EconomyWatch.com

Standard and Poors' decision to cut its outlook for US debt to “negative” came as a surprise to many market watchers. The unprecedented move has reaffirmed the role rating agencies have in determining the prospects of national economies,

Rising gold prices may partly indicate market fearfulness but does investing in gold and other precious commodities even truly offer efficient protection against inflation?

Iran is one of the largest economies in the world coming in at 18th place according to GDP (PPP) and 29th place according to Nominal GDP (current prices, US dollars).

Check out these 12 shocking personal finance statistics and tell us where you fit in the big picture:

Hong Kong's unemployment rate has fallen to an all time pre-crisis low of 3.4 per cent, the Census and Statistics Department announced this week. Critics blame Hong Kong’s first minimum wage law for job losses.

Are all nations in the European Union created equal? The European Central Bank seems to think so. And is hiking interest rates by a quarter of a percent signaling a “return to normal standards,” according to Ewald Nowotny

Anna Hazare is one of India's well-acclaimed social activists. The 73-year old fasting Gandhian was a former soldier in the Indian army. Anna is well known and respected for salvaging a hopeless village ridden by drought, alcoholism and poverty....

Last week, an arbitration tribunal indefinitely blocked a much-needed BP share-swap agreement with Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft - just in time for BP's annual stockholder meeting this Thursday. See how its new CEO -

Ad hoc device saving Chernobyl meltdown, "core-catcher", now feature of newest reactors Russia’s state-owned nuclear co sells globally w opportunistic sales pitch: Chernobyl made Russia world’s most safety-conscious nuclear proponent. Is it true?

Using technology called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," asort of controlled earthquake, companies now bringing previously inaccessible natural gas to the surface all over the globe. But as prices fall, the process is ecologically devastating