Leaders of the Group of 20 richest economies and emerging economic heavyweights meet in Washington to craft a joint strategy to deal with the rapidly spreading global financial crisis. No quick fixes are expected. The summit is expected to set down a number of economic targets and a dateline to prevent the ongoing financial meltdown from turning into a long recession. The G20 leaders will be debating the best way of tackling the on-going fallout from the crash last year of the US real estate market and how they can work together to save the global financial sector which has been swamped by subprime mortgage debt. They'll also look at solving the cash crunch in the banking sector which has dried up the credit market. During the summit, which starts on Friday evening and ends with a working dinner at the White House Saturday, Germany will present its contribution to the global efforts: a brief calling for a revision of the way banking executives are paid and the creation of a worldwide loan registry. Compiled by German financial experts, the brief was commissioned by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck.
The summit is expected to set down a number of economic targets and a dateline to prevent the ongoing financial meltdown from turning into a long recession.
The G20 leaders will be debating the best way of tackling the on-going fallout from the crash last year of the US real estate market and how they can work together to save the global financial sector which has been swamped by subprime mortgage debt. They'll also look at solving the cash crunch in the banking sector which has dried up the credit market.
During the summit, which starts on Friday evening and ends with a working dinner at the White House Saturday, Germany will present its contribution to the global efforts: a brief calling for a revision of the way banking executives are paid and the creation of a worldwide loan registry.
Compiled by German financial experts, the brief was commissioned by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck.
The global financial crisis will top the agenda at a key EU-Russia summit on Friday, overshadowing rifts between Moscow and Brussels following the August war in Georgia. Disagreements between the EU and Russia, particularly those connected to the August war in Georgia, will take a back seat to discussion of the current financial crisis, diplomats have said ahead of the EU-Russia summit in Nice on Friday, Nov. 14. "The number one key element will be the global financial and economic situation," Russia's EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov told a news briefing in Brussels on Wednesday. "A certain coordination of approach will be the best outcome of Nice." The meeting, to be hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and attended by his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, comes two months after EU leaders condemned Russia's recognition of two breakaway Georgian regions as "unacceptable" and demanded in vain for it to be reversed.
Disagreements between the EU and Russia, particularly those connected to the August war in Georgia, will take a back seat to discussion of the current financial crisis, diplomats have said ahead of the EU-Russia summit in Nice on Friday, Nov. 14.
"The number one key element will be the global financial and economic situation," Russia's EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov told a news briefing in Brussels on Wednesday. "A certain coordination of approach will be the best outcome of Nice."
The meeting, to be hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and attended by his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, comes two months after EU leaders condemned Russia's recognition of two breakaway Georgian regions as "unacceptable" and demanded in vain for it to be reversed.
On the eve of the financial summit in Washington D.C., Chancellor Angela Merkel told a German newspaper that it is time for systemic reform. Warnings that the state should stay out of financial markets, she says, are unwelcome. How radically is the world ready to change the global financial markets? That is the question many are asking on Friday as heads of state and government from teh world's 20 leading economies head to Washington D.C. for this weekend's financial summit. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for her part, seems ready to push for far-reaching change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants financial reform. In an interview published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday, Merkel said that she was expecting difficult negotiations -- talks, she said, which would last far beyond this weekend's meeting. But it was time, she told the paper, for greater oversight on the financial markets. "For a long time, we had a situation where very few understood the risks aside from those who wanted to earn money from (complicated new financial) products," Merkel said. "That won't happen again; that can't be allowed to happen again." To make sure that it doesn't, Merkel is heading to the US armed with a sheaf of proposals and ideas developed for her by a team of Germany's leading economists, headed up by Otmar Issing, the former chief economist at the European Central Bank (ECB). She is expected to float the idea of creating a global risk map which will collate national data on large bank loans and investments as a tool to identify concentrated risk. The paper also argues for greater transparency when it comes to ratings agencies and for complex, structured financial products. International oversight, Merkel says, must be strengthened.
On the eve of the financial summit in Washington D.C., Chancellor Angela Merkel told a German newspaper that it is time for systemic reform. Warnings that the state should stay out of financial markets, she says, are unwelcome.
