Inflation
17 ways politicians can make things cheaper, from food to health care and more
"Affordability" is the hot new policy frame in American politics. Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoralty vowing to slash the cost of living with rent freezes, "free" buses, and city-run grocery…
Energy Affordability: A Blue State Problem
Democrats have chosen to make “affordability” their theme for the 2026 midterm elections. This is ironic, since the big jump in the cost of living, around 10%, happened during the Biden administration and was the direct…
A divided Federal Reserve Board votes to cut interest rates again
Yesterday, Fed officials lowered interest rates by a quarter-point, roughly in line with people's expectations. "The decision to cut for a third meeting in a row shifted interest rates to a new range of 3.5 percent…
Trump Changes Tune on Affordability
President Donald Trump called affordability “a hoax that was started by Democrats who caused the problem of pricing.” “Look, affordability’s a hoax that was started by Democrats who caused the problem of pricing. And they…
Concerns Growing About the Cost of Raising Children
A large majority of Americans no longer think it’s affordable to raise children. According to data from the 2025 American Family Survey, 71% of participants said it’s not affordable for most people to raise children. This is…
How Michael Green’s $140k poverty line idea misreads economic tradeoffs
Wall Street strategist Michael Green caused a stir on social media last week with his outlandish claim that the federal poverty line should be raised to cover individuals earning as much as $140,000 annually. That claim,…
Affordability Is the Biggest Problem in Blue States
“Affordability” has become the word of the month as American economic anxieties become a major point of political contention between Democrats and Republicans. Socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani rode to victory in the New York…
How Desperate Are the Dems?
If the Democrats had any good arguments to make, would they make so many bad ones? I don’t think so. A case in point comes from Amy Klobuchar, who is usually regarded as one of the less-dumb Dems. But check this out:…
Thankfully, we don’t have to spend as much of our incomes on food as our ancestors did
Let's set aside the controversy over what Walmart's shrinkflation of its annual Thanksgiving feast bundle might suggest for the recent trajectory of grocery prices. The good news for which we can be thankful is that…
50-Year Mortgages Won’t Fix the Affordability Crisis 50-Year Mortgages Won’t Fix the Affordability Crisis
Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, recently floated the idea of offering people a 50-year mortgage instead of the more conventional 30-year financing option. It sounds attractive at first because…
