I love the Google Nexus One. I don’t love its battery life. Sure, its 1400mAh battery (officially rated at 10 hours’ talk time on EDGE and 7 hours on 3G) can get me through most of a day, but just barely. And I get a little skittish when I get down to 30 percent or so. The Seidio Innocell 3200mAh extended battery ($69.95 in the Android Central Store) takes care of any fears while adding minimum bulk. Check it out after the break.
The Nürburgring circuit in Germany is one place to be if the upcoming automobile models are what get you excited. It is sometimes difficult to keep track of all cars that get tested here day in and day out; and the latest one nabbed by spy photographers is the 2012 Mercedes Benz B-Class. The hatchback will feature a more spacious front and it will sport a more aggressive look courtesy of LED lighting and a rear spoiler. This upcoming model will go on sale in 2011 and will be based on the BlueZero Concept — a design study that was showcased at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. We’re not that much into it to be honest … at least not the design.
Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedan, Performance, Paris Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz, Luxury
Each day we’re inching closer to the 2011 Mercedes-Benz CLS’ debut, so the Benz Boys are hard at work on the AMG variant of its swoopy four-door which should go on sale soon after the new C218-based CLS hits dealers early next year.
The AMG version is expected to be packing Mercedes’ all-new 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V8, putting out 544 horsepower and 586 pound-feet of torque in standard guise, and 571 hp and a axle-decimating 660 lb-ft of twist when kitted out in the in the optional higher-spec trim. Power will find its way to the ground through the new E-Class’ seven-speed automatic, while beefed up brakes and suspension components round out the high-performance package.
These newest spy shots give us a glimpse of those biggie-sized, glowing rotors, along with an SLS-inspired fascia and LED daytime running lamps. The arching roofline doesn’t appear to have changed much over the outgoing model, while the rear end gains a new set of taillamps and trapezoidal quad exhausts.
Expect the new CLS to bow at the Paris Motor Show this fall, with the AMG variant – likely carrying the “6.3” designation – coming along quickly thereafter.
Spy Shots: 2011 Mercedes-Benz CLS AMG lights up its rotors at the ‘Ring originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has made two impassioned, and at times angry, speeches on the chamber’s floor in as many days disputing speeches earlier in the week by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. The minority leader’s speeches contained two major objections to Dodd’s financial reform: it is a partisan bill and it will impose costs on taxpayers to provide more bailouts. Dodd vehemently disagrees on both points.
Is It Partisan?
In his speech yesterday, Dodd reiterated his bipartisan approach. He explained the process used in the Banking Committee where he divided up the work into bipartisan groups of Senators to tackle. Ultimately, the strategy broke down due to disagreements and delays that frustrated Dodd. So he decided to move ahead without a true compromise. But he did leave in some of the Republican-driven components.
So to call the bill a purely partisan effort is not accurate. Currently, the bill does not have bipartisan support, but Democrats did not draft the bill behind closed doors and tell Republicans they had no say. While Dodd did not necessarily take all of their ideas into account, he did include some of them. Even now, sources indicate that Dodd continues to work with Republicans in an effort to achieve a bipartisan compromise.
This contrasts with the House’s financial reform strategy. There, Democrats did draft a bill themselves, which was eventually passed without a single Republican vote. It did have some Republican-led amendments, but any that passed had Democrats on board. Far less effort, however, was exerted in reaching across the aisle to get the House version of the bill done, however. No bipartisan process was employed.
Will It Cost Taxpayers?
Whether or not the Dodd bill provides some wiggle room for the government to still provide bailouts is a debate for a later time. It’s a complex question. But even if the bill does provide for a bailout, would taxpayers be on the hook?
According to the text of the “Orderly Liquidation Fund” section of the bill (.pdf), it’s hard to see how. Dodd seeks to have the FDIC wind down systemically significant firms — sort of like they already do for depository institutions. If there are costs in doing so, his legislation orders the regulator to utilize a $50 billion fund. That is paid for through assessments on the very large firms that it could be used to resolve. Again, this is very similar to how the FDIC’s depository insurance works. Banks get assessed, and if they fail, then the insurance fund pays back depositors.
And the FDIC’s insurance fund costs taxpayers nothing — so neither should the Orderly Liquidation Fund. Even in the event that a deep financial crisis hits causing the FDIC to burn through its $50 billion and need more cash, it could just temporarily borrow that funding from the Treasury. Once the crisis subsides, it can then assess banks to pay back the Treasury. Taxpayers will not bear the cost.
