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Wendy’s is preparing to test an “Uber-style” surge-pricing model where prices will fluctuate throughout the day based on demand — meaning a Dave’s burger will cost more during the lunchtime rush. Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner — who rose to the chief role earlier this month — announced the new system on a call with investors, noting that the pricing menu will begin testing in 2025, Daily Mail earlier reported. With the dynamic pricing model, the chain’s iconic Dave’s Single could increase by as much as $1 at lunchtime and drop down by the same amount after the lunch rush. With...

Ford's EV business posted a big loss for the third quarter.. The strike against Ford may be over, but the company's electric vehicle woes are far from solved. The entire auto industry, grappling with steadily softening EV demand over cost and existential infrastructure challenges, is beginning to pull back its efforts to grow the sector. Tesla (TSLA) - Get Free Report, of course, is dealing with falling sales figures and gross margins amid an ongoing price war whose aim is to entice customers to go electric. General Motors (GM) - Get Free Report, still locked in the throes of the...

The Biden administration’s massive expansion of food stamp benefits is linked to at least a 15% rise in grocery prices, a new study said on Thursday. President Biden’s Department of Agriculture rolled out revised nutritional standards for federal food benefits in 2021 that expanded the program by roughly 25% from pre-COVID pandemic levels. Overall spending on the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, according to findings from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) previewed by Fox News Digital. It went from $4.5 billion in 2019 to $11 billion in 2022, the study said.

he auto industry is beginning to crank out more electric vehicles (EVs), but there's one big problem: not enough buyers. Why it matters: The growing mismatch between EV supply and demand is a sign that even though consumers are showing more interest in EVs, they're still wary about purchasing one because of price or charging concerns.

I produced this video in the late 90's with Chinese dissident Harry Wu. It pretty much proves and documents the horrific practice of the killing of prisoners and the harvesting and sale of their body parts by China. Pretty sure it's going to be censored...

The past few weeks have seen Taiwan’s semiconductor industry hit by a variety of disasters that are creating more problems at a time when an international semiconductor shortage is creating problems around the world, including in the US, where a shortage of critical chips has hurt production of new vehicles. A worsening drought and rolling blackouts are also terrorizing the island. Now, two more Taiwan tech suppliers have been hit by new clusters of COVID-19 cases, creating another disruption to production that’s threatening to have an outsize impact on the global supply chain. According to Nikkei, King Yuan Electronics Co...

There are now over 850,000 coronavirus cases and counting in the United States. Experts estimate that over a million Americans could soon carry it—but working together we can prevent that projection from becoming a reality. The spread can be curbed, and the curve flattened, with sound policies that prevent exposure to coronavirus while also ensuring that Americans have access to the supplies they need. Most states have ordered their residents to stay home and only travel when necessary. This prevents millions of Americans from encountering the virus. But as more Americans shelter in place hoping to flatten the curve, consumption...

As the saying goes, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes." I would add, "and anti-price gouging legislation in times of crisis." Yet price increases in the face of sudden shortages are an important impetus to restore supply and demand market conditions that are closer to normal. As many of us have experienced in the past few weeks, buying toilet paper, hand sanitizer and face masks has become more difficult and more expensive. The reason, of course, is that unusually large numbers of people are rushing to buy these and other products that might prevent the spread of the coronavirus....

In 1969, the height of the Sixties’ cultural revolution, Pew found that only 12 percent of Americans supported the legalization of pot. Fifty years later, 67 percent of voters support it. Virtually every candidate on the Democratic presidential slate backs some form of marijuana legalization. Even the Trump administration has left states to manage their own business on the matter. This year, at least one candidate supports going further and decriminalizing all drugs. On Sunday, Fox News’ Chris Wallace pushed Iowa caucus winner Pete Buttigieg to explain his support for the “decriminalization” of all narcotics. First, he asked Buttigieg whether...

Democrats don’t trust free markets, preferring to use the power of government to control the economy. And they don’t understand basic laws of supply and demand. Appearing on CNN this morning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a good illustration of that distrust and ignorance. Cuomo kvetched about the reduction in the corporate tax rate contained in the tax bill. He claimed that the bill wound up being a benefit to the rich corporations, and that: “[Republicans] hope the rich corporations will then give it to the workers as a matter of their largesse. But if they actually wanted to...

