Business with Reuters - International Herald Tribune

Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa of Japan feels the strain at a committee meeting in Parliament Monday.

Japanese economy shrinks by most since 1974

By HIROKO TABUCHI

Japan's GDP shrank at an annual rate of 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter, the biggest drop since 1974, further confirming that the world's second-biggest economy is in a severe recession.

China's image improves as world economy slumps

By LANDON THOMAS JR.

As the world lurches ever closer to economic catastrophe, China's image is changing from that of currency manipulator to a source of badly needed consumer demand.

Obama is said to drop plan for 'car czar'

By BILL VLASIC

The Obama administration will instead put the politically delicate task of revamping General Motors and Chrysler in the hands of a panel.

White House says stimulus won't be a quick fix

By J. DAVID GOODMAN

As President Barack Obama prepares to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill, administration officials sought to temper expectations.

Tariff protests in eastern port rattle Kremlin

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

Near a statue of Lenin, Russians in Vladivostok last month protested the imposition of higher import duties on used cars.

What might be called the Revolt of the Used Car Dealers has unnerved the Kremlin like few other outbursts of public discontent in recent years.

Video: Rumbles of discontent in Russia

Japanese finance minister denies he was drunk at G-7

Reuters

Shoichi Nakagawa, who had appeared to be slurring his words in Rome, said he had drunk alcohol the day before the press conference and had taken medicine on his flight to the G-7 meeting.

Video: Japanese finance minister at the Group of 7 press conference (youtube.com)

U.S. stimulus plan outdoes Treasury on executive pay curbs

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS AND ERIC DASH

Buried deep inside the $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus bill, which President Barack Obama is expected to sign Tuesday, is some bitter medicine for companies that have received government bailout funds.

Post a comment

MARKETS

Asian stocks stumble on dismal economic data

Reuters

Asian stocks came under modest pressure on Monday, with gloomy economic data and doubts about prospects for the financial industry outstripping investor relief that a U.S. economic stimulus bill had finally passed.

Graphic: World markets

TV, the Internet's final frontier

By MATT RICHTEL

Online content now appears in elevators, in the back of taxis and at your airplane seat. So how is it that the Internet has largely escaped the single biggest screen in most of our lives — the television?

Carlos Slim Helú: The reticent media baron

By MARC LACEY

Carlos Slim Helú has been criticized as an "evil monopolist" and praised as a man "focusing more and more on using his wealth to improve the world."

Slim, Mexico's richest man and now a major shareholder in and lender to The New York Times, has a complex relationship with the news media.

Industry makes pitch that smartphones belong in classroom

By MATT RICHTEL AND BRAD STONE

A teacher at Southwest High School in Jacksonville, North Carolina, said the special cellphones helped students improve their math skills.

LEARNING ON CELLPHONES? Proponents of selling cellphones to schools have said that they are simply making the same kind of pitch that the computer industry has been profitably making to educators since the 1980s.

THE MEDIA EQUATION

This just in: The market is still dead

By DAVID CARR

Financial journalists still can't figure out how to cover the recession.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

Frustration as financial fixes plod along

By EMILY KAISER / Reuters

Consumer, business and investor confidence remain in tatters even though governments have promised trillions of dollars to fix the financial mess.

Further trials in store for the struggling euro

LINK BY LINK

As data collecting grows, privacy erodes

By NOAM COHEN

As illustrated in the baseball player Alex Rodriguez's positive steroid test result, personal information that seems anonymous is often traceable, and potentially life-changing.

Zagat turns focus to medicine

By MILT FREUDENHEIM

Zagat, famous for its guides that rate restaurants, will allow patients to post reviews of doctors in the United States, some of whom are not impressed with the idea.