Photo: jeroen020 (flickr)

News that the U.S. economy is doing worse than we thought is not news to the residents of Rhode Island.

In the country's smallest state, families like the Hallams have been feeling the effects of a shrinking GDP for some time now, the BBC finds. After working in the trucking and packing industries for years, the two brothers and their cousin are unemployed as they approach what would should be their retirement years.

Their personal story reflects the statistics surrounding the state. Rhode Island and Michigan are tied for the highest unemployment rate in the nation. The 1,044-square-mile state boasts the sixth-worst foreclosure rate in the country. Food pantries have reported a dramatic spike in use, with one pantry reporting serving 970 families this September, up from 261 families one year ago.

According to Leonard Lardaro, an economics professor at the University of Rhode Island who tracks Rhode Island's economic health, the situation looks pretty bleak.

“I hate to say it but a distinct improvement for Rhode Island right now would be to have our economy be dead in the water. Statistically this is the worst year. Clearly we’re going down faster than other states.”

So what's the problem with Rhode Island's economy? While some point a finger at high taxes, others cite the state's emphasis on manufacturing training. Small businesses make up 80 percent of Rhode Island's businesses, and these small businesses are struggling more than their larger counterparts to keep up with the current financial crisis, according to the New York Times. As big industries leave the state, recession-sensitive hospitality and service industries have replaced them.

Things might not get better soon. Gov. Donald L. Carcier's spokeswoman told the Times that Rhode Island historically has been one of the last states to come out of national recessions.

Photo: Craig O’Neal (flickr)

Greening the world's economy won't be easy in today's gloomy economic climate. It seems that more and more countries are falling short of funds and motivation to invest in green technology and energy-efficient industries, according to an article in yesterday's New York Times.

In China — the largest producer of greenhouse gases — the need to limit greenhouse gases may not be addressed until economic conditions improve. One of France’s largest alternative energy companies has "pulled back on how much energy it will produce by 2009." And British energy company has put three wind farms on hold.

"European industry is saying they can’t deal with financial crisis and reduce emissions at the same time," according to Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "The heads of government have other things on their minds."

Not all the news is bad for green industry. President-elect Obama’s economic stimulus package includes incentives for wind farms, solar panels and fuel-efficient cars. And the European Commission still plans to seek a 20 percent reduction in emissions by 2020.

Agendas like these acknowledge that lifting ourselves out of the economic doldrums and going green are in fact complimentary rather than incompatible. As de Boer puts it, "If because of the current economic scenario, you choose cheap and dirty, we'll be in big trouble."

Bathtub vodka. Photo: riot jane (flickr)

Has the global financial crisis caused an increase in alcohol poisoning in Russia?

As incomes have declined or in some cases, disappeared, many Russians have cut down on vodka — Russia's alcoholic drink of choice. Russia's per capita intake is four gallons a year. Last month, vodka makers cut production by 15 percent to reflect the drop in sales.

In response, some Russians have switched to cheap homemade alternatives, or “bathtub vodka” — with deadly consequences. Deaths due to alcohol poisoning rose 6 percent in September, according to Reuters.

Reuters also reports that Russians are taking extreme methods to satisfy their alcoholic thirst, drinking "cosmetics, perfumes and cleaning agents."

It's liquid foundation on the rocks, ladies. Bottoms up!

It's children like these girls that may never recieve the free medicine from aid groups like Unicef, because of the thriving black market. Photo: Travlr (flickr)

BBC investigative reporter Sorious Samura uses a hidden camera to confront pharmacists selling Unicef-provided drugs distributed by Unicef in Sierra Leone. The drugs were intended to be distributed free of charge. When he tries to ask citizena how the pharmacists could sell medicines intended to be distributed for free, they appear confused: “We don’t have any medicine that is free here.”

This is one instance of corruption that Samura cites in his accompanying opinion piece raising questions about the value of aiding Africa and how much corruption distorts the good intentions of donors.

It's hard to find a woman at the wheel of a taxi cab in the West, but a new business is making it a familiar sight in an unlikely place: Iran.

The BBC reports on a taxi service "run by women, for women."

All of the company's drivers and dispatchers are women. (Unlike neighboring Saudi Arabia, it is not illegal for women to drive in Iran.) Many are widows or divorcees that need the income. In addition, 70 percent of the drivers are purchasing their cabs, paying in installments over five years. Drivers are even "given lessons in basic car maintenance and such essentials as how to change a burst tire."

The company's initial fleet of 10 cars has grown to 700. They shuttle about 2,500 people a day.

