Greg Mankiw points to recommended reading by Robert Shiller (and, apparently, Karl Rove). The book? Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. The book’s resurgence does not surprise me. Certainly not from Shiller who, with George Akerloff, gave us the intriguing book Animal Spirits. Shiller is of course not indifferent to the core point raised by […]
Author Archive | Kenneth Anderson
Ben Wittes’ “Detention and Denial”
Ben Wittes (of Lawfare blog, the Brookings Institution, and member of the Hoover Task Force on National Security and Law) has a new book out of Brookings Institution Press, Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor after Guantanamo. It has been out since late December, but I just got a chance to finish reading it. […]
University of Virginia
… is where I am spending the spring semester, by the way, as a visiting professor. The folks at UVA Law have been great, helping me get settled in and set up. I’m excited to be teaching international business transactions and international human rights. UVA Law is a wonderful institution, with a superb faculty and […]
E.J. McMahon Argues for Alternatives to State Bankruptcy, and Fred Siegel on Public Employee Unions
The Manhattan Institute’s EJ McMahon argues for alternatives to state bankruptcy in the Wall Street Journal today. The article is not framed as an argument for the sustainability of the state debt obligations – i.e., raise taxes to the level necessary to cover the promises made – but instead argues that governors and state legislatures […]
Skeel Speaks, NYT Takes Note, and Maybe Congress Listens?
The New York Times ran a front page story today on an issue discussed off and on here at VC, the possibility of creating a bankruptcy chapter for states. It quotes David Skeel, who has been the leading intellectual mover of this idea, along with a number of other people, including various public employee union […]
Serratus Anterior
Is there any evidence for the proposition that a wracking, bone jarring bronchial cough can turn out to be a decent workout for the abdominal muscles and the serratus anterior? Is there a silver lining to this apparently endless misery? (ps. thanks for all the good wishes, and I took commenters’ advice and went to […]
Bankruptcy for States
Bankruptcy law professor David Skeel, whose new book The New Financial Deal is one I admire a great deal, has a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today urging a bankruptcy regime for the states. Among his most important points is that bankruptcy for states offers the most likely means that states can address […]
Nichelle Nichols and MLK
Of the various radio and TV and internet items today related to MLK that I heard, the one that caught my attention most was an interview with Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura on Star Trek. I heard it on NPR, but here is a transcript from the Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog. It sounds like […]
Notes on Snark 1, Violent Metaphors, and Therapeutic Authoritarianism
In idle moments, I sometimes think I should write a short book titled, Notes on Snark. The intent is not to write snark, but instead to analyze it as a rhetorical form. I realize that David Denby was supposed to have done this in his book Snark. Unfortunately, I read the book and concluded – […]
How Would You Respond to Simon Jenkins?
Free speech can’t exist unchained. US politics needs the tonic of order. If America is to speak in a way that heals, as Obama wishes, it needs the curbs and regulations that make freedom of expression real. Simon Jenkins writes in the Guardian. This is the title. If you wish to comment, please read his […]
What Would Public Choice Theory Say About Rating Agencies and Sovereign Debt?
Particularly since the European sovereign debt crisis put the question of sovereign debt ratings squarely on the table, and even more in the last few days since the rating agencies have downgraded Greek debt to junk status, I have to wonder what insulates Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and Fitch against pressures direct and indirect, subtle […]
World Food Supplies and Prices
In conversation with someone who, as a senior NGO executive in international development and food aid, is well situated to respond on the question of rising commodity prices for food globally. I asked specifically about the Wall Street Journal news story a few days ago on this topic, which reported: Prices of corn and soybeans […]
The Ethics of Global Philanthropy
By Kenneth Anderson on January 14, 2011 2:24 pm in International Human Rights Law, International Law
Global philanthropy is a topic that invites examination across disciplines, including law, ethics, economics, sociology, political science and more – particularly as activity in the field grows in a globalized world. So I’d like to welcome a new volume of essays, Giving Well: The Ethics of Philanthropy, edited by Patricia Illingworth, Thomas Pogge, and Leif […]
Adam Levitin on the New Massachusetts Court Foreclosure Decision
By Kenneth Anderson on January 12, 2011 1:48 pm in Economy, Finance, Financial Crisis, Property Rights
(Update. Megan McArdle has a number of interesting comments and posts on foreclosure, modification, the effect of securitization, and the processes for recording title and other things. This blog post has very interesting comments as well.) Adam Levitin writes at the ForeclosureBlues blog about the Ibanez decision in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (pdf […]
American Tune
From another point in American history, 1974, when things also appeared bitterly, indeed hopelessly, torn, partisan, irreconcilable, and America seemed inevitably in decline. The song is a little bit celebratory about America, but mostly melancholy; ambiguous and torn; elegaic about America’s past, but through-a-glass-darkly about its future.