Author name: Michael Giberson

Another Black Eye for Corn-Based Ethanol

Michael Giberson A surge in the demand for ethanol — touted as a greener alternative to gasoline — could have a serious environmental downside for the Chesapeake Bay, because more farmers growing corn could mean more pollution washing off farm fields, a new study warned yesterday. A Washington Post story on the study paints a …

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Auction Seeks to Provide Competitive Prices for the Discovery of Network Goods

Michael Giberson A Swiss software security research company, WabiSabiLabi, is establishing an online auction site to allow security researchers to auction off discoveries of software vulnerabilities. In their press release, they said: Recently it was reported that although researchers had analyzed a little more than 7,000 publicly disclosed vulnerabilities last year, the number of new …

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U.S. Senator Weighs in on PJM Dispute with Market Monitor

Michael Giberson From The Star-Ledger: U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez today urged a federal agency to hold hearings into whether the company that runs the regional power grid is undermining the work of a monitor whose job is to guard against manipulation of electricity prices. In a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Menendez (D-N.J.) …

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Every Consumer Benefits from Small Reductions in Peak Demand

Michael Giberson The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an excellent story about the PJM electric power market, market performance on high demand days, and the growing interest in managing demand by engaging consumers. Excerpts: It was at 4 p.m. last Aug. 2, toward the end of a midsummer heat wave, when the Philadelphia region’s power-plant fleet began …

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More on Prediction Market Manipulation

Michael Giberson I cross-posted “Deep-Pocketed Manipulators are a Prediction Market’s Friend” at prediction market group blog Midas Oracle, where it generated a counter post from Stanford prof. Eric Zitzewitz, “Is Manipulation Good for a Prediction Market? Accuracy Isn’t Everything.” I replied with “What should be Done about Manipulation of Prediction Markets?” Also of note, a …

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Senate Considers Expanding Regulatory Power to Counter ‘excessive Speculation’ in Gas Market

Michael Giberson Proposals to increase government oversight of the energy markets, particularly over-the-counter trading, are unlikely to reduce volatility in those markets, some market analysts predict. So begins a Dow Jones Newswire story on the reaction to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on “excessive speculation” in natural gas markets. (I discussed the report …

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Deep-pocketed Manipulators Are a Prediction Market’s Friend

Michael Giberson Online magazine Slate has published the Tim Hartford column on possible manipulation of the “H. Clinton becomes President in 2008” prediction market at Intrade. (Yes, the same column that appeared June 29 at the Financial Times , and blogged about here on July 1.) On this topic, Slate is late and even the …

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Applying Experimental Economics to Policy Design is Not About Duplicating Real World Conditions

Michael Giberson At Economist’s View, Mark Thoma has had a pair of recent postings on experimental economics. A few days ago he quoted extensively from a posting at VoxEu by Steffen Huck and Jean-Robert Tyran. In brief, Huck and Tyran said, “Experimental economics opens the door to better policy design. Laboratory experiments should be used …

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