Wage Against the Machine

Econ blogger and investor Barry Ritholtz last night got to explain to the Daily Show's Samantha Bee just why raising the minimum wage to the poverty level would not bankrupt America. "There are a number of studies that have come out that show increasing the minimum wage actually improves the economy," Ritholtz said. "If we raise people up to just $11 so they are at the poverty level, they'll go out and spend that money on food and medicine." Bonus: His pix from the 2-hour shoot.

His foil was the shall we say "libertarian" investor Peter Schiff (infamous for staging a fake protest outside of Wal-Mart last December to mock workers' demands for higher wages). He explained to Ms. Bee that "People don't go hungry in a capitalist economy," and went on to embody every cliche of the callous one percent by claiming that a “$2 minumum wage” should exist for “maybe somebody who is — what’s the politically correct word for ‘mentally retarded?’”  -- B.B.