When Does Prime Day End? Here's What To Know—Plus 20 Of The Best Deals
When does Prime Day end? Shoppers have until July 11 at 11:59 p.m. PST to shop the best Prime Day ... More deals across home and kitchen, consumer tech, beauty and more. ILLUSTRATION: FORBES / PHOTO: RETAILERS
Amazon frequently offers some of the lowest prices online, but Amazon Prime Day is one of the best times to find especially steep savings across all categories. Since many products with the steepest discounts may sell out, waiting until Friday (or the final hours of the event) could mean missing out on some of the best prices of the year. Ahead, find some of the best deals to shop during Amazon Prime Day. Hisense 55-Inch U6 4K Fire TV : Now $448, Was $800 (44% Off)
: Now $448, Was $800 (44% Off) Crest 3D Professional Effects Whitestrips: Now $30, Was $46 (35% Off)
Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Cloud Pillow : Now $50, Was $89 (43% Off)
: Now $50, Was $89 (43% Off) Dreamegg Baby Sound Machine : Now $35, Was $55 (36% Off)
: Now $35, Was $55 (36% Off) Instant Pot Duo Multi-Cooker : Now $57, Was $90 (37% Off)
: Now $57, Was $90 (37% Off) Shark SpeedStyle Blow Dryer : Now $150, Was $230 (35% Off)
: Now $150, Was $230 (35% Off) Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier: Now $155, Was $230 (33% Off)
Vitamix 5200 Blender: Now $350, Was $500 (30% Off)
Osprey Hikelite Backpack : Now $86, Was $115 (25% Off)
: Now $86, Was $115 (25% Off) Anker Soundcore AeroClip Open Earbuds: Now $113, Was $170 (34% Off)
Bissell Little Green Machine: Now $82, Was $124 (34% Off)
Ring Battery Doorbell (2nd Gen): Now $70, Was $140 (50% Off)
Suri Electric Toothbrush: Now $89, Was $119 (25% Off)
Beats Solo 4 Wireless Headphones: Now $98, Was $200 (51% Off)
Amazon Kindle (16GB, Newest Model): Now $85, Was $119 (23% Off)
With a lovely 4K picture, this 55-inch Hisense TV comes with Amazon Fire TV built in, making it easy to stream your favorite shows and movies. Gamers can also expect a 144Hz refresh rate for smooth AAA gameplay, it gets plenty bright for most spaces, and it includes built-in Dolby Vision to help enhance your picture, too. At 44% off, this is the lowest price we've seen.
Our beauty team named these the best whitening strips overall. The kit brightens your teeth over 22 days with 20 sets of strips with a 45-minute application period and two one-hour treatment strip sets. This discount has been live throughout the Prime Day sale and we don't expect it to drop any further, so now is a great time to stock up on these strips.
This cooler from Yeti can hold up to 26 cans if you keep a 2:1 ice-to-content ratio, making it great for those summer cookouts and camping trips. A 3-inch layer of PermaFrost Insulation keeps your drinks chilled, and it's also certified bear-resistant for campers. The lowest price we've seen is 20% off the key lime colorway pictured.
Our pick for one of the best pillows you can buy, our tester found especially ideal for combination sleepers. 'As a combination sleeper, I found the Tempur-Cloud incredibly comfortable on my back and stomach, but I didn't feel like it offered as much support while side sleeping as other options I tested,' they said. Its memory foam is comfortable and has a removable, machine-washable knit cover so you can easily clean it. The pillow also comes with a five-year warranty, too. At 44% off, this is the lowest price we've seen since Amazon's last Prime Day sale.
With over 30 soothing sounds and three modes of night lights, the Dreamegg Sound Machine can help keep your baby resting peacefully at night. It also has plenty of different sleep routine customizations, including okay-to-wake clocks, a night light, a child lock and more. Save 36% on this handy machine to keep your child sleeping all night long.
When you're short on time but don't want to sacrifice flavor, a pressure cooker can help you quickly whip up a meal with the press of a button. There are 11 options to choose from in this Instant Pot model, and built with a sturdy stainless steel. The pot and lid are also dishwasher safe for a quick post-dinner cleanup. Right now, it's 37% off; this is second-lowest price we've seen in the past year (with the lowest having dipped to $49).
