Forbes says sales of Daimler AG's Smart car are down 60 per cent this yearPHILIPPE WOJAZER
A roundup of the best economic posts on the Web
How to kill small car sales
Another victim of the recession - small, gas-sipping cars. Thanks to lower gasoline prices, sales of small cars and trucks are going in opposite directions in the United States.
Block those metaphors
Paul Krugman in The New York Times calls for an end to the economic jargon surrounding U.S. tax cuts
"And bad metaphors make for bad policy. The idea that the economic engine is going to catch or the patient rise from his sickbed any day now encourages policy makers to settle for sloppy, short-term measures when the economy really needs well-designed, sustained support."
The declining demand for men
Also from the NYT, a closer look at the 'mancession.'
"Men seem to be more reluctant to enter women's jobs - which typically pay less for the same credentials - than women to enter men's jobs. Will prolonged high unemployment among men overcome their reluctance?"
Lagos set to pass Cairo as Africa's most populated city
The Economist's chart of the day shows the increasing urbanization of Africa.
Fiscal follies
Nouriel Roubini fears 2011 will feature "debt depression" and the prospect of "disorderly sovereign and private-sector defaults".
"In the US, we have the worst of all possible worlds. On one hand, stimulus had become a dirty word - even within the Obama administration - well before the Republicans' mid-term election victory ruled out another round altogether. On the other hand, medium-term consolidation will be all but impossible in America's current atmosphere of hyper-partisanship, with Republicans blocking any tax increase and Democrats resisting reforms of entitlement spending. Nor is there any pressure from bond markets to concentrate the minds of policymakers."