Today’s Links: April 12, 2012

OPINION

MATTHEW YGLESIAS: “Who Cares About E-Book Price Fixing?”
“It looks like the DOJ is going to pull the trigger on a lawsuit accusing Apple of conspiring with six incumbent book publishers to fix prices in the e-book market. I am not a lawyer and it’s very possible that the conduct described in the suit is in fact illegal, but from an economic point of view I continue to think that worrying about price-fixing in an industry that’s under relentless assault from shifting underlying technology is somewhat bizarre.”

DAN MITCHELL: “Don’t Mess With the Penny Lobby”
“Last month, the government of Canada announced that it was doing away with that country’s one-cent coin. Shortly thereafter, the group Americans for Common Cents issued a press release declaring that two-thirds of us south of the border want to keep the penny.”

TIM PADGETT: “The U.S. and Brazil: Why the Two Hemispheric Giants Should Take Each Other More Seriously”
“[T]he U.S. and Brazil, the north-south giants of the Americas, still have their own misconceptions about each other to deal with — and it’s questionable whether they’ve done enough to deal with them this week. Obama and Rousseff did have a cordial, two-hour sit-down in the Oval Office on April 9, and the two countries’ robust trade relations — as well as their common commercial mistrust of China — were surely at the top of the agenda. […] But most hemispheric analysts I’ve talked to note that the White House visit felt less than relaxed. And a big reason, they say, is that Obama and the U.S. still don’t seem to get that Brazil is a more important global power than they’re willing to admit, and that Rousseff and Brazil still don’t seem to get that Brazil is a less important global power than they’re willing to admit.”

NEWS

ENERGY – Italy Puts New Caps on Renewable Energy Incentives
“Italy will scale back financial incentives for solar and other renewable energy that have inflated consumer power bills more than expected, and also will raise national renewable energy targets for 2020, two ministers said on Wednesday.”

ALCOHOL – Malt Whiskey Experiment Aboard the ISS
“A liquor company with headquarters on the island of Islay in Scotland called Ardbeg Distillery announced this week that it had sent vials of raw materials to the ISS aboard a Russian cargo flight that took off last October”

NANNY STATE – Sagging Pants Get Man Three Days in Jail
“A Prattville man was given a three-day jail sentence Tuesday for contempt of court after his wardrobe didn’t pass judicial muster.”