Academic

The New "Too Big to Fail" Proposal--Skeel

Posted on June 20, 2009
The Obama adminstation's new financial reform proposals, like the version proposed several months ago, would give regulators the power to step in and take control of large nonbank financial institutions, as the FDIC already does with commercial banks...

Democracy and Law--Stuntz

Posted on June 19, 2009
With good reason, ours is an age in which the rule of law is a terribly important concept. In the United States, support for law—and support for law's natural product: order—is near-universal. Not so with respect to support for democracy...

Consumer Financial Protection Agency--Skeel

Posted on June 18, 2009
The most surprising of Obama administration's new financial reform proposals would establish a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to look after consumers' interests in financial services contracts such as credit cards and mortgages. It's been discussed in Washington for many months,...

Iranian and Iraqi Democracy--Stuntz

Posted on June 17, 2009
In the many discussions of the pro-democracy protests in Iran, I've seen precious little about the relationship between that country's democracy and democracy in its majority-Shiite neighbor: Iraq. The example of a democratic and not theocratic state on Iran's borders may be...

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p.s. on Chrysler--Skeel

Posted on June 09, 2009
The Supreme Court has now lifted its stay on the Chrysler sale, which makes the first part of the last post moot.  On to GM....

The Supreme Court Stay in Chrysler--Skeel

Posted on June 09, 2009
The $64,000 questions in my little world today are 1) what to make of Justice Ginsburg's order temporarily halting the Chrysler sale; and 2) what it means for the General Motors bankruptcy. My guess is that it would be a mistake...

GM and the Railroads--Stuntz

Posted on June 05, 2009
This is more David's department than mine, so if this observation is all wet, I'm happy to take correction. But in recent weeks, I've been thinking about the fate of the railroads in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like the...

Hospitals--Stuntz

Posted on June 05, 2009
Thanks mostly to medical business, I've been out of touch for awhile. I was hospitalized for various tests and procedures nearly all of last week (no large problems, thank God), and save for a brief appearance at the law school's graduation...

Hearings in Congress and Bankruptcy Court--Skeel

Posted on June 04, 2009
            The enormous recent bankruptcies have provided a lot of reasons for a bankruptcy scholar to leave the library and venture out into the real world for a change. I've spent more time in New York and Washington in the past...

Greenspan on "Too Big to Fail"--Skeel

Posted on June 04, 2009
            I was a minor player in a very interesting conference on systemic risk yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC yesterday. In the keynote address, Alan Greenspan suggested that he sees only three plausible responses to the emergence...

Hispanics and Latinos--Stuntz

Posted on May 26, 2009
This is a trivial comment, but I note that all the early reports on Sotomayor's appointment refer to her as 'Hispanic.' This puzzles me. Brazilians aren't Hispanic—they speak Portuguese—and Spaniards are. Why should Spanish ancestry matter more than, say, Dutch or Swedish ancestry? (Full...

Banking on Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on May 19, 2009
This op-ed by equity fund manager Scott Sperling in today's Wall Street Journal makes an interesting case that the Obama administration's handling of Chrysler and GM is actually evidence of capitalism at work. In my view, he's right that the restructuring...

Soon to be Ex-Judge McConnell--Skeel

Posted on May 16, 2009
With the exception of Supreme Court speculation, the biggest news in my little neighborhood these days is the announcement that Judge Michael McConnell will step down to join the faculty of Stanford Law School. As many readers will know, McConnell was...

State Judges and the Supreme Court--Stuntz

Posted on May 13, 2009
Plenty of people have noted that recent Supreme Court picks have all come from the federal bench. The usual response is to argue that we should look for non-judges to appoint to the Supreme Court. There is some merit to that position,...

Spring in Boston--Stuntz

Posted on May 13, 2009
Before moving to New England nine years ago, a couple of friends told me that T.S. Eliot must have lived here when he wrote: 'April is the cruelest month.' Winter seems to last forever—and then, bang! Summer comes. Spring pretty much doesn't...

