Daily economy news from the American Institute for Economic Research: data, stories, research, and articles touching on economics, politics, culture, education, policy, opinion, technology, markets, healthcare, regulation, trends, and much more.
Waller Offers Common Sense View on Financial Risks of Climate Change
“Climate-related innovation does not seem to pose a unique risk to the financial system. And lenders have a long history of adapting to technological innovation.” ~ Bryan Cutsinger
Bill and Ted Take Joan of Arc to Walmart
“What I think is most striking about Walmart – and what I would hope Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, Socrates, and others would notice – is that the floor-to-ceiling cornucopia is not restricted to the elites.” ~ Art Carden
Why We Need Acquisitions and Why Khan’s Concerns are Bad for Business
“Antitrust cases cost a great deal of time and money, and yet Lina Khan asserts that FTC will be looking more closely at M&As both past and present — and this assertion should be of concern to any entrepreneur and any corporate investor.” ~Kimberlee Josephson
We Are Measuring Inflation All Wrong: Non-Housing Inflation is Very Low
“Lagged OER and rent overstated inflation by more than two percentage points over the past ten months – raising it to 3.3 percent from 0.6 percent.” ~ Alan Reynolds
Bud Light’s Sales Implosion, Explained (by Mises)
“Instead of focusing on creating value and serving consumers, companies are forced to dance to the ESG piper’s tune and perform whatever social initiatives a tiny cabal of people regard as important.” ~ Jon Miltimore
Dr. Seuss, Philosopher Extraordinaire
“It happens that, 75 years after Seuss wrote it, Thidwick turns out to be a good metaphor Western democracies.” ~ Bruce Rottman
Has the Disinflation Process Stalled?
“Fed officials may worry that the disinflation process has stalled. For this reason, the latest data likely increases uncertainty about the future course of monetary policy.” ~ William J. Luther
Playing Chicken with a Stack of Steering Wheels
“People often complain about the ‘irrationality’ of politics, but there is nothing irrational about the process that has given rise to our crushing debt burden. Voters really do want lower deficits, provided it does not involve either cutting spending or raising taxes.” ~ Michael Munger
What accounts for America’s life expectancy gap?
“A large portion of the gap (but not all of it) is due to unique features of American life that are unrelated to health care services.” ~ Vincent Geloso
The (Big Labor) Empire Strikes Back in Michigan
“Labor unions prefer to obtain all their dues through the easy method of coercion. They hate RTW statutes because they give disaffected workers an escape hatch.” ~ George Leef
The Myth of American Inequality and Stagnation
“The familiar trope of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle classes treading water is disproved by devastatingly large amounts of empirical evidence.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
How Arrogance Threatens Freedom
“Those who demand special treatment from impersonal, anonymous, and uncontrollable processes lack humility. They want credit for their achievements, and they blame others when their goals fall short. With such arrogance, freedom is indeed impossible.” ~ Barry Brownstein
A Sick (Pay) Policy that Redefines Work
“To the extent that these app-based companies are about matching unused resources, no matter how small, to those who want to employ those resources, this policy undermines the most beneficial aspect of the sharing economy.” ~ Anthony Gill
Why Intellectuals Hate Al Czervik
“Power, by which I mean political power, is always zero-sum: if the intellectual elite has it, you and I don’t have it.” ~ Michael Munger
Eliminating the Debt Ceiling: Is There Anything the 14th Amendment Can’t Do?
“The Biden administration threatens to invoke Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment to sidestep the longstanding federal debt ceiling in a way that would increase the power of the executive branch. ” ~ Robert E. Wright
The FTC should answer its Call of Duty to Gamers
“There are so many holes in the FTC and Sony’s opposition to the Microsoft-Activision merger that an analogy to Swiss cheese is in order.” ~ Gary M. Galles
What’s Next for the Fed?