How radically is the world ready to change the global financial markets? That is the question many are asking on Friday as heads of state and government from teh world's 20 leading economies head to Washington D.C. for this weekend's financial summit. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for her part, seems ready to push for far-reaching change.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants financial reform. In an interview published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday, Merkel said that she was expecting difficult negotiations -- talks, she said, which would last far beyond this weekend's meeting. But it was time, she told the paper, for greater oversight on the financial markets. "For a long time, we had a situation where very few understood the risks aside from those who wanted to earn money from (complicated new financial) products," Merkel said. "That won't happen again; that can't be allowed to happen again."
To make sure that it doesn't, Merkel is heading to the US armed with a sheaf of proposals and ideas developed for her by a team of Germany's leading economists, headed up by Otmar Issing, the former chief economist at the European Central Bank (ECB). She is expected to float the idea of creating a global risk map which will collate national data on large bank loans and investments as a tool to identify concentrated risk. The paper also argues for greater transparency when it comes to ratings agencies and for complex, structured financial products. International oversight, Merkel says, must be strengthened.
Hedge fund 'masters of the universe' face Congressional grilling over their role in the global credit crunchThe five best-paid hedge fund managers - who between them made $12.6bn last year, even as the financial world began to crumble around them - were hauled before the US Congress yesterday and assailed over their huge salaries, their tax perks and their contribution to the credit crisis that has engulfed the globe. In a piece of public theatre that reflected not just the present crisis, but also a decade or more of vastly increased income inequality, the five men declared themselves innocent of causing the market meltdown and insisted that their riches reflected hard work and investment insight.As one Congressman, Elijah Cummings, put it, "these are five citizens who have more money than God", and he proceeded to tear into them over rules that have allowed them to pay a fraction of the tax an ordinary teacher, firefighter or plumber might pay.Philip Falcone, whose Harbinger Capital is one of the world's biggest hedge funds, stressed his humble beginnings as one of nine children living in a three-bedroom home in Minnesota. "My father was a utility superintendent, my mother worked in a local shirt factory," he said. "I take great pride in my upbringing and it is important for people to know that not everyone who runs a hedge fund was born on Fifth Avenue."
The five best-paid hedge fund managers - who between them made $12.6bn last year, even as the financial world began to crumble around them - were hauled before the US Congress yesterday and assailed over their huge salaries, their tax perks and their contribution to the credit crisis that has engulfed the globe.
In a piece of public theatre that reflected not just the present crisis, but also a decade or more of vastly increased income inequality, the five men declared themselves innocent of causing the market meltdown and insisted that their riches reflected hard work and investment insight.
As one Congressman, Elijah Cummings, put it, "these are five citizens who have more money than God", and he proceeded to tear into them over rules that have allowed them to pay a fraction of the tax an ordinary teacher, firefighter or plumber might pay.
Philip Falcone, whose Harbinger Capital is one of the world's biggest hedge funds, stressed his humble beginnings as one of nine children living in a three-bedroom home in Minnesota. "My father was a utility superintendent, my mother worked in a local shirt factory," he said. "I take great pride in my upbringing and it is important for people to know that not everyone who runs a hedge fund was born on Fifth Avenue."
The news from Brussels was as bad as had been expected. The European Union's statistics office announced on Friday that the euro zone economy had slid into recession after another quarter of negative growth. Inflation, meanwhile, has stopped completely. The bad news keeps coming. After Europe's biggest economy, Germany, announced it was in recession on Thursday it was the turn of the euro zone on Friday. The European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, said that the economy in the 15 states that use the euro shrank in the third quarter. With negative growth having been measured in the second quarter as well, the contraction now meets the commonly accepted definition for a recession. A sign reading in Italian "Everything 50% off" in a shop in Rome. Recession has hit Italy. It marks the first ever recession to hit the euro zone since the common European currency was introduced in 2002. The economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the July-September period, the same amount as it had declined from April to June.
The news from Brussels was as bad as had been expected. The European Union's statistics office announced on Friday that the euro zone economy had slid into recession after another quarter of negative growth. Inflation, meanwhile, has stopped completely.
