Tag: Economic Problems

Things Are Getting Ugly

Between tariffs and sanctions the economy is suffering with Trumponomics……..the latest jobs report is one example but there are others….

We got a much better sense of what the American labor market is doing today. And the news was not good.

The economy added only 22,000 jobs last month, far fewer than economists had predicted, according to a new release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new data also shows that the economy gained slightly more jobs in July than we thought at the time, but that it actually lost 13,000 jobs in June — making that month the first since 2020 to see a true decline in U.S. employment.

The unemployment rate now stands at 4.3%, one tenth of a percent higher than it was last month. All in all, the American labor market has been frozen since President Trump declared “Liberation Day” and announced a bevy of new tariffs in April.

On the one hand, some aspects of that job loss shouldn’t be a surprise. As we’ve covered at Heatmap, the Trump administration has spent the past few months attacking the wind, solar, and electric vehicle industries. It has yanked subsidies from new electricity generation, rewritten rules on the fly, and waged an all-out regulatory war on offshore wind farms. Electricity costs are rising nationwide, constraining essentially all power-dependent industries except artificial intelligence.

https://heatmap.news/economy/jobs-report-manufacturing-trump

Remember the promise by Donny that manufacturing jobs would return top the US with his tariffs?

So far that has not been the case.

The U.S. manufacturing industry shed more workers in August despite policies from President Donald Trump’s administration aimed at bolstering the sector.

The United States lost 12,000 manufacturing jobs for the month, continuing a downward trend since its most recent peak in February 2023, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, employers added a disappointing 22,000 jobs in August, signaling a slowdown in U.S. hiring.

It will take time to see how tariffs’ impact on the manufacturing labor force plays out. So far this year, the uncertainty around the new trade policies and consumer spending has prompted some businesses to slow hirings.

“There’s no good reason for manufacturing to be hiring right now, and there are a lot of good reasons for it to be taking it easy,” said Ron Hetrick, a senior economist at labor market analytics company Lightcast.

Manufacturing job loss isn’t exclusive to the Trump administration. Jobs in the industry – which slid to 12.7 million in August, or about 8% of total nonfarm employment – have dipped dramatically since their peak in 1979 when they accounted for roughly 22% of total employment. While there were gains made after the Great Recession, jobs began trending down again in early 2023.

That downward trend has continued into 2025, with the sector losing roughly 78,000 jobs over the year through August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2025/09/05/manufacturing-employment-decline-jobs-report-august/85945275007/

I guess the kneejerk reaction to stats that Donny did not appreciate and the firing of the head of the BLS is not going to make his ‘Save America Economy’ any better.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Employment Numbers Look Good, Right?

WE always seeing the figures put out by the government on employment, jobs created, and so forth…..but are those numbers just a mask for what is really happening?

A low unemployment rate typically signals that an economy is generally healthy. The unemployment rate in the U.S. remained near a 50-year-low in April 2025 at 4.2% — plus, American employers added 177,000 jobs in April despite the uncertainty of Trump’s tariffs and trade wars.

This all sounds good, right? Not so fast.

The “true” rate of unemployment in April, according to the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), was 24.3%, up 0.03% from the previous month. LISEP’s True Rate of Unemployment (TRU) includes the unemployed, as well as workers who are employed but still struggling.

“We are facing a job market where nearly one-in-four workers are functionally unemployed, and current trends show little sign of improvement,” said LISEP Chair Gene Ludwig in a statement published on PR Newswire.

“The harsh reality is that far too many Americans are still struggling to make ends meet, and absent an influx of dependable, good-paying jobs, the economic opportunity gap will widen.”

That could help explain why, despite the supposedly healthy employment rate, consumer confidence in the American economy has been plunging.

So, why is there a 20-point difference between the LISEP and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment numbers? The BLS collects a massive amount of data on unemployment, but some of that data is excluded from the official unemployment rate.

For example, BLS found that 5.7 million people who aren’t employed do, in fact, want a job — but they weren’t counted as unemployed because “they were not actively looking for work during the four weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job,” according to BLS.

LISEP uses data compiled by BLS, but instead of simply measuring unemployment, LISEP measures what it calls the “functionally unemployed.” This is defined as the portion of the U.S. labor force that “does not have a full-time job (35+ hours a week) but wants one, has no job, or does not earn a living wage, conservatively pegged at $25,000 annually before taxes.”

