Economic News Investigation
By: Tanner Holten
Economic news investigations
Minimum wage:
San Francisco votes to raise minimum wage to $15 this morning. This proposition calls for the minimum wage to hit $15 by 2018 and possibly another vote after that to raise it even higher. Roughly 28% of San Francisco's labor force would receive this pay raise. Even if this push fails the minimum wage is still set to rise to $11.05 next year. The city says that 15 dollars an hour translates to 31,000 dollars for the full year for full time workers, although this would make sense considering that they are the least affordable city in America. I think this has to do with Revenue.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/03/news/san-francisco-minimum-wage/index.html?iid=SF_E_River
Cheap gas:
As gas prices get lower it is giving incentive for Americans to re-ignite their love with gas guzzling cars. Chrysler reported a 52% rise in sales for Jeep SUV's and a 36% rise in the RAM truck sales. "Whenever gas prices go down, people go out and buy the largest vehicle they can find" says the analyst for autotrader.com. Even the H2 hummer saw a rise in sales while the Toyota Prius sales fell 13.5%. I think this has to do with the Supply and demand that we studied because the demand of cars and gas goes up as the prices for those things go down.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/03/autos/cheap-gas-suv-pickup-sales/index.html?iid=SF_E_River
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/1-trillion-dollars-look-like/ I don't know if this one will count but i was searching the web as to what a trillion dollars would actually look like. I had come across this article. I don't want to spoil it but I want you to take a look at the entire page. It is unimaginable to think that we owe 17 of the last picture. Thinking of that makes my head hurt a little because that amount of money spread out like that could cover several city blocks. This article has to do with the debt and inflation we just talked about in class.
According to this article the US national unemployment has dropped to 5.8%. This is a good because the article also states that we have created 2.3 million jobs this year and that we will create more jobs and the unemployment will drop even farther. Which will obviously be very good for our economy, gaining all these jobs. So hopefully things can sort themselves out by the end of 2014 and maybe drop below 5.5% now .3% sounds like a lot to drop but it fell from above 6% to 5.8% in 1 month. http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/07/news/economy/october-jobs-report-unemployment-fall/index.html?iid=SF_E_River
US economy "chugging along" at 3.5%. In the chart it shows that the economy in the first quarter of this year dropped 2%, then rose 4% then still 2 more percent in the third quarter. It also states that the GDP is having some "bright spots" this year which could be a potential positive for the economy in general. Some researchers suggest that the 2.3% drop can be explained by the cold weather. If its snowing and there is ice it is harder for people to get around. It also slowed exports for the first quarter. however the major bounce back of the GDP came in the second quarter with a 4.6% rise. I think that this has some good lasting potential for the economy in the coming months and years. I think this has to do with the GDP section that we talked about.