Showing results for: “price gouging”
An open letter on insider trading to Gene Fama and Ken French
Dear Gene and Ken: I must say that I was totally flabbergasted when I read your recent blog posting on insider trading. I know that your usual posts on investments, which I often cite to friends, are well-informed and empirically-supported; your work over the years on these topics is important and influential—and rightly so. Unfortunately, ... An open letter on insider trading to Gene Fama and Ken French
Section 5, Collateral Consequences, and Counting Unicorns
Judge Frank Easterbrook once opined that observing predatory pricing was a bit like seeing a unicorn — in the sense that it was a phenomena around which there was much lore but not much empirical evidence. The debate over the current expansion of Section 5 liability increasingly has become about the search for a different ... Section 5, Collateral Consequences, and Counting Unicorns
Market Definition and Margins in the New Guidelines
I’m still working through the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines, and like Dan, I find myself puzzling over some of the revisions, and in favor of others. I wanted to start with some first impressions. The big movement here, is that the new HMGs repudiate the market definition requirement in the new Section 4 and in ... Market Definition and Margins in the New Guidelines
Some Warnings for Modern Pigovians (from Pigou Himself)
We live in a time of optimism about government’s ability to improve upon the unregulated state of affairs. From health insurance to financial markets to the types of fats we eat, cars we drive, and sources of energy we consume, there is a sense among our political, media, and academic elites that our privately ordered ... Some Warnings for Modern Pigovians (from Pigou Himself)
David Balto (and the FTC) gets it woefully wrong on Intel
David Balto has penned a short apologia of the FTC’s Intel case (HT: Danny Sokol). Unfortunately his defense (and, unfortunately, the FTC’s case) is woefully misguided. Balto writes: Intel has been clearly dominant in the market for central processing units (CPUs) with between 80 percent and 98 percent of the market. The practices at issue ... David Balto (and the FTC) gets it woefully wrong on Intel
Blaming the D.C. Circuit for Regulatory Failure?
Washington Post columnist Steve Pearlstein offers a novel explanation for “regulatory failure.” The D.C. Circuit, has, Pearlstein asserts, “has intimidated, undermined and demoralized the regulatory apparatus” by giving insufficient deference to regulators and “opinions that routinely ignore the plain language of statute and the clear intent of Congress.” Pearlstein holds up three Republican appointees as ... Blaming the D.C. Circuit for Regulatory Failure?
DOJ Stumbling Out Of The Gate On Antitrust In Ag
Wednesday, April 7, J.P. Stadtmueller, U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, gave the green light for DOJ’s antitrust case against Dean Foods to move forward. Dean had filed a motion to dismiss based on its assertion that the DOJ had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the DOJ’s antitrust claim ... DOJ Stumbling Out Of The Gate On Antitrust In Ag
Assessing the claims that the Google-AdMob merger will "leverage Google's dominance" and also kill kittens
News items continue to pile up suggesting that the FTC is likely to challenge Google’s acquisition of mobile application and website advertising provider, AdMob. See this recent article from the Wall Street Journal. News reports today contain this quote from an anonymous source: “The staff (at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission) believes there is a ... Assessing the claims that the Google-AdMob merger will "leverage Google's dominance" and also kill kittens
The Economics of Celebrity Endorsements
Bob Greene (CNN) argues that celebrity endorsements are meaningless. Worse than that, according to Greene, celebrity endorsements necessarily amount to a raw deal for consumers: This is all elementary. If someone accepts cash in exchange for offering a positive evaluation of something, then the evaluation must be tossed out. It’s worse than meaningless. Yet in ... The Economics of Celebrity Endorsements
Antitrust Exam Question: Do the Major Institutional Investors Have an Antitrust Problem?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that major institutional investors — CalPERS, CalSTRS, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, etc. — have collectively adopted a set of recommended practices that is “rankling” private equity firms. Had I not discussed the article in my Antitrust class, I’d use it as the basis for an exam question. ... Antitrust Exam Question: Do the Major Institutional Investors Have an Antitrust Problem?
"Like A Rain Dance That Produces No Clouds"
My colleague Tom Hazlett, along with George Bittlingmayer and Arthur Havenner, provides some economic wisdom on why they don’t call it stimulus anymore: Counter to the predictions put forward a year ago by the Administration, when it claimed that “more than 90 percent of the jobs created are likely to be in the private sector,” ... "Like A Rain Dance That Produces No Clouds"
The Market Responds
The final vote hasn’t even been taken to “fix” the omnibus (or ominous) health care “reform” legislation that President Obama signed into law this week, and already the first volley of the market’s response has been sounded. Today’s Wall Street Journal Online reports that “Prices of most Treasury notes and bonds were lower after relatively ... The Market Responds
