Free Talk Live

The sheriff arrived at the factory here to shut it down, part of a national enforcement drive against clothing manufacturers who violate the minimum wage. But women working on the factory floor — the supposed beneficiaries of the crackdown — clambered atop cutting tables and ironing boards to raise anguished cries against it. The women’s spontaneous protest is just one sign of how acute South Africa’s long-running unemployment crisis has become.

The mayor says its the only way to stay solvent. Unions are already filing lawsuits over cut wages and benefits. This should be fun to watch.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered about 200,000 state workers to be paid the federal minimum wage because the state Legislature has not passed a budget.

Department of Personnel Administration Director Debbie Endsley sent the order Thursday in a letter to the state controller. Most state employees will be paid the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour for the July pay period.

One of the alleged 162,000 jobs created in March can be found in Snohomish, Washington. Although the gig only pays $8.55/hour, it’s a real resume builder. What minimum wage job posted on Craigslist inspired 260 applications from people aged fourteen to sexagenarian? Why, being a kennel helper at Roscoe’s Ranch, owned by Guy Palumbo, of course.

Teenage stripping and "indoor" prostitution are currently legal in Rhode Island! Hurry, the statists are working feverishly to stop the "perpetrators" from "taking advantage" of run away teens that want to work. They should have to jump through hoops and file paper work like the rest, so they can make minimum wage.

Could jobs that were once outsourced to India come back to the US? It seems that could happen.

Pramod Bhasin, CEO of Indian outsourcing giant Genpact, said he will move jobs to America because high US unemployment is pushing wage rates below that of what he's having to pay in India.

UK to consider bill to set minimum price for alcohol. The Guardian article doesn't even mention the possible unintended consequence of partiers opting for other drugs which may do more harm. They talk about it not being a way for grocery stores to increase profits -- pub owners and clubs however should benefit by the decreased cost difference.

Note: This article was written by Nicholas von Hoffman for The Nation. This man has a lot of courage: he points out that inflation hurts the poor the most. The rich can purchase hedges against inflation; the poor have no such protection. Even if inflation reduces unemployment, if salaries are worthless the poor are no better off. It is the worst-off of society that suffer from bad economic policy, as usual. He also implies that the Fed was counting on a looming crisis to take care of inflation for them. If this is true, then the Fed may really be as evil as many say it is.

House Democrats have scheduled a horrible drug war bill for a vote tomorrow (Wednesday). The Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination Act of 2010 (H.R. 5231), would expand problematic drug conspiracy laws, apply mandatory minimum drug sentences to more people, increase racial disparities, and subject Americans to incarceration for drug offenses and public health interventions that are legal in the foreign country in which they’re committed.