Scrooge was wrong, and his Nephew Fred was right. While it's true the benefits of feasting with friends and family can't be calculated in a ledger, that doesn't mean those things have no value.
The concept of "productive complements" shows us how capitalists have long sought to make as much use as they can of every part of the materials they use to make goods.
When people change cities, they are likely to change their consumption patterns — which means a simple cost-of-living index doesn't tell us what it should.
In spite of claims they will benefit society overall, interventionist policies designed to benefit certain interest groups ultimately only help certain groups at the expense of everyone else.
If local prices are sending the message that everything's perfectly normal, residents may be overly optimistic about the risks they face during natural disasters.
