Wages & Prices
The lead National slot in Saturday’s New York Times was occupied by “Andrew Yang and the Passionate 2.6 Percent Lifting Him.” Reporter Matt Stevens hailed the low-polling 2020 Democrat’s plan to give $1000 a month to every American. A weirdly affectionate tone toward Yang pervaded Stevens’ piece, putting in mind his fulsome over the re-emergence of Texas politician Wendy Davis (aka “Abortion Barbie”) in July.
The next recession could bring an economic “revolution,” according to left-wing New York Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo. He argued that when it arrives it would be “time to go full Elizabeth Warren” because of inequality.
Insisting that “a recession looms,” Manjoo fueled envy against CEOs and the wealthy — the very kind of envy that could spur such a “revolution.” Although he attached Democratic candidate Warren’s name to that kind of “radical” change, spouting off about revolution calls to mind other names like Marx and Lenin.
Yes, it´s true. People over 55 years of age are prospering across the nation. But so are Latinos - and as one Hispanic investment ace tells us, they are not the only ones, much to the chagrin of the liberal Spanish-speaking media that continue to make a case for an ailing economy about to crash and for Donald Trump to be deep-sixed.
Here's what President Donald Trump tweeted about Baltimore's congressman and his city: “Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is far worse and more dangerous. His district is considered the worst in the USA.”
Democratic presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NY) proclaimed his support for the “working people” of America, and unveiled his “Workers’ Bill of Rights” July 23. On July 24, the Fox Business Network's Bulls & Bears host David Asman consulted former Small Business Administrator Hector Barreto and others to find out how small businesses would fare under what Asman called de Blasio’s “socialist push against businesses.”
The Founders of the United States of America warned against massive federal debt, but, to our detriment, their political descendants are not paying attention. The Founders speak to us from their graves to condemn and warn of the consequences now that President Trump and Congress have come to an agreement about lifting the meaningless “debt ceiling” and increasing already massive federal spending and the debt, which is at $22 trillion and growing rapidly.
So much for the Fight for $15! Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-VT), campaign created a PR crisis for himself after staff complaints that they were being paid “poverty wages” got leaked to the press.
That hypocrisy might have hurt him politically — if journalists had actually reported it. Although The Washington Post reported that his unionized campaign staff was upset over their pay, the networks and three national newspapers ignored the story. Staff were fighting to get the same $15-an-hour wages Sanders wants federally mandated. But all three network evening news shows as well as The New York Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times ignored the story between July 18 and 21, according to Nexis.
Near the end of its evening newscast Telemundo, NBC’s Spanish-language affiliate network, recently had the temerity to treat its viewership to two and a half minutes of good news. Three cheers for a buoyant economy in which Latinos make up 63% of new homeowners in the United States.
You know, there are plenty of Econ 101 students who could tell you that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is a bad thing for the U.S. economy. Plenty of waiters and busboys, too. So the counter argument must get away from the facts of the issue and offer something a little more emotionally-charged, like “the racist history of tipping,” in order to push for higher wages in the service industry.
White House Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow called himself a “happy camper” about the state of the U.S. economy and criticized those making it sound like the country is in recession. “I do want to say and repeat that the U.S. economy is very strong and that’s what the jobs report [shows], and wages are rising,” he told anchor Stuart Varney on Fox Business’ Varney & Company July 15. Kudlow criticized those trying to gloss over the good economic news.
The left love to complain that recent economic growth has only benefited people at the very top and left the middle class and the poor behind. The Wall Street Journal just found more evidence to the contrary. “The fortunes of low-skilled workers have turned up markedly” amid the longest economic expansion in U.S. history and a near-record low in unemployment, Journal chief economics commentator Greg Ip wrote on July 10.
In a 48-page report out Monday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the Democratic “Raise the Wage Act” to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. One of the main takeaways from the report was that almost 4 million jobs (3.7 million) could be eliminated by 2025. Of course, since the liberal media have backed this Democratic Party effort, none of the network evening newscasts (ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News) reported the CBO’s findings.