This hair dryer from Shark keeps the temperature below 230 degrees to protect your hair from heat damage, and with four heat settings, you can choose your heat preference. It features a RapidGloss Finisher to help keep your hair frizz- and flyaway-free. The last time we saw this price this low was Amazon Prime Day in October 2024.
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In just 12 minutes, this popular air purifier can filter and deodorize up to 99.7% of contaminants from the air in rooms up 361 square feet. It also has an eco mode that helps conserve energy when it doesn't detect any pollutants. This discount matches the best price we've seen on this model in 2025.
Vitamix is one of the most popular and reliable names in kitchen appliances. The Vitamix 5200—our favorite blender overall—is a kitchen workhorse that can handle the trickiest of ingredients. It's powerful, versatile and currently available for 30% off.
This pair of open earbuds was one of our budget picks for the best wireless earbuds you can get right now, and with good reason: They're comfortable to wear for long hours and the audio quality punches well above its weight. You can get them in three colorways for 34% off their original price, which is the lowest price we've seen on Amazon.
The Osprey Hikelite 26L Unisex Hiking Backpack comes discounted in multiple colorways. With a ventilated back panel, you can hike all day in comfort and carry every last one of your essentials. There's also an integrated rain cover located in the backpack's base to keep your most important gear dry.
Stay hydrated through your day with the H2.0 Tumbler from Stanley that keeps your beverages cold for up to 11 hours, or two full days if you add ice. It's currently at the lowest price we've ever seen on Amazon for the bright fuchsia colorway—perfect for summer.
This cult-favorite cleaning device with a 4.5-star rating and almost 100,000 reviews on Amazon effortlessly removes stains, pet hair, spills and other accidents with spray power and suction. It offers a compact, portable design so you can essentially clean up anywhere—including the hard-to-reach places.
Compatible with any Android device running Android 11 or higher, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is a versatile smart watch that tracks sleep, fitness and other everyday health metrics. The lowest price we've seen in the past year is around $180 ($20 more than the current price), making Amazon Prime Day a great time to save on this.
Compatible with Mac and Android users, the Beats Solo 4 Wireless Headphones offer clean and crisp sound, including personalized spatial audio, and a battery life that allows up to 50 hours of listening time. At $98, they're back to the same low sticker price that we saw on Black Friday and earlier this year.
Brooklinen is one of our mattress and sleep editors' go-to brands for cozy bedding and accessories. The Luxury Sateen Duvet Cover is made with 100% long-staple cotton and has a soft and buttery feel with a luxurious 480-thread count. This essential bedding item rarely goes on sale through Amazon, which makes 20% off a great deal.
Achieve a full-coverage look with this classic concealer that has one of the largest beauty product fan bases on the internet. It's on sale for 40% off, making it a great time to stock up on, especially since we had yet to see this product go on sale.
Up your home security by adding a Ring Doorbell to your front porch, back door or anywhere around your home you would like enhanced monitoring. Keep an eye on packages that arrive, expected (or unexpected) guests, pets and more with its webcam feature and take advantage of its two-way-talk feature. At 50% off, it's the best deal we've seen on this product in its history on Amazon.
In our guide to the best electric toothbrushes, we named this Suri toothbrush the best sustainable toothbrush, in part thanks to its lightweight design, long battery life and bristles made from castor oil (not plastic). Right now you can save 25% on this toothbrush in all five colorways offered.
This is the device's lowest price ever, making it a rare opportunity to get a Kindle for under $100. Supervising deals and coupons editor Kara Cuzzone, who has been testing this newest model for the past two weeks, says that the display quality is superior to her three-year-old Paperwhite.
Amazon Prime Day 2025 starts July 8 at 12 a.m. PST (3 a.m. EST on July 9). It ends July 11 at 11:59 p.m. PST (3 a.m. EDT on July 12). This is the first time in the history of the sales event that it will last for four days.
This year, Amazon Prime Day is a four-day event. In previous years, the shopping event has lasted two days.
When Does Prime Day 2025 End?
Amazon Prime Day 2025 ends July 11 at 11:59 p.m. PST (3 a.m. EDT on July 12).
