“But there is no consensus in the economics profession about what the right model is to make such estimates,” said Gerald Epstein, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “Building one of these models is not an objective process,” Epstein said. “If you build the model differently, it’ll produce a different set of results.”
Read more…..
Gerald A. Epstein, economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, is interviewed about the European Central Bank’s recent announcement that it is adopting a policy of quantitative easing to help stimulate the economy of the
19-nation European Union. He says it’s unlikely to have much effect.
The Real News Network (2/23/15)
“According to Arin Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Wal-Mart’s decision could make a difference – especially to employees who are making the federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. “We are talking about a thousand or two thousand dollars, maybe, for some of the more effected workers,” he says.” Read more…Marketplace
In August 2014, the Indian government had set up a high level committee to reorient and restructure the existing food management system in the country. The committee submitted its report to the government on January 22, 2015. In an op-ed in The Hindu today, Deepankar Basu and Debarshi Das have argued that the recommendations of the committee arise from a flawed approach to food security.
Robert Pollin and Jeannette Wicks-Lim examine whether U.S. fast-food businesses could adjust to an increase in the federal minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 per hour to $15 an hour without having to lay off workers. They show how, through a four-year phase-in process, the fast-food industry could adjust to a $15 minimum wage without resorting to any layoffs or even cuts in profitability. Rather, the fast-food industry could fully absorb the cost increases generated by a $15 minimum wage over the four-year period through a combination of turnover reductions along with modest increases in both sales growth and prices.
Read “A $15 U.S. Minimum Wage: How the Fast-Food Industry Could Adjust Without Shedding Jobs“
From the Boston Globe (2/1/15):
THE ARTICLE by Jay Fitzgerald in Sunday’s Business section, “Dream meets reality,” did a disservice to Vermonters by misrepresenting the financing plan for Green Mountain Care. While it is true that a state universal health plan would be expensive, the relevant numbers are not the $4.3 billion cost or even the $2.6 billion in new state funding, but rather the estimated $500 million savings that the program would deliver in personal health care spending, plus another $400 million in sponsor savings by eliminating the cost of administering the private health insurance system. Read more……