Harris’ plan to stop price gouging could create more problems than it solves

[Ana the Ist]

Yes.

By “economists,” I mean academics with PhD’s who publish research, not merely folks like Reich who’ve had some grad courses on the subject and worked jobs that deal with economic issues.

Oh.

I just looked through his book titles and read 2 reviews. He seems like the sort of guy that's smart enough to figure it out after it's happened...and he's had some time to think about it....as long as he doesn't zoom out too far.

 

[Ana the Ist]

There are lots of ways to bring housing and rental prices down without regulating prices or adding money to pay for already small supply.

Let's hear it. I always see real estate as tricky since it's a static good.

======================
SOME IDEAS
1) Get rid of the idea that youth have no need to save for a down payment or to start out with a smaller house.

I wasn't aware that younger folks thought this.

Ditto for rentals. We think that it is the right of a 21-30 year old to own a house at least as large as his or her parents. There is a need for savings in order to pruchase a first house.

Indeed.

2) Zoning rules greatly add to the cost of building units. One goal of zoning should be to increase the number of housing units.

Zoning is important for some reasons, cumbersome for others, not getting into this one.

3) There needs to be many more smaller houses (think Levittown).

Sure. With so many dual income no child couples, you'd think this was already happening.

4) The cost of labor needs to be decreased by allowing tens of thousands of more legal immigrants.

There's no current limit to legal work visas to my knowledge.

Many contractor studies have shown that more available workers would greatly increase the number of units built.

I'll take your word for it.

5) Federally mandated low cost housing hasn't worked. The control and interest in low-cost housing needs to be local.

The Projects.

============
INSURANCE
Just, BTW, insurance costs have increased greatly. I think that this is appropriate. Climatic changes have caused much more damage. Also, folks continue to build and live in areas prone to weather issues. If anything, many areas should have much higher rates to prevent rebuilding in those areas. There might be more programs of disaster insurance much like flood insurance, but that doesn't mean that it should be less expensive.

Tornado insurance in Tornado alley....Hurricane insurance in gulf states....

Seems prohibitively expensive.

 

[Ana the Ist]

The economy is in far far better shape than during the Trump Recession.

We all sort of know this simply isn't the case.

Perhaps people in their 60s who own multiple properties did great with real estate prices spiking everywhere.

Most people lost purchasing power and financial stability though.

We wouldn't be on a thread discussing economic policy for food and homes if things were going better....we'd all be arguing about culture war stuff.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Unemployment hit 3.4% a couple times in 2023. Right now, it’s where it was in mid-2017.

Civilian unemployment rate

www.bls.gov

I have to wonder how many new jobs are worked by the same person as the old jobs.

 

[HARK!]

HOUSING
House prices are too high. OK. So the Harris answer is to give new buyers $25K each to spend. It takes a special kind of economic analysis to believe that this will bring prices DOWN.

No doubt, let alone the impact that the borrowed money would have on this Administration's overall runaway inflation.

I wonder if Border Czar Harris had considered that flooding the housing market with illegals, might have an impact on housing costs.

 

[mark46]

Let's hear it. I always see real estate as tricky since it's a static good.



I wasn't aware that younger folks thought this.





Indeed.








Tornado insurance in Tornado alley....Hurricane insurance in gulf states....

Seems prohibitively expensive.

As insurance should be.

OK, let's say that you choose to build a home in islands off the FL coast that often gets damage from hurricanes, or in Gulfport or in various other areas. Insurance rates are regulated and based on a history of claims. What keeps rate high is that insurance companies choose to subsidize those in the worst areas. There are houses that insurance companies have rebuilt 10 times in areas obviously prone to damage. The reality is these houses shouldn't be insured at all, except at truly exorbitant rates.

 

[Ana the Ist]

As insurance should be.

OK, let's say that you choose to build a home in islands off the FL coast that often gets damage from hurricanes,

Why? What happened to me in this scenario to cause that degree of brain damage?

or in Gulfport or in various other areas. Insurance rates are regulated and based on a history of claims.

Uh huh...

What keeps rate high is that insurance companies choose to subsidize those in the worst areas.

Uh huh....

There are houses that insurance companies have rebuilt 10 times in areas obviously prone to damage.

Seems like a bad place to build.

