“”On April 1, 2024, California raised its minimum wage from $16 to $20 per hour for fast-food workers employed at chains with more than 60 locations nationwide,” Jeffrey Clemens, Olivia Edwards, and Jonathan Meer write in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that was first addressed by Reason’s Peter Suderman in the November print issue. “Our median estimate suggests that California lost about 18,000 jobs that could have been retained if AB 1228 had not been passed.””
The Laffer curve confuses economic incentives with social reality. Most people can’t just stop working or even work much less, because tax rates go up. Even those who can stop working, often keep working in the face of higher tax rates. Some countries with high tax rates have high growth. The marginal tax rate whereby most people will work less is very high, like 70%.
“Trump has championed coal, oil and gas and sought to squash clean energy efforts in the U.S. and abroad. He has removed the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, for the second time, and has used the threat of tariffs to try to bolster sales of American fossil fuels.
The speeches from a handful of leaders displayed, at times, the anger and dismay that countries feel about the U.S. breaking its promises and attempting to undermine the global effort to tackle global warming.”
“A divided federal appeals court panel has given Texas the go-ahead to enforce a state law seeking to criminalize “sexually oriented” shows on public property, a ban that drag performers say targets them in violation of their free speech rights.
The decision Thursday from the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals appears premised on the notion that the 2023 law known as S.B. 12 won’t be enforced against drag acts unless they include overtly sexual components.”
The U.S. is declaring large parts of the southern border military areas. The U.S. military cannot be used to enforce immigration, but it can stop people from entering its own bases.
“DOJ and FBI leaders rejected at least three different proposals by career prosecutors over the course of 2021 to expand the department’s investigation of the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol to include Trump and his advisers’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The reason? Fear that investigating Trump would seem too political and would upset Republicans.”