It's amazing how economics works these days. It used to be a matter of supply and demand. Too many consumers, not enough product -- prices go up. Too much product, not enough consumers -- prices go down. That's the short-course on how retail pricing used to work. Simplified, but true enough.But we live in a much more complex world now. A world where pretending to do something about prices effects those prices. You don't need to actually do anything that will have any results. In fact, the efforts don't even have to have any hope of a result. You just shake the medicine rattle, say the magic words, perform the appropriate theatrics and ritual, and prices drop.
So it was that Republicans staging a pointless pretend session of Congress dropped oil prices. Armed with nothing but access to the floor, unable to actually introduce or pass legislation, unable to vote or negotiate compromises, completely without any real power at all, House Republicans managed to bring down oil prices through pure force of positive energy. In the new economics, wishing makes it so...
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