Strong profit figures from a number of the world’s largest container shippers are the latest indicators that global trade is indeed on the increase.

Three of the biggest shipping container lines have each reported stronger-than-expected results in their latest reporting periods, sending a big signal that world trade is on the rise—as we discussed here. Shipping containers carry around 90 percent of global merchandise trade goods.

China may be talking the talk of meeting energy reduction targets, but whether they will walk the walk long term remains to be seen.

And the impact of their energy reduction plan--to shut down 2,000 high-energy-use factories in heavy industries across the country--could have a big impact on the companies being targeted. Certainly a failure to comply will have a big effect.

According to a new survey by HSBC, small business confidence worldwide is on the rise.

HSBC's Small Business Confidence Monitor measures the outlook of small-to-medium size enterprises on local economic growth, capital investment plans and recruitment. The survey found that 84 percent of SMEs across the globe are optimistic about local economic growth, and many respondents intend to increase capital expenditure and hire new employees over the next six months.

In the midst of a slowdown of the US economic recovery and the possibility of a double-dip recession in Europe, US mid-sized businesses are remaining cautious about borrowing. But they are also relying less on cost cutting for growth, opting instead for international expansion, which could in turn boost the US economy.

According to a survey of nearly 650 US senior financial executives polled by HSBC's commercial banking division, US mid-sized businesses continue to express some caution, which is evident in their reluctance to take on new debt. "A surprising 60 percent of respondents stated that they have not applied for an increase in their credit line or for a new credit line in the past 12 months," HSBC said in a press release Monday.

 As employers begin to evaluate their health benefits in anticipation of open enrollment, a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that medical costs will rise 9 percent next year. It sounds like a lot--and it is.

The competing demands of growth and risk management have never seemed more in conflict than they are today, according to an informal poll of corporate investor relations directors by the Corporate Executive Board, www.executiveboard.com/finance/. These IR folks say investors are demanding that companies not miss out on growth opportunities even as they worry that firms have not done enough to shore themselves up against the recession's emergence.

A contradiction? You bet. As economies start to recover at very different rates, investors want to know how managers plan to take advantage of those recovering quickest, while not being exposed to those posing the most risk. Yet those economies may often be one and the same.

Global senior finance executives are becoming more confident about the economic recovery, but they are proceeding with caution when it comes to spending their company's cash, according to a survey released Monday.

Finance executives have started to invest in growth-oriented categories such as sales and product development, while selectively increasing discretionary spending in areas such as marketing and technology, according to the third annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business & Spending Monitor, which polled 479 senior finance executives from the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, Asia and Australia.

Two stories today say it all about the status of the economic recovery: Wall Street's doing fine, so who cares about Main Street?

Or at least that's the way the world seems to appear based on Bloomberg's reporting.

There are three pieces in the blogosphere today that touch on the fundamental problem with our economic system and why it will remain in a ditch, or just lurch onward to the next crisis, if it isn't addressed.

And that is monopoly. I'll leave aside the politics of that, which is addressed well enough by Thomas Franks over at the Wall Street Journal. In a nutshell, he warns of a return to feudalism, which I've done as well before.

The folks at CareerBuilder are desperately trying to put a positive spin on the dismal job market.

In a press release Wednesday the online employment firm celebrated the "resiliency" of Americans by pointing out the fact that 58 percent of those laid off in the last 12 months have found new positions. Nice try, guys.