There's a saying that the German peace movement has been using since the days of the Cold War that translates into something like this: "Imagine there's a war and no one shows up." Adapt that to German politics and you have a pretty good summary of Sunday's pre-election TV debate between Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union and her rival Frank Walter Steinmeier, of the Social Democratic Party, who is also this country's Foreign Minister: "Imagine there's an ...

The light at the end of the recession tunnel is distant and dim for the nation's cities, according to a survey by the National League of Cities. While optimistic federal officials hint at an economic turnaround, city finance officers say the picture remains bleak for city governments. This is chiefly because a top source of municipal income -- property tax revenue -- tends to lag behind changes in the market. Because cities typically phase in property tax assessments, the full ...

Some 30 years ago, the field of microfinance was born from a radical concept: poor people, when lent small amounts of money, will pay it back in a timely manner. In the meantime, that money can be put to use in ways that help boost income—goat farming, say, or carpet weaving—and, ostensibly, raise a family's standard of living. Now another radical concept is starting to take hold: that the thing people really need, more than business loans, is a ...

Toyota is poised to slash production by as much as 580,000 vehicles -- or almost 6 percent of global capacity -- in an effort to stem losses amid the sharp downturn in car sales. Japan's largest carmaker, which is forecasting its second consecutive net loss this year, said it would shut a production line in western Japan from next spring through to the second half of 2011, reducing output by 220,000 vehicles. Toyota is also looking to pull out of ...

An FBI agent Wednesday testified in the Mumbai terror trial, Indian prosecutors said. Despite reports that Lisa Wu Hartwell and husband, Ed, were evicted from their Atlanta home, the housewife tells PEOPLE.com, "We chose to move, we were not evicted." Adds Hartwell, 38, "It was decision that we made and not one that was made for us. But we were not put out." As for the TMZ report that the couple defaulted on their bank loan, she re-affirms that ...

Kids won't be the only miserable people during these waning days of summer, when the first day of school lurks like a dour detention officer. The retailers selling students back-to-school clothing, supplies and gadgets will be pretty sad souls too. According the National Retail Federation, the average family with K-12 students will spend $548.72 on school merchandise, a 7.7% decline from 2008. Britt Beemer, founder and chairman of America's Research Group, a retail consulting firm, predicts spending will drop ...

As the U.S. jumps on board the cash-for-clunkers bandwagon, the Obama Administration would do well to pay attention to what is happening in Hamburg's sprawling harbor. The seaport city is one of the busiest ports in the world: nearly every car — new or used — passes through its docks on the way out of Germany. And this week, the police charged with patrolling the harbor released evidence showing that Germany's hugely popular cash-for-clunkers program may have some unintended ...

For all the relief over the jobless figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday morning — 247,000 jobs were lost in July, far fewer than economists had expected — a dark problem lurks in the numbers: dangerously high levels of long-term unemployment in America. Unlike recent recessions, the current economic crisis has been characterized by skyrocketing numbers of those out of work for three, six or more months at a time. Economists worry that the shock of the past year's financial crisis may ...

Author Kurt Andersen's new book, Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America, examines the economic, political and cultural opportunities to be found in the wake of the financial crises. In this excerpt, the fifth of five pieces to appear on TIME.com, he urges America to keep its edge, even as the recession fades. Although the famous Chinese curse May you live in interesting times is not, in fact, a Chinese curse, given China's enabling role ...

Have economic times gotten so bad that some of the dead are going unburied? Several large counties across the country are experiencing unprecedented increases in the number of unclaimed deceased — not only because the dead people could not be identified, were indigent or were estranged from their family, but also apparently because more people simply cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones. The phenomenon has increased costs for local governments, which have to dispose of the ...