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.
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 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.
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debate over proposed Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1, which would allow counsel to cite an appellate court’s unpublished opinions in briefs to the court.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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
Following on yesterday’s post regarding the Comcast bid for Walt Disney Co., the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) provides its typically thorough coverage here, notes Comcast President’s Stephen Burke‘s familiarity with Disney here, speculates on rival suitors here, and provides a handy timeline-lineup card here.
The LA Times also provides a good follow up article today on consolidation in the entertainment industry and an analysis of Eisner’s options in dealing with the Comcast bid.
Jay Leno last night in his monologue on The Tonight Show:
“This is unbelievable to me. Vice President Dick Cheney went duck hunting with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, private jet, you know, a hunting reserve up in the mountains.
And Scalia went with him while the Supreme Court is still deciding a case involving Dick Cheney’s energy task force. Cheney said today there is no conflict of interest.
And just to be sure, he said as soon as Halliburton finishes construction of Justice Scalia’s new home, he will look into it personally to make sure there is no problem.”
Two fine federal appellate judges with Texas ties will be getting married to one another this summer. Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King and Senior Circuit Judge Thomas M. Reavley, of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, are getting married this summer. All the best to both of these fine jurists.
As noted in this earlier post, Ryan Lizza of the New Republic Online has been writing a terrific blog from the Democratic Party presidential campaign trail. Today’s entry focuses on the demise of the Wes Clark Campaign, which one Democratic pundit characterized as “Michael Jordan playing baseball.”