Lynne Kiesling One of the big stories in Chicago at the moment is the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), its expenditures, and its management decisions. Last week I mentioned the ongoing construction and expansion of the Brown Line stations, as well as Time Out Chicago’s set of feature articles. But there’s more frustration and discontent simmering …
Wanted: Economic Analysis of Urban Rail Transportation Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Grant McCracken’s review of Super Bowl ads is the dernier cri in ad commentary for SB XLI. He provides links to the ads, in case you missed them. I thought the Coca-Cola ads were all quite good and showed a lot of ingeneuity. The e*Trade finger ad and the Budweiser stray dog ad …
Grant Mccracken’s the Final Word on Super Bowl Ads Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Ooooh, baby, it’s cold outside! The cold snap affecting a large proportion of the U.S. population is placing upward pressure on oil prices, particularly because the cold snap is affecting U.S. regions that rely more on home heating oil than natural gas or electric heating: The onset of cold weather in the U.S. …
Temperature, Oil Prices, and Weather Derivatives Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I am playing a little hooky this weekend and going skiing through Monday. In the interim, here are some thought-provoking reads: This Technology Review article on technological change in small-scale coal gasification that could be done on-site, in the home. Michael Dell is back in the news today, after taking back the CEO …
Lynne Kiesling Here’s an example of how bundling can create value: Google Pack for Windows. It’s a bundled download of a bunch of Google software (Earth, Picasa, Toolbar, Desktop), but more interestingly, the bundle includes non-Google software: Acrobat Reader, AdAware, Firefox, and Norton Antivirus. All of these are available for download separately, but Google has …
Lynne Kiesling Today is Milton Friedman Day, and although the Day Job has kept me from much reading and writing today, I would like to point you to this nice article from the Freeman about Milton Friedman and the Chicago School. In the course of the discussion Richard Ebeling contrasts the Chicago School with Austrian …
Milton Friedman, the Chicago School, and Austrian Economics Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Now I’ve gone and done it; I’ve registered for the Olympic distance Pleasant Prairie Triathlon on 19 August. In triathlon lingo, this race will be my A race for the summer. Anxiety over this will surely get my butt on the bike rollers this winter, even when I’d like to stay in bed …
Lynne Kiesling Randall Parker at FuturePundit has a post noting Stanford economist David Victor’s analyses of ethanol, as found in this Technology Review interview with him. I generally agree with David’s remarks (we met several years ago in Mexico, and he has lots of expertise in energy and environment, particularly in developing countries), and with …
Randall Parker and David Victor on Ethanol Policy Read More »
Lynne Kiesling This novelty is tailor-made for a Fry-and-Laurie loving, Wodehouse reading, pathetic Anglophile like myself: the Voco clock, an alarm clock programmed with 50 different messages from Stephen Fry as the consummate valet (Mr. Jeeves). Imagine waking up to the voice of Stephen Fry saying I’m so sorry to disturb you sir, but it …
Lynne Kiesling Tyler Cowen on income inequality in the NY Times; see also comments from Don Boudreaux at Café Hayek and Mark Thoma at The Economist’s View. This Technology Review article on EEstor’s new battery-ultracapacitor for energy storage. EEstor claims that their battery hybrid has 10 times the capacity of a traditional battery at half …
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