This week (Sept 15-21) in The Economist --

Chinese struggle with pork problem, too -- Apparently, a huge portion of the worrisome growth in Chinese consumer prices (up 6.5% in August, year over year) can be attributed to its pork shortage. New prosperity has driven up demand for pork, causing the government to dip into its strategic pork reserve. The Economist points to the inflationary pressures such price increases bring, and suggests it could be an important topic at the upcoming party congress.

The northeast African country of Niger has rich uranium deposits that could be very alluring as the world returns to nuclear power. However, these potential riches could make the ongoing rebellion even more difficult to resolve. Add to this the rumor of Qaddafi's involvement and the U.S.'s desire to root out terrorism in the Saharan region, and this situation could be moving to the front burner.

Union negotiations are news in the U.K. as well as the U.S. There, public employee unions are chaffing at new Prime Minister Gordon Brown's praise for union-busting Margaret Thatcher. An autumn of walkouts and dissension seem to be in the offing.

The magazine has an interesting piece about the European Economic Union, questioning how well it is serving its avowed raison d' etre. The piece uses the difference in energy strategies as an example of self-serving fragmentation -- the French are set on consolidation, while other countries, led by Denmark, are determined to follow the free market strategy. In this instance, all eyes are pointed east at Russia's growing power in the natural gas and oil markets.

Finally, the magazine compares the growth in the U.S. housing values to other countries, and interestingly finds that a number of them seem to have more inflated values, including Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Greece, Spain and Sweden. However, none have lending practices as liberal as ours.

First, it was Rupert Murdoch who offered $60 a shares for Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ), a premium of almost 80%. He has been rebuffed by the company's founding family, but they have finally agreed to a series of meetings with him to determine if The Wall Street Journal can keep its editorial independence.

Next came LA billionaire Ron Burkle. He made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the LA Times. Press reports are now circulating that he will join with labor unions at the publisher to make a bid.

And, yesterday Brian Tierney, who lead the successful effort to take Philadelphia's two dailies private, said he was interested in a possible offer.

What may be telling is that no other media company has made a bid for Dow Jones, although there is certainly a case to be made that it would fit well at McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), which owns BusinessWeek, or Pearson (NYSE: PSO), which owns The Financial Times and part of The Economist.

It may be that media firms are worried that a company that only has about $125 million in operating income can't justify a price of $5 billion.

On paper, the media companies are right. The deal does not pay for itself.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Hong Kong, the archetype for the most free form of capitalism, has an after-effect of such rapid growth: Pollution. Hong Kong's air pollutant concentrations are now 200% above the norms set by the World Health Organization, according to The Economist.

Hong Kong has been attempting to blame China for its environment woes, but a more recent study shows the economic powerhouse's problems are self-inflicted. The cause is from the usual suspects -- cars, ships and coal-fired power plants.

Hong Kong has taken the first step in evaluating the causes for pollution by hiring more credible firms to do the work. Why? The answer is business. Hong Kong is becoming increasingly known as a less desirable place to work, leading to much higher salaries to attract talented workers. Unless the pay is big, experienced execs do not want to go there.

Business is now forcing Hong Kong to go green, expect this to happen in other areas of the world as well.

During the third quarter of the year, Wal-Mart's stock went from $48.91 to $49.32, or 1.1%. In an unusual show of solidarity with WMT's investors, same-store sales rose only 1.8% in September. The company's customers must have called its investors on the phone.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) had all kinds of reasons why its store sales were not more robust. Comparisons with Katrina-related events were at the top of the list. But, the company had said that same-store figures would be up as much as 3%, so the news was not good.

The unavoidable truth for Wal-Mart is that sales in the US are, if the months are evened out, slowing sharply. The company is just too big with too many stores. The easy share is not longer there for the taking.

As investors combine the news in the US with the sale of Wal-Mart units in South Korea and Germany, the evidence is mounting that China has become an absolutely critical part of the company's ability to grow.