More on the Chrysler Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on May 08, 2009
Several days ago, I wrote a short post noting some of my concerns about the extent to which the government seems to be commandeering the bankruptcy process in Chrysler as a means of effectuating its auto policy.  This commentary develops...

More Good Cancer News--Stuntz

Posted on May 07, 2009
I was more than a little nervous about the results of my recent brain MRI. I needn't have been: the films were clear; no detectable cancer. (Insert sigh of relief here.) As a family member put it, 'they took pictures of your brain and...

Kagan, Karlan and Empathetic Judges--Stuntz

Posted on May 07, 2009
My post about Pam Karlan as a potential Supreme Court nominee (see below) got more play than I expected. (I'm always surprised when someone reads something I write. Usually, I think: this can't be a good use of readers' time . ....

Pam Karlan and Souter's Seat--Stuntz

Posted on May 02, 2009
If Obama wants to appoint a Scalia for the left, he should choose Pam Karlan, a longtime colleague of mine at Virginia who now teaches at Stanford. Pam is (1) brilliant, (2) broadly knowledgeable — Cass Sunstein aside, I can't think...

The Chrysler Bankruptcy--Skeel

Posted on April 30, 2009
T.S. Eliot famously wrote that 'The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.' I'm not sure if it's doing the right deed for the wrong reason, or doing the wrong deed for the...

The First Hundred Days--Skeel

Posted on April 30, 2009
At his press conference last night celebrating his first hundred days, the President referred again to the need for a 'house built on rock,' as he did in his speech on the economy at Georgetown last week. The reference is, of...

Signs-Stuntz

Posted on April 26, 2009
Cancer is more pickpocket than robber: it catches you unawares; you find out about it after your wallet is gone. Most of the time, anyway. But not all the time. My cancer was symptomatic before I was diagnosed in February of last year...

Working--Stuntz

Posted on April 25, 2009
The past few months have been discouraging. Thanks to pain, nausea, and fatigue—the first two are worse now than during chemo; the third is almost as bad—I've done a lousy job of teaching this semester. I've managed to do a little writing...

Torture--Stuntz

Posted on April 25, 2009
I have several reactions to the torture memos and the frenzy that has erupted since their publication. On the one hand, some of the behavior at issue—like pushing a prisoner against a wall designed to yield to pressure—seem far too mild...

Veronese and John the Baptist--Skeel

Posted on April 16, 2009
With the possible exception of several Caravaggios, my favorite painting in Rome on my most recent visit was this painting (the reproduction here isn't great) of Saint John the Baptist by Veronese, in the Borghese Gallery. The planes of the painting—John's body...

Googling Jurors--Skeel

Posted on April 13, 2009
A couple of weeks ago, a friend showed me this article on jurors doing their own research during the breaks from a trial.  Given how quickly most of us go to the Internet to research our latest health concerns, it's not...

Debtors' Prisons Old and New--Skeel

Posted on April 13, 2009
Debtors' prisons seem to be back in the news. Last week's New Yorker included an interesting article about debtors' prisons in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century America (a link to the abstract is here). Decreasingly few states allowed imprisonment for debt...

A Pain Poem--Stuntz

Posted on March 30, 2009
Recently, I stumbled across this wonderful and sad poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It's the best description I've ever read or heard of living with chronic pain:   And must I then, indeed, Pain, live with you All through my...

Weekly Standard Article--Stuntz

Posted on March 29, 2009
Here is the link to a magazine piece I wrote.  The subject is a model of domestic policymaking that is usually ignored in public discussion: Lincoln's model. While fighting and winning the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln also shepherded through Congress one of...

The Geithner Proposals--Skeel

Posted on March 27, 2009
Treasury Secretary Geithner finally sketched out the administration's blueprint for new financial regulation yesterday.  Many of the proposals, such as a new registration requirement for hedge funds, strike me as sensible.  But I think the proposal to give federal regulators the...

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