With the head of the International Monetary fund, Christine Legarde, and World Bank President jim young kim. Following the money to washington d. C. To get answers about your money from the most powerful leaders in the world im ali velshi im here in our Nations Capital getting answers from the most connected people on the planet. The economy is on track. More than 3 million jobs added and a stock market hitting highs much none of that changing the reality for American Workers desperate for a share of the wealth. Thousands of people in cities across the country came out to pretest low wages. And focussing on the flight of fast food workers, others joined the protest in solidarity like adjunct professors. They were demanding a federal minimum wage of 15 an hour, something that offers a living wage. Comey has our report. Christine saloomey has our report agnes takes two buses and a subway, spending 10 and four hours getting to and from work, where she makes 10 an hour, and she hasnt had a raise in a decade. Were really struggling. I mean struggling bad in the city. We need the 15. Cost of living has gone up, transportation, food went up. We need the 15. The fight for 15 started with fast food workers and expanded to include other low wage earners like agnes. Her union, service employees, is an organiser. A lot of groups coalesced around the idea of 15 as a bare york. Reporter in response to critics mcdonalds announced its increasing average pay by a dollar to under 10 for workers at corporateopened restaurants. Workers say its not enough and will impact only a small majority. They continue to battle, rallying across the country on wednesday outside bignamed businesses who cant afford the increase and will have to cut jobs or raise prices. 15 an hour is a reasonable thing to do, until you realise someone has to pay for it. The economy needs entry level jobs like these. But the vast majority of people that started move up into higher paying positions within a few years or, in many cases, within a year. Reporter agnes, whose husband lives on a fixed income, has been doing her job for 17 years. That is a big myth. Low wage workers are not teenagers, they are families, mother, fathers, not just teenagers. Reporter like agnes, they are willing to take to the heard. The international mun says inequality is an impetment to growth in america and the world. Trillions have been pumped into the economy. Those trillions failed to stimulate the kind of growth na pushes incomes up, except for those at the top. The International Monetary fund insists that america is the one bright spot in the world. Despite americans saying they are not feeling the recovery. In a report the i mf says america shouldnt take its relative good luck for granted, economic woes afflicting people in europe and asia, two of americas biggest trading partners will come back to bite the u. S. I. M. F. Figuring drar, Christine Legarde says the world could fall into a new mediocre. Slow Economic Growth for a long time. I met her in washington to ask how she defines the threat mediocrity imposes. New mediocre is growth but moderate. Growth but uneven, growth, but no jobs. My fear is in mediocre is the new reality. I dont think it is. If policy makers take the right decisions, and that means addressing todays risk and tomorrows potential, which we have downgraded. Growth rates globally are not terrible. What is the concern, because we are not in pan ic, recession, crisis, we are not going to fix the economies making it more beneficial. You know when you get the school report, saying meade ochre, can do better. We need to do better. What that means in the short term, continuing the monterring policies in eurozone, moving away from commodities in the u. S. Is great news. The u. S. Growth will be solidly anchored which we are seeing. It means a mart policy. Those with fiscal space should use it. Those that dont should redesign policies in order not to weigh on labour, and means addressing the Financial Stability risk that is a potential. That is for today. Policy makers should address today the Growth Potential issue for tomorrow. Meaning taking the Structural Reforms that are difficult to take, and we risk not taking if we are complacent. When i think of structural reform, i go to greece or japan. What are you talking about . What im talking about is in both countries, Labour Market reform, to encourage people to actually go to the job market. When i think of Structural Reforms, i think of encouraging trade facilitation making sure that the trade agreements in discussion at the moment are pushed to conclusion, so that there is more trade going on, and finally, i think of infrastructure, because thats a problem plying across the world, these are three categories and labour mark the infrastructure. Where serious reforms has to be applied. In the United States, the opportunity to undertake Infrastructure Development and repair has not been taken. We are afraid of it in the developed world. Correct. Correct. Its not as if resources could not we made available. Low Interest Rates is on encouragement. So is the price of oil. If you remove subsidies, which apply in some countries of the world, or decide on a small taxation then you can actually identify and collect the revenues that will help to improve the situation of hi ways or the maintenance of bridges, or help construct infrastructure that will move goods around. Lets talk about greece. I was in athens while you were here meting with the finn minister of greece. Now greece has a situation in which if they dont have an agreement with the yoeb finance minister to get more money, they probably cant make the may 12th payment to you which is over then. I think its very much what happens now. I hope the greek authorities put the working energy and brain power. They are not short of that on which reforms, by when. Will be implemented to reach the redegrees. Recessions. The way it happened, you had taken a hard line. That payment had to be made that payment had to be made on the day it is made. Is that the same position you will take hon may 12th. You know, no advanced economy has asked for delays of payment. I hope that we do not innovate in that situation. I you know, there are liquidities that need to be addressed. The best way is to start the good work now and commit to the greece. Lets speak about wages, im sensing a shift in the United States, a smentmental shift. We saw a number of states with conservative increases. We are seeing Major Companies in the United States institute lower and higher minimum wages, and they argue they cant get the staff unless they do it. There are protests this week. Give me your stance about the push for raising the minimum wam. Is this a good thing to do. Its a supply and demand factor you describe from an over all view, minimum wages would be a boost to consumption. We are supportive of a move in that direction. The argument against raising the minimum raise is that an increase kills jobs evidence suggests that not raising it hurts the economy more. One of the top labour officials in americas government is here next. A real money report from washington back in 2 minutes. Monday. A lot of these mining sites are restricted. A silent killer. Got a lot of arsenic in it. You know your waters bad and you know youre sick. Unheard victims. 