TOTM Welcomes Dan Crane
TOTM is pleased to announce Professor Daniel Crane (Michigan Law) as — for now we hope — a guest blogger. Dan is a prolific scholar in antitrust and intellectual property. Dan’s recent work has focused on antitrust and economic regulation, particularly the institutional structure of antitrust enforcement, predatory pricing, bundling, and the antitrust implications of ... TOTM Welcomes Dan Crane
More on Elizabeth Warren on Theory and Interpreting Data
With all the talk about the CFPB, Elizabeth Warren has been in the news lately. The blogs too. Most of the discussion has been about whether or not Timothy Geithner is a friend or foe to the Democrats’ preferred option of getting Warren nominated as the first chief of the CFPB. Today, Megan McArdle started ... More on Elizabeth Warren on Theory and Interpreting Data
Copyright Trolls
A new business model for newspapers? From Wired (HT: Kevin Ohlhausen): Steve Gibson has a plan to save the media world’s financial crisis — and it’s not the iPad. Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose ... Copyright Trolls
A Book That “Underpromsises and Overdelivers”
So says Professor Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi (Winston-Salem State University) about the volume on Pioneers of Law and Economics (which I edited along with my colleague Lloyd Cohen, and to which I contributed a chapter on the contributions of Ben Klein to law and economics). The full book review, appearing in the American Review of Policy Economy, ... A Book That “Underpromsises and Overdelivers”
Intel Settlement Watch
The settlement deadline has been extended from this Friday until August 6th.
What’s the Optimal Level of Sports Rivalry?
Michael Jordan says he would have never called Larry Bird or Magic Johnson to join forces because “honestly, I was trying to beat those guys.” Jordan catches himself, notes its a different era now, and concludes about the LeBron-Wade-Bosh cooperation that he “can’t say that’s a bad thing.” Dan Shaugnessy (ESPN) recounts how Cardinals pitcher ... What’s the Optimal Level of Sports Rivalry?
Some Links
Peter Leeson on gypsies Is Elizabeth Warren confirmable? (WSJ) FT reports the FTC and Intel have reached a settlement The Israeli Antitrust Authority may expand its powers pursuant to deconcentration legislation (Haaretz) M. Night Shymalan’s career trajectory (MR) Ted Frank, invisible vampires and Toyota (Overlawyered)
Ben Stein Offers Up Some Economic Advice for the Unemployed
Ben (“as the economist I am”) Stein has some thoughts on this great recession and the lessons that one must learn from it. He cannot help but share them with you. With his so-called “economist” hat on, Mr. Stein reveals tells us something about the casualties of the economic crisis: Lazy people. And bad people ... Ben Stein Offers Up Some Economic Advice for the Unemployed
A “Plain Vanilla” Proposal for Behavioral Law and Economics
I’ve been, for some time, a behavioral law and economics skeptic. Sometimes this position is confused with skepticism about behavioral economics, as in — believing that behavioral economics itself offers nothing useful to economic science or is illegitimate in some way. That’s not true. Now, I have some qualms about the explanatory power of some ... A “Plain Vanilla” Proposal for Behavioral Law and Economics
Fin Reg and Too Big to Fail: A New Kind of Antitrust?
Simon Johnson argues that the conventional antitrust tools of Sherman Act are outdated and ill-equipped to deal with the power of big banks: Why are these antitrust tools not used against today’s megabanks, which have become so powerful that they can sway legislation and regulation massively in their favor, while also receiving generous taxpayer-financed bailouts ... Fin Reg and Too Big to Fail: A New Kind of Antitrust?
Dares, Jokes and Contracts
A fun example for contracts class, to be paired with Judge Kimba Wood’s opinion in Leonard v. Pepsico (remember the Pepsi Points commercial with the Harrier Jet?): Dustin Kolodziej of the San Antonio area said attorney James Mason offered in a “Dateline NBC” interview he would pay $1 million to anyone who could prove him ... Dares, Jokes and Contracts
Nudging Antitrust (Part 2): Do Critiques of Behavioral Antitrust Have Any Bite?
Part 1 of this short blog series on “Nudging Antitrust,” focused on defining Commissioner Rosch’s recently articulated vision of behavioral economics as it relates to antitrust and competition policy and its differences with more “conventional” economic approaches that are bound by the rationality assumption. By the way, one should note that these more conventional approaches ... Nudging Antitrust (Part 2): Do Critiques of Behavioral Antitrust Have Any Bite?
