Why Now? The Faulty Economics of Credit Card Reform
About four years ago, I worked for Visa in opposing the opposed limitations on interchange fees that the Australian government was about to impose on . . .
Why Now? The Faulty Economics of Credit Card Reform
Credit Cards in Context: Framing the Discussion
While the GAO report provides a useful summary of many of the issues being debated within the credit card community, the GAO’s mandate was, in some ways, rather narrow.
The Myth of Consumer Protection Through Disclosure
I will focus my blog post on one of the proposals for reducing interchange fees: the requirement that the fees be disclosed to consumers. I . . .
Regulating Interchange Fees will Promote Term Repricing that will be Harmful to Consumers and Competition
Although the mechanisms vary, legislation pending before Congress on interchange has a basic central purpose—to reduce interchange fees, either indirectly or directly. If adopted, these . . .
What happened in Australia?
What happens when you take a key price in an industry and cut it in half? For normal markets economists would expect that this would . . .
The Economics of Payment Cards: Six Lessons from the Literature
What happens when you take a key price in an industry and cut it in half? For normal markets economists would expect that this would . . .
Interchange Fees Are Not Rising: Correcting the GAO Report
Next summer, the World Cup, the world’s most watched sporting event, marks its quadrennial return. Although thirty-two teams will compete in South Africa, the list . . .
Seven Truths About Regulating Interchange
Interchange fees on payment cards are obviously a hot topic in the United States, but also in Europe and in many other countries around the . . .
Moving the Ball Forward: Macroeconomic Considerations
What is most surprising about the GAO report is how little the analytical discussion of this subject has advanced in the last decade. We all . . .