Showing archive for: “News & Social Media”
The opportunity costs of the backdating scandal
I have blogged extensively about the waste and injustice of the overblown backdating scandal. (The posts are collected in Ideoblog’s executive compensation archive). Now we have an accounting of the opportunity costs of the SEC’s pursuit of this so-called scandal. Here’s the abstract of Choi, Pritchard and Wiechman, Scandal Enforcement at the SEC: Salience and ... The opportunity costs of the backdating scandal
Josh and I make the big leagues
Cited today by Gordon Crovitz in the Wall Street Journal: Instead of letting consumers choose, other search companies including Microsoft are funding FairSearch.org to lobby regulators and politicians to stop what it calls “Google’s march toward an ‘unregulatable monopoly.'” Legal academics Geoffrey Manne and Joshua Wright wrote a recent article entitled “If Search Neutrality is ... Josh and I make the big leagues
DSK and media bias
Bret Stephens wonders why he and fellow journalists ignored the fact that “[a]lmost from the beginning, there was something amiss in the case of People v. Dominique Strauss-Kahn.” He speculates: I did enjoy the thought of this mandarin of the tax-exemptocracy being pulled from the comfort of his first-class Air France seat and dispatched to ... DSK and media bias
Reckless Endangerment
I just finished reading Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. I really enjoyed the book. It reinforced my prejudices that the crash was caused by government policy overemphasizing home ownership and imposing inefficient goals on private lenders with respect to providing mortgages to ... Reckless Endangerment
Say on pay as Arab Spring
Did you know that shareholders in US corporations are like oppressed citizens of corrupt governments? Or that “say on pay” is their Arab Spring? If not, you haven’t been reading Gretchen Morgenson. Better that you read Christine Hurt’s excellent critique of Morgenson’s latest screed.
Gretchen Morgenson’s latest scandal
Gretchen Morgenson (with Louise Story), in today’s front-page NYT “newsatorial” reports on and complains about the fact that the SEC’s civil case against Goldman’s Fabrice Tourre (“Fabulous Fab”) in connection with the Abacus deal has not been accompanied by other civil and criminal prosecutions. The story notes that Tourre worked closely with others at Goldman ... Gretchen Morgenson’s latest scandal
WAPO Concludes that Vertical Efficiencies Trump Horizontal Market Power
A Washington Post editorial last week reached the surprising conclusion that a series of vertical and horizontal acquisitions that led to a firm owning about 40% of the gas stations in the District of Columbia was procompetitive. The editorial apparently concluded that the vertical integration efficiencies were more important than the adverse horizontal effects. The ... WAPO Concludes that Vertical Efficiencies Trump Horizontal Market Power
China land and bachelors
The New York Times has an interesting story about land markets in China. In order to get married a man needs to own property and land prices are very high in China. As it its habit, the Times blames “overeager developers who force residents out of old neighborhoods.” In fact, the Times gets it backwards. ... China land and bachelors
Smoothing Demand Kinks
One criticism of the unilateral effects analysis in the 2010 Merger Guidelines is that demand curves are kinked at the current price. A small increase in price will dramatically reduce the quantity demanded. One rationale for the kink is that people over-react to small price changes and dramatically reduce demand. As a result of this ... Smoothing Demand Kinks
New York Malpractice Reform
The state of New York is considering a cap on noneconomic damages (“pain and suffering”) for malpractice in order to save money. The New York Times story asks “… who benefits from caps — doctors or insurers — and whether the measures inflict unintended negative consequences upon victims of medical errors, including plaintiffs’ inability to ... New York Malpractice Reform
The Antitrust (and Business) Risk of a Concerted Response to the U.S. News Rankings
I’ve been in a blue funk since last Tuesday, when my home institution, the University of Missouri Law School, fell into the third tier in the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of law schools. Since the rankings began, Missouri has pretty consistently ranked in the 50s and 60s. Last year, we fell to ... The Antitrust (and Business) Risk of a Concerted Response to the U.S. News Rankings
The Breathtaking Ruthlessness of the Proposed Budget Cuts
The New York Times is appalled at House Republicans’ plans to “eviscerate nondefense spending,” calling the vote in favor of the cuts an act of “breathtaking ruthlessness.” The budget cuts, the Times says, will “carve $61 billion out of the government for just the next seven months, which would throw hundreds of thousands of people ... The Breathtaking Ruthlessness of the Proposed Budget Cuts
