Britannia Radio

UK: 100,000 WORKERS FORCED OUT AT 65: The figure emerged from a survey of almost 1,000 people aged between 60 and 70, suggesting that employers were using forced retirement as a “cheap alternative” to redundancy.

Concerns grow over China's sale of US bonds: Evidence is mounting that Chinese sales of US Treasury bonds over recent months are intended as a warning shot to Washington over escalating political disputes rather than being part of a routine portfolio shift as thought at first.

End of the road for GM's Hummer: General Motors's struggling Hummer brand appears to be on its way out after Chinese regulators rejected a $150m bid for it by a Chinese heavy machinery maker.

Blue-collar workers hanging on by thread: The workers punch the clock at precisely 7:30 a.m., not a minute later since they would be docked 14 minutes and nobody in America works 14 minutes for free. A quiet resignation settles over them as the roar of the screw grinding machines rev up. Want it or not, they need to be here. After this place, there is no place. Not in today's America.

New U.S. Homes Sales Plunged to Record Low in January: The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales dropped 11.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 309,000 units, the lowest level on records going back nearly a half century

Underwater Mortgages Hit 11.3 Million: Eleven million, three hundreds thousand homes had underwater mortgages as of the fourth quarter of last year. That number represent 24% of all residential homes loans in America.

U.S. economy is a shambles, with no improvement in sight: President Obama's claim that a second depression isn't possible doesn't square with the relevant numbers

Double Dip Recession Risk Is Near: CIO: The global economy looks set to plunge back into recession as the sovereign debt pressure currently rocking Europe intensifies, Ashok Shah, CIO of London & Capital, told CNBC Wednesday.