Global wealth has risen by 68 percent over the past 10 years, according to the 2013 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report released on Wednesday, but the level of inequality remains high as the richest 1 percent still own 46 percent of global wealth, with the top 10 percent claiming 86 percent.
A Communist Party village official in a Beijing suburb has been sacked by the party’s discipline inspection commission after reports of his son’s three-day wedding emerged in local media outlets, prompting public criticism over the lavish affair, reported Xinhua News on Tuesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama first shot to global prominence in 2004 as a uniter, not a divider. But while most of the blame for Washington’s gross dysfunction will probably lie at the feet of the Republican right, that hates Obama with a rare passion, the Obama presidency may well soon be over – at least in terms of his ability to move the policy dial at home and abroad.
China, the world’s largest holder of U.S. foreign debt, has called on U.S. politicians to end their debt ceiling standoff ahead of the October 17th deadline, warning that a possible U.S. default would have huge global ramifications and severely affect “the safety of Chinese investments” in the country.
As advanced economies struggle with their debt crises, the typical drivers of growth – consumption, government, net exports – are ailing in many countries, particularly in Europe. As a result, many nations hope to rejuvenate their economies through investment. Last year, however, FDI in Europe plunged. Europe alone accounted for two thirds of the global FDI decline.
As the U.S. government shutdown enters into its second week, officials from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office have postponed plans to hold a second round of negotiations with the European Union this week on a free trade pact, claiming that financial and staffing constraints made it impossible to send a full negotiating team to Brussels.
More than two million people in China are currently employed by the government to monitor the online activities of their fellow citizens, according to a local media report, highlighting the lengths the government would go to in order to control the Internet.
The Beijing News, as cited by the BBC last week, claimed that the personnel were hired as “Internet opinion analysts”, whose jobs were to collect and report on the views and attitudes of people on social networks.
Germany and the United Kingdom have become the first countries to issue advisories for travellers to the United States, warning of possible delays at immigration and tourist sites as the U.S. government remains partially shut due to a budget impasse.
The world’s population will climb to 9.7 billion people by 2050, according to a new French study on Wednesday, with India expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation with a staggering 1.6 billion residents.
The report by the French Institute of Demographic Studies mirrored similar projections in recent months by both the United Nations and the World Bank, demonstrating the world’s ongoing population boom, particularly in developing countries.
America’s “Great Stagnation” first began in 1973, when both income and productivity started to show signs of slowing down. But thanks to the shale boom, the figures are once again on the rise and may continue to rise further.