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Fast Company
2 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Delta just ushered in the era of the ‘lifestyle airline'
The days of flying just to move from point A to point B are over. Delta has just officially declared that we're entering the era of the 'lifestyle airline.' Nowadays, selecting a flight no longer means simply choosing an airline to fly with. It's a multistep process that involves navigating a sea of ancillary fees, wading through seating charts, and selecting add-ons like extra legroom. Cutting through that noise requires brands to go to extra lengths to draw in customers. For Delta, that means repositioning itself as not just a form of transport, but also a luxury, personalized experience. The brand just refreshed its core identity for the first time since 2008 to embody that shift. In collaboration with the design firm DixonBaxi, Delta is rolling out a refresh that includes new brand colors, motion elements, and typography to appear as 'more than just an airline,' according to Libby Tsoi, design director at DixonBaxi. Air travel gets a chaotic rebrand The landscape of air travel has been in a major state of flux over the past several years, as the top airline brands in the U.S. chase bigger bottom lines through an increasingly complex fee system. According to a Senate report released late last year, between 2018 and 2023, the airlines American, Delta, United, Spirit, and Frontier collectively raked in $12.4 billion in revenue from ancillary fees like advanced seat assignments and carry-on bags. In 2024 alone, Spirit Airlines moved further from its origins as a low-budget carrier by implementing a new seat class with extra add-ons, while Southwest abandoned its iconic 'bags fly free' and open seating policies altogether in favor of a tiered pricing system. This July, Delta announced that it has begun using AI to institute dynamic pricing based on factors like seat availability, current news, weather conditions, and even fluctuating oil prices. As brands continue to ratchet up their extra add-ons, they're starting to look more and more similar. That means the pressure to offer the next best perk or experience is mounting across the board. So far, Delta's answer to this conundrum has been to start branding its travel as a premium experience, rather than just a form of transportation. The brand is currently in the process of redesigning all of its planes' interiors for a more luxe feel, including by installing new seat fabrics, mood lighting, and a swanky color palette. For its most high-paying ticket holders, it's also begun rolling out a series of ultra-opulent airport lounges. In 2024, premium ticket offerings accounted for $5.2 billion out of Delta's total $15.6 billion revenue. Delta CEO Ed Bastian noted in the company's full-year earnings report that he expected consumers to increasingly seek 'the premium products and experiences that Delta provides.' One way the company is supporting that goal is by adopting a more 'premium' brand identity. Is this the beginning of the 'lifestyle airline' era? Delta's vision with this brand refresh was 'bold,' Tsoi says. The brand's end goal was 'to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world's most iconic lifestyle brands.' Lifestyle branding describes a kind of branding that expands a consumer's brand association beyond an actual product to a way of living, based on that brand's core values. It's become something of a buzzword across categories in recent months, with names like Tesla, Erewhon, and Sweetgreen all striving for 'lifestyle' status in some capacity. 'Even our earliest creative campfires weren't filled with aircraft, but with lifestyle imagery—people, moments, stories,' Tsoi says. 'This shift in mindset shaped everything: the tone, the aesthetic, the system. We brought an editorial sensibility to the visual language, framing Delta not just as a carrier of people, but as a curator of experience.' To that end, Delta's updated look has a significantly less corporate feel. The lifestyle photography has been pulled out of the airport or plane altogether, showing Delta passengers in bustling cities and mountain vistas. The brand's logo and wordmark remain physically unchanged, but DixonBaxi reimagined the classic Delta symbol as a 3D object, setting guidelines around how it can be used to bring motion into Delta's visual identity. Alongside the type foundry Pangram Pangram, DixonBaxi also developed two new bespoke typefaces: Delta Sans and Delta Serif. Delta Serif, which features sculpted terminals 'drawn directly from the angled geometry of the Delta icon,' can be used in a thin weight that will eventually lend an artsier feel to Delta's website, boarding passes, and ad campaigns. And, while red and blue will remain core Delta colors, the full palette has been expanded to include more emotive accent hues like sky blue, mint green, and neon pink. The new look began rolling out on Delta's social channels over the past few weeks, and will eventually evolve to encompass lounges, in-flight design, and out-of-home ad campaigns. Tsoi emphasizes that the effort to reimagine Delta's branding has only just gotten underway, and fans can expect further updates in the coming months. Given Delta's status as a leading player in the industry, it wouldn't be a surprise if its move to become a 'lifestyle airline' sets a new tone for how other airlines begin brand their own flight experiences.
