Christopher Clarke

Tariffs are starting to show up on inflation data. Effect is still rather muted. As prices go up in some industries (furniture), consumers pull back in others (airfair) causing those prices to fall. Monetary policy is keeping total demand in check.

Restaurant workers are getting paid more, at least. Cheap dining out historically relied on poverty wages.

We've solved the long standing European language family tree puzzle. Finnish does not originate in the Ural mountains, but rather much further East near Lake Baikal near Mongolia 4k yrs ago. Why did they move West? Long-distance trade brought about by the bronze revolution.

The propensity to truck, barter, and exchange

The American Time Use Survey came out recently, giving the most detailed look at how the country spends its days, so here's a quick thread 1st, the share of Americans reading for personal interest on an average day has fallen to the lowest level on record, down 10% from 2003🧵

JD Vance claims low PPI inflation numbers mean economists don't understand tariffs? Is it true? No. PPI explicitly excluded imports. And the tariff-sensitive domestic goods, such as steel and furniture, are seeing price hikes.

the idea that Restaurants (capital R) are always strugglin lil fellas is an insidious untrue idea as @EconChrisClarke points out here. industry's boomed! are there restaurants (in general) that struggle/close? of course, that's healthy! unpopular restaurants should. love markets

Had a lot of fun talking about the economics of American semi-trucks with Gord. Check out the podcast.

How does the data show Median Incomes rising faster than the Cost of Living, when housing is way less affordable? Answer: Other things have become relatively cheaper offsetting that. The prices of clothing, furniture, appliances, groceries, recreation have grown less than wages.

GenZ is making more money than the rest of us. Good. We still have a lot of inequality. Bad. Even Hayek cared about relative incomes. Good news: Wage growth for bottom 10% is catching up.

Folks are moving to disaster prone areas. Greater financial opportunities in coastal areas appear to outweight the risks. But because of government disaster relief, this creates moral hazard. How should we address this? Increases property taxes? A personalized FEMA premium?…

Update! Around 13% of women are the primary trash taker-outter. I had many commentors, and even some friends, saying she primarily takes out the trash. I couldn't find any survey data out there. With about 5k views on TikTok, this will be about the best as we can get.