Michael Giberson Economists have devoted a great deal of attention to market power in electric power markets in the somewhat general, structural sense, but very little of that work focuses much attention on networked-nature of the industry. The network matters a lot – that’s one of the views well articulated in the Thomas, et al., …
The Role of Market Monitors in Electric Power Networks Read More »
Michael Giberson A few items from yesterday and today’s Washington Post caught my eye and relate to topics on our mind here. Yesterday the Post profiled Mojo Nixon, the eighties camp rocker (“Elvis is Everywhere”), who has landed a gig deejaying for Sirius Radio. In my view among the biggest of the short-run losses from …
Michael Giberson A few items from yesterday and today’s Washington Post caught my eye and relate to topics on our mind here. Yesterday the Post profiled Mojo Nixon, the eighties camp rocker (“Elvis is Everywhere”), who has landed a gig deejaying for Sirius Radio. In my view among the biggest of the short-run losses from …
Michael Giberson The cost of transportation, particularly when it is a significant part of the overall cost of a product, provides an incentive to try to place production facilities close to the final consumer. Of course, often it costs much more to build big production facilities close to consumers instead of further out, and consumers …
Michael Giberson Two years ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a staff report diagnosing problems with the way reactive power is procured, paid for, and used in the U.S. electric power industry. The report was widely recognized as authoritative and thoughful, and as laying well the foundation for further progress on the topic. As …
Michael Giberson For a long time in the United States, ethanol has been a fringe act, a political plaything, a way for Congress to subsidize the income of well-connected agribusinesses without thinking too hard. Now, ethanol has become a member of a small cluster of “ideas” that are supposed to help us get on down …
Michael Giberson David Warsh, in a round-up of items at Economic Principals, draws attention to a working paper by Ross Miller with the unlikely title of Stansky’s Monster: A Critical Examination of Fidelity Magellan’s “Frankenfund”. Warsh calls it “a good financial mystery story” and a “lucid and amusing (and important) detective story” with a “thumping …
Michael Giberson The Fort Worth, Texas Star-Telegram reports that private capital groups Blackstone Capital Partners LP and the Carlyle Group are considering their own bid to take TXU private. While it may seem a little late in the day for a new bid – after all the TXU board has already approved the offer from …
Rival Bid for Txu? And What About the Politicians? Read More »
Michael Giberson There were several bits of competition-related news items in Friday’s Washington Post. Catching my interest were Steven Pearlstein’s column advocating against the XM-Sirius merger (See also Howard Kurtz article from Wednesday and Rob Pegoraro’s tech column on Thursday) and a story on the passage of a bill by the Virginia state legislature that …
Michael Giberson In letters to the chairmen of FERC and the CFTC, Senator Jeff Bingaman asks what actions the agencies have taken in response to recent episodes of natural gas price volatility. Particularly of concern to the Senator were allegations of manipulation of the NYMEX gas futures contract price at the end of August 2006. …
Copyright © 2022 Knowledge Problem Archive