February 2007

Satellite Radio Merger: Antitrust Law in All Its Splendor to Be Revealed

Michael Giberson XM and Sirius, two satellite radio networks, announced plans to merge yesterday. Amusingly, in the New York Times the story begins with “The nation’s two satellite radio services, Sirius and XM, announced …”, while in the Washington Post leads with ”XM and Sirius, the two satellite radio companies ….” In each case the …

Satellite Radio Merger: Antitrust Law in All Its Splendor to Be Revealed Read More »

Markets For Human Eggs

Lynne Kiesling This Houston Chronicle article on human eggs highlights how markets can lead to mutually beneficial solutions: As more older moms look for help getting pregnant, younger women have become increasingly willing to part with their eggs. Some do it to help relatives and friends, or from a sense of altruism, but others openly …

Markets For Human Eggs Read More »

Congressional Patent Reform: I’ll Believe It When I See It

Lynne Kiesling This week Congress held hearings about patent reform; here’s the Wired article on the hearings. Members of Congress claim to be more in unison on this topic than usual, and yet, reform is slow, and when it happens the unintended consequences tend to swamp the purported benefits. This CNET article provides a good …

Congressional Patent Reform: I’ll Believe It When I See It Read More »

Can’t Make the Tour De California? Follow Csc Riders Using Google Earth

Lynne Kiesling While we’re in the “how cool is this?” department, pro cycling team CSC has announced that we’ll be able to track all of their riders on the upcoming Tour de California using GSM cellular technology and Google Earth: During this year’s edition of the pro cycling race, the Computer Sciences Corporation, or CSC, …

Can’t Make the Tour De California? Follow Csc Riders Using Google Earth Read More »

Self-assembling Nanotech Batteries

Lynne Kiesling I’ve often wondered how nanotechnology can contribute to increased efficiency, load factor, and conservation of energy. My first thoughts were probably wrong; we don’t need nano-scale devices to perform remote monitoring and automated repair and self-correction within the wires network itself. Regular small-scale devices can do just fine for that. But here’s some …

Self-assembling Nanotech Batteries Read More »

Welcome Instapundit Readers

Lynne Kiesling Welcome Instapundit readers, and thanks to Glenn Reynolds for his link to my recent post about price controls in Venezuela. I hope you find thought-provoking and interesting economics content here. I’m glad you’re here.

The Costly Lesson Venezuela’s Citizens Are Learning About Their Demagogue

Lynne Kiesling Four years of Chávez’s price controls have led to serious food shortages. Such shortages have sporadically appeared with items from milk to coffee since early 2003, when Chávez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor. Yet inflation has soared to an accumulated 78 …

The Costly Lesson Venezuela’s Citizens Are Learning About Their Demagogue Read More »