The Daily Economy
Food Profit Margins Shrink, But Harris Blames Them for Rising Grocery Bills
“Based on her insistence that price gouging is responsible for high grocery prices — when it clearly is not — the Vice President’s proposal would more likely function as a price freeze or command pricing.” ~Joel Griffith
Free Market Fundamentals and NatCon Inconsistencies
“I’ve never encountered a protectionist of any stripe who explains why the jobs preserved by protectionism have a higher non-material or ethical importance than do the jobs destroyed by protectionism.” ~Donald Boudreaux
Does a Construction Cartel Explain Rising Rents?
“Stoller and Quintero may well be right that home-builder concentration does reduce housing supply and raise costs, but it hasn’t been proven yet, and it’s at best a minor factor compared to the zoning restrictions.” ~Jason Sorens
Regulatory Burden Falls Hardest on the Poor
“Occupational licensing — the costly requirement of a license to be engaged in a particular profession — has grown massively in recent decades. Many of the new regulations fall on low- and medium-income professions.” ~Vincent Geloso
Beijing’s Sovereign Claims for Tibet
“Chinese policy ignores the reality that Tibetans care more about their own distinctive culture, history, and identity than they care about expressing loyalty to Beijing. Perhaps this is what is most galling to China’s leaders.” ~Christopher Lingle
Interventions, Easy Money Run Amok
“An obvious set of perverse incentives simply stimulate more risk-taking by corporate management and investment firms in the future, resulting in even bigger future bailouts down the road. At a certain point this strategy of holding the wolf by the ears will become untenable.” ~Richard Morrison
Entitlement Collapse is Worse Than it Looks
“Voters need to understand that by not pressuring politicians to deal with entitlements now, we might end up with a substantial amount of the means of American production being owned by the government. This will harm our society incalculably.” ~David C. Rose
‘Trivial’ Tariff Would Cost the Poor Billions
“If the de minimis exemption were eliminated, people living in the poorest zip codes would face average tariffs of 12.1 percent.” ~Bryan Riley
Texas Must Lead with Universal ESAs
“Only 24 percent of eighth graders are proficient in math and 23 percent in reading. Texas’s public education system is failing kids. The time for bold action is now: Texas must embrace universal education savings accounts.” ~Vance Ginn
Favor Monopolies over Federal Meddling
“Thus, the monopoly status of a firm is not a problem if consumers are happy and entrepreneurs aren’t hampered. Moreover, competition is of no use if greater value can’t be attained or cost savings can’t be accrued.” ~Kimberlee Josephson
How ‘Equalizing’ School Finance Hurts Students and Taxpayers
“New Hampshire is the most fiscally decentralized state in the country, with about two-thirds of the total tax burden being municipal…Households have a lot of choice about where to live, and they exercise it.” ~Jason Sorens and Judge Glock
More Money Can’t Solve Poverty
“From a high of almost 35 percent after World War Two, the poverty rate had already fallen to 19 percent in 1964. It continued its downward trend over the next few years, then has stagnated between 10 percent and 15 percent ever since.” ~Nikolai Wenzel