Associated Press
3 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Owens & Minor Reports Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results
RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 11, 2025-- Owens & Minor, Inc. (NYSE: OMI) today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025. In connection with a likely sale of the Company's Products & Healthcare Services segment, the results herein, unless otherwise noted, reflect the Company's continuing operations which primarily represent what was previously the Patient Direct segment and certain functional operations. 'We are in the final stages of our robust process for the divestiture of the Products & Healthcare Services segment, and, as a result, have classified this segment as discontinued operations. We are looking forward to concluding the sale of the business and working with a buyer who has the vision and greater flexibility to better support our customers and long-term growth,' said Ed Pesicka, Owens & Minor's Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Pesicka concluded, 'I am excited about the opportunities ahead as we transition into a focused, pure-play Patient Direct business. Building on the momentum gained since we entered the Patient Direct space eight years ago, and supported by favorable demographic trends and meaningful scale, we are confident in our ability to lead as the market continues to evolve.' 2025 Continuing Operations Financial Outlook The Company will provide its 2025 financial outlook for continuing operations during its earnings conference call this morning at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Investor Conference Call for Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results Owens & Minor will host a conference call for investors and analysts on Monday, August 11, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Participants may access the call via the toll-free dial-in number at 1-888-300-2035, or the toll dial-in number at 1-646-517-7437. The conference ID access code is 1058917. All interested stakeholders are encouraged to access the simultaneous live webcast by visiting the Investor Relations page of the Owens & Minor website available at A replay of the webcast can be accessed following the presentation at the link provided above. Safe Harbor This release is intended to be disclosure through methods reasonably designed to provide broad, non-exclusionary distribution to the public in compliance with the SEC's Fair Disclosure Regulation. This release contains certain 'forward looking' statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, the statements in this release regarding our future prospects and performance, including our expectations with respect to our financial performance, our 2025 financial results, Owens & Minor's ability to successfully complete the sale of the P&HS business in any specific transaction on favorable terms or at all, our cost saving initiatives, future indebtedness and growth, industry trends, as well as statements related to our expectations regarding the performance of our business, including our ability to address macro and market conditions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results in future periods to differ materially from those projected or contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Investors should refer to Owens & Minor's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the SEC on February 28, 2025, including the section captioned 'Item 1A. Risk Factors,' as applicable, and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed with or furnished to the SEC, for a discussion of certain known risk factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from its current estimates. These filings are available at Given these risks and uncertainties, Owens & Minor can give no assurance that any forward-looking statements will, in fact, transpire and, therefore, cautions investors not to place undue reliance on them. Owens & Minor specifically disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. About Owens & Minor Owens & Minor, Inc. (NYSE: OMI) is a Fortune 500 global healthcare solutions company providing essential products and services that support care from the hospital to the home. For over 100 years, Owens & Minor and its affiliated brands, Apria®, Byram® and HALYARD*, have helped to make each day better for the patients, providers, and communities we serve. Powered by more than 20,000 teammates worldwide, Owens & Minor delivers comfort and confidence behind the scenes so healthcare stays at the forefront. Owens & Minor exists because every day, everywhere, Life Takes Care™. For more information about Owens & Minor and our affiliated brands, visit or follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. * Registered Trademark or Trademark of O&M Halyard or its affiliates. Share-based awards for the three months ended June 30, 2025 and 2024 of approximately 2.5 million and 1.6 million shares were excluded from the calculation of diluted loss per common share as the effect would be anti-dilutive. Share-based awards for the six months ended June 30, 2025 and 2024 of approximately 2.2 million and 1.6 million shares were excluded from the calculation of diluted loss per common share as the effect would be anti-dilutive. The following table provides a reconciliation of reported operating (loss) income, net loss from continuing operations, net of tax and net loss from continuing operations per share to non-GAAP measures used by management. The following tables provide reconciliations of net loss from continuing operations, net of tax and total debt to non-GAAP measures used by management. The following tables provide reconciliations of capital expenditures to a non-GAAP measure used by management. Use of Non-GAAP Measures This earnings release contains financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). In general, the measures exclude items and charges that (i) management does not believe reflect Owens & Minor, Inc.'s (the Company) core business and relate more to strategic, multi-year corporate activities; or (ii) relate to activities or actions that may have occurred over multiple or in prior periods without predictable trends. