Here's What Happens When...

...you boost minimum wage to ridiculous heights:

What Minimum Wage? This New Grocery Store Will Eliminate Low Skill Workers For Good

"Say goodbye to long lines at the grocery store, and possibly your job. Even more robotic systems are coming."

Another Minimum Wage Lesson in Economics: This Time at The Gap

"A little over a year ago The Gap flaunted their progressive ways and raised their minimum wage to $10 per hour. Their employees – 65,000 of them who were effected – were ecstatic. The White House was giggly.

That was in February 2014. It’s now June 2015 and the happy campers are finding out that economics is a nasty handmaiden."

[---]

"Gap will close 140 stores this year and cut 250 jobs at it’s headquarters. For some irony, Gap’s headquarters is in San Francisco, right in the middle of Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional District."

Young adults in Michigan would have a lower minimum wage under bill

"Under current law, employers can pay people under 18 either 85 percent of Michigan's minimum wage, or the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater. The bill would change that to include all employees under 20.

Michigan's minimum wage for those over 18 is currently $8.15, but if the bill were to go into effect today, employers could pay people under 20 the lower federal minimum wage of $7.25.

The bill also bumps up the "training wage," which employers can pay to people under the age of 20 for the first 90 days of employment, from $4.25 to $6.25 an hour. It was up for a hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

Bill sponsor Rep. Margaret O'Brien, R-Portage, said it's usually small local businesses who are willing to take a chance on giving somebody their first job. She knows firsthand that when her kids worked their first jobs at a concession stand they made a lot of mistakes.

"There's very few employers who will hire a 15, 16 or 17-year-old," O'Brien said.

Current law provides for a youth training wage of $4.25 for the first 90 days of employment for those under 20. O'Brien said that in talking to local businesses, not many use the training wage."

When Will They Ever Learn?

======================UPPERDATE=======================
https://www.facebook.com/EarlDibblesJr/photos/a.305087186244776.75292.225041954249300/649241128496045/?type=1









================UPDATE BEGINS HERE=================
McDonald’s Responds To Protesters Demanding $15 Minimum Wage, They Won’t Be Happy

"It’s simple economics. In order for a business to suddenly increase the wages of its employees, it must either pass on the expense burden to the public by increasing its prices or downsize its pool of employees to match its current revenue stream."

[---]

"In light of the misguided protests by people across America wanting to raise the minimum wage to an arbitrary $15 per hour, McDonald’s is taking the latter approach of downsizing its staff by replacing their once human-operated cashier machines with fully-automated ordering kiosks."

=============Original Starts Here============

Lammam and Clemens: Increasing the minimum wage won't reduce poverty

 

"The new NDP government in Alberta has indicated that it will aggressively increase the province’s minimum wage from $10.20 to $15 per hour over the next three years. There are a number of problems with this campaign promise that is now becoming policy. Ignoring experience and pursuing policies based on good intentions and ideology will not solve the province’s pressing problems.

"First, and contrary to some pundits, there is a preponderance of evidence, particularly from Canada, that minimum wage increases adversely affect low-skilled and young workers. A recent comprehensive review of international research led by Prof. David Neumark, one of the world’s foremost experts, concluded that the balance of the research shows that minimum wage hikes negatively affect employment among low-skilled and young workers.

Canada is often used for minimum wage research because of the variation between provinces. In fact, there are over a dozen Canadian studies examining provincial minimum wage increases. The Canadian evidence finds that, on average, a 10 per cent increase in the minimum wage decreases youth employment by between three and six per cent.

Simply put, when governments impose a minimum wage higher than what would otherwise prevail, and without corresponding productivity increases, employers find ways to operate with fewer workers and/or reduced labour costs. While the more productive workers gain through a higher wage, their gain comes at the expense of those who now have fewer employment opportunities. Young and low-skilled workers are most adversely affected because of their dearth of experience and skills."

Open The Taps...

