Lynne Kiesling Recently Virginia Postrel used the US (PBS) premiere of “Mr. Selfridge” to highlight the underappreciated social and economic role of the department store. As she notes, Yet like railroads and telegraphs, the department stores of the late 19th and early 20th century were socially and economically transformative institutions. They pioneered innovations ranging from …
Department Stores As Economically Transformative Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing highlights the Supreme Court’s copyright decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. Briefly, Wiley wanted the court to enforce copyright in a way that restricts the flow of book purchases across geographic regions (i.e., limiting the ability to buy cheaper versions elsewhere online). Clearly Wiley was attempting …
You Are Not Entitled to a Profitable Business Model Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Veronique de Rugy has a great argument for ending farm subsidies in the April issue of Reason (and yes, do read the whole thing, well worth your time). Farm subsidies are the canonical example of the dynamics of Mancur Olson’s Logic of Collective Action — concentrated benefits and dispersed costs lead to the …
Lynne Kiesling Reason’s been knocking it out of the park lately. Consider this article from Jim Epstein on doctors who have chosen to set up their practices to provide direct primary care. They don’t take insurance, they consult with patients in more flexible ways, and they charge lower fees as a result. This model is …
Jim Epstein: Doctors Going off the Insurance Grid Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I am fascinated by all of the discussion of Google’s decision yesterday to terminate Google Reader effective July 1. I recall Reader’s origins in 2004, when I was thrilled to find a way to scan news items and blog posts, mark some for further, deeper reading, and organize my reading into my several …
Google Reader is Popular, So Why Discontinue It? Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Well, this winter’s been more hectic than I anticipated! Teaching three classes with two new course preps, a paper at the Public Choice Society meetings, helping coordinate our search for two new members of our department’s teaching/lecturer faculty … and I haven’t been here in a while! One fun thing I did in …
Lynne Kiesling So now we at least know something direct from the horse’s mouth about Lance Armstrong’s use of performance-enhancing drugs before and during his long run of commanding Tour de France performances. In addition to the interview with Oprah Winfrey, this CBS 60 Minutes segment and this Cycling News interview with Armstrong provide fuller …
Lynne Kiesling OK, I just effused a bit over a new product introduction at the Consumer Electronics Show. Time to balance my enthusiasm with a glimpse of CES’s seamy underbelly. You’re surprised that the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world, held annually in Las Vegas (of all places), has a seamy underbelly? Want …
Lynne Kiesling You may know that the annual Consumer Electronics Show has been going on this week in Las Vegas (CES2013). CES is the venue for displaying the latest, greatest, wonderful electronic gadgets that will enrich your life, improve your productivity, reduce your stress, and make your breath minty fresh. And, increasingly, ways to save …
Lynne Kiesling Regulatory capture is one of the defining phenomena in the political economy of regulation. What is regulatory capture, exactly? In a Tech Liberation post from 2010, Adam Thierer offers this definition: “Regulatory capture” occurs when special interests co-opt policymakers or political bodies — regulatory agencies, in particular — to further their own ends. …
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