TOM BLUMER: Economic Rebound? What Economic Rebound?

Related item here. John Galt was unavailable for comment.

“LOOK! IT’S THE ANGEL OF DEATH. Let’s go get him!”

AFTER-CHRISTMAS MARKDOWNS on power tools.

PAUL CASSELL ON THOSE DISMISSED BLACKWATER CHARGES: “In my view, the charges should never have been filed. The prosecutors made novel use of federal criminal statutes, including charging the contractors with heavy mandatory minimum sentences for use of firearms (i.e., machineguns) in the commission of a crime of violence. The dismissal is long overdue.” I suspect the decision to prosecute had political overtones.

KILLING THE D.C. SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAM: Because protecting bureaucrats’ rice bowls is more important than, you know, actually educating.

UPDATE: “Democrats Resegregate DC School System.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails:

I keep thinking -hard- about what an amazing example the DC Voucher program could be… if it was really adopted as a cause celebre on the right. Not just as a punchline, but as a going concern.

There just aren’t that many recipients, and there’s a mighty strong overlap in DC between “underprivileged” and “permanent Democrat voters.” And these identical voters are personally steamed. They can recognize being completely jobbed. If there’s one spot to push to shatter this particular unholy alliance, it is precisely this spot.

Think of it as a reverse-ACORN. Scholarships are strictly need based – not race based. An endowment focused on K-12 instead of higher education.

I’m not quite sure the Glenn Reynolds DC Scholarship Fund has quite enough panache ;)

But just think of the same idea with different marquee players:
The Ronald Reagan Scholarship Fund.
The Rush Limbaugh Scholarship Fund.
The Sarah Palin Scholarship fund.

Please leave off my last name if you find any of this postworthy.

What do you think? Reach out to these folks and raise some money? (More here). Though that bit about lacking panache kinda hurts . . . .

UPDATE: Arnold Kling likes the idea. “The conflict between voluntary charity and progressive tax-funded spending is a very interesting potential battleground. Progressives want to shift away from charitable giving and toward taxes, while libertarians (or civil societarians) ought to be aiming for the reverse.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Heather Benes writes: “I suggest a Thomas Sowell/Walter E. Williams scholarship fund for those D.C. kids.”

MORE: Reader Catherine Elkins writes:

I love this idea and wish it had been an option when doing my last minute year-end contributions last night! If you and/or others who may write you can get anything like this set up, I look forward to seeing links here to contribute. My guess is, the sooner it can be done, the better, so that some of these families can plan for the next school year with an idea of funds/funding available.

I’d offer to help but I don’t know the first thing about setting up scholarship funds. I’ll contribute, though!

Anybody know anything about setting up scholarship funds?

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: AALS Panels: “informative and engaging”?

I don’t attend the AALS very much. It’s too crowded, it’s at a bad time of the year, and frankly it just feels like a waste of my time when I go most of the time. I prefer the Southeastern Association of Law Schools conference, which is in the summer, is smaller — so that you can hang out in the bar in the evenings and talk to people — and more fun. I should probably give AALS another chance, as I haven’t been in several years, but it won’t be this year.

BACKDOWN? TSA drops subpoenas issued to bloggers who published security directive.

Well, it was getting a lot of bad publicity. And, as I’ve suggested before, bullying bloggers is a bad bet. But, from the comments at BoingBoing, “As a forensic computer examiner, I’m now wondering what they did with the forensic images that they made of these guy’s computers.”

Meanwhile, all bloggers should get one of these! That said, I’m a bit torn. I don’t believe in “shield laws” that would let journalists avoid subpoenas or testimony because of their profession; if such should exist, they should include bloggers but I’d rather they didn’t. This, however, looked more like bullying than a legitimate inquiry. It will backfire, of course, as bloggers will no doubt pay more attention to the TSA’s doings as a result. Maybe that’s punishment enough . . . .

UPDATE: From the comments at BoingBoing:

Speaking as an attorney, I would advise you not to let this go. Make an ethics complaint against the government attorney that signed the subpoena in DC or the jurisdiction they are licensed to practice law in. You don’t subpoena someone, then just “let it drop.”

They will be forced to: (1) admit there was no basis for the subpoena, in the first place, (2) make a dubious “national security” claim as to why they can’t discuss, which will dog them for their entire career, or (3) admit that they made a forensic scan of a citizen’s computer and used the evidence to pursue a whistleblower, after having used a subpoena to strongarm a citizen (again, something that will arise again ten years later during his Senate confirmation hearing for another position).

Long story short, government drones who use their subpoena power to bully citizens blowing the whistle on government incompetence deserve to be held to account. Do not back down, an ethics complaint is very low cost, and very high reward.

In general, ethics complaints are a good response to legal bullying. Much of what lawyers do in their bully capacity is questionable under the ethics rules — one of my colleagues who teaches legal ethics was commenting to me a while back that he was surprised how seldom people file complaints on unethical behavior in IP cases — and though bar ethics committees are often less than diligent, dealing with this stuff is a hassle.

MAN OF THE YEAR: Sarah Palin?

A COMING HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE?

