News Story of the Day: As part of efforts to overcome increases to the minimum wage and a weak fast-food market, global fast-food chain Wendy’s confirmed in an earnings conference call Wednesday that it will begin to automate all of its restaurants.
Wendy’s will start to install self-serving kiosks at more than 6,000 locations late this year. Todd Penegor, Wendy’s president, said that he hopes the automation process will help the fledgling fast-food chain overcome a five percent inflation in wages.
“Some of that is driven by minimum wage,” Penegor told shareholders this week. “We have been able to create some efficiencies on labor across the restaurant to offset some of that headwind, and we will continue to invest in technology with things in the front of the house and consumer facing, like customer self-order kiosks, mobile order, mobile pay.”
The burger joint is following in the footsteps of other industry rivals who are looking to offset the spike in labor costs by automating their services. So, the unions, anti-poverty activists and politicians want to help the poor by taking them out of the labor market? How compassionate…
Chart of the Day: It’s a simple fact that when you had a mortgage, you need a steady job and paycheck. According to new data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage delinquencies have been in same track as jobless figures. It makes sense: you don’t have an income so you can’t pay for the mortgage. (chart courtesy of Bloomberg)
Illustration of the Day: Does somebody have a differing opinion from you? There’s a safe space for that…
Quote of the Day: Legendary author Henry Hazlitt was an eloquent writer and a sublime thinker. If you ever want to introduce someone to economics then you better offer them “Economics in One Lesson.” It’s one of the premier economic books out there for the layman. Here is one quote from Hazlitt on the “gospel of Karl Marx”:
“The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects – his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity.”
Video of the Day: Former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul talked about the war on cash a few months ago. With the European Central Bank (ECB) banning the 500-euro banknote and academics promoting the prohibition of the $50 or $100 bill, this would be an opportune time to revisit Dr. Paul’s sound analysis. (Be sure to check out our new book “The War on Cash: How Governments and Banks are Killing Cash and What You Can Do to Protect Yourself.”)
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