The bad news keeps coming. After Europe's biggest economy, Germany, announced it was in recession on Thursday it was the turn of the euro zone on Friday. The European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, said that the economy in the 15 states that use the euro shrank in the third quarter. With negative growth having been measured in the second quarter as well, the contraction now meets the commonly accepted definition for a recession.
A sign reading in Italian "Everything 50% off" in a shop in Rome. Recession has hit Italy. It marks the first ever recession to hit the euro zone since the common European currency was introduced in 2002. The economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the July-September period, the same amount as it had declined from April to June.
The global financial crisis is taking an increasingly heavy toll on Europe's economy as fresh economic projections - to be officially confirmed by the European Commission on Friday (14 November) - show that the 15-strong euro area has entered recession, its first in the structure's history. The eurozone's economy contracted by 0.2 percent between July and September 2008, following a 0.2 percent decline during the second quater of this year, the BBC reports. Two consecutive quaters of contraction amounts to a definition of recession. The financial criris has translated into a sharp economic downturn The pesimistic outlook follows Germany's announcement on Thursday (13 November) that its economy has officially plunged into recession. The EU's most powerful economy shrunk by 0.4 percent in the second quarter and by 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, with the Federal Statistics Office saying "A negative effect on gross domestic product came from foreign trade, with a strong increase in imports and weakening exports."
The global financial crisis is taking an increasingly heavy toll on Europe's economy as fresh economic projections - to be officially confirmed by the European Commission on Friday (14 November) - show that the 15-strong euro area has entered recession, its first in the structure's history.
The eurozone's economy contracted by 0.2 percent between July and September 2008, following a 0.2 percent decline during the second quater of this year, the BBC reports. Two consecutive quaters of contraction amounts to a definition of recession.
The financial criris has translated into a sharp economic downturn
The pesimistic outlook follows Germany's announcement on Thursday (13 November) that its economy has officially plunged into recession.
The EU's most powerful economy shrunk by 0.4 percent in the second quarter and by 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, with the Federal Statistics Office saying "A negative effect on gross domestic product came from foreign trade, with a strong increase in imports and weakening exports."
WASHINGTON: It is not clear how much the leaders of 18 countries plus the European Union, gathering to discuss a fast-moving financial crisis with a soon-to-depart leader of the United States, can hope to accomplish. But summit meeting by the Group of 20 may clarify one thing: how completely the crisis is reshaping the economic map -- rendering obsolete the old club of powers that fashioned the financial pillars of the post-World War II era at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. While President Nicolas Sarkozy of France proposed this meeting, and President George W. Bush agreed to play host, the most sought-after country at a gathering some have called Bretton Woods II may prove to be China. With close to $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and an economy that is still growing, albeit more slowly than before the crisis erupted, China is one of the few participants with the financial wherewithal to come to the aid of countries in distress, either directly or by swelling the coffers of the International Monetary Fund, so that it can make more emergency loans.
WASHINGTON: It is not clear how much the leaders of 18 countries plus the European Union, gathering to discuss a fast-moving financial crisis with a soon-to-depart leader of the United States, can hope to accomplish.
But summit meeting by the Group of 20 may clarify one thing: how completely the crisis is reshaping the economic map -- rendering obsolete the old club of powers that fashioned the financial pillars of the post-World War II era at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944.
While President Nicolas Sarkozy of France proposed this meeting, and President George W. Bush agreed to play host, the most sought-after country at a gathering some have called Bretton Woods II may prove to be China.
With close to $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and an economy that is still growing, albeit more slowly than before the crisis erupted, China is one of the few participants with the financial wherewithal to come to the aid of countries in distress, either directly or by swelling the coffers of the International Monetary Fund, so that it can make more emergency loans.
Gordon Brown today said that tax cuts aimed at low-paid workers and support for green technology had to be key parts of the response to the financial crisis, and also suggested that UK interest rates would be cut again soon.In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the prime minister called on other world leaders to join a global fiscal and monetary stimulus package to address the financial crisis. A key part of this package, Brown insisted, had to be a cut in taxation - especially for the poorest in society, who would help the economy by spending the extra money."What we have learned in the past is that when we cut taxes only half the money is spent, the rest is saved. Public works take time to come online," he said. "Those on low incomes are more likely to pass on the benefits of a tax cut."
