Prof. Bainbridge doesn’t like much of what he hears (Mar. 27).
Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
Overlawyered
Point of Law- Problem #2,716 with federal wage and hour lawIt works to make employers more reluctant to allow telecommuting....Walter Olson
- The Current State of Consumer ArbitrationTed Frank (with co-author Ohio State lawprof Sarah Rudolph Cole) has a new paper out at AEI on the hot subject, likely to be the target of a push by litigation advocates in Congress next year. Summary: In 2007, the...Walter Olson
- Plaintiffs Counsel Wins Suit, Gets Chastised for Excessive Fees and ExpensesThe Fulton County Daily Reporter (via law.com) has an interesting story on the just-ended successful corporate class action against Coca-Cola (which was found to have committed fraud on the market by inflating its income. Plaintiffs may have succeeded, but their...Michael Krauss
- Master Settlement: Ten years of advocacy and more litigationHaving written this week (here, here, here, here and here) on the various public policy aspects of the tobacco master settlement agreement 10 years after its enactment, we now get to perhaps the most important and lasting consequences of the...Carter Wood
- Tillinghast-Towers Perrin 2008 tort cost updateThe insurance consulting organization, per its press release, has issued its 2008 report, which measures tort costs for 2007 and shows trends dating back as far as 1950. It indicates that the cost of the liability insurance sector of the...Walter Olson
- Problem #2,716 with federal wage and hour law
- Volokh
- Isn't This a Bit Premature?CBS News reports:...Eugene Volokh
- What Is the Shortest Amendment in the U.S. Constitution?An interesting trivia question, suggested by my father Vladimir. No fair peeking. (I didn't know the answer until I looked it up.)...Eugene Volokh
- Should there be judicial performance evaluation for federal judges? Campaign finance limits for state judges?Most states have commissions which evaluate the performance of state judges. Would it be a good idea to institute similar performance review of federal judges? For judicial elections, are campaign contribution/spending...David Kopel
- AG Mukasey on How to Handle Detainees:Today's WSJ has an op-ed by U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey that addresses similar issues to the speech he was delivering last night at the Federalist Society's Annual Lawyers' Convention...Jonathan Adler
- Do You Now Own, or Have You Ever Owned, a Gun?The Politico reports on a curious addition to the Obama transition personnel questionnaire for potential appointees to the new Administration....Jonathan Adler
- Isn't This a Bit Premature?
I don’t recall Prof. Bainbridge warning of the instability in the securitized mortgage business: Defaults were presumed to be independent with respects to regions, and they weren’t. Thus his analysis of Obama’s speech should be taken with a grain of salt.
I once tried to explain why Social security can not be privatized to a very intelligent woman programmer. She just couldn’t get it although it was simply that the reserves for such a system would equal or exceed our national wealth, a rather simple concept. For some reason financial matters are very difficult to most. President Clinton used to say things about the economy that were both conventional wisdom and foolish at the same time. The reason I am so fond of President Clinton is that he listened to actual experts and acted appropriately (NAFTA comes to mind.) We had good times even with the dot com bust.
All three of the contenders for President, including Senator Obama, also say things about the economy that are both conventional wisdom and foolish at the same time. To me Senator Obama is the brightest of the three. He is mystified that anybody would not see that OJ was proved guilty beyond all doubt, and he explained in 2002 why the attack on Iraq would be wrong. He would be able to understand his advisors and not have to rely on his gut alone.
I have high hopes for Senator Obama, and I actually dread the other two.