Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

Lynn Swann for Governor! (I know its not my state, but I was born there!) Update: As I informed one reader, my endorsment of Swanny is based on “unapologetic idolatry for a hero of my youth” (maybe its just as well that I’m not a Pennsylvania voter any more). For those who actually want to […]

Dan Klein has a newspaper column summarizing his research findings on the intellectual orthodoxy at Berkeley and Stanford in the Palo Alto Weekly newspaper. From the article: The popular vote for President went 48 percent Democrat and 51 percent Republican. This nearly one-to-one national diversity is unlike colleges and universities, where a one-party system prevails. […]

I just came across an organization called “Spirit of America.” Others may have already heard of them, and I don’t know much about them, but they seem like a worthwhile and interesting group. Their website describes their mission as follows: Spirit of America helps Americans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan assist people in need. We […]

As Scott Johnson notes this morning, the speech restrictions regarding the Dartmouth Trustee Elections are very strict. Which makes it all that more crucial that they be enforced in an even-handed manner. Herewith the text of the email I sent to the Affairs Office and Alumni Council Ballot Committee this morning regarding the incident described […]

A count of my Trustee Elections petitions indicates that I have gained more than the 500 petitions (signed in non-black ink, of course) needed to qualify for the ballot for the Dartmouth Board of Trustee elections. My petitions will be delivered to the College today. A special thanks to all the Dartmouth Alumni who have […]

Scott Johnson of Powerline (and a Dartmouth alum, as it turns out) has an interesting commentary today, “Bucking the Deans at Dartmouth” in the Weekly Standard On-Line profiling the Dartmouth Trustee Election and putting it in larger historical context.

George Mason 78, Manhattan 66

This from the the Manhattan Jaspers basketball website: Manhattan gets back in action on Saturday, February 19, when the Jaspers travel to Fairfax, VA to take on George Washington in the team’s final non-conference game. Tip-off is slated for 4:00 p.m. GMU beat 23-3 Old Dominion, earns an ESPN Bracket Buster game this weekend, and […]

I have a very busy day, so I don’t have time for another long post on bankruptcy reform (I’ll get back to it tomorrow I hope if I have time), so I’ll just leave you with a self-explanatory chart on trends on attorney advertising and bankruptcy filings that is contained in my latest article: Numerous […]

Important new study of competition and consumer protection issues involving on-line sales of replacement contact lenses can be found here. Great example of how the FTC can use its research tools to advance understanding of market competition furthers consumer welfare and how wrongheaded professional licensing requirements can harm consumers.

Apparently there are two of us now who blog on bankruptcy issues. For those who prefer a “front lines” analysis (and a bit more “colorful” take) rather than my academic analysis of bankruptcy reform, see the State 29 blog. With 2 of us, I think that pretty much satiates the public’s appetite for bankruptcy-related blogs. […]

In Senate testimony last week, one of those testifying offered the observation, “One million men and women each year are turning to bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious medical problem—and three-quarters of them have health insurance.” In a column in the Washington Post last week, Professor Elizabeth Warren (who also gave the just quoted […]

Naturally, the first question everyone wants to know is isn’t the need for bankruptcy reform just a response to “too much” credit card credit. In fact, this argument not only lacks empirical foundation, it lacks sould economic theory to support it. First, the argument doesn’t make much sense from an economic perspective. Unless credit cards […]

Check out this new application of Michigan’s protectionist alcohol policy–now Michigan is on Northwest Airlines for transporting alcohol interstate for use on its airplanes. Michigan, of course, is one of the states defending their discriminatory wine shipment regime in the Supreme Court. If this isn’t evidence of why state vs. state protectionist warfare is unwise […]

My (temporary) Georgetown colleague Jim Oldham will be speaking next week in Washington, DC on “Judicial Activism in English Common Law at the Time of the Founders.” Details can be found here. Jim is perhaps the leading living scholar on Lord Mansfield, who is also one of my favorite judges of all time. I discuss […]