Worldwide minimum wage vs. unemployment: the chart doesn’t tell the story

Following the suggestion of a reader, I re-plotted the worldwide minimum wage vs. unemployment. Before you skip ahead to the chart below, keep in mind the lesson I learned from my last post which was that international economies are vastly different from America’s, and examining the extremes doesn’t translate easily back to American circumstances. In the …

More

World wide minimum wage… and inflation

The minimum wage rate is one of the polarizing points between Democrats and Republicans. Both parties point to studies claiming that raising the minimum wage will either increase inflation, negating the benefits, or it will lead to stronger purchasing power among the poorest consumers, improving the economy. Both sides make strong points. And into this confusing fray, I throw my own …

More

Google search trend and stock price

I recently wondered if Internet searches for companies correlate with the company’s stock price. A few years ago a researcher at Google was able to track flu trends by monitoring online searches for flu symptoms. Would searches translate to stock price as well? To answer the question, I used Google’s “trends” utility and Google’s finance …

More