as our investigations bring her face to face with the fate of some of the women far the search for suitable has been and continue can both their dreams come true must one overcome the other clues deadline part of the viewfinder series on al-jazeera. hello i'm sam is a than this is counting the cost on al-jazeera the weekly look at the world of business and economics this week why the united states continues to weaponize and what impact that is having outside its borders. also this week breaks it budget the cost of a disorderly u.k. exit from the european union plus there's no question it is the right thing to do. walking out on google thousands of workers around the world protests declaring time is up on sexual harassment. it's

a long lived and this stablished industry that likely won't be going anywhere anytime soon we're counting the cost this week of the weaponization of america the latest atrocity on october the twenty seventh eleven people were killed when a heavily armed gunman opened fire at a baby naming ceremony at a synagogue in pittsburgh police said he used a legally purchased assault rifle and three handguns in our previous investigation into this industry we noted how gun manufacturers themselves rarely give interviews dozens of companies have ended partnerships with the national rifle association or n.r.a. the pro gun lobby by the u.s. president donald trump immediately directed attention to the lack of an armed guard at the synagogue claiming the shooting has little to do with the country's gun laws this decree. and on the. in fact they might have been able to stop the reading of.

the if they were right in that they would say that. barry weber was one of those who survived the synagogue shooting i think the n.r.a. has so much political clout that there is no way in the world our poll politicians have the the strength to take them out of the equation who needs an a r fifteen who needs a semi-automatic weapon that's a good four maybe target practice but that's all it will be us gun industry is estimated to be worth fifty one billion dollars so guns are big business the lack of regulation is key to the industry's profitability military style weapons are a consumer products in the us

a background check is conducted only in store purchases part of the reason for the lack of gun control is the national rifle association it says it speaks for american gun owners who have a constitutional right to bear arms venders the u.s.a.'s role in the global weapons trade the us buys and sells almost as much weaponry as the rest of the world combined so what happens in the u.s. has global impact. well joining me now via skype from london is andrew feinstein andrew is the executive director of corruption watch the author of shadow world inside the global arms trade good to have you with us science to just the put things into perspective at the start how profitable is the u.s. guns industry compared to others we need to start by saying that the united states produces some with between thirty five and forty percent of all weaponry in the world so this is an industry that is worth tens of billions of dollars to the

united states the industry is small and light weapons handguns submachine guns rifles etc is a smaller component of that globally worth about eight billion dollars so in the u.s. probably worth around four billion dollars there have been repeated public outcry the gainst gun violence the industry has managed in the us to successfully insulate itself against any sort of backlash hasn't it though how well absolutely i think the national rifle association the main gun lobby group in the united states of america has been incredibly successful in creating a public climate that is pro-gun but far more important than that it has effectively pulled the support of the politicians who would need to regulate the industry and unfortunately that flow of money to those politicians which enables

them to stay in power because america is often described as the best democracy money can buy or as i describe the weapons procurement business in the united states as a form of illegal bribery those politicians are effectively insulated from public opinion now there is a possibility. in the imminent american elections that we could for the first time in many decades start to see a shift slight shift in that we're seeing a number of. public groups really good groups like. moms demand gun control for instance who are trying to energize voters not to vote for any candidate who is not critical of the gun lobby and doesn't commit to much greater regulation of guns in the united states let's broaden the

discussion a little bit how does that situation impact the economies of other countries taking countries close to the u.s. like mexico for example it has a massive impact in the world on two levels really first of all it creates this global environment of militarism so again remembering that the united states is involved in more conflicts then but any other country on the planet in fact. the united states government employs more people to run one aircraft carrier than it has diplomats across the entire world and the united states today has eleven and had craft carriers how that affects america's immediate neighbors is even more insidious so a country like mexico that has certain law and order problems relating to the drugs trade and relating to gun running the vast majority of those guns in mexico used by militias used by criminals both organized and informal come from the united states

