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14 votes
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Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market
31 votes -
The GDP gap between Europe and the United States is now 80%
37 votes -
We do not know the population of every country in the world for the past two thousand years
9 votes -
How were modern companies allowed to get so big in spite of antitrust laws? The mythology of horizontal merger efficiencies
20 votes -
The unmaking of India: How the British impoverished the world’s richest country
21 votes -
Novo Nordisk, the Danish company behind two popular obesity medications, is reaping huge profits and is now responsible for most of the country's economic growth
6 votes -
North American bison slaughter left lasting impact on Indigenous peoples
31 votes -
Rice prices soar, fanning fears of food inflation spike in Asia
17 votes -
How Japan's maglev train works
13 votes -
BRICS leaders to meet and discuss expansion
12 votes -
China's property crisis deepens with developer Country Garden at risk of default
13 votes -
Towards a New Socialism
41 votes -
America's obsession with weight-loss drugs is affecting the economy of Denmark – Novo Nordisk's market capitalization has matched the GDP of its home country
17 votes -
Analysis - Financial Times article - Lex in depth: how investors are underpricing climate risks
10 votes -
How universal basic income became the pessimist’s utopia
46 votes -
What a green monetary policy could look like
8 votes -
US President Joe Biden's IRA shuts Africa out of critical minerals supply chains
6 votes -
Fitch downgrades US credit rating from AAA to AA+
65 votes -
What US recession? It's a summer of splurging, profits and girl power
19 votes -
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system using local currencies
10 votes -
Portugal’s bid to attract foreign money backfires as rental market goes ‘crazy’
45 votes -
How to ensure you won’t have public transportation
27 votes -
US GDP grew at a 2.4% pace in the second quarter, topping expectations despite recession calls
31 votes -
Every generator is a policy failure
21 votes -
Autoenshittification: How the computer killed capitalism
83 votes -
Confession: I like shrinkflation
I’ve been noticing food shrinkflation a lot here in Belgium lately. Smaller soda cans, biscuit packet counts going down, 125g becoming 115g etc. And honestly, to choose between the same size...
I’ve been noticing food shrinkflation a lot here in Belgium lately. Smaller soda cans, biscuit packet counts going down, 125g becoming 115g etc.
And honestly, to choose between the same size package getting more expensive vs less of it… I’ll take the latter. It’s reducing consumption. Which is great as a whole, but also selfishly if I’m buying a pack of crisps and I get to eat less of it … great.
Not so great on essentials obviously but those aren’t really hit by shrinkflation as much as snacks, etc.
Okay, that’s it. I do want to stress that I don’t like paying more for the same shit, but on a practical level, if I do, I much rather get less for the same price than have to spend more and be stuck getting the same quantity.
Especially if it’s junk food… I’ve even found myself disliking the old soda can sizes when I come across them. Having gotten used to the new ones, the old ones are straight up too much.
43 votes -
US auto loan rejections hit record high as consumer credit standards tighten
29 votes -
America's love of sanctions will be its downfall
12 votes -
If futures contracts/exchanges were outlawed, would anything of value be lost in the global economy?
Like other derivatives, futures seem like they are basically gambling for the wealthy more than real investment. What am I missing?
22 votes -
One in five single adults in Canada live in poverty
49 votes -
How an era of extreme heat is reshaping economies
11 votes -
Philadelphia I-95 bridge collapse explained
11 votes -
Pay raises in the US are finally beating inflation after two years of falling behind
13 votes -
Why does market fundamentalism have so much clout in economics?
There's a couple of other words that describe what I'm talking about - neoliberalism, lassez-faire capitalism, and in a more general sense, the Chicago school of economics - but I chose market...
There's a couple of other words that describe what I'm talking about - neoliberalism, lassez-faire capitalism, and in a more general sense, the Chicago school of economics - but I chose market fundamentalism because it seemed to best describe precisely what I'm talking about. I mean the belief that the market is capable of self-regulation and that governmental intervention will cause damage to the economy.
I'm asking this because there's still a lot about economics that I don't know about and so I was hoping someone with a background in the subject who would be able to better answer the question. But I realize it's probably also a political question. I wonder if it's more of an issue of our politicians pressing these views than economists and academics.
Personally, with my life's experience, it seems almost obviously wrong. I've lived through several market downturns and even a crash, and looking through history it seems like every market crash can be attributed to the market failing to correct itself.
