My beef has been with the Supply Chain. Yep, you can be forced into manufacturing less product due to part shortages. Unless you are air freighting that stuff or running OT, costs do not necessarily increase due to producing less. Another situation? In 2008, the calls would come in about raising prices in a take it or leave it manner. This was in regard to semiconductors mostly. It was not due to increased costs as much as increased demand. A...

This post is basically complaining that I cannot keep up. I think I am fairly informed on Karl Marx. I do not read German, and I have not even read some early works. My area of concentration is reading Capital as a work of mathematical economics, which cuts against the subtitle and, maybe, de-emphasizes a break with classical, especially, Ricardian political economy. More generally, I thought Marx generally praises the tremendous increase of productivity brought about by the...

Wikipedia: The Big Mac Index is a price index published since 1986 by The Economist. It is an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies and providing a test of the extent to which market exchange rates result in goods costing the same in different countries. It “seeks to make exchange-rate theory a bit more digestible. The index compares the relative price worldwide to purchase a Big Mac,...

A bit of a rewrite on this article. Still a little too long. Talking about railroads, the East Palestine derailment February 2023 crash and how little has been done since then. Outside interests including Koch Industries have been blocking much needed reform through their lobbying of friendly resources in Congress. A good read. Last year’s toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, prompted new legislation with the aim of making railways...

The macro view. Dominant companies. And accumulate, accumulate, accumulate.

from Lars Syll Despite the rise of behavioral economics, many economists still believe that utility maximization is a good explanation of human behavior. Although evidence from experimental economics and elsewhere has rolled back the assumption that human agents are entirely self-interested, and shown that altruism and cooperation are important, a prominent response has been to modify individual preference functions so that they are “other-regarding”. But even with these modified...

Real incomes and Presidential approval: most measures did not surpass pre-pandemic levels until 2023, or this year!  – by New Deal democrat This post is somewhat of a follow-up to one I wrote two weeks ago, about perceptions of income vs. inflation, as well as following up on yesterday’s post considering the electoral implications of the current economy. It’s a truism – if certainly an oversimplification – that people vote their pocketbook....

Teaching economics students the fundamentals of the utility theory used in mainstream economics is a bit of a challenge. But I guess we all expect the professors to know what they are teaching … At a meeting of the American Economic Association (AEA), 200 of the professional economists present were asked to answer the following question:  “You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your...

Bankers and Asset Bubble Impact

A bit behind here as other things have distracted me in AZ. Health being one of them. A double dose of excellent reviews of the economy today. If there is one commentary (if you are rushed) on Angry Bear you should read concerning the economy, it is NDd’s reporting. Spending and Unemployment are in the early commentary today. Not sure what NDd has in store for later. The economy and employment are in far better shape after the pandemic than what...