Wages & Prices
Many UFCW Members Earn Far Less Than the $15/Hr. It Demands of Walmart
December 7th, 2014 9:52 PM
Just before Thanksgiving, Our Walmart and the United Food and Commerical Workers went into high gear in their effort to draw attention to their advocacy of $15-per-hour minimum wage at the nation's largest retailer. Just after the holiday, I pointed to a column by the Manhattan Institute's Diana Furchtgott-Roth, who quickly discovered that many Kroger employees represented by the UFCW earn far…
OUR Walmart Demands Chain Pay $15/Hr.; UFCW-Unionized Kroger Pays Less
November 28th, 2014 1:55 PM
In a Tuesday column originally appearing at RealClearMarkets.com (found in more readable form at Economics21.org), the Manhattan Institute's Diana Furchtgott-Roth tore into the hypocrites at OUR Walmart, the union-backed effort to intimidate the nation's largest retailer into paying all employees at least $15 per hour.
In the process, Furchtgott-Roth noted a particularly important fact which I…
AP Is Stunned at Japan's Recession Despite 'Unprecedented Stimulus'
November 25th, 2014 7:10 PM
After reading Elaine Kurtenbach's coverage of how Japan's latest dive into yet another recession is affecting young people there, I can only say, "The Keynesian koolaid is strong in this one." The AP reporter's headline says that the recession was "unexpected," and her first sentence calls it "a surprise." Anyone watching economic events in the country, and I think that's supposed to include…
Atlantic Columnist: Progressives 'Have Every Reason to Be Celebrating'
November 11th, 2014 8:50 PM
Far be it from me to talk a leftist columnist out of an ignorant, self-satisfied position which might, if anything, cause his fellow travelers to hit the accelerator a little less aggressively in future political campaigns.
At the Atlantic on Monday afternoon, Richard Reeves, policy director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, claimed that the left shouldn't be …
Networks Barely Notice White House 'War on Women’s Pay'
October 21st, 2014 10:39 AM
Obama has been a champion of equal pay for women, at least according to his administration and the network news media.
The broadcast networks boosted his image on the subject throughout his presidency, from the first bill he signed into law in 2009 to a September 2014 speech mentioning “equal pay.” ABC said Obama waged an “assault” on the pay gap with an executive order over salary disclosures,…
AP Fact-Checks 'a Few" of Obama's 'Stronger Economy' Claims: Two
October 7th, 2014 11:28 PM
The dictionary tells us that "a few" is "a small number of persons or things." Though there is some ambiguity in the guidance I have reviewed, it's fair to say that "Generally a few is more than 2."
Not at the Associated Press, where "a few" can apparently be two, at least when it comes to "fact-checking" President Obama's grandiose claims in his Thursday speech at Northwestern University.…
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Ed Schultz: ‘People Are Better Off Today Than They Were 4 Years Ago'
October 7th, 2014 9:09 PM
Ed Schultz used his opening monologue during his MSNBC show on Tuesday to paint Republicans as the “desperate” and “delusional” party in trouble ahead of the midterm elections and informed his audience that “people are better off today than they were four years ago” (before dismissing the struggling wages in the country as “a different thing”). He began by dismissing the idea that Republicans…
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PBS Parrots Obama Claim Country Is Better ‘By Every Economic Measure'
October 2nd, 2014 10:43 PM
Following President Obama’s speech on the economy on Thursday, the PBS NewsHour offered a 48-second news brief on the subject, in which co-anchor Gwen Ifill offered no opposing viewpoint to the President’s claim in his speech that “by every measure, the country is better off than when he took office.”
The show then played a soundbite of the President, in which he lamented that “millions of…
Hillary Rips Off Elizabeth Warren's 'Fighting Chance' Line
September 21st, 2014 9:44 AM
Should Fauxcahontas be flattered . . . or furious? The title of Elizabeth Warren's new book is "A Fighting Chance," a "rabble-rousing" rant by the populist from the Harvard faculty lounge.
So here comes Hillary Clinton, who in a speech this week just happened to say "I want every one of our children to feel that they are inheriting the best of America ... that this country is on your side; that…
CNN Promotes Rolling Stone's Tribute to 'Still Fighting' Occupy
September 19th, 2014 4:59 PM
CNN's Twitter account on Thursday boosted a Rolling Stone article that hyped the far-left Occupy Wall Street movement's latest efforts. The social media post touted, "Think #OccupyWallStreet is dead? Think again. This short-lived occupation is still fighting for five key issues," and linked to Rebecca Nathanson's Wednesday piece on the "five campaigns that OWS-inspired groups have continued to…
AP: 'Job Market Has Improved by Pretty Much Every Gauge Except Pay'
September 8th, 2014 10:21 PM
The Obama administration-prepared koolaid delivered to the Associated Press's economics writers on Monday must have been extraordinarily concentrated.
How else can you explain how the AP's Christopher Rugaber could have written the following — "The U.S. job market has steadily improved by pretty much every gauge except ... Pay" — without doubling over with laughter? No, Chris. The reason pay…
Retail Sales Flatlined in July; AP Deadpans That Americans With No Mon
August 13th, 2014 1:46 PM
This morning, the Census Bureau, in its advance report on retail sales, revealed that seasonally adjusted July sales were "virtually unchanged" from June. Expectations were for a 0.2 percent gain, supposedly with "solid upside" potential. Oops. June's result stayed at its previously reported 0.2 percent increase.
Reuters did the "U-word" honors this time out: "U.S. retail sales unexpectedly…
'Morning Joe' Condemns Minn. Restaurant's Min. Wage Fee as 'Revenge T
August 8th, 2014 11:15 AM
Friday’s Morning Joe panel made sure to express how it was “disappointed” that a Minnesota restaurant had the audacity to put a “minimum wage fee” on its receipts after the state hiked the wage requirement. While Joe Scarborough acknowledged that “it's hard” for “small business owners running restaurants” he had no sympathy for the restaurant, which had received shocking blowback from its…
'Today' Hosts Object to Restaurant Charging Extra Fee After Minimum Wa
August 7th, 2014 2:45 PM
On Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie noted a restaurant in Minnesota that found "a unique way to offset the added expense" of the state hiking its minimum wage: "The Oasis Café is now including a 'minimum wage fee' on bills. You see it right there on the bill. Totals 35 cents....the cafe's owners say this wage hike is going to cost them $10,000 a year, this is their way of…
