Ask an Economist
Artificial Intelligence is likely to impact all of our jobs, just to varying degrees. Specific tasks that we need to perform in our jobs, skills required, wages, and hours will all likely be adjusted. There will inevitably be winners and losers...
I'm very curious what an economist thinks about the automotive repair trade. We aren't really a professional industry as there are no requirements or licenses to become a professional repair technician or work in a professional repair facility. Auto repair has become extremely high tech and sophisticated, in many areas, but also retained many of the same procedures from decades and decades ago with maybe a few changes. So, we have the need for two distinct types of individuals. The thinkers and the doers. Thinkers for the analyzing of systems and data for diagnostic decisions and dealing with technology (computers both on the car and to be used in the shop for scan tools, oscilloscopes, programming, coding, etc.). Doers to take it apart and put it back together efficiently and properly.
Most repair facilities are operated by former technicians. They are not businessmen/women. It is often discussed how, with the commoditization of our services, we are in a race to the bottom by greatly undervaluing ourselves and each other. Many are in this race and unwittingly standing on the gas.
This sounds like a rant and perhaps at some level it is. But I'm seriously interested in the opinions of those that are businessmen/women, who understand economics and game theory (most shops seem to operate on a zero-sum game principle, whether they know it or not).
Automobiles are getting more and more complex, the skill set required to service them is growing and becoming much more difficult to find and retain. Many other industries are looking for the skill sets, or a small fraction of the skill sets that many automotive technicians possess, that have far greater means to compensate for those skill than the auto repair trade currently has; a problem they've created for themselves with the constant undervaluing of their skills, knowledge, and services.
I suppose the easy answer is that it is a total "clusterf^&%" but will either solve itself or crumble altogether, I just wanted to hear what someone that knows what they are talking about thinks, and maybe even entice them to look into it and find out more about our trade.
Auto repair is an example of a "credence good," which is a type of product or service where an expert knows more about the quality the consumers need than the consumers themselves. These kinds of markets can work poorly if consumers are unable to...
Economists generally agree with Henry George that land value taxes promote efficient use of land. A small country with a tourism-based economy seems like an excellent case for the efficiency of a land value tax. The bigger issues concern equity...
You have asked a very interesting question. Without more specific information, it would take volumes to answer this general question appropriately; however, I can point you to a few resources that may be useful.
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In short, there are probably many ways that you could get a rough estimate of this and they are all likely flawed in some way or another which makes this a really tough question to answer. Also, we probably haven't fully realized the impact of...
What measures can be taken to keep the cattle industry in the U.S. from imploding? What can prevent vertical integration from further occurring? How can the American farmers and ranchers be kept from bankruptcy, (without gov’t subsidies or handouts) making sure that private ownership of land persists? What kind of market manipulation could cause all this?
Here are several resources that begin to address many of your questions.
Beef Marketing Margins - http://jaysonlusk.com/blog/2020/5/4/beef-marketing-margins
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Thanks a bunch!
Ours is called a consumer economy because consumption is nearly 70% of our GDP. Countries like China, are more investment-driven with investment (often by the public sector) at nearly 50% of GDP.
Economists measure the economic health of a country by its G.D.P per capita. They see low unemployment as good because it means labor resources are not sitting idle. They also consider whether income disparities are good or bad. In fact, these...
In short, we do not know, especially so because nothing like this has hit the US in modern times. The Great Depression was a massive disrupter and devastator but caused ultimately by economic forces from within. This time around, the fundamentals...
We traditionally get our data from two sources: 1) call report filed by banks quarterly which does not go into enough detail to get the information that we want; and 2) the banks themselves when we conduct an examination. Banks generally have concentration reports that will break down debt on many different levels; however, this doesn't give us aggregated point in time data.
I have been looking at the ISU, Ohio State University, and USDA websites in an attempt to get the data we are looking for, but cannot find it. I find news reports or research that mentions these sources, but I can't get to the raw data we are looking for. When I do find data that is close to what we want, it is a couple years old.