Its metrics capture not only unemployed workers, but also those stuck in poverty-wage jobs and those working part-time but can’t get full-time work. LISEP’s measurements aim to include these functionally unemployed Americans to provide a more complete picture of unemployment across the country, including the nuances that other economic indicators miss.

This, in turn, can help “provide policymakers and the public with a more transparent view of the economic situation of all Americans, particularly low- and middle-income households, compared with misleading headline statistics,” according to LISEP.

“Amid an already uncertain economic outlook, the rise in functional unemployment is a concerning development,” Ludwig said. “This uncertainty comes at a price, and unfortunately, the low- and middle-income wage earners ultimately end up paying the bill.”

Ludwig says the public would be “well served by a commitment from economic policymakers to adopt a stable course of action” based on real-world metrics.

(moneywise.com)

We also are hearing how well the economy is doing….but all that is smoke and mirrors as well….as any person can tell you that has to shop that their wallet does not see this ‘bright’ economy.

Just thought you might like to know….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Where Is This Economic Boom?

I heard Donny chest thumping about the US is in an economic boom….and yet I have not seen it with the exception of the wealthiest getting more benefits than before….so where the Hell is this economic boom?

Sorry to say the BS of a Trump economic boom is not what it is cracked up to be and the numbers bear that conclusion out….

The White House says the U.S. is in the midst of an “economic boom” under President Donald Trump. But voters aren’t feeling it in their wallets.

Polling released by Gallup Thursday found the president’s approval rating at just 37%, the lowest point of his second term so far, with an all-time low approval rating of 29% among independents.

This precipitous decline has been helped along by sagging approval on the economy, which has historically been the issue where he gets the most support. After a high of 42% in February, approval for his handling of the economy is likewise down to just 37%.

An uptick in inflation seen over the past month has exacerbated the cost of living crisis Trump promised to abate on the campaign trail.

A poll released Friday by Data for Progress found that, “Only 30% of likely voters report having enough income to be able to comfortably provide for their household’s needs, while a plurality of voters (43%) say they have enough income but money is tight, and 20% say they do not make enough to provide for all household members’ needs.”

“As his approval tanks, President Trump has finally lost voters on the one issue where they’ve historically trusted him: the economy,” said Lindsay Owens, the executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. “Not only has Trump shirked his promise to lower prices, he’s made the situation substantially worse as his tax and tariff policies have landed a double blow to household budgets.”

According to data from Indeed, cited by Forbes, 43% of Americans have seen their wages lagging behind the cost of living over the past year. The jobs feeling the worst crunch are those “at the low-to-middle end of the pay spectrum.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-cost-of-living-struggle

Now with an election a little over a year away you would think that this info would be making the Dems a likely winner in 2026…..bad news….it does not!

The Dems after the election of Donny made all these promises for a new direction to put the people first….so far they are doing the same things now as they have been doing for 40+ years….reacting not leading….and the new numbers show that the voter sees their impotency.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains underwater. But Democrats are faring worse, according to a new poll from The Wall Street Journal released Saturday.

The new survey, conducted by Democratic pollster John Anzalone and Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, found Democrats’ popularity at its lowest point in three decades of WSJ polling, with 63 percent of voters holding an unfavorable view of the party.

Only 33 percent of voters hold a favorable view of Democrats, with a meager 8 percent holding a “very favorable” opinion, for a net negative favorability of 30 percentage points.

While voters still have significant concerns over the president’s and the Republican Party’s handling of the economy, inflation, tariffs and foreign policy, the majority of respondents nonetheless say they trust Republicans more to handle those issues in Congress.

Despite criticism of the administration’s handling of inflation — disapproval outweighed approval by 11 points in the poll — the Republican Party, by 10 points, is trusted more than Democrats to deal with inflation.

That’s the same case when it comes to thoughts on the president’s drastic tariffs policy.

By 17 points, voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of tariffs, while still trusting Republicans more on the issue to Democrats by 7 points.

Health care and vaccine policy are the only two policy issues in which respondents favor Democrats to Republicans on.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/26/democrats-approval-rating-poll-00478141

The article had one very pointed observation….