Gordon Brown today said that tax cuts aimed at low-paid workers and support for green technology had to be key parts of the response to the financial crisis, and also suggested that UK interest rates would be cut again soon.
In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the prime minister called on other world leaders to join a global fiscal and monetary stimulus package to address the financial crisis.
A key part of this package, Brown insisted, had to be a cut in taxation - especially for the poorest in society, who would help the economy by spending the extra money.
"What we have learned in the past is that when we cut taxes only half the money is spent, the rest is saved. Public works take time to come online," he said. "Those on low incomes are more likely to pass on the benefits of a tax cut."
The Nobel Prize-winning economist who hailed Gordon Brown as the potential saviour of the world financial system said he would make a promising academic "if this Prime Minister thing doesn't work out". Paul Krugman outed himself as Mr Brown's No 1 American fan in a New York Times column after the Prime Minister announced a partial nationalisation of UK lenders last month to help shore up the banking sector. The column appeared the day that the Princeton professor was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics and helped to persuade US and European policymakers to line up behind the UK model. Mr Krugman was among six top economists who met Mr Brown in New York last night over drinks at the Waldorf Hotel and, in a BBC interview afterwards, he once again lavished praise on the former Chancellor. "If this Prime Minister thing doesn't work out, he has a pretty good career as an academic," he said. "The level of discussion - particularly for someone accustomed to the US over the last few years - was awesome." Mr Brown stopped off in New York en route for this weekend's summit of G20 leaders in Washington, where he will be pushing for a co-ordinated fiscal stimulus among the major economies to stop a recession spiralling into a full-blown depression.
The Nobel Prize-winning economist who hailed Gordon Brown as the potential saviour of the world financial system said he would make a promising academic "if this Prime Minister thing doesn't work out".
Paul Krugman outed himself as Mr Brown's No 1 American fan in a New York Times column after the Prime Minister announced a partial nationalisation of UK lenders last month to help shore up the banking sector. The column appeared the day that the Princeton professor was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics and helped to persuade US and European policymakers to line up behind the UK model.
Mr Krugman was among six top economists who met Mr Brown in New York last night over drinks at the Waldorf Hotel and, in a BBC interview afterwards, he once again lavished praise on the former Chancellor. "If this Prime Minister thing doesn't work out, he has a pretty good career as an academic," he said. "The level of discussion - particularly for someone accustomed to the US over the last few years - was awesome."
Mr Brown stopped off in New York en route for this weekend's summit of G20 leaders in Washington, where he will be pushing for a co-ordinated fiscal stimulus among the major economies to stop a recession spiralling into a full-blown depression.
I was watching 'Flood' DVD yesterday - the first UK catastrophe movie showing how a storm, a surge and a high tide conspire to flood London by the barrier being overtopped. Simple-minded, but not without excitement.
The solution, according to the professor character of Tom Courtney, is to catch the tide on the turn and release all the flood water behind the sluices so that the power of the surge and the storm are defeated by the gravity of the downstream release. And of course the lowered barrier has to be raised to allow this to happen. Therein the movie drama.
But it occurs to me that in a world of 'Love Me' numbers, where perceptions and expectations outrule statistical risk evaluation, the concept of the counter surge is not inappropriate. The economy as a psychological phenomenon. Hope and change as drivers. A tax cut is a psychological driver - in the short term... You can't be me, I'm taken
The people should have pride when paying taxes into their own government.
