1.Global Banking Economist Warned of Coming Crisis
William White predicted the approaching financial crisis years before 2007’s subprime meltdown. But central bankers preferred to listen to his great rival Alan Greenspan instead, with devastating consequences for the global economy.

2.Obama Jobless Safety Net Torn by New Normal’s 48-Year-Old Rebecca Alvarez
Rebecca Alvarez says she’s “barely hanging on.”

Without a job for seven months, the 48-year-old computer- network administrator said she’s stopped dining out, cut back cable-television services and put off paying a photography class bill from her 14-year-old son’s school in Monrovia, California. She is among more than 4 million Americans who have been looking for work for more than 26 weeks, representing 29 percent of the unemployed, the most since records began in 1948.

3.The global economy is beginning to pull out of a recession unprecedented in the post–World War II era and risks to the global financial system have moderated, but stabilization is uneven and the recovery is expected to be sluggish, according to the IMF’s latest forecast.Recession Loosens Grip But Weak Recovery Ahead

4.South Africa’s banking sector has so far proved resilient to the country’s worst recession in 17 years, but faced with soaring unemployment and high levels of consumer debt, the biggest challenges lie ahead.Leaning against the wind

5.The US government may attempt to substitute for household spending but it never quite works, no matter how many public works projects the government sponsors. The fundamentals point to deflation, not inflation.Down – not up