WORLD

The global slump has pushed 64 million people into extreme poverty or living off with less than $1.25 a day, says an estimate of the World Bank. Oxfam, another non-profit said its research showed 56 poor countries face a $65-billion fiscal hole in their budgets.

At the closing plenary session of the G20 business summit in Seoul, South Korea, David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, praised the host country’s miraculous economic advances and also highlighted some major themes underlying the purpose of the G20.

The joint statement by participating companies at the G20 business summit in Seoul, Korea, as of Nov. 11, 2010

G20 leaders say they want nations to coordinate economic policy, but even the host country is looking out for number one.

The Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, championed infrastructure investments across both the emerging markets and developed nations as a key part of maintaining a global economic recovery.

Angel Gurria, Secretary- General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an organization consulted by the nations of the world, including most of the nations of the G-20, put the very complex matter of what the G-20 is attempting to do at its summit in Seoul this week, in simple and precise terms.

In a wide-ranging and rambling speech during a luncheon at the G20 Business summit in Seoul, Korea, Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel called for a “sensible” exit strategy from the global credit crisis.

A big point of contention at the G20 Business Summit is how to reconcile the need for growth with the need to address environmental problems.

One of the most interesting – and perhaps under-reported -- aspects of the G20 summit in Seoul is the four female political leaders in attendance. According to press reports, no prior G20 summit has had this many women heads of state.

The G20 Seoul summit has agreed the BASEL III recommendation on reducing reliance on credit rating agencies (CRAs) but the onus of effecting rules relies on individual nations, said a spokesperson at the summit media centre on Thursday.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed to increase trade and investment between the two countries in a meeting prior to Thursday’s opening of the G-20 summit in Seoul.

The president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, has called for more corporate investment into Africa and other poverty-stricken regions of the world, as part of a comprehensive program to encourage the private sector to spur sustained global economic growth.

The Group of 20 (G20) leaders in Seoul could not thrash out any agreement on contentious forex and currency issues though talks ran through past midnight on Wednesday, said a spokesman at the summit media hall on Thursday morning.

Not unexpectedly, the preliminary proposal of President’s Obama’s bipartisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has met with mixed reviews, from “unacceptable” to “most encouraging.”

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a bipartisan commission recently created by President Obama, unveiled a proposal that could save the U.S. government nearly $4 trillion from 2012 to 2020.

Two things are always present at G20 summits: the gathering of the most powerful international elites and the gathering of common citizens and workers to protests against them.

Goods and services trade deficit in the U.S. narrowed in the month of September from the previous month, but still remained high with China, according to a report released by the U.S. Commerce Department.

The CEO of Vestas, a major supplier of wind turbines, is asking for heads of state to meet for an hour to help come up with methods of weaning the world from fossil fuels.

One of the greatest challenges facing the developing world lies with their limited access to quality healthcare, a situation that threatens to jeopardize or undermine economic growth in these nations.

The Korean government is using the G20 as a chance to boost prestige, using the concept of branding.

To the dismay of policy makers, the newly-printed dollars of the Federal Reserve has not found its way to the real U.S. economy in the form of loans to small businesses and consumers. A key question is if they are sitting in the U.S. financial system or flowing to emerging market economies.

South Korea will raise the North Korean nuclear program when President Lee Myung-bak holds bilateral talkswith the heads of six nations which are party to Six-Nation Talks, on the sidelines of the G20 Seoul summit.

China is not too pleased with America's plan to inject more capital into its economy in the form of a second round of quantitative easing.

Low voter turnout and allegations of fraud marred the polls in Myanmar. Counting is currently under way as polling booths closed in the late hours of Sunday. Though official figures are yet to be released, media reports suggest that not many people were enthusiastic about the elections. This is for the first time in 20 years that the Burmese people have been allowed to vote.

The US Federal Reserve' s quantitative easing can lead to asset bubbles as the money goes in search of equity, property and other such assets in a low-interest rate scenario, said Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor to India's finance minister.

The United States, which has not yet been punished by bond vigilantes for its enormous public debt, is keeping fiscal stimulus policies intact for the short-term. While many economists support this decision, the key question is if it will be able to enact necessary fiscal austerity measures in the future.

Unemployment rate in the US remained constant for the third month in October, while nonfarm payroll employment rose more than expected, according to a report by the US Labor Department.

Michael Yoshikami, president and chief investment officer of YCMNET Advisors in Walnut Creek, Calif. discusses what exactly QE is, why it may be needed and its potential impact.

China has had a near-monopoly on the production of rare earth metals for years. Recently, however, its market dominance has taken center stage and the West is increasingly expressing concerns.