Showing posts with label prices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prices. Show all posts

American Families Are Being Economically Destroyed

by Michael Snyder.     The systematic destruction of the American way of life is happening all around us, and yet most people have no idea what is happening.  Once upon a time in America, if you were responsible and hard working you could get a good paying job that could support a middle class lifestyle for an entire family even if you only had a high    ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Self-Enforcing Discrimination

How do-gooders handicap the poor. Black politicians, civil rights organizations and others who say they are concerned with the welfare of poor black people often support harmful measures. One of the most effective tools for disadvantaged people is to be able to charge a lower price for what they sell and pay a higher price for what they buy. ... MORE

Washington State Growers Struggle To Sell Legal Marijuana

High taxes are driving many to black market. Washington's legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed. Some stores periodically closed because they didn't have pot to sell. Prices were through the roof. Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry. A big harvest of   ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Basic Economics


Knowledge is power.    "Whether one is a conservative or a radical, a protectionist or a free trader, a cosmopolitan or a nationalist, a churchman or a heathen, it is useful to know the causes and consequences of economic phenomena." That quotation, from Nobel laureate George J. Stigler, is how Dr. Thomas Sowell begins     ... MORE

The Bad Policy That Created The Great Chocolate Shortage

by Tim Worstall.  The last few days have seen us regaled with a serious of stories about how the world is going to run out of chocolate. That would be, I think we can all agree, almost as bad as running out of bacon. So it’s worth thinking through the reasons as to why we might be running out. After all, cocoa, from which chocolate is made, is a plant,   ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Embarrassing Economists

The first fundamental law of demand.      So as to give some perspective, I'm going to ask readers for their guesses about human behavior before explaining my embarrassment by some of my fellow economists. Suppose the prices of ladies jewelry rose by 100 percent. What would you predict would happen to sales? What about a    ... MORE

Rigged Gold Price Distorts Perception of Economic Reality

by Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler.    The Federal Reserve and its bullion bank agents (JP Morgan, Scotia, and HSBC) have been using naked short-selling to drive down the price of gold since September 2011. The latest containment effort began in mid-July of this year, after gold had moved higher in price from the beginning of June and   ... MORE

Ronald Bailey: How to Slake California's Thirst

"Nature makes a drought, but Man makes a shortage."  That's the trenchant slogan that the Leiden University College water resource economist David Zetland uses to sum up how bureaucratic mismanagement of supply and demand misallocates water pervasively. California's current water crisis—exacerbated by a three-year   ... MORE

Map: How Much $100 Is Really Worth In Every State

by Niraj Chokshi.    Not all Benjamins are created equal. For the first time ever, the federal government this year introduced a data series that compares price differences among states and metropolitan areas. Those estimates — regional price parities and real personal income — offer something simple and immensely useful for anyone considering   ... MORE

A Barton Hinkle: Let's Hear It For Price Gouging

Government has no business dictating prices.       Snow, sleet, and freezing rain weren’t the only things to come down last week. So did a weather-related proclamation from Mark Herring. “Attorney General Herring Highlights Price Gouging Protections Ahead of Winter Storm,” it read. “Laws protect consumers from ‘unconscionable prices’     ... MORE

Keith Laing: Bill Would Nearly Double Federal Gasoline Tax

Government continues to make life more expensive.      Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) is introducing legislation that would nearly double the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax that is traditionally used to pay for federal transportation projects. Blumenauer's bill would increase the gas tax by 15 cents, matching a proposal that was     ... MORE