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Want an Evening (At Your Home) With Richard Posner? Click Here

By Ashby Jones

The same professor who told us that there was no subject in the world more interesting than property law in the U.S. also had a little line he trotted out whenever the topic of Richard Posner came up: “We are all Salieris to his Mozart.”

Whether Posner is a legal Mozart — or whether our professor was indeed a legal Salieri — we’ll leave to others to debate. One thing’s for sure, however: Posner is has a lot to say on a lot of topics, from Law and Literature to the cause of the financial meltdown. (There aren’t many federal judges or professors that we know of who have entire Amazon.com pages devoted to them.)

In any event, Posner’s been in the news lately, perhaps a bit more than usual. The January 11 issue of the New Yorker contained a piece by John Cassidy on the “Chicago School.” It’s a good read for anyone interested in the intersection of law and economics, or economic theory more generally.

Much of the piece concerns Posner’s seeming philosophical change of heart on laissez-faire capitalism. Writes Cassidy:

Earlier this year, Judge Richard A. Posner published "A Failure of Capitalism," in which he argues that lax monetary policy and deregulation helped bring on the current economic slump. Posner has been a leading figure in the conservative Chicago School of economics for decades. In September, he came out as a Keynesian. As acts of betrayal go, this was roughly akin to Johnny Damon's forsaking the Red Sox Nation and joining the Yankees.

If the Cassidy piece leaves you wanting more, we suggest paying attention to these fascinating interviews with Posner over at a Web site called Big Think. It was hard for us to stop watching the clips — which feature Posner sitting against a white background and simply talking on a variety of topics (”Privacy,” “Constitutional Interpretation,” “Tomorrow’s Supreme Court”).

Posner comes across not as a pedant or blowhard, but simply as a thoughtful and interesting regular guy — (one who sometimes loses his train of thought.) Give them a look. Find out which parts of the Bill of Rights Posner finds “embarrassing;” who he suspects is more conservative, Chief Justice Roberts or former Chief Justice Rehnquist; and whether he thinks, that as a “social good,” privacy is overrated (hint: he does).

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 20, 2010 (boomark / email).