prior probability

Congress isn’t the only corrupt public body in Washington, D.C.  Check out Andrew Ross Sorkin’s most recent “Dealbook” essay in the N.Y. Times exposing corruption in the United States Supreme Court. Here is an excerpt:

In 2014, Justice [John] Roberts, Justice [Stephen] Breyer and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. ruled on five cases in which they owned shares in companies that filed amicus briefs. In all five cases, the justices ruled in favor of the company filing the brief in which they had a financial interest … From 2009 through 2013, they ruled that way 68 percent of the time — or in 19 cases. It appears that only Justices Roberts, Breyer and Alito own substantial stakes in individual stocks. The other justices, according to their disclosures, have investments in mutual funds and other instruments that would not be as likely to be affected by a particular ruling.

We’ve blogged about amicus briefs before. (Amicus briefs are self-serving legal briefs that are filed by “friends of the court” in a given case, i.e. private parties with axes to grind, and such briefs often contain many factual errors.) Federal judges must recuse themselves if they own a stake directly in a company that is a named party in a case, but at the same time, judges are not required to recuse themselves from cases in which they have a stake in a company that files an amicus or “friend of the court” brief. Talk about loopholes …

Credit: Paul Resnikoff. (Via Randy Picker’s new course on Internet Giants: The Law & Economics of Media Platforms. We strongly recommend Prof. Picker’s course.)

“MOOC” stands for massive open online course. Above is a preview of one of the MOOCs we’re taking this summer. It’s called Internet Giants: The Law & Economics of Media Platforms and is taught by Professor Randall Picker, a law professor at the University of Chicago. Check it out here.

Via marginal revolution, Tyler Cowen has brought to our attention this fascinating blog post by Daniel Miessler about the future of the Internet. Mr Miessler envisions a future with “Universal Daemonization” or an Electronic I.D. System in which every person and business will have “a bi-directional digital interface that serves as a representation of itself.” For us, what’s especially intriguing about this is that a Universal Electronic I.D. System would make it possible for people and firms to establish a “digital reputation” of themselves. Mr Miessler writes (emphasis added by us):

Digital reputation will be conveyed for humans through their daemons and federated ID. Through a particular identity tied to our real self, our professional skills, our job history, our buying power, our credit worthiness—will all be continuously updated and validated through a tech layer that works off of karma exchanges with other entities. If you think someone is trustworthy, or you like the work they do, or you found them hilarious during a dinner party, you’ll be able to say this about them in a way that sticks to them (and their daemon) for others to see. It’ll be possible to hide these comments, but most will be discouraged from doing so by social pressure.

Our first reaction to this possibility was pure unadulterated Luddite horror. But upon further reflection, maybe a universal ID is the way to go so long as we had special “karma courts” in place to resolve disputes about karma. Someone, for example, might think they are entitled to x units of good karma credits when, in fact, they deserve to lose karma points, or vice versa. Also, we would want each person or firm to retain the option of declaring “karma bankruptcy.” The maximum number of karma bankruptcies should be set low (no more than one or two during one’s lifetime), and the fact of declaring a karma bankruptcy would remain on one’s daemon or electronic I.D. forever. But doesn’t everyone deserve a “fresh start” (like in real bankruptcy), even if he or she or it accumulates too much bad karma?

Two Orlando houses with adjacent backyards are separated by 7 miles of roads
– http://t.co/tw1BClZLUL—
Amazing Maps (@Amazing_Maps) July 07, 2015

Beware the mosquito and … your fellow man.