Dodd spoke Thursday afternoon on this point, saying that McConnell either hasn’t read his bill or is intentionally distorting the truth. Dodd also added that the fund was a Republican idea to begin with that he incorporated into the bill. There are reasons why Republicans might object to the way Dodd set up his resolution authority, but worrying about taxpayers bearing the cost of big bank failures doesn’t appear to be a legitimate criticism.
A massive building made using more than 1.5 million PET bottles has recently been unveiled in Taiwan. This building named, ‘EcoARK’, is built by the Far Eastern Group at a price of US$3 million on the principles of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’. This three-storey structure is supposed to be the lightest building in the world, yet it is strong enough to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. The building will also feature an amphitheatre and an exhibition hall. It will use a screen of falling water collected during the rainy season for air conditioning purposes.
The EcoARK is an excellent example of the fact that recycling does not compromise aesthetic beauty.
[treehugger]
Earlier today, Theo reported that Cablevision spent about $5.2 million to provide its top executives with goodies such as dividends, deferred comp, and some pretty sweet perks (e.g., cars and drivers, “executive home security,” and even free cable!).
So surely the nation’s largest cable provider, Comcast Corp., (CMCSA) isn’t going to be outspent by a smaller company, is it?
Comcast may want you to think so. In its recent proxy, the company states:
Before 2006, we provided a limited amount of additional compensation through certain personal benefits to ease the demands on senior executives (including travel) and to provide security to our named executive officers and their families. Beginning in 2006, such benefits have been eliminated or our named executive officers have been required to pay us for any benefits that would otherwise be considered perquisites…. the Compensation Committee decided that as a matter of policy we should not provide tax gross-ups to our named executive officers for perquisites.
What an economical policy, right?
Yet if you look at the “Other Compensation” column on the Summary Compensation Table, you’ll find that Comcast spent an aggregate $10.9 million on its NEOs – more than twice as much as Cablevision spent. Besides Senior VP/General Counsel/Secretary Arthur Block, who only got the basic $14,700 contribution to a retirement-investment plan account, the other four top executives got between $991,854 and more than $4.4 million each.
Most of that represents the company’s contributions to the executives’ deferred compensation plans ($2,431,012 for Brian Roberts; $2,458,600 for Michael Angelakis; $3,944,800 for Stephen Burke; and $868,219 for David Cohen). But another large chunk represents personal use of either the company’s plane or a chartered plane. The two top users were Roberts, with $492,000 worth of personal time on the plane, and Burke, with $455,154. The company notes, “For security reasons, Company policy requires Messrs. Roberts and Burke to use Company provided aircraft for business and personal travel, although the named executive officers are required to pay us for personal use of Company provided aircraft in amounts determined by Company policy.”
That might leave the impression that the executives have to pay for their personal use of the plane, but the next paragraph explains that these numbers are in addition to whatever amount the executive paid:
“The amounts reflected for each named executive officer in respect of personal use of Company provided aircraft indicate the extent to which the incremental cost of such use exceeds the amount paid to us by the named executive officer as stated above.” (emphasis added)
And yet – as high as these numbers are – they’re only a fraction of the total compensation that these executives received. Roberts, Angelakis, and Burke each received a 2009 comp package ranging from $21.5 million to nearly $34 million.
That being the case, perhaps the shareholders might propose that the company officially change its name to “Compcast”?
Image source: Tyler Yip via Flickr
Multitasking. Unified email inboxes. Multiple Exchange accounts. Welcome to the future, our iPhone-toting friends. Well, eventually you’ll get there. Apple last week provided a preview of iPhone OS 4.0, and it looked vaguely familiar to those of us that have been using webOS. There are two truly big features that will be part of iPhone OS 4.0, with multitasking being the one that most users will care about. The implementation, however, is less than impressive.
Here’s the thing, as Rene Ritchie over at TiPb has pointed out before, webOS’ cards metaphor for multitasking seems to be an extension of what Apple did for managing multiple open pages in mobile Safari, with a dash of gestures thrown in for good measure. If you were to ask me, I’d say that’s more than likely what Steve Jobs and Co. would have preferred to do (and probably were preparing to do) for multitasking on the iPhone. But as important as multitasking is for the future of the iPhone platform, their perception as a leading innovator is also important, so just copying what Palm has done would be a PR disaster.
