Media Mentions

An article by Samuel Moyn. Imagine that one man owned everything. Call him Croesus, after the king of ancient lore who, Herodotus says, was so "wonderfully rich" that he "thought himself the happiest of mortals." Impossibly elevated above his fellow men and women, this modern Croesus is also magnanimous. He does not want people to starve, and not only because he needs some of them for the upkeep of his global estate. Croesus insists on a floor of protection, so that everyone living under his benevolent but total ascendancy can escape destitution. Health, food, water, even paid vacations, Croesus funds them all. In comparison with the world in which we live today, where few enjoy these benefits, Croesus offers a kind of utopia. It is the one foreseen in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), a utopia that, though little known in its own time, has become our own, with the rise in the past half-century of the international human rights movement — especially now that this movement has belatedly turned its attention to the economic and social rights that the declaration promised.

An op-ed by Mark Roe. Headlines about banks’ risks to the financial system continue to dominate the financial news. Bank of America performed poorly on the US Federal Reserve’s financial stress tests, and regulators criticised Goldman Sachs’ and JPMorgan Chase’s financing plans, leading both to lower their planned dividends and share buybacks. What was also of interest was Citibank’s hefty build up of its financial trading business that raises doubts about whether it is controlling risk properly. These results suggest that some of the biggest banks remain at risk. And yet bankers are insisting that the post-crisis task of strengthening regulation and building a safer financial system has nearly been completed, with some citing recent studies of bank safety to support this argument. So which is it: are banks still at risk? Or has post-crisis regulatory reform done its job?

An op-ed by Mark Roe. China has begun to stretch its economic and military muscles in recent years. In the South China Sea, it has built a series of quasi-military bases on the tiny Spratly Islands and deployed warships to defend them. Meanwhile, it is sponsoring the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) – an international institution that threatens to rival the World Bank in Asia – and has persuaded countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, and France to join, over the vocal objections of the United States. It is easy to conflate China’s saber-rattling with its economic and diplomatic initiatives such as the AIIB, as some US officials seem to have done. But, while China’s rise does merit some caution, it does not make sense to resist the country at every turn; sometimes, it is wiser to leave well enough alone.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. In case you haven’t heard, the world’s first Global Family Reunion will be June 6 in New York City. The invitation list runs to 7 billion people: Earth's entire population. So far, 77 million of them have a proven connection to the world’s biggest family tree, created by A. J. Jacobs, the reunion’s mastermind, who is fascinated that many millions of people can find familial connections to many millions of other people, past and present. You’re a cousin, so you're welcome to attend. As it happens, Jacobs is a pretty close cousin of mine. He’s my father’s sister’s grandson. Because of this and because he knows his own family tree, he can show my connection to lots of people. Frank Sinatra, it turns out, is a very distant cousin (by marriage -- many marriages, actually). Abraham Lincoln is a distant cousin, too. And, of course, Lady Gaga. It turns out that radio host Glenn Beck -- who has called me “the most dangerous man in America” and also “the most evil” -- is a cousin as well. Welcome to the family, Glenn!

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. It’s official: The Boy Scouts of America, headed by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, thinks the U.S. Supreme Court is about to create a right to gay marriage. There’s no other logical explanation for why they chose Thursday to announce that they plan to stop banning gay scoutmasters. For the Boy Scouts, this decision isn’t about getting ahead of the curve. It’s about coming out from behind the curve at the last minute. For 15 years, the Boy Scouts have been synonymous with anti-gay discrimination, ever since the Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. That landmark case established the principle that there’s a constitutional right of free association that allows private groups to discriminate in membership -- provided the discrimination is intentional and at the core of their expressive mission.

He’s going to Disney World. A Queens man who was wrongfully convicted of stabbing a friend to death and spent 15 years in prison before being exonerated signed off on a $2.75 million settlement Wednesday, and said he would use the money to help make it up to his family. Kareem Bellamy, 47, has maintained his innocence since James Abbott Jr. was killed in 1994. Bellamy was released on bail in 2011 ­after his legal team learned that a gang member had confessed to the crime. [Pictured: Jonathan Hiles `15.]

