There’s a new study on how high-profile academic financial economists are paid to do the bidding of our Galtian overlords:
In this study, we showed that the great majority of two groups of prominent academic financial economists did not disclose their private financial affiliation even when writing pieces on financial reform. This presents a potential conflict of interest. If this pattern prevailed among academic financial economists more broadly this, in our view, would represent an even greater social problem. Academic economists serve as experts in the media, molding public opinion. They are also important players in government policy. If those that are creating the culture around financial regulation as well as influencing policy at the government level for financial reform also have a significant, if hidden, conflict of interest, our public is not likely to be well-served.
Felix Salmon makes the obvious point...with a telling anecdote:
It seems obvious that when you’re regularly making significantly more than the median national annual personal income from giving a single speech, you’re prone to being captured by the people paying you all that money. And the secrecy makes things much worse. I once mentioned in passing on my blog a consultancy gig which I happened to know about and didn’t think was particularly secret. The consultant in question phoned me up extremely distraught, fearful that the employer, a hedge fund, would read my post and react to it with a whole parade of nasty possible actions. There’s no good reason for such secrecy on either the employer or the employee side — unless, of course, there’s something ethically suspect about the arrangement in the first place.
Maybe I’m wrong to fixate on this so much, but I see this kind of thing as the central problem facing contemporary democracies: it’s too easy for monied interests to control the flow of information. You want a very serious economist to endorse whatever scam you’re running? Give him a few hundred thousand for speaking fees, consulting fees, whatever the term is that they’re using these days. That’s chump change, but it’s a lot to him or her, and you can probably find a respectable person who’s enough of a whore to do it, if you look around.
There’s a crazy asymmetry at work when things that are worth a lot can be bought for so little, and this is just one example. People make a big deal out $4 billion spent on an election. That’s not a lot of money to buy off the people who run a $3 trillion budget. At least there used to be transparency about that particular form of bribery, but not anymore.
Kevin is annoyed that Priceline's "Name Your Price" feature fails to take resort fees into account. In his case, such extra charges tacked on $19 a night to the $45 he agreed to pay for his room.
He writes:
Just this last weekend I booked a room through Priceline's "Name Your Price" service. I was looking for a decent place stay at a decent price. I bid $45/night for a 4 star hotel, and was booked at the Scottsdale Resort and Conference Center. Upon arrival I was notified that I would have to pay an additional $19 per day for services such as Internet, a newspaper, and use of the gym. I informed the front desk manager and clerk that I would not need any of those services and that I would like to decline to pay. Long story short, I got a condescending speech about how priceline works, and that I could either pay the fee, or lose out on the original $45/night for three nights plus fees. I reluctantly checked in to the resort because my only other option was to spend even more money on another hotel reservation.The next day I wrote to Priceline's customer service and got a generic message stating that since it's stated in fine print somewhere on the site that there was nothing they could do.
It then turned out that I needed to stay two more days, I (stupidly) tried Priceline again, and was very careful with my request, I selected a 3 star hotel (making sure not to select "resorts") and entered $30 per night. Once again.. I was put at a resort. This resort had a $15/day resort fee. I contacted customer service once again stating that I did not select "resorts" in my search. They informed me that when a higher rated room is available at the rate that you bid, they will automatically upgrade you. How nice of them.
My complaint is that resorts are abusing the Priceline system by offering a ridiculously low rate on Priceline, and then charging extra "fees" when you actually get there to make up the difference. This is a scam, and needs to be stopped.
I've used Priceline several times in the last year and never had this problem before. It's a shame I'll have to book my rooms elsewhere now.
It's doubtful this issue is restricted to Priceline. Even if you book directly through hotels, automatic extra fees give you a Ticketmaster-like experience.
When you're booking hotels, which services do you find give you the most accurate prices?
bench craft company scam
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>
This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...
Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: 'Fox <b>News</b> North' Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>
Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...
bench craft company scam
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>
This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...
Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: 'Fox <b>News</b> North' Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>
Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...
bench craft company scam
There’s a new study on how high-profile academic financial economists are paid to do the bidding of our Galtian overlords:
In this study, we showed that the great majority of two groups of prominent academic financial economists did not disclose their private financial affiliation even when writing pieces on financial reform. This presents a potential conflict of interest. If this pattern prevailed among academic financial economists more broadly this, in our view, would represent an even greater social problem. Academic economists serve as experts in the media, molding public opinion. They are also important players in government policy. If those that are creating the culture around financial regulation as well as influencing policy at the government level for financial reform also have a significant, if hidden, conflict of interest, our public is not likely to be well-served.
Felix Salmon makes the obvious point...with a telling anecdote:
It seems obvious that when you’re regularly making significantly more than the median national annual personal income from giving a single speech, you’re prone to being captured by the people paying you all that money. And the secrecy makes things much worse. I once mentioned in passing on my blog a consultancy gig which I happened to know about and didn’t think was particularly secret. The consultant in question phoned me up extremely distraught, fearful that the employer, a hedge fund, would read my post and react to it with a whole parade of nasty possible actions. There’s no good reason for such secrecy on either the employer or the employee side — unless, of course, there’s something ethically suspect about the arrangement in the first place.
Maybe I’m wrong to fixate on this so much, but I see this kind of thing as the central problem facing contemporary democracies: it’s too easy for monied interests to control the flow of information. You want a very serious economist to endorse whatever scam you’re running? Give him a few hundred thousand for speaking fees, consulting fees, whatever the term is that they’re using these days. That’s chump change, but it’s a lot to him or her, and you can probably find a respectable person who’s enough of a whore to do it, if you look around.
There’s a crazy asymmetry at work when things that are worth a lot can be bought for so little, and this is just one example. People make a big deal out $4 billion spent on an election. That’s not a lot of money to buy off the people who run a $3 trillion budget. At least there used to be transparency about that particular form of bribery, but not anymore.
Kevin is annoyed that Priceline's "Name Your Price" feature fails to take resort fees into account. In his case, such extra charges tacked on $19 a night to the $45 he agreed to pay for his room.
He writes:
Just this last weekend I booked a room through Priceline's "Name Your Price" service. I was looking for a decent place stay at a decent price. I bid $45/night for a 4 star hotel, and was booked at the Scottsdale Resort and Conference Center. Upon arrival I was notified that I would have to pay an additional $19 per day for services such as Internet, a newspaper, and use of the gym. I informed the front desk manager and clerk that I would not need any of those services and that I would like to decline to pay. Long story short, I got a condescending speech about how priceline works, and that I could either pay the fee, or lose out on the original $45/night for three nights plus fees. I reluctantly checked in to the resort because my only other option was to spend even more money on another hotel reservation.The next day I wrote to Priceline's customer service and got a generic message stating that since it's stated in fine print somewhere on the site that there was nothing they could do.
It then turned out that I needed to stay two more days, I (stupidly) tried Priceline again, and was very careful with my request, I selected a 3 star hotel (making sure not to select "resorts") and entered $30 per night. Once again.. I was put at a resort. This resort had a $15/day resort fee. I contacted customer service once again stating that I did not select "resorts" in my search. They informed me that when a higher rated room is available at the rate that you bid, they will automatically upgrade you. How nice of them.
My complaint is that resorts are abusing the Priceline system by offering a ridiculously low rate on Priceline, and then charging extra "fees" when you actually get there to make up the difference. This is a scam, and needs to be stopped.
I've used Priceline several times in the last year and never had this problem before. It's a shame I'll have to book my rooms elsewhere now.
It's doubtful this issue is restricted to Priceline. Even if you book directly through hotels, automatic extra fees give you a Ticketmaster-like experience.
When you're booking hotels, which services do you find give you the most accurate prices?
bench craft company scam
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>
This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...
Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: 'Fox <b>News</b> North' Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>
Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...
bench craft company scam
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Web type <b>news</b>: iPhone and iPad now support TrueType font embedding <b>...</b>
This is also exciting news, as TrueType fonts are superior to SVG fonts in two very important ways: the files sizes are dramatically smaller (an especially important factor on mobile devices), and the rendering quality is much higher. ...
Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: 'Fox <b>News</b> North' Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>
Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...
bench craft company scam
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