Market Power

Everyone but the Players

Thomas Grennes:  Lots of people make money from college athletics - everyone except the players.

HT to John LaPlante

Happy Birthday Jared

My youngest, Jared Miller, turns 7 today.

Happy birthday, big guy

Homebrewing Laws in the States

John LaPlante sent me this link about homebrewing in Alabama.

Committees in the Alabama Senate and House gave the green light to bills that would allow the sale of gourmet beers, but efforts by home brewers to find a legislator who'd sponsor a bill to legalize their craft went flat.

John Little, an attorney and an award-winning home brewer from Auburn, said home brewers in Alabama don't want to work in the shadows of the law as they do now.

"It's so difficult to get anything passed," he said. "The only people who seem to get anything passed are paid lobbyists.

"Here we are with no paid lobbyist and we refuse to have one because we're a bunch of red-blooded Americans fighting for our civil liberties," he said.

Alabama is one of only a handful of states where home brewing is illegal, and hobbyists who make beer for personal consumption take a big risk -- if convicted, they face penalties of up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. In some cases, home brewers put their jobs at risk for their craft.

So by homebrewing in Alabama, you can get sent to the slammer. 

The Brewer's Association webpage has information on brewing laws by state.  Here's their discussion of Bama's law. 

The state of Alabama has both Wet and Dry counties and municipalities. The state maintains a tight control on all alcoholic beverage sale, manufacture, possession, etc. No statutory exception to § 28-1-1 exists for the home production of beer. Furthermore, no statutory exception to § 28-1-1 exists for the home production of wine and/or cider.

Alabama case law illustrates a historical trend in which the court has held homebrew to be a prohibited liquor. Up until the 1950s certain individuals have been convicted for the unlawful possession of prohibited liquor. (see enclosed cases for examples)

Alabama has recently passed the ALABAMA BREWPUB ACT which authorizes limited operation of brewpubs in the state.

I wonder how much this law is enforced.  Still, it's on the books and is, therefore, concerning to otherwise law-abiding 'Bamans. 

Many states' laws specifically prohibit making beer "for sale" without a permit, but don't have laws explicitly allowing manufacture for private use.  So those states probably look the other way when it comes to homebrewing. 

Minnesota's is particularly interesting to me.  According to the Brewer's Association, homebrewing for family use is legal.  So does that mean that a homebrewer could give small amounts of his homebrew to his otherwise underage sons and, thereby, teach them about drinking beer responsibly?

The Road to "That 30's Show"

Obama declared the country "cannot and will not sustain deficits like this without end."

He also said that he wants to reinstate a pay-as-you-go policy on federal spending programs, get rid of programs that do not work and end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

Story here.  I'm all for getting rid of programs that "do not work," but the protectionist rhetoric is nothing short of inane, frighteningly so.  One of the reasons our standard of living is so high is because our society has been open to trade with people from all over the world. 

If we're going to restrict trade between people, why stop at arbitrary international boundaries?  Force Minnesotas to trade only with other Minnesotans.  Stop shipping jobs to Iowa!  Restrict citizens of Blue Earth County (the county where I live) to trade only with other Blue Earth countians.  Stop shipping jobs to Brown County!  Restrict Mankatoans to trade only with other Mankatoans.  Stop shipping jobs to Eagle Lake! 

Heck, why not force everyone to be completely self-sufficient - to not trade with anyone?  That would ensure that all jobs would literally stay home.

It's simple why we shouldn't restrict trade.  Because self-sufficiency, however you want to cut it, is the road to poverty.

The more I hear from this administration and this congress, the more it seems like they are on a trip down memory lane, straight back to the 1930's.  I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not encouraged.

Arnold's Not Here

Every day this semester, I have gotten a phone call at my office from an external line identified as "unknown number."  Undoubtedly, some telemarketer-spammer is trying to sell me something.  So today, I pick up the phone.

Caller:  "May I speak with Arnold?"

Me:  "Arnold is gone."

Caller:  "OK.  Thank you."

The caller is probably calling my former colleague Arnie, a colleague who retired about 6 years ago and whose office I now occupy. 

I wish these people would update their phone records.

Boulder, Colorado Police Chief to Advocate Lowering the Drinking Age

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner says he hopes his appearance tonight on CBS’ “60 Minutes” will get people talking about potential solutions to binge drinking and alcohol-enforcement issues.

But he said he also knows going national with his opinion that the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 as part of a larger reform on alcohol laws might stir some controversy.

“We shouldn’t be afraid to have the discussion,” Beckner said. “We’ve got problems now, and the drinking for ages 18 to 21 is on the rise. Why wouldn’t we want to include everything on the table for discussion?”

...Beckner said while he hasn’t contacted any lawmakers or actively campaigned for making changes to the drinking age, he does think lowering the drinking age to 18 would free up resources.

“We can write as many tickets as staffing allows, but yet binge drinking is on the rise,” Beckner said. “You have to wonder, are there better ways to spend our resources?”

Full story here.

The Law of Demand at Denny's

By 9 a.m Tuesday., throngs of people had descended on the store near Interstate 44 and a line -- nearly 50 people long -- waited outside the door. The 10-degree temperature outside didn't seem to faze them.

They were all waiting for the same thing -- a free breakfast. The chain restaurant -- in stores across the nation -- was giving out free Grand Slam breakfasts to anyone who showed up . It ended at 2 p.m. A Grand Slam is two eggs any way you want them, two pancakes, two pieces of bacon and two sausages and runs about $6.

Story here.  The lesson:  price and quantity demanded are inversely-related.

Where is the Stimulus Money Going, By State

The Montgomery, Alabama Advertiser has a useful feature where users can find out how much each state is estimated to get from the "stimulus" bill passed on Tuesday.  Caveat emptor.

Tourism Tax in South Dakota

The state of South Dakota is considering raising tourist taxes to help pay for funding for the arts.  Supporters of the tax argue that toursits will pay most of the tax.  But that all depends on the relative elasticities of demands of toursists and those who own and/or work in places frequented by toursits buy. 

My sense is that tourists to South Dakota have a lot of options where to travel, and they would be turned off by price increases caused by the tax.  Tourist businesses, on the other hand, would find it more difficult to change what they do, at least in the short run.  If so, then the tax would probably fall more on the supply side than the demand side in the short run.

Banking, in a Good Light

A Miami banker sold most of his stake in a bank and took $60 million of the proceeds to give to almost 400 folks on his staff as a bonus.

After selling a majority stake in Miami-based City National Bancshares last November, all he did was take $60 million of the proceeds — $60 million out of his own pocket — and hand it to his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, everyone on the payroll. All 399 workers on the staff received bonuses, and he even tracked down 72 former employees so they could share in the windfall.

For longtime employees, the bonus — based on years of service — amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases, more than $100,000.

At a time when financial titans are being paraded before Congress to explain how they blew billions on executives’ bonuses even as they received a taxpayer bailout, the big-hearted banker’s selfless deed stands out.