Random links and commentary related to the wonderful world of law and economics.
Links
-NBER
-EconPapers
-The Smoking Gun Other Blogs
- Volokh Conspiracy
- Overlaywered
- Reason Magazine's Blog
- The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid
- Bernsteinblog
- JD2B.com
-The Smoking Gun Other Blogs
- Volokh Conspiracy
- Overlaywered
- Reason Magazine's Blog
- The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid
- Bernsteinblog
- JD2B.com
The Evil Economist and friends present:
A Law and Economics Blog
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Free Trade Kills: A South Korean farmer felt very strongly about protectionist trade policies. Possible last words: "Lower prices for consumers... over my dead body."? Read More...
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Friday, August 22, 2003
A very bad day: "His testicles had swollen to the size of a grapefruit and were black and blue." Pyskaty v. Oyama, 266 Ill. App. 3d 801, 806 (1994).
Don't shoot that bunny: Apparently a law in Illinois made it illegal to try to dissuade someone from trying to kill a wild animal... It was overruled as unconstititional....
People v. Sanders, Docket No. 82917, SUPREME COURT OF ILLINOIS, 182 Ill. 2d 524; 696 N.E.2d 1144; 1998 Ill. LEXIS 911; 231 Ill. Dec. 573, June 18, 1998, Opinion Filed
OVERVIEW: A state statute prohibiting an individual from dissuading another from taking a wild animal was unconstitutional because it impermissibly distinguished between expressions intended to persuade or encourage and those intended to dissuade.
Thursday, August 21, 2003
More about the gap: Could it really all come down to aversion to negotiation? Given the small size of the gap once appropriate variables are controlled for, seems reasonable. Read More...
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Paul Krugman and Iraq: An interesting exchange that could only happen on the Internet. Read this and then this and finally this.
A rough synopsis: Krugman claims logistical mistakes in Iraq are due to privatization. Critics laugh and say Krugman is wrong.
Monday, August 11, 2003
Greenpeace and the Killer Robots from the Future. An interesting article on the worries of Greenpeace and fellow activists about nanotechnology. Seems they're worried about the technology eventually taking control of the world (like in the Terminator series.) Read More...
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
How not to write an essay: Okay, I realize that it is not nice to criticize the writings of a college-age kid trying to please his professor... but it was posted on the Internet, so it's fair game.
"Anti-globalists may say that the working-class have no money due to corporate greed, and the pro-globalists may say that the poor would be poorer without corporations; however both arguments can be equally valid if they propose a solution that will solve the issues at hand."
It's good to know both are equally valid. Which is right? (Hint: the second statement.)
His conclusion: "All of our actions have an equal reaction. In other words, whatever we do may affect others. The arguments posed by both camps have merit and therefore the world economies must strive to maintain a delicate balance between the need for global trade and protection of national interests."
Is that really a conclusion?
Read More...
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Sunday, August 03, 2003
More propoganda: A little fun from the anti-corporation tribe. Mr. Snaffleburger Corp. is out to brainwash you. See if you can catch the hidden anti-corporate message in here. Warning: Not for the weak of mind, you may be sucked into a worthless political ideology. View...
Here's another 'realistic' portrayal of how businesses really run things. View...
Saturday, August 02, 2003
A great Economist of our time? A little bit of crap from Martha Nussbaum. "She has since launched several devastating assaults on conventional development economics - with its concentration on boosting GDP at pretty much any cost - which to her mind is unhistorical, narrow and lacking in any philosophical coherence." Read More...
In case you weren't looking at real data, Martha, growth helps the poor.
From the World Bank: "Income of the poor rises one-for-one with overall growth. This general relationship between income of the bottom fifth of the population and per capita GDP holds in a sample of 80 countries covering four decades. Although there is a fair amount of variation around this general relationship, a number of popular views about the poverty-growth relationship are not true. The effect of growth on income of the poor is no different in poor countries than in rich ones. Incomes of the poor do not fall more than proportionately during economic crises. The poverty-growth relationship has not changed in recent years. We also show that policy-induced growth is as good for the poor as it is for the overall economy. Openness to foreign trade benefits the poor to the same extent that it benefits the whole economy. Good rule of law and fiscal discipline are other factors that benefit the poor to the same extent as the whole economy. Avoidance of high inflation in fact is 'super-pro-poor': that is, high inflation is more harmful to the income of the poor than to GDP overall. In contrast we find no evidence that formal democratic institutions or public spending on health and education have systematic effects on incomes of the poor. "
Read More...
I have yet to read her so-called "devasting" assault. From what I've seen, I'm going to guess it's little more than useless verbiage from an elite who believes she knows best.
Friday, August 01, 2003
Philip Morris in Illinois: Philip Morris is asked to post a $10-billion appeal bond. Apparently the Circuit Court judge overstepped his bounds.
Read More...
Conflicted: Some of the message of this site is pure propoganda. The problem? Many people believe the crap the site is serving. And in other cases, the policies demanded are sensible.
A few quotes:
"If a few companies were less greedy, the people at the bottom would have a lot more. We can do our bit by pressuring politicians to change this insanity."
"Trade has the potential to lift millions of poor people around the world out of poverty but currently it is doing the opposite. While the rich get richer, the poor are getting poorer." [Trade is to blame for poverty? Most poor countries have very little trade with the outside world, hard to see how trade is causing that poverty.]
"Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad - on behalf of West and Central African countries - have asked World Trade Organisation members to dismantle cotton subsidies at its ministerial conference in Cancun in September. They also want compensation for poor countries until the subsidies are scrapped." [Yes, those subsidies should be abolished. Not sure about compensation, however.]
"OXFAM today (TUES) calls on EU leaders meeting in Copenhagen (December 12 to 13) to scrap the Common Agriculture Policy's export subsidies regime which is having a devastating impact on farmers in the developing world." [Oh, that's a good idea, too.]
"Stop Pfizer putting patents before patients in poor countries." [While no expert at medical technology, I can only assume that patents enable the research that makes highly complex medicines available. At the same time the rate of diffusion is likely to be slower than if the medicines could be copied freely. Perhaps patents are too long, but I can hardly blame companies for wanted to squeeze as much profit out of each product as they can.]
In sum, this site is not that great. Anyone who professes they'd like to make trade "fair" is likely trying to fool you.
Read More...
This page is especially funny.... (well, maybe funny is the wrong word.) Read More...
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Ouch! Reading this opinion by a Federal judge I'd like to avoid. Read more...
(One quote: "Manifestly, any person with even a correspondence-course level understanding of federal practice and procedure would recognize that Defendant's Motion is patently insipid, ludicrous and utterly and unequivocally without any merit whatsoever. Worse, it is just plain blatantly wrong in light of the unambiguous language of a decades old federal statute and veritable mountains of case law... Moreover, Defendant's present counsel-of-record, Mr. XXXXX is determined to be disqualified for cause from this action for submitting this asinine tripe. In his place, the Court hereby ORDERS that XXXXXXXX of Mr. XXXXX's lawfirm be SUBSTITUTED as attorney-in-charge for Defendant. Mr. XXXXX shall no appear no further in the present matter.")
Monday, July 21, 2003
Men, Women, and Money: A new book suggests the way women perceive themselves in the workplace may be hurting their chances at getting raises. Read More...
