Monthly Archives: December 2007

Mario Barnes Wins Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award

Posted on December 28, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I've just learned that UM Law prof and all-around great guy Mario Barnes has won the 2008 AALS Minority Groups Section Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award.

The Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award is named in honor of Derrick A. Bell, Jr. of New York University Law School. The award honors a junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice.

I don't know exactly what “colleagueship” is, but whatever it is I can't think of a better person to give this prize to.

There will be a ceremony at lunch on Jan 5 at the AALS to present Mario with the award.

This, wouldn't you know it, conflicts with a different lunch ceremony in which another member of the Miami Law faculty will be receiving a richly-deserved award: William Twining, who visits here for part of the Spring semester every year, is due to receive the AALS Evidence section's John Henry Wigmore Award for Lifetime Achievement in Elucidating the Law of Evidence and the Process of Proof.

Posted in Talks & Conferences, U.Miami | Comments Off on Mario Barnes Wins Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award

100% Leverage?

Posted on December 28, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Does this mean what I think it does?

Credit Crisis? Just Wait for a Replay: One of the more remarkable facts about the subprime crisis is that total losses to the financial system may be about equal to the amount of subprime loans that were issued. On the face of it, that appears absurd, since many such loans will be paid off, and those that default will not be total losses. But, Mr. Seides said in an interview, “the financial leverage placed on the underlying assets was so high” that the losses multiplied, as the profits did when times were good.

“When there is more leverage” and things go wrong, he said, “there are more losses.”

They resold layered participations in the same underlying loan so many times that it ends up with leverage over 100%? Given that substantial profits are taken out along the way, how does that work even if everyone pays off like they are supposed to?

Update: Krugman is puzzled too.

Posted in Econ & Money: Mortgage Mess | 2 Comments

Bad Debts

Posted on December 28, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Orin Kerr says he's going to the AALS January Meeting in New York.

That's good. As it happens, I'm going too and I seem to recall that I owe Orin a beer.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 5 Comments

techPresident’s Favorite Videos of 2007: The Candidates

Posted on December 27, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Here's another good top-10 list: techPresident's Favorite Videos of 2007: The Candidates.

I agree with seven of these as top-quality, although the actual rankings seem a bit random. I wouldn't have made #1 the top choice or necessarily included it at all. Not that it's a bad video, but is it really top-10 material, much less #1? And what's with #9? (And #8 is a good clip, but it's not a campaign video at all.)

As for my top choice, I might have put Bill Richardson's ad as #1—certainly in the top 3. It's much better than the candidate, who looks worse the more you see of him.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | Comments Off on techPresident’s Favorite Videos of 2007: The Candidates

If You Use Gmail, Check Your Settings

Posted on December 26, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

If you use Gmail, it might be worth a moment to check your settings to make sure that there are no malicious “forward” instructions there.

Although Google has now apparently patched the bug, it seems that for a time this vulnerability made it possible for hackers to insert instructions to forward some of your mail to them if you had the misfortune to visit a web page that had the right malicious code while you had gmail open in another tab or window..

Here's an account of someone who says his business was sabotaged as a result.

Odds are high that you're fine. But to confirm it, here's what you do in after logging in to Gmail:

… click on the ’settings’ tab in the upper right of the screen. Then check both the ‘Filters’ and the ‘Forwarding and POP’ sections.

Examine what's listed there to make sure there's no forwarding instruction you didn't put there yourself.

Posted in Internet | 1 Comment

Glenn Greenwald’s Favorite Quotes of 2007

Posted on December 26, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I'm not much into compiling 'top 10' lists and 'best of' lists, but I enjoy reading the good ones. This one, from Glenn Greenwald, is one of the good ones: Favorite quotes of 2007.

Posted in The Media | 1 Comment