Daily Archives: February 12, 2004

Bonds’ personal trainer indicted

Posted on by
Reply

The NY Times reports that single season home run champ Barry Bonds‘ personal trainer–Greg F. Anderson–was indicted today in San Francisco with three others for illegal distribution of steroids. The indictment is here.
Bonds is a magnificent player, clearly the best of his generation and one of the best baseball players of all-time. However, in the first 14 years of his career, Bonds hit 40 or more home runs three times, 40 (1993), 42 (1996) and 46 (1997). In the past four seasons in which he has gone from age 36 to 40, Bonds has hit 49, 73, 46, and 45. Moreover, his on-base average and slugging percentage–probably the two most important individual offensive statistics in baseball–have been significantly higher in Bonds’ past three seasons than they were in the previous 15. Finally, when Bonds broke into the big leagues in 1986 at the age of 22, he weighed a sleek 186 lbs. He now looks like a chiseled heavyweight of almost 230 lbs.
Uh, Barry, please pass some of those Wheaties over here.

LBJ and JFK

Posted on by
Reply

One of the most perplexing stories recently is this one pertaining to the documentary that The History Channel recently ran regarding conspiracy theories that link the late former President Lyndon Johnson to the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy.
What is most perplexing about this story is that it appears that no one at The History Channel performed even the slightest amount of research on the subject of this documentary before allowing it to air. If they had, then they would have read Gerald Posner‘s 1994 classic “Case Closed,” which is the definitive book on the Kennedy Assassination. In that book, Mr. Posner systematically and dispositively debunks each one of the conspiracy theories that have been promoted over the years regarding the Kennedy Assassination and describes in an equal amount of detail how Lee Harvey Oswald pulled off the assassination by himself. That The History Channel allowed the foregoing documentary to air without at least a rebuttal from someone of Mr. Posner’s stature is a serious affront to President Johnson’s legacy and the Johnson Family.

Let’s tee it up again

Posted on by
Reply

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a Galveston County Grand Jury has indicted Robert Durst again, this time on charges of “tampering with evidence” (I’m not sure that’s exactly how I would characterize cutting up a corpse and throwing it into Galveston Bay, but what the heck). As noted in a prior post, Mr. Durst is well represented by noted Houston criminal defense attorneys, Dick DeGuerin and Mike Ramsey. Mr. DeGuerin, who must feel as if the Durst cases are an annuity for him, commented about the new indictment: “It’s just sour grapes.”

Plains to buy Nuevo

Posted on by
Reply

Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. has agreed to buy Houston-based Nuevo Energy Co. in a stock deal valued at almost $600 million. If completed, Plains will issue about 37.5 million shares to Nuevo shareholders (based on Plains’ $15.89 per share Wednesday closing price), and assume $350 million of debt and convertible securities. The deal is scheduled to close in the 2nd quarter of this year.

Romance, a Ring, and Bankruptcy

Posted on by
Reply

In preparing for Valentine’s Day, a Maryland Bankruptcy Judge issues an interesting opinion ruling that a debtor’s engagement ring should be returned to her ex-boyfriend even after her bankruptcy because the ring was the subject of a conditional gift. The opinion includes the judge’s hilariously understated description of what must have been one wild hearing over the ring. Thanks to Stuart Levine at Tax and Business Commentary for the cite.

Information technology and productivity growth

Posted on by
Reply

Hal Varian of the NY Times pens an interesting piece today on how lagging productivity in the service sectors of the U.S. economy has been dramatically improved through innovation in information technology.

Professor Volokh on Congressional review of District Judges compliance with sentencing guidelines

Posted on by
Reply

Professor Eugene Volokh, constitutional law professor at the UCLA School of Law and founder of the Volokh Conspiracy blog, pens a provocative op-ed in the LA Times regarding the swirling controversy over Congressional review of federal district judge’s implementation of Congressionally-mandated sentencing guidelines in federal criminal cases. Although voters should be skeptical of a politician’s motives in attempting to limit judges’ discretion in handling criminal cases, Professor Volokh is certainly correct that judges–as are congressman–are governmental officials and not immune from criticism or legislation that limits their discretion.

Proposed Federal Appellate Rule regarding unpublished opinions

Posted on by
Reply

In his noteworthy How Appealing blog, Howard Bashman files a good post regarding the ongoing debate over proposed Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1, which would allow counsel to cite an appellate court’s unpublished opinions in briefs to the court. Mr. Bashman is a supporter of the proposed rule, as am I.

Professor Feldstein on deficit spending

Posted on by
Reply

Following an earlier post on deficit spending, Harvard economics professor, Martin Feldstein, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Reagan Administration, weighs in with this op-ed in the WSJ (subscription required). In parts of his op-ed, Professor Feldstein observes as follows:

Although fiscal deficits impose a burden on future generations, it would be wrong to respond now with a tax increase. Raising tax rates would hurt the expansion and weaken the incentives that drive long-term growth. Rescinding the Bush tax cuts on high income individuals would not only be economically counterproductive but would also have little effect on future budget deficits. A 15% increase in the taxes of those with incomes over $200,000 (e.g., taking the 35% top rate back to 40%) would reduce future budget deficits by a mere three-tenths of 1% of GDP aside from the adverse effect on long-term growth.
***
The medium-term goal for U.S. fiscal policy should, at a minimum, be a constant or declining ratio of debt to GDP. Achieving that goal requires bringing the deficit down to about 2.5% of GDP or less. Recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office indicates that there is ample time to decide whether more is needed to achieve this than tight controls on spending. The low interest rates on long-term bonds also show that the participants in financial markets have confidence that future deficits will be coming down.
***
Shrinking the deficit to a level at which the debt is no longer rising faster than GDP will require tight spending controls or GDP growth at a faster pace than in the past 10 years. There is no reason to consider a tax increase at this time. The big budget challenges for the years ahead are to continue the tough controls on discretionary domestic appropriations, to use the defense transformation to limit the budget outlays for national security, and to start the reforms of Social Security and Medicare that will be needed to avoid a budgetary explosion when the baby boom generation begins to collect retiree benefits.

From the Energy Front

Posted on by
Reply

Following up on this earlier post, the Houston Chronicle reports that Texas Republican congressman Joe Barton will replace retiring Louisiana Republican Billy Tauzin as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
In other energy news, the Chronicle reports that, despite the current run-up in oil prices, many in the energy industry believe that the better long-term play is in natural gas.