Financial Times (April 30, 2013)
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve is coming under fire and a Congressional review has been proposed. While the Fed’s performance has not been perfect, “on the whole, the Fed has not done a bad job. Banks are stronger, the banking system functional and taxpayers increasingly in the money. Neither the UK, the eurozone, nor Japan can boast of the same. That has also made the Fed’s monetary policy much more efficient than in those economies, where the transmission of central bank money-printing to real-economy activity remains broken.”
Tags: Congress, eurozone, Federal Reserve, Japan, Monetary policy, U.S., UK
New York Times (February 18)
“A higher minimum wage would be good for workers and for the economy.” The old job-killing myth “has been debunked… a higher minimum wage boosts pay without measurably reducing employment, while improving productivity. One study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that a $1 increase in the minimum wage results, on average, in $2,800 in new spending by affected households in the following year, in large part because the increase helps workers accumulate down payments to buy cars. Owning a car, in turn, helps workers to keep their jobs.”
Tags: Economy, Employment, Federal Reserve, Minimum wage, Productivity, Workers
