Interesting article from this economist.
Full of himself just like Beck.
If you make a lot of predictions some of them usually come true..
Four years ago one of my neighbors told me how much my house was worth..Double what I thought and I told him thats ridiculous and home prices can't keep rising like this without the bottom falling out..Do I think I was pschychic? No , merely using common sense.
Please elaborate Adolph willy, what countries with different systems than our own, were not affected by the current recession and why?
If the minimum wage is raised to thirty dollars a hour all the other wages rise in lockstep.
feel free to ask him yourself.
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I read the article and it seems to align with the market economics of the period.
All countries were affected but some were affected less than the other and are coming out of it now. Moreover, it appears, countries with stricter regulations fared better and came out the crisis faster.
You kind of zeroed in on raising minimum wages to $30 and other salaries and that is exactly what Batri is arguing about to raise demand instead of credit card. Put it another way, people borrowed on credit card and took home equity loans and spend like they were making $30 while only making $10.
I confess, I have never heard of or read anything Batri wrote but it appears rational and aligns with economic reality.
The problem I see with rapid increase in wages is Inflation which can be controlled with monetary policies though.
Raising wages is a vital part of solving our economic condition. But it requires that first we fix our trade policy. Raising wages won't help if jobs continue to be sent overseas.
But putting that aside, we need to raise wages so that they come back into balance with productivity. Raising them beyond that won't help. So raising the minimum wage to 30 bucks an hour isn't an option. However, raising them to 15 dollars an hour is certainly workable under current conditions.
With the exception of Iceland and Ireland, Europe has faired much better with this economic crisis, and part of the reason why that is, is because they didn't deregulate to the degree that we did, and they had already been investing in their infrastructure heavily since the Berlin Wall fell. They also have a greater social safety net. For this reason, a stimulus bill wasn't necessary in Europe.
Batra's book Greenspan's Fraud is very good. The first part of the book is a critical look at Greenspan, while the second half goes into a crash course of macroeconomics that anyone can easily understand. I don't agree with all of his conclusions, but it's quite good.
or whatever the hell it is. I am more interested in the big picture. Along with some of the European countries, India did very well and sustained 7.0 -7.5% growth rate because of domestic demand. China got affected a little more due to lack domestic demand as did many export oriented Asian economies.
This tells me that these countries needs to create and promote domestic demand. When it happens, world trade will start to regulate itself.
Being that said, our economy is not going to go back to low tech manufacturing jobs and prosper because of comparative economies. We can succeed in high-tech, high quality manufacturing like Germany. This will be also high-paying jobs. We need to go in the high-tech and precision engineering direction and stop complaining about shoes, sandals, gadgets at Wal Mart.
Also, I am all for eliminating Most Favored Nation status of China. I don't see a reason to maintain it since China is the third largest Economy and may even surpass Japan and become the second in 2010. Don't see sense in continuing with the MFN status.
''This tells me that these countries needs to create and promote domestic demand. When it happens, world trade will start to regulate itself.''
Now how you suggest we promote domestic demand in these countries??? PAY THEM ABOVE SLAVE WAAGES??? Im just sayin...
or for promoting domestic demand in other countries? You are just saying/showing your lack of understanding. May want to get out of the country once in while and move around beyond Mexico, and Canada.
There is whole world out there once you get beyond myopia, and partisan crap.
See how it kinds is our job???
MOST of those corporations were installed after wars, where we killed many..WHO WERE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, they lost, and we put in our corporations, which enslave them, basically..
THIS, not our war on terror, which is neccisary IMHO, has been America's biggest injustice..
WE'VE DONT THIS AROUND THE WORLD!
When people say ''military/industrial complex, this is what they are talking about...Our military has taken industry under its wings and fights for it..SO, basically we spread ''freedom'' by employing the 3rd world at slave wages, TO SUPPORT OUR NEEDS
-- Modified on 1/19/2010 7:23:28 AM