Weekend Links

Arthur Levitt, “We need an orderly way to let institutions fail.”  From the FT (via Paul Kedrosky):

So in the unique series of events that started with the fall of Bear Stearns, there was no way to deliver an orderly lesson on the danger of moral hazard. As a result, investors, lenders and management could believe, in almost every case, their institutions were "too big to fail".

To avoid another crisis we must address this flaw in our regulatory system. We need a process that is known in advance, includes the efficient and orderly write-down of assets and restructuring of debt, and draws on public funds only as a last resort. We need a resolution authority created explicitly to impose discipline on those with the most power to influence the level of risk-taking: the holders of both equity and debt of institutions that may be "too big to fail."

This one’s for you Tim: new video footage of Babe Ruth from 1928.  From the NY Times, includes video, (again, via Kedrosky): “The latest Babe Ruth film, unseen publicly until now, is part of a 90-second clip shot from the first-base stands at Yankee Stadium.”

Solum on Vermeule.

High-profile inmates are hiring prison consultants to help them navigate their entry to a confined life.  Clients include Plaxico Burress, Bernard L. Madoff, Michael Vick, Mike Tyson, Martha Stewart, and Leona Helmsley.  Story from the NY Times, via Al Roth.

Jeff Harrison at MoneyLaw on Blind Salarying:

Blind salarying would mean salaries would be based on an objective assessment of productivity. I don't think that could be achieved by blotting off the names on yearly reports because Deans -- unlike faculty grading papers -- will know who did what. So, the blind grading should be done by a third party -- say a special committee of the AALS that analyzes faculty performance from each school each year and files a report -- almost like a big arbitration but there are are [sic] no "sides."

Paul Caron at TaxProf Blog: Economists Warm to Financial Transactions Tax.

Via Freakonomics, the “briefest abstract award” goes to this new NBER working paper titled “When Is the Government Spending Multiplier Large?”

The abstract: “When the nominal interest rate is constant.”

When good intentions aren’t enough, also from Freakonomics:

“We found that 27.7 percent [of people] who saw calorie labeling in New York said the information influenced their choices.”

Great news, right? Um, no:

“However, we did not detect a change in calories purchased after the introduction of calorie labeling.”

From Dan Ernst at Legal History Blog, Et seq., the blog of the Harvard Law School Library, has posted an expense book covering the expenses a lawyer might incur in setting out to practice in Boston after the Civil War.

From Crooked Timber, proposed amendment to prevent the NSF from funding political science research. “Apparently, Fox News and CNN pundits can do our job better than we can.”

The largest award over the last 10 years under the political science program has been $5.4 million for the University of Michigan for the “American National Election Studies” grant. The grant is to “inform explanations of election outcomes.” The University of Michigan may have some interesting theories about recent elections, but Americans who have an interest in electoral politics can turn to CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, the print media, and a seemingly endless number of political commentators on the internet who pour over this data and provide a myriad of viewpoints to answer the same questions.

From Larry Ribstein at Ideoblog, How to stop Congress from insider trading.

From Paul Horwitz at PrawfsBlawg, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: "Bigger Than Jesus"

Via Dan Ernst at Legal History Blog, from the University of North Carolina Press, Catherine Fisk’s new book, Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800-1930.

From David Bernstein at VC, the coming Jewish deli federal bailout. 

Comments

[Tim Zinnecker]

Kim, thanks so much for the link to the Babe Ruth story / footage. Fascinating indeed!

Also, here's a link to a New York Times story updating readers on the quest to determine the date of the footage (and suggesting that the initial conclusion that Gehrig was in the on-deck circle is incorrect):

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/sports/baseball/11babe.html

Tim

[Kim Krawiec]

Yea, I figured you had already seen it, Tim. But thought of you anyway when I saw it. Kim