I have written in these pages before of the tendency of the United States to apply the laws that normally operate within its borders to individuals and institutions beyond them (Harry Potter and the Conflict of Laws (2010)). US tax securities and antitrust laws have long been applied extraterritorially with little regard for the potential Read More

Earlier this month the Republican Party in the United States swept to victory in the majority of mid-term elections. Now having achieved control of both houses of Congress and thereby the powerful committee chairmanships the Republicans are in a position to stymie President Obama’s agenda for the remainder of his second term. While the President’s Read More

I took a quick trip this week to London to review some early-stage investments and catch up with old friends. My trip also coincided with a crescendo of activity and media attention leading up to next week’s important referendum on Scottish independence. As I write today opinion polls indicate that the contest is a dead Read More

As I come to the end of a long summer holiday in France it seems only fitting to return to one of my favorite themes in this blog – the French economy – in this my first piece of the “rentrée.” I have been very critical in these pages about the first two years of Read More

I am a great fan of The New York Times – a reader since childhood and an admirer of its journalists since my earliest days at Reuters. It is perhaps for this reason that while most of New York’s chattering classes were focused on whether Jill Abramson’s firing from her lofty post as Executive Editor Read More

This past week the European Court of Justice ruled that Google had a duty to delete links to online content which a Spanish plaintiff complained was now misleading or at least no longer relevant. While the Court based its landmark decision on the narrow grounds that Google was a "data controller" within the meaning of Read More

In the month since Michael Lewis’ latest book Flash Boys was released there has been much heat generated but little light shed on the practice of high frequency trading (HFT) in the financial markets. At the outset I should admit that I am a fan of Lewis’ past work as he combines a rarely published Read More

A war of words has been raging across the Atlantic during the past several weeks touched off by a sloppy attack on London in the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. Among a long list of perceived but poorly researched ills attributed to the UK’s capital city was the core complaint that the city Read More

I don’t usually take up local New York politics in this blog partly because they seldom interest me and partly because I don’t presume that readers are following Mayor Bill De Blasio of New York any more closely than say Mayor Boris Johnson of London or Mayor Fernando Haddad of Sao Paulo. This time it’s Read More

It seems almost presumptuous to add yet another voice to those of world leaders and talking heads lionizing Nelson Mandela today; however I was fortunate to have met with him several years ago and I am motivated to share a personal remembrance. Mr. Mandela was already long out of office but not out of power. Read More

After my recent focus on the dysfunctional US democracy I return now to one of my favorite topics: Chapter 27 in the long-running saga of efforts by the French Government to deny or retard the internet. Life was indeed simpler in the 1980s when the French were a world leader in e-commerce with the proprietary Read More

Thirty years ago this fall my fellow law school classmate Ron Wright and I released a computer game at Yale designed to help teach pre-trial discovery (an aspect of Civil Procedure) to fellow law students. It seemed to us then as I still believe that there are aspects of the law well suited to be Read More

Since my post last week on the extreme approach on the national debt ceiling and government shutdown being taken by Senator Ted Cruz and his Tea Party followers in the House there are signs that cooler heads may prevail. However even in these baby steps towards a negotiated solution Republican and Democratic leaders have been Read More

As I write Ted Cruz is working overtime to provoke President Obama into shutting down the US Government and possibly invite a default on our national debt. It is hard to see any winners in this sick game of political chicken other than Senator Cruz himself. I will skip over the legislative history of why Read More

Even before Edward Snowden confirmed the extent of signals intelligence undertaken on a systematic basis by the US National Security Agency the issue of governmental or commercial capture of information relating to individuals had been heating up. Now in the aftermath of these revelations European government officials in particular have expressed their outrage and demanded Read More

Margaret Thatcher the formidable former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of its Conservative Party died this week at age 87 and even in death she remains controversial and divisive. I met the Iron Lady only in her less ferrous later years. While the big hair and big handbag remained the once-steely leader Read More

Why would anyone in their right mind wade into the debate on bankers’ pay who did not himself work for a bank? This is the unusual place in which I find myself drawn irresistibly by the proposed EU legislation which seeks to cap bankers’ bonuses at one times base salary (or if two-thirds of shareholders Read More

Perhaps I noticed it more starkly because I was sick and working a reduced schedule this week. Frankly with two kids in New York City private schools I usually ignore the daily onslaught of emails announcing school raffles parent coffee mornings walks in support of a variety of worthy causes and the like. However the Read More

Before I left for Winter holidays I gave the keynote address at the annual fundraiser for the Japanese Chamber of Commerce In New York. I reproduce below the text of my talk. What Japan’s Lost Decade(s) Can Teach the West Thank you – it is a great pleasure for me to be here today. When Read More

Here is my latest post to The Economist’s Lean Back 2.0 blog reproduced for convenience below. Major events that occur in the physical world like Hurricane Sandy often remind me of how far we have come as a society in the great analog-to-digital conversion of our times. While weather forecasting and a significant amount of Read More

I cannot remember a US Presidential campaign in which the debates between the candidates and their running mates have drawn so much attention both from the public and the commentariat. Watching the three debates to date I was reminded how free with and of the facts the candidates wage their campaigns. This hardly comes as Read More

Over the long Columbus Day weekend in the US I participated in a conference held on beautiful Nantucket Island named appropriately enough The Nantucket Project (www.nantucketproject.com). Now you might well be thinking why does the world need yet another "thought leadership" conference on top of the World Economic Forum (Davos) the Bohemian Grove (California) the Read More

France may be the birthplace of Cartesian logic; however these rationalist roots are nowhere to be seen in President Hollande’s proposed economic and tax policies. I have written before in this blog to criticize then candidate Hollande’s plan to reduce the retirement age in France from 62 to 60 enforce the 35 hour cap on Read More

Another exceptional Sun Valley conference courtesy of the publicity-shy Allen & Co. What goes on in Sun Valley stays in Sun Valley — those are the rules of the road. While the grateful invitees by and large respect these rules certain of the attendees come with the express purpose of raising their profile — these Read More

I have been watching the sad progression of events in the Barclays Bank LIBOR drama and true to form have a few unfashionable observations to make. I won’t here repeat what is known of the facts of the case other than to state what is accepted: Barclays has agreed to pay a 290 million pound Read More