Information Economics
While listening to my professer talk about pure competition in my microeconomics class today, (he is a great professor, by the way) and something hit me about the notion of perfect information. With the internet, perfect information is more possibly than very before. Mad Money's Jim Cramer runs that show, all about investing information almost entirely of computers (which I assume have a blazing 'Net connection).
The Internet enables the average comsumer (and more consumers have internet access (whether at home or work than ever before) to better control the market, creating competition in industries that could prevent it before. You can find the exact price of a barrel of oil, lightbulbs, or any good for that matter (you can use recently completed eBay sales to estimate market price of unorthodox items). With sites like eBay, you can find the market value for concert tickets, old Happy Meal toys, and used records. Information like this is unprecendented.
This also relates to the news industry. After 9-11, the default channel on our TV at home went from being the Weather Channel (my entire family is composed of TWC junkies) to being flipped back and forth between MSNBC and FoxNews (depending on who isn't showing the hot trial of the month coverage). Now, living in my dorm, my primary source of news is the internet. I check The Drudge Report and Instapundit and the websites of FoxNews and MSNBC more than I turn on the TV to find out what is going on. Why is this? Because using the 'Net, I can pick and choose what news I go 'in depth' about, and what headlines I read and ignore, not having to wait for Shepard Smith to drone on about Paris Hilton (again) and not talk about the firing upon of a US helicopter during the earthquake relief in Kashmir.
Unfortunately, text does have its limits. I cannot call guests and ask their opinion of the news while having rebuttals. Eventually, TV-On-Demand will be complete, and I will be able to watch news segments as well as Lost whenever I want to. NBC is taking steps in this direction with the Nightly News (Slashdot). It will be streamed after 10 PM ET, therefore the 6:30 PT broadcast will remain unaffected. This is a small step, but one in the right direction nonetheless.
Another observation: The board game Monopoly? The name is a slight misnomer, as the game starts in Oligopoly, but it is accurate in the sense that the goal is the creation of monopoly.
The Internet enables the average comsumer (and more consumers have internet access (whether at home or work than ever before) to better control the market, creating competition in industries that could prevent it before. You can find the exact price of a barrel of oil, lightbulbs, or any good for that matter (you can use recently completed eBay sales to estimate market price of unorthodox items). With sites like eBay, you can find the market value for concert tickets, old Happy Meal toys, and used records. Information like this is unprecendented.
This also relates to the news industry. After 9-11, the default channel on our TV at home went from being the Weather Channel (my entire family is composed of TWC junkies) to being flipped back and forth between MSNBC and FoxNews (depending on who isn't showing the hot trial of the month coverage). Now, living in my dorm, my primary source of news is the internet. I check The Drudge Report and Instapundit and the websites of FoxNews and MSNBC more than I turn on the TV to find out what is going on. Why is this? Because using the 'Net, I can pick and choose what news I go 'in depth' about, and what headlines I read and ignore, not having to wait for Shepard Smith to drone on about Paris Hilton (again) and not talk about the firing upon of a US helicopter during the earthquake relief in Kashmir.
Unfortunately, text does have its limits. I cannot call guests and ask their opinion of the news while having rebuttals. Eventually, TV-On-Demand will be complete, and I will be able to watch news segments as well as Lost whenever I want to. NBC is taking steps in this direction with the Nightly News (Slashdot). It will be streamed after 10 PM ET, therefore the 6:30 PT broadcast will remain unaffected. This is a small step, but one in the right direction nonetheless.
Another observation: The board game Monopoly? The name is a slight misnomer, as the game starts in Oligopoly, but it is accurate in the sense that the goal is the creation of monopoly.
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