The enormous economic potential of developing countries depends on their response to a global demographic shift--a response that'll fail without universal, affordable access to financial services.

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times gives a simultaneously ominous and intriguing description of a competition in economic development: India vs. China vs. Egypt.

Even on the farm, it pays to be young, but every year, young people are "escaping" their hometown rural communities to seek the "greener pastures" of city life. Meanwhile, global buyers of commodities such as coffee and cocoa beans worry about the aging farming workforce.