Category Archives: Uncategorized

Did you know that a century ago eight players from the Chicago White Sox baseball club conspired with professional gamblers to rig the outcome of the 1919 World Series. Here is a recent op-ed (NYT) by John Thorn, a historian of Major … Continue reading →

Alas, according to this report (hat tip: @kottke), this infamous bridge in North Carolina was recently raised an extra eight inches (to 12′ 4″).

Continuing with my survey of illicit promises, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan and David A. Hoffman’s recent critique of hush contracts deserves mention. (Wilkinson-Ryan and Hoffman, law professors at the University of Pennsylvania, published their powerful critique in The Atlantic.) Their Ivory Tower … Continue reading →

Thus far, we have surveyed three types of agreements or exchanges: illegal & immoral ones; legal & immoral ones; and illegal & moral ones. This leaves one last category–agreements that are both legal and moral. By definition, such exchanges are … Continue reading →

Let’s continue with our survey of illicit promises. Thus far, we have seen examples of legal but immoral agreements (such as slave trade contracts under Imperial Spain’s asiento system) as well as of illegal but moral agreements (such as usurious … Continue reading →

Thanks to the Amazing Alex Tabarrok, we stumbled upon this paper by Esteban Mendez-Chacon and Diana Van Patten, who provide a revisionist and alternative assessment of the reviled United Fruit Company. Professor Tabarrok provides additional commentary here.

Let us continue our survey of illicit promises, shall we? Can you think of an example of a perfectly legal bargain whose subject matter is nevertheless immoral? What about the Atlantic slave trade? Prior to 1807, when Great Britain and … Continue reading →