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A recent poll finding that 18 percent of all Americans and 32 percent of Republicans believe Taylor Swift is part of a covert conspiracy effort to help Biden win reelection. This is just one example of the broader problem of political ignorance and bias.

The Major Brent Taylor Foundation Gala The opening reception for the Brent Taylor Leadership Legacy Gala was held on Saturday, November 6, 2021. Among the honored scholarship attendees were three BYU students: Kray Jubeck and Zeke Peters (recipients this year), and Harrison Mayer (last year). Each recipient (and his wife) stood next to a large […]

Good in-depth interview on Bloomberg's Triple Take with me fielding terrific questions from Caroline Hyde, Taylor Riggs, & Sonali Basak about Taylor Rule, Fed's being behind curve, and how to get back. Video ointerview is here from 0.25 to 13.05 … Continue reading →

Prosecutor Jack Smith "only targets Republicans."

Taylor Swift

It was difficult for people to buy tickets to Taylor Swift's tour. Yes, really, the world's biggest pop star sold out her shows - we're all shocked, right? This is now leading to an insistence that it's the monopolist selling the tickets which is the problem. We agree, it is. But the monopolist is Ms. Swift - only she can put on a Ms. Swift show - not Ticketmaster, the people who were selling the tickets: But it also highlights the shortcomings of what critics say is a broken ticketing market that is creaking under the weight of high demand. Touts are able to buy up tickets and sell them on at exorbitant rates, while some concert-goers now face huge increases in ticket prices even if they go direct to the original seller.Scrutiny is being levelled at Ticketmaster, which holds a dominant position in the market and has been branded a "monopoly" by its numerous critics.As a bidding war kicks off for a rival retailer, is the ticketing market poised for a much-needed shake-up?There's absolutely nothing, nothing at all, in those complaints about how difficult it was to buy tickets other than that Ms. Swift has a monopoly upon being Ms. Swift.Think on it. There were x million tickets on sale (apparently the tour grossed $1 billion and counting). There appeared to be more than x million who desired to see one of the shows. There's an excess of demand over available supply. Yes, it's entirely true that the Swift organisation was, umm, swift to put on more shows where demand indicated. They tried to up supply to meet demand.But what would change if there had been two organisations selling tickets to see the shows? Four, 100? Well, not much really. There was still that problem of x million plus desires being greater than the x million supply. Therefore shortages, rising prices, touts and all the rest.Now, it could be that Ticketmaster has something of a monopoly, it could be that that's a bad thing. We're entirely willing to entertain such thoughts and an analysis of whether that's all true. But it isn't true that the Swift Tour is a proof of any of those contentions. Simply because the monopolist here isn't Ticketmaster, it's Ms. Swift.

The pop singer's new concert film inadvertently makes the case for big businesses with sweeping market power.

Why were so many Taylor Swift fans unable to secure tickets for her upcoming US tour?

Possible explanations vary, but many have pointed to market power concentration in creative industries, and how it affects the creative class and consumers. Consider Amazon's influence in book publishing, Google/Facebook's advertising duopoly effect on news media, or in Swift's case, Ticketmaster's control of ticketing and venues for artists. In a new book (co-authored with scholar Rebecca Giblin), Cory Doctorow – a renowned writer and activist – calls this 'capture' of creative labor markets "Chokepoint Capitalism."

Doctorow joins Bethany and Luigi to discuss the negative effects of concentration, why the doctrine that gave us these market effects is inadequate, and what could be done to return more power and profits to creative workers and beyond – while also asking the question: what are we trying to accomplish with competition itself?

Thank Swifties, not Joe Biden, for Ticketmaster's consumer-friendly pricing policy.

|Peter Boettke| I somehow missed this when first posted. But this is very much worth reading, as is most everything Tim discusses either here or at the JEP.

Very few US jobs today have anywhere near the abuse and hazards that industrial workers experienced prior to WWII. Thus, it may be impossible to recreate the working-class consciousness that prevailed then. Taylor Swift has become the natural replacement for Bruce Springsteen.
The post The End of Class Consciousness: Taylor Swift Replaces Bruce Springsteen appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Elon Musk said, "I'd rather drink sewer water than see Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl."

Taylor Swift was photographed holding a "Trump won, Democrats cheated!" flag.

In January, conspiracy theories that Taylor Swift is a government operative, a Pentagon asset or a "psyop" went from fringe to primetime news. We tracked how it happened.

Stop enabling thieves by owning stuff.