Take Your Foot off the Gas
In 1991, a year after his controversial firing as men’s basketball coach at North Carolina State University, Jim Valvano published a book titled They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead. It’s a great title. The past few weeks’ convergence of energy and environmental news reminded me of the irony of […]
A Million Here, A Million There
I came across a reading recently in which the author quoted the late Republican Senator Everett Dirksen. He was Senate Minority leader from 1959 to 1969. The quote, which Dirksen is alleged to have made about overspending by the federal government, is “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” […]
Brazil and Argentina to start preparations for a common currency
Brazil and Argentina will this week announce that they are starting preparatory work on a common currency, in a move which could eventually create the world’s second-largest currency bloc. South America’s two biggest economies will discuss the plan at a summit in Buenos Aires this week and will invite other Latin American nations to join. […]
On the Primacy of the Consumer-Welfare Standard
Ascendant today among antitrust scholars and enforcers are the so-called “neo-Brandeisians.” Named after progressive Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the neo-Brandeisians’ chief goal with respect to antitrust is to dislodge the consumer-welfare standard from its lofty perch as the guide for determining if and when markets are performing so poorly as to warrant antitrust […]