There will be surge of births 9 months from the date of Barack Obama becoming President-elect. People are not rational ;-) You can't be me, I'm taken
Those are more immediate stimuli, but for something along the lines of what we're facing (very real possibility of deflation), governments are going to need programs that put people into actual work with serious wages/salaries. Takes longer to draw up plans for that kind of thing, of course, but I think it's the more forceful pillar of a stimulus package in the end. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
Unemployment benefits, and other forms of income support, as you say, are far more effective than tax cuts, even when they are said to be for the the benefit of the poor. (Unless they're talking about doing away with sales and vat taxes and replacing them with more highly progressive income tax regimes, which I doubt.) Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
I'd ad aide to the state and local governments in America's case, since that will save jobs directly within those governments as well as keep services up and running, which keeps other jobs going and provides for the general welfare of communities. States and locals generally have balanced-budget amendments, so when things go to shit, they get slammed. Similarly, but going the other way, they spend big during booms. This is, of course, the opposite of how it should work. It's completely insane, but it's nonetheless the reality of the system.
Sales taxes in the states are set by the state governments, and local governments add to the rate for their cut, so the feds can't really do anything about those. Those are already somewhat progressive, because essentials are generally not taxed, but I agree that progressive income taxes are better than sales taxes.
If you were going to design tax cuts to maximize the impact, you'd want to do them on people at or below (say) $45k/year, and give rebates to those below the threshold under which they don't pay income taxes. You could also jack up, for example, the Earned-Income Tax Credit or other negative-taxation mechanisms. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ahead of the G20 meeting of the world's leading industrialised and emerging economies this weekend, the president of the United States and the president of the European Commission have laid down their markers for what should be the solutions to save the global economy. On Thursday, US President George W. Bush made an impassioned plea for laissez-faire capitalism and warned against turning away from free markets, while commission President Jose Manuel Barroso extolled the virtues of public intervention and the European welfare state model built at the end of World War Two. The European 'social market' model has been celebrated by President Barroso "In the wake of the financial crisis, voices from the left and right are equating the free enterprise system with greed and exploitation and failure," said the US leader in a speech on Friday (14 November) at the Federal Hall National Memorial. He conceded that there had been failures, but the blame for these should be pinned on borrowers, financial firms and regulators, not capitalism.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ahead of the G20 meeting of the world's leading industrialised and emerging economies this weekend, the president of the United States and the president of the European Commission have laid down their markers for what should be the solutions to save the global economy.
On Thursday, US President George W. Bush made an impassioned plea for laissez-faire capitalism and warned against turning away from free markets, while commission President Jose Manuel Barroso extolled the virtues of public intervention and the European welfare state model built at the end of World War Two.
The European 'social market' model has been celebrated by President Barroso
"In the wake of the financial crisis, voices from the left and right are equating the free enterprise system with greed and exploitation and failure," said the US leader in a speech on Friday (14 November) at the Federal Hall National Memorial.
He conceded that there had been failures, but the blame for these should be pinned on borrowers, financial firms and regulators, not capitalism.
he blame for these should be pinned on borrowers, financial firms and regulators, not capitalism.
Who is not a borrower, a financial firm or a regulator? And if everybody is to blame, then nobody is, right? "Shit happens" seems to be the motto os those that say "it's not capitalism's fault."
That's too easy. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Kashkari as Paulson's 'chump'? 3:02 PM, November 14, 2008 LA Times Money & Co. blog Whatever Neel Kashkari is earning to head the Treasury's financial-system bailout program, he surely must be thinking that it's not enough. At a hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee today, one congressman questioned whether Kashkari was Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson's "chump." Another congressman, firebrand Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), lambasted the Treasury for unilaterally deciding this week to junk its original rescue plan of buying bad mortgages from banks. "Maybe this is some kind of game to some people in the administration," Kucinich lectured the 35-year-old Kashkari. "They're on their way out of office and they just feel they can do whatever they want." Even a Republican, Darrell Issa of San Diego County, joined in. "I don't know whether to call this 'fire, ready, aim' or something more pejorative," he said of the rescue program's shift.
Whatever Neel Kashkari is earning to head the Treasury's financial-system bailout program, he surely must be thinking that it's not enough. At a hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee today, one congressman questioned whether Kashkari was Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson's "chump."
Another congressman, firebrand Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), lambasted the Treasury for unilaterally deciding this week to junk its original rescue plan of buying bad mortgages from banks.
"Maybe this is some kind of game to some people in the administration," Kucinich lectured the 35-year-old Kashkari. "They're on their way out of office and they just feel they can do whatever they want."
