Yearly Archives: 2013

Transcript: Lawrence Lessig on “Aaron’s Laws – Law and Justice in a Digital Age”: Section II

By The Unknown Transcriber

Lambert here: Lessig, at the end: “That’s what love means. It means working, acting fiercely against the odds. And then my next thought was, you know, even we liberals love our country. [audience laughter] And so this observation of the impossibility of this challenge is irrelevant, because we love. And we love means we act regardless of how impossible this is.” Well worth reading.

This is the full transcript of “Aaron’s Laws” talk given by Lawrence Lessig at Harvard on February 19. A good summary of the talk, by Harvard second-year law student Eric Rice, is here.

Links 3/5/13

Is the Eurozone Nearing a Make or Break Point?

One of the dangers of trying to understand what is going on in the Eurozone if you are a hapless but interested American isn’t simply that you’d have to be fluent in a lot of languages to keep on top of the media, but the media themselves are, as NC readers know well, not exactly reliable. Look at how much dictation from business and political leaders masquerades as news in the US. And we have a less controlled press than, say, Italy does.

So I will give readers some fresh data points and let you duke it out.

Transcript: Lawrence Lessig on “Aaron’s Laws – Law and Justice in a Digital Age”: Section I

By The Unknown Transcriber

Lambert here: The Unknown Transcriber has done a superlative job transcribing this important talk [applause]. I especially like how Lessig contextualizes Swartz’s death as a consequence of corruption. It’s all about the rents, baby! Section I will be published today; Section II will be published tomorrow.

This is the full transcript of “Aaron’s Laws” talk given by Lawrence Lessig at Harvard on February 19. A good summary of the talk, by Harvard second-year law student Eric Rice, is here.

Beppe Grillo’s Parliamentarians Threaten Nuremberg Trials for Corrupt Italian Politicians

Former Italian senator Sergio De Gregorio confirmed: “The Cavaliere paid me,” he said about the €3 million he’d received in 2006 from Silvio Berlusconi. “Of course I took the money.” Frustrated with this daily display of corruption, 8.7 million angry Italians voted for Beppe Grillo’s 5-Star movement. While it wasn’t enough to govern, it was enough to give the political establishment conniptions—and show that anger and frustration finallycount.

Links 3/4/13

Student Loan Bubble So Big It’s Trumping Credit Cards as a Spending Driver

It turns out Lambert’s mother-in-law research is pretty good.

Congressmen Criticizing OCC Mortgage Settlement, While More Misrepresentations and Coverups Emerge

The Wall Street Journal today stresses that a lot of Democratic congressmen are unhappy about the botched settlement process but are unlikely to do more than beef because the new Comptroller of the Currency, Tom Curry, was selected by Obama.

But the more people poke at the settlement, the more creepy crawlies emerge.

Mirabile Dictu! More Executive Pay Revolt as Swiss Impose Curbs

It isn’t clear how effective the pushback against stratospheric top-level compensation will be, but the howls in the European media suggests that the corporate overlords really are concerned.

Links 3/3/13

US Climate Policy: Take Five

By James K. Boyce, who teaches economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and whose latest book is Economics, the Environment and Our Common Wealth. Cross posted from Triple Crisis

“For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.” These words in President Obama’s State of the Union address came as music to the ears of environmentalists. Do they herald a real effort to break the climate policy impasse in Washington?

Links 3/2/13