“A wide range of outcomes are still possible for 2023, ranging from stagflation to a ‘soft landing.'” ~ Thomas L. Hogan
Economic Growth Makes Graceland Less Impressive
“The real ‘capitalist achievement,’ however, isn’t Graceland. It’s the fact that compared to the stuff of the average person’s day-to-day life in 2023, Graceland just isn’t that impressive.” ~ Art Carden
Waller Offers Common Sense View on Financial Risks of Climate Change
“Climate-related innovation does not seem to pose a unique risk to the financial system. And lenders have a long history of adapting to technological innovation.” ~ Bryan Cutsinger
Bill and Ted Take Joan of Arc to Walmart
“What I think is most striking about Walmart – and what I would hope Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, Socrates, and others would notice – is that the floor-to-ceiling cornucopia is not restricted to the elites.” ~ Art Carden
Why We Need Acquisitions and Why Khan’s Concerns are Bad for Business
“Antitrust cases cost a great deal of time and money, and yet Lina Khan asserts that FTC will be looking more closely at M&As both past and present — and this assertion should be of concern to any entrepreneur and any corporate investor.” ~Kimberlee Josephson
We Are Measuring Inflation All Wrong: Non-Housing Inflation is Very Low
“Lagged OER and rent overstated inflation by more than two percentage points over the past ten months – raising it to 3.3 percent from 0.6 percent.” ~ Alan Reynolds
Bud Light’s Sales Implosion, Explained (by Mises)
“Instead of focusing on creating value and serving consumers, companies are forced to dance to the ESG piper’s tune and perform whatever social initiatives a tiny cabal of people regard as important.” ~ Jon Miltimore
Dr. Seuss, Philosopher Extraordinaire
“It happens that, 75 years after Seuss wrote it, Thidwick turns out to be a good metaphor Western democracies.” ~ Bruce Rottman
Has the Disinflation Process Stalled?
“Fed officials may worry that the disinflation process has stalled. For this reason, the latest data likely increases uncertainty about the future course of monetary policy.” ~ William J. Luther
Playing Chicken with a Stack of Steering Wheels
“People often complain about the ‘irrationality’ of politics, but there is nothing irrational about the process that has given rise to our crushing debt burden. Voters really do want lower deficits, provided it does not involve either cutting spending or raising taxes.” ~ Michael Munger
What accounts for America’s life expectancy gap?
“A large portion of the gap (but not all of it) is due to unique features of American life that are unrelated to health care services.” ~ Vincent Geloso
The (Big Labor) Empire Strikes Back in Michigan
“Labor unions prefer to obtain all their dues through the easy method of coercion. They hate RTW statutes because they give disaffected workers an escape hatch.” ~ George Leef
The Myth of American Inequality and Stagnation
“The familiar trope of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle classes treading water is disproved by devastatingly large amounts of empirical evidence.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
How Arrogance Threatens Freedom
“Those who demand special treatment from impersonal, anonymous, and uncontrollable processes lack humility. They want credit for their achievements, and they blame others when their goals fall short. With such arrogance, freedom is indeed impossible.” ~ Barry Brownstein
A Sick (Pay) Policy that Redefines Work
“To the extent that these app-based companies are about matching unused resources, no matter how small, to those who want to employ those resources, this policy undermines the most beneficial aspect of the sharing economy.” ~ Anthony Gill
Why Intellectuals Hate Al Czervik
“Power, by which I mean political power, is always zero-sum: if the intellectual elite has it, you and I don’t have it.” ~ Michael Munger
Eliminating the Debt Ceiling: Is There Anything the 14th Amendment Can’t Do?
“The Biden administration threatens to invoke Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment to sidestep the longstanding federal debt ceiling in a way that would increase the power of the executive branch. ” ~ Robert E. Wright
The FTC should answer its Call of Duty to Gamers
“There are so many holes in the FTC and Sony’s opposition to the Microsoft-Activision merger that an analogy to Swiss cheese is in order.” ~ Gary M. Galles
What’s Next for the Fed?
“A wide range of outcomes are still possible for 2023, ranging from stagflation to a ‘soft landing.'” ~ Thomas L. Hogan
Economic Growth Makes Graceland Less Impressive
“The real ‘capitalist achievement,’ however, isn’t Graceland. It’s the fact that compared to the stuff of the average person’s day-to-day life in 2023, Graceland just isn’t that impressive.” ~ Art Carden
