G20 is losing its focus, purpose
The proceedings of the G20 summit which concluded in Hangzhou in China and the statements that came at the end showed how far the grouping has come away from its original purpose and agenda. The G20 came into being after the 2008 global financial crisis and was conceived as a forum which could avert and address future crises through consultation, cooperation and coordinated action among countries. It represented about 85% of the world’s GDP and two-thirds of its population. The G20 did good work in the early years and had a role in guiding the world out of an economic meltdown and slowdown. It also pushed the fight against black money and the need for the best financial practices to the top of the world’s agenda. But once the crisis passed, the grouping seems to have lost its savviness and even utility, and countries have gone back to their own narrow interests and limited agendas.
Deecan Herald
China's pension funds under pressure with rising payments: Xinhua
Many Chinese pension funds are under renewed pressure to break even as local governments race to increase pension payments to meet central government requirements, state news agency Xinhua said in a commentary on Tuesday.
The proceedings of the G20 summit which concluded in Hangzhou in China and the statements that came at the end showed how far the grouping has come away from its original purpose and agenda. The G20 came into being after the 2008 global financial crisis and was conceived as a forum which could avert and address future crises through consultation, cooperation and coordinated action among countries. It represented about 85% of the world’s GDP and two-thirds of its population. The G20 did good work in the early years and had a role in guiding the world out of an economic meltdown and slowdown. It also pushed the fight against black money and the need for the best financial practices to the top of the world’s agenda. But once the crisis passed, the grouping seems to have lost its savviness and even utility, and countries have gone back to their own narrow interests and limited agendas.
Deecan Herald
China's pension funds under pressure with rising payments: Xinhua
A Pleasant Lull (Don R.)
Events, not personalities, are going to demonstrate where things are at in the late-stage techno-industrial crack-up at hand. The shamans at the Federal Reserve have exhausted their repertoire of incantations for levitating the financial markets and, more ominously, the value of the US dollar. The prankish god they serve has arranged things so that the very faith needed to sustain their illusory influence will run down the drain as November 8 creeps closer. They must be getting awfully nervous down at the Eccles Building.
The world’s biggest oil exporter is taking unprecedented steps to rein in a budget shortfall that ballooned to 16 percent of gross domestic product last year, curtailing fuel and utility subsidies as well as cutting billions of dollars in spending. The International Monetary Fund expects the shortfall to drop to below 10 percent of GDP in 2017.
Volkswagen faces fresh EU claims over emissions scandal
Volkswagen faces claims that it broke consumer protection laws in 20 European countries by marketing cars at the centre of the “dieselgate” scandal as “green”. Vera Jourova, the EU justice commissioner, is pushing national authorities to investigate if Volkswagen broke the law on their territory, and if so to take action against the company. She wrote to capitals earlier this summer requesting information on what they had done to probe VW’s actions. She told the Financial Times the responses showed it is “likely” the German carmaker breached Europe’s “unfair commercial practices directive”, which prohibits misleading advertising claims, in many EU nations. Whether the law was broken in a particular country could depend on factors such as the type of advertising strategy used by VW there or on exactly how EU law has been incorporated into national statute books, she said.
