Why Corner Post’s Merchant Victory May Not Ring Up Savings
Merchants persuaded a federal appeals court to throw out the Federal Reserve’s debit-card fee cap. They might want to hold the applause until they see its replacement. A ruling aimed at the Fed’s arithmetic could leave room for a higher cap—and a fuller accounting of what consumers get for those fees. In Corner Post, Inc. ... Why Corner Post’s Merchant Victory May Not Ring Up Savings
The Halloween Effect and the Premature Burial of Efficient Markets
Every October, financial journalism performs a small act of necromancy. Out comes the “Halloween effect,” the finding that stocks tend to earn higher returns from November through April than from May through October. It gives apparent empirical backing to the old stock-market adage “Sell in May and go away.” The implied strategy is simple: Hold ... The Halloween Effect and the Premature Burial of Efficient Markets
Old Insurance Wisdom for New AI Risks
Artificial intelligence (AI) may be new to the insurance market, but uncertainty is an old customer. Insurers have spent centuries figuring out how to price unfamiliar risks, reward precautions, and avoid betting the whole portfolio on the same weak link. AI gives them new facts to assess, not a reason to discard that experience. In ... Old Insurance Wisdom for New AI Risks
The FCC’s Public Interest in Your Personnel Files
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses television stations. Does that make it Disney’s human resources department? The agency seems to think so, invoking a “public interest” mandate to investigate the company’s diversity policies—a mandate whose meaning seems to change with whoever holds power. Under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, the FCC has initiated ... The FCC’s Public Interest in Your Personnel Files
How to Profit From a Cartel Without Joining One
Adam Smith warned that people in the same trade rarely meet without the conversation turning to a scheme to raise prices. Antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic now suspect they can skip the meeting—a shared shareholder may do the job. In May 2025, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ... How to Profit From a Cartel Without Joining One
Fin-Syn Is a Rerun Washington Should Skip
Some of Hollywood’s most high-powered producers and agents have a pitch for Washington. Make streaming services spend half their original-content budgets buying from independent U.S. producers. Producers and talent agencies would get guaranteed business. Viewers, on the other hand, would get no guarantees. The inspiration comes from the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, better known ... Fin-Syn Is a Rerun Washington Should Skip
Every Click You Make: Article 6(5)’s Search for a Limiting Principle
When does a “directions” button become a competition-law violation? When it points to Google Maps, according to the European Commission. A law meant to police search rankings is becoming a license to police the whole page. On July 23, the Commission fined Alphabet €460 million for favoring nine of its own services on Google’s search ... Every Click You Make: Article 6(5)’s Search for a Limiting Principle
Brussels Rules Without the Brussels Perks
Brussels’ latest competition guidelines should probably come with a warning label. Countries borrowing them risk importing dubious economics, remedies designed for Europe’s very specific institutional problems, and a trade fight with Washington. On Sept. 3, after a three-year process, the European Commission adopted its first guidelines on exclusionary abuses under Article 102 of the Treaty ... Brussels Rules Without the Brussels Perks
We Measured Europe’s Browser Revolution. Bring a Magnifying Glass.
Europe’s browser revolution appears to have left most browsers exactly where it found them. The European Commission is celebrating a “surge” in alternatives. The browsing data suggest a ripple. In April, the Commission reviewed the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and pronounced it “fit for purpose.” “Alternative browsers and search engines are being increasingly chosen by ... We Measured Europe’s Browser Revolution. Bring a Magnifying Glass.
Doom, Meet Duty: AI’s Warnings Come With Legal Baggage
Predicting the end of humanity is one way to get a headline. For artificial intelligence (AI) developers, it may also be one way to hand a future plaintiff evidence. Developers have become some of the loudest voices warning about their own systems. Predictions that AI could drive humanity to extinction—once widely dismissed as absurd—now make ... Doom, Meet Duty: AI’s Warnings Come With Legal Baggage
A Nobel Prize for Thinking Ahead: Hall and Woodford’s Great Expectations
Suppose you get a $1,000 payment. How much do you spend? Before answering, we’d want to know a few things: Is this a one-time payment? The first of many? Can you borrow? Do you already have savings? This year’s Nobel Prize in economics went to Robert Hall and Michael Woodford for providing the theory to ... A Nobel Prize for Thinking Ahead: Hall and Woodford’s Great Expectations
The World Wants Cures. America Gets the Check.
Everyone wants the next medical breakthrough. Few want the bill. The United States pays a disproportionate share of the cost of pharmaceutical innovation, while other wealthy countries hold down medicine prices and count on the research to keep coming. Yet much of the U.S. policy debate proposes copying their approach: because Americans frequently pay more ... The World Wants Cures. America Gets the Check.
