Links 6/22/08

Bad guys really do get the most girls New Scientist

High school student faces 38 years in prison for hacking grades TG Daily

Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government FreedomWorks

Impeach Every Single Member of the Bush Administration. Now. Brad De Long

The New Trophy Home, Small and Ecological New York Times. A buddy in real estate called this trend three years ago.

Sheikh’s £40m claim hits Barclays Time Online. While the amount at issue isn’t large by bank standards, it has the potential to complicate the Barclays’ fundraising due to start Monday (the individual pursuing the suit is a member of the Qatari royal family and the Qatar Investment Authority was expected to take a major stake).

1930s Marital Scale (hat tip Ken Houghton) A quiz!

The economics of nice folks EurekaAlert (hat tip Mark Thoma)

Heckman on Ability Gaps Greg Mankiw

CSX Corporation vs. The Chlldren’s Investment Fund. The link is to the ruling. Reader etc helpfully provided links to discussions of the decision (from McDermott Will and Akin Gump). CSX objected to activist investor TCI’s use of total return swaps as part of its strategy (among other things, whether they should be counted towards the total beneficial share ownership in determining 13-D filing obligations). The first paragraph of the decision:

Some people deliberately go close to the line dividing legal from illegal if they see a sufficient opportunity for profit in doing so. A few cross that line and, if caught, seek to justify their actions on the basis of formalistic arguments even when it is apparent that they have defeated the purpose of the law.

Kinda clear where the judge sits on this one. Yet the SEC has more or less ignored this issue and in response to a query from the judge, took a position that in effect supported the activists. Times are changing.

Antidote du jour:

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4 comments

  1. Tom Lindmark

    Re; “Bad guys do get the most girls.” Why do scientists need to study cultures to figure out what guys figured out centuries ago?

  2. etc

    “Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government FreedomWorks”

    Some left wing types will probably squak about this being an affront to civil liberties. However, the US government needs reporting in order to crack down on a lot of tax evasion. Large numbers of US people have been evading taxes by moving cash to some tax haven and then paying bills with a payment card issued by that bank. These people try to avoid paying income tax on the cash they earned and move offshore, and try to avoid income tax on any interest or dividends accrued on the cash while it’s offshore.

  3. Independent Accountant

    Hekman is too, too politically correct. There is no evidence that any “interventions” will do anything to close the “gaps”. Some day all will recognize the problem is: GENETIC! Read something like: “IQ and the Wealth of Nations” for a start.

  4. Anonymous

    Scored 96 on the 1930’s marital scale. Well waddaya know!!!(just don’t show my wife)

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