Okay, it’s not exactly an apology tour because he spoke the words while on U.S. soil. But it was an apology for America by Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson while standing alongside Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray Caso and Mexican Secretary of Government Miguel Angel Osorio Chong on Thursday during a press conference at the State Department. Speaking about the “illicit drug trade” while holding his hand over his chest for several seconds as a symbol of admitted guilt, Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued that Mexico’s organized crime problem is the fault of the Unites States and...

WARSAW, Ind. — Each day at Zimmer Biomet headquarters, machinists on one robot-assisted factory floor churn out about 3,000 metallic knee parts. They are facing pressure to crank up the pace as the population ages and demand soars. But the artificial-bone giant is grappling with a steep downside of the nation’s low unemployment rate: It is struggling to find enough workers, despite offering some of the region’s best pay and benefits. But without more people to grow Warsaw’s business, the chances of companies relocating is “extraordinarily high,” said Michael Hicks, a labor economist at Indiana’s Ball State University. “That would...

Central bankers, Presidents and Prime Ministers, Oil Sheiks and even main stream media types forget or refuse to accept, when it comes to decision making, that most basic of economic principles, the Law of Supply and Demand. There is nothing that isn’t influenced by this simple principle. The most uneducated person has no difficulty grasping this core concept. Why then do the majority of the world’s decision makers fail to accept the reality of this most powerful principle? From college graduates and oil to immigration and debt, every consequence can be explained away by the simplicity of this age old...

As the battle over increasing the minimum wage is fought out from coast to coast, new facts dispel the myth that increasing labor costs for employers somehow results in an economic Nirvana. When Seattle decided to pass a law sending the minimum wage up to $15 an hour, liberals ridiculed claims that paying workers a higher wage could have any negative impact on employers and the regional job market. It appears they should have listened. A study released Wednesday by the American Enterprise Institute said that even though the full impact of the wage increase has not yet been felt,...

So as to give some perspective, I'm going to ask readers for their guesses about human behavior before explaining my embarrassment by some of my fellow economists. Suppose the prices of ladies jewelry rose by 100 percent. What would you predict would happen to sales? What about a 25 or 50 percent price increase? I'm going to guess that the average person would predict that sales would fall. Would you make the same prediction about auto sales if cars' prices rose by 100 percent or 25 or 50 percent? Suppose that you're the CEO of General Motors and your sales...

An increasing number of electric-vehicle driving employees at Silicon Valley companies are finding it hard to access car-charging stations at work, creating incidents of "charge rage" among drivers. Installation of electric vehicle charging ports at some companies has not kept pace with soaring demand, creating thorny etiquette issues in the workplace, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer for German software company SAP, says the company's 16 charging stations are now not nearly enough for the 61 employees who drive electric vehicles. Graf says cars are getting unplugged while charging, creating animosity between employees. A charge...

The caller wanted to know whether Lloyd Cook had any 9 mm ammunition in stock. “I asked him how much did he want,” said Cook, owner of an Independence gun range, “and he said, ‘All of it.’” Across the country, bullets are flying off store shelves as people stockpile ammunition. The big question: Why? “There is no good answer for this,” said Kevin Jamison, a Gladstone lawyer and spokesman for the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance. “Panic buying seems to account for some of the shortage, but I don’t believe it can be all of it.” Some point to concerns that...

Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods". Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as a credibly nutritious substitute for meat. Unusual among...

One unfortunate aspect of tragedies, like this week's Hurricane Sandy, is that wrong-headed government policies so often prolong the pain experienced by disaster victims. Exhibit A are laws, like those in New York and New Jersey, prohibiting "price gouging" — defined as a merchant using the demand created by a natural disaster to charge more for items like gasoline, bottled water or generators. Before the hurricane hit, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie issued a stern warning against raising prices, stating, "The State Division of Consumer Affairs will look closely at any and all complaints about alleged price gouging. Anyone found...

Obama: Nation can't drill its way out of soaring gas prices By Andrew Restuccia - 05/06/11 12:41 PM ET President Obama called for the elimination of billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks Friday, while stressing that the United States can’t drill its way out of high gas prices. “We can’t just drill our way out of the problem,” Obama said during an energy policy speech in Indiana Friday. “If we’re serious about addressing our energy problems, we’re going to have to do more than drill.” Obama’s remarks come as Washington policymakers are feeling pressure to take action to...