Tuesday's assorted links

Shrinkflation, lazy American myth, peer universities, price controls, and school lunches

Hey, y’all! Here are 5 great stories I loved this week:

1. Some new examples of shrinkflation: making your normal purchases a little smaller to avoid raising prices.

2. A look at the myth that Americans don’t want to work anymore.

3. Each year, universities choose their peer institutions, but not all picks are mutual.

4. Here’s why price controls should stay in the history books.

5. Pandemic-era federal programs aimed at feeding schoolchildren will likely expire in the coming weeks.

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This week I looked at how tax incidence will impact the recent announcement suspending gas taxes in the state of Maryland. Check it out:

Suspending the gas tax isn't the right response

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Week 12 is over and I’m up to 10 books for the year. Last week I wrapped up Made in China, which looks at prison labor that’s used to produce a lot of the cheap stuff that is imported from China. The book was centered on an “SOS letter” that was included in a box of Halloween decorations. Here’s a news article about the original story. There were some really interesting parts to the book and some parts I hadn’t realized were so prevalent.

This week I will likely finish up The Data Detective and a book on chocolate.