Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

From SCOTUSblog: The individual mandate survives as a tax. OH. MY. GOD!!!! — REPEATEDLY UPDATED (seven updates so far)

UPDATE: From SCOTUSblog: “The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read.” TOTAL, TOTAL VICTORY   !!!! SECOND UPDATE: The opinion is 5-4, with Roberts voting with the Dem appointees and writing the opinion, and Kennedy writing the main dissent. Here’s […]

No Healthcare Ruling—But Three Other Very Important Rulings—Today

The Court will announce its healthcare ruling on Thursday.  Tom Goldstein, founder of Scotusblog, said after this morning’s opinions were issued that, in light of the Court’s informal division-of-labor routine, and based on which justice wrote which of today’s majority opinions, it looks pretty clear that (as everyone has been predicting all along) Roberts will […]

Sorta Interesting … (Updated!)*

Thought y’all would enjoy this post, on one of THE BIG DEAL law-profs’ blogs.  It’s bloggers are right- to center-right libertarians, all (or at least most) of them former law clerks to one of the conservative Supreme Court justices. Ah. And this is even moreinteresting.  Woo-hoo! —–UPDATE: Welll.  Hmmm.  As I said earlier today in a […]

Linda Greenhouse’s ACA-Litigation-Outcome Tea-Leave Reading (And Why I Think She’s Right)

In an email exchange between Dan and me on Tuesday, I wrote: Btw, the Supreme Court has been amazingly slow this term in issuing opinions in high-profile cases.  Most of the opinions they’ve issued recently are on pretty esoteric issues; they’re important, but pretty inside-baseball.  A good example is an opinion they issued yesterday.  Here’s […]

Jamie Dimon May Come Out Swinging Tomorrow, But His Fast Ball Isn’t What It Was

“Which Jamie Dimon will appear before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington on Wednesday?” asks Reuters BreakingViews columnist Rob Cox in a Slate piece.  “The self-effacing JPMorgan boss offering apologies for his bank losing at least $2 billion on bum trades?,” he asks? “Or the combative JPMorgan leader who just a year ago publicly challenged the […]

Bain Capital vs. Berkshire Hathaway**

Matthew Yglesias channels … me! Yep, that’s right.  And now that, as Yglesias discusses, Newark Mayor Cory Booker has given the Obama campaign permission to explain the differences between the various types of venture capital “models” (as Yglesias calls them), conceding that, yes, that may really be more relevant to the key issues in the […]

Federal judge rules part of new anti-terrorism statute unconstitutional

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Wednesday struck down a portion of a law giving the government wide powers to regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists, saying it left journalists, scholars and political activists facing the prospect of indefinite detention for exercising First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan said in […]

Solamere Capital offered to help fund the auto-industry managed bankruptcy … just like Bain Capital!

Ah.  Well, now we know what Romney has in mind when he says that GM and Chrysler didn’t need federal bailout funds in late 2008 and early 2009 in order to undergo bankruptcy reorganization rather than be forced to liquidate, because there was private-equity funding available for that purpose.  Solamere Capital and its Rolodex of […]

Steven Rattner Misses the Point (Romney’s and Obama’s) – POSTSCRIPT ADDED 5/16*

Last February, in the lead-up to the all-important Michigan primary, Romney wrote an op-ed piece in the Detroit News titled “U.S. autos bailout ‘was crony capitalism on a grand scale’.”  The dual purpose of the piece was to defend the recommendation he made in a November 18, 2008 op-ed article in the New York Times titled “Let […]