46
votes
Accepted
Why is healthcare so expensive in the USA?
There are several reasons for that, following Papanicolas et al (2018):
High regulatory and administrative burden. US has one of the highest regulatory and administrative burdens. US healthcare ...
- 57.7k
33
votes
Why is healthcare so expensive in the USA?
In Milton Friedman's view, the cost of health care in the USA is high because consumers don't pay for it directly, and the people paying don't directly care whether it's a good value for the money ...
- 539
32
votes
Did real incomes drop significantly since the 1950s?
Most of the US real earnings data which go only as far as mid 60s. According to the statista data presented in this article by world economic forum the evolution of real hourly earnings in the US for ...
- 57.7k
22
votes
Did real incomes drop significantly since the 1950s?
Average standard of living is massively higher today compared to the 1950s, primarly due to technological progress.
Even a cheap low end car today is much better than the big cars of the 1950s, it is ...
- 922
21
votes
Car prices haven't changed in 20 years, no inflation?
Inflation is measured against a basket of goods. It's a symptom of what's going on in markets. Some products go up in price over time. Some go down in time. Some stay the same price, but change their ...
- 8,168
15
votes
Did real incomes drop significantly since the 1950s?
The book “The Two Income Trap” (2003) by Elizabeth Warren (recent Democratic presidential candidate) and Amelia Warren Tyagi discussed this. They looked at spending breakdowns in the 1970s and when ...
- 9,907
14
votes
Car prices haven't changed in 20 years, no inflation?
You also didn't look at car prices in general but rather just the Toyota Camry. For example a 2001 BMW M3 was ~\$46,000 while a 2018 BMW M3 is ~\$66,000.
Most cars have increased in price over the ...
- 249
14
votes
Why is healthcare so expensive in the USA?
It may not explain the entire difference, but GDP isn't a very good way to compare the amount of income that residents of different countries might spend on healthcare for a number of reasons. Usually ...
- 251
8
votes
Car prices haven't changed in 20 years, no inflation?
Specifically treating car prices, well, the prices are determined globally and not necessarily in dollars
In the last 20 years:
Car manufacturers move factories across borders to save costs, China ...
- 667
6
votes
Accepted
A large spike in home ownership in the U.S. in 2020: why?
Warning up front - I am neither an expert in housing, nor in census data whatsoever.
It's an interesting question though. My conclusion is that it is almost entirely a result of changes in data ...
- 4,121
5
votes
The United States' position on the Laffer Curve
Question B in the link answers your question: most participants believe that taxable income would not rise enough to offset the tax cut, indicating that they do not believe we are on the wrong side of ...
- 6,384
5
votes
How leveraged are banks in the United States?
I'm trying to figure out how leveraged banks currently are.
The leverage in the banking sector actually decreased. It is true that the reserve requirement were suspended, but at the same time Basel ...
- 57.7k
4
votes
The Fed pays 1.50% interest on reserves; so why are interest rates so low?
There are several issues here:
There are banks offering close to $1.5\%$, some well-known such as Goldman Sachs and American Express
Most banks currently have excess reserves deposited in the ...
- 4,765
4
votes
Accepted
What accounts for the high GDP of the United States?
Looking at gross output (which includes using the outputs of other industries) and value-added (largely wages and profits) by industry you get numbers like this for 2017 in USD trillion.
Adding up ...
- 4,765
4
votes
Accepted
What is the purpose of taxes if central banks can fund deficit spending?
Because Fed or any central bank cannot fund 100% of a budget without any adverse effect. I do not know where you heard such argument but it is blatantly false.
First, it is virtually unanimously ...
- 57.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Why West Virginia is one of the least-vaccinated states in the country due to cash giveaway announcement?
I am not sure why West Virginia is the least vaccinated state* in the US but
If vaccination is progressing poorly in your state the government is more likely to try and encourage it by all sorts of ...
- 29.6k
4
votes
Did Biden's stimulus packages cause inflation in the US?
First of all there is no evidence inflation would be currently spiralling in the U.S. right now. Spiraling inflation occurs where price inflation feeds wage inflation and wage inflation feeds price ...
- 57.7k
4
votes
Accepted
In US, was there an instance in the history when two consecutive quarters of GDP decline wasn't classified as recession?
Yes, there was such an instance in 1947 (q2 and q3) where official GDP registered a decline,
but the NBER US Business Cycle Expansion and Contractions data does not define it as a recession.
Apart ...
- 4,121
3
votes
How does one asses the impact of a proposed policy?
Being an economist, I'd say that carrying out a quantitative forecast ("the policy will create/cost x jobs") would require setting up a model, feeding appropriate data and applying appropriate ...
- 1,325
3
votes
Accepted
Today's value of the Louisiana Purchase?
The video has a transcript with the references. The \$0.25B figure is obtained from here (after adjusting for inflation). Unfortunately, the author does not provide a source for the \$1.2B figure.
...
- 8,611
3
votes
Why are Massachusetts electricity costs so high?
To answer this I have to make some guesses because this is not an area of research for me, but having a spouse from there and having spent time there, I think I could make a somewhat educated guess. ...
- 2,006
3
votes
Why would China and Russia selling the US' debt ruin the economy?
The fear is that higher interest rates would damage the economy. The problem with that worry is that the Federal Reserve could buy bonds itself, to cancel out the foreign selling.
The hidden ...
- 9,907
3
votes
Accepted
GDP Growth QoQ vs YoY: Why do the figures not match?
Because those data are Seasonally adjusted annual rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonally_adjusted_annual_rate
- 146
3
votes
Are there any surveys of economists on the determinants of healthcare price increases in the US, particularly over several decades?
This was actually already indirectly answered by the IGM forum.
In this question the forum asks economists the following:
The US spends roughly 17% of GDP on healthcare, according to the OECD; most ...
- 57.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Why there was inflation before Nixon shock in august 1971 in the US?
Exactly this was addressed by D. Andolfatto in this St Louis Fed Explainer:
The phrase “create money out of thin air” refers to the Fed’s ability to create money at virtually zero resource cost. It ...
- 57.7k
3
votes
How can employment be up but production is down?
Unemployment is the wrong measure to look at. At least in the US, a lot of people have left the labor force altogether. As a result, the unemployment rate is very low as most people who are willing to ...
- 549
3
votes
Why is the Chinese stock market weak while its economy is strong?
Well for one, the stock market doesn't inherently represent the real economy, while they do of course tend to be correlated, it is entirely possible (though usually somewhat unlikely) to have a ...
- 149
2
votes
Why would China and Russia selling the US' debt ruin the economy?
It wouldn't "ruin the US economy". The US (the country as a whole, not the government) bought goods and services from rest of the world by selling them IOUs. So far, the world has been content to let ...
- 691
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