Norm Singleton writes at Real Clear Markets, “As rising prices and diminishing supplies have replaced COVID as the American people’s number one concern, President Biden has unsurprisingly announced several initiatives aimed at lowering prices and restocking the shelves. Unfortunately, Biden’s proposals will increase prices and decrease supply of goods and services.

For example, Biden has announced plans to spend $1 billion in an attempt to increase competition in the meat processing industry. According to the President, the reason meat prices are high and supplies are low is because of greedy big business.  Not because, wait for it, the government shut down the economy for a year.

Where he is right is that four companies control 85% of the packaged beef market; 70% of the pork market; and 54% of the poultry market. This is definitely enough consolidation to draw attention. However, if one takes the modern approach of applying the consumer welfare standard to one or a few companies allegedly controlling a market, one sees no need for government intervention.

Better yet, Biden’s case for antitrust style intervention gets even worse as you keep looking…

The market effects of higher barriers to entry into a given market – is a more concentrated market. This is what Biden should focus on – handling the poor public policy instead of throwing money at the issue and ignoring the underlying problems.

Thankfully, in the case of meatpacking Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie and Maine Senator Angus King have introduced the PRIME Act (HR 3835/S. 2001), which allows custom slaughterhouses to sell their products directly to consumers in the same state. This legislation increases competition, consumer choice, and in the process provides a market solution.”

Read the entire column.

The post President Biden is not PRIMED to fight high prices he doesn’t understand appeared first on Liberty Tree.

From Free The People: “Let’s talk about the supply chain. More than a year after the great Toilet Paper Panic of March 2020, Americans are once again experiencing empty shelves, unexplained shipping delays, and warnings that we better do our Christmas shopping early lest our family and friends get completely Grinched this holiday season. Back in March of 2020, when politicians started locking things down, they never imagined all of the damage they would do to a complex economy and our global supply chain. Matt Kibbe breaks it all down in this episode of Let’s Talk About… from Free the People.”

The post Let’s talk about the supply chain appeared first on Liberty Tree.

My STOP the GRINCH Act will ease our supply chain crisis and help Utah businesses and families get the things they need as we head into the holidays.

It’s great having @WTCUtah’s help as we STOP the GRINCH and save Christmas!#utpol #STOPtheGRINCH https://t.co/mf4N8ciMc9

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) November 19, 2021

Utah’s ABC4 reports, “Covering our supply chain shortage, Utah Senator Mike Lee says he has a plan to help, introducing what he called the ‘Stop The Grinch Act.’

Senator Lee says supply chain issues are taking their toll on things like Thanksgiving meals and Christmas gifts. His bill looks to ease supply chain issues and rising inflation by streamlining or suspending certain federal regulations on ports, ships, and trucks.”

The post STOP the GRINCH Act would ease the supply chain crisis appeared first on Liberty Tree.

If we don’t want to ruin our supply chain, end these unscientific vaccine mandates. pic.twitter.com/MLkrUFDaXf

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 27, 2021

The post If you want to fix supply chain problems, end the vaccine mandate appeared first on Liberty Tree.

FEE’s Jon Miltimore writes, “There is little debate that the supply chain issues are a serious problem, and shifting to a 24-7 operation may indeed help alleviate some of the supply chain issues—though the problem is unlikely to be solved so easily.

Biden: Los Angeles ports will begin operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week just like “most of the leading countries in the world.”

Union leaders 24 hours later: “There’s no timeline when suddenly we will wake up and everything will be 24/7.”https://t.co/ukCv5AS7ha

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) October 20, 2021

The obvious question, however, is this: why weren’t these ports already operating around the clock ‘like most of the leading countries in the world’?

The answer can be found in the very unions Biden thanked.”

Read the entire column.

The post Biden thanks unions for promising to help solve a supply chain mess they created appeared first on Liberty Tree.

FEE’s Brett Cooper writes, “Last year, in an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, Elon Musk touched on the problem with printing money to paper over economic problems, stating, ‘this notion that you can just sort of send checks out to everybody and things will be fine is not true.’

“This notion that you can just sort of send checks out to everybody and things will be fine is not true.”

– @elonmusk, 2020https://t.co/IKIfM1mitD

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) October 10, 2021

Continuing, Musk asserted that many wrongly believe that the economy is a ‘magic horn of plenty,’ where goods and services will simply appear, leading individuals to believe that they don’t need to work or contribute to production. When generous unemployment benefits are offered as well, this attitude becomes even more enticing.

Though the Biden administration has suspended the federal COVID relief, the damage was already done. People learned that they could make more money by relying on government funded initiatives than returning to their jobs. Meanwhile, many continue to collect unemployment benefits at the state level rather than return to work—as evidenced by the record number of job openings in the US.”

Read the entire column.

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