Over at Simple Justice, Scott Greenfield has taken time off from bashing marketers to bash coupon settlements. That's when some lawyers initiate a lawsuit against a corporation on behalf of a large number of people, and then settled for a payment that allows the corporation to send out some sort of redeemable coupon instead of cash. In this case, it's the Ford Explorer rollover … [Read more...] about Coupon Madness
Economics
Success Attracts the Wolves at Google
Reason's Brian Doherty raises the alarm about Justine Varney, the new head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. According to a Wired article, she might be planning to go after Google. The technology industry, she said, was coming under the sway of a dominant behemoth, one that had the potential to stifle innovation and squash its competitors. The last time the … [Read more...] about Success Attracts the Wolves at Google
The Minimum Wage and Unemployment
Columnist Steve Chapman has a piece today complaining that the coming increase in the minimum wage will cause unemployment: Come Friday, the federally mandated minimum wage will jump to $7.25 an hour from $6.55 -- an 11 percent increase. At a time when employers are laying off workers, Washington is going to make it more expensive to keep them. If you're a minimum wage … [Read more...] about The Minimum Wage and Unemployment
Yes, You Do Have Staff, But You’ve Got to Be Staff, Too
Yes, You Do Have Staff, But You've Got to Be Staff, First Too Both First and Too Twitter, the Favor Economy, and the Power of Crowds You've seen the ad: some bozo, trying to project competence and connections, tells a potential customer: "I've got people to handle that." By which he means he can look up folks in the Yellow Pages, hire some, and take his … [Read more...] about Yes, You Do Have Staff, But You’ve Got to Be Staff, Too
Thinking About the Stimulus: Theoretical Badness
This is the long-awaited (mostly by me) fourth post in my series about the stimulus bill. I would have got it posted earlier, but I've been kind of busy. (You might want to read the first three parts about GDP, Fear, and Spending.) Recall that under the theory behind the stimulus, recessions happen when consumers decide to reduce their consumption to try to save cash for an … [Read more...] about Thinking About the Stimulus: Theoretical Badness