That's the topic of These Professors Make More Than a Thousand Bucks an Hour Peddling Mega-Mergers, a ProPublica piece by Jesse Eisinger and Justin Elliott. The sub-title of the piece summarizes its thesis: "The economists are leveraging their academic prestige with secret reports justifying corporate concentration. Their predictions are often wrong and consumers pay the price." […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
The Department of Justice plays a role in consumer protection. So for that reason (and there are plenty of others), our readers may want to meet our next attorney general (assuming Mr. Trump's nominee is confirmed). See this article by Ari Berman.
Read Americans Blame Obesity on Willpower, Despite Evidence It’s Genetic by Gina Kolata.
Right after the election, Jeff Sovern wrote for this blog on the future (if any) of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under a new President (and a Congress controlled by the President's party). There's been a lot written on the topic in just the last few days, and I know it's something our readers are interested in. […]
Do race and gender play a role in how long a customer waits for an uber or lyft? What about cancellation rates? What about cost? A new study, published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, shows a pattern of discrimination, especially as to race. See Racial and Gender Discrimination in Transportation Network Companies by […]
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has published this investigative report on the FDA's adverse-event reporting system for medical devices. The Star Tribune used the Freedom of Information Act to get information from the FDA about patient injuries associated with medical devices. By law, this information should have been public in the first place. The report is quite […]
Read Kaveh Waddell's article entitled Incessant Consumer Surveillance Is Leaking Into Physical Stores. Here's an excerpt: You just wanted to shop for a birthday gift in peace—instead, you got ads that follow you around the internet, and coupons in your email that remember exactly which products you clicked on. So you shut down your computer, stick your […]
This article by Laura Northrup is about self-driving delivery trucks. Yes, apparently, at least one of them has hit the rough and rowdy road. Here's an excerpt that may pique your interest: AB InBev and Uber teamed up last week for a ceremonial delivery: the first recorded commercial shipment delivered by self-driving truck. It was a […]
If you want information on the difficult cyber security problems raised by the massive October 21 cyber attack, you may want to read this interview with cyber security expert Herb Lin. Note the particular security problems posed by the Internet of Things.
This article by Hugo Martin explains that "[a]irlines could dramatically reduce the number of bags that are mishandled if they add tiny radio frequency devices to their luggage tags."