“The Democratic brand is so bad that they don’t have the credibility to be a critic of Trump or the Republican Party,” Anzalone told the newspaper. “Until they reconnect with real voters and working people on who they’re for and what their economic message is, they’re going to have problems.”

It is not looking good for Dems come the midterms…..but a lot can happen in a year that could change the direction of the political pendulum…..but please do not hold your breath.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

For The Return

This is a companion piece for my previous post….

We have been told what a wonderful world it will be as soon as Donny’s agenda and tariffs have done their thing…..

But is that true and how long must we wait?

President Donald Trump says his tariffs on imported goods are encouraging companies to invest in the U.S., claiming that will lead to “better-paying American jobs making beautiful American-made cars, appliances, and other goods.”

But critics say it could take years for American workers to develop the 21st-century manufacturing skills that overseas workers have already mastered.

“In the U.S. you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I’m not sure we could fill a room.” Apple CEO Tim Cook says. “In China, you could fill multiple football fields.”

In the meantime, critics warn, consumer products will continue to be manufactured overseas, and Trump’s tariffs will drive prices of those imports higher.

There’s a reason companies moved production offshore in the first place: It’s cheaper thanks to lower labor costs. As a result, American consumers have long benefited from lower prices.

George Carrillo, CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, says garments and furniture made overseas are generally 20% to 50% cheaper than U.S.-made goods. But for some products, like consumer technology items, the differential is even bigger.

Apple, which makes 80% of its products in China, is a good example.

https://moneywise.com/news/economy/priced-out-trumps-plan-to-bring-manufacturing-back-to-the-us-could-cost-consumers-more-for-years-to-come

Just a little something to think about (if that is possible) when it comes to the promise of the return of American manufacturing.

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Good News At Last?

Today is National Crawfish Day…..may not mean much to most but I live in Cajun country and it is a big deal.

After about a 100 days in office Little Donny is not shaping up the way his voters thought.

Food prices are soaring, housing cost are suffocating, health care is under attack and the economy as a w3hole is looking like a pile to steaming manure.

President Donald Trump is reported to have recently gotten his “worst set of polling data” during his “entire second term as president,” CNN data guru Harry Enten said during a live broadcast on Tuesday (April 15) referencing the latest CBS News/YouGov poll.

“I would argue this is the worst set of polling data that Donald Trump has had in his entire second term as president,” Enten said. “In part, because the CBS News/YouGov poll that came out yesterday has been one of his best.”

Enten compared the latest CBS News/YouGov poll to past surveys during Trump’s second of two non-consecutive terms in office. The new poll showed that Trump’s approval rating dipped from 53% in February to 47% in April, while 53% of respondents said the economy ws getting worse, a percentage that has increased from 49% in February and 42% in November.

“The majority of Americans think that the economy is getting worse,” Enten said. “It’s an 11-point jump from November to now, and of course Donald Trump won the 2024 election because he promised to fix the economy and yet views of the economy are going down. The percentage of those who say it’s getting worse are going up.”

Trump’s job performance was reported to have a 41% approval rating and 53% disapproval rating among registered voters in the latest poll released by Quinnipiac on April 9; a 46% approval rating in the latest Morning Consult Pro poll released earlier this week; and a 45% favorable to 52% unfavorable (-7.7 margin) ratio in the latest Economist poll conducted on April 9, all of which are record lows since the beginning of his second of two non-consecutive terms in January. The president was also previously reported to have dropped to a record low 47% approval rating in Rasmussen polls conducted earlier this week before increasing to 48% on April 11.

Trump was also reported to see a drop in support among his own party with 86% of Republicans saying they approved his job performance in the latest Quinnipiac poll. A majority 72% of respondents said they believed Trump’s sweeping international tariffs would hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term and 53% said they would have a long-term negative impact as well, while 22% said they think the tariffs would have a positive effect on the U.S. economy.

(iheart.com)

This, if it continues, does not bode well for the upcoming 2026 elections.

Now can the Dems use this in ways that would help the people of this country or will they throw words at this news that will motivate no one.

Don’t care if you support Donny or not….the country is not happy and hopefully will make these thieves in the White House pay for it in 2026.