Even a Republican, Darrell Issa of San Diego County, joined in. "I don't know whether to call this 'fire, ready, aim' or something more pejorative," he said of the rescue program's shift.
siegestate: I don't know if I read, or heard or just presumed that after factories are closing that people are going back to their native towns. I believe that I had heard it on a BBC report yesterday, but I should remember to take all news with a grain of salt. It is not atypical for migrants to flood cities in time of woe.
For decades, the steamy Pearl River Delta area of southern Guangdong Province served as a primary engine for China's astounding economic growth. But an export slowdown that began earlier this year and that has been magnified by the global financial crisis of recent months is contributing to the shutdown of tens of thousands of small and mid-size factories here and in other coastal regions, forcing laborers to scramble for other jobs or return home to the countryside. Factories Shut, China Workers Are Suffering - NYTimes.com
Factories Shut, China Workers Are Suffering - NYTimes.com
siegestate: But I had also remembered from several years ago that the government was also trying to put a lot of money into farming communities, in terms of communication and roads for example...an effort to uplift them from primitive conditions as well as keep some percentage of people on farms.
Once in the interior, the workers will have less incentive than in the past to return to the coastal provinces. Rising grain prices have made farming more profitable. The Chinese government announced a rural land reform policy last month that could spur some farmers to stay on their land and make better use of it. A growing number of factories have opened in the interior provinces as well. Wages are still lower than on the coast, but have risen quickly in recent years. Factories Shut, China Workers Are Suffering - NYTimes.com
Once in the interior, the workers will have less incentive than in the past to return to the coastal provinces. Rising grain prices have made farming more profitable. The Chinese government announced a rural land reform policy last month that could spur some farmers to stay on their land and make better use of it.
A growing number of factories have opened in the interior provinces as well. Wages are still lower than on the coast, but have risen quickly in recent years.
And on a tragicomic note, looks like my friend was right about factory owners and managers skipping town, but not necessarily on who they were and where they were doing runners to:
Wang Denggui, father of three, arrived more than a year ago in the palm-lined streets of this southern town with a single goal: toil in a factory to save for his children's school tuition. But the plans of Mr. Wang and thousands of co-workers unraveled at noon on Nov. 1, when the Taiwanese chairman of their ailing shoe factory climbed over a factory wall to flee the country and his debts. That left several American shoe companies with unfilled orders and 2,000 workers without jobs. <...> As was the case with the Weixu shoe factory, Smart Union closed without any notice, and hundreds of angry workers poured into the streets to demand that the local government pay them back wages. Many such factories were run by Taiwanese or Hong Kong managers who fled the mainland. Chinese police and courts have limited reach in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system, and they have almost no ability to prosecute people in Taiwan, which is treated as a renegade province and does not have formal political or diplomatic relations with the mainland. Factories Shut, China Workers Are Suffering - NYTimes.com
But the plans of Mr. Wang and thousands of co-workers unraveled at noon on Nov. 1, when the Taiwanese chairman of their ailing shoe factory climbed over a factory wall to flee the country and his debts. That left several American shoe companies with unfilled orders and 2,000 workers without jobs. <...>
As was the case with the Weixu shoe factory, Smart Union closed without any notice, and hundreds of angry workers poured into the streets to demand that the local government pay them back wages. Many such factories were run by Taiwanese or Hong Kong managers who fled the mainland. Chinese police and courts have limited reach in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system, and they have almost no ability to prosecute people in Taiwan, which is treated as a renegade province and does not have formal political or diplomatic relations with the mainland.
On a brighter, and perhaps related note:
The wave of factory shutdowns is taking place at a time when migrant workers are more aware than ever of their legal rights and know how to put pressure on local governments. Two national labor laws were enacted in January that, among other things, require companies to pay severance and give out more long-term labor contracts. The laws could lead to more labor disputes and protests, said Mary Gallagher, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. "Increasingly, the migrant workers know their rights," she said. ... Factories Shut, China Workers Are Suffering - NYTimes.com
"Increasingly, the migrant workers know their rights," she said. ...
