“Japan is sitting on a demographic time bomb,” warned Kazuhiro Asakawa, a business professor at Keio University. “An explosion is going to take place. They see it coming, but no one is doing enough about it.”

The U.S. Leading Economic Index (LEI) declined a sharp 0.7 percent in July, suggesting softer economy ahead despite lower gas prices, U.S. Conference Board reported here on Thursday.

There's no word yet on whether President Bush will sign the PRO-IP bill [ZDN] but big business and labor were united in favor of the bill that creates a copyright czar in the executive branch. The bill originally called for the Justice Dept. to prosecute

Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent. The latest snapshot of business conditions, released by the Labor

LABOR'S industrial relations changes are likely to trigger job losses and higher inflation according to Treasury's official analysis of the plan to scrap WorkChoices.