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally to evaluate the Company's performance, evaluate the balance sheet, engage in financial and operational planning and determine incentive compensation. Management provides these non-GAAP financial measures to investors as supplemental metrics to assist readers in assessing the effects of items and events on its financial and operating results and in comparing the Company's performance to that of its competitors. However, the non-GAAP financial measures used by the Company may be calculated differently from, and therefore may not be comparable to, similarly titled measures used by other companies. The non-GAAP financial measures disclosed by the Company should not be considered substitutes for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, and the financial results calculated in accordance with GAAP and reconciliations to those financial statements set forth above should be carefully evaluated. OMI-CORP OMI-IR SOURCE: Owens & Minor, Inc. View source version on CONTACT: Investors Alpha IR Group Jackie Marcus or Nick Teves [email protected] Leon Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer [email protected] Stacy Law [email protected] KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA VIRGINIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: MEDICAL SUPPLIES MEDICAL DEVICES HEALTH HOSPITALS SURGERY MANAGED CARE SOURCE: Owens & Minor, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 08/11/2025 06:30 AM/DISC: 08/11/2025 06:29 AM
Forbes
3 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Behavioral Economics Battle Lurking In EPA's Endangerment Finding Repeal
The EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding was the agency's formal determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Ever since, it has served as the legal foundation for EPA climate regulations. Without this finding, EPA lacks Clean Air Act authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The Trump administration's EPA has now proposed to repeal the Endangerment Finding, along with the agency's greenhouse gas standards for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles that depend on it. In the agency's announcement, EPA justifies the repeal by citing the severe economic burdens of its existing rules, including over $1 trillion in compliance costs. As the agency moves to dismantle the Endangerment Finding, another battleground has opened up that has received less attention. That fight is about whether regulators should trust consumers' preferences or instead attempt to 'correct' them. The outcome of this debate could swing the measured benefits of climate rules by trillions of dollars. The Role of Regulatory Impact Analysis Because repealing the Endangerment Finding would also remove the legal basis for existing greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks, EPA is required under longstanding executive orders to analyze the economic effects of that policy change. This requires the agency to tally the costs avoided and the benefits forgone from the action. To comply with these requirements, agencies prepare a regulatory impact analysis (RIA) whenever a rule or policy change is expected to have an annual economic effect of $100 million or more. RIA is a framework for identifying the expected consequences of a regulation, quantifying them where possible, and monetizing them when the data and methods allow. In the case of the Endangerment Finding repeal, that means examining how vehicle technology, fuel use, air pollution, and consumer welfare would differ with and without the greenhouse gas standards, and then converting any differences into dollar terms. In its draft RIA for the repeal action, EPA's core engineering-model estimate finds the repeal would yield net costs of roughly $260 billion (at a 3% discount rate, over the years 2027 to 2055). This traditional government approach counts fuel savings as a benefit to consumers, making the repeal appear costly since those savings would be lost. However, Appendix B of the RIA includes an alternative 'revealed preference' analysis that estimates net benefits of the repeal ranging from $3.05 trillion to $8.18 trillion. This set of estimates assumes that if consumers aren't voluntarily choosing more fuel-efficient vehicles, then forcing them to do so through regulations actually harms them. Any estimated savings, in that case, were pure fiction. By extension, so were many of the benefits of regulation. The Assumption of Revealed Preference Cost-benefit analysis aims to tally up the monetized social gains and losses from a policy. An economist adds up the 'private benefits' to particular individuals to arrive at a cumulative "social benefit" estimate for society as a whole. 'Revealed preference' is a concept central to this endeavor. By examining what people buy and how much they are willing to pay for different items and features, economists can estimate dollar values for different types of benefits and costs. This approach assumes that the observed willingness to pay of an individual reflects the value of a benefit to that person. This method has a major advantage in that it respects people's choices and doesn't involve analysts judging whether people's choices are good or bad; they merely accept that the choice made was what the individual preferred. The downside of this approach is that people don't always make decisions that accord with their own interests, or that of society. Fuel Savings Violate Revealed Preference For years, agencies writing fuel economy and energy efficiency rules have counted fuel and energy savings as a benefit of those rulemakings. When a consumer buys a more fuel-efficient car or appliance, they