Hurricane Sandy

New York Attorney General Grapples to Regulate New Web-based Businesses in Old Ways

1 Comment / Economics, Law, Regulation / By

The New York Attorney General (AG) had an op-ed in the New York Times presenting a curious mix of resistance to change, insistence on regulating new things in old way, acknowledgement that web-based businesses create some value and regulators can’t always enforce rules intelligently, and sprinkled now and again with the barely disguised threat that regulators will not …

New York Attorney General Grapples to Regulate New Web-based Businesses in Old Ways Read More »

New York State Also Moves Quickly on Price Gougers

Economics, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson The New York Attorney General’s office takes action against 13 gas station owners in the state for price gouging. Like last week’s prompt response by New Jersey, this is unusually quick work for price gouging cases. A few quotes from the AG’s press release: NEW YORK – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today …

New York State Also Moves Quickly on Price Gougers Read More »

Headline: “Gov. Christie Expects Property Taxes to Rise in Sandy-ravaged Areas”

Liberty, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson At least the Governor understands that emergencies can drive costs up. We’ll see if this understanding goes beyond the expenditure of public funds to include excess costs faced by small business in New Jersey once the state gets around to prosecuting price gouging cases in earnest. Christie tax story here. One example of …

Headline: “Gov. Christie Expects Property Taxes to Rise in Sandy-ravaged Areas” Read More »

Gasoline Supply Chain Stories in Post-sandy New Jersey and New York

3 Comments / Economics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Edward McAllister and David Sheppard, with Reuters, have a great story on the connection between disaster preparedness and the nature of retailer ownership. They report that corporately-owned retailers, such as convenience-store chain WaWa and vertically-integrated gasoline refiner/retailer Hess, drew on corporate resources in advance of the storm to be ready to return stores …

Gasoline Supply Chain Stories in Post-sandy New Jersey and New York Read More »

New Jersey Moves Rapidly on Price Gouging Investigations

1 Comment / Economics, Law, Liberty, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson Something new in the realm of price gouging law enforcement: speedy action. Frequently states begin investigations of consumer complaints only after the emergency is over, conclude investigations months later, and then begin negotiating some sort of settlement with accused stations. You may recall that New Jersey only finally reached a conclusion in its …

New Jersey Moves Rapidly on Price Gouging Investigations Read More »

The One-sided Debate over Price Gouging

3 Comments / Economics, Law, Liberty, Politics, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson John Carney proposes declaration of free-trade zones for gasoline in shortage-afflicted areas. Prices could stay regulated elsewhere, but consumers and merchants would gain the option to trade at higher prices within the zones. Great idea, but there is zero chance that very visible politicians will want to be upstaged by an invisible hand, …

The One-sided Debate over Price Gouging Read More »

Copyright © 2022 Knowledge Problem Archive