Michael Giberson News and commentary on Thursday’s stock market moves. First, Newsweek, “The Computer Glitch Felt Round the World.” Now, Scott Patterson, WSJ, reports “Did Shutdowns Make the Plunge Worse?” (Business Insider comments, “Everyone is rushing to blame [High Frequency Trading (HFT)] and other non-human problems for the crash… when, at least in part, it may have …
Michael Giberson Fall 2008 was a time of rapidly falling wholesale and retail gasoline prices throughout the United States, interrupted briefly due to the market disruptions of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in early September. In Tennessee, retail price increases surrounding Hurricane Ike resulted in more the 4,000 complaints to the state government. Resulting investigations by …
Tennessee Ag Settles Price Gouging Claim Against Knoxville Gasoline Retailer Read More »
Michael Giberson From Aguanomics: I was talking to a friend, and he mentioned that he’d hired an extra guy under the stimulus program. “Yeah, they are paying 80 percent of his wages and overhead. It’s a win-win for him and me…” “…but then I fired another guy; he just cost too much compared to the …
Anecdotal Evidence on Employment Effects from Stimulus Spending Read More »
Michael Giberson I don’t know the answer, so someone let me know if you do, but has the President of the United States ever declared a state of emergency over a local water main break before? According the the announcement, “The President’s action authorizes … Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all disaster relief …
Lynne Kiesling Yesterday Google announced that their ever-growing sustainability strategy now includes investing in wind generation. Although they pursue these opportunities through their philanthropic arm, they claim that they are looking for meaningful returns on their investments in addition to their sustainability impact: To reach a clean energy future, we need three things: effective policy, …
Michael Giberson A significant water main break affecting over 2 million people in the suburban Boston area has lead the Massachusetts Governor Patrick Duval to declare a state of emergency. A boil water order is also in effect. Subsequently, the Governor directed the state’s Division of Standards “to closely monitor bottled water prices in areas affected …
Is Price Gouging on Bottled Water Against the Law in Massachusetts? Read More »
Michael Giberson The Los Angeles Times has the story: “A real-world battle over virtual-property rights.” Apparently virtual world developer/promoter/host Linden Labs has changed its terms of service for Second Life over time to diminish the central importance of user ownership of virtual property created within the Second Life service. The most recent user agreement reportedly …
The Struggle to Protect Property Claims in Virtual Worlds Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I’ve seen two interesting things today in the ongoing debate between Apple and Adobe over Apple’s refusal to allow developers for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad to develop Flash-based applications. First is an open letter from Steve Jobs with an extensive discussion of Apple’s long relationship with Adobe (including an ownership share …
Apple and Adobe: It Depends on What Your Definition of “Open” is Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I was intrigued last week to read Bruce Yandle’s short piece in Regulation discussing Pigou and his ideas about taxation in the context of modern “Pigouvian” policy proposals. I recommend his essay highly; it communicates eloquently how Pigou’s ideas are currently being used as a justification for a variety of forms of taxation. …
Pigou As Public Choice Economist, Not a Pigouvian Read More »
Michael Giberson In the WSJ, Numbers Guy columnist Carl Bialik explains, “What We Don’t Know About the Economy,” a column about the making of economics statistics and the limits of the process. Of this column John Whitehead commented, “This is required reading for all those who think that economists should have a crystal ball that …
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