The road to communism is paved with good intentions, and price controls illustrate it perfectly. See how and why in this video, where you’ll learn the 7 fallout effects of one particular kind of price control: rent control.
There are some who say that “a tariff is not a tax,” or as one of them said before a Congressional Committee: “We do not like to call it so!” That certainly is the most humorous of all the funny things in the tariff controversy. If a tariff is not a tax, what is it? In what category does it belong? No protectionist has ever yet told. They seem to think of it as a thing by itself, a Power, a Force, a sort of Mumbo Jumbo whose special function it is to produce national prosperity. They do not appear to have analyzed it, or given themselves an account of it, sufficiently to know what kind of a thing it is or how it acts. Any one who says that it is not a tax must suppose that it costs nothing, that it produces an effect without an expenditure of energy. They do seem to think that if Congress will say: “Let a tax of —— per cent be laid on article A,” and if none is imported, and therefore no tax is paid at the custom house, national industry will be benefited and wealth secured, and that there will be no cost or outgo. If that is so, then the tariff is magic. We have found the philosopher’s stone.
Politicians and activists claim that corporate profits are causing inflation, but the real story is that inflation is creating mostly fictitious accounting profits and tax headaches for corporations. Overall, corporate profits remain pretty stable as a share of domestic income.
Trump and Harris are full of big promises—no taxes on tips, $25,000 for new homebuyers, rent control and tariffs.That all sounds good, but it’s economically BAD.Our video looks at some of their worst economic proposals.
Can high prices during emergencies actually save lives? Using North Carolina as an example, we dissect the economic and legal implications of these laws, exploring the ambiguities in terms like "unreasonably excessive" and the chilling effect on commerce. Discover how artificially low prices can lead to resource misallocation, discourage stockpiling, and hinder the transportation of vital supplies during crises. Allowing higher prices is, perhaps surprisingly, the only way to get low prices soon.
This week's economics joke:There's been a hurricane and people are desperately searching for things that they need. The owner of a convenience store has set aside some cases of bottled water in advance, knowing that people would need it. He knew the storm was coming and so he filled up his storerooms with as many cases of bottled water as he could get. Now he puts out the cases of bottled water and they're $40. So 24 plastic bottles of drinking water for $40, which is quite expensive. A customer comes in, immediately becomes angry, and complains, "You know, the price down the street is only $12 per case. Why are you price gouging?" The owner is puzzled. "Well, that's fine, why don't you go buy your water down there? It's up to you." Customer says, "Well, they're out, the shelves are empty, but their price is $12. You shouldn't be charging $40." The owner says, "Oh, oh, I see. I tell you what. As soon as I run out, I promise I'll drop my price to $10. An even lower deal!"
it’s clear that the DNC will be heavily focused on ideas of price gouging, corporate greed, and making increasingly economically illiterate calls for price fixing, one of the worst and most discredited central planning ideas in all of history.price controls never work. they destroy supply and result in shortages. it’s the economic equivalent of peeing your pants to stay warm on a cold night. 20 seconds later, you’re really going to wish you had not done that.it’s popular with populists, but it’s got a zero percent success rate.
President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) are blaming corporate America for "shrinkflation," where a company charges the same amount for a product while reducing the product's size or quantity. Recently, Senator Bob Casey (D–Pa.) introduced the Shrinkflation Prevention Act, which declares shrinkflation a deceptive business practice and would forbid companies to engage in it.Casey, Biden, Warren, and other like-minded politicians maintain that the underlying cause of shrinkflation is "greed." But, as Andrew Heaton explains, greed is pretty much constant across industries and time periods. Shrinkflation is just a passive-aggressive form of inflation, which we are struggling with largely due to government fiscal policy.
Thousands of jobs have already been eliminated by California's law to raise the minimum wage to $20 for restaurant workers, which goes into effect April 1.
"Argentine president Javier Milei... has consolidated eighteen government ministries into nine... and introduced a 350‐page package of economic reforms that would make Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek smile." - Michael Chapman, Cato InstituteIt was only episode 73, when I thought it was going to be too difficult for Javier Milei to actually downsize government spending.Now, it's episode 80 and we already have good news to report from Argentina! There are dramatic cuts.On top of that, the first economic miracle has arrived, thanks to deregulation.We break it down with all of the juicy details in an episode we're calling "Javier Milei Early Report Card"...
Did nations get rich on the backs of other nations? Did the West get rich from imperialism? Noah Smith says no. But why not? If you can steal stuff, isn't that better than having to make it yourself? Listen as Noah Smith and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss the impact of imperialism and industrialization on growth and wealth. Smith argues that understanding plunder and where wealth comes from is more than an exercise in economic history--it matters for today's world, too.
