Economics Thread

No one is crying. Capitalism works best when companies have robust competition. Competition policy in Europe has produced an outcome that is much better than here. Low-cost carriers like Ryanair and easyJet provide customers with choice and serve as restraints on legacy airlines.
 
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nsacpi said:
In airline mergers it is often the routes or slots not the hardware that are the most valuable assets being acquired. And having those routes forecloses the possibility of a new entrant coming in. Our competition policy (or lack thereof) has cost consumers a huge amount of money. To the tune of about $16,000 per year per family. About 10 times the last year's tariffs!

30 years ago we had: American, United, Delta, Northwest, Continental, US Airways, TWA, Southwest, and America West.

Now 4 airlines control 80% of the domestic market.

Airlines make a lot more money now than they did 30 years ago. Each year there is a massive transfer from consumers due to the increase in concentration.

Rinse and repeat over multiple industries and the cost is $16,000 a year for the average family.

I'd much rather our regulators err on the side of saying nyet to these mergers and other forms of anti-competitive behavior than err on the side of waving them through, as we have been for over 30 years now.

Capitalism only works to the extent society is able to set and enforce rules against anti-competitive behavior. Every incumbent has very powerful incentives and often the means to insulate itself against competition. Laissez faire leads to a very inefficient outcome.
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What’s the source for the $16000 figure? I see a CEI report that estimates $16k as the total annual cost of federal regulations on US households, not specific to market concentration. I’m sure there are dozens of regulations contributing to that cost that I’d love to see shredded.

I also looked at real prices for domestic airfare and see declines overlapping that same timespan - 40-50% - so I’m not sure what exactly was the consumer harm. My general antitrust stance would be to have a high bar proving consumer harm. And/or police collusion.

I’d agree that a foolish president deciding the country should maybe take a stake in propping up a failing company is a separate issue, but that’s just the cherry on top. Americans are the clear losers if that’s the final chapter in this story.
 
acesfull86 said:
What’s the source for the $16000 figure? I see a CEI report that estimates $16k as the total annual cost of federal regulations on US households, not specific to market concentration. I’m sure there are dozens of regulations contributing to that cost that I’d love to see shredded.

I also looked at real prices for domestic airfare and see declines overlapping that same timespan - 40-50% - so I’m not sure what exactly was the consumer harm. My general antitrust stance would be to have a high bar proving consumer harm. And/or police collusion.

I’d agree that a foolish president deciding the country should maybe take a stake in propping up a failing company is a separate issue, but that’s just the cherry on top. Americans are the clear losers if that’s the final chapter in this story.
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It is my calculation. The difference between what consumers would have paid if corporate markups (profits) had remained at the average level of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

I recommend Philippon's book on the topic.

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Average Gas Price up to 4.23 a gallon. What happened to gas under 2 dollars? Or my energy bill cut in half in 12 months? I consider heating fuel an energy bill and right now that's 5.26 to 5.51 a gallon, before the Orange idiot was elected, I was paying 3.50-.4 a gallon depending on time.

Keep in mind, eia stops tracking at the end of March (which is retarded we're supposed to get snow showers over night) has the weekly average of March 30th at 5.407 which is the 8th highest week ever, behind a 7 week stretch from October to November of 2022 thanks to Putin's war.
 
thethe said:
Who said GDP was the metric to validate?

Crime down and real wages up. Mid west is booming and construction is on fire.

Start of golden age.

But I suppose you buy BLs defense of Cali with gdp per capita.
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Oh I forgot. Not an approved metric

Latest on real wage growth. It’s a little stale as it doesn’t count all the amazing things that have happened since March

“Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.6 percent from February to March
seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.”
 
chop2chip said:
Oh I forgot. Not an approved metric

Latest on real wage growth. It’s a little stale as it doesn’t count all the amazing things that have happened since March

“Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.6 percent from February to March
seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.”
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That’s ok - temp shock on oil prices. I’ll be waiting co your feedback when that unwinds
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...katie-wilson-waves-goodbye-business-tax-base/

Nine days after winning Seattle’s November mayoral election, Katie Wilson joined Starbucks baristas on a picket line and pledged to boycott the coffee conglomerate until their union got its way. The socialist will need to wait a while longer for her caffeine fix.

In March, after Wilson took office, the chain said it would close five additional stores in Seattle, including four that had unionized. Starbucks said they were selected because of poor financial performance and bad customer experiences.

Then, last week, Starbucks announced it will establish a new corporate hub in Nashville, investing $100 million and bringing up to 2,000 jobs.

The 43-year-old Wilson, who received a $10,000 allowance from her parents last year, is defiant about the consequences of her antagonism toward successful people who create value for society.

Speaking recently at a Seattle University event, the mayor brushed off claims that taxpayers respond poorly to higher taxes. “I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are, like, super overblown,” Wilson said. “And if — the ones that leave, like, bye.”

————

Bye!
 
Wilson is a bad mayor.

But it is also worth noting that Washington state has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country (up there with Florida) and that the recently enacted tax on incomes above $1 million is a relatively small step toward making it less regressive.
 
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