Haaretz.com - Business
If you chose to invest in shares this year and selected Europe as your venue, you probably are licking your wounds right now. Whether you invested through mutual funds, ETFs or picked your own stocks, Europe's exchanges were badly burned by the credit crunch that followed the American subprime mortgage meltdown. London's leading index, the FTSE-100, has returned 4% this year, the Dow Jones Europe gained 6% and France's CAC-40 did much of nothing. The leading Swiss index lost 3% and Sweden's fell 6%. At least Germany stood out from pack, with a 21% leap this year. ...
washingtonpost.com - Business
The sharp decline of the U.S. dollar since 2000 is affecting a broad swath of the world's population, with its drop on global markets being blamed at least in part for misfortunes as diverse as labor strikes in the Middle East, lost jobs in Europe and the end of an era of globe-trotting rich...