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China Steps up Fight Against Property Speculation – ABC News Apparently, China (unlike the U.S. and many other countries) has a working definition of a bubble and is trying to be proactive in preventing its real estate market from overheating (and imploding) [my editorial] (tags: China mortgage real_estate bubbles)

Greek bailout plan signals new world disorder – The Globe and Mail The world's borrowing woes are shifting from developing economies to their advanced counterparts, many of which are exiting the crisis shouldering heavy debt burdens. Tackling those burdens is a war that a host of governments will fight for years to come, with or … Read more

The Future of American Jobs – Robert Reich …even if we enjoy a vigorous recovery that produces, say, 300,000 net new jobs a month, we could be looking at five to eight years before catching up to where we were before the recession began. (tags: unemployment economy recession)

MasterCard Set to Open An Online Shopping Mall – NYTimes.com Through a new partnership with an Internet company that specializes in personalized shopping, MasterCard is set to introduce a Web shopping mall on Monday that it says can pinpoint with considerable accuracy what its cardholders are likely to purchase. The site, called MasterCard Marketplace, relies … Read more

Greece Wins EU45 Billion Aid Pledge to Blunt Crisis (Update3) – Bloomberg.com European governments offered debt- burdened Greece a rescue package worth as much as 45 billion euros ($61 billion) at below-market interest rates as they try to end its fiscal crisis and restore confidence in the euro. (tags: Greece debt euro IMF)

China reports rare trade deficit Officials blame the $7.2bn deficit on rising volumes and prices of the raw materials the country needs to import to power its economy. The officials, who announced the figures at an economic conference in Hainan, say the deficit is likely to be a short-term phenomenon. (tags: China economy) LA faces … Read more

Former Fed chief Greenspan: 'I was wrong 30% of the time' – ABC News From the councils of government to the paneled boardrooms of Wall Street, the idea of Alan Greenspan erring once would have seemed rank heresy. Those days, however, are long gone. Pressed Wednesday to defend his stewardship of the U.S. economy in … Read more

Home Depot Is Adding Jobs for First Time in 4 Years (Update1) – Bloomberg.com Home Depot Inc., the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, is adding store jobs for the first time in four years in anticipation of a rebound in sales. (tags: HomeDepot economy jobs)

Is the Stock Market Cheap? …every time the P/E10 has fallen from the first to the fourth quintile, it has ultimately declined to the fifth quintile and bottomed in single digits. Based on the latest 10-year earnings average, to reach a P/E10 in the high single digits would require an S&P 500 price decline below … Read more

Commercial Bankruptcies Jumped in March – WSJ.com The total number of companies filing for bankruptcy in the U.S. jumped by more than 20% in March over the previous month, as business failures in the first quarter outpaced last year's total. The total number of commercial bankruptcy filings hit 8,208 in March, a sharp rise from … Read more