Business and the economy

Via Chicago is the World

Sometimes I need to keep an even better eye on economics and business news than I have been. It would be a lie if I ever stated that I knew a lot about economics issues. Besides my only experience with economics and business was taking macro & microeconomics, public economics, and business law at Morehouse. Even then I'm not entirely certain I get it.

All the same, every now and then I may pay attention to economic news but not often enough. I may still have questions about the economy and economic cycles. The answers to those questions I'm not sure where to find them or otherwise arrive at an answer that satisfies me.

For example it was in the news recently that Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois is getting some help from Hollywood - with actor Martin Sheen - to raise the minimum wage in Illinois. To be sure this has been talked about for years since the last increase and that was four years ago. At the moment there seems to be little momentum to get that passed.

Minimum wage is in this state is $8.25/hour but according to the article I read Gov. Quinn wants to get it up to $10/hour. Obama noted in his 2014 State of the Union address he would like to see the federal minimum wage go up from $7.25/hour to at least $10/hour.

My only response is that it sure only sounds good to those of us who already have a minimum wage job and have seen absolutely no raises in our earnings. Another part of the economic news we may hear about is the unemployment rate and whenever I see any news about that so far during Obama's presidency it's often up or down. Although it seems it's never enough to really offset the number of unemployed so far.

Then it leads me to my question, how does minimum wage affect the job market? Especially for the unemployed who are still looking for some type of gainful employment?

Recently I showed one example and surely there are others like him who fell so far down and forced to take an entry-level position at a store. You do what you got to do if the job you really want is not the job you get in the end.

Still, I have a lot to read-up on if I'm to ever get a greater understanding of how the economic and business cycles work.