Norks – Polly’s Vacating Pyongyang ~updated

From the Washington Post, “North Korea now making missile-ready nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say.” So who woulda’ thunk it?

North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded in a confidential assessment.

The new analysis completed last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency comes on the heels of another intelligence assessment that sharply raises the official estimate for the total number of bombs in the communist country’s atomic arsenal. The U.S. calculated last month that up to 60 nuclear weapons are now controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some independent experts believe the number of bombs is much smaller.

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Nostalgia – The Automat v. “Fight for $15 Dollar” Minimum Wage

The Washington Post, interestingly, points out that “‘Free lunches’ like the $15 minimum wage may hurt the people they’re meant to help.”

TANSTAAFL. With self-serv Ordering Kiosks, kitchen automation, and factory pre-preparation, can it be so long before the old idea of “The Automat” is new again?

Take the proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, a policy endorsed in the Democratic Party’s new “Better Deal” platform.

An increase in the federal minimum wage, stuck at $7.25 for eight years, is long overdue. But more than doubling it would likely result in massive job losses and cuts in work hours.

We’ve already seen preliminary evidence that raising wages in Seattle to $13 has produced sharp cuts in hours, leaving low-wage workers with smaller paychecks. And that’s in a high-cost city. Imagine what would happen if Congress raised the minimum wage to $15 nationwide.