Paying Workers More: The Alternative to a Higher Minimum Wage.
Matthew Yglesias, Slate:
It’s always better to have policy solutions than vague journalistic hectoring. And indeed I’m inclined to think that a program of aggressive monetary stimulus aimed at NGDP level targeting would in fact have the results of coordinating managers’ expectations around a higher-investment, higher-paying equilibrium in which household income and spending both rise. But be that as it may, saying this is what Ben Bernanke should do is just another form of journalistic hectoring. Maybe it’s easier to change minds in the ranks of corporate leadership than in the ranks of Federal Reserve leadership. I don’t know. The point is that the country as a whole is suffering right now from a mentality that prizes squeezing pay to the lowest possible level even when that squeezing doesn’t lead to more hiring or more investment. It’s sad. It’s bad. And it’s worth saying so.
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