The Archives

The collection of all scholarly commentary on law, economics, and more

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Judge Posner on Financial Reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Judge Posner offers his thoughts on financial reform, mostly negative, at Bloomberg.   The thrust of the essay is that the financial regulation produced by the political process has, at best, a poor nexus to the actual causes of the economic crisis, and that what we are left with is primary reorganization and reshuffling to look ... Judge Posner on Financial Reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

“I’m not going to praise the Leegin decision”

Compared to the nominations of Justices Alito, Roberts and Sotomayor, there has been little excitement for the antitrust community on the most recent Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan.  But there is something.   The WSJ Law Blog reports that while Kagan refused to “praise the Leegin decision.”   Legal Times reports that in response to Senator ... “I’m not going to praise the Leegin decision”

Congratulations to Steve Salop

Steve Salop (Georgetown Law antitrust economist, and occasional guest-blogger here at TOTM) took home the American Antitrust Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award last week.  Jonathan Baker (American, FCC) and Carl Shapiro (Berkeley, DOJ) presented the award and summarized Salop’s contributions to industrial organization economics and antitrust.  It was the first time I’ve attended an AAI event ... Congratulations to Steve Salop

Lollapalooza and Antitrust

Apparently, the Illinois Attorney General is investigating Lollapalooza for potential antitrust violations arising out of exclusivity clauses that the concert promoter includes in the contracts signed with artists who play the show. The controversial radius clauses prohibit Lollapalooza acts ranging from the top headliners to the smallest “baby bands” at the bottom of the bill ... Lollapalooza and Antitrust

The Supremes: Congress messed up SOX but no big deal

The PCAOB members’ tenure unconstitutionally insulated them from executive supervision, but in David Zaring’s succinct summary The remedy is the key, and although the Court didn’t explain the remedy too clearly, it basically excised the removal protections, making members of the PCAOB removable at will by the President * * * and handed petitioners a ... The Supremes: Congress messed up SOX but no big deal

The Olmstead decision and the problem of single member LLCs

The Florida Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. FTC on the surface is a highly convoluted case that outwardly appeals only to the sort of people who think about LLCs in the shower. Since I qualify, I suppose it falls to me to explain what this is all about. Bear me out, because this matters ... The Olmstead decision and the problem of single member LLCs

The pot market

The NYT discusses the market developing in the wake of the federal government’s decision in January to leave pot regulation to state law. Colorado’s working on regulations that other states may use as a model. Boulder now has more marijuana dispensaries than liquor stores and Starbucks combined. Hey, whatever happened to all that stuff about ... The pot market

Google Search Trends

I’ve been having some fun with Google Trends lately, which offers unique analysis of search trends.  For example, below is an excerpt from a search on the phrase “law and economics” that shows the top ten cities from which the phrase  has been a search term, along with a graph of volume: 1. Berkeley, CA, ... Google Search Trends

F Cubed and jurisdictional competition

The Supreme Court, per Scalia, opined yesterday in Morrison v. National Australia Bank that foreign plaintiffs who transacted in foreign shares on a foreign exchange (hence, “f cubed”) could not bring a 10b-5 action. Margaret Sachs has a good analysis on the Glom. I want to emphasize one important and generally overlooked aspect of the ... F Cubed and jurisdictional competition

Antitrust at George Mason

Danny Sokol has posted the most downloaded antitrust law professors.  I come in 4th behind Damien Geradin, David Evans, and Herb Hovenkamp.   It is flattering to be in company like that by any measure.  Cool.  But, as Danny points out, what is even cooler is that George Mason is one of only a handful of ... Antitrust at George Mason

Proxy Access Defense #1

I’ve been spending my summer trying to get ahead of the ball on proxy access and consider the types of defenses Boards might employ against insurgents making use of the federal proxy access provision in the Dodd Bill.  An article will hopefully be shipped to editors by mid-August.  I first started thinking about the various ... Proxy Access Defense #1

My Forbes.com column on BP

It’s now up. As previously announced, I’ll be appearing regularly as the “Creative Destroyer.” I hope Schumpeter won’t mind.