Labor

The protestors of the Occupy Wall Street complain about the unfairness of the bailout, unemployment, and taxes. But to make the U.S. economy more fair, Washington needs to use the capitalist system, not to destroy it.

Jobs growth was slow in May, renewing pessimism about the U.S. economy. Spence, a Nobel Prize-winning economist writes that economic growth and employment in the United States have started to diverge, increasing income inequality and reducing jobs for less-educated workers.

International norms and legal codes that are meant to protect human rights mean little for people in the developing world, who suffer abuse not for a lack of laws but because these laws are not enforced. It is imperative, therefore, that the human rights community build up political will and capacity among local law enforcement bodies.

In the United Kingdom, backlash against workers from other countries in the European Union is growing. Any measures to limit foreign labor, however, may threaten the future of the European common market.