By Joe Vladeck

The number of European bankers earning more than 1 million euros jumped 11 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to new data from the European Banking Authority (EBA). The report is timely in Europe, where regulators are struggling to set limits on the financial industry compensation, hoping to reduce incentives for bankers and traders to take undue risks. New caps on bonus payments are set to come into effect in 2014. 

Reuters has a detailed summary of the EBA report. British bankers account for the bulk of European high-earners, representing more than 2,700 of the 3,500 million-euro bankers. 

And, predictably, the countries hardest-hit by the ongoing financial crisis saw banker pay fall. Spain saw a 20 percent decrease in million-euro bankers, as did Ireland. Despite Greece's recent financial calamity, a single banker in the country is somehow still earning more than a million euros in compensation. 

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December 11, 2013

By Aliza Kempner

Across Cambodia, newly minted sugar plantations have generated thousands of jobs for destitute migrant workers and subsistence farmers as well as hundreds of jobs for skilled factory workers. Still, there is reason to believe that international trade pacts fostering exports of products like sugar that seek to help the world’s poorest countries can have the unintended effect of encouraging land grabs by wealthy, politically connected families. Cambodian corporations obtained tens of thousands of acres from the government as economic development concessions for large sugar plantations, while paying modest compensation to families pushed off the land. 

The New York Times paints an interesting picture of the facts on the ground and explains the genesis of the conflicts. 

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October 08, 2013