Skip to content
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

  • Home
  • Books
  • Videos
  • Bio
  • Archives
  • Links
  • Me-Mail
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

The Prices Are Just Too Damned High — And Here’s Why

November 19, 2019November 18, 2019

But first:

LOW WAGES

Wages as a percentage of GDP have stagnated while profits have doubled — with a huge portion of the extra half going for stock buybacks mainly to enrich the very few.  Worth 90 seconds to watch billionaire Nick Hanauer lay it out.

(Later in the Q&A he says: “We think of the Fox Channel as rich people persuading middle class people to blame poor people.  That’s sort of their business model.”)


And now:

HIGH PRICES

I don’t like the way Elizabeth Warren demonizes rich people and corporations . . . as I wrote last month . . . but she was a Republican for half her life and believes in free markets (sensibly regulated) and vigorous competition.

A new book, reviewed by David Leonhardt in the indispensable New York Times, argues that the prices we pay are too high:


. . . The irony is that Europe is implementing market-based ideas — like telecommunications deregulation and low-cost airlines — that Americans helped pioneer. “E.U. consumers are better off than American consumers today,” Philippon writes, “because the E.U. has adopted the U.S. playbook, which the U.S. itself has abandoned.”

The European Union has created an impressively independent competition agency that’s willing to block mergers, like General Electric-Honeywell and Siemens-Alstom. In the United States, the process is more political, and companies spend vastly more money on campaign donations and lobbying. Lobbyists — and, by extension, regulators — justify mergers with dubious theories about money-saving efficiencies. Somehow, though, the efficiencies usually end up raising profits rather than lowering prices. . . .

. . . Philippon estimates that the new era of oligopoly costs the typical American household more than $5,000 a year.


The book: The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets.  Leonhardt’s review is worth reading in full.

 

 

Post navigation

← Mugged by a 90-Year-Old?
The Corporate Tax Rates Are Too Damn Low →

Quote of the Day

"First they ignore you; then they laugh at you; then they fight you; then . . . you win."

Mahatma Gandhi

Subscribe

 Advice

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

"So full of tips and angles that only a booby or a billionaire could not benefit." -- The New York Times

Help

MYM Emergency?

Too Much Junk?

Tax Questions?

Ask Less

Recent Posts

  • Anyone? Anyone?

    July 11, 2025
  • "PAPERS PLEASE" -- Trump's Very Own Gigantic Police Force

    July 9, 2025
  • 5 Links And A Joke Walk Into A Bar

    July 8, 2025
  • There WAS No Cherry Tree

    July 7, 2025
  • "The Most Popular Bill Ever Signed In The History Of Our Country"

    July 6, 2025
  • Unbelievably Bad -- Literally

    July 4, 2025
  • Repeal The Steal

    July 2, 2025
  • Our Record-High Stock Market

    June 30, 2025
  • Stuffing The Goose

    June 30, 2025
  • Yes! (Plus A Bonus)

    June 29, 2025
Andrew Tobias Books
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
©2025 Andrew Tobias - All Rights Reserved | Website: Whirled Pixels | Author Photo: Tony Adams