Tag: economy

Donald Trump and Oren Cass Promised Tariffs Would Bring Prosperity. Both Are Now Confronting Reality.

Posted on by Lone Candle

“”I think a global tariff is the right way to do things,” Cass said. “It’s a very simple, broad policy that conveys a value that we see in domestic production.”

That is, more or less, the view that the White House adopted during the first year of Trump’s second term: Making stuff in America matters, and the best way to encourage more production in America is to make it more expensive to import anything made somewhere.

Of course, there are two major flaws with that logic. First, there are things that can’t be made in America—or can’t be made here in sufficient quantities to satisfy Americans’ demand. Coffee, chocolate, bananas, and many other agricultural products, for example.

Second, making things in America often requires importing raw materials or intermediate goods. More than 50 percent of all American imports are unfinished goods that are used to make other things, from cars to houses to industrial pumping equipment and chocolate bars. If all those materials are suddenly more expensive, it becomes harder, not easier, to manufacture more things here.”

https://reason.com/2025/10/21/donald-trump-and-oren-cass-promised-tariffs-would-bring-prosperity-both-are-now-confronting-reality/

Live Nation’s Merger with Ticketmaster Isn’t Responsible for High Resale Prices—You Are

Posted on by Lone Candle

“the company’s market share decreased by 10 percentage points following its merger in 2014, sitting at around 70 percent in 2024. Live Nation’s FY 24 net profit margin of 2.8 percent—considerably lower than the total U.S. market’s net margin of 8.7 percent—suggests that the firm lacks pricing power. Moreover, the profits Live Nation makes have little to do with the secondary ticket market: “Revenue from fees on concert ticket resale is less than 2% of Live Nation’s revenue,” the company said in a reply to Blackburn and Luján on Friday.

…

so long as artists set prices below the market rate, brokers will find a way to get tickets to those who value them the most, with or without Ticketmaster.”

https://reason.com/2025/10/22/live-nations-merger-with-ticketmaster-isnt-responsible-for-high-resale-prices-you-are/

Milei’s Moment of Truth

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Under Milei, inflation has dropped massively. The poverty rate has gone down. Public spending has plummeted, and budget surpluses have appeared. Housing supply in Buenos Aires has totally turned around following the repeal of rent control laws.

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But “the policy of managing the currency has become a trap,” adds The Economist. “Even after he partially floated the peso in April alongside an IMF [International Monetary Fund] bailout, he has sought to maintain its level artificially high. Defending the exchange rate has cost Argentina billions of dollars in scarce foreign-currency reserves and has pushed interest rates sky-high, creating a drag on growth. Jobs, rather than inflation, are what now worry voters the most.”

Milei had to get a credit swap from the U.S., to the tune of $20 billion (which he must pay back, though the terms of the deal have not been made clear to the public). He secured a similarly massive IMF bailout back in April. He keeps needing emergency credit lines to keep the peso strong, but it’s not clear that this policy is totally working. It makes sense why he would pursue it in the first place: Prices have historically spiraled out of control, and the central bank is not trusted by the people. In order for some of Milei’s less-popular social safety net cuts to be palatable, the people needed to feel like there was some legitimate stability and predictability in their monetary system, lest they revert to favoring Peronism.

…

“Under the exchange rate system that Milei implemented earlier this year, the peso floats freely within a band,” writes Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quirós for the Cato Institute. “When a government tries to maintain a fixed but adjustable exchange rate, it creates perverse incentives. If markets perceive that the currency is overvalued, expectations of devaluation are created, prompting speculators and citizens themselves to take their capital out of the country to avoid losses. To defend the exchange rate, the central bank must use its international reserves, but these are finite.” Reserves are limited; speculators can easily take advantage.”

https://reason.com/2025/10/23/mileis-moment-of-truth/

Trump Nervous As China Strikes Back | Jostein Hauge | TMR

Posted on by Lone Candle

One reason the U.S. is behind China in rare earth metals is that China can tell companies what to do for the good of the country, while Congress and presidents have allowed companies to chase short-term profits at the expense of the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNrMWJiJ3sc

California’s Fast Food Minimum Wage Hike Cost the State 18,000 Jobs. That Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone.

Posted on by Lone Candle

“In 2023, California passed a law requiring a $20 per hour minimum wage for all fast-food restaurants with more than 60 locations nationwide.

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New research suggests that the mandate has also resulted in fewer jobs for struggling entry-level workers.

The law went into effect in April 2024 and increased the hourly pay of an estimated half a million workers across the state. But without the law in place, thousands more workers would likely have been employed.”

https://reason.com/2025/10/11/californias-minimum-wage-law-cost-18000-jobs/?nab=1

Republican Socialism: The Trump Administration Buys a Stake in Yet Another Company

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Not even shutting down the government can stop Republicans from forcing their way into corporate boardrooms these days.
The federal government is, at the moment, incapable of completing its most basic and routine task—passing a budget—and yet it is simultaneously expanding its portfolio to include a 10 percent ownership stake in an Alaskan mining company.”

https://reason.com/2025/10/07/republican-socialism-the-trump-administration-buys-a-stake-in-yet-another-company/?nab=1