90 percent of the people will get some type of illness from the water. Where could it happen next . I mean, they took away my life. Faultlines. Al jazeera americas hardhitting. Today they will be arrested. Groundbreaking. Theyre firing canisters of gas at us. Emmy awardwinning investigative series. Water for coal. Monday, 10 00 eastern. Only on al jazeera america. Part of al jazeera americas special month long evironmental focus fragile planet the peninsula, in arabic, is aljazeera. Our logo represents courage. Fiercely independent quality reporting. To take as much aid as possible. And standing up for the voiceless. When you see this symbol respected around the world it means you too can now count on all the things we stand for. Aljazeera america. The world bank has a mandate to promote longterm Economic Development and reduce poverty. The bang did an eternal review to find out if it was doing enough to protect the rites of people in developing nations who are displaced and resettled by major infrastructure projects, projects that the bank funds. Turns out the world bank is not doing enough, and that has implications for 3. 4 million. I asked the world bank if a global organization, Whose Mission assist might have been involved in making things worse for people it was craig to help. This was a world bank study, we wanted to know whether throughout the projects, we were abiding which resettlement policies. Let me tell what what it is. It is not unique. When you build trur, for the developed countries, they go through this when they bh the railroad or highway 95. When it happens, you have resettlement or something where the government claims the land for the greater good. Anyone that happens to be on the land, when the development compensation. What do you think happens the minute we announce a project. If you move on to the land, if you are a squatter, we give you the right. We have a generous policy. It came to our attention, we were not sure we were sticking by the policy. It was 3. 4 million affected in some way, thats why i took the time to release the reports and say now that we are going to expand the approach, in the name of ending poverty, we have to be serious about abiding by our own rules, which are better than a governments. It is something that we are serious about fixing. You emphasise this because part of your speech about how to stimulate growth has a lot to do with Infrastructure Development. You think its a key pillar to sustainable growth. Let look at energy in africa. A way to proceed it with hydroelectric power. Again, this is an example. Rich countries having done it. Now looking at how to do it. We are for it. We have to realise 60 of hydrotrick potential has been exploited. In africa, its less than 1 . Shouldnt very have the opportunity to have a source of power that at the same time doesnt put carbon in the air. We think the answer is yes. Its complex. We need to jump into the situation, ensure that people are resettled but get the projects done to be lived out of poverty. A month ago energy, the price barrel. Now we are above 5, which is where a number of groups say oil is likely to be. Relatively low compared to a year ago. We are calling for companies that use it. If you look at the energy subsidies, and the i. M. F. Looked at 20 low and middle income subsidies, and they found the top 20 earners are receiving six times the benefit as the bottom 20 . Oil subsidies are a regressive tax. We dont believe in regressive taxes, that they send the wrong message about the burning of carbon and putting it into the air. Theres so many good things that can happen. With low prices they can plan to remove the subsidies, and theyll lose that money for subsidizing the rich to focus the efforts on supporting the poor. We spent this show, some time, on inequality of rages. We are seeing growing inequality and a stagnation of wages at the lowest ends. Globally speaking where are we in reducing inequality. Its a mixed picture. Certain countries that made focused efforts. Brazil is one, there are programs focused on inequality, and they are successful. I dont think you can say its worse. Its getting better. The balance is can you ensure without going to the point of assuring equality of outcome. It doesnt have a good track record. Its a golden thing that countries are striving for. What wed like to see, and we measure it for the first time the World Bank Group says a goal is a maybure of inequality. Which is to what extent are the bottom 40 sharing Economic Growth, and the goal is they should have a faster Income Growth than the economy as a hole. We are looking at everything we can do to make it happen. Sometimes its safety nets, job skills, Training Programs and specific investments in the private sector to create the jobs that young people are looking for. Its different in different areas. We have Global Knowledge. I can say what did they do in mexico to move from a traditional Cash Programme to formal employment. In my view, as long as we do that, take Global Knowledge and move it to where its needed us. Greece, the birthplace of civilisation, home to ruins from all sorts of areas in the world. I went to greece to dig into the incompetence and corruption to dig into financial collapse. Will the greek tragedy by avoided . From the streets to the halls of power, ill take you to greece for a series of reports to see if this country can avoid an imminent disaster. Stay tuned. Thats our show for today. Thank you for joining us. Night. Its no exaggeration to say we are electricity addicts from the alarm clock that wakes you up to the charge on your cell phone or laptop. To your fridge, home lighting and heating. We assume that when we need it its there. In endless abundant reliable supply. Concerns are growing that the vast web of infrastructure that guarantees lights come on is