Lynne Kiesling Five years ago this week, a large blackout in North America affected 50 million people and cost $6 billion (see thKP archive from August 2003 for posts from that time). The enormity of the blackout led to a large forensic report and lots of follow-up, including recommendations designed to solidify and reinforce reliability …
5-Year Blackout Anniversary Prompts Some Introspection Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Yep, I’m gonna pile on here with my friends at Environmental Economics and other places about how consumer responses to $4 gas are manifesting themselves. To quote John (whose post is about SUV markets in particular): 1. Gas prices rise 2. People drive less 3. Gas prices stay high 4. Demand for new …
Consumer Behavior and $4 Gas: an Economics Case Study Read More »
Michael Giberson Holman Jenkins makes another good point in his WSJ column on energy (in addition to his conclusion, which I cited in an earlier post). He points out in response to Boone Pickens’s concern over the “transfer of wealth” to foreign oil producers: [Pickens] says we spend $700 billion a year on foreign oil, …
Lynne Kiesling Have you been following the growing popularity and the music creation model of Girl Talk? Girl Talk is Gregg Gillis, from Pittsburgh (YAY!), and an article in today’s New York Times summarizes his music, his techniques, and its reflection of the evolution of copyright: Girl Talk, whose real name is Gregg Gillis, makes …
Girl Talk, Copyright and Copyleft, and the Evolving Boundary of Fair Use Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I think Tyler is answering a different question than DSN asked, and I think he’s made it too hard. DSN asked Based on logic and observation of input cost and profit trends in various industries, when the cost of raw materials rise, companies in a competitive market are often not able to pass …
Lynne Kiesling The KP Spouse has introduced me to The Register, kind of a British Slashdot news website for computer folks. It’s very useful for keeping abreast of technical news, without some of the inane comment threads that can ensue on Slashdot (although I still love Slashdot, just not the comments on the posts). I …
Lynne Kiesling On July 8, 2008, Synapse Energy Economics released a report titled “Advanced Metering Infrastructure — Implications for Residential Customers in New Jersey“, commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Public Advocate. The report’s primary focus is an analysis of the cost-effectiveness of investments in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) from their definition of the …
Lynne Kiesling Randall Parker has a post noting that in May 2008, vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. fell 3.7% relative to May 2007. Not surprising, given that prices have risen by about, say 37% (giving us an estimated price elasticity of demand of -0.1, which is higher than normally seen, so yes, we have …
How Long Can Some Countries Continue Suppressing Gasoline Prices? Read More »
Michael Giberson Usually, retail gasoline prices do go up faster than they fall. Martha White, in Slate’s Explainer column, explains: Analyses of gasoline economics show that when the price of oil rises, it takes up to four weeks for gas station prices to catch up, with most of the increase taking place within the first …
Do Retail Gasoline Prices Go Up Faster Than They Come Down? Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Boy, the New York Times is on a roll! First they have a great article on British home electricity technologies and retail price signals last week, which I mentioned in my post that critiqued Rebecca Smith’s recent Wall Street Journal article on Texas electricity markets. Now they have a really good article on …
New York Times on In-home Energy Monitoring Technologies Read More »
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