[JURIST] Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was named a suspect Thursday in an investigation into the Holyland bribery scandal that occurred during his time as mayor of Jerusalem. It is expected that law enforcement will interrogate Olmert over the alleged bribery scandal in which top Jerusalem officials are believed to have taken bribes for enabling the construction of a high-rise luxury housing development. Seven former officials have been arrested including former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski, who was deputy mayor under Olmert. Lupolianski accused Olmert of being responsible for the scandal, saying the deputy mayor is nothing more than a mere title with no real authority. Police believe Olmert alone received $940,000 to approve zoning change, rejecting hundreds of objections, to allow for a twelve-fold increase in the number of residential units allowed in the area, enabling the construction of a high-rise complex. Olmert is denying involvement in the scandal.
Olmert has been embroiled in accusations of scandal for much of his political career. He is already facing trial, the first of a former or current Israeli prime minister, for corruption and fraud charges that led to his resignation from being prime minister in 2008. He is accused of illegally accepting cash contributions from an American businessman, double billing travel expenses to the state and charitable donors, and giving his former law partner access to state information. In April 2007, Olmert was investigated for improperly favoring his supporters in distributing business grants during his time as trade minister. In January 2007, the Israeli Ministry of Justice announced plans to launch an investigation into allegations that he promoted the interests of two business associates during the 2005 state sale of Bank Leumi.
While most of their competitors are at least paying lip service to the idea of using cage-free eggs in their food, the board of directors for McDonald’s telling shareholders to vote against a proposal that would require McD’s to use at least 5% cage-free eggs in its U.S. restaurants.
In a statement, here’s how the board explained their decision:
As we have examined this issue over the years, we have determined that there is no agreement in the global scientific community about how to balance the advantages and disadvantages of laying hen housing systems.
McDonald’s says it believes the current “battery cages” used by most of their egg providers, which provide each hen with 72 sq. inches with space, are sufficiently humane.
This is in stark contrast to McDonald’s European operations, which have committed to using 100% cage-free eggs by the end of the year. Of course, that may have something to do with the European Union’s passing of a law that will outlaw the use of battery cages beginning in 2012.
It’s hard to grasp the breathtaking scale of the epic war between Microsoft, Google and Apple. Billions upon billions of dollars. Entire industries at stake. This is the board. These are the pieces. More »
Bottom Line: Solid quarter, in line with expectations. Nothing to hyperventilate about. As expected, the stock is trading off in the after-market.
Revenue was slightly above consensus, as was EPS. Both numbers were in line with whispers (and investors were hoping for more).
Paid clicks and revenue per click both grew nicely, up 15% and 7%, respectively.
Cash flow was, once again, astonishing. The company generated $2.35 billion of free cash flow in the quarter, for an annualized rate of nearly $10 billion. Google now has a dizzying $27 billion of cash.
Overall, Google is still robustly healthy. The search business continues to recover from the recession, and it will probably drive solid growth for the balance of the year. The search business is maturing, however, and the company has yet to develop a second major growth engine.
Unless/until Google develops a second growth engine, we expect the stock’s multiple to gradually compress. The stock currently trades at about 17X enterprise value to free cash flow. 10X-15X is probably more reasonable for a company this size with a maturing core business and no major new growth driver in the hopper.
All that said, it’s hard to imagine a company in stronger financial shape than Google (save Apple and Microsoft). If the market continues to rise, Google’s stock probably will, too.
Key Metrics vs Estimates:
Reading the release in detail now…
The conference call starts at 4:30 PM. Please join Rory Maher for live notes and commentary.
CONFERENCE CALL NOTES
Conference call starts at 4:30 PM. Click to listen.
CFO Patrick Pichette leading the call, as expected CEO Eric Schmidt is not on the call.
Already stepped up hiring (added 786 employees this quarter) and expect to continue hiring throughout the year (mostly engineering and sales). Also, expect more acquisitions this year.
Strength was also seen in display (especially Google content network).
Mobile growing “nicely.”
Q-O-Q CPC declines were largely driven by FX.
TAC 26% of total ad revenue.
An ad exec is on to discuss new ad categories:
Search – Will continue adding features like pictures and videos to search beyond just text given encouraging early results. CTR up as much as 30% to 40% when features like this are included.
Display – investing in platform (doubleclick), ad exchange, content n/w, and YouTube. New Doubleclick version for publishers makes it easier for publishers to manage inventory. Doubling down on the ad exchange. Yields have been much higher for publishers versus ad networks (as much as 100% better in some cases). Real-time bidding has been especially strong.
Mobile – increasingly important. Rolled out new formats specifically for mobile. This includes “click-to-call” (automatically call the listing on your smartphone from the ad). Working well.
