The U.S. budget deficit is increasing, and could reach $9 trillion over the next 10 years. C. Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics discusses the possibility of a fall in the value of the dollar.

After two days of high-level U.S.-China talks, the Obama administration agreed to reduce the U.S. deficit once the financial crisis has abated. Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute discusses the evolving economic relationship between the two countries.

In 1998, just six Chinese companies were on the Fortune 500 global list of the world's largest companies, while 185 American companies were included. Ten years later, 37 Chinese companies made the list, while U.S. companies had decreased to 140. Brian Dumaine of Fortune magazine discusses this rise and China's role in recovery from the global recession.

There are a lot of problems surrounding the current G-8 summit in Italy, writes Worldfocus blogger Nina Hachigian, but the underlying trouble is the G-8 itself. The world simply needs a different set of countries at the high table of global governance to tackle today's challenges.

Unemployment rates in the U.S. and Canada are approaching double digits, but these figures pale to those in Liberia, where the official unemployment rate stands at 85 percent. A Worldfocus contributing blogger in Monrovia describes how Liberians get by, even if they are not formally employed.