Free Republic

LOS ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest city voted on Tuesday to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 from the current $9 an hour, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far in the national push to raise the minimum wage. The increase — which the Los Angeles City Council passed in a 14-1 vote — comes as workers across the country are rallying for higher wages. The impact is likely to be particularly strong in Los Angeles, where, according to some estimates, more than 40 percent of the city’s work force earns less than...

The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.” — Henry Hazlitt, “Economics in One Lesson” One of the greatest fallacies of recent generations is the argument that free market capitalism has failed and that said failure is responsible for America’s moribund economy, the ongoing destruction of the middle...

International trade is a job creation engine that supports more than one in five jobs nationwide. Every state benefits from exports, and Texas, California and New York have the highest export revenues. Even states earning less than the top three states receive billions of export dollars. The United States is in the midst of negotiating three major trade frameworks (Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP], Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership [TTIP] and Trade and Investment Services Agreement [TISA]) that will be difficult to conclude without trade promotion authority (TPA). Trade Promotion Authority – The States Are Stakeholders provides background on TPA and the...

What was impressive about this sentiment is that it doesn’t even focus on a trade deficit. No, just the brute fact of buying imports per se is (apparently) enough to doom our children. Before unpacking the specific problems with it, let’s warm up by listing some equally plausible questions: ==> If we continue to buy groceries, where will our children garden? ==> If we continue to buy oranges from Florida, where will New Yorkers work? ==> If we continue to buy from people outside the family, where will our cousins work? ==> If we continue to buy from stores where...

The people of Israel wanted a king. They heard of the nations around them, and they were told that these nations had strong central governments. Each was led by a king, who embodied the power, prestige, and glory of his nation-state. The system of civil rule in Israel at this time was based on decentralized tribes. Each tribe had a system of judges. There was no legislature. There was no central civil government. Samuel was both a priest and a civil judge. Representatives of the people of Israel came to him and asked him to anoint someone to serve as...

Wednesday was Anggie Godoy's 14th day since eating her last meal: French fries covered with grilled meat, cheese and guacamole. She hasn't had anything to eat since then - just water. "There are days where it's good and there are days where it's bad," she said about her fast. But what keeps her going is knowing that she's fighting for something just as critical to her survival. The 19-year-old daughter of Guatemalan immigrants is among a group of women who are close to completing a 15-day fast in Los Angeles. They hoped to persuade city council members there to raise...

A phased-in, $12-an-hour minimum wage will be proposed Thursday by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., with Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on hand to offer support. As many as half or more of the Senate’s 46 Democrats are expected to support the proposal. The $12 wage is higher than the the $10.10-an-hour minimum wage proposed by President Obama. Once a bipartisan cause — the last minimum wage increase was passed by a Democratic controlled Congress and signed by President Bush — efforts to raise the current $7.25-an-hour federal wage have been blocked in Congress. Speaker...

Public Works Mean Taxes For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword (Proverbs 5:3-4). The author of Proverbs in the first nine chapters contrasts the faithful wife with the strange woman. He uses the metaphor of the strange woman for alluring lies that ultimately betray the person who accepts them. Here is the passage’s underlying message: something can look very appealing on the surface, but the end thereof is bitter as wormwood. Why? Because there is a system...

I think we’ve all been struggling to explain Big Guy’s foreign policy. Fortunately, the New York Times has finally done it for us: At Global Economic Gathering, U.S. Primacy Is Seen as Ebbing. As world leaders converge here for their semiannual trek to the capital of what is still the world’s most powerful economy, concern is rising in many quarters that the United States is retreating from global economic leadership just when it is needed most. “America Bows Out”“I’ve been searching for a word to describe it, and the one I use is ‘withdrawal,’ best I can come up with,”...

In Popular Economics, John Tamny, editor of RealClearMarkets, sets out to refute bad economic ideas and replace them with sound ones. Many books have tried to do that, but what sets Tamny’s apart is how he goes about making the “dismal science,” well, popular. His subtitle is revealing: “What the Rolling Stones, Downton Abbey, and LeBron James can teach you about economics.” Quite a bit, as it turns out. To educate is to build a bridge from what a person knows to things he doesn’t yet understand. Tamny does that brilliantly by using sports and popular culture to convey key...

