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High food prices, a currency in free fall, battered investors and slowing growth: India is facing a host of problems that have taken away the sheen from an economy that's had a decade of mostly strong growth.

Some of those problems are also hitting other key emerging markets, including Brazil, China and Russia. These so-called BRIC countries have been critical to driving the global economy in recent years, and they generally fared better than most other nations during the global economic downturn that hit in 2008.

They are all still growing, but not at rates they have been accustomed to.

Meanwhile, some of the world's developed countries, which were hard hit in recent years, are showing signs of life. The U.S. is growing, and the European Union and Japan are doing a bit better as well.

Here's a look at the shifting economic fortunes:

India

India, Bloomberg noted in an opinion piece, faces "a crisis of credibility." The process of economic reform that began in the 1990s, it said, "has ground to a halt." Corruption, red tape and subsidies are only one part of the problem.

India faces serious structural problems: As Mark Mobius of the investment firm Franklin Templeton told GlobalPost: "The surprising thing is the government doesn't seem to be acting with any degree of urgency."

Brazil

Recent protests reflected the frustrations many felt at rising prices and a slowing economy. The Wall Street Journal reported that Brazil would "remain a drag on the rest of the world for the next few years."

"The economy remains reliant on consumption, mainly fueled by credit, both of which are showing signs of exhaustion. Industry remains stagnant, and, for the last four months, unemployment has crept up from historical lows. Most worryingly, the hefty investments needed to overhaul Brazil's ramshackle infrastructure aren't coming through," the Journal said.

The College Kid

Rico Saccoccio is a junior at Fordham University in the Bronx. He's from a middle-class family in Connecticut and he spent the summer living at home with his parents, who cover about $15,000 a year in his college costs.

According to the U.S. government, Saccoccio is living in poverty. The $8,000 he earns doing odd jobs puts him well below the $11,945 poverty threshold for an individual. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that more than half of all college students who are living off campus and not at home are poor.

Saccoccio has lots of student loans and lives off campus in a Bronx apartment where the elevator, heat and hot water don't always work. Sometimes, he microwaves water in Tupperware to wash his hair.

Still, he says, "I really don't think of the 'poor college' kid as actually somebody who is in poverty. ... It's a temporary investment, and you don't have to live like you do in college after you leave school."

The Single Mom

Marion Matthew, a home health aide and single mom, also lives in the Bronx. She relies on a local food pantry and government benefits like food stamps and housing assistance to support herself and her 17-year-old son.

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It seems almost sacrilegious to question the wisdom of Julia Child.

First with her opus Mastering the Art of French Cooking and later with her PBS cooking show, the unflappably cheerful Child helped rescue home cookery from the clutches of convenience food. She taught us how to love — and take pride in — making something from scratch.

And yet, in at least one important kitchen skill, Child got it dead wrong: rinsing raw poultry.

"I just think it's a safer thing to do," Child tells viewers in one clip from The French Chef in which she shows us the ins and outs of roasting chicken.

"I'm sitting out in the room with everyone else," Sheridan points out. "I get no special treatment; there's no corner office."

That layout is by design. Sheridan says obliterating layers of management can leads to faster decision-making — and more important, motivated and empowered employees. At Menlo, the whole office, or sometimes subcommittees, decide who gets hired and who gets fired. Promotions, raises and budgeting are all decided by the team. The company's emphasis on transparency extends to details like the budget, which is posted on the wall for everyone to see. Email communication is frowned upon in favor of face-to-face talking.

"We've seen more of a trend toward flattening organizations," says Stephen Courtright, a Texas A&M business professor who specializes in studying self-governing offices. He says because the tech industry needs to adapt quickly and competition for the best employees is fierce, giving employees freedom helps them move much faster.

"Those industries are just unstable, rapidly changing, and they are trying to harness creativity and innovation. So it is that speed of the technology environment that has prompted organizations to rethink the way they structure the organization," Courtright says.

But it doesn't fix all problems. The gaming company Valve also boasts of being bossless and has gotten a lot of attention for it. But Jeri Ellsworth, a former programmer at Valve Corp., said her time there "felt a lot like high school."

"What I learned from Valve is that I don't think it works," Ellsworth told Wired magazine, in a podcast. "I think that if you give complete latitudes with no checks and balances, it's just human nature [employees] are gonna try to minimize the work they have to do and maximize the control they have."

At Menlo, the employees say the culture prevents that. "It really doesn't happen that way," says Menlo developer Eric Schreffler. "And that's partly because of the people who were here from the beginning."

As more companies shift to flatter structures, Courtright says workers should decide what rewards you're seeking at work when making job decisions.

"In a flat organization, moving up the chain of command is not the reward for performing well, because in a flat organization there's not a big chain of command to climb up. Basically the reward in a flat organization is being able to work on new and challenging creative tasks," Courtright says.

And that newness is what keeps Menlo's Lisa Ho coming back.

"We say we're a learning organization, so we're always learning and trying new things, which is very cool," she says.