n early 2008, the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a Las Vegasbased libertarian think tank, decided to take a hard look at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, a public/private organization with an annual budget of about $200 million, which NPRI suspected was wasting taxpayer money. In the past, the institute had produced white papers […]
The Secret Monopoly Making Everything More Expensive
A two-decade fight with monopoly power in the payment system has arrived at a moment of truth, boiling down to one simple question: Will the courts bless price-fixing? Let’s hope not. Last week, Demand Progress, American Economic Liberties Project, Consumer Reports, and Small Business Majority asked a federal court to reject a proposed antitrust settlement that would bless the Visa-Mastercard duopoly in credit-card payment services. The case, officially known as In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, grew out of a grievance merchants and consumers have nursed for decades that has curdled into something worse over…
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