CHICAGO — What will drive Hillary Rodham Clinton's second bid for the presidency? Boosting economic security for the middle class and expanding opportunities for working families, key issues that her campaign says will be heralded by a results-oriented "tenacious fighter." The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state is expected to make her 2016 effort official Sunday with an online video followed by small events with residents of early-voting states over the days ahead. The campaign's opening strategy was described ahead of the announcement by two senior advisers who requested anonymity to discuss her plans. If Clinton's strategy...

Let's collaboratively build a timeline of this disaster, starting with when these agencies were formed, tracking the legislation that was not only passed, but proposed, and quotes from who supported and opposed it. PLEASE INCLUDE URLs so we can link to sources. Here's a start. 1938 Fannie Mae, or the Federal National Mortgage Association, was founded in 1938. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode12/usc_sup_01_12_10_13_20_III.html 1954 1954 Charter Act 1968 1968 Charter Act 1970 Freddie Mac, or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, was established in 1970 1989 Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 1990, James A. Johnson went to work for Fannie...

Timeline proving that the mortgage industry crisis is the Democratic socialist experiment. Another socialist experiment failed, this time a massive federal effort, imperiling the whole US banking industry. Facing this economic disaster, can an informed American people put their trust Obama’s socialist ideology to bring remedy? Will they bring in an acetylene torch to put out the fire? http://eyesandearsweekly.blogspot.com/2008/10/narrative-for-change-proven-failure-of.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-democrat-fingerprints-are-all-over-the-financial-crisis-949653.html

Thousands of Icelanders took to the street in violent protests in Rekjavik, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and central bank governor David Oddsson in the wake of the country's complete financial collapse. REYKJAVIK - Thousands of Icelanders demonstrated in Reykjavik on Saturday demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank Governor David Oddsson for failing to stop a financial meltdown in the country. It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since the financial meltdown that crippled the island's economy. Hordur Torfason, a well-known troubadour in Iceland and the main...

Paul Krugman, a few years ago, wrote at length to extol the magnum opus of science fiction grandmaster, Isaac Asimov, theFoundation Trilogy. Prof. Krugman’s reflections thereon are of keen interest. I met Asimov once, 40+ years ago, at a world science fiction convention. I even got him to autograph my Science Fiction Book Club copy of “The Foundation Trilogy.” This compilation of three novels is an SF classic. I, then and since, found it too dull to read in full. (Asimov’s I, Robot then was much more engaging to this long-ago SF geek. But nothing Asimov wrote really rivaled Heinlein’s...

Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, died last week at age 91. Almost every obituary has remarked on the radical transition his leadership heralded. As John Fund wrote at National Review: “By embracing free trade, capital formation, vigorous meritocratic education, low taxes, and a reliable judicial system, Lee raised the per capita income of his country from $500 a year to some $52,000 a year today. That’s 50 percent higher than that of Britain, the colonial power that ruled Singapore for 150 years. Its average annual growth rate has averaged 7 percent since the 1970s.” Part of...

With the recent increases in minimum wage, the Central Michigan University Recreation Department has restricted expenses to remain within its budget. Minimum wage increased from $7.40 per hour in 2013 to $8.15 per hour in 2014-15. While minimum wage has increased, the department's budget hasn't increased to compensate the statewide change. In Michigan, minimum wage is scheduled to increase every January over the next four years. Although the increase in wages has left little room for expenditures, UREC has made no drastic changes to their budget. "There have been no massive cutbacks, just changes to the overall strategy and reprogram,"...

At least 2,000 jobs will likely be lost in New Mexico’s oil and gas industry in the coming months because of sharp declines in the price of crude oil, according to estimates by the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

As a long-term strategy for defeating jihadists, Americans blaming George W. Bush ad infinitum is sure to be a winner -- for jihadists. It's right up there with American retreat from leadership in the world as high on their list of goals. And sure enough, former congressman Barney Frank heartily endorses both. Frank was among the guests on last night's Real Time with Bill Maher, brimming with his usual persnickety bluster. At one point he tangled with conservative columnist S.E. Cupp on the subject of the abrupt US military withdrawal from Yemen. This led to a pair of candid admissions...