Where could you get $25 minimum wage?

source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/05/16/swiss-minimum-wage/9166687/

GENEVA, Switzerland – A vote on Sunday to establish a minimum wage of $25 an hour would make mostly immigrants here in agriculture, housekeeping, and catering among the world's highest paid unskilled workforce.
The ongoing U.S. debate over the minimum wage is not unique: on May 18, the Swiss will vote on a proposal to set a minimum salary for their lowest paid workers.
According to government statistics, the average household income in Switzerland is about $6,800 a month; in the USA, where the minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour, the average household monthly income is roughly $4,300, Census Bureau figures indicate.
"A minimum wage of 4,000 francs could lead to job cuts and even threaten the existence of smaller companies, notably in retail, catering, agriculture and housekeeping." Swiss Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann told the local media recently.
As in America, the issue of minimum income is controversial in Switzerland, too, pitting employers against trade unions and left-wing parties, which sponsored the proposal.

Detroit bankruptcy costs hit $36 million

source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/07/news/economy/detroit-bankruptcy-fees/index.html\


Top partners at the firm billed the city at a rate of $825 an hour, according to the filing, while documents indicate that Jones Day partners have billed $1,000 an hour in other bankruptcy cases.
The city spent $13 million during the first three months of the proceedings, and Tuesday's filing shows bills from lawyers and other consultants jumped 61% in the last quarter of the year.
Jones Day's fees jumped 58% in the fourth quarter, because that's when the bankruptcy court held a hearing on whether the city would be allowed to use the bankruptcy process to shed billions in debt and restructure its finances.
Restructuring firm Conway MacKenzie had the second largest bill, charging the city $5.3 million in fees and $17,000 in expenses through the end of last year.
The first six months of Detroit's bankruptcy case cost taxpayers $36 million in fees and expenses for lawyers and consultants, according to a court filing late Tuesday.
Finally, there is no estimate on the cost of time spent by city employees on the bankruptcy case, or on what the city paid auction house Christie's to appraise the value of all the artwork in the Detroit Institute of Arts, the city-owned museum.
The largest payments went to Jones Day, the bankruptcy law firm representing the city in court.
The report by the independent fee examiner accounts for costs incurred from the city's initial filing on July 18, 2013 through the end of last year.
The first two quarters of 2014 should also prove costly, since the city, its lawyers and consultants have been negotiating with various unions, pension funds and banks to reach cost-cutting settlements.
And the report does not include the $275,000 annual salary that Orr is being paid, or the salaries of other members of the emergency manager's staff, because those are being paid by the state of Michigan, not the city.

The Lack of jobs is still a big problem

Source: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/2014/04/25/lack-of-jobs-is-still-a-very-big-problem

Congress gave the Federal Reserve a “dual mandate” to pursue “maximum employment” and “stable prices.” Most analysts agree that, during the recovery, the labor market has been nowhere near “maximum employment” and inflation, if anything, has been too low rather than too high given the Fed’s percent inflation target — notwithstanding Fed critics who want the Fed to concentrate exclusively on inflation.
In this recovery, unemployment has been falling but so, too, has the labor force participation rate (the share of people aged 16 and older either working or looking for work).
Due to those changing demographics and normal retirement decisions by baby boomers, the participation rate (and employment-population ratio) we would see with a healthier labor market is almost surely lower than in 2007 and will continue to fall.
That’s the right policy given the shortfall between actual labor market conditions and those that would reflect any reasonable definition of maximum employment — especially when there is still no evidence of the high inflation that Fed critics were sure these policies would engender by now.
As many analysts properly note, aging baby boomers are now swelling the ranks of workers aged 55 and older, and they have much lower labor force participation rates than those in their prime working years, ages 25 to 54.
Accordingly, the Fed has maintained a “highly accommodate” stance with respect to its dual mandate goals, keeping its policy interest rate as close to zero as practicable and adopting “unconventional” tools like “forward guidance” for setting that policy rate and large-scale asset purchases (“quantitative easing”) in order to stimulate greater economic activity and job growth.

Jobless Claims at lowest since 2007 but

source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/10/news/economy/jobless-claims/index.html?iid=SF_BN_River

Some thought they found it this morning when data came out showing that new claims for unemployment benefits suddenly plummeted last week to the lowest level since May 2007. Last year, for example, initial claims spiked during this same week as schools in many states observed spring break around Passover and Easter. The four-week moving average, which smooths out some of the volatility, was 316,250 last week -- a level consistent with the number of weekly claims filed back in 2007, before the recession began. Roughly 300,000 people filed for their first week of unemployment benefits last week, the Department of Labor reported Thursday morning.

Amazon buys comiXology app 4/13/2014

Source: http://www.wired.com/2014/04/amazon-buys-comixology/

The online website Amazon recently bought the digital comic book reading app comiXology, which is a  platform for reading digital comic books and graphic novels. According to Amazon’s Vice President of content acquisition and independent publishing, David Naggar the ‘two companies share a passion for reinventing reading in a digital world.” ComiXology was the highest grossing non-game iPad app in 2013 and sold  4 million pages of comic book and graphic novels..

This partnership will help gain more popularity for this app as well as gaining more comic book fans.

As a user of this app, I believe this buy out will help comiXology gain more popularity and downloads. But why only comiXology and not the Marvel or DC apps? If Amazon bought these other two powerhouses, will they potentially receive a wider audience if Amazon purchased them? If they were bought out, I think more people would read about their favorite comic book characters and get invested in the characters’ history rather than seeing them on the silver screen. 

Sony orders first original TV series for PlayStation

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/20/technology/sony-tv-powers/index.html?iid=SF_BN_River 

Apart from a project like "Powers," Sony is exploring the creation of a cable like television service that would be distributed via the PlayStation Network and could challenge existing TV providers like Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) and Direct TV (DTV, Fortune 500).
Joining streaming television services like Netflix and Amazon, Sony's PlayStation Network has commissioned its first original TV series.
"It overlays extremely well with the demographics of the PlayStation," Michael Lynton, the chief executive of Sony Entertainment, told the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news about the series order.

Ukraine crisis: Why it matters to the world economy

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/02/news/economy/ukraine-economy/index.html?iid=H_E_News

Ukraine is an important tie between Russia and the rest of Europe: Ukraine  doesn't hold the economic power it once did, but it does retain its geography.
Russia supplies about 25% of Europe's gas needs, and half of that is pumped via pipelines running through Ukraine.
The government cut off negotiations in November amid pressure from Russia,which offered discounts on natural gas if Ukraine signed a pact with Moscow's Customs Union. 

Ukraine's government is in debt and needs assistance: The situation arguably would not be so volatile if Ukrainian government coffers were more stable or the economy stronger.


Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Sunday the U.S. is "Prepared to work partners to provide as much   support as Ukraine needs" for economic growth and  stability.

Ukraine isn't the only fragile emerging market: Ukraine's instability comes at a difficult time for emerging markets worldwide, which are seeing growth slow as the Federal Reserve eases its  economic stimulus. Troubles in Ukraine will also hurt Russian banks, which have lent heavily to Ukraine.

This issue might effect the economy by causing some corporations to become bankrupt if we decide to add $20 million to the Ukrainian  economy. This issue can also affect how the ability to receive wheat and corn since trading will be halting. This will also cause prices to rise because of the underproduction of the product.