Two issues on the world's agenda that go beyond what we have been pussyfooting around about: reining in the power of banks (including excessive compensation and bonuses), fraud, and rising protectionism that undermines international cooperation. President Obama's contribution to this problem was his slapping tariffs on Chinese made tire imports which has already led to retaliatory measures and threats of law suits.Not a great symbolic step for the host country!
(Of this decision, a betrayal of Washington's earlier promises to the G20, The Economist writes, ??A protectionist move that is bad politics, bad economics, bad diplomacy and hurts America. Did we miss anything? ? )
The Campaign for America's Future asks us to look beneath the surface of Pitsburgh's economic ??recovery.
? Many high-paying jobs in manufacturing were replaced with low-paying jobs as waiters or hotel clerks. Many were never replaced at all.
-- America 's once-robust system of economic production -- the invention, design and manufacture of products -- has steadily eroded. In its place, an economy based on asset bubbles and foreign borrowing has developed. That strategy was never sustainable and is no longer available.
--Services alone are no path to prosperity. For the past 30 years, the U.S. has been replacing goods-producing jobs (down 54 percent) with service-providing jobs (up 34 percent). But service jobs don't pay as well. Even in the broad category of ??services ? -- which includes doctors, lawyers, and investment brokers -- service jobs pay 75 cents for every dollar paid a production job. Retail jobs pay 50 cents. ?
So it is to Pittsburgh that activists will also come, as they have and do to all these G20 Yak fests which make officials feel important and usually accomplish nothing much of significance.
After the G8 met in London where one protester was killed by police defending ??THE CITY ? against the rabble, a journalist noted:
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