of america so i'm not trying to talk about building a wall between the united states and mexico what he doesn't seem to realize is that there is an enormous a very profitable flow of guns into mexico from the u.s. that he probably wouldn't want to stop so you have the flow of guns into mexico and in return you have a flow of drugs and other illicit activities into the united states of america so what this is doing is it's because destabilizing those neighboring countries like mexico where it's giving criminal groups enormous power and fire power but at the same time attending a devastating impact in the united states itself how do you respond those who who would criticize that line and say you're mumbling two separate things the innocent and the licit trade in guns i've been i've been studying the trade in arms for seventeen years. the boundaries the

borders between the legal and the it illegal are incredibly fast so our governments and the weapons makers the celt would have us believe that there is this formal legal trade in whatever. that only opposite side of the spectrum is the black train the the illicit trade the reality is that the vast vast majority of these transactions be there for aircraft carriers or jet fighters will be there for handguns and semiautomatic weapons take place somewhere in the middle in what i describe as the shadow world in the gray market where there is bribery and corruption and this includes by governments including the governments of the main weapons producing countries of the world it also includes executives of the main weapons producing companies because bribes don't only flow

in one direction they also flow back to the executives of the countries play paying the bribes so in the work that i've done over seventeen years i could literally count on one hand the number of armament transactions that do not involve and element of illegality the problem then becomes that most of these transactions and most of the people who operate in this shadow world which include some of our most senior politicians and government ministers some of our most senior military leaders and of course the weapons making companies the vast vast majority of them act in the street with a degree of illegal impunity and this is the first reflected in the reality that we recorded and this was going back all the way to the end of twenty eleven or in a final point tell us how the n.r.a. influences international efforts to try and regulate and control the global trade

in arms. so what the n.r.a. does very effectively the n.r.a. is actually quite a small organization but it is it incredibly closely linked not only to the manufacturers of handguns and smaller like weapons but also to the be in much of the global weapons industry so the lockheed martin's the northrop grumman is the be a systems it is for these sorts of groups and it gets most of its money so what it does in the work that it does in the united states of america which is to create a particularly conducive environment to america later the environment for the sale of weaponry the end the n.r.a. together with these companies then try and spread that message throughout the world so the message is not just about the issue of unregulated got own ship being very closely linked to issues of freedom and liberty but also the need for an

environment of militarism where military force is the preferred way to resolve conflicts and we see that manifest in all over the world so for instance with a lurch to the far populist right that we have seen in brazil over the last few days part of the agenda of that far right movement in brazil is the deregulation of gun ownership in a society that has problems of gangsterism that has problems of armed criminals so the n.r.a. is affectively spreading the american message of liberty and militarism though that under feinstein thanks so much for your thoughts thank you very much. still to come on counting the cost is the only country in the world to measure success not through g.d.p. but through gross national happiness what does that mean i mean barker in the mountain kingdom of bhutan join me later in the program. but

first staff at google offices around the world staged walkouts this week they're protesting the internet companies lenient treatment of executives accused of sexual misconduct rob reynolds reports. in cities around the world employees of google walked off their jobs in protest over the company's policies and practices on workplace sexual misconduct from its headquarters in silicon valley to new york washington and boston employees streamed out denouncing corporate culture they say tolerate arrest let any accused executives quietly walk away with buckets full of cash is standard and it really should not be the employees were angered by a new york times report that andy reuben the creator of google's android mobile phone software received

a ninety million dollars severance package in two thousand and fourteen even after the company's own investigation found accusations of sexual harassment against him to be credible employees say sexism is right that google and allege executives acts with impunity setting high standards of beauty but i think to some here at google's european headquarters in dublin employees showed solidarity with victims of harassment protests also took place at the company's offices in singapore and in london i'm walking out along with other colleagues in support of all anyone in any workplace has been arrested to ensure that the pride is yeah no protection and no reward it's google c.e.o. sundar pichai and co-founder larry page apologized to workers and promised changes in policy protesting employees are also demanding an end to mandatory