The reality is these houses shouldn't be insured at all, except at truly exorbitant rates.

Or...

Take the money you'd give to the insurance company and invest it in a hurricane fund. Try to get yourself 10% year over year at least.

 

[Ana the Ist]

No doubt, let alone the impact that the borrowed money would have on this Administration's overall runaway inflation.

I wonder if Border Czar Harris had considered that flooding the housing market with illegals, might have an impact on housing costs.

Well that's why she let in all those unaccompanied children. You can fit more of those in a basement.

 

[KCfromNC]

Job market:​

Perhaps Trump’s most impressive labor market feats were unemployment declining from 4.7% to as low as 3.5% in late 2019 and early 2020, which tied its lowest level since 1969 and wages growing by an inflation-beating 15% over his four-year term.

Interesting that this talking point doesn't include all of Trump's term. I wonder if there's a reason why.

 

[NxNW]

Stock market:

Stocks performed better under Trump,

False. The market is far higher under Biden.

Inflation:

Inflation has been far worse during the Biden administration, up 19.9% over the first 41 months of Biden’s term compared to 5.4% during Trump’s first 41 months, according to the government’s consumer price index. Year-over-year inflation peaked under Biden at a four-decade high of 9% in 2022

True, inflation was much higher coming out of the Trump Recession, but you're neglecting the fact that it's back down to 2.9%.

Job market:

Perhaps Trump’s most impressive labor market feats were unemployment declining from 4.7% to as low as 3.5% in late 2019 and early 2020, which tied its lowest level since 1969 and wages growing by an inflation-beating 15% over his four-year term.

Unemployment reached double digits under Trump, with net job losses. Job creation has been much higher under Biden.

Consumer health:

Consumer sentiment was lower last month than it ever was under Trump, according to the University of Michigan’s widely tracked survey as Americans continue to feel the aftershocks of inflation

Feelings are not the economy.

Research also indicates Americans have more belief in Trump to oversee the economy

A great example of how the right-leaning media supports Trump over the factual evidence of his economic failures listed above.

 

[NxNW]

Nonsense

Please list the all the examples of Congress declaring war under Biden.

 

[NxNW]

Biden shutting down the economy is the cause for the pending office building bust;

Biden never shut down the economy.

and his open borders have tremendous influence on the inflated housing bubble.

Borders are not open. Trump built the wall and Mexico paid for it, remember? There is no border problem.

Let's pray that the markets crash before the election; so that America still has time to respond to the wake up call.

Party before country isn't productive.

Let's pray that our enemies don't nuke us over the Biden Administration's aggression in the mean time

What aggression?

 

[NxNW]

Please review the effect of Nixon's price caps. Price caps are highly inflationary.

With Nixon, price caps resulted in many products being frozen at the full retail price, instead of being sold at a discount as they often are. So the issue is "which price" are we referring to.

 

[NxNW]

Low paying jobs don't put food on the table in this economy.

How quickly you move the goalposts from unemployment and job creation to rate of pay.

In my charity work, I see the food lines grow longer every week.

Anecdotes are irrelevant.

 

[HARK!]

False. The market is far higher under Biden.

True, inflation was much higher coming out of the Trump Recession, but you're neglecting the fact that it's back down to 2.9%.

Unemployment reached double digits under Trump, with net job losses. Job creation has been much higher under Biden.

Feelings are not the economy.

A great example of how the right-leaning media supports Trump over the factual evidence of his economic failures listed above.

I'll take the word of a credible news source like Forbes, over your unsupported opinion any day.

 

[HARK!]

Please list the all the examples of Congress declaring war under Biden.

Are not defacto wars, wars?

 

[NxNW]

I'll take the word of a credible news source like Forbes, over your unsupported opinion any day.

Forbes doesn't agree with you.

 

[NxNW]

Are not defacto wars, wars?

Per the Constitution, only Congress can declare war.

 

[HARK!]

How quickly you move the goalposts from unemployment and job creation to rate of pay.

Does this mean that you fail to see the relevance of Americans going hungry under this Administration?

Anecdotes are irrelevant.

So are fudged statistics.

Empirical evidence is evidence,

 

[HARK!]

Forbes doesn't agree with you.

I posted direct quotes from the Forbes article.