Lynne Kiesling James Surowiecki’s Financial Page column in the new New Yorker is an interesting muse on uncertainty. Or, more precisely, on volatility, because his focus is on fluctuations in stock prices, oil prices, other commodity prices, and currency valuations over the past couple of months, and on trying to discern the underlying causes of …
Lynne Kiesling Here’s my cynical, anti-authoritarian link of the day: the mayor of Clayton, California shut down a fruit stand run by two little girls because it was a commercial enterprise in an area not zoned for commerce. Hilariously, the mayor defends the decision to shut down this tiny lesson in capitalism, preferring to make …
Little Girl, You Need a License for That Fruit Stand Read More »
Michael Giberson You’ve heard the old joke about the weather, right? — everybody talks about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it. Well now you* can do more than just talk about the weather, you* can bet** on it. *By “you” I mean, “accredited investors with a minimum net worth of $1 million,” …
Lynne Kiesling The latest issue of MIT’s Technology Review has a profile of GridPoint and its founder, Peter Corsell. Peter’s commentary in that issue discusses the importance of applying information technology in the electric power system. There’s also a good video profile, which I recommend to you.
Lynne Kiesling Pandora is a vast online radio resource, with many subscribers who are huge fans of its services. But it may go out of existence in the near future as a consequence of Internet royalty payments: Pandora — practically the poster child for online radio — says it will shut down if royalty rates …
Will Pandora Be an Internet Radio Royalty Casualty? Read More »
Lynne Kiesling One of my favorite things about our house renovation is the spiffy, brandy-new Kitchenaid refrigerator that you can see in the corner of this kitchen photo: It’s well-designed, it’s energy-efficient, it keeps our food and drink beautifully … and, because I am particular about mineral and biological tastes in water, I love its …
Lynne Kiesling At Econbrowser, Jim Hamilton has a very thorough post on the economic consequences of falling oil prices. Consumer confidence, inflation, GDP, Fed policy, … and his conclusion is not very optimistic in the short run. In fact, here’s a question for you: will the short-run and long-run adaptations of consumers and producers actually …
The Consequences of Falling Oil Prices, and the Benefits of High Oil Prices Read More »
Lynne Kiesling At some point recently in my various travels, I managed to make it into my office, where I found a large envelope with a book in it. My book! Titled Deregulation, Innovation and Market Liberalization: Electricity regulation in a continually evolving environment: Over the past 50 years the US economy has experienced economic …
Lynne Kiesling Picking up again on the blackout anniversary theme from last week, Scientific American has re-run this 2007 article on grid management and smart grid technology. Again, it is overly focused on how digital technology can improve top-down grid management, and does not mention the vast potential economic and reliability benefits associated with using …
Lynne Kiesling OK, critiquing windfall profits taxes is pretty elementary skeet shooting target practice for economists, but Tim Worstall does it so eloquently in the Register! More people want to use $30, $50, $90 oil than there is oil to go around at that price so markets do their magic thing, prices adjust and supply …
Critiques of Obama’s Oil Windfall Profits Tax Proposals Read More »
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