Mega-retailer Wal-Mart made news last week when it announced that it will raise
starting wages to $11 per hour, will offer bonuses up to $1,000 to many of its workers
and expand maternity/paternity policies. Should the million or so employees who will be
affected by the moves thank the GOP tax cut? The company indicated that changes in
the law were at least partially responsible and certainly the billions that the company
stands to reap from the corporate tax rate dropping from 35 to 21 percent will more
than offset the $700 million cost for the new policies.
A reader wrote to me: “After your recent article about the big questions for 2018, I was astounded that ‘only 54 percent of Americans report having money invested in the stock market at all.’ Does that mean that all of the attention we put on the stock market is misplaced? Are we putting too much focus on stocks?”
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