Law and Economics

In addition to this being my first year of law school it's also been the year of economic insanity, which is pretty clear. No conclusions yet, of course, about what it all means, both for us future lawyers and for us human beings, but it's certainly intriguing (or nervewracking, I suppose).

My father always wanted me to study economics in college ("Just one course!") and while I haven't gone though life wishing I had taken it, it has been a little bit shocking to realize recently this year how little I actually do know. Forget TARP or mortgage-backed securities; I doubt I could even handle a balance sheet or a stock portfolio.

So in classic auto-didact fashion I've been relying on Paul Krugman and Planet Money all year to teach me what I don't know. Now I have a pretty good idea what a toxic asset is (and why they're bad), what the hell securitization means, and why nationalization is the best thing ever (I'm sorry, is my socialism coming out again?).

It's a little bit sad that economics isn't required to graduate from secondary school - maybe it should be, to fit in with the U.S. and European history that most of us take as teenagers. At the very least we might have better credit scores, no?

Past Participle

A year ago today, I found out I had gotten into U of M Law.

Very weird.

Mess Mess

Currently on the dining table/chairs:

Two bags

A book of poetry

Two novels

A coat

Four books on the FDA

A scarf

A hat

Eight issues of the New Yorker

A cake stand (the only thing that should be on there)

A laptop case

Two Supreme Court cases on copyright law

A book on commodities

Three hornbooks

Most of a novel, in manuscript

What's Left?

I have a reputation.

To be fair it's partially my fault. Between advocating for increased regulation in Property and coming up with statements like "John Roberts is being willfully naive" and "Clarence Thomas assumes his experience is equally applicable to all African-Americans" in Constitutional Law (not to mention complaining that justices who ignore laws with racially discriminatory impacts are closing their eyes to the problem), I didn't really stay anonymous. But I've become paranoid that my classmates think I'm strident, inflexible, or unwilling to hear opposing opinions. I hope the first two aren't the case; I'm certain the last isn't. 

I think that part of the reason I tend to express my politics strongly is that the study of law has made me deeply cynical, perhaps even despairing, about the problems of inequality in American culture and how the law has been used to perpetuate such inequalities. This is hardly a new theory, but it's not reassuring to realize, nor does it fill me with good feeling regarding what I'm studying.

Is it bad, then, that my "reputation" is apparently somewhere along the lines of "Won't let a conservative viewpoint go unchallenged"? I think my conclusion, for the moment, is that I'm willing to wait and let my classmates find out exactly what I think and why by discussing things in a more informal and intimate setting than the classroom; if those who don't still think I'm some intractable socialist, that sounds ok to me.

On a sadder note, I took one of my earrings out. Although it's better in the cold weather because my earrings don't burn as much.

Who's Watching?

Our course requests have been tabulated and I've got Cyberlaw with Susan Crawford next semester, in addition to my required courses (Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, and Legal Practice). Crawford was recently named one of the heads of Obama's FCC transition team.

I'm excited about Cyberlaw especially since I'm interested in pursuing it as a career, and I'm hoping to find a job related to it for next summer. But unfortunately I'm not as up on the subject as I should be; luckily, a friend at Penguin recently sent me Larry Lessig's new book Remix, which is serving as a bit of a crash course but is also pointing me to a bunch of other reading (Yochai Benkler, Jamie Boyle, etc.). It's serving as a nice distraction from outlining/exam prep, certainly.

There's a good article about Google, freedom of speech, and censorship in tomorrow's NYTimes Magazine, as well.