Do you have any suggestions on where we can find this data? We appreciate any assistance you are able to give, as we monitor the impact of COVID-19, particularly in the ag sector. Thank you!
Tracy Bergmann
The most relevant reports to track the evolution of the financial situation of well-managed mid-size commercial farms in Iowa are:
- “Financial Performance Measures for Iowa Farms” Dec 2019....
The way in which prices and money enter models of the economy is important and potentially confusing. So this is a great question.
In most models, lowering (or raising) all prices, including the price of labor (wages) would...
The short answer is, no. By law, the U.S Fed is an independent authority in charge of the monetary affairs of this nation. The White House cannot formally ask or force the Fed to do anything. If the Fed tried such a move, it would send panic...
It is common for industries to claim that they create jobs outside the industry, especially when they are seeking government subsidies. A few years back, a consultant for the Iowa ethanol industry claimed that ethanol was responsible for 90...
My best understanding is that the acquisition you indicated was completed in 2007, but Aramark retained its identity as a company. TARP was created in 2008, and a comprehensive list of companies that received “bailout” funds can be found at...
How very thoughtful and considerate a project you have in mind!
You are already exhibiting entrepreneurial behaviors by reaching out for advice. When starting anything new, you need to get questions answered for which you don’t know the...
I am assuming you have to keep the cell or wifi plan and you are just upgrading the fixed cost of a new router or cell phone. Let’s take the smartphone/cellular plan case.
Suppose you currently pay $100 per month for your cellular plan and...
The most correct way should be adjusting inflation according to each country's inflation data before converting the values to NZD if New Zealand is the baseline to compare with. The latter will not necessarily result in bad data as long as the...
1) The coronavirus is everywhere. It is not obvious it would affect the U.S. dollar differently than the Euro or Yen or Yuan. All the governments and economies are stressed, and so relative values will be unaffected.
2)...
When banks lend out money, they do so expecting repayment. If banks are not repaid, the value of the loan decreases. By law, banks are obligated to value their loans at the fair market value. Mandating that all repayment stop...
This question is predicated on five assumptions: first, that investors generally now prefer capital gains over dividends, a shift that occurred in the '60s or '70s; second, that this preference for capital gains encourages corporations seeking equity funds to appear to have potential for growth; third, that this appearance causes equity markets to overvalue such firms; fourth, that the second and third factors cause managers to make deceptive decisions, ultimately misallocating capital. This story is based on a couple essays I read defending short selling as a way to devalue overvalued firms.
Whether or not short selling is "encourageable", the story was convincing enough that I came to think it would be a good thing to push investor preferences back towards dividends, so that capital would be at least somewhat more allocated towards sustainable profitability instead of unsustainable growth. The policy that occurred to me to accomplish this was to raise the capital gains tax and lower corporate income tax.
What is your opinion of this story and policy proposal? Are either plausible? Where do these views sit in today's economic rhetoric?
Thank you for these interesting questions. As they indicate, you are already well aware of potential distortions associated with tax policies. It is quite possible that your suggested policy proposal would be associated with distortions and...
This is very confusing to me, as coming of age in a post-GFC United States I've always associated neoliberalism with things such as low interest rates. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your question! These ideological "definitions" and distinctions can be quite confusing and arbitrary. In the Latin American context, usually neoliberal is associated with policies that are orthodox, that is, based on notions of free...
While it is true that lower prices at the pump benefit consumers, stock markets also infer that low oil prices signal weak demand for oil, in this case from travel-related fears due to the corona virus. And weak demand for oil often indicates...
The adverse effects of the minimum wage depend on how high it is compared to the prevailing wage in the area. Because wages are higher in San Francisco than Des Moines, a $15 minimum wage in San Francisco, where the median wage is $25.11,...
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has an annual projection of employment and labor force growth. The most recent is Employment Projections: 2018-2028, available...
No, there is nothing preventing non-profit organizations from offering insurance. Indeed, this is quite common in health care, with non-profit health insurers accounting for over 60% of health plans with more than 100,000 people enrolled (...