Americans gave away nearly $300 billion in 2006, surpassing even the unusually high giving of 2005 that was triggered by such disasters as the Gulf hurricanes and the Asian tsunami. Donations in the US rose an inflation-adjusted 1 percent, according to a report released yesterday by the Giving USA Foundation. If disaster relief is excluded, the increase was 3.2 percent. Read more>
Archive for the 'Economy' Category
U.S. sets record of private giving
June 26, 2007Poverty masks huge enterprise in Asia’s biggest slum
June 11, 2007Dharavi, considered Asia’s biggest shantytown, contains thriving micro-businesses, and breaks all the stereotypes of a slum. Arguably the most prosperous among the world’s biggest shantytowns, Dharavi has about 5,000 single-room factories and hundreds of cottage industries that together have a turnover of around $1 billion. Read more>
Unions fight against abuse of migrant laborers
June 11, 2007Mexican and US organizers are risking their lives to prevent guest workers from being swindled by unscrupulous ‘recruiters.’ The Ohio-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) is working to protect migrant laborers from the thousands of unscrupulous recruiters who prey on them as they try to navigate the guest-worker program to earn a living in the US. But interfering in the recruiters’ lucrative trade is proving difficult – and deadly. Read more>
States Finding Fiscal Surprise: A Cash Surplus
June 11, 2007State lawmakers across the country, their coffers unexpectedly full of cash, have been handing out tax cuts, spending money on fixing roads, schools and public buildings, and socking something away for less fruitful years. Read more>
Design for the world’s poor
May 30, 2007The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is honoring inventors dedicated to “the other 90 percent,” particularly the billions of people living on less than $2 a day. For example, one of the simplest and yet most elegant designs tackles a job that millions of women and girls spend many hours doing each year — fetching water. Balancing heavy jerry cans on the head may lead to elegant posture, but it is backbreaking work and sometimes causes crippling injuries. The Q-Drum, a circular jerry can, holds 20 gallons, and it rolls smoothly enough for a child to tow it on a rope. Read more>
Mobile phones revolutionize African banking
May 24, 2007Mobile phone banking is expanding across the region from South Africa to Kenya and is giving the poor access to micro-finance services like never before. Read more>
Women’s collectives gain ground in India
May 13, 2007A group of rural women’s collectives has developed “essentially an entire subeconomy run exclusively by women who take loans from banks or the government to fund increasingly ambitious projects.” Read more>
Fighting global warming is affordable
May 8, 2007We could virtually eliminate greenhouse gas emissions without “breaking the bank,” according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Taking measures necessary to eliminate emissions would cost about 0.12 percent economic growth a year from now until 2030.
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More workplaces are becoming ‘age-friendly’
May 7, 2007More businesses are finding ways to reduce age-bias and create better work environments for older workers. What this means: recruiting older workers and having a strategy for keeping them. Some ‘age-friendly’ companies, according to AARP, include Marriott, Staples, H&R Block, and REI.
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Good job market for college grads in U.S.
May 7, 2007The job search should be relatively easy for upcoming U.S. college graduates, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The class of 2007 can expect 17% more jobs than were around for the class of 2006 – and starting salaries will be higher for 26 of 29 undergraduate majors surveyed.
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