Law firm marketers and business development leaders congregated this week at the University Club of New York to discuss how to land new business by mapping out and executing firm strategy, maintaining a digital media presence and working collaboratively with practicing lawyers...Heidi Gardner, Distinguished Fellow and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School: “The word I hate is ‘cross-selling.’ Clients hate to be cross-sold. If I’m a tax partner and I talk to a client and say, ‘Hey, can I bring my real estate partner along?’ Clients tell me that they think it’s demeaning and condescending. They say, ‘What, do you think I’m stupid and don’t have someone looking over my real estate contracts for me?’ Cross selling is the equivalent of, ‘Do you want fries with that?’ Loyalty is another word I don’t like…. Clients say, ‘Like it or not, I’m kind of stuck with my firm that gives me this cross-disciplinary services, because no other firm is going to match that.’ It’s grudging loyalty.

Did you know that there actually is a correlation between the incidents of shark attacks and tornados? It’s a decently strong one (77.4 percent), if you graph the numbers over the years 2002-2010. It’s also, like most of the correlations plotted by Harvard Law student Tyler Vigen [`16], more or less total coincidence, just like the correlation between “US supply of shrimp” and “People killed by sharp glass,” (90.4 percent) or “Physical retail sales of video games” and “UFO sightings in Massachusetts” (91.6 percent). Although it is often funny, Vigen adds that “this book has a serious side. Graphs can lie, and not all correlations are indicative of an underlying causal connection.” We may love to contemplate the data that seem to connect sharks and tornados (who wouldn’t?), but Vigen’s reminder is important when we’re faced with spurious correlations in the wild, played not for laughs but to mislead.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. Asia has gone nuts for nukes this week. On the heels of a Pentagon report that China is loading multiple warheads onto its intercontinental missiles, North Korea announced Wednesday that it has developed warheads of its own, making the transition from a nuclear-capable power to a nuclear-loaded one. The North Koreans may be lying or exaggerating, of course. But even so, the announcement augurs a new stage in the complex relationship between China and North Korea.

Companies fear that if its users, like the French teacher, win cases against them, it could require them to tailor-make their sites for each specific country’s laws — an expensive task even in the E.U., which has 28 member states. That makes the issue of jurisdiction key to many cases. “This question that is on everyone’s minds right now, not only for Facebook but also Google and Twitter, because all these entities have international scope and reach,” says Adam Holland, project coordinator for the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. “We don’t want to let local laws dictate global policy, because where will that end?”...Companies fear that if its users, like the French teacher, win cases against them, it could require them to tailor-make their sites for each specific country’s laws — an expensive task even in the E.U., which has 28 member states. That makes the issue of jurisdiction key to many cases. “This question that is on everyone’s minds right now, not only for Facebook but also Google and Twitter, because all these entities have international scope and reach,” says Adam Holland, project coordinator for the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. “We don’t want to let local laws dictate global policy, because where will that end?”

Elizabeth Warren is trying to kill President Barack Obama’s trade agenda by raising the specter that foreign companies could use an investor-friendly arbitration system to circumvent the U.S. court system...In the 2000 case, Loewen Group filed its dispute against the U.S. government after suffering an expensive legal setback in a business lawsuit in Mississippi. Loewen brought in some big legal guns, including Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, an Obama mentor who is now siding with Warren against the president’s trade deal...Meanwhile, Tribe submitted testimony on Loewen’s behalf calling the Mississippi court decisions a travesty and arguing that an ISDS tribunal should decide the claim because no other avenues were available. Tribe’s participation is notable because of a letter he cosigned last month to House and Senate leaders expressing “grave concern about a document we have not been able to see,” referring to the possibility that the Asia-Pacific trade deal still under negotiation could include ISDS provisions.

(Muslims and Christians do not hate each other , the majority want peace.) An interview with Annette Gordon-Reed.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. “Mad Men” may be over, but no one told Xi Jinping. China’s decision to put multiple warheads into its intercontinental ballistic missiles, an approach traditionally associated with a first-strike threat, is projecting China’s stance back into a Cold War mindset. The development is symbolically significant, because China has had multiple warhead technology, known as MIRV, for years, but has never before chosen to deploy it. The decision puts the U.S. on notice that China won’t react passively to increasing containment efforts in the Pacific. And it also tells a domestic audience that President Xi’s vision of the “Chinese dream” isn't simply economic but also deeply nationalistic and even militaristic.

