debit cards « regulation2point0

Bank Regulators Playing Whac-a-Mole

October 3rd, 2011

It’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 …

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Whack-a-Mole Price Controls

December 22nd, 2010

So, what do you think of the Federal Reserve’s regulation of bank “interchange” fees, mandated by the financial reform law? Let us guess: Not much. Indeed, we’ll bet that nine of ten news junkies barely have a clue about what’s happened – other than the …

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For an assistant professor (American University’s School of International Service) three years out of graduate school (Princeton), Jeff Colgan is making quite a splash. As a scholar working at the nexus between economics and political science, he’s specialized in analyzing the links between petroleum and international conflict. His new book, Petro-Aggression, explores the question of why some oil-fueled regimes stir the geopolitical pot (think Iran, Venezuela) while others are quite conservative (Saudi Arabia). But we’re most taken with his working paper on OPEC, in which he argues that the cartel (as opposed to individual cartel members) is toothless.

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Bank Regulators Playing Whac-a-Mole

Whack-a-Mole Price Controls

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