Category: Posts by Mark D. White
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Mark D. White This afternoon, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ordered a worldwide injunction against the Clinton-era "don't ask don't tell" policy in the United States military, under which homosexual servicemen and women must keep silent about their sexual orientation. As I wrote earlier, this demeans our proud men and women serving their country, both…
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Mark D. White When it rains… As the New York Times and many other news organizations have reported, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg (together with New York State governor David Patterson) are petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture for permission to block the city's 1.7 million food stamp recipients from using the funds to…
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Mark D. White Not long ago, in my chapter for Essays on Philosophy, Politics & Economics: Integration & Common Research Projects, edited by Christi Favor, Gerald Gaus, and Julian Lamont, I wrote the following as a cautionary tale regarding the political implications of "libertarian paternalism" (or "nudges"): Suppose the members of a local election board,…
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Mark D. White Following up on Jonathan's post on rules, norms, and contracts from July, I just came across (thanks to ContractsProf Blog) a paper titled "Strategic Default: The Popularization of a Debate Among Contract Scholars" by Meredith R. Miller of Touro College – Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, forthcoming in Cornell Real Estate Journal. I have…
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Mark D. White Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, special adviser to the secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning (subscription may be required), in which she argues that simpifying consumer credit products will please both consumers and lenders and will promote competition. After…
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Mark D. White I usually try to ignore Paul Krugman, but sometimes I can't. (Sorry.) Thanks to Steve Horwitz (here and here), I lit upon Krugman's September 28 New York Times blog post, "Economics Is Not a Morality Play," in which he writes: The market economy is a system for organizing activity — a pretty good…
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Mark D. White I thought the first two letters to the editor in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal were excellent, reinforcing a point made in my chapter from Accepting the Invisible Hand: Market-Based Approaches to Social-Economic Problems on markets, dignity, and health care (see this previous post): Dr. Sally Satel helpfully describes some of the factors inhibiting…
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Mark D. White Yesterday's Blondie strip was enlightening, albeit (likely) unintentionally so: I imagine Dagwood's response to the incentives provided by having to deal with some of the expenses of one's own health insurance is supposed to elicit disgruntled agreement among readers. But it really highlights an unintended consequence of the alternative: if individuals…
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Mark D. White In today's Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens has a piece arguing why the GOP should let "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) lapse in the 2011 Defense Bill, and in it he happens to cover the three mainstream approaches to ethics: consequentialism (DADT forces the expulsion or rejection of qualified, eager men and…
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Mark D. White Since the nomination of Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently making headlines (though not as much as if she were a disgruntled flight attendent), I thought it was a good time to share a recent paper of mine, "We've Been Nudged: The Effects of the…
Mark D. White 