June 29, 2016
By Nick Corasaniti
Bangor, Me. — Pressing his staunch (click here) opposition to trade deals, Donald J. Trump escalated his attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, saying it was “totally controlled by the special interest groups.”
“They’re a special interest that wants to have the deals that they want to have,” he told a packed arena at a rally here, to whoops and cheers. “They want to have T.P.P., the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the worst deals, and it’ll be the worst deal since Nafta.”
The remarks criticizing the Chamber were yet another manifestation of the divide between the Republican economic orthodoxy that embraces all trade, and the nationalistic anti-trade policies Mr. Trump laid out in a major speech Tuesday in a Pittsburgh suburb.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is often a strong ally of Republican candidates, spending more than $35 million in the 2014 midterms in support of them. But it has also been sharply critical of Mr. Trump’s views on trade, and has frequently posted articles critical of him on its blog, including one Tuesday night on its website titled, “The 2013 Trump Was a Lot Better on Trade Than the 2016 Version.”...
Senator Bernie Sanders, they are playing your song.
June 10, 2016
By J.D. Foster
...The minimum wage debate (click here) is misplaced as part of the income inequality debate simply because raising the minimum wage by $1 an hour, for example, adds about $2,000 to the pre-tax income of those few full-time minimum wage adult workers. (Most minimum wage earners are either teenagers or are working part-time). A $2,000 increase would make a difference to the worker, assuming he or she still has a job, but it doesn’t do much for income inequality when stacked against the incomes of those at the very top of the income scale.
In addition to the standard and correct arguments against a minimum wage hike – hurts small businesses and raises unemployment especially among marginal workers and teenagers – policy makes should consider two other facets of the minimum wage issue.
First, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 21 states plus the District of Columbia, including five of the seven most populous states, already have minimum wages well above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Thirteen of these states raised their minimum wages at the start of the year. The converse is that 29 states have chosen not to raise their minimum wage rates above the federal rate....
By Nick Corasaniti
Bangor, Me. — Pressing his staunch (click here) opposition to trade deals, Donald J. Trump escalated his attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, saying it was “totally controlled by the special interest groups.”
“They’re a special interest that wants to have the deals that they want to have,” he told a packed arena at a rally here, to whoops and cheers. “They want to have T.P.P., the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the worst deals, and it’ll be the worst deal since Nafta.”
The remarks criticizing the Chamber were yet another manifestation of the divide between the Republican economic orthodoxy that embraces all trade, and the nationalistic anti-trade policies Mr. Trump laid out in a major speech Tuesday in a Pittsburgh suburb.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is often a strong ally of Republican candidates, spending more than $35 million in the 2014 midterms in support of them. But it has also been sharply critical of Mr. Trump’s views on trade, and has frequently posted articles critical of him on its blog, including one Tuesday night on its website titled, “The 2013 Trump Was a Lot Better on Trade Than the 2016 Version.”...
Senator Bernie Sanders, they are playing your song.
June 10, 2016
By J.D. Foster
...The minimum wage debate (click here) is misplaced as part of the income inequality debate simply because raising the minimum wage by $1 an hour, for example, adds about $2,000 to the pre-tax income of those few full-time minimum wage adult workers. (Most minimum wage earners are either teenagers or are working part-time). A $2,000 increase would make a difference to the worker, assuming he or she still has a job, but it doesn’t do much for income inequality when stacked against the incomes of those at the very top of the income scale.
In addition to the standard and correct arguments against a minimum wage hike – hurts small businesses and raises unemployment especially among marginal workers and teenagers – policy makes should consider two other facets of the minimum wage issue.
First, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 21 states plus the District of Columbia, including five of the seven most populous states, already have minimum wages well above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Thirteen of these states raised their minimum wages at the start of the year. The converse is that 29 states have chosen not to raise their minimum wage rates above the federal rate....
