Michael Giberson The Dallas Morning News is back with the second half of its investigative report into consumer protection problems in the Texas retail power market. In this article the DMN focuses on the owner of Freedom Power, one company serving the prepaid power segment of the Texas retail market. (Yesterday I commented on part …
Consumer Protection in the Texas Retail Power Market, Part 2 Read More »
Michael Giberson The post title was extracted from the conclusion of Henry Neilson’s article, “Price gouging versus price reduction in retail gasoline markets during Hurricane Rita” (Economic Letters, October 2009), but I’m not sure the evidence supports the conclusion of altruism. Neilson collected gasoline price data in the Byran-College Station, Texas, area for several weeks …
“Gas Station Owners Were Surprisingly Altruistic During That Time of Crisis” Read More »
Michael Giberson President Obama has created the “SAVE Award,” a process by which federal employees can submit ideas for “how their agency can save money and perform better.” A committee of OMB officials will review the submissions and submit a short list to the President, and the President will pick the winner. The federal employee …
Can a Keynesian Beauty Contest Improve Obama’s Suggestion Box for Federal Employees? Read More »
Michael Giberson Yesterday I commented on Michael Sandel’s book, Justice, and on his discussion of price gouging. I hoped that Sandel would go deeper into his ideas about justice and price gouging, but the book’s index suggests that the introductory chapter is all he has to offer specifically on price gouging. In re-reading parts of …
More on Michael Sandel, Justice and Price Gouging Read More »
Michael Giberson From WSJ Environmental Capital: When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly teenagers and the Administration as the parent that will have to teach them a few lessons. Speaking on the sidelines of a smart grid conference in Washington, Dr. Chu said he didn’t think average folks …
Energy Secretary Steven Chu: Not Exactly Making Friends and Influencing People Read More »
Michael Giberson Michael Sandel appeared on the Today show last week promoting his new book, Justice: what is the right thing to do? The book and a related public television series this fall are based on Sandel’s course on justice taught at Harvard. (The television series episodes are online at the link just cited.) The …
Michael Giberson Denmark has a lot of wind power capacity. On that point, pretty much all observers agree. Beyond that point, opinions diverge. The Institute for Energy Research, possibly in response to President Obama’s references to Denmark as a renewable energy model, has commissioned a report from Danish think tank CEPOS on the nature of …
Danish Wind Power Report by LER, and Views from the NRDC Read More »
Michael Giberson The WSJ‘s Real Time Economics blog surveyed a few economist reactions to the President’s imposition of dramatically higher tariffs on imported tires. My favorite, and perhaps most appropriate to our times: In 1930, the Republican controlled House of Rep, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the… Anyone? Anyone?… the Great Depression, …
Recessions: An Especially Bad Time to Impose Bad Public Policies Read More »
Michael Giberson Krugman’s long essay in the New York Times Magazine last week continues to stir responses. (All of which are much more substantive and engaging than my supercilious remarks on Jane Smiley’s goofy Marxism in the Huffington Post. ADDED: For a more measured response to Smiley, see Steve Horwitz and Art Carden’s short explanation …
Reactions to Krugman on the State of Macroeconomics Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Matt Welch does a sharp and thorough textual exegesis of parts of President Obama’s speech to Congress on healthcare (health care?) last night, in his article on the accusations of lying that are flying around Washington these days. Matt’s final paragraph struck me, not just because I think he (and President Obama, in …
Choice and Competition Protect Consumers of Healthcare … and Electricity Read More »
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