Bloomberg It’s standard Republican criticism of President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy. Sure, unemployment has been halved from 10 percent in 2009 to 5 percent today. But that’s mainly because so many people have gotten so discouraged that they’ve just given up looking for work. Factor that in and real joblessness is a lot higher — 20 percent plus, ...

Quito / Reuters Latin America’s main oil exporters called on both OPEC and non-OPEC nations to take action to stabilize oil markets, in a timid statement that did not explicitly back an output freeze or offer more aggressive proposals to shore up slumping prices. Delegations from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela met in Quito in the run-up to a meeting ...

Bloomberg Canada’s dollar surged the most in three weeks after employers added more jobs in March than economists forecast, fanning speculation the Bank of Canada will refrain from cutting interest rates further. The loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known for the image of the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, gained 1.2 percent to C$1.2988 per U.S. dollar at ...