Blindspot

A BLOG ABOUT LAW, POLITICS, AND CULTURE

Sep 1, 2018
9 min

Why I am not a Socialist

Our politics increasingly runs toward extremes. We no longer join together in cheering on competing teams of players selected for their talent. Instead, we retreat into increasingly remote ideological camps. We take distant shots aimed at vilifying our opponents, yet somehow imagine that others will treat our ideas with the respect to which we insist they are entitled. The result is not merely dysfunction. It conveys the misimpression that meaningful political discourse is di

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Max Stearns

Sep 4, 2017
7 min

"Market Failure" and "Rent" in Harvey’s Wake

During Hurricane Katrina, an entrepreneurial man named John Shepperson saw an opportunity. In Kentucky, where he lived, generators cost $1000. If he loaded a truck with 19 of them and then drove them 600 miles to Mississippi, he could fetch double that price. Upon arrival, Mr. Shepperson was arrested and the generators confiscated. Rather than earning a $19,000 profit, less expenses for his 1200-mile round trip, Shepperson spent four nights in jail for violating the state’s a

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Maxwell Stearns

I have been teaching law for twenty-nine years, and I am the Venable, Baetjer & Howard Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. My core areas of interest are Constitutional Law and Law & Economics, which I view as critically interwoven. My most recent book is titled Law and Economics: Private and Public (West Academic 2018, with Todd Zywicki and Tom Miceli). In this poster, recently created by the Maryland Carey Law Thurgood Marshall Law Library, I am pictured with several wonderful books that I've recommended to friends, family, and students.