National

Having (perhaps) whetted folks’ appetites with my quick reading of Harvard Econ professor Greg Mankiw’s “The Economy is Rigged, and Other Presidential Campaign  Myths,” we’ll turn to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Good or Bad for the U.S.) next week.

You’re obviously free to do your own research. But here’s another piece by Mankiw on the subject:

Economists Actually Agree on This: The Wisdom of Free Trade

Think I’m only selecting one side? Here’s a bit of a rebuttal, courtesy of Google:

Greg Mankiw is Everything That’s Wrong with Economists

Who is this Greg Mankiw?

As you know, I always like to do a bit of research on my sources, and Wikipedia is a good start. As I mentioned on Monday, he’s well known for his activity on the Bush Council of Economic Advisors and his authorship of an introductory Economics textbook that is in very wide use today—so his is a very familiar name to recent college grads who’ve taken Econ.

I like to follow him mostly because he’s articulate, funny, thoughtful and accomplished. But I also admit that I tend to agree with him a lot (whether that’s because he’s convincing or because we just see the world in similar ways is a subject for future debate).

A few weeks ago, we touched on the upcoming Presidential election and our participants’ preferences for the various candidates. Bob Sargent has expressed an interest in devoting a meeting in the near future to the 2016 Presidential Election. We can discuss:

• The candidates
• The key issues (at least as articulated (or avoided!) by the candidates)
• Media coverage of the electoral process

There should be plenty to discuss! Perhaps next week?

The President renewed his call for an increased minimum wage, observing that the current federal level does not represent a “living wage.” The NY Times argued in it’s Editorial Staff blog that even $10.10 an hour is not enough. Republicans have expressed concern that raising the minimum wage will eliminate some jobs that “aren’t worth” $7 per hour.

Who’s right? How should this be decided? To be discussed on Monday.

If you’d like to read some more…

Start with Wikipedia…

Minimum Wage

Right-leaning

Cato Institute

Left-leaning

Center for Economic and Policy Research

News Coverage

Forbes (I think reasonably balanced), but you’ll judge for yourself

Congressional Budget Office

The February 2014 CBO Study (it’s not too long)

ABC News “Cliff Notes” Version

Feel free to comment if you think there’s a better source we should consider for Monday.