WFrom late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis in some European states developed, with the situation becoming particularly tense in early 2010. Greece was most acutely affected, but fellow Eurozone members Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain were also significantly affected. In the EU, especially in countries where sovereign debt has increased sharply due to bank bailouts, a crisis of confidence has emerged with the widening of bond yield spreads and risk insurance on credit default swaps between these countries and other EU members, most importantly Germany.
WFollowing the 2007–2008 world food price crisis and a short lull in high prices during 2009, food prices around the world again started to rise in 2010.
WHarrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099, it is the 9th most populous city in the Commonwealth. According to 2020 statistics provided by the Census Bureau, the population is 51.5% Black or African American, 34.8% White, 4.6% Asian, and 0.5% Native American while 4.1% identify as two or more races. Those identifying as Hispanic or Latino comprise 21.8%, while those identifying as White alone, not Hispanic or Latino comprise 24.1%. It lies on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, 107 miles (172 km) west of Philadelphia. Harrisburg is one of two anchor cities of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area, which had a 2020 population of 591,712, making it the fourth most populous metropolitan area in Pennsylvania and 98th most populous in the United States. It is the largest city of the Harrisburg–York–Lebanon, PA Combined Statistical Area, also known as the Lower Susquehanna Valley region.
WJefferson County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama, located in the central portion of the state. As of the 2020 census, its population was 674,721. Its county seat is Birmingham. Its rapid growth as an industrial city in the 20th century, based on heavy manufacturing in steel and iron, established its dominance. Jefferson County is the central county of the Birmingham-Hoover, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area.
WIn December 2009, Comcast announced its intent to acquire a majority stake in the media conglomerate NBCUniversal from General Electric (GE). The planned acquisition was subject to scrutiny from activists and government officials; their concerns primarily surrounded the potential effects of the vertical integration that the acquisition could create, as Comcast is also heavily involved in cable television and internet services in many media markets. The deal went through, resulting in Comcast owning 51% of the company until March 2013, when GE divested its stake to give Comcast sole ownership. Comcast and mass media corporation NBCUniversal is headquartered in New York City at the Rockefeller Plaza skyscraper.
WThe 2011 UBS rogue trader scandal caused a loss of over US$2 billion at Swiss bank UBS, as a result of unauthorized trading performed by Kweku Adoboli, a director of the bank's Global Synthetic Equities Trading team in London in early September 2011.
WCentral Falls is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,583 at the 2020 census. With an area of only 1.29 square miles (3.3 km2), it is the smallest and most densely populated city in the smallest state, and the 27th most densely populated incorporated place in the United States. It is also one of only four incorporated places in New England that have a higher population density than the city of Boston. The city takes its name from a waterfall on the Blackstone River.
WThe Coinage (Measurement) Act 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
WThe Euro-Plus Pact was adopted in March 2011 under EU's Open Method of Coordination, as an intergovernmental agreement between all member states of the European Union, in which concrete commitments were made to be working continuously within a new commonly agreed political general framework for the implementation of structural reforms intended to improve competitiveness, employment, financial stability and the fiscal strength of each country. The plan was advocated by the French and German governments as one of many needed political responses to strengthen the EMU in areas which the European sovereign-debt crisis had revealed as being too poorly constructed.
WThe European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that has been taking place in the European Union (EU) since the end of 2009. Several eurozone member states were unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks under their national supervision without the assistance of third parties like other eurozone countries, the European Central Bank (ECB), or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
WThe Icelandic financial crisis was a major economic and political event in Iceland that involved the default of all three of the country's major privately owned commercial banks in late 2008, following their difficulties in refinancing their short-term debt and a run on deposits in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Relative to the size of its economy, Iceland's systemic banking collapse was the largest experienced by any country in economic history. The crisis led to a severe economic slump in 2008–2010 and significant political unrest.
WThe 2011 Israeli social justice protests, which are also referred to by various other names in the media, were a series of demonstrations in Israel beginning in July 2011 involving hundreds of thousands of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds opposing the continuing rise in the cost of living and the deterioration of public services such as health and education. A common rallying cry at the demonstrations was the chant; "The people demand social justice!".
WOccupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries.
WProject Merlin is an agreement between the British Government of David Cameron and four of the major high street banks in the United Kingdom. These banks are Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC. The agreement covers aspects of banking activity, notably lending, pay and bonuses with the intention of promoting lending to businesses, particularly small businesses, curbing the size of bankers' bonuses and promoting transparency with regards to executive pay. The agreement was finalised on 9 February 2011.
WThinking, Fast and Slow is a 2011 book by Israeli psychologist Daniel Kahneman.
WThe 2011 World Development Report: Conflict, Security and Development (WDR) is a document by the World Bank on the challenges organised violence poses to the advancement of less developed countries. The report finds that over the last 30 years poverty has been reduced for most of the world's population - but this is not the case for the estimated 1.5 billion people living in countries blighted by on-going conflict. Not one low income country suffering from on-going violence has achieved a single Millennium Development Goal. Once mass violence takes root in a society, it can take a generation or more to restore stability.