If you have a thought or two on the direction of the country then by all means share….but only about the direction and the numbers, please.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is That A Recession On The Horizon?

The prospect of one those damnable recessions may be on the horizon….even Donny concedes that it is a possibility…may be ot started sooner than expected….

he US stock market’s sell-off cut deeper on Monday as Wall Street questioned how much pain President Trump will let the economy endure endure through tariffs and other policies in order to get what he wants.

  • The S&P 500 fell 155.64 points, or 2.7%, to 5,614.56.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 890.01 points, or 2.1%, to 41,911.71.
  • The Nasdaq composite fell 727.90 points, or 4%, to 17,468.32.

It was the worst day yet in a stretch where the S&P 500 has swung more than 1%, up or down, seven time in eight days because of Trump’s on-and-off again tariffs. The worry is that the whipsaw moves will either hurt the economy directly or create enough uncertainty to drive US companies and consumers into an economy-freezing paralysis, the AP reports.

The S&P 500 is down roughly 9% from its all-time high set on Feb. 19. The economy has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism. And a widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the US economy may already be shrinking. Asked over the weekend whether he was expecting a recession in 2025, Trump said: “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.” He then added, “It takes a little time. It takes a little time.”

Incase just in case this was usual (?) burp in the trading…..

President Trump would not rule out the possibility of a recession this year during an interview aired Sunday, saying it “takes a little time” for the economy and Americans to see the benefits of his new tariffs. He discounted the recent stock market losses, contending “you have to do what’s right” whether the markets like it or not, the Washington Post reports. Trump made the comments an interview for Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. He also discounted concerns that businesses need clarity and before making decisions about investments.

Businesses always say they need clarity, Trump said, calling it “almost a sound bite.” He added that US tariffs “may go up. I don’t think we’ll go down.” Asked by host Maria Bartiromo about the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s forecast that US economic output will shrink 2.8% this quarter, after growing for almost three years, Trump did not push back. “I hate to predict things like that,” he said, per the AP. “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America.”

Is there any optimism that it can be avoided?

Wall Street started the new trading week in a foul mood on Monday, with the Dow tumbling about 500 points and the benchmark S&P 500 index down more than 2%. It’s a continuation of last week’s selloff blamed on tariff uncertainty, but Monday’s pain appears to have been worsened over the weekend by President Trump’s comments about a possible recession. In short, he declined to rule out the possibility in 2025, though his own commerce secretary disagreed. Related coverage:

  • Bankers’ pessimism: The Wall Street Journal reports that big banks are growing more worried about a recession. JPMorgan Chase says the chances are now 40%, up from 30% at the year’s start. Goldman Sachs also raised the risk (from 15% to 20%), as did Morgan Stanley, which also revised downward its economic growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026.
  • China’s move: The market’s wobbling comes as China’s retaliatory tariffs on a slew of American farm products took effect on Monday, reports the New York Times. Chicken, wheat, and corn were among the products affected. It’s another escalation of the trade fight between the US and Beijing, with China accusing Trump of disrupting “the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains” through his tariffs.
  • Tesla, other giants: The companies seen as the “Magnificent Seven” on Wall Street were having less-than-magnificent Mondays, notes CNBC. Leading the losses were Tesla (down 8%), Nvidia (5%), Meta (5%), and Alphabet (4%). In fact, the tech-focused Nasdaq index was down more than 3% in early trading. One big fear is that a trade war will drive up prices, making it less likely the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
  • Effect on Musk: Tesla’s decline has hit the fortunes of Elon Musk, whose net worth is down $121 billion from its high of $464 billion in December, according to Forbes. His remaining $343 billion, however, still makes him the world’s richest person.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news…..but you have what all are thinking so please prepare for the worse.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Russia, What Went Wrong?

+++I start my infusion today and I do not know how it will go so this may be my only post for the day….sorry about that+++

In the mid-90s there was a lot of optimism that Russia would join the world with market economy and our wealthy would have new regions to hunt.

But something went wrong and instead we got Putin and his band of thugees.

While I was out there reading I found a declassified document that could answer some of the question being asked.

Once in a great while, a diplomatic memorandum—the outline of a proposed change in policy sent from a foreign service officer to his political masters back in Washington—has momentous impact. The most famous of these is George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” of February 1946, which urged “a long-term patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.”

