Word: labors
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...Moves like the latter one could wind up stoking the fires of global inflation. After all, it was China's cheap laborers who turned the country into the world's factory. By one estimate, China's manufacturing unit labor cost was just 4% of that of the U.S. in 2005. Now, as the mainland economy powers ahead - GDP growth jumped by 11.9% in the second quarter - real wages of urban workers have been soaring at double-digit rates, rising 18% in the first half of this year alone, according to the government. Add in higher raw-materials prices, and manufacturers...
...does this mean it's inevitable that inflation will join the long list of Chinese global exports? Economists disagree. Yiping Huang, chief Asia Pacific economist for Citibank, notes in a recent research report that, while wages are rising fast in China, labor productivity is increasing even faster, which tends to limit manufacturers' need to raise prices. Standard Chartered economist Gerard Lyons says that China's move into more valuable manufactured goods such as automobiles will in years to come have the same deflationary effects on world markets as the country's push into low-end manufacturing...
...Shaking Through the Ages The article on belly dancing by pregnant women noted that "the ancient art form is being practiced by moms-to-be to stay fit and ease their way through labor" [Sept. 3]. I took a belly-dancing class decades ago because it was a fun "night out with the girls" that included exercise, music, camaraderie, snacks, a little wine and gorgeous costumes. It was better than the gym, shopping or the bar scene. But we were taught that belly dancing was originally a way for Middle Eastern women to stay fit and ease labor, and only...
...one’s grandchildren to getting a building named after oneself. An increasing number of pundits, however, believe that universities are not fully deserving of such donations, especially since these donations are tax deductible. For instance, in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, former Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich argued that such donations are not to “real charities” because they do not directly serve the poor. Consequently, he argued, donors should not get a full tax deduction. This criticism, however, is a red herring for the real problem: that the government...
...more somber voices come on scene. Robert B. Reich, a professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley (and President Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor) recently asserted in his Los Angeles Times op-ed that universities are often “investments in the lifestyle of the rich” and argued that donors should only be able to deduct half of their contributions to not-for-profits like colleges and operas...