...and let the greenbacks flow:

Canada: To Cross-Border Trade -- And Beyond

"This week, I will send letters to the governors of all 50 U.S. states urging them to visit Canada to explore new opportunities for expanding what is already the world’s largest and most comprehensive bilateral trade and investment relationship. In 2013, we traded $735-billion in goods and services -- the highest total on record. That works out to more than $2-billion in bilateral trade per day! And the 2014 total will be even higher.

Given the size and scope of this vast relationship, the investments in time and effort we make today to grow the U.S.-Canada economic relationship will pay huge dividends in the future as we build on this unprecedented level of shared prosperity.

That’s why my focus as U.S. ambassador to Canada is to continue to expand and strengthen this tremendous relationship. Every day, our two governments, along with business and institutional partners, create new opportunities for growth and expand existing trade and investment flows."

Sure Is Nice...

...to see Saskatchewan booming:

Mother of 6 happy to now call Saskatchewan home

Saskatchewan's population grew by 20,056 in 2013.

• 65% of that growth came from people from other countries;

• 28% came from natural growth (births minus deaths);

• 7% came from other parts of Canada 

And it's only going to get better:

Saskatchewan's economy expected to rebound in 2015: RBC Economics

Thank you, Brad Wall!!

Very, Very...

...depressing.

Financialese Spoken Here

I don't understand a lot of this, but it seems to be good news:

Canada's economy grows at 2.8 per cent annual pace in third quarter

Mind you, we are closing in on the end of the fourth quarter, so things may be different by now.

Ah, Poor Vlad /sarc

Russia's Currency Is Plummeting and Putin's Billionaires Are Cannibalizing Each Other

He must be longing for the days of the centrally planned economy handled by the politburo.

"The ruble has been nosediving for weeks, despite the fact that the Russian Central Bank has spent some $40 billion over the last two months to prop it up. In January, you would have to shell out 32.86 rubles to buy one U.S. dollar. Through October, that number edged higher and higher into the thirties, prompting nervous jokes from Russians as they watched their national currency lose value before their eyes. By November 1, a Russian would need to scrape together over 43 rubles to buy one U.S. dollar, a drop of over 30 percent.

Every day since November 1 has brought new lows for the ruble. By Wednesday, the Russian Central Bank, which had been spending billions of its reserve dollars every day to prop up the Russian currency, announced it was no longer going to do so. It was going to let the ruble float. (Technically speaking, it said that it would “only” spend $350 million a day to prop up the ruble.)

The ruble promptly nosedived."

[---]

"On Friday, the exchange rate was being tracked not by the day, but by the minute. The ruble had collapsed to a historic low: nearly 49 rubles to the dollar, nearly 60 rubles to the Euro."

[---]

"This isn’t a theoretical currency game. Much of what you see in Russia is imported, especially what the Russian middle class eats, drives, and wears. And the weaker the ruble, the fewer dollar-denominated iPhones you can buy with it. A crashing ruble makes prices do the opposite. According to the Russian government, projected inflation will hit somewhere between nine and 9.5 percent. Last year, it was 6.5 percent. In the U.S., for comparison, inflation is just 1.7 percent."

[---]

"There are several factors that have caused the ruble to disintegrate before our eyes.

One is the ongoing stagnation of the Russian economy, whose growth rate has been hovering near zero for a year. And before that, it was already in decline.

Second is the falling price of oil for reasons that have nothing to do with Russia(Emphasis mine): OPEC trying to undercut its American competition. This is a problem for Russia, which is so heavily dependent on oil that every year’s federal budget is pegged to an oil price.(Emphasis mine) This year’s was $97 a barrel. Next year’s will be $96. Meanwhile, oil prices have been far lower than that, hovering in the low eighties.

Third is Russia’s Ukraine adventure and Western sanctions. “Sanctions closed access to foreign capital for five or six Russian companies, but the result is that it’s now closed for everyone,” says Sergey Aleksashenko, a former Russian deputy minister of finance. The result is that, to pay off their debts, Russian companies now have to buy a large amount of dollars to fork over to their creditors. And with that comes the psychological factor: panic."

So...what if Canada's Energy East pipeline is meant to do what I think it's meant to do - steal Russia's oil market from under their feet? Better have our northern border well guarded.

RTWT