Showing results for: “digital markets act”
The SEC’s strike suit
The SEC is heralding the $550 million settlement in its suit against Goldman as “the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial services firm in the history of the SEC,” and “a stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if ... The SEC’s strike suit
Commissioner Rosch’s really weak case for “behavioral antitrust”
Josh’s ongoing series on “Nudging Antitrust” and FTC Commissioner Rosch’s recent thoughts on behavioral economics has been excellent and I look forward to the next installment. Rosch’s speech, not surprisingly, also elicited a strong response from me. What follows are my thoughts on Rosch’s speech, focusing on some of the same issues Josh addressed in ... Commissioner Rosch’s really weak case for “behavioral antitrust”
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Simon Johnson argues that the conventional antitrust tools of Sherman Act are outdated and ill-equipped to deal with the power of big banks: Why are these antitrust tools not used against today’s megabanks, which have become so powerful that they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?
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)
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
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
Business and the Supreme Court
David Zaring has noted that courts have formed an unimportant part of the financial crisis interventions by the government, and that the end of the Supreme Court’s most recent term suggests that it gets to matters years, if not decades, after they have become settled law one way or the other. Steve Bainbridge responds: The ... Business and the Supreme Court
