Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

John Rosenberg discusses some of the bigger-picture slippery logic of affirmative action on Minding the Campus asking why those who believe in racial preferences have rushed to vouch that she never benefited from them.

Mark Olson says that CFPB is raising additional concerns as it ramps up in practice: Two disturbing bits of recent information give us a taste of how the CFPB plans to operate. Representatives from the CFPB have acknowledged that lawyers from the bureau’s enforcement division are accompanying CFPB compliance examiners on their routine examinations…. The second disturbing bit […]

One of the obvious questions prompted by the public recognition that Elizabeth Warren’s claimed Native American ancestry is what it takes for someone to avail themselves of the preferential treatment afforded to racial and cultural minorities in hiring–and in particular, can someone assert the identity if they are only 1/32 and have absolutely no cultural […]

If you are interested in learning more about public choice economics a great way to get introduced is by attending the annual Public Choice Outreach Seminar held at the George Mason Public Choice Center in Fairfax.  Information and application material is available here.  I’ll be lecturing again this year again on the topic of “Public […]

Steve Jakubowski has a summary of the Supreme Court oral argument in the RadLAX case.  Not the usual band of sign-wielding protesters on the SCOTUS steps….

Max Stearns has an interesting take on the much-publicized failure to award a winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction this year, arguing that it was likely the result of a flawed set of voting rules that led to none of the finalists receiving a majority, rather than statement of unworthiness of all the candidates […]

James Carter and Jason Fichtner describe it here: Any viable solution must cut spending growth. Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Rep. Connie Mack of Florida have introduced legislation in their respective chambers to do just that. Their “Penny Plan” – recently updated to reflect the latest budget developments – calls for reducing federal spending (excluding interest payments) 1 […]

I have a short essay up at the Liberty Law blog today “Upholding the Rule of Law In Season and Out of Season.”  I argue in opposition to the conventional wisdom that it beneficial to relax the rule of law during times of economic crisis.  In part I believe the belief in the need for […]

Yeah, I get the idea–if people don’t have to pay their debts now it is like we are giving a big random stimulus because people can buy new stuff and don’t have to pay for old stuff.  So they have more money.  And this is a wonderfully political gambit to give a windfall to middle-class […]

As readers know, my concern about regulation of consumer credit and retail banking is that inefficient efforts to “protect” consumers by regulating prices and terms of credit can have severe unintended consequences by reducing access to higher-quality options (such as credit cards and debit cards) and push consumers to use less-preferred options involuntarily (such as […]

Perhaps. My daughter has been insisting for months that she should be allowed to take her guinea pigs to school.  Looks like I might have to start preparing a new reason why she can’t…. Update As usual, the brilliant VC readers come through with Plan B for fending off my daughter’s request.

I have a question prompted by Ken’s interesting post commenting on Jonathan’s post on the blindness of the academy to the validity individual mandate challenge. My question based on the debate around the mandate, but also the question of the Cordray and NLRB Recess Appointments (which I’ve also followed).  On both issues, on the “conservative” […]

at the Liberty Law blog.

There’s an op-ed by Elizabeth Warren and other former COP-TARP members in today’s WaPo criticizing the preferential tax treatment given to AIG as part of the bailouts.  I agree, of course, with their criticism of preferential tax treatment for bailed out companies.  But isn’t the favoritism under the tax law about which they are complaining the […]

Congratulations to Maureen Ohlhausen, who was unanimously confirmed for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission.  Maureen worked with me as Deputy Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the FTC when I was Director then took over as Director.  A great choice and I am happy for both Maureen and the Commission.