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Topic: Minimum wage (Read 5361 times) |
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Blunderov
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Posts: 3160 Reputation: 8.85 Rate Blunderov
"We think in generalities, we live in details"
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RE: virus: Re:Minimum wage
« Reply #45 on: 2003-10-28 13:07:39 » |
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[Blunderov] Once again this seems germane. Best Regards <snip> Paul McFedries [wordspy@logophilia.com]
job-loss recovery
n. A form of economic growth in which the total number of jobs in the economy decreases. Also: job loss recovery.
Example Citations:
Even the U.S.'s impressive productivity gains have a bit of tarnish. Productivity is usually measured as output for every person-hour worked. In the U.S., it has been going up, in large part, because companies have laid off workers or, at least, not hired new ones.
About 3.2 million jobs in the U.S. have disappeared since the recession began in early 2001. Experts say the U.S. is suffering from a "job-loss recovery" not the jobless recovery of the 1990s.
There is good news, however: employment has perked up in recent weeks. -Tom Ford, "Economic problems will greet Martin," The Guelph Mercury, October 24, 2003
About 616,000 jobs have been lost since the beginning of 2002, when experts believe the economy began growing again in a so-called jobless recovery. One economist said the economy was now trapped in a "job-loss recovery." -Angela Shah, "June numbers show labor market in 'quicksand'," The Dallas Morning News, July 4, 2003
Backgrounder :
This term is a play on the phrase jobless recovery (or job-less recovery) - economic growth that doesn't create new jobs - which entered the language around 1985.
Earliest Citation:
Analysts said that as long as output remained well under 3 percent, there was little prospect that payrolls would start growing again.
"Growth of anything less than 3 percent to 4 percent is a jobs recession," said James Glassman, senior economist at J.P. Morgan. "So far, this is a job-loss recovery."
Nearly half a million jobs have been lost in the last two months. The U.S. government is scheduled to release employment data for April next Friday. -Kenneth N. Gilpin, "U.S. economy grew slowly in first period," The International Herald Tribune, April 26, 2003
On the Web:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/job-lossrecovery.asp
See Also:
Goldilocks economy growth recession profitless prosperity X-shaped recovery </snip>
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Blunderov
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Posts: 3160 Reputation: 8.85 Rate Blunderov
"We think in generalities, we live in details"
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RE: virus: Re:Minimum wage
« Reply #46 on: 2003-10-30 12:41:12 » |
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[Blunderov] Bad omen for the minimum wage? See also
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hydrogen-economy.htm
Best Regards
http://www.mips1.net/mgp03.nsf/0/80256CE100291EEB42256CE6006F2609?OpenDo cument <q> TORONTO - Canada's most successful stock promoter and present chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, Robert Friedland, is investing heavily in China, Australia and South Africa on a hunch that those countries will benefit most from a "deflation boom". A deflation boom, says Friedland, is akin to previous periods of unusual prosperity underwritten by tremendous productivity gains - real wealth growth despite punishing price declines. Such events were seen in Australia from 1860-90; the United States from 1870-1913 and Japan from 1950-73.
China is Friedland's next candidate for a deflation boom, already at the right staging point with sustained, strong GDP growth and a stable, but proportionately more massive population than in countries that previously experienced deflationary booms.
"The combined population of the US and Britain is less than China's under-eighteens, none of whom remember Chairman Mao," said an enthused Friedland, who also noted that English is now a universal subject at Chinese schools.
"The West's production capacity is moving to China and there is nothing it can do about it. Germany is prolapsing; the Europeans haven't got the foggiest idea. The average German worker wants a 4-day week, a 9-week holiday and still make 40 bucks an hour; but Volkswagen makes the bulk of its money in Shanghai."
Friedland is running his macro view on a double entry commodity ledger. On the "left hand side" are things China does not need like lead, magnesium, molybdenum, tin, zinc and steam coal. On the "right-hand side" are sea borne iron ore, platinum, alumina, copper, nickel, metallurgical coal, and gold.
Guess which commodities Friedland is up to his eyeballs in? Ever the promoter.
That said, Friedland is hardly alone in pushing China to the top of the miners' totem pole. Chicago investment manager Donald Coxe says: "China is becoming a price setter on a huge range of finished goods. At the same time it is a price taker for a wide range of commodities." There's that double entry reference again.
Friedland is looking forward to a "majestic, long-term rollover for the US dollar."
"The US dollar is toast because China is going to export awesome deflation. It is going to depress real wage rates in the West in a very serious way; will hurt unions and take down urban real estate in the United States and there's nothing that can be done about it." As an example, he cited the cost of structural steel which is ten times more expensive in the West - something has to give and he thinks it's the minimum union wage.
In contrast, Canada's magnate thinks gold as a proxy for Chinese liquidity is a good investment along with Chinese urban real estate if you have a speculative bent. He also believes agriculture plays are important since China imports vast quantities of foodstuffs such as sugar, vegetable oils and coffee, whilst it is also a net consumer of natural resources like natural gas, lumber and pulp.
"We are now in a period where we can divide the world into winners and losers. Commodities are the only rational haven," asserts Friedland. "Australia, South Africa, Canada, Mongolia and China are the winners. The challenged countries are the labour movements and US real estate."
"Clearly Australia is a winner - the seaborne iron-ore trade is an incredible proxy on Chinese economic growth; they're using about 350 pounds of steel per person per year, whereas South Korea is about 900 pounds per person. If you adjust for South Korea then the delta is about 600 million tonnes," said Friedland who calls Rio Tinto, Anglo American and BHP Billiton big beneficiaries of the projected boom.
Unsurprisingly, Friedland is especially fond of Mongolia - where his big copper-gold bet is located - which he patronizes as "China's Canada." He's also particularly boosterish on South Africa because of its precious metals, especially the concentration of platinum group metals that will feature so prominently in the hydrogen economy.
Before Friedland can reap his full reward from South Africa he must first address several problems with his bushveld property, including a somewhat rancorous dispute with Australian headquartered Pan Palladium.
Even so, for most investors those are minor issues relative to Friedland's successes. There is a legion content to take his lead; how else could one interpret the constant references to the man's private jet. </q>
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Ophis
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Re:Minimum wage
« Reply #47 on: 2003-11-05 12:25:56 » |
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I just came across this interesting analysis of "living wages" by the Cato Institute. A good read for anyone interested in the topic: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa493.pdf The full document is 12 pages long.
Executive Summary: For nearly a decade, activists on the left have been conducting a highly effective nationwide campaign to mandate local minimum wages at levels that presumably eliminate poverty for fulltime workers and their families. This “living wage,” as it is known, is now the law in dozens of jurisdictions, and dozens more are actively considering similar measures. Typically, a living wage is set anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent above the current federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and often higher if employers do not provide health benefits. Thus far, there has been only modest resistance, even from local governments for which the cost of doing business inevitably rises. Most living wage ordinances apply to private sector government contractors and, to a lesser extent, recipients of business aid or local government employees, or both. Supporters insist that the benefits are enormous and the costs minimal.
But that view is an illusion, a product of the insular world of local government contracting. If the living wage were applied to all employees across the United States—the goal of advocates of a living wage—it would greatly magnify the well-documented pitfalls of the minimum wage. Decades of research have shown that the minimum wage harms the least-skilled workers from poor families while heavily benefiting young workers from middle-income households. Several studies critical of the living wage come to similar conclusions. The main beneficiaries of the living wage are public-sector unionized employees because of the reduced incentives for local governments to contract out work. Instead of exploiting grievances of the marginally employed against “greedy” employers, advocates for the poor should focus their energies on building the skills of the poor.
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