Lynne Kiesling This morning the Wall Street Journal editorialized about the Porkbusters idea, even going so far as to print the web address at The Truth Laid Bear. Transparency and accountability. If they refuse to do it themselves, we use highly distributed technology to make them. Beautiful.
Lynne Kiesling James Hamilton has done the back of the envelope calculation to show that in the pasat two weeks, gasoline demand has plummeted, both relative to trend and relative to last year. His graph showing the effect is striking. Professor Hamilton points out that this decrease in demand is one of the reasons why …
Why Yes, There is Elasticity in the Demand for Gasoline! Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Ray Gifford has written an excellent a historical perspective on the property rights and commons debate in the digital sphere. He hearkens back to the Parliamentary enclosure movement of the 18th century in Britain to point out that The private decisions of multiple individuals will deliver an order in the face of uncertainty …
Lynne Kiesling Michael Barone has an interesting column on Adam Smith as a political pundit. He riffs off of a quote from Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter 1, para. 199: In every civilized society, in every society where the distinction of ranks has once been completely established, there have been always two different schemes …
Adam Smith on the Politics of “People of Fashion” Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Like “price gouging”, “windfall profits” is an economic non-concept that rears its ugly head in the political machinations surrounding exogenous economic dislocations like national disasters. Senators Cantwell and Dorgan, who are sensible on some other, electricity-related, energy issues, really get it wrong here. Steve Chapman’s column on the topic points out the economic …
Lynne Kiesling OK, I know criticizing Dominique de Villepin is like shooting fish in a barrel, but this one really cries out for it: After threatening oil companies with a big tax grab, French petrol prices fell slightly and Dominique de Villepin pronounced it a step in the right direction but not enough. Meanwhile, he …
Lynne Kiesling In the little bit of the Roberts confirmation hearings I caught at the airport yesterday, I was struck by how much the Senators were talking. My first thought was that I, apparently erroneously, thought that the hearings were a chance to hear what he thinks. Silly, naive economist. When I got home, the …
Lynne Kiesling One of the themes of post-Katrina punditry has been “why build a city below sea level and between three bodies of water?” Think about the history of the US, or for that matter, the Netherlands. The critical growth occurred at a time when waterways were the primary means of transportation (the 17th century …
Lynne Kiesling Kevin at Truck & Barter has a Q&A with himself on “price gouging”. Well worth the read; he summarizes the economic arguments nicely. Feel free to forward it to you member of Congress.
Lynne Kiesling Even though Skype proves that anyone can sell phone service and is being courted for acquisition, the stock of its main suitor, eBay, fell 4% today on the news of the potential union. J.P. Morgan weighed in on the possibility, saying it thinks the inclusion of voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, technology …
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