As President Obama begins his first European tour this week, starting with the G20 economic summit, he's finding that much of the rest of the world has suddenly become quite uppity.

Both the House and Senate passed federal budget outlines for fiscal year 2010 on Thursday, April 2, which were mainly in keeping with President Obama's priorities.

Producing an alternative to the Obama budget plan has been something of a fiasco for congressional Republicans. They began in February by debating the scope of the Obama budget, criticizing the spending growth and inherited deficits as if President Obama created the problems facing the country.

The G-20, made up of the most economically developed and emerging nations, which represent some 90 percent of the global GDP, 80 percent of world trade and two-thirds of the population, will hold a summit on April 2nd in London.

Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors -- a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else -- "You're fired!"

Taking the first bold steps to reverse the Bush administration's budget priorities, President Barack Obama – with the support of the labor movement and other progressive groups – is pushing hard for passage of his first budget for 2010.

As the G-20 meeting is about to begin in London, the outlook for Latin American growth in 2009 is grim, as the tempo of foreign direct investment ( FDI) and loans stand-by credits and development funds plummet, the demand for commodities diminish, and foreign remittances plunge.

In February 2008, the US Air Force stunned the aerospace industry, many members of Congress, and thousands of Boeing workers in Washington State and Kansas when it awarded its $35 billion contract to build a midair refueling tanker to the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company and Northrop Grumman.

The populist over outrage over AIG bonuses, and bailouts that seem to payoff the perpetrators of the financial crisis while millions are left out of work with no medical benefits, and unemployment benefits that are running out, or will run out long before job growth returns – is heading towards a social and political, not just economic, tipping point.

In its recently published annual report titled "The State of Black America" for 2008 and 2009, the National Urban League reported a growing equality gap between African Americans and whites.

After ten years of wholesale financial deregulation, bad policies and unsound banking practices, and facing a worsening recession, over the last year and a half the US government has been pumping trillions of dollars in order to deleverage and recapitalize banks that were on the brink of insolvency.

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), the largest coalition of peace groups in the United States, is organizing a national march on Wall Street on Saturday, April 4, to "End the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Address the Economic Crisis by Cutting Military Spending."

On one side of the American River in downtown Sacramento, foundations and media organizations have comfortable offices with views of the water. On the other side, a homeless camp sits beside the railroad tracks next to the huge Blue Diamond almond processing plant.

House Republicans, Thursday March 19, blocked a resolution that expressed congressional outrage over the AIG bonus fiasco, demanding a return of the funds paid to AIG executives.

A fundamental legal principle of capitalism is the sanctity of contracts. Exchanges of goods and services cannot be made without them. Without legally binding contracts, society would be an anarchic mess.

Leaders of G-20 countries will meet in London on April 2 to discuss ways to respond to the global financial and economic crises. At issue is how to strengthen international oversight and regulation of financial institutions.

As poor business decisions and the deepening recession forced the US-based Big Three automakers to seek a financial bailout from the US government totaling $25 billion last year, production in other countries by those car makers outpaced US production.

The Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in Congress last week to the delight of the labor movement and to the chagrin of top CEOs of companies like Wal-Mart, government bailout recipients like Citgroup, and a host of pro-big business front groups with dubious names like the Workforce Fairness Institute.

While banks and mortgage lenders get bailed out, families across the country are increasingly facing the prospect of losing their homes. There's a new bill in Congress that would help: the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act. It would enable struggling homeowners to renegotiate the terms of their loans and stay in their homes.

The president's economic recovery package passed in mid-February, and many of its funds for job-creating projects and provisions are on their way to the states. Political motives on the part of some of the nation's governors, however, seem to be causing economic recovery to grind to a halt.