本周国际要闻
Business
经济
The IMF urged governments in rich countries to step up spending on investment, pointing out that, even before COVID-19, public-investment-to-GDP ratios were declining. The rates of return from spending on adaptation to climate change in particular are often greater than 100%, it said. Meanwhile, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, described the path to economic recovery after the pandemic as “the long ascent—a difficult climb that will be long, uneven and uncertain. And prone to setbacks.”
国际货币基金组织敦促富裕国家政府加大投资力度,并指出,即使在新冠肺炎疫情之前,公共投资占国内生产总值的比例就已经在下降。该组织称,特别是用于适应气候变化的支出的回报率通常超过100%。与此同时,国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁克里斯塔利娜·格奥尔基耶娃(Kristalina Georgieva)将大流行后的经济复苏称为“一个漫长、不均衡以及充满未知的艰难爬坡的过程。”而且容易受挫。”
Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, once again called for more fiscal stimulus measures. He described the policy risks of supporting the American economy as asymmetric: providing too little help will be worse than providing too much. Donald Trump said he would not agree to a stimulus package until after the election. Employers created 661,000 jobs in September, a much smaller number than in each of the previous four months, when firms rehired as lockdowns eased.
美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔(Jerome Powell)再次呼吁采取更多的财政刺激措施。他直言,支持美国经济的政策干预风险是不对称的:提供太少的帮助反而比提供太多的帮助更为糟糕。特朗普表示,在大选结束后,他才会实施经济刺激计划。9月份,雇主们创造了66.1万个工作岗位,这一数字远低于前四个月的数字。当时随着封锁令的逐渐放开,企业开始重新招聘。
OurCrowd, an investment platform based in Jerusalem, struck a partnership with a business-development company backed by Al Naboodah Investments of Dubai. It is the first big alliance between investment firms in Israel and the United Arab Emirates after the recent normalisation of relations between the two countries.
总部位于耶路撒冷的投资平台OurCrowd与迪拜Al Naboodah投资公司支持的一家商业发展公司建立了合作关系。这是最近以色列和阿联酋关系正常化后,两国投资公司的第一次大联盟。
There was more consolidation in the payments industry with the announcement that Nexi, Italy’s biggest provider of digital payments, would buy SIA, a smaller rival that is owned by the Italian government. Through a development bank, the government will retain a 25% stake.
随着意大利最大数字支付提供商Nexi宣布将收购规模较小的竞争对手SIA(后者为意大利政府所有),支付行业出现了更多整合。通过一家开发银行,政府将保留25%的股份。
Companies aiming to increase staff diversity may be drawing more legal scrutiny from the American government. Microsoft and Wells Fargo, who have both promised to double their number of black executives, were both contacted by the Department of Labour recently to inquire whether their plans comply with laws that forbid hiring practices based on race.
旨在增加员工多样性的公司可能会受到美国政府更多的法律审查。微软和富国银行都曾承诺将其黑人高管人数增加一倍。最近,美国劳工部联系了这两家公司,询问其计划是否符合禁止基于种族的招聘行为的相关律法。
America’s Supreme Court heard arguments from Google and Oracle in a closely watched case concerning how copyright law should apply to computer code. Oracle argues that Google unlawfully reused parts of Java, a programming language, in its Android smartphones. Google retorts that such reuse has been common industry practice for decades, and is vital for interoperability between software. A lower court’s ruling in Oracle’s favour in 2018 alarmed the rest of the tech industry, which mostly takes Google’s side.
在一起备受关注的案件中,美国最高法院听取了谷歌和甲骨文公司关于版权法如何适用于计算机代码的争论。甲骨文方面认为,谷歌在其安卓智能手机中非法重用了编程语言Java的部分内容。谷歌方面反驳称,几十年来,这已经成为行业惯例,并且对于软件之间的互操作性至关重要。2018年,一家下级法院做出了有利于甲骨文公司的裁决,震惊了科技行业的其他公司,他们大多与谷歌一个战队。