union continues to discuss details of an emergency plan to help tackle Greece’s crippling debt crisis. Anchor Marco Werman talks with The BBC’s Malcolm Brabant in Athens. Download MP3 (flickr image: Timmy Gunz)

Read more

Investor unease over Greece continues

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Investor confidence in Greece has continued to be hit amid speculation over the future of the Greek economy. Stock markets in New York and Europe are currently broadly stable, after the sharp falls triggered on Tuesday by the downgrading of Greek debt by a major international credit rating agency to a level known informally as “junk”. Gerry Hadden has an update from Spain. Download MP3
Read more

Greece asks for international aid package

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Greece has formally asked for the activation of an EU-IMF financial rescue package to help pull the debt-ridden economy out of its crisis. It had hoped that just the promise of EU support, agreed last month, would have been be enough to reassure markets and help its recovery. But Greece’s problems have continued to hit investor confidence. The World’s Jason Margolis has more about the potential ramifications back in the United States. Download MP3 (flickr image: Benjamin Mercardier)
Read more

Greece’s crisis and the generational divide

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Greece saw another day of nationwide strikes today. Tens of thousands went out to protest drastic wage cuts and pension freezes. Those government cuts are aimed at pulling Greece out of a debt crisis that’s threatening other countries in the Eurozone. But the Greek public says the plan is threatening Greece’s middle class. And as Joanna Kakissis reports from Athens it’s leaving a bleak future for young Greeks. Download MP3


Read more

UN official looks at US housing crisis

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
A United Nations official is taking a first-hand look at the impact of the economic crisis on the lives of American homeowners and renters. Reporter Anna Sussman has details.

Read more

The Limits of GDP

The recession in the U.S. is technically over. Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, grew at a rate of 3.5% in the last three months ending in September. But there’s a growing cadre of economists and other economy-watchers who say GDP has outlived its usefulness as a gauge of economic health. The World’s Jason Margolis has more. Download MP3


Read more

The beer economy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


beersummit150World leaders are gathered in Pittsburgh, PA this week for the G20 Summit. They are trying to sort out the world’s economic problems – monetary and fiscal policies, capital requirements, and financial regulations. It can be confusing stuff. The World’s Jason Margolis went to Pittsburgh trying to make sense of it by looking at only one product: a bottle of beer. Download MP3

Read more

Global Political Cartoons: Sep 12-18, 2009

obamahealth150This week’s cartoons is show how difficult it is for President Obama to heal the US health care system, discipline Wall Street, or satisfy his European allies. We also see Israel defend itself against a UN report and who needs new footwear? The just-freed Iraqi shoe thrower.

>>> Click here to start the cartoon slideshow

Read more

The Lehman bankruptcy – one man’s story

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The World’s Laura Lynch profiles a Frenchman who started work at Lehman Bros. in London on Sept. 15, 2008 — the day it went bankrupt.

Read more

Economic struggle in Senegal

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Reporter Jori Lewis meets a Senegalese family that relies on money from relatives working overseas. But as a result of the global recession, that money’s drying up.

Read more

Lehman’s British accountants

Steven Pearson and Tony Lomas are from the accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers. One year ago they were appointed as the administrators of Lehman Brothers European operations. Suddenly the high testosterone investment bank was under the control of outsiders with a very different working culture. In this edition of the BBC World Service program Business Daily, Steven Evans joins Pearson and Lomas in Lehman’s former London headquarters.

Read more

The fate of corporate art

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Kooning150Before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the financial services firm was the proud owner of a multi-million dollar art collection. Part of this collection will now be auctioned off by Freeman Auctioneers of Philadelphia. The BBC’s Lawrence Pollard took a look at the impact of the financial downturn on the fine arts. Download MP3
Read more

Tax haven

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Download MP3
Caymans150There’s a British territory in the Caribbean that’s been thriving on its status as one of the world’s major tax havens. It’s gotten all the money it’s needed through indirect taxes. But those times seem to be over: thanks to the global recession the local government has been unable to pay all its bills. Read more on our Geo Quiz page to find out which part of the world we’re talking about.

Read more

Baby boom

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


Download MP3
home_birthsThey have been called the “Kreppa babies” – just over nine months after this country’s banking sector collapsed, this country is experiencing a baby boom. Deliveries are up about 3.5 per cent so far this year, putting the volcanic Atlantic island on course to record its most annual births for at least half a century. Also, check out Alda Sigmundsdóttir’s blog.

Read more