“‘Empathy’ is just the latest in a string of concepts designed to suggest that we can talk intelligibly about Supreme Court appointments in politically neutral terms. ‘Judicial restraint,’ ‘minimalism,’ ‘character,’ ‘precedent,’ ‘respecting the text’: like empathy, they matter, but like empathy, they are ultimately Hamlet without the Prince,” writes Christopher Eisgruber at the ACS Blog.
So what is missing from the discussion? According to Eisgruber, the discussion needs to shift from empathy to judicial philosophy.
“Obama believes–rightly, I think–that we should want a Supreme Court justice with a very different judicial philosophy,” writes Eisgruber.
“Until we admit what kind of questions really matter to assessing the career of a Supreme Court justice, our public debates about Supreme Court nominations will continue to be a kind of charade. It is numbing to imagine confirmation hearings focused on whether some distinguished lawyer is sufficiently empathetic. President Obama is himself a first-rate constitutional lawyer, and I suspect he knows this. It would be a gift to the country if, at some point in his presidency, he were to say so.”
Read the complete article and leave your comments here.
by Jessica Pellien | Filed in: Finance | 3:39pm EST
“The World Bank estimates that half of the world lives on $2.50 a day or less. As global leaders scramble to stabilize the financial systems of the world’s largest economies, they have an unparalleled opportunity to include the world’s poorest households. Meaningful and inclusive reform expands financial access to those who need it most,” writes Jonathan Morduch over at Forbes.com.
Morduch is co-author with Daryl Collins, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, of Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day–an unprecedented study of how poor households in Bangladesh, India, and Africa manage their limited funds.
In his editorial, Morduch asks us to rethink our assumptions about the world’s poor–”The most fundamental misperception is that the world’s poor don’t have the capacity for much of a financial life. The opposite is true.”
In fact, as Portfolios of the Poor demonstrates, the poor set aside money in savings—hidden away at home, or left with a moneyguard—maintain a credit account with the local shopkeeper, and swap food with neighbors. This unexpectedly intense financial life is necessary because, as one survey participant notes, “if you’re poor, there’s no alternative.”
by Jessica Pellien | Filed in: Economics | 2:39pm EST
Over at ABC News.com, John Stossel discusses privatizing the oceans as a way to deter piracy around Somalia–an idea proposed by Peter Leeson in a post over at The Corner a couple of weeks back.
In an opinion piece subtitled “A Little Free-Market Muscle Might Be Just What’s Needed to Send Pirates Packing”, Stossel writes, “Economists have said ‘what nobody owns, nobody takes care of,’ and ‘no one washes a rental car.’ These adages apply to the oceans, too.”
As Stossel points out, “Privatization has been shown to work in many areas, from the farming of endangered species to telecommunications.”
Also, if you can’t get enough of pirates–have a listen to Pete discussing the book and various types of pirates on Portland’s KBOO radio yesterday.
From over at the Free Exchange blog at The Economist:
I CAUGHT an interesting panel last night on a the new book “Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day“. It documents the financial lives of some of the world’s poorest people. What many people may not realise about low income is that it tends to be variable and unpredictable. Even if you earn just $2 a day, chances are you’ll earn $5 one day and zero the next. So the image of living hand to mouth is often inaccurate. Poor people must have some savings to survive, but many lack access to traditional banking. They end up resorting to elaborate ways to transfer wealth across time. Often this means simply stuffing money in their mattress or using a money guard (another person to hold the money for them). But this leaves their savings vulnerable to theft and fire.
And this is hardly a problem exclusive to the poor in third world countries. As the blogger notes:
What struck me about the stories of the poor in Bangladesh and Africa was how many aspects of their financial lives I saw teaching financial literacy in a homeless shelter in New York City. The women I spoke to were smart and financially savvy (they certainly had a keener instinct when it came to fraud), while being shut out of formal banking channels.
Opening remarks: Rogan Kersh
Associate Dean, NYU Wagner School of Public Service
Panel Discussion Participants: Matthew Bishop
Chief Business Writer/American Business Editor, The Economist Daryl Collins
Co-author, Portfolios of the Poor, Senior Associate, Bankable Frontier Associates Bill Easterly
Professor of Economics, NYU, author of The White Man’s Burden Jonathan Morduch
Co-author, Portfolios of the Poor, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, NYU and Managing Director, Financial Access Initiative Yaw Nyarko
Professor of Economics, NYU, Director of Africa House
Over the past two weeks Andrei Codrescu has visited Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, New York, Boston, and Princeton to lecture and sign copies of The Posthuman Dada Guide. Many predict the author tour will be phased out in future years, but by all accounts, Andrei’s tour was incredibly successful. One of the interesting things to note about author tours now is that there is a parallel virtual tour taking place via blog posts, twitters, facebook, and online videos. Here… a virtual recounting of his tour culled from the web.
First, the New York Public Library event featuring Henry Alford and Paul Holdengraber with real-time drawings by Flash Rosenberg. (April 13, 2009).
Then on to Seattle’s Town Hall (April 22), City Lights in San Francisco (April 26)and Los Angeles (April 28) to participate in the Public Library’s ALOUD series (video available from fora.tv).
Back up to Portland for an event at Powell’s (April 30) for which we find many mentions at twitter and a thank you note in the “notes” section of Andrei’s facebook page.
[Updated 5/12/09] Here is video, courtesy of PDX Justice of Andrei’s event at Powell’s:
Then out to the East coast where The Big Red Apple mentions attending Andrei’s event with St. Mark’s Bookshop (May 4) at the Solas Bar in New York, which was coincidentally the name of the restaurant in Boston where Andrei and some of his audience went to eat fish and chips after his lecture at the Public Library (May 5).
The last stop on the tour found Andrei in Princeton at Labyrinth Books. In an otherwise flawless tour, this was the one stop where the planes and trains did not cooperate and Andrei was late, but as owner Dorothea noted — how better to start a dada event than to piss off the audience! The discussion was fantastic and prompted me to post a new spam hall of shame item this morning. Kim Nagy of Wild River Review was on hand and posts her thoughts here.
Last night at an author event at Labyrinth Books, Andrei Codrescu (The Posthuman Dada Guide) mentioned that spam can be read as dada-esque poetry… along the lines of cut-up poetry where one cuts up a newspaper and reassembles the words. In honor of this wonderful evening spent with Codrescu and Brigid Doherty, I will dip into the spam file.
John Hulsman, co-author with A. Wess Mitchell, on the new book THE GODFATHER DOCTRINE: A Foreign Policy Parable, discussed and debated the book with Eli Lake of the New Republic and Washington Times over at our friends Bloggingheads.tv. A very lively chat! Watch for yourself…
Featuring commentary and interviews from Princeton University Press authors, the PUP Blog is a highly respected, timely and indispensable source for learning, understanding and reflection.
