July 24th will mark four years since the last increase in the federal minimum wage. By the most commonly used benchmarks – inflation, average wages and average productivity – the current $7.25-an-hour rate is well below the peak it hit five decades ago. A

Mark WeisbrotFolha de São Paulo (Brazil), 12 de julio, 2013En Inglés | En Portugués

A sad milestone has passed: it has now been 1,000 days since Haiti’s cholera outbreak began. Even though U.N. troops from Nepal have been linked to the outbreak through study after study, and even though U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti Bill Clinton admitted

Next week marks four years since the last time that there was an increase in the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 per hour). While we have argued here, here and here that the federal minimum-wage rate is too low, 19* states have taken matters into th

Dean Baker
The Guardian Unlimited, July 15, 2013

Dean Baker
Truthout, July 15, 2013

No, I won't bother everyone with the list again. Those who are interested can see the original. But I thought I should do an update on the 5 things I said that I would be proved right about in 5-10 years. Here's the list:

1) Patents Are an Incredibly Inefficient Way to Finance the Development of Prescription Drugs

2) We Will Need Alternative Mechanisms to Copyrights to Finance Creative Work

3) Medical Trade Will Help to Keep Down Health Care Costs in the U.S. If We Don’t Fix the Health Care System

4) Countries Can Finance Much of the Debt Issued in the Downturn by Central Bank's Holding of Assets

5) Financial Speculation Taxes Will Make the Financial System More Efficient

How much progress have we seen on these items? Not very much, I'm afraid.

There was this great piece on patents being an impediment to growth by Michele Boldrin and David Levine, a version of which also ran in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. There is at least some appreciation among economists and people in policy circles that patents are a monopoly that leads to major economic distortions.

On the ground there was a huge victory against patent abuses when India's supreme court rejected the patent in the Gleevec case. The implication is that India will provide more limited patent protection than the United States and Europe. This will provide far more scope for its booming generic industry, which now looks to be a power in its own right, providing low cost drugs throughout the developing world.

I have lived in Brazil for 18 years.  Yesterday I decided that an opportunity to protest for a 40-hour workweek was too important to pass up, and headed to Rio de Janeiro’s Candelaria square to march with the unions.

The march was part of a general strike held across Brazil yesterday. Across the country banks, ports, factories and construction projects shut down.  Protesters closed off 50 highways in 18 states.  In Brasilia, the Landless Peasant’s Movement (MST) occupied the Incra (agrarian reform) Federal Ministry.  The strike was coordinated by a group of 70 union federations, such as the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT; the Unified Workers' Central, in English) and Força Sindical, the national student union (UNE) and social movements like the MST. 

(Photo by Brian Mier)

After meeting with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden today, Human Rights Watch issued a statement reiterating their appeal for his asylum case to be treated fairly. The statement read:

“Edward Snowden has a serious asylum claim that should be considered fairly by Russia or any other country where he may apply,” said Dinah PoKempner, general counsel at Human Rights Watch. “He should be allowed at least to make that claim and have it heard.”

Snowden has disclosed serious rights violations by the US. But US law does not provide sufficient protection for whistleblowers when classified information is involved. The US has charged Snowden, among other things, with violating the Espionage Act, a vague law that provides no exceptions or defenses to whistleblowers who disclose matters of serious public importance.

…

Washington’s actions appear to be aimed at preventing Snowden from gaining an opportunity to claim refuge, in violation of his right to seek asylum under international law.

But while human rights organizations and legal experts have pointed out the compelling case for granting Snowden asylum, most of the media continues to treat offers from Latin America as nothing more than governments “thumbing their noses” at the U.S. A front page article in today’s New York Times on the U.S. pressuring Latin American governments to not accept Snowden’s asylum doesn’t quote any organization or individual making the legal case for asylum, but does quote former American ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson:

“What I think is going on among Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua and possibly others is, who can replace Chávez as the main U.S. antagonist?”

The article also points out that the U.S. is threatening these countries, whose only action has been to consider asylum for Snowden, as human rights groups have recommended. The Times quotes an anonymous official:

“There is not a country in the hemisphere whose government does not understand our position at this point,” a senior State Department official focusing on the matter said recently, adding that helping Mr. Snowden “would put relations in a very bad place for a long time to come.”

“If someone thinks things would go away, it won’t be the case,” the official said.