…

Now a similarly long memo, written nearly 50 years later, in the early days of the post–Cold War era and post-Soviet Russia, raises questions about how the world today might be different if Bill Clinton had heeded it as much as Harry Truman heeded Kennan’s.

The newly discovered memo, written in March 1994 by Wayne Merry, chief of the U.S. Embassy’s internal politics division at the time, didn’t make the same impact as Kennan’s for two reasons. First, Merry did not go public. Second, unlike Kennan’s memo, Merry’s was at odds with U.S. policy and was ignored, then buried, and its author was blackballed, by the policymakers at the time. In fact, it was buried so deeply that it was declassified just last week as the result of a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, a private research firm at George Washington University.

Looking at it today, more than 30 years after the fact, it’s a remarkably prescient document that should prompt several lessons about how to run foreign policy.

Merry’s memo, titled “Whose Russia Is It Anyway: Toward a Policy of Benign Respect,” was written as Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s experiment with democracy and free-market economics was in heightened turmoil. The party of his prime minister, Yegor Gaidar, the architect of his economics policy, had recently lost an election—the result of popular discontent with the policy’s extreme inflation and displacement. Yeltsin mobilized tanks in downtown Moscow to put down an attempted putsch—launched for a variety of motives—in Russia’s Parliament. Yet, to the frustration of specialists in the U.S. Embassy, including Merry, many senior officials back in Washington saw Yeltsin as a still-strong figure and his “shock therapy” economics—which they had been pushing, along with a bevy of academic advisers, many of them from Harvard—as a success.

Merry stressed the urgent need for a course correction:

https://slate.com/_pages/cm51dbke8005qx9l0xtr1litr.html

It reads like ‘greed’ played a part in the rise of the Putin clan….maybe ambition should be tabled in favor of critical thinking….but that is not what big business pays the Congress to do….critically think.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

We All Struggle!

Everyone knows that the average Joe is struggling….rent, food, gas, health prices are sky high and rising as we languish in a bit of self-pity….what about the wealthy? Do they have the same worries and problems as us humans?

If you’ve found it impossible to save money as living costs have surged over the last few years, you’re far from alone. According to a Bank of America Institute analysis, around a quarter of American households live “paycheck to paycheck,” which the institute defines as households “where necessity spending is more than 95% of their household income, leaving them relatively little left over for ‘nice to have’ discretionary spending or saving.”

  • Lower-income households were most likely to live paycheck to paycheck—35% of households with an income below $50,000 fell into the category, up from 32% in 2019. But pressures didn’t disappear with fatter paychecks. Some 20% of households with incomes higher than $150,000 also spend almost all their income on necessities like housing costs and groceries, according to the analysis, which used Bank of America customer data. “One reason is that higher-income households may have bought larger, more expensive, homes and consequently have bigger mortgages,” the institute said. “And often along with bigger homes come bigger insurance costs, property taxes, and utility bills.”
  • “Many of these spending pressures are likely unavoidable, as they relate to family and housing costs,” David Tinsley, a senior economist at the institute, tells CBS MoneyWatch. “The share of households that are living paycheck to paycheck has been rising slightly over the last few years, which is not terribly surprising, because prices have risen for a lot of essential goods—groceries are more expensive, the cost of car insurance is up, and child care is up, too,” Tinsley says.
  • Tinsley notes that living paycheck to paycheck is stressful and it’s a hard situation to get out of. “For most people, they can’t do much about where they live and how much they pay for their home, if they have kids at a school in a particular neighborhood,” he says. “A lot of these costs are sticky, and there isn’t much to do about it.”

Please forgive me if I do not feel too bad for them.

We have an election very soon now….and nothing will change as far as your expenses as a matter of fact the necessities will most likely keep rising.

I just do not see we have the same definition of wealthy.

So if you have Spam tonight know that Bezos is probably having Filet and all is right with the nation.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Price Gouging What Is Missed

Since Biden touched on this subject and now Harris has jumped on it with both feet, much has been written abut the idea….I too have written about it and now I found another side to the subject….this one is from The Moderate Voice…..

One week ago, Vice President Kamala Harris told a North Carolina audience that she planned to propose a federal ban on price gouging for food.

