Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Terrible Fact

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

More U.S. soldiers and veterans have died from suicide than from combat wounds over the past two years. (Source)

Posted in National Security | 3 Comments

Jotwell Could Use Your Help

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

The ABA Journal has just sent out requests for nominations of law-related blogs that it should consider for its Blawg 100 list. Although Jotwell (aka The Journal of Things We Like Lots) is not exactly a blog — it’s at least as much an online law journal — I’d love to have it included in the ABA list because I’d very much want to get the word out about Jotwell to the legal profession. We have a gratifyingly broad readership among law professors, but have not made great inroads among practicing lawyers.

Unfortunately for me, the rules of game are that you can’t nominate a blog you write yourself — so I think even though I edit Jotwell rather than write it, that lets me out. But perhaps there is someone reading here who also reads Jotwell and could take the time to write up to 500 great characters and submit them via Blawg 100 Amici form? (Please feel free to post a copy here too, if you wish.) Nominations are due by Sept. 9:

Use the Blawg 100 Amici form to tell us about a blawg——not your own——that you read regularly that you think other lawyers should know about. If there is more than one blawg you want to support, please send us additional amici through the form. We may include some of the best comments in our Blawg 100 coverage. But keep your remarks pithy——you have a 500-character limit.

Editors make the final decisions about what’s included in the Blawg 100; this isn’t a scenario in which the blawgs that receive the most amici are the ones that make the list. A blawg with no amici support at all can still make our list. See the amici form page for additional information about amici and Blawg 100 criteria.

Friend-of-the-blawg briefs are due no later than Friday, Sept. 9.

Thank you.

Posted in Jotwell | Comments Off on Jotwell Could Use Your Help

Anarchy in the UK

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

As it happens, I’m in the UK only a few miles from where this was posted on the door of a Manchester Subway:


(For an ironic corrective, see this compendium.)

The more pervasive rioting has been in London, including a major tear-up of the main street in Hackney, Mare Street, which was about a mile from Homerton, which where I lived when I first moved to London.

The Internet suggests there are signs of returning normalcy. Commentators on the #Manchester hashtag, for example, say much of the damage, including broken glass, has already been replaced.

Posted in UK | Comments Off on Anarchy in the UK

Not Machiavellian Enough

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Part of President Obama’s problem is that his opponents do not fear him, and he too often seems to want to be loved. Have we read a single story of President Obama wreaking vengeance on a political enemy? Or even threatening it?
Continue reading →

Posted in Politics: US | 6 Comments

Thought for the Day – August 6, 2011

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

US average income was $54,283 in 2009. Of the 235,413 US taxpayers who reported earning $1 million or more in 2009, 1470 paid no federal income tax (way up from 959 in 2009). Not only was average income down $1,106 from 2007, but so too was the number of people reporting any income at all — down 4.2 million filers (single or married households).

Of course, the economy is so much better now than it was in 2009, so we don’t have to worry.

Posted in Econ & Money | 2 Comments

The Rest of the World is Enjoying the US Downgrade

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Whatever the merits of the downgrade, I think there’s some schadenfreude out there, more than may be visible to people in the US. I happen to be abroad this week, and I was struck by how differently web pages are playing the story in and out of the US. Here’s a particularly striking example from the front page of the (US-owned!) Huffington Post’s regional editions:

Canadian Version:

UK Version:

Compare these to the patriotic, we-knew-it-was-coming US version:

FWIW, on the economic fundamentals, I don’t see much justification for the downgrade given the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

Standard & Poors is in any case in a funny position, given its lousy track record, the various politically-motivated threats they have been issuing all week, the company’s strategic need to discourage the US from regulating it in light of the ratings’ agencies failures to foresee in the mortgage-back security crisis, and the possibility of something even more nefarious, and the large number of other countries with AAA ratings. On the other hand, if we were grading countries for the intelligence of their political class.

Posted in Econ & Money, Politics: International | Comments Off on The Rest of the World is Enjoying the US Downgrade