Economic crisis, workers fight back

The economic crisis continues.

Several million workers and youth took to the streets in 213 cities and towns throughout France yesterday, in opposition to rising poverty, rapidly growing unemployment and government austerity policies: here.

The US Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced that it will massively expand its moves to pump liquidity into near-frozen credit markets, including a highly unusual plan to purchase up to $300 billion in longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months: here.

USA: The school board in Pontiac, Michigan, in an unprecedented action, recently voted to lay off all 774 teachers and support personnel in the district. The virtual collapse of public education parallels the decline of GM, the city’s largest employer: here.

The IMF published a chilling set of statistics Thursday, cutting its estimate for world economic growth this year and revealing that the world economy contracted at the sharpest rate on postwar record in the last part of 2008: here.

The Berlin Public Transit Corporation (BVG) has run up a debt of nearly a quarter of a billion euros due to cross-border leasing deals that now threaten to collapse as a result of the worldwide financial crisis: here.