Surprising Minimum Wage Jobs

Not all who earn minimum wage, or close to minimum wage are the uneducated, or retail and fast food industry jobs.  With growing pressure to increase minimum wage, CNNMoney comprises a list of other jobs who make low wages, similar to the minimum wage.  On this list: Regional Pilot, Adjunct Professors, Models, Home Health Aides, and Vet. Techs.  These are low earning jobs that require long hours and heavy training to perform them.  Occasional arguments against raising the minimum wage is that they are not "hard working" jobs, but what about these careers?  Raising the minimum wage could ultimately raise their wages as well.  Are these jobs also "undeserving" of a higher living wage?

Read this article here

Kazakhstan's economy: Tenge fever

Protests in Kazakhstan are starting to arise after the recent devaluation (Feb. 11) of the countries national currency the tenge. The value of the tenge fell by 19%, this fall has lead to an increased wariness and fear among detractors of president Nursultan Nazarbayev who believe the devaluation will lead to a spike in inflation and fall in standard of living. The country is one rich in natural resources (oil) but is one that imports many consumer goods. Central-bank chief Kayrat Kelimbetov, the man that announced the devaluation while Nazarbayev was in Sochi, Russia at the recent Olympic games, cited tapering of American quantitative easing in America and a falling rouble (the Russian currency) as reasons behind the recent devaluation.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21597005-anger-devaluation-hints-broader-malaise-tenge-fever

G20 pledges to add $2 trillion to global economy

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/23/news/economy/g20-meeting/index.html?iid=SF_E_Lead

The 19 richest nations in the world and the European Union plan on adding 2 trillion dollars to the world economy, through policy making. The idea is to support global growth. Experts are both supportive and skeptical at the same time. Structural reforms is said to be the main driver behind this plan. Also Citi's Steven Englander noted, "The policy of choice appears to be infrastructure investment financed by the private sector, but encouraged by tax incentives,"

Obama drops controversial Social Security proposal

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/20/news/economy/obama-social-security-chained-cpi/index.html?iid=SF_E_River

This article talks about President Obama's lack of interest to reduce the annual growth in social security benefit, but by switching to the "chained CPI", it would result in "smaller" benefit increases than using the normal consumer price index. The article also talks about how chained CPI  would affect the United States. Chained CPI would slow all federal payments' growth rate, such as pensions for civilian workers and the military, veterans' benefits. It would also cause higher tax by slowing changes to tax parameters that go up with inflation. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, switching to chained CPI would reduce deficits by $233 billion over 10 years. Many people are complaining about our President has no willingness for doing anything, not even address looming debt crisis.

Obama unveil plans to bring back manufacturing jobs to the US

President Obama recently plans to unveil two new manufacturing institutes in Chicago and Detroit as part of a larger initiative. 

Each institute will function as a “teaching factory,” the official said, and will provide training for workers while also helping companies get the expertise and equipment they need to offer new products and manufacturing processes.

This highlight the determination to create new and "high paying" manufacturing job in the US job market of the president. The goal of this initiative is to create a national network of up to 45 manufacturing institutions. 

To me, a "high-paying" manufacturing job is somewhat of a paradox. What do you think?

Source: Obama to unveil new manufacturing institutes in Chicago, Detroit

U.S. Deficit Falls to 680 Billion.

The federal government has announced that the annual deficit is the smallest it has been since 2008. At the height of the recession, we were 1.4 trillion. Last year, our debt made up 6.8% of the GDP. Now that number has fallen to 4.1%. The author at CNN.com attributes the success to “across-the-board budget cuts, and tax increases on high-income households during the 2013 fiscal year”. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac returned a large portion of the bailout they received in 2008. Areas where government spending increased were Social Security and Medicare. Last year the deficit was estimated at 1.1 trillion dollars, it was a big step to get our debt down to 680B.  Let’s hope we stay on the right track.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/30/news/economy/deficit-2013-treasury/index.html?iid=SF_BN_River

Russians Return to Cyprus, a Favorite Tax Haven

This article discusses the business transition to Cyprus by Latin Americans, Canadians, Germans, and the largest, Russians. The question they are aiming to answer is, why now? Even after a financial crisis, investors see that the legal and tax system is relatively stable, especially compared to that of Russia. When Cyprus's economy crashed last spring, they had seized most of the offshore accounts and turned them into bank shares; allowing wealthy Russians to become some of the biggest Cyprus bank shareholders- whether they wanted to or not. Unemployment jumped from 14% to 17.5%, among that, youth unemployment is at a heaping 40%. Now, 300% of private debt is represented in the 17 billion euro country due to defaults on loans and decreased deposits.

The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be the tax haven that businesses see. Even with a corporate tax increase last year, Cyprus still holds one of the lowest in the eurozone. At 12.5%, they compete with other popular countries like France, 33.3%, and Germany, 29.5%. Now, the registration list is overflowing at 273,000 companies that wish to move in.
I would think that after the crisis and the bank share stunt that was pulled, Russians would have no interest in moving. The reality is, for many, is that they have no other options. Returning to Russia would have no benefit. But, their mindsets are the same as many; very small investment is going towards Cyprus banks. Even with promises and tightened regulations, no one has expressed interest in taking the risk.

Health care to the states

We are now five months into the six-month roll out of Obamacare, and fewer than one quarter of americans believe the President’s health care law will actually improve their family’s health care.  Long wait times, inefficient systems, dysfunctional websites and fewer choices are some of the reason americans are suspect.  People want their states to have more control over their healthcare.  Having separate states control more will help with innovation, preventing fraud, and creating more choices.  The HCC is the group that is trying to bring more power to the states, but the HCC needs congressional approval to take affect in the member states.  96% of health care is provided and consumed in ones individual states so why not give the state the health care power.  DC doesn't think that the states have the interest in their citizens but people are starting to want decisions make closer to home.  

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/02/23/the-health-care-compact-fixing-american-health-care-one-state-at-a-time/

"get out of jail free" card

For some the weather has been a "get out of jail free" card for the economy but others believe it is a weak excuse. Three companies quickly pointed fingers towards the weather for their poor sales. The fifth company in 24 hours to blame the weather on slow sales was Lumper Liquidators, they were not alone as they were accompanied by Mattress Firm Holding, Group One Auto, La-Z Boy, and Panera. While the winter may hurt companies due to the dangerous weather conditions the spring has always been much better to the companies hurting from the winter putting them in good shape come summer. Another scare front the weather is the treat of the thought running out of natural gas. This may be a concern but in the reality it is something that will be hard to reach.




http://www.cnbc.com/id/101427902

Fed Misread Crises in 2008, Records Show

In 2008 the Federal Reserve voted unanimously against cutting interest rates and inherently bailing out Lehman. On Friday the Federal Reserve released the transcripts of the 2008 meetings, which set monetary policy. The transcript provided a clear step-by-step image of the Fed’s important decisions. By the end of the year the Fed had reduced short-term interest rates to almost zero the lowest they have been since the great depression. During this recession the writer explains, “The Fed relied on economic models that assumed the existence of smoothly functioning financial markets limiting its ability to project the consequences of a breakdown.” The officials were heavily focused on the risk of inflation rather then the issue of rising unemployment. Mr. Bernanke insisted that the downfall of Lehman could not have been prevented without changes in federal law.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/22/business/federal-reserve-2008-transcripts.html?ref=economy&_r=0