I remember when "full employment" was considered achieved when unemployment did not exceed 4 or 4.5%. Now, it seems that people think of full employment as unemployment of 6 or 6.5%. The Hamilton Project has released a report on how long it will take to get to 6.5% unemployment, assuming various rates of job growth. […]
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Here is the FTC's press release, which praises Vladeck's record of achievement as the agency's top consumer enforcer. Vladeck was in the position for the Obama Administration's first term and is returning to Georgetown Law School. The press release also announces Vladeck's successor, Charles Harwood, who will serve in an "acting" capacity. Pat Bak will […]
Revelations that banks manipulated the benchmark Libor rate sent shockwaves across the financial world this summer. (Libor, despite sounding like a Tolkien villian — "People of Middle Earth! We must unite in defense of the realm against the forces of Mordor and Libor!" — stands for "London interbank offered rate" and forms the basis for […]
by Brian Wolfman Indiana University medical school professor Jon Duke and two co-authors have published this study entitled "Consistency in the safety labeling of bioequivalent drugs." The study could have been entitled "Inconsistency in the safety labeling of bioequivalent drugs" because it finds that the warnings on generic drug labels often deviate from the brand-name […]
In Devlin v. Scardelletti, the Supreme Court held that a class member who objects in a federal district court to a proposed class-action settlement may appeal approval of that settlement without moving for (and being granted) intervention. As I explained in this article, despite efforts by settling parties to limit Devlin to members of non-opt-out classes, […]
by Paul Alan Levy The New York Times carries an exceptionally detailed report of the controversy over the rape of a high school girl and the libel case brought by the parents of a player against an online blogger and several anonymous commenters, discussed here two weeks ago. A reminder that reporting can be dangerous […]
In this piece, Bruce Bartlett has the audacity to bring facts to the discussion of the so-called budget crisis. It's mainly about how "entitlements" are a small part of the problem despite what we hear from the Republicans. Here's an excerpt about social security, where he explains that if we simply subjected the same percentage […]
This week, the Ninth Circuit agreed to rehear en banc a case about a cop who revealed the abuse of suspects inside his department. The Ninth Circuit has developed a troubling line of cases to the effect that, under the Supreme Court's 2006 decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, any time a police officer in the […]
by Paul Alan Levy Amid the coverage of the feminist prank web site using Victoria Secret's name on a site promoting the concept of consent-themed underwear instead of underwear that portrays a woman’s readiness for sexual contact as a “sure thing,” I noted that in demanding the takedown of the web site on trademark infringement […]
Read about it here in a piece by William Alden. We discussed the possibility right after her election. Now it looks like a certainty. An excerpt from Alden's piece: Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard professor who won a Senate seat in November, is officially on track to join the Senate Banking Committee, after the Democratic Steering […]