Bundles
HT: Freakonomics, photo from Tim Long. Send your other unique bundling examples or put them in the comments.
What I’m Watching Now
“The Future of Individual Tax Rates: Effects on Economic Growth and Distribution,” United States Senate Committee on Finance Hearing (HT: Taxprof Blog). Scheduled witnesses include: Carol Markman (CPA, Feldman, Meinberg & Co.) David Marzahl (President, Center for Economic Progress) Donald Marron (Director, Tax Policy Center) Douglas Holtz-Eakin (President, American Action Forum) Leonard Burman (Professor, Maxwell School, Syracuse ... What I’m Watching Now
Nudging Antitrust? Commissioner Rosch’s Weak Case for “Behavioral Antitrust” (Part 1)
Increasingly, the notion that updating antitrust policy with the insights of behavioral economics would significantly improve matters for consumers. Others have called for more major surgery, favoring an outright rejection of the current economic foundation of antitrust policy — and especially the portions of the foundation “Made in Chicago” — in favor of a new ... Nudging Antitrust? Commissioner Rosch’s Weak Case for “Behavioral Antitrust” (Part 1)
Predicting LeBron
Intrade says the Heat: Bill Simmons column is a must read: If LeBron picks anyone other than the Cavaliers, it will be the cruelest television moment since David Chase ended “The Sopranos” by making everyone think they lost power. Cleveland fans will never forgive LeBron, nor should they. He knows better than anyone what kind ... Predicting LeBron
ELS, Technical Fetishization vs. Legal Relevance, and a Partial Defense of the Perfectly Proportional Mediocrity of Legal Empiricists
Brian Leiter brings the always fun “what’s wrong with empirical legal studies” meme back to the front page. Professor Leiter’s post is a really good one. He sets up the “problem” with ELS as such: There is now too much empirical work being done simply because it looks ’empirical.’ Professor Bainbridge agrees. And this isn’t ... ELS, Technical Fetishization vs. Legal Relevance, and a Partial Defense of the Perfectly Proportional Mediocrity of Legal Empiricists
Why So Many No-Hitters?
I read a really interesting column in Sports Illustrated, full of anecdotal accounts from players, managers and well-informed baseball observers, explaining the perceived dramatic uptick in no-hitters so far this season. With four no-hitters in a short period of time in the 2010 season, the most popular explanation has been steroids. That was SI’s answer ... Why So Many No-Hitters?
Who Will Run the New CFPB and How Will They Run It?
The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is right around the corner Talk has now turned to who might run the powerful agency and what it might do. The WSJ names names: Democratic leaders in Congress say their top pick for the post is Elizabeth Warren, the high-profile Harvard law professor and an outspoken critic of ... Who Will Run the New CFPB and How Will They Run It?
Antitrust Exemption Time Machine
I’ve been struck of late by the level of activity surrounding antitrust exemptions: health care, insurance, beer and wine wholesalers, retail merchants for the purpose of negotiate interchange fees, newspapers, agricultural cooperatives, and sports leagues. Throw in the high-stakes games being played between rivals to influence the decision-making processes of competition agencies in the US ... Antitrust Exemption Time Machine
Some Links
Bainbridge’s latest on insider trading inside the beltway Google and antitrust, everywhere (declared a monopoly in France, the ITA acquisition, and maybe Google not barred from selling targeted ads on iPhone’s and iPad’s afterall) The DOJ ag / antitrust hearings turn their attention to dairy No link for this one, but does anybody have any ... Some Links
Judge Posner on Financial Reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Judge Posner offers his thoughts on financial reform, mostly negative, at Bloomberg. The thrust of the essay is that the financial regulation produced by the political process has, at best, a poor nexus to the actual causes of the economic crisis, and that what we are left with is primary reorganization and reshuffling to look ... Judge Posner on Financial Reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
“I’m not going to praise the Leegin decision”
Compared to the nominations of Justices Alito, Roberts and Sotomayor, there has been little excitement for the antitrust community on the most recent Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. But there is something. The WSJ Law Blog reports that while Kagan refused to “praise the Leegin decision.” Legal Times reports that in response to Senator ... “I’m not going to praise the Leegin decision”
Congratulations to Steve Salop
Steve Salop (Georgetown Law antitrust economist, and occasional guest-blogger here at TOTM) took home the American Antitrust Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award last week. Jonathan Baker (American, FCC) and Carl Shapiro (Berkeley, DOJ) presented the award and summarized Salop’s contributions to industrial organization economics and antitrust. It was the first time I’ve attended an AAI event ... Congratulations to Steve Salop
