The Low Pay Commission thinks that despite economists' previous warnings that a minimum wage would lead to rises in unemployment coming to little, further moves towards the median wage level may compound factors that have led to higher youth unemployment in recent years.

In this the LPC have now converged with mainstream economists who have accepted a low(ish) minimum wage can be beneficial while there is a ceiling above which disadvantages become more pronounced.

#economics #workers
h/t FT

Industrial policy has been much maligned as 'interventionism' even as most countries have such a policy (even if its not called that & is more implied that explicit);

so Jostein Hauge is right to tease out five explicit reasons countries might develop & maintain an industrial policy:

Infant industry promotion;

response to market failure(s);

by passing coordination failures;

developing long-term strategic shifts;

national security & industrial autonomy.

#economics
theglobalcurrents.com/p/why-do…

Why do countries need industrial policy?

The case for looking beyond market failures

^{Jostein Hauge (Global Currents)}

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(16/n)

... almost every other country in the #OECD."

"Gospel of Wealth"?
Well, only for an elite few:

[*TBC*]

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(15/n)

...#Trump only.

In #Economics, "... the #Gini index [#GiniCoefficien] is a common measure of inequality. It ranges from zero, when income is distributed equally, to one when a single individual takes all. 👉#America’s Gini is among the highest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [#OECD counties!].
What’s most concerning, though, is that 👉#Taxes and transfers have done less to reduce inequality in the #US than in...

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(14/n)

.. .households in the top decile by 2.6%, a cool $13,600. 👉The [income] #Tax blow came on top of tariffs that took a disproportionately large bite from the disposable income of the working class."👈

👉It is crucial to understand that..."the lopsided distribution of prosperity is a feature of #American society that has persisted across administrations, whether Democratic or Republican." 👈 Of cannot be attributed to #Biden or...

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(12/n)

...and the last year for which the #CBO has crunched data, it had dipped to 7.4%."

So, #Biden's presidency was not so democratic based on #LBJ's #GreatSociety vision, as one might have expected, due to the reduction in "egalitarian" wealth transfers.

"According to the #CBO, the legislation reduced the annual income of the poorest tenth of households by 3.1% on average – about $1,200 – while boosting the income of...

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(11/n)

...and transfers – had drifted back up to 13.2%, from 12.5% the year #Obama left office.

The $2.2tn Cares Act that #Trump signed into law as a response to the economic shock from the #Covid pandemic did improve the lot of the poor.

👉In 2020, the share of national income accruing to the poorest fifth of households reached a multi-decade high of 8.2%.👈

Yet by 2022, under #JoeBiden...

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(10/n)

...raised the slice of income going to the poorest fifth from 3.9% to 7.9%, the highest share since at least 1979."

And after #Reagan, #Trump I happened:

"His Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 👉2017 offered massive tax cuts to #Americans in the upper percentiles of income.👈

By the end of his first presidency, the share of income accruing to the richest 1% of households – after #Taxes...

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(9/n)

...presidency was coming to a close, [...] strides his administration had made to curb the nation’s exorbitant income inequality in 👉“the largest investments in reducing inequality since the #GreatSociety”.👈

Indeed, by the end of 2016, 👉taxes and transfers cut the share of income accruing to the richest 1% of households by just over a fifth...more than under any government since at least #JimmyCarter’s.👈

They...

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(8/n)

...reduced the marginal #tax rate from 70% to just 50%. In 1988, #RonaldReagan and the #GOP slashed it even more to just 28%.👈

The only time in post-WWI #US history that the #MaginalIncomeTaxRate was even lower for a few years, had been in 1925 (25%), which proved to be unsustainable.

After that, it went back up to 39% and stands now at 37%..."

[For a more detailed discussion, see:
mastodon.social/@HistoPol/1099…]

"As #BarackObama’s...

@guardian

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(7/n)

...prosperity...."👈

Let's have a brief review of the #US' 20th century #IncomeTaxRate:

"👉From 1918 through 1981 (easy to remember ;)) the marginal rate in the #US varied between 70% and 94% percent.👈

[#MarginalTaxRate: the percentage of your income you must pay to the #Treasury on the last dollar you earn in progressive tax systems.]

And then, #Reagonomics and #TEFRA happened, the Tax Equity and #Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982.

👉It...

#UShistory #Economics #Equality

(6/n)

Despite such grand visions for its future, in retrospect, #America’s #History of combating inequality is rather grim.

Even #Obama’s track record as the #UnitedStates’s most committed equalizer in over half a century [since #LyndonBJohnson’s "Great Society, see above" 2),] 👉underscores the ultimate lack of interest of the nation’s political coalitions in bringing about a more equitable distribution of the fruits of...

1)
founders.archives.gov/document…

#UShistory #Economics

(5/n)

...final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.

So I want to talk to you today about 👉three places where we begin to build the #GreatSociety--in our cities, in our countryside, and in our classrooms.👈

Many of you will live to see the day, perhaps 50 years from now,..."2)

2)
presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/…

@TheGuardian

#Economics #UShistory

"#US income inequality

Analysis

👉Condemned to plutocracy? The relentless rise of US inequality👈

(1/n)

Via #EduardoPorter / @TheGuardian

#ElonMusk is a beneficiary of #America’s lopsided prosperity – does the country have any appetite for redistribution?"

"#BenjaminFranklin liked to talk of #America’s “happy mediocrity” – a country with “few … so miserable as the poor of Europe … few that in Europe would be called rich”.1) And yet,...

theguardian.com/us-news/2026/j…

Condemned to plutocracy? The relentless rise of US inequality

Elon Musk is a beneficiary of America’s lopsided prosperity – does the country have any appetite for redistribution?

^{Eduardo Porter (The Guardian)}