8 News Items Found
January 16, 2023
Households Are Spending $371 More Per Month, and Economists Aren’t Sure It’ll Fall Further
Since the pandemic, households have spent hundreds on goods. Now, those numbers have fallen as prices become stabilized. However, “the prices may not come down to what they were before the pandemic,” fellow Jorge Barro points out to ABC 13 Houston.
July 26, 2022
Will Social Security Benefits Increase as Inflation Rises?
Although the government tends to increase Social Security benefits when inflation rises, “the inflation rate currently exceeds the increase in benefits,” said public finance fellow Jorge Barro.
Read more at KRIS 6 News. March 22, 2022
Do Women Pay a ‘Pink Tax’ for Gender-Marketed Products?
“Broadly speaking, there doesn’t seem to be a systemic difference in price for most consumer products,” said public finance fellow Jorge Barro. However, he explained that “there could be some, for example, inactive ingredients that make a product higher quality as it’s targeted to one gender over the other.”
Read more at KHOU 11. July 16, 2021
Inflation is Back, but for How Long?
How long can consumers expect to deal with higher prices for food, cars and houses? Public finance fellow Jorge Barro discussed the current spike in inflation.
Read more at Fox26 News. August 8, 2020
National Debt Is Rising, but Don't Cut Back Now
The national debt "will not disappear on its own," and at some point, we'll have to raise taxes or make painful spending cuts, said public finance fellow Jorge Barro. "When that time comes, there are going to be costs associated with it," but Barro did not call for immediate measures.
Read more at The New York Times.