FTC Microeconomics Conference
The Fourth Annual FTC Microeconomics Conference is scheduled for November 3 and 4, 2011. Here is the call for papers: The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics will host a two day conference to bring together scholars working in areas related to the FTC’s antitrust, consumer protection and public policy missions. Those areas include industrial ... FTC Microeconomics Conference
Politics and Price Gouging
Commissioner Rosch gets off his second shot in against the Department of Justice in just a few weeks in the pages of the Wall Street Journal — this time in a letter to the editor: Obama’s Political ‘Price-Gouging’ If any doubts existed about whether the Justice Department is just “an arm of the administration,” they ... Politics and Price Gouging
Antitrust as Innovation Policy
The Washington Post links to the transcript of the President’s recent remarks at a Palo Alto town hall meeting at Facebook’s headquarters on April 20. The President talked about recent issues of interest, focusing primarily on the budget, unemployment and health care. I did see one item that may be of interest to the antitrust ... Antitrust as Innovation Policy
The End of An Era?
Well, perhaps not quite the end of an era given all of the intense antitrust scrutiny that continues in the high-tech sector. But it seems like it should not go without noting that the Microsoft case will officially come to an end on May 12th. The San Francisco Chronicle observes: In a final hearing in ... The End of An Era?
Federalist Society Lifetime Service Award to Judge Douglas Ginsburg
The 8th Annual Georgetown Federalist Society Lifetime Service Award will be bestowed upon Judge Ginsburg this evening. The Georgetown Federalist Society Blog supplies the relevant information: On April 26, Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will accept the 8th annual Georgetown Federalist Society Lifetime Service Award. Judge Ginsburg ... Federalist Society Lifetime Service Award to Judge Douglas Ginsburg
Shocked: Gasoline Prices Vary Edition
From the Attorney General’s Memorandum to the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (HT: Michael Giberson, who is a must read on all issues oil and energy related: Based upon our work and research to date, it is evident that there are regional differences in gasoline prices, as well as differences in the statutory and other ... Shocked: Gasoline Prices Vary Edition
Sacrificing Consumer Welfare in the Search Bias Debate
Eric Clemons and Nehal Madhani have a posted a series of short blog posts on the Huffington Post focusing on Google, antitrust, and more specifically, vertical integration and search (Part I, Part II, and Part III). The articles contain much of the standard hand-wringing about vertical integration and its impact on consumer welfare. This is ... Sacrificing Consumer Welfare in the Search Bias Debate
“We therefore commit, effective immediately, to give every author at least seven days to decide whether to accept any offer for publication”
There is lots of talk about the various implications of the agreement between the various law reviews to cease and desist with the practice of exploding offers. One interesting aspect of the commitment is that it is fairly transparent that the law reviews viewed exploding offers as a method of competing with one another, and ... “We therefore commit, effective immediately, to give every author at least seven days to decide whether to accept any offer for publication”
Declaring Victory or Premature Celebration?
Russell Korobkin (UCLA) provocatively declares the ultimate victory of behavioral law and economics over neoclassical economics: I am declaring victory in the battle for the methodological soul of the law and economics discipline. There is no need to continue to pursue the debate between behavioralists (that is, proponents of incorporating insights previously limited to the ... Declaring Victory or Premature Celebration?
Unconscious Parallelism or Collusion? Libor Edition
News comes that the DOJ and SEC are “examining whether some of the world’s biggest banks colluded to manipulate a key interest rate before and during the financial crisis, affecting trillions of dollars in loans and derivatives, say people familiar with the situation.” The Wall Street Journal Reports that: The inquiry, led by the U.S. ... Unconscious Parallelism or Collusion? Libor Edition
Net Neutrality, the MetroPCS Complaint, and Low-Income Consumers
I blogged a bit about the MetroPCS net neutrality complaint a few weeks ago. The complaint, you may recall, targeted the MetroPCS menu of packages and pricing offered to its consumers. The idea that MetroPCS, about one-tenth the size of Verizon, has market power is nonsense. As my colleague Tom Hazlett explains, restrictions on MetroPCS ... Net Neutrality, the MetroPCS Complaint, and Low-Income Consumers
More on the Fighting Antitrust Agencies
One additional observation on the WSJ story Paul mentioned. Much has been written about the strained relationship between the FTC and DOJ in antitrust matters. There has, of course, never been a more descriptive and entertaining version of these tensions than the one offered by former Chairman and now Commissioner Kovacic who observed that the ... More on the Fighting Antitrust Agencies