"I feel safer in a woman's taxi, from all points of view," said one customer. "A lot of the men drivers are young and impatient, and they're not disciplined. Women are simply better drivers."

Photo: Leonardo Dell'Aquila (flickr)

In Argentina’s capital city, the need for change is more than a political slogan – it’s an economic reality.

For the past few months, the number of coins in circulation in Buenos Aires has dipped so low that everyday activities like paying a bus fare and making purchases at a store have become nearly impossible. Banks, bus companies and other businesses whose transactions involve a lot of coins stand accused of hoarding them and selling them illegally to other small retailers at a profit. Although Argentina’s Central Bank is churning out more coins to meet the demand, the black market is absorbing the change almost immediately.

Some store owners are solving the problem by rounding up prices to the nearest dollar – in their favor, of course. Others would rather just turn a potential customer away if he or she can’t pay with exact change. One shop owner says, "Clients always return, but coins are impossible to find.”

Santo Domingo Plaza in Mexico City is home to scribes losing business to modern gadgetry Photo: Robert Brands (flickr)

Can you remember a world before email or mobile phones? Well, the scribes in Mexico City can, because that was the world they were able to make a living in.

Scribes in Mexico were approached by plumbers, construction workers and the lovelorn to write receipts, fill out tax forms and even transcribe love letters.

Mexico’s literacy rate has improved over the years and is now 91 percent. Even the illiterate have cell phones, so according to the scribes in Mexico City, the era of writing endearments is no more.

Photo: adman_as (flickr)

How can you help the world's neediest people when you don't even know they exist?

Take Rio de Janiero's sprawling slum settlements, known as favelas. They contain maybe one-third of the city's population, but no one really knows for certain, and the official counts are probably too low. When you consider similar situations worldwide, there are perhaps more than a billion people whose governments have no official record of their existence, says Melanie Edwards.

Her company, Mobile Metrix, hires and trains local teenagers — in Brazil and other developing countries — equips them with handheld computers and sends them door-to-door to get lifestyle information on their neighbors via a 100-question survey.

The idea is that aid organizations, governments and corporations essentially make decisions on where to spend money based on unreliable numbers. Enter Mobile Metrix, which says it "connects the uncounted poor with companies and nonprofits that can meet their needs."

Part of the reason the model is viable is because Mobile Metrix is able to persuade corporations to support its work. When a dengue epidemic infected nearly 250,000 in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year, for example, Mobile Metrix teamed up with Johnson & Johnson to provide favela residents with anti-mosquito repellent and doorstep tips on malaria prevention.

Edwards says each young Mobile Metrix "agent" is paid better than a drug pusher on the streets of Rio and can gain professional skills and a sense of dignity.

"These are capable, untapped human resources. By believing in them, we dignify them and they dignify themselves," Edwards told Rob Katz of NextBillion.net. "We see our employees step into their power — to transform themselves and their community."

Eastern EU migrants are boosting economies in western member states. Photo: TPCOM (flickr)

Since the EU has admitted a dozen Eastern European nations over the past four years, many western European members have fretted that heavy migration of East European workers would cost local workers their jobs.

But a report by the European Union has concluded otherwise. It says migration from Eastern European nations has “contributed significantly to overall economic growth and employment” in the EU. Migrants traveling from their homeland to more prosperous member states are actually helping labor market shortages — "without displacing local workers or driving down their wages."

But future growth in these countries could be constrained by current restrictions on foreign workers.

Because EU states anticipated that a large influx of migrants would negatively affect their economy, some "temporarily restrict(ed) the free access of workers to their labor markets.” For example, in the United Kingdom, there's a limit to how many low-skilled workers are admitted to work in the agricultural and food processing sectors. Denmark, Germany, Austria and Belgium require Bulgarian and Romanian nationals to obtain work permits, employment contracts, residence permits and/or special visas to work in any part of their economies.

The current economic downturn makes lifting restrictions even more vital for Western Europe. Vladimír Špidla, the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, recommends lifting all labor restrictions on migrants:

"The right to work in another country is a fundamental freedom for people in the EU. Mobile workers move to where there are jobs available and this benefits the economy.... Lifting restrictions now would not only make economic sense but would also help reduce problems such as undeclared work and bogus self-employment."

New York Times columnist David Brooks identified another casualty of the U.S. recession: the new social group Brooks calls "the formerly middle class."

These are people who achieved middle-class status at the tail end of the long boom, and then lost it. To them, the gap between where they are and where they used to be will seem wide and daunting.

