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Reports that President Barack Obama will push for a global stimulus are right on time: The World Bank is forecasting that the global economy will shrink this year for the first time since the 1940s. The bank predicts that, due to the economic crisis, some 46 million people will be pushed into poverty by the end of 2009. The World Bank president said action must be taken “to avoid social and political unrest” and called on developed nations to devote 0.7 percent of stimulus program funds toward a new Vulnerability Fund for developing countries, only one quarter of which have the ability to launch their own programs.