Global Investment to Plunge, Trade to Languish, on “Depressed” Demand: G-20 Trade Ministers

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Global Investment to Plunge, Trade to Languish, on “Depressed” Demand: G-20 Trade Ministers
by Wolf Richter • July 11, 2016


[font color="blue"]What China said the G-20 projected at the Shanghai meeting.[/font]

Facing “depressed market demand” and plunging global cross-border investment, the trade ministers of the G-20 countries along with folks from the IMF, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the World Trade Organization, among others, met in Shanghai this weekend to hash out a plan.

As at all these meetings, they reached an agreement, of sorts. The G-20 countries account for about 85% of global trade and 70% of global investment, so they matter.

During the briefings on Sunday, everyone had their own version of what had been achieved, if anything. The Office of the US Trade Representative announced that the G-20 had reached an agreement “on a package of outcomes covering WTO multilateral and plurilateral trade agreements and negotiations, investment, and cooperation on global value chains.”

US Trade Representative Michael Froman “hailed the results as a good example of G-20 leadership and shared goals in promoting global trade growth and public support for trade.” That sort of thing. .................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/11/global-investment-trade-will-suck-in-2016-g-20/

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1. Well waddya know! Jamie Dimon: Why We’re Giving Our Employees a Raise.

'WAGE stagnation. Income inequality. A lack of quality education. Insufficient training and skills development.

Issues like these have led approximately two-thirds of Americans to believe that the next generation will be worse off than the last. And it is true that too many people are not getting a fair opportunity to get ahead. We must find ways to help them move up the economic ladder, and everyone — business, government and nonprofits — needs to play a role.

At JPMorgan Chase, we’re starting by giving thousands of employees a raise.

Our minimum salary for American employees today is $10.15 an hour (plus meaningful benefits, which I’ll explain later), almost $3 above the current national minimum wage. Over the next three years, we will raise the minimum pay for 18,000 employees to between $12 and $16.50 an hour for full-time, part-time and new employees, depending on geographic and market factors.

A pay increase is the right thing to do.'>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/opinion/jamie-dimon-why-were-giving-our-employees-a-raise.html?