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TOTM Soledad O’Brien said a (sort of) bad word on American Morning this morning. I was watching when she said it. I didn’t notice the word, . . .
Soledad O’Brien said a (sort of) bad word on American Morning this morning. I was watching when she said it. I didn’t notice the word, but it’s plain as day in the transcript below (omissions noted by ellipses)…
Read the full piece here.
TOTM We’re so immersed in the benefits of a market economy that I fear we sometimes fail to notice what a marvel capitalism is. Today’s Wall . . .
We’re so immersed in the benefits of a market economy that I fear we sometimes fail to notice what a marvel capitalism is.
Today’s Wall Street Journal points to yet another of capitalism’s benefits. A growing number of very, very fancy colleges with very, very talented professors and very, very expensive tuition are offering their course materials online for free.
Popular Media The Sunday New York Times features a lengthy, and mostly unflattering, look at the University of Phoenix, the world’s largest for-profit university. The tenor of the Times piece is set by . . .
The Sunday New York Times features a lengthy, and mostly unflattering, look at the University of Phoenix, the world’s largest for-profit university. The tenor of the Times piece is set by the headline, “Troubles Grow for a University Built on Profits” — the p-word clearly chosen to shock the Times’s modal reader. (Where were the stories on the Times’s Judith Miller scandal titled “Troubles Grow for a Newspaper Built on Profits”?)
TOTM Frank Pasquale has taken the time to respond to my earlier post on the use of antitrust to tax consumers on the grounds of fairness . . .
Frank Pasquale has taken the time to respond to my earlier post on the use of antitrust to tax consumers on the grounds of fairness or other vague criteria. I take the basic point of Frank’s post to be that I have engaged in unfair burden shifting by demanding a showing of consumer harm prior to condemning the conduct as has been done in the Norwegian/ French investigations, though he goes on to make the some complaints about consumer rationality, a claim that I “refuse to inquire” as to whether the big four in the music industry are engaged in tacit collusion, and an accusation that I am just another “free marketeer” who glibly ignores how other countries handle these problems. Frank seems to be ignoring the fact that I was responding to his post, not writing a treatise on DRM or a full economic analysis of DRM markets.
TOTM Law students, I have found, often have a hard time seeing how the Coase Theorem applies outside the context of land use conflicts. They also . . .
Law students, I have found, often have a hard time seeing how the Coase Theorem applies outside the context of land use conflicts. They also tend to think Coase’s insight is not so important because, they recite (parroting some of their professors), “Transactions costs are always present.” This saddens me, for the more I look at the law, the more relevant the theorem becomes.
TOTM There is some antitrust buzz in the air after Steve Job’s “Thoughts on Music,” which discussed the possibility of eliminating DRM entirely. The real antitrust . . .
There is some antitrust buzz in the air after Steve Job’s “Thoughts on Music,” which discussed the possibility of eliminating DRM entirely. The real antitrust story, I suspect, is whether the rather transparent attempt to shift the gaze of regulators fixated on the iPod/iTunes combo to the big four’s “refusal” to go DRM-free will have any success. Antitrust Review has covered these issues at length, and Randy Picker chimes in as well. So does Frank Pasquale , who applauds the Norwegian antitrust attack on Apple and suggests that Apple adopt a “true interoperability” approach which “would likely lead to a boom in the sale of both digital music players and music.”
TOTM Everyone is talking about Steve Jobs’ open letter on DRM,”Thoughts on Music,” including, best among all of them, my colleague, Josh. Among many others, see . . .
Everyone is talking about Steve Jobs’ open letter on DRM,”Thoughts on Music,” including, best among all of them, my colleague, Josh. Among many others, see excellent entries from Jim DeLong, Randy Picker and Mike Madison. Frank Pasquale weighs in with a predictable post about how wonderful the world would be if we just regulated his (perfect) vision of the world, but Josh pretty handily skewers his musings.
TOTM Representative Kucinich has announced that the House Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommittee will be launching an investigation into “a variety of marketplace issues . . .
Representative Kucinich has announced that the House Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommittee will be launching an investigation into “a variety of marketplace issues including monopolies in the grocery industry.” HT: AntitrustProf Blog. Hearings are apparently tentatively scheduled for mid-month. What is the committee looking for? Just about anything.
TOTM Securities fraud class-actions are down. In an op-ed in yesterday’s WSJ, Joseph Grundfest observed that both the number of such actions and the dollar value . . .
Securities fraud class-actions are down. In an op-ed in yesterday’s WSJ, Joseph Grundfest observed that both the number of such actions and the dollar value of total damages claims have dropped dramatically since mid-2005. Why has this decline occurred? Grundfest considers several possible reasons.