save money on gas or their utility bill. The government counts that as a significant benefit of a regulatory action phasing out less-efficient devices. This approach is valid if consumers genuinely underappreciate those savings when they buy a car or appliance. But if they already weigh fuel economy and energy efficiency against other attributes of a product before making a purchase, the savings are not a windfall benefit of the rulemaking. They're the flip side of losing other features the consumers value more. Appendix B of EPA's regulatory analysis relies on exactly that logic. If a consumer picks a gas-powered truck knowing it'll burn more fuel, they've made a trade they prefer. Forcing them into an EV to 'save' fuel costs is a net loss to them. Yet for many years, the government has treated this as a benefit. Behavioral Economics and the "Energy Efficiency Gap" Economists use the term 'energy efficiency gap' to describe the puzzling difference between the level of energy efficiency that appears cost-effective in theory and the lower level people actually choose in real life. For example, engineering calculations might show that spending $1,000 on better insulation, more efficient appliances, or a higher-MPG vehicle would pay for itself in a few years through lower utility or fuel bills. Yet, many consumers routinely forgo those investments. What explains the gap? One interpretation is that buyers are making biased, short-sighted decisions. This is the classic territory of "behavioral economics," a field focused on how real-world decisions often deviate from the assumptions of rational, optimizing behavior found in economists' models. Cognitive biases like hyperbolic discounting (placing too much weight on present rewards relative to future ones) or inattention (failing to notice or process fuel cost information) could lead people to under-invest in efficiency and leave money on the table. This perspective justifies counting the full value of 'missed' fuel savings as a regulatory benefit to the consumer, because the regulation is correcting their mistake. But there's another possibility, which is that the gap isn't a sign of bias at all, but instead a reflection of genuine trade-offs. A consumer might choose the lower-MPG car because they care more about acceleration, cargo space, style, or any number of attributes that are not captured in the fuel-savings calculations. An analyst who misinterprets the gap as a bias, when in fact the choice was based on a rational calculation, could force consumers into a less-preferred option and make them worse off. What's at Stake Separating bias from legitimate preferences is exceedingly difficult, and some would argue impossible. From the outside, the decision looks the same whether it's the product of error or preference. If we can't reliably distinguish between bias and preference, then the case for 'correcting' consumer choices becomes more about paternalism than empiricism. The stakes in this debate go beyond the Endangerment Finding. In many energy-efficiency rulemakings, 80 to 90 percent of the total monetized benefits come from the government's calculations of consumers' avoided energy costs. Environmental benefits to Americans are often in the low single-digit percentages. This means the overwhelming majority of the official benefit calculation hinges on the assumption that regulators can improve consumer welfare by steering people toward more efficient—and more expensive—products, even when buyers themselves would freely choose otherwise if left to decide on their own. This leaves economists in a quandary. Do they assume that observed market behavior is the best available measure of welfare, even if it sometimes reflects mistakes? Or do they override those choices based on models of what they think people should want if they made careful choices using all the available information? Or do they seek a middle ground, acknowledging that their models are often accurate but may also ignore important context-specific trade-offs? The answer to these questions determines whether a regulation's calculated benefits can be trusted. Private vs. Social Benefits Another complication relates to the difference between private and social benefits. Even when consumers make perfectly rational choices, what is in the interests of an individual doesn't always benefit society as a whole. When one person's gain imposes external costs on others, this can reduce, or even reverse, the net benefit for society. One obvious group affected by our purchasing decisions is future generations. It is easy to imagine future people might prefer that today's consumers forgo some luxuries in favor of greater savings and investment, which would improve living standards in the long run. But those intergenerational considerations are typically not reflected in market prices or, similarly, in economists' measures of revealed preference. In the context of energy and fuel economy, a dollar saved at the pump can be invested elsewhere in the economy, compounding to boost growth and future welfare. The enjoyment from a car feature like more horsepower or a panoramic sunroof can't be reinvested in the same way. So while a consumer may be better off paying more for those amenities, future generations probably will not be. From society's perspective, fuel and energy savings likely do represent social benefits for this reason, even when they don't compensate for their drawbacks from an individual's standpoint. A Rulemaking Worth Watching EPA's Endangerment Finding RIA pushes this debate forward by putting the revealed preference framework front-and-center, challenging the government's conventional inclusion of full lifetime fuel savings as a benefit. Whether that approach gains traction will matter well beyond this rulemaking. It's a core issue for how government evaluates climate and energy efficiency regulations generally. And it's another reason to watch closely how this already-high-stakes rulemaking unfolds.
