Why does econ feel like a practice where you frequently have to put your head in the sand and ignore outside contributing factors. I don't understand why we work with perfect markets when that is not reality.
Hopefully our conversation today helped. We assume ceteris paribus to be clear with our statements, and to keep ourselves humble. It is not to say that outside contributing factors don't exist, but to instead focus on each one. It would be prideful (and incorrect) to say that gas prices were at historic lows during the end of Trump's first presidency due to policy positions. His policies certainly put a downward pressure (from increased supply) on prices, but there was a much larger reason why prices reached history lows at the end of his presidency: governors made it illegal to do anything outside of your own home, drastically reducing the demand of gasoline.