Summer 2008
NEW YORK SUN: Termites in the Trade System
July 2, 2008
BYLINE: Jagdish Bhagwati
“Two different questions must be distinguished in the current political debate on free trade for America: Should we have free trade? If we agree that we should, how should we trade freely? Often, the press announces that the consensus on the desirability of free trade among economists has disappeared. But in each instance, they have been disproven. Today, the most potent argument is that free trade may increase income and wealth, but that it suppresses workers' wages ands even harms the middle class. Nearly all research shows that this claim also is mistaken.”
NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL: Enact the ADAAA
June 30, 2008
BYLINE: Vivian Berger
“On June 25, almost 18 years after enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3195, the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), by a 402-17 vote. According to its drafters, the U.S. Supreme Court had flouted congressional expectations that the ADA would ‘ “provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities,” ’ and establish a broad shield for its intended beneficiaries. The ADAAA, designed to reverse judicial inroads on the ADA, now awaits Senate action — and, one hopes, prompt approval by President Bush. Indeed, it is high time that Congress give back what the justices have taken away. In fairness, the court has not wholly ignored the ADA's expansive remedial intent; it has, for example, applied the act to state prisoners and people seeking access to courts. But as a result of grudging construction, the ADA's workplace provisions (Title I) fall far short of furnishing the protective umbrella envisioned by the act's architects. … Vivian Berger is professor emerita at Columbia Law School.”
LOS ANGELES TIMES: How gun makers can help us
June 29, 2008
BYLINE: Jeffrey Fagan and Stephen Sugarman
“This year, about 12,000 Americans will be shot to death. It's a staggering figure, and even though lawmakers have continued to pass gun-control laws to try to bring the number down, they have not significantly reduced the murder rate. Indeed, for the last decade, guns have steadily remained the cause of about two-thirds of all homicides. … We propose a new way to prod gun makers to reduce gun deaths, one that would be unlikely to put them out of business or to prevent law-abiding citizens from obtaining guns. By using a strategy known as ‘performance-based regulation,’ we would deputize private actors -- the gun makers -- to deal with the negative effects of their products in ways that promote the public good. … Jeffrey Fagan is a professor of law and public health at Columbia University.”
FINANCIAL TIMES: Regulators need to shed light on derivatives
June 29, 2008
BYLINE: John Coffee
“Worldwide, if securities regulators believe in one thing, it is the value of transparency. Sunlight, they know, is the best disinfectant. But sometimes in confusion they pull down the blinds. This has just happened in the US and, as a result, transparency in the market for corporate control is in danger. Unlike other regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission has chosen – at least provisionally – to disregard equity derivatives and thus allow acquirers to use them to outflank the early warning disclosures that the US (and most other big countries) impose on the assembly of a potentially controlling block of stock. … The writer is the Adolf A. Berle professor of law at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance”
FINANCIAL TIMES: How the food crisis could solve the Doha round
June 23, 2008
BYLINE: Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya
“With the Doha trade round in danger of slipping from our grasp, the temptation is to grab hold of any opportunities for optimism. It has therefore become commonplace to assert that the food crisis, while a tragedy, is a shot in the arm for Doha. But of the three arguments that can be offered in support of such a pleasing proposition, only one passes muster; and even in this case, the argument is not a slam-dunk. … Jagdish Bhagwati, university professor, Columbia University, and senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, has just published Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade (Oxford).”
NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL: SEC Diplomacy (subscription required)
June 16, 2008
BYLINE: John C. Coffee Jr.
“Few federal agencies conduct their own foreign policy, but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as usual, is a case apart. Earlier this year, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services Charlie McGreevy agreed on the outlines of a common policy, known as ‘mutual recognition,’ under which the SEC will grant foreign exchanges and broker-dealers liberalized access to the U.S. market without requiring them to register with the SEC. In effect, the SEC will rely on the foreign regulator's standards and oversight capability, but only if the foreign regulator qualifies in the SEC's judgment as a ‘high-quality regulatory regime.’ To implement this new policy, the SEC plans to negotiate a ‘memorandum of understanding’ on a country-by-country basis with those countries that it deems to possess adequate regulatory systems. Negotiations are already well under way with Australia, whose memorandum the SEC hopes will serve as a template for future negotiations. … John C. Coffee Jr. is the Adolf A. Berle Professor at Columbia University Law School and director of its Center on Corporate Governance.”
SLATE: iSurrender
June 10, 2008
BYLINE: Tim Wu
“If my iPhone were a motorcycle, she'd be a chopper. I'm the owner of an unlocked, jail-broken iPhone 1.3 that runs on the T-Mobile network, fortified with third-party apps (like Tap Tap Revolution), adorned with Death Star wall paper, and running a natty customized interface named "Manhattan." Sure, not everything works perfectly (recently, the clock went off by an hour or so, for no apparent reason). But that's part of the fun of iPhone-modding, a vibrant scene that resembles the Apple II culture of the 1980s. Unfortunately, for me at least, it may all be coming to an end. After Monday's iPhone 2.0 debut, it's just a matter of time before I trade in my chopper phone for Apple's new 3G phone—and swallow that AT&T contract. … Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School and co-author of Who Controls the Internet?”
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