Showing results for: “price gouging”
Paternalism and the iPod, Part Trois
The WSJ Law Blog reports (via this AP Report) that the French law allowing regulators to force Apple to make its iPod compatible with rival offerings went into effect Thursday. “Me too” regulatory movements are already underway in Britain, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Denmark. This, as Microsoft plans to introduce “Zune,” its entry into the ... Paternalism and the iPod, Part Trois
Cramer on Sirius/XM
A few weeks ago I suggested here that a merger between the two satellite radio firms, Sirius and XM, would not necessarily be as much of an antitrust problem as Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin seems to think. Now market analyst Jim Cramer has weighed in on the issue and encouraged Karmazin to have Sirius do ... Cramer on Sirius/XM
New paper: Missed Opportunities in Independent Ink
My paper for the 2006 Cato Supreme Court Review, Missed Opportunities in Independent Ink, is now available on SSRN. Justice Stevens’ opinion for the unanimous court in Independent Ink rid antitrust law of the misguided, ill conceived, and universally criticized presumption of antitrust market power in patent tying cases. Very few dispute the wisdom of ... New paper: Missed Opportunities in Independent Ink
An Antitrust Trifecta
From Hanno Kaiser at the excellent Antitrust Review on a wide range of antitrust issues and events. Here is a brief tour through the trio and some initial reactions: 1. Hanno on Peggy Zwisler’s article in 20 Antitrust 40-43 (2006): Volvo Trucks v. Reeder-Simco: Judicial Activism at the Supreme Court. Hanno takes some issue with ... An Antitrust Trifecta
Becker on Chicago's Anti-Big Box Ordinance
Gary Becker has an important post on the political economy and economic consequences of Chicago’s Big Box ordinance which would raise the costs of using low skilled labor for the affected retailers. The punchline is not surprising. It is a bad ordinance that “will hurt the very groups, African-Americans and other poor or lower middle ... Becker on Chicago's Anti-Big Box Ordinance
PCAOB’s position on spring-loading
PCAOB recently issued an audit practice alert entitled Matters Related to Timing and Accounting for Option Grants. The alert mostly addresses option backdating and potential resulting improper accounting. Spring-loading is only mentioned in a footnote on page 2: In addition, academic research has suggested the possibility that some issuers may have purposely granted options immediately ... PCAOB’s position on spring-loading
Single Member Board Committees
Today’s W$J has an article describing some of the option granting practices at Brocade (see here). Among them was the creation of a one member compensation committee consisting of Brocade’s CEO, Greg Reyes. The article gives the following as the reasoning: The process of granting stock options was cumbersome because the compensation committee met only ... Single Member Board Committees
Organ Markets, Social Justice, and the Poor: A Reply to Professor Pasquale
Frank Pasquale at Madisonian is concerned that organ markets do not show enough concern for the poor. He writes: I’d be more sympathetic to the economic approach to the topic if it showed a bit more concern for the plight of those unable to pay for organs (and for the very poor in LDC’s whose ... Organ Markets, Social Justice, and the Poor: A Reply to Professor Pasquale
Empirical Scholarship for the Untenured and at SEALS
Lisa Fairfax kicked off an interesting discussion over at the Glom regarding some reasons why untenured folks should not engage in empirical scholarship. The basic message: it takes too long, is too hard (to get data, mostly), may not be received well by tenure committees. There are some great comments to the post defending the ... Empirical Scholarship for the Untenured and at SEALS
ISS on Option Timing
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has posted an eight-page white paper entitled An Investor Guide to the Stock Option Timing Scandal. The paper provides a good overview of the recent option backdating and spring-loading revelations. There has been a number of posts in the blawgosphere debating the legality of backdating and spring-loading. While these practices are ... ISS on Option Timing
Kinderstart Antitrust Claims Dismissed … For Now …
Google’s motion to dismiss Kinderstart’s claims has been granted with leave to amend all claims. Eric Goldman provides commentary, thoughts on the defamation claim, and a link to the court’s order. As far as the antitrust claims go, I commented here that Google’s motion was likely to prevail: Labeling conduct “anticompetitiveâ€? or “exclusionaryâ€? is simply ... Kinderstart Antitrust Claims Dismissed … For Now …
Seventh Grade Math, revisited
Upon the advice of my friend Kate Litvak, I took a short summer vacation to Walt Disney World. (In reality, the trip was a work excursion, to meet up with the other Professor Nowicki to work on an executive compensation paper. But the good news is that the other Professor Nowicki was then at Walt ... Seventh Grade Math, revisited
