Congratulations to Prince Fielder, the first Brewer to win baseball’s annual home run derby. His longest hit traveled an estimated 503 feet(!). He hit the four longest home runs of the evening, and eight of the top ten.
I remain more impressed that Fielder, who weighs 270 pounds, has two career inside-the-park home runs.
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Posted in Sports
Tagged brewers, home run derby, inside the park home run, milwaukee, Prince Fielder
I’m not one to laugh at other peoples’ pain. But I couldn’t help but crack a smile at the Chicago Tribune‘s compilation of the Cubs’ Strange but True Injuries, inspired by Ryan Dempster’s breaking a toe while returning to the dugout.
Highlights include Sammy Sosa’s sneeze-induced back spasms and Carlos Zambrano’s elbow injury caused by spending too much time on his laptop.
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Posted in Sports
There has been some chatter recently that the economy needs another stimulus package. The Brookings Institution’s Martin N. Baily cautions against one — unless growth remains sharply negative through the end of the year. Then he’d like to see a stimulus in the form of tax rebate checks, such as President George W. Bush issued twice during his presidency.
One problem: any stimulus proposal is, by its very nature, less than a zero-sum proposition. Stimulus involves taking some money out of the economy, wasting some of it on bureaucracy, then putting it back in.
Rebate check-style stimulus is less harmful than the pork-laden American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But the same logic still applies. There are transaction costs to sending out millions of checks.
And if the rebate increases the budget deficit, then tomorrow’s taxes will have to be raised to pay off today’s rebate.
Worse, one-time stimulus checks don’t change peoples’ spending behavior very much. This is because of what economists call the Permanent Income Hypothesis; people base their spending behavior on their expected long-term income, not on short-term windfalls. People tend to save their checks instead of spend them.
If you’re wondering why no stimulus package has ever had much discernible effect, those would be the reasons why.
Instead, I would urge a deregulatory stimulus.
The fourteenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.
Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Environmental Protection Agency ($7.3 billion 2007 budget, 17,964 employees).
EPA is proposing national emission standards for asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing.
Read all about it on pages 32,822–32,838 of the 2009 Federal Register.
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Posted in Regulation of the Day
This morning I appeared on the Talk of Connecticut talking about a proposal to regulate carry-on bags. I’ll be on again at 4:00 EST on the same topic.
Give a listen if you’re in the area. Their affiliated stations are WDRC 1360 AM, WMMW 1460 AM, WSNG 610 AM, and WWCO 1240 AM.
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Posted in Media Appearances
Two interesting stories in the news this morning.
Microsoft is having a tense antitrust discussion with the EU.
Meanwhile, Google is readying an operating system to directly compete with Windows.
Compare and contrast.
I will be on the Brad Davis Program on the Talk of Connecticut tomorrow morning at 7:20am EST.
We’ll be discussing a recent proposal to regulate the size of carry-on bags, which I wrote about here.
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Posted in Media Appearances, regulation
When Christine Varney took over the Justice Department’s antitrust division, she promised an era of vigorous enforcement. She is beginning to deliver. Intel, Google, airlines, pharmaceutical companies, and now telecoms are all facing close scrutiny.
There are two issues in play for telecoms. One is firm size. AT&T and Verizon together account for 60% of cell phone subscriptions. But as attorney Donald Russell told The Wall Street Journal, “You don’t have any firm that’s in a dominant position.”
It’s hard to make a case that a company is abusing market power if it doesn’t really have any. And Verizon and AT&T are not exactly Standard Oil.
The other issue is networks making exclusive deals with equipment makers. If you want an iPhone, you have to use AT&T’s service. If you want a Blackberry Storm, you have to use Verizon. Smaller competitors allege that exclusive deals for coveted phones are shutting them out of the market. Antitrust enforcers tend to agree.
I don’t; the iPhone has spawned more than 30 competing devices. And the iPhone itself has dropped in price from $500 to as low as $99. Where’s the lack of competition?
Justice is only investigating telecoms so far. Consumers should hope that Justice’s fishing expedition doesn’t result in further actions. Antitrust policy hinders the competitive process far more than it helps it.
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Posted in Economics, Technology
The thirteenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.
Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL, 3rd term).
Rep. Lipinski has introduced the Securing Cabin Baggage Act, which would set a maximum size for carry-on bags.
In today’s American Spectator Online, I explain why the bill wouldn’t add to security, wouldn’t make flying more convenient, and may well be the result of rent-seeking.
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Posted in Economics, Nanny State, Public Choice, Publications, Regulation of the Day
In today’s American Spectator Online, I look at a bill to regulate the size of carry-on luggage. My take: the bill doesn’t add to security, doesn’t add to convenience, and may well be the result of rent-seeking.
Read the article here.
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Posted in Economics, Public Choice
Inertia Wins! 