21 votes -
US June CPI comes in at 0.2% MoM and 3% YoY, below the 3.1% forecast
30 votes -
Mathew Lawrence on why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain
11 votes -
Centre for Economic Policy Research - The impact of Brexit on the UK economy - reviewing evidence
10 votes -
The manufacturing backlash: No factory in my backyard
15 votes -
Tech debt metaphor maximalism
12 votes -
How inflation ruined the Roman economy
13 votes -
Report - The increasing return of legal child labor to the US economy
Child labor is making a comeback with a vengeance. A striking number of lawmakers are undertaking concerted efforts to weaken or repeal statutes that have long prevented (or at least seriously...
Child labor is making a comeback with a vengeance. A striking number of lawmakers are undertaking concerted efforts to weaken or repeal statutes that have long prevented (or at least seriously inhibited) the possibility of exploiting children.
Take a breath and consider this: the number of kids at work in the U.S. increased by 37% between 2015 and 2022. During the last two years, 14 states have either introduced or enacted legislation rolling back regulations that governed the number of hours children can be employed, lowered the restrictions on dangerous work, and legalized subminimum wages for youths.
Iowa now allows those as young as 14 to work in industrial laundries. At age 16, they can take jobs in roofing, construction, excavation, and demolition and can operate power-driven machinery. Fourteen-year-olds can now even work night shifts and once they hit 15 can join assembly lines. All of this was, of course, prohibited not so long ago.
Legislators offer fatuous justifications for such incursions into long-settled practice. Working, they tell us, will get kids off their computers or video games or away from the TV. Or it will strip the government of the power to dictate what children can and can’t do, leaving parents in control — a claim already transformed into fantasy by efforts to strip away protective legislation and permit 14-year-old kids to work without formal parental permission.
In 2014, the Cato Institute, a right-wing think tank, published “A Case Against Child Labor Prohibitions,” arguing that such laws stifled opportunity for poor — and especially Black — children. The Foundation for Government Accountability, a think tank funded by a range of wealthy conservative donors including the DeVos family, has spearheaded efforts to weaken child-labor laws, and Americans for Prosperity, the billionaire Koch brothers’ foundation, has joined in.
Here is a Robert Frost poem related to the subject of the article. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53087/out-out
I'm GenX and I worked as a teen, but my earliest jobs were babysitting, not industrial labor.
54 votes -
How are y'all dealing with inflation?
Everywhere I turn everything is more expensive. I'm spending less and less every month on non-necessities, buying more basic foods, never eating out, spending less on entertainment, etc but...
Everywhere I turn everything is more expensive.
I'm spending less and less every month on non-necessities, buying more basic foods, never eating out, spending less on entertainment, etc but everything else just keeps going up and up.
Electricity just went up 12%, my gas bill is up 20%, rent has gone up 10% year after year, water is somehow 30% more expensive than it used to be, my groceries are more expensive than ever even though I'm buying in bulk and not buying anything fancy, I've stopped eating luxuries I used to enjoy like steak and fancy cheese because they've just gotten outrageous.
I have a good job that pays decently but my raises have been less than 3% a year and I feel like I'm getting squeezed out of everything I once had. There's no light at the end of the tunnel is there?
101 votes -
Does the "inflation due to wage growth" narrative hold water?
I've started to notice this narrative in my news feeds. The argument is high wage growth is contributing to stubborn inflation. So cooling wage growth is seen as positive. It'll help central banks...
I've started to notice this narrative in my news feeds. The argument is high wage growth is contributing to stubborn inflation. So cooling wage growth is seen as positive. It'll help central banks pause the hike cycle sooner.
My knee jerk reaction is if wage growth is contributing to inflation it's minuscule; just enough to print the headline. I can't help but feel this narrative is a way to distract from the earlier price gouging narrative and to help employers scapegoat out of raises.
But I'll admit, I haven't looked into this topic deeply. So I'm happy to be schooled.
52 votes -
Gini global inequality at lowest level in nearly 150 years
13 votes -
Real wage growth in the USA at the individual level in 2022
15 votes -
Shifting sands: US inflation’s changing dynamics
17 votes -
How much have record corporate profits contributed to recent US inflation?
41 votes -
The Fed thinks catastrophe is coming for US businesses
15 votes -
Gen Zers are turning to ‘radical rest,’ delusional thinking, and self-indulgence as they struggle to cope with late-stage capitalism
74 votes