Copyright 2012 The Future of Capitalism Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:00:55 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The Future of Capitalism :: Writings http://www.futureofcapitalism.com webmaster@futureofcapitalism.com (The Future of Capitalism) webmaster@futureofcapitalism.com en-us http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-zuckerberg-tax Wed, 8 Feb 2012 10:52:52 EST An op-ed in today's New York Times proposes a "Zuckerberg Tax": For individuals and married couples who earn, say, more than $2.2 million in income, or own $5.7 million or more in publicly traded securities (representing the top 0.1 percent of families), http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/another-revolving-door-example Wed, 8 Feb 2012 10:37:35 EST It's a big day for revolving-door news. First this, and now the New York Times reports that the chief of the securities fraud unit for the United States attorney's office in Manhattan, Christopher Garcia, is leaving to become a $1.2 million-a-year white http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/pizza-shirt-fine Wed, 8 Feb 2012 10:17:00 EST The Albany Times Union has a sympathetic report on a Papa John's pizza franchisee who was fined $5,500 by the state of New York for "failing to provide enough polo shirts to employees in his pizza shops." From the paper: Late last year, staff from the http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/that-not-the-spirit Wed, 8 Feb 2012 10:08:46 EST A post here on February 3 praised Spirit Airlines for its public campaign against a costly new Department of Transportation regulation. I said then, "Give Spirit credit for fighting back in public rather than just hiring some former DOT official or http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/kristol-called-it Wed, 8 Feb 2012 07:09:39 EST One journalist who looks prophetic following Rick Santorum's wins yesterday in Republican presidential contests in Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota is the editor of the Weekly Standard, William Kristol, who wrote this on February 1: What if Santorum http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/paper-promises Tue, 7 Feb 2012 21:56:40 EST My usual early warning system for books about the dollar consists of the New York Sun and the Wall Street Journal. This time, though, it's, of all places, National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" that has the scoop on a new book, Paper Promises: Debt, http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-atlas-generation Tue, 7 Feb 2012 21:36:03 EST Here's an interesting piece about what the author calls "The Forgotten 33%" — not the 1% superrich, not the 20% government workers, and not the 46% who owe zero income tax. Read the comments, too, though. The author's a little harsher on Wall Street than http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/obama-and-pepe-cardona Tue, 7 Feb 2012 11:18:19 EST The New York Times does an excellent job breaking the story of more than $200,000 in money raised for the Obama campaign by the brothers of a fugitive Mexican casino owner, and the story gets lead billing on the front page of today's Times. The Times http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/combat-journalism Tue, 7 Feb 2012 10:52:46 EST A warm welcome to the newly launched Washington Free Beacon. Editor Matthew Continetti explains what the new site is up to in an article that appears under the headline Combat Journalism. http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/private-regulation-1 Tue, 7 Feb 2012 10:35:27 EST Speaking of food regulation, here's an example of a private company voluntarily making changes to its products rather than being forced to do so by the coercion of the government. Reuters reports: Walmart's efforts also include lowering the amount of http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/food-rights Tue, 7 Feb 2012 10:15:56 EST The Boston Globe's Alex Beam has a column about local governments resisting excessive government regulation of locally produced food: Roughly a year ago, Sedgwick, Maine, enacted a "Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance." Invoking the http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/richard-epstein-on-yale Tue, 7 Feb 2012 10:02:32 EST Libertarian law professor Richard Epstein's latest weekly column is about how the federal government is using its grants to higher education to apply "unconstitutional conditions" that attempt to force universities like Yale to handle sexual harassment http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/manning-law Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:46:44 EST The New York Giants Super Bowl victory and what it tells us about the fallibility of "experts" is the subject of my weekly column this week. Please check it out at the New York Post (here), the New York Sun (here) or Reason.com (here). Or check it out in http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/reasonable-profits-board Mon, 6 Feb 2012 13:21:21 EST Four Democrats in the House of Representatives are backing a bill that would authorize the president to set up a "reasonable profits board" to determine what reasonable profits are for oil and gas companies, and then go on to impose taxes of 50% to 100% http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2012/02/superbowl-stadium-subsidies Sun, 5 Feb 2012 11:05:00 EST The Superbowl will be played in a stadium largely financed by the taxpayers of Indianapolis, Bloomberg View points out in an editorial that reports, "Public funding for sports stadiums has been found, in dozens of studies over several decades, to fall