As Europe confronts another act in its Greek drama, many are watching and wondering, Is the U.S. next? Could our debt-ceiling debate be the beginning of a crisis that makes the world lose faith in American credit? Anything could happen, but it's worth noting the big differences between Greece and the U.S. Greece faces three problems. First, it has an uncompetitive economy that cannot generate growth. Its labor is too expensive, it exports few products, and its ...

All over the U.S. last week, the prices of meat and many other products rose with a rush that was painfully like the burst of inflation in 1948. Booming industrial production sent metal markets soaring: copper jumped 2 a Ib. to 22; nickel was up, and even magnesium, which hadn't shown a rise since 1943, moved up 1 a Ib. With steel mills running at better than 100% capacity for the eighth consecutive week, the wildest commodity of all was ...

With banks reluctant to loosen purse strings and credit-card companies aggressively slashing credit lines, a growing number of consumers are turning to the once murky world of pawnshops for quick cash. "Loans are up 20% to 25%," estimates David Crume, president of the National Pawnbrokers Association. The trade group's executive director, Dana Meineke, says the weak economy and turmoil in the credit markets are expanding the customer base. "We're seeing some new faces," says Daniel ...

After a 15-year economic eclipse, a stream of good news is finally brightening the outlook for Japan. Banks have started to lend again, companies to hire and invest, and consumers to spend. Things are so good, in fact, that the Bank of Japan has just declared victory in its epic battle with deflation. The country has the world's second largest economy; its recovery will have implications around the globe. It's worth remembering how Japan got to where it is now. The ...

The largest government bailout in U.S. history was born before dawn on Sept. 17, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke woke up at 6 a.m., checked his BlackBerry and saw the very thing he had dreaded: the futures market in free fall. Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York Fed president Timothy Geithner had spent the past year staving off one disaster after another, for the most part working behind the scenes. Earlier in the month, they had let ...

The great recession hasn't been great for free trade. As unemployment has risen throughout the world, governments have become more focused on protecting their own industries than on promoting international commerce. The U.S., typically an enthusiastic supporter of open markets, included "buy American" clauses in its stimulus package and propped up its flailing auto industry with handouts. Although a meeting of ministers in New Delhi in early September promised to restart long-stalled World Trade Organization negotiations aimed ...

Konstantinos Sourmelis, a 56-year-old technician for OSE, Greece's state-owned railway, marched to central Athens on Wednesday to send parliament a simple message: Stop selling out the country. Like the thousands of other demonstrators who protested in the country's latest general strike, Sourmelis accuses the government of scapegoating OSE and public utilities as part of its proposed privatization plan, the next in a string of attempts to raise the billions that Greece owes foreign creditors. "In the long ...

Even before its outcome is known, Libya's uprising could leave an indelible mark on the world economy: oil prices have rocketed since Tuesday and could rise even further amid the continuing turmoil that has prompted thousands of foreign oil workers to flee. Libya's oil output, typically 1.7 million barrels a day, has fallen by more than half since Tuesday, and its energy exports have ground to a complete halt. Worse news still for global oil markets is ...

Chung Mong Koo, Chairman of South Korea's Hyundai Motor, carefully scrutinizes a newly designed gearshift lever for the automaker's Sonata sedan while his entire senior-management team hovers around, anxiously awaiting his approval. The execs are justifiably edgy. Engineers added a plastic plate beneath the shifter to prevent spilled coffee and other flotsam from falling into the mechanism and gumming it up. It's a minor change, but no one treats it that way, least of all Chung, a hard-nosed, detail-oriented boss ...

Chongqing. Guangzhou. Wuhan. If any business claims to be a global player over the next 20 years but has no eye on these emerging Chinese cities, short its stock. According to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute, "Urban World: Mapping the Economic Power of Cities," nine of the 10 urban areas that will experience the highest GDP growth from 2007 to 2025 are in China. Out of the top 25 growth cities, an astonishing 21 are in the ...