Consumer prices in March were up 3.3% from a year ago, the biggest annual increase in nearly two years. Higher gasoline prices tied to the war with Iran accounted for much of the surge. n.pr/4dFvkRe
This is not good.
Quick reax to SCOTUS ruling Trump's tariffs illegal.
It's hard to believe that you could be the trade representative for a major power and not know that tariffs are regressive.
My econ 101 students know what the word regressive means, and that tariffs are regressive. Many could even cite studies on the subject.
Great explanation for Gen Ed econ students! I'll use this in my classes. Thank you!
93% of economists polled by IGM markets earlier this year agreed that "Giving the President more direct influence over monetary policy would lead to substantially worse monetary policy decisions", half of the people who disagreed were people who actually agreed but just pressed the wrong button
Since a perfect price discriminating monopoly charges all prices along the demand curve (until the MR=MC quantity), this giant triangle is the producer surplus. Note: I drew a linear MC to make it easier, and I expect they would do that if this was on the AP exam. I hope that helps!
Producer surplus is the difference between the price of each unit and the MC of producing that unit. That's why we get that giant triangle. No consumer surplus when a monopoly perfectly price discriminates.
Who’s eating the tariffs? You, mostly.
@cnbc.com
www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/t...
Trump's CEA is circulating its estimate of the economic cost of the government shutdown.
But, BREAKING: It's wrong. It makes a simple arithmetic error. And it's dishonest.
Surprising, I know. 🧵
Hey, so I'm doing this thing next week, and it's a pilot for what I'm hoping will be a regular thing, and I'm really excited about it, and I do hope you'll join us.
Signup here: myumi.ch/G2dZ7
Think of an economy as like baking a cake. H1-B visas exist so that if you're out of a specific ingredient, you can Instacart it and keep baking. Add a $100k delivery charge and you'll choose to:
1. Quit baking; or
2. Use an inferior recipe; or
3. Import cake instead of making it
Fed statement makes it official: Stagflation is in the room.
"Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has edged up... Inflation has moved up and remains somewhat elevated. "
The labor market continues to soften, according to the latest #JobsReport out this morning from the BLS. Payroll employment grew only 22,000 in August and revisions now show employment losses for June (-13,000). Over the last three months, job growth has slowed to just 29,000 on average.
#EconSky
mood
So excited I got to meet @justinwolfers.bsky.social at the AP reading last night after he gave a very interesting presentation on the economics of AI. He was extremely generous with his time and stayed late to answer questions. Thank you Dr. Wolfers!
Lemme explain what bilateral trade deficits are, so that you can better understand -- and perhaps be infuriated by -- the intellectual error that's transforming our economy. #TeachEcon
Good news: April CPI came out slightly better than expected.
Overall CPI rose 0.2% last month, and is up 2.3% over the year.
Core CPI also rose 0.2%, but is up 2.8% over the year.
So far, inflation remains on a reasonable trajectory, although we know there are shocks in store.
a timeline of Trump's 2nd-term tariffs, which go from roughly 2.5% to 13% by march, fall back to 7%, rise to 10%, rise to 15%, rise to 28%, sink to 25%, rise to 26%, then fall to 16%
The 90-day pause on China tariffs is the largest reduction in tariffs since Trump took office, by far, but it still leaves tariffs significantly higher than they were on April 2nd and eight times as high as before he took office
Day one of Econ 101: Opportunity cost matters.
Alcatraz brings in $60M/year from tourism.
Trump wants to shut it down to house 300 inmates—that’s a hidden cost of $200K per prisoner.
That’s not tough on crime; it's failing the midterm. #TeachEcon
It's bad.
Here are my best guess answers for this year's AP micro FRQs. Good luck to your students on Macro! 😄
Set 1: youtu.be/OvJEPCXj5xo
Set 2: youtu.be/kn2DLa5_0Tc
Phew.
Payrolls grew a relatively uninteresting (and positive!) +177k in April, and unemployment was unchanged at 4.2%.
This economy is still humming along.
NOTE: This is a reading largely from the pre-tariff period. Still very foggy about what lies ahead.
It just started because the parcel exemption for tariffs that allowed Temu to sidestep them ends 5/2.
It's real, I canceled an order from TEMU yesterday when I saw the >100% import charge.
And good luck to your students on this year's exam!
Yes, the point of that question is that if an item has a positive price, that indicates the product is scarce (because the resources used to make it are also scarce). Essentially, items that are plentiful at a positive price, will still see a shortage at a price of $0. I hope that helps!
Hop-portunity costs, tariffs, and bunny suit economics.
Interesting example regarding the downside of tariffs. If you've got Mr. Beast fans in your class, you might get extra buy in.
finance.yahoo.com/news/ironica...
Economics might seem -- from the outside -- like it's about competition. But really it's about creating the miracle of cooperation, where folks from all around the world enrich your day in a million tiny ways. It's that beauty that I'm worried about losing.
