More inclusive global value chains can advance productivity and growth in developing countries

10/07/2017

Global value chains (GVCs) are transforming world trade, but must be more inclusive if they are to deliver greater benefits to developing countries and smaller companies, according to a new report from the World Bank Group, WTO, OECD, Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO) and the Research Center of Global Value Chains of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). GVCs create new opportunities for developing countries, increase their participation in global markets and enable them to diversify exports. But while global value chains have helped many developing countries to advance, some countries have benefitted more than others, with some countries, small- and medium-sized firms, and workers in developed and developing economies still being left out. The Global Value Chain Development Report 2017 analyzes new data to help policy makers and others understand global trade’s increasing complexity and consider policies that can make GVCs more inclusive.

“Global value chains are helping to advance the development process in many countries, including developing countries where they contribute to increased productivity, more international trade and faster growth, all of which benefit entire populations. Our report shows how countries can maximize the benefits of GVCs by moving to higher-value added activities, lowering trade costs and making GVCs more inclusive,” said Anabel Gonzalez, Senior Director for the World Bank Group’s Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice.

A growing number of people think their job is useless. Time to rethink the meaning of work

12/04/2017, by Rutger Bregman

A great deal has been written in recent years about the perils of automation. With predicted mass unemployment, declining wages, and increasing inequality, clearly we should all be afraid.

By now it’s no longer just the Silicon Valley trend watchers and technoprophets who are apprehensive. In a study that has already racked up several hundred citations, scholars at Oxford University have estimated that no less than 47% of all American jobs and 54% of those in Europe are at a high risk of being usurped by machines. And not in a hundred years or so, but in the next 20. “The only real difference between enthusiasts and skeptics is a time frame,” notes a New York University professor. “But a century from now, nobody will much care about how long it took, only what happened next.”

I admit, we’ve heard it all before. Employees have been worrying about the rising tide of automation for 200 years now, and for 200 years employers have been assuring them that new jobs will naturally materialize to take their place. After all, if you look at the year 1800, some 74% of all Americans were farmers, whereas by 1900 this figure was down to 31%, and by 2000 to a mere 3%. Yet this hasn’t led to mass unemployment. In 1930, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes was predicting that we’d all be working just 15-hour weeks by the year 2030. Yet, since the 1980s, work has only been taking up more of our time, bringing waves of burnouts and stress in its wake.

Meanwhile, the crux of the issue isn’t even being discussed. The real question we should be asking ourselves is: what actually constitutes “work” in this day and age?

The myth of a ‘Palestinian economy’

06/07/2017, by Nur Arafeh

Though it is rumoured that US President Donald Trump may withdraw from Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner’s fruitless meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah, certain policies touted by Trump are likely to continue regardless. For instance, Trump recently declared that he welcomed measures to “unlock the Palestinian economy“.

These measures, approved by Israel, include facilitating the travel of Palestinians between Jordan and the West Bank; zoning Israeli-occupied land in the West Bank for Palestinian residential, agricultural, and industrial use; developing two industrial zones; and expanding hours of operation at checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel to ease movement for Palestinians.

In the meantime, Israel continues to place the Gaza Strip in an economic stranglehold. It is currently suffering from a debilitating electricity crisis.

Such economic measures, at least in regard to the West Bank, are based on the assumption that a lack of Palestinian prosperity is the main cause of the conflict.The claim goes that economic success and joint economic projects between Israelis and Palestinians will improve the lives of Palestinians and pave the way for peace.

Los peligros de la “flexiseguridad”: crónica de un desastre anunciado

15/06/2017, by Adoración Guamán

La precarización del trabajo en España producto de la reforma normativa “flexibilizadora” redujo de manera importante la calidad de empleo.

Hace ya varias décadas que las normas que regulan las relaciones de trabajo remunerado, el Derecho del Trabajo, están sufriendo una profunda mutación genética y no precisamente hacia una mejora de las condiciones de vida de las mayorías sociales. El discurso bajo el cual se ha camuflado la destrucción de los derechos laborales tiene un nombre: flexiseguridad.

Esta mutación hacia la precariedad ha sido especialmente acusada en los últimos años y se ha producido en particular en los países europeos caracterizados por tener normas laborales orientadas a proteger a la clase trabajadora y a garantizarlos derechos colectivos de las organizaciones de los trabajadores y trabajadoras. Con el objetivo de destruir esta voluntad protectora, y en un caldo de cultivo perfecto (el desempleo masivo y las recurrentes crisis económicas) en los países de la Europa del antiguo estado del bienestar, se ha promovido el discurso suicida de que la reducción de los derechos de las y los asalariados es el único medio para alcanzar un mayor nivel de bienestar económico. El derecho del trabajo sería, según el discurso proveniente de los sectores empresariales y de las instituciones financieras, el culpable de la elevada tasa de destrucción del empleo.Las normas laborales son, en opinión de estos sectores económicos, anticuadas y rígidas, un obstáculo para las “exigencias de flexibilidad de las empresas”.

[KR1091] Keiser Report: ‘Oligarchic America’

02/07/2017, by Stacy Herbert

“We discuss the emergence of ‘oligarchic America’ as Amazon eats Whole Foods. In the second half, Max interviews economist and columnist, Alejandro Nadal, about Trump’s wall and exiting from the Nafta trade deal.”

Fonte: Max Keiser

Por que Rússia constrói ilhas artificiais no mar de Barents

18/06/2017

O documento destaca que as faixas de terra no mar de Barents serão utilizadas para a fabricação de instalações marítimas de grande capacidade. A iniciativa é parte de um projeto de grande escala para explorar novos campos de gás em Yamal, executado pela empresa de energia Novatek. O centro vai fabricar equipamento marítimo para o gás natural liquefeito(GNL), incluindo o armazenamento, o transporte e instalações de manutenção.

O projeto será financiado pelo Estaleiro de Kola, com custo total estimado chegando a mais de 25 bilhões de rublos (mais de R$ 1,3 bilhão).

“A construção do centro irá criar cerca de 10.000 postos de trabalho, aumentar as receitas fiscais, atrair novos investimentos para a região e desenvolver altas tecnologias”, destaca o documento.

When Trump makes us nostalgic for the Bush years

28/06/2017, by Larry Beinhart

What is truly astonishing is how each Republican president makes us nostalgic for the one before.

Remember George W Bush. A mere nine years ago he was the worst president we’ve ever had. He started two wars he couldn’t win, destabilising the Middle East and leaving it in a state of what appears to be permanent multi-sided civil wars. While he was doing that, he pursued economic policies that led to a worldwide financial implosion followed by the Great Recession.

And what a liar. Remember “weapons of mass destruction” and the connections between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein?

But at least W’s lies were professionally produced. They were crafted and honed before he told them. Sure, they were backed by fake facts, but they were carefully selected so as not to have been refuted earlier in the same sentence. Or by a tweet the next day. They were lies a guy could repeat, smoothly, for years, and even, when the winds of reality exposed actual facts, a guy could regretfully claim that he was fooled along with all the rest of us.

George W Bush made his dad, George H W Bush, look really good – almost great – by comparison. He was a real old-fashioned kind of president, fact-based by nature, who only went the fiction route when politics forced him to. For example, he knew Reaganomics – the policies later embraced by his son – was Voodoo Economics and that the Laffer curve, so aptly named, was laughable. He only embraced these policies when his party made him swear by them. When they did what they were bound to do – produce massive deficits and a recession – he raised taxes, improving the economy and ruining his political career.

He knew how to win a war, get out when it was over, and leave the place sufficiently intact that he didn’t have to stay to keep order. He even knew how to pay for it.