European officials predicted weak growth for their continental economy at 0.7% which, from last year’s 4% contraction, is a marked increase. These expectations come from improved export rates, but investment remains weak and there are other problems within the E.U.

Greece is the largest one. The Mediterranean country finds itself in a position similar to American International Group (A.I.G.) when credit-default swaps caused by banks and hedge funders bet on defaulting. If Greece defaults on its debts, the owners of these swaps stand to profit hugely. This seems to be, unfortunately, a vicious circle. As the banks and investors invest in Greek debt, the cost of insuring this debt rises. Then bond investors who see these signs  refuse Greek debt, making it more difficult for the country to borrow monies.

Others argue that the Greeks are to blame for hiding their debt in the first place, using “creative accounting” to do so. In any event, a Greek default could spread ruin to other shaky economies, like those of Portugal and Spain.  While the potential for a Greek bailout by a wealthier country like Germany is slim, Ireland, recently in a similar position, was able to build international trust back by cutting its national spending and reforming its institutions.

Ben Bernanke reaffirmed today the fact that the recession will continue to lag in its rebound. He does not plan to raise government interest rates for a long while – at least six months. Bernanke is working towards decreasing the possibility for inflation by restricting government interest rates.

In the meanwhile, the percentage of long term unemployed – those who have been out of work for six months or more – has risen sharply. Today there are more than six million who find themselves in this predicament, and when President Obama’s proposal to maintain unemployment checks goes through Congress in April, the stakes of 2.7 million unemployed will be determined.  Particularly, middle aged women have suffered from this recession, especially those with limited or no education, as technology has taken their resources from them. Moreover, the rate at which new jobs have been created since the 1950′s has gradually decreased, and all the while it has taken longer for post-recession economies to return to pre-recession rates of hiring.

The diminishment of monies to small businesses has only furthered the hiring scare. Bernanke hinted that until the economy recovers, small businesses will not be granted the loans they need to expand and continue hiring.  Bottom line: there is still a long road ahead.

Successful business people have certain habits that allow them to be successful. The most prominent is organization. Success means being able to sort what is important to you according to your responsibilities. For example, for most highly successful people, work comes first, because if it is ignored, then there will be grand negative repercussions. Being able to organize your life around work is necessary, because factors like family and friends, exercise, and eating right are also important, and have to be built in to a functioning schedule.

Next is time management. This is similar to organization but actually involves a different set of skills. The key here is to never be bored. Boredom is a result of being dissatisfied with what it is that you’re doing. So if you can’t find something on TV, read a book. Sure you may want to relax and hang out, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be constructive. Practice a musical instrument, clean your house, or begin a collection. As long as you have something that you enjoy doing, you’ll never be bored, and after that, you can focus on being efficient with what needs to be done.

So if you try to work on organization and time management, guaranteed, you will feel, and probably become, more successful.

In today’s fast-moving digital world, CEOs of companies are becoming younger and younger. Some common traits many successful CEOs under 40 share are their early entrepreneurial spirits. They had good ideas young and built on them. They started their companies young, and many of them began running them as publicly traded entities.  Here are just a few success stories:

• Kevin Plank, 37: Invented Under Armour his senior year of college. Tired of sweaty T-shirts after football practice, he developed the prototype for his moisture wicking Polyester/Lycra Blend T-shirt and grew from their ever since.

• Michael G. Rubin, 37: Started a Ski Store when he was 12, dropped out of college to start KPR Sports, specializing in athletic shoes and apparel. He grew the company, took it public and in 2002 renamed it GSI Commerce. Today it has a market capitalization of $1.3 billion and builds and runs websites for retailers.

• Michael Chasen, 38: Started building computer programs for local businesses for $25 an hour while in high school, he eventually dropped out of law school to start Blackboard, the online learning company utilized by many academic institutions nationwide, and went public on the NASDAQ exchange in 2004. Today it has a market cap of $1.2 billion.