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Truth on the Market 

Academic commentary on law, business, economics and more.
Post Frequency: 39.9/day Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 00:51:38 Recent Entries: 1318
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Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid For Yahoo!
Posted on May 03, 2008This just in: Microsoft withdrew its most recent bid for Yahoo and announced it will not be making a hostile move for Yahoo. This comes on the heels of the announcement a mere day ago that Yahoo and Microsoft were sitting down to try to hammer out a friendly deal...
Score One for Obama
Posted on May 02, 2008I?ve been waiting for my old con law prof to take a political stand I could really get behind, and he finally has. Barack Obama is the only one of the presidential candidates to take a firm stand against this shamefully populist gas tax holiday. Good for you, Prof! Now, I?m not normally a [...
Delaware is winning the LLC race.
Posted on May 01, 2008Dammann and Schundeln have a new paper up on SSRN entitled “Where are Limited Liability Companies Formed? An Empirical Analysis” (see here) that examines the state of formation choice of 64,000+ LLCs. Here’s the abstract: We empirically study the incorporation choices or, more accurately: formation choice, of limited liability companies...
Dammit - DC Madam Hangs Herself
Posted on May 01, 2008The DC Madam killed herself today, about a week after being found guilty by a jury on prostitution-related charges of money-laundering (among other things). Among her alleged clients are Louisiana Senator David Vitter, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, and Harlan K...
The Future of Law and Economics Part 2: Mathematics, Retailing L&E, and Detachment
Posted on April 30, 2008In my previous post, I sketched out some trends in the Law & Economics movement in recent years. Specifically, I’ve focused on the trends towards increasing mathematical formality and specialization within economics as a stand alone discipline...
The Future of Law and Economics, Part 1
Posted on April 28, 2008I’m very interested in the history, the present, and the future of the law and economics methodology and movement. Recently, I’ve been giving some thought to the direction of the movement, especially as it currently exists in the legal academy...
How Should Competition Policy Be Taught?
Posted on April 28, 2008Harvard’s Einer Elhauge answers the titular question in the newest issue of Competition Policy International, in response to a review of his new textbook Global Antitrust Law and Economics (with Damien Geradin) at the newly revamped Global Competition Policy website...
Nudge at Cato
Posted on April 23, 2008Speaking of Nudge, Cato is holding a book forum on Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler’s new book on May 1 which will feature Sunstein, and comments from Will Wilkinson and my colleague Terrence Chorvat. Registration is free and you can also watch the event live at the link above.
Happy 94th Birthday Armen Alchian!
Posted on April 23, 2008I wrote this brief post awhile back, and forgot to post it on April 12th, Armen’s 94th birthday. I’m late. But better late then never they say. On Armen Alchian’s 94th birthday, it seems appropriate to reflect on some of his contributions to economics and economic analysis of the law...
Some Economics Links
Posted on April 23, 2008James Pethokoukis at US News reports on interviews with chief economic advisers Austan Goolsbee and Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Brian Leiter is pleased to point out a study showing that while both groups are in the top 3, Philosophy majors outperform Economics majors on the LSAT...
Big Antitrust News: Rambus Overturned
Posted on April 22, 2008The D.C. Circuit’s opinion is available here. Here is one of the key passages explaining the D.C. Circuit’s logic: To the extent that the ruling (which simply reversed a grant of dismissal) rested on the argument that deceit lured the SSO away from non-proprietary technology, see id...
Nudge
Posted on April 18, 2008Sunstein and Thaler have a series of posts over at Volokh Consipiracy on their new book Nudge, which expands on their notion of libertarian paternalism (see here, here , here and here). Something in the most recent post caught my eye. In preparing to respond to various objections to libertarian paternalism, Sunstein argues that this [...
The “New” Issue of JLE is Online
Posted on April 17, 2008The new issue of the Journal of Law & Economics is available online. This is an exciting development for me because the issue includes my paper with Ben Klein on The Economics of Slotting Contracts (SSRN version available here), and because it has been a very long wait to see the paper in final [...
