On Tuesday, November 22, Merck announced that it had reached a half-billion-dollar agreement with numerous state governments and with the federal government to settle civil charges that the company had illegally promoted Vioxx for off-label uses and that it had misrepresented the drug's risks.
Living Socialwww.livingsocial.comLivingSocial is the social commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals, a group buying program that invites people and their friends to save up to 90 percent on purchases at their favorite restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels, and other attractions in major cities. LivingSocial launched in 2007 and has more than 85 million users. Some of LivingSocial’s deals have resulted in over 1 million purchases.Hello Walletwww.hellowallet.comHelloWallet describes itself as a wealth-boosting application designed to help its members manage their day-to-day finances, build savings, and plan for the future. HelloWallet is independent from financial institutions. The app is primarily distributed through Fortune 500 and other employers as an HR benefit for employees. Anyone can access the program for $8.95 a month.
Fall 2011 issue -- Ask Mike Watkins what he does for a living, and he won’t have an easy answer. Some might consider him a programmer—and he has been writing code for the last 24 years. He calls himself an algorithm designer and an ideas guy. Mostly, though, Watkins just can’t stand inefficiency and tries to correct it every chance he gets.
All poets embraceSolitude, they say,Company of one,Which is much the wayArchers stalk the stars,Shepherds tend their clouds—Labors best pursuedFar from madding crowds.And yet, Dante daredEven the Abyss,Poetry on holdWithout Beatrice.Beside the sea, PoeRages at a tomb;Autumn sees his thoughtsStray to Ulalume.
Fall 2011 -- Zvi Band’s Facebook profile says it all: “I’m going to make the world a better place. And make a lot of money doing it.” A web developer, native Californian, and amateur DJ, Band is helping transform a metropolis known for its stodgy politicians and their backroom dealing into an entrepreneurial hotspot—and having a blast doing it.
Law professor Doug Berman, who runs the “Sentencing Law and Policy” blog, has just highlighted another case that seems to point up the Justice Department’s “submit or die” policy.
Did I just see a United States senator commit extortion? Two senators, even? At the Google antitrust hearing, after praising the contributions Google has made to New York’s economy, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) noted that a location elsewhere had been chosen as a test site for a Google networking project.
President Obama likes to talk about the value of contributing to your community, but in the jobs bill he sent to Congress yesterday, he targets such contributions for increased taxation. By limiting tax deductions for voluntary giving, Obama would consolidate government control over helping your fellow man and improving your community.
Mr. Ward, what is it that the foulest bastards on earth denounce us for, among other things? Oh yes, for our motto of ‘Business as usual.’ Well—business as usual, Mr. Ward! --Hank Rearden, in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged In the fall of 2001, I was a law student, interviewing with law firms. At the bottom of my resume, where law students identify personal interests that are supposed to “humanize” them, I listed “quotations.” Naturally, I was asked quite a few times for quotations pertinent to 9/11. I chose two. One, the second verse of an old favorite song , stressed the insignificance of death in comparison with life. The other, quoted above, emphasized the importance of pursuing the work that makes life possible even when faced with destruction.
Every day, it seems, another “insider-trading” defendant is hauled before the courts or sentenced to prison. In fact, many of these “insider traders” are not insiders at all. They are merely people who have acquired information from insiders.
"World trade means world peace.The World Trade Center buildings in New York had a bigger purpose than just to provide room for tenants. The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace.…The World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness." --World Trade Center chief architect Minoru Yamasaki.
“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble, it’s the things we do know that just ain’t so.” In a wonderful twist of fate, nobody knows who coined that aphorism, but that doesn’t keep it from being attributed to Mark Twain, Artemus Ward, and Josh Billings.
The following excerpt from Conrad Black’s comment , as he prepares to return to prison, made me recall a slogan often invoked by those who have been wrongly convicted: “Don’t serve the time; make the time serve you.” Note that Black has a book on his ordeal coming out next week.
Amid all the erudite free-market commentary regarding the AT&T/T-Mobile case (see here , and here , and here , andhere , and here ), I have not seen any commentary making this simple point: Competition is not an intrinsic part of free markets.
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August 24, 2011 -- Editor's Note: TAS Executive Director David Kelley contributed an essay, "Ayn Rand and Capitalism: The Moral Revolution", to the newly published book The Morality of Capitalism: What Your Professors Won’t Tell You. Last week he was filmed for a promotional video featuring comments from the authors of the book's essays. This news brief was written by Clark Ruper for Students for Liberty.
The SEC has finally settled its “backdated options” case against Greg Reyes, the former CEO of Brocade Communications, Inc. That case attracted a lot of notice when it was announced on July 20, 2006, because the SEC’s civil suit against Reyes was paired with a Justice Department criminal complaint that charged him with securities fraud. And that was the first indication that criminal prosecutions would be generated by the backdated-options frenzy, which was even then being fanned by a team of reporters from the Wall Street Journal’s left-leaning news pages.
Editor's Desk by Sherrie Gossett Consider the Source by Roger Donway Under postmodernism one is perfectly free to draw legal lines that make Wall Street and the Mob indistinguishable. The Eccentric Entrepreneur by Danny Fulgnecio "Stop zat cab!" and climb on board for a rollicking tour of one entrepreneur's tough dream. America's Deficit Culture by William R Thomas Is the U.S. too big to fail?THEME SECTION: THE GOOD SOCIETY What is the good society? What politics would make the good society possible? Our five authors reveal their vision of the good society, how to get there, and best of all, that it is, in fact, attainable.
It’s just for fun, this beat we keep, Like skipping lines to land on squares. So come, you’ll do it, too. We’ll sweep Along the Boston streets, no cares, Your hand in mine, a late May day, All final tests passed for a time— A season more. So come and play, And just for fun, we’ll make a rhyme! We’ll cross the Common, ducks unstressed In strict parade, though lovers clutch. But stressed, unstressed, we want no rest; Life’s beat entrains us overmuch. Insidious intent may stalk Through streets of Beacon Hill, tonight, And hey, the Tambourine Man walk Into the jingle-jangle light. But we shall keep a perfect beat, It matters not uphill or down, If all the turnings of the street But end at dawn in Boston town. So kiss me, dear; this is the time That comes but once in any song; Come meet my lips in perfect rhyme As lovers have the ages long.
Editor's Desk: Taking Flight by Sherrie Gossett Start it Up! by Sarah Perry How one man's vision is leading inner-city youth to become CEOs of their own lives. An Analysis of the U.S. Attorney's Statement on the Raj Rajaratnam Case by Roger Donway Hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam was recently found guilty of insider trading charges. But what harm did Mr. Rajaratnam do, and to whom? Throw Out the Greg Reyes Verdict! by Roger Donway The prosecution offered zero evidence that any actual Brocade investor was ever deceived about the state of the company. THEME SECTION: DOING WELL WHEN TIMES ARE BAD In a down economy how do we grapple with the financial and career setbacks while building the traits we need to live well and flourish?
