Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

The American Bankruptcy Institute is sponsoring a BAPCPA blog to keep up with new caselaw interpreting provisions of the bankruptcy reform legislation. There are several postings already on cases interpreting the new limits on homestead exemptions, the summary procedures for lifting the automatic stay for serial filers, and the consumer credit counseling requirements. The postings […]

This week’s Gallup Poll is here: “The poll, conducted Dec. 9-11, finds that 49% of Americans say they would like to see the Senate vote in favor of Alito serving on the Supreme Court, while 29% say they would not, and 22% have no opinion.” The Washington Post reports its new poll which finds that […]

Herbert London has a column in today’s Washington Times, “The Intellectual Diversity Hoax” that discusses this new report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). The press release and summary of recommendations is available here. As opposed to external efforts such as David Horowitz’s Academic Bill of Rights, the purpose of this report […]

A few weeks ago, the Institute of Medicine released a new report which has been reported to conclude that the rise in children’s obesity in the United States can be attributed at least in part to advertising of junk food and fast food. According to the Washington Post: Food and beverage companies are using television […]

Political Scientists traditionally have thought that highly-contested elections tend to moderate politics by inducing politicians, the so-called “median voter theorem.” Steven Teles describes some research that suggests that today, by contrast, high competition might instead become turnout battles, suggesting greater, rather than lesser polarization. Among other implications, if the analysis is correct, it suggests that […]

I love this: Sales tags touting deep price cuts were flying like battle flags this week in the electronics department of Wal-Mart in Manassas. Twice each week, about a dozen employees sneak into enemy territory — Target is just two miles away — to scope out prices. When they return, the store starts discounting, undercutting […]

A couple of months ago, I noted that Oregon’s Measure 37 , an initiative that was passed with 61% vote last year, only to be struck down by a state judge under the Oregon constitution. Kimberly Strassel has an update on the situation–including efforts by Oregonians to recall the judge who decided the case and […]

As I sat in another unexpected midmorning traffic jam in Northern Virginia yesterday, my mind recalled this article from the Washington Post that describes future plans to build a network of private toll roads in the DC area. We’ll see if the whole thing ever actually materializes. Pete Boettke has a brief comment on some […]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think of Bob Newhart every time you hear about the new King Kong movie? For those who are not familiar with Newhart’s classic bit on King Kong, this NPR Report from a few years ago has a fairly lengthy excerpt from it.

In what promises to be a fruitful and fascinating trove of information and research ideas, Richard Lazarus has been doing extensive research in Justice Blackmun’s papers over the past year or so. He has a paper up on SSRN that draws on those documents, “The Measure of a Justice: Justice Scalia and the Faltering of […]

Benjamin Civiletti’s billing rate. The highest reported associate billing rate is $835 an hour.

At the risk of making this the all-Solomon all-the-time blog, in case you didn’t see it, Yale’s Peter Schuck has an interesting column today in the NY Times on the Solomon Amendment question, “Fighting on the Wrong Front“: But in their opposition to the Solomon Amendment, the universities are not only on shaky legal ground, […]

A Harvard Law Student cc’ed me on a letter submitted to the Harvard Crimson regarding the story referenced earlier today on FAIR v. Rumsfeld. To the Editor: Re “Harvard Profs’ Brief Could Still Sway Court” (Dec. 8, 2005): Rather than putting forth a Constitutional argument against the Solomon Amendment, as FAIR did at oral arguments […]

I see that the Lost Liberty Hotel project is still going. I frankly had assumed that the whole thing was a joke at the time concocted to create media attention around the Kelo issue. In fact, it appears that the sponsors of the hotel are continuing to move forward with the project. They are in […]

Paul Caron has a chart on the increase in federal tax revenues since the 2003 Tax Act. The Angry Bear has an informative chart on the growth in federal spending for the past several decades (defense and health care are the largest categories of spending increases, although other discretionary spending areas are up a bit […]