The Economics of Post-Merger Product Repositioning
Posted on April 15, 2008Amit Gandhi, Luke Froeb, Steven Tschantz and Gregory Werden have published “Post-Merger Product Repositioning” in the Journal of Industrial Economics. (HT: Luke). The critical insight is that the conventional unilateral effect incentive to raise prices post-merger is offset by the incentive to “separate” in product space...
“Leegin is a triumph of pragmatism”
Posted on April 13, 2008That is what Judge Posner has to say about Leegin in his new book, How Judges Think. I’m only a few chapters in, but so far, its a fascinating read. I’ll probably blog some more about parts of the book later. In particular, I’ve been thinking recently about how the complexity of substantive antitrust analysis [...
GE “Slashes” Earnings: Free Advice from Nowicki for GE Exec. Jeffrey Immelt!
Posted on April 12, 2008The Financial Times reported yesterday that an embarrassed GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt had to tell GE shareholders that the 10% growth in earnings for 2008 that he had promised analysts in March was not going to be possible. GE missed its quarterly forecasts and halved its 2008 forecast to 5% growth in earnings (as opposed [...
Searle Center Call for Antitrust Papers
Posted on April 09, 2008Northwestern University School of Law’s Searle Center on Law, Regulation and Economic Growth will be holding a conference on Antitrust Economics and Competition Policy on September 26-27th. From the Call for Papers: The goal of this Research Symposium is to provide a forum where leading scholars from across the country can gather together with Northwestern?s own [...
Merger Agreements, ?Material Adverse Changes,? and Delaware Vice Chancellor Leo Strine?s Obsession With Keira Knightley
Posted on April 03, 2008I am blogging today from the Tulane Corporate Law Institute, here in New Orleans, at the stunning Westin Hotel. I am set to appear on the Private Equity panel tomorrow, where I will talk about, among other things, the implications of 2007?s string of failed private equity deals...
Some Thoughts on the Nacchio Decision and Insider Trading
Posted on March 31, 2008On the flight back from my spring break ski trip, I had a chance to read the recent Tenth Circuit opinion reversing the insider trading conviction of former Qwest CEO, Joseph Nacchio. Mr. Nacchio had been convicted of 19 counts of insider trading, sentenced to six years in prison (plus two years’ supervised release), [...
The Dual Antitrust Enforcement Question
Posted on March 31, 2008With all of the recent talk of the “optimal regulatory structure” and proposals about regulatory consolidation and reorganization (here is Glom Blogger David Zaring on the Big Reorg), I wonder if the discussion might carry over into antitrust and the recurring “dual enforcement” question...
Some GMU (and GMU Related) Hiring News
Posted on March 31, 2008First, David Bernstein reports on GMU’s very productive hiring season which includes the additions of Helen Alvare, Laura Bradford, T.J. Chiang, Jonathan Mitchell, Adam Mossoff, Chris Newman, David Schleicher, and Jay Verret. Second, Brian Leiter reports that Jonathan Klick (Florida State), a graduate of GMU Law (and of the economics department with a Phd in 2003) [...
Regulate in Haste, Repent in Leisure: Reforming the Financial Regulatory Scheme
Posted on March 31, 2008Today, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is set to present some comments about the Treasury’s Blueprint for Financial Regulatory Reform, released on Saturday. (A summary of the proposal is here.) The summary of the proposal report provides: ?In this report, Treasury presents a series of “short-term” and “intermediate-term” recommendations that could immediately improve and reform the U...
Death of a chinchilla
Posted on March 27, 2008For at least two years, my boys (Liam, 9 and Ollie, 6) have been clamoring for a pet chinchilla. While perusing craigslist a few days before Ollie’s birthday, I ran across a listing for a 18-month-old chinchilla that came with a cage and all accessories (including a dust bather!) for a mere $75...
