Word: oiling
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...greatest challenge since the end of World War II. Japan's economy, the world's second largest, is contracting at the fastest rate among all developed nations. GDP growth in the last quarter shrank at an alarming annualized rate of 12.7%, Japan's worst showing since the 1974 oil shock. But instead of taking vigorous steps to counteract a worsening recession, Prime Minister Taro Aso is lurching from one embarrassing gaffe to the next, and seems in imminent danger of losing control of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) - and control of the government...
There's a motorcycle-taxi stand near my home in Bangkok, and many of the drivers' hands are dirty. Not from urban grime or motor oil, but from newsprint. Fueled by a growing literacy rate and press reforms in some parts of the continent, Asia is enjoying what may be the world's last great newspaper boom. Eight of the world's 10 biggest paid-for daily newspapers are printed in Asia, according to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The largest national newspaper markets? China, India and Japan. (The U.S. is a distant fourth...
...recent drop in oil prices poses the most immediate threat to the government budget in Iraq, where public-sector spending fuels almost the entire economy. With oil prices lower, Iraq expects to run a deficit this year of roughly $20 billion, which could be covered by the nation's existing cash reserves. Once that money is gone, however, Iraq will be in the same position as many countries facing a cash crisis around the world at the moment - but with added problems unique to a country rich with oil but troubled by the legacies of wars...
...lieu of further oil revenue, Iraq will have to raise cash elsewhere to maintain roughly the existing level of government spending, which U.S. and Iraqi officials feel is necessary to keep the economy steady. Despite surpluses and positive economic signs, Iraq cannot currently generate cash on capital markets like other countries by the sale of bonds because of hundreds of unsettled claims worth billions of dollars related to Iraq's 1991 invasion of Kuwait. Scores of possible lawsuits by Kuwaitis and Westerners lurk in countries where Iraq might sell bonds, which could be seized by courts deciding cases put forward...
...haven't plaintiffs attached Iraq's oil revenues in international courts? That account is kept safe by special U.N. protections at the moment, and its currency reserves in Baghdad cannot be touched. But any move by Iraq on international capital markets involves a gamble unlikely to turn out well unless Iraq takes steps to settle the outstanding claims, an issue U.S. officials in Baghdad are stressing when talking to Iraqi policymakers in trying to shore up the nation's finances for 2010 and beyond...