Social Issues

As written by Jack Salmon and first appearing on The Hill

With 19 states raising the minimum wage at the beginning of 2017, it seems that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) "Fight for 15" campaign is becoming a reality.

While Democrats have been wholeheartedly behind the movement to increase the minimum wage, now Republican lawmakers are increasingly leaving the door open to minimum wage increases. The prevailing argument in favor of raising the minimum wage is that a higher minimum wage would reduce poverty and alleviate income inequality.

We spend a lot of time talking about the various pension ponzi schemes that will inevitably wreak havoc on the global financial system at some point in the not so distant future.  That said, you should also be keeping an eye on so-called long-term-care (LTC) health insurance providers who, as Penn Treaty Network of America Insurance teaches us this morning, have been perpetuating a ponzi scheme of their own.

Via Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

This is precisely what you'd expect of a self-serving elite that was desperate to cloak the unhappy reality that the relative few are benefiting immensely at the expense of the many.

The core narrative of politics everywhere is progress, i.e. "moving forward." If progress isn't being made, politicos and the system are failing.

An Irish sex abuse victim has quit a Vatican panel set up by Pope Francis to deal with paedophile priest scandals over a “shameful” lack of co-operation Marie Collins who was assaulted by a hospital chaplain when she was thirteen, accused Vatican bureaucrats of “resistance” to the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and obstructing reforms backed by the Pope.

After Trump called attention to the rising tide of migrant crime in Sweden last week, independent journalist Tim Pool decided to head to Stockholm for a first-hand look at the "crime-ridden migrant suburb" of Rinkeby.  Unfortunately, upon arrival Pool didn't get to do much investigating before arousing the suspicion of a couple of masked men who proceeded to follow him through the streets eventually leading to his prompt police escort out of the city out of fear for his crew's safety.