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Probably no effort at political triangulation (what used to be called compromise) has failed the Obama Administration so badly as the individual health insurance mandate. There are ways, though, to get the steak without the political sizzle, provided Republicans choose to cooperate. The reason for imposing an … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Affordable Care Act, Heritage Foundation, mandate, Mitt Romney | Category: Health Care Reform |
 Leave a commentVerizon, America’s largest wireless network, pulled a rabbit out of its corporate hat last month, announcing a multi-billion dollar deal to buy spectrum from cable-TV giants Comcast and Time Warner and the smaller, Syracuse, NY-based Bright House Networks. Sound familiar? AT&T, number two in wireless, made a similarly surprising move … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: AT&T, Ronald Coase, Spectrum, Verizon | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentAfter a decade in which the coal and oil lobbies have frustrated their efforts to put in place a cost-effective policy to slow climate change, environmental groups scored a win last week on a related, high visibility issue. Trouble is, their objective, halting the expansion … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Canada, crude oil, Keystone Pipeline, tar sands | Category: Climate Change |
Leave a commentEconomists aren’t taken very seriously these days for a variety of reasons — not least of which is the dumbing down of the profession, a process that has paralleled the general democratization of expertise in the era of 24/7 cable news. If you still want to know what the very … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Initiative on Global Markets, University of Chicago | Category: Economic Theory, Quick Takes |
Leave a commentThe trend toward wireless voice calling at prices more akin to data plan pricing continued this week with the unveiling of AT&T’s Call International App. The free app (which works on most of AT&T’s smartphones) dramatically cuts the cost of voice rates when the phone is connected to … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: apps, AT&T, smartphones | Category: Quick Takes, Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentSo, is driving a taxi in New York City a good way to make a living? Don’t be stupid. In return for putting up with the hassles of New York traffic and the risks of being robbed — not to mention the occasional drunk who leaves his partially digested … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: medallions, New York City, Roosevelt Administration, Taxi and Limousine Commission, taxicabs | Category: Market Regulation |
2 commentsHeard about Viber yet? It’s an app for the iPhone and for Android smartphones, the neatest means yet for making virtually free phone calls and sending free text messages to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Oh, and did we mention that the voice quality is typically superior … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Android, FCC, iPhone, Viber | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentIf you haven’t heard John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas’ official climatologist (and therefore adviser to Rick Perry on the subject of climate change), check out his views. They’re startling only in the sense that they follow directly from the mainstream science — a suspect position these days in … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: climatology, John Nielsen-Gammon, Rick Perry, Texas | Category: Climate Change, Quick Takes |
Leave a commentIt’s “I-told-you-so” time for the bank lobbyists. They predicted that the price controls on the “interchange” debit card fees charged to merchants would automatically lead to higher fees somewhere else – in this case, as fixed monthly fees on debit card holders. This Whac-a-Mole model of pricing may not explain everything … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: bank fees, debit cards, two-sided markets | Category: Financial regulation |
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