Venezuela: This is Interesting
According to the Washington Post, the US will join the mediation effort of the Organization of American States to bring a quicker end to the instability in Venezuela.
Uncategorized
CA Electricity Prices Result Of Market Power, Not Gaming?
Such is the conclusion of a California Independent System Operator report released Monday. This Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) and this LA Times article (subscription required) discuss the report, but interestingly, they have different slants. The LA Times article has the tone of “here’s a list of companies that did what Enron did” and …
CA Electricity Prices Result Of Market Power, Not Gaming? Read More »
The Consequences Of Venezuela’s Oil Strike
Venezuela’s iron and steel industry is in virtual shutdown because of the (natural) gas shortage brought on by the strike. Gas is a by-product of oil production, so it’s been shut down too. It turns out that Venezula is the world’s largest producer of hot briquetted iron, which is an input in the production of …
More Press On The Gifts Of Athena
In his most recent Economic Principals column, David Warsh recommends both Joel Mokyr’s The Gifts of Athena and Nathan Rosenberg’s Schumpeter and the Endogeneity of Technology as good reads on the economics and history of technological change. Warsh’s comments on The Gifts of Athena (and its author) are insightful and to the point, and reinforce …
Baby Steps Toward Market-based Retail Pricing
Demand response programs at utilities and ISOs are not full-on market-based retail pricing, but they at least serve as evidence that demand incentives interacting with supply incentives can discipline prices very effectively. This article on PJM’s demand response program illustrates how sharing the benefits of load shaping kept peak hour wholesale prices down in summer …
Living Off The Grid
And while you’re enjoying your glass of small-vineyard zinfandel that you have mail ordered from California, think about living disconnected from the electricity grid and having the quality of life to which you would like to become accustomed. This New York Times article provides some insight into living off the grid, which technology is now …
Back Home Again
The IAEE conference was very good — lots of interesting papers, and I was fascinated by the similarities and the differences of the issues and approaches across this very international group of economists. In the next couple of days I’ll be posting a summary of remarks from Lord Nigel Lawson, who was Chancellor of the …
Off to Aberdeen
I’m off to Aberdeen, the home of the UK oil industry. Can’t wait!! I hope to find some good uisge beatha there as well; that’s water of life, or whisky in English.
OPEC’s Meeting Today
Another variable in OPEC’s ability to sustain cooperation in the cartel is something they will discuss today at their meeting: the fall of the US dollar. As this story reports, the currency in which oil trades are denominated us the US dollar, so its decline is not good news for oil producers who are trying …
British Euphemisms
One of the charming and fascinating things about British culture is the contradictory use of euphemisms for some things, and brutally frank phrasings for other things. The word “toilet” is one such contradiction — whereas we Americans say “restroom” or “ladies room”, even properly-brought-up Brits will say “excuse me, where is the toilet?” I must …