Economics

I don't know what Houston criminal defense lawyer Mark Bennett's politics are, but over the past couple of months he's been experiencing a classic example of the sort of thing that turns people into libertarians: Out of the blue, the government--in the form of the State Bar of Texas--wants to outlaw his business model. He usually charges clients a flat fee, but now the … [Read more...] about A Long Post About Flat-Fee Lawyering

Mark's review of Michael Lewis's The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine sounds interesting. I generally find finance and economics difficult to read about, but I may give the book a go.From the sound of it, the author and I seem to have a couple of similar arguments about what is wrong with the efficient market. One premise I like to start with is that efficient … [Read more...] about Windy Investments

To my co-blogger Ken: I haven't seen you in a while, so we haven't had time to talk about any of the usual stuff, therefore I'm taking this opportunity to submit a modest proposal for your consideration. As you know, one of the areas where we disagree about economics issues is the subject of the efficient market hypothesis. I tend to believe those economists who say that the … [Read more...] about The Big Short, and a Modest Proposal

There's one bad policy pattern that politicians tend to repeat over and over, and according to Nathan Koppel at the Wall Street Journal, this time they're inflicting it on lawyers: The Mississippi Supreme Court is considering a proposed rule to require lawyers in the state to provide at least 20 hours of pro bono work. The rule has been proposed to try to help the thousands of … [Read more...] about Making Lawyers Pay

This is an ad for a book, but it's also pretty much my take on the human condition. Despite all the complaining on this blog, I really am something of an optimist. … [Read more...] about The Rational Optimist