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Raising The Minimum Wage And Lowering The Barriers To Union Organization Would Carry A Trade-off - Higher Unemployment. A Better Idea Is To Have The Government Subsidize Low-wage Employment. The Earned-income Tax Credit For Low-income Workers - Which Has Been The Object Of Proposed Cuts By Both President Clinton And Congressional Republicans - Has Been A Positive Step In This Direction.

-Paul Krugman

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Raising The Minimum Wage

Paul Krugman

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Raising The Minimum Wage And Lowering The Barriers To Union Organization Would Carry A Trade-off - Higher Unemployment. A Better Idea Is To Have The Government Subsidize Low-wage Employment. The Earned-income Tax Credit For Low-income Workers - Which Has Been The Object Of Proposed Cuts By Both President Clinton And Congressional Republicans - Has Been A Positive Step In This Direction.

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What Republicans Have Actually Put On The Table Is Almost Nothing. All Of The Rest Is Just Big Talk. So How Is The President Supposed To Negotiate With People Who Say, 'here's My Demands. By The Way, I Can't Give You Any Specifics. Just Make Me Happy'?

Every Once In A While I Feel Despair Over The Fate Of The Planet. If You’ve Been Following Climate Science, You Know What I Mean: The Sense That We’re Hurtling Toward Catastrophe But Nobody Wants To Hear About It Or Do Anything To Avert It.

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...instead It Seems That Business - Like Weight Loss - Is A Subject Wherein Hope And Fear Inspire Limitless Gullibility.

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Cult Of Personality

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Insurance Companies

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Adverse Effects

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Approval Rating

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So What Are The Effects Of Increasing Minimum Wages? Any Econ 101 Student Can Tell You The Answer: The Higher Wage Reduces The Quantity Of Labor Demanded, And Hence Leads To Unemployment.

However, The Fact That An Economist Offers A Theoretical Analysis Does Not And Should Not Automatically Command Respect. What Is Needed Is Some Assurance That The Analysis Is Actually Relevant.

But Where Will The Fed Find Another Bubble?

Europe Is Often Held Up As A Cautionary Tale, A Demonstration That If You Try To Make The Economy Less Brutal, To Take Better Care Of Your Fellow Citizens When They're Down On Their Luck, You End Up Killing Economic Progress. But What European Experience Actually Demonstrates Is The Opposite: Social Justice And Progress Can Go Hand In Hand.

There's One Thing That The Fed Has Been Really Good At Cracking Down On, And That's Inflation.

The Important Thing To Understand Is That The Case For Pollution Control Isn't Based On Some Kind Of Aesthetic Distaste For Industrial Society. Pollution Does Real, Measurable Damage, Especially To Human Health.

Pollution Control

The Key Reason Executives Are Paid So Much Now Is That They Appoint The Members Of The Corporate Board That Determines Their Compensation And Control Many Of The Perks That Board Members Count On. So It's Not The Invisible Hand Of The Market That Leads To Those Monumental Executive Incomes; It's The Invisible Handshake In The Boardroom.

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And When The Chickens That Didn't Hatch Come Home To Roost, We Will Rue The Day When, Misled By Sloppy Accounting And Rosy Scenarios, We Gave Away The National Nest Egg.

I Believe In A Relatively Equal Society, Supported By Institutions That Limit Extremes Of Wealth And Poverty. I Believe In Democracy, Civil Liberties, And The Rule Of Law. That Makes Me A Liberal, And I’m Proud Of It.

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[the Us] Budget Is Dominated By The Retirement Programs, Social Security And Medicare - Loosely Speaking, The Post-cold-war Federal Government Is A Big Pension Fund That Also Happens To Have An Army.

The Real Danger With Debt Is What Happens If Lots Of People Decide, Or Are Forced, To Pay It Off At The Same Time.

You Know That Republicans Will Yell About The Evils Of Partisanship Whenever Anyone Tries To Make A Connection Between The Rhetoric Of Beck, Limbaugh, Etc. And The Violence I Fear We’re Going To See In The Months And Years Ahead. But Violent Acts Are What Happen When You Create A Climate Of Hate. And It’s Long Past Time For The Gop’s Leaders To Take A Stand Against The Hate-mongers.

The Habit Of Disguising Ideology As Expertise Has Created A Deficit Of Legitimacy.

The United States In Particular And The West In General Should Be Feeling A Little Embarrassed About All That Lecturing We Did To The Third World.

If You Want To Understand Opposition To Climate Action, Follow The Money.

[i]f You Look At United States History Since World War Ii, You Find That Of The 10 Presidents Who Preceded Barack Obama, Seven Left Office With A Debt Ratio Lower Than When They Came In. Who Were The Three Exceptions? Ronald Reagan And The Two George Bushes.

I Admit It: I Had Fun Watching Right-wingers Go Wild As Health Reform Finally Became Law.

The Economics Profession Went Astray Because Economists, As A Group, Mistook Beauty, Clad In Impressive-looking Mathematics, For Truth.

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John D. MacDonald

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