Monthly Archives: September 2012

The Rapidly Growing Wealth Gap

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

The wealthiest Americans now have 288 times the net worth of a typical family. Not only that, but the wealth gap between the richest Americans and the typical family more than doubled over the past 50 years.

Here it is in one nice chart, from the Economic Policy Institute via Occupy America | Crooks & Liars:

If you prefer it in words,

The median household saw its net worth drop to $57,000 in 2010, down from $73,000 in 1983. It would have been $119,000 had wealth grown equally across households.

The top 1%, on the other hand, saw their average wealth grow to $16.4 million, up from $9.6 million in 1983.

Posted in 99%, Econ & Money | Comments Off on The Rapidly Growing Wealth Gap

Guys of Note

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

These Guys (Bleeped Version):

Via Talk Left.

Posted in 2012 Election | 1 Comment

I Didn’t Expect It So Soon

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

From Naked Capitalism, Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints, Demand ID in Lower Manahttan on OWS Anniversary:

As it happens, I am teaching a seminar on the Regulation of Identification, and also writing about it. Timely!

Posted in ID Cards and Identification | 1 Comment

I Hope It’s Not Too Little, Too Late

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

I’m happy to see there is at least a little pushback to Citizens Insurance’s outrageous recent financial misconduct: The Buzz reports that Lawmaker calls for audit of Citizens Insurance’s new $350 million loan.

Posted in Econ & Money, Florida | Comments Off on I Hope It’s Not Too Little, Too Late

Cornel West’s Bacon number is 2

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

So sayth Google. I know about this via Google introduces Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon search function in the Inquirer: Just type “Bacon number” followed by an actor’s name and you’ll find out what degree of separation they have from Kevin Bacon.

I still think we need something like this for law professors, only it would be a Lemley number, based on how many co-authors away you are from Mark A. Lemley.

Posted in Kultcha, Law School | 4 Comments

Big Brother is WWWatching You (feat. George Orwell)

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Michael Froomkin

Rap News 15:

Good stuff! Lots of cute in-jokes too.

Spotted via BoingBoing.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Cryptography, Internet, Law: Privacy | Comments Off on Big Brother is WWWatching You (feat. George Orwell)