Brian Albrecht

Thanks. We go into the distinction with Glaeser Luttmer a bit more in the paper. The closest analog is probably Murphy Shleifer Vishny

Price controls cause chaos Price controls are worse than you think

I'm super excited for my new paper with Alex Tabarrok
and Mark Whitmeyer.

tl;dr: price controls cause chaos. That chaos causes misallocation. We develop new tools to measure that misallocation, which is 1-9 the size of the Harberger triangle www.economicforces.xyz/p/price-cont...

Forthcoming IJIO article by @briancalbrecht.bsky.social & Ryan A. Decker

📖Markups and Business Dynamism across Industries

doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...

@sciencedirect.bsky.social

The invisible hand screws up your regression Markets, diff-in-diff, and "The Missing Intercept" problem

"The China Shock destroyed millions of American manufacturing jobs."

At least that's a claim.

But prices connect everyone. When you shock one part of the market, the "control" group moves.

Today we have 3,000 words on "The Missing Intercept" problem. www.economicforces.xyz/p/the-invisi...

Instacart's price discrimination isn't price discrimination On the meaning of price discrimination

So Instacart showed different people different prices for eggs. Shocking?

Before the outrage, ignore the Twitter press release. Look at what they actually found.

Understand the facts and the economic theory to make sense of it

www.economicforces.xyz/p/instacarts...

Trump’s Attacks on Institutions Threaten a Bulwark of Economic Strength

The U.S. has enjoyed a decades-long economic advantage thanks to its reputation as the safest place in the world for investors to put their money and for entrepreneurs to build their businesses.

President Trump may be chipping away at that advantage.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/b... #EconSky

Markets must become competitive Only through a process do markets become competitive

Markets must become competitive. The market is a process.

This is the core (pun very much intended) idea underlying the shortcut of supply and demand. www.economicforces.xyz/p/markets-mu...

Fed’s Cook Says She Won’t Be Bullied Into Stepping Down Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook signaled her intention to remain at the central bank in defiance of calls for her resignation by President Donald Trump over allegations of mortgage fraud.

“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said. www.bloomberg.com/news/article... Amen.

When I think, “what countries policies should we emulate?” I definitely think The Bahamas and Sudan www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/defaul...

Thanks :)

Opinion | You Can’t Break the Laws of Economics Supply and demand invariably overcome any effort to defy or outsmart them.

“Let me make what appears to have become a radical argument: Simple economics is surprisingly good at making real-world predictions.”

trying to break the mold with a defense of economics
www.wsj.com/opinion/you-...

I love this article by @briancalbrecht.bsky.social in the Wall Street Journal (and not just because I am graciously mentioned by name). He provides a simple but powerful defense of Economics, of the supply and demand framework.

www.axios.com/newsletters/...

Very nice blog entry by @BrianCAlbrecht
Why do economists have "tariff derangement syndrome"? It's not politics—tariffs violate every principle of good taxation we've learned over the past century.
1/8

And in the meantime, actually add tariffs on Canada, the EU, and a bunch of other allies

Thanks :)

6 reasons why tariffs are a terrible way to raise revenue Some principles of taxation

@briancalbrecht.bsky.social strikes again with a brilliant newsletter on why tariffs are a terrible idea. Put in very simple terms. Read it!

👉🏽 www.economicforces.xyz/p/6-reasons-...

I've been trying it out a bit

6 reasons why tariffs are a terrible way to raise revenue Some principles of taxation

Why do economists hate tariffs more than other taxes?

Today's newsletter is 6 reasons why tariffs are a terrible way to raise revenue

tl;dr they violate all the main results of how to raise revenue efficiently www.economicforces.xyz/p/6-reasons-...

Ride-sharing apps are good, actually The real "cautionary tale" is that the old taxi cartels were bad

Uber is good, actually. From @mattyglesias.bsky.social www.slowboring.com/p/uber-is-go...

Will tariffs spur innovation? Research suggests not.

Another excellent newsletter by @briancalbrecht.bsky.social on whether tariffs are likely to increase innovation, with lots of top references from empirical research (from @rjuhasz.bsky.social , David Autor, Nick Bloom, @johnvanreenen.bsky.social & others)

🔗 www.economicforces.xyz/p/will-tarif...

Prices are signals (and politicians keep shooting the messenger) Economic policy insight #1: A price is a signal wrapped in an incentive.

Economics has core insights that get ignored by politicians.

The most fundamental?

A price isn't just a number—it's a signal wrapped in an incentive.

But why do policymakers need to know this?
www.economicforces.xyz/p/prices-are...

That's exactly my point. You want to align private and social incentives, not simply reduce traffic no matter what.

You're right. It's my fault and the subset of the audience who can't bother to read 1k words's fault.

Basically all of my replies are reenforcing why I wrote the post. People assume any reduction of an externality is good so reducing driving is necessarily good.

If that's the goal, you wouldn't shut the fee off at night

I'm once again asking people to read what I actually wrote www.economicforces.xyz/p/congestion...

I lament this change. Of course.

And I don't hold you entirely responsible for it, in case that wasn't clear.

Economists Are in the Wilderness. Can They Find a Way Back to Influence? Economists have long helped to shape policy on issues like taxes and health care. But flawed forecasts and arcane language have cost them credibility.

Tons of food for thought in this great article by @bencasselman.bsky.social.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/b...