Showing results for: “premium natural and organic”
Amazon-Whole Foods: The Speculation Then, the Evidence Today
Carl Shapiro, the government’s economics expert opposing the AT&T-Time Warner merger, seems skeptical of much of the antitrust populists’ Amazon rhetoric: "Simply saying that Amazon has grown like a weed, charges very low prices, and has driven many smaller retailers out of business is not sufficient. Where is the consumer harm?" On its face, there was nothing about the Amazon/Whole Foods merger that should have raised any antitrust concerns. While one year is too soon to fully judge the competitive impacts of the Amazon-Whole Foods merger, nevertheless, it appears that much of the populist antitrust movement’s speculation that the merger would destroy competition and competitors and impoverish workers has failed to materialize.
My Hip Saga and How the Affordable Care Act Squandered Our Best Opportunity to Lower Health Care Costs
After two years of nagging and increasingly worse hip and leg pain, I learned last August (at age forty) that I have a congenital hip deformity and need to have both hips replaced. In planning for this surgery, I’ve witnessed first-hand a problem that is driving American health care costs through the roof and is exacerbated by ... My Hip Saga and How the Affordable Care Act Squandered Our Best Opportunity to Lower Health Care Costs
Thom Lambert on Alternatives to Lawyer Licensing
Let’s start at the very beginning. When analyzing the merits of any regulation — i.e., any rule that disrupts private ordering by threat of force — one should first ask what problem the regulation aims to avert. When it comes to the rules banning sales (and thereby preventing purchases) of legal services by unlicensed individuals, ... Thom Lambert on Alternatives to Lawyer Licensing
Natural Disasters and Payday Lending
There has been plenty of Hurricane Irene blogging, and some posts linking natural disasters to various aspects of law and policy (see, e.g. my colleague Ilya Somin discussing property rights and falling trees). Often, post-natural disaster economic discussion at TOTM turns to the perverse consequences of price gouging laws. This time around, the damage from ... Natural Disasters and Payday Lending
Here Come the Price Controls
As Todd mentioned, the Obama Administration has released its latest plan for regulating (and mandating) health insurance. The new plan includes a novel element: the creation of a seven-member Health Insurance Rate Authority that would issue an annual schedule of “reasonable” rate increases. Increases deemed unjustified could be blocked, and insurers that imposed unjustified rate ... Here Come the Price Controls
Critics of health insurance mergers misapply the evidence and misinterpret the market
As regulatory review of the merger between Aetna and Humana hits the homestretch, merger critics have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to the deal. This is particularly true of a subset of healthcare providers concerned about losing bargaining power over insurers. Fortunately for consumers, the merger appears to be well on its way to ... Critics of health insurance mergers misapply the evidence and misinterpret the market
Zeke Emanuel on the ACA’s Adverse Selection Problem and Solutions to It
Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm’s brother and former health care adviser to President Obama, acknowledges in today’s Wall Street Journal that adverse selection may prove to be a “bump in the road” in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But never you mind. He’s got solutions. And, as usual, they all come down to messaging. Emanuel describes ... Zeke Emanuel on the ACA’s Adverse Selection Problem and Solutions to It
Are the antitrust laws any defense to the real dangers of mega-mergers and big technology power aggregation?
One year ago, Amazon acquired Whole Foods in a $13.7 billion deal. At the time, David Balto, a disciple of current antitrust orthodoxy, wrote: Those who are saying the Amazon-Whole Foods merger is a competition problem are leading us into the jungle without a compass and no clear objective. Antitrust law should stick to protecting consumers and ... Are the antitrust laws any defense to the real dangers of mega-mergers and big technology power aggregation?
When Past Is Not Prologue: The Weakness of the Economic Evidence Against Health Insurance Mergers
I just posted a new ICLE white paper, co-authored with former ICLE Associate Director, Ben Sperry: When Past Is Not Prologue: The Weakness of the Economic Evidence Against Health Insurance Mergers. Yesterday the hearing in the DOJ’s challenge to stop the Aetna-Humana merger got underway, and last week phase 1 of the Cigna-Anthem merger trial ... When Past Is Not Prologue: The Weakness of the Economic Evidence Against Health Insurance Mergers
Why Roberts’ Tax Reasoning Ultimately Damns the Affordable Care Act (But Not in a Good Way)
There’s great irony in Chief Justice Roberts’ reasoning in the recent Affordable Care Act ruling. In reading the ACA to impose a tax for failure to carry health insurance, thereby assuring the Act’s constitutionality, Justice Roberts also doomed the Act to failure. Let me explain. As the government repeatedly stressed, the individual mandate (now interpreted as a disjunctive order either to carry health insurance ... Why Roberts’ Tax Reasoning Ultimately Damns the Affordable Care Act (But Not in a Good Way)
What Would the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Say About Healthcare.gov?
In yesterday’s hearings on the disastrous launch of the federal health insurance exchanges, contractors insisted that part of the problem was a last-minute specification from the government: the feds didn’t want people to be able to “window shop” for health insurance until they had created a profile and entered all sorts of personal information. That’s ... What Would the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Say About Healthcare.gov?
The Future of Law and Economics Part 4: Potential Solutions
In a series of posts (Part I, Part II and Part III), I’ve sketched out how the trend toward increasing detachment in L&E scholarship might reduce the influence of the L&E movement at the retail level and become its ultimate undoing. I must say, writing this series has been a lot of fun but has ... The Future of Law and Economics Part 4: Potential Solutions
