Michael Giberson At the Freakonomics blog, Steven Leavitt picks up on a May 21, 2006, USA Today story headlined Ticketmaster Uses Auctions to Fight Online Scalpers. The story is reported like it is news, but USA Today has been “scooped” on Ticketmaster auctions by about, oh, two and a half years: on September 1, 2003, …
Ticketmaster Ticket Auctions, The Competition, Prices Read More »
Michael Giberson Anti-net neutrality campaign Hands Off the Internet wants to show it, too, can be “hip” to the ways of the kids on the internet. To show how “with it” they are, they’ve put together a purposely crudely-drawn animation explaining the dangers of net neutrality. Similarly crude economic reasoning underlies their voice-over. The basic …
Saving the Internet, One Crude Animation at a Time Read More »
Michael Giberson At Greg Mankiw’s blog he cites a Wall Street Journal article claiming some “funky economics” are happening at the car rental counter, as renters increasingly are choosing smaller, more fuel-efficient cars in the face of higher gasoline prices. As Mankiw points out, there’s nothing funky going on, Gas and Guzzlers are Complements.
Michael Giberson Alex Tabarrok is circulating an open letter to the President and Members of Congress reflecting the consensus opinion of economists on the costs and overall net benefits of immigration. In conjunction with the Independent Institute, Alex is seeking as many signatures as possible from economists and other social scientists. For me, immigration has …
Lynne Kiesling Ben Muse has a good, link-filled post about the ethanol tariff. I am shocked, shocked to hear that the Renewable Fuels Association argues that we should not eliminate the tariff … here’s my favorite part: Renewable fuels are produced only in countries where programs have been created to assist in their production. Thus, …
Lynne Kiesling I finally saw the new Passat ad that Grant McCracken analyzed late last week (read Grant’s post if you haven’t seen the ad). I don’t completely agree with Grant that it’s a little smug, because at least in the one I saw all of the cars with the megaphones were brash, garish, expensive …
Lynne Kiesling One thing I like about Greg Mankiw is his sincerity. It resonates through all of the posts on his relatively new blog, which I am enjoying. It also fills in some of the areas where I don’t pay such careful attention in economics, because I think the intersection of his research interests and …
Lynne Kiesling One day last week, there was a large color IBM ad on the back page of the front section of the Wall Street Journal. This ad talked about the value to homes, businesses, and electricity companies of having plugs that could communicate information back to the electricity companies and network operators. They’ve run …
The Business Case for Advanced Metering Technology Read More »
Lynne Kiesling While I’m in England, Mr. Stumbling & Mumbling has a post on income inequality in 1987 and today. Punch line: no change; the progressiveness of direct taxation and the regressiveness of indirect taxation offset each other. But what caught my attention was how he led in to his discussion: Remember 1987? When Nigella’s …
Chefs More Important Than Politicians: A Sign of Progress Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Due to a sustained shortfall in rain, portions of Southeast England now face a drought order for the coming summer: England’s first drought order in a decade was imposed in the South East today as fears continued about a water crisis in parts of the UK. Sutton and East Surrey Water was granted …
Here’s A Thought: Instead of Drought Orders, Try Prices! Read More »
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