On products:
Diving right into location-based products (we think this is going to be a big focus for the company the next year or so).
“Near-me-now” – mobile product. turns your location essentially into a search query (show things of interest closest to you).
Android now powering 34 devices from 12 different OEMs.
Chrome growing well too. New translation tool released this quarter that can translate any page into pretty much any language. Translating 60 million pages per day.
Q&A:
On domestic vs international: Seeing better recovery in domestic than overseas, especially large advertisers. But comps are much easier for international.
On Nexus One: Its is profitable, but won’t give specifics.
CPCs: They were hit somewhat because they are selling more long-tail keywords. So, overall rev is up, but that may explain some of the softness in CPC.
Dodging the Apple search question.
On Social Network Competition To Google Long-Term: Don’t see things as a zero sum game (read: they will do well, so will we). Right now not seeing any impact to results.
On Nexus One Sales: Not disclosing the number, but “very happy” with uptake so far. Also, no comment on selling them in stores in addition to online.
China: Rev #s were immaterial, no real information beyond that. A “tough decision.” Still opportunities there for ad sales team and search in Hong Kong.
AdMob deal will likely go through, company is confident. If for some reason it doesn’t, the company still has Google AdSense for mobile.
Stock down 5% in after-market, investors appear disappointed.
Here are the key consensus estimates. A full “cheat sheet” is below.
Key Consensus Estimates:
PREVIEW
Google (GOOG) reports Q1 2010 earnings after the close on Thursday. We’ll be analyzing the earnings live here starting at 4 PM EST.
The Bottom Line: Anecdotal reports have suggested that the recovery in search advertising has continued in 2010, so analysts are expecting modest upside to consensus estimates.
Google’s stock has drifted up for the past six weeks, but has lagged the market, in part due to the company’s decision to pull out of China.
Google will likely need to significantly beat estimates for the stock to rise on the announcement.
Background: At $589, GOOG shares are trading at about 22-times 2010 estimated EPS. This is below historical highs of around 30-times, but still pretty pricey versus the overall tech group. As a result, the company will need to consistently beat expectations this year (and soon demonstrate it has plans for a new growth engine beyond search) to see material multiple expansion.
Key Consensus Estimates:
Here is an excellent snapshot from Citi analyst Mark Mahaney (click to enlarge):
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By Joe Wilcox, Betanews
Last month I asked: “Will the smartphone replace the PC in three years?” The answer looks more like five years, or about a half-decade sooner than predicted by Pew Internet in December 2008. I also asked Betanews readers: “Has your smartphone changed your life?”
In preparation for readers’ answers (coming in another post), I offer something meaty: Three indicators about what might happen by 2015 — from the Morgan Stanley “Internet Trends” Webinar, Intel Developer Forum and the Nokia “Everyone Connect” event; all three conferences happened this week. If you’re one of the iPhone-obsessed, either open your mind to fresh ideas or read something else. This post probably isn’t for you.
Morgan Stanley’s “Internet Trends”
On April 12, Morgan Stanley popped an 87-deck slide presentation, researched by three of its analysts. Morgan Stanley predicts that the number of mobile Internet users, 1.6 billion, will exceed desktop Internet users by 2015. It’s a seemingly bold statement that actually is consistent with other analyst data, such as an IDC forecast released in December 2009. Morgan Stanley includes non-cellular devices, such as music players and handheld gaming consoles, in its definition of the mobile Internet.
That said, 3G penetration rapidly rises in most geographies over the next four years. The sweet spot will be achieved this year, according to Morgan Stanley. The financial analyst firm predicts that by 2014, 3G penetration will be: 100 percent in Japan, 92 percent in Western Europe, 74 percent in North America, 40 percent in Eastern Europe, 37 percent in Asia Pacific, 35 percent in Middle East and Africa, and 17 percent in Central and South America. Morgan Stanley predicts global 3G penetration will be 43 percent, or 2.78 billion users, by 2014. The analysts are clear: “3G is key to success of the mobile Internet.”
In December 2008 blog post “The Mobile Internet is now, not 2020,” in response to the aforementioned Pew report, I asserted: “The transition will happen much sooner. My prediction: Five years — and that’s being overly conservative.” I’ve since stuck to 2015 as the date.
Atom’s Dual-Core Future
On April 13, Intel CEO Paul Otellini spoke about the importance of the mobile Internet and development of dual-core atom processors. Atom processors have been most-widely used in netbooks, but they may have another future: Smartphones. Also at IDF, Intel revealed that Google’s Android mobile OS runs on Atom processors. That opens the possibility of future Android Atom smartphones competing with handsets using chips from Arm and Qualcomm.
