Thursday, July 15, 2010

Best Buy: A Retail Company Using Apology to Sell Still More

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As I was entering a “Bestbuy” store one summer day wearing shorts and a tee shirt and carrying my ubiquitous book bag (as you might expect)...
Wednesday, July 14, 2010

On the Value of Wealth in American and European Society: Who Should Receive the Trophy in Sports?

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Just after winning the World Cup of 2010, FIFA officials handed the trophy to the team captain of the Spanish team rather than to the coach...
Friday, July 2, 2010

The U.S. Supreme Court Deciding Federalism Cases: A Structural Conflict of Interest

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Regarding the US Supreme Court being the decider of last resort, Madison’s Report of 1800 reads in part, “this resort must necessarily be ...

Immigration and Federalism in the U.S.: Should Border States Participate?

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On July 1, 2010, on the precipice of another July 4th celebration, President Obama told an audience that immigration was, in sum, “broken.”...
Sunday, June 20, 2010

BP Clips Societal Norms

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In Senate testimony on May 11, 2010,  the three companies did their best to point the finger at each other, with the result that neither ...
Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Recipe for Regulatory Recidivism: the MMS and FAA

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In 2010, the Inspector General of the US Interior Department made public a report on the federal Minerals Management Service, which regulat...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Rating Moody’s and S & P: A Structural Conflict of Interest

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For years, banks and other issuers have paid rating agencies to rate their securities. This is a bit like restaurants paying food critics t...
Friday, May 21, 2010

U.S. Senator Rand Paul on Civil Rights and the BP Explosion

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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), was the Tea Party candidate who challenged the Republican establishment to win the party’s Senate nomination in...
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

On the Differential Impact of Pro-Business Cultural Values on Financial Regulation in the EU and US

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On May 18, 2010, the German state legislature banned naked short-selling of certain euro-debt and credit-default swaps, as well as some fin...
Thursday, May 13, 2010

Regulatory Capture Realized: The Oil Industry and the MMS Regulatory Agency

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On May 11, 2010,  U.S. Dept. of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he would separate the public safety and environmental enf...
Saturday, May 1, 2010

Is the Moneyed Interest Oriented to Ending American Federalism?

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James Madison wrote in Federalist #10, “a rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any ot...
Sunday, April 25, 2010

Fraud as Fair: Lehman as Beneficiary of Society's Pro-Business Cultural Values

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In April, 2010, Richard Fuld, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers, told a congressional committee that he had "absolutely no recollectio...
Thursday, April 15, 2010

The General Welfare Clause: Is the Power of Congress Constitutionally Unlimited?

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Art. 1, Sec. 8. of the US Constitution: Congress “shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts ...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Conflict of Interest in a Silent Oligarchy Being Engaged in Its Public Policy

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Goldman Sachs, which had played a role in enabling Greece to hide its public debt, urged investors in March of 2010 to buy shares in two big...

Regulating Commerce by Mandate: The Death of American Federalism?

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The mandate to buy health-insurance may be an unconstitutional encroachment of the U.S. Government onto the liberty of its citizens. Furthe...