Author name: Michael Giberson

No Regulator Has or Will Have the Information, Expertise, or Esp Required to Do This

3 Comments / Economics, Energy markets, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson The title is lifted directly out of Craig Pirrong’s post on the Treasury departments proposal to “crack down on off-exchange trading of exotic financial instruments blamed for sparking last year’s crisis” (in the words of yesterday’s WSJ article). The Treasury wants derivatives contracts that commonly trade over-the-counter to trade through a centralized clearinghouse …

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The Bicycle Paved the Road for Automobiles

5 Comments / Economic history, Environmental policy, Technology / By

Michael Giberson From Inventing Green, where WIRED writer Alexis Madrigal is blogging his research notes for a forthcoming book The History of Our Future, a discussion of how bicycling may have given the internal combustion engine an early leg up in its competition against steam and electric-powered automobiles (and eventually made the roads unsafe for …

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Gasoline Retailer Opposes a Zone Pricing Ban in Connecticut

3 Comments / Energy markets, Politics / By

Michael Giberson An effective zone pricing ban in Connecticut would have the effect of equalizing the wholesale price to gasoline retailers in the state. As such, it would benefit some retailers and harm others. TheDay.com presents commentary from an owner of a retail gasoline station who expects to be harmed by the zone pricing ban …

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Where I Am Not Shopping for Alcohol in Lubbock, Texas

Economics, Food and wine, Politics / By

Michael Giberson From the Pinkies website: Tom “Pinkie” Roden established Pinkie’s back in 1934, less than one year after the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was ratified (by an extraordinary 73%), ending 14 years of prohibition. Carrying on the work that Pinkie started back in 1934, we have grown into a chain of fifteen wine …

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Congressman to Western New York Gasoline Retailers: We Will Be Watching You

Energy markets, Politics / By

Michael Giberson From the Buffalo, New York, BusinessFirst: In a letter sent May 13 by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz to Higgins, the agency said after a careful and extensive investigation, regulators could not find any evidence of illegal activity in gasoline markets in any of the affected cities. The agency monitored prices in Buffalo, Jamestown, …

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Sorting out Some Claims About Danish Wind Power

5 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets, Politics / By

Michael Giberson A shortened version of Michael Trebilcock’s commentary on wind power, mentioned here the other day, was published in the Financial Post under the not so subtle title of, “Wind power is a complete disaster.” The Financial Post subsequently published a reply by Sigurd Lauge Pedersen, a Senior Adviser to the Danish Energy Agency: …

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Anti-price Gouging Laws and Economic Efficiency: On Rapp and Skarbek on Price Gouging

Economics, Politics / By

Michael Giberson Geoffrey Rapp, (“Gouging: Terrorist Attacks, Hurricanes, and the Legal and Economic Aspects of Post-Disaster Price Regulation”, Kentucky Law Journal, 2006) expresses concern that fairness-based advocates of anti-price gouging laws and efficiency-minded opponents of such laws have such different approaches to the issue that there is “no way to reach a shared understanding of …

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Administration Abandons Airport Landing Slot Auction

1 Comment / Economics, Environmental policy / By

Michael Giberson From the New York Times City Room, “U.S. Won’t Auction Airport Landing Slots“: The United States Department of Transportation has canceled a plan to auction landing slots at New York City’s three airports, officials announced on Wednesday, bringing an end to a widely criticized effort by the Bush administration to use market incentives …

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Price Gouging: Is It Wrong? Should It Be Against the Law?

5 Comments / Economics / By

Michael Giberson The April 2009 Business Ethics Quarterly includes an article on price gouging by Jeremy Snyder, a response from Matt Zwolinski, whose article on the topic was published a year ago, and a reply from Snyder. (Zwolinski’s earlier article on price gouging was discussed here last March.  See related links below.) Snyder (“What’s the …

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Price Gouging and Behavioral Economics – More Work Needed

3 Comments / Economics / By

Michael Giberson I’ve been reading several price gouging articles lately. One, by G. C. Rapp in the Kentucky Law Journal, (“Gouging: Terrorist Attacks, Hurricanes, and the Legal and Economic Aspects of Post-Disaster Price Regulation”, 2006) makes a relatively novel reach to behavioral economics to try to justify an efficiency claim for anti-price gouging laws. In …

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