As if the scene was taken out of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, the 13 hour filibuster by Texas State Senator Wendy Davis succeeded in killing SB537 by minutes. The vote failed to happen in the allotted time killing the bill for the time being. While filibustering the passage of the bill, Texas State Senator […]

Now the shoe is on the other foot, and it is time for the court to strike down a federal statute in order to advance a liberal policy goal rather than a conservative policy goal. Justice Scalia’s paean to the democratic process* in his dissent sounds a little hollow, coming in the wake of his votes to […]

Guest post by Edward Lambert as taken from his Blog Effective Demand Yes, the economy is a concern. There are problems to sort out. The problems run deep. What is the solution? The solution to the problems of the economy will be found through “Social Efficiency” and raising the social standards that have been declining […]

From the New York Times comes this note a way to rent a car for short time periods and convenience. I am not personally acquainted with this system, although I have used Zip cars. Car sharing has been around for decades in Europe and has caught on in the United States with Zipcar. These station-based […]

Part 1 Part 2 First off, I want to thank Mark Sadowski for contributing, in a gadfly sort of way, to my thinking on this issue with his comments in Parts 1 and 2.  So, this is not the part 3 post I had intended to write. Mark suggested using a different transformation of the […]

by Linda Beale Redistribution and public production of public goods–not “let the markets handle it” In recent posts, the Importance of Distribution and Markets, Minimum Wages, and the Sins of Friedmania,  I have noted the centrality to sustainable democratic institutions of corraling the market so that the power and wealth of the elite few does […]

Let me just say, I’m no lawyer and what follows is not legal scholarship. Of all the reading and listening I have done regarding the spying by our government via electronic data collection and storage, I have found nothing that specifically gets at the issue for me as to why it’s not a good thing.  […]

OH. WOW.  I actually called this exactly right in my post yesterday—this being, well, this.  [Inadvertently-omitted link to court opinion inserted.  H/T Dan Crawford.]  Specifically: Roberts’ 5-4 opinion today in Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder, the Voting Rights Act case that I discussed, and predicted the outcome of, in that post yesterday. Regular AB readers […]

by Linda Beale UK Territories to sign OECD Tax Info-Sharing Agreement, Reveal Beneficial Owners The UK’s David Cameron announced  that Britain’s 10 crown dependencies and overseas territories–Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Jersey, Gilbraltar, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, and the British Virgin Islands–would sign on to the OECD’s multilateral convention on Mutual Administrative […]