With revenues falling by as much as 50% in some electronics sectors and with entire markets undergoing fundamental changes, the old ways of doing business are not enough to thwart this downturn.

Chinese consumer prices showed an annual fall in February for the first time since 2002, figures have shown.

The LED ligting market growth of $5B by 2012 is too optimistic at a time when growth in consumer lectronics is on the decline due to bad economy. The economic recovery will commence only in the middle of 2010 and the estimate for LED consumer lighting market can only be around $2B.

As California and the rest of the nation stagger from massive layoffs and soaring unemployment, companies in Taiwan have largely opted to cut pay and work hours to deal with the economic crisis. The practice gives workers some security but, over time, employee morale still suffers.

If there's one mind-set prospective investors in emerging markets should have this year—or perhaps the next two years—it's aggressive patience. Yes, these markets are volatile and highly correlated to the US and other developed markets at the moment, but over time the fundamentals, especially growth rates above those of the developed world, in these countries will reassert themselves.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said the current year will be the most difficult the country has faced this century because of the global economic crisis.

US stocks headed for a sharp rebound at the open on Wednesday after a sell-off the previous session left indexes at 12-year lows, with a jump in the price of oil and other commodities spurring energy and natural resource stocks.

Microsoft may create up to 3,000 jobs as it raises investment in research and development by $1 billion this year amid a financial crisis that has also taken its toll on the software giant.

Stupid, wasteful and ineffective — and a shameless attempt to woo voters, many Japanese say. Prime Minister Taro Aso is touting a one-time cash handout of 12,000 yen, or about $120 per person, as the centerpiece of a stimulus package to revive the world's second-largest economy, mired in one of its worst slumps since World War II. Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan has given out about $100 per person in spending vouchers.

Lord Malloch-Brown, the foreign office minister, said the emerging economies were more important than ever in tackling the world's problems. "[Asian countries] want to know that we are not just going to ask Asia to help with the recovery then go back to our bad old transatlantic ways."

The economy contracted at a staggering 6.2% pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into recession.

As co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel — as well as Intel's former chief executive and chairman — Gordon Moore has monitored the evolution of the computer-chip industry for more than half a century. "I don't have any crystal ball on that. Its seems like it's still going down. It's probably going to be 2010, more or less. I don't think we're falling off the edge of the Earth. But it's been a terrible shock to the whole system".

President Barack Obama has launched a bid to transform the US political landscape, with a 3.55-trillion-dollar budget mapping out the sweeping scale of his administration's ambitions. The document handed to Congress bristled with spending on healthcare, climate change, the military and education, included a rosy prediction of a return to growth next year and raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

The US housing market slump is nowhere near over and home prices will probably keep falling well into next year, one of the property market's best-known economists said.

Not since Franklin Roosevelt delivered his first fireside chat, eight days into his presidency, have Americans been more hungry -- and more desperate -- for economic leadership. And not since FDR has there been an economic agenda as bold or ambitious, or as likely to reshape American capitalism. Just a month in office, Obama has already pushed through additional fiscal stimulus equal to 5% of the country's economic output.

China reaffirmed on Monday that it will ramp up public spending and try to simulate domestic demand to ensure stable growth as the global financial crisis weighs on the economy.

US Consumer prices rose in January for the first time in six months as energy costs rebounded, government data showed on Friday, easing fears of deflation amid a severe economic downturn.

With the global recession hanging over economies in Asia, market researchers at IDC expect overall IT services growth in the region to slow down, forcing organizations to move back to basics with an increased focus on cost management and less so on business transformation projects.

An estimated 2,000 people attended the job expo hosted by the Richmond Times-Dispatch at its Hanover County production plant. The event was held from 9am to 1pm. Many described a job market that is becoming more competitive as the economic recession continues.

Wal-Mart Stores has reported that fourth-quarter sales rose, while profit fell - both missing analyst estimates.

Tech salaries are growing, even as the economic pressures force industry-wide layoffs, according to Dice.com, a leading career site for technology and engineering professionals. According to a survey of more than 19,000 technology workers between August and November 2008, Dice tracked a 4.6% increase in average pay from the previous year -- and a rate at more than twice that for electrical engineers.

The International Energy Agency has said there could be an oil supply crunch from 2010 once global demand recovers and the impact of delayed investment crimps future supplies.

The latest figures paint a gloomy picture of the US economy. Consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of the economy, fell for the second quarter in a row, by 3.5%. Most economic forecasters are predicting that the US slowdown will last around two years, with the economy returning to weak growth by 2010.

Japan's economy contracted by 3.3% in the last quarter of last year - its worst showing since the oil crisis of the 1970s, official figures show.

Germany's economy shrank by 2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the previous quarter, its worst quarterly performance since 1990. This was the third consecutive quarterly drop in Europe's biggest economy, according to the initial data from the Federal Statistics Office.

China's exports fell more than expected in January, down 17.5% from a year earlier, marking the biggest drop in more than 10 years, figures have shown. Analysts say the slowdown could prompt more factory closures and job losses, while some argue that this worsening trend will continue, as the world economy contracts.

Sales at US retailers rebounded in January after six consecutive months of declines, rising 1% as stores cut prices and offered giveaways and three-for-one deals to move inventory after a dismal holiday shopping season, the government reported Thursday. Sales at electronics and appliance stores rose 1.6%.

Democratic leadership sources say they have worked out a way around the disagreement between the Senate and House over education funding in the economic stimulus bill.

The new federal rules limiting executive compensation announced by President Obama Wednesday may affect only a handful of the nation's most battered financial institutions currently.

Planned layoffs at US firms in January reached their highest monthly level in seven years, according to a report released on Wednesday, as the more than year-old US recession took an increasingly heavy toll on employment.

Unlike past US recessions, chipmakers can't count on boosting overseas sales this time because the economic slowdown has so quickly gone global. Slowing exports is a challenge for the chipmakers, which do most sales overseas. Three of the largest US chipmakers are taking different tacks to cut manufacturing costs in the face of a steep global recession.

Asia's export-driven economies had benefited more than any other region from America's consumer boom, so its manufacturers were bound to be hit hard by the sudden downward lurch. Asia's low rate of consumption and borrowing means that it has huge scope to make consumption the engine of growth over the next decade.

The politicians are primarily concerned with restoring demand enough to reverse the rising trend in unemployment; for many of the corporate leaders, ensuring the survival of their firms takes precedence over saving jobs. The difficult decision they face is not whether to cut, but how to do so in a way that strengthens their competitive position in the medium term rather than seriously damaging it.

The World Economic Forum has ended with a call to rebuild the global economic system. For five days, more than 2,000 business and political leaders discussed what some here called the "crisis of capitalism". However, most discussions described the problems, not solutions.

CEOs from US-based leading technology companies, in a meeting with President Obama, came out strongly in support of the economic recovery package moving through Congress and called for policies that make the US the most attractive destination for businesses, workers and capital.

South Korea denied a report it would offer for sale stakes in chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor and 17 other companies via international auction, but confirmed plans to attract investment into state-run assets. The Asia's fourth-largest economy posted its second-biggest contraction on record in the last quarter of 2008.

Davos leaders have traditionally looked to the long term and have largely been keen on helping all nations of the world to benefit from economic development. But with politicians and businesses tied up with short term concerns about the economic crisis there's a risk at least that efforts to spread development and to ward against the threat of climate change may go on hold, at least for a time.