ECONOMICS

*europe is taking a play from US media playbook, "less worse" means GREAT
Joblessness in U.K. reaches 2.26 million in Q1
U.K. unemployment hit 2.26 million in the first quarter, a 12-year high, but fell short of the 2.279 million anticipated by economists, according to the Office for National Statistics. The data indicate unemployment growth is slowing down. The Times (London) (17 Jun.)
*China is going to have a bubble (if not already) and it will bust and their recession will make ours look like child's play so invest in China with great caution...
World Bank boosts growth forecast for China to 7.2%
Concluding that China's economic stimulus is likely to be successful, the World Bank raised its growth forecast for the country's GDP this year from 6.5% to 7.2%. At the same time, the bank questioned how long China can stimulate growth while much of the rest of the world remains in a recession. "There are limits to how much and how long China's growth can diverge from global growth based on government-influenced spending," said Ardo Hansson, the World Bank's lead economist for China. Financial Times (free content) (18 Jun.)

*a lost decade and 20 years of no return stock markets is not my idea of a model I should be following, but who am I....
Japan's success in recapitalizing banks could be model
Takafumi Sato, commissioner of Japan's Financial Services Agency, said regulators worldwide could use the country's success in bank recapitalizations as a model. "The fact that the Japanese authorities made a good business out of this whole operation could be used to persuade the people that the use of public money is not to save the individual banks but to save the financial system as a whole," Sato said. "If our fellow regulators use it that way, we would be very happy." Financial Times (free registration) (17 Jun.)