Showing archive for: “Payments & Payment Networks”
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
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
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?
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
Antitrust at George Mason
Danny Sokol has posted the most downloaded antitrust law professors. I come in 4th behind Damien Geradin, David Evans, and Herb Hovenkamp. It is flattering to be in company like that by any measure. Cool. But, as Danny points out, what is even cooler is that George Mason is one of only a handful of ... Antitrust at George Mason
Some Links
TOTM guest blogger Steve Salop makes the case for Vertical Merger Guidelines National Supermarkets Association files class action interchange-based antitrust suit against American Express (apparently alleging the relevant market is “American Express payment card services”!) Dell puts aside $100 million reserve fund in case it has to settle the SEC allegations we blogged about here ... Some Links
The Economics and Regulation of Payment Card Interchange Fees: Paper and Conference
Two related items from ICLE: As regular readers know, interchange fees are a frequent topic of conversation around the blog. Taking the conversation from the ether to the real world, ICLE has funded a white paper and is putting on a conference next week on the topic. The conference, in fact, grows out of the ... The Economics and Regulation of Payment Card Interchange Fees: Paper and Conference
A Follow Up on the Cato Unbound Conversation on New Paternalism
Two weeks ago I highlighted the promising looking Cato Unbound forum on the new paternalism kicked off by Glen Whitman, with follow up posts and responses from the King (or co-King along with Cass Sunstein) of Nudge, Richard Thaler, along with Jonathan Klick and Shane Frederick. I was really excited about the forum, because I ... A Follow Up on the Cato Unbound Conversation on New Paternalism
Politically-Mandated Credit Card Interchange Fees Won’t Create Jobs (But They Will Hurt Consumers and the Economy)
by Geoffrey A. Manne, Joshua D. Wright and Todd J. Zywicki Cross-posted at Business in the Beltway (at Forbes.com) and The Volokh Conspiracy. In a recent commentary at Forbes.com, former Clinton administration economist Robert Shapiro argues that some 250,000 jobs would be created, and consumers would save $27 billion annually, by reducing the interchange fee ... Politically-Mandated Credit Card Interchange Fees Won’t Create Jobs (But They Will Hurt Consumers and the Economy)
Has the Obama Administration Retreated From Behavioral Economics?
The WSJ implies that the answer is yes in an interesting article describing the Obama administration’s changing views on behavioral economics and regulation. The theme of the article is that the Obama administration has eschewed the “soft paternalism” based “nudge” approach endorsed by the behavioral economics crowd and that received so much attention in the ... Has the Obama Administration Retreated From Behavioral Economics?
Interchange Fees Symposium E-Book
Over at the International Center for Law and Economics website we’ve posted a link to a pdf e-book version of the collected content (including both posts and comments) from our recent “Interchange Fees and the Law and Economics of Credit Cards” symposium. Head on over and download a copy if you’re interested in a dead ... Interchange Fees Symposium E-Book
The problem with paper payments
Jim Van Dyke (who contributed to our interchange symposium) has an interesting post up today recounting a brief glimpse of life without payment cards: What would a day without payment cards be like? I had a glimpse into that just this morning, when my usual Bay Area morning routine of using my prepaid card to ... The problem with paper payments