arbitration clauses in their contracts which prevent them from taking harassers to court. the republic of seychelles is pointing the way forward when it comes to environmental finance this week it launched the world's first blue bond it's a way for the government to raise money to fund spending the big difference is the cash will be used to protect the island nation from climate change and sustaining marine resources the debt is backed by a guarantee from the world bank now how do you bunch it for brains that when you don't even know what look like well the u.k. government did exactly that this week and it means a stereotype for longer for most britons u.k. chancellor for that hammond spending plan was set out at a time when the e.u. and the u.k. can't reach an agreement on how to break up big spending decisions were deferred meaning austerity is still in place public services apart from health care like

schools and police will remain starved of cash despite upgrades to growth forecasts and there could be more pain in store crucially in the event of a no deal breaks it public spending could be even lower and emergency spring budget might be required mr hammond's message was unless briggs it goes smoothly the prospect for further tax cuts and higher spending is not good hammond said if a deal is agreed we could spend more money next year or that would include the fifteen billion dollars set aside as a fiscal buffer meanwhile the bank of england has kept interest rates steady on thursday he's also warned there is no guarantee it would cut interest rates to support growth and jobs under a disorderly bragg's it and all that uncertainty is having an impact in contrast business investment has been weaker than previously anticipated the level

of investment fell by more than one percent in the first half of this year and is no almost fifteen percent lower than the m.p.c. had projected just prior to the vote. as aggressive deadline looms u.k. companies are now understandably postponing investment until they have greater clarity over the u.k.'s future trading relationship with the e.u. joining me now from london is james not really james is the chief international economist at banking group i n g good to have you with us so why does the bank of england decision leave the u.k. economy yes i think the problem is of course is just so much uncertainty surrounding the u.k. right now not only is the brics it worry there but also geopolitically there's a lot going on the global trade war as well so the u.k. is looking very vulnerable but at the same time the bank of england believes that this very little speck a pasty in the u.k. economy employment is at record levels so that sort of backdrop makes it very

tricky for the bank of england's to really guide us through this right now and at the moment they're suggesting they're going to wait and see and see what's happens after bret's it which hopefully will happen on march twenty ninth well how appropriate can a u.k. budget be then at this point given the lack of clarity over break that over the bank of england and its wait and see stance. that's true the bank of england's and the treasury a both telling us that there's a huge amount of uncertainty and i would certainly agree with that but they're trying to provide a calming message to markets as we try and negotiate the final stages of the withdrawal agreements and of course both the bank of england and the u.k. treasury which is she the budget this week has suggested that they could do more to support u.k. economy if things don't go well but likewise if things turn out to be relatively smooth and we get a nice transition the bank of england also stands ready to raise interest rates so that flexibility is clearly being signaled by both the treasury and also the bank

of england but the bank of england send the signal that it can't say that they would be prepared to cut interest rates going forward i mean that message isn't entirely comforting going forward is that. i think you know he's got to giants trying to calm the situation and not sort of pre-commit to anything central bank is our little bit nervous about the preakness and we saw a little two years ago in the u.k. left those lots of words and comments made and people had to backtrack very quickly but i think in terms of why he may not cut interest rates if we do get hard hits or disorderly bricks it well he would his point was that it's a massive supply shock if you've got the ports gridlock in britain constant put food in by the way we import forty percent of all the food that we can seem that's going to be a huge issue twenty five basis point interest rate cut is not going to alleviate any of those structural issues do we have any idea how much brags it will cost off

the i don't know how long we've had this debate going on. well i mean my simple response to that is if you look at what's happened this year you've got a u.s. economy that's growing at three percent you've got a european economy economy that's growing at two percent now historically i would suggest the u.k. should be somewhere between half and three quarters of the way between europe and the us i would say nikkei should be growing about say two and a half to two point eight percent in this global environment this year britain is going to grow just one point three percent so therefore i automatically just state that this year alone because of just the incessant say that has cost britain's growth risen about a one and a half century points of g.d.p. growth now if we get to a hard story bets are off the structural problems about the poor it's about the financial services about all the industries that u.k. is related to but in europe that's just so confusing and so uncertain we just do not know what is going to happen so you would imagine a quite