Now faced with recession, Brooks writes that members of "the formerly middle class" will need to adjust and start embracing the simpler life. That means no morning latte, no Hawaiian vacation and certainly no more Tiffany jewelry or Coach handbags.

For those who have only experienced life during a time of economic boom or stability, living without the material comforts that have shaped their social identity will be a struggle.

Brooks thinks the pain from this recession won't just be material for "the formerly middle class." Rather, "it will be the loss of a social identity, the loss of social networks, the loss of the little status symbols that suggest an elevated place in the social order."

The Saudi-owned oil tanker MV Sirius Star is shown at anchor on November 19, 2008, off the coast of Somalia. Photo: William S. Stevens/Reuters, courtesy of Alertnet.org

Ahoy, consumers. Beware of yer pocketbooks. Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia are up 75 percent this year, threatening price hikes for everything from the gas in your car to the shoes on your feet.

The price of oil increased this week after Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. British researcher and author Roger Middleton says Asian exporters may be forced to ship their goods the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope to reach European and American shores.

The longer route would add up to three weeks to the delivery of goods from Asia and of oil and gas from the Middle East to European markets. Someone will have to pay for that extra time – very probably the consumer. For Europe and the eastern seaboard of America, this inflation is a real possibility.

The brashness of these modern-day pirates has also forced people to rethink their romantic, Disneyesque notions about pirates — and how desperate the Somali people truly are.

A recent lead paint scare prompted a massive recal by Chinese toy manufacturers. Photo: conner395 (flickr)

The U.S. currently imports about $2 trillion worth of Chinese goods — an amount that The Associated Press reports is "equal to four times the size of the Brazilian economy."

To make sure Chinese goods are safe and honestly represented, the FDA announced that they are preparing to open an office in Beijing — the group's first office outside the U.S.

HSBC's new project strives to lend to Muslim business owners. Photo: Leeno

Do microloans conflict with religion?

Up to 40 percent of respondents in Jordan, Algeria, and Syria cited religious reasons for not using conventional microloans, according to surveys by the World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor.

Many Muslims are leery of the traditional banking system because the idea of making money from money, or charging interest, is considered illegal under Sharia (or Islamic) law. Many banks in Muslim countries now offer Islamic banking products that allow banks to make money from their loans in other ways, such as by sharing the risks and profits of an investment.

HSBC, the world's largest banking group, sees Islamic microfinance as a market niche rather than a roadblock. HSBC Amanah has offered Islamic banking services in the past, but is now taking on an Islamic microfinance project in Pakistan in partnership with the international charity Islamic Relief. HSBC’s Nabeel A. Shoaib remarked:

"We are extremely excited to partner with Islamic Relief in this ground-breaking initiative to bring greater financial inclusion to Pakistan’s poor and empower hundreds of families to capture good economic opportunities. We are confident that Islamic microfinance can be a promising finance tool that can help reduce poverty and accelerate economic growth and financial inclusion, particularly in impoverished rural areas.”

Microfinance has worked in predominately Muslim countries such as Kyrgyzstan, where Global Envision's parent Mercy Corps helped found what's now the country's leading small-scale lender.

Kompanion was founded by Mercy Corps in 2005 to consolidate the lending operations of five independent NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. With more than 50 offices throughout the mountainous, landlocked republic, Kompanion currently serves 20,000 clients with more than $5 million in loans outstanding.

Let’s hope HSBC and Islamic Relief achieve the same success.

Under the proposed plan, these men will be eligible for stock. Photo: Richard Messenger (flickr)

Poor people are not your stereotypical stockholders. But Egypt’s ruling party has proposed a plan to distribute stocks of publicly owned companies to all Egyptians.

Anyone over the age of 21 will receive coupons they can exchange for shares. Rich and poor alike would be invested in the stock market.

There are doubts as to whether distributing stocks to all will change who profits in the end. Previous privatization efforts have been "marred by claims of corruption and nepotism favoring the government's well-heeled backers," reports The Associated Press.

Gamal Wafa, an engineer at a factory that was privatized three years ago, was doubtful about the plan, voicing common concerns that the country was being sold off to foreign investors. ‘Everything will fall in the hands of the rich, (Gulf) Arabs or foreigners, and the rest of the nation will only serve as doormen.’

How's this for a sad irony:

Food is so scarce in Haiti that many mothers aren't naming their babies until they've survived their first few months of life. Yet Raj Patel, author of a book about the global food system, tells CNN: "There's more food per person in 2008 than there's ever been in history."