November 2012

Headline: “Gov. Christie Expects Property Taxes to Rise in Sandy-ravaged Areas”

Michael Giberson At least the Governor understands that emergencies can drive costs up. We’ll see if this understanding goes beyond the expenditure of public funds to include excess costs faced by small business in New Jersey once the state gets around to prosecuting price gouging cases in earnest. Christie tax story here. One example of …

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Before Getting Too Excited About the Iea’s Forecast of Us Oil Production Leadership…

Michael Giberson Earlier this week the International Energy Agency released their annual World Energy Outlook, and new is a forecast that the United States would surpass Russian and Saudi Arabia to once-again become the world’s largest oil producer, sometime around 2020. The news set off a wave of happy press, i.e. the Wall Street Journal,  …

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Gasoline Supply Chain Stories in Post-sandy New Jersey and New York

Michael Giberson Edward McAllister and David Sheppard, with Reuters, have a great story on the connection between disaster preparedness and the nature of retailer ownership. They report that corporately-owned retailers, such as convenience-store chain WaWa and vertically-integrated gasoline refiner/retailer Hess, drew on corporate resources in advance of the storm to be ready to return stores …

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New Jersey Moves Rapidly on Price Gouging Investigations

Michael Giberson Something new in the realm of price gouging law enforcement: speedy action. Frequently states begin investigations of consumer complaints only after the emergency is over, conclude investigations months later, and then begin negotiating some sort of settlement with accused stations. You may recall that New Jersey only finally reached a conclusion in its …

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The One-sided Debate over Price Gouging

Michael Giberson John Carney proposes declaration of free-trade zones for gasoline in shortage-afflicted areas. Prices could stay regulated elsewhere, but consumers and merchants would gain the option to trade at higher prices within the zones. Great idea, but there is zero chance that very visible politicians will want to be upstaged by an invisible hand, …

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