Post Tagged 'prices'

December 16, 2021

Inflation is real and we’re experiencing the costs and consequences

Generally, the topic of inflation is considered dry and uninteresting, but it is one that has garnered much attention and debate over the past year. There are competing narratives as to what inflation is and why it matters, and even whether the U.S. Continue Reading...

July 14, 2021

Julian Simon was right: More humans equals more abundance

In 1968, biologist Paul Ehrlich published “The Population Bomb,” a best-selling panic manifesto that predicted mass starvation and global catastrophe due to overpopulation. “The battle to feed all of humanity is over,” Ehrlich proclaimed. Continue Reading...

August 18, 2020

The futility of artificial intelligence economics

Salesforce, an American cloud-based software company, earlier this year announced an initiative to develop an artificial intelligence economist. Stephan Zheng, the lead research scientist at Salesforce Research, describes the moonshot goal of this project as to “build a reinforcement learning framework that will recommend economic policies that drive social outcomes in the real world, such as improving sustainability, productivity, and equality.” Continue Reading...

February 12, 2019

‘Pay what you can afford’ runs Panera out of bread

Panera has announced that it will close the last of its charitable stores, which allowed people to pay whatever they wished for a meal, because it was costing too much dough. Continue Reading...

January 24, 2018

Study: How minimum wage increases hurt consumers and the poor

In surveying the damage caused by arbitrary increases to the minimum wage, our attention is typically drawn to stunted job growth among low-skilled workers or tragic tales of shuttered businesses. But are there other deleterious effects beyond those felt in business and the labor market? Continue Reading...

June 30, 2017

Minimum wage, minimum liberty

Taking their cue from Seattle, cities and states are implementing minimum wage increases all over the country. Late last year, voters in Washington approved an increase in the statewide minimum wage that will raise it to $13.50 per hour by 2020. Continue Reading...

December 28, 2016

5 victims of the $15 minimum wage

As protests for a $15-per-hour minimum wage continue to rage across the country, cities like Seattle and states like California and New York have already begun to adopt such schemes. Continue Reading...

January 15, 2014

The Seen and Unseen Effects of the Minimum Wage

Given the recent and wide-ranging discussion here on the PowerBlog surrounding the the minimum wage (Hunter Baker, Joe Carter, Jordan Ballor, Elise Hilton, yours truly), this short little video offers a nice overview of the seen and unseen effects of such an instrument. Continue Reading...

March 20, 2012

How Using Party Balloons Today Could Affect Healthcare Costs Tomorrow

Because you had party balloons at your 7-year-old’s birthday party, you many not be able to get a MRI scan by the time your 70. At least that is the conclusion of some scientists who say the world supply of helium, which is essential in research and medicine, is being squandered because we are using the gas for party balloons: Continue Reading...

December 27, 2006

2006 in Review, 2nd Quarter

Our series on the year in review continues with the second quarter: April “Surprise! Evangelical Politics Isn’t Univocal,” Jordan J. Ballor So from issues like immigration to global warming, the press is eager to find the fault lines of evangelical politics. Continue Reading...

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