CBO Issues Study on Effect of Federal Tax Credits on the Purchase of Electric Cars (and related topics)

The Congressional Budget Office has released a study on the effect of federal tax credits on the purchase of all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids. (A summary of the study is here, and the full study and underlying data can be accessed from here.) The tax credits can be as much as $7,500 per car. That […]

Ninth Circuit OKs Facebook class settlement, holding that it’s fair for all the settlement funds to go to a defendant-created foundation

by Greg Beck The Ninth Circuit today upheld a district court’s decision approving a class-action settlement against Facebook over the company’s long-defunct “Beacon” program—one of the first of what turned out to be a long string of privacy fiascos for the social media company. With Beacon, Facebook teamed up with Blockbuster to post users’ video […]

David Reiss on Eminent Domain and Underwater Loans

David J. Reiss of Brooklyn has written Comment on the Use of Eminent Domain to Restructure Performing Loans.  Here is the abstract: There has been a lot of fear-mongering by financial industry trade groups over the widespread use of eminent domain to restructure residential mortgages. While there may be legitimate business reasons to oppose its […]

New Consumer Reports Study on Arsenic in Foods Containing Rice

Arsenic is a potential human carcinogen. Federal regulation limits arsenic in drinking water to 10 parts per billion. (The strictest state-law limit is in New Jersey, where the limit is 5 ppb.) An in-depth study by Consumers Union has found surprisingly high levels of arsenic in foods containing rice. Arsenic gets into food in various […]

Bloomberg News: Republican State AGs Resisting CFPB Cooperation

by Jeff Sovern Here.  An excerpt: A group of Republican state attorneys general has declined to sign cooperation agreements with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, part of an escalating Republican revolt against the agency that began in the U.S. Congress. Richard Cordray, the agency’s director, asked all 50 states in March to sign a memorandum of […]

Will Technology Make “Do Not Track” Laws Unnnecessary?

Sunday's Times reported that the next version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer will include a "Do Not Track" privacy setting as a default. Consumers installing the browser will be presented with the option of switching from the default to permit tracking.  Excerpts: But the specter of people opting out of tracking en masse presents a serious […]

Justice Scalia on Whether the Supreme Court is Politicized

In this short video (also embedded below), Justice Scalia says that he is "enraged" by claims that the Supreme Court is "politicized." None of his colleagues, he says, decide cases based on who the President is. He then goes on to explain why justices appointed by Democratic Presidents often vote one way (the non-originalist, non-textual […]