During Intel’s April 10 quarterly conference call, executives put lots of perspective around Atom and its importance to the company’s bottom line during the global economic crisis. As netbook sales soared, so did sales of Atom processors. But trends are changing. With the exception of Western Europe, where telco carrier subsidies help lift sales, netbook shipments are slowing. The Atom-netbook goldmine has tapped out its vein. Atom-powered smartphones would be a logical next step, and why not dual-core from a company specializing in low-power consumption processors? Intel plans to ship dual-core Atom processors during this quarter.
Posting at GigaOM late last night, Stacey Higginbotham smartly writes:
As more vendors add multiple CPU cores to their chips aimed at mobile devices, the computing gap between a mobile phone and a laptop will close, leaving users to focus on features such as keyboards and screen sizes when choosing their mobile compute device. The real question is when this happens.
How about 2015, if not sooner? Intel and Nokia are already working together on the MeeGo mobile operating system, which they showed off yesterday. Intel as the world’s largest chip maker and Nokia as the world handset market share leader both have strong incentives to make a hard push into the smartphone-PC-replacement market. For Intel, the gold coming from the mobile Internet vein could be riches indeed. Manufacturers ship about 1.3 billion handsets a year, which is larger than the entire PC install base. Handsets are but one mobile Internet category, as Morgan Stanley analysts so astutely observed.
Nokia’s Smarter Dumb Phones
On April 13, Nokia announced three new handsets — the C3, C6 and E5 smartphones. These new mobiles compliment the C5 dump phone that was announced last month. Nokia’s current handset strategy is simple: Bring more smartphone capabilities to dumb phones and add more social sharing features to smartphones. Nokia doesn’t have a handset as sexy as iPhone, but the manufacturer’s reach is large enough this shortcoming isn’t yet detrimental. To date, Apple has sold 85 million iPhones or iPod touches combined. Nokia ships more handsets than that in a single quarter.
Not everyone can afford to buy an iPhone or fancy Android smartphone. By offering more social capable — and lower-cost — smartphones and making dumb phones smarter, Nokia is looking to preserve huge market share in key geographic regions. According to Morgan Stanley, five countries account for 48 percent of Internet users: The United States, Brazil, Russia, India and China — the latter four are often referred to as BRIC. BRIC is generally considered to be the most important block of emerging markets. In 2009, there were 620 million Internet users in BRIC compared to 238 million in the United States.
US bloggers and journalists often ignore Nokia when writing about handsets, unless negatively comparing to Apple. Nokia has done poorly getting good carrier-subsidized distribution here, which contributes to the blogging and news reporting blindspot. But Nokia’s BRIC presence is something else. Gartner doesn’t publicly release geographic handset data, but IDC shared it with me once — and not since (I have asked). From October 2009 post “iPhone global success is more marketing myth than reality,” Nokia market share was: 38 percent in Brazil, 41.5 percent in Russia, 56.1 percent in India and 46.1 percent in China. No competitor came even close in any of the countries.
Something else: Most emerging markets exhibit a past-seen trend — skipping a more established technology in favor of something newer. Cell phones are often the first Internet-capable device used in many emerging markets, not PCs. The question: Will handset owners’ next Internet-capable device be a PC or a smarter smartphone? Judging from Morgan Stanley forecasts, Intel chip positioning and adoption success of Android and iPhone OS, the answer could be the smartphone — and by 2015.
Nokia has embarked on a save-its-core-markets strategy that syncs well with emerging market trends and its sales success in BRIC. However, despite the strategy’s merits, Nokia may yet lose the handset wars, particularly if Apple or Google establishes a more viable ecosystem around their mobile platforms. Nokia may enrich the mobile Internet experience for billions of handset users (the majority on 2G networks), only to fall away. The smarter dumb phone strategy is good for mobile Internet adoption, regardless of Nokia’s future success.
Handset competition is fiercer now than ever, and that’s potentially good for accelerating mobile Internet device development, which Morgan Stanley claims already outpaces the desktop Internet’s development (based on progress measured over 11 quarters). If 2015 is too soon for you, no worries. I concede that no one knows the future. Movie “Back to the Future II,” predicted that 30 years from 1985 people would fly rather than drive cars, skateboards would hover and pizza would reconstitute nearly instantly — hot and fresh — from a freeze-dried state. There’s still five years left. Who knows what can still happen? If some of you say smartphones will replace PCs when cars can fly, hehe, you might be right.
