Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

apparently hold the Framers in high regard.  Jason Ross, Vice President of Educational Programs for the Bill of Rights Institute (where I am privileged to serve on the Board of Trustees) reports on a poll conducted by the organization in connection with the 4th of July here.

This is a cool research site–The Article V Library.  Robert Biggerstaff has collected volumes of materials not just on enacted constitutional amendments but proposed constitutional amendments through the years, including state calls for constitutional conventions.  He also tracks states that have rescinded previous calls for conventions. This is quite and exhaustive program that could prove […]

For those who can’t get enough of Marshall v. Marshall, the Federalist Society posted a podcast discussion of the case last week.  Participants include David Skeel, Troy MacKenzie, and me, with Judge (and bankruptcy expert) Edith H. Jones as the moderator.  The discussion quickly moves to broader issues beyond the case itself to some of […]

It is here, if you are interested.  Much of it deals with allowing cameras in the courtroom.  Nothing too surprising, other than perhaps the incredible prominence of Roe v. Wade in the public’s understanding of the Supreme Court.

The organization Liberty Guard has filed an amicus brief in support of the state of Virginia in its challenge to the health care bill.  Most other constitutional critiques have focused on the issue of whether the individual mandate is beyond the scope of proper powers of the federal government.  Instead of focusing on the government’s […]

The folks at Cardhub have sifted through the credit offers of several leading issuers and provided their assessment as to which ones offer the clearest disclosures of their Penalty APR policies.  They also conclude that the Federal Reserve’s sample disclosures aren’t very good.

If you haven’t seen this interesting essay by Kenneth Minogue in The New Criterion, let me point you to it.  I don’t agree with all of it, but I find the central thrust thought-provoking.  Alert readers will recognize the implicit hat-tip to Ilaire Belloc.  A snippet: My concern with democracy is highly specific. It begins […]

A few final thoughts on the Durbin Amendment and interchange price controls. First, one of the peculiarities of the price control provisions of the Durbin Amendment is that it only applies to debit and prepaid cards.  This seems peculiar because for years the primary concern of merchants has been credit cards, which have higher interchange […]

Adam Levitin also has a letter in today’s Washington Times today, responding to the op-ed column that Josh Wright and I published on Friday on the antitrust economics of interchange regulation.  I’ve followed Adam’s work on this for some time, and I confess that I literally do not understand his theory of the market here.  […]

Adam Levitin defended the Durbin Amendment imposing interchange price controls on debit cards on The Huffington Post Friday.  From reading the post, it is not clear if he is just defending price controls in the abstract or whether he is actually defending the particularities of the Durbin Amendment.  My reading is that this piece is […]

Josh Wright and I have a column in today’s Washington Times critiquing the economics of the Durbin interchange fees price control amendment.  There are some interesting theoretical arguments about interchange fees (and very little empirical arguments).  The argument that the market is a “duopoly” that exploits merchants, however, is not one of them.

That’s a matter of opinion, but so far it has the fewest goals and most ties.  One hypothesis is that there is more parity among the teams than in the past, which might produce fewer goals and less definitive outcomes than in earlier eras that featured a larger number of first round mismatches.

Marcus Cole on why the battle is ideological, not merely financial.  To which I say: “Go US and Barca!”

He’s not impressed.  After reading the paper, neither am I.

The Mercatus Center has posted the video of the three panels from the interchange fee conference that was held last week.  You can see them here. For those who are interested, my paper is available here. I see that Navy Federal Credit Union is now alerting its customers to what is likely to happen if […]