...During his speech against the Patriot Act, [Rand] Paul leaned heavily on the information that Snowden brought to light. That’s because Snowden has transformed the debate in this country—and in the world—over surveillance. Given that fact, it’s more than a little strange that the most famous whistleblower in recent U.S. history shouldn’t be here to speak up as we consider the results of his handiwork. Which is why it is time to bring Edward Snowden home to America and let him make the case for his freedom in front of a jury of his peers...The courts can settle this matter, but only if they are allowed to consider the legality of the secrets Snowden disclosed. USC-Berkeley Journalism Dean Edward Wasserman and Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler believe there should be a public interest defense to protect whistleblowers in cases like Snowden’s.

Doug Hughes, the Florida postal worker who landed a gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol grounds last month and set off alarms about airspace security, made a lower-key return to the nation's capital Wednesday. He arrived by car, wearing a GPS-enabled ankle bracelet that transmits his every move to federal authorities. He's no less passionate, however, about the cause that could cost him his job and freedom — overhauling the nation's campaign-finance system and ending what he sees as the rampant corruption on Capitol Hill...Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor and a leading voice on campaign reform, emailed Hughes after his arrest and "thanked him for his service," Lessig told USA Today. Sometimes, Lessig said, "you need outrageous behavior to draw attention to the outrageousness of the existing system."

Americans have missed out on investment gains, discouraged by an uneven playing field created by Wall Street. U.S. stocks have more than tripled since bottoming out in March 2009 during the Great Recession, rising in value by a staggering $12.8 trillion. But the average American household has been left behind. Most of the gains went to the wealthy and institutional investors including investment banks and hedge funds. Fewer than half of U.S. households own stocks either directly or indirectly, down from a peak of more than 53% in 2007...A paper by Harvard Law School professor Lucian Bebchuk found that CEOs who earn more than the average “pay slice” of 35% of a firm’s total compensation for its top five executives significantly underperform their peers. That is because such companies make poor acquisition decisions, reward their CEOs for “luck” when industry conditions improve, fail to hold CEOs accountable for poor performance, and grant options that are timed “opportunistically,” Bebchuk found.

Airing on Monday, May 18, 2015: First up on today's show, Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, joins to to talk about giving people the choice to opt out of being recorded in public on livestreaming apps like Meerkat and Periscope.

An op-ed by I. Glenn Cohen and Eli Y. Adashi. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration released highly anticipated draft recommendations that would allow gay men to donate blood after one year of celibacy. While an improvement from the current, highly criticized lifetime ban, the new policy, which was announced in December, still caters to fear and stigma rather than science. It should be reconsidered.

An op-ed by Christopher Crawford `16. In 2010 Shubham Khandelwal in Chennai was trying to get himself and his father a new set of ID cards from the local government agency. Standing between him and his identification, however, was a corrupt official demanding a bribe of 2,000 rupees (£20). Shubham refused for three days but finally gave in. This type of everyday corruption is common across India: from a man and wife reporting that they were forced to bribe officials 3,000 rupees to get their marriage finalised last month in Bangalore, to a student in Chennai this month being asked to pay 75,000 rupees to be admitted into an engineering college. All of these people found an outlet for their frustration by telling their stories on I Paid a Bribe, and they are not alone: tens of thousands of Indian citizens have used this crowdsourcing platform. Their stories add a touch of humanity to what economists and development professionals have known for decades: corruption, even on a small scale, is a major drag on economic and societal growth.

Hand your passport to police or it will be canceled, read the notice to all 4.4 million residents of far-northwestern China's Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. The demand would now seem outrageous to most Chinese, who more than a decade since passport restrictions were eased have become increasingly accustomed to traveling abroad for tourism, study or work. Yet the story is vastly different for groups targeted by the ruling Communist Party, which has long denied passports to dissidents who might embarrass the party overseas...While passport denials can theoretically be appealed, it's unclear whether any have ever been successful, although some have managed to receive passports when reapplying later for reasons that remain a mystery.Human rights lawyer Teng Biao had his passport confiscated at the airport in 2008 when he was trying to go to an overseas conference. Four years later, he reapplied, saying his passport had been lost. A new one was promptly issued. "They said nothing when giving me the new one," said Teng, now a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School.

An op-ed by Noah Feldman. The fall of the Iraq city of Ramadi to Islamic State is significant -- but not because of the strategic importance of the capital of the Anbar province. Rather, the failure of Iraq's official security forces emphasizes a fundamental quandary facing the anti-Islamic State coalition. If Islamic State is to be defeated, there must be effective ground troops. Right now, the only effective ground troops outside of Iraqi Kurdistan seem to be Shiite militias with close ties to Iran.