the inflation era: winners and losers
real income growth, widely distributed, of about 2 to 3 percent a year. Maybe that sounds good to you, but if you’ve read this far, you know I think it is currently impossible. We don’t have the low-hanging fruit to make such a scenario real.
Tyler Cowen • The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better: A Penguin eSpecial from Dutton
Today’s economic constraints may be enforcing a degree of sobriety, but even before the pandemic, the easy money was clearly concealing a stagnation. This is the thesis of the Umami essay: that material progress had plateaued, leaving us to manipulate symbols and create the mere illusion of value (this is also what David Graeber argues in his “we w
... See moreDrew Austin • The Culture of Cope
Restaurant spending has fallen by about 60 percent across the country, with the sharpest declines in fine-dining, lunch, and late-night food. The situation is especially bad for independent restaurants.
The Atlantic • The Pandemic Will Change American Retail Forever
Inflation also suppresses an important function of prices, namely their ability to signal the scarcity of goods. For consumers, price perception s become distorted and confusing.