April 2014 – Knowledge Problem

New York Attorney General Grapples to Regulate New Web-based Businesses in Old Ways

1 Comment / Economics, Law, Regulation / By Michael Giberson

The New York Attorney General (AG) had an op-ed in the New York Times presenting a curious mix of resistance to change, insistence on regulating new things in old way, acknowledgement that web-based businesses create some value and regulators can’t always enforce rules intelligently, and sprinkled now and again with the barely disguised threat that regulators will not …

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Decarbonization Now? (no, Not Yet.)

7 Comments / Electricity, Environmental policy, Politics / By Michael Giberson

Paul Krugman’s recent opinion column in the New York Times ran under the headline, “Salvation Gets Cheap.” At first I though Krugman was making a snarky comment on ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s claim that the ex-mayor’s work on restricting access to guns, and efforts on obesity and smoking would ensure a place in heaven. But no, Krugman …

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Price Gouging-moral Insights from Economics

1 Comment / Economics, Law, Politics, Regulation / By Michael Giberson

Dwight Lee in the current issue of Regulation magazine offers “The Two Moralities of Outlawing Price Gouging.” In the article Lee endorsed economists’ traditional arguments against laws prohibiting price gouging, but argued efficiency claims aren’t persuasive to most people as they fail to address the moral issues raised surrounding treatment of victims of disasters. Lee wrote, “Economists’ best hope …

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Looking for Renewable Policy Certainty in All the Wrong Places

1 Comment / Electricity, Energy markets, Environmental policy, Politics / By Michael Giberson

From EnergyWire comes the headline, “In Missouri, industry wants off the ‘solar coaster’.” (link here via Midwest Energy News). A utility rebate program authorized by voters in 2008 is making Missouri into a solar leader in the Midwest. But $175 million set aside to subsidize solar installations is [nearly] fully subscribed … and the same small …

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