Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

I acknowledge from the comments that many readers were less impressed than I was with Peter Wallison’s criticism of the concept of “systemic risk” that I posted a couple of weeks back (although I didn’t see anything then or since that has led me to question Peter’s conclusion that the problem was not interconnectedness but […]

The letter is here.  I’ve personally always found the arguments against allowing television cameras in the Supreme Court to be unconvincing.  Perhaps for trial courts (although even then I’m not so sure) but for appeals courts, and especially the Supreme Court, allowing cameras seems compelling to me.  I remember hearing Scalia say that the problem […]

Somehow I missed this when it happened a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t see any of my co-conspirators post on it.  But I read that a couple of weeks ago a bunch of Harvard students staged a walkout of Greg Mankiw’s introductory economics course because of its purported conservative bias.  They wrote in […]

For many years a signature program of the GMU Law & Economics Center was its programs in Economics for Law Professors and Law for Economists.  After a hiatus for several years, those programs are now back. Here’s the info for economics for law professors. Here’s the info for law for economists. The two programs actually […]

This is a cool new website on the history and philosophy of libertarianism.  Especially recommended is David Boaz’s essay on the history of libertarianism, which I like because of its implicit Harold Berman themes (Berman’s book Law and Revolution has been a huge intellectual influence on me).  Also not to be missed, of course, is […]

As I understand it, the simmering potential antitrust action against Google is premised on the idea that Google has market power in the search engine market that it exploits by biasing its search engine results in favor of its own content.  Well, according to this new study by my colleague Josh Wright, to the extent […]

From yesterday’s WSJ: Nan Terrie learned an expensive lesson last week about the importance of property rights. “Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” the 18-year-old protester told the New York Post. “I had my Mac stolen—that was like $5,500.” Why? Because she left it in a public place, amid a crowd demanding the […]

I’ve been thinking the past couple of days about the parallels between price controls on debit card interchange fees and the investigations of Google after reading Eric Schmidt’s comments as reported by Gordon Crovitz in the WSJ: Mr. Schmidt had just given his first congressional testimony. He was called before the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee […]

I’ve posted a new paper on SSRN, “The Economics and Regulation of Bank Overdraft Protection.”   Here’s the abstract: Consumer use of bank overdraft protection has risen rapidly over the past decade, leading to increased scrutiny and the imposition of new regulations. Public and political debate regarding overdraft protection has highlighted anecdotal stories about irresponsible college […]

The wits at CEI have come up with another good one–you can print your own $5 “Durbin Dollars” and mail it to Senator Durbin to thank him for his price controls on debit card interchange fees and resulting new bank fees.  I like the motto too–“In Big Government We Trust.” Maybe Home Depot will eventually […]

According to a Bloomberg story: About 30 percent of U.S. consumers said they’d leave their banks over fees for using their debit cards, according to a survey by the Research Intelligence Group. About 43 percent said they’d switch to paying with cash or credit cards if their bank implemented charges; 13 percent said they’d pay […]

Jon Huntsman asks the right question in the WSJ today: More than three years after the crisis and the accompanying bailouts, the six largest American financial institutions are significantly bigger than they were before the crisis, having been encouraged to snap up Bear Stearns and other competitors at bargain prices. These banks now have assets […]

From today’s WSJ, “Short-Term Lenders Seize the Day“: Tough times are good times for payday lenders and pawnshops. *** Shares of nationwide chains, such as DFC Global Corp., Cash America International Inc. and First Cash Financial Services Inc., have jumped to records in recent weeks. Meanwhile, plans for two initial public offerings from the industry, including the online […]

The folks at NerdWallet have posted an interview they did with me recently on the impact of the Durbin Amendment.  Gives an overview of all that is going on in response.

Coming up on November 10-11 will be a symposium hosted by the Washington & Lee Law Review on Regulation in the Fringe Economy.  Details are here.  This corner of the consumer credit marketplace is exceedingly important but little-studied and recent innovations such as the Durbin Amendment and Credit CARD Act are increasing its importance as […]