Central Planning Caused the Baby Formula Shortage \ stacker news ~econ

"In the newest episode of the Cost of the Progressives, we look at the dire consequences of government regulation. In 2020, a baby formula shortage forced millions of families to confront the fear of not being able to feed their babies. How did it happen?

This video explains how government programs helped big business, undermined competition, and failed to prevent contamination, all of which helped create the crisis."

view all related items

276 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 15 Dec 2023

In my intro microeconomics class I teach that big business can and does use regulations to increase fixed costs of compliance, thereby protecting incumbents from competition and eroding the natural free market process. This baby formula situation is a great example, and I might use it in future classes.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined OP 15 Dec 2023

What textbook do you like for that class? Is it the Hal Varian level course or the Tyler Cowen level? Those are the two textbook authors I recall using.

276 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 15 Dec 2023

I use my own materials, but before I went that route I was using Mankiw. It's a college freshman/soph level class, basically the first econ class you take