That’s what the so-called “financial crisis” of 2008 has cost the federal government directly… so far.* Wonder how that stacks up to other crises? CNBC has a slideshow showing the costs (inflation-adjusted) of some of the biggest government projects ever.
There are many events not listed in that slide show, of course. Two of the most [...]

The National Review features a fantastic piece by Alexander Benard and Anthony Dick on America’s True Genius. The thesis: change does not make a nation great, and it certainly is not what has made America great. Rather, it is the constitutionally-mandated stability of our system of laws - the difficulty of implementing radical change - [...]

Sarah and I passed the bar exam!

A few of the search terms people have used to find this site in the last 24 hours which have suddenly spiked in popularity:

ed cottrell
cottrell
baker botts
edblog
“ed cottrell” blog

I assume some of those folks are my new co-workers. Hello! Don’t worry, all; it’s pretty harmless on here.
Some of the more specific searches from the last couple [...]

As much as I’ve enjoyed playing around with this site in the last couple of weeks, alas, the real world calls. I start at Baker Botts, tomorrow, as does Sarah. So, perhaps there will be a bit of a break in the blogging. To all five of my readers: please come back; I will not [...]

Details here: Heller gets his gun permit.
More coverage:

SFGate
SCOTUSBlog

I love a good lawsuit connected with history and religion as much as the next person, but I have to say that when the Knights Templar sue the Pope perhaps we’re digging a bit far into religious history for a current complaint. In any case, this one is too far up my alley not to [...]

The makers of Airborne, the popular cold remedy, are going to be on the hook for as much as $30 million, after an FTC settlement for another $6.5 million in addition to the $23.5 million settlement of a class action claim earlier in the year.
Some people swear by Airborne. Personally, I think it may have [...]

Ouch. Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw has the bad news, thanks to Bob Carroll

As my last post and the fact that I was in law school for the last three years probably make obvious, Sarah and I are each getting ready to take the Texas Bar Exam. For those of you unfamiliar with this 2.5-day (and typically extremely costly and agonizing) ordeal, a friend of mine has posted [...]