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Silly me. I thought "rent-seeking" was something only landlords did.

But economists have their own way of looking at the world. To them, rent-seeking is a term for describing how someone snags a bigger share of a pie rather than making a pie bigger, as the venerable Economist explains it.

So, a drugmaker can be seen as a rent-seeker if it cajoles doctors to prescribe more of a particular brand of medicine at the expense of a rival pharmaceutical company's wares.

Now, how do they do it? A company provides some form of compensation (free meals, paid speaking gigs or a consulting deal) to doctors, and, lo and behold, its share of prescriptions goes up. Now, this connection isn't exactly earth-shattering news. But there are some new ways to look at how it works in practice.

Some researchers pored over databases compiled by ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism outfit, of drug company payments made to doctors and the prescriptions doctors wrote for Medicare patients.

They found some provocative associations.

Male doctors appeared twice as likely as female colleagues to be influenced by drug industry blandishments. "This confirms experimental and field evidence suggesting that women are more honest and less corruptible than men," the researchers write.

Doctors practicing in states where crimes of corruption are more common, such as Louisiana, were more likely to be influenced by drug company payments than those in states with fewer corruption-related crimes, such as Oregon.

Shots - Health News

Top Medicare Prescribers Rake In Speaking Fees From Drugmakers

With sizzling temperatures in much of the country, tourists are turning to mountain ski resorts to find relief. Resorts from Colorado to California and Oregon are on track to set a record this year for summer business.

Brandon Wilke is spending a long weekend at a resort just down the road from Aspen, Colo. He came for a wedding, but Wilke and his brother-in-law decided to bring their mountain bikes and try out some bike trails at the Snowmass ski resort. At first, Wilke says he didn't know mountain biking was an option.

"I went to the Snowmass website and just looked at what kind of activities, events that they held up here and saw the mountain biking and the gondolas," he says, "and decided it's for me, I gotta bring my bike."

In the summer, the Aspen Skiing Co. allows mountain biking on terrain normally used for skiing.

From a gondola car, Aspen Skiing's Jeff Hanle points to dirt trails that crisscross the mountain. Bridges, jumps and big wooden-banked turns are tucked between pine trees. All the trails were in place last summer, Hanle says, and some from the year before.

"We're still winter-driven, that's where most of our income comes from," Hanle says, "but we've got these facilities up here and we can use them to sort of expand and stretch out our business season."

The ski resort operator isn't the only the one benefiting from expanded summer offerings. Hotels, restaurants and shops in Snowmass and Aspen are enjoying a banner summer. Bill Tomcich, who tracks visitations through his resort-booking company, noticed the trend too.

"You just take a look at the number of visitors in town," he says, "and it's almost unprecedented numbers compared to what we are used to in years gone by."

The resort is bouncing back to pre-recession levels, Tomcich says, partly because of activities like mountain biking. It's also cheaper. A summer hotel stay in Aspen is about 60 percent of the cost of a winter vacation.

Heavenly Resort in California is also expanding its summer activities. A 2011 law allowed resorts that operate on U.S. Forest Service land to offer activities other than skiing. For Heavenly, that meant offering things like summer tubing. Tourists tube down a long green, plastic mat, resort spokeswoman Sally Gunter says.

The Two-Way

Ski Resort Makes Snow With Treated Wastewater, After A Long Dispute

On the Ashley River, a few miles south of Charleston, S.C., the water is murky and the marsh grass high. Louis Marcell and the rest of a three-man logging crew are cruising on a 24-foot pontoon boat. It's low tide, and logs are poking out everywhere.

Hewitt Emerson, owner of the Charleston-based reclaimed wood company Heartwood South, is in charge. He's going to an old saw mill site, but won't say exactly where. He's heading to Blackbeard's Creek, he says. As in pirate Blackbeard — the early 18th century scourge of the seas.

"He'd hide his boat up there and would go across the river to Middleton plantation to see his girlfriend," Emerson says.

Once a secret hiding place for a pirate, this is now a hidden trove of valuable wood.

Like much of the United States, South Carolina was once covered in old-growth forests. By the mid-20th century, virtually all of the virgin wood in the state was gone, either hauled away on trains or floated down rivers to be cut into lumber at saw mills.

But not all that timber made it to its destination. Some sank on its way down the river, where those old-growth logs have been preserved for about a century. Now, these precious leftovers can be worth up to several thousand dollars each.

But getting that treasure out is no easy task. First, anyone hoping to dredge the logs, known as sinker wood, must obtain a permit from the state. The logs weigh tons and are buried deep down in the muck. Once removed, the wood must be properly stored before milling to avoid cracking. And then, there are the alligators.

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Ask Americans about the most pressing concerns for the nation, and overhauling the tax code probably isn't all that high on the list — that is, unless those Americans happen to be Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairmen of the congressional tax-writing committees.

The two lawmakers are on a mission to simplify the tax code.

When they're out on the road selling that tax overhaul, they don't wear ties and they skip much of the formality of Washington — like last names even. Just call them Max and Dave.

On a recent Monday morning, they found themselves in Debbie Schaeffer's appliance store in New Jersey, Mrs. G TV and Appliances. After looking over some high-end ovens, the chairmen sat down with Schaeffer at a faux kitchen island near the front of the store to talk taxes.

"Right now, it's just so extremely complicated," Schaeffer says.

Welcome to the tax overhaul road show — the public part of Max and Dave's bipartisan push for a fairer, flatter, simpler tax code. Their leading question to the business owners and taxpayers they visit is: Wouldn't it be better if the tax code were simpler?

The answer is always: Yes, but...

In Schaeffer's case, Baucus asks her about getting rid of a bunch of deductions. That would mean lower tax rates, he says, maybe even a top rate as low as 25 percent.

"You'd pay a lower rate," he says. "Is that an approach that makes sense?"

Schaeffer says it is. Then comes the "but."

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A Bipartisan Duo Takes Tax Pitch On The Road