“FTC Previews Hard Evidence of Harms While Kroger and Albertsons Dangle Unenforceable Promises in Merger Hearing Opening Arguments,” Economic Liberties Kroger and Albertsons Dangle Unenforceable Promises in Merger Hearing Opening Arguments. Noteworthy in Day 1 of the hearing is Kroger uses Albertson’s pricing as the high mark to set its pricing between it and WalMart on the low end. It would seem such a combination of both stores would...

Abolishing the Super Rich is a research piece, a book, and an opinion commentary by Tom Malleson. Associate professor Tom is at King’s University College at Canada’s Western University. Tom gives us a peek into his book entitled Against Inequality: The Practical and Ethical Case for Abolishing the Superrich (2023). The commentary/review of content reads nicely and the professor has his points in a row. Since we are an economics blog which touches...

 – by New Deal democrat The monthly personal income and spending report is now the most important report of all, except for jobs. That’s becuase it tells us so much about the state of the consumer economy. It is the raw material for several important coincident indicators that the NBER looks at, as well as several leading indicators on the spending side. To the numbers: in July nominal personal income rose 0.3%, and spending rose 0.5%. Since...

Wealth Effect: A Federal Reserve Myth.

To tackle economic instability, many believe that simply tightening regulations on banks and financial institutions will do the trick. This belief is fundamentally flawed. Regulations alone won't address the root cause of instability, which is excessive private debt. When people are drowning in debt, they can't spend. This leads to a vicious cycle of reduced consumption and economic stagnation. In fact, during the Great Depression, the more debtors paid, the more they owed. This...

Wood is a form of natural carbon sequestration. Yesterday, I posted about how wood is making a comeback as a building material. I’ve since found this article announcing that the world’s largest building built (partly) of wood has been greenlit.“Western Australia is set to become home to the world’s tallest timber building, a “revolutionary” 50-storey hybrid design reaching a height of 191.2 metres.Timber will make up 42% of South Perth’s C6 building,...

Medicare Advantage Plans are funded by Traditional Medicare which is slowly being depleted. Much of what MA does which proves to be so costly is due to MA up coding of its patients. It is estimated this will cost an ~$88 billion in 2024. This is up from $80 billion in 2023. Studies have found evidence of upcoding and favorable selection of patients are driving significant overpayments to MA plans. MedPAC also said the program’s quality bonus...

I asked our builder if the water piping was insulated. Nope. Insulation would save on hot water usage and also colder water usage. You can not get cold water in the Summer. And you run the water to get hot water due to no insulation. In AZ, they use PEX tubing for water. PEX is cheaper and just about anyone can install it. Copper takes more skill, is more durable. and can be insulated which saves on costs. “We voted to create tough water...

from Lars Syll According to Keynes, financial crises are a recurring feature of our economy and are linked to its fundamental financial instability: It is of the nature of organised investment markets, under the influence of purchasers largely ignorant of what they are buying and of speculators who are more concerned with forecasting the next shift of market sentiment than with a reasonable estimate of the future yield of capital-assets, that, when disillusion falls upon an...

Finanspolitiska ramverket — en kritisk utvärdering I den pågående debatten och översynen av det finanspolitiska ramverket hörs ofta som ett mantra att det skulle ha “tjänat oss väl”. Men har det verkligen det? Yours truly var igår inbjuden av Föreningen Dialog-Bildning i Västervik för att presentera min syn på ramverket och om det verkligen tjänat oss väl. För den intresserade går min presentation att ta del av här:  FPR Västervik...