Household production competes with the Fed

Three Theories for Why You Have No Time

Let’s return to the original question: Why don’t Americans have more free time? In my experience, the debate over labor and leisure is often fought between the Self-Helpers and the Socialists. The Self-Helpers say that individuals have agency to solve their problems and can reduce their anxiety through new habits and values. The Socialists say that this individualist ethos is a dangerous myth. Instead, they insist that almost all modern anxieties arise from structural inequalities that require structural solutions, like a dramatic reconfiguration of the economy and stronger labor laws to protect worker rights.

Derek Thompson for the Atlantic is wondering why household activities never cease. 

Simple, the relative cost of hiring services incurs labor costs and fiscal taxes, as well as Fed seigniorage costs.   Households have traditionaly cut services first during a downturn, and moving production in house eliminates transaction costs. Look at velocity, for example:

 Velocity down everywhere. Households are surviving because of home production. Households are threatened by fedeal cost of government, and in large states, the state fiscal authorities keep services out of the home.

Look at the Treasury curve, falt on the front end. This economy is increasingly made of larger transactions done less often, an oil economy.