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The article discusses the Asian rice industry in relation to the author's claim that governments in places such as Indonesia cause their own citizens to become poorer by interfering in the rice market as of 2015. According to the article, the wholesale cost of rice is higher in Indonesia than Cambodia due to Indonesia's role as a net importer of rice and Cambodia's ability to grow more rice than the nation needs. Transportation costs, import subsidies, and tariffs are also examined.

The article explores the high poverty rate in California despite its developed economy. According to statistics, California has 7.4 million poor people based on the official poverty line. The impact of the high number of undocumented immigrants on the economy of California is discussed, as well as the success of the state's high technology industry and the motion picture industry.

The article focuses on the conditions for the poor in Bangladesh in 2012. Topics include the economic conditions within Bangladesh in 2012, the contraction of private sector, and the improvement of health care and education in the country. Information is provided on the child and maternal mortality rate and the impact of family planning on the stability of women.

The article looks at the connection between natural disasters and poverty in Pakistan. Natural disasters including a 2005 earthquake, a 2010 flood, and a 2011 monsoon are mentioned. The low government tax rate's impact on raising charity donations is considered. The author posits that these disasters have a relatively small effect on Pakistan's economic growth because they typically affect the poorest people in the country, whose contribution to the gross domestic product is negligible.

The article considers companies in the U.S. and other developed countries which offer products and services for poorer consumers. It is noted that the real income of U.S. consumers has declined since 2005, and that 44 million persons have an income below the government definition of poverty, making this group a significant market. The fast food restaurant chain company McDonald's, whose sales have increased annually since 2006, is cited as an example.

The article reports that although raising the minimum wage in the U. S. makes political sense, it will likely do little to help the poor. Economists and politicians cite conflicting studies saying that minimum wage increases impact employment numbers, high-school dropout rates and wages later in life. Teenagers are the main beneficiaries of a higher minimum wage.

The article reports that disgruntled people in Hong Kong have taken to throwing trash out their windows to relieve their emotions. A number of people have been taken to emergency rooms with scissors lodged in their skulls. Everything from cigarette butts to matresses have been seen flying from the windows of housing estates. The windows themselves are also falling, as the post-SARS economic recovery has failed to improve the lot of the poor.

The article discusses poverty in Latin America. All but a wretched pair (Haiti and Nicaragua) of Latin American countries are officially classed as "middle-income" and all (except Cuba) are democracies. Yet Latin America has another trait: a hugely unequal distribution of income and wealth. A disproportionately large number of Latin Americans are poor. The region's democratic governments have started to make innovative efforts to tackle poverty. These center on programs that offer poor families cash payments on condition, for example, that they keep their children in school and take them for regular health check-ups. In Mexico, 5 million families now get such payments, and 7.5 million in Brazil.

The author reports that, while Bosnia continues to face serious economic and political challenges, the country is beginning to emerge from the devastation caused by war. The people of Bosnia must be among the gloomiest in Europe. Polls show that two-thirds of the young want to emigrate; three-quarters think that the economy is going downhill; politicians are widely considered to be corrupt; and political apathy is at an all-time high. The official unemployment rate is running at almost 40%. And yet for all the surface gloom, the underlying picture is surprisingly good. Walk around Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital, or Banja Luka, capital of the Serb republic, and the streets are bustling. One reason, according to Dirk Reinermann, the World Bank's representative in Sarajevo, is that, by the Bank's reckoning, only 16% of Bosnians have no work at all. Mr Reinermann adds that he knows of no other post-war country where GDP has recovered to 80% of what it was before the war within eight years. Most infrastructure has been rebuilt. Naturally there is much left to do--not least the capture of such suspected war criminals as Radovan Karadzic, still believed to be at large in the Serb republic. But in November the European Commission accepted that the country had made significant progress towards European Union accession. In response to voters' gloom, politicians have come to realise that jobs and money matter more than flags. On this basis, the sooner they streamline the country's government, the faster they can move towards the EU and other western clubs that they want to join, such as NATO.

Presents information on the number of poor people in the United States for October of 1998. Reduction in the number below the poverty line; No year-to-year change in overall income inequality; Fewer blacks and Hispanics among the nation's poor; Comments from Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation on the state of the US poor.

Discusses the difference of lifestyles in Cambodia, where city-dwellers live like kings while the peasants in the country live in horrible poverty. Response of the Khmer Rouge, a peasant guerrilla group; Details.