Hal Singer

Will give it a read!

Warning: To prebut arguments from defenders of price-discrimination, I used figures and basic welfare concepts. Apologies in advance.

Delta’s execs told us this month that the AI-based strategy is *increasing* unit revenues. That really should end the debate on output effects.

Delta’s AI-Based Personalized Pricing Is Bad for Flyers. It Should Probably Be Banned. - The Sling If there’s any doubt on the price effects from AI-based pricing, recall the boast from Delta’s executive—unit revenues are rising, which can’t happen if Delta is using the technology to drop prices on...

If Delta were implementing AI-based personalized pricing on its own, that would be bad for travelers. That Delta is using a common algorithm from an GenAI airline pricing consultant makes it even worse. My latest here:

www.thesling.org/deltas-ai-ba...

Major League Baseball Owners Are Agitating (Again) for a Salary Cap. This Isn’t Good News for Players. - The Sling Why do owners want a salary cap? The spending by teams like the Dodgers does bid up the cost of free agents. If the league could cap spending, players would generally be cheaper. And that would transf...

www.thesling.org/major-league...
My latest for The Sling is a classic story!

Nearly 20 years ago, we argued in The Wages of Wins that baseball doesn't need salary controls because money can't buy happiness.

And here we are again!

Good to be playing the old favorites!

@halsinger.bsky.social

Microsoft Says AI Has Boosted Worker Productivity. Their Pay Doesn’t Reflect It. - The Sling A recent working paper authored by Microsoft researchers and academics analyzes the productivity increases in (non-terminated) software developers who use AI tools. The authors find that developers us...

I have a new piece up at @theslingutah.bsky.social, co-authored with Gavin Sicard, that examines whether Big Tech and Microsoft in particular has shared any of the AI-based productivity gains with its workers in the form of higher wages. Lots of cool graphs.

www.thesling.org/microsoft-sa...

Slingshot Episode 23 - The Sling Hal and Darren discuss remedies in the Google search case with AELP’s Laurel Kilgour.

Are divestitures a bad thing?

@halsinger.bsky.social and Darren Bush brought
@econliberties.bsky.social's Laurel Kilgour onto the podcast to discuss this issue plus other remedies on the table in the Google search antitrust case.

www.thesling.org/video/slings...

Go give it a watch!

It's Not the Flu, Feed, or Fuel. Profiteering Is Driving Record Egg Prices. - The Sling A deep dive into the data reveals that the avian bird flu and rising input costs are not driving egg prices. The culprit is profiteering.

In that interview @halsinger.bsky.social mentioned @basel.bsky.social who wrote about the egg issue in 2023.
www.thesling.org/its-not-the-...

DOJ investigating major egg producers amid soaring prices: Sources The Justice Department is in the early stages of investigating the major egg producers over soaring egg prices, source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Something strange happened after the DOJ launched an antitrust investigation into the egg industry…
1/5

Did DOJ’s Investigation of the Egg Industry Cause Egg Prices to Fall? - The Sling Last September, then vice-presidential candidate JD Vance proclaimed in a Pennsylvanian supermarket, “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now a dozen eggs will cost you…

That’s not a coincidence. Economist @halsinger.bsky.social has just co-written a piece explaining how corporate behavior changes the moment regulators start to investigate.
3/5

The authors thank @basel.bsky.social and @tedtatos.bsky.social for these excellent comments. The piece is much better with their feedback!

The piece concludes with a call for a more formalized investigation process. Rather than responding to press stories, the DOJ should adopt a policy under which industry inquiries are *automatically* triggered whenever prices in an industry exceed some multiple of CPI.

We draw support from the economic literature, which highlights how prior investigations under FDR led to massive price declines in the industries under investigation.

We make the case here that the initiation of the DOJ investigation may have altered the pricing behavior of major egg producers. After all, the first rule of any conspiracy is to stop conspiring while under the microscope of an investigation.

Other groups, including @FarmActionUS, pursued more nefarious explanations. After all, it would not be the first time for the egg industry. In 2023, a jury held Cal-Maine and other egg producers liable for participating in a price-fixing scheme running from 1999 to 2008.

The mainstream media, egged on by egg industry lobbyists, pointed to a one main culprit for rising egg prices—the bird flu.

