Paris has set aside €100 million in stimulus funds earmarked for what the French like to call their cultural patrimony, The New York Times reported. It is a French twist on how to overcome the global downturn, spending borrowed money avidly to beautify the nation even as it also races ahead of the United States in more classic Keynesian ways: fixing potholes, upgrading railroads and pursuing other “shovel ready” projects.

Bankrupt commercial printer Quebecor World Inc on Tuesday gained approval of its bankruptcy reorganization plan from judges in the United States and Canada, clearing the way for the company to exit bankruptcy protection. Quebecor World, which expects to emerge from its insolvency proceedings in July, prints books, magazines, directories and advertising materials. It filed for court protection in January 2008 and has about 20,000 employees. In a rare joint cross-border hearing conducted via video teleconference, Judge James Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan also gave U.S.

Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, said Tuesday that an official he had appointed had secured lines of credit worth $950 million from China, President Robert Mugabe’s longtime ally, The New York Times reported. Mr. Mugabe’s party has mocked Mr. Tsvangirai for failing to bring home much aid from his three-week tour of the United States and Europe. Zimbabwe’s government — a virtually bankrupt contraption led by Mr. Mugabe and his rival, Mr. Tsvangirai — needs an estimated $8 billion to rebuild the country’s ruined economy.

Strains in pensions systems, in both private and public provision, threaten to turn the financial crisis of the past two years into a social crisis lasting for decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Tuesday. In its annual analysis of the health of pensions systems globally, the Paris-based organisation found private pension plans lost 23 per cent of their value last year, while higher unemployment “leaves little room for more generous public pensions”, the Financial Times reported.

Beijing is diversifying its overseas investments and pressing U.S. officials for an "exit strategy" from the ultra-loose fiscal and monetary policies that China fears will eventually inflate away the value of its U.S. bond holdings and fell the dollar. But China's pragmatic policymakers also know there is no practical alternative to the dollar as the world's main reserve currency.

Canadian doormaker Masonite International Inc said on Tuesday it had completed a financial restructuring allowing it to emerge from bankruptcy protection in both the United States and Canada, Reuters reported. The company had filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in Canada, on March 16.

The chairman of General Motors Argentina, Edgar Lourencon, confirmed that the automaker would not lay off personnel in the country, a day after its mother company in the United States filed for bankruptcy protection, the Buenos Aires Herald reported. Dismissing any rumours about the future of the company, the head of the local branch of GM meanwhile announced that the company is currently developing a new model to be produced in a plant in Santa Fe, which will be exported to the rest of the countries of the Mercosur.

Hundreds of unionized employees at AbitibiBowater will likely soon be able to take long-planned early retirements after a Quebec judge ruled illegal the company’s unilateral plan to amend their labour contracts, The Canadian Press reported. Justice Clement Gascon said the insolvent forestry company couldn’t prevent eligible workers from exercising their right to retirement. "None of the arguments (by AbitibiBowater) justify the illegality of the gestures it made," Gascon said Monday in a scathing verbal ruling.

Kentucky-based R.J. Corman Railroad Group has a deal to buy Quebec’s ailing Railpower Technologies, a maker of “clean” locomotives and other products, and then sell back some pieces to a group of Railpower managers, The Journal of Commerce reported. The companies said they have a binding agreement, under which Corman obtains the Canadian firm that is operating under court protection and its U.S.

Canada's government will take an ownership stake in troubled automaker Chrysler in exchange for more than $2 billion in loans, under a sweeping North American rescue plan, government officials said on Thursday. Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States earlier in the day and also entered into an alliance with Italian automaker Fiat SpA. Ottawa and Washington demanded the Detroit company partner with Fiat by Thursday as a condition for funding.