a steep recession would be likely in that terrible heartbreak six nari all right so we don't know what will happen we don't know exactly how much it'll cost doing though who's going to end up paying for it though james. what. i'd imagine is going to be the british citizens we're already seeing that's through the effects of bricks it so far the big impacts economically is of course been the collapse of the pound in the wake of that referendum outcome that has pushed up imported prices into the u.k. sic consumer price inflation has risen quite rapidly our wages haven't compensated us for those cost increases so there's been a big squeeze on household spending power and if we do get since to a situation where this environment is it's pretty pretty dangerous supply chains are going to be can could be could be destroyed basically if you see the gridlock at the ports coming through these just in time production methodology that of course we all involved in these days it simply wouldn't work so you would imagine

to be job losses as well so it's going to be the households that will bear the brunt bear the brunt of it and the government would have to try and step in and provide some sort of stimulus try and offset the pain is a compromise coming together over the irish border is that wishful thinking of not reporting. i think it's probably coming together and it's we hear so much back and forth in terms of the news flow but i would suggest that the e.u. is offering up concessions i mean concessions being basically we extend the transitional period so nothing changes for even longer the problem is time we've got to get this done by march the twenty ninth now britain has made concessions britain has backed down lots remember we didn't say we said that we were going to pay a penny we've now offered thirty nine billion euros as a divorce payments we were going to go for a transitional period we're just going to do a short implementation phase we're now we're doing a full transitional period we've basically been backing down quite a lot in terms of the can i think that sort of pressure is going to build again and

therefore concessions will be made but it's not going to come this week or next week it's going to have to be much closer to the deadline for when bracks it really happens james lightly been good talking to you and finally bhutan is the only country in the world to measure the success of the nation not by a common growth but by gross national happiness they've blocked the reports from the kingdom of bhutan. it's a daunting climb to one of the holiest sites in bhutan tigers ness monastery seems to defy gravity every piece of these is expected to complete the pilgrimage to ensure peace and happiness. when it became a democracy in two thousand and eight put happiness at the center of all political policy inspiring the un to pass a resolution urging other nations to follow betimes example but how do you measure it. for many brittany's happiness as well when surety that it is quantifiable but

ever since it became part of state policy it's been described roughly as good governance the balance between nature and economic growth also between pleasure and work in the capital to who is the world's only secretariat of happiness and a chief official who takes his job very seriously the unit index is formed based on the nine governments and school thirty three indicators. education living standard environmental good governance psychological wellbeing the other one is community vitality don't use and cultural diversity. this is one way people find happiness in bhutan through traditional pursuits such as the national sport archery but the nation's happiness policies sometimes

business the. youth unemployment is soaring twenty four year old mum gave ten thousand is restless but you opportunities he can't find suitable work is a major problem in britain right now. as the unemployment. after the. completion of graduation. invent a good job neighboring india has been generous with financial support but some think it's time to welcome chinese investment to bhutan has no diplomatic links with its northern neighbor. but balancing ties between fierce regional rivals will be a challenge it's a risky part the happiness of the nation could depend upon it for me if you. like it just so what i need is a peace and take a good leadership you know country for me i have been spending quality time with

friends and families and visiting beautiful places and taking pictures so there may not be a magical mystical or even spiritual formula when it comes to finding happiness but by simply turning its pursuit into policy bhutan has done what no other country has . and that's our show for this week but remember you can kept in touch with answer via twitter use the hash tag see when you do or drop us an e-mail counting the cost of al-jazeera dot net is our address. there's more for you online at al-jazeera dot com slash c.t.c. that will take you straight to our page which has individual reports links and the entire episode for you to catch up on. that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm sam is a than from the whole team thanks for joining us news and al-jazeera is next. history has called it the great war in the first episode conscription draws

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