FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Should USA card issuers adopt EMV (Chip & PIN)? [Opinion discussion]
Old Nov 23, 2011, 8:27 pm
  #169  
percysmith
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Join Date: May 2009
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I think garyschmitt is making a wrong assumption here. Going back to Economics 101 (okay maybe 102) he's assuming the demand for restaurants food is perfectly elastic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand - any supplier raising prices will immediately price themselves out of the market, or out of the credit card-accepting restaurant market at least.

I prefer the view that restaurant consumers are close to unitary elastic. If restaruants raise prices, some of us will cook at home. But some of us will continue to eat out anyway.

A case in point is Hong Kong restaurants in the past year - our currency (HK$) is pegged to the US$ but all the countries who provide our food are not and have appreciated, so we get imported inflation. Restaurants here have either closed, raised their prices or provided smaller portions for same price (so we have to order more side dishes where we did not have to before).

Increase in credit card fraud is the same as imported inflation - an upward shift in the supply curve. Prices will increase.
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