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Card Counting in a Casino Society

By Jack M. Balkin

The Financial Times reports that, concerned that the U.S. government is rewarding bad behavior and throwing good money after bad some conservative Republicans (and even noted Ayn Rand-admirer Alan Greenspan) are now open to the possibility of nationalization (or as FT spells it "nationalisation") of U.S. banks while Representative Michelle Bachmann (previously worried that Barack Obama and other members of Congress might secretly be anti-American) warns that "we're running out of rich people in this country." California teeters on the brink of financial collapse while others compare our nation to a casino society in which government policies have encouraged overly risky economic behavior and moral hazard from the richest capitalist to the ordinary consumer. Meanwhile the actual operators of casinos are worried about the latest iPhone application: a card counter for the iPhone that can be operated in "stealth mode" when the iPhone appears to be turned off.

If we live in a casino society, perhaps everyone should be equipped with a card counter.

Full post as published by Balkinization on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).