Lynne Kiesling The cost saving-focused mindset has prevailed in regulated industries for over a century, slowing innovation in the process. In electricity, regulation that bases firms’ profits on cost recovery erects market barriers by recognizing only a business model that involves providing a specified product (110v power to the home) transported over a monopoly network. …
Lynne Kiesling A team of highly skilled and design-savvy engineers have revealed Nest, an elegant, well-designed thermostat that can learn your preferred settings, analyze your data to spot energy-saving and money-saving opportunities, and look lovely on your wall. Earth2Tech has a review article on Nest, as does Greentech Enterprise. This summary description, from the Earth2Tech …
Nest’s Elegant Learning Thermostat — but is It Transactive? Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Here’s an interesting juxtaposition of two prominent executives performing sound public choice analyses, and I think they complement each other, at least in my work! This weekend’s Wall Street Journal featured an interview with Exelon’s John Rowe, A Life in Energy and (Therefore) Politics. Exelon is the third largest investor-owned utility/generation owner in …
Exelon’s John Rowe and Google’s Eric Schmidt: Truth to Power? Read More »
Lynne Kiesling What’s a political economy-oriented economist to make of Occupy Wall Street? So far I’ve found two complementary commentaries that reflect my analysis of the deeply flawed policies of the past couple of decades that have enabled the crony corporatism that seems to be at the core of the protest (just in my phrasing …
A Political Economy Model for Occupy Wall Street Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Congratulations to Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims for the 2011 economics Nobel. Marginal Revolution has developed a well-deserved reputation for go-to commentary on the Nobel; see Alex’s overview, Tyler’s comments on Sargent, and Tyler’s comments on Sims. Note also the Tyler points out Sargent’s work in economic history (his “small change” book with …
Lynne Kiesling Today I offer a break in my usual loathing of politics to compliment a politician, not for his political work, but for an intellectually engaging and erudite essay. In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Paul Ryan reviewed The Price of Civilization, the new book from Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs is something of a bête noire …
Lynne Kiesling UPDATE: I’ve had a report that the link to the slides is not working, but I can’t get it not to work … so if you are having trouble please let me know in the comments and I’ll go bug-stomping. UPDATED UPDATE: mischief managed, I think! On Saturday I was honored to be …
Students for Liberty Talk: Economics and Complexity Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Amazon’s announcement yesterday of their Kindle Fire tablet differentiates the tablet market in one discrete jump. Anticipated for months, the Fire does indeed compete head-to-head with the iPad, but not by mimicking its feature-rich and flexible platform. Amazon has made a strong Schumpeterian move to differentiate the market. Amazon’s move follows a storied …
Razor-Razorblade, Printer-Cartridge, … Tablet-Media Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Last week the new Economic Freedom of the World report was released, and it’s pretty sobering. The Fraser Institute and a large international coalition of think tanks collaborate to publish this annual report, and the research papers written over the past 20 years using the EFW data indicate the positive role that economic …
New Economic Freedom of the World Report, and Some Suggestive Connections Read More »
Lynne Kiesling In case you were in doubt concerning my argument of a couple of weeks ago and back in March that the AT&T/T-Mobile merger is largely driven by our flawed spectrum policy, Gordon Crovitz weighed in with his version of the same argument in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week: The great threat …
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