GLOBAL WEALTH REGISTER

“ . . . [Gabriel] Zucman unveils his principal proposal: an automatic, fully global register, so that every government in the world can know where money is kept, and who is trying to escape national taxes. Under his proposal, the register would record ‘who owns all the financial securities in circulation, stocks, bonds, and shares of mutual funds throughout the world.’ If rich people in the United States or Germany are depositing their money into Swiss banks, the Swiss authorities would have to inform American and German officials of the deposits. Zucman emphasizes that all this should be done automatically, so as to make special inquiries or evidence of suspicion unnecessary. With the register, tax authorities could tell, essentially immediately, if their citizens are using tax havens. Zucman notes that a global register of this kind could have other benefits, helping to combat the financing of terrorism, bribery, and money laundering; public and private corruption might be added to this list. He notes too (and here he will immediately lose some readers) that such a register could facilitate the imposition of a global wealth tax, of the sort proposed, very controversially, by Thomas Piketty.

“To avoid the charge of utopianism, Zucman emphasizes that there is a clear international movement in the direction he favors.”

Sunstein, Cass R, ‘Parking the Big Money,’ in The New York Review, January 14, 2016, pp: 37-38, a review of The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens, by Gabriel Zucman, University of Chicago Press, 2015.

WEALTHY HIDING MONEY “As it turns out, a lot of wealthy people in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere have been hiding money in foreign countries-above all, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Virgin Islands. As a result, they have been able to avoid paying taxes in their home countries.” Sunstein, Cass R, ‘Parking the Big Money,’ in The New York Review, January 14, 2016, pp: 37-38, a review of The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens, by Gabriel Zucman, University of Chicago Press, 2015.

$15 MINIMUM WAGE WOULD HAVE ‘LITTLE EFFECT ON JOBS’

“ . . . Michael Reich, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said an increase to $15 would have little effect on jobs. He acknowledged that it could lead to more automation and higher prices and less sales volume at some businesses, but, he said, those effects ‘would be more than offset by increases in consumer purchasing power. That all results in a very small effect on the economy.’”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

CRITICS SAY $15 MINIMUM WAGE WILL HURT BUSINESS, RAISE UNEMPLOYMENT

“ ‘Fifteen [$15 minimum wage] is going to be extremely difficult for retailers to work into their business model,” said Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Association. He said Internet competitors were already hurting many retailers, and ‘now you have the Legislature putting an additional burden on brick-and-mortar stores.’

“David Neumark, an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, estimated that raising the state’s minimum to $15 would reduce employment among the least skilled by 5 percent to 10 percent. Critics of minimum-wage increases predict that workers will be replaced by automation and that businesses will need to raise prices, hurting sales and causing more layoffs. ‘There’s no question that a minimum-wage increase will help more people than it hurts,’ he said. ‘But it takes a lot of people getting a $300 raise to offset someone losing their job.’”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went for Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1,2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

VOTERS APPROVING $15 MINIMUM WAGE

“The [$15 minimum wage] issue has motivated thousands of protesters to join the Fight for $15’s periodic strikes: What started in one city ultimately swelled to protests in 150 American cities. By many measures, it has become the biggest labor protest in decades, with a wide spectrum of supporters, from college students and inner-city workers to janitors and nursing-home aides. The movement helped to get voters in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac to approve a $15 minimum wage, and not long after in Seattle itself and San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles and Pasadena.

“ ‘These victories made people believe this wasn’t some crazy demand,’ said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has spent millions of dollars underwriting the Fight for $15. ‘These incremental victories began to add up, and $15 moved from a demand to a standard. Now the fight is, how fast can you get it.’ She added that private employers, including Nationwide Insurance, Facebook and U.P.M.C., Pittsburgh’s largest hospital chain, have increasingly embraced a $15 minimum.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

50 MILLION WORKERS EARN LESS THAN $15 AN HOUR

“The movement for a $15 [wage] floor has been partly fueled by the same frustration over wage stagnation and income inequality that has spurred the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and Bernie Sanders. More than 50 million workers earn less than $15 an hour, and many Americans are upset about the loss of millions of factory jobs and the explosion of low-paying service-sector jobs. Mr. Sanders has championed a $15 minimum, but Mr. Trump has attacked the idea, at one point saying that wages are too high. Hillary Clinton has called for a $12 minimum, leaving states and cities to go to $15 if they like.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

59 PERCENT BACK $15 MINIMUM WAGE

“ ‘There’s still a lot of pro-labor, pro-worker sentiment,” said Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University who has written about populism and popular movements. “Inequality is a big issue nowadays. The Fight for $15 has become the way that civil rights was in the early ’60s — it’s an issue you can’t avoid. For politicians — or at least Democratic politicians — you want to be on the right side.’

“Fifty-nine percent of Americans, including 84 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents, support a $15 minimum wage, according to a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan research group. Just 32 percent of Republicans do.”

Steven Greenhouse, “How the $15 Minimum Wage Went from Laughable to Viable,” The New York Times, April 1, 2016. Steven Greenhouse, a visiting researcher at the Russell Sage Foundation, is a former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.