Here are some examples from the Washington Post.

Did DOJ’s Investigation of the Egg Industry Cause Egg Prices to Fall? - The Sling Last September, then vice-presidential candidate JD Vance proclaimed in a Pennsylvanian supermarket, “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now a dozen eggs will cost you ...

In a new piece co-authored with Econ One’s Gavin Sicard, we explore whether DOJ’s inquiry into the egg industry, as reported by Capitol Forum on March 6, may have caused egg prices to plummet. If so, the implications would be big.

Highlights coming.

www.thesling.org/did-dojs-inv...

Did DOJ’s Investigation of the Egg Industry Cause Egg Prices to Fall? - The Sling Last September, then vice-presidential candidate JD Vance proclaimed in a Pennsylvanian supermarket, “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now a dozen eggs will cost you ...

full thread on this over on xitter by @halsinger.bsky.social

www.thesling.org/did-dojs-inv...

And while the price gouging was taking place, you had the federal government withdrawing pandemic support programs and tge federal reserve jacking up interest rates.
Because everybody was listening to goddamn Larry Summers give economic counsel while vacationing in his beach shirt.

So with all the rigamaroll I my life these days, I got to finish that @halsinger.bsky.social @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social podcast:
bsky.app/profile/pitc...

where I learned a couple of things.
One - Hal talked to the Biden admin, and gave them advice. They just forgot to take it.

Why Big Oil and Big Tech Are Big Fans of Abundance - The Sling Why would Trump, who received nearly $100 million from fossil fuel interests during the 2024 election cycle, encourage unlimited dirty energy production even though it could hurt the oil industry’s bo...

NEW: Why Big Oil and Big Tech Are Big Fans of Abundance

Trump’s unbridling of AI, crypto, and dirty energy should be understood as one inseparable process.

Big Tech has thrown Big Oil & Gas a lifeline by fabricating speculative justifications for fossil fuel expansion. ⬇️

Skip the Spending Plans. Head Directly to Government Jobs. - The Sling Aside from garnering votes, a jobs program would build human capital for workers to deploy in their future work in private or public sector. A jobs program critically would shift power balance in labo...

New piece by @halsinger.bsky.social: the next Democratic campaign should focus on the replacement of lost government jobs and the creation of new government jobs, not government spending.

Check it out!

www.thesling.org/skip-the-spe...

If corporate price hikes aren’t backed by real cost increases, they're price gouging, and they should be held accountable.

Listen to our full interview with @halsinger.bsky.social at the following link or wherever you get your podcasts: bit.ly/Greedflation

During COVID, corporations used supply chain shocks as cover to hike prices far beyond their costs—and bragged about it on earnings calls.

@halsinger.bsky.social says Trump’s tariffs could be their next excuse to price-gouge.

🎧Listen at the following link: bit.ly/Greedflation

Fair critique. And one I heard last night. But even though Biden’s team could have done more, we likely won’t see that level of antitrust enforcement again in our lifetimes. It certainly would have declined under a Harris administration (and most other neoliberal D administrations).

Very good recommendations in this article - hope the next Dem Congress and Administration implement them as they rebuild the federal government (assuming we ever see a Dem Congress/Admin again)

Progressives Need a New Toolkit to Fight Inflation - The Sling It’s time for policymakers generally and progressive authors of the next presidential transition project in particular to think outside the box. As the 2024 election made clear, voters are willing to ...

I have new piece on how progressives should address inflation when they next take the reins of government. Antitrust is an important tool, but as the Biden experience made painfully clear, maximal antitrust was no match for what we are now up against.

www.thesling.org/progressives...

🔊 Listen Now: American science brain drain The Indicator From Planet Money on NPR One | 9:31

Thanks for the chance to talk about bugs and my move to the UK as a scientist with @npr.org

#entomology 🧪

We do!

Trump Shatters the Assumptions of Neoclassical Economics - The Sling These past few months have had more than their share of decade-long weeks. Not even three months in, the second Trump administration has already totally shattered norms and scrambled the playing field...

New in The Sling by Dylan Gyauch-Lewis: "One thing the Trump administration has cast into doubt that gets little air time is the usefulness of neoclassical economic theory in explaining the economy."

www.thesling.org/trump-shatte...

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