Showing results for: “digital markets act”
Interchange Fees Are Not Rising: Correcting the GAO Report
Next summer, the World Cup, the world’s most watched sporting event, marks its quadrennial return. Although thirty-two teams will compete in South Africa, the list of favorites begins with the two teams that have won half of the previous eighteen tournaments and three of the last four—Brazil and Italy. Brazil plays an open and flowing ... Interchange Fees Are Not Rising: Correcting the GAO Report
Moving the Ball Forward: Macroeconomic Considerations
What is most surprising about the GAO report is how little the analytical discussion of this subject has advanced in the last decade. We all know that interchange rates might contribute to higher retail prices: customers that use cheaper payment products can be said to “subsidize” customers that use credit cards. Starting with the Australian ... Moving the Ball Forward: Macroeconomic Considerations
Isn't Competition Grand?: Wal-Mart, Drugs, and Antitrust
Fred Tung highlights Wal-Mart’s new strategy of selling a month’s supply of 300 different generics for $4, noting that Target will match Wal-Mart’s prices but Walgreens and CVS will not. Isn’t competition grand? Well, not everyone is convinced that low prices for consumers is a good thing. Unsurprisingly, for instance, this strategy has not gone ... Isn't Competition Grand?: Wal-Mart, Drugs, and Antitrust
Climate Change and the Non-Sensical Precautionary Principle
In his New York Times column, Thomas Friedman advocates “doing the Cheney-thing on climate — preparing for 1%.” He’s referring to Vice-President Cheney’s reported remark: “If there’s a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping Al Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our ... Climate Change and the Non-Sensical Precautionary Principle
Debating Google
Apologies for the late notice on this. Last week I was on a Federalist Society panel discussing Google’s antitrust issues with Rick Rule, Susan Creighton and Scott Cleland. The event description follows, and you can find audio of the panel here. It was an interesting discussion, full of nice ironies in that Microsoft’s chief outside ... Debating Google
Who decides how much to pay?
What is the proper role for judges in deciding how much investment advisers to mutual funds should be compensated? This is the question the Supreme Court will answer in Jones v. Harris Associates, argued last month. At first, the question seems silly: courts don’t get a say in how much I get paid or how ... Who decides how much to pay?
Skilling is not a crack whore, it seems to me
In a post over at Co-op, Dave Hoffman wonders why so many in the blogoshpere are publicly outraged by Jeff Skilling’s 24-year sentence, but not, seemingly, by similar-length sentences for drug crimes. Larry and Christine Hurt (hers is the fifth comment down on Dave’s post) deftly handle the response. As I noted a while back: there ... Skilling is not a crack whore, it seems to me
The faulty logic of "protecting" consumers from the absence of annual fees
Our friend and University of Chicago law professor, Omri Ben-Shahar, fresh off a run participating in our credit card interchange fee symposium, has penned a guest post following up on our ongoing discussion of annual fees: There is no annual fee for shopping at Wal-Mart, but there is an annual fee for shopping at Sam’s ... The faulty logic of "protecting" consumers from the absence of annual fees
I'm About to Get More Productive …
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 era has begun. Today, the first part of my online poker and football watching research and writing weekend was interrupted with this message on my computer screen: The President of the United States has signed legislation that now causes PartyGaming to have to cease taking wagers from ... I'm About to Get More Productive …
Assessing the Social Effects of the Use of Credit Cards
The GAO has a fairly extensive discussion of the costs and benefits of credit cards to merchants. However, that discussion focuses on the individual benefits. I would like to step back and put two of those benefits – increased merchant sales and fraud prevention costs – into the larger context that I discussed earlier. First, ... Assessing the Social Effects of the Use of Credit Cards
The problem with paper payments
Jim Van Dyke (who contributed to our interchange symposium) has an interesting post up today recounting a brief glimpse of life without payment cards: What would a day without payment cards be like? I had a glimpse into that just this morning, when my usual Bay Area morning routine of using my prepaid card to ... The problem with paper payments
Russian Retail Trade Law and Government Barriers to Entry
A new Russian retail trade law is scheduled to (at least partially) go into effect on February 1st. The new retail trade law, with the support of the national antitrust authority and Prime Minister Putin amongst others, has three essential features: (1) limiting the operation of chains to no more than 25 percent of total ... Russian Retail Trade Law and Government Barriers to Entry
