Blocking ads

Ad blocking can become a real problem for the media industry (see article from The Economist, see also this WSJ article). Ironically, I dont think it'll really affect the big advertisiers (Google, Facebook, etc.). These firms can negotiate with Adblock tech firms to pay a toll for their ads to pass. Similarly, they might be able to force consumers to look at ads: e.g. Google can deny service if adblock is installed - will people say, no I am not using Google? Not clear. On the other hand, what might happen to small sites living of advertising is not clear. In other words, Adblock might lead to an even more concentrated ad market. 

Credit Rating Agencies

Top Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) have never done better. Their revenues and profits are up - way above levels seen before the crisis. This picture from The Economist shows that their market shares haven't moved a notch after the financial crisis when "aggressive" regulation was introduced to curb CRAs powerful influence on markets. What is ironic, is that this increased monopoly power largely originates from the very regulation that was supposed to introduce more competition in the sector, thereby - as was hoped - also providing more discipline in ratings. None of this happened. Why? The detailes can be read here. The bottom line is that regulation made it so hard to comply with the law that would-be competitors decided never to enter the market. Meanwhile the established agencies with established large market shares could easily amortize the additional fixed costs of compliance. A classic case of bad regulation.....