Snobby Beer

Aside from the actual game itself, this past super-bowl weekend carried with it an interesting development in a non-football related field that is quite close to my heart: beer. Budweiser aired this commercial during the game, to the annoyance of people who apparently like to spend lots of money on beer they don’t drink. Ninkasi, a northwest brewery located in Eugene, immediately shot back with a quite hilarious response video. The point is that for many years now, craft brewers and the big macro brewers like Budweiser and Coors have been increasingly competing for the same market share. While I can Continue reading Snobby Beer

Solar Power, and Net Metering (Part 1)

Solar power in the United States is taking off quite vigorously, and installations of solar panels have begun to soar. This quarter, 53% of electricity coming from new installations this year is being generated by solar panels. From 2007, solar installations have gone up by 12 fold, and terms like ‘Gigawatts’ (one of which is enough to power 16 million 60-watt light bulbs continuously) are used on a quarterly basis to describe growth rather than as an end goal. This isn’t an industry, however, that has pulled itself up by its bootstraps so to speak: alongside significant tax incentives offered Continue reading Solar Power, and Net Metering (Part 1)

Amazon and Monopsony

On Sunday of this week, Paul Krugman posted a now-much debated op-ed entitled: Amazon’s Monopsony is Not Okay. For those unfamiliar with the article or the debate that surrounds it: it is about Amazon’s enormous market power, and the impact that power is having on the publishing market as a whole. Specifically, publisher Hachette is currently in a dispute with Amazon, who are pressuring Hachette to change their rates for e-book prices by cutting off the supply of Hachette’s authors’ books to the public: making them either delayed or completely unavailable. Most of the experts, regardless of their political leanings Continue reading Amazon and Monopsony