Even before the financial crisis intensified the upward pressure on college costs, the price of a degree was soaring. Since 1980, the average cost of tuition and room and board has grown by a staggering 121 percent while median household income has risen a mere 18 percent, according to federal data. But the credit boom earlier this decade provided some relief for families.

Wall Street financiers packaged student loans into securities and sold them off to investors, who could trade them just like stocks. That, in turn, provided more money for lending, helping to make student loans cheaper and more available. Even people with poor credit histories could easily get a loan.

But during the last academic year, private student loan volume fell by half as financial firms became wary of lending to students, who generally do not have long credit histories. Officials from Sallie Mae, the industry leader in student lending, said they expect another significant decline this year.

Nor have families been able to keep borrowing against the value of their homes, which seemed for years to appreciate with no end in sight. Second mortgages have been shrinking along with real estate values. Money made available by banks to homeowners through home-equity lines of credit has fallen by 25 percent, to $538 billion, since the end of 2007, according to federal data.

About a decade ago, financial planners began to tout the benefits of 529 plans, which invest families’ savings in the stock and bond markets with the aim of keeping pace with the growth in college expenses. Even before the crisis, these plans couldn’t keep up. Then, in 2008, the average 529 plan lost 20 percent of its value.

So you’ve got an industry with skyrocketing prices, fueled by easy credit taken out by those who didn’t fully realize how much it was costing them. Now the credit’s harder to get, and people are much more aware of the downside of debt anyway. What’s next?

WORRIES ABOUT INFLATION.

“We have the most potentially inflationary policy I have ever observed in a developed country,” said Alan Meltzer, a Fed historian and professor of political economy at the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh.

According to widely used economic models, the way consumers perceive the prospect of future inflation has clear implications for prices themselves. Once higher costs are taken for granted, they are more easily tolerated.

Several indicators are already hinting at that possibility.

I’m investing in polyester leisure suits. It’s the one thing from the 1970s that hasn’t started its comeback yet . . . .

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Transparency: Man reviewing intel center also created and ran it. “Why not just hire TAC to review itself? That would follow the ACORN example, at least. Having the man who ran and designed the system as the leader of an investigation by definition makes it anything but ‘independent’.”

DONE WITH MY GRADING; I did not employ this approach. But it looks more tempting every year . . . .

WELL, THE ELECTION’S OVER NOW: All Charges Dismissed in Blackwater Shooting Case.

NORTH SLOPE JOBS for Virginia?

SOME YEAR-END ADVICE at the Berman Post.

TARGETING BLOGGERS, NOT BIG MEDIA: “The most troubling part of this TSA going after bloggers deal is that it wouldn’t be happening had it been the New York Times that broke the story.” Imagine gang warfare — you don’t take on a gang that can fight back. On the other hand, taking on bloggers has been a bad bet in the past, and so far it’s generating bad publicity for the TSA. More on that here.

TIPS TO add years to your life. With Sanjay Gupta and Aubrey de Grey.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: A New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Accept U.S. Decline.

THINGS THAT DON’T SUCK: So I’ve got this Black & Decker jump-starter/compressor/power source and I’ve found it very handy for topping off tires. (The RX-8’s combination of low-profile tires and finicky tire-pressure sensors means that I get an alarm whenever the temp drops significantly). I haven’t used it to jump-start anything, but it looks like it ought to work well. On the other hand, this gadget from Duracell has less jump-start power (300 amps instead of 450) but puts out 110v AC, too.

Related: Power Preparedness.

UPDATE: Reader Brian King offers what he calls a “semi-review” of the Duracell 300:

I bought one of these recently – was looking for a compressor, but this one had the extras for not much more money.

So far, I’ve only used the compressor (which did the job … two tires from about 25psi to 35psi in just over 5 minutes each … the pressure gauge is pretty reliable even while pumping, which is nice) and the inverter (to charge a blackberry – I know, what a waste to take DC and convert it to AC only to have the charger turn it back into DC again, but it did the job, too).

When they add a few USB ports, I’ll buy another one!

Not a bad idea.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Bruce Webster writes:

I actually have two of the larger model (B&D Electromate 400):

This model has two 120 volt AC outlets, beside two 12 volt DC (car-style) outlets. I’ve been using them to power the Christmas lights on a live 8′ pine tree at the entrance to our driveway (about 160 yards from our house; it was that or 1/10th of a mile of extension cords). One unit will keep the Christmas lights going 6 to 7 hours; recharge time appears to be roughly 12 hours, but it may be less than that (I’ve been recharging them in the garage, so I don’t really see when they’re done).

Kinda wish I’d bought that one. Or maybe this one, with a USB charger port.

READER MARK PARR SUGGESTS THAT I NEED ONE OF THESE for my next scuba trip. But not the red ones — that’s sure to be fatal. . . .

ANNIE JACOBSEN: Armed TSA Agents Threaten Travel Journalist.

HOT ENGLISH DORKS LOOKING TO PLAY WITH OTHER HOT ENGLISH DORKS: At the MLA this year, hooking up with each other instead of employers?

WORST TWEET OF THE YEAR?

THE ROOT CAUSE of terrorism.

MICHAEL YON: “Only during such times are strong men and women of greatest importance. At all other times we have Hollywood.” Beautiful photos. Remember that Michael’s work is supported by reader donations, so if you like it, you might hit the tipjar.