Word: labors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...into the Ohio-size expanse of rose farms, medieval monasteries and Roman ruins. Visitors, especially Western Europeans, are flocking to ski resorts in the Rila and Pirin mountains and have even sparked a property boom in Bansko, where investors are scooping up cheap vacation homes. Meanwhile, low-cost labor, economic incentives and proximity to the rest of Europe are luring record levels of foreign investment from companies like French car-parts manufacturer Montupet, Chinese TV maker SVA and U.S. energy firm AES--even though Bulgaria still has a ways to go in cleaning up corruption...
...free trade’s effect on the United States. Robert Z. Lawrence, the Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment at the Kennedy School of Government, said in an interview that Summers and Rubin were “not denying that there are serious issues in the U.S. labor market with respect to inequality but that trade is the wrong instrument to deal with it.” “We need other measures, we need other policies, but [curbing free trade] is not the right solution,” he said, characterizing the secretaries’ views...
Agglomeration applies to labor talent as well. In a survey of international financial services execs published in 2005 by Z/Yen, a London consultancy, almost a third of those polled rated the availability of skilled labor in Paris and Frankfurt as poor. Three-quarters thought London's was excellent. Hourly productivity among the U.K.'s financial-services workers is estimated to have climbed 3.6% per year between 1997 and 2001, according to a 2005 report, well above the 2% growth in the British economy as a whole over that period. No doubt, London's captains of capital are handsomely paid...
...London's advantages. Not only does London have a "deep pool of talent," says William J. Mills, ceo of Citigroup's Corporate and Investment Banking division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. But compared with its Continental rivals, it offers "the most flexible labor laws." While the number of financial-sector staff in London rose 4.3% to 318,000 between 2002 and 2005, tough U.S. immigration rules applying to foreign talent helped New York's head count slide by 0.7% over the same period, according to a report published late last month by McKinsey. London's geographic position also...
...country's blogosphere is a fascinating, still evolving animal. When mobilized, China's 100 million-plus netizens can, by collective effort, accomplish noble ends. Take the case of Foxconn, a Taiwanese company with a factory in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. After two local journalists published an article questioning labor conditions in the factory (which made parts for Apple's I-pod), Foxconn sued them personally for millions of dollars. But the resulting hue-and-cry on the web prompted the company to back down. Admirable...