SLOUCHING TOWARDS AN ALMOST FULL EMPLOYMENT ECONOMY?

The news out of Bentonville is huge, I think. If Walmart acknowledges it needs to up the salary ante, then can the rest of the minimum wage world be far behind? This is exciting news. It doesn't come near to getting those workers up to the high bar of Costco ($20 per hour to start, but it should signal McDonald's that the stakes are getting higher to attract decent talent. And you don't have to be a Nobel Prize winning economist to consider the potential impact of more money in more peoples' wallets at the low end of the wage spectrum. Coupled with seemingly gravity-fed gas prices, we may be on the cusp of a trickle up spiral.