1.With unemployment soaring, many European Union countries want the migrant workers they once attracted to go home as quickly as possible. They are sparing no expense or effort to encourage them to leave. Europe Falls Out of Love with Labor Migration

2. Interactive Map: How is the economic crisis affecting the European Union? This map shows the figures for all the member states by year and quarter and let’s you compare budget deficit, unemployment rate, national debt and economic contraction. Economic crisis in European Union

3. Housing Starts: Is this the Bottom? -The title to this post would have been laughable in 2008 or 2007, but as I noted in Looking for the Sun, there is a reasonable chance housing starts will bottom sometime this year – so I suppose it is not too early to start looking.

4.The International Monetary Fund has predicted that the downturn in the UK will be deeper than anyone previously feared – and that it will last through 2010. IMF: UK recession ‘will be worst of all’

5.Lower debt levels and comparatively low rates of bad loans mean that even the poorer Latin American countries are faring better than their developed counterparts when it comes to exposure to the financial crisis. Latam rides high as debt remains low