How raising the minimum wage would affect the U.S. economy

Jeffrey Cleveland, chief economist at Payden & Rygel, however, is not concerned about “overheating” — that is, pumping in too much stimulus during a recovery and therefore producing inflation as demand ratchets up. Here’s how he sees it: “The economy is not running hot at present. Inflation, by all measures, is still very low,” Cleveland said. “We’ve been hearing this story, I think, for decades that the economy was on the cusp of overheating, and that would lead to higher inflation. And we haven’t seen that inflation, that worrisome inflation, materialize. So I think perhaps down the road these are issues that people should wrestle with, but fears of overshooting and overheating are premature.”