IGM Forum

So, each week, the IGM Forum, which is associated with the Chicago Booth School of Business polls a variety of famous economists on whether or not they agree or disagree on one or two comments.  The results are usually what you might expect, but the comments some economists put down are occasionally high in the unintentional comedy scale.  To give these guys credit, some do have good comments which make you think about your stance on the comment a bit deeper.  The last two weeks' polls...

Ticket Sale:  Laws that limit the resale of tickets for entertainment and sports events make potential audience members for these events worse off on average.
One good comment on (rich) scalpers buying up all the tickets and reselling and insane prices - though this would be transparent enough, and scalping is illegal, thereby limiting this happening.  Best thing to think about in this case: are tickets sold efficiently in the first place?

Security Screening: The former head of the Transportation Security Administration is correct in arguing that randomizing airport “security procedures encountered by passengers (additional upper-torso pat-downs, a thorough bag search, a swab test of carry-ons, etc.), while not subjecting everyone to the full gamut" would make it "much harder for terrorists to learn how to evade security procedures."
Some economists advocate profiling (it would be more unintentionally humorous if there was a large racial diversity among the poll responders, and only the white guys advocated profiling...).  A lot of questioning on why economists should know this - because it's a behavioral thing, silly, and you're supposed to know your game theory.  Predictable screening habits don't make much sense, as terrorists can plan for that, and inspectors can miss noticing something dangerous if they're focusing on looking for something like a small lighter.  I think that the full gamut is too costly compared to the benefit (if nobody slipped through, I'd buy it, but I have a feeling that's not the case).  A mixed playbook of checks seems like a good idea, but profiling is going to lead to trouble.  One economist argues that terrorists will just send more guys through, but gathering that many guys and training them is much easier said than done.