China: Villagers convene to proclaim revolt

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:12:26 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: The strains of the economic system are beginning to be felt in China. A U.S. recession would likely worsen conditions.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

CHANGCHUNLING, China -- About 1,000 farmers gathered in the village meeting hall here at 8 a.m. on Dec. 19 and proclaimed what amounted to a revolt against China's communist land-ownership system.

"There is no justification for taking the land away from the farmers," said one of the participating peasants.

The redistribution exercise at Changchunling was not an isolated incident. Rather, it marked what appears to be the start of a backlash against China's system of collective land ownership in rural areas.

The uprising began here in the frigid, snow-covered soybean fields around Fujin city, 900 miles northeast of Beijing in Heilongjiang province, close to the Russian border. In a few weeks, it had spread to half a dozen other areas around the country, raising fundamental ideological questions for a government that still describes itself as Marxist-Leninist after 30 years of economic reforms.

Tags: china, economics

Americans Cut Back Sharply on Spending

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:06:24 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Seems a recession is in the cards.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Strong evidence is emerging that consumer spending, a bulwark against recession over the last year even as energy prices surged and the housing market sputtered, has begun to slow sharply at every level of the American economy, from the working class to the wealthy.

Such a decline would be the first since 1991, and it would almost certainly push the entire economy into a recessio

Even in tough economic times Americans rarely reduce their consumption, preferring instead to slow the growth in their spending. Since 1980, they have cut spending in only five quarters — a total of 15 months — most of them in the depths of a recession. The 2001 recession passed without a cutback in consumer spending.

Tags: economy, usa

Clipmarks | kmcolo's News collection

China: Villagers convene to proclaim revolt

Americans Cut Back Sharply on Spending