News and Finance

Belgium's economy may be heading for the first recession in six years as the global financial crisis undermines growth across Europe and forces governments to rescue banks, central bank Governor Guy Quaden said.
“I expect the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009 are probably negative'' in terms of economic growth, Quaden, […]

French consumer confidence dropped in October to match a record low on concern that the global economic slowdown will prompt companies from banks to carmakers to continue firing workers.
A gauge of consumer sentiment fell to minus 47 from minus 44 in September, the Paris-based national statistics office, Insee, said in a statement today. […]

ATLANTA — Discount carrier AirTran Airways says it would be willing to discuss a codeshare agreement with larger rival Southwest Airlines Co.
"If Southwest was willing to talk, we’d certainly be willing to listen," AirTran Chief Executive Bob Fornaro told analysts on a conference call Thursday.
Codeshare agreements allow airlines to sell seats on […]

Malaysia's central bank pledged it will take action to prevent the economy from deteriorating after keeping the benchmark interest rate unchanged for the 20th straight meeting.
“In the face of diminishing inflationary pressures, and in the event of heightened downside risks to growth, the bank will take swift monetary policy action to provide support […]

European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet may need to show he's still inflation fighter-in- chief after price expectations soared in the wake of the bank's Oct. 8 interest-rate reduction.
Economists at Deutsche Bank AG say the ECB will slash the benchmark rate to a record low of 1.5 percent by the middle of […]

Michigan and Georgia lost the most jobs in September, led by a slump in employment at government agencies and manufacturers as the slowdown spread through the U.S. economy.
The count in Michigan dropped by 28,300 employees last month as government agencies eliminated 18,000 jobs and factories cut payrolls by 6,500, the Labor Department reported […]

In speech after speech, presidential candidate John McCain hammers on the claim that his rival Barack Obama will raise taxes on many small businesses.
At the debate on Wednesday night, McCain said, "The small businesses that we’re talking about would receive an increase in their taxes right now."
More typically he has said: "What [Obama] […]

The European Union's 1.1 trillion euro ($1.5 trillion) plan to bail out the region's banks may have come too late to keep the euro's biggest drop on record from getting worse.
While leaders of the 27-nation EU agreed in the past two days to guarantee bank loans and take stakes in lenders, currency strategists […]

You once could bet on casinos’ luck holding out even in tough economic times, but things are turning dicey now. St. Louis-area casinos saw a nearly 4 percent drop in business last month, according to figures released this week by Missouri and Illinois gambling regulators.
"This is the first time casinos have not been […]

Mexican President Felipe Calderon laid out a plan Wednesday to help his country avoid or mitigate the effects of the economic uncertainty besetting other nations.
"The world is in a grave crisis, and this affects us," he said in a nationally televised address.
He predicted that the crisis would result in fewer Mexican exports, fewer tourists, […]