In criticizing Harris, the Washington Post editorial board demonstrated its lack of basic economic theory. Then various news organizations jumped from “price gouging” to “price controls” (a la Nixon). Now Cato Institute economist Scott Lincicome insists farm policy is the culprit behind food price increases.

Thirty-seven states already have laws on the books that prohibit “price gouging” in the lay person’s understanding of that phrase. This type of prohibited price gouging concerns taking advantage of high demand or supply restrictions during an emergency (a hurricane is coming and then it landed).

Another lay definition of price gouging is charging an excessive price “because a corporation has the power to do so, aka Ticketmaster.”

What pundits don’t get about the Harris “price gouging” proposal

A fascinating op-ed….I do not necessarily agree with their assumption but I include it for my readers to have as many sides of the policy as I can locate.

After reading the piece please let me know what you think.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Thing About ‘Price Gouging’

Price gouging is a major thing now the Dem candidate has issued a statement on what she will do to stop the situation….I like the thought but it will be a fart in a hurricane.

First people do not understand the practice of price gouging…..and this article tackles the practice and tries to explain it so we all can grasp what is going on.

Price gouging in the popular imagination has a “know it when you see it” quality, but it is actually a well-developed body of law. A typical price-gouging claim has four elements. First, a triggering event, sometimes called an “abnormal market disruption,” such as a natural disaster or power outage, must have occurred. Second, in most states, the claim must concern essential goods and services. (No one cares if you overcharge for Louis Vuitton handbags during a hurricane.) Third, a price increase must be “excessive” or “unconscionable,” which most states define as exceeding a certain percentage, typically 10 to 25 percent. Finally, the elevated price must be in excess of the seller’s increased cost. This is crucial: Even during emergencies, sellers are allowed to maintain their existing profit margins. They just can’t increase those margins excessively.

…

Price-gouging bans are broadly popular—except among economists. The reason is that, in the perfect world of simple economic models, allowing sellers to charge whatever they want during periods of heightened demand is actually a good thing: It signals to the rest of the market that there’s money to be made on the product in question, which in turn leads to more supply. Accordingly, prohibiting gouging leads to less production of essential goods and services. Plus, letting prices rise helps ensure that the product will be sold to the people who value it the most.

Here, regular people seem to understand a few things that economists don’t. During an emergency, such as a natural disaster, short-term demand cannot be met by short-term supply, setting the stage for sellers to exploit their position by raising prices on goods already in their inventory. The idealized law of supply and demand predicts that new investors would rush in, but the real world doesn’t work like that. A short-term price spike won’t always trigger the long-term investments needed to increase supply, because everyone knows that the situation is, by definition, abnormal; they can’t count on a continued revenue boom. During a rare blizzard, sellers might jack up the prices of snowblowers. But investors aren’t going to set up a new snowblower-manufacturing hub based on a blizzard, because by the time they had any inventory to sell, the snow would long be melted. So after the disruption, all goes back to normal—except with a big wealth transfer from the public to the company that raised prices.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/economists-kamala-harris-price-gouging/679547/

So is Harris pandering?  I think so.

Vice President Kamala Harris called for a federal ban on “price gouging” on groceries. From a strictly economic standpoint, there are so many things wrong with this proposal that I don’t know where to begin.

But the worst of it isn’t in the policy analysis — it’s in what this pandering says about the chances of a serious discussion of difficult issues with the American voter.

Let’s start with the policy analysis. Even without referring to the current situation, there are three well-known problems with a ban on price gouging. First, grocery stores typically have extremely low profit-margins, on the order of 2 percent or less, reflecting their limited pricing power in a competitive industry. So this is not the right sector — if there ever is one — to target with price-controls.

Second, it is very difficult to define price gouging. How do you distinguish it from a rise in prices owing to shortfalls in supply or surges in demand?

Third, any controls on prices will constrain incentives for producers to bring additional goods and services to markets. This is why price-controls usually lead to shortages more injurious than the price increases they are designed to stop.

Harris’s call for price controls on groceries is more pandering than policy

I want to hear specifics….ideas are good but specifics will convince me.

Will this be just another promise that will be swept under the rug of the Oval Office?

You tell me.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”