Michael Giberson Al Roth at Market Design, directs our attention to The Ticket Economist: Grownup economists recognize that there’s a place for secondary markets, but I wonder if a convention of ticket re-sellers doesn’t have something of the flavor of a sex-workers’ conference, in the sense that the participants are engaged in an industry that …
Michael Giberson In October of last year, Congressman Brian Higgins sent a letter to then FTC chairman William Kovacic requesting an investigation of gasoline prices in his home area of western New York. Historically, prices in Buffalo and surrounding areas have been below the average price in the state, but beginning around the time of …
Never Did See That Ftc Report on Western New York Gasoline Prices Read More »
Michael Giberson Geoff Styles: Speculation Witch Hunt? He says he thinks “the CFTC and its supporters in Congress and the administration are barking up the wrong tree, altogether, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the markets.” the current determination to clamp down on speculation appears to be based on two hypotheses that are … probably …
Geoff Styles on the CFTC’s Desire to Fix Up Energy Futures Markets Read More »
Lynne Kiesling As I mentioned earlier this week, incandescent light bulb innovation is occurring. So is LED innovation. As this Engadget post points out, GE is pushing forward on both. Keep it comin’ …
Lynne Kiesling Two posts I’ve read this morning about health care resonate for me in combination. The first was Russ Roberts’ discussion of his conversation with a new Walmart employee about wages and benefits, where he notes that I didn’t get to ask her if she had health care coverage at either job. But the …
Health Care Policy, Individual Consumption Portfolios, and Liberty Read More »
Michael Giberson The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, has announced that the agency will hold a series of meetings in July and August to consider how it can use its existing statutory authority to “ensure the fair, open and efficient functioning of futures markets.” The first of the meetings will focus …
CFTC to Consider Position Limits on Energy Futures Contracts Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Recently the Economist included a thorough smart grid story in their Technology Quarterly issue; if you are looking for a good overview of the state of play in smart grid at a high level, this story will give you that background, running the gamut from distribution automation to interoperability standards. Another recent overview …
The Economist, Computer World on Building the Smart Grid Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Want some evidence for why technology mandate legislation is fraught with difficulties? This New York Times article on innovation in incandescent light bulb technology is a datum: When Congress passed a new energy law two years ago, obituaries were written for the incandescent light bulb. The law set tough efficiency standards, due to …
Michael Giberson The New York Times observes that crude oil price volatility has been exceptionally high for the last eighteen months. (Hmmm. Eighteen months ago … January 2008 … the Iowa caucuses … the U.S. presidential primary season gets underway in earnest … nahhh, couldn’t be all due to presidential politics.) Actually, eyeballing the chart …
Lynne Kiesling Gee, I really feel like the new, new world has truly arrived, when one of the most visible conversations in the places I frequent is about Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker review of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Chris Anderson responds to Gladwell, continuing the conversation. But you know that …
Anderson/gladwell Debate Brings out All of the Web Intelligentsia Read More »
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