Blog Title: TRUTH ON THE MARKET

Principles for Bailout Management

I had the pleasure last week of participating in a bailout panel at William & Mary Law School. The William & Mary Federalist Society, which hosted the event, asked each panelist to address three topics: what led to the current situation, how the bailout plan will (or won’t) fix things, and suggestions for implementing read more..

The Butcher, the Baker and the Candlestick Maker (2.0)

My colleague Tom Hazlett strikes again in Barron’s on Google’s transformation from its initial reluctance to advertise and its desire to stick to the non-profit sector to an unrelenting market driven approach to its discovery that search-term clicks were … well … profitable. Here’s Hazlett: They discovered that Google’s clean page layout provided a clean read more..

Doherty on Empirical Toolkits and the Future of ELS

UCLA’s Joe Doherty is guest blogging over at ELS Blog and is first post is a must read for folks engaged in empirical legal studies generally which strikes at the heart of defining our enterprise. Doherty points out the tendency toward the adoption of narrow toolkits within fields (methodological differences between political scientists and read more..

Bainbridge on the Cuban Insider Trading Case

Professor Bainbridge offers a very detailed analysis of the complaint in the SEC’s case against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Wanted: NSF Law and Social Science Program Director

Last Spring, I had the pleasure of serving on the NSF Law and Social Science Advisory Panel.  It was an honor to be invited and a fantastic experience that gave me exposure to accomplished interdisciplinary scholars in fields and perspectives with which I rarely have the opportunity to interact.  The NSF is now seeking a read more..

Top Ten Econ Blogs!

TOTM has never been afraid of a little bit of self-promotion, but in this case, we’re happy to report that the promotion is coming from the outside. Craig Newmark, of the always excellent Newmark’s Door, has ranked us in the Top 10 “Really Best Economics Blogs.”  Check out the other blogs on the list.  read more..

Inter-Agency Teleseminar Showdown

You may recall we’ve been blogging quite a bit about the FTC and DOJ scuffle over Section 2 (See here and here). On Thursday, December 11th, the ABA Antitrust Division is sponsoring a Teleseminar that will feature my former FTC colleague Ken Glazer (Deputy Director, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission), Bill Kolasky (WilmerHale, read more..

“This Liberal Will Be All About Socializing … Uhhh … Basically … Taking Over and the Government Running All of Your Companies”

That is from Maxine Waters (HT: Luke Froeb). It is increasingly difficult these days to figure out whether socialization/ nationalization is a threat or a promise. The clip is priceless. You can see her two colleagues getting a kick out of Waters’ rant (which starts about the 1:10 mark) in response to read more..

Global Competition Policy Symposium on Section 5

The newest issue in Global Competition Policy includes a symposium (disclosure: for which I was the senior editor) on Section 5 enforcement under the FTC Act. Contributors included Commissioner Rosch’s attorney advisor Kyle Andeer, Doug Melamed (WilmerHale) and Joe Sims. My views on the expansion of Section 5 in the standard read more..

Taking Price Gouging Laws Seriously

Over at Organization and Markets, Peter Klein notes that consumers have been exploiting producers by taking advantage of market conditions, reducing their demand for gasoline, and earning windfall profits.

My Encounter With Rahm

The business section of yesterday’s New York Times included advice to President-elect Obama from a number of econ-types. Greg Mankiw, for example, exhorted Obama to heed the advice of his (quite capable) economic advisers and, in essence, govern from the center. I would concur. Accordingly, I was pleased to see Obama name Rep. Rahm read more..

Who Does Best on the GRE?

Greg Mankiw links to a chart which provides the evidence (or click here for the larger version). The answer is physics (1899), math (1877), computer science (1862) and, of course, economics (1857) … followed by a handful of engineering majors and philosophy. Though, as Brian Leiter has happily reported in read more..

The Antitrust Rumormill …

So, now that the election is over, it must be time to start speculating as to who will fill what spots in the Obama administration. I already made some predictions about what an Obama antitrust regime might look like, but who will be running the show at the DOJ and the FTC? The read more..

Will This Be a Bull Market for Law and Economics?

Larry Ribstein thinks so. The argument is that current economic conditions have exposed the costs of economic naivete and that now is the time for rational and serious discourse about the costs and benefits of specific regulations: The last election has revealed clearly the costs of economic cluelessness. McCain’s floundering in the face of financial read more..

Antitrust under President Obama: “I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement”

Danny Sokol makes some predictions about Post-Obama antitrust, and about my disappointment in what he perceives to be the likely direction of antitrust policy in the Obama administration: 1. increased challenges of mergers and monopolization cases, especially at DOJ 2. more consumer protection work at the FTC with a push to more expansive consumer rights 3. less language read more..