Twenty years ago, your only option for buying a book or a getting a CD of your favorite music was to head to a Borders or Best Buy. You would find what you were looking for, take it to the counter, pay for it, and that would be the end of it. No complications. Today, [...]

Most Internet consumers know when they visit a website, it may deposit a “cookie” on their computer – to beneficially adjust how they are treated on return visits.  The cookie may avoid the visitor needing to sign in again, or may avoid presenting content the visitor has already seen.   But some cookie depositors have more [...]

We are surrounded by regulations.  They can be reassuring and protective as readily as they can grate and expropriate.  Our experience with regulations depends on our social and political stance and on the balance of burden versus benefit inherent in the regulation. Elected representatives seldom have the expertise needed to specify a technical matter such [...]

To pay for the Spanish-American War, the United States imposed a tax on telephone services. The idea was to raise revenue for the war, but the tax stayed in existence for 108 years until most of it was killed — not by legislation — but by the circuit courts of appeal.  The tale is a [...]

According to a study by TechNet, 466,000 jobs have been created as a result of the app economy created by Apple and other tech companies.  How exactly are all of these jobs being created and why?  How this burgeoning new industry is driving growth and creating jobs is a story worth telling. In June 2007, [...]

This article discusses Google’s breach of Apple’s iPhone and quotes ACI.

Washington, DC, February 17, 2012 –– In response to news reports that Google used a work around to trick the Safari browser into allowing them to track web browsing of their users, Steve Pociask, President of the American Consumer Institute, made the following statement: “Consumers are outraged at news reports today that Google used a [...]

Express Scripts and Medco, the two largest pharmacy benefit manager (PBMs), have proposed merging.  PBMs manage prescription drug plans for sponsors (corporations, governments and unions), acting as a middleman between the sponsors, drug manufacturers and pharmacies.  This ConsumerGram analyzes the nature of the market and the potential risks that may result from the merger.  To [...]

Does it make sense for the government to subsidize an industry with declining employment to any further extent than subsidizing a growing industry?  As an investor, which would produce greater return? In the recent State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted his America Built to Last Plan – a blueprint for boosting domestic manufacturing.  [...]

In the wake of the failed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, it’s interesting to look at Sprint’s recent decision to change its coverage map in Oklahoma and Kansas.  Sprint’s plan is to move major sections of these states onto roaming.  Sprints network, just as other wireless carriers networks, are becoming very taxed.  More and more people are using [...]