Why the Internet Will Fail
Newsweek presents a devastating essay by Clifford Stoll explaining why this newfangled Internet thing is unlikely to catch on. After two decades online, I’m perplexed. It’s not that I haven’t had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I’ve met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I’m uneasy about this most trendy and oversold ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 28, 2010 09:59
NBC Olympic Coverage: Congressional Action Needed?
Senator Herb Kohl is pressuring NBC to open up online access to its Olympic coverage. A Democratic senator criticized NBC on Friday for its handling of online access to the Vancouver Olympics, calling it unfair and restrictive. Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel, wrote NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker to complain about an NBC ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 27, 2010 11:50
Obama: Socialize Health Insurance
President Obama seems to have backed off of his plans for a government insurance program to compete with the private sector. Instead, he's doubling down and proposing something much more radical: having the federal government set the rates of private insurance companies! President Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 22, 2010 09:04
America’s Cup Back in American Hands, No One Cares
[caption id="attachment_47220" align="alignright" width="380" caption="BMW Oracle owner Larry Ellison lifts up the trophy after winning the 33rd America's Cup in Valencia, Sunday. Heino Kalis / Reuters"][/caption] Oracle's Larry Ellison won the America's Cup yacht race Sunday, becoming the first American winner in fifteen years. American software tycoon Larry Ellison won the America’s Cup yacht race in the Mediterranean Sunday, defeating the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 15, 2010 10:22
Visa Dominates Debit Card Market by Charging More
Interesting analysis of the debit card industry by Andrew Martin, who explains how Visa gained dominant market share by charging more for its services. When you sign a debit card receipt at a large retailer, the store pays your bank an average of 75 cents for every $100 spent, more than twice as much as when you punch in a four-digit ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 5, 2010 09:45
iPhone Gives AT&T Bad Name
You know those ubiquitous maps showing that Verizon has ridiculously better 3G coverage than AT&T? And all those people complaining about Apple's forcing those who want to use the iPhone to use AT&T? It turns out that AT&T's coverage is great and the iPhone itself is the issue. Roger Entner, senior vice president for telecommunications research at Nielsen, said the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 14, 2009 08:10
College Education: You Don’t Get What You Pay For
King Banian studies the most recent literature and finds that students are leaving college with record debt levels and that, paradoxically, those attending more selective institutions not only get far more for their money but pay less. Because students are now willing and able to select higher education in a national rather than regional market, colleges and universities compete more intensely ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 4, 2009 13:01
Anderson Cooper’s Ratings Plummet
I'm sure I'll see dumber stories as the day wears on but Business Insider's "Anderson Cooper's Ratings Plummet" is the early morning leader. Anderson Cooper is fading in the ratings. The respected CNN anchor has seen his numbers slip significantly through the past year. His 10 p.m. show, "Anderson Cooper 360," has declined 62% in total viewers and 70% in adults 25-54 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 3, 2009 10:03
Jenna Bush and the Meritocracy
Adam Serwer is incensed because he has "a lot of friends who spent a great deal of money, and went into a lot of debt, to learn how to be professional broadcast journalists" who are "now struggling to find work" and yet Jenna Bush Hager now has a job on Today despite having only a few years' teaching experience. As Glenn ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 1, 2009 07:40
State Liquor Stores
Glenn Reynolds points to a story by Doug Winship about Washington State's liquor stores running out of, um, liquor just in time for the July 4th weekend during which all good Americans celebrate their country's independence by getting hammered. Naturally, all liquor stores in Washington State are run by the government of the state of Washington who 1) screwed up ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 4, 2009 12:17
Quote of the Day – Newspaper Edition
"If you had told one of the great newspaper moguls of the past that someday it would be possible to publish a newspaper without paying anything for paper, printing and delivery, he would not have predicted that this would mean catastrophe for the industry. But that is what it has been." - Michael Kinsley What the moguls may have overlooked is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 6, 2009 13:20
Blogger Arms Race
Responding to a reader suggestion that blogger's word counts be restricted by government (a rather apples-meet-oranges response to a post suggesting CEO pay be capped) Matt Yglesias only wishes it were so. Personally, I would love a legal cap on the number of words a blogger is allowed to produce per day. I’m privileged to have a job that I really ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 30, 2009 13:36
Obama to Run GM, Chrysler
President Obama says he'll help GM and Chrysler but they'll have to agree to some "pretty drastic changes." "We will provide them some help," Obama said. "I know that it is not popular to provide help to auto workers — or to auto companies. But my job is to measure the costs of allowing these auto companies just to collapse versus ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 27, 2009 07:16
Airline Surcharges: Pay to Pee?
Quentin Letts informs me that Ryanair, an Irish no-frills outfit of which I'd never previously heard, is contemplating charging passengers a fee to use the toilet. That is how it manages to charge such low basic fares for its flights. What they give you in discounted tickets, they try to claw back in the way of incidentals, from pay-per-bag luggage rates ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 13, 2009 07:37