Comment on “Barnett on Sirius-XM”
Posted on March 25, 2008I can’t seem to get my comment on Geoff’s XM-Sirius post below to go through, so I’ll just post it: I would still disagree with the DOJ when they say “there is not likely to be significant competition…through the car manufacturer channel for many years...
Do Casinos Cause Crime?
Posted on March 25, 2008Grinols and Mustard (2006) answer “Yes” in their ReStat article. Douglas Walker rebuts and Grinols and Mustard reply in the latest issue of Econ Journal Watch — which you should be reading. The debate largely involves issues of measurement error and endogeneity, e...
One More Thought on Ex Ante Competition and Merger Analysis
Posted on March 25, 2008One last issue with respect to ex ante competition and merger analysis. What if it could be demonstrated convincingly that XM and Sirius payments to automobile manufacturers. The DOJ hints at this possibility in the press release: XM and Sirius engaged in head-to-head competition for the right to distribute their products and services through each car [...
Competition for the Field, Sirius/XM and Shelf Space
Posted on March 25, 2008Geoff and Paul like the result in XM/ Sirius but are puzzled by the DOJ press release, in particular as it pertains to analyzing ex ante competition, or “competition for the field,” in the form of payments to automobile manufacturers to adopt their services...
Barnett on Sirius-XM
Posted on March 24, 2008The Washington Post is reporting that the long-embattled Sirius/XM merger has received DOJ approval (FCC approval still pending) (HT: David Fischer). About time, I’d say (it’s been two years). See all of the ToTM posts on the topic here...
Tulane Corporate Law Institute
Posted on March 21, 2008Tulane’s annual “Corporate Law Institute” is coming up! The conference - widely viewed as the must-attend deal conference of the year is April 3 and 4 (only two weeks away). The roster for this year’s conference reads like a who’s who of the deal world, with a range of Delaware jurists, investment bankers, top lawyers, and [...
Public Choice and the Law Textbook
Posted on March 20, 2008Todd Zywicki and Maxwell Stearns have a draft of their new textbook, “Public Choice Concepts and Applications in the Law,” available for review for profs that are interested in teaching with the manuscript this Fall 2008 or Spring 2009 term (the book is due to be published in 2009)...
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Housing Market: Mixed Signals about Falling Prices for February
Two reports have been issued, one by the Massachusetts Association...
Fish on "Religion Without Truth"
Here's a (relatively) recent Stanley Fish Think Again column, call...
Is a child fathered out of wedlock by an American diplomat to a foreign women on foreign soil entitled to US Citizenship by jus sanguinis?
This is a very tough situation your friend is in. It is difficult to know the ex...
Did I harass someone?
Oh, yes. This can be taken in as so many things, especially since you had testif...
Iam interested in tapping the local online search market how do people set up a services like localpull.com or areacodelocal.com? Is there any software that does the job? localpull.com/ areacodelocal are services that he
sign-up on LocalPull. The service is amazing. We love it....
Is it possible to terminate a contract with a real estate brokerage?
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Need urgent answer. Never signed Truth in Lending Disclosure docs - docs at closing had different terms and rates than what we had originally signed up for in the Loan Application. Signed closing docs as assured it would
you have three days to change your mind after closing a re-fi...

Is a child fathered out of wedlock by an American diplomat to a foreign women on foreign soil entitled to US Citizenship by jus sanguinis?
This is a very tough situation your friend is in. It is difficult to know the ex...
Did I harass someone?
Oh, yes. This can be taken in as so many things, especially since you had testif...
Iam interested in tapping the local online search market how do people set up a services like localpull.com or areacodelocal.com? Is there any software that does the job? localpull.com/ areacodelocal are services that he
sign-up on LocalPull. The service is amazing. We love it....
Is it possible to terminate a contract with a real estate brokerage?
First, the Realtor cannot force you to reduce your price. It probably does dissu...
Need urgent answer. Never signed Truth in Lending Disclosure docs - docs at closing had different terms and rates than what we had originally signed up for in the Loan Application. Signed closing docs as assured it would
you have three days to change your mind after closing a re-fi...