We’ve already told you about the trail of volcanic ash halting flights across Europe, but the impact is going to be felt in more ways than flight cancellations.
Here is AP video of the eruption:
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From Green Right Now Reports
Dell and Goodwill Industries International have announced they will extend their Reconnect program, which lets consumers drop off any brand of computers or computer accessories for no-cost recycling, to Canada.
Starting this week in Southwestern Quebec and on May 1 in London, Ontario, consumers may drop off used computers for no-cost recycling at Renaissance, a Goodwill affiliate, and Goodwill Great Lakes. The expansion adds to more than 1,900 Reconnect locations throughout the U.S.
Through the program, donated equipment meeting Reconnect’s criteria are resold, and devices needing repair are refurbished or broken down into parts to be recycled by Dell partners.
“The partnership supports Goodwill’s job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who have disabilities, lack education or job experience, or face other challenges to finding employment,” Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, said in a statement.
Launched in 2004, Reconnect has diverted more than 96 million pounds of e-waste from landfills and created more than 250 “green jobs,” with Goodwill employees managing responsible computer disassembly and disposal, the two organizations said.
“The Reconnect model really works,” Mike Watson, senior manager of Dell Global Recycling Services, said in a statement. “Donating used goods to Goodwill has become second nature for most people. Reconnect exemplifies what sustainability practices can mean to our communities. It gives new life these old systems – or, at least, their parts – and gives deserving people jobs and skills they need to be successful.”
A list of participating Goodwill locations is available online.
One of Leica’s more affordably beloved cameras, the D-Lux 3, was a point-and-shoot based on Panasonic’s LX-2 (which led to much angst amongst camera nerds.) Round two : Leica’s V-Lux20 looks like a riff on Panasonic’s ZS7, but hotter. More »
Fund manager Eric Sprott on CNBC. See our recent interview with him here.
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Following the advice of several readers of this blog, I trekked to Market Buckhead to try the burger. This W Hotel restaurant from Jean-Georges Vongerichten is not the first place I would think to look for a burger, but here it is: a big, bodacious $15 one.
You know what? It’s a really good burger. A nothing-too-fancy-but-everything-just-kind-of-tweaked-right burger.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Burger: Angus beef that is not ground in house. But it has a beefy flavor and good seasoning on the grill-crisped surface. The patty hits that Goldilocks sweet spot — not a grey, greasy wisp, not a sufferer of meatball envy.
Hillbilly On Riding Mower Tasered – Watch more Funny Videos
Think you’re having a bad day? Trust me, Steve’s day is even worse. In the span of two minutes two minutes, he’s lost his cigarette, his whiskey and control of his bowels.
We don’t condone MUI (Mowing Under The Influence) here at RideLust, but if you’ve got to do it, stick to your own yard. When you’re lit up like a Christmas tree and the local deputies know you by name, even a quick ride to the Oyster Shack is a bad idea. Drinking whiskey in front of a cop, as you ride to the Oyster Shack, is an even worse idea.
Source: Break
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Lynne Kiesling
… he just doesn’t realize it, or doesn’t know that it’s an established regulatory concept. Recently in his Undercover Economist blog, Tim Harford picked up on an idea floated by another FT columnist:
… we need tariff schemes that encourage conservation.
One option is “reverse pricing”, a simple framework that would increase the marginal cost of energy without introducing new taxes or raising average prices. This is important because marginal prices affect our behaviour, but total expenditure affects our wealth. So if we can increase one but not the other, we will create incentives to consume less without leaving households worse off overall.
Actually, what we need is retail competition, retail choice, and the removal of sclerotic and obsolete entry barriers that prevent motivated suppliers from providing innovative electricity-related products and services to residential retail customers. But I digress.
The pricing structure to which Tim alludes in his post is called “inclining block” pricing. When it emanates from a regulatory procedure, it is an inclining block rate. Inclining block pricing means that you price intervals of consumption, and the price per unit for each interval increases. For example:
A few things to note. First, this logic is similar to that underlying David Zetland’s “some water for free, pay for more” proposals for water pricing. Second, the devil’s in the details when these rates are set by regulatory fiat; where do you draw the dividing lines, and what price per unit do you charge?
One of the best electricity economists, Ahmad Faruqui at the Brattle Group, has written extensively about the economic efficiency and conservation effects of inclining block pricing. In that list of resources I’d also recommend this NRRI report for regulators on how and why to consider “economic rates”, including inclining block pricing.
